Before anyone says anything about the title, I take mental health very seriously. I know that most people are suffering from it in some form or another and if you feel like it is affecting you please find help and support. Please. Don’t use it against your friends and don’t treat your friends like therapists (unless they want you to). The reason why I say this is because of what me and my friend have had to go through because of it.I just wanted somewhere to vent about a situation that myself and my other friend have been affected by within the last year since I am still somewhat upset by it. As shown by the title, I (F19) and my friend (F22), Jane, have had to cut off a toxic friend for a number of reasons which I’ll try my best to tell in chronological order, as well as format in a way that is easier to read - I’ve had to write this in a document first and the word count is around 3000 for those wondering.
Before we start digging into the juicy details I’ll give you guys a some backstory:
During the first year of uni myself and Jane had found and formed a group of friends consisting of 4 people - which includes me, Jane, Steven (M21, the toxic friend) and Thomas (M19). At the beginning it wasn’t all that bad and I did enjoy the time I had with them, in fact we did create some good memories together (which now leave a bitter taste in my mouth when I look back at them).Going into my first year and moving to a city so far away from home I (F18 at the time) was a bit desperate to make friends, and for people to like me as a person - looking back at this now has made me realise that this may be what caused me to not form proper boundaries with people, thus leading to the situation at hand now. So when I started meeting and befriending people, Steven was one of the first few friends that I had made. I find it quite hard to connect to others being the awkward person I am so making new friends made me very happy.
Alongside this was also the fact that everything I was experiencing was new to me, including attention from men - which I was not used to and did not know how to deal with as I was not as conventionally attractive as I am now. Our friendship was what you’d describe as a typical F/M friendship, I ended up spending a lot of time with him. AND because he was one of the few friends that I had made, plus the fact that I have this thing where I think everyone hates me, I ended up doing a lot to try and keep him interested in staying friends with me (some of which I am ashamed to admit), which include;

• Spending time with each other everyday/every other day, even when I was socially drained.
• Allowing him to look after me when I drank too much (I was going out at least 3-4x a week at this point, a lot of the people I’ve met were going out and I felt the need to go in order to fit in lol), later on we, as a group, moved on to smoking the za instead.
• Allowed a lot of physical contact (this was mainly platonic btw, however there were times where I allowed too much contact for what the friendship was and this is what I am ashamed about, and deeply regret) *.

Before people tell me off in the comments, yes I know that I should have had some boundaries in place. Yes I know that it was stupid of me to allow him to touch me like that when I only saw him as a friend (beyond stupidity at this point) and I see how it may have led to the situation now, I’ve already been grilled by my friends at home about it.We all decided to move in together alongside one of Steven’s friend, John, so it was going to be the 5 of us in a house in our second year of Uni.During this friendship Steven, Jane, Thomas and myself had decided to do MDMA (Don’t do drugs, this was also a stupid idea on my part and the biggest regret I have, but I took it because I trusted my friends enough to feel comfortable doing it). If you don’t know what MDMA does I’ll explain it briefly; it affects the activity in the brain through 3 main chemicals - dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin which affect emotional closeness, euphoric feelings as well as making you feel sexually bold - it may cause you to do things you typically wouldn’t do, this was what happened in my case.
Jane and I had let Steven and Thomas touch us (this part was consensual) and we were having fun at the start, feeling close to people for the first time since starting uni, but it went downhill after Steven invited his friend over, John. I did not know John too well but if Steven was okay with him then I should too, right? Well, I allowed John to touch me too (this was also consensual but please bear in mind I’m still under the influence of a drug). We continued to talk and listen to music and as the night progressed I fell asleep around 2-3amI started to wake up around 4-5am in the morning and felt some hands on my chest as I was stirring awake. John was groping my chest whilst Steven was watching this happen. I felt sick.I moved away from him but I still felt violated to be touched in my sleep, even on a drug that heighten my trust in people, but I know that I only have myself to blame for putting myself in a situation like that and it still hurts me thinking about it sometimes especially when I’ve had bad experiences with men touching me like that, this was something Steven knew. Steven came up to me afterwards to check if I was okay, but I lied and said that it was okay. I should have said that it wasn’t but the pressure of him living with us next year and the fact that they were friends made it hard for me to admit. I also thought that I would forgive and forget about it as time went on but I only started to feel resentment as time passed - another factor contributing to the fallout in the main story.I don’t know why he thought it was okay, why would you continue touching someone who’s asleep and on drugs? Whilst you’re sober and have the cognitive ability to tell yourself right from wrong.Additional backstories that I feel may be relevant:

• Jane and I have had traumatic childhoods - I was emotionally and physically abused at home and have had to go into foster care for a year. Jane's case was also similar coming from a home where her father physically abused her, her brother and her mother. I am now back with my family and they are so much better after being educated and taught about what they were doing wrong, and I am so thankful that they loved my siblings and I enough to put in the effort to change.
• Steven has told us multiple times that he wants to kill himself, and each time we have been there to tell him that there are people who love and care about him - especially his family, who have shown us time and time again that they care deeply about him. He has refused the help we’ve tried getting him, Thomas had recommended his therapist, and each time it happens (and it happened quite often) I end up feeling drained and it feels like we’re getting nowhere. From what he was saying about his family at the beginning of our friendship we thought that he had really bad home problems, but he has already admitted to Jane that he has had a happy childhood so we are still not sure what’s wrong. Unfortunately, you cannot help someone who refuses help, and on top of that, depressed people tend to be quite selfish and selfless at the same time (selfish in their actions and putting their emotions first, selfless in their thoughts about others) - in Steven’s case it was more selfish than selfless at times.
• Steven constantly uses the phrase “but i’m just being honest” or “i’m just being realistic” or “I'm just Joking”. 9 times out of 10 this is just an excuse for him to say something hurtful or to just be an asshole about something so it should have been our first red flag.
• Steven had cut himself after I confronted him about throwing Jane under the bus. He used her as an excuse as to why he didn’t want to fuck his flatmate which then cause said flatmate to message Jane and cause her to go into a panic attack. The next day I saw the cuts on his arms, he didn’t try hiding it, in fact he’d used his left arm at every opportunity (even though he’s right handed). I would have felt bad for him but knowing that he was trying to show it off to us in ‘subtle’ ways made me really upset. (more on this in the story).
• He made jokes about how “if you guys weren’t my friends I’d have hit you by now” knowing full well we were abused before.
• There were a lot of moments where he’d undermine us; Jane is wasian, half filipino and white and has lived in the Philippines for basically half of her life, Steven is filipino, but because she’s half he constantly tells her that she’s not filipino enough or makes comments about how she “doesn’t know the struggles” or doesn’t understand the culture well enough. Even though she’s probably more cultured than him, being able to speak Tagalog more fluently than him AND living there for longer lmao.
• Steven has made it known to us time and time again that he wanted to fuck the both of us and normally we’d laugh it off but as time passed I grew to realise that this is not what I wanted in a friendship I distanced myself a bit and started putting in boundaries when we all moved in. (more on this as well).

Now onto the main story:
We all decided to move in together, the 5 of us in a house, and ngl the house was pretty shit but affordable.Just in case you haven’t read the backstory around this time was when I started to distance myself from Steven and finally put up proper boundaries. I started to voice my opinions more on why I didn’t want to have our friendship continue this way - he has told me on multiple occasions that Jane and I were “the reason he’s alive today” and whilst he probably said it to show appreciation I did not take it this way, it felt like a lot of weight was put on my shoulders each time he said it. I did not want that kind of responsibility, what would happen if he did commit suicide? (he’s already told us many times that he’s suicidal) Would we be the reason why he’s not alive? That was something I did not want to bear, and something nobody should be put up to even if we were friends.Steven did not take it well. Going as far as cutting himself when me and Jane were upset with him. Again. Then doing the same steps in order for us to notice the cuts by using his left arm when he’s right handed, rubbing the cuts when we were talking to him, holding his arm up and looking at it when we were around. This time I confronted him about it, I told him that I was concerned for him but whilst I was concerned I also didn’t appreciate him doing that and how it was essentially emotional blackmail for him to cut himself each time Jane and I were upset with him, how it wasn’t right to use his mental health against us when he knew we were upset with him. And for those curious as to what made us upset, it was because he didn’t want to do the dishes when there were dishes in the dish rack - we had a rule where if someone cooks the other cleans, and Jane and I had always cleaned regardless of if there were dishes in the dish rack. Anyways, we were upset with him because of that and he went and cut himself after we made it known that we were upset. This could have been avoided if he allowed us to talk instead of harming himself, jumping from 1 to 100.
It was after this that I realised I did not want him as a friend, someone who’s willing to cut himself and then shove it in our faces each time a minor argument comes up, call me a bitch but I did not want to be constantly around someone who puts others down and jumps to extremes like that. I get that it may be a cry for help, but to hurt others around you whilst you do so is not something I stand for. He kept saying sorry and that he didn’t mean for us to see it, but in my eyes actions speak louder than words and regardless of whether or not he meant to emotionally blackmail us or not it still falls under that category.Then he threw a party for one of his friends at the house. I didn’t want anything to feel amiss for the people coming around so I acted as if everything was fine in front of them even though I was still not over what he had done. Jane had done the same. Of course, with the added use of alcohol and weed, everything was thrown into chaos. During this night he had smacked Jane across the ass to the point she was crying in pain for no apparent reason (he did this in front of people, so he cannot claim he did not do it when there were multiple witnesses), Jane of course started to scream at him. He then went upstairs, with a KNIFE, into HER room, and swung it around.I do not know why he did what he did. But from what Jane had told me, he kept repeatedly saying sorry whilst smiling and laughing nervously so we do know he knows what he’s doing is wrong. He had his friends come up to us and say that he’s only doing this “because he cares about you guys so much” and that “he’s only trying to push you guys away”. And to that I say; good job, you did great.
On top of all this, I made it fully known to him that I was angry at his actions these past few weeks and had stopped speaking to him properly (the times we had spoken I made sure to be curt) Jane remained polite towards him, but also had the same feelings as me. However he seemed to have taken it to mean that he could continue being weird around her, and by weird I mean there have been multiple times he had made her uncomfortable to the point where she had confided to me that she doesn’t feel comfortable walking around the house.
Again, I will list the offences towards Jane below lol:

• He had on multiple occasions gone into her room without her permission, one time when she was in the shower (weird) and the other time he had messaged her, whilst she was at work, to say that he was “being selfish and sleeping in your room” (weirder, and for anyone who wants screenshots, I can provide). She had to call me to ask me to check to see if he was in her room or not because she told him no, and lo and behold guess who was in her room? That’s right, Steven. Steven was in her bed when I opened her door and I had to tell him to get out because she didn’t want him in there. Do you know what he said when he got up? “Fuck sake”. Like come on, are you being serious rn?
• One time when she was cooking (she was alone in the kitchen btw), he came up behind her, lifted up her shirt (I’ll draw a diagram for you guys) and looked under it. Do you wanna know what his excuse was? That he was only checking out what kind of shirt it was… instead of asking her like a normal person.
• There were even times she’s told me that she can hear him waiting outside her room.

But wait, there’s more, we had a group meeting to talk things out about what’s happened. We told both John and Steven about why we felt wronged and not once did they apologise for what they did. Instead they made up excuses for their behaviour and then, get this, Steven had said that we were acting like victims, that we had “victim mentality”. Lmao.That was the day I removed them off everything and wanted nothing to do with them, I have not looked back since and do not plan to. We laugh about the situation and poke fun about it now, but at the time it was quite stressful to deal with, feel free to ask questions below as I have been holding this in for a while and would love to answer them.
*a lot of the physical contact happened after the MDMA, I really didn't want to admit this and would rather take this to the grave but it is relevant to the story.

Here we go again, another long winded and self indulgent analysis of the music used in a screenplay. For anyone who hasn’t seen one of these before, it’s entirely skippable and you can enjoy the screenplay without having read this. Honestly you’d probably enjoy it more without having read this first, spoilers and such below for my Max Sec screenplay as I go song by and explain my thought process and anything else that enters my mind such as what songs used to be there instead of what ended up actually there.
“California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and The Papas:
Initially in the first draft this was a placeholder, people may have noticed a trend that the first song and title song usually represent the general overarching theme of the film, not just the specific moment they are featured like most others used do. For a significant amount of time this film was actually set around Christmas time, it was going to be late November into December, however this didn’t work with the timeline for Basic Training and Lauren’s story, so seeing as I wasn’t going to put that off to the next film it had to take place in March the next year. This messed up two things, firstly the song which had initially replaced the placeholder (which was going to be a Christmas song as a sort of connection to the snow, the time setting and the ironic jolly Christmas time being entirely incongruent with the awful prison environment) and secondly the day each event takes place on, which matters more later. I went back to California Dreamin when “The Great Date Shift” occurred for two reasons, I preferred the overarching connection of the song itself, given the song is about homesickness (something Lauren would be experiencing) and specifically mentions California where unbeknownst to them would be where the climax takes place and it is a Classic American song which I was trying to use more of in this screenplay in particular due to it being the one big truly American adventure we get. Additionally I quite liked the way I wove the song into the scene diegetically as we don’t have radios or such so having to use another new way of getting music into the scene with Lauren’s delirium which is a real phenomenon as described by an ice climber who fell down a glacier and ended up stuck for days in the cold, having Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” playing round and round in his head despite the fact he hated it, so I just changed the specific song and came up with a reason for where Lauren would have heard it from. Of course because this took me 18 months to finish annoyingly another series of Stranger Things came out and then played a cover of this by The Beach Boys in that, making it (I think) the third time they’ve beaten me to using a song, so the score is 3-1 between me and them if we’re counting lol.
“Jailbreak” by AC/DC:
The title song for this one, as mentioned before links to the overarching plot concerning the jailbreak itself and also introduces AC/DC as another band to become a regular addition to future soundtracks. This is a lesser-known AC/DC track from their early days that I just really liked the sound of and thought was a funny coincidence that they could be introduced here with this and that it has the exact same name as the originally intended and then used later “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy was just another part of the charm behind using it.
“Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” by Elton John:
A really punchy song and another Classic British Artist, this is one I’d long had the idea of using in this specific scene, just like using “Radar Love” by Golden Earring for the Mustang drive in Class A, this was essentially a set point that I was definitely going to use and the whole rest of the film was built around it. Of course, when “The Great Date Shift” occurred it meant the scene itself went from being a Saturday to no longer being a Saturday and there wasn’t any way to move the scene to a Saturday while keeping the internal logic of the Basic Training dates with the pre-established rules of when they happen from previous films. So I’m stuck with a deeply unsatisfying day for this to happen on, oh well!
“Cold As Ice” by Foreigner:
Another late change, as it was originally going to be “Snowbound” by Genesis however I have a rule not to use the same band twice in a film and I wanted to use Genesis for the last song so it had to change. Not too much to be said about the choice here, I wanted something that fit and wouldn’t be too obscure that would connect to the end of Basic Training.
“Learn To Fly” by Foo Fighters:
Trying to include some music taste for Lauren now in contrast to James, the music that she would be into would be more contemporary so I decided to go for a popular contemporary band and this was what I found that best fit the scene itself. I don’t know too much about this band, from what I understand they connect to Nirvana which was previously featured in Class A, so the inclusion also felt like a nod to that.
“Highway Star” by Deep Purple:
Very early on this was selected to be in here as part of my choice to use “American songs” as much as possible, but this has deeper significance, as the band Deep Purple are actually English and this song was specifically written by them to try and pretend to be American and have an “American Sound” which was very popular at the time. It seemed fitting given what the plot of the film is. This kickass Rock song about driving as fast as possible would fit anywhere in the various different car chases used but seemed most appropriate here.
“Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd:
Whenever this song is featured people always seem to focus on the solo, which is of course understandable because it is the particularly stand out moment not just of this song but probably of the whole discography of the band, however I felt like seeing as this solo was used to great effect in Kingsman I wouldn’t simply imitate that (even though this film would technically take place before that and I have thought about the concept of it being used as fast paced music for fighting previous to that film) I decided to let Kingsman have their distinctive moment, which remains one of my favourite moments of modern cinema, and instead use the slower introduction part, which could be used for the journey to the prison itself, playing more on the lyrics about wanting to be free and contrasting that with James and Dave being sent into prison.
“Basket Case” by Green Day:
Wanting to use American music as much as possible, especially for the character introduction of Curtis, and a great opportunity to try and get more Punk Rock into the soundtrack, although this is technically “Nu Punk” or something I think, it’s not like The Clash which is what I consider to be actual Punk Rock, although the distinction is fairly meaningless and elitist, I decided to use this song for Curtis’ character introduction. Initially this was going to be “American Idiot” during early planning however that song didn’t yet exist at the time when this film would have been made so I had to select an earlier song and actually I think that “Basket Case” fits Curtis better anyway, so another happy accident.
“I Want To Break Free” by Queen:
You can’t have James listening to just any old rubbish so he goes out of his way to try and find some decent music while inside prison, and this was an obvious choice even if the song itself isn’t written about literally trying to break out of a prison the connection seems like something that all ages of audience could notice and enjoy, it’s important to me that not every song is some lofty, intellectual, obscure connection in order to maintain some of the light hearted fun, which is the point of having the music there in the first place. It should add something to the scene, comedy or action or whatever it might be, and hopefully all these songs add something to the scene.
“Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley:
Truly a classic of the Rock and Roll genre, you couldn’t do a list of American Rock songs and not include something by ‘The King’ so I chose to use his famous “Jailhouse Rock” to connect to the newly introduced prison riot scene, ‘Rock’ throughout the series is something of a metaphor (or perhaps that isn’t the right word, harbinger? Innuendo?) for ‘fight’ and this is made abundantly clear here. I quite liked the juxtaposition of the bouncy upbeat 50s song with the graphic violence of the fight scene and hopefully my little inclusion of a new plot element was a fitting accompaniment to this piece of American Rock legend.
“Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy:
Used as the second jailbreak song, this time specifically as they are breaking out, an upbeat song with distinctive opening, and catchy chorus, the song that I think best fits my homage to the film Vanishing Point and the closest that the CHERUB series would get to a chase movie feel. A bit on the nose but very fun and so it had to be included.
“Hotel California” by Eagles:
When you are making a list of Classic American Rock songs and setting the film’s ending in California then you really have to use “Hotel California” so I couldn’t resist. Not just because it is a classic though, the song has been said to have probably a hundred different meanings by the band and that there is no one true correct way of interpreting it, even though they always wrote songs critical of the Music industry this was written to be generally more critical of the American Dream as a whole, some may see the Hotel California, with all it’s strange goings on, as a reference to “The Overlook Hotel” which would be a connection with “The Shining” another film reference for this screenplay and a connection to Stephen King who wrote “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” which has many different references, not just that this is about escaping prison but the use of Tim Robbins as Scott and that Jackson is reading Stephen King’s “Different Seasons” in which the short story originally appeared. However ‘the Hotel’ in California could also be the Ranch itself where they stay being literally a dangerous place where it initially seems welcoming but the intention is that James and Lauren “can never leave” as the song suggests.
“Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)” by The Hollies:
Despite what people might think this is far from a simple nod to Jane herself, the song being used as a character introduction has some other layers in there, Jane actually being British by birth originally fits with The Hollies being a British band, they wrote the song to try to achieve an American sound, pretending to be American if you will, and of course the song itself being told from the perspective of an FBI agent working undercover meant it fit so well that it had to be used here. Furthermore it foreshadows James falling for Jane’s superficial charm, just as the character in the song, falls for the ‘Long Cool Woman’ which adds another layer to it I think.
“Enter Sandman” by Metallica:
This Classic Heavy Metal song is used for the pounding forwards momentum that is building suspense under the scene and the dark foreboding feel it can generate, this song was written to be something of a ‘dark lullaby’ hence the inclusion of the “hush little baby” line, which uses a children’s lullaby and in this song was originally intended to reference children dying, which is foreshadowing of Jane’s plan, the shots used in the film further contain references to the music video of this song.
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses:
Probably the best Rock song to use as a fight scene song, specifically the solo being one of the best guitar solos of all time, this American Classic had to be used somewhere and where better than the fight scene right at the climax of this film? The band will no doubt make more appearances throughout the remaining films.
“Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens:
If the use of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica is the dark lullaby then this is the opposite, the song is based on a children’s hymn and was written by a children’s author with the specific aim to make something that children would be able to use with simple structure, it was adapted by Cat Stevens into the song used here, to literally reference the dawning of a new day but also them having got through the danger and made it out the other side to safety. Rick Wakeman actually wrote and played the famous piano introduction for the song and wasn’t credited or paid for it during the original release and so I suppose we can also consider this an introduction of Rick Wakeman into the series as I’m sure he will be popping up in later films.
“Get This Party Started” by P!nk:
Just needed something contemporary and pop based and upbeat to use as a canteen song, there isn’t really anything intended to be much deeper here, this is just background filler music for the canteen and people are talking over much of it anyway. Potentially there could be some meaning there but I’m not aware of it if there is, the kids are partying, maybe that’s enough once in a while.
“Turn It On Again” by Genesis:
For the final song of this film I wanted it to be something British and a powerful optimistic Rock song, so now seemed like the perfect time to use this, of course meta-textually it references it being the end of the film and urging people to ‘turn it on again’ perhaps? But generally I just really liked this song personally, wanted to include it at some point and this is where I thought made the most sense to.

July 8th Excerpt from the Diary of Heaven White
‘Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, with your right hand you save me.’
Psalms 138:7
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Onu’s instructions were clear. I recognize that, and I am fully aware that it is not wise to defy his wishes.
​
But there are things he is not telling me. Things that weigh on his mind at all hours of the day. I see it in his eyes. I hear it in his voice. I had initially suspected that the damage caused by Casey LaBeouf’s betrayal had left him more disorganized and scattered than he let on. But no.
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I’m not so sure that is the case, anymore.
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Onu’s instructions were clear. I was to stay out of Family affairs. But in the end, I truly could not help myself. The blood of my family runs through my veins. Their affairs are my affairs. Perhaps in Onu’s eyes, I will need to earn my status, but that does not bother me. In fact for now, it might well be an asset.
​
Unbound by the constraints of the Family, I am free to operate without Onu’s direct oversight. He may not approve, but he can not stop me.
​
I knew he’d be out of town tonight. On what business, I wasn’t sure. But his absence was my opportunity. The man he had assigned as my escort - a gentleman by the name of Doug Coleridge, was attentive but still very much human. When I told him I was going to bed, it did not take long before he did the same.
​
I lay awake and waiting, listening as he got settled in the guest bedroom beside mine, and waited until I knew he was asleep. Then, after about thirty minutes, I left my room to begin my research.
​
Onu’s office was left unlocked. I closed the door behind me as I entered. Then, just like before, I began searching through his desk. This time, I was thorough. Most of the documents he kept there were focused on some of the cases he’d taken on. I couldn’t help but notice how many had popped up since LaBeouf had defected. It struck me just how thinly he was spread. I left those folders alone after skimming through them. It was nothing for me to tamper with.
I left that drawer as I found it, before going through another. The documents there seemed to be more personal. There was a handgun, which I carefully set aside, some trinkets, pens and old newspaper articles.
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Now those seemed very out of place. I skimmed through them and found no mention of LaBeouf. Most of them detailed an event from several years back. The murder of the Stone family. I couldn’t see why Onu would even care, until I saw the photograph of a woman.
​
Diana Stone was the name under it, and the woman was identical to the girl in the picture on Onu’s desk. At last I could put a name to the face. I glanced up at the picture of the woman, comparing the two before deciding they were the same person. I paused, studying her for a few moments longer. Her eyes were terribly familiar. The same burning amber as the eyes of the Girl who’d pushed my Father. For a moment, I caught myself wondering if they were one and the same, and skimmed through the story. The only useful data it provided, was that Diana Stone had died twenty years ago. A relative, perhaps? I’d need to look into it. But now was not the time. I returned everything to its proper place, and continued my search. Finally it bore some fruit.
​
The files on LaBeouf were plentiful, although disorganized and difficult to decipher. Most of it was from before his betrayal, and I sorted it into a little pile while I read through the newer material. There was very little on him currently, Onu’s notes and scribbles were vague as usual, although they often needed to be. He couldn’t afford to leave his secrets out in the open. I’d need to check the things he didn’t write down.
I looked over at his computer. What I was thinking was a brave move, and not without its risks. I’d not only need to be smart, but careful. A shake of the mouse brought up his login screen that requested a password. There was no hint given, either you knew it, or you did not. I admittedly did not know it.
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I glanced at the framed picture of Diana Stone. It was a wild guess, perhaps guessing was a mistake, but it was all that I had to go off of. Aside from her possible connection to my Father’s killer (a connection that was only a half baked theory, at best) she was nobody special. She wasn’t part of the Family. The article I’d read had stated she was a dancer, and I doubted Onu had enough affinity for dance to idolize a dead small time ballerina. No… she was special to him, for some reason. Perhaps special enough to guard his secrets. I typed, ‘Diana’ into the box. His computer opened up to me, and from there, it was trivial to open his email. It’s so convenient how computers save passwords, isn’t it?
​
From there, it didn’t take long to find some more useful information.
It seemed that I’d underestimated Onu. He’d kept his eyes all too closely trained on LaBeouf’s brother. There were copies of emails that he’d sent, and a few barely useful status updates that one of his shadows had sent him.
​
The would-be senator hadn’t contacted his brother directly to their knowledge, and Casey’s disappearance had been marked by the disappearance of another man involved in LaBeouf’s defection. This man’s name was Steven Love. A police detective and it wasn’t exactly difficult to determine that their disappearances were likely connected. I found little on him aside from a file attached to an email. There was no concrete evidence tying him to LaBeouf, other than the two men had seemingly left town at the same time, and Love had more or less dropped off the face of the earth since then. He unfortunately seemed to be another dead end. The name only came up once in another email, that suggested he was the one to whom Casey had spoken to. Aside from that, no picture, no address, nothing. Frustrating, but I kept digging. There was little else to find, but not quite nothing.
In one of the emails, from Kasting, there was a footnote that made me go back and look at Love’s files. He had a partner, a man by the name of Vincent Bennett. There were no files on him, but the footnote read as follows.
​
Terry spoke with Bennett, about a week before he went dark. Lexi followed up on it. Can’t find any connection. Bennett says he’d stopped working with Love before he disappeared and he’d heard of LaBeouf, but didn’t work on the case. We’ll keep an eye on him, but I don’t think he’s behind what happened.
​
Kasting seemed to think that this Bennett man was a dead end… but I made a note of the name anyways. Perhaps if Kasting couldn’t get the Detective to talk (assuming he even knew anything at all), I could. I wasn’t sure how… but I was sure I’d think of something.
​
Intrigued, I skimmed a little further until I found another email from one of Onu’s other shadows.
​
I looked into that weird address that was contacting Matt. Far as I can tell, it’s legit. Maybe he just likes Japanese cartoons? TMFI.
-Lexi
​
How bizarre. I looked a little further until I found another reference to the address that had been contacting Matthew LaBeouf. It was a copy of one of the emails that had been sent to him.
​
Hi Matthew!
Thank you again for your recent purchase from Ultimate Waifu! Your new handmade Dakimakura cover has been safely shipped and you should expect it within the next few days. We hope you enjoy this adorable cuddlemuffin! Don’t be too rough with her! She’s delicate!
Please feel free to contact us if there are any concerns or questions and please leave a customer review if you are satisfied with our service!
-Sammy
​
The image was signed with a little pixel art image of a character with short blue hair. I reread the email a few times, before finally finding a copy of the email one of his Shadows had sent the same address.
​
Hi Alexis!
We’re sorry to say that the item you’re looking for is currently out of stock! But if you really, really, reeeeeally want it, we can totally contact you when it comes in again! We’d really hate to deprive anyone of a sweet kawaii cuddlemuffin to keep them warm at night! In the meanwhile, please feel free to browse our quality selection of stain resistant, machine washable, Dakimakura!
-Sammy
​
The same little cartoon character was there by the signature, and I closed out of the emails. I couldn’t make heads or tails of them, so for now, I decided to leave it alone. I moved on to see what else I could find, before a voice in the darkness interrupted me.
​
“Y’know this is the exact thing I’m supposed to stop you from doing.”
​
I looked up, to see a shadow in the door of the office. The light came on, and I was greeted by the sleepy, but sternly disapproving face of Doug Coleridge. He was a tall, broad shouldered man in his early forties with thick hair that was just starting to gray and intense brown eyes.
“What’s the harm in curiosity?” I asked.
“You ever heard that old saying ‘Curiosity killed the cat?’” He asked, his voice still heavy with sleep.
“Well then I’d have plenty to fear if I were a cat, wouldn’t I?”
​
He sighed, and approached me to turn off Onu’s screen. “Don’t be a smartass, Heaven,” He said. “Your Uncle told me to keep you out of this stuff for a reason. So do me a solid, and don’t get us both in trouble.”
“I’m just reexamining what he already knows.” I said, “Technically I haven’t done anything yet!”
“What did I just say about being smart with me? Leave the LaBeouf thing alone. It’s none of your business.”
​
“He betrayed the Family. Of course it’s my business.” I replied, “If I want Onu to take me seriously, then I need to contribute. Simple as that.”
“A lot of things I’d have figured you for, kid. But a glory hound wasn’t one of them” He said, “They’re never gonna to catch LaBeouf, you know that, right?”
​
“Never is a harsh word. I’m not doing it for repute. If Onu won’t give me an opportunity to contribute, I’ll make my own.”
“Yeah, great idea. I’m sure it won’t blow up horribly in your face,” Coleridge said dryly. “Let me know how you plan on doing that.”
“Well, I could use the help… if you were interested,” I offered.
​
Coleridge raised an eyebrow at me before scoffing.
“Last time I checked, I worked for Robert, not for you.”
“Oh come now! Say we did find him, it’d look good on both of us!” I said.
“I’d also be crossing one of the most powerful men in the city.” Coleridge pointed out, as if expecting me to have some sort of answer for that.
“We’d be doing him a favor.” I noted.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’ll see it that way when you get caught,” Coleridge said before sighing. “Look, I admire your dedication, I do. But like I said before, there’s a damn good reason Robert doesn’t want you involved in this.”
​
“Is there?” I asked, “Because I don’t see it! Do you?”
Coleridge was silent for a moment, staring intently at me. Then, finally he sighed.
“Go get dressed,” He said, before turning to leave.
“Why?”
“Because you and me are going for a drive.”
​
“To where?” I asked, feeling a slight pang of concern in my chest as I followed Coleridge out into the hall.
“You wanna know why your Uncle doesn’t want you involved in this? I’m gonna show it to you,” Coleridge said matter of factly.
I watched as he disappeared back into his bedroom, before quietly going to mine to find some clean clothes.
​
***
​
Coleridge and I drove in relative silence through the night. He didn’t tell me where we were going, even when I asked and were I a more paranoid woman, I might have worried that he had some kind of ill intent.
​
I’m not sure if I should have been surprised or not when he brought me to a hospital.
“Is this some sort of underhanded threat?” I asked, as he pulled into the underground parking lot.
“That’s not what I’d call this, no.” He replied as he pulled into a spot. He got out of the car and I followed.
​
“I don’t know how much you know about your Uncle’s reputation, but Robert isn’t the kind of man you double cross,” He said as he headed for the elevator. “If you ask me, Casey had some real balls, doing what he did.”
“And yet Onu still hasn’t found him,” I noted.
“Trust me, he’s been looking,” Coleridge said. I followed him into the elevator and he hit a button, taking us up to the 6th floor.
“So I’ve seen. And it would appear that all he’s uncovered are anime body pillows. That’s hardly progress, if you ask me.”
​
Coleridge chuckled.
“Saw those emails, did you?” He asked. “But no… use your brain, kiddo. You really think your Uncle is going to keep the juicy stuff in his emails?”
​
He might have had a point there. The elevator doors opened and Coleridge stepped out. I followed him. He led me through the pale linoleum halls of the hospital, although to where, I really wasn’t sure.
“After LaBeouf skipped town, Robert sent the usual guy he hires for this kind of stuff after him. Travis Gordon. Can’t really say that he and I were ever friends, but I worked with him from time to time… long story short, he was one a ruthless son of a bitch.”
​
“If he was, you would have thought he’d have found LaBeouf by now, wouldn’t you?” I asked.
“Yeah, you would’ve. Heck, maybe he did find him… not like Travis would tell us.”
He led me down a short hall, before pausing in front of a door.
“Why not?” I asked, before noticing the name on the door.
​
Travis Gordon.
​
I looked back at Coleridge.
“If this is some sort of elaborate prank, Mr. Coleridge, than you can save your energy and-”
“You wanted to know why Robert doesn’t want you involved in this. I’m showing you,” Coleridge replied plainly. “You wanna know why he’s not putting more effort into chasing LaBeouf? Go through that door. See for yourself.”
​
I stared at the door again. Suddenly the world around me felt a little more present. The ground beneath my feet felt a little more real. I stared at the door, but I couldn’t open it. Coleridge stood beside me, watching me quietly. After a while, he just sighed.
​
“Let’s go,” He said, getting up to leave. “It’s probably best if you don’t tell Robert that I brought you here. I don’t think he’d-”
“What happened to him?” I asked.
Coleridge looked back at me.
“What happened to him?” I repeated. “He was injured, right? What happened to him?”
“I don’t know,” Coleridge replied plainly.
​
I looked back at the door. Coleridge stood waiting for me.
“Tell you what, I know a good diner just down the street. Best cheesecake in town. My treat. We’ll go home, forget about this whole thing and-”
​
I opened the door and stepped inside. Coleridge’s voice died in his throat.
The room I entered was dimly lit, but I could see the hospital bed and the figure lying on it. I could hear Coleridge’s footsteps behind me and looked back to see him standing in the doorway, his expression grim. He didn’t say a word to me.
​
Slowly, I approached the still body of Travis Gordon. I could hear the steady beep of a heart monitor and the rhythmic hiss of oxygen. In the dim light of the hospital, I could see that his eyes were open. I paused, thinking that he might have been awake. But his eyes weren’t focused on me. They just stared thoughtlessly up at the ceiling and it took me a moment to realize that the only reason they were open, was because he had no eyelids to close.
​
My stomach turned as the realization hit me, and as I stared at Travis Gordon’s face, each new mutilation became clear to me.
​
Someone had taken a knife to his face, cutting away flesh and letting it fester and scar. In some places, I could even see exposed bone. What was left of him barely even resembled a person anymore. He had no nose, no lips, no cheeks… his face had been almost completely butchered!
​
I clamped a hand to my mouth to keep myself from screaming and took a step back, right into Coleridge’s arms. He stared down at Travis Gordon with an expression that was somewhere between sorrow and disgust.
​
“What… what happened to him?” I asked.
“Last we heard from him, he was following up on a lead in Toronto. Then about three months later, they found him on a plane, looking like this… they needed to use his dental records to ID him.”
​
My stomach turned.
“They took his eyelids, his tongue and did that to his face… they cut his fingers off at the second knuckle and castrated him. His spine is broken. He’ll never walk again, and God only knows how many drugs they pumped into him… I guess the one small silver lining is that I don’t think he’s really in there anymore. Far as I’ve heard, he doesn’t know who he is, where he is or what happened to him. He’s just… gone.”
​
I saw Travis shift slightly and saw his eyes move toward me. My breath caught in my throat. Coleridge stared at him, but didn’t say a word. He just put a hand on my shoulder. Travis’s breathing grew heavier. I saw him try to open his mouth, but the only sound that came out was a dull, wet gurgling noise.
​
Coleridge pulled me toward the door, and I followed. I couldn’t look anymore. He closed the door behind him, and I heard him let out the breath he’d been holding the entire time.
“You wanna know why your Uncle doesn’t want you looking into LaBeouf? You wanna know why he asked me to keep an eye on you? That. That is why.”
​
I didn’t reply.
​
I couldn’t.
​
“Whoever did that to him… and I say ‘whoever’ because it sure as hell wasn’t LaBeouf, they could’ve killed him. Instead they sent him back here to us.”
“But why?” I asked, looking over at Coleridge.
“I figure it’s a message,” He replied. “Back off.”
​
He turned and headed down the hall again, back toward the elevator.
“Well… message received, loud and clear.”
“So whoever did that, they’re just going to get away with it?” I asked, “Onu’s not going after them?”
“Yeah, surprisingly he’s not sending anyone to look for the person who cuts peoples faces off and tortures them until they’re a gibbering mess. Can’t imagine why,” Coleridge said.
​
I stared back at the room, before quietly following him back to the elevator. We rode down in silence.
“Like I said before, it’s probably better if you don’t tell your Uncle I took you here,” He finally said, breaking the silence between us. “And it’s probably best if you drop this whole LaBeouf thing.”
​
The elevator doors opened and Bennett stepped out again, back into the parking garage.
“What about following up on some local leads?” I asked.
He paused, and though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was rolling his eyes.
“You’re joking, right?” He asked, looking back at me.
​
I wasn’t. I was dead serious.
“If there’s nothing to find, what risk am I putting myself in?” I asked, “And if there is something to find, we can give it straight to Onu. You said that Travis had gone to Toronto, right? We won’t even be leaving town! And you’ll be with me the entire time!”
“Are you… are you actually serious right now?” Coleridge asked, “Did you not see what happened to the last guy who went poking around here!”
​
“Yes and clearly he was onto something!” I argued, “Whoever did that to him… they were trying to scare us, and clearly they’ve succeeded!”
“Yeah, cutting a guys face off tends to do that,” Coleridge scoffed. “And considering how your last assistant got hit by a train, I’m really not a fan of what this little investigation of yours might do to my life expectancy!”
​
“Things will be different this time!” I assured him, “You’re not my Father, you’re different, more experienced! I only want to follow up on one thing, at least help me with that!”
“No! That’s my final answer!” He said.
“Fine, then if you won’t help me I’ll do it myself! You may be assigned to keep an eye on me Mr. Coleridge, but unless you plan on physically restraining me, you can’t stop me!”
​
Coleridge opened his mouth to argue, before signing and rubbing his temples.
“For Christ’s sakes, woman!”
“You’re not supposed to take the Lord’s name in vain.”
​
He gave me an incredulous look, before finally giving in.
“Fine, fine… if it’ll get you to drop this, I’ll help… What is it?”
“I want to follow up on a lead. A man named Vincent Bennett. That’s all.”
​
Coleridge considered it for a moment before sighing.
“I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I? Alright, fine… I’ll help you with this, and then we’re done. Deal?”
He offered me a hand to shake, and I shook it.
“Deal.”

Let's address this upfront: the Celtics are not considering trading Jaylen Brown. While he may have his flaws, there is no realistic scenario where the team improves by parting ways with him while maintaining a championship-contending window for the next three or more years. Brown will likely be offered the super max contract, and attempting to negotiate it down would be futile since the Celtics are already operating beyond the second tax apron. It's best to avoid upsetting him and creating unnecessary drama.
Regardless of whether Grant Williams is in their long-term plans or not, the Celtics can comfortably afford to retain him. If they can re-sign him for a contract spanning three years, valued between $40 million and $45 million, it would be an ideal arrangement, offering both flexibility and the potential for a tradeable contract if required.
Furthermore, I propose bringing over Madar and Begarin now to assess their skills and potential. Perhaps they could be signed on two-way contracts, allowing them to develop in Maine while being part of the organization.
Overall, I believe there is no need for significant, drastic changes to the team's core, such as trading Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, or Robert Williams, who have been frequently mentioned in trade rumors. Instead, minor adjustments can be made to the bench unit while preserving the integrity of the main core.
EXTENTIONS:

• Jaylen Brown, 5 years, $290 million
  
• Grant Williams, 3 years, $42 million ($14 million/yr)
  

TRADE:

• Malcolm Brogdon, JD Davison & Justin Champagnie to DET for Bojan Bogdanovic & Alec Burks

DRAFT:

• 35th, Julian Strawther, F Gonzaga

SIGN:

• Javonte Green, G
  
• Yam Madar, G (Two-way)
  
• Juhann Begarin. G/F (Two-way)
  

DEPTH:
G Marcus Smart / Alec Burks / Payton Pritchard / Yam Madar
G Derrick White / Sam Hauser / Javonte Green / Juhann Begarin
F Jaylen Brown / Bojan Bogdanovic / Julian Strawther
F Jayson Tatum / Grant Williams / Danilo Gallinari
C Robert Williams / Al Horford / Mike Muscala
Why does Detroit engage in this strategy? Well, they have already announced their intention to exercise Burks' team option for the purpose of trading him this offseason. With the arrival of Monty, they may be seeking to acquire an experienced point guard who can lead the team alongside the younger players.
As for Boston, they are essentially exchanging high-caliber bench players, aiming to address specific team needs. A desired wing player who can contribute more than 18 points coming off the bench, while also adding Burks as a secondary ball handler. It's worth noting that Burks shares a close relationship with Tatum.
A draft pick might need to be included to facilitate the deal, but regardless, this trade would be highly advantageous for the Celtics. Thus, by acquiring Bogdanovic and Burks, the Celtics would significantly bolster their team's versatility. However, if they wish to further enhance the center position, which is also a need, I believe there is another move Brad and the F.O. should consider.
TRADE:

• Payton Pritchard, Mike Muscala, Luke Kornet & 2024 second-round pick (via SAS) to MEM for Steven Adams

SIGN:

• Patrick Beverley, G

DEPTH:
G Marcus Smart / Alec Burks / Patrick Beverley / Yam Madar
G Derrick White / Sam Hauser / Javonte Green / Juhann Begarin
F Jaylen Brown / Bojan Bogdanovic / Julian Strawther
F Jayson Tatum / Grant Williams / Danilo Gallinari
C Robert Williams / Steven Adams / Al Horford
Why would Memphis consider this trade? There's speculation surrounding Ja Morant's availability for the first half of the season. If that turns out to be accurate, Memphis might opt for a minor rebuild during his absence. They'll likely be competing for a play-in spot next season. Additionally, Memphis boasts a talented frontcourt with young players like Jaren Jackson Jr., Xavier Tillman, and Brandon Clarke.
In this scenario, Boston could offer Payton Pritchard to Memphis. Pritchard could step in as a valuable scoring option off the bench while Ja is out (assuming Tyus Jones starts), and we've seen his ability to light up the scoreboard given the opportunity. This trade would also provide Pritchard with a chance to showcase his skills.
For Boston, the trade addresses their need for help at the center position. They could start either Steven Adams or Robert Williams, with veteran leadership from Al Horford coming off the bench as needed. It's reasonable to expect Horford to focus on staying healthy for the playoffs, possibly playing around 65-70% of regular-season games while providing veteran guidance to the team in their quest for Banner 18.
Furthermore, adding Pat Beverley to the roster would inject some attitude into the team, something that has been lacking since the days when Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics.
Overall, the core of Tatum, Brown, Smart, White, and Williams remains intact. The team maintains a deep and valuable bench featuring players like Alec Burks, Bojan Bogdanovic, Grant Williams, Steven Adams, and Sam Hauser. Moreover, Danilo Gallinari and Al Horford serve as extra insurance. This roster would provide tremendous lineup flexibility and depth.

Hi Courtney! I've been a big fan for a long time and finally decided to submit my story so hopefully, it gets seen! I've submitted this story before and am resubmitting it in an easier to read format!
I moved into the house I live in now with my family in 2017, however, my mom and brother moved out and I now live here with my best friend, sister, and boyfriend. We had a few other roommates at one point too but they have moved out now. For a little background, we believe our ghost is named Norman, as when we moved in we found an old obituary in the attic for an 18 year-old boy named Norman along with lots of old furniture and what we like to call the "exorcism kit." We don't really know what it is but it was an old box lined with velvet that had a silver cross, an old glass jar with a cork that was labeled "holy water" (like literally engraved into the glass), a rag, two little cups, and a booklet titled "instructions for the sick room" telling you what to do when a family member is dying (turn out the lights, light a candle, call the priest, etc.) Weird stuff like footsteps and scratching on the attic doors were pretty common but I wasn't really freaked out until people started seeing "me" around the house.
The first time this happened I was still living with my mom and had been home alone all afternoon. My room was all the way up on the third floor along with the attic storage space, and I had been up there for at least a few hours. My mom came home from work and yelled out for me to come downstairs. I came down and she asked me if I was just downstairs. I said no pretty confused and she said it was okay I wasn't in trouble she just wanted to know. When I told her I had been in my room for hours she told me that as she pulled in the driveway she had looked through our living room window and had seen a girl who looked just like me standing in our living room spinning in circles with something in her hand. She assumed it was me on the phone with a friend. All the doors were locked and I had been upstairs, so there was no way it was anyone in our house.
The next time someone spotted "me" was when my mom had moved out and we had some friends living with us. They had been walking back towards the house after going out and had a similar experience where they had seen "me" through the living room window, except this time because of the angle they were at it was just my face from my chin up staring out at them. When they came inside and I wasn't in there they came into my room to ask about it and we all rightfully freaked out because it wasn't me and no other girls were home. They also said it was very clearly my face that they saw.
The most recent encounter with ghost me happened to my best friend. She very recently moved back in with us and she painted her walls. We like to joke that she pissed the ghost off by doing that because she started waking up at almost exactly 3:30 am feeling like she was being stared at so intensely that she was scared to look around the room. A few nights ago she told me she woke up again in the middle of the night and heard me loudly whispering "hey" over and over again with a final whisper shout loud HEY she figured something must have happened and I woke her up to warn her so she turned around expecting at least her door to be open to find her room empty with the door closed and the house silent. She swears it was very distinctly my voice, and she had even turned around pissed off that I was in her room waking her up.
Those are just a few of the scary stories I have from this house but Id love to share more! Sorry for how long this was!!

Unpacking the Light Police. Light Pollution News.
Show Link: https://lightpollutionnews.com/podcast/unpacking-the-light-police/
Subscribe: Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast
Social: Instagram LinkedIn
Guests:
John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, LLC.
Kaitlyn Evans, Conservationist.
Show:
I was busted by the light police. They had a point, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.
Dana Milbank purchased a home in, soon to be not, rural Virginia. At night he kept the formerly vacant property lit to the degree that spurned one commentator to call it “spaceship lighting.”
Milbank recaps being visited by the “light police,” a group of concerned citizens who help educate neighbors and instill a sense of pride in the brilliance of their starry night skies.
At first, he was taken aback, but later, not only did he appreciate their efforts, but he also converted his blinding always on, white light flood lights to warm 2700 Kelvin motion sensing lights.
Per Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association, “for 4.5 billion years there was no artificial light at night. It’s really only in the last five human generations that we transformed that. It’s one of the most profound transformations of our environment.”
Many of you may recall an earlier story, way back in our Hormone of Darkness episode, showcasing concerns by local residents prior to a 760 house (now 761) plus town center development moving into the Culpepper County, VA area. Per the Rappahannock News, this development features “a resort style swimming pool, clubhouse, tot lot, and multiple sports fields and sports courts, all connected by a network of biking and walking trails.”
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’ by Zaria Gorvett of the BBC.
Gorvett opened my eyes to something I never knew about, the medieval custom of two sleeps. For those of you unaware, two sleeps are exactly what it sounds like.
Folks would partake in a communal nap, complete with rigid sleeping arrangement conventions, between 9 – 11pm, then awaken for a few hours to do everything from hang out to brew beer! In fact, the idea of multiple sleeps crossed cultures and was found in places as far from Europe as indigenous South America.
How can one’s circadian rhythm make sense of all of this?!
Well, for starters, until the invention of the alarm clock, which humorously was invented by a clocks salesman so he could wake up and sell more clocks, people had no firm way to wake up at a consistent time. The industrial revolution enforced a new circadian standard.
And there’s some science behind this! In the 1992 study, In Short Photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, researcher Thomas Wehr found that after four weeks of 10 hour days, his subjects began to engage in this two sleep cycle, involving a one to three hour period for which they became awake and engaged in between.
Want to Learn About Light Pollution? There’s a mini-course for that!, Jennifer Sensiba of Clean Technica.
Quoting Sensiba, “As I got older, I traveled a lot more and saw the problem more for what it is. Not only did I see that in many places there is no refuge from it, but I also saw that it was slowly growing worse. Places that had been dark 30 years ago had more and more light creeping upon the horizon.”
If you’re interested in learning more, or more importantly, know someone who might benefit from learning more, Sensiba links up to an International Dark Sky Mini-Course on light pollution, call it Light Pollution 101!
There’s a Play Date at the National Museum of Natural History: Lights Out exhibit!
But unfortunately, by the time you listen to this, and hell, by the time we talk about this, it has passed.
Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan. Sarah Parlette for Click on Detroit.
Evidently gambling websites have decided to honor April’s International Dark Sky week in a strange new content marketing campaign, which was to rank the best places in each state to see sunrises and sunsets. My favorite one, “Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan,” comes from Click on Detroit, whereby a quote “study” examined Michigan’s most populated cities.”
According to Click on Detroit, “to celebrate International Astrology Day on Saturday, staff at Great Lake Stakes, a Michigan online gambling news site, looked at light pollution in the five most populated cities around the Mitten state to determine which offers the best views every morning and evening.”
Star bathing is the new outdoor travel trend we should all be trying for Summer 2023, according to Amy Beecham at Stylist.
Evidently, as an attempt to destress and promote mindfulness, romanticism about sleeping under the stars has birthed a 70% increase in searches for the term ‘star bathing’ on Hipcamp. And to be sure, “Hipcamp recommends checking a stargazing calendar which outlines major astrological events – like supermoons, pink moons, and star showers.”
“Industry Must Face an Inconvenient Truth — Most LED Lights at Night are Unhealthy”
Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a circadian clock expert, recently published an article in LEDs Magazine chastising the lighting industry for not recognizing and reigning in the negative externalities of its products. Per the piece, such effects are, obesity, diabetes, depression, cancer, and more.
He cites three categories of industry responses, making the correlation that long term Denial or outright Ignorance of the Facts, may result in “asbestos-scale liabilities or draconian regulations.”
Per the piece, a recent survey by the Circadian Light Research Center of 2,697 peer reviewed scientific articles confirmed that human circadian clocks are highly sensitive to blue wavelengths, and that exposure to such wavelengths leads to major health disorders.
Moore-Ede calls for the industry to harvest the “commercial opportunity” to greatly limit future liability by creating and managing its own standards for circadian modulated lighting.
Unpacking the Wallpack, by Dan Weissman in LD+A Magazine.
Weissman, who recently purchased a telescope for his family in Cambridge, MA, discovered that the scope could only afford him views of some solar system objects and a few brightly burning stars.
The ire of Weissman’s pen takes the shape of a rectangular fixtures, be it box like or simply a panel these days, that typically hang off the side of an exterior wall or above an exterior door. “Devoid of aesthetic value” this light is often put up under the “pretense of security and safety” by “recommended practices and adopted municipal codes.”
Weissman recognizes labels that often accompany, what he calls, “Glare bombs,” including “contractor-select,” “energy efficient,” or “light pollution friendly.”
Further, per an earlier LD+A article, such lighting driven by its extreme contrasts is exceedingly common in minority communities where light is weaponized as a tool of power. It becomes a “device of alienation, creating a zone of control and separation.”
Weissman recognizes that the true reason such fixtures are selected often comes down to cost. He recognizes that it may take equally as much cost to persuade building and homeowners away from such lighting into the realm of more responsible, lower lumen, shielded lighting.
Weissman calls for producers of these glare bombs to be labeled as polluters, putting them in line with fossil fuel manufacturers and PFAS makers.
Songbirds, dusk and clear skies: Scientists explore migratory flights, by Erin Blakemore.
Bird migration season is ending here in the Mid-Atlantic. I was lucky enough to catch several Baltimore Orioles and Indigo Buntings last week. Researchers looked at 400 songbirds from 9 major species, “including the yellow-rump warbler, American redstart and Bicknell’s thrush.”
The question they hoped to answer was how are these birds so darn precise in identifying the best time to take off for their nightly migration? Scientists found that 90% of the migrating birds in the study took off within 69 minutes of dusk. A “much narrower takeoff window,” that even shocked the research team!
Per the study, taking off at night is all about maximum flight time. In addition to being able to precisely schedule their take offs, a feat that every airline I’ve flown with over the past few years has proven inept at, birds also are apparently good meteorologists! They often depart when the atmospheric pressure rises over a day’s span. Other factors also trigger migration, including sex, age, and celestial cues.
‘Lights Out’ initiative appears to be saving birds from crashing into Philly buildings by Sophia Schmidt.
Preliminary results indicate that bird death counts are down 70% at one Market Street tower, since it began its participation in Lights Out. As we spoke about on a previous show, birds utilize the stars to navigate, but city lights can disorient the birds. Combine the lights with reflective or transparent glass, and that spells fatal trouble for our migrating warblers!
Per Keith Russell, a program manager for urban conservation with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, “We’ve lost almost a third of our birds – and [collisions] contributing to that. If we’re going to want to preserve the bird populations here in North America, we have to look at these types of problems. And this is a preventable one.”
The Knoxville, TN Zoo is offering up what they call “Twilight Tours” per WVLT 8. Each event will feature a guide to showcase nocturnal critters.
I did something similar in Singapore years ago. The zoo had very dim lights in the exhibits – and they kept those lights dim as you walked so that you didn’t lose your night vision. It was a very different and, might I say, peaceful experience than the typically chaotic daytime zoo.
Flashlights posing major threat to nesting sea turtles. Fox35 Orlando
Apparently, a single flashlight can deter female sea turtles from coming onto a beach and nesting. Florida, as I did not know, is home to 90% of the sea turtle nests across the world, so losing sea turtles can affect the global ecosystem.
One visitor to Cocoa Beach stated, “Just leave them alone. Stand back and look. You don’t need a flashlight.”
Another, “It’s not super surprising because more buildings go up, more technology. As it increases, nature and stuff like that decreases,” said Zoe Jovaag, whose grandfather used to take her on walks to see sea turtles.
Capture the Dark 2023 officially is under way!
The International Dark Sky Association opens up its annual photo contest complete with prizes across eight categories and an additional People’s Choice category. Voting begins on July 3rd, entries must be received by June 30th.
City Tests Traffic Light That Only Turns Green for Drivers Who Obey the Speed Limit. Erin Marquis for Jalopnik.
And hey, you better not speed in Brossard, Quebec….otherwise you may be waiting around for a while. Brossard is testing out a new traffic light that will stay red until it senses oncoming traffic. However, it will only change to green if the car is going the speed limit. Per the Jalopnik article, “FRED [the French acronym for “educational traffic calming light] forces fast drivers to stop and gives them a chance to reconsider their life choices.” Such lights are already used in Europe, but this will be the first for the Great White North.
Why the Greatest Threat to Star-Gazing Isn’t Light Pollution, and this comes to us from Dorin Elin Urrutia at Inverse.
Elin Urrutia writes, in her compelling piece, that the greatest threat to star-gazing is actually the weather. Citing notable examples of the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (which burnt down due to bushfires) and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (which sustained structural damage following the winds of Hurricane Maria).
While the threat of human-caused climate change has presented new challenges, Elin Urrutia references proactive burns that saved Los Angeles’ Mount Wilson Observatory from flames in 2020.
On a similar note, ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Company, not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Company), brings us “A World Without Darkness Could Be a Reality within a Few Years.”
Per Carol Redford of Astrotourism Western Australia, “There are some people in the world now who don’t actually experience darkness anymore. They’re in a city like Beijing, Toyoko, or London. In all those big cities, it’s never dark, it’s always light. During the day of course with the sun, but then during the night with all of the artificial light. They’re not experiencing darkness, and definitely not seeing those beautiful stars…”
In the 66 years since the implementation of the UN Convention on the Peaceful Use of Outerspace, around 11,000 satellites orbit the Earth. But it’s about to get wayyy busier. Driven by innovations that have led to dramatic reductions in costs, over the next ten years, Per attorney Steven Freeland, it’s anticipated that somewhere between 100,000 to 500,000 objects will be sent up. Let me pause on that for a second.
On the travel front, we stay in the land down under, “Aussie region determined to keep its darkness is a stargazer’s dream” by Chantelle Francis of News.com.AU.
The town of Swam Reach, population 270, resides in a 3200sq km region of Southern Australia that received its International Dark Sky Reserve status over three years ago. On a scale of darkness between 0 – 22, the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve at Swam Reach, measures in at a whopping 21.9!
Tourism has become a growing business. The reserve hosts numerous telescope pads and offers tours of the night sky. There’s hope that an observatory and/or planetarium may also arrive in due course.
Best smart lights for outdoors in 2023, Brittney Vincent of CBS Essentials.
Oh there’s a lot not to love here, but it does fall in line with last month’s ‘Lumens are Coming’ article.
For those of you who feel the need to light your trees, because for some reason they need light at night I guess…I’ll try and pretend it’s not solely for ostentatious and narcissistic reasons. By the way, does anyone remember when those were negative characteristics?
The article features spotlights that can be programmed to over 16 MILLION colors including…lucky for us, ALL shades of white….which you can also do for a 500 lumen flood light set.
And hey, Ring now has solar path lighting. Don’t worry though, the fixtures themselves put out up to 80 lumens of sideways light.
You know, it’s astounding when you look at some of these pictures. The amount of redundant lighting. It honestly makes no sense to me. You have a porch light, which lights up the path. Path lighting, which lights up the path. And, in the one picture, god awful frontward facing flood lights, which also light up the path. How bright do you need these paths!? I digress. But the lumens are indeed coming.
LDS Church will get to light up its Heber Valley Temple after all, but the faith didn’t get everything it wanted, Blake Apgar of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fought hard to rid itself of any nighttime lighting responsibility by pressuring Wasatch County, Utah officials to approve new lighting rules that would enable the church to light a proposed new temple the same way it does for every other temple.
The Church received permission to uplight the temple, enabling an exception to be made in Wasatch’s rather stringent nighttime lighting rulebook. However, the temple will be restricted by the level of lumens it can use, and it must have exterior lighting turned off an hour after sunset or an hour after normal business hours.
Smart Street Lights Market is Expected to Hit USD 14,751.1 million at a 23.4% CAGR by 2030, Market Research Future Press Release
The pandemic is officially over, smart street lighting is about to boom. Combine the rush to LED fixtures with the Internet of Things, and expect to see street lights moonlighting as traffic and parking monitors, air quality meters, and more. Not to mention, “it is anticipated that camera-connected smart street lighting will increase road safety by lowering the likelihood of accidents and criminality.”
Texas now has 7 dark sky communities for spectacular star gazing, Sana Ameer, MRT.
Let’s cheer on the city of Bee Cave, everyone! Bee Cave joins a growing list of dark sky places already in the Lone Star State, including 2 Dark Sky Sanctuaries, 5 Dark Sky Parks, and 1 Dark Sky Reserve. Nighttime is alive and well in some parts of Texas!
Our Afraid of the Dark article is a bit scary! Hilton Head’s dark roads and pedestrians are deadly combo. What the town is doing about it, Blake Douglas at The Island Packet.
Per the article, 9 pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occurred since 2018, with five occurring after dark. Prior to that period, there were 28 recorded deaths from 2000 – 2016, with 20 of them taking place after dark.
In 2018, an 11 year old resident was struck and killed while walking her dog across an intersection one night. Lighting advocates began taking shape in what otherwise is a very conservation focused island. Hilton Head, SC has a limited number of street lights, priding itself on “avoiding light pollution and blending nature with construction.”
Lighting advocates appear to be, at the very least, asking for flashing crosswalk lights on the island to indicate when an individual is crossing.
It should be noted that the article shows a chart of 9 after-dark-deaths since 2014, only two of them occurred at crosswalks. In fact, during the same time frame, 6 additional deaths occurred at crosswalks during the daytime.
As a whole, the National Safety Council reports that 74.5% of pedestrian deaths occurred at night, whereby 39.1% took place in lit areas and 35.38% took place in unlit areas.
Bryan Bloch, an auto safety expert, surmises that car companies bear some of the blame – producing cheap or ineffectual headlight fixtures, and drivers themselves, who don’t realize that they need to regularly clean their headlight lenses.
Despite opposition from residents, it appears that Hilton Head will be receiving lights at two new intersections and possibly more depending on engineering studies currently in progress.
Is lighting the key variable here? Is more light going to solve pedestrian deaths?
Our featured research article of the month comes to us from Animal Conservation, “Manipulating spectra of artificial light affects movement patterns of bats along ecological corridors.”
Bats are already known to have a wide range of responses to artificial light at night (also known as ALAN). Fast flying species tend to be more opportunistic in the presence of ALAN while slower ones tend to be more light averse. We know that “long wavelengths and reduced intensity” can minimize their environmental effects on bats. It’s not unheard of for bats to travel upwards of “tens of km per night.” Furthermore, bats are very dependent on the landscape and the structures within those landscapes.
Despite the nuances between species, the consensus is that ALAN, especially high intensity ALAN, negatively affects bats. This study attempted to answer what exactly bats do when they encounter ALAN – how do they react depending on different types of ALAN.
The study used three different light fixtures – one green, one red, and one white. The control was devoid of light fixtures. The researchers attempted to ascertain the behavior of bats as they encountered lights adjacent to woody areas. The researchers looked at three different bat groupings based on their foraging-echo location behavior, that being one of open field foraging, forest edge foraging, and narrow space – or more aptly forest foragers.
Researchers found that open and edge foraging bats increased their activity close to white and green lights, and to a lesser extent red lights. However, narrow space bats were more likely to veer away from all colors of lighting. Edge foragers were also less likely to cross a white light.
The positive effects of white and green light on open and edge foraging bats appear to be attributed to the accumulation of insects around light sources containing more blue light.
The nighttime sky over Oahu will be lit up with green lasers in the coming days. Here’s why. Hawaii News Now
Before we close up today, do you live in Hawaii? I know I wish I did!
If so, do you recall seeing green lasers streak across the night sky? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers was using lidar at night to complete a coastal mapping survey.
Why did they survey at night? Specifically, why did they do this between midnight to 5am? Simply b/c the airspace is so busy, that time was the only chance they had to complete the survey. The remaining survey was completed during daytime hours.

Howdy Folks,
In October 2021 I began doing videography and editing work for a local retired Doctor. She is a president of a special interest group for a local philanthropy club, and I was putting together an educational series for a subscription website she is the CEO of. It consisted of health lessons of her talking to a camera for 10-20 minutes about health, and readings from popular library books which were filmed in a local theater featuring many community members such as the former mayor, teachers, real estate agents, etc. She is a highly charismatic 87-year-old woman who talks about how she got millions of pounds of food and glasses donated worldwide and was responsible for putting up various covid clinics. She told me she worked with Steven Spielberg and that she'll introduce me to him one day. She paid me roughly 2000 dollars or so to edit this series of videos. I completed it, and she paid me, it was a little late, but she paid me and I believed she was a wonderful woman and told all my friends about her. She was like the grandmother I never had.
In early 2022, she told me that there was a big opportunity ahead of us, there were millions in funding, they had contracts with the School district and with other countries, and she would like to have me on board, so in June I began filming another series of videos, there were close to 100 videos that needed to be edited in both English and Spanish, and my co-editor and I polished the hell out of these videos. The website looked like garbage, but I liked that since this was a small team, I would have a great influence on how this company turned out. And she was paying so I did the work. Some of that included:

• Filming her political videos for her run for this local philanthropy club president.
• Website input, graphic design.
• Traveled to Reno to shoot with a subsidiary company that focused on teaching reading to illiterate people. Filmed a story there with a local news reporter.
• Synchronize sound to the picture using tools in Adobe
• Watch the whole video and time mark the places where the b-roll or videos that illustrate the point and note what needs to be seen.
• Remove awkward pauses
• Download 10-30 clips from my paid stock site, and synchronize the B-roll to the timeline
• Generate Subtitles using the tool in Premiere and correct grammar
• Add musical animation intro (Illustrated and edited previously with my girlfriend)
• Create quizzes from the template I created in Divinci using questions from the COO's wife
• Export with correct codec settings for web distribution
• Upload video
• Export English subtitle STL files for translation through the COO who hired a voiceover translator. She would then create the Spanish subtitles based on the English STLs which contain the timecode that matches the timeline
• Import Spanish sub and dub to premiere synchronize subs to audio
• Create Spanish quizzes using Divinci, export
• Import the quizzes and add them to the end.
• Export again and upload to Dropbox.

During this time, she said there were 2000 missing videos from her previous vendor. Which did not make sense to me, because all the videos we found on her hard drives only added up to around 300. I made documents with this information. She emailed the previous Vendor, and they didn't want to release the files because they didn't believe she would write a check for them. Also, this is when things started to look a little fishy. She said if there wasn't 2000 videos, she would lose a million-dollar contract. So I searched everywhere for the missing videos and came up with alternative plans to get 2000 videos by the deadline. But it didn't add up. There was no way she could have put out 2000 videos in the time she was working on this. So I kept working on the current series, enlisting another editor to help me get these videos done by January 10th.
Things I noticed: she split ties with her previous videographers, different learning management system vendors (imagine a Netflix for education videos with built-in quizzes) as well as her former COO, and she requested that the quizzes be directly in the video because she thought it would prevent theft. Personally, it didn't make sense to me and I thought, who would want to steal this? But she was paying. And I later realized it was because she has screwed over a lot of people over money.
The plan was to launch these videos by January 10, 2023. From the months of July to September, she paid me $70/hr for roughly 20-30 hours per week. On average it was around 5K each month. She paid me for 3 months and stopped paying me for the months of October, November, December, and the first week of January. I assumed she was behind because she usually was a little behind on payments. The total added up to roughly 17k.
But when January 10th came, I was told by her COO she took a fall. I don't know if that actually happened, but he told me to let her rest, but I demanded to know why the COO wouldn't tell me what was going on with the money. I took back access to the files, to which she called me immediately and sounded terrible, pausing every other second between words, saying the funding was tied up and they haven't gotten paid yet, and she left a check for me for 1k at her door which I picked up. Then I gave them access back to the files, a big mistake.
She has told me since then on 3 occasions, as well as in a phone conversation with my co-editor, that 40 million dollars are tied up in foreign banks and they can't transfer it because it could be drug and gun money.
I was advised by a mutual friend of a friend to write her husband as he just became treasurer of their club, and so I did. And I also sent a stern document saying I will sue on the 25th of May. She agreed to meet with me at Starbucks on May 24.
Now I'm speculating here, but I have no proof she was ever injured in the first place. She spoke fine, and she wasn't wearing a cast from where she fractured her arm. I could be wrong, but something worth noting.
She asked me how I was doing, and because I had been behind on money, she asked me if I was eating, and I told her my situation. She teared up saying she was crying on the inside, and outside too. She handed me a document, "International Bill of Exchange" telling me that they were buying coffee to pay me and that the money will be delivered to my house by check by Friday or Monday at the latest. Nothing came, and I further investigated this document. The lawyer's name on the document is a real lawyer, but apparently, he was reprimanded for something. When I called his office, his secretary said he would call me back, and they texted me from an iPhone instead, telling me to contact an email not listed on the document, but the same domain name was listed on the document. The website contains a ton of legal jargon meant to confuse you, but I realized it's all a clever scam to not pay me. I removed the names but this is what the sketchy email said.
"Dear Sir:
Please review [link ommited] ... in short... the [name omitted] COFFEE IBOE you received is "money"... but you probably want to receive "money" in a form you are used to using... and that is the same request as if you had a $100 FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE and you want to exchange it for that same value in quarter coins... that goes through a process... which NAME OMITTED is to provide and complete... as stipulated in the [name omitted] COFFEE IBOE.
At this time, several major banking transactions are being executed, any one of which will allow NAME OMITTED to satisfy your request... but the timing is subject to international banking... and is not under her control... or ours... so... please have NAME OMITTED keep you posted.
Sincerely,
ADMIN"
When I reply to the email asking who I'm speaking to it says: "This is the administrative service for [name omitted] SERVICES, INC." and leaves it at that.
My plan is to take her to small claims for 10K and forfeit the 7K, but can I also press charges for attempted fraud? I've also been in talks with the previous vendors, who said she owes something like 200k to them for years of work But they don't want to challenge her for various reasons, i.e. she is a charismatic powerful person who is an eloquent speaker and has the ability to get people to buy into her bullshit, they think lawyers will be expensive and they don't know if she can actually pay it back. She owns a waterfront house and a car and I know people in her club.
She is a clever con artist, and if I didn't owe my co-editor 6k, I would have probably let it go. What are your thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Summary: A "DoctoPhilanthropist" I worked for paid me consistently for months and then stopped and has been telling me that the money is trapped in foreign banks. I did not have a contract because she was paying me consistently and I trusted her. I have months of email correspondence and proof of the work. She gave me a fake IBOE document that sends me to a crooked lawyer that in turn sent me to reach out to someone via email and that person replied like a Nigerian prince scheme. They might be the same person.

Hi, I am in midst of crisis on going about 3 months with OCD and I am the lowest point o my life. I can't find joy in anything, life honestly doesn't make sense for me, I am hopeless and completely dysfunctional. I need help, so writing here is a last resort.
Just a bit of context, I am 21M studying in college ( physics ). I've battled with OCD for 3 years, but right now it's the worst i've ever been. I've had Pure O, contamination OCD which ruined my 1st year of college and my grades, which were good in the beginning. I am in my 2nd year now, and again at the start of this year everything was going great, I was getting the grades I was aiming for, I was beginning gainning self-confidence in my academic abilities ( I think I've had pure O thoughts concerning this also) but it all went downhill again, it started with OCD about counting calories and it's now the worst theme I've ever had, Existential/Religious OCD ( although I know when we're stuck in a particular theme it always seem the worst at the moment).
I was already doing therapy before college however it really didn't work as it was a form of CBT but without ERP ( kinda like socratic dialogue in albert ellis style, which worsened my symptoms in some part). During the final 1st year of college I went to my present therapist, we began doing ERP together with ACT, which worked great for me. However, ACT has philosophical basis or similarities with eastern religions, and after I read some spiritual books recommendations that my therapist gave me in order to help me I began researching obsessively about this topic. I'd been exposed to eastern religions before, particulary buddhism. I was meditation a lot, realizing about metaphysical doctrines as sunyata (emptiness), anattã, personal ego, dukkha and samsara, but this time was not moved by curiosity/intereset but by anxiety/worry. I began reading all the main suttas of buddhism as well researching in buddhismstackexchange, every single day for hours, I was even loosing sleep.
I quickly tried to rationalize ways of proving ways of why buddhism couldn't have the ultimate truth because of logical/doctrinal inconsisties: the myth of creation in the aganna sutta, the misogny present in sectarian buddhism, the fact that buddhism as an intentional system of ethics whilst also believing in a kind of deontological moral theory given by karma/rebirth, the fact that rebirth was something born out of the human desire to atribute make sense of life ( missfortune or good fortune are based on past karma etc.), however then a conter thought appeared "what if this is actually true and you're wasting your life studying while you could be preceving absolute truth", or the scholars opinions about texts like the aganna and other suttas being later addictions rather than buddha's own doctrine. I've also read about Refrational frame theory, skinner, the historical development of ACT, academic papers of Steven Hayes, some relating buddhism and ACT. The problem is, while ACT hasn't been explicitly developed based on buddhism ( it was on based on radical behavourism and some work of Aaron T Beck, initially) it is a 3rd wave cognitive behavioural theory movement which began with it's roots in buddhism, namely MBSR and gestalt. Because all of this, added to the fact that I attached myself to buddhism in the past, as belief system ( OCD wasn't getting better with CBT therapy so in order to survive I told myself buddhism has all the answers I need, and meditation really worked for me), I developed severe scrupulosity, fear of going to hell, of not following dharmma etc.
Added to this is the fact that I genuinely think buddhism has a robust philosophy, the 4 nobles truths, dukkha, the unstatisfactorianess of life, the boredom and repetition inherently present in the human condition, and also I myself have found utility in it's framework of understanding and training my mind, I think I've developed strong cognitive bias added to the OCD. It's driving me crazy, to the point I dont know what I actually believe anymore or what is OCD distorted thoughts, it's eating me alive. My biggest fear is "what if buddhism is true", then what I am doing right now is actually useless because it would not lead to nirvana, cessation of becoming, this perpetual cyle of life/death. I can't study because I am constantly having panic attacks about this possibility, I loose sleep and I am completly depressed by this, because whether people admit it or not buddhism core philosophy is really pessimistic, as it basically defends the meaning of life is to cessate further life (nirvana).
I've talked to my therapist about this, but he did not give me any reassurance ( as he should) and quickly dismissed my premisses, however I've just thought " he really doenst understand buddhism as well as I do" so he wouldn't know any better. This question is eating me alive, because I've this thought in the back of my mind " You know buddhism is true and you're just making excuses to not do the hard work, leaving pleasures and being an ascetic". I think OCD is kinda taking advantage of my personality trait of being extremely diligent ( to the point Idc how I feel as well I acomplish a higher goal) to harrass me, but its just a guess.
Please I need help, someone. I don't know how to deal with this, and buddhist scrupulosity is quite rare, as I didn't find any materials. Kind regards everyone.
PS: english is not my main idiom so sorry for any mistakes

The boys and gal take your question that you posted on here and twitter. We get some answers as to whhhhhhhat the hell that ending was and find out a lot about the party and their characters. Grab a crow oil, kick up and relax to the soothing beats of microphones being accidently hit by Dusty.

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Trivia
-At one point the guys discussed having Merch and a store front. I'm all in for a limited edition Party Roll Hoodie, purple and black, just saaaaayin.
-Vanessa started work on a miniature of Fumbles, which at the time was still a work in progress
-Matt says they wouldn't get enough stuff to warrant a PO Box. We should change his mind.
-Cory has drawn every character he's ever made
-Steven cannot draw to save his life
-Mark, please explain 'MouseGuard' and what is it and what happened with it.
-Horses scare Steven irl
-Cory favors small characters to play
The guys real life alignment -Steven is a True Neutral irl, lv 1 -Mark is Lawful Neutral -Dusty is Chaotic Construction worker natural -Cory believes his outside self is pure but the inside self is dead, so Neutral Evil
The following are the competition shows the party would see themselves in -Steven, whatever Steven Harvey is hosting -Dusty, hotel hell, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBo03XTpTYA -Mark, deal or no deal or 'who wants to be a millionaire'. -Rory, Ninja Warrior or Man Vs Food. perhaps my fav ep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0zG2XqTpSM -Vanessa, Family Feud, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJT_aQ5XzKg -Matt would choose 'legend of the hidden temple" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhef_fxMQP0
-Rory talks about Joe Exotic before it blew up on Neflix. 17:37 timestamp to hear the guys talk about it.
-Rory actually went to that Tiger sanctuary and he bought a huge portrait of Joe Exotic
-Cory is a Baja blast kinda guy -Matt is Baja blast kinda guy -Mark is a Code red kinda guy -Rory is a Code red kinda guy -Vanessa doesn't like the Dew. She likely will survive without diabetes
-Vanessa made a family tree for Fumbles.
Fav Movie, Fav Beer and Fav city in Michigan Dusty - Monty Python's holy Grail, Lefthand Milk Stout https://lefthandbrewing.com/beers/milk-stout, Denton Township Matt - No Country for Old Men, Community Mosaic IPA, https://communitybeer.com/beers/mosaic-ipa/, Dallas Township Steven - John Carpenters 'The Thing', Doesn't have a fav beer, loves Flint Michigan Mark - Hot Fuzz, Lefthand Milk Stout, doesn't have one Rory - The Departed, Bud Lite or Four Loko Cran Lemon OG, Cory - 5th Element , Any Porters or Stouts, Flint Vanessa - Faceoff or Con Air , Shiner Bock https://www.beeradvocate.com/beeprofile/143/1352/ or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pK5HmuCMBM, Detroit
-Mark explains that the end of Season 2 had them Ride the Wyrm, but they were unsure if they landed on the same planet. (look for a detailed answer from Mark himself, check out the previous ep recap in the comment section)
-The Wyrm is a dead god, one of the creatures that shaped the planet that had been put to sleep which the party awaked, which was a bad thing.
-At the time the party was fighting the essence of Jedwyn's Patron deity, aka Dark Raimi Ooze, who wanted to take the Wyrm to it's domain. Remember Dark Raimi Only exists cause of Fritz. WILD! She was going to remake the planet and everything was going to die, sounds like tough pickings!
-Mark and Matt both had the idea to start recording their sessions which started in their group chat.
-Matt is right, they've always had good audio, come to think of it, better than a lot of startup DnD podcasts
-Mark says he has plans for Jedwyn's Mule Cupcake and Frtiz' dog Ambrosis, OH RLY?!
-Fumbles existed in Cory's campaign (that involved Vikings) before heading to the Pasta dimension, where he met and adventured with Barilla, the lost pathfinders games
-Steven are Vanessa are of Scandinavian decent. This means they likely burn easy in the summer. They also have large square heads.
-Steven has never found a hat that has fit him except for an Indiana Jones costume hat.
-Matt is everyone's sugar daddy
-Matt sometimes puts up a server for minecraft from time to time.
-Cory had noticed Vanessa had an artistic side back in highschool when he was a teacher's aid
-Mark says that Matt throwing the soul orb threw a wretch in the story, Fritz pouring the goo was a close second. The Dark Raimi Ooze storyline was all improvised. There were also more cities and things the party never got to see.
-Dusty does a lot of 'Bobby Snakeman' Voice during the recording. Don't get it? Listen to Season 3...
-Dusty had a great idea, but they record over it. WHAT WAS IT MARK?!
-The beer and alcohol rules vary from Province to Province in Canada, but in Ontario, there are two places you can get your adult beverages. The Beer Store and The LCBO. The latter being a government ran retail store. While grocery stores have been recently allowed to have beeciders but not spirits; not all stores have the license for alcohol sales. While controlled, they do have stricter laws when it comes to open containers, but It's really not a huge deal. It just means you have to go to a stand-alone store where thousands of options are before you. Ontarians drink A LOT....
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-Rory's G/F appears on savage roll and is known for getting ppl to drink A LOT, also known as the Devil's Advocate
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Quotes
"We have 'Stome' on line 1" - Matt, trying to act like they have a dedicated LAN-line for questions
"Merchandise is purchased you BITCH" - Steven, showing no quarter to Vanessa
"I'm going to take this one......Yes...." - Cory, on if the group ever considered getting a PO Box so their fans can send them stuff.
"I already know where most of you live...but that's not the point, the point is...." - Stalker Cory
"That sure is asking a lot" - Steven, refusing to describe his season 3 character
"YOU CAN'T DRIVE IN THIS LANE HERE!!!" - Lawful neutral Mark
"If you want to live in a state that constantly feels like sadness and standing behind a bus that still just running idle...that's Oklahoma" - Cory with the burn
"...And me and my brother, the entire time were like, 'dude if you got attacked by those tigers, you would just pull out your pistol right and start wildly firing' " - Rory
"I have a very distinct memory of going to Taco Bell with Mark and Cory when we were in high school and me and Mark, I got Baja Blast and Mark got Code Red and we were like, 'Oh their like lightsabers colours!' " - Steven, going down memory lane
"As Dusty and I are the two daddies at the table, we prefer the creamy beer" - Mark
"That's what my wife thought Sex was, when you become a grown up adult and get married, you just put your boner in and fall asleep all night long." - Dusty
"A big bag of NOPE" - Cory on hanging out with fans of the podcast
"YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE WEARING A CHILDS HAT!" - Mark laughing at Matt's large head
"I like treatin' my hoes right" - Sugar Daddy Matt
"Yaaaah I'd fuck a hybrid chimp anyday" - Vanessa
"No no, it was a great idea to do the climatic fucking battle of the campaign while you guys got drunk" - A still irate Mark
"Lets walk to 7/11 and not have Mark remember it" - How the group likes to drink when they party
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partyrollpodcast.com
@ party_roll on twitter
https://www.patreon.com/partyrollpodcast
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Hey guys! It's me, the guy that write the recaps, often with spelling errors and formatting issues. Just a heads up that I'm taking a break from Recaps for the summer. Having two gigs going on, which means I don't even have the proper time to touch myself let alone keep up with recaps; OBAMA'S MURRICA.... anyways the good news is that I will be continuing into Season 3 but at a later time. Don't worry you sexy man beast Cory, you'll have your limelight soon enough! Season 3 recaps will start sometime in the Fall. I don't have an exact date, so may I suggest you start listening to Season 5, which might be wrapping up right around the time I get going again!
In the words of some Austrian American, who cheated on his wife...
"I'll be back"

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I am 18+ and all participants and characters must be 18+
Four ideas for anyone who is interested. I prefer first person.

1. The Island My character is a former navy seal and is in great shape. I'm 6'2, dark blonde hair, and light blue eyes. The two of us where on a flight and our plane crashed into the ocean. You and I both wash up on a island. I'm missing my shirt and pants and my boxers are ripped. Your clothes are basically rags at this point as well. We are beat up, basically naked, but we are alive and well need each other's help to survive. My plan here is also possibly romance but also the adventure of survival.
   
2. Downed Fighter Pilot You and your brother had taken over the family farm after your parents had passed away at a rather young age. But now the war had broken out and your brother was off to fight leaving you alone. Almost all the animals where gone and you lived a simple life. I was the best pilot we had and flew many missions but today I was trying to make it back to base in my damaged plane and unfortunately I couldn't. I crashed just outside of your house. I'm thinking this is set in France during WWII but I'm OK with talking about the setting.
   
3. The Circus is Coming to Town My father owned a small circus that toured all across North America. And of course I grew up in the circus and did just about every job. I learned to help train the animals, I worked as a clown and as a peanut and popcorn seller. My true skills proved to be as an illusionist, a magician. My father knew that the circus business was dieing but unfortunately he got sick and died a few years ago. I had been ting my best to keep the show going. It wasn't just for me but for all the performers, who have become my family. Your character has come hoping for a job, as your old circus closed down. You can decide what you are. An acrobat, high line walker, trappies artest, maybe a rare female clown? Anything you like. When you message me give me a little back story and we'll start with you coming asking for a job.
   
4. The Prince and the Lady The king had one son. However, that son, has been missing for years. The king knew that other forces where trying to over take the kingdom, by killing royal family and claiming the throne for themselves but with the uncrowned prince still being alive the throne has now set empty for 10 years. You're a young woman who is about to be married off to any noble your father chooses. This was normal and your family needs the status boost however a surprised just arrived. 13 black horses with black clad riders arrive as you prepare to meet your suitors. The man in the middle dismounts and everyone else steps aside and whispers "it's Prince Steven!" Could the prince really been looking for your hand? He is much younger then the other suitors but the royals have the right to inspect any young ladies they may marry. Where you ready for him to see all of you? Would he be kind enough to let the inspection happen in your chambers instead of in front of all these people?
   

If interested please kik me at love_merp and tell me which you like. Also let me know your kinks/limits and current time please.

(1) Las Vegas Aces (6-0) (-) The Aces had 2 games this week, winning both games by 5 and 4 points. It was an impressive week for the reigning champs in terms of how they won their games in comeback fashion. Jackie Young is averaging 22 PPG on 61% from the field and 53% from 3. A’ja Wilson is looking for another MVP as she is averaging 19 PPG and 8 RPG. Expect the Aces to be atop of this list all year as they continue to improve on the season! (🧣)
(2) New York Liberty (4-2) (-) It was an okay week for the Liberty as they went 2-1 on the week. They had an 8 point win over the Storm and split a 2 game set against the Sky. Breanna Stewart is putting on a show so far as she is putting up 24 PPG and 10 RPG on 51% from the field and 41% from 3. Expect Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones to get going here soon as they are off to slow starts. The Liberty also got back Marine Johannes back this week and she made an immediate impact. The Liberty have a lot of things to work on, but a 4-2 record 2 weeks into the season isn’t a killer! (🗽)
(3) Connecticut Sun (6-1) (+1 📈) The Sun continue their winning ways as they went 3-0 this week. They rank top 5 in both offensive and defensive rating. Alyssa Thomas is having an all WNBA season as she put up 3 double-doubles this week, including a near triple-double 3 different times. Tiffany Hayes has been a sharp shooter, as she is making 3 three’s a game on 41% shooting from deep. Brionna Jones has been a force inside, averaging a near double-double, and DeWanna Bonner continues to add on to her impressive HOF career, putting up 22 points in their last win against the Wings. The Sun have the perfect opportunity coming up next week to prove how good they really are, with a 2 game set against the Aces at home. I’ll be tuned into those games as that’ll be the highest powered set of games to start the season! (☀️)
(4) Chicago Sky (4-3) (-1 📉) The Sky have been dealing with multiple injuries to start the young season, but it hasn’t stopped them from competing. They went 1-2 this week, including a 2 game split with the Liberty with basically a 6-7 woman rotation. Their last win was impressive, as they came back from as many as 19 points, carried by Kahleah Copper, who put up 27 points and 7 rebounds. Alana Smith has been a huge spark for this team as she put up 9 PPG and 6 RPG this week. Not to mention, their 2 newly inquired pieces have been huge contributions. Marina Mabrey is averaging 14 PPG and 4 APG, while Courtney Williams is averaging 9 PPG, 5 APG, and 8 RPG, on 40% from 3. The Sky will be a tough playoff team if they get all their pieces back from injury. Look out for this team! (🌃)
(5) Los Angeles Sparks (3-2) (+1 📈) The Sparks have been a fun team to follow to start this young season, as they went 2-1 this week. Lexie Brown is breaking out in front of the WNBA community, as she averaged 20 PPG on 53/41/100 shooting splits in her last 2 games. Nneka Ogwumike is continuing her strong force as she put up big numbers this week, averaging 21/10/3 on 59% from the field. The sparks are doing all of this without veteran PG, Jasmine Thomas, and C, Azura Stevens, but Jordin Canada, Zia Cooke, Chimey Ogwumike, Layisha Clarendon, and Karlie Samuelson have been the best set of role players to start the season. This Sparks team is fun and I would love to see them make a run at a top 4 seed for the playoffs! (🎆)
(6) Washington Mystics (3-3) (-1 📉) The Mystics had an iffy week, going 1-1, including giving the Lynx their first win of the season at home. This team is 2nd to last in scoring and last in shooting from the field and from the 3. They just don’t have early season shooting to space the floor for EDD when she has the ball down low. Despite all of that, EDD did put up 17 PPG and 8 RPG this week. Breakout star, Shakira Austin, had a double-double in both games this week, as she’s had a double-double in 4 game already to start the young season. Ariel Atkins put up 17 PPG on 50% from 3 this week, as she showed signs lifting the offense up this week. I would love to see the Mystics get back into form, but the offensive side needs to improve to back up their 2nd ranked defensive rating! (🧙)

Okay so I know Bobby suffers with mental health problems and went to prison for killing his own sister however he is probably the most normal Beale child on Albert Square. Lucy is obviously dead but was quite horrible to her family and her friends, she was the golden child in Ian’s eyes yet she was probably the most disrespectful to others. Prime example is Lauren’s alcoholism storyline she would spike Lauren’s drinks which didn’t help to her addiction. Steven was also a weird one he shot Jane in the womb and was faulty the reason why she couldn’t have children and he manipulated Lauren into staying in a relationship with him by lying to her he had a brain tumour and putting holes in condoms so she could get pregnant. Peter was actually an okay character but once they replaced him after Ben Hardy’s actor they changed the character to be a cold asshole who would treat people like garbage and he even left Walford on bad terms so he’s not exactly liked at this point. Bobby has actually been a lot less of a freak show character since Ian left he has friends like Freddie, he has a close relationship with his Nan (Kathy) and her boyfriend (Rocky) and he even surprisingly had a girlfriend (Dana) and I know it didn’t work out but it lasted way longer than I thought so honestly Bobby has a lot more going for him and he seems to be a lot more liked than the other children including Ian himself.
Side rant Jane deserved better I thought she was a great character

Main hub thread with the full 131 rankings
Located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa has the smallest enrollment of any FBS school with just 2,728 undergraduate students according to USNews. That’s only slightly more than my high school.
They’ve managed to do very well for themselves though, as they escaped the bottom 50 on this list and are even a top 20 Group of 5 program on here. I’m not sure where all the fans come from, but they had an average attendance of ~20,000 fans per game in 2022, about 5x the size of their total enrollment.

Best Seasons and Highlights

1. 1991: 23. Tulsa: 10-2 (18.820) 2. 2008: 24. Tulsa: 11-3 (16.926) 3. 2010: 26. Tulsa: 10-3 (14.938) 4. 2012: 29. Tulsa: 11-3 (13.544) 5. 2016: 40. Tulsa: 10-3 (10.747) 6. 2007: 35. Tulsa: 10-4 (10.575) 7. 2005: 28. Tulsa: 9-4 (6.470) 8. 2020: 40. Tulsa: 6-3 (4.034) 9. 2011: 42. Tulsa: 8-5 (2.617) 10. 1983: 41. Tulsa: 8-3 (2.096) 11. 1986: 42. Tulsa: 7-4 (-1.907) 12. 2006: 52. Tulsa: 8-5 (-3.768) 13. 2003: 56. Tulsa: 8-5 (-4.363) 14. 2021: 67. Tulsa: 7-6 (-8.867) 15. 1985: 50. Tulsa: 6-5 (-11.078) 16. 1984: 61. Tulsa: 6-5 (-11.874) 17. 1989: 64. Tulsa: 6-6 (-14.350) 18. 1993: 70. Tulsa: 4-6-1 (-20.851) 19. 2015: 85. Tulsa: 6-7 (-22.027) 20. 1988: 72. Tulsa: 4-7 (-22.514) 21. 2019: 90. Tulsa: 4-8 (-22.884) 22. 1996: 79. Tulsa: 4-7 (-25.149) 23. 1998: 75. Tulsa: 4-7 (-25.652) 24. 2022: 104. Tulsa: 5-7 (-26.305) 25. 1992: 85. Tulsa: 4-7 (-26.448) 26. 2009: 89. Tulsa: 5-7 (-26.613) 27. 1995: 81. Tulsa: 4-7 (-30.173) 28. 2000: 87. Tulsa: 5-7 (-30.235) 29. 2004: 89. Tulsa: 4-8 (-32.531) 30. 1987: 94. Tulsa: 3-8 (-39.934) 31. 1990: 92. Tulsa: 3-8 (-41.264) 32. 1994: 89. Tulsa: 3-8 (-41.600) 33. 2018: 111. Tulsa: 3-9 (-42.818) 34. 2013: 105. Tulsa: 3-9 (-42.856) 35. 1997: 101. Tulsa: 2-9 (-47.730) 36. 2017: 117. Tulsa: 2-11 (-49.598) 37. 1999: 108. Tulsa: 2-9 (-52.102) 38. 2014: 122. Tulsa: 2-10 (-53.572) 39. 2002: 115. Tulsa: 1-11 (-62.260) 40. 2001: 115. Tulsa: 1-10 (-62.933) Overall Score: 10413 (81st) 

• 219-256-1 record
• 5 conference titles
• 8-6 bowl record
• 2 consensus All-Americans
• 33 NFL players drafted

Tulsa has 6 double-digit win seasons in the last 32 years, with 5 in the last 15. That success, despite 11 seasons with 3 or less wins, puts them all the way up to #81 on the list. Their 8 bowl wins is the most of any team so far, and 5 conference titles is up there as well. If we look at total history, Tulsa’s actually had major historical success, winning 35 conference titles with a 643-526-28 all-time record. All-time draft greats include NFL Hall of Fame WRs Steven Largent and Drew Pearson (undrafted), and QB Gus Frerotte. Consensus AAs were OL Jerry Ostroski in 1991 and LB Zaven Collins in 2020. Zaven was a freak athlete at 6’5 260 lbs, racking up 4 sacks, 4 TFL, 4 INTs, and 2 defensive TDs in just 8 games. He ranked 2nd in the nation in interception return yards, as a LB, in just 8 games!

Top 5 Seasons

Worst Season: 2001 (1-10 overall, 0-8 WAC)
The good news? They beat Indiana State 51-0 in the opener. The bad news? That was their last win for the next 17 games. Tulsa continued their decade-long struggle, having not had a winning season in 10 years. All losses were by 10+ points, including 10-26 to 2-9 UTEP and 27-63 to 3-9 San Jose State in front of a San Jose crowd of just 6,873. To add insult to injury, Tulsa got little brother’d hard by #3 Oklahoma toward the end of the season, losing 0-58 in Norman. The game was available on PPV, which I hope no Tulsa fan paid for. QBs Josh Blankenship and Tyler Gooch split snaps, with Blankenship having the slightly higher passer rating and Gooch being the better runner. Blankenship’s dad, Bill Blankenship, would go on to become Tulsa’s head coach from 2011-14. Gooch took over full time in 2002 and had a much better season than either of them did in 2001, throwing 17 TD to 8 INT. There weren’t many other great players on the roster. OT Kevin Shaffer was drafted in the 7th round after the season and went on to start 93 games for the Falcons/Browns/Bears.
5. 2016 (10-3 overall, 6-2 American)
2016 Tulsa scored on everyone, and let everyone score on them. The offense was RIDICULOUS. Outside of a 3-48 loss to Ohio State (I guess they didn’t score on everyone), they averaged 45.8 PPG, best in the country in 2016. They became the first team in NCAA history to have a 3000+ yard passer, two 1000+ yard rushers, and two 1000+ yard receivers. QB Dane Evans threw for 3348 yards 32 TD 12 INT in his senior season, finishing as Tulsa’s all-time leading passer with 11,680 yards and 84 TD, and between Russell Wilson and Geno Smith as the 39th all-time leading passer in the NCAA. RB D’Angelo Brewer ran for 1435 yards and 7 TD on 5.4 YPC, while RB James Flanders went for 1629 yards and 18 TD on 6.3 YPC. The top receivers were Keevan Lucas (81 catches for 1180 yards and 15 TD) and Joshua Atkinson (78 catches for 1058 yards and 8 TD). Even 4 out of 5 offensive linemen made 1st/2nd team all-conference! Nobody made it on the defensive side, as they gave up 29.8 PPG as a team.
4. 2012 (11-3 overall, 7-1 Conference USA)
After failing to produce a conference championship team with talented 3-year starting QB GJ Kinne, they did it immediately in 2012 with the less productive but steady QB Cody Green. After an opening 23-38 loss to Iowa State, they went on a 7 game win streak with wins over bowl teams Fresno State and Rice. They had a chance to catch a reeling John L Smith-led Arkansas team to get to 8-1 and become ranked, but couldn’t score in the 4th to fall 15-19. After a 41-7 win over Houston, 2 weeks later OT Brian DeShane proposed to his girlfriend before the UCF game, and the team was so inspired they fought to a 23-21 win. A loss to SMU in the final week of the regular season was meaningless for championship aspirations, as Tulsa had already clinched a spot in the C-USA title game. Up against UCF in a rematch, Tulsa tied the game 27-27 on a 54 yard punt return for TD with just 5:04 left, and won 33-27 on a walkoff rushing TD in OT, claiming their first conference title since 2005. They outdid themselves in the bowl, avenging a season-opening loss to Iowa State, this time scoring 24 straight to win 31-17.
Green was steady, with 2592 passing yards and 17 TD 11 INT. The main offense came from the run game, which you might have to double take reading these stats. Alex Singleton, the 6’0 265 lb power back, ran for 800 yards and 24(!!) TD on just 4.0 YPC. Trey Watts, who weighed 75 pounds less, ran for 1108 yards and just 3 TD on 6.0 YPC. The third option was Ja’Terian Douglas, who had 936 rushing yards and 7 TD on a team-high 6.8 YPC. Hilariously, Singleton and Douglas either didn’t want to catch passes or couldn’t, combining for 4 catches for 17 yards. Watts had 34 for 343. WR Keyarris Garrett led the team with 845 receiving yards, and after an up-and-down career, would go on to lead the NCAA in receiving yards 3 years later with 1588. On defense, DL Jared St. John led C-USA with 11.5 sacks, and Deaundre Brown was 3rd in the conference with 17 total TFL.
3. 2010 (10-3 overall, 6-2 Conference USA)
Todd Graham produced some damn good offenses at Tulsa. This was his 3rd season in 4 years averaging 40+ PPG, ranking 6th in the country with 41.4. GJ Kinne, the current Texas State coach, had a great year in his 2nd season as a starter, earning 1st Team All-CUSA with 3650 passing yards 31 TD 10 INT, and leading the team in rushing with 561 yards with 7 TD. An opening loss to East Carolina was heartbreaking, the Hurricanes up 49-45 with seconds left, decided to call a timeout to defend a hail mary…? It backfired, as East Carolina drew up a play and scored to walk off 51-49. A few weeks later they were 3-3, with a disappointing 1-2 conference record. Hoping to compete for the C-USA title, they were now 2 games behind SMU and didn’t hold the tiebreaker. Still, Tulsa continued to fight. In South Bend facing first year head coach Brian Kelly and Notre Dame, Tulsa somehow held a 28-27 lead in the 4th quarter. Irish QB Tommy Rees drove to the Tulsa 20 in position for a game winning FG, but threw an interception in the end zone to seal a Tulsa win. That’d be a momentum shifter, winning out the rest of the year with wins over 6-5 UTEP, 8-3 Southern Miss, and #24 Hawaii in the bowl 62-35. The Canes took Hawaii’s #24 spot in the final AP Poll.
2. 2008 (11-3 overall, 7-1 Conference USA)
Tulsa’s had some really good offenses. But 2008 was on another level. It seemed like every offense in Oklahoma was going nuclear in 2008, as OU led the nation in PPG, Tulsa finished 2nd, and Oklahoma State 9th. This team averaged a whopping 47.2 PPG, good for 1st overall most years. Similar to the GJ Kinne → Cody Green transition, Tulsa lost all-time leading passer Paul Smith only to become even better as a team with new QB David Johnson. The difference this time though, was Johnson was MUCH better than Green, so there was no dropoff from Smith → Johnson.
Armed with HC Todd Graham and OC Gus Malzahn, Tulsa’s offense was the best in the country through 8 games, going 8-0 averaging 55.6(!!!) PPG. #19 Tulsa went to Arkansas with the BCS in their sights, but the offense fell flat in the 2nd half, scoring just 3 points in a 23-30 loss, ending any BCS bowl hopes. After winning 2 of the last 3 games, Tulsa entered the C-USA championship game at 10-2 facing 8-4 East Carolina. 7(!!!) turnovers from Tulsa ensured a loss, but they did all they could, losing 24-27. Johnson had his worst game of the season by far with 1 TD 5 INT. The year did end on a high, with a 45-13 thrashing of #23 Ball State.
David Johnson ranked 2nd in the nation in passer rating, throwing for 4059 yards 46 TD 18 INT with 10.1 YPA. RB Tarrion Adams ran for 1500+ yards and 14 TD, while WR Brennan Marion went for 1112 receiving yards on just 43 catches, for 25.9 yards per catch, leading the nation for the 2nd straight year. The previous year Marrion was even better, getting 39 catches for 1244 yards and 11 TD for an ABSURD 31.9 yards per catch, setting the NCAA record. He also holds the career record with 28.7 yards per catch.
1. 1991 (10-2 overall, Independent)
This would be Tulsa’s last great season for over a decade. In the early 1990’s, Tulsa dropped health/PE as a major, which over 50% of football players had. This made it hard to attract recruits to an already selective school, and an aging Skelly Stadium, down to its bones, also made it tough to get recruits to sign. Skelly Field is still going strong after 93 years today. But back to 1991—Tulsa was LEGIT. In week 2, Tulsa beat in-state foe Oklahoma State 13-7. After a 17-23 loss to Kansas, Tulsa hosted #15 Texas A&M in front of 30,000 fans. Down 28-10 at halftime, Tulsa rallied back with a late TD to win it 35-34 for their biggest win in over 20 years. They even went toe-to-toe with the national champions that year, Miami (FL), falling 10-34. Afterwards Tulsa was perfect, beating Louisville 40-0, and San Diego State in the bowl 28-17, finishing 10-2 overall with a #21 final ranking. This team turned out to be pretty stacked for such a small school, with 7 NFL Draft selections over the next 3 years, including 2nd round LB and 10-year Detroit Lion Tracy Scroggins, and QB Gus Frerotte. Frerotte was just a backup in ‘91, to starter TJ Rubley. Rubley finished his senior season as Tulsa’s all time leading passer. He was a 3rd string QB for the Packers in 1995, and audibled out of a QB sneak in a 24-24 game with Minnesota to try and throw a pass, only to throw an interception and lose 27-24. He was cut after the game by Mike Holmgren and never played in the NFL again.

5th Quarter

Why has Tulsa been so successful even with such a small enrollment? Do you agree with them being this high? Who was the best QB out of Paul Smith, David Johnson, GJ Kinne, and Dane Evans? Who’s been the best Tulsa player overall in the past 10-20 years? Is it Zaven Collins or someone else?
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I’ve been trying to get more into reading again at the moment, and I was mostly sticking to literary fiction, or philosophy books, but I recently came to the realisation that I’ve really only read the most mainstream of the mainstream of fantasy and sci fi and stuff like that, basically if it doesn’t have a multimillion dollar film/tv adaptation, I probably haven’t read it.
I have been doing a lot of research on it, and I’ve already found a whole bunch that seem to get recommended here all the time, all the Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, John Gwynne, Steven Erikison, Robert Jordan, Robin Hobb, ect. And they all sounded really good, and I plan on reading all them at some point, but there’s a lot to choose from there, and so before I picked one, I wanted to ask for a very specific type of recommendation so I could sort of cross reference it with my current list, and maybe even get some suggestions that aren’t the really common ones that always come up on here.
Basically, I was just trying to think of what really satisfies me in a good story, and I think it’s good characters I want to see more of, coupled with big climactic arcs that bring them together in meaningful and impactful ways. I’m thinking of stuff like the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, or the endings of games like Dragon Age: Origins, where you and all your companions, and the armies you’ve spent the whole game amassing, are making your final stand as the city burns around you, or in Mass Effect 2, where you launch the suicide mission with all the crew members you’ve spent the whole game amassing and learning about, applying that knowledge to assign the right roles to the right people in the desperate hopes of getting everyone out alive despite how unlikely the characters feel it is that any of them will survive.
There’s more examples, and these ones are also by no means perfect in terms of writing, but every time I experience them, those arcs never fail to feel climactic to me, like witnessing the culmination of everything the story has been building towards, and seeing characters you’ve grown to know as friends charging side by side into one last epic battle, putting everything they’ve learned to use, and fighting like hell to avoid everything they’ve struggled through be for nothing. Those are always the moments that really resonate with me, and that stick with the longest, so I’d love to find books that achieve that same thing.

I’ve been trying to get more into reading again at the moment, and I was mostly sticking to literary fiction, or philosophy books, but I recently came to the realisation that I’ve really only read the most mainstream of the mainstream of fantasy and sci fi and stuff like that, basically if it doesn’t have a multimillion dollar film/tv adaptation, I probably haven’t read it.
I have been doing a lot of research on it, and I’ve already found a whole bunch that seem to get recommended here all the time, all the Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, John Gwynne, Steven Erikison, Robert Jordan, Robin Hobb, ect. And they all sounded really good, and I plan on reading all them at some point, but there’s a lot to choose from there, and so before I picked one, I wanted to ask for a very specific type of recommendation so I could sort of cross reference it with my current list, and maybe even get some suggestions that aren’t the really common ones that always come up on here.
Basically, I was just trying to think of what really satisfies me in a good story, and I think it’s good characters I want to see more of, coupled with big climactic arcs that bring them together in meaningful and impactful ways. I’m thinking of stuff like the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, or the endings of games like Dragon Age: Origins, where you and all your companions, and the armies you’ve spent the whole game amassing, are making your final stand as the city burns around you, or in Mass Effect 2, where you launch the suicide mission with all the crew members you’ve spent the whole game amassing and learning about, applying that knowledge to assign the right roles to the right people in the desperate hopes of getting everyone out alive despite how unlikely the characters feel it is that any of them will survive.
There’s more examples, and these ones are also by no means perfect in terms of writing, but every time I experience them, those arcs never fail to feel climactic to me, like witnessing the culmination of everything the story has been building towards, and seeing characters you’ve grown to know as friends charging side by side into one last epic battle, putting everything they’ve learned to use, and fighting like hell to avoid everything they’ve struggled through be for nothing. Those are always the moments that really resonate with me, and that stick with the longest, so I’d love to find books that achieve that same thing.

"New Zealand Government releases proposal to set up Ministry of Truth" https://expose-news.com/2023/06/04/new-zealand-government-set-up-ministry-of-truth/
The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has released a consultation document containing proposed changes to censorship procedures. Read a sobering commentary by the Free Speech Union HERE.
The proposals include the appointment of a chief regulator who will be empowered to decide whether online content – including social media posts – is “harmful.” To do so, he will be empowered to make up his own “guidelines” without the input of parliament. The proposals will also allow fines exceeding NZ$200,000 to be levied on those who don’t comply with his ideas.

What Exactly Will the Regulator’s Draconian Powers Replace?

• Well of course free speech – the right to speak your mind – will be off the table. In other words, the ordinary process of discourse will be muted by the fear of arbitrary punishment.
• This will supersede the NZ Bill of Rights, which was designed to guarantee our freedom of thought, conscience, expression, and religion.
• The proposals will compromise the right to remain innocent until proven guilty. In other words, a person we have never met in a remote bureaucratic office can pronounce us guilty and silence us, regardless of circumstances and truth. It will be the rule of little minds.
• It will replace the process of science and the gathering of evidence with the vagaries of uninformed opinion.
• It will remove our right to cross-examine any accusers.
• It will replace the rule of specific laws passed by an elected parliament after due discussion, which set out the limits to behaviour in writing, with the capricious decisions of an individual subject to all the usual individual failings including vulnerability to influence, money, power, and mistaken ideas.

These are all principles which have underpinned our way of life for centuries. The proposed censorship threatens to take us back to the Middle Ages when you could find out whether the wise woman village herbalist was a witch or not by asking your local misogynist wizard.
This proposed legislation has all the hallmarks of a parliament intent on extending its powers, preserving its majority, protecting itself from criticism, and isolating itself from ordinary people. A parliament that has miserably failed to keep up with covid science publishing, instead persisting with slogan politics, under a leader who struggles to define a biological woman.

So Where Did This Madness Originate?

For the last hundred years, it has not escaped insightful social commentators that at some point humankind would become subject to ruthless power and nameless technology. Visionaries include film director Fritz Lang, writers Franz Kafka, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and many others since. Frank Herbert writing in 1965 wrote in Dune:
“Men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted the men with machines to enslave them”
In the prehistory of Dune’s fictional world, a war driven by technology led to a revolution and the creation of a new generation of schools which trained human minds to fully develop. This is not without very real lessons for us today. The widespread use of computers in schools and businesses has trained the whole population to accept the word of computers controlled by invisible hands with suspect motives.

Even the Most Sophisticated Computers Cannot Sort Right from Wrong

We all laughed readily at the TV parody in Little Britain “the computer says no”, little realising how deep the authority of computers was establishing itself in our daily lives.
Education has historically been fundamentally a person-to-person process with opportunities to ask questions. We all remember that one teacher who resonated more than the others. The replacement of many functions of teachers with computers has impoverished education. It has trained us to accept and learn a rote answer. It has taught us that if we disagree with the official answer, we are always wrong.
Fundamentally, the educational process has diverged from the ordinary process of thinking. Computers have important limitations. They are based on binary architecture – Yes or No, Right or Wrong. Human thinking allows for a nuanced middle way, computers struggle to do so.
In fact, real physical processes evolve in a virtual abstract Hilbert space of all possible paths. Physical law is constantly calculating a path of least action and it is capable of entertaining multiple possibilities and postponing any decision affecting an impending event until the last possible moment. Nature thinks like we actually do – it explores before deciding, it remembers the past, it entertains immutable truths and it can create. No computer can think originally like that, it is controlled by inputs and limited by its binary construction.
In fact, computers can be trained to lie, and it is happening all around us today. A lawyer at a New York law firm has admitted using ChatGPT to source relevant prior court decisions which bolstered his case. The court discovered they were bogus, just imaginative creations of a form of artificial intelligence programmed to try to please.

Regulation is Already in the Hands of Manipulated Computers

Any regulator, empowered to decide what is right or wrong in the modern era, will ultimately rely on the advice of computers programmed, as Frank Herbert suggested, by people who wish to enslave the world. Government offices are plumbed into international networks and databases providing ready-made content, opinions, and decisions. Networks funded by mega corporations or political power bases with suspect motivations guided by profit and foreign ideology.
The spectacle of Kiri Allan, Minister of Justice, reading the wrong speech to a nodding Parliament this week says it all. She was supposed to be speaking in support of the third reading of the Freedom Camping Bill, instead, she read from a speech in support of the second reading of the Self-Contained Motor Vehicles bill. Only two opposition MPs noticed the error. Minister Allan was oblivious. Her eventual excuse given to the NZ Herald: “I was handed the wrong speech.”
It is not too far a stretch to realise that the New Zealand Parliament has been handed covid policy to enact without question, sleepwalking the country to economic ruin, social polarisation, and record levels of hospitalisation and excess deaths.
Last week, the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) released a scientific paper warning that covid vaccines could play a role in the development of multiple sclerosis (watch a detailed report HERE). So, this is from WHO, one of the world’s most pro-vaccine organisations, but still, the computerised fact checkers immediately screamed “false” – they had been pre-programmed to negate any doubts about covid vaccine safety.
This is the kind of programmable world in which politicians feel comfortable. A world in which opinion is regulated and inconvenient truth is cancelled at will. Timothy Snyder’s book ‘On Tyranny’ expresses it very well:

To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticise power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

The dangers are not minor, Heinrich Heine writing exactly 200 years ago in his book ‘In Der Fremde – in a foreign land’, presciently wrote:

Where they have burned books, they will end up burning human beings.

Parliament now wishes to legislate for the control of New Zealand’s voice, our voice. They are pressing the mute button. Where that ultimately leads and where we are all eventually left will doubtless be an inhospitable landscape.
https://expose-news.com/2023/06/04/new-zealand-government-set-up-ministry-of-truth/

This season was awesome!!!
I understand that the toxicity within the red team (cough cough ELISE) can make the season hard to watch for some people, but the dynamic within the blue team was a fantastic contrast for me.
Like the blue team isn’t really any better than the red team competitively speaking (blue winning 7 challenges + 3 services vs red winning 5 challenges + 5 services for a grand total of 10 wins for each team, making the win count surprisingly even), but they were a lot more fun to watch. That team may have started out a hot mess with the likes of Steven, Brendan, and especially Chino; but I gotta say Natalie totally belonged on that blue team. I mean, the Three Stooges in Paul, Will, and Tommy (often ft Natalie) is a legendary group — especially during a punishment or reward — and while it did feel weird seeing Tommy in a black jacket given his performance, I’m not complaining whatsoever.
Now for the big talking point of the season: Elise. She was obnoxious on many occasions, but she clearly had talent that we see many times throughout the season. Also, she was freaking hilarious! It is worth mentioning that the infamous feud between her and Carrie essentially, dare I say, carried the latter to 8th place given the generally awful cooking skills we saw from her.
As for the finalists, Paul and his awesome growth arc made for an amazing rivalry between him and his bromance Will, who showed incredible consistency that sadly did not translate to his finale.
This might be a hot take, but I think Season 9 is a top 5 season. You’ve got the red team’s drama contrasting with the blue team’s chaotic good energy that just work in absolute harmony, the wild services, drama that feels real but not in a particularly disgusting way (looking at you, Season 10), and of course Paul popping off for his win.
Also, “I am zen. You cannot penetrate me.” My friend and I were laughing our asses off (istg I was laughing for about 2 minutes straight after hearing that quote) to that quote and others that are hilarious out of context.