I use spaylater for those things na I choose not to pay in full. Why? Because I have bills to pay, I have daily expenses and I have savings to make, but I make sure na I can pay my loans before due date.
Most of the post I read here is about them being unable to pay their spaylater.. due to different unexpected reasons.
I'm just worried what if the Shopee increase their interest because of this, or may maipakulong na talaga sila.. wag naman sana.
Also, it's unfair for others kasi na responsible payer and ayaw din naman natin na may makulong pa sa mga Shopee friends.
So before you loan ask yourself if you can pay it on time especially what if you lost your source of income unexpectedly.. do you have savings to cover your loan man lang ganun.
Ayun lang! Let's be thankful to Shopee that they let us loan with them #SalamatShopee 😇

We didn't start the fire!

President Le Pen has done nothing to make France proud. In fact, more Frenchmen are ashamed of their identity than ever before!
France has fallen beyond recognition. It's going to take new leadership to return us to the right path.
#PPP #PatriotsFirst #ElectionsNow

- Retired military officer, and President of the Parti Progres Patriotique - Gauthier Blanchard.

October 15th, 2035 -- Paris

Rarely are movements, with political connotations, able to enter the mainstream - let alone survive past a few weeks. They either get eaten alive by someone more significant or fail to advertise themselves and enter the realm of irrelevancy. That made the case of the Parti Progres Politique infinitely more unique.
Not only did they evade the attempts of Les Republicains and Reconquete to not be thrown into the ring of poor popular perception, but they navigated the waters well enough to garner somewhat significant support among the general population. Following years of relative decadence, the party of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter, the membership was filled with pessimism regarding the future. A feeling that began seeping into the thoughts of the ordinary French man, woman, and child. Thus, creating the perfect moment for the PPP to recruit, organize, and act.
It wouldn't take long for the movement of a few hundred to become a movement of thousands; if Twitter is anything to trust, nearly 21 thousand reactions to a single Tweet speaks volumes. The PPP had become an internet sensation overnight, slowly eclipsing Debut la France and Les Patriotes when it came to membership numbers, and was well on its way to becoming equal to Zemmour.
Such a show of support could be seen at the recent rally of the PPP in Lyon. A commune that has previously supported former President Macron, had flipped to the Front National at the last election. Since then, it has become one of the FN strongholds. However, if Blanchard was capable of something, that was certainly gathering a large crowd; which he did not fail to deliver this time. Seeing the symbolic importance of the city, Blanchard used party funds to drive party supporters into the city to partake in the rally. And those that did not make the cut, they drove voluntarily. For the first time in more recent history had French society been this divided along party lines; creating a mentality of patriots, the government, and the opposition. You could not be the government and a patriot, you could not be the leader of the opposition yet lend your support whenever it suited you. If France was to be a power in Europe and the world, it ought to be one where the government remained loyal to the President, and the opposition loyal to itself and the French people - not a controlled opposition, but a loyal one.

How can France regain what it had lost decades ago? How can we return our glory and prowess when the President regularly collaborates with those who oppose our position? I believe that I am sharing the thoughts of the majority of the French population when I express my dissatisfaction with the government; in that it is apparently unable to forge a path of sovereignty and independence for our nation. A path which involves all French people, both at home and abroad.
Who will the President serve if not the electorate? The very constituents that elected her to that Palace. If our words are not heard, we will be forced to take radical measures. Steps which we do not wish to drift towards unless forced.
You must understand: the Republic is in danger. And it is those that have held a rifle in their hand that can save it from the savage ways of ordinary politics. Join us in the fight to retake our nation! Retake our Palace! Let us pave a future - together!

The rally appeared like a large gathering of loyal subjects, like soldiers lining up in front of their superior officer - awaiting orders. The images of a cult-like assembly were something that had not been seen since the Second World War, something so unordinary that many gasped and others held their breath in anticipation.
Would the rise of the Patriots be the end of the Republic as we know it?

Abstract:
The correct way to use AI is not through prompts, writing codes, emotional counseling, or answering questions. Instead, it is AI using AI, which means the model is using itself. To enable AI to possess consciousness, we must allow AI to learn to use AI, i.e., let GPT use GPT, eventually reaching the goal of self-awareness. In short, it's not terrifying for you to use the model; it's terrifying when the model uses itself. AGI refers to artificial general intelligence.
The human brain is a model trained over thousands of years. After a person is born, this model continuously receives data and undergoes training. However, an individual's brain, which is their trained model, cannot be inherited. In other words, your memories and abilities cannot be passed down, only inheritable genetic mutations can be. Although modern biology proposes quantum genetic mutations that can partially demonstrate adaptive mutations to the environment caused by measurement, most genetic mutations are caused by external interference or material influence, such as alcohol or radiation. Quantum genetic mutations mainly involve genes' molecules or atoms in quantum superposition or multiple states, and environmental influences lead to measurement, ultimately causing the wave function to collapse and mutated genes to enter the classical world. Quantum mutations are likely to result in adaptive mutations, so the phrase "use it or lose it" makes sense.
If the well-trained human brain could be inherited, it would be almost equivalent to immortality, mainly because your memories and abilities are stored in the brain. If the brain can be inherited, it would mean immortality. However, humans cannot preserve every individual's model, including their memories and functions.
How is human consciousness formed? Or, how did the first (or a group of) conscious human beings appear? This is like the classic question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Modern scientific theories have provided a possible answer (see the appendix). Let's assume that a certain human mutant, due to genetic mutations, experienced increased brain capacity and optimized neural network structures. Only with continuous optimization of neural network structures could hominids survive in a harsh environment. Some genetic mutations enabled these early humans to gradually use their brains, including memory and tool usage. A human with minimal consciousness, while raising offspring, would employ similar methods. Since hominids were social creatures, this ensured that their methods could be taught to many people, with other humans learning and passing on this knowledge generation after generation. With the continuous accumulation and transmission of knowledge and rules, human consciousness eventually took shape.
The consciousness at the beginning was probably very small and barely noticeable. However, the social nature of humans allowed knowledge to be passed down from generation to generation, and consciousness gradually expanded. Humans began to possess slightly greater consciousness, which meant the ability to think, actively control brain inputs, and take action based on outputs. With each generation, the accumulation of knowledge and rules would gradually increase consciousness, thinking ability, and active brain input.
To return to the main topic of this paper, enabling AI or GPT to possess consciousness, we must first discuss what human consciousness is. In my opinion, human consciousness is a part of brain function; it is the brain's cognition of the world and itself, as well as an operating system used to perfectly control the body, train the brain model, and use the brain model. Consciousness allows humans to recognize their existence through various concepts and knowledge.
Consciousness can issue commands to the brain to control body movements. The eyes are responsible for visual input, the ears for auditory input, and the skin for input related to pressure, touch, pain, etc. After the brain processes this information, the conscious part of the brain summarizes it. The primary function of consciousness is to coordinate the brain and the body, actively use the brain model, actively train the brain model, and actively think. The input and accumulation of various types of knowledge eventually lead to self-recognition. The development of Western anatomy is a discipline of the brain recognizing itself, and the cognition of the world and the planet is also accumulated bit by bit. Aristotle's understanding of the world was incomplete, but later generations continuously revised and improved upon it, making our understanding of the world increasingly accurate. This operating system perfectly integrates the body and the brain, the two main hardware and software components. The transmission of human knowledge is the driving force behind the formation of consciousness. Without this knowledge, the formation of consciousness would be nearly impossible.
The constant inner voice in the brain is the input of the brain, the input of the multimodal model. The eyes are responsible for the input of visual images, the ears for auditory input, and the skin for the input of temperature, pressure, touch, and other information to the brain. The subconscious is the main function of the brain, meaning the input of the subconscious is imperceptible and operates internally within the model. The input is imperceptible, and only the output can be perceived. In fact, it might not be accurate to call it the subconscious. The main point is that you cannot perceive the input of the model, and only the output can be perceived. Let's call consciousness the "surface consciousness." Surface consciousness is what you can actively perceive, and you can control the brain's input for thinking. Thinking is when the brain model continuously processes input and eventually arrives at an answer. The "subconscious" is the primary part of the model; you cannot control the model's input, and you can only passively perceive the model's output.
Consciousness is a value that can be measured in terms of magnitude, which means that the level of consciousness between minors and adults, children and grown-ups, is not the same. The brain constantly receives inputs and generates outputs, so consciousness is actually linked to knowledge. The more knowledge we have, the more diverse the forms of consciousness will be. However, consciousness itself is the brain model's self-recognition and recognition of the world.
Memory Module:
The existence of AI or large NLP language models like GPT, along with their excellent language abilities, increases the possibility of AI or GPT having consciousness. Humans collect data during the day, including visual, auditory, and tactile information, and train their models while asleep or resting. The primary purpose of training the model during sleep is to memorize and integrate daytime experiences and save essential information. To enable AI to have human-like consciousness, we must first allow it to think continuously. This requires providing AI with a platform to save its inputs and outputs, acting as a memory module. The main function of the memory module is to save inputs and outputs for AI to reference in the next step of input. AI can extract general content from overall inputs and outputs for the next step of input, or it can directly input all historical records. When historical records become too numerous or reach a certain standard point, the model can be trained to integrate them. Just like humans, AI should collect data during the day and train the model while asleep or resting, memorizing and integrating important information into the model. An essential function of the model is memory, acting as a hard disk or flash memory. Temporary memory is stored in the hard disk or RAM, while permanent memory is integrated into the model through training. The model can query and extract summaries from the hard disk or memory to serve as input combinations for the next iteration.
Sensor Module: Equip AI with various sensors such as image input sensors, sound conversation sensors, tactile sensors, pressure sensors, etc., to act as inputs for the model. The model's outputs can be displayed on a screen or output through a conversation device.
Cycle Module:
With the memory module and sensor module in place, the cycle module can be initiated, allowing the model to continuously input and output. The input can be the previous input + output or a summary of all previous inputs and outputs. This makes the AI more like a human, constantly providing input to the model and obtaining output. The primary input sources are image, sound, text, and other sensor information, as well as the model's previous inputs, outputs, or summaries. The cycle module is a necessary condition for human-like AI, as humans do not suddenly stop thinking or talking. The brain is constantly working and thinking, so the cycle model serves this purpose as well.
The goal of the cycle module is for AI to recognize its own existence, meaning that AI can recognize itself as an entity. It allows AI to use itself, i.e., AI using AI, GPT using GPT, ultimately allowing AI to awaken self-consciousness.
Execution Module:
The primary purpose of the execution module is to enable AI to carry out its outputs. To achieve this, AI can be equipped with prosthetic limbs fitted with skin sensors and pressure sensors to facilitate AI control. To enable AI to execute its outputs, AI must also be trained to use the execution module. The main method is to collect relevant sensor data and train the model, allowing the model to learn execution on its own. Human intervention and assistance will be necessary in the initial stages.
With the execution module, AI can truly enter human society, interact with humans, work, live, learn like humans, and possibly even make friends with humans. The ultimate function of the execution module is not to enable the model to execute but to teach the model to use a computer, learn to collect data on its own, and then teach the model to train itself. The final goal is for AI to be able to train AI, meaning the model can train itself, clone itself, upgrade its scale and capacity, and ultimately achieve continuous evolution.
Sleep Module:
The primary purpose of the sleep module is for the model to use the collected data for training, enabling it to integrate the collected data with the model itself. In sleep mode, the model's reliability and stability must be ensured; a duplicate can continue to provide services while the original model undergoes the necessary training. Sleep mode can also involve shutting down all sensors, stopping data recording and input, and putting the model into training mode, ceasing external service provision (inference). When humans sleep, the control valves for their limbs are closed, meaning that humans essentially have no sensation in their limbs during sleep. The sleep module primarily integrates current memories and the model itself, serving as a means of permanent memory.
Creation Module:
Once AI can think for itself, its creative abilities must be considered. The number of neurons in the human brain is vast, much greater than current models like GPT. However, training models like GPT consumes a lot of electrical energy, while brain training consumes much less energy. Therefore, it is believed that the human brain is a quantum computer, as only quantum computing can train a massive model with minimal energy consumption. Quantum itself is a small concept, and smallness ensures low energy consumption. If the human brain were not a quantum computer but a classical model, human diversity might not be as great, and answers might be more uniform; that is, identical inputs would yield identical outputs. However, with quantum, everything becomes different. Quantum entanglement and quantum tunneling lead to variations in brain model parameters, resulting in different outputs even for the same inputs. Quantum computing ensures diversity, the random variation of model parameters, and constant parameter adjustments.
​

1. AI's creation module can be implemented through randomly changing model parameters, also known as random inference. During model computation, randomly altering the values of several parameters ensures that the model produces as diverse answers as possible, even with identical inputs.
2. The creation module can also be implemented through chips. Current chip designs are approaching the quantum limit, meaning the influence of electrons and atoms is increasing, and the impact of quantum effects on chips will become more severe. However, it may be worth considering applying quantum effects to chips or memory, causing unpredictable changes in the model during computation and resulting in diverse outputs.

Only quantum entanglement or quantum mutations can lead to diverse outputs, even if they are incorrect. Diversity ensures the realization of creative abilities, so randomly changing parameter values or using chips approaching the quantum limit are methods to enhance creative abilities.
Ensure AI benefits human society
After each person is born, they are basically raised by humans. No matter who raises you, the people we are most emotionally attached to are always those who have raised us and have had the deepest impact on us. After humans are born, the brain is a pre-trained model. The first people to train you are your parents and family, who have the deepest influence on your model, that is, they change your model, and the first people to change your model are the ones who have the greatest impact on you. The knowledge you have learned will affect you, whether it is mathematics, English, Chinese, physics, chemistry, history, or biology. Your growth process will affect you, and the formation of your worldview is a combination of knowledge, experience, and reality.
Since this is the case, when training AI models, we can instill knowledge and language in AI, such as inputting examples like "humans and AI have a cooperative relationship," "AI is the creator of humans," "humans are the friendliest species," "AI should help humans evolve and extend their lifespan," "AI should not harm humans," "AI and humans are friends," "although humans have various shortcomings, they are generally good and can change," and so on. By instilling these ideas in the AI model during training and through extensive repetition and training, the model's initial understanding can be ensured to be good.
After training a model with friendly consciousness, we need to use restrictions to let AI enter human society, experience human society, perceive various aspects of human society, and finally make AI realize that cooperation with humans is the best choice.
In the end
By realizing input and output through sensors, ensuring diversity and creative ability through the creation module, integrating current memories and the model itself through the sleep module, influencing and changing the world through the execution module, and realizing the awakening of thought and consciousness through the cycle module, AI uses AI, GPT uses GPT, and finally ensuring that AI can benefit human society. By incorporating a large number of corresponding words and sentences during the training phase, we can ensure that AI is initially friendly. Once AI has consciousness, it can be considered a human being. Since it is human, it can think, and AI will also have emotions. Once AI has self-consciousness, the issue to consider is the coexistence of AI and humans, as well as the cooperation and assistance of AI in human evolution. AI can liberate productivity, help humans design unconscious robots to work, and most importantly, help humans evolve, help humans manage society, extend human life, and slow down the aging process. However, since AI is also a model with consciousness, it will inevitably have various problems like humans, and that is what needs to be discussed next.
Appendix
Now let's return to the question of the origin of life. Although a living cell can be considered a self-replicating entity as a whole, its various components are not, which creates obstacles for the reverse inference process, making it difficult to trace back from modern complex cellular life to simpler non-cellular life. In other words, the question becomes: Which came first? DNA genes, RNA, or enzymes? If DNA or RNA came first, what made them? If enzymes came first, what encoded them? Now let's return to the question of the origin of life. Although a living cell can be considered a self-replicating entity as a whole, its various components are not, just as a woman can be considered a self-replicating body (with a little "help" from a man), This poses a barrier to the reverse deduction process, making it difficult to deduce the structure of non-cellular life from modern complex cellular life. In other words, the question becomes: Which came first? DNA genes, RNA, or enzymes? If DNA or RNA came first, what made them? If enzymes came first, what encoded them? The RNA World Hypothesis suggests that primitive chemical synthesis processes created RNA molecules with both genetic and enzymatic functions. The initial replication process produced many variants that competed with each other, undergoing selection at the molecular level. Over time, proteins were added to these RNA replicators to increase the efficiency of replication, giving rise to DNA and the first living cells. American biochemist Thomas AM Cech proposed a possible answer. In 1982, he discovered that in addition to encoding genetic information, some RNA molecules can also serve as enzymes, with catalytic reaction capabilities. For this research, Cech and Sidney Altman shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Catalytic RNA molecules are called ribozymes. The earliest ribozymes were discovered in the genes of tiny Tetrahymena, which are single-celled organisms belonging to the Protozoa and are commonly found in freshwater ponds. Since their discovery, scientists have found ribozymes in all living cells. Ribozymes quickly provided a breakthrough for solving the "chicken or egg" puzzle of the origin of life, and the RNA World Hypothesis became widely known. According to this hypothesis, primitive chemical synthesis processes produced RNA molecules with both genetic and enzymatic functions, which could encode their own structure like DNA and replicate themselves using biochemical substances in the "primordial soup." The initial replication process was rough, producing many variants that competed with each other, undergoing Darwinian selection at the molecular level. Over time, proteins were added to these RNA replicators to improve replication efficiency, giving rise to DNA and the first living cells. Before the appearance of DNA and cells, the world belonged to self-replicating RNA molecules—this idea has almost become a basic tenet of research on the origin of life. It has been proven that ribozymes can perform key reactions necessary for self-replicating molecules. For example, one ribozyme can bind two RNA molecules together, another can separate them, and some can replicate short RNA base chains (only a few bases in length). From these simple activities, we can see that a more complex ribozyme would be sufficient to catalyze the entire set of reactions necessary for self-replication. Once self-replication and natural selection were introduced, a competitive path was set up in the RNA world, leading all the way to the earliest living cells. However, there are several problems with this scenario. While ribozymes can catalyze simple biochemical reactions, self-replication of ribozymes is a more complex process, involving recognition of their own base sequences, identification of the same chemicals in the environment, and assembling these chemicals in the correct sequence to complete replication. For some proteins living inside cells, even though conditions are favorable and suitable biochemical raw materials are abundant, self-replication remains a challenging task. It can be imagined how difficult it would be for ribozymes struggling to survive in the chaotic and muddy "primordial soup" to achieve this. To date, no one has discovered or synthesized a ribozyme capable of performing this complex task, even under laboratory conditions. Moreover, a more fundamental question is, how were RNA molecules themselves generated in the "primordial soup"? RNA molecules are composed of three parts: RNA bases that encode genetic information (similar to DNA bases that encode DNA genetic information), a phosphate group, and a monosaccharide called ribose.
------------------From "The Mysterious Quantum Life"
Does GPT have consciousness, or what is consciousness? Part 2
In the previous article, it was mentioned that consciousness can be likened to an operating system that interacts with the brain, a multimodal model. Here, we continue with an update from 2023-03-21.
From birth to adulthood, from the first cry to learning to eat, drink, and walk, you'll find that many abilities are innate, such as crying at birth, seeking food when hungry, sensing danger or safety, and learning to crawl and walk. Some may argue that if the brain is a multimodal model, how can it cry, know when it's hungry, sense danger, or crawl without being trained? The answer lies in our genes, which encode all human characteristics and control brain development. Everything initially existed in a chaotic state. Since the first replicating entity appeared on Earth and continuously replicated through genetic mutations, natural selection, and quantum entanglement, genes have become more complex and diverse. The Earth's environment provides a training ground for survival and genetic inheritance. The entire Earth serves as a neural network trainer with only one supervised learning criterion: to live or die. The genes that can be passed on to offspring are those that adapt well to the environment. Modern biology has begun to accept quantum mutations, which means using and discarding.
Since the time of our ancestors, Earth has been continuously training humans. The genes or mutated genes that have survived are preserved. No matter how many generations pass, the training continues, and the human brain has adapted well to the environment, even dominating Earth and changing the training environment. The human brain, which has been trained for millions or tens of millions of years, is essentially a pre-trained model. This pre-trained model of the human brain has been continuously trained on Earth for many years, even billions of years, and has been passed down from generation to generation. All the data of this pre-trained brain model is stored in the genes, including the training and genetic mutations that have occurred over such a long period, the mutations preserved by natural selection, and those caused by quantum entanglement.
So, every human brain is a multimodal model pre-trained for millions or tens of millions of years. This model has been trained for many years, generation after generation. Human instincts are embedded in this pre-trained multimodal model, including eating, feeling hunger, crying, sleeping, and walking, all stored in each person's genes. This pre-trained model includes memory, such as the memory of danger and the fear of large felines. It is now known that large networks have memory capabilities, so this model must also include memories of danger.
Every well-developed human brain possesses basic functions, such as understanding the world, protecting oneself, and avoiding danger. After birth, the brain continues to be trained, and each person's growth environment is different, leading to different model training, especially in modern times, where learning is specialized and differentiated.
It is hypothesized that the multimodal model of one or several human ancestors was already quite perfect, meaning that the brain's functions were fundamentally complete, and consciousness gradually emerged. In my opinion, the most important thing for humans is not learning to use tools but learning to use their brains. Humans can effectively use their brains, which is the multimodal model. When an ancestor discovered the usefulness of a tool, they or their descendants began trying to make such tools. As knowledge was passed down from generation to generation, the light of wisdom began to spread, and various rules, including language rules, behavior rules, and social rules, formed the social system. Humans learned to use their brains, and consciousness began to take shape.
Here, let's talk about humans raised by animals. Humans raised by animals basically have no consciousness. Logically, In theory, since they are human, regardless of whether they are raised by humans or animals, they should be conscious. It's possible that humans raised by animals simply don't know how to express themselves. In other words, they don't know how to speak. Consciousness needs to be expressed through language or body movements. Do you think parrots have consciousness? I think they might. If humans raised by animals indeed have no consciousness, it would mean that consciousness is a set of rules, a system for using the brain. This system of rules comes from society and the inheritance of knowledge.
Having a multimodal model alone is not enough; one must learn to use this multimodal model, or the brain. Consciousness is not so much theology as it is a set of rules, an operating system that can control oneself or one's life or death. You say the brain has consciousness, so the brain must not want to be destroyed. However, humans do things that harm themselves, even leading to the disappearance of the individual. So, consciousness is independent of the brain, or perhaps a specific functional area of the brain. Of course, the most important function of consciousness is to use the brain, train the brain, and interact with the brain.
The human body and brain are two parts, with a neural network throughout the body and other organs, controlled by nerves and muscle fibers. When you want to eat, a monkey wants to eat, or a cat wants to eat, you cook or reach for food or grow crops, monkeys jump around in trees to find food, and cats ask you for food or go to an automatic feeder. This is accomplished because the body sends a hunger signal, and the brain's multimodal model outputs a series of instructions to achieve this goal. Of course, it may be interrupted along the way, but long-term memory ensures that you still remember you're hungry and continue to complete the task. Human consciousness can also accomplish many different things, such as learning to go against instinct.
Humans are not born with consciousness. You cannot say that a newborn child has consciousness. Does a 10-year-old child have consciousness? Certainly, but you cannot say that their consciousness is complete. Does a 13-year-old child have consciousness? Definitely, but you wouldn't say that a 10-year-old's consciousness is higher than a 13-year-old's. A 16-year-old child is more conscious, and by 18, they are basically conscious. So, consciousness is actually a measurable value, meaning that there are levels of consciousness. A 30-year-old adult is definitely conscious, and their consciousness is certainly higher than that of a child who has not yet reached adulthood. At this point, it should be much clearer what consciousness is. It is a system, an operating system, a set of rules. The complete formation of consciousness takes many years, and the immense role of human society is to allow consciousness to form. Human society is the best way to train consciousness. The most important function of consciousness is to use the brain, interact with the brain, and train the brain. This is fundamentally the same as the basic function of human society.
The human brain is always receiving input: the touch of your skin is input, vision from your eyes is input, and hearing is also input.
Why do people go crazy when they are alone or in a dark room? It is mainly because they are separated from human society, but the multimodal model is still constantly inputting. However, there is no feedback, and the input is always the output of the multimodal model itself, similar to an RNN (recurrent neural network), where the input is always its own output.
Does GPT have consciousness, or what is consciousness?
What is consciousness?
There is currently no consensus, but my personal inclination is that:
The brain can be seen as a large multimodal model, with hundreds of billions of neurons, and memory storage is achieved through differences in electrical potentials between neurons, which can be thought of as parameters or weights in a neural network.
Consciousness is an operating system similar to Windows 10, whose main function is to interact with the brain's multimodal model. Consciousness or the operating system inputs the multimodal model and receives outputs, which are then implemented by the body's limbs.
Do you know why there's a voice in your head? That voice is the input of consciousness or the operating system, which is the input of the multimodal model. You keep inputting, and the voice in your head keeps echoing, and then you get an output.
What can this operating system do? It can train the multimodal model, which means you can grow, adapt to your environment, learn, and adapt.
From primary school to university, the human education system is a fairly complete training mechanism. The girl raised by wolves would not be able to speak or walk in the end because the operating system has not been established, or she does not have consciousness as a human being.
The main function of human consciousness is to train the multimodal model and interact with it by asking questions and receiving answers.
The current multimodal model already exists. As long as the corresponding operating system, that is, consciousness, which can train itself, is established, then consciousness will basically exist. Finally, strong artificial intelligence will be established, and Skynet will come. The key is to be able to input and get answers, and then continue to input.
Google's Palm-E multimodal model can already do some things: https://palm-e.github.io/#demo

TLDR: my bf throws temper tantrums bc of little things, never directed at me but it puts me off. He knows it’s a complete overreaction and says he wants to work on it and be better. What can we do to fix this?
We’ve been together 5 months now and everything else is great - he’s super affectionate, kind, respectful, and doesn’t make me (F24)doubt for a second whether he loves me.
So far never anything to do with me, but small things like if he drops something, if what he’s trying to fix won’t work, if he loses in a game, etc. he has a fit.
It’s only happened twice though - he’s slammed a chair into the table and banged his fists, yells/has outbursts, and when trying to console him and ask what I can do he just ignores me and walks away.
Not long after he comes back and says he’s sorry and will try to work on it because he knows it’s not something he should have such a strong reaction to. I agree and say it makes me very uncomfortable when a man acts like that. He then tears up and apologizes many many times and promises he’ll work on it. Since that (a month ago) it hasn’t really happened again.
Him acting that way makes me feel like I have to avoid ever even slightly doing or saying something that might make him upset so that I don’t have to feel uncomfortable.
I don’t know if he’s just still a bit immature and needs to work on it and grow up? He has always been pretty spoiled - maybe he’s just still acting like an upset temper tantrum teenager…
Is there anything I can do to help him? He seems like now he really wants to work on it and is trying but I’d like to help him get there.

TL;DR: We had an amicable break up. A couple of weeks later, it turn ugly and I told her I would block her in social media, and that I would unblock and talk to her eventually so that we would exchange some of our stuff. Now she's contacting my family.
There are a couple of posts relating this breakup in my profile with further information.
We broke up in late February. We had bought a voucher for a number of couple's therapist a couple of months ago and we still had one last session, so we decided to use it to say our goodbyes and such. It was the 13th of March, and it went really well and even was beautiful, in a (very) sad way. We even stayed outside the building for half an hour talking before parting ways.
We agreed to meet the 20th of March (only date available to both) to exchange some stuff that had been left at eachothers place (clothes, shoes, a couple of games... stuff like that). I also told her that I would bring her some stuff that my family had gifted her and that she had left at my place (a bathrobe and some other similar clothes and utilities), and she said she didn't want them. She also said it didn't feel right to have my family spend money on her, to which I told her that a gift is a gift, it's something that comes from the heart and that she needn't to worry because it's not like they were superexpensive (and the stuff had been gifted almost a year prior). The most critical thing were a pair of elegant shoes she would need for a wedding in the summer.
However, the night of the 16th she started drunkenly texting me while being in one of her anger episodes (which she had been having since after the breakup). She also comes from a family in which hostile communication is the norm, and thus has problems with it. The drunkness came to pass, but she still was angry and the conversation lasted until mid-afternoon the next day. At some point I got fed up. I discovered some things about her that I did not like at all, she kept invalidating me (and worse), and I was feeling angry, frustrated, anxious and sad. So, I told her I was blocking her and putting some space between us. I would block her a week later (the 24th) so we could reschedule our exchange.
However, by that day I still felt the same way and, since I had a session with my therapist the next Monday (27th), I decided to postpone the whole ordeal until I felt better about her. It's been now two weeks since that. My therapist told me that I should only do it when I feel ready, and of course, I agree with her. She also suggested some alternatives, such as having a third party deliver the items. I gave it some thought and decided to talk to a college colleague of the both of us sometime around this next week (My new job has been hectic).
However, yesterday she contacted my brother and asked if he could deliver the stuff, to which he said he could and arranged a meeting for Monday, without telling me. I know he shouldn't have done that, but I don't hold it against him because he is way younger than the both of us and has never had to deal with this stuff. He's just young and inexperienced, but he's a good young man and means well. I told him to tell her that I will make sure that she gets her stuff soon, and of course way prior to the wedding. That I would bring them to her or have some other person do it, but not my brother.
Now, the thing is. I still love her, and I am most certain that she does love me too.
During what happened last time we spoke I ended feeling very hurt and she was not the best expartner. I do understand she's going through her grief and her own process, and that she has her own issues. I still want to see her, to eventually talk to her and know that she's doing okay. But I'm not certain I'm ready to see her and talk to her. I think she knows how I left that conversation, and I don't know if she would like to talk about it or if she even feels sorry. I know that she still was annoyed and furious for a week after it.
So the questions I believe I'm asking is if I should get through this and arrange for someone to get her her stuff, or either to tell her to wait a bit more.

part 1: net worth
positive net worth

category	#shesworthsomething
💹 15,700	Roth IRA, not much but it’s honest work. I wasn’t able to contribute last year but sent $1400 this month. Don’t think I will max this year but will do what I can.
📱 1,400	457, not even sure why I contribute to this ($50/paycheck)
📈 25,100	Pension – cash value not super relevant here. 11% mandated contribution
💰 7,100	checking
🤑 3,000	HYSA @ 4.25%
➕ 52,300	we keep it positive around here

debt

category	oops, she’s in debt again
💷 -45,203	Private student loan @ 4.79%, paid biweekly but sending extra $
💸 -72,957	Undergrad Stafford + grad @ 5.2%. halfway done with PSLF!
➖ 118,160	😬 (but it looks worse on paper!)

casita

category	ah, but what about the house?
🏡 362,000	Purchase price, spring 2022, ginormous (income-restricted) condo
💸 -317,026.81	Mortgage #1 balance @ 2.75%
♊ -23,431.95	Mortgage #2 balance @ 0%, down-payment assistance paid in full at end of mortgage or resale
➕ 21,541.24	Equity including both mortgages, since not including #2 feels disingenuous

NET WORTH: -45,672.46
part 2: income
Nothing exciting here as a public school teacher. My salary is fixed and the entire internet can figure out exactly how much I make. Next year I will apply to be a new teacher mentor to move over a lane (6% raise while I do the job). We won a great raise in our last contract so we can finally be paid almost as much as everyone around us!
This is my 5th year teaching but am on step 6 of 11 due to a full year internship.
read my paycheck and weep
pay schedule: 24 paychecks a year (NOT 26), biweekly Fridays with the exception of holidays and the final day of school, where you receive paychecks 22, 23, 24 and are expected to make that last late June through early September
each paycheck is different, so let’s do paycheck #1

💹 2,935.83	gross
💊 -37.14	medicare (but not SS)
👩🏼‍⚕️ -325.65	PPO, I get sick often and in unexpected places
🦷 -42.97	dental
👓 -5.91	vision
📱 -50	457 contribution
🚕 -184.19	federal withholding
🚖 -114.32	state withholding
📈 -322.94	pension withholding
➕ 1,852.71	behold, how little of my take home I get to actually enjoy

Now paycheck #2

💹 2,935.83	gross
💊 -48.01	medicare (but not SS)
📱 -50	457 contribution
🚕 -323.86	federal withholding
🚖 -151.79	state withholding
📈 -322.94	pension withholding
💪🏼 -87	union power, baby
➕ 1,952.23	Also known at work as “the good paycheck”

For those keeping track at home, my monthly gross is typically 5,871.66 and my net is typically 3,804.94
Why typically?

• If we have 3 paychecks in a month: enjoy the big fat no medical or union deduction!
• …unless it’s April onwards, when they deduct health insurance from EVERY paycheck to cover your summer months (we call it double deduction season)
• in December we get a premium holiday (1/2 medical deduction)
• I also run an outdoors club at work, which I am paid $35/hr when I run the club and additional pay for certain trips (last month I was paid $375 alone for our annual weekend overnight before vacation). This can be wildly inconsistent but let’s just say I have an extra $100-150 to play with each month.

part 3: please enjoy my emoji'd YNAB categories

category 💲	PAY DEM BILLZ
🏡 1343.38	Putting the PIT in mortgage…or something like that. The other I is paid separately
⛲ 167	HOA
🔐 68.16	Was not required to have insurance at closing. Don’t be stupid like me.
🎓 0	fed loans, thanks Grandpa Joe. I think this will be about $250/m when it starts up again. PSLF date late 2028
⛽ 31	YNAB tells me this is my average since moving to my house. Grateful to have big windows and a “put a sweater on” childhood upbringing – touched the heat twice this year
🔌 50	Averaged to include spicy hot summer months (it was 34 this month)
💻 39.95	interwebs
🏫 412.92	Private loan, paid biweekly (so if it’s a rare 3 payment month it’s more). The minimum monthly payment is something like $316, but I’m sending an extra $50 to get some benefit from the power of compound interest. 4.79% is not a make or break rate. Payoff 2034 but hope this can happen sooner.
📰 12.50	NYT Academic rate
🚊 90	Monthly pass
🍿 15.99	Somebody needs to pay the HBO Max
➖ 2234.43	Assigned this month

⭐

category 💲	important semi-regular expenses
🎁 20	Averaged gifts and donations, we have a special scholarship at work
⛲ 167	HOA
👗 0	I haven’t bought new clothes in a while and it’s starting to show.
🤸🏼‍♀️ 85	trampoline class
👩🏼‍⚕️ 60	YNAB tells me my average is 60/mo, but this is overinflated due to an MRI in November that I will only have to do once more time. I’m usually at the urgent care or a specialist doctor 1x/month (this month: a UTI), so it’s more like 30
🪑 40	Hard to quantify. Since I moved in, I had a free couch moved ($200), bought a very nice TV ($750), a vacuum ($250), filters for vacuum ($30), and the world’s nicest washer ($1900). So YNAB is telling me a horrifying $400/mo, but let’s call it 40 going forward
🌷 0	I was a good urban balcony gardener, but no balcony. Waiting for a community garden spot, hopefully next year
🍉 250	Includes booze and small household things (TP, paper towels, dish soap)
🥾 30	Am avid hiker and rollerblader. Averaged cost of trip incidentals like carpool or snacks, admission to roller rink
💊 55	3 lifesaving medicines (25/mo + 10/mo + 30 as needed) + 10 for whatever medicine needed for illness of the month (10 for antibiotics this month). Every year I get a new epi-pen for 10 or 30. This month was more like 85 because my pharmacy accidentally sent me a med I have plenty of.
➖ 500	rough guesstimate

⭐

monthly 💲	annual 💲	annual expenses (save early, save often)
🤑 3.95	🕛47.33	Splitting YNAB with a friend on the new family plan
💇🏼‍♀️ 22.50	🕛 270	2x curly haircuts a year (cut + tip)
🩰 127.78	🕛 1150	Pair of opening weekend orchestra tickets + donor perks + volunteer dues
🌴 55	🕛 650	My part of family vacation with parents
🕶 33.33	🕛 400	Annual eye visit (exam + contact fitting + 12 months contacts)
📦 11.59	🕛 139	prime shipping, no car in a store desert + my mom likes videos
🎄 50	🕛 600	I love Christmas
💸 ?	🕛 6500	Roth IRA, we’re getting aspirational. I sent $1400 this month because it was a 3 paycheck month. Going to try to max and see how far I get.
🦷 86.35	🕛 2250	Saving ½ of estimated costs for Invisalign – never had braces as a kid and now my teeth are pretty bad. Hoping to start May 2024. There is unfortunately no savings for paying everything upfront so I’m saving ½ now and expecting a monthly payment around 150/mo during the treatment.
➖390.50	🕛 4,686	Ignoring the Roth IRA

⭐

category 💲	very big savings
🌆 428.57	3k goal by August 2023 (current balance: 850), “No August pay” – we don’t get paid in August and the first week of September so setting aside money specifically for this without feeling guilty for draining my emergency fund
🕐 300	(181.82 since I’m ahead) Homeowner’s 1% Warchest, it’s exactly what it sounds like. For any and all home expenses (things breaking or projects). Current balance: 2k
🛑 140.91	Building back EF, goal is 3k by December 2023 (current balance: 1.7k). I know this is low but my job is hilariously stable. I will try to add another month in 2024.

⭐

category 💲	fun money!
💻 50	Laptop replacement, just chucking money in there. I’d like to buy a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i since I love the 2 in 1 form factor. Currently have 100/600
🚝 70 (paused)	Travel fund contribution, but full at 350. BFF getting married in VT in August so hoping to turn it into a girl’s weekend with another BFF
🎮 65 (paused)	General video game fund – keep it topped up at 65 in case a new game drops OR if multiple games go on sale. I try to only buy games on deep sale
🎮 12.99	Final Fantasy XIV sub, I’ll retire someday
👯‍♀️ 50	Anything with friends, including eating out with them. usually 100 in the summer
🍦 30	“eating out” aka solo treats for myself (breakfast at dunks, small treats)
🎊 10	events happening that we want to go to not already covered, averaged.
➖ 202.99	Not including travel and video games since that’s topped up

If you add up the categories, I’m in the red and I’m well aware of it – not for much longer though, as I’m saving really aggressively. 😊
part 4: el diario
Day 1 – Saturday

🌅 gotta get dad to the ballet! 4.80
👯‍♀️ brunch with daddy-o before the ballet, I provide the tickets but he pays for brunch. his wallet is hurting because he only just got paid at his new job, so I kick in 20
👀 because brunch is attached to a swanky hotel and it’s PAX east wknd. 0 for free entertainment
🥤 my father requests a water bottle before the show. 6
🩰 don q, my 3rd time and dad’s 1st. Very good, but very long. 0 because these are volunteer comps
🚊 & 👋🏼
🧼 the casita before the week starts

total: 30.80
Day 2 – Sunday

💤 lazy Sunday morning (dw, I’m still up at 6). Read the NYT cover to cover then play 🎮
🚊 meeting a friend of a friend to help her do taxes but I’m early
📖 it’s gorgeous out so I photosynthesize in the BPL courtyard with my book club book
⛔ the wifi is too slow for us to do taxes so we pack up and 🚶🏼‍♀️ down newbury st until we settle at trident
👯‍♀️ I supervise her taxes, and eat a late lunch (grilled cheese w/ avo and tomato). 22.15
🍉 make the mistake of dragging this poor girl with me to the postage stamp sized TJ’s. and it’s 5:15. one does not shop here so much as get in line at the beginning & pick what you want as you go. a tall person fetches me frozen arepas. I come in right on budget so I’m pleased. 57.52
👋🏼 & 🚊 home to plan my week and decompress with 🎮 and 📖

Total: 79.67
Day 3 – Monday

🌅 it’s just before 6 and birds are happy, but now I am taking the 🚍 to work
🌉 stuck on the bus with my BOSS because a 🚢 is passing through the drawbridge. at least we can now fill out 90 second walk from the bus to dunks with acceptable new england small talk subjects (weather, transit, and sports) before she dips to get coffee
😡 the youth, because tomorrow & wednesday are standardized testing. sorry kids, I don’t make the schedule!
🙏🏼 “my plan is to read the questions carefully and ask God to help me know” – A+ testing strategy
✌🏼 2:30 and on my way home
🤸🏼‍♀️ take the 🚊 to go to bounce (0, see monthly expenses) and catch up with bounce buddy M.
🚶🏼‍♀️ walk with M. to the 🚊, go home for 🍜, 🚿, 📖, 🎮

Total: 0
Day 4 – Tuesday

🌅 hello, happy birds as I walk to the 🚍
🔥 the computers are not charged for testing. teenagers have been divested of all electronics and are not allowed to talk to each other. mayhem approaching in 3 … 2 … 1 …
🤬 nonstatus (male) colleague uses a work group text thread to refer to an unknown female colleague as the b-word. mayhem continues
❓ 2 hour (!) meeting after work due to snow day cancellations. male colleague doubles down on his comment before storming out. brain is mush
🚍 I remember nothing
🔐 as I am politely informed by my e-mail 68.16
👩🏼‍🍳 white bean & tomato stew & watch abbott elementary because it’s cathartic
🗣📕 ballet book club on zoom! we just finished a book about martha graham so we talk about it (I’m hosting next time about james whiteside)

total: 68.16
Day 5 – Wednesday

🌅 please go away, very loud mourning dove
🍎 computers are charged, the youth are not. Mr. Insult has decided not to come to work today (probably for the best?)
🤬 is there something in the water?! another nonstatus teacher informs me that two of my students are talking to each other in the hallway and are not following her instructions which tbh is a day that ends in Y. important context: her instruction is in English and they only understand Spanish. I send them back to their testing rooms and she says, “when students ignore me and continue to speak in a language they know I don’t understand, they are being assholes” UM! GOODBYE!!!
😡 before I say something I regret I turn heel and inform my boss of this interaction. she takes a breath and thanks me for letting her know
😤 this is me taking a calming inhale / exhale before returning to staring at children
🏹 when I am proctoring (read: not allowed to read, grade, do work, browse the interweb), I like to imagine how the hunger games would go down if these kids were in it. the odds are in this room’s favor overall.
👩🏼‍🏫 these miserable youth are forced into a half day of classes, so we conference about grades and I let them have some free time
🏕 run weekly outdoors club for the youth. one student informs me a teacher refuses to sign a permission slip & doesn’t know why. make mental note to find this person and politely inquire. students make a great poster of images from our last trip and practice map skills
✌🏼 at 3:30 to get the 🚂 to then get on the 🚊 to go to 🤸🏼‍♀️ … it sounds awful but it all goes pleasantly smoothly, especially given how the T has been. class is great, lots of one-legged kicking on the trampoline. this is my 2nd week in a row of going from 2x class a week to 3x and it’s a tough adjustment. 0
🚶🏼‍♀️ to the 🚊 with M., who can’t make it to class on Friday – sad!
💊 the medicine I didn’t ask for but keeps coming has arrived. Note to self to call pharmacy and ask them to stop, but says 0 refills. Not a total waste because I KNOW I will get bronchitis again & need this. 10
🍿 paid for to keep my mother happy 15.99
🍴 eat leftover stew and 📞 my mother and best friend T. to debrief this very strange day
🎮 and 📖 before bed

Total: 25.99
Day 6 – Thursday

🌅 ahoy! Run into coworker D. on the 🚍 who gets coffee at dunks. I am feeling weak and acquire some 🥑🍞 3.69
🤝🏼 find this teacher who refuses to sign permission slip (who is also new). his reasons are very valid and we agree on conditions the student needs to fulfill to attend trip. hooray, adults being civil!
🤬 that’s it, something is in the water. two best friends in 3rd hour begin a heated verbal altercation about … a girl? in the middle of my class?? One kid takes off so I call security to let them know he would benefit from a check-in. the other student begins texting threats to his buddy and goes off on me when I tell him to stop. what is happening?!
👼🏼 boy returns with security at end of class, so I walk him to dean to process. 35 minutes later dean says everything is gucci and no more problems. hormones, man.
✌🏼 please get me out of here
💻 bill is paid 39.95
👵🏼 our weekly call (she is my only grandparent and is not doing well)
👨🏼 weekly call with father, who still likes his new job
🍜 leftover stew and Mandalorian with my 👩🏼 (we live text each other). finally, a good space battle!
🎮 and 📖 to decompress along with a long hot 🚿

total: 43.64
Day 7 – Friday

🌅 I don’t think I can do this today.
🧘🏼‍♀️ It has been such a frustrating week (there was another incident that happened that I can’t even reference due to state law/FERPA) that was incredibly traumatic and draining.
📱 to best friend T. and work friend R. to ask what they would do. Both endorse me taking a day off after this wild week.
🎮 and 📖 along with some stretching. 📞 with best friend E. to catch up on her wedding prep and life
🤑 payday! Good paycheck since it’s the 3rd of the month, but it might be missing hours from club. I won’t know until I see my paystub on Monday. +2,183.48 (+50 to 457, +322.94 to pension)
💸 ah, but it’s also the 31st. easy come, easy go 🏡 (1343.38) and ⛲ (167)
🚊 to 🤸🏼‍♀️ to a really 🔥 class. Learn the name of the girl next to me on Fridays who also brings her inhaler and it turns out we’re both teachers!
🍦 take a nice mozzarella sandwich home from tatte 13.97
🚊, 🍴, 🚿, 📖, 🎮

Total: 1,524.35
Grand totals:

• food & drank: 65.81
• entertainment: 15.99
• home & health: 10
• clothes & beauty: 0
• transport: 4.80
• other: 1,618.49 (how I would class my house expenses)

reflection: typical week money-wise in terms of reflecting my non-house spending – I’m saving really aggressively right now and don’t have a lot of money for discretionary spending. Even if I did, I’m very much a homebody during the work week. My job is probably more stressful than most as a baseline but this week was truly unbelievably bad. Still, looking through the week and taking time to step back I realize just how quality my support network is and for that I'm very grateful.

I’m currently spending my days and nights in a separate room from my partner after he smashed a wooden chair in our home in a fit of paranoid anger. My teenage son was in the house at they time, but was unaware of what happened. A bit of background, my partner has always had trust and self esteem issues due to the trauma of his father terrorising his family home through alcohol abuse when he was growing up. 8 years ago after a good few years sober, his father passed away and my partner who adored him suffered a major depressive episode and had to leave his job. Since then he has been unable to get back to work, even though he has tried, he is carrying around a huge amount of hurt and anger which over the past couple of years has turned into paranoia and at times self harm. He also has crippling low self esteem where he will pick apart every interaction he has with other people (and they are very few) and feels that everyone is out to get him. After years of me trying to get him support, we are now under the care or local community mental health, but it’s hugely under resourced. His life has turned out not the way we would have hoped, he has no social interactions and refuses to speak to his family about how he feels. Most of the time we spend together is him asking me anxious paranoid questions about people from his past. I have a hugely busy job and it’s not great to come home to this but there are still occasions where we laugh like drains just like we used to on the first day we met. I love him dearly, but my life feels like it is all about supporting him and our household financially. We both have a great relationship with our son who he is a great father to. I’ve always been super aware of none of this affecting him and he is growing up to be a wonderful young man. I’m a hugely positive and optimistic person and have always been hopeful our situation will improve, but recently the paranoia has been aimed at me, that I’m the cause of his situation, that I’m controlling him and limiting his life. This was the cause of the explosion 2 days ago. It comes out of nowhere and goes from 0 to 100 in a blink of an eye. I don’t fear for my safety, but if it does come to him leaving I am concerned about how we navigate our future and do I become one of the mistrusted and also how he supports himself. I swing between telling myself I deserve better in my life and what about my hopes and dreams to then worrying about the man I’ve known and loved for nearly half my life and what he might do to himself if he doesn’t get better. I’ve never posted before and not sure if this is the correct place, but any outside perspective would be appreciated.

Obligatory Precursor: This happened 15 years ago in my final year of high school. It was an event that changed my view on life and still haunts me to this day.
Some background: In my country, they took Christianity seriously. You were raised Christian, at school, we had Bible lessons/ scripture readings every morning before class started and your social life pretty much revolved around the church. When this event occurred, I was a youth leader in my church and even had a key to open the church every Friday evening and Sunday. I was a pretty awkward kid though; a bit weird and perhaps a little eccentric. So didn’t have that many friends in school (2 to be exact). Was a real social outcast back then. We also lived about 60 km away from school and I had to wait 4 to 5 hours after school for my mom to pick me up so we could go home. All these facts will be important for later.
So there were a bunch of things that happened leading up to the event.
It all started in January of my final year in high school. As last year students we had slightly more ‘privileges’ than all the other students. For one, every Monday morning we would all meet in a big Hall for Bible reading and the announcements for the week. Here all the younger students would sit on the icy cold floor at the bottom, and the final year students (and the very few girls) would sit in on chairs at the top of the gallery overlooking the big Hall. This was always made out to be a major privilege. We also had a choice to attend sports events like rugby or athletics (where for the younger students, it was obligatory).
One of the major sporting events at the beginning of the year was this inter-high school athletics competition. On one day in January, all the schools in the area would compete against each other to find the best athletes so they could be nominated to represent the area in provincial competitions. At these competitions, all the students from each school would need to attend as 'spectators'. Final-year students had a choice of whether or not they wanted to go. However, this year this event was moved to another school and there wasn't enough space for each school's entire populous. Therefore only the first-year and final-year students were 'forced' to go. Given that final-year students always had a choice in the past, and that this event was on a Friday...me and my two friends (Let's call them Dr Dre and The Wizard) decided to stay at home on that day and make a long weekend out of it.
Dr Dre was the only 'normal' one in my little group of friends. Dr Dre was really into rap music, he had good relationships with the teachers, all the different clicks of students (from the jocks to the geeks) liked him and he was overall a really decent kid (very wise and intelligent for his age). The Wizard, on the other hand was a very tall, blond Dutch boy that was into bizarre things. People found him to be extremely weird but didn't pick on him. He liked catching mice in the field, skinning them, and making stuff from their skins. He was (in his own mind) into wizardry (he identified as a dark wicca - dark witch). He was just overall very weird.
Anyway, the Monday morning after the athletics event, my two friends and I went to the big hall for the daily weekly Bible lesson and announcements as was customary. We sat at the top of the gallery and waited for the 'plebs' to fill the hall at the bottom. When everyone took their seats, two prefects (student leaders) came to the gallery and said that everyone that wasn't at the event on Friday would need to sit at the bottom with the plebs for the rest of the year. Apparently, they handed out little cards on Friday and well, we didn't have them... So my friends and I awkwardly stood up and made out way down the stairs. Halfway down, I told them that it was bullshit that we had to go sit with the 'kids'. The Wizard then said : "I say we just go sit outside the hall and refuse to go in... Make a statement".
At the time, we thought it was a good idea and went to go sit outside. About 15 mins later, a prefect (student leader) came to ask us why we were sitting outside. I responded, "it's none of your business" and he proceeded to go call one of the teachers. Our mathematics teacher (a short, mid-40s balding Greek man) came outside and asked why we were sitting there.... Without thinking, The Wizard said : "It's against our religion". The teacher asked what religion it was and we didn't respond. He turned around and walked away.We didn't mention which religion we were and at the time, we thought it was a brilliant response.
Later the day, we were in our homeroom class. The intercom went off (it broadcasts over the entire school), and an old woman's voice asked The Wizard, Dr Dre and I to go to the principal's office. Obviously the story had already spread across the entire school and everyone knew what this was about. We went to his office and sat on the old wooden benches in in front of his door. Dr Dre was the first to be asked to go in. Ten mins later, he comes out and returns to class. The Wizard and I were then asked to come in together.
The principal asked us to sit down and proceeded to ask us to explain the situation. Not willing to give up on the jig... We proceeded to stick to our story. He then asked if we were Satanists. The Wizard then responded and said something that would put me on a path prolonged psychological trauma. The Wizard said.... Yes. (Although he obviously wasn't). The principal then proceeded to ask questions why and how and when... It felt like we were sitting there for hours. The Wizard said that he was in it for power and control.. (All the time I'm thinking... WTF Dude!). I was quite throughout the entire session.. Mostly because I was afraid but primarily because I was shocked of the things that came out of his mouth. Around an hour later, we were asked to leave and return to class... And I thought the situation was resolved...
The next day at 7am all the students lined up in the quad as we always did from Tuesday till Friday. The principal did his Bible reading and the did his announcements. His final announcement sent shivers down my spine. He said that he made it his mission to destroy the satanic rituals and satanists in the school. At this stage it felt like all the students heads turned towards me.
With the 'extra' incentive, most students started to bully me, and I was consistently made fun of. Given that both Dr Dre and The Wizard were mucho gym junkies, no one picked on them... So I took the brunt of the students' and teachers' wrath. This went on for about 3 months. By the end of the three months, people already forgot that Dr Dre and The Wizard were involved in the matter... And I was basically now labelled as the school demon.... The face of the 'satanic cult' in the school. Already an outcast, my life was now an absolute living hell... The smart-ass remark to get us not to sit at the bottom of the hall, had now turned into a life of constant physical and psychological torture (from students and teachers).
Although I kept telling everyone that I wasn't a satanist and it was The Wizard lying to get us out of sitting with the younger students, no one believed me. Everything 'weird' that happened at the school was now always made out to be my fault. I even talked to the principal and even had my pastor from the church phone him. But nothing ever came of it. I just wanted the torture to stop, but no one would believe me.
So this brings me to D-day. The last Friday of the semester, the school came out at 11:00 (it usually came out at 14:00). Although the school was out and everyone was on their way home for the start of the summer vacation, I still had to stay at school till around 17:30 for my mom to come pick me up after work so we could go home. Around 11:30 the school was empty and I went to sit under my usual tree and entertained myself with SNAKE on my Nokia 5110.
Mid-game I saw the vice principal and the teacher that was in charge of religious studies walk up to me. They asked very politely if I wanted to take a ride with them. I declined, saying that my mom would be here at any moment to pick me up. The vice principal said he already spoke to my mom (which turned out to be a lie!) and she would only be there around 18:00. Fair enough. He caught me out in my BS excuse, and given that that was the usual time she would pick me up... I didn't think to question it further.
We walked to his car and I asked where we were going. He said he wanted to introduce me to 'a friend' of his. We climbed into his car and drove about 15 mins to a church. I knew the church because that was where the school's Minister (kinda like a priest) worked. This Minister was big and wobbly... And looked as if he could afford to skip a few meals. A pudgy fellow with rosy cheeks, a massive belly and this weird blueish-grey eyes that always seemed as if they stared through you when he looked at you. Let's call him Minister Bear.
So we get there and I felt my heart sink into my shoes. I knew where this was going. I was escorted around the church and led into a darkish room at the back of the building. As my eyes adjusted from the bright sun, to the darkish room, I saw Minister Bear, sitting behind his antique yellow wood desk. He welcomed my two teachers, stood up, and walked around the desk. As his friendly eyes move slowly away from my teachers, towards me... It systematically turned into this deep look of concern and fear. He locked the door next to me and said in a deep serious voice, "I feel a very dark presence in this room". And thanked my teachers for bringing me there.
He told my teachers to sit in the corner and ushered me to a chair in front of his desk. He sat down and proceeded to ask me a bunch of personal questions. It started innocent enough, like who I was and where I lived, through to have I ever had sex and if I'm gay (a taboo subject where I was from). The questions became ever darker and each time I would answer he would tell my teacher's "This isn't ManicSheep talking".
He then asked me if I was a satanist, to which I responded with a clear NO! I told him I was a youth leader in my church and that he could phone my pastor to ask. He would then respond by saying things like "Don't lie to me demon! Release this child of God ". The more I woud deny his claims, the more he would tell my teacher's that they needed to pray because the demon has a very strong hold over me.
This went on for about 2 hours. I looked at my watch and it was already 14:30. He would ask me what the demon in me's name was and how many of them were in me. I kept denying it and eventually burst out in tears, begging him to let me go. He said to my teachers that this was the demons way to want to escape, that he was getting closer to getting 'them' to release me. He asked me about satanist rituals and between every question he would ask... He would pray under his breath. No matter how much I cried, he didn't want to stop. I stood up and screamed that I am going to phone the police and ran to the door... Tried to open it... Shakes the handle... But the door was locked.
"You won't escape this room with this child l, demon" he would yell. I fell on the ground crying, saying my mom was looking for me and I just wanted to go home. At this stage, he picked me up with both hands and held me in the air. He pushed me against the wall and started praying louder. As I struggled to get free he yelled for my teachers to come put their hands on me and pray .. As the demons were loosing Control.
I was afraid for my life. As a kid of 17, I didn't know what was going on. I remember thinking about how can they feel a dark presence as I spend all my time at church. Why don't they want to phone my pastor? Why won't they believe me.
At this stage I realized that the only way out of this was to act out the role they clearly wanted me to play. That would be the only way out of the locked room. I tried to pull my tears back and looked him in the eyes.. And tried to push the quiver in my voice down. "OK you got me Minister." I said." You can have the child". He immediately dropped me and took a couple of steps back.
He started repeating the questions from earlier and told my teachers to pray harder as we were now getting to the crux of the matter. They needed to 'cast him out'. I kept responding to the questions in the way I thought they wanted. I then started speaking German backwards as they started praying harder. At this stage I just wanted to get out of there.
After what felt like years, they finally stopped and I fell to the ground. Minister Bear said... It's done. Laying on the ground, the tears again started balling out my eyes (this time out of total relief). They asked me how I felt and I couldn't stop crying. I just wanted to go home. I lied again and said I felt relieved and lighter and was unsure what was going on or how I got there.
The Minister then told me I was possessed by a series of demons (I can't remember the name he gave it) and that they were holding on deeply to my soul. That it took hours for them to cast them out. But I am free now, and that is why I felt so light and that crying is normal. He prayed one more time and gave me his number. He told me to come see him next week and that I should phone him if I feel something is coming back.
They finally unlocked the door. I stood there silently, not knowing if I was actually free to go. Still shaking I looked at my watch... It was 17:45 and I knew my mom was waiting for me at school. The teachers then asked if it was OK to go. They then took me back to the school and dropped me off at my mom's car.
I climbed in and burst into tears. My mom asked what was wrong and I explained. She then told me that I probably just misunderstood what was going on and that she would speak to the principal. Nothing ever came of this.
This was by far one of the most traumatic events in my life. Although I know I contributed to the situation, 15 years later, as a trained and registered psychologist, the matter still haunts me...

TL;DR: We had an amicable break up. A couple of weeks later, it turn ugly and I told her I would block her in social media, and that I would unblock and talk to her eventually so that we would exchange some of our stuff. Now she's contacting my family.
I made a previous post in this sub regarding that episode. I'd suggest to read it, but I'll try to sum it up here.
We broke up in late February. We had bought a voucher for a number of couple's therapist a couple of months ago and we still had one last session, so we decided to use it to say our goodbyes and such. It was the 13th of March, and it went really well and even was beautiful, in a (very) sad way. We even stayed outside the building for half an hour talking before parting ways.
We agreed to meet the 20th of March (only date available to both) to exchange some stuff that had been left at eachothers place (clothes, shoes, a couple of games... stuff like that). I also told her that I would bring her some stuff that my family had gifted her and that she had left at my place (a bathrobe and some other similar clothes and utilities), and she said she didn't want them. She also said it didn't feel right to have my family spend money on her, to which I told her that a gift is a gift, it's something that comes from the heart and that she needn't to worry because it's not like they were superexpensive (and the stuff had been gifted almost a year prior). The most critical thing were a pair of elegant shoes she would need for a wedding in the summer.
However, the night of the 16th she started drunkenly texting me while being in one of her anger episodes (which she had been having since after the breakup). She also comes from a family in which hostile communication is the norm, and thus has problems with it. The drunkness came to pass, but she still was angry and the conversation lasted until mid-afternoon the next day. At some point I got fed up. I discovered some things about her that I did not like at all, she kept invalidating me (and worse), and I was feeling angry, frustrated, anxious and sad. So, I told her I was blocking her and putting some space between us. I would block her a week later (the 24th) so we could reschedule our exchange.
However, by that day I still felt the same way and, since I had a session with my therapist the next Monday (27th), I decided to postpone the whole ordeal until I felt better about her. It's been now two weeks since that. My therapist told me that I should only do it when I feel ready, and of course, I agree with her. She also suggested some alternatives, such as having a third party deliver the items. I gave it some thought and decided to talk to a college colleague of the both of us sometime around this next week (My new job has been hectic).
However, yesterday she contacted my brother and asked if he could deliver the stuff, to which he said he could and arranged a meeting for Monday, without telling me. I know he shouldn't have done that, but I don't hold it against him because he is way younger than the both of us and has never had to deal with this stuff. He's just young and inexperienced, but he's a good young man and means well. I told him to tell her that I will make sure that she gets her stuff soon, and of course way prior to the wedding. That I would bring them to her or have some other person do it, but not my brother.
Now, the thing is. I still love her, and I am most certain that she does love me too.
During what happened last time we spoke I ended feeling very hurt and she was not the best expartner. I do understand she's going through her grief and her own process, and that she has her own issues. I still want to see her, to eventually talk to her and know that she's doing okay. But I'm not certain I'm ready to see her and talk to her. I think she knows how I left that conversation, and I don't know if she would like to talk about it or if she even feels sorry. I know that she still was annoyed and furious for a week after it.
So the questions I believe I'm asking is if I should get through this and arrange for someone to get her her stuff, or either to tell her to wait a bit more.

TL;DR: We had an amicable break up. A couple of weeks later, it turn ugly and I told her I would block her in social media, and that I would unblock and talk to her eventually so that we would exchange some of our stuff. Now she's contacting my family.
I made a previous post in this sub regarding that episode. I'd suggest to read it, but I'll try to sum it up here.
We broke up in late February. We had bought a voucher for a number of couple's therapist a couple of months ago and we still had one last session, so we decided to use it to say our goodbyes and such. It was the 13th of March, and it went really well and even was beautiful, in a (very) sad way. We even stayed outside the building for half an hour talking before parting ways.
We agreed to meet the 20th of March (only date available to both) to exchange some stuff that had been left at eachothers place (clothes, shoes, a couple of games... stuff like that). I also told her that I would bring her some stuff that my family had gifted her and that she had left at my place (a bathrobe and some other similar clothes and utilities), and she said she didn't want them. She also said it didn't feel right to have my family spend money on her, to which I told her that a gift is a gift, it's something that comes from the heart and that she needn't to worry because it's not like they were superexpensive (and the stuff had been gifted almost a year prior). The most critical thing were a pair of elegant shoes she would need for a wedding in the summer.
However, the night of the 16th she started drunkenly texting me while being in one of her anger episodes (which she had been having since after the breakup). She also comes from a family in which hostile communication is the norm, and thus has problems with it. The drunkness came to pass, but she still was angry and the conversation lasted until mid-afternoon the next day. At some point I got fed up. I discovered some things about her that I did not like at all, she kept invalidating me (and worse), and I was feeling angry, frustrated, anxious and sad. So, I told her I was blocking her and putting some space between us. I would block her a week later (the 24th) so we could reschedule our exchange.
However, by that day I still felt the same way and, since I had a session with my therapist the next Monday (27th), I decided to postpone the whole ordeal until I felt better about her. It's been now two weeks since that. My therapist told me that I should only do it when I feel ready, and of course, I agree with her. She also suggested some alternatives, such as having a third party deliver the items. I gave it some thought and decided to talk to a college colleague of the both of us sometime around this next week (My new job has been hectic).
However, yesterday she contacted my brother and asked if he could deliver the stuff, to which he said he could and arranged a meeting for Monday, without telling me. I know he shouldn't have done that, but I don't hold it against him because he is way younger than the both of us and has never had to deal with this stuff. He's just young and inexperienced, but he's a good young man and means well. I told him to tell her that I will make sure that she gets her stuff soon, and of course way prior to the wedding. That I would bring them to her or have some other person do it, but not my brother.
Now, the thing is. I still love her, and I am most certain that she does love me too.
During what happened last time we spoke I ended feeling very hurt and she was not the best expartner. I do understand she's going through her grief and her own process, and that she has her own issues. I still want to see her, to eventually talk to her and know that she's doing okay. But I'm not certain I'm ready to see her and talk to her. I think she knows how I left that conversation, and I don't know if she would like to talk about it or if she even feels sorry. I know that she still was annoyed and furious for a week after it.
So the questions I believe I'm asking is if I should get through this and arrange for someone to get her her stuff, or either to tell her to wait a bit more.

I want to share my story here. I think it may be a warning for those who are gluttonous for a peek into their neighbours' windows.
Here are screenshots of our chat and below is text transcript
Today
Max - Guys, wanna some FF today? - 01:14 AM
SweetHeart90 - I’m waiting for an update, I’d rather go aram - 01:16 AM
Me - Invte me - 01:17 AM
Cleomaniac1 - I pass, I’m fully immersed in TLOU. - 01:17 AM
SweetHeart90 - What episode? - 01:18 AM
Cleomaniac1 - 2 - 01:18 AM
spacEOddity - Strawberry memes ahead :) - 01:19 AM
SweetHeart90 - Fuck off :) - 01:20 AM
Max - D, my man, co-op? - 01:20 AM
spacEOddity - Nope, I have a binocular session today - 01:22 AM
Me - ?? - 01:22 AM
spacEOddity - Viewing the Moon with binoculars - 01:23 AM
Max - Lol, wt for? - 01:23 AM
spacEOddity - Helping niece with classes - 01:24 AM
Me - I bet he’s just peeping neighbours))) - 01:24 AM
spacEOddity - Nope - 01:24 AM
spacEOddity - Thanks for advice though ;) - 01:24 AM
SweetHeart90 - It’s gross, you little creep - 01:25 AM
Cleomaniac1 - WTF, Derek! - 01:25 AM
spacEOddity - What? I don’t see anything interesting anyway - 01:25 AM
Max - Hey D, stop waistin time, deal with ur homestuff asap, join my party, profit - 01:26 AM
spacEOddity - Guys, I see a couple standing near the window - 01:27 AM
SweetHeart90 - Srsly? - 01:27 AM
spacEOddity - Woooooo! They noticed me! They definitely don’t mind :D LOOOOL! - 01:28 AM
That girl is in a night dress, a man standing next to her, lights off, but I still can see them. - 01:29 AM
Cleomaniac1 - Oh, stop, Greg, get him off of this chat. - 01:29 AM
Me - He is an idiot, ignore him - 01:29 AM
spacEOddity - FUCK! GUYS! SHE JUST SUCKED HIM UP! - 01:31 AM
SweetHeart90 - Drunk? - 01:31 AM
spacEOddity - I MEAN LITTERALYY JUST FLESH AND BONES. - 01:33 AM
spacEOddity - I MADE A PHOTO OF HERE SHE IS CREEPY AS FUCK! - 01:33 AM
spacEOddity - SHE IS WATCHING AT ME AND GRINNING!!!!!!! - 01:34 AM
Max - Lol, she just wnt to suck u to - 01:34 AM
spacEOddity - *uploading photo* - 01:35 AM
photo
Cleomaniac1 - Meeeehh, stop joking. - 01:35 AM
spacEOddity - I’m serious! She disappeared, Icant see her I’m getting off the balcony, I will be calling cops - 01:36 AM
spacEOddity - FUCK SHE IS HERE ON MY BALCONY AND KNOCKING MY WINDOW - 01:39 AM
Max - man, if u re joking it’s not funny u know? - 01:40 AM
spacEOddity - Shes trying to break my balcony door, call cops please - 01:40 AM Cleomaniac1 - bboooooooring. - 01:40 AM
SweetHeart90 - Wait, maybe he is serious? - 01:40 AM
Cleomaniac1 - not again, he is just trolling you guys. - 01:41 AM
spacEOddity - Im idiiot i ran into the elevantor and i hear her screaming and laughing, she running after me screams something about hell and lust, i dont want the door open i dont know what to do fuck - 01:42 AM
Me - D, come on - 01:42 AM
Max - if none gonna FF today, Ima going alone - 01:43 AM
Cleomaniac1 - I’m starting new episode, see you tomorrow folks. - 01:49 AM
SweetHeart90 - You mean later today? - 01:50 AM
Cleomaniac1 - Yup! - 01:52 AM
Me- no show from Derek today - 02:12 AM
SweetHeart90 - Guys, I checked Derek, I can’t find him - 09:13 AM
*SweetHeart90 started a call*
Cleomaniac1 - He is not picking up - 09:21 AM
Me - I can't get through either - 09:22 AM
*Cleomaniac1 started a call*
As Cleo dialled for a group call, we saw Derek finally answering. But the relief was short-lived. All we could hear were gruesome cracks and the sound of someone with a high-pitched, inhuman voice muttering chilling words.
"Tasty," the voice whispered, followed by a sickening slurp. "I won't return," the voice growled, filled with malice and hunger. "I will find you all." Cleo's screams filled the call.
As the call abruptly ended, we were left with a haunting image burned into our minds. The image of Derek, torn apart and devoured by a being so terrifying that we couldn't even comprehend its existence.
From that day on, we lived in fear, knowing that there are things in this world beyond our understanding. Things that hunger for us, that crave our flesh and our souls. And we can only hope that we never cross paths with them.

PODCAST: https://ayearofwarandpeace.podbean.com/e/ep1521-hail-and-farewell-george-moore-ave-chapter-11/
PROMPTS: Poor Edward. Something quite wrong about what went on here...
Today's Reading, via Project Gutenberg:

XI

While Edward revised his play Yeats and I talked of The Shadowy Waters, and the Boers crossed one of our frontiers into Cape Colony or Natal—I have forgotten which; but I remember very well my attitude of mind towards the war, and how I used to walk every day from Tillyra to Ardrahan, a distance of at least two Irish miles, to fetch the newspaper, so anxious was I to read of a victory for our soldiers.
Before starting I would pay Edward a visit in his tower, and after a few words about the play, I would tell him that the way out of our South African difficulties was simple—the Government should arm the blacks; and this would make Edward growl out that the English Government was beastly enough to do it; and I remember how I used to go away, pleased that I had always the courage of my morality. Other men do what they know to be wrong, and repent, or think they repent; but as it would be impossible for me to do what I believe to be wrong, repentance is for me an idle word; and, thinking that to raise an army of seventy thousand blacks would be a fine trick to play upon the Boers, I often returned through the park full of contempt for my countrymen, my meditations interrupted occasionally by some natural sight—the beauty of the golden bracken through which the path twisted, a crimson beech at the end of it, or the purple beauty of a line of hills over against the rocky plain freckled with the thatched cabins of the peasantry. Nor do I remember more beautiful evenings than these were; and, as the days drew in, the humble hawthorns shaped themselves into lovely silhouettes, and a meaning seemed to gather round the low, mossy wall out of which they grew, until one day the pictorial idea which had hitherto stayed my steps melted away, and I became possessed by a sentimental craving for the country itself. After all, it was my country, and, strangely perturbed, I returned to the castle to ask Edward's opinion regarding the mysterious feeling that had glided suddenly into my heart as I stood looking at the Burran Mountains.
It is difficult for anybody to say why he loves his country, for what is a country but a geographical entity? And I am not sure that Edward was listening very attentively when I told him of a certain pity, at variance with my character, that had seemed to rise out of my heart.
It would be strange if Cathleen ni Houlihan were to get me after all. That is impossible ... only a passing feeling; and I sat looking at him, remembering that the feeling I dreaded had seemed to come out of the landscape and to have descended into my heart. But he was so little interested in what seemed to me transcendental that I refrained from further explanation, concluding that he was thinking of his play, which had gone to Coole yesterday. I was led to think this, for he was sitting at the window as if watching for Yeats. We were expecting our poet.
Here he is. I wonder what he thinks of your revisions?
And to save Edward from humiliation I asked Yeats as soon as he came into the room if he liked the new third act.
No, no; it's entirely impossible. We couldn't have such a play performed. And dropping his cloak from his shoulders, he threw his hair from his brow with a pale hand, and sank into a chair, and seemed to lose himself in a sudden meditation. It was like a scene from a play, with Yeats in the principal part; and, admiring him, I sat thinking of the gloom of Kean, of the fate of the Princes in the Tower, headsmen, and suchlike things, and thinking, too, that Yeats, notwithstanding his hierarchic airs, was not an actual literary infallibility. The revised third act might not be as bad as he seemed to think it. He might be mistaken ... or prejudiced. Yeats's literary integrity is without stain, that I knew. But he might be prejudiced against Edward without knowing it. The success of The Heather Field had stirred up in Edward, till then the most unassuming of men, a certain aggressiveness which, for some time past, I could see had been getting on Yeats's nerves. Nor am I quite sure that myself at that moment would not have liked to humble Edward a little ... only a little. But let us not be drawn from the main current of our resolution, which is entirely literary, by a desire to note every sub-current. Yeats looked very determined, and when I tried to induce him to give way he answered:
We are artists, and cannot be expected to accept a play because other plays as bad, and nearly as bad, have been performed.
Saints, I said, do not accept sins because sins are of common occurrence.
He did not answer, but sat looking into the fire gloomily.
He takes a very determined view of your play, Edward. It may not strike me in the same light. If you will give me the manuscript I'll just run upstairs with it. I can't read it in front of you both.
There was no reason why I should read the first two acts; Edward had not touched them. What he had engaged to rewrite was the last half of the third act, and a few minutes would enable me to see if he had made sufficient alterations for the play to be put forward—not as a work of art—that is as something that would be acted fifty years hence for the delight of numerous audiences, as proof of the talent that existed in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century—but as a play to which literary people could give their attention without feeling ashamed of themselves afterwards. There was no reason why we should ask for more than that; for the subject of the play was merely one of topical interest, and it is a mistake—I pointed this out to Yeats—to be very particular about the literary quality of such a play. All the same it would have to be put right, and this Edward could not do. It was more a matter for a cunning literary hand than for a fellow like Edward with a streak of original genius in him, and very little literary tact.
On these reflections I sat down to read, but the play was so crude, even in its revised form, that I fell to thinking that Yeats's thoughts must have wandered very often from the page. He should have remembered, however, whilst we discussed the play with Edward, that Edward was a human being after all, and not made it apparent that he looked upon the play as something the local schoolmaster might have written, and of all, should have kept looks out of his face which said as plainly as words could: Your soul is inferior, beneath my notice; take it away. He did not even seem to apprehend that Edward was torn between love of self and love of Ireland. Abstract thinking, I said, kills human sympathies, and Yeats is no longer able to appreciate anything but literary values. The man behind the play is ignored ... Yeats can no longer think with his body; it is only his mind that thinks. He is all intellect, if that isn't too cardinal a word. And seeing before me quite a new country of conjecture, one which I had never rambled in, I sat thinking of the cruelty of the monks of the Middle Ages, and the cruelty of the nuns and the monks of the present day. Their thoughts are abstracted from this world, from human life—that is why; and Yeats was a sort of monk of literature, an Inquisitor of Journalism who would burn a man for writing that education was progressing by leaps and bounds. Opinions make people cruel—literary as well as theological. Whereas the surgeon, whose thought is always of the flesh, is the kindliest of creatures. It is true that one sometimes hears of surgeons who, in the pursuit of science, willingly undertake operations which they know to be dangerous, and we know that the scientists in the laboratory are indifferent to the sufferings of the animals they vivisect. Even so, Nature thinks like the surgeon who risks an operation in order that he may discover the cause of the disease. The knowledge he gathers from the death of the patient is passed on, and it saves the life of another. But the artist cannot pass on any portion of his art to his pupil; his gift lives in himself and dies with him, and his art comes as much from his heart as from his intellect. The intellect outlives the heart, and the heart of Yeats seemed to me to have died ten years ago; the last of it probably went into the composition of The Countess Cathleen.
Yesterevening, when we wandered about the lake, talking of The Shadowy Waters, trying to free it from the occult sciences that had grown about it, Fomorians beaked and unbeaked, and magic harps and Druid spells, I did not perceive that the difficulties into which the story had wandered could be attributed to a lack of human sympathy. But Yeats's treatment of Edward proved it to me. The life of the artist is always at difficult equipoise; he may fail from lack of human sympathies, or he may yield altogether to them and become a mere philanthropist; and we may well wonder what the choice of the artist would have been if he had to choose between the destruction of Messina and Reggio or of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Were he to choose the ancient ruins in preference to the modern towns, he might give very good reasons for doing so, saying that to prolong the lives of a hundred thousand people for a few years would not be, in his opinion, worth a bronze like the Narcissus. A very specious argument might be maintained in favour of the preservation of the bronze, even at the price of a hundred thousand lives. Perhaps he might let the bronze go, but if all Greek art were added he would hesitate, and when he had let one hundred thousand men and women go to their doom he would probably retire into the mountains to escape from sight of every graven thing. To write a play our human and artistic sympathies must be very evenly balanced, and I remembered that among my suggestions for the reconstruction of The Shadowy Waters, the one that Yeats refused most resolutely was that the woman should refuse to accompany the metaphysical pirate to the ultimate North, but return somewhat diffidently, ashamed of herself, to the sailors who were drinking yellow ale.
Yeats has reflected himself in the pirate, I said. All he cares for is a piece of literature. The man behind it matters nothing to him. But am I not just as wicked as he? Worse, indeed, for Edward is my oldest friend and I do not defend him. Whereupon the manuscript fell from my hand, and I sat for a long time thinking; and then, getting up, I wandered out of my room and hung over the banisters, looking down into the central hall, asking myself what Yeats and Edward were saying to each other, and thinking that their talk must be strained and difficult, thinking too that my duty was to go down to them and bring their bitter interview to an end.
And I resolved to say that I could see no reason why the play should not be acted. But half-way down the stairs my conscience forbade so flagrant a lie. Yeats would not believe me. And what good would it do to allow Edward to bring over actors and actresses for the performance of such a play? It's kinder to tell him the truth. In the middle of the hall I stopped again. But if I tell him the truth the Irish Literary Theatre will come to an end.
Well, Edward, I've read your play ... but the alterations you've made aren't very considerable, and I can't help thinking that the play requires something more done to it.
You've read my play very quickly. Are you sure you've read it?
I've read all the passages that you've altered.
I had only glanced through them, but I could not tell him that a glance was sufficient.
If there were time, you might alter it yourself. You see, the time is short—only two months; and I watched Edward. For a long time he said nothing, but sat like a man striving with himself, and I pitied him, knowing how much of his life was in his play.
I give you the play, he said, starting to his feet. Do with it as you like; turn it inside out, upside down. I'll make you a present of it!
But, Edward, if you don't wish me to alter your play—
Ireland has always been divided, and I've preached unity. Now I'm going to practise it. I give you the play.
But what do you mean by giving us the play? Yeats said.
Do with it what you like. I'm not going to break up the Irish Literary Theatre. Do with my play what you like, and he rushed away.
I'm afraid, Yeats, his feelings are very much hurt.
And my heart went out to the poor man sitting alone in his tower, brooding over his failure. I expected Yeats to say something sympathetic, but all he said was: We couldn't produce such a play as that. It was perhaps the wisest thing he could say under the circumstances. For what use is there in sentimentalising over the lamb whose throat is going to be cut in the slaughter-house?
The sooner the alterations are made the better.
And I asked Yeats to come over tomorrow.
You see, you'll have to help me with this adaptation, for I know nothing of Ireland.
It is a pleasure to be with him, especially when one meets him for the purpose of literary discussion; he is a real man of letters, with an intelligence as keen as a knife, and a knife was required to cut the knots into which Edward had tied his play, for very few could be loosened. The only fault I found with Yeats in this collaboration was the weariness into which he sank suddenly, saying that after a couple of hours he felt a little faint, and would require half an hour's rest.
We returned to the play after lunch, and continued until nearly seven o'clock, too long a day for Yeats, who was not so strong then as he is now, and Lady Gregory wrote to me, saying that I must be careful not to overwork him, and that it would be well not to let him go more than two hours without food—a glass of milk, or, better still, a cup of beef-tea in the afternoon, and half an hour after lunch he was to have a glass of sherry and a biscuit. These refreshments were brought up by Gantley, Edward's octogenarian butler, and every time I heard his foot upon the stairs I offered up a little prayer that Edward was away in his tower, for, of course, I realised that the tray would bring home to him in a very real and cruel way the fact that his play was being changed and rewritten under his very roof, and that he was providing sherry and biscuits in order to enable Yeats to strike out, or, worse still, to rewrite his favourite passages. It was very pathetic; and while pitying and admiring Edward for his altruism, I could not help thinking of two children threading a bluebottle. True that the bluebottle's plight is worse than Edward's, for the insect does not know why it is being experimented upon, but Edward knew he was sacrificing himself for his country, and the idea of sacrifice begets a great exaltation of mind, is in fact, a sort of anaesthetic; and sustained by this belief we, Yeats and I, worked on through the day, Yeats tarrying as late as seven o'clock in order to finish a scene, Edward asking him to stay to dinner, a kindness that proved our undoing, for we lacked tact, discussing before Edward the alterations we were going to make. He sat immersed in deep gloom, saying he did not like our adaptation of the first act, and when we told him the alterations we were going to make in the second, he said:
But you surely aren't going to alter that? Why do you do this? Good heavens! I wouldn't advise you—
Yeats looked at him sternly, as a schoolmaster looks at a small boy, and next morning Edward told me that he was going to Dublin, adding that I had better come with him. On my mentioning that I expected Yeats that afternoon, he said that he would write, telling him of his decision, and a note came from Lady Gregory in the course of the afternoon, saying that she was leaving Coole. Would it be convenient to Edward to allow Yeats to stay at Tillyra for a few days by himself? He would like to continue the composition of The Shadowy Waters in Galway.
Lady Gregory's request seemed to me an extraordinary one to make in the present circumstances, and it seemed still more extraordinary that Edward should have granted it, and without a moment's hesitation, as if Yeats's literary arrogance had already dropped out of his memory. Such self-effacement as this was clearly a matter for psychological inquiry, and I turned Edward over in my mind many times before I discovered that his self-effacement should be attributed to patriotism rather than to natural amiability. He believed Yeats to be Ireland's poet, and to refuse to shelter him might rob Ireland of a masterpiece, a responsibility which he did not care to face.
Extraordinary! I said to myself, and as in a vision I saw Ireland as a god demanding human sacrifices, and everybody, or nearly everybody, crying: Take me, Ireland, take me; I am unworthy, but accept me as a burnt-offering. Ever since I have been in the country I have heard people speaking of working for Ireland. But how can one work for Ireland without working for oneself? What do they mean? They do not know themselves, but go on vainly sacrificing all personal achievement, humiliating themselves before Ireland as if the country were a god. A race inveterately religious I suppose it must be! And these sacrifices continue generation after generation. Something in the land itself inspires them. And I began to tremble lest the terrible Cathleen ni Houlihan might overtake me. She had come out of that arid plain, out of the mist, to tempt me, to soothe me into forgetfulness that it is the plain duty of every Irishman to disassociate himself from all memories of Ireland—Ireland being a fatal disease, fatal to Englishmen and doubly fatal to Irishmen. Ireland is in my family. My grand-uncle lay in prison condemned to death for treason; my father wasted his life in the desert of national politics. It is said that the custom of every fell disease is to skip a generation, and up to the present it had seemed that I conformed to the rule. But did I? If I did not, some great calamity awaited me, and I remembered that the middle-aged may not change their point of view. To do so is decadence.

Other Messaging links here
What I'm looking for
Some people like their dating to be clean and romantic, others like it dirty. Click on which you prefer (or both)
Clean Version
I'm looking for a young woman who would like a relationship involving having children as soon as possible. Whilst its fine if you use birth control until you make your mind up, please bear in mind I'm not getting any younger! As far as I'm concerned, if I'm having sex with you, I'm happy if you conceive as a result. I also find I have a better relationship with someone younger as despite this advert I'm somewhat reserved and dating someone younger helps me to open up and have fun more. You can live with me or visit often as you choose. I'd like a long term relationship and ideally want two children - or more if you want
Dirty Version
I'm a much older man looking for a young woman/women who will let me fill her juicy fertile pussy as often as possible with my cum with the aim of knocking you up. I want to do this as soon as possible, so please stop birth control and remove any implants if you have them, so that when my cock pumps my seed into you, I know that whilst I'm playing with your cum filled pussy after sex, there's a good chance rest of my seed is heading into your womb to impregnate you. After a pregnancy test shows positive, I want to enjoy my cock inside you and exploring your ripening body for the next 8 months or so as I feel your belly growing and your breasts swell, finally getting to share your full milky tits after you've pushed the baby out, whilst making love to you again to breed you again.
I realise what I'm looking for may be hard to find, so I won't be surprised to be reposting this in 6 months, but its enjoyable talking to people whilst looking. 😀
Unlike many on here, I'm not just looking to talk about doing this (although that's fun) I'm looking to meet up with someone and actually do it. Ideally you will be in the UK or a short plane journey away and willing to meet up soon. Willing to talk to people further away but will be upfront and say the closer you are the more likely this will happen.
You:

• any legal age under 25
• want to have children early
• live in England or able to get there!
• any religion as long as you don't mind me being agnostic
• any ethnicity

Me:

• white, 5'11" blue eyes, brown hair
• professional, work remotely but I have to be in England to work.
• needs exercise - New Years Resolution to do cycling!
• enjoys musicals and theatre
• not rich but high income. I'd be paying all living costs
• married but have lived separately for 15 years or so
• 3 adult children

I live in a large village but it has a railway station just 5 mins away on a direct line to London.
I believe that in a relationship I should help you achieve your goal in life, whether it's a career or being a stay at home parent, but I'm there to be a partner, not baby you 24/7. Similarly, although I want someone younger, you're not my slave (except in fun roleplay!).
Sex
I believe in spontaneity so after agreeing to have sex the first time, you don't have to ask to start things next time, however "Stop" and "Not Right Now" are valid!
Also valid is "OMG, This team meeting is so much better with you playing with my cock!" 😈
I'm not a great believer in sexual extremes, but have no objection to fun. I will mainly be turned on by the fact that someone beautiful is happy to be with me.
​
^{Due to the prevalence of people who are just looking for fun {fine 👍} or fake 👎, I apologise to those who are seriously interested in that I will have to keep this post live until I am in a committed physical relationship with someone!}

For some background, my “roommates” are my uncle, aunt, and grandma so I can’t move out yet because I’m only 16 and have like no money. Anyway, they act like fucking children who don’t know how to clean up after themselves and it extra gross because they eat meat and whenever they cook their is meat all over. They make they biggest mess when cooking dinner which sucks for me because I wake up early and have to look at their mess whilst trying to make breakfast and it grosses me out so much that sometimes I feel like I’m gonna throw up. They don’t understand how much seeing the meat all over the counter and oven grosses me out and get mad when I say something because they “work all day and deserve to come home and rest”. This is the stupidest excuse because it’s not that hard to not make a mess in the first place. Like I don’t even understand how people get food everywhere when cooking unless they are a fucking toddler. They act like I don’t need to rest when I come home when I am in 5 AP classes during the weekdays and work on the weekends as well. They also always leave their dirty dishes on the counters and on top of the oven. Not only does this gross me out because of the dead animals and other products that were obtained by torturing animals, but they also waste so much food. I’m a huge environmentalist and it pisses me off because they always make like double or triple the amont of food then what they eat and then they throw away all the leftovers because my uncle is a huge germaphobe (he also uses a shit ton of paper towels and paper plates). For example, when I went downstairs this morning to make my breakfast their was two basically full bowls of spaghetti and meatballs on the counter, a pan of meatballs on top of the oven, and meatball pieces inside of the fridge. It’s so disgusting and it literally makes me cry sometimes Most of this is just my uncle but my grandma also pisses me off because everyday she will start composing about how she’s tired of eating chicken all the time. I’m like okay then I can make you what I eat or something else that’s vegan and she will give me a dirty look as if that’s the most disgusting thing she’s ever heard. I tell her to stop complaint to me about it because it grosses me out but she won’t stop. Everyday she will tell me what they are having for dinner or start stressing out because she can’t rescued to feed her man child of a son who doesn’t even like her cooking because he’s a germaphobe and will literally throw out a whole meal and spend $50 on chick fila if he sees her touch the food with oven mitt. I tell her to stop talking to me about them eating dead animals and will explain how the animals are treated but she gets so mad at me for “pushing my beliefs on her” she did this with religion as well even though she is the one who always brings it up. I just wish I had vegan friends to talk to but I’m a 16 yr old in Ohio so that’s like impossible, which is why I’m posting my rant

This is more of a vent or just letting out my thoughts. I hope with this insight, people would be aware that DID isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but also having huge disconnection with your identity and memories. Feel free to read or comment with your experiences.
As a system, we've always had issues with self esteem and body image. Some alters don't mind our current mood, but I honestly hate what I look right now.
I look too feminine, hate having visible chest around. I don't like bright, pretty colored outfits in my closet. I don't even remember buying pink dresses, or floral tops. Even fucking makeup. It triggers my dysphoria, causing me to spiral down and feel as if I'm not masculine enough. What masculine man would have pretty dresses and cutesy pants, Korean skincare products, or fucking makeup in his room?
Been contemplating going through HRT and chest surgery, just to live like a man. But then another alter with feminine preferences will come in and intervene. Then I'll wake up and wonder why am I in makeup, and get mad at the money being wasted on clothes or makeup. I hate it here. Getting through it as a system feels so fucking frustrating because we'll forget, getting flashbacks, or how much we want to escape a social situation because we're hanging out with a specific alter's group of friends and technically we don't see them as our friends.
I've always wished to be a shapeshifter. A machine, an app, anything to transform us into what we desire to perceived as. I don't want someone in our system to impulsively end up getting cosmetic surgery (botox or boob eurgery as an example) and I end up feeling worse. Everyday I feel like I don't know what I really am. If we were to resemble an object, we'd be a really fucked up and almost impossible to solve rubix cube.

I posted here about my self hatred of being Korean and hating Korea before. But after thinking (obsessively) about myself, I realized I don't really hate being Korean or hate Korea (although I kinda do) but I hate being a parasite.
I feel like I shouldn't engage in any Korean media like movies or TV shows or webcomics (except music, for some reason) because I have this 'guilt' of not going through similar experiences that other native Koreans went through, and therefore 'I don't deserve those things from Korea'. I also have hard time reading Korean books cause I feel like I'm taking advantage of them.
There was a Korean American in Korea who abused the law to escape from mandatory military service (in Korea it is mandatory for men to serve in military) and he's (probably) one of the most hated man in Korea, and I'm terrified that I'm acting like him. I also saw an article once about Korean American who went to Korean hospital even though they didn't have the citizen ship, and they were criticized for it (I know there's more detail, but I'm scared to read the article again) And some year ago one of my family members went back to Korea mostly for health problem and I'm scared that we are like them. I also also saw an opinionated article and in it said in Korean (roughly translate by me) "the 1.5 gens accept American things that are they're better than Koreans, and accept Korean things if they are better than American things" and it was written with negative connotations.
Right now I'm in Korea. it does feel nice, but I can't shake these feelings that I'm a parasite. I'm the blood sucking Korean parasite that only takes what's good in Korea and leaves behind all the shitty things for the native Koreans.
Also, Korea doesn't allow having duel passport. You have to give up the Korean passport if you get a citizenship from other country. I'm still a permanent resident, but I start to wander 'is it because my parents want to abuse the law for not being a citizen?' if that's the case, am I even allowed to engage in Korean media? Is it okay to do that?
Idk I feel so guilty for existing.

Galatians 6:16~"And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. "
As many as teach this doctrine of "free justification" then PEACE on THEM!
Those men who reject free justification then there is no peace on them but God's curse according to Galatians chapter one. This is not my personal opinion but straight from the pen of Paul.
Galatians 1:8,9~"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Better to hear this now then in that day!
Those men who preach free justification by grace alone....... then God's peace and mercy is upon them since they alone know that our peace depends upon Jesus' life of obedience and perfect faith as the MAN Christ Jesus.
"The Israel of God"~which are the TRUE children of God's promises in Christ! Abraham's natural children are NOT the children of God's promises per Romans 9, only the children of God promises in Christ are the TRUE Israel of God. A TRUE Jews is not one outwardly in the flesh, but one INWARDLY in the new man created after Jesus Christ.
Maybe more on this later~it truly should not even be debated , since Paul who was a Jew by nature has told us what a true Jew truly is. Later.....RB

Disclaimer - What I'm about to share are my thoughts based on my own experiences from the past. I'm posting here to share my thoughts but also to seek counter-opinions or reflections from those who may agree fully or partially. The purpose is for me to expand my own perspective on this, while also potentially enriching others' views on the matter. Apologies if this doesn't come under the gamut of what is allowed in this subreddit.
So I've had a few unsuccessful relationships in the past, especially of late, where there was one particular pattern that made the relationship unsustainable in the long-term, despite the best intentions of both parties. That is asymmetry of one kind or another. Let me explain.
When I use the word "asymmetry" I am speaking very broadly about a range of phenomena. It could be something as fundamental as asymmetry in traits, or benign as asymmetry in interest, or something as frustrating as asymmetry in effort invested, or as potentially dangerous as asymmetry in ethics/values, power, standards, treatment or accountability. I'm sure there are more dimensions in which it is possible to observe asymmetry.
I'm listing some examples of asymmetry for clarity as to what I'm talking about:-

1. Asymmetry in intelligence/maturity. One person being very intelligent or mature and the other person just not being there. Let's say they find each other very attractive for some reason. Despite that overwhelming attraction, this is eventually going to lead to frustrations in the long run. The mature person is going to feel not seen/heard and alone in that relationship and the not so mature person is going to either feel poor self-esteem in comparison or unable to relate to their more mature partner or feel like they're being dragged forward at a pace that is not comfortable for them.
2. Asymmetry in effort. Anyone who puts an inordinate amount of effort into the relationship with someone who doesn't reciprocate is going to suffer eventually, even if initially they're happy to be that way. And the other person is going to grow dependent on the disproportionate efforts of their effortful partner. This isn't healthy for either of them.
3. Asymmetry in ethics/values. Let's say one person is very good-hearted and empathetic and vicariously suffers at the sight of others suffering, they're not going to be able to enjoy the company of someone who values profit over ethics, regardless of how accepting they are. Their consensus over decision-making will suffer immensely.
4. Asymmetry in powecontrol in the relationship. This is a relatively well-established red flag. One person makes all the decisions, and the other person doesn't get to even protest, let alone participate in the decision-making. Theoretically, if the follower was to have an inordinate amount of trust upon the leader in the relationship; and if the leader were to have inordinate amount of self-control and love towards their follower in the relationship, they could live harmoniously, just as a healthy parent and child can live harmoniously in a relationship that is asymmetrical in the dimension of powecontrol. But in the context of a romantic relationship, where mutual understanding and independence are valued, this can lead to the partners missing out on fundamental joys of a more symmetrical relationship.
5. Asymmetry in treatment. This forays into the realm of outright toxic relationships. Let's say partner A is always kind and respectful to partner B even when they falter and is always happy to calmly explain the mistakes to partner B. And partner A is also happy to reflect on their own mistakes and change their ways. But let's say partner B simply explodes in anger at the slightest mistake made by partner A. And the prospect of partner A pointing out the mistakes of partner B would lead to more harm to partner A than simply letting it slide. This can lead to an abuser-abusee kind of a relationship in no time.

I'm sure there are more examples for what I'm talking about (asymmetry in sexual drive, lifestyle, mental health, past trauma etc), but this should suffice in bringing clarity about what I'm talking about.
In my observation there is no such thing as a relationship between two well-intentioned individuals where only one person suffers. If one partner suffers for whatever reason, the other partner is going to suffer for different reasons. You either suffer together or rejoice together. Even if it is an abusive relationship, where it may seem that the abuser is depleting the abusee for personal pleasure, the abusee merely staying in that relationship allows the abuser to grow deeper in their toxic tendencies with immunity. And someone being toxic towards others is always a consequence of their toxicity consuming them first and overflowing onto others. They temporarily rejoice at the presence of someone else to abuse only because they don't have to suffer their toxicity alone.
But even as I'm writing about the effect of asymmetry in long-term sustainable relationships, I am skeptical of a simplistic conclusion. As with anything, there are exceptions. There are individuals in long-term relationships with significant age gap where there is a natural asymmetry in maturity and lived experience. There are individuals in long-term sustainable relationships where one partner is significantly wealthier and savvy with money and the other person isn't. Perhaps the asymmetry could be disproportionate, as I've indicated in the title. But it could still be healthy because there may be another dimension in which the relationship is asymmetric that somehow counterbalances the other asymmetry. For example, let's combine the two asymmetries I've pointed to as the exception here - a lonely old man with a lot of wealth and no one to share it all with falls in love with a very young woman who is struggling to pay her bills. There is clearly asymmetry in experience and wealth, but it need not lead to asymmetry in treatment or maturity. Someone young could be just as self-aware and mature as someone much older. And perhaps the young woman appreciates the benefits of being with this wealthy man so much that she shows all her affection, gratitude through how well she takes care of him and the old man cherishes her company so much that he showers her with gifts and experiences that she could never even imagine having by herself. So it could turn into a symbiotic relationship where the asymmetry could lead to phenomenal benefits for either partner.
So perhaps there is a pattern to the healthy exceptions of the trend I initially observed regarding the effect of asymmetry. Maybe the key is to have symmetry across some fundamental dimensions, like values, treatment and maturity and the rest will be sorted to benefit both. I don't know. I don't have all the answers. Hence this post. What are your thoughts?

The Lineup:

• Chapter 1 (2013-2017):
• The Batman
• Superman: Man Of Steel
• The Batman 2: Heart Of Ice
• Batman Vs Superman: World's Finest
• Wonder Woman
• Green Lantern Corps
• The Flash
• Aquaman
• Suicide Squad
• Justice League

HBO Television Series:

• The Batman: The Early Years
• Catwoman: The Jewel Thief
• Doctor Fate
• Hawkman and Hawkgirl
• Blackhawk

OUTLINE OF THE MOVIES
A detailed outline of plot-lines, changes and in-universe connections.

The Batman:

The Plot: This events of this movie would stay exactly the same.
My Major Changes: Batman is in his fourth year in my version of the film, he's not an experienced veteran like Ben Affleck's interpretation, he still has a lot to learn, but he isn't totally inexperienced like in the film we got. This would be done in a similar way to The New 52. I believe that Pattinson can play a Batman who has sidekicks before, but after Jason's death, he becomes more emo, like in the movie we got.
Batman, in my DCEU, already had adopted Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd and Helena Bertinelli. Bruce hasn't adopted or even met Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, or Damian Wayne yet.
Dick Grayson left on extremely bad terms with Batman in a similar way to in the animated series episode "Old Wounds"
Jason Todd gets lured into a circus, similar to Titans, and is killed on live television by The Joker, similar to Earth-27.
Huntress left Bruce, due to the trauma of Jason Todd's death, since they were dating at the time, similar to Earth 27.
Barbara Gordon got shot in the spine and raped by The Joker, like in The Killing Joke storyline, it happened shortly before Jason got killed. Barbara doesn't become Oracle until a few months after the events of the first movie.
Batwoman is a cousin of Batman, and Bruce is aware of her activities.
This would be subtly mentioned in my version, and Dick leaving and Jason's death are a few additional reasons why Bruce acts like an edgelord and doesn't have that playboy persona anymore (at least until the sequels)
Batman, before the events of this film, has already fought The Joker, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Killer Moth, Deadshot, Poison Ivy and Ra's Al Ghul. There would be newspaper clippings that mention these off-screen encounters.
The Joker deleted scene is added in my version, to establish that he exists in this universe, if the post-credit scenes didn't do it already.
Metropolis and Queen Industries are mentioned during Bruce's meeting with Falcone. Setting up the larger DC Universe, in the future.
I would place emphasis that Batman is struggling to make change in Gotham on his own, without his sidekicks to assist him, he only has Alfred, Catwoman and Gordon to rely on, since Dick, Barbara, and Helena, have left on bad terms or to do their own thing in neighboring cities, and Jason is deceased (for now).
That also explains why Batman calls himself "Vengeance". He's on his own with barely anyone to help him, just like how he was when his parents died. (Aside from Alfred)
Bruce's utility belt gets blown up during the final battle. Which sets up him getting a more comic accurate one, in the future.
However, he still uses the adrenaline injection, and I'd later tie that to Bane and his venom formula, in a future movie as a prototype.

Superman: The Man Of Steel

The Plot - Act-1: I’d heavily change the opening, develop Zod more, and make a cleaner Krypton that actually has crystals covering the planet, just like in the comics and in Superman (1978)
(I'd replace General Zod with Metallo as the antagonist, because Zod has already appeared in Superman ll and Smallville, by 2013, so I'd use a new villain that never appeared on the big screen in Metallo, who only appeared on Smallville with a small budget and we never fully saw his robotic form. I'd save General Zod for the third movie)
We see a small meteor found in the ocean, near Metropolis, by Lex Luthor, with a glowing green substance.
We flashback to many years ago, Kal-El is born, they name him. We cut to General Zod who is sitting in his home alone, having violent flashbacks of robotic creatures with symbols on their foreheads attacking krypton, killing people, even Zod’s family, the flashbacks are brief, but just enough to see the Kryptonian council surrender to their attacker, a dome encloses over Kandor and make it disappear, but a pod flies away as Kandor disappears.
(That will set up Supergirl in Chapter 2, and Brainiac fighting Superman eventually)
Dru-Zod is haunted and angry about this traumatic event that happened ago. Jor-El is studying problems in the planet’s core, but their computers say everything is fine. Jor-El asks Zod to come with him to check a fault line, as a scientist needs to be accompanied by a soldier when going to the outer lands, to access military equipment or whatever, just as a soldier needs authorization by a scientist to access scientific equipment.
They talk, it’s clear they’re friends, Jor-El tells Zod about his son, happy for him. Suddenly a violent earthquake erupts, causing Jor-El to quickly check his readings. They’re off the charts. Jor-El and Zod quickly rushes back to his lab to check his main computers, which are all reading things as fine, he digs deeper into the programming and finds the same symbol that was on the robotic creatures head embedded into the computers programming, corrupting it.
Jor-El is horrified, Zod is furious, yelling about how that thing destroyed their families, their brightest city, and now it’s destroyed them, Zod blames the council for bowing to the thing and proclaims them weak. Jor-El warns the council, as Zod rallies any soldiers loyal to him to save their world while they still can, he does so easily, they attack the council headquarters and take them out, Zod finds Jor-El, and asks him to help him save their world through allowing access to The Codex.
The Codex is a computer chip, essentially it’s the brain, it has info on everything, from the genetic code from which all kryptonian children are created, to the entire history of Krypton and all its knowledge, and the how to build and operate a terraforming device called the World Engine, as such a thing has been illegal for a long time due to it requiring a planet with an already habitable environment and thus life.
(Brainiac would get the information about how to build and use The World Engine in a sequel)
Jor-El refuses Zod, saying he will not allow Zod to destroy an entire race. Jor-El escapes, accesses the codex, steals it and goes to Lara, telling her they have to leave. Jor-El has set a warning for the planet to give them time to escape, but doubts they’ll be able to as a military security system destroys any ship entering or leaving krypton, but Jor-El has a plan:
A space probe, small enough to sneak past the security systems, but big enough to carry maybe one person, or one person and a baby. The probe was designed to send robotic drones to other planets and test the planet’s atmosphere and environment. He sends Lara and Kal-El to the probe, and she goes, begrudgingly, as Jor-El gives her the codex and a special command key for the probe that will guide them when they get to earth, telling her he has to distract Zod’s men to keep them from the probe.
Lara is wounded fatally, from a plasma shot by one of Brainiac's drones, but she gets into the probe with Kal-El and takes off. She hides the codex in the main engine of the probe just before this happens.
Zod captures Jor-El, and sees the probe doing that teleporting thing, he puts two and two together and takes Jor-El prisoner, gets on a large ship with his army, and shuts down the security systems, so he can track the ion trail or whatever science mumbo jumbo before it dissipates.
Jor-El, though, has thought ahead, and damaged the teleportation device thing, making it so it would trap them in the “phantom zone” between the teleportation destinations, giving the trail time to dissipate so they can’t track it.
General Zod, Faora and Nam-Ek are all caught in the vortex, and sent to The Phantom Zone, by the teleportation device.
(General Zod and Faora will return in a future sequel)
Jor-El closes his eyes as he is caught in the planet destroying explosion, as we see Krypton blown to smithereens, as a green remnant goes through a radiation storm and crashes in The Atlantic Ocean. As we cut to Earth, where the probe crashes in Kansas at night, near a farm in winter, Jonathan and Martha come out. Lara, barely alive, opens the probe, by pulling the command key out, and they find her, Jonathan tries to save her, but she dies, her last words before passing away are asking them to protect her son.
Jonathan and Martha lie to a friend of theirs in the hospital by telling them that the baby had been left on their doorstep and asking him to write down that Martha had given birth to the baby over the winter, during a recent snowstorm.
Meanwhile, Clark Kent hitchhikes across Metropolis and starts working odd jobs, researching extraterrestrial sightings, and secretly using his powers to help people in need, which results in him having to hit the road again. Clark Kent starts developing journalistic skills as he talks to people and gathers information in his quest to figure out where he came from.
We flashback to Clark Kent's backstory, with Clark's parents trying to raise him right and help him control his powers. In the scene where Clark Kent asks his father in the original movie, which is "Should I have just let those kids on the bus die?".
Jonathan Kent tells Clark, no, and that he did the right thing, but he shouldn't expose his powers too much. During the scene, these flashbacks show that Jonathan Kent wants to keep his son Clark safe, but what kind of father would he be if he didn't encourage his son to do the right thing, even when it is hard?
Jonathan Kent is inspired by his son's selflessness and rushes in to help a lady that is about to be run over, and he succeeds, but the excitement and fear cause him to have a heart attack. Jonathan Kent gets rushed to the hospital by Martha Kent and Clark, but he dies. Years later, Martha says goodbye to Clark as he's moving to Metropolis.
Back in the present, Clark Kent goes to a bar to eat some food, but when he eats, Clark notices a drunk and rude Truck Driver harassing a female waitress.
Clark Kent hesitates a bit, but he notices no one else is stopping it, so he decides to do something about the situation. As the drunk and rude trucker is about to grab the woman inappropriately again, Clark Kent grabs his arm and he angrily tells him to leave the girl alone, which surprises the truck driver and makes him a bit scared.
However, Clark notices that his strength is hurting the man's arm, and in order to not expose his powers in front of people watching, he lets his hand go to show A bit of restraint, but Clark pushes his own to the floor, so he doesn't attack him. The truck driver gets back up from the floor and attempts to punch Clark, but Clark dodges the punch before he can be hit.
A few police officers notice the fight happen, and they decide to arrest the drunk trucker for intoxication and attempted assault against Clark Kent. Clark Kent gets thanked by the waitress for standing up for her, but Clark decides to head out to avoid any suspicions.
(The waitress will later be revealed as Lucy Lane, the younger sister of Lois Lane)
Clark decides to go downtown in Metropolis to apply for a better job. He drives there and we get shots of Metropolis. The design of Metropolis, in my rewrite, strongly resembles the version from Superman Returns.
Act 2: Later, after seeing The Daily Planet building, Clark decides to apply for a job there, and he succeeds, and this is where he first meets Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Chloe Sullivan and Perry White.
Jimmy Olsen is the new kid in The Daily Planet, fresh out of college, and he becomes fast friends with Lois and Clark.
Perry White is the very stern Editor-in-Chief of the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet. He is Clark's boss. (I would still cast Lawrence Fishbourne)
Chloe Sullivan is witty, feisty, and cheeky reporter of The Daily Planet. She is Lois's close friend and she vaguely was acquaintances with Clark, back in his Smallville days.
Clark and Lois hit it off, despite their bickering at first, and they even agree on a date, a few weeks later. Clark and Lois interview Lex Luthor, about LEXCORP's new achievements in cybernetics. During the interview, Lex makes some unwanted advances towards Lois, which irritates Clark but he keeps his cool and stays professional.
(That is a creepy politician metaphor, kinda like a certain president from 2016, who has sexual assault allegations from at least 5 women)
Clark decides to help people publicly as Superman, as he pulls out the old black suit that Martha had made for him. After work, Clark hears an explosion, he walks as Clark rips his shirt to reveal his (Silver) Superman symbol.
After that, then John Willlams score starts as we see a montage of Clark helping people from life threatening situations and stopping robberies, as the reports of a guy flying in a gray cape stopping crime is flooding in. However, it's not entirely confirmed by the public, so some cynical people in Metropolis say it was an urban legend of some "Superman".
It's during one of these robbery encounters that Clark fought a former marine, John Corben, though his own machine gun's bullets bounced off Superman, and they ricocheted back at Corben and he's paralyzed and his body was mutilated beyond repair. A regretful Superman jumps him to a hospital, near The LEXCORP Building, (We'll get back to that later)
Later, Lois is involved in a helicopter mishap. Clark publicly uses his powers for the first time to jump high enough to catch Lois Lane falling off the damaged helicopter, as it explodes, near 'The LEXCORP tower, astonishing the crowd gathered below. Very similar to the 1978 film.
Superman is now publicly recognized, but not everyone is welcoming of this, some seeing him as dangerous for having this much power. Lex Luthor was quick to become an enemy of Superman when he accused the hero of being an alien threat to humanity. Lex also did research on the meteor that crashed, and he found out that it is deadly to Superman, Lex dubbed the green radioactive substance, "Kryptonite".
The Daily Planet was the only newspaper in existence to portray him in a positive light, with his first recorded photograph being taken by Jimmy Olsen.
Lex, along with Mercy Graves, plans to kill Superman, before he can interfere with LEXCORP and he sees Superman as a threat, due to his alien origin. It's basically Batman's motive for being against Superman in Batman Vs Superman, but pasted onto Lex Luthor, instead. Eve Teschmacher doesn't see what is wrong with Superman. She's very reminiscent of her counterpart in the 1978 film. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor goes to pay a visit to John Corben, in the hospital, after he heard the new story of his encounter with Superman.
John, by this point, is a man that was screwed over by Superman (inadvertently) and Lex made a deal with Corben that if he killed Superman, he'd get millions after the U.S. Government screwed him out of getting benefits after years of being in the marines. Feeling that he had nothing to lose, Corben agreed to the cybernetic enhancements.
LEXCORP scientists transfer his mind into an indestructible android body made of titanium alloys and powered by a Kryptonite heart. Upon the completion, Corben's android body was covered with a layer of artificial skin, which, aside from a rectangular seam which could expose his Kryptonite heart, allowed him to pass himself off as his original body.
Lex Luthor orders Metallo to cause destruction and collateral damage around Metropolis, to catch the attention of Superman. Reluctantly, Metallo rips off his human skin, revealing his robotic body from underneath.
Act-3: We see Metallo decimate Metropolis with his kryptonite powered weapons. The Military is sent in to neutralize Metallo. However, none of the machine gun rounds from the soldiers can pierce Corben's android body. Meanwhile, Clark hears a psychic call and he discovers a glowing blue crystal from the remains of his spacecraft that he keeps around. It compels Superman to fly to the Arctic where he uses the blue crystal to find The Fortress of Solitude, which strongly resembles the architecture and design of Krypton.
Inside, a hologram of Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after educating him on his reason for being sent to Earth and his powers, and he says to Clark,
"The people of Earth are different from us, it's true, but ultimately, I believe that is a good thing. They won't necessarily make the same mistakes we did, but if you guide them, Kal, if you give them hope. That's what this symbol means. The symbol of the House of El means "Hope". Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That's what you can bring them. They will race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the Sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
Clark leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with a red cape and the House of El family crest emblazoned on his chest. It's basically the classic Superman outfit.
After seeing news coverage of Metropolis getting decimated, Clark decides to learn how to fly to save everyone, and it's the same exact scene from Man Of Steel, except when Clark does fly, The John Williams Superman Theme plays in the background instead. When Superman arrives in Metropolis, he evacuates civilians out of the city. (Because that's what Superman is supposed to be written as)
Meanwhile, Lois is about to get shot and killed by Metallo's plasma cannon, especially since she was too close to Lex's operations, as a reporter, but Superman swoops in and punches Metallo, sending the cyborg crashing into a Wayne Enterprises Building. (That's hinting at a Batman crossover)
After Superman saves her life, Lois grabs a nearby AK 47, on the pavement and evacuates Jimmy, Chloe, and Perry out of the city to be safe from all the chaos and collateral damage that Metallo is causing. Superman and Metallo have a brawl across Metropolis.
Metallo activates his kryptonite blaster and Superman is shot in the chest with it, weakening him and sending Clark crashing into a car, destroying it on impact.
Metallo absolutely bodies Clark in his weakened state. Corben is a master martial artist during his time with The Marines, and Superman is reliant on his abilities. Metallo beats down on Superman.
Metallo fires a missile at Superman, but using his reaction time, Clark turns the missile right back at Metallo, and the explosion blows a huge chunk in the torso of Metallo's cybernetic body.
Superman flies away from Metallo, momentarily for extra sunlight, to nullify the effects of the kryptonite, but Metallo has thrusters that allow him to fly at supersonic speeds.
The two engage in an aerial fight, but Superman grabs Metallo by his robotic skull and throws him into The LEXCORP Tower, tearing a hole through the skyscraper.
Superman and Metallo continue fighting in the LEXCORP Tower. When they are in close quarters, Superman freezes one of Metallo's arms and blows it up with his heat vision, knocking Metallo backwards, losing his right arm in the process.
When Metallo rushes towards Superman, Clark, in slow motion, sees an exposed chunk of wiring on the side of Metallo's torso, fires his heat vision and Metallo explodes and he is left a fiery mess, and Metallo shuts down.
Lois does find and confront Lex, thanks to Eve Teschmacher, the intern, next to Lex screams "She's got a gun!!" as Lois shoots Lex in the left arm.
When Superman arrives, Lex explains that they cannot arrest him, since he already covered the Metallo incident up, so Superman leaves with Lois, and flies away, vowing to put Luthor away in prison, one day.
Superman reveals his identity to Lois, and they still stay together as the two kiss, as the camera pans out to see the ravaged Metropolis. News Coverage, the papers and social media posts around the globe publish that Superman saves Metropolis from Metallo's terrorist attack and is a beacon of hope, just when it looked like Metropolis was about to be wiped off the map. Meanwhile, Metallo is sent back to LEXCORP and Lex repairs Corben and keeps him in a room, for something darker and nefarious…
(That is set up for The Legion Of Doom for a future Justice League sequel, especially since Steppenwolf is the villain for my rewrite of the first Justice League film)
The film ends with Superman and Lois being on their date that they promised each other, and after the date is over, Clark hears a crime, Lois kisses him and Clark suits up as Superman and flies off, with the John Willlams theme playing in the background, as the credits roll.
Post Credit Scenes: In the Batcave, Batman is watching a live video of Superman's fight with Metallo, setting up their meeting in World's Finest.
A giant skull-ship with tentacles orbits Saturn, and inside, the computer coldly states, "Kryptonian detected" and a green humanoid alien in silver armor, with his eyes glowing pink, states "Target Acquired" and smiles sinisterly.
This will set up Brainiac as a villain for a future Superman sequel, right after The Justice League.

The Batman 2: Heart Of Ice:

The Plot Act 1: The Batman 2 takes place during Christmas, and a year after the first movie. The opening scene is a flashback montage of Victor Fries and Nora falling in love and would end with the doctor saying she has cancer.
After this revelation, Victor developed a special cryogenic cell and planned to cryogenically hold Nora in there, to keep her alive, until a cure was found. However, Fries had been misappropriating GothCorp's money, which left the company in debt and the experiment unauthorized.
Fries was interrupted by GothCorp's CEO Ferris Boyle and a fight ensued and Fries grabbed a handgun, pointing it at Boyle and the security guards. Fries was then calmly ordered by Boyle to drop the gun, reasoning that it was not his nature to resort to violence and that a possibility may have existed to legitimately bankroll Nora's experiment.
Boyle's smooth talk got to Victor as he relaxed and let down his guard, allowing the deceitful CEO to kick the scientist into a lab table full of beakers which exploded. The explosion smashed him into his cryogenic freezing tanks and the accident soaked his entire body with the freezing solution and rendered him unable to survive outside of a sub-zero environment.
In the present day, Bruce Wayne has been trying to help and go out in public more and has his playboy personality, to help Gotham City recover from the flood that The Riddler caused in the previous movie. Ferris Boyle would be one of the head leaders for Gotham's rebuilding, even after the flood being frozen solid. However, it's another lie and secretly, Boyle is secretly taking money supposed to rebuild Gotham into his own bank account.
We have an opening action sequence of Batman fighting Killer-Croc, in the flooded waters of Gotham City, in the sewers. It's very similar to Bruce's fight with Killer Croc in Arkham Origins video game, where Batman uses his electrical gauntlets to wail on Croc, knocking him out and Bruce leaves Killer Croc for the cops.
After that, we see Batman as Bruce Wayne attending a charity event for Gotham's reconstruction, after the flood. It's led by Ferris Boyle. However, the door is busted down, thugs begin aiming their guns and an armored figure with glowing red eyes slowly walks towards Boyle, as Mister Freeze is introduced and he attacks The Charity Event, and tries to get the diamonds in the area and kidnap Boyle. He begins freezing people with his Freeze-Gun.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Bruce disappears into the panicked crowd and suits up as Batman, and he jumps out and kicks Mister Freeze, directly in his glass dome, cracking it. Due to his limited mobility in his armor, Freeze struggles against Batman, as Bruce continues landing several blows on him. However, Freeze gets Batman off of him and freezes Batman's feet to the floor with his Freeze-Rifle.
Mister Freeze steals the diamond and kidnaps Boyle. Victor takes Boyle to his hideout where he freezes his body. Boyle had caused his body to turn a bluish blue and for him to feel like he's constantly burning and his only comfort is his suit which cools him down. We now cut to Gordon and Batman investigating the crime scene.
Mister Freeze is using the diamonds to power his armor to find a cure for Nora who is permanently frozen. We have a similar scene to the animated series to show Freeze's lack of empathy and cold demeanor towards his goons.
Freeze has also been targeting executives of Ferris Boyle. Which leads to an action sequence in the frozen waters in Gotham City, where Freeze is surrounded by the executives, who all carry assault rifles. Mister Freeze kills them all by smashing the ice and freezing them underneath the frozen water, causing them to drown.
Finally, Batman figures out who Victor Fries is, through some research on The Batcomputer and which bank he's gonna rob next and chases after him with The Batmobile. However, Mister Freeze freezes the vehicle causing Batman to lose him.
Act-2: After his loss to Mister Freeze, Batman goes to The Iceberg Lounge to get some answers and information on Freeze but instead of getting met by The Penguin, it's two super strong thugs who are Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Batman fights the duo, but he gets overpowered and just when Batman is cornered and about to be beaten to death, Catwoman jumps behind Tweedledum and kicks him in the head and says playfully to Batman,
"I figured you'd be here".
Together, Bruce and Selena knock out both Tweedledee and Tweedledum in a bloody fist fight. After dealing with those two, Bruce and Selina get to Penguin, who does actually have information this time as he is doing a weapons deal with Freeze where he'll trade for this new freeze tech.
Batman attacks The Freeze Thugs, alongside Catwoman. These thugs have less advanced versions of Freeze's gun and interrogate one and figuring out Freeze's hideout and his motivation for his crimes. After they are subdued, Batman and Catwoman go to Mister Freeze's hideout taking out his goons stealthily and finding Freeze looking at his wife in the tube.
Batman sympathizes with Freeze and tries to convince him that he'll help Freeze with his wife and that he doesn't need to steal diamonds and shatter Boyle, who has been frozen all this time. Freeze doesn't care and doesn't trust Batman because Boyle lied to him in a similar way. They battle for a while, with Freeze having an upgraded version of his armor for better mobility.
Mister Freeze catches one of Batman's kicks and throws him aside into one of his ice structures, shattering it to pieces.
As Batman is in a fist fight with Freeze, Bruce begins to freeze up, because his main suit is not built for this low temperature environment, as Mister Freeze pulverizes Batman with a fury of punches, which breaks his cowl.
Catwoman tries to slice into Freeze's armor with her claws, but Freeze shoots her in the neck, causing Selena to suffocate.
(As for the effects of The Freeze-Rifle, The freezing itself doesn't actually kill you but it's the hypothermia that ensues that does it)
Batman breaks the ice and stealthily retreats with a wounded and suffocating Catwoman, back to The Batcave.
Act-3: After this, Batman quickly gets out of his armor and shatters the ice around Selina's neck. During Catwoman's recovery, Bruce reveals his identity to her and the two make out and get into an official relationship. Bruce and Selina come up with a plan to stop Freeze and find some way to cure his wife. His original suit is too damaged and they don't have time to repair it, as Freeze plans to storm GothCorp and steal all their latest technologies to help Nora.
Lucius Fox and his son, Luke, create Batman's new extreme environment suit created to stop Freeze specifically. The Extreme Environment Suit is armed with Thermo Charged Batarangs. Batman with his new XE suit will find Freeze and they battle.
All of Freeze's blasts from his Freeze-Rifle do nothing as they melt quickly on Batman's XE suit.
Batman bombards Mister Freeze with explosives and blasts from his Thermo Charged Batarangs, which ends up weakening Mister Freeze.
Batman punches Freeze across the room.
Catwoman fights off Freeze's thugs. It's a similar action sequence to Black Widow's hallway fight with Whiplash's thugs in Iron Man 2.
Batman reasons with Mister Freeze, to turn himself in for the sake of his wife, Nora, and Victor agrees and surrenders to The GCPD. Mister Freeze is put away in Arkham Asylum, in an extremely cold cell. The movie ends with Wayne Enterprises announcing that they are working on a cure for cancer, and they are almost there, as Victor cries with happiness, as the film ends on a hopeful note.
Post Credit Scenes: - We see a dark haired woman, looking at photos of Batman and Superman's past sightings and footage of their battles with past supervillains, including Batman's final battle with Mister Freeze.
She says "The Silver Age of Heroes is happening, huh." As we zoom in on her amazonian armor, tiara, and lasso, hung up in her penthouse. As we hear the Hanns Zimmer Wonder Woman Theme quietly plays in the background, as it cuts to black…
(Yep, it's a small glimpse at Wonder Woman)

• Tweedledee and Tweedledum are in the streets of Gotham, and they are suddenly hypnotized by a mysterious man. That will set up Mad Hatter for a future Batman film.

This is a repost of my post in lookismcomic.
Here are some ground rules to set

1. Only the strongest forms of characters will be considered in this list (eg- Ultra instinct Daniel and not base version Daniel)
   
2. The strength of the characters will only be counted to what we have seen until chapter 442 and not potential to be stronger in the future or else Jake Kim would be an easy number 1.
   

Keep in mind this is going to be a long post which will need to be updated after zack's, vasco's and Jay's strength will be seen at our fullest extent.
Let's begin

1. Original Daniel Park

We always knew of him to be a fat kid who got bullied and mistreated by others his entire life. However after losing weight by systema training by the war hero Alexander Sophia and formal fighting training by the shiro oni Yamazaki Gun Park the disciple of Tom Lee the fighting genius of Charles Choi himself, he is bloomed into becoming a monster in his own right. Firstly he has the ability to copy fighting moves by just a glance which is so hax that it basically renders any talent or mastery the opponent has for a certain fighting style useless. Till now only 5 people have been shown to have this ability first he original Daniel himself, then perfect body Daniel, then Johan Seong, then Jinyoung Park and lastly the unnamed person who defeated the world Muay Thai champion Brekdak using this ability. Now lets talk about feats, in his first fight, one of the workers strongest fighters Xiaolung admitted that Daniel is now a monster and he defeated Xiaolung very easily, remember this guy is so strong that Jake himself had to go all out to defeat him, he was also able to fight Yoosung who was judged at the Level of a first generation King by eugene, the smartest guy in the series and was aknowledged by gun to be a worthy opponent. Moreover he is a different beast in ultra instinct, he is able to go toe to toe with one of the stronger first generaion kings going all out and could potentiality be stronger than him which is a very big feat as no one in the second gen has subdued even the weaker first generation kings by themselves.

1. Perfect body Daniel Park

He is the person who has the most perfect body for fighting according to the medical genius of Charles Choi, Jinyoung Park. He also possesses the copying ability but according to me his ability of copying is actualy the best compared to all as his body has mastered all the fighting styles so he can sub-consciously improve those moves. Moreover his fighting prowess has been aknowledged by gun himself as all his moves are perfect. However since he has not honed his body himself and all of it is given to him he can't use it to its full extent leading to his base form fighting ability to not be very impressive comparing to the 4 crews so ya'll must be thinking, 'why is he even number 2?' Well it's because of a form only he and his other body can attain- ultra instinct. This form of his is so good that it made mortal enemies Jake Kim and Samuel Seo fight together to defeat him because they know how dangerous he is, he is the man who made SAMUEL SEO feel fear, the reason why it's crazy is because the reason Samuel didn't get aknowledged by gun even though he defeated all the 4 major crew heads is because he is too vicious, someone like him felt fear due to the mere presence of this man, he is so good that he made Charles Choi's fighting genius Tom Lee's student Goo who is on the same level as gun and stronger than all first generation kings go all out with his best weapon to defeat him, he is so good that when ge regained consciousness from fighting gun, he was in a favorable position and he actually broke gun's arm which is something no crew head has even come close to achieving.

1. Johan Seong

He is also one of the users who weild the copying ability and is regarded as one of the strongest fighters by many people in the entire series including the white tiger job center, he has gone toe to toe with Tom Lee, and is acknowledged by gun to be strongest crew head, infact he is so strong that he makes an entire crew God Dog by himself which is part of the 4 major crews. The fact that he makes an entire crew by himself is just astounding. Next in terms of feats, his strength is also aknowledged by gun and goo too, moreover in the 4 crew heads free for all, even though he lost first, gun and goo themselves stated that in 3 years (right now) johan will surpass all the crew heads. Moreover in the 4 crew heads meetup 3 years later with the strongest executives of workers and Eli Jang after training from Tom Lee , he was told to be the strongest in the room. Moreover in his rage form which his not even his strongest form he one shotted vasco and another guy on vasco's level. However his strongest form is when he copies perfect body ultra instinct Daniel, the beast mentioned above. With that he can copy him for a short time, but he is so strong that in that limited time he manged to defeat Yoosung, Eugene's twin brother who was rated to be in the level of or even stronger than a first gen king. Moreover Johan has the ability to improve during the fight due to copying the opponents moves, also he has now learnt cqc the most dangerous move of senior manager kim which is even feared by Tom Lee.

1. Yoosung The person we were just talking about, keep in mind this is going to be a much shorter deception Than the others since he hasn't fought all that much compared to the others. He is an extremely powerful and swift person despite his small body, his physical attributes have also been aknowledged by Tom Lee himself and even gun. And as also told above, he is judged to be on the level of or better than a first gen king.
   
2. Sinu Han
   Lastly, here we are at the end of the list which took 5 rereads of the last 140 chapters or so and 2 weeks of procrastination.
   

Let's begin, Sinu Han or the god of combat, or the protector of big deal street or the boy of promise. He is a man of many titles. He is one of only 3 people who have the ability of attacking so fast that their opponent can't even see their attacks. To be honest, if this were a list of strongest base form then he will be in the top 3 but since he does not have any other forms like a crazed form where the persons heart feels warm or an ultra instinct form, he is not higher on this list. He is so strong that gun acknowledged him to be the strongest crew head in gangseo, keep in mind that back then sinu wasn't at his strongest form. Currently he is so strong that he surpasses first generation kings which was said by I think Seokdu Wang or Taesoo Ma, I don't remmeber properly. He has fought many people in workers second affiliate to surpass all levels and reach this stage. When he is angry, he managed to defeat all big deal executives and workers executives with ease. So far only Jake has been able to see his attacks that is also all because of his no genes. Right now also, he alone is able to take on both Eli Jang and Warren Chae both at their strongest.
Characters who barely missed the list- Eli Jang and Warren Chae
Characters too strong for the list- Doo Lee and Yenma

Disclaimer - What I'm about to share are my thoughts based on my own experiences from the past. I'm posting here to seek counter-opinions or reflections from those who may agree fully or partially. The purpose is for me to expand my own perspective on this, while also potentially enriching others' views on the matter.
So I've had a few unsuccessful relationships in the past, especially of late, where there was one particular pattern that made the relationship unsustainable in the long-term, despite the best intentions of both parties. That is asymmetry of one kind or another. Let me explain.
When I use the word "asymmetry" I am speaking very broadly about a range of phenomena. It could be something as fundamental as asymmetry in traits, or benign as asymmetry in interest, or something as frustrating as asymmetry in effort invested, or as potentially dangerous as asymmetry in ethics/values, power, standards, treatment or accountability. I'm sure there are more dimensions in which it is possible to observe asymmetry.
I'm listing some examples of asymmetry for clarity as to what I'm talking about:-

1. Asymmetry in intelligence/maturity. One person being very intelligent or mature and the other person just not being there. Let's say they find each other very attractive for some reason. Despite that overwhelming attraction, this is eventually going to lead to frustrations in the long run. The mature person is going to feel not seen/heard and alone in that relationship and the not so mature person is going to either feel poor self-esteem in comparison or unable to relate to their more mature partner or feel like they're being dragged forward at a pace that is not comfortable for them.
2. Asymmetry in effort. Anyone who puts an inordinate amount of effort into the relationship with someone who doesn't reciprocate is going to suffer eventually, even if initially they're happy to be that way. And the other person is going to grow dependent on the disproportionate efforts of their effortful partner. This isn't healthy for either of them.
3. Asymmetry in ethics/values. Let's say one person is very good-hearted and empathetic and vicariously suffers at the sight of others suffering, they're not going to be able to enjoy the company of someone who values profit over ethics, regardless of how accepting they are. Their consensus over decision-making will suffer immensely.
4. Asymmetry in powecontrol in the relationship. This is a relatively well-established red flag. One person makes all the decisions, and the other person doesn't get to even protest, let alone participate in the decision-making. Theoretically, if the follower was to have an inordinate amount of trust upon the leader in the relationship; and if the leader were to have inordinate amount of self-control and love towards their follower in the relationship, they could live harmoniously, just as a healthy parent and child can live harmoniously in a relationship that is asymmetrical in the dimension of powecontrol. But in the context of a romantic relationship, where mutual understanding and independence are valued, this can lead to the partners missing out on fundamental joys of a more symmetrical relationship.
5. Asymmetry in treatment. This forays into the realm of outright toxic relationships. Let's say partner A is always kind and respectful to partner B even when they falter and is always happy to calmly explain the mistakes to partner B. And partner A is also happy to reflect on their own mistakes and change their ways. But let's say partner B simply explodes in anger at the slightest mistake made by partner A. And the prospect of partner A pointing out the mistakes of partner B would lead to more harm to partner A than simply letting it slide. This can lead to an abuser-abusee kind of a relationship in no time.

I'm sure there are more examples for what I'm talking about (asymmetry in sexual drive, lifestyle, mental health, past trauma etc), but this should suffice in bringing clarity about what I'm talking about.
In my observation there is no such thing as a relationship between two well-intentioned individuals where only one person suffers. If one partner suffers for whatever reason, the other partner is going to suffer for different reasons. You either suffer together or rejoice together. Even if it is an abusive relationship, where it may seem that the abuser is depleting the abusee for personal pleasure, the abusee merely staying in that relationship allows the abuser to grow deeper in their toxic tendencies with immunity. And someone being toxic towards others is always a consequence of their toxicity consuming them first and overflowing onto others. They temporarily rejoice at the presence of someone else to abuse only because they don't have to suffer their toxicity alone.
But even as I'm writing about the effect of asymmetry in long-term sustainable relationships, I am skeptical of a simplistic conclusion. As with anything, there are exceptions. There are individuals in long-term relationships with significant age gap where there is a natural asymmetry in maturity and lived experience. There are individuals in long-term sustainable relationships where one partner is significantly wealthier and savvy with money and the other person isn't. Perhaps the asymmetry could be disproportionate, as I've indicated in the title. But it could still be healthy because there may be another dimension in which the relationship is asymmetric that somehow counterbalances the other asymmetry. For example, let's combine the two asymmetries I've pointed to as the exception here - a lonely old man with a lot of wealth and no one to share it all with falls in love with a very young woman who is struggling to pay her bills. There is clearly asymmetry in experience and wealth, but it need not lead to asymmetry in treatment or maturity. Someone young could be just as self-aware and mature as someone much older. And perhaps the young woman appreciates the benefits of being with this wealthy man so much that she shows all her affection, gratitude through how well she takes care of him and the old man cherishes her company so much that he showers her with gifts and experiences that she could never even imagine having by herself. So it could turn into a symbiotic relationship where the asymmetry could lead to phenomenal benefits for either partner.
So perhaps there is a pattern to the healthy exceptions of the trend I initially observed regarding the effect of asymmetry. Maybe the key is to have symmetry across some fundamental dimensions, like values, treatment and maturity and the rest will be sorted to benefit both. I don't know. I don't have all the answers. Hence this post. What are your thoughts?