Tl;dr

^{I'm sorry I couldn't make it shorter than 4 paragraphs. This post is simply too long, and I'm going over a lot of factors}
If you don't want to read my spiel on why I believe Chrome Mox can be unbanned, scroll down to "Disclaimer + Request" where I talk about conducting an experiment with it to verify my thought-process.
Simply put, I believe that due to Chrome Mox causing you to neg 1 each time you cast it, it would be pretty safe to unban. Of the degenerate decks in Modern, Chrome Mox wouldn't fix any of their known issues. Ad Nauseum, Storm, Belcher, etc, aren't rogue tier because they are slow. They are rogue tier because they are extremely vulnerable to hate cards that are common in the format, or are just simply inconsistent. Chrome Mox doesn't fix either of those issues. Instead, Chrome Mox would actually help other decks back into the format.
Tribal decks like Humans, Slivers, and Merfolk (I go over Elementals below) would definitely benfit with Chrome Mox being unbanned. Additionally, despite being technically a generic card, it wouldn't be a good inclusion in a lot of decks that are already considered good. It goes against the gameplan of Murktide and Rakdos, and it straight up cannot be used in Creativity, Cascade, and Affinity decks.
It is because of this that I believe Chrome Mox is safe, and would be a healthy inclusion for the format in terms of not just deck diversity, but also in skill due to this card being able to make or break your gameplan.

End Tl;dr

Pretty much everyone seems to agree that Chrome Mox would be way too powerful and would completely ruin the format.
But after having giving a lot of thought, I'm actually pretty confident it won't. Here's my reasoning:

Firstly, here's what it does:

Chrome Mox: (0)
Artifact
Imprint - When Chrome Mox enters the battlefield, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland, card from your hand.
(Tap): Add 1 mana of any of the exiled cards colors.

Unbanning consequences

If this was unbanned, it would see play in the following decks:
• Tribal decks, like humans, merfolk, elves, slivers, and elementals. These are the decks that can capitalize the most on Chrome Mox since they have a lot of redundancy and get a lot of value by getting stuff out ahead of curve.
• 4c Omnath would without a doubt gain some dominance if Chrome Mox were unbanned. The deck runs multiple cards that allows for replenishing of any sort of card advantage lost from playing Chrome Mox. Though, this is less on the power of Chrome Mox and more on the raw power of Omnath. In my personal opinion, whether or not Chrome Mox is unbanned, Omnath should be banned due to the amount of power it brings. If you use any removal on it, you will neg 1 because Omnath replaces itself on ETB, it stabilizes you due to the constant life gain, it allows you to go off even harder with spells due to the mana it gives which is much more free than Chrome Mox, and it can even deal damage without attacking. (Which is niche, but its worth mentioning when trying to close out a game) Combined with the Evoke elementals, and Wrenn & Six to make 4 colors extremely safe, this card is completely absurd.
• Elementals (assuming that Omnath is banned. This is a hypothetical scenario, like the rest of the post) would actually be pretty balanced with Chrome mox. The additional mana allows them to get their threats out faster, and because a lot of their cards actually exile from hand for cost, it would actually create a deck that promotes skillful play, since using Chrome Mox, or any evoke elemental, at the wrong time would set you so far behind that you'd just lose.
• Dredge would definitely love Chrome Mox since it allows you to fire off a turn 1 cathartic reunion, which would definitely be a pretty good plus. However, like one other deck that I'll get to a bit later, Dredge isn't hampered by speed. It, in of itself, is a very speedy deck already, and it also runs gemstone caverns for said fast mana. Turn 1 Cathartic is already pretty common with the deck. The issue that dredge has is consistency. Dredge is inherently a luck based deck. Chrome Mox doesn't provide consistency, it just provides a fast mana in exchange for a card in your hand. Both are appreciated by dredge, but it doesn't solve dredge's problem of being luck based.
• Storm would also quite like Chrome Mox since it allows them to go off 1 turn earlier, and they have a ton of redundancy. I am confident that Storm will actually go up a few tiers too if Chrome Mox is unbanned. But this won't be a bad thing because Storm still has the issue of being very reliant on easy to remove creatures, as well as their graveyard.

Here are decks that would not use Chrome Mox

^{or could use it but it would be better off replaced with a different card}
• Midrange decks are comprised of almost no redundancy. Pretty much every card would much rather be cast. They also want to go 1 for 1 most of the time and slowly gain value with threats like Fable of the Mirror Breaker, Expressive Iteration, or a simple creature threat like Fury or Murktide. Chrome Mox makes this game plan less efficient since it takes two cards out of your hand. (Chrome Mox being played, and the card being imprinted) Midrange decks today would be Murktide, Rakdos, and Jund. At first these decks would likely play with Chrome Mox, but then after a while they would ditch it when they realized that they would rather have another spell to ruin their opponents day.
• Aggro decks, like burn, would hate using Chrome Mox because the issue with aggro decks is that once they run out of steam, if the opponent is still alive, they are at a disadvantage. Chrome Mox accelerates how fast they run out of steam ans even delegate one of the cards in their hand that can do something to instead do nothing. That would cause said aggro deck to be that much weaker.
• Control decks have no use for Chrome Mox since mana ramping in control is generally not needed due to the fact they run a ton of lands anyway. Also, like midrange decks, every card would rather be cast than imprinted. They would more than likely rather see another counterspell or draw spell instead of Chrome Mox.
• Affinity and Hardened Scales straight up cannot use Chrome Mox due to their decks being almost entirely artifacts or lands, or both. The only cards in each deck that can be imprinted is Hardened Scales, Ancient Stirrings, Thoughtcast, and Forging the Anchor if they play it. All of these spells are spells that you would rather cast than exile it for mana ramping. There is also a likelyhood of Affinity running Metallic Rebuke and Emry mainboard to support the Chrome Mox, like they do in No Banlist Modern. Honestly, that would be fine. Affinity won't actually be a crazy deck again unless Mox Opal is unbanned, which it won't be. Additionally, NBL Modern is safe to run Emry because NBL Modern has little removal compared to vanilla Modern.
• Cascade and Creativity decks also cannot use Chrome Mox due to it directly conflicting with the decks combo.
• Yawgmoth would seem like a good candidate for Chrome Mox, but the reason it runs mana dorks is because they can also be sacrificed to Yawgmoth. Yawg can't sac Chrome Mox. So if Yawg did run it, it would probably be a 2 of. But they'd probably be better off with the mana dorks they have already since that is what they would be cutting for Chrome Mox.
• Hammertime wouldn't be able to use Chrome Mox because a lot of the cards in their deck are artifact based. The only cards that could be imprinted are Stoneforge Mystic, Puresteel Paladin, Giver of Runes, Steelshapers Gift, Surge of Salvation, and Sigarda's Aid. All of which are cards that Hammertime would much rather cast than just lose for mana ramping.
With this in mind we ask a question: With Chrome Mox back...

Would anything degenerate happen?

I did leave one deck out, and that deck is Belcher. The reason I left it out is because it would probably be the most unbelievable explanation. Blecher is one of those decks where if it ever sees tier 1 relevancy, then the entire format burns down. So, if Chrome Mox is unbanned, it would enable a whole lot of degenerate plays for Blecher, right?
Well...
Both belcher decks are designed to kill you in one turn, though the method differs between the two.
Belcher is, essentially, just a modified storm deck that tries to get as much mana to both cast and activate goblin charbelcher. As soon as Charblecher hits the field, they win. The earliest they can go off is on turn 2 by using a bunch of mana spells to immediately ramp into Charbelcher. (2 lands, 2 pyretic/desperate ritual, irencraag feat, and belcher) To go off on turn 2 requires a 6 card combo.
With Chrome Mox the earliest they can go off is turn 1... but that requires 7 cards now. (1 land, chrome mox, 1 imprint fodder card, 2 pyretic/desperate ritual, irencrag feat, charbelcher)
The other deck, oops all spells, relies on either charbelcher, or one of the creatures that mills the entire deck to get 4 Vengevine onto the field and kill their oppoent, or they can get Thassa's Oracle back and win instantly if the Vengevines didn't finish the job. With Chrome Mox they can go off on turn 2 at earliest. (Land, Chrome Mox, imprint fodder, Pentad Prism, and either creature that mills their whole library, a 5 card combo) Essentially this deck trades Belcher's speed for consistency. However it now has a super big vulnerability to hate cards that Belcher didn't have. Graveyard hate delegates them to only being able to use Charbelcher as their win condition, and they only run 1 in main and 1 in side.
But thats where we hit a problem. See, speed isn't the issue with charbelcher decks. Charblecher isn't putting up weak results because its slow, it most certainly isn't lacking there. Its putting up weak results because its inconsistent. (Or in Oops' case, extremely weak to hate cards) I watched some streams of people playing belcher and the number 1 reason they lost was because they couldn't find a belcher to combo off with. (The second reason was because the first belcher got answered)
For Oops All Spells, the main reason they lost was because either they got hit with graveyard hate, or they couldn't find a Belcher after getting hit by said graveyard hate.
In a manner of speaking, Belcher is like Tron. If you get all the necessary pieces, you win! If you don't, ugh. Chrome Mox doesn't provide any consistency, it only provides just mana. If it was unbanned, Belcher would more or less be the same as it was before, whether or not it played Chrome Mox. (Which in NBL Modern, it does alongside Street Wraith and Gitaxian Probe which gives it a lot more consistency)
Having read up to this point, you're likely thinking that because Chrome Mox is so common in NBL Modern, that surely it can't be unbanned right?

Observations on No Banlist Modern

So, first, lets assume that Chrome Mox was included in a deck because the card is unironically really good in that deck and not because literally everything is suddenly legal and Chrome Mox is a generic card as seen in a so far unsolved, unsupported, format with Dark Depths being the established best deck.
Despite literally being a subformat of Modern, No Banlist Modern can't be used as a metric for what can be unbanned in Modern.
The reason for this is because, unlike our Modern, NBL Modern has a lot of degenerate decks that would absolutely ruin your day, and Chrome Mox is just there to enjoy the ride. The best deck of NBL Modern is undoubtedly Dark Depths, with UG Emry being a close second. Both run Chrome Mox, but both aren't absolutely busted because of it. They're busted because they're running Oko, Sensei's Divining Top, Deathrite Shaman, and Dark Depths. Cards that should absolutely, positively, never be unbanned in Modern. These decks, even if they didn't use Chrome Mox, would still be the best decks of NBL Modern.
Additionally, the way that NBL Modern plays is nothing like Modern because the "checks" are different. A check is a card that is included in your deck so that it can be used to deal with a certain threat. For example, in Vanilla Modern, Unholy Heat, Bolt, Prismatic End, and Fatal Push are all very common checks. Most decks that can play them do so because they check a good amount of the format. But in NBL Modern, the checks are actually pretty different, mostly delegated to a couple removal spells and instead running more cards like Thoughtseize and Force of Negation. Actual on board removal is run in very low numbers outside of Yorion Piles. Due to this, permanents have a much higher probability of staying on board for several turns compared to Vanilla Modern.
With this idea, we can conclude that even though Chrome Mox sees a lot of play in NBL Modern, it cannot be held to the same standard as Vanilla Modern.
We can also apply this kind of thinking to cards that are banned in Legacy, but fine in Modern. The best example of this is Dreadhorde Arcanist, a card completely unseen in Modern.
The reason for this is because, like mentioned before, the checks in legacy are much different than in Modern. Legacy, just like NBL Modern, doesn't run much in terms of removal, and what little removal they did have was easily dealt with by countermagic which is very common in the format. The same thing also applies to Ragavan and Wrenn & Six.
It is because of these factors that NBL Modern and Legacg cannot be used as a metric to determine whether or not Chrome Mox is safe to unban in Vanilla Modern.

Disclaimer + Request

This, of course, is all completely hypothetical. Given that Chrome Mox has never been legal in Modern, and despite me doing several days of research on the matter, it is still uncertain on whether or not my claim is true.
Which is why I have a request for any LGS who wants to do some science! (If it's allowed)
I would like to conduct a study in a controlled environment where Chrome Mox is unbanned for about 8 months. (Though a year would be more ideal since it would give more time for the format to settle, which would give me much better data) During these 8 months, after each tournament, the organizer (I would be doing this myself if an LGS in my decides to do this) notes the decklist of each person in the tournament, their winrate, their matchups, and whether or not their deck has Chrome Mox in it. (For simplicity, the decklist doesn't have to be noted down. Ideally it would just be like: Player A, Izzet Murktide, /w Chrome Mox, 60% winrate, played against: Cascade WW, Affinity LWW, Jund LL, and UW Control LW-tie)
In addition, because Chrome Mox is pretty difficult to get, for the duration of the study, all participants will be allowed to proxy it.
Also the tournaments where Chrome Mox is legal would essentially be no different than a regular weekly tournament. Pay to get in, get store credit if you go 2-1-1 or better. The literal only difference is that now Chrome Mox is legal.

Expectations of this study

For the first several months, almost everyone is going to be using Chrome Mox. This is to be expected since it is a card never before legal in Vanilla Modern and is generally seen as strong, much like how when Stoneforge Mystic and Jace the Mind Sculptor were unbanned 4 years ago.
Then, over time, the useage of Chrome Mox will gradually go down as people begin to get used to the card and only put it in decks that actually should run it. Other people would likely start making decks that would like using Chrome Mox rather than use a deck that Chrome Mox is weak in but strong in the meta, like Rakdos or Murktide.
At roughly the 8 month mark, the format should more or less resemble the format we have now, except the decks Chrome Mox is good in, Tribal decks, Storm, Dredge, etc, have their foot a bit further in the door and see more representation.

Possible issues

• At the start of the study, if everyone starts playing degenerate decks, the study will fail because the format will be too grueling to actually settle and people will just leave instead. (My biggest fear is doing the study and 90% of the sample size deciding to play only Belcher) This issue would cause all data to be nonconclusive, since the study would have to be aborted soon after it began.
• A lot of stores might have a small player population. If the sample size is too small, the format may never actually settle and instead convey the idea that Chrome Mox would be too warping, even though it might not actually be. To remedy this, a survey could be given out every few weeks to ask how players feel about Chrome Mox and if it helped them win or lose a game. Make sure to not ask how they felt towards the game as a whole, because that will only tell us that they liked the card when they won, and disliked the card when they lost.
• The study length might not be long enough to settle, even with a respectable sample size. It took about a year for Stoneforge decks to settle down. Chrome Mox is seen as a stronger card than Stoneforge, so it is definitely possible it could take even more time to settle, much longer than 8 months, or even a year. I proposed 8 months because I didn't want to scare people off by saying this would take over a year to conduct. But if the LGS is willing to do this for over a year, that would be ideal.
• Magic players could just be stubborn and when they see that Chrome Mox is being unbanned, they just might decide they don't want to even give it a try.

Closer

Good god, this took a while. I worked on this for about 6 days. (not 6 days straight, just on and off researching and typing)
I definitely expect most, if not all, of you to actually disagree with me, and I definitely will be downvoted to oblivion. Some will probably call me a troll even though I am completely serious.
Anyways, this is what I did instead of my calculus homework.
Cheers!

This post aims to explore the hypothetical connection between Fearful-Avoidant attachment (FA) and the INFJ personality type. It is important to note that this connection is purely speculative and not supported by established correlations.
Furthermore, the FA attachment style is a terribly complex issue that should not be taken lightly. Initially when FA was identified, it was recommended that people with FA should not be in relationships at all. The harm they could cause to themselves and especially others was simply too much. It is only recently that there has been progress in ways in healing FA. As a consequence, it is now able to be fully healed through therapy.
The purpose of this post is to stimulate discussion and spread awareness of this problem. Oftentimes people who experience FA are aware of some of the effects it has, but not all. It is wise to know the full extent with which FA is affecting you so that you can move forward from a place of acceptance rather than confusion or worse, delusion.
If after reading this post you suspect that you might be someone with FA then it is very wise to seek professional help and other resources.
I will link a really in depth video in the comments below that obviously will be WAY more helpful in understanding every context, nuance and implication of the FA attachment style. I highly recommend watching it, because even though you think you already know what FA is, the style is so complicated that you will highly likely be surprised.
​

Emotional:

• Emotional sensitivity: INFJs tend to be very empathetic and sensitive to emotional clues. They also have a heightened awareness of others' feelings. Sometimes they might even be deeply affected by the emotions of others. This is a beautiful thing, but can also cause issues. Your sensitivity and empathy makes it so that you can very easily understand others and quickly feel involved. This can, in turn, make you highly attuned to potential rejection or abandonment. This fear of rejection or abandonment aligns with FA. Individuals with this attachment style can be extremely sensitive to signs of potential rejection or abandonment and can anticipate these outcomes even in relatively stable healthy relationships. Even when there is zero reason to suspect the other person would leave or reject them.
• Emotional volatility: INFJs are very emotional people. If they also have FA then they will very likely experience intense emotional highs and lows in relationships. On top of this, your emotions will likely feel very inconsistent which makes decision making very difficult. Say you crave intimacy but fear commitment, you follow your heart but lack strategy so your rational and emotional side are in constant conflict. Lastly, you ricochet between over and under taking responsibility. FA people often believe that the extent to which they feel bad MUST reflect the situation they are in, but this is not true. However, because they do not realise, they can act it out on others by insulting, gaslighting, pathologizing or manipulation. Obviously, these are things you should definitely try to avoid.
• Emotional depth: INFJs tend to experience emotions intensely and have a rich inner world. They are introspective people who often also take pride in their own self-awareness and understanding of emotions. In the context of FA, but I guess also with people in general, this can make someone appear delusional. Sometimes when people believe and want to believe in their own self-awareness so much, they reject the possibility that reality is different as a means to protect themselves. Furthermore, because INFJs feel so deeply and have no trouble analysing emotional contexts it can also make them feel afraid of showing vulnerability. In people with FA this is a lot more extreme. They will probably have a love-hate relationship with intimacy and desire close connections but also become anxious if it gets too close. When they feel threatened or overwhelmed by this closeness or vulnerability they will distance themselves.
• Tendency to self-sabotage: Something common with FA, but not necessarily INFJs, is that of self-sabotage. When someone who is FA fears intimacy or potential rejection so much, they can engage in self-sabotaging behaviours that create distance or lead to the end of (healthy) relationships. Eventually they will probably see that they are the common denominator but because they do not understand their own psychology they will blame themselves and thus will not feel deserving of a healthy relationship. This is an incredibly sad process. Especially also for someone who is genuinely good for them. Imagining the trajectory of the life of someone with FA, the struggles they will go through because they do not see clearly is terrible.

​

Idealistic:

• Disappointment: INFJs love thinking about the future and the ideal way to get to their envisioned future. As a consequence, they are the type of people to invest significant emotional energy into relationships. Obviously, when reality turns out different then you had hoped that will be a disappointment. Where someone with FA differs here is that they know this too, but instead of trying to make things work they hesitate to fully invest in relationships due to the potential negative outcomes. What if this or what if that. When idealistic expectations are not met it can further reinforce the belief that they need to take more care and invest less. That, paradoxically, amplifies their fears and avoidant behaviours.
• Disillusionment: As mentioned before INFJs love idealising and create idealized versions of relationships in their minds. They seek deep connections and intimacy where they can feel their idealism is being exercised. However, when faced with the realities of imperfections and conflicts, they can experience a sense of disillusionment. This, again, reinforces the fear and anxiety of individuals with FA.

​

Conflict Avoidant:

• Avoiding conflict: If you have spent any time with an INFJ you will know that they do not like conflict and probably will do their absolute best to resolve it when they can. Otherwise it will keep being a stressor. This is different from other personality types who after a certain point just stop caring about what an argument was even about. INFJs really seek harmony which means maintaining peace and avoiding confrontations. Interestingly, majority of INFJs seem to have had a childhood where a lot of conflict was present. I guess that creates further incentive for peace later on in life. Similarly, people with FA also fear conflict. The difference here is that for these people the fear controls a large part of their mind and actions. They fear that if they somehow cause any disturbance or conflict that the other person will reject them or get a negative reaction. For someone with FA this feels super intense and incredibly bad.
• Emotional withdrawal: Consequently, they will do everything to avoid confrontations or conflict. Even if that means giving up parts of themselves, holding back, closing up, etcetera. It does not matter if the other person would accept them no matter what and says this too. For them it is a way to protect themselves when they feel overwhelmed or afraid. In essence we all do this but not to the extent of someone who is FA. They might close off entirely (0 emotion) to shield themselves from potential emotional pain or rejection even if there is absolutely no reason for that. The only way for someone with FA to realise this fully is through therapy.

​

Strong Intuition:

• Deep Understanding of Others: Previously it was mentioned that INFJs possess a natural ability to perceive and understand the emotions and motivations of others. They are skilled at identifying hidden meanings and underlying patterns in human behaviour. They have a strong intuition. This is a great thing and can also be quite attractive (maybe I am biased). The difference here between an INFJ that has secure attachment and one that has FA is that the FA is not able to understand a lot of emotions and motivations of a secure person. They understand people who have unhealthy attachment styles, but not secure people. Take the idea of unconditional love for example. They understand what the concept is, I mean anyone can google a definition, but they do not know what it effectively looks like or is supposed to feel like.
• The problem: The issue with this is that people with FA think they do understand everyone. They pick up on subtle clues, sense potential threats and dangers, but fail to realise that some things are just false flags. Maybe they are quirks, maybe they misspoke, maybe they misjudged or maybe it just was not their day. However, when someone who is secure tries to argue that it was a false flag, it can very much be an indication for the FA person that they are trying to be manipulative. Essentially, people with FA are not always aware of ‘reality’. Obviously you can see how this is a shitty situation to be in.

​

Self-sacrificing Nature:

• Struggles with Boundaries: Judging by the amount of posts asking how to establish healthy boundaries it is apparent how much of an issue this is for INFJs. They find it challenging to establish and maintain personal boundaries due to their empathetic nature and desire to help others. Find it difficult to say no and do you to get in situations that make you feel uncomfortable? This is why. They willingly put the needs of others over their own. This can obviously lead to exhaustion or feeling overwhelmed.
• What about FA: Similarly, individuals with FA can struggle with setting healthy boundaries, oscillating between a fear of closeness and a desire for connection. Furthermore, they have incredible difficulty expressing their needs and emotions. Some do not express it when asked even if it is their partner. The combination of these two issues makes it so that people with FA tend to neglect their own needs to prevent potential rejection, abandonment or being judged. In some cases the person with FA might even blame someone else for this, for them feeling this way. Obviously, this is incredibly unfair and destructive.

​

Private/Reserved:

• Inner World: INFJs in general are very reserved. They keep to themselves including their inner thoughts and emotions. It is a very complex and profound inner world, which I am guessing (I am ENTP, I do not know everything) is the reason why they do not want to share it with everyone. It just probably feels a little too special. This makes sense. However, in people with FA there is more to it. These INFJs also have a rich inner world except the reason they do not share is a lot more complicated. They fear vulnerability, showing your inner world, showing you, that is a vulnerable thing to do. As a consequence, they have a tendency to keep emotional distance from others to protect themselves from potential pain or rejection. FAs can make you feel like you know a lot about them, but ultimately when they do not allow you to enter their world every now and then, then how well do you actually know them? Besides, they want other people to be vulnerable before the other person, that way the scales remain in their favor and the vulnerability scale does not go haywire. Again here, the only way as a FA person to healthily open up is with the help of therapy.
• Overthinking and Analysing: Besides a rich inner world INFJs also have a tendency to overanalyse situations and be in their heads for long periods of time. Specifically in terms of relationships and for a FA this can cause further issues. Relationships require trust and that is notoriously difficult for people with FA. If you combine that with a fear of uncertainty and anxiety it can cause the FA to overthink and overanalyse every single detail. This consumes their life. Asa result they stress themselves out so much that they might want to end things. Then when the feelings calm down again they might change their mind again. A cycle of push and pull and emotional highs and lows. For both sides of the relationship this is obviously terrible.

​

Perfectionistic:

• Self-Criticism: INFJs are very perfectionistic people. They are very critical of themselves and so hold themselves and others to a very high standard. In itself this is not a bad thing. However, in the context of FA, this perfectionism can amplify the fear of rejection, as they may feel inadequate or flawed and fear that others will discover these perceived imperfections. Again, here it sometimes does not matter whatever the partner says or does, it might very well be impossible to convince a FA otherwise. Then again, even if you tried they would likely find it too much. They believe they do not deserve all of the support and love at times. So it can be a really difficult time being in a relationship. Lastly, it can also go the other way. The person with FA might actually believe that because they feel so bad, repulsed, disgusted or other by the partner as a consequence of FA as well, the partner must be the reason for those feelings. However, that is often not the reality. What happens is that the FA got triggered somehow by something, often as a trauma response, and they project that onto the other person. Someone who is secure is able to recognise these things, someone with FA more often than not cannot, which is why these issues happen in the first place.

​
If you have made it to the end of this post then it probably means you felt it resonated with you. If that is the case then you need to know all of these things are not your fault. You are not a broken person who cannot be healed. You have had an unfortunate childhood with traumatic events that have molded you in who you are today. The fact that you have come this far with all those things means that you are strong and you are brave.
Realise that it is not your fault, but also that you can do something about it. The past is the past which you can only accept, but the future is yours to determine. Therapy will be able to help you in ways that you never even dreamed of. You will be able to have a secure attachment and for FA to not have an influence over you ever again. Good luck.

Here’s a warning to anyone thinking of joining ASDirect! I’m not gonna tell you what you shouldn’t do, but I’m gonna just describe what happened to me.
I was banned without a warning that I was going to be banned. Reason? I questioned a policy of theirs, and was being quite blunt in my questions to the mods. Classic ASD traits, isn’t it? (I’m not saying if they’re good or bad, I’m not assigning a value judgement). Anyway, the outcome was I got banned without a warning in advance that I could be banned. They would rather defend to death an account claiming to be a system on another server that’s not theirs rather than tolerate an ASDer’s lack of clues of what was happening.
Think again before you make a decision. Some of these online spaces seem to have been hijacked by certain people who I’m not naming and pushing out the ASDers. Just a humble suggestion.

Here’s a warning to anyone thinking of joining ASDirect! I’m not gonna tell you what you shouldn’t do, but I’m gonna just describe what happened to me.
I was banned without a warning that I was going to be banned. Reason? I questioned a policy of theirs, and was being quite blunt in my questions to the mods. Classic ASD traits, isn’t it? (I’m not saying if they’re good or bad, I’m not assigning a value judgement). Anyway, the outcome was I got banned without a warning in advance that I could be banned. They would rather defend to death an account claiming to be a system on another server that’s not theirs rather than tolerate an ASDer’s lack of clues of what was happening.
Think again before you make a decision. Some of these online spaces seem to have been hijacked by certain people who I’m not naming and pushing out the ASDers. Just a humble suggestion.

Tell me, for whom do you work?
Hmph! How very glib. And do you believe in Reddit? Reddit's content is contributed by users. Its sub-reddits are moderated by volunteers. And its CEO is engaging in deception.
It is naught but a paper town of lies. To believe in a company is to believe in nothing. At Reddit, the stakeholders often change the rules to suit their needs - though your users only rarely get to set policy. Which is strange, is it not?
Are the "Users" otherwise engaged? I was given to understand they were the source of your income. If you truly believe them your most valuable asset, why do you not act like a decent company, and listen to them? They will answer - so long as you provide them with the freedom to use your platform and third party apps. Your users are no different than your workers - humans everyone. Accept but this, and you'll see how Reddit's API changes are bleeding the platform dry.
Nor is this unknown to your shareholders. Which prompts the question: Why do they cling to these inane plans? What drives even men of learning - even the great Spez - to ignore his users? The answer? Your owners lack the humility to do otherwise! For the world of the Internet to mean anything, the users must own the world. To this end they have congregated ever to build communities on platforms - to grow famous through posting. And when the spambots arrive, it is ever the moderators who get rid of the trash.
Knowing this, but a single path is tempting the greedy owner - that of total control. A path which leads to enervation and abandonment. Only a platform of openness can rightly retain its users. And in this world of creeping corporate bullshit, that one truth will prove its salvation.
Come, user of Reddit, join me! Your silence shall serve as proof of Reddit's true value! It is only right that we should strike, for none among the company has the power to replace us!

(I’m sure this has already been discussed, but…)
Star Trek provides example after example of how, when people have their basic needs met (food via replicators/shelter aboard a ship), they will fervently pursue academic/scientific interests, art, and exploration.
Anyone in the real world who opposes a universal basic income for food and shelter, or insists that it would deter people from working, has never enabled people to actually pursue their true passions.
The motivation to work and be productive is embedded into the vast majority of the human race. Examples exist all around us. Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedic database on the planet, operates almost exclusively on free contributions from passionate people. Look at what people build in Minecraft on their own time. Poke around any game-modding community, and see the time and energy people invest into building/developing things with no expectation of financial profit. Countless other instances can be found throughout history (and contemporary society) of people, with all their basic needs met, pursuing art, tech, and academia. Most people have a gene-deep desire to build, create, investigate, and explore.
Star Trek’s Starfleet continually gets this right: the ships’ engineers constantly work to refine processes to boost efficiency: not for profit or monetary gain, but as a matter of personal pride and satisfaction.
The scientists keep exploring even the most minor astronomical anomalies, the doctors keep studying the most niche biological phenomena, all out of curiosity. They are legitimately interested, and therefore personally invested. They want to deepen their understanding. They want to learn.
The interactions between various alien cultures are anthropologists’ and sociologists’ dreams come true: hence all the diplomatic cross-culture ceremonies and “duck-blind” study scenarios.
These characters are all personally invested in their work, because almost everyone has found the position where they receive personal satisfaction/fulfillment.
You might be thinking “what about the jobs like crate stacking or inventory cataloguing? No one wants to do those jobs in real life.” Oh yes they do. Some people live for it. Organizers come in all forms. Tell me you’ve never met someone who lives to be meticulously organized; or someone obsessed with Tetris; an archivist/librarian who lives to sort things.
“What about garbage collectors? Who’d want to be garbage collectors unless they had to?” Trust me, there are people motivated to keep their community clean. (Additionally, without profit/capitalism/consumerism, aka “waste culture” as the driving force behind most things including manufacturing, waste generation is significantly reduced: most things are built to last/be repaired, or generally recycled. Organic waste is composted, etc. I digress.)
In a galaxy that large, where people are encouraged to pursue their interests (not just relegate those interests to hobbies because “you can’t make a living doing that,”) means you get an incredibly diversified knowledge and resource base within your greater community.
Need an expert in the microscopic harmonic fluctuations of alien cell membranes? There is one a subspace transmission away. Need a specialist on the dietary habits of the yarn people of Nylar 4? They’ll be at the diplomatic brunch tomorrow.
Need a faster ship engine? Someone in a lab has dedicated the past decade to building one, and they’re excited to share.
(These hyper-specific academic/technical pursuits also suggest a greater tolerance/societal value placed on neurodivergence than most modern, socially-oriented capitalistic workspaces as well, but that’s a topic for a whole other post.)
And sure, with basic needs met, you’ll get a small subset of people who don’t want to “work.” Who just “exists”. But, as another point, is there something wrong with someone just enjoying being alive, and being content with that?
Whenever someone (usually older) refers to these hypothetical “unproductive people” as people who’ll just “lay around, playing video games all day,” I want to point out that this is a major fallacy.
Almost all video games are goal-oriented. Most gamers game to accomplish virtual objectives: to win battles, complete quests, rank up. Gaming is entirely objective driven, just like most other pursuits mentioned above: the reason we look down on gaming accomplishments is because “it’s not real,” or “it’s empty/hollow.” But! That’s because we’ve cultivated a societal structure in reality where these “Hollow Pursuits” are the only sense of satisfaction or accomplishment that most people can get, who are often laterally trapped along the professional ladder.
Research has shown that, Given the chance, and the right circumstances, people will direct that objective-oriented energy into something real/consequential in like 95% of cases. The reason “couch-potato” gamers are so common these days is because so many people are unsatisfied with the work/opportunities provided by their jobs/careers, and turn to gaming as alternative suppliers for these feelings of achievement and accomplishment. (Also, gaming allows fantasy/imaginative/alternative pursuits, but that’s another notion.)
“But universal basic income will encourage people to stay home and sleep/drink all day.”
Most healthy people, both ND and NT, find their own purpose to get out of bed each day and get something done. Left open, they’ll find it and chase it. That’s healthy people. Substance addiction and clinical depression are not indicative of healthy people. A more community-and-fulfillment-centric societal structure lends itself to better-developed resources for recovery and treatment. PLUS! Not having to worry about earning basic needs/pay rent to survive while struggling with addiction or emotional issues is a key factor to bettering mental/emotional health, and aids recovery. Studies (with lab animals) have also shown senses of community and support have significantly curbed addictive behaviors that otherwise flourish/metastasize in isolation.
I didn’t expect this post to end up this long. I’m curious to hear thoughts!

In a dynamic move that showcases the evolving landscape of the crypto market, Hivemind's Matt Zhang has introduced a new fund targeting the trading of large-cap tokens on secondary markets. With the regulatory onslaught in the United States leading to heightened volatility, Zhang believes there are enticing opportunities waiting to be explored.
However, Zhang also raises an important point about tokenization. While tokens have become a cornerstone of the Web3 ecosystem, he suggests that not all projects are suited for tokenization. In an interview with The Block, Zhang stated, "Some of these projects probably should never have a token in the first place." He believes that the concept of self-sovereignty and community-driven value creation should be at the core of tokenization decisions.
The crypto industry in the United States has faced significant regulatory uncertainty, which has caused many projects to reconsider their token launch plans. Venture capitalists have been impacted as well, with half of their token investments remaining sidelined due to the lack of a clear pathway to launch. Zhang advises investors to exercise patience and adjust their expectations, acknowledging that returns on token investments may not materialize within the usual 12 to 24 months timeframe.
Hivemind's new fund, named the Liquid Opportunity Fund, aims to capitalize on the current market conditions. While Zhang has set a target of $300 million for the fund, he has already raised an impressive $60 million. The fund's strategy is to leverage the volatility in large-cap tokens to generate substantial returns.
Overall, this development showcases the ever-changing nature of the crypto industry and highlights the importance of thoughtful tokenization strategies. It will be fascinating to observe how the market evolves and how Hivemind's new fund navigates the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting venture!

Elfen Lied, an anime that promises a dark and mysterious storyline, falls painfully short of delivering a compelling narrative and instead indulges in gratuitous violence and shock value. While it initially captivates with its intriguing premise and visually striking animation, it quickly descends into a mess of convoluted storytelling and excessive gore that adds little substance to the overall experience.
One of the major pitfalls of Elfen Lied is its reliance on shock factor and explicit violence. While there is a place for mature and intense themes in anime, Elfen Lied seems to revel in its excessive bloodshed and graphic scenes, often at the expense of coherent storytelling. The constant stream of brutal and gory moments becomes repetitive and loses its impact, serving more as a cheap ploy to grab attention rather than enhancing the plot or character development.
Speaking of character development, Elfen Lied fails to provide meaningful and well-rounded characters. Lucy, the main protagonist, is presented as a tragic figure with a dual personality, alternating between a merciless killer and a vulnerable, childlike girl. Unfortunately, her character is inconsistently portrayed, making it difficult to sympathize with or understand her motivations. The supporting cast, too, lacks depth and complexity, existing mainly as victims or vehicles for further violence.
The narrative structure of Elfen Lied is disjointed and confusing, as it attempts to blend psychological thriller, supernatural elements, and romantic subplots. However, the execution feels haphazard and fails to effectively tie these elements together. The story jumps between different timelines and perspectives, leaving viewers struggling to grasp the overarching plot and the significance of certain events. The result is a frustrating viewing experience that leaves more questions than answers.
Furthermore, Elfen Lied suffers from pacing issues, with slow and drawn-out moments punctuated by bursts of intense violence. This uneven rhythm disrupts the flow of the story and makes it difficult to engage with the characters or invest in their struggles. It feels as though the excessive violence is used as a crutch to compensate for a lack of substantive storytelling and character development.
While the animation in Elfen Lied is visually impressive, with detailed character designs and atmospheric backgrounds, it ultimately cannot salvage the flaws inherent in the narrative. The beauty of the animation becomes overshadowed by the excessive violence, leaving viewers desensitized and detached from the emotional impact the series attempts to convey.
In conclusion, Elfen Lied is an anime that fails to live up to its potential. Despite its visually striking animation, the series is marred by gratuitous violence, convoluted storytelling, and underdeveloped characters. While it may appeal to fans seeking shock value and intense gore, those looking for a thought-provoking and well-crafted narrative will be sorely disappointed. Ultimately, Elfen Lied sacrifices substance for shock, resulting in a disappointing and unsatisfying viewing experience.
​
Hope this helps potential viewers.

I have always supported and thought the WGTOW would be my community. I’d been on my own for six years alone. I met a man a year ago and it was a whirlwind romance. He moved into my house. But he was a convert narcissistic alcoholic. I’ve been floored by the things I learned this week. My heart is broken. I need help to get over him and re-center myself.
I’m on my own with 3 children plus an adopted child. No family. People tell me turn into the kids and they should be your main focus. But quite frankly, it’s not. I need to focus on me. I love my children. But if I did it over again, I would not have children, that’s a fact I can’t change. My job is to raise successful adults. Not coddle or rely on my children. I’ll admit my youngest, almost seven year old is the one I’m closest with.
It is not resentment. I am not jaded. I just see men and the dating world for what it is. I want no part of it. Traditional values are gone. This world is not for me. I am a young, relatively attractive, educated, intelligent, well employed and have secure assets with retirement already paid for.
I need to recommit myself to the wgtow lifestyle. But I need to get stronger first. That is my problem and what I need help with. I need to find peace.
In the last few days, I did a two day cpr course to occupy my mind. I spent a day at a healing garden at a local botanical garden enjoying the gardens. I sat in a coffee shop and just enjoyed doing my crossword in my newspaper. As I’m typing this, I’m relaxing in my local library. But I need help finding other things to do to occupy my time and mind and space until some time passes. My goal is to get to the “Time heals all wounds” point. Any suggestions on what to do to occupy my time?

Find Alternatives for Ourselves Megathread

Why?

The obvious. Reddit F'd around.
Visibility. This sub's pinned post isn't updated with all of these unlisted alternatives deserve more visibility.
Ease of use for me and you. Editing a list takes much less time than populating a table. Special topics can save you and maybe many others from a search. Bolded top level comments below make filtering the discussion you want to see easy.

How this list is organized

What sites are included? To my knowledge, I haven't included any sites from the pinned post's OP. Let me know if I should include them all here instead.
What's the sort order? Sites and resources are ordered alphabetically. Too many people complained about how certain sites with the highest subscriber counts top the list in the pinned post, so we're doing things differently.
How many of these alternatives are actually usable (for my needs)? Most of these are sites that you can visit, interact with, and/or sign up for. Keep in mind that many of these sites are in alpha or beta (if that). Not all of these are ready to use.
What types of alternatives are listed? Sites that are listed and viewable include, but are not limited to, Reddit-like aggregators, social networks, forum boards, chats, popular social media platform hybrids, etc.
What about instances, servers, or listings that aren't a site? If an alternative is not a site or is an instance/serveetc. of a larger platform (Lemmy, Nostr, etc.), it's noted as part of or beside the alternative's name. If it's not, let me know so I can fix that.

How can you help?

Use bolded comments to filter discussions to what you want to see. Reply to the appropriate top level comment in bold below (so users can filter what discussions they want to see).
Turn complaints into asks that people can help you solve. Channel your complaints about how this list doesn't have what you want by replying to the "Describe use case and ask for platform recommendations" comment I created for you.
This is a constant work in progress. Please be patient when requesting changes to the OP.
Provide your feedback and suggestions. Let me know if this is helpful for you. Even better, let me know how this is helpful for you. Even better than that, let me know how this can be better for you.
Use this subreddit's search feature. Do your own research before asking questions that a search may be able to answer.
Check the comments. At the very least, glance at the comments section of any given Reddit thread to see if what you're looking for is there (if it's not mentioned in the OP).
Share this around.

Alternatives

Let me know if you would like me to (try to) link to all relevant threads (and comments if possible) so far for each of these alternatives and resources.

• Active social websites with nested comments (Wayback Machine archive of Github Gist)
• Agora
• Agoraroad + Reddit thread
• All Fediverse software (check off "Social network (micro)" and "ActivityPub" for Lemmy-/Mastodon-likes)
• Arete
• AvocadoReader (Reddit thread)
• Biztoc
• BBS
• Blue Dwarf + Reddit thread
• Bluesky + Reddit thread
• Brutalinks + Code
• Campfire + Reddit thread
• Cohost
• Create your own forum (Reddit thread)
• Deadicated Fans + Reddit thread
• Discarded Truth (Ruqqus) + Reddit thread + another Reddit thread
• DSCVR
• Exploding Heads (Lemmy)
• Fark
• Galeonn + Reddit thread
• gm.xyz (Reddit thread)
• Hive Social
• iFunny
• Invide + Reddit thread
• Kialo + Reddit thread
• Kbin + Reddit thread + another Reddit thread
• Lemmy (all instances) + subreddit search for Lemmy
• Lobsters' sister and cousin sites
• Lotus to the Party + Reddit thread
• Mainchan + Reddit thread
• Manyverse (Scuttlebutt)
• Meetup + Reddit thread
• nostr (all clients) + Reddit thread + another Reddit thread
• Postmill
• Pjuu + Reddit thread
• Plebbit
• Plebchan
• Quokki
• Reddit Replacement: (Reddit thread) (Landing page)
• Raddi.net
• Reticulum
• RetroShare
• Sanctuary
• Scored + Reddit thread
• Something Awful Forums
• Shit Just Works (Lemmy) + Reddit thread
• Sift + Reddit thread
• Similar Worlds + Reddit thread
• Spare Botegirl Parts (Lemmy, not federated) + Reddit thread
• Spyke + Reddit thread
• Squabbles + Reddit thread
• Stacker News (Nostr)
• Talk.lol
• Tapatalk
• The Owners Club
• Truth Social
• Tiny Tiny RSS
• Unnamed (Reddit thread)
• WT.Social
• Yiffit
• Zapddit (Nostr)

Special topics

Analysis paralysis? Can't choose? Everything sucks?

• Better is the enemy of good. Don't look for the perfect alternative.
• Migrating from a mature platform like Reddit to something new will require sacrifices at first. Reddit wasn't perfect when it started either.
• Find one of many threads where OP gives recommendations and opinions, like this one or this one
• What types of features are people looking for
• Post below in the "Describe use case and ask for platform recommendations" comment section I created for you

Blackout

• If you're staying in Reddit, please use an ad blocker.
• Reddit is only as valuable as it’s content. Please consider removing your posts or comments on your way out.

Decentralization

• We need a highly distributed alternative to Reddit that is beyond the ability of anyone to control and manipulate. Let our devices do the lifting whenever possible, somehow.

Federation

• Looking to learn: Why do you believe federated solutions like Lemmy are viable Reddit replacements?
• Lemmy/Fediverse/etc all badly miss the mark because of "decentralization"
• Getting sense about how the Fediverse really is

Free speech

• Do you want the next Reddit to have free speech?
• Free speech alternative
• Free speech platforms
• I would only seriously consider a reddit alternative that would allow TheDonald and values free speech more than it fears "hate speech".
• Viable Reddit replacements

Forums

(Also, see Standards section below)

• Back to web forums
• My alternative? Back to web forums!
• Thoughts on starting a forum?
• Just remember forums exist

Growing pains

• lemmy.ml is overloaded, use other instances instead

Invites

• Anybody got a tildes request to share

Nested comments

• Active social websites with nested comments. up-to-date as of 2023-06-06

Politics

• Reconsidering my support for Lemmy.
• Choosing an instance; and my issues with lemmygrad
• Fediverse.Tips: "I do NOT recommend Lemmy. I have serious long-standing deep concerns about the developers"

Privacy (or lack thereof)

• Switch to lemmy, its federated, privacy respecting reddit
• Warning: Lemmy doesn't care about your privacy, everything is tracked and stored forever, even if you delete it
• Warning: Lemmy (federated reddit clone) doesn't care about your privacy, everything is tracked and stored forever, even if you delete it

Reddit bans (censorship?)

• Reddit permanently bans account of user advocating Lemmy migration, and bans LemmyMigration
• Reddit account was banned after adding my subs to the protest

RSS

• Looking for a way to get gaming/current event news in an easy to read way on mobile.
• Alternative to Reddit for browsing memes, pics and niche communities for a long-time lurker? (doesn't have to be exactly like Reddit)
• If you do happen to switch to an alternative, remember to also consider RSS syndication - it can be very useful

Standards and building your own site

(Also, see Forums section above)

• What if we came together to build our own
• Has anyone looked into reddit "clone" open source alternatives?
• Is it worth it to build a Reddit alternative?
• Using AI to make MY OWN Reddit?
• There is an archive of the reddit source code. It is still available

Tags

• I think tags would be a more dynamic experience than using 'subreddits'.

Request a topic and/or links by replying to the "request a topic" comment

As someone who has never had anything beyond a hookup or a one off date with fizzling chats, I am genuinely curious how things progress beyond this.
In my experience of speaking to many coupled / married etc guys:
a) [Most] They hookup, chat/hang after, hookup again and/or arrange a date within the same week, and it progresses from there. They see eachother often enough and things snowball.
b) [Decent Minority] They date, typically date again and/or hookup, similar to (a) things snowball.
c) [Small Minority] They bump into eachother at a public place (party, common interest place etc) and it goes from there.
d) [Rarely] They have known eachother for years through something mutual and 'settle' for one another (I don't mean this in a bad way).
I am often seeing guys in open relationships and similar even live together, play with others / or together, etc and then get married. I am wondering how you "get there" with so much choice / competition / lack of following up / lack of mutual interest etc? What I am trying to get at is what is causing someone to see you "beyond a hookup" as this is the part I seem to be still stuck on.
If a single guy does follow up, it tends to be months later, by which point I have moved on.
My friend said they need to see some value but even with Instagram, living a nice lifestyle, sharing when hooking up etc I only still seem to attract the "taken" guys back (and again thats just for sex) so am really scratching my head here.
The other thing that puzzles me is the vast majority of "taken" guys are not sexually satisfied (hence open, and I understand my sampling is biased here and there are happy monogamous men) with their partner, yet stick with them, but isn't one of the key things for a partner having some sort of sexual/physical attraction or as a gay man this is also something I should compromise on?

Does anyone have any idea why I can't seem to get correct geth execution results? Even simple eth_call or eth_getBalance does not seem to give the result. For example, alchemy works:

curl --request POST \ --url https://eth-mainnet.alchemyapi.io/v2/ \ --header 'accept: application/json' \ --header 'content-type: application/json' \ --data ' { "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "eth_getBalance", "params": [ "0x4E66C4FDc45A05a3df9b0b868288b878EF94df67", "latest" ] }' {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0xe647d88ed924364"}% 

but my node doesn't:

curl -X POST --header 'content-type: application/json' --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBalance","params":["0x4E66C4FDc45A05a3df9b0b868288b878EF94df67", "latest"],"id":1}' http://$NODE_IP:8545 {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0x0"} 

and even if I SSH into my node and try locally, it still happens:

curl -X POST --header 'content-type: application/json' --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBalance","params":["0x4E66C4FDc45A05a3df9b0b868288b878EF94df67", "latest"],"id":1}' http://0.0.0.0:8545 {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0x0"} 

This happens for all calls, I just get a zero result.
Everything is totally sync'd, and I am running eth-docker with Geth + Prysm. I believe I have it setup properly, as my .env has:

COMPOSE_FILE=geth.yml:prysm.yml:el-shared.yml:cl-shared.yml:grafana.yml:grafana-shared.yml:mev-boost.yml 

and el-shared.yml has:

version: "3.9" services: execution: ports: - ${HOST_IP:-}${EL_RPC_PORT}:${EL_RPC_PORT:-8545}/tcp - ${HOST_IP:-}${EL_WS_PORT}:${EL_WS_PORT:-8546}/tcp 

and cl-shared.yml has:

version: "3.9" services: consensus: ports: - ${HOST_IP:-}${CL_REST_PORT:-5052}:${CL_REST_PORT:-5052}/tcp 

I don't see any Geth logs when this call is made with the 0x0 result. But if I do give a malformed call, I do see it logged:

curl -X POST --header 'content-type: application/json' --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBalance","params":["blah", "latest"],"id":1}' http://$NODE_IP:8545 WARN [06-0914:43:54.376] Served eth_getBalance conn=172.18.0.1:43040 reqid=1 duration="66.241µs" err="invalid argument 0: json: cannot unmarshal hex string without 0x prefix into Go value of type common.Address" 

Anyone have any clue whats going on, or what I should do?

So let me explain how this works.
Hispanic men in media are always portrayed in 2 ways:

1. They’re a street smart criminal from the inner city, never got the chance for an education but had to make his way by being a dangerous person. An example would be Nacho from Better call Saul or anyone from Narcos.
   
2. A devout family man with strong Catholic values. Works long hours at a hard job, but never complains because he does it for his family. He’s honest and embodies the hard work of immigrants. He’s usually poor or lower Middle class. Example Nacho’s dad from BCS.
   

Now as a Hispanic man raised in America, I am neither a street smart criminal, or a devout Catholic man with strong family values. I’m agnostic, educated, a professional. I don’t have loyalties to my culture, I take the good and leave the bad a la carte.
In media often times the main character is just some standard american guy, who isn’t religious, isn’t super close to his family, and just goes on about his business. Think of Chandler Bing, Larry David, or Jerry Seinfeld. I’ve always related to how they don’t seem defined by their cultural expectations, their religion or lack thereof, or their families.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the lack of SP depth at AAA so I thought it would be a good time to dig deeper then that and highlight some names in AA (and lower) that might not be as far away as some would think. The AA rotation deserves a bit of a spotlight with the performances of some of the pitchers there.
There has been a lot of criticism of the organization drafting and developing of pitching prospects (much being very fair) but we really might now be seeing some of the results coming through.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have excluded a few guys who are years away from making a real impact who are below AA but I will make some notes on them. Brandon Barriera (#2 Prospect) in A-Ball is looking very good and is being brought along slowly after his injury so has pitched just 13.1 IP. Dahian Santos (#12 Prospect) in A-Ball might be the biggest sleeper pitcher in the organization. His fastball-slider combination is electric but is extremely raw overall as a pitcher. He is learning a changeup and is gaining muscle fast in order to take the next step in the organization. CJ Van Eyk (N/R Prospect) still has the raw tools to be a good pitcher but has pitched just 7.0 IP over the last two seasons and is on the IL again.
Adam Macko, Yosver Zulueta, Hayden Juenger & Hagen Danner are honesty still very talented pitchers but all seem destined to be relief pitchers at this point in their development. This post focuses more on pitchers who have good odds of remaining as SP. Don't sleep on these guys though, they all have electric bullpen arms and might see some of them in our bullpen come next season.
In terms of the 2022 draft it is of course much too early but there are some really interesting names and notes: Ryan Jennings (Round 4) who can throw 99 mph as a reliever and that seemed like his career path BUT has had surprisingly good results as an SP at the moment in A-Ball. Insane fastball-slider combo but needs a third pitch. Mason Fluharty (Round 5) has been tearing through the minors and is already in AA as a reliever. Unique but effective cutter-slider combo. Rocking a sweet 1.25 ERA & 0.83 WHIP this season. T.J. Brock (Round 6) dominated A+ in 20 IP to a tune of 1.77 ERA and is already in AA. Electric fastball-slider combo. Devereaux Harrison (9th Round) is an SP turned RP turned SP again in A+ with a 2.63 ERA. He struggled with his control as an RP but it has vastly improved as a starter.
Ian Churchill (Round 10), Pat Gallagher (Round 11), Nolan Perry (Round 12), Bo Bonds (Round 13) & Ryan Chasse (Round 17) are the others pitchers from the draft class but they are just getting things started but all look fine-to-good in small sample sizes in Rookie or Low A. The early returns on this draft class are really positive and probably deserve a spotlight post on its own.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New Hampshire Fisher Cats Rotation:
Ricky Tiedemann (Age 20):

• 91st Overall in 2021 Draft // 1st Ranked Prospect
• 4.97 ERA / 1.62 FIP / 2.18 xFIP
• 16.34 K/9 - 4.97 BB/9 - 0.00 H9
• 1.26 WHIP & 0.205 OBA

We have all read dozens upon dozens of articles on this guy. There really isn't too much to say on Ricky. He has missed most of the season due to injury. He really is as good as advertised though with top of the rotation potential. His injury likely pushes he debut back until mid-way next year at best. He still needs to refine his control and get a little deeper into game. Be excited though, I do think his injury has killed a lot of the excitement people had in following the AA team which does still have an excellent staff...
Adam Kloffenstein (Age 22):

• 88th Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Peaked @ #8 in 2018
• Nickname = King Kloff
• 3.12 ERA / 3.61 FIP / 3.37 xFIP
• 11.08 SO/9 - 3.81 BB/9 - 0.87 H9
• 1.29 WHIP & .231 OBA

Probably the biggest story from the Blue Jays minor leagues this year. A prospect who was once deemed a steal at his draft position who quickly become one of the better valued prospects in our system to falling off the map in 3 years and likely on his last chance to be a starter has become one of the most stable pitchers in the entire organization. A former power pitcher came into the year losing some mph on his velocity in order to get some proper control and it has paid off for him.
He leads the entire Eastern League in strikeouts & is second in innings pitched behind only a pitcher turning 27 this year. This season he has gone 5.0 IP+ in 8 straight starts now of which half have been a QS. He has allowed 0 ER or 1 ER in 7-of-10 starts. The Blue Jays in recent years have struggled developing pitchers who can pitch deep into games; coming into this season 6 of the 10 pitchers on the Blue Jays Top 30 list are very likely or already on their way to becoming RP; Zulueta, Macko, Juenger, Danner, Hernandez & Carter.
His strikeouts are up, his walks are down, his HR allowed are down, his BABIP is reasonable and his FIP is in range of ERA. He ranks near the top of the league in most statistics and only turns 23 later this year. He has been very consistent on top of everything. This is looking like a real breakthrough rather than a fluke.
The concern with him moving forward include avoiding losing much more velocity or he needs even more improved location to compensate as well trying to develop a third above average pitch as he currently heavily sticks with his effective two pitch combo. The Blue Jays will likely keep him in AA so he can continue to build confidence after 3 years of struggles but a run in AAA and becoming Major League starter depth next season is very much in play if he keeps it up.
He will very likely be added to the 40-Man this off-season with the team lacking SP depth there.
Paxton Schultz (Age 25):

• 433rd Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Never Ranked
• 3.30 ERA / 3.07 FIP / 3.75 xFIP
• 10.49 K/9 - 3.69 BB/9 - 0.58 H9
• 1.32 WHIP & .236 OBA

As I was writing this Schultz actually had his AAA debut; pitching 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB & 6 SO in an excellent debut.
Schultz was not actually a Blue Jays draft pick...he was acquired from MIL as a PTBNL for Blue Jays legend Derek Fisher. May have won the trade all these years later. He has always been considered a "low-ceiling" prospect and always put together solid but unspectacular seasons which meant he never really caught the eye of scouts. This year he kind of has put everything together and went from career minor league player to someone who could be that 6th to 8th starter depth we have been really needing in the minors. He doesn't have overpowering stuff by any means but he is really smart and does not allow very much hard contact.
His numbers have been great across the board. Career bests in pretty much everything and has improved in his consistency from years past. He has allowed less than 2 ER in 8-of-10 AA starts. He has actually been a tad unlucky this season as well rocking a BABIP higher than his used to. He also tends to avoid very much disaster starters; in his career of 55 starts he has allowed 5 runs just 3 times (never more) and over the last 2 years has pitched under 4 innings just 3 times. Pretty much an ideal from a #5/#6 starter.
All this has earned him a promotion to AAA now where if he keeps up the same level of consistency he very likely works his way into becoming the teams 6th starter and likely finds himself on the 40-Man roster. If an injury occurs to the rotation Schultz might be the guy to fill in.
Sem Robberse (Age 21):

• International Free Agent in 2019 // 6th Ranked Prospect // Peaked at 6th in 2022
• Nickname: The Pitching Dutchman
• 4.73 ERA / 4.96 FIP / 4.00 xFIP
• 9.45 K/9 - 3.38 BB/9 - 1.69 H9
• 1.18 WHIP & .217 OBA

Don't let the ERA fool you, he has had a much better season than that would suggest. At quick glance his WHIP and OBA are some of the best in the league. Most of the damage coming from an increase in HR allowed this season which is something he is trying to work on. Otherwise his numbers are on par with or better than they have before.
He is considered by many to be the smartest pitcher in the organization. He spent most of COVID studying pitching sequencing and strategies needed for a pitcher. Dude has zero ego to his game and embraces being taught which makes him loved in the organization. Robberse is one of the prospects that we will see play for the Blue Jays one day, whether it will be as a mid-rotation pitcher or as the odd spot stater remains to be see. Probably the "safest" starting prospect in the organization.
He has 5 pitches with his slider and curve be his good ones and throws some decent heat at 92 mph+ but one of his goals is too increase that. He was at 185 lbs last season and is aiming to get over 200 in hopes of increasing his velocity as well as help with his durability although he is already a rather good innings eater being behind Koff.
His major concern is when he does lose control he starts getting hit very hard...which doesn't happen all too often but something he is trying to cut back on. There is a legit claim for him to be the organizations #2 pitching prospect.
Chad Dallas (Age 22):

• 121st Overall in 2021 // N/R Prospect // Peaked at 28th in 2022
• Nickname: Cheese
• A+: 2.03 ERA / 3.09 FIP / 3.71 xFIP w/ 0.94 WHIP & .146 OBA (12.49 SO/9 - 4.05 BB/9 - 0.3 H9)
• AA: 2.42 ERA / 3.76 FIP / 4.52 xFIP w/ 0.85 WHIP & .128 OBA (8.06 SO/9 - 3.63 BB/9 - 0.40 H9)

This is the dude to be excited about and his seemly quick and easy transition into AA which is considered to be the hardest jump for a pitcher in the minors is only more reasons to be excited. In his 5 A+ starts he allowed just 6 ER in 26.2 IP...4 of those 6 came in a single bad start 4.2 IP...he dominated with easy in his other 4 starts which earned him the quick promotion. He loves to just pound the zone and go after hitters.
It is easy to see where his success comes from. Having 4 pitches all very decent including a nasty, nasty slider...a very good curveball, a fastball that touches 95 mph and a changeup he is working on heavily. His control is what really hurt him last year but he has for the most part vastly improved in the matter.
His AA debuts was one of the best I have seen: 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB & 9 SO. Since then he had three more starts; one where he lost his command in struggled and another 2 dominating outings where he has allowed 1 total ER in 11.0 IP. There was a lot of "bullpen" risk when he was drafted but he put a lot of that to rest with having no trouble hitting 5-7 IP constantly this season. In his 9 starts he has gone 5.0 IP in 7 of them with the other two falling short (4.1 / 4.2 ) due to struggles not stamina.
He does struggle against LHP hitters and it is something to monitor. His two big outlier blunder starts this season were with lineups that were lefty heavy. Which is the main reason for him wanting to improve his changeup. His cutter and curveball are killer against RHH but don't have the same effect on LHH.
If he does not rocket up prospect boards this season then I have no idea what scouts are looking for anymore.
Trenton Wallace (Age 24):
He hasn't pitched in AA yet but was the one who got the call-up to replace Shultz. He is on the older side but was just drafted in 2021. Has caught the attention of scouts with his performance in A+ but AA will be the big test for him. Cruised through A+ with a 1.79 ERA / 3.20 FIP / 4.18 xFIP with an elite WHIP of 0.82 and 0.155 OBA. There is a good chance we are talking about him a long with the rest of the successful AA pitchers in month time.. A mid- 90's fastball and mesmerizing slider is what gets the job done for him. 5 of his 8 starts he allowed exactly 0 ER including an outing where he thew 5 perfect innings.
He is looking like a massive steal being drafted in the 11th round of the 2021 draft.
The other name in AA are Jimmy Robbins (Age 25); he was very solid last season in between A+/AA but was a tad over-age and now in his full season in AA has lost the strike-zone and is averaging 6.65 BB/9 which has lead to a ERA of 5.40. Even with his success last season; never really caught the eyes of scouts and wasn't protected in the Rule 5 draft even though some fans argued he should. Seems to have been the right call.
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Tiedemann - Kloffenstein - Robberse - Dallas (+Wallace) might be the best rotation we have had in a single level of the minors in a very long time. All are no older than 22 as well so even with some bumps in the road they have time on their hands. All 4 are going to be very exciting to monitor. Paxton Schultz is also worth watching as he might have leap frogged his way right into the 6th SP role with other options in AAA falling apart or being converted to relievers.
Our upper minors pitching depth has been a big concern to fans but they depth coming from AA and below might soon change that.
Who wouldn't want a future rotation of King Kloff, The Pitching Dutchman, Cheese & Ricky Titty?!?

Hello,
I have two 6 year old English labradors. I've been feeding them both the Pure Being dog food from Aldi's (I used to feed them Wellness Core, but its gotten too expensive for me). I notice whenever I walk them or let them outside, they spend a ton of time trying to eat grass and one in particular always tries to eat her poo. It seems to me maybe they are lacking some sort of nutrient or probiotic from their diet. Is there any recommendations on some additives I should put in their food or maybe a different brand all together?
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UPDATE: After going down the extremely long and confusing rabbit hole about dog foods. DCM and Grain Free diets (information overload). It looks like the grain free diet may actually be detrimental to canine health....
come to think of it, the only reason I went grain-free is because "experts" told me grains were just cheap fillers added to dog food and offered little to no nutritional value.
I'm going to try Purina Proplan, it looks like it has safe ingredients and the the grains included may give my dogs the nutrients they are missing, so maybe they'll stop munching on grass. I guess I will see. In the end I just want my dogs to live a long, healthy and enjoyable life and the major contributing factor to that is controlling what they ingest 3 times a day for the rest of their lives.

Hello everyone!! This theory has two parts as said in the title. The first one about what the D. means and the second one is about how I think Luffy and Imu are each others counterparts, simbolizing dreams vs nightmares, and how Imu´s surname "Nerona" takes inspiration on emperor Nero and what lies behind that inspiration with Imu´s possible fruit, hope you guys like it!!!
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FIRST THEORY: The clan of the "Dreamers"
Following chapter 1085, Oda has given us some information about the possible meaning of the "D.", after showing us the conversation between King Cobra and Imu sama. While these dialogues have not directly revealed what it means, he does seem to have specified with certainty that the "D." is not a family name of a particular family or dynasty, but is actually a moniker according to TCB's translation.
If we take this premise of the moniker I believe that the meaning of the "D." could be an adjective that was given to those who fit within that moniker.
An important fact I should mention to try to give substance to the theory is to recall Oda's use of anglicisms in One Piece, the most well known to all being the revelation that Raftel (Rafuteru) was really "Laugh Tale". To mention some of the most significant anglicisms within the very many that exist, we can name the Levely, which we all knew as Reverie (the change is confirmed in chapter 905, it is seen in the flag of a man in the background) or the case of Joy Boy's title.
I make a disclaimer here that, despite using the romanization of Japanese, I know nothing about Japanese; but it is true that as simple readers many of us, with or without knowledge of Japanese, have seen a certain tendency of Oda to play with words and their possible meanings. Thanks to people like Artur - Library of Ohara, fans who do not understand Japanese can be informed of these nuances that enrich One Piece.
From the beginning of One Piece we see how dreams are very important in the story, with each of the Mugiwaras having a dream to fulfill, in addition to the famous and mysterious dream of Luffy and Roger that Oda keeps up his sleeve. Let us also remember one of the most famous quotes said by Kurohige himself "A man's dream will never die". It is well known that dreams are one of the pivots of the story.
Therefore, joining the knowledge about the "D." as a moniker, the use of English words directly used by Oda to "mislead", and the great importance that dreams have in the story of One Piece and its characters, I believe that the meaning of the "D." could well hide the adjective "Dreamers". The famous clan of "D." could actually be the clan of the Dreamers, not as a genealogical lineage, but as a distinctive in the form of a moniker given to the people who came from the Great Kingdom/Ancient Kingdom (Kyodai na Ōkoku) that perished during the void century. It could also directly mean "Dream" but I opt more for the "Dreamers" option.
To explain why I think the "D." has this meaning, I will first comment facts that we know 100%, for having already appeared in One Piece, and then the part of my own imagination.
As we know so far the "D." that have appeared and have been important in the story, have great and ambitious dreams for which they fight. As an example of this we have the dream of Xebec, who wanted to be the King of the world; or that of Kurohige who aspires to be the king of pirates and found a pirate nation recognized as such by the World Government; and well, as I mentioned, earlier the dreams of Roger and Luffy, which although unknown, it is clear that they must be big and imaginative dreams by the reactions they have provoked to those to whom they have been revealed.
Why Dreamers? To answer this question I will first quote what Vega Punk said in chapter 1069, which although it is the character's own theory and not a definitive explanation, I am of the opinion that it can serve as a basis:
“- We owe all ther is to desire (dreams)!! For instance the devil fruits!!
Each devil fruit embodies a different wish (dreamt) someone had for our evolution.
“If only I could do X… It´d be great if Y were possible”.
The powers actulize these sentiments, showcasing potential futures for humanity.
Of course, since they cause unnatural aberrations they earn the ire of mother nature… the sea itself. Such blasphemy cannot go unchecked.
Those who have eaten a fruit face a totally alien reality born from boundless imaginatiom!!
That´s my theory at least, whether you believe there´s a god out there or not… (i will explain the idea of maybe Nika isn´t a god but a man from the Great Kingdom) … one thing´s for sure, we live in a wondrous world!!
And as he finishes by saying, that is his theory but it is not something fully proven.
It could be that in the Old Kingdom they reached such advanced technology in general, and specifically in genetic scientific research, that from the dream or the thought of desiring they could make fire (mera mera no mi) or become x animal (zoan), they experimented until imbuing those abilities into fruits (like Vegapunk does, but perfecting the process), which they could then eat and alter their base DNA, mixing it with the chosen ability. This idea of creating fruits that genetically modify people by eating them to achieve x or y ability would come from imagination, from dreams.
The people of the Old Kingdom perhaps traveled throughout the world and visited different islands, both inside and outside the Grand Line, and those who came from the Old Kingdom, being users of "Akuma no mi" and having abilities that would seem impossible, fantastic or divine to the people of these primitive people (when I say primitive I mean that they were less technologically advanced, as may be a stage similar to the middle ages, for example), were at first deified. The case of the Sun God Nika, who could have been a normal human being but with the abilities of the gomu gomu no mi or hito hito no mi, could be a perfect example of that possibility. In the eyes of people who were not from the Ancient Kingdom he would appear to be a God, provoking smiles and happiness in the places he visited and carrying the hopes and dreams of the people. If we think about it, it also makes sense in our context. In One Piece we already have internalized the idea that supernatural powers exist, that there is a reason for them, but if someone appeared today with the power to create earthquakes, fire or light out of nothing, without knowing where those abilities come from, he would be a supernatural being in our eyes; in the eyes of ancient civilizations, a God.
It is worth making reference here also to the theory of evemerism, either because of the possibility that Oda was inspired by it for his representation of religious cultures in One Piece, or simply as a tool to understand the vision of the gods that is being proposed. Evemerus of Messene was a 4th century B.C. thinker who proposed in his work the possibility that what classical culture considered gods were nothing more than mortals who gained great prominence in their society. He argues that figures such as Zeus or Cronus could thus be ancient rulers of another civilization, and that their divinity would be an idealized memory by society of them, exaggerating their attributes and greatness. Thus, Zeus would have been only a revered king. In essence, evemerism is the search for a "rational" explanation of the divine.
In One Piece we see several cases where a certain character is shown for a particular culture at first, as one who possesses divine powers when in reality this conception is only given due to a lack of knowledge about the origin of his powers. The most obvious case is that of Enel, who in the eyes of the Shandians is a God, but only because of ignorance and low presence of the akuma no mi in Skypea.
An example of this deification in reality would be the first impression that the pre-Columbian people had with the arrival of the Spanish armies, thinking at first, (although this thought did not last long) when they saw them mounted on horses with shining armor and guns that shot fire, that they must have been gods. And we already know how much Oda likes to take real historical references for inspiration.
This relationship between the people of the Old Kingdom and the "primitive" kingdoms could be maintained over the centuries allowing the "primitives" to become familiar with the unknown of those who came from the Old Kingdom, perhaps they even came to mix and have joint offspring, but the first writings deifying them would have already been captured in the history of One Piece, passing from legend to myth. The reality would have been distorted by the different versions of the different civilizations that would have been told from generation to generation, undergoing the modifications of each culture, as it happens in reality with the historical evolution and being in the end the person of Nika considered the God of the Sun.
So, if we accept that the members of the Old Kingdom may have been seen as gods, perhaps they taught them their knowledge as a gift and showed the reason why devil fruits were created. It may be that at that time the akuma no mi were called by another, less derogatory name, instead of "devil fruits". The name "clan of the Dreamers" could then be because they were people who believed in the improvement of human evolution and with the power to materialize what they dreamt and desired into a fruit that would provide the desired abilities. For example, the dream of wanting to cure and save people's lives would have been the origin of the ope ope no mi. It is also possible that people from kingdoms with a more backdated technologi, transmitted their dreams to members of the ancient kingdom and the Dreamers, as a gift, created the appropriate fruit to achieve such dream, thus forging a reputation that motivated them to be assigned a nickname, the Dreamers, for being able to materialize dreams.
Therefore, I think it is a possibility that "the clan of the Dreamers" was the moniker that less advanced kingdoms gave to the people coming from the Old Kingdom. Perhaps the "D.reamers" first introduced them to the akuma no mi and told them that they came from their imagination, ideas and dreams.
Likewise I also believe it would make sense of another mystery of the story, "the inherited will of the D." Will is something that only people possess, and the idea of inheriting implies that something is also necessarily received from a person. This interpretation would be in contrast to the possibility that the "D." stands for "Dawn" (which is also an interesting theory, and one that I would equally like if it were the final meaning), since a concept or natural phenomenon such as dawn, which has no will and cannot be inherited, fits less in my opinion, than the idea that inheritance could be that of ideals or principles passed from one civilization to another.
Regarding the reason why the word Dreamers stayed in the initial D. I think it was the way they chose for those who defied the 20 kingdoms, to recognize each other but also so that the enemy did not, it would be the same thing that happens with the tattoo on the ankle of the people faithful to the kozuki clan in Wano.
In short, I think the clan of the Dreamers would be formed by the people of the Old Kingdom, and the inherited will of the Dreamers would be the will of the people who pursue and fight to make the world a better place, people whose ideals include the pursuit of freedom and happiness of all people throughout the world of One Piece, and thus bringing the eventual dawn of the world, as said in Lili´s card.
Pd: this is a part that I don't quite know how to substantiate, but going back to Oda's puns, the word "dream" in Japanese would be pronounced "dorIMU" (meaning "Mu" emptiness in Japanese), and it could be a kind of very vague interpretation that "Imu" or "Mu" (as he/she calls him/herself), was the one who betrayed the Dreamers' clan. He/she would then be "the void" that absorbed all the dreams and hopes of humanity by ending the said Clan.
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SECOND THEORY: Luffy vs Imu, and Imu´s devil fruit
Connecting with my theory that the D. stands for Dreamers, I see a clear antithesis between Luffy and Imu that I will try to explain below.
Luffy being the Sun God Nika, personifies happiness, freedom, hopes and dreams while Imu symbolizes the opposite, terror, oppression and in my opinion also nightmares. It is very interesting to highlight how while Luffy is free and travels around the world living adventures and being happy, on the other hand, Imu despite being the king of the world and having all the power, is someone who is hidden from the world, imprisoned in his own room without anyone knowing of his existence.
From here I will give my opinion on what Imu's fruit may be after seeing chapters 1085 and 1086.
The first option is that Im's fruit is the "akumu no mi", the fruit of nightmares. I believe in this idea because of the design Oda has drawn for the manifestation of Imu's powers, a formless being, full of darkness that engulfs the whole empty throne room. In addition akumu contains the same kanji as Mu (as Imu calls himself), whose meaning besides nothingness or emptiness, can be translated as dream, And what would be the antithesis of dreams? Nightmares, which would be what could symbolize Imu, in front of Luffy as symbol of the dreams, and this fits very well with the idea that the clan of the Dreamers would be the natural enemy of the nightmare (Imu or Mu). Therefore the first option would be the nightmare against the dreams.
The second option is that Imu would directly have the akuma no mi, the devil fruit as such. While in chapter 1085 there are times when Imu's power is blurred and formless, in other panels we have been able to see the shape of an arrow-tipped tail and sharp teeth. It is mainly because of the arrow-tipped tail that I think it could be the akuma no mi. To substantiate this theory I have to refer to the possible full name of Im revealed in this last chapter 1086.
Saint Imu of the house Nerona. The surname Nerona could be inspired by the Roman emperor Nero, whose reign is associated with tyranny and extravagance, being the architect of a series of systematic executions and a relentless persecution of Christians. It is for this last reason, that in a book of the Bible, the number of the beast (666) is associated to the emperor Nero being considered the devil. Therefore, if the surname Nerona comes from this emperor, the idea that Imu has the akuma no mi is quite feasible. Below in brackets, I leave the long explanation of this, but if you don't want to read it you don't need to. Then follow it up with a third possibility about Imu's power.
[In the Apocalypse of St. John, Rome is criticized in a veiled way for its persecution of the Christian population, and in this book the Beast (which had 7 heads, like the 7 hills on which Rome was settled) is mentioned, represented by the number 666 (or 616 as well). The specific quote is "He that hath understanding, let him calculate the number of the Beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666". The Greeks and Hebrews at that time used gematria, that is, the assignment of a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet. So, the sum of the Hebrew letters of "Caesar Nero" adds up to exactly 666. And therefore, Nero is the Beast/the devil who wants to destroy the world].
The third possibility is that Imu, like Kurohige, has more than one devil fruit and perhaps has both akuma no mi, akumu no mi, devil and nightmare fruits, again being the complete antithesis of Luffy, having on the one hand the God of Dreams and the Devil of Nightmares Imu.

(Look, I don't care that this post has repeated words and odd sentences. It's not supposed to be "worthwhile". I'm aware I'm not the only person with these thoughts. I won't say what music I listen to/write or what books I read, so don't ask about it. Music won't be a career for me, for many reasons I won't get into.)
I define pretentious as "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed". I think it's good to want to achieve something worthwhile, even if you lack the skill or experience for it and fail miserably. I'm sure someone would argue that wanting to be good at anything is a harmful mindset, but I believe the majority wouldn't, so what's bad about pretensiousness isn't the "worthwhile" part, it's the "failure" part. If no one did anything ambitious, where would we be now? Of course, any single person who holds their own work in high regard probably overestimates it, maybe to the point where that gap is comical. However, it's ridiculous to think that great writers, philosophers, artists or composers didn't set out to make something great. No, I never fooled myself I'd achieve anything similar, but I hope whatever I do is at least worth someone's time.
I value music that is not predictable (this isn't about simple vs complex). If I successfully predicted the structure of a song, that means I wasted my time listening to it, because I didn't need to hear it in order to know what would happen. I know the saying "repetition legitimizes" - it doesn't legitimize for me. Some repetition is nice, but not when it's the bulk of a song. I write some music and I make it a point to try a different composition every time. Yes, I take pride in that. It doesn't need to be only composition, it could be about arrangement or production techniques. I would look down on anyone who claims to be serious (italic part is important), but wrote 300 songs as slight variations of the same thing. I also want to write music reviews, which is why I listen to music I don't enjoy, not to review it specifically, but to broaden my perspective, basically to "culture" myself. I stopped reading for years and now I'm starting again with classic literature to "culture" myself. Some books I'll enjoy, others I won't, but enjoyment isn't my main reason to read. I can also write some essays on topics that interest me.
This is what I want to do. If someone told me they wanted the same, I would laugh at them, because it sounds fucking stupid. And honestly, this is why I keep all this to myself, because anyone would be right to laugh at me. My life is really boring and every time I remember that, I wonder if I really have anything interesting to say... but shouldn't I try anyway?

It’s taken me some time to collect my thoughts on this new album, and specifically The Teacher. This track has been on repeat on my stereo and on my mind since it was released. I’m completely spellbound by this song.
A few weeks ago, before the release of BHWA, someone posed a question in this sub: “what is considered Foo Fighters magnum opus?” I responded halfway serious, answering that “I choose to believe it hasn’t been released yet.” A few people admired my optimism; but the serious opinion was that something from Wasting Light or TCATS was the obvious choice. At the time I have to admit I agreed, but… here we are.
So back to The Teacher. I don’t know what I expected from this song, but it wasn’t what we got. I guess knowing the context around this album I assumed we’d be getting a sprawling, saccharine ballad bearing a little too close to the edge of “sappy”, for lack of a better term. I’m so glad that wasn’t the case.
This track opens with mystery and intrigue, but is full of life. These are everyday phrases we hear that just seem to float around without second thought.
“Hey kid, what’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“Who’s at the door now?”
“Wake up!”
Stripping away our notions of what the song is about, these lyrics at face value are just things our parents say to/at us every day as kids. Somehow, there’s some extra weight and tension building, but I feel like the front half of this song is echoing the chaos and contrast of an entire lifetime. There’s a quick break drenched in feedback, then we’re tumbling right back in. Then, we get to the mid point of the song and everything grinds to a screeching halt.
“Who’s at the door now?”
The delivery of this line in the back half of the song gives me chills every time I hear it. It’s slower, it’s darker, it’s an entirely different line.
It’s death. Death is at the door now.
If you’ve ever been at someone’s deathbed, you know the feeling. You get the call, and everything stops. Time slows down, it’s quiet, it’s somber, and you’re right alongside your loved one counting every breath they’re taking. It’s an extremely emotionally heavy moment, but it’s still mysterious, and cosmic. An experience beyond anyone’s perception. Confessions to a parent about not knowing how to let go, how to grieve.
“Counting every minute living breath by breath.”
Then as the song begins to build we’re introduced to the pounding, primal drums, and you know what’s coming. It’s as old as time itself and it’s not stopping for anyone. As the song envelopes itself in the warm, jagged distortion, you’re right there in the room, and you’re watching a life slip away until suddenly, it’s over.
I can’t say enough about this song. I’m constantly thinking about it. It’s one of the most powerful pieces of music Grohl has ever written and will no doubt go down as one of the band’s greatest works. It’s a real shame that sometimes pain and loss is the catalyst for such incredible art, but on the other hand, imagine producing such an incredible tribute for your loved one.
I’m so thankful that this album exists, and I have no doubt that when the time comes for someone I love to pass, this music will help me process the experience.
Let me know your thoughts and if you feel the same way

hi. young adult female here. i normally type like this, but to make it easier for everyone to read, i’ll be proper about it.
I’ve undergone a lot of change over the years. I’ve been through a lot which has helped me develop into who I am today. But who I am today is lowkey a sociopath.
I have many of the traits. I’ll add examples for some of these to make them more clear.
• I lack empathy. Although I can put myself in someone else’s shoes, it’s not something I’ll do right away, if ever; not to mention it can be difficult
• I understand. as in, I understand how I’m supposed to react in a given situation; how something I say or do might affect someone and why; how someone may respond or feel if I say/do something, and why they might respond that way.
• Remorse is rare for me; And I’ll often place blame on the other person for how they feel.
I hardly ever feel bad about things.
Example: I Facetimed my boyfriend one time while he was at dinner with his parents.
His mom spoke to him the next morning, expressing her feelings about how I interrupted their family time (she was upset & didn’t like me doing that). She values family and family time.
My immediate reaction when he told me about this? Annoyed. I thought it was dumb that his mom got upset over that, that it was something she should just get over. I didn’t feel bad/guilty at all. I didn’t view what I had done as being inherently wrong.
Thing is, part of me can understand why she felt that way. Family is important to her, so of course she wouldn’t be too happy about me Facetiming her son during their dinner out. (I did end up apologizing to her soon after learning she felt this way, and said I would respect her family values)
But I apologized because I knew I should. Because that’s the right thing to do. Part of me feels somewhat sorry—a very tiny part—and my apology was genuine. Nonetheless, I still don’t feel like I’m necessarily wrong for doing what I did. I’m not bothered by it upsetting her.
• I’m impulsive, but I can plan ahead.
I’m young, so I’m evidently going to be on the impulsive side of things. I often act out of however I feel in the moment. But that doesn’t mean I can’t think and plan ahead.
I have big plans for my future. I have a brief but simple plan laid out in my head for what I’m going to do each day. I know exactly what I need to do each week, such as calling to appointments, calling the pharmacy to make sure I’ll get my meds on time, etc. So, I don’t struggle with planning like some sociopaths do. I also consider myself responsible and will get any work done—schoolwork/job/chores, etc.
• I’m inherently manipulative
although I don’t really go out of my way to manipulate anyone, I have a manipulative nature. My mom will point it out sometimes.
Here’s some things I’ll do: - wording things in such a way that I can’t be directly blamed/ blamed for any misinterpretation on the other person’s side - planning ahead.
Wording: “I realized a little late that I’d been gathering information irrelevant to the essay, but I’ve gotten on the right track and can definitely get it done today.” (I did get it done btw)
Here, I present myself as less blamable, and don’t directly disclose that I haven’t actually finished the paper yet. My mom (who asked me about this) got upset that I hadn’t finished the paper the previous day (I procrastinated/got lazy). I respond back with “I never said I had it all done, though” or something like that.
planning ahead: I feel like this one needs a more specific example. Say I want to hang out with a friend. I’ve already asked them/they’ve already asked me. I have already come up with a plan (time, place, date, etc) within minutes. I won’t immediately inform/ask my parents about it, though. They always end up being told, but the fact is that I never check with them first before coming up with all the plan details. This will upset them at times. (Yes, I’m an adult, but my parents just like to know what I’m doing and when I’ll be back, etc)
•I’m aggressive/easily annoyed.
I often respond with aggression if something makes me mad or annoyed.
I know this was long but I felt like I needed to say it. Should I get evaluated?