Coping is making a warrior cats au out of the comics from your old christian homeschooling books

Who remembers filling out their P.A.C.E.s in an A.C.E. school?

I did the thing to my English and Math because I want my father to experience the amount of mental anguish as I did when I had to do these tests

Post this then dies of rabies

About the Development of Myths

Okay, I will talk about more of the specific gods tomorrow again (starting first with the other gods from Stray Gods and then just looking over a variety of gods - I might start just with the greeks and then... venture into other mythologies). But first let me talk about the entire basis of what I have been talking about so far with the origins of Pan and Persephone: Their mythology is not a fixed thing.

Something that I would say education in general really fails on is properly expressing the amount of changes that cultures go through. I wrote about this before just in terms of history: There is not THE middle ages, not THE ancient Egypt, not THE ancient Greece and so on. All of those historical periods lasted for at least a thousand years. Now imagine that in like 500 years someone goes and looks at the 20th and 21st century as: "The World War and Globalisation period". Which I think there is a good chance this will at some point be known at (assuming we do not manage to eradicate our species before that, that is). Yet, you and I both know that if we were talking to someone from 1923 there would be very little we had in common.

Sure, this effect got massively accelerated thanks to the internet. But... You gotta have to assume that the Roman dude from 100 BC would also live in a very different world from the Roman dude of 200 BC. Because a hundred years is always going to involve a lot of change.

The reason we look at those old cultures as unchanging is, that they do not change anymore. And everyone who is neither working with that kinda stuff, nor is a complete geek, will just look at that culture as ONE FIRM THING rather than something fluent.

This is also true in terms of religion and related traditions, though we in the west are even more prone to it than other cultures. Because we do assume Christianity as this one thing. And the bible as this one unchanging thing. Hence the core believe is the same and, so the reasoning goes, was always the same. In fact, if you went to a religious school it is kinda how you were taught. The bible is one thing and always was the same thing. Only... It wasn't and even the basic we hve now does not matter.

Just look at the many Christian subreligions. They all in some way or form believe in Jesus, the one big God and all of that - but what they take from that widely differs. And the bible really does not have a big impact onto what ideals they hold and how they hold mass and how they pray and what not. If you think about it, you will easily see that, right? And if you just look a bit into what you might have learned about history in relation to Christianity, you will also know that this has changed. The role of Jesus has changed. How much the Holy Spirit is looked upon as an active actor. Which saints get venerated. All of that has changed a lot in just the last 50 years. And has changed a ton between the different countries.

And what I now need you to keep in mind that this was the exact same with the Ancient Gods and the religion attached to them. That holds true for the Greek Gods, the Roman Gods, the Egyptian Gods, the Norse Gods... all of them. The way they were worshipped changed over those thousand(s of) years they were worshipped.

So, let me once again talk about the Proto-Indo-European culture. Which is always a doosy and I love it.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans originates probably in the areas of modern day Ukraine and/or Romania and/or southern Russia some time around 5000 BC (scholars argue a bit about the exact temporal placement, just that it was somewhere between 7000 BC and 4000 BC). We do not really know a lot about them, because they did not write stuff down. But we do know that they had horses, were patriarchal, and that they worshipped a polytheistic pantheon that at least involved a Sky Father as one of the highest gods, who controlled the weather and was especially associated with storms and lightning.

These Proto-Indo-Europeans started breaking apart and travelling. Some into Asia, some into Europe and the Arabian/Persian areas. They brought with them their language and religion.

Now, it should be noted that they were not the "original humans" or anything. And that whereever they went... in most areas there were already other people living there, with whom they intermingled. Also whatever land they ended up settling was different, had different environments and this was included into their religious practice. Which made their religion over the years differ bit by bit. So from their pantheon sprang a lot of the pantheons we know today.

But... again, a lot of places they settled had already people living there. Who had their own worship. And that stuff often was also included and merged. Sometimes those other worships were very far reaching, sometimes very local. But some of those deities were picked up and either made part of whatever pantheon was there to come or was merged with an already existing god. And this happened again and again during the time that whatever pantheon was prayed to.

How do we know that, if it was not written down?

Well, mostly due to some archeology, but mostly due to comparative mythology and comparative linguistics. Two fields of science that basically involve people going over a lot of languages or mythologies (which, by the way, at times also includes fairytales and other oral narratives that are not necessarily held as "true", but still told) and basically finding things the reoccur. As well as going back over whatever written stuff we do have and noticing the shifts happening between a text written in 600 BC and a text written in 200 BC.

Now, for all the stuff we have two things that help a lot: a) The old Hindi writings and b) the written stuff from Egypt. Because both go really far back and were very well documented in writing. So basically we always can compare stuff to that and see shifts more clearly.

But, yeah... Technically all the pantheons are very much related. At some point Zeus, Jupiter, Diespiter, Thor, Tinia and Tian originated from the same character. You can even kinda see it in how similar the names are. Susanoo in Shinto-Mythology probably came from this, too, at least in the iteration we actually know about. (There can be some arguments made that a lot of the Shinto gods were shifted through the Buddhist contact, as the original indigenous Japanese cultures were very likely not Indo-European in origin. But given that the Ainu are the only culture whose oral tradition managed to survive this long, while the others either vanished or merged in a way influenced by Buddhism, which comes from Indo-European culture... yeah, it is there now.)

So, what I am saying: Mythology is shifting and always has been shifting. Same goes with religion. Hence the evolution of the Greek Pantheon.

Fun fact: Through comparative mythology we can also find the origins of YHW, the Abrahamitic god. Or God, as you might know him. He is a fascinating one, as he probably started out as a local god associated with harvest and weather in Southern Egypt and was then picked up by the Semitic cultures. He got a more pronounced role in the Canaanite pantheon, where at some point he merged with Baal, the war god. And through some trials and tribulations he finally ended up merging with El(hoim), the top god of the pantheon, with a part of the Canaanites splitting from the culture and developing into what would become the Jewish culture.

Super fascinating stuff. I love it.

Charlie Rose: Listen to this, I hate to read too much, but this is, it's almost like they've been reading your book. This is from the New York Times for Friday May 24. "Americans flunk science, a study finds."

"Less than half of American adults understand that the Earth orbits the Sun yearly, according to a basic science survey. Nevertheless, there is enthusiasm for research, except in some fields like genetic engineering and nuclear power that are viewed with suspicion.

Only about 25 percent of American adults got passing grades in a National Science Foundation survey of what people know about basic science and economics."

I mean, this is singing your song isn't it?

Carl Sagan: Well, it's certainly what I'm talking about in "Demon-Haunted World." My feeling, Charlie, is that it's not that pseudoscience and superstition and new-age so-called beliefs and fundamentalist zealotry are something new. They've been with us for as long as we've been human. But we live in an age based on science and technology with formidable technological powers.

Rose: Science and technology are propelling us forward at accelerating rates.

Sagan: That's right, and if we don't understand it - and by we, I mean the general public - if it's something that, oh I'm not good at that, I don't know anything about it, then who is making all the decisions about science and technology that are gonna determine what kind of future our children live in? Just some members of Congress? But there's no more than a handful of members of Congress with any background in science at all. And the Republican Congress has just abolished its own office of Technology Assessment, the organization that gave them bipartisan competent advice on science and technology. They say, we don't want to know don't tell us about science and technology.

Rose: Surprising because Gingrich is genuinely interested, I think.

Sagan: He is, no question.

Rose: ... you know out of his own intellectual curiosity. Does the President still have a science adviser, at the White House?

Sagan: He does, he does, John Given. And the Vice President is scientifically literate, yes.

Rose: He's well known for being scientifically-- a science maven. I mean, you blast them all. Creationists, Christian Scientists who you say would rather allow their children to suffer than give them insulin or antibiotics. Astrologers come in for particular scorn on your part.

Sagan: Well, I wouldn't say scorn, just derision.

Rose: A more generous version of scorn. But what's the danger of all this? I mean, you know, this is not the thing--

Sagan: There's two kinds of dangers. One is what I just talked about, that we've arranged a society based on science and technology in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is gonna blow up in our faces. I mean, who is running the science and technology in a democracy, if the people don't know anything about it.

And the second reason that I'm worried about this is that science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along. It's a thing that Jefferson laid great stress on. It wasn't enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in a constitution or a bill of rights. The people had to be educated and they had to practice their skepticism and their education. Otherwise, we don't run the government, the government runs us.

I just saw an article that said like half of trump supporters would vote for someone else if given a good option, and now all I want is someone else to get the nomination but have Trump refuse to drop out so he splits the vote. I would love nothing more than for the republicans to get 0 electoral votes…well that’s not quite true, what I would really love more than anything is for republicans to get 0 votes in general, but unless all of them forget when the election is and forget to vote for themselves that seems unlikely 😂

Basically, there is about 30 to 35% of America that is just outrageously cruel, racist, stupid, evil, and anti-everything (science, medicine, progress, voting, reason, education, history, civic society, gay people, women, non-white non-Christians, immigrants, anything that is not a fascist white nationalist theocracy) and they are beyond help. They will go down with Trump and his awful cronies to the bitter end, because they think that the primary function of government is to punish their enemies and nothing else. There is no public, social, or economic policy you can offer that will ever appeal to them, because they don't care. Nothing matters as much to them as Hurting The Other. In other words, they suck, and they are loud, dangerous, and militant, but they are not by any means the majority, they consistently suffer when their views are exposed to the mainstream public, and candidates backed by them have been regularly defeated in general elections, because they are just too extreme.

Then there are the rest of the Republican voters, who like low taxes, guns, and "small government" (aka that which doesn't run any risk of helping black people), but aren't quite the militant deranged TrumpCultists. They want a less openly criminal or at least slightly more palatable "moderate" old school GOP alternative, which has absolutely zero chance of getting past the primary-voting rancid shitgibbons mentioned above. We often get various thinkpieces wondering whether the indictments will strip these voters away from Trump, and yes, on the one hand, it is possible -- if, and only if, someone apart from him is the nominee, which for many reasons is deeply unlikely. If it is not, then anyone thinking that Republican voters will vote for anyone other than the Republican candidate, i.e. Trump, is kidding themselves. These people show up every election and vote for every R-name on the ballot. The fact that Democrats have to be wrangled and argued at so hard to do the same is one reason among many that we are in our present mess.

It is true that Trump is barely statistically viable as a candidate at this point, two-thirds of Americans think the charges (especially the J6 charges) against him are serious, and a plurality think he should suspend his presidential campaign (he won't, since it is his last chance to keep from going to jail for probably the rest of his life). It's also true that post-Dobbs, Democrats and Democratic-voting independents have been incredibly more motivated to turn out, and that Trump has never won the popular vote in any election (he only won in 2016, as we all painfully recall, because of the Electoral College). The Republicans have also consistently underperformed in every election since the Greasy Orange God King came along, and this trend is only accelerating.

None of that, again, means that we are safe or can relax or let our guard down about 2024, but it does mean that the only way these shitbags can win is by cheating up the wazoo, which they always try to do. There legitimately are not enough Americans who actually support their heinous crap to properly vote for them otherwise, and if nothing else, we can and should take comfort in that.

Who wants to read a short essay of my ideas about the education and careers of the Emeritus brothers in the structure of the Satanic Church?

More under the cut

The “Traditionalist” structure of the Catholic Church. This is also (roughly) the structure I am operating under when describing the Church of Satan in this context.

The education of the Emeritus children in the teachings and philosophies of the Satanic Church would start as early as possible, and would be incorporated into a curriculum along with your run-of-the-mill early education staples as soon as they reached schooling age. This curriculum would be administered by members of the clergy based at and in the areas surrounding the Abbey, and through their elementary school years they would attend classes alongside other children, both those of clergy and members of the church (laypeople).

(Personal note: Christian and especially Catholic education organizations are notoriously bad at teaching children in a way that provides them with a well-rounded education without fully indoctrinating them into the religion in question, which is kind of the point. Their goal is typically to shape children into good christians/catholics while also meeting the government-mandated basics of their K-12 education. The education plan I’m laying out here for the Ghost church bears a lot of similarity to that style of religious education, and may represent an ideal that a lot of these christian/catholic orgs would drool over. However, because Satanism is in general a religion that bases itself in individualism and logical thought, I believe that the system set out here would comfortably fit into a religious framework while also prioritizing a quality and well-rounded education. End rant.

**Disclaimer: I am not an education or religious studies expert. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.)

The Emeritus children would play parts in the worship services of the Church throughout their childhoods, including helping to prepare for service, acting as altar boys, and singing in choir. They would be encouraged to immerse themselves in the activities of the Church as much as possible in order to build an understanding of every level of Church operations in preparation for their future leadership roles.

Around the age of 12, the Emeritus children’s educational trajectory would begin to deviate from that of their peers, and they would begin to incorporate more and deeper aspects of religious and esoteric study into their curriculum. This would include Church documents and writings that are typically not public information and some that may or may not be hereditary teachings exclusive to the Emeritus bloodline. This period of their education would be explicitly in preparation for a secretive blood oath ceremony undertaken at the age of 15 that represents and reaffirms the Emeritus bloodline’s eternal devotion to the service of the Dark Lord. This involves ceremonial scarification and exposure to unholy enlightenment that results in trauma to and loss of pigment in the left eye. This ceremony, along with the education received during this period, qualifies the Emeritus children as Bishops within the Satanic Church, although the title is largely honorary.

(Note: There is, of course, a pathway for non-family members to achieve the rank of Bishop and higher within the Church, but it is not typically open to students under the age of 25 and does not involve the Oath ceremony. As the Emeritus bloodline has been historically blessed by Satan and entrusted with operation of the Church for generations, the ascension to Bishop is accelerated for direct descendants.)

Following the Oath ceremony, the Emeritus children begin to finalize their general education and pivot to take on more responsibility as members of the Clergy. They undertake more intensive courses of study on a variety of topics regarding the magical and esoteric histories of the Church and translations of essential texts, as well as more abstract philosophical topics. They may also elect to specialize in a particular topic of study (think college major) that can help further guide their activities within the Church. 

(Note: Primo elected to focus on practical magick and alchemy, with a particular interest in herbalism. Terzo chose to study foreign and occult language and translation. Secondo didn’t choose any topic in particular, but found he had a particular knack for delivering engaging and thought-provoking sermons.)

The Emeritus children continue on their paths within the Church, becoming more comfortable with their duties as teachers and spiritual guides to its members, throughout their 20s. As adults, they are allowed to come and go from the Abbey as they please and engage with civilians as they wish, but they are encouraged and expected to bring the teachings of the Church with them and share the gifts of Satan whenever appropriate. (Note: Satanic teachings in general draw distinct boundaries regarding when and if it is appropriate to proselytize.) They are expected to participate in Church administration and services in a more hands-on fashion and in general act as outward-facing pillars of the faith. They are also encouraged to take on extra-curricular responsibilities, such as traveling to satellite congregations or helping with the Church’s children’s programs.

The culmination of this period is a chance for the Emeritus children to travel abroad as a research and missionary opportunity. Missionary work is not something the Church of Satan prioritizes, largely because they find it unnecessary and obnoxious. However, as part of their preparation for the Papacy, the Emeritus children are afforded the opportunity to spend their 30th year as a vector of Satan (within the bounds of the rules regarding proselytizing, of course) and/or assisting any foreign arm of the Church that is willing to host them. The foreign offices are, historically, receptive to the opportunity, as playing host to one of Satan’s chosen children can confer certain advantages.

(Note: Primo elected to not take part in this opportunity, as by the time his 30th birthday rolled around, he was knee-deep in parenting his younger brothers.)

Starting at the age of 30, the upper echelons of the Clergy can begin to evaluate Emeritus children for elevation to the rank of Cardinal. (Note: This is different for non-family clergy members, who must be at least age 35 and have been ordained for a minimum of five years.) The sitting Papa and his inner circle will look at each child on their own merit, taking into account any significant writings, accomplishments, or other notable deeds done in service to the Church, both at home and abroad, if applicable. If their career is deemed exemplary, they will be appointed as a Cardinal. If anything discounts them from an appointment, their case is put aside until the next year.

(Note: despite not being a member of the bloodline, Copia was first evaluated for Cardinalcy at the age of 30 due to some string-pulling by Sister Imperator. He was deferred for two years before gaining his appointment.)

Being appointed as a Cardinal comes with many advantages, including a private office space in the Abbey and broader administrative powers to channel funds and influence into projects as one sees fit. It also, typically, allows for a member of the clergy to step back from the public sphere and focus more on the administrative aspects if they so choose– that is, except for the Emeritus children, who, as the defacto faces of the Church’s leadership, are still expected to participate in services and ceremonies, as well as the inner politics of the Church itself. This is, arguably, the most demanding position for a member of the Emeritus bloodline, but historically speaking, it is the best position for those in anticipation of becoming Papa, as it provides for the smoothest transition between roles.

Between 1963 and 1968 Claude Parent and Paul Virilio formed a highly unconventional team: in Architecture Principe the architect and the urbanist, philosopher and trained stained-glass artist bundled their creative forces for which the renowned church Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay stands as a unique monument. The church’s layout also points at their shared vision of an oblique architecture as well as Virilio’s research into WWII fortifications that would result in his 1967 book „Bunker archaeology“. The genesis and history of the short-lived duo has been the subject of art historian Christian Sander’s PhD thesis and is now available in book form with Park Books: „Claude Parent, Paul Virilio – Architecture Pincipe: Formen und Antiformen in der Architektur der Moderne“ is an in-depth analysis of Claude Parent’s formation as architect, his fierce criticism of the architectural education system in France and the development of his „fonction oblique“. In great detail the author describes the French Beaux-arts system and Parent’s criticism of it as a system of nepotism, standstill and outmoded otherworldliness. Although progressive architects like George-Henri Pingusson were among his teachers at the École in Paris Parent left it in 1949 without a degree. In the years following he collaborated with his classmate Lionel Schein and gradually developed an oblique architecture by engaging with art and architectural history: Theo van Doesburg’s studio and architectural models as well as André Bloc, Félix Del Marle and Nicolas Schöffer were important influences in this regard. By engaging with their work Parent refined the oblique from a stylistic tool towards a fundamental component of his architecture. Sander juxtaposes it with Paul Virilio’s phenomenological architectural theory and the early development stages of his dromology, the theory of speed and acceleration. Although Virilio’s formation is a lot less extensively analyzed than Parent’s his influence on the latter and his catalytic role for the architecture of the duo become apparent. Sander’s book provides an exhaustive perspective on legendary Architecture Principe. A highly recommended read!

So I had a

moment this week

I was gathering some information to sent to the ADHD psych I spoke to about the fact I went to an Accelerated Christian Education school and all the bullshit that brought with it. And I knew fairly recently someone had actually published a study into those schools in the UK and then I noticed the authors surname name looked familiar and remembered there was a blog I found quite a few years back where someone wrote a lot about their experiences with also being an ACE student and their issues with the system

Well turns out they're the same people and she transitioned at some point along the way so like good for you

hello fellow former christian school kid! 👋

Hello fellow warriors and wof fan who also had to endure The Horrors of Christian Education! :)

Raise your flag!

When we talk about brave people, in my eyes few can surpass the bravery of Jane Haining, who was born on June 6th 1897 in Dunscore, Dumfries &  Galloway.

It’s only in the past few years that Jane Haining has justifiably, been given her place in history, I’ve know of her story for a number of years, thanks mainly to the small plaque on The Vigil Monument on Calton hill.

Jane lost her mother at the age of five and grew up a determined, capable woman. She worked for ten years in a threadmaker’s in Paisley, but at a meeting in Glasgow about the Jewish Mission she turned to a friend and said, prophetically: ‘I have found my life-work.’ She got the call to work at a Church of Scotland mission to the Jews in Budapest in 1932.

Famous for her broad Scots accent, she was popular with the 400 children, a mix of Christians and Jews, attending the school. Many were orphans, from broken or poverty-stricken homes, while others were sent simply because they got an excellent education from the Scots.

She loved her little ones. In one letter, she wrote: 'We have one nice little mite who is an orphan and is coming to school for the first time. She seems to be a lonely wee soul and needs lots of love. We shall see what we can do to make life a little happier for her.’

Another letter read: 'We have one new little six-year-old, an orphan without a mother or a father. She is such a pathetic wee soul to look at and I fear, poor lamb, has not been in too good surroundings before she came to us .. she certainly does look as though she needs heaps and heaps of love.’

She was in Scotland on leave when World War 2 broke out, but immediately undertook the hazardous journey back to Budapest to help the Jewish children.

Later the missionaries were ordered back to Scotland to safety when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. Jane Haining disobeyed and remained to take care of her children. 'If these children need me in the days of sunshine’, she said, 'how much more do they need me in the days of darkness?’ Her sister Nan O'Brien later recalled: 'It was no surprise that she refused to come back. She would never have had a moment’s happiness if she had come home and left the children.“

During the war the Nazi brutality accelerated with murder, violence and terror and the little Jewish children were increasingly under threat. Jane protected them to the best of her ability.

Jane Haining was denounced to the Nazi authorities and SS men raided the place early in May. They searched her office and her bedroom, gave her 15 minutes to get ready and took her away. She was thrown in jail on charges of British espionage and helping Jews. She was accused of working among Jews and of weeping! She wept as she had to sew the yellow stars of David onto the dresses of her children ..

One of her former wards later recalled: 'I still feel the tears in my eyes and hear in my ears the siren of the Gestapo motor car. I see the smile on her face while she bade me farewell. I never saw Miss Haining again, and when I went to the Scottish Mission to ask the minister about her, I was told she had died. I did not want to believe it, nor to understand, but a long time later I realised that she had died for me, and for others. The body of Miss Haining is dead, but she is not alone, because her smile, voice and face are still in my heart.’

Jane Haining was deported along with some of her Jewish children to the death camp Auschwitz. In three months 1,300,000 were liquidated in Auschwitz, among them No. 79467, Jane Haining, who refused to reject her children and showed herself to be a saint. She died for her beliefs and was gassed along with a batch of Hungarian women on August 16th, 1944, at the age of 47.

Because Jane Haining was a British citizen and passport-holder, the Church of Scotland was sent her death certificate from Auschwitz: 'Miss Haining, who was arrested on account of justified suspicion of espionage against Germany, died in hospital, July 17, of cachexia brought on by intestinal catarrh.’

In 1997 Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Memorial in Jerusalem, awarded Jane Haining a medal and a place among the Righteous Among the Nations for her selfless dedication to the children. The award was presented to her sister, Nan O'Brien of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, by the Israeli Ambassador to Britain at a ceremony in Glasgow.

She is remembered in the stained-glass windows of Queen’s Park Church in Glasgow and at the Church in Dunscore, as well as a memorial there, as seen in the pics, in book form. A plaque remembers her aerected by the Budapest Jewish community, 1984.Vorosmarty utca 51, Budapest. Jaane is also remebered on  Jerusalem Yad Vashem Memorial Hall of Names

In 2017 Jane Haining was honoured by the city of Budapest being the focus of a new exhibition in the Holocaust Memorial Centre. Zoltan Toth-Heinmann, the centre spokesman stated that he was determined to ensure that as many people as possible learn about Haining, who was posthumously honoured by the British Government for "preserving life in the face of persecution”

My Mission Objective:

I want you to know that I am just a man and they will never build a monument in my name.

Life is about establishing relationships called friendship and loving others. Every day of our lives we are given opportunities to show love and kindness to those around us. We must remember that those mortals we meet in parking lots, offices, elevators, the internet, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and to serve. If we cannot regard those who are all around us as our family, we will never be capable of loving our neighbor or our enemy.

Gatekeeper-Watchman International Group is a Christian-based non-profit organization, that is a faith-based group of associates and friends from all over the world but is not limited to, environmental, social, advocacy, and human rights work. It is my passion that we all can work to promote social or political change on a broad scale or very locally. Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups (#GWIG) seek to play a critical part in developing society, improving communities, and promoting citizen participation all over the world through love, kindness, joy, and various forms of living support. As the founder and administrator of Gatekeeper- Watchman International Groups, my primary purpose is to defend or promote specific causes. As not opposed to operational project management, these organizational groups typically seek to raise awareness, acceptance, and knowledge by lobbying, press work, and activist events and are not limited to donations or outside financial support. Our mission is to accelerate and educate the community and world on the importance of why it's pivotal to empower men, women, and minorities in business globally. When the impoverished are elevated financially, communities, states, and countries prosper, this builds a global blueprint that will alleviate and eradicate poverty and redefine our common cause which is a fair and united democracy.

In this overcrowded online world, do you ever wonder why people spend most of their time googling? or sending a friend request without knowing you? I hope your experience with social networking has been good. And please let me introduce you to a fresh outlook on social platforms. In the beginning, I didn’t understand why people would read and share Posts, Blogs, Tweets, and or Comments when the web is awash with information, advice, and wisdom from people more experienced, more knowledgeable than myself.

As I have grown older, my need to search for quality friends, associates, and companions, immediately discovering that it wasn't easy to do. A relationship with intrinsic value and opportunity is also harder to mobilize because of our change in interests and environment. I have always preferred to choose my friends for myself rather than allowing others to do so for me and this is why I contact others that I may not know and that I find articulate, and exciting because we are communal beings.

I have learned that to introduce social and political change on a broad scale, I concluded that sharing, teaching, and discussing problems head-on and the topics of interest may allow us to focus on a particular subject, unlike the media which recklessly spits out more in shorter bytes than we have been able to chew on as a democracy.

In doing so, I have attempted to connect with people across the world. I constantly search for thriving groups of quality friends from many different cultures’ interests, and scopes of expertise. There, I placed open forums at specific locations and called them Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups. I have intended to ask for prayer, and discussion so that we may encourage others to change the way they gather and extrapolate information while focusing on different perspectives relating to education, employment, social advocacy, and human rights as "Information Specialists".

I believe that we all can work together to promote change on a broader scale. Likewise, we must all seek different means of sharing our experiences, knowledge, and faith on social platforms if we want to be less cluttered with better resolve.

I am also graciously seeking your support and participation in developing an all-volunteer movement. Your contributions and donations, I believe will support our mission to encourage, accelerate, and educate humanity on the importance of why it's pivotal to empower the less fortunate who have fallen between the cracks of bureaucracy globally. When the impoverished classes are elevated financially, communities, states, and countries prosper, and this builds a global blueprint that will alleviate and eradicate greed and selfishness that destroys economic growth and a lack of positive change.

Respectfully,

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

From: Steven P. Miller @ParkermillerQ,  gatekeeperwatchman.org Founder of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups Wednesday, September 6, 2023, Jacksonville, Florida., Duval County, USA. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Sparkermiller.JAX.FL.USA, https://www.facebook.com/StevenParkerMillerQ Instagram: steven_parker_miller_1956, Twitter: @GatekeeperWatchman1, @ParkermillerQ, https://twitter.com/StevenPMiller6 Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gatekeeperwatchman, https://www.tumblr.com/gatekeeper-watchman, https://www.pinterest.com/GatekeeperWatchman1/ #GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO, #Ephraim1, #IAM, #Sparkermiller, #Eldermiller1981

I remember asking you about the Saga of Toast the last time this particular WIP game came around, and so much has happened between then and now ! I've read the fics (and LOVED them) and even watched JAtP (which was such a sweet, fun ride), so I'm wondering if this getting to be a pattern of being introduced to a new fandom XD (no complaints there, lol). That said, both The Lost City and Nature 2.0 sound super intriguing ! I'd love to hear more about both/either, totally up to you :) (I think we've discussed Nature 2.0 in passing before, and while I know its based on Metal Gear -- which itself has such an interesting premise from what little I've gleaned -- it sounds like a genuinely epic fic in the making, whenever that happens 🤞🏼🤞🏼)

AAAAAAAAAAAAH, hunny!!! (my thought process on receiving this particular ask). You're so right. So much HAS happened and I'm still so happy you enjoyed the chaotic Toast cat and the silly little ghost show <3 <3

Okay, the fic whales that require a better author (and one with more brain space and leisure time) than I am at the moment but that are still so dear to me that I might come back to them at some point.

I came up with The Lost City first, while I was still at university and attending a lot of lectures on 19th century British literature and culture. I was also, at that time, in a Stargate Atlantis fan forum at the time and those two things just seemed made for each other so I envisioned a fic that would be written in the style of a 19th century novel and resemble Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World in that you have this bunch of adventurers and scientists that claim to have found the lost city of Atlantis but lost all their photographic evidence etc on their way back and now one of the members of the expedition, the Scottish doctor (Edinburgh having been one of the best places for a medical education at the time just fit so nicely with the Scottish doctor on the show), tells the story as reconstructed from his diary.

The fic would attempt to be very accurately 19th century-ish so you would have the white (British) male Christians explorers bringing civilisation to the savages of the new world. There would be the noble savage princess. The charming and intrepid soldier. The eccentric scientific genius. There would also be an eccentric rich heiress funding the operation whose unconventional independence would be punished by the narrative while still admiring her bravery. There's also sort of vampires which fits nicely with the vampire/gothic craze at the time, the obsession with (creepy) hands (the Stargate aliens suck other being's life essence through touching them). The Egyptian craze tying in with finding the Stargate. There's just SO MUCH that would fit SO WELL!

It would also have footnotes as a sort of mock Oxford University Presse edition, contextualising the racism and colonialism and misogyny etc ;D

So it's a very ambitious project.

Not learning my lesson with this one, I came up with another ambitious project, Nature 2.0, that is indeed a Metal Gear Solid au.

The original game series already deals with clones (Solid Snake, aka David, being one and experiencing accelerated ageing as a result). There's world conspiracies and viruses and triple agents and shadowy figures and the sins of the fathers being borne by the sons. And there's a soldier (Snake) and a genius nerd (Hal Emmerich aka Otacon) falling in love.

On some ill fated day I thought: why not take it even further?

So it's a dystopian future where genetic engineering and cloning etc are commonplace and the poor, normal born people are second class citizens. There's pockets of resistance and pockets of self-sustained enclaves and terrorism but most of the "Naturals" are just poor schmucks in the ghettos of the big cities trying to get by.

One of them is Hal Emmerich, genius son of a Two-Oh genius (Two-Ohs being the genetically enhanced Humans 2.0) but natural born and as such a lowlife who gets fired by too many companies and has an unhealthy feelie addiction (think movies - talkies - feelies) who suddenly gets recruited for a secret mission by a handsome clone.

They embark on a mission that's ostensibly about some nuclear threat but they soon uncover there's something more sinister afoot. There's trying to figure out the plan and the players, infiltrating places, stealing information, escaping shadowy pursuers, finding allies in unlikely places, exposing a global conspiracy and saving the world at a cost. There's near-death and there's falling in love and there's philosophising about what it means to be human.

But again, it's A LOT and lots of research and even MORE plotting and writing action plots and stealth missions which I'm rubbish at at the moment so like The Lost City, it's on ice until that mystery time when I'm healthier and can focus better and have more time. Maybe never. But never say never, right?

hey bitches <3

I haven't been on here in a while, because i've been trying to take a bit of a social media break for my mental health (spoiler: it didn't really work lmao) but after everything thats happened since 2020, I feel like I really need to talk about the train wreck that has been this decade.

In 2020, as we all know, the infamous event involving George Floyd and the subsequent protests around police brutality and extreme racial prejudice against people of colour, particular Black people, from the police sparked international debate around firmly ingrained racism in government and law enforcement. In Australia, where I live, there were several protests, not just around the George Floyd event, but also calling for justice for Indigenous Australians who are up to 10 times more likely to be incarcerated, with increasing numbers of unexplained deaths in custody due to mistreatment.

In 2021, the United States capital was marched on by Trump supporters following the inauguration of President Biden and religious protests took the US by storm, with heavy hate-fueled attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community and non-Christians.

In 2022, Russia began an invasion of Ukraine without provocation, sidestepping declarations of war and avoiding the wrath of NATO and countries allied against Russia as a result of peacekeeping efforts. The Don't Say Gay bill was passed, which prohibits educational discussion surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation. And Roe v. Wade was overturned, revoking women's rights to bodily autonomy.

Not even a quarter of the way through 2023, the Willow Project, which essentially sells Alaska for oil and gas which will lead to around 240 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide to be released, severely accelerating the effects of global warming, was approved, and there are proposals from Australian politicians to ban abortions.

Every single fucking day we are losing control of our lives and our future. We have stood silent for too long and now we will be heard. And we will be louder than ever. Old, rich, privileged white men should not be allowed to dictate every aspect of our lives and we will not stand for it any longer. Scream it. Write it. Emblazon it on rooftops. Our generation and this movement will not stop. We will win.