Ironhold

People won't be forced into becoming perfect. Rather, we'll still have the same attitudes, demeanors, and even free will we have here on Earth. This means that there will be people who will deny Christ to his face. But at the same time, you can bet there will be a lot of people who come to realize that perhaps they should take it down a notch.

What I'm seeing online comes down to "people fearing that this can be interpreted in such a fashion so allow school boards to call the FBI down on whistleblowers and others looking to root out actual corruption and incompetence".

One of the private residences I deliver to lives on a particular hill. The section of road leading to the road they live on is cratered with potholes of varying sizes, as is one of the four roads on / off the hill. I have no choice but to take the former road, as it's the only way to where the customer lives. But I avoid the second road even though it's the most direct route between that customer and my next stop. One night, my dad came with me because there was an issue with my car. We were in the family truck, and in addition to driving that stretch of road, he wanted me to take the more direct route so we could be done faster. Every time we hit a pothole, he'd get after me. Eventually, he asked me if I simply couldn't see the potholes. I had to explain to him that no, I can't... at least, not at the posted speed limit. He has full night vision because he's been active outdoors since he was a child. He can see for a good distance at night, and so can see the potholes in the road a fair way off. In contrast, my night vision developed around watching for unexpected motion or presence / absence of light, as these are indicators of animals, pedestrians, obstructions, or other matters that could be an immediate safety risk. Thus, at night, I tend to slow down a little, especially if I'm unsure of the road conditions, and often give oncoming vehicles the benefit of the doubt (to the point that I won't even merge or turn onto a main road unless I'm sure no one is coming). On these two roads, which are in such poor shape, I've learned the hard way that I have to go slow, carefully watch what's immediately ahead of me, and make on-the-spot decisions for each and every pothole. I can't simply look at a long stretch, count every pothole in an instant, and masterfully avoid each one at speed. That was the end of the discussion for the night.

The high school I went to was so toxic that I was once accosted in a bathroom by a campus security officer. He thought we were alone, so he went off on a tangent about tequila. Based on the nature of his rant and how he was walking, I'm thinking he either came to work drunk or came to work hung over. Individual teachers, faculty, and staff tried to take care of us kids, but the head principal was dangerously out of touch with reality and so many others who worked there were unfit for their jobs. So I don't have a lot of fond memories of high school, and as a result things like this movie just don't sit right with me.

*rushes through an early-morning assignment at work to get home before Conference starts* *misses the final speaker of the Saturday morning session because of a bathroom break and stomach trouble* Thus goes my weekend so far.

Waiting to comment until my review was published. Dear Evan Hansen. Why does this even exist? The premise - a kid allows the parents of a suicide victim to think he and the deceased were friends - is horrible, and the work tries to justify what goes on. The film adaptation is even worse, as some of the songs hit the metaphorical brick wall of what the recording equipment could handle and so you get bad audio effects going on. Just... wow this one was bad.

I see no issue with it, but my area has had so few kids coming over the last few years that it's practically a moot point now.

Every time Conference comes up, the entire week beforehand, and usually that weekend itself, is full of drama on my end. Each day is a new round of drama (like today, when my dad and I got rained on while we were trying to service my car), and it usually ends with built tensions. So I'm usually hopping from one crisis to another and don't normally have a lot of time to prepare.

Everything I'm seeing about Ivermectin says that there's a *massive* difference between what happens when it's given in a clinical setting and what happens when people buy it off the shelf and try taking it on their own. Problem is, because the mainstream media (that is, the big-name publishers) have all decided that Ivermectin is bad and only foolish people attempt it, any talk of its use in clinical settings is now being classed as "fake news".

There's a long-standing rumor (which, to my knowledge, hasn't been confirmed) that the Covid vaccines all interfere with fertility, and one recent allegation claims that a nursing infant whose mother just had the vaccine died suddenly from what the allegations are claiming may have been side effects of the vaccine. It's a mess. As it is, I recently had a bit of a spat with my mom this morning. I'm overdue for a tetanus booster, but the reports I was hearing from *actual medical types* were saying you couldn't have a tetanus booster within a certain period of time of having a Covid shot. However, the incredible hype around the Delta variant was such that my mom would have a screaming fit whenever the topic came up, and so absolutely refused to listen to me whenever I talked about getting a tetanus shot. I have a physical disability that makes it difficult for me to drive long distances, and so she played her ultimate trump card by refusing to go with me to an upcoming comic convention - which included a childhood idol as the headline act - if I didn't get at least one shot first. Dad has no stamina due to an illness he got earlier this year (which mom swears was Covid), and so while he could help me drive he would need help getting through the event. I had to once again explain to her this morning that because she was so fixated on the vaccine I'm now going to have to wait several more weeks before I can finally get my booster, and because of the type of work I do and life I live tetanus is a far greater threat to me than Covid. She only just now accepted that she was wrong and should have let me get the tetanus shot first, but no apology will ever be coming.

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Robots_in_Disguise_(2001_cartoon) In 2000, Japanese toy maker Takara was in a bind. Takara has joint control over the Transformers franchise with Hasbro, but in the late 1990s the two companies had gotten well out of step with each other. Hasbro had decided to have the franchise move from "robots that turn into cars" to "robots that turn into animals", but the significant delays in producing the second and third seasons of the "Beast Wars" cartoon series forced Takara to create two "filler" shows to keep new content on the airwaves. The second of the two shows, and its tie-in toy line, flopped. In desperation, Takara came up with the "Car Robots" series. Well over half of the toys were reworked versions of existing product, meaning they only had to create a handful of new toys. As part of it, the good guys once more transformed into cars, with team leader Fire Convoy transforming into a Hino Brandlier fire engine. Takara and several other companies were pushing "Burning Justice!" in their content during this era, with over-the-top heroes always arriving just in time to save the day with no small amount of righteous indignation backing them up, and this series was a part of that trend. Given that the hero was a robot who turned into a fire engine, that made the whole "Burning Justice!" bit extra special. In 2001, Hasbro was likewise forced to stick a fork in the "Beast" era since it was done. With "Car Robots" ready to go, they made the decision to go ahead and import the series. Most of the characters were given names recycled from the 1980s assortment, and thus Fire Convoy became Optimus Prime. The first episode aired the Saturday before 9/11. In the aftermath of the attacks, many people the world over found themselves in shock and wanting something, anything, to reassure them that good would prevail, and that heroes still existed in the world. A lot of them turned on their television sets and saw a fire truck robot who always saved the day, no matter how dangerous the odds, in the process reminding the world of the better virtues of life and how evil would lose in the end. To this day I hear people talking about how this one cartoon, one that was pretty much cranked out on the cheap, restored their faith in the world and helped get them through their shock and grief. Always look for the heroes, folks, even if they're fictional.

It's my understanding that the original, non-musical film is in the public domain.

I literally had a dream the other night where I saw Kermit crying over Jim's grave because he was that frustrated with Disney and was asking Jim for a sign.

The film has *serious* issues with pacing, such that it's very easy to nod off or zone out during quiet - and often critical - sequences. I'd actually recommending stopping the movie every half hour or so to get up and stretch.

There is a lot going on in today's society that needs to be examined more closely. For example, many men have decided, for one reason or another, that their collection of anime girl statues is better company that any real woman could ever be. While some of these individuals are legitimately unwell in the sense of losing touch with reality, others have had such negative experiences with women - or known so many men who have - that they literally do not trust any flesh and blood woman to have their best interests at heart. These people have functionally removed themselves from the gene pool, let alone the dating pool, and so even if they're otherwise "high value" they won't be contributing unless they can be convinced to give it a go, that there's a woman out there who loves him for him. Additionally, a knock-on effect of the rise of "girl power" is that "women stringing along multiple men" has become a sign of how "powerful" a woman is. There are women who actually make their money selling home-made pornographic photos and videos of themselves through social media or otherwise engaging in "adult" activities for profit, often never even interacting face-to-face with the people they get their money from. While it's often joked that many of these women are doing it "because their family needs the money" [1], the simple fact is that one woman can easily get a large number of men so caught up in her that they don't consider other women. Just these two trends alone are enough that many men, particularly younger men, are no longer involved in the dating scene, let alone having children. The overall coarsening of the culture and the destruction of the nuclear family is also producing situations where men who would have been regarded as perfectly acceptable spouses in years past are now being overlooked as "inadequate" in some fashion, such as not making "enough" money or not being attractive "enough". The women making these judgments regard themselves as entitled to someone or something far better, and refuse to consider anyone who falls below their standards. [2] We also now have situations where men and women alike are going "Why get married when I can spend all of my time and attention on myself?". This is especially problematic in countries like Japan and China where the birth rates are plummeting so low that the governments are having to offer financial incentives for people to marry and have children. [1] One example is a bit that was recently posted anonymously to the internet. The person claimed to be a 15-year-old boy, and that they were seeking advice. Allegedly, their 21-year-old sister began selling photos of herself online to help the family make ends meet, and the poster is claiming that they are now being bullied at school because their classmates found out; a few classmates have even claimed to have gotten their hands on the photos and keep offering to show them to the poster. While many people on the forum where it was posted doubted whether this was legitimate, others expressed horror at the person's plight. [2] One example from about a decade or so back involved a woman posted a teary-eyed rant on a major city's local social media forum. She was going on about how attractive she was and how, as a result, she figured that she'd be able to just move to the city and get a millionaire falling all over her. Instead, she's been in town six months and nada; this led her to question if she was unattractive after all or if she simply wasn't going to the right places to meet millionaires. In response, someone posted a rather long take-down noting that if *all* she brought to the relationship was her physical appearance, then she'd be thrown to the curb anyway once her looks reached a point where even cosmetic surgery couldn't save her. Instead, any sensible man - especially one with that much money - would be looking out for a woman who he could see a long-term relationship with. Until such time as she worked on herself as a person, she would always be a money-losing investment.

What's been happening is that groups which support pedophilia and beastiality have tried to get them classed under the LGBT "rainbow", essentially attempting to hijack the movement for their own ends. Not helping matters any is how often we have situations like what took place in Houston, where the people in charge of "Drag Queen Story Hour" at one of the city's libraries didn't do proper background checks on the drag queens who were coming in and so a convicted sex offender wound up being able to work with children.

I live by Fort Hood. It's a rare day when we *don't* have military aircraft flying overhead, usually either cargo planes coming / going from the main airfield or helicopters (typically the AH-64D Longbow Apache, UH-60 Blackhawk, or CH-47 Chinook) on training operations. Wheeled vehicles like Humvees and cargo trucks often cut through city streets when going between training areas, or might even be on the streets so someone can learn how to drive in an urban environment. You can hear the loudspeakers throughout the base playing various songs at specific times of the day, often from miles away. If we've got a unit going to or from Fort Irwin for training, you'll see trains hauling tanks and other heavy vehicles. Range fires are common in the summer, usually the result of a hot shell casing hitting dry grass. The local newspapers remind everyone when the base is going to do artillery or bombing practice (yes, sometimes the Air Force shows up) so that we're not bothered by the inevitable explosions and we have time to secure loose valuables lest they rattle off the shelves. It's life. So when I read pieces like "the National Guard was doing training in this major city and people were freaking out" or "this editorial writer claims to have emotional trauma from firing an AR-15", I ask myself how they'd handle living down here.

I actually *could* be on the disabled list if I could ever find the time and money to get in, see a doctor, and get the proper physical evaluations. Problem is, I have to work for a living, and my Exchange insurance eats about 60% or so of my pay each month for a policy so terrible I have to pay out of pocket for blood work. (Arrhythmia because of a birth defect + scoliosis + at least one blown vertebrae + deformities in my hips, legs, and shoulders caused by that scoliosis + nerve damage in my hands from medical malpractice + blood pressure so high it's become a game whether I'll "defeat" a blood pressure gauge)

At the end of February (right after the massive blizzard here in Texas that took out the power grid), I got sick for a few days. Exhausted to the point that I was only marginally functional, overly sensitive to the level of salt in what I ate, and with my stomach more sensitive than normal. But in time I was back on my feet, and largely recovered. My dad, however, was down for the better part of two weeks with similar symptoms, and never quite recovered; there are days where he'll just sleep. At first, mom suspected that we were dealing with after-effects of the blizzard, especially since we had our fireplace going around the clock; dad and I took turns tending it, so it was possible smoke inhalation combined with everything else. Now, however, she fears that the two of us had Covid (mom was vaccinated before a family trip she and dad took, but dad wasn't), and that my recovering so quickly was because with my history of health issues I've had to learn how to listen to what my body is telling me. Since then, I've had both shots. The sheer level of exhaustion I felt was greater than anything I dealt with during that period where I was sick, to the point that I spent most of the entire next day afterword asleep. I also had cold sweats, nightmares, and nose bleeds. In short, the side effects from the vaccine were worse than what I dealt with when I might have actually had it. After this, I'm not getting another one unless I absolutely have to.

I've had both doses. In both instances, the reaction was so severe that I spent the entire next day basically sleeping on the couch because I was that exhausted, and had cold sweats, muscle fatigue, and even nose bleeds for a few days beyond that. I might have actually had Covid back at the end of February, and I bounced back from that faster than I did from the vaccines. I had low energy for a few days (but still enough to be marginally functional), I was unusually sensitive to how much salt was in my food, and my sour stomach was worse than normal, but I was able to soldier on. I'm not going for a third shot unless I absolutely have to, and even then I'll be registering a protest as I do.

To point #1 - Many colleges, for the sake of "diversity", have - deliberately or inadvertently - hindered the ability of men to seek higher education through academia. A key part of this is the infamous "Dear Colleague" letter that the Obama administration issued. The letter was intended to light a fire under colleges to take reports of on-campus rape and harassment seriously, but it led to many colleges essentially running witch hunts. If a young man found himself accused of wrongdoing, the college would presume him guilty even if local law enforcement cleared him. He would not be allowed to even present his own defense, let alone bring a lawyer or cross-examine witnesses. Basically, the college had already determined him guilty just on the accusation alone, and any hearing they did was a formality. This has so terrified many young men that they're avoiding colleges outright. They're either favoring trade education programs (where there are shortages of skilled workers), favoring the protective services, taking internships, using various programs to teach themselves skills, or just going straight into the workforce and giving that a go. Trump's Secretary of Education realized that this was creating a gender divide in higher education and sought to hold hearings on whether or not the "Dear Colleague" letter had done more harm than good, but the very fact that she was even questioning this led to the usual suspects engaging in such manufactured moral outrage - especially when it was revealed that she was in communication with several young men who had their lives altered by false accusations - that the whole thing became a faux controversy. Even though she officially renounced the "Dear Colleague" letter and tried to move the pendulum back to the center, it's pretty much taken for granted that Biden will re-issue the letter if he remains in charge long enough.

After enough people - including the CEO of indie publisher Alterna Comics - called King out on the matter, he was forced to modify the story. Now King is saying that the person in costume was in line and didn't have his mask on. When King saw that he didn't have his mask on, he flipped out and yelled at him to mask up. When the person fumbled with their mask (which could well have gotten crumpled up if it had been in their pocket long enough), King straight-up exploded on him. And basically, since it was the Rorschach character, King just *assumed* the person was "alt-right" without knowing anything more about them. This was enough of an incident that the venue basically chose to sacrifice the person to appease King, throwing them out completely. Suffice to say that King is now persona non grata among much of the comic industry, particularly a large swath of readers.

A few days ago, comic book writer Tom King went on a rant on social media. In the "Watchmen" comic, there's a dramatic scene where masked hero Rorschach removes his mask as part of a plea to Doctor Manhattan; former hero Ozymandias outright confessed to crimes against humanity, and Rorschach wants Doctor Manhattan's help in exposing what happened. It ends with Doctor Manhattan killing Rorschach because he, too, feels that what Ozymandias did was for the greater good. King was, if he's to be believed, at a comic convention when he saw someone in a Rorschach costume unmask, likely re-enacting this scene. King freaked out and caused enough of a spectacle that the convention staff were forced to have security eject the costume guy from the venue. King then went on a tirade on social media, and a number of sycophants are agreeing with what he did and echoing similar sentiments that people who don't mask up and people who aren't vaccinated need to be forced out of society. A few were all but demanding that the military go house-to-house and enforce vaccinations. This is the kind of thing that has people worked up, the knowledge that everyone from everyday peeps to various celebrities are *that* ready and eager to see those who they disagree with as sub-human and start removing their rights.

Earlier today I saw someone in a Facebook group I'm in freaking out because they assumed that as we got closer to the latter days there would be more persecution and whatnot, especially online. I looked at the "future" they described and pointed out how the actual past, that is, what critics of the church used to do online, was worse than what they predicted and yet we as a whole emerged triumphant. As I tried to explain, while those of us who *had* lived through it and had fought those battles had no qualms about fighting them again if needed, it was on each individual member of the church to study matters out for themselves (scriptures, Gospel Principles, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, et cetra), develop their own testimony, and then develop the voice with which to convey their testimony. We could help them if things ever got that bad again, but they needed to be able to stand on their own. It's the same thing for everyone, really: when that time comes to face a major burden, people can help, but it's your own two feet you need to stand on.

"If that ox is in the mire, and you're down there trying to get it out, how long are you going to stay clean?" The sad, simple truth is that the further down a person is, the further down you've got to go if you're going to try and pull them back up. As you go down, you'll see things you'll wish you'd never seen. As much as you want to flinch, to turn away, you have to remember that whoever you're trying to reach is *living* down there. Even the first rescue attempt will ensure that you'll never be the same person again. But if you're lucky, whoever you just rescued won't be the same, either.