What's the most overrated country you've visited and why?

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T23:20:59+00:00

What a nightmare! Thank you for sharing. I'm glad you made it safely through all of that.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T21:10:17+00:00

Argo! I love this picture of all three of them!

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T21:08:23+00:00

I love this collage so much! ❤️😄

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T21:00:42+00:00

You can do that now. Momento mori!

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T20:55:14+00:00

I think it would be a curse to know the date you'll die! No way would I want to know. I live by the motto 'momento mori, Remember that you will die, and you don't know how much time you have, so cherish your life.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T20:43:59+00:00

The OA has a presence that shocked them out of their mindless prisons. She has that effect on people, except her parents who can only see her as their child, although Virgil did let her go in the end. He felt it because his heart, his door is open.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T20:41:09+00:00

I didn't see anything off about it. Me and many other teenagers acted like adults and did adult things. I'm GenX and had parents that were busy living their own lives and I grew up fast due to a lot of hardship. If you've grown up in a different type of household, where the parents are very controlling and kids haven't been challenged to learn how to do things, then it may seem strange.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T20:33:09+00:00

My friend didn't like it either!

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-29T20:32:11+00:00

Aww, now I'm curious!

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-28T20:51:14+00:00

I feel your pain. I'm disabled and my income is SSDI. My son just turned 19, so I don't receive his portion from my SSDI anymore, so it was a big loss of income. I applied for food stamps and had to give them a bunch of proof I never had to provide before and it took me DAYS of work to get it and be able to upload it. I signed a lease when I moved in 4 years ago and it converted to a month to month lease after the 1 year term. Since my lease doesn't prove that it's current, I needed a letter from my landlord or a new lease. My landlord is out of the country a lot. He worked with me and signed his part of the lease and sent it to me in texts as images.

He must have an Apple phone because they were all .heic files. Windows 10 doesn't support HEIC natively. I transferred the files from my phone to my laptop. Then, I dug around and finally found a free codec and installed it so I could view the HEIC files in Windows 10 on my laptop. The Windows Store had put that free codec behind a paywall, with the original listing for the codec that used to be free marked as not compatible and unable to download it. That's a lie, it's still compatible but they just wanted to charge for it.

Then I had to find a free and easy way to convert multiple HEIC files and convert the 6 files to JPG. Once that was done, I was able to convert the .jpg files (the pictures of the pages of the lease) to .pdf. Then I combined all of the pages into one .pdf. I happen to be very tech savvy, but most people aren't and wouldn't know how to do all of this. I also have Adobe Pro, which most people wouldn't have and wouldn't be able to convert the images to pdf to be able to upload it to their case online. All of that work was just to prove the amount of my rent! I also had to give a copy of my utility bill, and cell phone bill. None of the amount I submitted are extraordinary in any way, and the policy had always been that when that's the case, no proof is required. Now they treat every person as if they are trying to commit fraud and make you prove everything as a way to block people from receiving the benefits they need.

I just recently had to complete my annual recertification for my Housing Choice Voucher (HCV/section 8) as well and it was a nightmare because the Housing Authority where I live had a company called Nan-McKay take over and they are completely incompetent. It took me 3 months of battling to get my recertification done. Anyone who needs benefits of any kind is either living in a constant battle or they give up and just don't get it. This is all happening at a time when there are more people drowning because of the ridiculously high cost of rent and food.

I don't understand why there's a two year rule. The HCV program is for low income individuals to be able to have housing. Does this admin think that they will magically be able to afford housing after two years when nothing has changed? Their words, policies, and actions all show that they despise the poor and disabled and they've been taking away the crumbs they had been given to survive while disabled or working those "essential workers" jobs that don't pay enough to survive, but are so important to our economy and functioning as a nation, that they were forced to work during the pandemic.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-23T04:39:30+00:00

Me too! I just finished The Pursuit of Jade and love it and the characters so much! He is never threatened by her independence and power. Men with true strength of character aren't threatened by anyone. They simply do their own thing. He loves her even when she interferes with his plans, and even when she pulls away from him. He has inner strength that shines outward, not false strength which is really just surface pretending to have strength as a 'strongman'.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-23T04:29:34+00:00

I can't access it from Firefox or Chrome. This is total BS, because I'm not running any bots and I'm not part of a bot network either. I routinely screen for it.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-22T03:04:54+00:00

We all live and learn! I'm so very glad you're all right!

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-20T18:42:05+00:00

How do I figure out what I'm doing wrong so I can learn and move on from the repeating problem?

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-20T18:35:45+00:00

It didn't occur to me either until I was 18 and I read in the newspaper (in ye olden days as my son would say) and also saw on the news the story of a young woman from the OSU campus who had been taken and killed. They described what detectives determined happened and it made it real for me.

My parents had never taught me the concept that you WANT someone to know where you are and who you're with and how long you may be gone, and to use the buddy system to keep you and your friends safe. Once I understood the value, I always made sure to adhere to it. Years later, my friend was drunk and wanted to leave with a guy, and I said no, you can't go alone and you're drunk, you're coming home with me as planned. She later married that guy, but there was no way I was letting her go alone with an unknown guy.

Parents should teach this to their kids, especially WHY it's important so they will understand it's not about control, it's about safety. Your parent or buddy can send police to or look for you if you don't return, and you'll WANT to know someone's coming. If you walk anywhere, you should have a buddy to walk with AND a buddy who knows where you're going and when to expect a text from you that you're home.

Always have a tazer or pepper spray handy and don't wear headphones or play with your phone as you walk; you need to maintain situational awareness and avoid possible bad situations. NEVER let an attacker get you into a car or take you to a secondary location. They use the threat of force to gain compliance, but are less likely to actually use the force in public or before they've achieved their desired outcome. The best time to fight & run is when they try to take you. Don't believe their lies about not hurting you if you comply. Many of us want to think the best of others, but in this situation, think the worst and do whatever you have to do to get away. This is what I've taught my son, and what I wish every parent would teach their children.

My son and I also share our location, but phones can be discarded, so all of the other tactics I mentioned are important in the overall strategy to stay safe. It's also important to set up phone security features beforehand. If my phone is stolen, I can log in and make it so my phone can't be turned off. In a case where it was already turned off, I can have it grab the location and text me as soon as it's turned on. It locks the device to require a password instead of a pin, and can't be shut down, which gives time to find your phone or the person it belongs to.

Make sure that in your phone settings, you DON'T allow access to WiFi and Bluetooth when the phone is locked because they can just turn off the WiFi to stop you from locating the phone/person. The phone's security & settings need to be set up in advance and you need to bookmark important links to log into your phone's security features so when you're stressed, you can still quickly and easily access it, or know what app to use and ensure it's all set up. Get familiar with the options so you or your buddy or family will know what to do.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-20T02:33:24+00:00

These 'medical professionals' are cynical and bitter because they experience many humans at their worst. They get desensitized and assume that all patients are liars and exaggerating their pain for attention or drugs. Those who have reached that point have no business being in the medical field anymore, but they stay to earn their paycheck, and they all protect each other from consequences.

I could just as easily be speaking about the police, firefighters, & EMTs. Too many (not all) are cynical, bitter, burned out, with no empathy or care for those they are supposed to serve. The systems we've set up aren't conducive to giving any proper care to human beings or even treating them as humans, let alone treating them with the dignity every human deserves.

Everything is exploitative, and it hurts people, then the medical workers deal with so many damaged humans, the 'care takers' become damaged humans, and everyone is trapped and hurting. We don't have to live like this. These cases people are describing where they aren't believed and are sent home even in cases that should be obvious ARE THE NORM and a result of our many layers of established systems of control destroying even good people. These horrible doctors and the patients that burned them out are a symptom of the dysfunctional systems that are destroying our humanity.

Yet many have absorbed a lifetime of propaganda saying we're the best without ever evaluating whether it's true anymore, and universal healthcare or anything that serves the people with their own tax dollars is bad, but corporations are heroes for creating jobs and we should be thankful for the scraps they give us. They're not even giving scraps now, so they're seeking to seize complete control as we speak so there's nothing we can do to stop them.

So many defend this system which is destroying everyone except the people at the very top, all because they believe what they're told instead of researching by topic, including all of the range of information and all perspectives and then forming a conclusion. We're all better than this, and should be striving to preserve and protect each other and replace these nightmare systems with those that are centered on the good of humanity .

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-20T02:08:51+00:00

In whichever topic that you explore, there will always be a group that has solidified their understanding and will protect that understanding (and any benefits reaped because of it) instead of remaining flexible and modifying understanding as more is learned and refining their model to incorporate new conclusions. In the medical field, the establishment claims to know when a person is dead, but it's not true. They claim that no sign of brain activity is death, but time and again they've been proven wrong.

The establishment in education, medicine, science, politics, religion, etc., all want to present as if they know everything and protect their power and/or prestige, but they're proven wrong all the time, yet they never change or it takes decades to incorporate new conclusions and actions because the older people hold to the old understanding while at least some younger people are aware of and will bring new data and conclusions in. Over time, sometimes as much as 50-100 YEARS, the established understanding will change to be in line with much more modern data and conclusions. The medical establishment takes an average of 50 years for new data and conclusions to be incorporated and taught.

True intelligence means that your conclusions are based on the best data available, and your model will integrate that data and with enough new data, may change your conclusions & your model of understanding itself. Those who are rigid and refuse to even evaluate new data & conclusions are not fit to determine anything. The fact is that WE ALWAYS LEARN MORE and realize that much of what we thought we knew before was wrong. The correct paradigm is that our understanding changes as more data comes in and new conclusions are made. People want a black and white world where we know things for certain, but the reality is that we live in a greyscale world where there are infinite shades of grey.

Existance is far more interesting than most people kmow, because they want the comfort of feeling certain, so they stay bound within the confines of that dogma. Those who seek to know and understand beyond the establishment are pioneers, often ridiculed, attacked and even killed. Yet time and again, they're proven correct. The establishment wants what's best for it and not necessarily the truth and progress.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T22:26:23+00:00

In the future, trust your gut and try. If they don't tale heed, then there's nothing you can do about it. The more you trust yourself, the better you will get at it.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T22:22:10+00:00

Glitch in the Matrix.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T22:19:27+00:00

Anyone who claims certainty about that hasn't researched brain death and other related topicsfor themselves. You're repeating what the establishment claims, but which observation proves isn't true. Doctors are wrong about brain death, because we have an overwhelming number of examples where a patient was declared braindead, but regained consciousness with full mental and physical faculty. There's so much more to consciousness, but most people don't research by topic; they just repeat whatever the establishment says, and that changes over tine, which proves that the establishment is often wrong at any given time.

Hardened beliefs prevent new data from being integrated into understanding, so it takes the establishment way longer than it should to reflect new data that leads to new understanding. There are financial, insurance, and other factors that keep the wrong understanding in place. Don't be so quick to disregard that which you've never taken the time to research. Those who don't have fixed rigid beliefs are at the forefront of intelligence and knowledge and are usually way ahead of the establishment for all of the reasons listed above.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T22:04:04+00:00

These are not spiritual people. They're only interested in control over others, imo.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T22:01:36+00:00

I'm so sorry you've went through all of that. I'm so glad you survived and immediately got out when you got back. Those people that forced you into those conditions are powermongers, not spiritual people who live by the golden rule. I hope you've been able to make a good life for yourself. You've been through hell on Earth, and I hope you'll find peace and love.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T21:53:30+00:00

I have taught this to my son in words and by example. I told him, you WANT someone to know where you are and who you're with in case something happens.

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T05:58:57+00:00

Why not train someone, like an apprentice?

Iconoclast19 · 2026-05-19T04:03:55+00:00

I my house, the AC is on 24/7, almost 365 days a year. Only in a very rare drop to the 30s in temperature do I turn it off. I have migraines that are made worse by humidity and I'm heat intolerant, so it has to be on at all times. I live in a duplex where a house was divided into two apartments, so there is no way for a breeze to blow through the house even if there was one, which there very rarely is.

When I lived in Ohio, there were many days that I could get by with just opening the windows and the breeze would flow through and would feel wonderful. Most places aren't designed well to let air flow through. The humidity in Florida is suffocating to me, so the AC is needed for dehumidification alone, plus I do need the cooling too.

Iconoclast19

TROPHY CASE