Does the hating game have smut

I’m looking into creating a filmmaking game, I wanted to know if I could automate the process of having the player use an app to record their performance and put it into the game.

I received notification that a SAG commercial I filmed had a contract upgrade. Notified on 3/27.
The check was cut on 4/13, sent to my agency, and cleared from Production's bank on 4/17.
It is now 5/31, and I've yet to receive payment.
My agency has also not responded to the 3 emails I've sent to them in regards to this. I only know about the check dates because I reached out to production to make sure the payment had been sent.
In the past, my agency has asked for 30 business days from once they receive a check to when they will pay me out, because of the volume of mail they receive.
Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed, or what my rights are? My manager is also ready to be paid. I'm planning on giving my agency a call in the AM but I'd love to know what my exact rights are as a SAG/AFTRA member, so I can be strapped with the facts.
Any advice on navigating this? Thanks.

I go back to work on June 12 and it's suddenly hitting me like a ton of bricks that I don't think I'm ready.
I don't think I'm ready for multiple reasons; I haven't actually worked since early/mid January and then I went for a couple days a week for about a month/month and a half-ish. Then the other, obvious one, bring that I'm not ready to leave my daughter with a sitter. It's not a stranger, but still. I'm ready to continue spending my days in the routine we are developing. I don't want to miss anything and I feel like things will be different/difficult if I actually say anything.
I have a super supportive partner and I know he'd tell me to stay home longer and try to get me out of the house for a few hours each week to work back into it. He'd talk to our very understanding boss about having me possibly just do part time, which i might even end up suggesting before the 12th.
It's not like i feel like I'm going to be a bad mom for going back to work because I don't. I just don't want to leave her, not even with her very involved, active, wonderful father. I'm fine at home. I just want to be close and I want to be able to see and hear her, pick her up for snuggles, etc.
Does it get easier? I feel like I'm going to have to lie when I inevitably get asked how I'm doing away from her. It's unfortunate my 6 week follow up is the same day I go back to work and I'll only be working roughly a half day before I'll be with her again. So, I can't really judge how well I'm doing back at work and away from her like I would be able to if I had been back at work for at least 3 full days.
I just needed to vent, I guess, because I'm feeling like I can't be honest about these feelings right now.

👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 02:59
Hello
[03:01]
Sorry for the random dm
[03:01]
I read that u were having trouble making new friends online
[03:02]
If I read correctly, you're in your 30s?
[03:02]
I am too
[03:03]
Anyway, if u wanna chat and see if we have anything in common u can shoot me a dm
[03:04]
I need friends too
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:15
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:16
Tell me about yourself?
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:16
Well.. I am a nerdy guy with love of science fiction and PC games.
[03:17]
That's me summed up in one sentence ha
[03:17]
How about you?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:17
I'm a nerdy girl with a love of science fiction and games
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:18
Hey, that sounds great! What's your favourites?
[03:18]
What genres do you like?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:18
Rn I'm obsessed with the new zelda
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:19
Oh boy I've seen the trailers, it looks absolutely stunning.
[03:20]
I actually watched a stream of Critical Role doing a one-shot Dnd campaign based of in game lore.
[03:20]
As a promotion of the game.
[03:20]
It was super cool.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:20
Aye I like DND too
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:20
Did you ever read SCPs?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:21
I've listened to basically every SCP video on the YouTube
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:21
That's one of my go-to places when I want to read something cool.
[03:21]
Some of them are so well written it's insane.
[03:22]
What's your favorite out of the ones you know?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:22
The sentient ball of yarn lol
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:23
Never read that one, tell me about it
[03:23]
Or tell you what, I'ma go have a quick read of it.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:24
Thank you, my memory is trash
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:24
It's the SCP-66, yes?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:25
Unsure
[03:26]
I think maybe
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:26
That is pretty cool one for sure
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:26
Yeah sorry for being so vague, I'm like mid-migraine
[03:27]
Hard to think
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:27
Sorry to hear that. Hope it passes quickly!
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:27
Yeah ty I can still chat and everything
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:28
So I've noticed your about me says that you have some strong stances on certain topic.
[03:28]
Tell me about it if you don't mind.
[03:29]
How did you come to hold these views?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:29
I watched Dominion on YouTube and saw the truth about animal exploitation
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:30
Would you link me the video? I'm curious to see myself.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:30
Ofc
[03:30]
https://youtu.be/LQRAfJyEsko
YouTube
Farm Transparency Project
Dominion (2018) - full documentary [Official]
​
[03:31]
It's a 2 hour documentary
[03:32]
You're honestly the first person in my almost three years of activism to actually ask to see it
[03:32]
Most people don't want to know the truth they are culpable in
[03:33]
Even bringing up veganism usually makes a person agressive towards me
[03:34]
Personality I'll take bitter truth over a comfortable lie any day
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:35
It's because of people that use veganism to feel and act morally superior to others.
[03:35]
Those people give all vegans a bad name.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:35
Yeah I used to be an asshole vegan too ahahaha
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:37
Well if you know than you are aware that it's nothing against you personally, but rather the practice of how you implement it in your life.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:37
Egoism doesn't look good on anyone
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:37
But people will remain people and not realise you can't put everyone into one basket.
[03:39]
I strive to remain an individualist. Someone who believes each person is to be evaluated separately regardless of what their beliefs and backgrouds are.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:39
Animals are individuals too
[03:40]
And deserve the same consideration
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:40
The video you provided is quite drastic. I see how it could have affected you to such extent.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:40
The video is the industry standard in every developed country, actually
[03:41]
This happens everywhere
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:41
There are differences obviously from place to place, but that is the general gist of it.
[03:41]
Although there are exceptions of course.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:41
Such as?
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Z_fDL9C3M
YouTube
Just a Few Acres Farm
how we raise 35 Dexter cattle on 30 acres - without buying hay!
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:43
Regardless of how they are raised they all end up dead
[03:43]
Usually in a slaughterhouse
[03:43]
I've actually written about the ethics if you care to read it
[03:44]
I've had these conversations so much that I've made my own copypastas xD
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:44
Sure I would be glad to have a look
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:45
“Is sensory pleasure a justification for violence?” In today’s society, plant-based foods are readily available. Vegan staples such as rice, pasta, beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables are among the most affordable food options. It is no longer necessary to exploit animals for food so why do we do it? Most people will tell you they like the taste of meat and don’t want to give it up. The interesting thing is that if taste satisfaction is a justification for needless violence, then logically other forms of sensory pleasure would also be justified. Thieves steal for the pleasure they gain from increasing their wealth and the excitement of breaking the law. Rapists rape for the pleasure they get from their victims. Serial killers kill for pleasure too. In all these forms of injustice, the wellbeing of the victims of these crimes are completely disregarded. The same is true for animal exploitation. To be logically consistent, you would have to say that all of these things are morally acceptable under the same justification. Obviously, it is not ok to steal, rape, and murder to please your senses, so the logical conclusion is that it is equally unacceptable to kill animals for taste satisfaction.
[03:46]
I have more
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:46
Bring it on
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:47
Wow you aren't even arguing, I've found a unicorn
[03:47]
Is it ok to kill an animal because they were bred for food? To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what your intentions were when you brought the animal into existence. Animals have no concept of purpose. Every animal bred for food wants to live, avoid harm, and experience wellbeing. It’s cruel to bring a creature into the world for the sole purpose of exploitation and murder, when you don’t need to. You can just live vegan.
[03:48]
Is it okay to kill an animal if you gave them a good life? No matter how you treat an animal, the bottom line is you don’t actually need to kill them. Taking their life is an unnecessary cruelty. There is no polite way to murder someone. If you went out on a date with someone and showed them a great time and then drugged the person and raped them, even if they did not experience pain and suffering, your actions are still immoral.
[03:48]
“Is it morally acceptable to kill when you don’t need to?” This is another important question. According to The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a properly planned vegan diet is nutritionally adequate for all stages of life. Since we have established that animals are killed for sensory pleasure, we must conclude that killing them is unnecessary. Animals are sentient beings that have the will to live, avoid harm and suffering, and the desire to experience wellbeing.
[03:49]
In the meat and dairy industries, animals are forcibly impregnated via artificial insemination. Artificial insemination is the soft term the industry uses to downplay the rape and sexual exploitation of these beings. Don’t be fooled. It is rape. If this was done to a human being, it would be unacceptable, but because it is happening behind closed doors where their screams cannot be heard by you, the consumer, it is easy for the average person to shut their eyes and heart to the suffering of these innocent creatures. It’s easier to look away and tell yourself that somewhere in this monstrous industry, something humane has happened. That these animals have had a good life and a clean death. This is a comforting lie but a lie none the less.
[03:49]
“free range” and “cage free” eggs are not more humane than other eggs. These terms were coined by the egg industry to make you feel better about buying eggs, to make you think that the chickens live happy lives, free-roaming. THIS IS A LIE. Cage free and free range chickens are kept in factory sheds, much like those the egg laying hens are raised in. They suffer the same deficiencies and cruel conditions as hens raised in battery cages.
[03:50]
There is no essential nutrient found in animal products you cannot obtain elsewhere. You can be perfectly healthy on a plant based diet as acknowledged by the academy of nutrition and dietetics. It's senseless premeditated murder to participate in animal exploitation. Leave animals the fuck alone.
[03:50]
Some of these are a bit agressive, apologies
[03:50]
I wrote them a few years ago
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:51
The question of whether sensory pleasure justifies violence is a complex ethical issue that requires careful consideration. While it is true that in today's society there are abundant plant-based food options available, and it is no longer necessary to exploit animals for food, the ethical implications extend beyond mere taste satisfaction. Your analogy highlighting other forms of sensory pleasure, such as theft, rape, and murder, raises valid points about the disregard for the well-being of victims in these acts of injustice. It emphasizes the importance of considering the moral implications of our actions and the consequences they have on others. When it comes to animal exploitation for taste satisfaction, it is crucial to recognize that animals can experience pain, suffering, and have an interest in avoiding harm, much like humans do. Many people argue that because animals possess the capacity to suffer, it is morally wrong to cause them unnecessary harm for our pleasure or convenience. Ethical frameworks differ among individuals and cultures, and reasonable people may hold different perspectives on this matter. Some argue that there are instances where violence can be justified, such as self-defense or protecting others from harm. However, when it comes to exploiting animals for taste pleasure, the necessity and ethical justifiability are heavily debated.
[03:51]
Ultimately, the decision to consume animal products is a personal choice that depends on a variety of factors, including one's values, beliefs, and consideration of the moral implications involved. It is important to engage in open and respectful discussions about these issues, promoting understanding and empathy for different perspectives, while striving towards a more compassionate and sustainable world. The ethics of killing animals bred for food is a highly debated topic, and opinions vary among individuals and cultures. Some argue that if an animal has been bred and raised for the specific purpose of being food, then it is acceptable to kill them for that purpose. They may contend that these animals would not exist if it weren't for the demand for their meat, and thus their lives have some inherent value in fulfilling their intended purpose. On the other hand, there are those who believe that breeding animals for the sole purpose of exploitation and slaughter is inherently cruel. They argue that animals have their own interests in life, to live, avoid harm, and experience well-being, regardless of the intentions behind their breeding. They advocate for a more compassionate approach, suggesting that we should prioritize the well-being of these animals and work towards reducing or eliminating their suffering by adopting a vegan lifestyle. It is important to note that these viewpoints stem from differing ethical frameworks and values. Ultimately, the decision on whether it is acceptable to kill animals bred for food is a personal choice that depends on one's beliefs and moral considerations. Engaging in respectful discussions and considering the perspectives of others can help foster understanding and empathy on this complex issue. It is essential to approach these conversations with an open mind and a willingness to explore different viewpoints in order to promote compassionate and sustainable choices.
[03:53]
I think this is the most diplomatic way one could answer :p
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:55
Do you know what speciesism is
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:55
Belief that one species is surperior to others.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:55
It's the entire reason animal exploitation exists
[03:56]
The root cause
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:57
However, it is important to note that the causes and perpetuation of the animal-food industry are multi-faceted. Economic factors, cultural traditions, and individual choices also play significant roles in shaping the industry's practices and growth.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:57
Same concept as racism, antisemitism, sexism, ableism, etc etc
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Victorpollack — Today at 03:59
moral relativism..
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 03:59
Hm?
[03:59]
I can see you're going to teach me some stuff
[03:59]
Excited
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:00
I just want to point out that moral relativism could be put within those categories.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:00
Please define moral relativism
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:01
Sorry I'm thinking of another word
[04:01]
It's at the tip of my tounge
[04:01]
Moral relativism is the opposite of what I was going for,
[04:02]
Moral relativism is a philosophical standpoint that suggests moral judgments and values are not objectively true or universally applicable, but rather depend on individual, cultural, or societal perspectives. According to moral relativism, there are no absolute or universal moral standards that can be objectively established. Instead, moral judgments are considered to be relative to the particular context, beliefs, or cultural norms in which they arise. This view recognizes that different individuals or societies may have diverse moral frameworks, and what is considered morally right or wrong can vary accordingly. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting different moral perspectives without asserting the existence of absolute moral truths.
[04:02]
Moral superiority is what I wanted to say
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:03
I don't understand your point
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:05
What I'm saying is that it's important to hold your views while realising the danger of falling into the same practices that which you wish to avoid.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:06
Owning slaves was socially acceptable not even that long ago, do you think that slavery is objectively bad?
[04:06]
It was also culturally accepted
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:07
Indeed.
[04:08]
It was however a product of the times during which much of the world had no concept of philosophy, scientific method and access to information.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:08
Do you see the parallel?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:08
I absolutely see your point of view, yes.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:08
What are your thoughts on the matter
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:09
To summarize it is a complex and multi-faceted issue. Ultimately, the decision on whether it is acceptable to kill animals bred for food is a personal choice that depends on one's beliefs and moral considerations.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:10
Now replace "kill animals" with "own slaves"
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:11
That would not apply in modern times.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:11
I don't see a difference
[04:12]
Having one standard for animals and another for humans is speciesist
[04:12]
Would you hold the same position with any other injustice
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:13
Killing animals and owning slaves are distinct practices with different ethical considerations. While both involve the treatment of living beings, there are significant differences in the nature and moral implications of these actions. Here are some key distinctions: Moral status: Slavery involves the ownership and subjugation of human beings, denying their basic rights, freedoms, and autonomy. Slavery is widely condemned due to its inherent violation of human rights and the principle of equality among individuals. Animals, on the other hand, are often not considered to have the same moral status as humans.This difference in moral standing is a point of ethical contention and subject to various philosophical perspectives. Consent, autonomy: Slavery involves the deprivation of an individual's consent and autonomy. Enslaved people are forced into a state of subordination and are often subjected to coercion, violence, and exploitation. In contrast, animals do not possess the same level of cognitive and moral agency as humans. This difference in cognitive capacity and understanding raises questions about the extent to which animals can give informed consent or exercise autonomy. Historical and societal context: Slavery has a long history deeply rooted in systemic oppression, racism, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations. It has been a significant source of suffering and injustice throughout human history. While animal exploitation in various forms has also existed throughout history, the moral considerations and societal attitudes toward animal rights have evolved over time, with increasing recognition of the ethical treatment of animals. It is important to note that the comparison between killing animals and owning slaves can be complex, as it involves different philosophical perspectives, cultural contexts, and individual beliefs. Ethical discussions around these topics are ongoing, and viewpoints may differ based on diverse moral frameworks and values.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:16
There are humans who have less cognitive capacity than animals
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:16
That we can definitely agree on haha.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:17
Still we wouldn't exploit and kill them
[04:17]
And personally I don't know anyone, human or animal, that would consent to what you saw in dominion
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:18
A lot of people do exploit those cognitively impaired. Plenty of scammers out there.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:18
I'm sure you hear the screams
[04:18]
Yeah but would you?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:18
Me? No.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:18
Then why fund animal exploitation
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:19
I suppose I hold a different viewpoint on the matter.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:20
Would you explain your personal viewpoint
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:23
The fact is that no matter what I personally do, I won't change global trends and practices of the trade. In the short lifespan that I have, I do not want to spend my life trying to turn rivers back upstream. I do not want to fight the windmills. Therefore I see no reason to change whatever my habits are within the world I live regardless of my ethical stance on the matter.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:24
So an appeal to futility
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:24
I have different priorities is all.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:25
Your logic is inherently flawed tho
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:25
How come?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:26
Because your stance is fallacious
[04:26]
​
[04:27]
Just because you can't end animal exploitation doesn't mean you shouldn't minimize the harm you do
[04:27]
Can't end rape either, doesn't make it okay
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:29
Even if that may be, like I have mentioned. My priorities are different and I do not have the privilege to allow myself such an endeavour without compromising them.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:30
You're human, you have the privilege not to be exploited and murdered, unlike your victims
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:30
However I admire your spirit of having a clear vision of what your stances and beliefs are and giving it your 100%.
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@👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻
You're human, you have the privilege not to be exploited and murdered, unlike your victims
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:31
I beg to differ, I have been exploited many of times.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:32
Have you been anally fisted, forced to bear children, and then had those children stolen and murdered
[04:32]
Cause that's dairy
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:32
No, but I have been brutally beaten, stolen from, used for unpaid labour.
[04:33]
Therefore I can't say I see the world quite as pretty as it may seem.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:33
So why fund the oppression of others when you yourself have been oppressed
[04:34]
Your view seems extremely selfish to me
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:35
Because I have more pressing matters to attend to in my own personal life. Perhaps it is selfish of me to want to ensure my own well-being and of my fellow humans before attending to needs of poor animals that have bad conditions, however that is my set of priorites.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:36
When you go vegan you don't give anything up, you just stop taking what was never yours to begin with
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:37
However it does require resources such as time, effort and attention... Things I do not have to spare unfortunately.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:37
You're honestly telling me you can't spare the time it takes to read a list of ingredients?
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:38
I can't spare time to even cook most of the time.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:38
Me either
[04:38]
I get microwave shit
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:39
Good stuff. Well.. That has been an exhilarating conversation. How about a new topic?
[04:39]
You mentioned you like science fiction as well. What is your favorite movie?
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:40
I'm not really interested in pursuing this friendship, I can't consolidate the whole you activity supporting things I'm morally opposed to. The same reason I don't make friends with racists, sexists, etc etc
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:42
I have not in any way suggested that I support animal cruelty of any sort.
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👻 🔪 Tuff Ghost 🔪 👻 — Today at 04:42
You support it with your actions
[04:42]
Words are easy
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Victorpollack — Today at 04:44
However, if my inability to completely rework my entire life around your moral stance is enough for you to not want to be acquainted with me, than I must say I think there is nothing else I can do no matter how much I wish I could be your friend.
[04:44]
Well it's been a pleasure and I wish you a pleasant night.

I repaired my game, redownloaded it, and ended up having to 50/50 all my mods and cc because I couldn’t interact with adult sims. I could interact with the newborn, as well as shift-click in adults, but pressing on an npc or the currently played sim didn’t do anything. After going through all my mods it narrowed it down to healthcare redux. Anyone else having this problem?

There are instincts that you develop when you’re a parent. If you don’t have any children it might be a little hard to understand. If you have a toddler, for example, and they’re in the other room and silent for more than a few seconds, there’s a good chance they’re up to no good. I take that back, most of the time they’re doing nothing, but you still have to check. You feel a compulsion to check. I don’t think it’s a learned skill, I think it’s an actual instinct.
Paleolithic parents who didn’t check on their toddlers every few minutes, just to double check that they weren’t being stalked by smilodons were unlikely to have grandchildren and pass on their genes. You just feel you need to check, like getting goosebumps, a compulsion. I suppose it’s the same reason little kids are always demanding you look at them and what they’re doing.
I think that instinct starts to atrophy as your kids grow. They start learning to do things for themselves, and before you know it, they’re after their own privacy, not your attention. I don’t think it ever goes away though. I expect, decades from now, my own grown kids will visit and bring my grandkids with them. And the second I hear a baby crying in the earliest morning hours, I’ll be alert and ready for anything, sure as any old soldier who hears his name whispered in the dark of night.
I felt that alarm just the other day. First time in years. My boy came home from riding bikes with a couple of his friends. I’m pretty sure they worked out a scam where they asked each of their parents for a different new console for Christmas, and now they spend their weekends traveling between the three houses so they can play on all of them.
We all live in a nice neighborhood. A newer development than the one I grew up in, same town though. It’s the kind of place where kids are always playing in the streets, and the cars all routinely do under 20. My wife and I make sure the kids have helmets and pads, and we’re fine with the boy going out biking with his friends, as long as they stay in the neighborhood.
You know, a lot of people in my generation take some weird sort of pride in how irresponsible we used to be when we were young. I never wore a helmet. Rode to places, without telling any adults, that we never should have ridden to. Me and my friends would make impromptu jumps off of makeshift ramps and try to do stupid tricks, based loosely on stunts we’d seen on TV. Other people my age seem to wax nostalgic for that stuff and pretend it makes them somehow better people. I don’t get it. Sometimes I look back and shudder. We were lucky we escaped with only occasional bruises and road burns. It could have gone so much worse.
My son and his buddies came bustling in the front door at about 2 PM on a Saturday. They did the usual thing of raiding the kitchen for juice and his mother’s brownies, and I took that as my cue to abandon the television in the living room for my office. I was hardly noticing the chaos, by this point, it was becoming a regular weekend occurrence. But as I was just leaving, I caught something in the chatter. My boy said something about, “... that guy who was following us.”
He hadn’t said it any louder or more clearly than anything else they’d been talking about, all that stuff I’d been filtering out. Yet some deeper core process in my brain stem heard it, interpreted it, then hit the red alert button. My blood ran cold and every hair on my skin stood at attention.
I turned around and asked “Somebody followed you? What are you talking about?” I wasn’t consciously aware of how strict and stern my voice came out, yet when the jovial smiles dropped off of their faces it was apparent that it had been so.
“Huh?” my son said, his voice high-pitched and talking fast, like when he thinks he’s in trouble and needs to explain. “We thought we saw somebody following us. There wasn’t though. We didn’t really see anybody and we’d just spooked ourselves.”
“What did he look like?” I asked.
“Nothing? We really didn’t see anybody! Honest! I just saw something out of the corner of my eye! But there wasn’t really nobody there!”
“Yeah!,” said one of his buds. “Peripheral! Peripheral vision! I thought maybe I saw something too, but when I looked I didn’t see anything. I don’t have my glasses with me, but when I really looked I got a good look and there was nothing.”
The three boys had that semi-smiling but still concerned look that this was only a bizarre misunderstanding, but they were still being very sincere. “Were they in a car?”
“No, Dad, you don’t get it,” my boy continued, “They were small. We thought it was a kid.”
“Yeah,” said the third boy. “We thought maybe it was Tony Taylor’s stupid kid sister shadowing us. Getting close to throwing water balloons. Just cause she did that before.”
“If you didn’t get a good look how did you know it was a kid?”
“Because it was small!” my kid explained, though that wasn’t helping much. “What I mean is, at first I thought it was behind a little bush. It was way too small a bush to hide a grown-up. That’s why we thought it was probably Tony’s sister.”
“But you didn’t actually see Tony’s sister?” I asked.
“Nah,” said one of his buds. “And now that I think about it, that bush was probably too small for his sister too. It would have been silly. Like when a cartoon character hides behind a tiny object.”
“That’s why we think it was just in our heads,” explained the other boy, “That and the pole.”
“Yeah,” my son said. “The park on 14th and Taylor?” That was just a little community park, a single city block. Had a playground, lawn, a few trees, and some benches. “Anyway, we were riding past that, took a right on Taylor. And we were talking about how weird it would be if somebody really were following us. That’s when Brian thought he saw something. Behind a telephone pole.”
“I didn’t get a good look at it either,” the friend, Brian, “explained. Just thought I did. Know how you get up late at night to use the bathroom or whatever and you look down the hallway and you see a jacket or an office chair or something and because your eyes haven’t adjusted you think you see a ghost or burglar or something? Anyway, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned there wasn’t anything there.”
“Yeah, it was just like sometimes that happens, except this time it happened twice on the same bike ride, is all,” the other friend explained.
“And you’re sure there was nothing there?”
“Sure we’re sure,” my boy said. “We know because that time we checked. We each rode our bikes around the pole and there was nothing. Honest!”
“Hmmm,” I said. The whole thing seemed reasonable and nothing to be concerned about, you’d think.. The boys seemed to relax at my supposed acceptance. “Alright, sounds good. Hey, just let me know before you leave the house again, alright?” They all rushed to seem agreeable as I left the room, then quickly resumed their snacking and preceded to play their games.
I kept my ear out, just in case. My boy, at least this time, dutifully told me his friends were about to leave. He wasn’t very happy with me when I said they wouldn’t be riding home on their bikes, I was going to drive them home. The other boys didn’t complain, but I suppose it wasn’t their place, so my boy did the advocating for them, which I promptly ignored. I hate doing that, ignoring my kid’s talkback. My dad was the same way. It didn’t help that I struggled to get both of their bikes in the trunk, and it was a pain to get them back out again. My boy sulked in the front seat on the short ride back home. Arms folded on chest, eyes staring straight ahead, that lip thing they do. He seemed embarrassed for having what he thought was an over-protective parent. I suppose he was angry at me as well for acting, as far as he knew, irrationally. Maybe he thought he was being punished for some infraction he didn’t understand.
Well, it only got worse when we got home. I told him he wasn’t allowed to go out alone on his bike anymore. I’d only had to do that once before, when he was grounded, and back then he’d known exactly what he’d done wrong and he had it coming. Now? Well, he was confused, furious, maybe betrayed, probably a little brokenhearted? I can’t blame him. He tramped upstairs to his room to await the return of his mother, who was certain to give a sympathetic ear. I can’t imagine how upset he’ll be if he checks the garage tomorrow and finds I’ve removed his tires, just in case.
I wish I could explain it to him. I don’t even know how.
Where should I even begin? The town?
When I was about my son’s age I had just seen that movie, The Goonies. It had just come out in theaters. I really liked that movie, felt a strong connection. A lot of people do, can’t blame them, sort of a timeless classic. Except I wasn’t really into pirate’s treasure or the Fratellis, what really made me connect was a simple single shot, still in the first act. It’s right after they cross the threshold, and leave the house on their adventure. It was a shot of the boys, from above, maybe a crane shot or a helicopter shot, as they’re riding their bikes down a narrow forested lane, great big evergreen trees densely growing on the side of the road, they’re all wearing raincoats and the road is still wet from recent rain.
That was my childhood. I’ve spent my whole life in the Pacific Northwest. People talk to outsiders about the rain, and they might picture a lot of rainfall, but it’s not the volume, it’s the duration. We don’t get so much rain, it just drizzles slowly, on and on, for maybe eight or nine months out of the year. It doesn’t matter where I am, inside a house, traveling far abroad, anywhere I am I can close my eyes and still smell the air on a chilly afternoon, playing outdoors with my friends.
It’s not petrichor, that sudden intense smell you get when it first starts to rain after a long dry spell. No, this was almost the opposite, a clean smell, almost the opposite of a scent, since the rain seemed to scrub the air clean. The strongest scent and I mean that in the loosest sense possible, must have been the evergreen needles. Not pine needles, those were too strong, and there weren’t that many pines anyway. Douglas fir and red cedar predominated, again the root ‘domination’ seems hyperbole. Yet those scents were there, ephemeral as it is. Also, there was a sort of pleasant dirtiness to the smell, at least when you rode bikes. It wasn’t dirt, or mud, or dust. Dust couldn’t have existed except perhaps for a few fleeting weeks in August. I think, looking back, it was the mud puddles. All the potholes in all the asphalt suburban roads would fill up after rain with water the color of chocolate milk. We’d swerve our BMX bikes, or the knock-off brands, all the way across the street just to splash through those puddles and test our “suspensions.,” meaning our ankles and knees. The smell was always stronger after that. It had an earthiness to it. Perhaps it was petrichor’s lesser-known watery cousin.
There were other sensations too, permanently seared into my brain like grill marks. A constant chilliness that was easy to ignore, until you started working up a good heart rate on your bike, then you noticed your lungs were so cold it felt like burning. The sound of your tires on the wet pavement, particularly when careening downhill at high speed. For some reason, people in the mid-80s used to like to decorate their front porches with cheap, polyester windsocks. They were often vividly colored, usually rainbow, like prototype pride flags. When an occasional wind stirred up enough to gust, the windsocks would flap, and owning to the water-soaked polyester, make a wet slapping sound. It was loud, it was distinct, but you learned to ignore it as part of the background, along with the cawing of crows and distant passing cars.
That was my perception of Farmingham as a kid. The town itself? Just a typical Pacific Northwest town. That might not mean much for younger people or modern visitors, but there was a time when such towns were all the same. They were logging towns. It was the greatest resource of the area from the late 19th century, right up until about the 80s, when the whole thing collapsed. Portland, Seattle, they had a few things going on beyond just the timber industry, but all the hundreds of little towns and small cities revolved around logging, and my town was no exception.
I remember going to the museum. It had free admission, and it was a popular field trip destination for the local school system. It used to be the City Hall, a weird Queen Anne-style construction. Imagine a big Victorian house, but blown up to absurd proportions, and with all sorts of superfluous decorations. Made out of local timber, of course. They had a hall for art, I can’t even remember why, now. Maybe they were local artists. I only remember paintings of sailboats and topless women, which was a rare sight for a kid at the time. There was a hall filled with 19th-century household artifacts. Chamber pots and weird children's toys.
Then there was the logging section, which was the bulk of the museum. It’s strange how different things seemed to be in the early days of the logging industry, despite being only about a hundred years old, from my perspective in the 1980s. If you look back a hundred years from today, in the 1920s, you had automobiles, airplanes, electrical appliances, jazz music, radio programs, flappers, it doesn’t feel that far removed, does it? No TV, no internet, but it wouldn’t be that strange. 1880s? Different world.
Imagine red cedars, so big you could have a full logging crew, arms stretched out, just barely manage to encircle one for a photographer. Felling a single tree was the work of days. Men could rest and eat their lunches in the shelter of a cut made into a trunk, and not worry for safety or room. They had to cut their own little platforms into the trees many feet off the ground, just so the trunk was a little bit thinner, and thus hours of labor saved. They used those long, flexible two-man saws. And double-bit axes. They worked in the gloom of the shade with old gas lanterns. Once cut down from massive logs thirty feet in diameter, they’d float the logs downhill in sluices, like primitive wooden make-shift water slides. Or they’d haul them down to the nearest river, the logs pulled by donkeys on corduroy roads. They’d lay large amounts of grease on the roads, so the logs would slide easily. You could still smell the grease on the old tools on display in the museum. The bigger towns had streets where the loggers would slide the logs down greased skids all the way down to the sea, where they’d float in big logjams until the mills were ready for processing. They’d call such roads “skid-rows.” Because of all the activity, they’d end up being the worst parts of town. Local citizens wouldn’t want to live there, due to all the stink and noise. They’d be on the other side of the brothels and the opium dens. It would be the sort of place where the destitute and the insane would find themselves when they’d finally lost anything. To this day, “skidrow” remains a euphemism for the part of a city where the homeless encamp.
That was the lore I’d learned as a child. That was my “ancestry” I was supposed to respect and admire, which I did, wholeheartedly. There were things they left out, though. Things that you might have suspected, from a naive perspective, would be perfect for kids, all the folklore that came with the logging industry. The ghost stories, and the tall tales. I would have eaten that up. They do talk about that kind of thing in places far removed from the Pacific Northwest. But I had never heard about any of it. Things like the Hidebehind. No, that I’d have to discover for myself.
There were four of us on those bike adventures. Myself. Ralph, my best friend. A tough guy, the bad boy, the most worldly of us, which is a strange thing to say about an eight-year-old kid. India, an archetypal ‘80s tomboy. She was the coolest person I knew at the time. Looking back, I wonder what her home life was like. I think I remember problematic warning signs that I couldn’t have recognized when I was so young, but now raise flags. Then there was Ben. A goofy kid, a wild mop of hair, coke bottle glasses, type 1 diabetic which seemed to make him both a bit pampered by his mother, who was in charge of all his insulin, diet, and schedule, and conversely a real risk taker when she wasn’t around.
When we first saw it…
No, wait. This was the problem with starting the story. Where does it all begin? I’ll need to talk about my Grandfather as well. I’ve had two different perspectives on my Grandfather, on the man that he was. The first was the healthy able-bodied grandparent I’d known as a young child. Then there was the man, as I learned about him after he had passed.
There was a middle period, from when I was 6 to when I was 16, when I hardly understood him at all, as he was hit with a double whammy of both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's. His decline into an invalid was both steep and long drawn out. That part didn’t reflect who he was as a person.
What did I know of him when I was little? Well I knew he and my grandmother had a nice big house and some farmland, out in the broad flat valley north of Farmingham. Dairy country. It had been settled by Dutch immigrants back in the homesteading days. His family had been among the first pioneers in the county too. It didn’t register to me then that his surname was Norwegian, not Dutch. I knew he had served in the Navy in World War II, which I was immensely proud of for reasons I didn’t know why. I knew he had a job as a butcher in a nearby rural supermarket. He was a bit of a farmer too, more as a hobby and a side gig. He had a few cattle, but mostly grew and harvested hay to sell to the local dairies. I knew he had turned his garage into a machine shop, and could fix damn near anything. From the flat tires on my bicycle to the old flat-bed truck he’d haul hay with, to an old 1950s riding lawnmower he somehow managed to keep in working order. I knew he could draw a really cool cartoon cowboy, I knew he loved to watch football, and I knew the whiskers on his chin were very pokey, and they’d tickle you when he kissed you on the cheek, and that when you tried to rub the sensation away he’d laugh and laugh and laugh.
Then there were the parts of his life that I’d learn much later. Mostly from odd passing comments from relatives, or things I’d find in the public records. Like how he’d been a better grandfather than a father. Or how his life as I knew it had been a second, better life. He’d been born among the Norwegian settler community, way up in the deep, dark, forest-shrouded hills that rimmed the valley. He’d been a logger in his youth. Technologically he was only a generation or two from the ones I’d learned about in the museum. They’d replaced donkeys with diesel engines and corduroy roads with narrow gauge rail. It was still the same job, though. Dirty, dangerous, dark. Way back into those woods, living in little logging camps, civilization was always a several-day hike out. It became a vulgar sort of profession, filled with violent men, reprobates, and thieves. When my grandfather’s father was murdered on his front porch by a lunatic claiming he’d been wronged somehow, my grandfather hiked out of there, got into town, and joined the Navy. He vowed never to go back. The things he’d seen out in those woods were no good. He’d kept that existence away from me. Anyways…
Tommy Barker was the first of us to go missing. I say ‘us’ as if I knew him personally. I didn’t. He went to Farmingham Middle School, other side of town, and several grades above us. From our perspective, he may as well have been an adult living overseas.
Yet it felt like we got to know him. His face was everywhere, on TV, all over telephone poles. Everybody was talking about him. After he didn’t return from a friend’s house, everybody just sort of assumed, or maybe hoped, that he’d just gotten lost, or was trapped somewhere. They searched all the parks. Backyards, junkyards, refrigerators, trunks. Old-fashioned refrigerators, back before suction seals, had a simple handle with a latch that opened when you pulled on it. It wasn’t a problem when the fridges were in use and filled with food. But by the 80s old broke-down refrigerators started filling up backyards and junkyards, and they became deathtraps for kids playing hide-and-seek. The only opened from the outside. I remember thinking Tommy Barker was a little old to have likely been playing hide-and-seek, but people checked everywhere anyway. They never found him.
That was about the first time we saw the Hidebehind. Ben said he thought he saw somebody following us, looked like, maybe, a kid. We’d just slowly huffed our way up a moderately steep hill, Farmingham is full of them, and when we paused for a breather at the top, Ben said he saw it down the hill, closer to the base. Yet when we turned to look there was nothing there. Ben said he’d just seen it duck behind a car. That wasn’t the sort of behavior of a random kid minding his own business. Yet the slope afforded us a view under the car’s carriage, and except for the four tires, there were no signs of any feet hiding behind the body. At first, we thought he was pulling our leg. When he insisted he wasn’t, we started to tease him a little. He must have been seeing things, on account of his poor vision and thick glasses. The fact that those glasses afforded him vision as good as or better than any of us wasn’t something we considered.
The next person to disappear was Amy Brooks. Fifth-grader. Next elementary school over. I remember it feeling like when you’re traveling down the freeway, and there’s a big thunderstorm way down the road, but it keeps getting closer, and closer. I don’t remember what she looked like. Her face wasn’t plastered everywhere like Tommy’s had been. She was mentioned on the regional news, out of Seattle, her and Tommy together. Two missing kids from the same town in a short amount of time. The implication was as obvious as it was depraved. They didn’t think the kids were getting lost anymore. They didn’t do very much searching of backyards. The narratives changed too. Teachers started talking a lot about stranger danger. Local TV channels started recycling old After School Specials and public service announcements about the subject.
I’m not sure who saw it next. I think it was Ben again. We took him seriously this time though. I think. The one I’m sure I remember was soon after, and that time it was India who first saw it. It’s still crystal clear in my memory, almost forty years later, because that was the time I first saw it too. We were riding through a four-way stop, an Idaho Stop before they called it that, when India slammed to a stop, locking up her coaster brakes and leaving a long black streak of rubber on a dry patch of pavement. We stopped quickly after and asked what the problem was. We could tell by her face she’d seen it. She was still looking at it.
“I see it,” she whispered, unnecessarily. We all followed her gaze. We were looking, I don’t know, ten seconds? Twenty? We believed everything she said, we just couldn’t see it.
“Where?” Ralph asked.
“Four blocks down,” she whispered. “On the left. See the red car? Kinda rusty?” There was indeed a big old Lincoln Continental, looking pretty ratty and worn. I focused on that, still seeing nothing. “Past that, just to its right. See the street light pole? It’s just behind that.”
We also saw the pole she was talking about. Metal. Aluminum, I’d have guessed. It had different color patches, like metallic flakeboard. Like it’d had been melted together out of scrap.
I could see that clearly even from that distance. I saw nothing behind it. I could see plenty of other things in the background, cars, houses, bushes, front lawns, beauty bark landscape.. There was no indication of anything behind that pole.
And then it moved. It had been right there where she said it had been, yet it had somehow perfectly blended into the landscape, a trick of perspective. We didn’t see it at all until it moved, and almost as fast it had disappeared behind that light pole. We only got a hint. Brown in color, about our height in size.
We screamed. Short little startled screams, the involuntary sort that just burst out of you. Then we turned and started to pedal like mad, thoroughly spooked. We made it to the intersection of the next block when it was Ralph who screeched to a halt and shouted, “Wait!”
We slowed down and stopped, perhaps not as eagerly as we’d done when India yelled. Ralph was looking back over his shoulder, looking at that metal pole. “Did anybody see it move again?’ he asked. We all shook our heads in the negative. Ralph didn’t notice, but of course, he didn’t really need an answer, of course we hadn’t been watching.
“If it didn’t move, then it’s still there!” Ralph explained the obvious. It took a second to sink in, despite the obvious. “C’mon!” he shouted, and to our surprise, before we could react, he turned and took off, straight down the road, straight to where that thing had been lurking.
We were incredulous, but something about his order made us all follow hot on his heels. He was a sort of natural leader. I thought it was total foolishness, but I wasn’t going to let him go alone. I think I got out, “Are you crazy?!”
The wind was blowing hard past our faces as we raced as fast as we could, it made it hard to hear. Ralph shouted his response. “If it’s hiding that means its afraid!” That seemed reasonable, if not totally accurate. Lions hide from their prey before they attack. Then again, they don’t wait around when the whole herd charges. Really, the pole was coming up so fast there wasn’t a whole lot of time to argue. “Just blast past and look!” Ralph added. “We’re too fast! It won’t catch us.”
Sure, I thought to myself. Except maybe Ben, who always lagged behind the rest of us in a race. The lion would get Ben if any of us.
We rushed past that pole and all turned our heads to look. “See!” Ralph shouted in triumph. There was simply nothing there. A metal streetlight pole and nothing more. We stopped pedaling yet still sped on. “Hang on,” Ralph said, and at the next intersection he took a fast looping curve that threatened to crash us all, but we managed and curved behind him. We all came to the pole again where we stopped to see up close that there was nothing there, despite what we had seen moments before.
“Maybe it bilocated,” Ben offered. We groaned. We were all thinking it, but I think we were dismissive because it wasn’t as cool a word as ‘teleport.”
“Maybe it just moved when we weren’t looking,” I offered. That hadn’t been long, but that didn’t mean anything if it moved fast. The four of us slowly looked up from the base of the pole to our immediate surroundings. There were bushes. A car in a carport covered by a tarpaulin. The carport itself. Garbage cans. Stumps. Of course the ever-present trees. Whatever it was it could have been hiding behind anything. Maybe it was. We looked. Maybe it would make itself seen. None of us wanted that. “OK, let’s get going,” Ralph said, and we did so.
I got home feeling pretty shaken that afternoon. I felt safe at home. Except for the front room, which had a big bay window looking out onto the street, and the people who lived across it. There were plenty of garbage cans and telephone poles and stumps that a small, fast thing might hide behind. No, I felt more comfortable in my bedroom. There was a window, but a great thick conical cypress tree grew right in front of it, reaching way up over the roof of the house. If anything, it offered ME a place to hide, and peer out onto the street to either side of the tree. It was protective, as good as any heavy blanket.

Hi there. I wondered if I could get some advice from people who have experience in allergies and hives. I've not really experienced them until this week (although I had a stress induced period with them just on my hands 15 years ago).
On Tuesday morning I woke up with hives on my body - arms, legs, hands. I took an antihistamine and over the day they calmed down.
The previous day I had been cutting the hedge in my garden, which I'd never done before, although I showered after (no new products). I also had put away a lot of washing which had been washed with a floral fabric softener (never had an issue prior).
I changed my sheets, but the hives returned Wednesday morning and again this morning. They also seem more spread out and there's more of them (not sure if relevant?)
Question - does this imply I'm still interacting with the allergen? Or does it take a while for hives to reduce? I realise its not a simple process of elimination for these things, just not sure if the recurrence implies I'm allergic to something I'm in contact with before bed?
I plan to speak to my doctor about next steps, but I would appreciate any thoughts.
TLDR: Hives last three mornings, advice as to cause and when contact with allergen would occur.

Hi there - someone built a house of cards of reporting on the lowest level of intersections on a smartview cube. I am a user so I can't easily tell if this cube is a abo or bdo cube ( i am not exactly sure what that means) but I have been playing with some mdx. Specifically the nonemptyblock which does actually run within my script but returns no results when there are 100% results.
Questions:
What's the best way to prefilter my dimensions so I can only bring back the leaf intersections between two dimensions
Is nonemptyblock a dumb thing? There is zero documentation on it
Any other tricks will be useful!

Hi fellow madfolks and schemers,
I am making a mini-campaign with my usual party, they all are at best Chaotic Neutral on a good day and I’d like to work out some of their Evil tendencies in our main campaign by running a full on Evil adventure.
My idea is based on a Story Break Podcast called “Heaven Heist” about a group of criminals who rob heaven (listen to it it’s amazingly hilarious).
The basic adventure premise will be that a group of high level (level 14) villains on Faerun die at the same time and their souls get gathered by Mephistopheles, who offers them True Resurrection if they can steal his pre-fall Angel wings back from a vault on Mt. Celestia in 1 year.
He’s gonna give them all resources of his Church to plan the heist before a planar convergence allows them to slip into Mt. Celestia undetected and enact whatever plan they have to get the wings. This give them some story agency and the ability it to get creative with high level PCs.
(TLDR: bad guys rob heaven)
Does anybody have any ideas for a heavenly vault or interesting loreblurbs about Celestia, it’s layers, and it’s defenses that villains would have to overcome to get up the mountain and get these wings?
Thanks a ton! Riley

U-Part Wig Making The U-Part Wig is the ideal transition style if you’re thinking of jumping into the wig game.
It’s a cross between a partial stitch-in or a lace wig. A U-part wig requires more work than the former but is less labor-intensive than the latter.
You can blend your hair out through the hole or attach a closure to create a style that looks like it’s growing from your scalp.
Because the U-part wig doubles up as a protective style, the bulk of your hair is wrapped and hidden underneath the Wig. This can provide you with the same effect as partial sew-ins. The most important difference between the partial and the Upart wig is the fact that you have full access to your hair.
You don’t need to braid tight and have a lot of tension around your edges. The wig can be taken off and on every night.
https://jenhair.com/what-is-a-upart-wig.html
#JenHair #JenHairVietnam

I’m currently in the process of setting up my twitch stream through OBS, however the problem I’m having is my stream can hear me through my snowball as well as the game sound and other players in the game however my headset is not producing any sound whatsoever. Anyone know of a fix? Thanks in advance everyone, I will be responding to any answers or questions for me tomorrow.

I am 42 and after seeing a new psychiatrist I am newly diagnosed with ADHD. I have alphabet health OCD, ADHD, PTSD and COPD. Also, anxiety and depression of course. Dr added more meds to my alphabet health regimen but due to an insurance issue I haven’t been able to start it yet.
When she first told me I immediately began researching (thanks OCD). Reading the symptoms of adult ADHD is nothing like what I thought I knew of it (which honestly wasn’t much), but it described my issues too well. I always attributed my lack of motivation to clean or even shower sometimes to being lazy and hated myself for it.
Anyways, to my point of this post… my AC has been leaking from the ceiling so I had to turn it off. Well my dishes are piled up (just in the sinks not over flowing on counters), my floors are dirty…pet hair and stuff and my small downstairs bathroom needs a counter clean and toilet scrub. I personally will not let people see my home messy. So I can’t call the landlord about the AC until I clean. Tell me why for the last 3 whole weeks I cannot finish these small cleaning tasks. I can start, but not finish. I set reminders in my phone, it goes off and I move it to the next day. It’s been 3 weeks. With no AC. In Texas. Even the heat isn’t motivating me. I need help. Ugh.

This may contain some spoilers, but here are some basic traits of the game:
POSTMODERN - Themes of Pluralism and Randomness (Monsters come with all kinds of colorful quirks and traits, no universal features; "FUN" Values create different RNG encounters) - Cynicism Towards Tradition (Subversion of many RPG Tropes, or is Self-Aware when it doesn't) - Acknowledges itself as a Game, Distances itself from Player (Many Fourth-Wall Breaks like intentional Game Crashing, Meta Commentary, and so on)
MODERN - Broader (Meta-)Narrative (Despite the multiplicity in possible neutral endings as affirmations of freedom of choice, there is nevertheless a more "correct", canonical ending in the Pacifist Route) - Definite Values and Moral Compass (The game explicitly makes a point to outline EXP as "execution points", and LV (or LOVE) as "Level of Violence")
These alone would already make UNDERTALE pretty big contender, but I think it gets even more advanced, having a trait that is neither in Modernism or Postmodernist Media, but is unique to metamodernism itself:
It doesn't just oscillate between postmodernism and modernism, but rather, it integrates postmodernism viewing it through a modernist lens: the very fourth-wall breaks and cynicism are diagetically understood as mechanics which, far from being a reprieve from the story, are actually entirely within it, as an acknowledged part of the fiction, especially in the Geno Route. This video explains it extremely well.
Another way to think it, is that if modernism is black and white narrative, while postmodernism is gray area impasse, then the metamodernism of UNDERTALE lies in how it conceives of the very grey area as another obstacle in the narrative. It's like in Everything Everywhere All At Once, wherein the enemy within the narrative is the very nihilist anti-narrative despair of meaninglessness.
Valid analysis or not? I thought it was very, very interesting. What do you all think?

I live in a neighbourhood in a remote area full of forests around and hidden places, which makes a good place for people to do all sort of things, its a very quiet place too. This has been happening for years, people literally dump animals here, i mean mostly big dogs, you can clearly see that the dog just got too big and isnt cute anymore, so they wanted to get rid of them, its always big dogs, they come and go. Luckily my neighbours feed them and i think its way better if they stay around than they go to a shelter, at least here they are free.
Im just on my window having a me time, i started to hear a comotion of dogs going wild which its normal here since theres a house nearby with a bunch of dogs, but this time it was loud, like loud loud. Right now i just saw 3 young but big dogs passing by and everything clicked...i fucking hate people, i wish i had an ap to the backside so i could video tape it and call the police, but the assholes only do it by the night when nobody can see them.
Its always new dogs appearing here and theres nothing we can do, and the worst is that, we dont know how much trauma they have and if they are dangerous because they are big, we have kids going around, we dont know if they will attack. Luckily most dogs are scared and dont go near people, so nothing ever happened.

does anyone have any recommendations for books that are love triangles but specifically where it’s two villains going after the mc ? I don’t care if it ends in m/m or m/m/m. also would prefer if it’s fantasy genre but I don’t mind if it’s not either.
don’t think I’ve read any like that yet but I would love to, thanks !

Does anybody have any experience with using Diajisho on the surface duo? I have Citra and Drastic set up and launching from Daijisho but launching it that way locks the emulators onto one of the two screens despite having saved the layouts for each screen.
I can manually, using the surface Duo's drag and resize feature, span both screens again but it needs to be redone each time a game is launched losing any benefit of using a launcher to get right into a game.
any help would be appreciated.

hello,
I've been troubleshooting an issue I've been having over the past week or so with my new PC build. Games will crash to desktop (not fully crash the PC) like an alt+f4. I've replaced the MoBo and RAM. And tried ALL sorts of things to try and fix the issue. Tried swapping out my 1070 from my previous build with my current 4070ti and I'm still seeing the issue. So now I'm wondering.. what's the possibility that my SSD is bad? Has anyone ever heard of a SSD causing ONLY games to crash. Some games last anywhere from 2-10 minutes. Others like Warzone 2 don't even make it past the main menu cinematic.

New to the game within the last couple weeks. I stupidly ignored the tech tree on my first build to 50 since I was clueless lol. Rebuilt once and now am at 50 again. Have 4 GTs. And have done level 1 for all the utility tech trees.
Is it recommended to chill at 50 and work on the tech tree, or just start fresh?

This is my first ever post, but I've been questioning myself on my decision for years, so here I am. Am I the AH.
It was 3 months after the end of my first big relationship, I (F23) of course was still upset and pretending that I was okay, while secretly hoping we would get back together even though I already knew it wasn't a good relationship. Obviously, he left me, and of course I became best friends with the wives in the friend group (bridesmaid for both weddings) so he was stuck being a part of my life.
Now I will say he's a dick and did his best to kick me out of the friend group at every turn. As a peace offering to be okay being around each other and hanging out as mutual friend I set up a friend outing to our BARmuta triangle downtown. It was the friend group plus my best friend from freshman year of high school, who never fully fit in with my other friends, but I loved her and couldn't imagine ever leaving her behind. She was my partner in crime, we were going to get matching tattoos soon. If you could tell from the past tense, she is who I left, who I cut contact with, I'll call her Sam.
Sam and I went out as usual, I buy the both of us drinks all night because that was the only way to get her to come out with me. We are having fun, the night is going well, ex wasn't completely ignoring me, but we still kept our distance. Towards the end of the night we end up at this bar with a seating area where most of us were hanging and chatting and resting from the bar crawl, ex, Sam and a couple others go off and do their own thing, play pool, go out and smoke, whatever. That is where the night ended, I thought it went well for the most part.
That was all backstory. The next morning, Sam comes over to drive me to my car at my other friend's house since I got us an Uber home. The first thing she does is sit me down and tell me how she made out with my Ex. I was hurt, I felt utterly betrayed, not my Ex, he owed me nothing at this point, but by her. I know I have no claim over him, that was never the issue for me. It was her knowing how I felt, knowing I wasn't over him yet, and her making a move on him. However, I was originally angry at him, so I told her it was okay, and I still loved her, it wasn't a big deal. And then it festered, and I realized why it wasn't sitting right with me, she is the one who betrayed me, not him. The excuse she gave me was she was so drunk she was seeing double, she didn't mean to, blah blah blah, I was so hurt I called out of work the next day, I didn't even do that when he broke up with me.
She asked me to go to dinner with her to make amends, except I paid and any time I tried to bring up the topic to her betrayal she would brush it off and change the subject. She wanted me to just be over it and pretend it never happened, but I couldn't.
Now a full week has passed since the incident and I called to tell her I'm not okay with it, I tried to be but I just am not. We both cried, I said I needed time. She would invite me out and I made excuses why I couldn't see her, I felt nauseous at the thought of being alone with her, I couldn't stand to look at her. After about 2 months I felt I was ready to talk again and start hanging out again, I checked out Facebook to see what she was up to and make sure she was doing well, but she had unfriended me. I took that as her writing me off and I didn't reach out. We haven't spoken in 4 years, and I lost a sister. So Reddit did I overreact, should I not have needed time, was I the problem, am I the asshole?

My boyfriend and I have been dating for about a year and a half but just a couple days ago he asked to break up because he didn’t feel the same love he felt for me earlier in our relationship. However, yesterday he texted me paragraphs about how he feels really bad and wants this to just be a break instead of final. For context, he’s said that he doesn’t really like PDA of any kind (including hand holding, hugging, etc.) but hadn’t communicated why until after we broke up (past trauma with ex). The thing was though was that he was fine with all this stuff up until a couple of months ago when he began to shut down around me. He stopped reaching out to me or wanting to be around me in public settings, leaving me feeling like a creep when I had to initiate conversations and encounters twice as often. In the last month I felt like a burden to him and that I was exhausting to talk to. In all honesty I didn’t feel very loved by him and that took a toll on my mental health, making me feel single while still in a relationship. Back to his texts though, he promised that he would work on stuff like communicating why he does or doesn’t like certain things like PDA among other things and hopes that we can bring our relationship back but as much as it hurts me I don’t think you can rekindle love like that and I don’t want to be hurt again. I really liked him and I loved what we had, but the last months have been really hard and I feel like I’ve been carrying the relationship. He suggested that we can try again in a month or so but I’m nervous that it’ll end exactly as it did this time and I’ll be hurt all over again. Does anyone have any advice on this?
tl;dr my boyfriend seemed to have fallen out of love with me, but is asking to date again after we broke up

Hi everyone! I have an external accountant that does my taxes . I wanted to add another accountant from another company to do the book keeping . Would the external accountant who does my taxes see that I have granted access to another external accountant?