#2.0-2.4

[romanreadsbooks]

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer - Review

TL;DR

2.0 Stars

Pros: Good audiobook narrators, main character isn't a complete idiot, good writing/imagery

Cons: Unsatisfying conclusion, side plots drop off half way through, 'open to interpretation' ending feels more like author indecisiveness

Spoilers in review? Yes, major.

(This was a bookclub pick -- I'm not a thriller/horror fan, so surprise: I didn't like the thriller/horror book)

Opinions going in/why I picked it up:

First, let me start off by saying: I'm not really a fan of thrillers or horror novels. I've read quite a few (~15 in the last 2 years) because they are amoung the popular genres in my bookclub, but the only ones that really hit for me were much more down the 'literary fiction' kind of lane.

Why don't I like them? To put it simply, I'm a pretty stoic person. I don't get strong emotions from most books: sad books don't make me cry, horror books don't scare me, thriller novels don't get my heart racing etc. Even movies/shows don't usually affect me in any way -- the only medium that has any consistent effect is music.

Additionally, I often feel like thrillers don't spend enough time on endearing me to the characters. As a result, I honestly don't care when awful/scary things happen to them. They may as well be no-name background characters for all that I know about them.

All that to say, I had no interest in reading this book, but I knew I had to because I run the bookclub that picked it. So take every single thing I say in this review with a massive heap of salt.

This only thing this book has going for it before I started is that is was marketed as a "reddit sensation". I was curious as to what the fuck that meant, because I've never seen a book advertised as that.

Likes:

Both narrators of the audiobook, Corey Brill and Jeremy Carlisle Parker, did a fantastic job. They both spoke way too slowly for my usual taste, but it adds to the spooky atmosphere of the book and was the right decision in my opinion. I did listen to a large portion of the book at 2x speed or higher, but the sections I did listen to at normal speed, very good performance by both narrators.

For the most part I liked Eve as a main character. I think she was a mostly reasonable protagonist. Outside of the initial dumb decision of letting five strangers into your house while you're home alone (which needed to happen to have a story at all), most of her choices later were at least semi-understandable, even if I wouldn't have made the same ones. Not the smartest character but she was not pull-your-hair-out dumb.

The writing was very descriptive and had some fantastic moments of imagery. And some of the subtle inconsistencies between different sources of information that Eve came across was very effective to induce the 'not everything is as it seems' feeling.

Dislikes:

The ending just felt like such... Nothing? Like Eve/Emma ended up in a psych ward and...? That's kind of it. Like Eve is now living a completely different life as Emma, but then what? I don't know, it just felt like there's no real conclusion.

The whole thing with Moe -- weird monkey thing in Eve's mind -- I don't really understand why he was there? And then he kind of just disappeared the second half of the book? This kind of drop off happened with quite a few times with characters/items that I thought might have been relevant to the ending. But nope!

As for the plot, to put it bluntly, I just couldn't give less of a shit basically the entire time. "Creepy" stuff would happen, like their stained glass window being replaced with a normal one, and I would just be like "...okay. And?"

"Oh you have ants in your house? You do live in a forest so that checks."

"Oh you're neighbor knows the stranger you let into your house and her memory doesn't perfectly align with what the stranger told you? Well she is old and this all happened like 30 years ago so yeah, I'm not surprised."

I know the point of the book was like "is Eve going through some kind of psychosis or was she actually sucked into an alternate reality", but by the end it felt like the author was like "Eh. Just let the reader believe whatever is scarier to them. I don't want to pick."

Its like if Kliewer had the option to depict the horror that is:

a) watching yourself lose your sense of reality through your declining mental health and, despite being completely aware that it's happening, knowing there's nothing you can do about it.

Or b) having your entire life, identity, and loved ones ripped away from you, leaving you helpless in an alternate world you'll likely never escape

And then chose to depict both but they're watered down to the point that it leaves the reader lost and unfulfilled. No way to know the author's intentions, but that's what it felt like.

Other Notes:

For me, thrillers as a whole just feel like either literary fiction without a message or a mystery without any intrigue.

It's like when your friend tells you about "something crazy that happened" to them, but it was just that they saw a stranger shouting on public transit or something equally mundane/common. It's only captivating the first time that you experience it. And depending on what the stranger said, it could be mildly interesting to the locals, but in all likelihood it's just nonsense with no real point. I would love to care, but I simply don't.

So yeah crazy that someone who is not a fan of thrillers didn't like the thriller book. If this wasn't the chosen book for my bookclub, I wouldn't have even picked it up. For this reason I was hesitant to make a review at all, but it is part of my goals to write a review of every book I read so that I will have it for the future. And so here we are.

Rating Breakdown:

Characters: 3

Atmosphere: 5

Writing: 6

Plot: 4

Intrigue: 1

Logic: 2

Enjoyment: 2

Dialogue:5

Total: 4.0/10 or 2.0 Stars

[fishareglorious]

if ms. grace ever becomes playable do you think argus would speedrun through the five stages of grief fifty times the moment she catches glimpse of her in the suitcase

[cheemken]

you really like tuesday huh

If y'all don't see me posting or obsessing over this woman, assume I'm dead

[its-faizurbd-me]

TP-Link Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6 Is Faster, Smarter, More Reliable Connectivity

The TP-Link Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6 technology, which was created to satisfy the expanding needs of contemporary homes and businesses, provides a notable advancement in wireless connectivity. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is the ideal option for users who need high-performance internet for tasks like streaming, gaming, and video conferencing because it offers faster speeds, increased network efficiency, and better coverage.

[kiaonala]

Good to see you!

“Vacation” AU

Part 1 > Part 1.2

(Part 2.0) > Part 2 > Part 2.2 > Part 2.3 > Part 2.4 > Part 2.5

Part 3 > Part 3.2 > Part 3.3 > Part 3.4 > Part 3.5 > Part 3.6 > Part 3.7 > Part 3.8

Part 4 > Part 4.2 > Part 4.3 > Part 4.4 > Part 4.5 > Part 4.6 > Part 4.7 > Part 4.8 > Part 4.9

Part 5.0 > Part 5.1 > Part 5.2 > Part 5.3 > Part 5.4 > Part 5.5 > Part 5.6 > Part 5.7 > Part 5.8

Part 6.0 > Part 6.1 > Part 6.2 > Part 6.3 > Part 6.4 > Part 6.5 > Part 6.6 > Part 6.7 > Part 6.8 > Part 6.9

Part 7.0 > Part 7.1 > Part 7.2 > Part 7.3 > Part 7.4 > Part 7.5 > Part 7.6 > Part 7.7 > Part 7.8 > Part 7.9

Part 8.0 > Part 8.1 > Part 8.2 > Part 8.3 > Part 8.4 > Part 8.5 > Part 8.6 > Part 8.7 > Part 8.8

END >

“Already”

Idea who AO3

[hyuneflix]

from love-coded.exe

season one: finding sunshine boy a hacker group, comprised of five members, has their world changed when a glitch leads to y/n joining their private chat. gn!reader.

intro episodes available here or here << back to dash // next season >>

DAY ONE EP 0.1 - taking notes EP 0.2 - eat the rich EP 0.3 - freaky freak EP 0.4 - y/n investigates EP 0.5 - brain rot

DAY TWO EP 0.6 - simping for jesus EP 0.7 - promising leads EP 0.8 - in minecraft EP 0.9 - the plot thickens

DAY FIVE EP 1.0 - zaddy mode EP 1.1 - working hard EP 1.2 - hardly working EP 1.3 - sunshine lore

DAY SEVEN EP 1.4 - svt memes EP 1.5 - fully unhinged EP 1.6 - in minecraft 2.0 EP 1.7 - ✗ marks the spot EP 1.8 - the treasure

DAY EIGHT EP 1.9 - partners in grime EP 2.0 - [redacted] EP 2.1 - name dropping EP 2.2 - svt memes 2.0 EP 2.3 - socks to be you

DAY NINE EP 2.4 - eye eye cappin' EP 2.5 - rip $10 sunnies EP 2.6 - recovery mode EP 2.7 - takin' it wayback EP 2.8 - revenge mode DAY THIRTEEN EP 2.9 - breast stroke EP 3.0 - just tired EP 3.1 - as in D O N E EP 3.2 - S.O.S signal EP 3.3 - mystery doc

DAY FOURTEEN EP 3.4 - fight not flight EP 3.5 - die demon die EP 3.6 - fast and furious EP 3.7 - chill mode

FINAL EPISODE EP 3.8 - finding sunshine boy (written)

-> 1/5 profiles unlocked -> 1/? side characters unlocked

INFO -> as this is a wip you can reach out to be put on the taglist. i've made two methods for you to do this: comment with your user on the google doc or send an ask.

-> current upload schedule: every other day upon completion of a "day" (group of ep's). small breaks may be undertaken between ep groups due to the day not being wholly completed.

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

Zenless Zone Zero Tier List Based On The Agent's Families

This is based on whether the current agents are orphans or if they're not orphans. Feel free to say there's a chance I'm wrong.

Tier 1 (Not Orphans): 1. Miyabi still has her father. 2 Lucy, Rina, and Zhu Yuan still have their parents (even if Lucy is estranged from her parents). 3. Seth is currently the only male with both parents.

Tier 2 (Orphan): 1. Soukaku may have been adopted by Yanagi, but only as her sister, not daughter, and her bio family died during the war. 2. Caesar's parents died when she was a child leaving her to be raised by Big Daddy. 3. Grace lost her parents in Hollow incidents. 4. Koleda's mom died when she was young and Khors got murdered (oof). 5. We saw Nekomata's adopted dad turn into an Ethereal, nuff said. 6. Nicole was an orphan but then got adopted, but then she ran away, which might mean she's back to being an orphan? IDK.

Tier 3 (Possibly an orphan): 1. Belle and WIse never say anything about their bio family, only their mother figure who is currently missing. 2. Harumasa was abandoned by his bio family with no idea what happened to them, and then he had to put down his adopted father (oof). 3. The devs kinda retcon giving Lighter a last name (it was originally Lorenz from the leaks) and I am scared to know why after knowing Lighter's backstory. 4. Lycaon's past only showed his ex and the place they used to live, and he doesn't say anything about his bio family. 5. Considering Anby was found by Nicole in a dangerous area with no idea of her past, and S11 often goes on dangerous missions, they're probably orphans (I think these two are also sisters, but like their parents have to be dead for them to go off on life or death missions).

Tier 4 (Where are the relatives?): 1. Piper, Corin, and Ellen have been mentioned as having family, so where are they? 2. Jane is a secret agent, so no info on her family, but we don't know if she's an orphan. 3. Burnice, Ben, and Anton haven't said anything about their families, but we can't count out that they possibly have family members. 4. I didn't know how to get a character between tiers (T4 and T3) because Yanagi probably has family other than Soukaku, but she's also a former soldier from possibly the Obsidian Division (S11's Division) so she might not have one.

Tier 5 (Can they have parents?): Since both Billy and Qingyi are Intelligent Constructs, can they even have parents? Do creators even count as parents? Qingyi possibly had a creator, but we don't know. Actually, Billy doesn't even remember his creators... (Damn, Billy might be an orphan).

Tier 6 (Upcoming Agents): Both Astra and Evelyn are upcoming agents, so we have no info on their families as of now.

I probably will create another one when 2.0 or 2.4 drops because then there will be new characters as well as updated family history.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Critique of 2.6's story as a main story chapter

(I've been holding this back since CN release because I hoped Global would change my mind, but with translations out little has done to change it)

This will be a critique of 2.6's execution of story, its character writing and narrative structure, how it is largely style and literary references over substance, and finally how the nature of the patch as a main story serves as its detriment for the 2.0 series. I do think the premise and concept for the patch are interesting, especially themes around madness and literature, in general replaying the patch in Global did make me like Recoleta a little bit. However I think the way characters, pacing and story have been written ultimately are a disservice to said themes, and alot of my critique is based on treating 2.6 as an arc in an overarching story of the 2.0 series.

(Disclaimer: this is my thoughts over the patch, and I am not pry to all the literary references present inside the story, however I believe a strength of Bluepoch has been to approach complex topics in a way that someone with or without context to references can grasp overarching themes and characters in a story, something that is not present here in Chapter 9, but are present in Chapters 5 and 6).

Main issues with 2.6's story for me

Pacing and Structure

I would argue the patch suffers from terrible pacing, not only does this patch have a shortened length ---, pacing often feels clunky and often comes to a complete stop at some times. We spend a large section of the patch staring at two characters speak conjecture and jargon for extended periods of time with few and far inbetween battle sections to break it up. Pacing is especially suffering in the Urd sections; not only are they unvoiced for some reason, but pacing comes to a complete stop or interrupts the flow of the A Plot with Vertin.

The patch's story is organised like this - the A plot with Vertin and Sonetto alongside Recoleta exploring the] Prison, with the B plot following Urd's experiences in the Prison in 'The Weaving of the Shadows'. The execution of the parallel narratives for me felt like the story would grind to a complete stop, moment your following Vertin in the prison with Recoleta, then pulled back to Urd's section acting as exposition and greater context of the Prison. It feels as if Urd's sections could have been their own section, an anecdote or even a similar case to 2.4 with Ulrich's character story - however structurality it feels like Urd's sections are used to keep the chapter count low and provide context of the prison that really should be present in the A plot.

The patch is the shortest post-release main story chapter at only 20 parts, (Im not counting Prologue to Chapter 4 since once released all at once) it spends from p1 to p12 entering the prison, exploring how it works and how fundmentally this was another means of oppressing arcanists - writers and artists locked up under the guise of being 'criminals'. However the moment the story shifts to the central tower and towards solely Aleph and Recoleta, it feels the story built around the prisoners and how their are exploited and mistreated by the world around them becomes pointless. Aleph and Recoleta's joint story ultimately downplays the suffering of these people so much that until Garcia appears in Aleph's room, you likely forgot about these characters entirely.

Style over Substance - tell than show

Which leads to another major issue of this story - this style over substence feels like TELL over showing. How is this done? The numerous literary references the story hangs over the players that they HAVE to understand to 'get' the story; the implication that the story feels vague and messy because "oh you were not aware of viseral realism? Foucalt or Borges? Too bad you won't understand the story!".

Recoleta suffers from this issue of TELL than SHOW that for me, quickly diminished my interest in her as a character: constantly she makes literary references to character tropes and conventions in storytelling that feel forced and clunky. Her character as a writer is communicated by TELLING you over and over "oh hey thats foreshadowing! Yk, because Im writing a novel you see?", alot of her dialogue feels like her citings definitions and tropes and stories that don't explore her character beyond the archtype of a 'ambious writer who often doesn't listen to others'. And this isn't to argue that Recoleta needed to have a drastic breakdown or 180 of her personality, its instead that her character from point A to point B, start and end of the patch does not learn, change or progress in any meaningful way. The plot reveal with she is a ghost, a construct from an unfinished novel then feels hollow, and the quick recovery from her near 'death' experience is over so quickly the impact is not there. The story has to TELL you she made friends with Sonetto and Vertin, rather than showing any genuine connection, often times you constantly watch Sonetto and Recoleta disagree and argue.

Her 'friendship' to Sonetto and Vertin is extremely weak and arguably non-existent, the dynamic between them feels extremely unatural especially since Sonetto and Vertin in this patch become walking signposts of expostion and lore; their lack of reaction to the events of Comala and much of their screentime is spent reminding you this is a main story. This can be highlighted in the part where Recoleta explains her novel 'The Rise and Fall of Sanity' - here characters talk AT each other than WITH each other, Vertin flips between either extremely apprehensive to weirdly accepting of Recoleta's novel throughout the patch. Her responses and reactions are reduced to simply accknowledging what Recoleta says, before promptly shifting the conversation to something else entirely. This is the dynamic of the three for the whole patch written as 'friendship'.

Moreover, Bluepoch have shown in the past they can tell compelling narratives with complex concepts - see 1.4 and 1.7: those patches were completely understandable and equally enjoyable to anyone not similar to mathematics or operas/ the play of Tosca. These patches organically introduced the audience to see these ideas in tandem with its characters in a way that the characters shine first and foremost: you don't need to understand Freud or his concepts to grasp Kakania, or have an indepth understanding of Tosca. The story is able to stand on its own with the references serving to enhance the story. In the case of 2.6, the entire backbone and forefront of its story is entirely based on these literary references and jargon that characters ultimately fall flat without them. Recoleta's character cannot stand without the inspirations to her character and the literary references - she embodies the "ghost that can only exist the story" to a detrimental degree.

Any time the story gets remotely close to explaining the ideas it presents, either another completely different idea is introduced, or especially in the case of the Idealist proceed to bombard you with even more literary jargon. In the case of 1.5, the mathematics explored ties into the system of Aperion, but equally is used to explore 37, Sophia and 6's connection to each other and crucially ties to the Storm Immunity Ritual - however in 2.6 retaining anything the Idealist, Octavia or really anyone in the prison is meaningless and its quickly discarded by the end of the patch.

In general, 2.6 presents ideas around Viseral Realism and the Latin American Literary Movement but does not attempt to explore them in greater depth or explain to the player - I believe the confusion many players have been feeling in not understanding the story stems from a central issue this patch has putting knowledge of context and reference foremost than the actual story and characters. Once again, I have no issue with the ideas presented, I have in issue in HOW they were and the LACK of diagetically explaining these ideas.

This is a main story chapter

Argubly, this patch being a main story feels like an afterthought: the inclusion of Urd's sections as not an anecdote but intercut unvoiced cutscenes, the the gimicky and ultimately useless inclusion of the Comala Die as one of the five objects mentioned in 2.5 and the boat at the end leads to me seeing the patch as originally a event patch, but changed to a main story (speculation this part, but it feels it should have been 2.4 as the main story patch and not this one).

In isolation, if this was an event story I wouldn't be as critical of the writing and characters: however the fact that this is the progression of the 2.0 main story and the prelude to 2.8 the finale of 2.0 series makes this patch worse. In what way you ask? The fact that so little impact and information provided by this patch means it is easy to just skip this patch with the most vital information provided being from 2.4 especially. The patch provides little to no critcial information about the ritual happening in Antarctica, anything on Urd that couldn't be guessed by the player already or anything on the Manus activities. Rather the patch invalidates its own reason to be a main story patch - it doesn't take you long for the story to tell you there is not reason for Vertin or Sonetto to be there. Urd had already left for Antractica, the Manus sans Diggers have abandoned the prison because the Die of Komala no longer was important - leaving the sole plot of the patch resolving around Recoleta and Aleph being penpals and the eventual burning of the Prison.

Vertin and Sonetto are non existent in the patch as well, there relevance to the plot fades almost to npcs and bystanders to Recoleta and Aleph despite once again being a main story patch focused on Vertin finding Urd - already this is the second insistence of the two being sidelined in the plot by patch characters. While the focus playables should be given the forefront of screen time of focus in a patch, the problem with 2.6 is that Vertin and Sonetto almost COMPLETELY disappear into the background so much that hearing a single line from them reminds you oh yeah this is a main story patch.

Their characters also suffer as well, despite the earlier connection Sonetto and Recoleta share before entering the Prison over poetry, this connection is never expanded upon or even addressed again because the story shifts gears and becomes purely focused on telling and reminding you Recoleta is a writer and her penpal Aleph is somewhere in the Prison. Alot of points, especially in the cell when Recoleta tells Vertin and Sonetto about her novel the dialogue feels forced, character are talking AT each other and WITH each other. It rarely feels like the trio have any chemistry outside of being a method of exposition of Recoleta's novel.

Alot of my interest in Vertin as MC has not her agency in the story and motivations that carry through each patch, however this is not the case here. Vertin barely speaks unless it is to provide exposition and to move the plot from point A to point B - you would effect a character who spent their childhood treated as an outcast by her peers, often sent into the guardhouse and constantly told to conform would have any opinion on the state of the Prison's systems, but no. Vertin becomes reduced to an NPC in the background pushing the plot forward. Chapter 9 could have easily been used similar to 2.1 Tuesday's motel exploring Vertin's fears, here it could have explored the ramifications of her being a black sheep of SPDM that could mirror treatment of the arcanists in the Prison. Instead over time in the patch Vertin starts to feel like a movement from Point A to Point B.

Urd's sections had the potential to explore her character and potentially give vital lore information about her - instead her sections become extremely pace breaking with the lack of voicing. In a patch that already spends much of its time in the same rooms and hallways with characters purely talking to each other, her sections drag out the runtime to only confirm to the players that Urd had already leave the prison for Antarctica. Despite being sections seemingly dedicated to her, Urd feels like an afterthough in these sections, more designated to flesh out the characters and community in Comala and to some degree this works in exploring Octavia's change and eventual opposition to the Idealist.

Moment in the final volume of Urd's the culminates in the fracturing between Octavia and Idealist, and Urd challenging the perverse nature of the Die as fate was so fascinating ... and then it ends. This patch has a trend of introducing concepts but ultimately stops itself from exploring it further once again, reinforcing that feeling of an afterthought. This is more apparent because these sections feel connected but so removed at the same time as we the players once Urd's section is over, understand and may sympathise with Octavia, but ultimately this goes nowhere since Vertin and Sonetto have no way of knowing what happened between Urd and Octavia .

I don't like the idea that because viseral realism does have the central concept of "taking life as it is" therefore everything should be taken almost at surface value and not beyond, this must extend to everything in this patch as well. Telling us ultimately us not exploring the prisoners, the Jailer, Aleph and Recoleta is intentional feels like shallow writing because this is a MAIN story patch, meant to be an arc in a larger overarching story that progresses the plot. All this patch has done over and over tell you the player that nothing can be gleaned from it.

The ending revelation that Recoleta's conversation with Urd wasn't Urd going to Comala, but instead it was her leaving to Antractica - communicating to the player had Vertin not run into Recoleta, the whole plot of the patch likely would not have happened. Even worse when you realise the only importance of the patch was Aleph's boat in all seriousness.

The situation looks worse if you consider the experience of a newcomer, it will take a year for the 2.0 event patches to be archived and rerun so only 2.2 and 2.6 and 2.8 might be their only exposure to the 2.0 series, and that is alot of missing context and lore that 2.6 simply does not provide.

I argue that the concept and premise of the story is fascinating: exploring the nature of literature to madness, the premise giving the potential to explore the suffering, oppression and mistreatment of arcanists and overall mental health. However I feel this story struggles between reconciling it being a main story patch and not an event, juggling concepts around viseral realism and Latin American literary movements that it fails to explain to players by using to simply throw them into the deep end that the narrative and characters feel less in quality.

Extra thoughts

What about the character stories? You have to read them to understand Recoleta and Aleph! - I disagree with this take, character stories just like the references serve to enhance the narrative of the patch, be places to provide and explore more context to a character's wants and needs already present in the main story but give a separate or new angle to view the character, 2.5 Noire's and Liang's stories highlight this. Back to 1.6 - Isolde's character story for example is argubly not vital to understanding her character, the main story of Chapter 6 explores her extremely well. Her character story therefore serves to enhance that understanding through the context of her family already alluded to in main story. It should be a place introducing new contexts and not an attempt to salvage their character.

I also take issue with how Aleph's actions as the overseer of Comala are not addressed for the implications and sufferings they caused the prisoners of Comala: the story's central conflict argues how the prisoners are all arcanist ostracized and cast out by society unjustly into this prison and labelled as insane and as criminals. The story establishes how Aleph, via The Idealist and The Physician effectively exploited the population, conducted experiments including lobotomies yet the story ultimately brushes everything under the rug because of course nothing matters but the boat and his friendship with Recoleta.

I'd argue the blame is constantly shifted towards the arcanists instead of Aleph the human: "Its the Manus interference", "its the Idealist and Merlin", "Its Octavia's fault (she constantly is antagonised by the story as being the only one early on speaking out against the Idealist) and landing on "its Recoleta's fault and her novel". The patch seemingly tries to create sympathy for Aleph by suggesting his desire to seek the "transcendental truth" went out of his control alongside external factors caused what happened in Comala; avoiding any and all acknowledgement that he was to the highest degree responsible for most of the suffering but this is immediately swept away to focus on Recoleta and his' friendship and suddenly "I have a boat", we leave a burning Comala and barely indication is given that his actions are address thereafter.

Conclusion

In conclusion - I don't like 2.6. I gave it a second shot in Global because of how much unvoiced dialogue was present in CN, and I will argue Global made me dislike Recoleta less, for me, interesting concept and really fascinating reveal that ultimately fell flat because of how exactly she was in the story. But I do think the story, even if it was event or main story overall is one of the weakest in the game for me so far.

(Im feel free to ask me about patch, I am curious about how people see this patch if you want to discuss)

[love4ng1e]

─────── ༺ ❦︎ ༻ ───────

Beginners guide to manifesting!!

By love4ng1e 𝜗𝜚

Requested by @limitless180

You asked for techniques, but Imma give you the whole pack because i'm cool like that. I'm going to keep it simple so you don't overcomsume. I said this was going to take a day or so, but never mind because I manifested time to make this.

I did a separate post on some of those stuff, but this is it all together. This is the only post you need.

─────── ༺ ❦︎ ༻ ───────

1.0: What is manifesting?

By simple definition manifesting is getting what you want. There is no need to make it any more complicated.

2.0: How to manifest?

There's multiple ways to manifest and there's no wrong or bad way.

I am a master manifestor, so I'll be honest and say that I do absolutely nothing to manifest except simply just acting like a master manifestor. I'll still give you ways I used that worked for me when I was a beginner, and that works for other people, too.

2.1: Robotic affirming.

Robotic affirming is repeatedly repeating any affirmation of your choice. What that does is reinforce that you have your desire and then plays out in your 3d (I will talk about the 3d a little farther).

It's very important to persist when it comes to this technique. Your affirm until it is factual in the 3d. You do not take no for an answer. It has no choice, but to manifest.

You repeat the affirmation any time. Regardless of what you're doing. As much as you want/feel necessary. Before falling asleep and first thing in the morning are both very powerful times. If you tend to forget, you can set alarms.

If this gets tiring to you, please switch techniques. This isn't for everyone.

2.2: Subliminals.

Subliminals are hidden affirmations under music/sounds. These affirmations directly bypass the conscious mind, directly to the subconscious mind (I also will talk about that a bit farther).

There are plenty of subliminal channels out there, but not all of them are trustworthy.

Good ones are:

I want it, I got it > link (she's my personal fav)

Cee > link

Baejin Cafe > link

Moza Morph > link

Kottie > link

Eve > link

Enchanted Workshop > link

Crystie > link

The best way to know if a subliminal channel is trustworthy is to read the comments. If there's none, I would stay away.

You can listen whenever you want. Headphones/Airpods are recommended.

2.3: Vision boards.

You can use pinterest for that. You simply make a board full of pins of what it is you want to manifest. For example, if you want a cat, you make a vision board full of cats. After that, you visualize it anytime you want. You can mediate while visualizing.

2.4 The law of assumption/loa.

The law of assumption/loa, also just called the law, was popularized by Neville Goddard, It focuses on your belief system. The core idea is whatever you assume to be true will manifest in your life.

Assume the feeling of wish fulfilled - Instead of focusing on attracting something external, you convince yourself that you already have it internally. That belief shifts your reality to align with that assumption.

Step 1: Identify what you want.

Step 2: Assume it's already yours. Feel and act as if your desires is already yours.

Step 3: Persist in the assumption. Even if your external reality doesn't reflect it yet, hold on to the belief until it manifests.

3.0: The 3d and the 4d.

There's the 3d and the 4d. The 3d is your physical world/external world. The 4d is imagination. Imagination is creation. Manifestation happens in the 4d.

The 4d is the only thing you need to focus on. Nobody cares about the 3d. The 4d is where everything happens, and then it shows up in the 3d. Therefore, circumstances do not matter.

Also time does not apply in the 4d so do not wait for your desires. It is already yours.

3.1: The conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

This is my personal take on the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind is the main part of your brain. It has rules and uses logic as its main principle. You live in xyz country, with xyz people, you go to xyz school, whatever.

The subconscious mind is more hidden. It's sort of like a blank canvas. It's influenced by the conscious mind. Whatever you get it to believe will show up in your reality. Logic is not its main principle, so nothing is impossible or absurd.

You do not need to convince the subconscious mind to manifest, but it can be helpful.

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I hope I could be of help! Much love.

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein.

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[juthemagicalclown]

so anyway I was going through The Star chapter to put together a rough timeline in the light of the 2.4 event, and I found THIS??

Greta knew Jay's sister and had already written about her death and told us in 1.4, and I still had the audacity to act surprised in 2.0 and hope she was still alive T^T

it also explains why Jay didn't recognise her from the picture : he had been reversed several times and was still a teen during the second 1990, while Paulina survived the first storm and must have been over 30 years old when she died

it also means paulina must have grieved her brother in 1999 just like jay will grieve her sister later

[data-nerd-stuff]

Gender Census 2024: Oceania Summary

Who? Everyone whose gender doesn’t tidily fit into the female/male binary. (Oceania participants isolated) What? An online survey asking participants how they describe themselves and how they would like other people to refer to them. When? May to June 2024. Oceania Participants: 2,457 Worldwide Summary: https://www.gendercensus.com/results/2024-worldwide-summary/ Full Oceania Report: [GC2024] Analysis of Oceania’s results from the Gender Census

Q1. Identity words The Top 5 were:

nonbinary: 57.6% (down 1.7% from last year)

queer: 51.6% (down 1.2%)

trans: 42.8% (down 1.4%)

a person / human / [my name] / “I’m just me”: 37.3% (down 1.4%)

transgender: 37.0% (down 2.4%)

Q2. Titles Titles (with name) Here’s the top 5:

No title at all: 37.0% (up 2.6% from last year)

Mx: 22.8% (up 0.5%)

Mr: 10.5% (down 1.4%)

Ms: 6.7% (down 0.9%)

Miss: 6.7% (up 1.6%)

Titles (without name) The top 5:

No title at all: 66.5% (down 3.8%)

Friend: 29.5% (up 2.0%)

Sir: 28.2% (down 5.0%)

Comrade: 20.7% (new to the checkbox this year)

Mx: 20.3% (down 1.1%)

Q3. Pronouns The top five pronouns (or lack thereof) are:

They - they/them/their/theirs/themself: 75.7% (up 0.6% from last year)

He - he/him/his/his/himself: 40.5% (down 1.5%)

She - she/her/her/hers/herself: 37.2% (up 5.0%)

It - it/it/its/its/itself: 21.4% (up 1.5%)

Avoid pronouns / use name as pronoun: 13.0% (up 1.1%)

Q4. Family/relationship terms Here’s the top 5:

[nickname based on my first name]: 30.6%

[my first name]: 25.6%

Questioning or unknown: 22.1%

Mum: 21.2%

Dad: 21.1%

[krawlernyannyan]

Honkai: Star Rail Character Trailer Logo Edits (2.0 through 2.4) (Black Swan, Sparkle, Acheron, Aventurine, Robin, Boothill, Firefly, Jade, Yunli, Jiaoqiu)

[pearsandrust]

afflicted with a curse where the second i say i don't like an hsr character, hoyoverse immediately writes them the most devastating story i've ever had the misfortune of reading. aventurine in 2.0. jiaoqiu in 2.4. the other day i joked that i didn't like mydei manspreading and now LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENING. LOOK.

[tomorrowusa]

101 Days into Trump 2.0, we're halfway to recession

A recession is regarded as two consecutive quarters of shrinking real GDP. In other words, a decline in GDP for a total of six months.

Thanks to Trump's tariffs, trade wars, and mass firings, the size of the American economy is now shrinking. If this continues through the end of June, we will officially be in recession.

U.S. recession risk leaps as GDP shrinks for the first time since 2022

President Donald Trump's trade policies could be setting up the U.S. economy for its first recession since the Covid crisis of 2020. The U.S. economy contracted sharply in the first quarter, according to an early Commerce Department estimate published Wednesday, as the impact of tariffs triggered a record surge in imports and slowed domestic spending.  First-quarter GDP was pegged at -0.3%, down from the positive 2.4% pace recorded over the final three months of last year and well shy of Wall Street's forecast for an advance of around 0.4%. The contraction marks the first time the economy has shrunk since the first quarter of 2022.  Overall consumption slowed to 1.2% from 2.7% over the final months of last year, the data indicated. Government spending contracted 0.25% following a rise of 0.52% over Q4 2024

We had one quarter of post-COVID negative growth in early 2022 but the economy rebounded during the second quarter which prevented recession. Since then, the US economy had been in growth.

In the last quarter of 2024, when Biden was still president, the US economy grew at a healthy 2.4%. Then Trump came back.

Republicans have caused 10 of the last 11 recessions. Trump is eager to make that 11 of the last 12.

Somehow, Republicans have been remarkably successful at convincing a lot of saps that the GOP is good for the economy. In fact, they help only the filthy rich.

What we are going through right now is TOTALLY intentional on Trump's part. It is part of his effort to undermine America.

You need to repeat at every convenient opportunity in real life that Republicans suck for the economy. If you don't get hoarse from saying that, you're not repeating it enough.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Adrian Beaumont at The Conversation:

With 52% of enrolled voters counted, The Poll Bludger has Labor ahead in 92 of the 150 House of Representatives seats, the Coalition in 43, the Greens in two, independents in 11 and others in two. In called seats, Labor is on 76 (already a majority), the Coalition 32, independents six and others two. Labor has gained ten seats and the Coalition has lost ten, including Peter Dutton’s Dickson to Labor. It’s amazing that Labor has held the Victorian seat of Aston, which they had gained from the Coalition during Labor’s honeymoon period. The Poll Bludger gives Labor a projected national two-party preferred vote of 54.5–45.5, a 2.4% swing to Labor since the 2022 election. Current primary votes are 34.7% Labor (up 2.3%), 30.5% Coalition (down 3.9%), 12.8% Greens (up 0.3%), 6.2% One Nation (up 1.3%), 2.0% Trumpet of Patriots (new), 8.1% independents (up 4.5%) and 5.8% others (up 0.6%). I believe this election result was mostly because Dutton became too close to One Nation and Donald Trump for the Australian people to tolerate. Dutton would have done better to have stuck to the cost-of-living issue and avoided culture wars. With the addition of the YouGov poll below, Albanese finished the campaign at a net -4.2 using an average of five polls in the final week that asked for leaders’ ratings. Dutton finished at -20.8. The Canadian election on Monday and now Australia’s election demonstrate the left’s ability to win elections. Many thought Trump’s election would herald an era of right-wing dominance, but both Canada’s Conservatives and Australia’s Coalition lost what had looked like wins two months ago. Both leaders also lost their seats. Before the 2022 Australian election, I wrote that Australia and Canada could be strong for the left owing to big cities that make up a large share of the population in both countries. The right’s gains in the last decade have been biggest in regional areas.

Less than a week after Canada rejected right-wing lunacy, Australia also said “No MAGA BS” at the polls, as PM Anthony Albanese and his Labor party prevailed with a big majority and the opposition Coalition losing seats including their own leader’s (Peter Dutton).

See Also:

The Guardian: Australia re-elects Anthony Albanese as Labor rides anti-Trump wave to seal crushing win

HuffPost: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Wins Reelection In Another Blow To Trump

[autumnslance]

New Game+ Tutorial

"I don't remember this part of the story." "It's been so long since I played X expansion." "What happened during that raid again?" "Who was this character?" "I story skipped the MSQ/job quests so I don't know what happened and who these people are!"

There's answers to this, friends. Not only is the game's own Unending Journey (in inn rooms, or as furnishing in your FC or private rooms/homes) able to replay many cutscenes, and there's the completed quest log, but there are places online, such as Garland Tools and the FFXIV Game Script, that keep most (not all) of the quest text handy.

But if you want to relive those quests, and/or get the side dialogues and replay (or first time play!) the experiences, as of Shadowbringers 5.1 there's a feature called New Game+ to allow that.

New Game+ (or NG+) will let you replay past questlines, at your current level (which makes it go pretty fast in a lot of cases). There is No experience or rewards to gain through this feature--no using it to level alt jobs. It purely exists to allow experiencing, or re-experiencing, completed content.

Once defeating the Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea at level 50 in ARR's finale of 2.0, you can go to Vesper Bay and find the Wistful Whitebeard.

More info and images below the Keep Reading cut...

(image taken from gamesconsolewiki and their article on this feature.)

Once you've unlocked the feature by talking to him, you get a new menu option in your Duty menu (the exclamation point icon), right between Duty Recorder and Hall of the Novice.

Once you select the feature it brings up a menu of options; it usually defaults to Main Story Quests, but I also have a paused replay under "Suspend" in progress. There are also options that match other quest interfaces, like your Journal or the Unending Journey; Chronicles of a New Era for raids and trials, Side Story for quests like Hildibrand, the Scholasticate, Role Master Quests, Void Quests, and Chronicles of Light (story important side quests, like Tales of the Dragonsong War, Tales from the Shadows, Tales of Newfound Adventure). Tank, Healer, DPS, Crafting, and Gathering quests also have their own categories.

Each Expansion MSQ is broken into parts; usually 2 parts for the x.0 main expansion, and then 2 parts for the patches. They're only available after x.0 or the patch stories are complete.

Also notice the "Help" icon in the top right of the NG+ overlay; it opens a pretty comprehensive guide, divided into menu sections, about how the feature works.

ARR is split into 6 parts, and I do think 2.0 could use a rework in how they're split but for now, I'm selecting Part 6 to look for specific side dialogues that only exist in this timeframe.

Selecting Part 6 opens the description; the Crystal Braves have just been formed, to help the Scions with the turmoil still facing the realm--from refugees, to Garlemald's continuing threat, to primals and Ascians.

Once you do, the NG+ quest info shows up, usually around where ever you keep your MSQ quest marker. I hide my MSQ tracker once it's done, so NG+ fits in that same spot in the upper left for me.

It tells me to "Relive Past Adventures!", which expac and part I'm in, and which quest is my starting point in this case, "Traitor in the Midst", the start of the Ivy spy plotline in Patch 2.4.

From here it progresses as if I am back in that patch and on those quests, but without any experience or rewards. Aeryn's in her current level 90 appearance and skills, making it easy to skip past and handle level 45-50 enemies in these zones.

So long as I am in NG+, I cannot do current quests, plots, or other content; I can't complete new current level duties (duties new in NG+ itself are fine), I can't access the MB, my retainers, or the Unending Journey. I can manually Suspend my current playthrough, or performing some of these actions (like duties) will automatically suspend my NG+ playthrough. You also cannot start NG+ while doing certain things (like some quests, such as leves).

This also will not let you play through the start of other city-states, only your original starter town. Solo duties will let you choose their difficulty immediately, without having to fail them first like in normal play.

If I want to drop my NG+ save before I've finished the replay--maybe I found the info and screenshots I wanted--I can delete the save.

This is an extremely helpful feature that can be used to replay events and quests, either for the fun of it, or because you want to find specific dialogue or lore information that only exists in a specific point in game. Maybe you want to visit old friends lost along the way, or take new screenshots of your WoL as they are post-fantasia.

Maybe it's just been a few years, and you've found you've forgotten some things and want to remember how the story actually went, especially knowing what you know now.