Event hall near me

there is a used elvie at a rummage sale near me tomorrow. i messaged the gal selling it and she said she’d hold it for me.
i told my husband about it and he is leery about buying secondhand. she wants “$200 at least” for it and to him that’s a lot for not knowing what you’re getting.
so what do you think? would you buy it? what questions should i ask when i get there? she said it worked when she last used it 8 months ago but i’m not sure how to check if it works now.

And I never will, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t remember where I was or who it was. I know I was on a road trip with my uncle and sister and we made a stop at his family home in another state perhaps? My sister and I are chilling in the living room and at this point I don’t remember where my uncle was but he wasn’t there. I really needed to use the bathroom but someone was taking a shower. I ask this older man if there was another bathroom around he took me to his room. That mother fucker watched me and wiped me. I was old enough to do that myself but was too stunned to tell him to stop. Once it was over I left the room and told my sister “if he wants you to go in that room, don’t do it” and she didn’t ask why, we were both little, she just said okay. Immediately I went outside this house I’ve never been to and sat on the porch and stared out into the dark night. I remember seeing a tire swing and just feeling so empty. I remember the car ride home and just felt so numb. This was years ago and I remember the feeling so clearly. I wonder to this day if that event impacted the person I am now. Talking to a therapist might help lol. Just felt like sharing because I don’t really.

I (26f) grew up in a very controlling environment. It was so bad that I wasn't able to have friends, and on most days I struggle to stand up for myself. I had a choice on pretty much nothing and it was almost bordering on abusive.
I think the best way to explain it is by just giving some examples of what happened.

1. My mother would read and monitor all my messages until I was 24. There were times when she would even call me while I was at class to get mad at me over something that one of my friends said on chat. She would yell at me because a friend would tell me a secret of theirs (usually involving their intimate life) that she disapproved of.

When I was in a very controlling and abusive romantic relationship, I would try to find comfort by talking to my best friend. She would intercept our messages and would call me in the middle of class saying that she was going to reply to him telling him that everything was OK (she genuinely did not know my boyfriend was abusive and controlling).
When I got into a very traumatic event that she knew about, I wasn't able to talk to my best friend about it and seek comfort because she already told him her version of events through my account, and I couldn't tell him twice.

1. She would post pictures of me without my consent on my personal page, with captions that I myself would have never thought of or dreamed of writing. Think the most boomer level shit like "they said I'm SOOOOO tall!" (Who the fuck says that?!) . Whenever I confronted her and asked her to stop, she would say I'm suffocating her and being ungrateful. She knew I wanted to be a star, and she said I could never be a star because of how I was reacting to her posting pictures of me that I did not like (they were unflattering and very grainy). It got to the point where I was being made fun of at school because of such bad photos and bad captions, but she did not stop.
   
2. When I was in elementary school, we were asked to write a report on any country of our choice. I was heavy into Egyptian culture at the time, and I was excited to write a report on Egypt. She refused to let me do it and demanded I write it on France. I tried to stand up for myself by doing it on Egypt anyway, but she made a report on France and made me turn it in. She even talked to the teachers after to be sure I gave the France report and not the Egypt report. When I was asked to write an on the spot essay a few weeks later, I made it on Egypt, not France. She got mad at me for that.
   
3. She insisted that I stay within campus grounds at all times when I was in college. She would call me at random times to be sure I was not going elsewhere, and demand video call. Sometimes, she'd call in class. Several times, she called during exams. She would then get mad at me for not picking it up and making her call security. When I told her I was having exams, she would get mad at me for getting mad at her because she did not know (even if I told her???).
   
4. If I wasn't picking up calls, she would call campus security to look for me and would not stop until they found me. There have been lots of situations where security got involved and bothered, but really I was just sleeping or taking an exam.
   
5. I wasn't allowed to be in study sessions. I took a very difficult course in college, and so I needed help. Sometimes my classmates would hold study groups in preparation for midterms or finals. These groups would last past 12 MN, since classes sometimes end at 6 pm or even 8 pm.lIf she found out I was in this group and not in my dorm, she would call me, yell at me, and get security involved until I was back in my dorm, the exam be damned. Her reason for never letting me go out was because I took a difficult course and needed to focus, but she didn't let me get the help I needed for that course either.
   
6. I had to give up the sport I loved to be a dancer. I had a sport I was taking up behind her back. Without going into too much detail, she considered it too masculine. But I was good at it. I was so good that they wanted to train me to enter the National Team and compete internationally. She pulled me out of the team and made me join a dance group I hated. I eventually got a leadership role in that group, and managed to get us a public performance. On the first public performance, I was starting to accept being a dancer. I was starting to feel happy in that field. While I was on cloud 9 on success, she pulled me aside and told me to quit the group because she was unhappy with the performance.
   
7. Let's talk about that leadership role. For once, I though I had some control and power in a group. I tried hard to be a good leader. However, she would take control of the social media accounts and post things without my consent on to the social media accounts of the group. Other members were upset (rightfully so), and when I asked her to stop, she would say that the other members were terrible, didn't know what they were doing, and too young to know any better. She was older so what she was doing was right.
   
8. You may ask where my father is in all of this. Whenever my mom and I would fight, I would raise my voice on purpose so my dad in the next room would hear me. I wanted him to save me. He never came. I thought it was because he was hard of hearing, but he admitted years later that he knew what was happening, but wanted me to face my own battles. I was a child. How do you expect an 8 year old to stand up to her mother?
   

However, he would get involved if I got disrespectful. He wanted me to face my own battles, but when I stood up for myself, he would punish me.
That's just some of the things they put me through. Because of all that, I wasn't able to get forward very successfully in life. I barely got my degree. I wasn't allowed to socialize, so I had very few friends and lots of social anxiety. I wasn't able to get a good paying job, so I can't afford a place of my own unlike my friends. I'm mentally and socially behind my peers.
When I was 25, I had a major breakdown that made them start getting more lax on me. I threatened to kill myself if they didn't change their ways. My mom relinquished control of my social media and started letting me go out whenever I want to. They actually started changing so we can fix our relationship.
Despite that, it still hurts. I get flashbacks of what I went through from the most random shit. Last night, I saw a video of the dance I used to do and had another breakdown.
My mom thinks I should let go of the past because she's changed. I explained that even if she's changed, it still hurts. She says that I'm making much ado about nothing because the past can't be changed, but she's trying to make it up to me. She also reminds me that she did so much to take care of me as a baby, including having to pull my own shit out because I couldn't poop normally. I'm being ungrateful for remembering only the bad times and not the good times.
I've always felt that my best friend, who was the only person to comfort me whenever everything was happening, was the only one I had on my side. She reminds me that she, as my mother, is really the only person on my side because she's the only one who stayed this long and sacrificed so much for me.
Am I the asshole for still holding her sins against her?

What suggestions for affordable event catering can y'all offer? Not looking for anything in particular other than food that's good. Give me your suggestions for fancy-ish places, funky indie restaurants, oft-overlooked holes in the wall, etc.
I'm also looking for a good wedding cake recommendation. My first thought was the Sullivan bakery, but alas, they're no more. Any other places anyone knows of where a person can get a quality wedding cake at a fair price?

[←Chapter 52] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 54→]
Efrain woke, and with consciousness reasserting itself came a pain unlike any he’d ever experienced. It was a lugubrious sensation that stretched over the entirety of his body like a giant bruise. It took a further moment to remember that this was not normal, and in fact was quite alarming. He tried to gauge where he was, but found only blackness to greet him.
So I’m blind as well? He thought, with all the dispassionate annoyance of a man finding a favoured tool lost.
He could still feel his feet and fingers, wrapped in cloth as they were, so that was a comfort. Reaching for his head, he found the cold stone of the mask still there, though it lacked a lot of the curse that gave it its ‘hungry’ quality. Tugging it, he felt it resettle into a more natural position, and with it light came in to show his surroundings.
There was canvas arcing over a ribcage of wood, which rocked with every turn and bump in the rode. A gentle sunlight managed to penetrate the cloth, flickering with the passage of leaves. Efrain gripped the wooden frame and drew himself up to sit, trying to remember how he’d gotten here. His groan at the effort attracted the attention of Innie, who was sitting by the open slit near the front.
“Efrain?” she asked, hesitatingly.
“Yes, yes. It’s me,” he said, the words feeling foreign and slippery on his non-existent tongue.
“Efrain?” she asked again.
“Yes! Yes. It’s me. Here, somehow. What the hell happened?”
“You… you absolute fool!” she half-screamed, “you nearly got yourself killed!”
“I-” he said, the phrase ‘got yourself killed’ stirring something of a memory within. It was very distant, without much cohesion, like a memory of childhood. Still, there was enough there to remember some definite sensations, a sight and sound or two-
“You know what,” he said slowly, “I think I might’ve actually been dead, at least for a little bit,” he said, pulling at his hood.
“What?!” she gasped, “how could you possibly know that?”
“I was… somewhere else. I can barely remember, but it was so strange. I had my body again, I think, and it was…” he started trying to piece together the fragments flitting about the edge of recollection.
Her expression suggested that she was actively considering the potential that her partner had gone completely insane.
“It was someplace I don’t think I’ve ever been before, but it was still familiar,” he said, “I think I met somewhere there. Or multiple people. I definitely saw- there was something that-”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“It was- it was very strange,” he said, further efforts to find other words failing him, “well, in any case, I’m back. I think so, anyway.”
“How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been dashed against a cliffside,” he laughed, “I thought I wasn’t supposed to feel pain in this form. That was supposed to be one of the advantages.”
“You scared me. The only reason I didn’t think you were fully dead was that your bones retained their shape, even though you were unconscious.”
“Huh…” Efrain murmured, raising an arm to inspect it, “that shouldn’t be possible. The enchantments holding me together should’ve fallen apart as soon as I went under.”
After a cursory inspection to verify all of his limbs were present and more-or-less correct, he looked over at the cat.
“However it happened, it would appear that I’m not done yet,” he said slowly, only half-sure in the conviction.
There was something different about how he experienced himself, just in the background, but definitely there. It was a sense of disconnection, like he was floating just behind or above his body, experiencing what he did from an outside perspective.
“Well, I suppose that’s… good,” said Innie.
“Don’t cry too much for me,” he said, “anyways what happened? I don’t remember anything after the crypt, other than the fire.”
“We did it,” she said, “more-or-less, the creatures were largely incinerated, good riddance. Unfortunately a defender or two got caught up in the blaze, as well.”
“Oh dear,” Efrain said.
“Are you really surprised? It wasn’t our power, and we certainly didn’t know how to control it. I’m surprised we didn’t burn ourselves in the process.”
“Not an experience I would care to undergo again, that’s for sure.”
Innie’s shiver indicated that she thought much the same.
“Right, right,” he continued, “so then, how did we get from there to here, then? And where is here?”
“A wagon, travelling with the train of troops, heading south for Karkos. The commander offered you a slot, unconscious as you were.”
“I would’ve thought burning a few villagers would’ve soured his disposition.”
“Apparently not. Efrain, I don’t know this man, but he’s clearly playing his own game, and it involves you.”
“I see,” he said, tugging at his robe so that it hung around his shoulder more naturally, “I assume you acted on my behalf while I was… gone, for lack of a better word.”
“I did what I could, which wasn’t much. I was fully expecting them to fall upon us after that, especially you, defenceless. But no, he came to me and proposed that we come with him.”
“He… treated with you?”
“He said that we probably wouldn’t find much welcome among the villagers, and the paladins were not inclined to let us go either. His soldiers, on the other hand, would follow his orders, and he could personally guarantee our safety all the way to Karkos if we chose to come.”
“And you went with him,” Efriain sighed.
“What else was I supposed to do?” None of your ‘friends’ were nearby, and Naia was right about the villagers, to say nothing about the paladins. I don’t use money, nor would most treat a cat given the choice. Did you want me to drag you out into the wilderness and run into a wildling looking for a chew toy, or worse?”
“All right, allright,” he said, raising his hands to placate the wisp mother, “I don’t begrudge you anything. It sounds like you made the right choice.”
There was a silence, in which Efrain clearly perceived that Innialysia was apprehensive.
“Efrain he… and I want you to understand, even with all the things I said earlier, I was still going to refuse him. I didn’t and don’t trust him still but he told me that… that the River had told him that he needed us.”
The revelation was one that ran along his spine, and threw the captain into an entirely different light. Using the River’s words as a bargaining chip, or even just reassurance spoke to a knowledge of the magical world that far surpassed most in his lands. He must’ve known that Innie was loath to speak to the ignorant, and tempered his speech accordingly.
“Well, we’re at his mercy, for better or worse,” Efrain said, “where on the trail are we and how long have I been out?”
“Three nights, so roughly four days of travel,” she said, cocking her head, “I think that puts us two or three days from the city proper. I’m not sure, I’ve rarely come down this way.”
Efrain tried to recall the geography of the region, without much success. After a few minutes though, the aimless maps he drew in his head began to resolve with some clarity. They would be reaching the edge of the forests in a day or two, and entering the outlying highlands of the coast. From there, they’d rapidly come across the farmlands owned by the city that flanked its outskirts. The pain was beginning to subside now that he had started to move his limbs cautiously. To his joy, he could find no fault in them or their function, as far as he could tell.
“Well then,” he said “I guess I should meet with the commander and get a read on what he wants. Do you know where Tykhon is?”
“I think I saw it wandering behind the train, a far distance. It doesn’t want to get too close.”
The wagons had begun to slow, the light outside taking on a reddish hue as the sun began to dip. Obviously they were breaking for camp, which suited Efrain just fine. When they’d come to a full stop and Efrain drew himself up to go outside, he was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a face through the flap.
“Oh!” Aya said, in a half-squeak, “You’re awake!”
“I forgot to mention,” said Innie, “she’s been coming around every now and then.”
“Right, then, yes,” Efrain said, straightening, “how can I help you?”
“Well, I was just coming to chat with the madam,” she said.
“Madam?” Efrain said, looking at the cat who was conspicuously staring elsewhere.
“I didn’t realise that you were awake, I- I’ll just go and come back later. You probably have a lot on your mind,” said Aya, withdrawing through the break in the fabric.
“Well, that was a way to wake up,” said Efrain, listening to her footfalls fading into the distance, “right so… commander! Yes. Just need to get my bearings.”
Outside was slightly foggy, although Efrain gave much praise to gods he didn’t believe in that it wasn’t the unnatural, fear-laced apparition that had plagued them. The trees were less large and intimidating than the ancient northern conifers, the bowes of them dense and green. The breeze that wafted through them was noticeably warmer as well, though it still carried a northern chill.
“Right then,” Efrain said as he clambered down past the hitchings to the ground.
It didn’t take long to find a spirited young man, riding along behind them.
“Would you happen to know where your commander is?” Efrain said, erring on the side of politeness.
“Good evening lord Efrain,” he said, “the commander ordered you to be sent when you awoke. You’ll likely find him near the top of the line, or at the centre of camp, depending on how set up he is.”
He pointed up through the line of horses and various pages and servants. Most were beginning to set up tents and firepits, or leading the mounts to be tied off. Efrain thanked the man and set off in the direction he indicated, weaving between the various groups that were forming. It didn’t take long for him to find Naia’s small tent, the standard bearer in front alerting the commander within.
Naia sat before a small table, furiously scribbling at a scrap of parchment. At his left was Damafelce, still in her riding gear, though she was currently attacking a bowl of something creamy with vigour. Efrain stood in silence for a few moments, watching as the knight pointed out something to the commander and murmured a correction. Both of them looked up as he cleared his throat, and Naia issued one of his sly smiles.
“My, lord Efrain, a delightful surprise,” he said, “in truth, I was beginning to worry we’d lost you for good. It would be an ill thing to carry a rotting body around all the way down to Karkos. Damafelce, you are excused, although I would like you to have that talk with Lethsoco. He’s been getting too eager recently.”
She nodded, and draining the last of her bowl, departed from the room. Efrain was offered a small stool, which he gratefully sank into before the commander.
“I’m sorry if jumping into business immediately might not be to your tastes,” said Naia with a genuine note of regret in his voice, “but there’s some conflicting reports I simply must sort out.”
Efrain laid his elbows on the table and laced his fingers, waiting for the commander to begin.
“Some are from my own soldiers, some are from the paladins, some are from others. I personally have my own beliefs, but I think it’s better to hear it from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Would you mind telling me what happened after I rode away from the village?”
Efrain took a moment to gather himself, and piece together what spare memories he could, before beginning to relay the general account of what had happened. Over the course of the next half-hour, Naia interrupted him constantly, asking clarifying questions, or for more detail on this incident and that.
“Lillian told me that you attempted to burn down the church,” he said, “is that true?”
Efrain caught a distinct impression that the captain already suspected the truth, yet was encouraging him to proffer a lie.
“Well, I can understand why she might believe that,” he began diplomatically, “but no, that wasn’t my intent. The magic I was using was difficult to control, and I had to improvise quite a bit. Desperate times, desperate measures.”
“So the damage to the church was merely incidental,” Naia said, his eyes settling, “would that you could convince the paladins otherwise. They seem quite intent that you were trying to kill all of them.”
“I’m not holding out hope to curry favour with those two.”
“Implying that you might wish to do so elsewhere,” Naia said, the glimmer returning, “although I’ve had my fair share of headaches with those two, they’re more reasonable compared to others. They’re still young, they’ll probably settle with time and the right guidance.”
“They’ll have to learn not to be afraid of things they can’t control, if the children are any metric,” Efrain said, not interested in mincing words.
At that, Naia leaned forward, regarding Efrain with such intensity that the older man felt uncomfortable.
“‘Something they can’t control’...” he said, repeating the words with purpose, “but I do imagine you have some things to ask me, don’t you?”
“Several things,” Efrain said, “but I’ll stick with one for now. Why did you save me? Do you need me for something?”
Naia’s silence was full of purpose, cast in the shadows that flickering candles cast on his face. Without a word, he got up, and left through the front of the tent, exchanging words with the standard bearer outside. Efrain heard footsteps receding as Naia reappeared, sat down, and leaned in to lower his voice.
“I would say I believe I owe you a debt, or at least, that’s what I would say if you were stupid enough to believe that,” he said, “given I’ve already used that justification, I wouldn’t blame you if you were suspicious.”
Efrain leaned in himself, wondering where this apparent candidness had come from.
“If you really want to know, then the truth is simple,” he said, “I was taught from my earliest days that only a fool dismisses talent based on superstition. You might notice that many of my own ranks would be dismissed, if not outright laughed at by others. Damafelce, a knight, and what’s more a right-hand? A woman from the barbarous jungle of Nieth?”
He began to tap his quill on the desk.
“Tools, lord Efrain. I want, and have great need of them. I am not the paladins - my words on this parchment could command a garrison to be built, or a man to be cut down in his home. Creation, destruction, good, evil, all dependent on the whims of the wielder. Magic is the same.”
“And which variety would you prefer me to be?” Efrain asked.
“Both, as the need may take it. I did not get this far without being flexible, and neither will you,” said Naia, “and while we’re on the subject, let me offer you something.”
Efrain would’ve held his breath, but settled for stiffening to attention.
“I want you to come with me, to Karkos and beyond. I want you to serve under me, with all the obligations, and privileges, that implies.”
Efrain was struck genuinely speechless. He had, somewhere in the back of his mind, idly conjured the vision of such an offer, but it was a silly fantasy, not something to be believed, let alone desired.
“I understand if you are hesitant,” Naia said, spreading his hands, “but fate has dropped one opportunity into my lap, and I’m inclined to see if I can secure another. Call me greedy if you wish, but I was also taught to not let such things slip by.”
“I don’t- why would you-” Efrain began, trying to form a sentence to describe the whirlwind of shock within him.
“Consider this, Efrain - a young, up-and-coming commander with a good record. Rather unorthodox in his choices of subordinates, enough for some to whisper in the dark, enough even perhaps, to close off some opportunities for promotion.”
A smile flickered at the edge of his lips - he was clearly enjoying this pantomime.
“Now consider, that the man returns, safely bearing a paragon of the church, who’s been sought for over sixty years, through trial and tumult. His warriors and he are lauded for their ability and leadership, despite their odd origins. What could be in store for such a person? Respect, certainly, but what about promotion?”
“So, you want to be a general,” said Efrain.
Naia smiled and bowed his head, humbly presenting himself.
“And you need me because… why? Please don’t think I believe this whole screed on ‘talent’. You’re doing that to appeal to my own sensibilities about the church.”
Naia laughed openly at that, though it wasn’t the most pleasant sound.
“I see you’ll need more cajoling than that. There are other reasons a mage would be valuable to me, this is true. But I wasn’t lying about talent being valuable to me. All I ask is that you think about this offer, and if you’ll accept it, I’ll tell you the rest.”
Efrain sat in silence for a while, wondering at the strange offer. Listening to the wind whistling through the trees, his hand unconsciously crept up to scratch at his forehead. Naia was looking at him expectantly, perhaps hoping he’d jump into it impulsively to reveal the mystery, but Efrain was intent on gauging the motives of this man.
“You do know,” Efrain began, “that inferno up on the roof. It would be difficult, probably impossible to do it again. And, if I tried, there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t cause significant damage to your own side.”
“I guessed as much, and no, I wouldn’t expect a display like that,” Naia said with a wry smile, “you wouldn’t be of much use to me dead, Efrain.”
So he wants me alive to do something, something with magic? Or something else? Efrain thought. He began to think about what else had changed throughout the last few days, and tried to recall what exactly Naia would know from his reports.
Certainly he would probably have at least a neutral appraisal from his soldiers, but that couldn’t be it. And mages could be found to do all sorts of magical tasks, even in Angorrah, if one was willing to seek them out. So was it for some unique power or ability then? He had shown him the River, but that was also an accident. And he didn’t expect him to use the flames of the Wisp Matriarch, or so he said.
What did Efrain offer to Naia, something that he only, or at least only a few others, could offer him? What had changed the offer of cooperation from simple guidance to something more long-term and involved? Efrain furiously reflected over the last few days, and suddenly he had it.
And with that, a whole web opened up before him, glistening with many unknown strands.
“Commander, before I say anything, I would like to ask just three questions. Quick ones, I would think.”
“Please.”
“You are a commander, aren’t you? I was given to understand that they managed much larger forces than this company. Over whole regions, in fact. That would normally be your duties, no?
The man nodded.
“Usually up to a thousand, though circumstances demand otherwise on occasion. Still, this is the smallest force I’ve wielded for a while now. My trusted and favoured.”
“And tell me, the children, they’re usually guarded by a retinue of paladins, I would assume, back in the holy city?”
“Indeed. Dozens of them.”
Naia’s eyes were glittering.
“And you were heading to do what all that way up north?”
Efrain of course knew the answer to this question, but he needed the cover if he could get it.
“Subjugating a castle, filled with undead, or so the tales go,” he said, “they made quite a big deal of it, back in the castle.”
Efrain sat, slotting pieces into place as he studied the man’s face.
“There’s indeed something you’re not telling me, commander.”
“Oh?” Naia said.
It was a game to him, Efrain was sure of it. A game of guesses and knives in the dark.
“So,” he began, “the church talks up a mission to the far north, all the way across the continent. Some terrible beast, holed up in some old castle. Well, of course, they couldn’t finance a full contingent. Only a hundred measly men. No one wants to take the deal, I assume, so they offer something to sweeten the pot, a crusade, with the two most sacred figures of the church at the head.”
Naia offered the slightest nod and opened his mouth to speak.
“Only, that’s not the real reason,” Efrain quickly interjected, deciding to take his chances, “I was there at the Frozen Vale, laying to rest the evil spirit you claim. And there were undead, weak, of poor craft, but numerous. Enough to man the battlements effectively if the spirit so chose.”
The momentum of the lie carried him onwards to his conclusion.
“So, tell me, why did you have few men, no siege equipment, and little stores? And why were the two most important people in the faith there with two bodyguards between them?”
The darkness of Naia’s eyes reflected the candle, twin flickers of flame and serpentine consideration.
[←Chapter 52] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 54→]

First, I want to say that if you are here reading this, it's because you, too, just lost your pet—my deepest sympathy to you. I know what you are going through. I lost my sweet boy Tuesday morning. The last time I saw him alive was around 4 am. I found him dead around 6:15 am. He was an 11-1/2 y.o. Labrador. We knew he was dying and were planning to bring him in to be PTS that morning. But I'm somewhat glad that he passed at home with us, in his favorite spot. I don't think he was experiencing a lot of pain, though I know death is never easy.
I'm the type of guy that never cries, and I'm old enough that I've lost a lot of close friends and family over the years. But I just can't stop crying and keep getting choked up (like now, as I try to write this).
I think we hurt so bad when we lose a pet for a couple of reasons. We rub their bellies and fur daily as we pet them and show them our love. We look into their eyes in a way that we don't with other people. Close contact and touching create a very powerful bond.
I keep asking myself if I could have prevented this. He was very sick two years ago and was in complete liver and kidney failure. We had brought him to the best specialist in our state. He told us the chances were very slim that he would survive. But he did, and eventually, his bloodwork numbers came back close to normal. But it did a lot of damage. He was on eight different meds, which eventually dropped to six. But still, tons of meds. Then weight gain and lethargy. In the past three months, he really started having a tough time getting around. Then a month ago, his bloodwork showed high ALT and neutrophil. Everything else looked good. Our vet said not to worry about it. It was normal and caused by the prednisone he was on.
I wish I had not taken my vet's advice because I now think he went into sepsis, which killed him. I can't place too much blame on the vet. They only see him for a few minutes every month or two. It's my fault for not demanding more follow-up tests. Plus, I just thought he was coming to that point, getting near the end. His breed only lives 10-14 years, and I know the liver and kidney disease knocked at least two years off his lifespan. His quality of life was not great, but it wasn't awful either.
I'm filled with regret. The silence in my home and knowing that he isn't here and is gone forever is tearing me apart. The stronger the love, the deeper the pain.

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I typed all of this up right as I woke up from this dream so I apologize for any and all grammatical errors.
Had a dream that I went to a high school to work on something and all of the high schoolers were doing the thing they normally do when they see someone new. I basically showed them I was there for work and didn’t really care what they did. One kid had came up to me and was wondering what I was doing so I showed them that I was trying to put together some sort of presentation. I saw others putting together tables and they were going to need the tv so I started to try get my stuff together and get out of the way. They all started singing what seemed to be some song to do with their school spirit, and this one person who I thought was a student sat next to me and was clearly trying to impress the stranger they had just meet with singing. They kept looking over to me and singing and I just kept awkwardly smiling and nodded with approval so they didn’t feel weird about singing near a stranger. After a while I realized this was a teacher then the presentation started, the lights dimmed and everyone was watching whatever was on the tv that I was trying to use, which for some reason was crooked. I spotted all my things and started trying to gather them when the teacher sort of suggestively asked me if I had done Rocky horror picture show. To her, it seemed she knew who I was and she was trying to remember, while also sounding like she wanted me to remember as well. I explained that I hadn’t done that show with her because I was not from there, at this point the teacher was a very small (like smaller than a water bottles size small) and was not happy when I said that Rocky Horror isn’t a good high school show. She insisted it was and I insisted it was her own selfish opinion that made her think that. I explained that there was suggestive themes such as sex, death, and cannibalism that just was safer left not done in a school, but she insisted. I started to try and gather all of my things but I couldn’t find all of my parts to my pc. I tried not to worry about her constantly trying to reason with why she thought it was ok to do the show and look for my computer and peripherals so that I could leave and be out of the way of everything going on and get back to work. At this time, I kept losing track of where this tiny woman was while I was talking to her, my focus would shift from a rogue popcorn, to a doll on the ground, and then finally to her when I could spit her (this for some reason felt normal). I couldn’t find my monitors and all my things were scattered. I found my small bag but, nothing was in it. I started picking up things and putting them in the bag as I moved around looking for my stuff. I managed to pile together my pc and some other things but strangely while I was putting stuff in my bag I could feel something strange happening and my underwear came out of one side of the leggings of my pants. Embarrassed, I tried to hide them back in my pant leg because this teacher and I had been back and forth arguing about the Rocky Horror thing. I slid them back up my pant leg trying to get out as fast as I could but upon passing an area with a whole lot of electrical lost and found items, I searched for my monitors. In looking I picked up a few things that I found interesting like a GameCube controller which I thought was cool, so I picked it up and started seeing how well put together and how quality it was. One of the students noticed this and shouted that I was trying to steal it. I placed it back down and kept trying to search for other things of mine so I could leave asap. I found my old iPad that I haven’t used in years and I remember thinking “why is this here?” right before the now full sized teacher grabbed it out of my hands. Her now towering over me, I claimed that it is mine and she asked if I could prove it and I was confident I could find some proof that this is my old iPad. I grabbed it from her to show her and she asked if I was “some kind of professional” to which I replied that “I was”. I spoke to her explaining my level of expertise and why this iPad and equipment was mine and how I could prove it, while at the same time walking back to the other side of this cafeteria toward where my pile of stuff had been, trying to look through emails or any other way to prove my legitimacy. Once I got to my pile of stuff, all but my monitors were there, but there was now a sword on top of my computer. Staring at the sword, puzzled, I looked back across the room towards the teacher and she had grown bigger once again but this time an upwards of 9 feet. She started moving towards me and as she did her legs turned to something snake like and she began slithering toward me as her upper body began to change. I grabbed all I could and went towards the door that when opened, showed a swirling blue void that seemed unending. I decided to take my chances jump. I eventually fell into a similar but much older looking room. The walls were constructed of bricks and the lunch tables now long dining benches. Candle lights lit the room and a lady came to me and asked if I was ok but all I could think to ask was “where are my monitors?”. She looked extremely puzzled at my question and I could tell she had no idea what I was talking about. I took a closer look around and I immediately started to realize that I had traveled to the past.
Lmk what you think! -My thoughts are that the two places where the same but in a different period of time. The fantasy in my wants to believe I went back to the origin of the shapeshifting snake lady. How do y’all interpret this?

I can buy back my firstborn son? When the Time comes, teach me how, but let it be catholic. Jesus can do it for me.
Imprisoned I am, Gershon with a crown in Austria. I thank Jesus of Nazareth for he died, so I don't have to.
What is this world, burning in the sun, so many countries. Those not near the ocean do not have a way to desalination. Mad I am, I lived life away from the jewish people, now here I am having to teach them. As I am studying Exodus. I find G-d angry at the anointed one at times. I learned recently how he became truly. The gossip of me, it is not good. I saw how a friendly man wished me a happy weekend with his eyes closed, he didn't mean it. Anti-Semitism, who could end it? There used to be the belief it would never exist again after the holocaust. The troubles of my life, the troubles of what people want of me. I am a king who fulfils no wishes, less you do good to me.

So I am wrapping up the 100% completion of RDR2. I have done all challenges, story, side activities, collectables and such. I have even done Gambler challenge 8 and 9 which took me about 7 hours total, but the Duchesses and Other Animals, A.K.A Algernon Wasps’ Exotics is way harder and infuriating. I have been searching for no less than 10 hours and all that I have found is a single Little Egret Plume. I have gotten about 50 Heron, Spoonbill, and Roseate plums but for the life of me cannot catch a single Egret Plume. They literally don’t spawn anywhere, not in Lagras, not near Kamassa River, not on the tiny islands north of Saint Denis, not the islands east of Shady Belle, nowhere! I honestly am considering just leaving it at 97%…

Troubleshooting Help:

Parts list (from Great Intel Build by PCPartPicker.com. The prices were a bit cheaper when purchased ~1 week ago)
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor	$173.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler	$39.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	*ASRock B660M Pro RS Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	$94.99 @ Newegg
Memory	*Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$29.97 @ Amazon
Storage	MSI SPATIUM M450 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$37.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	MSI MECH 2X OC Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card	$453.42 @ Amazon
Case	Phanteks Eclipse G360A ATX Mid Tower Case	$84.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair CXM 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$169.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1099.25
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$1084.25
	*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-02 11:21 EDT-0400

Problem description
This is my first build. Any help would be appreciated - I've been trying to get this PC work work for a lot of hours now :(
There's two different problems (for both problems, the fans and some LED lights turn on).
The first is I get a DRAM light on the motherboard. This happens when I have 1 stick of Ram in the A2 spot (only works with 1 particular RAM stick - if I use the other in the A2, I get a different error). I've also tried changing the placement as per some people online, so I'll also get a DRAM light when I put 1 stick into B1 and the other stick into B2.
I also get the VGA and Boot lights turning on when using the other stick into the A2 spot, or when I use both sticks (A2 and B2 slots).
What I've done in attempt to diagnose or fix the problem.
From this link, I've tried the following:

• Made sure the 8x socket was plugged into the CPU plug near the CPU (was 8 pin to 8 pin)
• Didn't install standoffs, but they were pre-installed
• Took out the video card and put it back in a couple times. Also, I tried this without the video card, since I read the intel cards without an "F" at the end should be able to run without a dedicated GPU
• Attached two 6+2 connectors from the PSU to the GPU. Also tried it without the GPU.
• Tried with 1 stick of RAM. Have two sticks, one by itself gives me a DRAM light. The other gives Boot+VGA lights.
• Took the RAM sticks out and re-inserted them. Not sure how to check if they're all the way in, but the pins snap back to their original placement.
• Using the A2+B2 RAM slots (also tried each stick one at a time into the A2 slot, and then the RAM sticks into the B1+B2 slot - even though it says it will slow it down if it is plugged into B1+B2, I read that it can help it get past the initial errors)
• Checked the plastic guard (it's in a box, not on the CPU)
• CPU fan is running when the box turns on
• Tried resetting the CMOS 2 times

Hey Reddit!
I'm about to make a big move back to the States, specifically to Chicago, and I'm feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. As a young woman, it's important for me to gather all the information I can to ensure a smooth transition. I'll be attending Columbia College Chicago as a film student and would appreciate any advice or resources you can share about moving, finding apartments, and staying safe in the city.
One of my concerns is apartment hunting on a limited budget. Since campus housing is quite expensive, I've been exploring other options, but haven't found anything yet in the South Loop area. If any of you have suggestions or resources for finding affordable apartments near Columbia College, I would be immensely grateful.
Another concern I have is transportation. I won't have a car, so I'll be relying on public transit, specifically the CTA and lots of walking. Is it reliable and safe for commute and walking alone, including trips for groceries and other errands? I would love to hear your experiences or any tips you might have in this regard.
Lastly, I've heard mixed opinions about living in the US, with some advising against it. As I'm making this important step into my new life, I want to hear from you about your thoughts on living in Chicago, attending Columbia College, and any advice you may have on staying safe as a young woman living alone.
Any resources, opinions, or personal experiences you could share would mean the world to me. Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Hello reddit-- I'll try to keep this short.
Last year, a close friend of mine "P" dropped the ball pretty significantly in the middle of my divorce. P ghosted me for months during a particularly tough time when I needed her support, then returned. At first we were okay, but then P was extra critical of me on several occasions, even going as far as to imply I was selfish for needing communication during this time. She openly made fun of me at a dinner I hosted (that I cooked myself for everyone!). The final straw was when P planned an event for my best friend "K" who was visiting, then pulled out at the last moment when I made a request to be sensitive in discussing a topic that is triggering to my "K." P basically cut contact, and started telling our mutual friends that my request was ridiculous/unfair (it was not-- it was basic human decency not to bring up this issue with K).
Yesterday, P reached out to me with a pretty flippant text, asking if we could be friends again, and she had bought me some gifts during a trip she was on. This is after four months of no contact. At this point, I want nothing to do with P, but unfortunately she is a big part of our very close circle of friends from graduate school. My instinct was to ignore this text entirely, but I learned that both P and I will be in attendance at a party tonight. So there is of course pressure for me to respond to this text today.
Should I suck it up, say "sure," see her in social settings, and then just purposefully avoid 1:1 time? Should I tell the truth, knowing it could backfire in our friendship group? Should I do something in-between?
Thanks!
TL;DR Former friend ghosted me during a difficult time, then came back to criticize before cutting contact over a simple request to avoid a topic of conversation. Now she has texted me to be friends again. I do not want to be friends, but am forced to see her tonight at a mutual friend's party.

Pastel Community Update (June 2, 2023)
The next generation NFT focused blockchain. Certifiable authenticity. Permanent storage. Negligible fees. Build, secure, and scale your Web3 ecosystem with Pastel.
The Pastel Team has been extremely busy with a number of major development updates, partnership rollouts, and product releases. Check back here each week for new developments
Check Pastel channels for:
⭐ Weekly community snapshots shared across our various channels.
🐾 Quarterly updates released via our newsletter.
☎️ Weekly community town halls / AMAs directly with the Pastel team. Come prepared with your questions, comments, and feedback!
📣 Monthly Twitter Spaces with u/doodlestone and u/panthony
Key Updates:
🚨Contests🚨
Our team has been busy developing, testing & refining innovative network features like the Monet 1.2 release & SmartMint upgrade. To celebrate these milestones, we're launching exciting community events for everyone to enjoy! Check out what's in store for May: More info to come this week. Check our socials!
SmartMint Art Contest
-Are you ready to unleash your artistic talents and make a splash in the world of crypto art? Look no further! We are excited to announce the SmartMint Art Contest.
-By participating in this contest, you stand a chance to win fantastic prizes of up to 150 USDT, free mints, and so much more! To learn more about the contest and how to participate check out this Medium Article. CONTEST EXTENTION: JUNE 7th
Quizzo Discord Referral Campaign
-Exciting news! Introducing our Referral Challenge for our Bi-Weekly Quizzos in our discord! You have the opportunity to invite up to 5 friends to join our Discord and take part in any one of the upcoming 4 Quizzos. Earn additional rewards: $5 USDT for each referred friend, with a maximum of $25!
Check out this Medium article to learn more!
-We're kicking off the month of May by introducing our Bi-Weekly Quiz competitions, Quizzos! Put your Pastel knowledge to the test, covering videos, articles, & tweets. Learn more about our project and show off your expertise. We will be airdropping the top 3 winners PSL!
-Like solving puzzles? Don’t miss our Monet 1.2 NFT Puzzle Event to kickoff the Monet Mainnet Release! We’re giving away exclusive Pastel NFT Puzzle Pieces with corresponding PSL airdrops to those who answer daily Q?s! 🚀 Keep an eye out for additional NFT, PSL, & USDT bonuses.
🚨Twitter Space on the Current State of Web3 and NFTs🚨
Tune in to our Twitter Spacewith @blueznft. We will be diving into all things NFTs, ecosystems, marketplaces, and more. Don't miss out on this insightful discussion! #NFTs #Marketplaces #TwitterSpace
Pastel Network joined WOMENverse to discuss tech features that support empowering men and women in web3
We hosted an incredible conversation about on-chain infrastructure, the current market, and more! Listen to our Twitter Space with @endaomentdotorg
🚨Final phase of Monet 1.2 Testnet Release is now live🚨
Monet 1.2 represents a critical milestone among several other planned releases for 2023. This release brings substantial enhancements to our Supernode infrastructure, major updates to Cascade (our permanent NFT data storage solution), and Sense (our duplicate detection technology).
Specific upgrades include:
-Integration of Supernode Storage Challenges to Cascade -Activation of Cascade’s Self-Healing capability -Activation of Supernode Health and State Challenges -Stabilization of Sense Protocol -Release of the OpenAPI Gateway
More details on the specific features of Monet 1.2 and upcoming plans for the Mainnet release available here
Are you curious about the latest Monet 1.2 Test Net release? We've got you covered! We hosted 2 AMAs, Reddit and Discord where we answered all your burning questions. If you have more, please reach out to us on any of our social media.
🚨Collaborations🚨
In case you missed it, listen to our Twitter Space with BearBrains.eth (@NateBear). We discuss his exciting drop/giveaway, Brightz, and his journey in the Space.
Check out our latest artist spotlight! This amazing piece entitled “Nostalgia” was minted on SmartMint by @thealvinboss
Exciting artist collaborations are on the horizon with: @IanSoi_ @K_JRobotsCo, @Numo_0 @abahassanart
We are always seeking talented artists to collaborate with, so please reach out to us on any social media platform. Let’s create something amazing together!
🚨Pastel Progress🚨
-Reddit AMA- Always excited to answer the community. If yout still have burning questions, please find us on one of our socials
-Partnership with Astar Network: Pastel Network is excited to announce that it will be working with @AstarNetwork, a layer1 parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem. Learn more on Medium.
SmartMint on Twitter: It is our great pleasure to announce that SmartMint will now have a Twitter presence. The SmartMint twitter account has officially launched.
-Addition of Status Page: We recently released a Status Page so you can monitor the performance of our infrastructure & services in real time. Check it out here!
-Wrapped PSL:Wrapped PSL or wPSL exists to transfer tokens across platforms. wPSL is available on Uniswap. Watch our video and learn more here
-Pastel Testnet Faucet Release: Our Testnet Faucet is now live. The launch of this independent network enables users to obtain LSP (Pastel Testnet Tokens) to experiment with and develop in the Pastel Testnet environment. This gives users the ability to experiment with Pastel features without having to spend valuable PSL on the mainnet.
Learn more about Pastel's Testnet Faucet.
-Becoming a Supernode Operator: Become a Supernode operator today & gain increased credibility in the validator community & earn exclusive rewards from the foundation, such as PSL or NFT airdrops, in addition to receiving Block & Transactional Rewards.
🚨Cascade Protocol🚨
Cascade has numerous concrete advantages over competing systems such as IPFS & Arweave, particularly when it comes to censorship resistance, data permanence & data accessibility.
Check out our technical paper on Cascade, Pastel's storage layer. Cascade is an extremely powerful & robust storage system for true data permanence that is both completely decentralized & highly scalable. Learn more here.
🚨Sense Protocol🚨
Sense is a Near-Duplicate NFT detection protocol powered by the Pastel Network. Assess the relative rareness of a given NFT against near-duplicate metadata on networks like Ethereum, Solana, etc to prevent prevalent scams or theft. Try it yourself here and watch it work here.
🚨2023 Roadmap and Review of 2022🚨
Pastel released its 2023 roadmap, including a review of 2022. Pastel Network 2022 in review and roadmap for 2023 shows great progress made in the previous year and much promise for the year ahead.
🚨News and Developments🚨
-Pastel in the News
💡Anthony Georgiades joins KitCo News to talk about how Bitcoin benefits as businesses lose trust in the dollar
🥝Check out what Anthony Georgiades has to say about the market in this The Block article.
😁Anthony Georgiades talks about a possible financial crisis in this CoinDesk article
⌨️Co-founder Anthony Georgiades discusses Solana and crypto smartphones in this Fortune article
⚓Check out this Cointelegraph article where Anthony Georgiades discusses the importance of filling a market gap.
-Pastel News-
📱Check out our latest Youtube live video where u/panthony discusses Q1 NFT Trends & Pastel updates!
🖌️ Listen to our Twitter space where we host @Endaoment and discuss chain infrastructures and more
🍧Check out this Twitter Space with the @agoric and @kryha_io teams discussing decentralized systems
🌸Check out this Twitter Space with u/gameofskills discussing Web3 gaming and much more
💡 Check out this Medium article on how Sense is revolutionizing NFT provenance written by Ima-Abasi Pius Joseph
-Pastel Archive
🚧We released a Builder’s Guide for ecosystem partners integrating w/ Pastel. Come build with us here.
🌯wPSL or wrapped is explained in this video and
🚧Pastel is completely open-source. Check out what we are working on here.
🌀Testnet tutorial video
🏆Learn more about Sense and Cascade
🔦Want to try out Sense for yourself? Upload your NFT here to obtain the rareness score of your NFT.
📹Check out this youtube demonstration showing what happened when we compared OpenSea’s new duplicate detection system to Sense Sense Comp Analysis
If you have not done so already, please take a moment to join our growing community base:
🐓 Follow Pastel on Twitter
🙉Follow Smartmint on Twitter
👾Join Pastel's Discord Server
👽Join Pastel on Reddit
✈️Join Pastel’s Telegram
🖥️Subscribe to our Youtube channel

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-1-2023
Late tonight the Senate passed H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, suspending the debt ceiling and cutting certain federal spending. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it tomorrow, preventing a government default. Forty-four Democrats and two Independents—Angus King (I-ME) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ)—voted yes, along with 17 Republicans. Four Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voted no, along with 31 Republicans. The final tally to pass the measure was 63 to 36.
“Democrats are feeling very good tonight,” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. “We’ve saved the country from the scourge of default.”
Republicans brought the nation to the brink of default with their insistence that they opposed runaway government spending, but their demands did not square with that argument. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the $21 billion cut in funding to the Internal Revenue Service, for example, will result in $40 billion in lost revenue, increasing the deficit by $19 billion.
In other economic news, the Biden administration today announced actions designed to address racial bias in the valuation of homes.
This sounds sort of in the weeds for administration action, I know, but it is actually an important move for addressing the nation’s wealth inequality. In 2019 a study from the Federal Reserve showed that white American families had a median net worth of $188,100, Hispanic or Latino families had a net worth of $36,200, and Black American families had a median net worth of $24,100.
Homeownership is the most important factor in creating generational wealth—that is, wealth that passes from one generation to the next—both because homeownership essentially forces savings as people pay mortgages, and because homes tend to appreciate in value.
But a 2021 study by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, more popularly known as Freddie Mac, showed that real estate appraisers are twice as likely to undervalue minority-owned property relative to contract price for which the home sells, than they are to undervalue homes owned by white Americans.
The story of lower valuation came to popular attention after a Black couple living near San Francisco applied for a loan and received an initial valuation far too low for them to qualify for that loan. Shocked, since the same house had been appraised at almost a half a million dollars higher the year before, the couple removed all traces of their ownership of the house and asked a white friend to stand in as the owner before a new appraiser evaluated the worth of the property. That new appraisal came back a half a million dollars higher than the lowball one.
(The couple sued, and the case was settled in February 2022).
Two years ago, the Biden administration announced a sweeping effort to “root out racial and ethnic bias in home evaluations.” Today it bolstered those efforts to “ensure that every American who buys a home has the same opportunities to build generational wealth through homeownership.” They call for fixing algorithms to ensure that home values are accurately assessed, creating pathways for consumers to challenge low assessments, and increasing the numbers of trained appraisers.
There is a reason that the administration has centered its housing policies on June 1. This is the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, when in 1921 white gangs destroyed the prosperous Greenwood district of that city, which was home to more than 10,000 Black Americans. It wiped out 35 blocks with more than 1,200 homes and businesses and took hundreds of Black lives, robbing Black families of generational wealth and the opportunities that come with it.
In 1921, Greenwood, known as “Black Wall Street,” was estimated to be the richest Black community in the United States. The destruction of May 31 to June 1, 1921, changed all that. Residents of Greenwood filed $1.8 million in damage claims—more than $27 million in today’s dollars—against the city, but all but one of the claims were denied when the city was found not liable for damages caused by mobs. (A white pawnshop owner was compensated for the guns stolen from his store.) Insurance didn’t help, either: insurance companies claimed that damage caused by “riots” was not covered by their policies.
In a 2018 article in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Chris M. Messer, Thomas E. Shriver, and Alison E. Adams estimated that the destruction in Tulsa might well have amounted to more than $200 million in today’s dollars.
Greenwood’s Black residents nonetheless pooled their resources and rebuilt the district, despite the system of “redlining” by mortgage companies that deemed parts of Greenwood to be credit risks and made it impossible for residents to get mortgages. “Urban renewal” then destroyed the area again in the 1960s through the 1980s as white city planners rezoned the district, built highways through it, and took property through eminent domain.
Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged the destruction of Greenwood today in a call with reporters. Noting that “[h]omeownership is one of the single most powerful engines of wealth-building available to American families,” she explained that ‘[m]illions rely on the equity in their homes to put their children through college, to fund a startup, to retire with dignity, to create intergenerational prosperity and wealth.” But “for generations, many people of color have been prevented from taking full advantage of the benefits of homeownership.”
The inequalities of the past have persisted in the home appraisal system, Harris said. “[B]ecause their homes are undervalued, Black and Latino people often pay more for their mortgage, receive less when they sell, and are less able to get access to home equity lines of credit—all of which widens the racial wealth gap and deepens longstanding financial inequities.”
“Today,” her Twitter account said, “our Administration is announcing new actions to root out racial bias in home valuations to ensure that all hardworking families can realize the true value of their investment and have a fair shot at the American dream.”
Jonathan Lemire, Adam Cancryn, and Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico reported today that White House officials urged allies to downplay their substantial victory on the debt ceiling crisis and the related budget negotiations, afraid of sparking Republican opposition and eager to be seen as the adults in the room.
But they needn’t have worried. Today, President Biden tripped over a sandbag left in his path as he was jogging away from the center stage of the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado after giving the commencement address. He appeared fine after the fall, but it is dominating right-wing social media, the debt ceiling crisis already forgotten.
—
Notes:
https://twitter.com/ArthurDelaneyHP/status/1664395512382996483
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/01/senate-debt-ceiling-bill/
https://www.readynest.com/homebuyer-stories/what-role-does-homeownership-play-in-generational-wealth
https://www.freddiemac.com/research/insight/20210920-home-appraisals
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1162103286/home-appraisal-racial-bias-black-homeowners-lawsuit
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/01/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-sweeping-action-to-address-racial-bias-in-home-valuations/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/kamala-harris-new-rule-will-tackle-racial-bias-home-valuations-rcna87313
https://www.okhistory.org/research/forms/freport.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12225
https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-true-costs-of-the-tulsa-race-massacre-100-years-late
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/29/case-reparations-tulsa-oklahoma#_Toc41573965
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/06/01/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-in-a-press-call-on-addressing-racial-bias-in-home-appraisals/
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf20.pdf
https://twitter.com/VP/status/1664358084125290497
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/01/just-dont-boast-how-biden-world-sought-to-ace-the-debt-ceiling-standoff-00099671
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/politics/biden-us-air-force-academy-trip/index.html

I’d like to get stronger but I honestly don’t know where to start. I’m 245lbs with 76% lean mass and 23% body fat. I have an amazing gym near me but I have no idea where to start on properly exercising. Any advice is greatly appreciated

I know, I know. Near daily there's a post about accounting and how miserable people are. I'm trying to spin it a bit - what do you do now that makes you enjoy it/feel fulfilled/happy in this field? How you got there, what makes you feel okay/good about your position, all are very helpful insights!
If interested about my personal problems:

• 8th year in career, 4 years public, 3 years internal (was promoted to Director during this stint), back to public now.
• LOVE my firm and the people, top to bottom. Clients are great except for one or two. Perks at current firm are phenomenal, pay is satisfactory, etc.
• Sometimes I cry once to twice a day in absolute misery. I lay awake at night dreading my 8-12 hours (ranging for busy season) I have to do this work.
• Audit does not come easy to me, neither financial nor internal. In general, accounting doesn't come easily to me. I don't believe I'm stupid (I've got a lot of degrees, awards, and achievements even outside school years) but I'm definitely not in an area my brain flexes in. So, while I don't think I'm stupid, I'm definitely not a genius here. I FEEL stupid every day.
• I have zero drive to learn more. None. It makes my stomach twist. Hand me something to learn outside our career and I'm all in. I am normally very eager to learn, but anything related to accounting/standards/etc.? No, thanks.
• I am not a high performer (which hurts my ego because I know I'm capable of being one), but I do well and go slightly above average in terms of work performed. I LIKE helping, feeling useful and like a team player. That's my drive.
• Personality style is ESFJ, communicator, etc. I wanted to be a teacher, psychologist, and vet growing up. Financial security led me to this career.

I am beyond aware of ALL the amazing reasons I'm lucky to have my job. Beyond aware, and very disgusted I let my feelings outweigh that knowledge.
Any advice? At all?
P.S. I'm overall a very optimistic, happy person. I hate how whiney baby I sound. I just hope there's a redditor out there who can offer some advice that may change my trajectory. Thank you for your time!

hear me? listen well, your grave will joy
there i was sincere to your drugs
you know those drugs that made you a non-stop traveller
there lies a country west and east yearn
the ship through all these roads said wait a minute a ship must be like a country
and how can you sink if your heart still beats to death
your tounge is mixed open to all loves saying i don't love you i am you yours all memories we had
you stood on a tower, father forgive me for i will sin you said smile of yours was huge as beds' trembling
danced to a song, a few songs whose souls were just seventeen to heaven
and i shall love that is everything that ever been that ever felt the shiver
the shiver our mind wanted to evolve and felt alive
alive i am, do you hear from
the fucking halls of dead tough poets

Hey everyone. Me and my GF have been for nearly 7 months together. Back when we met, it was really amazing. We vibed really well, we spoke everyday and met up alot, and had really exciting dates.
Then at the 3 month mark, she shared with me that she has ROCD (Relationship OCD). It causes her to have obsessive and intrusive thoughts about her relationship and it really screws with her head. She starts to question her own feelings and it goes downhill from there. Suddenly she doesn't even know if she loves me, or questions her feelings, but then a few days later she tells me she loves me. It's extremely inconsistent.
She is also misophonic and has some kind of sensory disturbance where certain noises, sounds and ways I touch her can trigger her and make her very distant from me, if she doesn't immediately tell me what it is and asks me to stop doing it. It can be very small things (Sounds like sneezing, eating, going to sleep together in certain ways). It feels like I really need to micromanage myself around her and make sure I don't trigger her. This is the reason why she feels less comfortable with sharing what triggers her, because she feels like it's really idiotic and unfair towards me that I have to cater to everything like that. But on the contrary, it causes her to become really distant from me without me knowing what happened.
I've been really understanding and tried to change small things and in general make her feel more comfortable around me. But it works for a while, but then things become worse again. She can have a few good days (We have fun while hanging out together, we have great sex and tell one another we love eachother), but then we can have a few bad days after that (She is really distant, doesn't share her feelings at all and seems annoyed and disturbed).
Yesterday we have a serious conversation and I was ready to end our relationship there. She told me she is so confused with her feelings, she has no idea how she feels, sometimes she feels she loves me, sometimes she feels she doesn't, and it's really playing with her head and confusing her. She also told me that when she was on vacation she fantasized about sleeping with other men there (Which is completely fine, but hurts to hear and imo she shouldn't be sharing that).
I'm also afraid to end the relationship because we have mutual friends and we go dancing at evenings at the same places, so I will for sure see her at like 1-3 times a week. It'll be painful to keep seeing her, and even more so if she finds a new partner there.
We both agree that the relationship can't go on like this. The relationship feels too inconsistent and I can't take it anymore. But it feels very painful to break up, we had amazing times together and I still want her and want to be with her. Should I just break up with her and end the relationship, because it feels hopeless and I feel extremely unsatisfied most of the time? Should I wait and see if anything changes after our conversation? I'm not sure what we should do. She is also confused and doesn't want to break up yet.
​

Galatians  

The Gospel of Paul  

Paul can be forgiven for equating the destruction of Israel with the end of the world. Everyone who loves Israel wants to save her, the controversy between the Judaizers and Paul was over how to do it.  
From The Interpreters’ Bible:  
"Introduction  
-1. Occasion and Purpose  
Conservative preachers were persuading the Galatians that faith was not enough to make sure of God’s kingdom. Besides believing that Jesus was the Messiah, one must join the Jewish nation, observe the laws and customs of Moses, and refuse to eat with the Gentiles (2:11-14, 4:10). One must have Christ and Moses, faith and law. Paul insisted that it must be either Moses or Christ. (5:2-6). [Mind you, the congregations were literally segregated at meals according to whether the male members’ foreskins were circumcised; compare with the trouble regarding the allocations between the two groups of widows reported in Acts.]  
Not content with raising doubts concerning the sufficiency of Christ, the Judaizers attacked Paul’s credentials. They said that he had not been one of the original apostles, and that he was distorting the gospel which Peter and John and James the Lord’s brother were preaching. They declared that his proposal to abandon the law of Moses was contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and they insinuated that he had taken this radical step to please men with the specious promise of cheap admission to God’s kingdom (1:10). If he were allowed to have his way, men would believe and be baptized but keep on sinning, deluding themselves that the Christian sacraments would save them. Claiming to rise above Moses and the prophets, they would debase faith into magic, liberty into license, making Christ the abettor of sin (2:17). The Judaizers were alarmed lest Paul bring down God’s wrath and delay the kingdom. They had not shared the emotion of a catastrophic conversion like Paul’s, and they found it hard to understand when he talked about a new power which overcame sin and brought righteousness better than the best that the law could produce.  
Another party attacked Paul from the opposite side. Influenced by the pagan notion that religion transcends ethics and is separable from morality, they wanted to abandon the Old Testament and its prophetic insights. They could not see how Paul’s demand to crucify one’s old sinful nature and produce the fruit of the Spirit could be anything but a new form of slavery to law (2:19-20, 5:14, 2-24). They accused him of rebuilding the old legalism, and some said that he was still preaching circumcision (2:18; 5:11). Whereas the Judaizers rejected Paul’s gospel because they believed it contrary to the teaching of the original apostles, these antilegalists felt that he was so subservient to the apostles as to endanger the freedom of the Christian Movement.  
Actually Paul had risen above both legalism and sacramentarianism ... his faith was qualitatively different from mere assent to a creed (5:6). He was living on the plateau of the Spirit, where life was so free that men needed no law to say ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’ (5:22-24). But this rarefied atmosphere was hard to breathe, and neither side could understand him. The conservatives were watching for moral lapses… and the radicals blamed him for slowing the progress of Christianity by refusing to cut it loose from Judaism and its nationalistic religious imperialism.” (Stamm, TIB 1953, vol. X pp. 430)  
Paul’s defense of his gospel and apostleship was the more difficult because he had to maintain his right to go directly to Christ without the mediation of Peter and the rest, but had to do it in such a way as not to split the church and break the continuity of his gospel with the Old Testament and the apostolic traditions about Jesus and his teaching. …  
To this end Paul gave an account of his relations with the Jerusalem church during the seventeen years that followed his conversion (1:11-2:14). Instead of going to Jerusalem he went to Arabia, presumably to preach (1:17). After a time he returned to Damascus, and only three years later did he go to see Peter. Even then he stayed only fifteen days and saw no other apostle except James the Lord’s brother (1:18-20). Then he left for Syria and Cilicia, and not until another fourteen years had passed did he visit Jerusalem again. This time it was in response to a revelation from his Lord, and not to a summons by the authorities in the Hoy City.  
Paul emphasizes that neither visit implied an admission that his gospel needed the apostolic stamp to make it valid. His purpose was to get the apostles to treat the uncircumcised Gentile Christians as their equals in the church (2:2). Making a test case of Titus, he won his point (2:3-5). The apostles agreed that a Gentile could join the church by faith without first becoming a member of the synagogue by circumcision. … They … recognize[d] that his mission to the Gentiles was on the same footing as theirs to the Jews – only he was to remember the poor (2:7-10). So far was Paul from being subordinated that when Peter came to Antioch and wavered on eating with the Gentile Christians, Paul did not hesitate to rebuke him in public (2:11-14). (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 430-431)  
Paul’s defense of his apostolic commission involved the question: What is the seat of authority in religion? A Jewish rabbi debating the application of the kosher laws would quote the authority of Moses and the fathers in support of his view. Jewish tradition declared that God delivered the law to Moses, and Moses to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the men of the Great Synagogue, and that they had handed it down through an unbroken rabbinical succession to the present. If Paul had been a Christian rabbi, he could have treated the Sermon on the Mount as a new law from a new Sinai, which God had delivered to Jesus, and Jesus to Peter, and Peter to Paul, and Paul to Timothy and Titus, and so on through an unbroken apostolic succession until the second coming of Christ. Instead of taking his problems directly to this Lord in prayer, he would ask, ‘What does Peter say that Jesus did and said about it?’ And if Peter or the other apostles happened not to have a pronouncement from Jesus on a given subject, they would need to apply some other saying to his by reasoning from analogy. This would turn the gospel into a system of legalism, with casuistry for its guide, making Jesus a second Moses – a prophet who lived and died in a dim and distant past and left only a written code to guide the future. Jesus would not have been the living Lord, personally present in his church in every age as the daily companion of his members. That is why Paul insisted that Christ must not be confused or combined with Moses, but must be all in all.  
The Judaizers assumed that God had revealed to Moses all of his will, and nothing but this will, for all time, changeless and unchangeable; and that death was the penalty for tampering with it. The rest of the scriptures and the oral tradition which developed and applied them were believed to be implicit in the Pentateuch as an oak in an acorn. The first duty of the teacher was to transmit the Torah exactly as he had received it from the men of old. Only then might he give his own opinion, which must never contradict but always be validated by the authority of the past. When authorities differed, the teacher must labor to reconcile them. Elaborate rules of interpretation were devised to help decide cases not covered by specific provision in the scripture. These rules made it possible to apply a changeless revelation to changing conditions, but they also presented a dilemma. The interpreter might modernize by reading into his Bible ideas that were not in the minds of its writers, or he might quench his own creative insights by fearing to go beyond what was written. Those who modernized the Old Testament were beset with the perils of incipient Gnosticism, while those who, like the Sadducees, accepted nothing but the written Torah could misuse it to obstruct social and religious progress. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 431-432)  
To submit to circumcision would have betrayed the truth of the gospel because it contradicted the principle that all is of grace and grace is for all (2:5). Perpetuated in the church of Christ, the kosher code and other Jewish customs would have destroyed the fellowship. Few things could have hurt the feelings and heaped more indignity upon the Gentiles than the spiritual snobbery of refusing to eat with them.  
The tragedy of division was proportional to the sincerity of men’s scruples. The Jews were brought up to believe that eating with Gentiles was a flagrant violation of God’s revealed will which would bring down his terrible wrath. How strongly both sides felt appears in Paul’s account of the stormy conference at Jerusalem and the angry dispute that followed it at Antioch (2:1-14). Paul claimed that refusal to eat with a Gentile brother would deny that the grace of Christ was sufficient to make him worthy of the kingdom. If all men were sons of God through Christ, there could be no classes of Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (3:26-28). What mattered was neither circumcision not uncircumcision, but only faith and a new act of creation by the Spirit (5:6; 6”15). (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
Church unity was essential to the success of Christian missions. Friction between Aramaic and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Palestine had to be eliminated (Acts 6:1). The death of Stephen and a special vision to Peter were required to convince the conservatives of the propriety of admitting the Gentiles on an equality with the Jews; and even Peter was amazed that God had given them the same gift of the Spirit (Act 11: 1-18). This hesitation was potentially fatal to the spread of Christianity beyond Palestine. Many Gentiles had been attracted by the pure monotheism and high morality of Judaism but were not willing to break with their native culture by submitting to the painful initiatory rite and social stigma of being a Jew…. Had the church kept circumcision as a requirement for membership, it could not have freed itself from Jewish nationalism.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
III. Some Characteristics of Paul’s Thinking  
… “the law” of which Paul is speaking does not coincide with “law” in a twentieth-century state with representative government. His Greek word was νομος [nomos], an inadequate translation of the Hebrew “Torah,” which included much more than “law” as we use the term. [When “תורה ThORaH” appears in the text I translate it as “Instruction” – its literal definition - capitalized.] Torah was teaching on any subject concerning the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Since the Jews did not divide life into two compartments labeled “religious” and “secular,” their law covered both their spiritual and their civil life. Nor did Paul and his fellow Jews think in terms of “nature” and the “natural law.” They believed that everything that happened was God’s doing, directly or by his permission. The messiah was expected to restore the ancient theocracy with its power over both civil and religious affairs.  
The Gentiles too were accustomed to state regulation of religion and priestly control of civil affairs. The Greek city-states had always managed the relations of their citizens with the gods, and Alexander the Great prepared the way for religious imperialism. When he invaded Asia, he consolidated his power by the ancient Oriental idea that the ruler was a god or a son of God. His successors, in their endless wars over the fragments of his empire, adopted the same device. Posing as “savior-gods,” they liberated their victims by enslaving them. The Romans did likewise, believing that the safety of their empire depended upon correct legal relations with the gods who had founded it. … Each city had its temple dedicated to the emperor, and its patriotic priests to see that everyone burned incense before his statue. Having done this, the worshiper was free under Roman ‘tolerance’ to adopt any other legal religion. … Whether salvation was offered in the name of the ancient gods of the Orient, or of Greece, or of the emperor of Rome, or of Yahweh the theocratic king of the Jews, the favor of the deity was thought to depend upon obedience to his law.  
One did not therefore have to be a Jew to be a legalist in religion. … Since Paul’s first converts were drawn from Gentiles who had been attending the synagogues, it is easy to see how Gentile Christians could be a zealous to add Moses to Christ as the most conservative Jew.  
This is what gave the Judaizers their hold in Galatia. The rivalry between the synagogue, which was engaged in winning men to worship the God of Moses, and the church, which was preaching the God who had revealed himself in Christ Jesus, was bound to raise the issue of legalism and stir up doubts about the sufficiency of Christ.  
Gentile and Jewish Christians alike would regard Paul’s preaching of salvation apart from the merit acquired by obedience to law as a violently revolutionary doctrine. Fidelity to his declaration of religious independence from all mediating rulers and priesthoods required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his preaching were not yet capable. … Paul’s gospel has always been in danger of being stifled by those who would treat the teachings of Jesus as laws to be enforced by a hierarchy. (Stamm, TIB 1953, X pp. 434-435)  
V. Environment of Paul’s Churches in Galatia  
The conclusion concerning the destination of the epistle does not involve the essentials of its religious message, but it does affect our understanding of certain passages, such as 3:1 and 41:12, 20.  
From the earliest times that part of the world had been swept by the cross tides of migration and struggle for empire. The third millennium found the Hittites in possession. In the second millennium the Greeks and Phrygians came spilling over from Europe, and in the first millennium the remaining power of the Hittites was swept away by Babylon and Persia. Then came the turn of the Asiatic tide into Europe, only to be swept back again by Alexander the Great. But the Greek cities with which he and his successors dotted the map of Asia were like anthills destined to be leveled by Oriental reaction.  
About 278 B.C. new turmoil came with the Gauls, who were shunted from Greece and crossed into Asia to overrun Phrygia. Gradually the Greek kings succeeded in pushing them up into the central highlands, where they established themselves in the region of Ancyra. Thus located, they constituted a perpetually disturbing element, raiding the Greek cities and furnishing soldiers now to one, and now to another of the rival kings. Then in 121 B.C. came the Romans to 'set free' Galatia by making it a part of their own Empire. By 40 B.C. there were three kingdoms, with capitals at Ancyra, Pisidian Antioch, and Iconium. Four years later Lycaonia and Galatia were given to Amyntas the king of Pisidia. He added Pamphylia and part of Cilicia to his kingdom. But he was killed in 25 B.C., and the Romans made his dominion into the province of Galatia, which was thus much larger than the territory inhabited by the Gauls. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 437-438)  
War and slavery, poverty, disease, and famine made life hard and uncertain. In religion and philosophy men were confused by this meeting of East and West. But man’s extremity was Paul’s opportunity. The soil of the centuries had been plowed and harrowed for his new, revolutionary gospel of grace and freedom.  
Not all, however, were ready for this freedom. The old religions with prestige and authority seemed safer. Most Jews preferred Moses, and among the Gentiles the hold of the Great Mother Cybele of Phrygia was not easily shaken. Paul’s converts, bringing their former ideas and customs with them, were all too ready to reshape his gospel into a combination of Christ with their ancient laws and rituals. The old religions were especially tenacious in the small villages, whose inhabitants spoke the native languages and were inaccessible to the Greek-speaking Paul. To this gravitational attraction of the indigenous cults was added the more sophisticated syncretism of the city dwellers, pulling Paul’s churches away from his gospel when the moral demands of his faith and the responsibilities of his freedom became irksome. This was the root of the trouble in Galatia. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 438)  
VI. Date and Place of Writing  
Some consider it the earliest of Paul’s extant letters and place it in 49 … In support of this date it is said that Paul, who had come from Perga by boat, was met by messengers from Galatia, who had taken the shorter route by land. They reported the disturbance which had arisen in his churches soon after his departure. He could not go back immediately to straighten things out in person, because he saw that he would have to settle the matter first in Jerusalem, whence the troublemakers had come. So he wrote a letter.  
But … [w]e do not know that the trouble in Galatia was stirred up by emissaries from the church in Jerusalem … Moreover, this solution overlooks the crux of the issue between Paul and the legalists. His contention was that neither circumcision nor the observance of any other law was the basis of salvation, but only faith in God’s grace through Christ. … On the matter of kosher customs, as on every other question, he directed men to the mind and Spirit of Christ, and not to law, either Mosaic or apostolic. That mind was a Spirit of edification which abstained voluntarily from all that defiled or offended.  
We may say that the situation [in Galatia] was different – that in Macedonia it was persecution from outside by Jews who were trying to prevent Paul’s preaching, whereas in Galatia it was trouble inside the church created by legalistic Christians who were proposing to change his teaching; that in one case the issue was justification by faith, and in the other faithfulness while waiting for the day of the Lord.  
The letter to the Romans, written during the three months in Greece mentioned in Acts 20:2-3, is our earliest commentary on Galatians. In it the relation between the law and the gospel is set forth in the perspective of Paul’s further experience. The brevity and storminess of Galatians gives way to a more complete and calmly reasoned presentation of his gospel. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 438 - 439)  
At Corinth, as in Galatia, Paul had to defend his right to be an apostle against opponents heartless enough to turn against him the cruel belief that physical illness was a sign of God’s disfavor … and they charged him with being a crafty man-pleaser … He exhorts his converts to put away childish things and grow up in faith, hope and love…  
Most childish of all were the factions incipient in Galatia, and actual in Corinth … He abandoned the kosher customs and all other artificial distinctions between Jews and Gentiles and laid the emphasis where it belonged – upon the necessity for God’s people to establish and maintain a higher morality and spiritual life… He substituted a catholic spirit for partisan loyalties ... (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 440-441)  
VII. Authorship and Attestation  
If Paul wrote anything that goes under his name, it was Galatians, Romans, and the letters to Corinth. … F.C. Baur and his followers tried to show that the letters ascribed to Paul were the product of a second-century conflict between a Judaist party and the liberals in the church, and that they were written by Paulinists who used his name and authority to promote their own ideas.  
[But] the earliest mention of the epistle by name occurs in the canon of the Gnostic heretic Marcion (ca. [approximately] 144). He put it first in his list of ten letters of Paul. A generation later the orthodox Muratorian canon (ca. 185) listed it as the sixth of Paul’s letters. … While the first explicit reference to Galatians as a letter of Paul is as late as the middle of the second century … the authors of Ephesians and the Gospel of John knew it; and Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians quoted it. Revelation, I Peter, Hebrew, I Clement, and Ignatius show acquaintance with it; and there is evidence that the writer of the Epistle of James knew Galatians, as did the authors of II Peter and the Pastoral epistle, and Justin Martyr and Athenagoras. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 441-442)  
VIII. Text and Transmission  
Although the epistle was composed neither carelessly nor hastily, the anxiety and emotional stress under which Paul dictated his cascading thoughts have produced some involved and obscure sentences … and a number of abrupt transitions… These have been a standing invitation to scribal clarification. … Paul’s debate with his critics takes the form of a diatribe, which is characterized by quotations from past or anticipated objectors and rapid-fire answers to them. Paul did not use quotation marks, and this accounts for the difficulty in 2:14-15 of deciding where his speech to Peter ends. The numerous allusions to person and places, events and teachings, with which Paul assumed his readers to be acquainted, are another source of difficulty. All theses factors operated to produce the numerous variations in the text of Galatians." (Stamm, 1953, TIB p. 442)  
From Adam Clarke’s Commentaryⁱ :  
"The authenticity of this epistle is ably vindicated by Dr. Paley: the principal part of his arguments I shall here introduce …  
'Section I.  
As Judea was the scene of the Christian history; as the author and preachers of Christianity were Jews; as the religion itself acknowledged and was founded upon the Jewish religion, in contra distinction to every other religion, then professed among mankind: it was not to be wondered at, that some its teachers should carry it out in the world rather as a sect and modification of Judaism, than as a separate original revelation; or that they should invite their proselytes to those observances in which they lived themselves. ... I … think that those pretensions of Judaism were much more likely to be insisted upon, whilst the Jews continued a nation, than after their fall and dispersion; while Jerusalem and the temple stood, than after the destruction brought upon them by the Roman arms, the fatal cessation of the sacrifice and the priesthood, the humiliating loss of their country, and, with it, of the great rites and symbols of their institution. It should seem, therefore, from the nature of the subject and the situation of the parties, that this controversy was carried on in the interval between the preaching of Christianity to the Gentiles, and the invasion of Titus: and that our present epistle ... must be referred to the same period.  
… the epistle supposes that certain designing adherents of the Jewish law had crept into the churches of Galatia; and had been endeavouring, and but too successfully, to persuade the Galatic converts, that they had been taught the new religion imperfectly, and at second hand; that the founder of their church himself possessed only an inferior and disputed commission, the seat of truth and authority being in the apostles and elders of Jerusalem; moreover, that whatever he might profess among them, he had himself, at other times and in other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. The epistle is unintelligible without supposing all this. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 361)  
Section VII.  
This epistle goes farther than any of St. Paul’s epistles; for it avows in direct terms the supersession of the Jewish law, as an instrument of salvation, even to the Jews themselves. Not only were the Gentiles exempt from its authority, but even the Jews were no longer either to place any dependency upon it, or consider themselves as subject to it on a religious account. "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith which should afterward be revealed: wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but, after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Chap. [chapter] iii. 23-25) This was undoubtedly spoken of Jews, and to Jews. … What then should be the conduct of a Jew (for such St. Paul was) who preached this doctrine? To be consistent with himself, either he would no longer comply, in his own person, with the directions of the law; or, if he did comply, it would be some other reason than any confidence which he placed in its efficacy, as a religious institution. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II pp. 366-367)  
Preface  
The religion of the ancient Galatae was extremely corrupt and superstitious: and they are said to have worshipped the mother of the gods, under the name of Agdistis; and to have offered human sacrifices of the prisoners they took in war.  
They are mentioned by historians as a tall and valiant people, who went nearly naked; and used for arms only a sword and buckler. The impetuosity of their attack is stated to have been irresistible…’” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 369)  
From The New Jerome Biblical Commentaryⁱⁱ  
"Introduction  
The Galatai, originally an Indo-Aryan tribe of Asia, were related to the Celts or Gauls (“who in their own language are called Keltae, but in ours Galli”) ... About 279 BC some of them invaded the lower Danube area and Macedonia, descending even into the Gk [Greek] peninsula. After they were stopped by the Aetolians in 278, a remnant fled across the Hellespont into Asia Minor …  
Occasion and Purpose  
… He … stoutly maintained that the gospel he had preached, without the observance of the Mosaic practices, was the only correct view of Christianity … Gal [Galatians] thus became the first expose` of Paul’s teaching about justification by grace through faith apart from deeds prescribed by the law; it is Paul’s manifesto about Christian freedom.  
... Who were the agitators in Galatia? … they are best identified as Jewish Christians of Palestine, of an even stricter Jewish background than Peter, Paul, or James, or even of the ‘false brethren' (2:4) of Jerusalem, whom Paul had encountered there. (The account in Acts 15:5 would identify the latter as ‘believers who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees.’) … The agitators in Galatia were Judaizers, who insisted not on the observance of the whole Mosaic law, but at least on circumcision and the observance of some other Jewish practices. Paul for this reason warned the Gentile Christians of Galatia that their fascination with ‘circumcision’ would oblige them to keep ‘the whole law’ (5:3). The agitators may have been syncretists of some sort: Christians of Jewish perhaps Essene, background, affected by some Anatolian influences. … (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC pp. 780-781)   END NOTES
ⁱ The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The text carefully printed from the most correct copies of the present Authorized Version. Including the marginal readings and parallel texts. With a Commentary and Critical Notes. Designed as a help to a better understanding of the sacred writings. By Adam Clarke, LL.D. F.S.A. M.R.I.A. With a complete alphabetical index. Royal Octavo Stereotype Edition. Vol. II. [Vol. VI together with the O.T.] New York, Published by J. Emory and B. Waugh, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the conference office, 13 Crosby-Street. J. Collord, Printer. 1831.  
ⁱⁱ The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Union Theological Seminary, New York; NY, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (emeritus) Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm. (emeritus) The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC, with a foreword by His Eminence Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J.; Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990  
  Chapter One  
…  

Tiding of [בשורת, BeSOoRahTh, Gospel] one
[verses 6-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
How [כיצד, KaYTsahD] was [היה, HahYaH] Shah`OoL [“Lender”, Saul, Paul] to become a Sent Forth [Apostle]
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

…  
Chapter Two  

Sending forth of Shah’OoL required upon hands of the Sent Forth
[verses 1-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
The YeHOo-DeeYM [“YHVH-ites”, Judeans] and the nations, righteous from inside belief
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

...
-16. And since [וכיון, VeKhayVahN] that know, we, that [כי, KeeY] the ’ahDahM [“man”, Adam] is not made righteous in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction [Torah, law],
rather in belief of the Anointed [המשיח, HahMahSheeY-ahH, the Messiah, the Christ] YayShOo`ah [“Savior”, Jesus],
believe, also we, in Anointed YayShOo`ah,
to sake we are made righteous from inside belief in Anointed,
and not in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction,
that yes, in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction is not made righteous any [כל, KahL] flesh.  

“As a Pharisee, Paul had been taught that works of law were deeds done in obedience to the Torah, contrasted with things done according to one’s own will. The object of this obedience was to render oneself acceptable to God – to ‘justify’ oneself. Having found this impossible, Paul reinforced the evidence from his own experience by Ps. [Psalm] 143:2, where the sinner prays God not to enter into judgment with him because in God’s sight no man living is righteous. Into this passage from the LXX [The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible] Paul inserted ‘by works of law,’ and wrote σαρξ [sarx], ‘flesh,’ instead of ζων [zon], ‘one living.’ This quotation warns us against setting Paul’s salvation by grace over against Judaism in such a way as to obscure the fact that the Jews depended also upon God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies (I Kings 8:46; Job 10:14-15; 14:3-4; Prov. [Proverbs] 20:9; Eccl. [Ecclesiasticus] 7:20; Mal. [Malachi] 3:2; Dan. [Daniel] 9:18).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  
“Justified is a metaphor from the law court. The Greek verb is δικαιοω [dikaioo], the noun δικαιοσουνη [dikaiosoune’], the adjective δικαιος [dikaios]. The common root is δικ [dik] as in δεικνυμι [deiknumi], ‘point out,’ ‘show.’ The words formed on this root point to a norm or standard to which persons and things must conform in order to be ‘right.’ The English ‘right’ expresses the same idea, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘richt,’ which means ‘straight,’ not crooked, ‘upright,’ not oblique. The verb δικαιοω means ‘I think it right.’ A man is δικαιος, ‘right’ when he conforms to the standard of acceptable character and conduct, and δικαιοσυνη, ‘righteousness,’ ‘justice,’ is the state or quality of this conformity. In the LXX these Greek words translate a group of Hebrew words formed on the root צדק [TsehDehQ], and in Latin the corresponding terms are justifico, justus, and justificatio. In all four languages the common idea is the norm by which persons and things are to be tested. Thus in Hebrew a wall is ‘righteous’ when it conforms to the plumb line, a man when he does God’s will.  
From earliest boyhood Paul had tried to be righteous. But there came a terrible day when he said ‘I will covet’ to the law’s ‘Thou shalt not,’ and in that defiance he had fallen out of right relation to God and into the ‘wrath,’ where he ‘died’ spiritually… Thenceforth all his efforts, however strenuous, to get ‘right’ with God were thwarted by the weakness of his sinful human nature, the ‘flesh’ (σαρξ) [sarx]. That experience of futility led him to say that a man is not justified by works ‘of law.’” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  

[Actually Paul changed his point of view as a result of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, not as a result of intellectual contemplation. His many failures hitherto had not led him to this conclusion. The description of Paul in the preceding paragraph is a fiction.]  

“In the eyes of the psalmists and rabbis this was blasphemously revolutionary. Resting on God’s covenant with Abraham, they held it axiomatic that the ‘righteous’ man who had conscientiously done his part deserved to be vindicated before a wicked world; otherwise God could not be righteous. … In Judaism God was thought of as forgiving only repentant sinners who followed their repentance with right living …  
The theological expression for this conception of salvation is ‘justification by faith.’ Unfortunately this Latin word does not make plain Paul’s underlying religious experience, which was a change of status through faith from a wrong to a ‘right’ relationship with God… It conceals from the English reader the fact that the Greek word also means ‘righteousness.’ … (observe the ASV [American Standard Version] mg. [marginal note], ‘accounted righteous’).  
But ‘reckoned’ and ‘accounted’ expose Paul’s thought to misinterpretation by suggesting a legal fiction which God adopted to escape the contradiction between his acceptance of sinners and his own righteousness and justice.  
On the other hand, Paul’s term, in the passive, cannot be translated by ‘made righteous’ without misrepresenting him. In baptism he had ‘died with Christ’ to sin. By this definition the Christian is a person who does not sin! And yet Paul does not say that he is sinless, but that he must not sin. … This laid him open to a charge of self contradiction; sinless and yet not sinless, righteous and unrighteous, just and unjust at the same time. Some interpreters have labeled it ‘paradox,’ but such a superficial dismissal of the problem is religiously barren and worse than useless.  
The extreme difficulty of understanding Paul on this matter has led to a distinction between ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification,’ which obscures Paul’s urgency to be now, at this very moment, what God in accepting him says he is: a righteous man in Christ Jesus. Justification is reduced to a forensic declaration by which God acquits and accepts the guilty criminal, and sanctification is viewed as a leisurely process of becoming the kind of person posited by that declaration. This makes perfection seem far less urgent than Paul conceived it, and permits the spiritual inertia of human nature to continue its habit of separating religion from ethics. To prevent this misunderstanding it is necessary to keep in mind the root meaning of ‘righteousness’ in δικαιοω and its cognates.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 484-485)  

-19. I died according to [לגבי, LeGahBaY] the Instruction, because of [בגלל, BeeGLahL] the Instruction, in order [כדי, KeDaY] that I will live to God.  

“… The Pharisees taught that the Torah was the life element of the Jews; all who obeyed would live, those who did not would die (Deut. [Deuteronomy] 30:11-20).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 488-489)  

-20. With the Anointed I was crucified, and no more I live, rather the Anointed lives in me.
The life that I live now in flesh, I live them in the belief of Son [of] the Gods that loved me and delivered up [ומסר, OoMahÇahR] himself in my behalf [בעדי, Bah`ahDeeY].  

“The danger was that Paul’s Gentile converts might claim freedom in Christ but reject the cross-bearing that made it possible. Lacking the momentum of moral discipline under Moses, which prepared Paul to make right use of his freedom, they might imagine that his dying and rising with Christ was a magical way of immortalizing themselves by sacramental absorption of Christ’s divine substance in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church has always been tempted to take Paul’s crucifixion with Christ in a symbolic sense only, or as an experience at baptism which is sacramentally automatic. It has also been tempted to reduce Paul’s ‘faith’ to bare belief and assent to his doctrine, and to equate his ‘righteousness’ with a fictitious imputation by a Judge made lenient by Christ’s death.  
Against these caricatures of ‘justification by faith,’ Paul’s whole life and all his letters are a standing protest. He never allows us to forget that to be crucified with Christ is to share the motives, the purposes, and the way of life that led Jesus to the Cross; to take up vicariously the burden of the sins of others, forgiving and loving instead of condemning them; to make oneself the slave of every man; to create unity and harmony by reconciling man to God and man to his fellow men; to pray without ceasing ‘Thy will be done’; to consign one’s life to God, walking by faith where one cannot see; and finally to leave this earth with the prayer ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’  
… When Christ the Spirit came to live in Paul … Paul was guided at each step, in each new circumstance, to answer for himself the question: What would Jesus have me do? And the answer was always this: Rely solely on God’s grace through Christ, count others better than yourself, and make yourself everybody’s slave after the manner of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.  
… The phrase εν σαρκι [en sarki] … means, lit. [literally], in the flesh. Someday – Paul hoped it would be soon – this would be changed into a body like that of the risen Christ, which belonged to the realm of Spirit.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 490-493)  
“Christ lives in me: The perfection of Christian life is expressed here … it reshapes human beings anew, supplying them with a new principle of activity on the ontological¹ level of their very beings.” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 785)  

-21. I do not nullify [מבטל, MeBahTayL] [את, ’ehTh (indicator of direct object; no English equivalent)] mercy [of] Gods;
is not if [it] is possible to become righteous upon hand of the Instruction, lo, that the Anointed died to nothing [לשוא, LahShahVe’]?  

“It is not I, he says, who am nullifying the grace of God by abandoning the law which is his grace-gift to Israel, but those who insist on retaining that law in addition to the grace which he has now manifested in Christ.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 495)

  Footnotes   ¹ Ontological - relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being   An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

So it's a common idea that Skyward Sword is a closed loop, and in many ways it is.
Hylia seals Demise thousands of years ago. She gives up her almighty form and incarnates as Zelda thousands of years later.
Old Impa is in the Sealed Temple, watching over a sealed Zelda ins an orange crystal behind the doors...? And a young Impa is also here, guiding Zelda...? 2 of the same Impa at once?
The Imprisoned, sealed Demise, tries to escape multiple times.
Later, Zelda and Impa travels back to after Demise's seal. Link follows. Here she learns that she is Goddesd Hylia reborn as a girl with still her magic powers. She puts herself to sleep for thousands of years to keep the seal on Demise - which is the orange crystal in the present. Aka, there have been 2 Zeldas at play since the start, in a sense. Demise's seal from the ancient past is only here because Zelda/Hylia from the present went back in time to this place and made it happen.
In other words: What has happened, has happened. It's like a cycle, a loop, where the future dictates the past, and vice versa. It makes sense. What we see in the present, is a result of the past, which is a result of the future, etc. It's like we experience and see this circle itself all at once.
That is the closed loop interpretation of it. Later in the story, The Imprisoned is destroyed as the Goddess island decends to the surface and crushes the Imprisoned to death.
HOWEVER,
there are errors here... or, perhaps, a timeline split.
Something happens during the final trip to the past. After they crush The Imprisoned, Zelda is taken to the past again. Demise is revived. Link defeats him, Demise's curse is laid upon them, and he's sealed within the Master Sword. The sword is then placed back in that imprisoning chamber, and Impa watches over it from here on.
Then they return to the present. The Master Sword is now behind the doors.
This final trip to the past, or more precicely the revival and defeat of Demise, causes a timeline split. The present they return to is not the same as the one they started in.
The game establishes a "circle" of events, where what has happened has happened. Anything that will be changed timetravel-wise later on has already happened; Zelda has already gone back in time to be on stasis in the crystal, and will do so again because it's a loop. In that case, Demise's revival and defeat should already have happened too. There should be no Imprisoned in the first place. And, the Master Sword should be resting in the back of the Sealed Temple, instead of Zelda.
That is why I think ALL events up until the final time travel is a sort of loop. And it would have ended there, with The Imprisoned being crushed. Demise's revival cracked that flow of time, because if this was ineviteble, his defeat would already have happened.
When Link defeats him, a new line of time is created, and this is where they travel back to; a time where the Imprisoned never existed, and the Master Sword is resting in the Sealed Temple. This also means that the original timeline is now without a Link and Zelda and Master Sword, and The Imprisoned is crushed and defeated there. It's a similar situation to OOT, just backwards.
This is the only thing that, for me, makes 100% sense when it comes to explain these events. It was all part of the original cycle lf events until Girahim revived Demise and this resulted in a new future without The Imprisoned or a Zelda on stasis. And this is thus the timeline where all other future games follow.
Could this then mean that, the original time that now lacks any Zelda or Link, is where BotW takes place? And thus explains why the Zonai are the ones who established Hyrule? TotK's events mirror a lot of OOT's, and this would make that EVEN more plaudable as the timeline would run paralell with OOT's timeline.