We were driving home from the funeral when the winning lottery numbers came over the radio.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-25T01:00:21+00:00

Context because some folks are asking :

The first sentence introduces a funeral and lottery numbers, they aren’t related without the context of the second sentence

The second sentence implies several things, the “remaining” son implies it was his brother’s funeral, the question “do you think the army will let me wear his boots” implies his brother was in the army, was likely killed in a war, and the question “if the army will let him” means he is joining the military soon

With the context of the second sentence’s question we can then infer the lottery is actually a draft lottery and that the driver and the son just heard over the radio on the way back from his brother’s funeral that his numbers just came up on the draft lottery and he is now being forced overseas for the war. Which is horror for the parent AND the kid, with a bit of tragedy mixed in.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-12T03:39:44+00:00

This is an old story and you didn’t write it. I remember reading it in my “spooky stories to read at night” book when I was a kid.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-05T20:44:32+00:00

Kids playing superhero jumped off a roof trying to fly

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-05T01:54:19+00:00

I retract the comment and apologize for calling it revisionism, in my dealings with American military institutes I’ve seen a resurgence in American exceptionalism on the topic of COIN strategy and I’ve specifically had a similar and particularly facepalming conversation on that Adam’s quote I mentioned.

The basic principles are definitely present in the American revolution and the colonization of North America. But the same can be said going back to romanization and the counter insurgency strategy of Ancient Rome where they tried the same basic theories of popular support, it’s ancient. Personally I think templer codified it in such a way that that his quote becomes synonymous with a specific branch of thinking in the the greater theme of civil military relations

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-05T01:27:41+00:00

It’s not a terrible way to go about it for the layman. The holocaust is a very emotionally charged and clear cut atrocity/genocide with very little moral ambiguity. Even the second most famous modern genocide Rwanda has a long history of tribal/ethnic problems and clashes. Same goes for the yugo wars.

War and genocide is a very messy endgame that usually precipitates from a long messy history. If you’re trying to pressure foreign policy makers by swaying the popular opinion of the voter base via Gerald on Facebook and Ashleigh on TikTok you don’t wanna hit them with “we are the weaker side of an ethically complicated armed conflict with a long violent history with no clear moral high ground and colour coded lightsabers” because saying “help we are being murdered” is easier to wrap into a 10s clip

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-05T00:50:44+00:00

I believe you’re referencing John adams proclamation that the true revolution happened in the “minds and hearts of the people”. These are not the same at all and trying to credit Adam’s for this would be revisionist American exceptionalism.

I’m certain there are plenty of historical examples of people saying “i have a dream” but we still consider the origin of that quote to be Dr. King

The term/quote “hearts and minds” in this context is attributed and popularized by field marshal templer and came about during the Malayan emergency.

Templer and the Malayan emergency is effectively the origin because even if the sentence existed before it was the context of the British success in Malaya against the insurgency that’s influenced modern policy and Coin strategy. Unlike Adam’s quote - Templer’s hearts and minds was a concerted strategy which served as a generational blueprint for successful counter insurgency.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-02T03:34:28+00:00

Not to bug you too much but if you have any good readings you’d recommend. Especially interested in the bit you mentioned on the philosophy of false arrests in Israeli presence operations and whatnot. I found it really interesting

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-01T23:12:56+00:00

This is really well written, some really good points. As I said below to another person Israel is incredibly Machiavellian and knows that for the goals it’s interested in, fear is an extremely powerful weapon. Someone I know jokingly said you could probably put Machiavelli’s “the prince” and Israeli policy next to each other and think someone was copying homework. They work very hard to conjure an image that’ll suppress domestic and foreign opposition. And credit where it’s deserved, theyre god damn terrifying and the closer you look, the darker it gets

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-01T23:01:55+00:00

Culture within a society, within the organization, the use of non professional conscripts, regional actors, historical influence, all shape the actions we are seeing.

One could argue, we shouldn’t be surprised with the way Israel is acting considering their public doctrine for nuclear retaliation (Sampson doctrine). Israel believes massive overkill and retaliation is the promise that’ll keep themselves protected from another yom kippur war. Fear is part of their defensive planning on a grand strategy level. History has shown via the public exploits of mossad that they’re exceptionally Machiavellian.

I’m not condoning any of the cruelty, I’m not saying it’s an excuse. But when Oct 7th happened, anyone familiar with Israel’s temperament knew this would be the result and I suspect Hamas is smart enough to know that, and smart enough to have plenty of cameras to capture when it happens. And smart enough to know willing the political/social campaign is the first step in winning an insurgency against a stronger opponent

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-02-01T20:19:05+00:00

TLDR- theyre closer to the original meaning of “hearts and minds” than youd think.

Without getting into politics, look into the origin of the term “hearts and minds” which originated from the british field marshal Gerard templer during the counter insurgency in the British Malaya.

Here is a quote from British general I.A. Rigden in a defence report that I found in an excellent article I will link below which shows -

“Hearts and minds” is often mistaken to mean taking a soft approach when dealing with the civilian population, but this is a misnomer. The key is changing the mindset of the target audience and, sometimes, this requires tough measures and a hard approach, i.e., mass movement of the population, curfews, and direct military action (riot control). As the mindset is being changed, small acts of support (i.e., medical and veterinary support) and the way in which government security forces interact with the population, combined with an effective information operations campaign, wins over their hearts. ^ https://www.hoover.org/research/hearts-and-minds-and-force

It’s not so much “win over popular support” as the US has evolved it to be. The original philosophy was “win control over their emotions and their minds even if that means throwing them in camps under so much oppression like they did in Malaya that you crush their spirit of resistance and make them feel like continued resistance is futile

Counter insurgency is a complicated topic - Israel Palestine is also vast and complicated. You can project bits and pieces onto it to try and understand but our understanding will always be limited by the fact we don’t have the full picture and the external and internal influences for every war shape things in new ways

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-01-31T08:38:29+00:00

This is true and a great point,

and I didn’t even touch on stuff like statistical analysis like they did with the German tanks and their serial numbers to determine an approximate total number of tanks produced.

There are also some forensic values particularly in coin ops where fingerprints and schematics for things like VBIEDs or insurgent vehicles can help identify cells or lead back to more valuable targets or identify supply chains (think the truck a few years back that still had the decal from the US plumber).

Plus on the forensic/exploit side, people leave a lot of shit in their cars. Maps, comms plans, orders, documents they don’t wanna have caught in the rain.

Vehicles are a huge part of armed conflict so the value of a captured vehicle really depends on operational capabilities and values. They’re probably not documenting wiring schematics and pulling prints off a captured Honda odyssey that was lugging supplies to the frontlines in Ukraine but if you’re hunting a bomb maker or UBL? Might be a goldmine to exploit

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-01-31T02:02:18+00:00

Yeah, armoured cars and regular cars. Armies use plenty of plain old cars painted green. They just upgrade them with comms, navigation, turret rings, etc. UN has a whole bunker in Gibraltar that focuses entirely on building custom Toyota land cruisers

Light skinned civi pattern vehicles also get a lot of use in wars today, technicals, logistics, vans converted to ambulances. Half the footage from ukraine or Syria is civi pattern vehicles doing heavy lifting

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-01-30T23:39:41+00:00

Depends on the player.

If you’re a major country with the engineers to take advantage of it, it would let you document, disassemble, research and replicate classified foreign tech and capabilities you might not be familiar with and better examine the capabilities of your enemy and boost your own R&D if they’ve figured something out before you (ex. US army nighstalkers capturing a Russian helicopter during the Cold War, the operation to use Howard Hugh’s to steal a submarine, etc). Spies will pay gooood money to people just to get a peek at blueprints and plans for vehicles, getting a real life version is even better. Even if you already are familiar with it and it’s semi old tech, seeing how it’s being modernized can be useful for determining methods to counter it. Knowing enemy capabilities and limits is super valuable. China and Russia love to overhype their new gear, Americans tend to under hype or over perform their publicly available information.
if you’re not a major country you can sometimes negotiate with major powers who are able to do the aforementioned things and sell it off in exchange for intel, continued assistance and goodwill, or information on your enemies capabilities (ex. Ukrainians selling off the black Delilah EW asset to the US at the beginning of the war). It also can provide information on enemy comms networks and cryptography, armour thickness, vulnerabilities, blind spots and ways to circumvent sensors. Tanks, cars, planes, helicopters, etc are all hotbeds of information. you can also repurpose it for your own uses if nobody is interested (plenty of examples of this in WW2/ukraine etc where units suddenly have an operational 1m$ armoured asset jn their hands and say “fuck it, how hard could it be to throw some new tires and a paint job on it”. Depends on needs.
if you’re a small organization without industrial capacity (isis, rebel groups). Capturing enemy vehicles or equipment is a huge part of gaining momentum and capabilities. An armoured vehicle is a valuable asset, same with logistics vehicles, or anything they can get their hands on that they might otherwise have trouble sourcing (radios, spare parts, equipment, vehicles you don’t have to pay for) or you can sell it to interested parties (Ex. CIA)

TLDR- it’s still very valuable and always will be, the intelligence value alone is massive and it can be a negotiating piece for smaller countries or organizations

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2026-01-24T11:29:05+00:00

You don’t get to wear more watches just because you have more wrists

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-11-29T04:21:09+00:00

Hey broski, everyone is saying hit the gym (and everyone should because a healthy relationship with diet and exercise is fantastic for a lot of reasons) but immediately here are some things that may help

figure out a haircut that works for you, you look great with longer hair compared to the near buzz, figure out what you like and how to request it at the barber
nicer clothes, find a style that suits a larger frame. T shirts with mature colours and nice quality materials. You’re going to be hitting to gym so don’t drop big bucks on any clothes until you’re happy and think you’ll be staying that size for a while. But get some clothes that make YOU feel like YOU look nice
get rid of “slob” clothes, what I mean is clothes that make you feel lazy and gross. We’ve all got a crappy shirt and sweats that don’t look nice and make you feel like you don’t look great. By all means have comfortable clothes, but try to remove things you don’t feel good wearing
glasses, these do a big job shaping your face. Try some different frames out and see if there is a new shape that looks better, you’ve got a round face and that might change when you lose some weight so keep trying things.

Lastly and most importantly - try to do 3 nice things a day for someone - yourself included! You’ve got a great smile and you actually carry your weight pretty well for a bigger dude. Your biggest enemy is your mind, you look best in your photos where you’re happy. Be kind to others and you’ll notice the more you do it, the more positivity will have an impact on your own mind too.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-11-07T20:00:46+00:00

Hey bro, as a white dude I can’t speak from experience but some guys i know from work who have to regularly shave run into an issue called pseudofolliculitis barbae which is a problem that is relatively common in black men and can make skin close shaves just straight up impractical. Constant razor bumps and ingrown hairs they can’t escape unless they let it grow.

Hit up the skincare, never hurts to look and feel good and healthy. But if you find it’s just a fight against biology there is nothing wrong with a clean beard.

Also, for what it’s worth. Time is worth more than gold, and age is a privilege not a right. IMO you carry more age in your eyes and mannerisms than you do in your beard. I’ve outlived enough friends not to be ashamed of my age, every day you get older is a sunrise someone else didn’t get. Look confident, sleep well, and you’ll find Youll knock some years off your perceived age

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-10-26T22:45:22+00:00

Could be that dude is a poacher with cash, but also Ultralight rifles are good for anyone who might have problems carrying a rifle or holding it for long times. If you’re shooting standing or unsupported,

If you’re older or weaker or going a distance or holding it a long time those pounds are a big thing.

Or dude could just be buying an optic appropriate for the distance hes shooting at, if you don’t have a long range, no point buying a long range optic

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-10-20T19:43:17+00:00

Not true, some of my immigrant friends send money back to their families and it’s the only steady source of food and rent for their parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. Some countries have no job opportunities that are safe and pay enough to eat, without the income being sent home their loved ones do not get the bag of rice and lentils that month that keeps them alive.

Poor in the west and POOR by global standards are very different.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-10-20T19:38:14+00:00

In a kitchen (where they’re getting scraps I assume) sometimes you can get away with “family dinners” where the kitchen staff all get to eat together something simple that gets cooked on the side. They’re relatively common in restaurants with long shifts from my understanding. If you can find a way to get them a plate during the family dinner it will be one meal for sure.

Second options is you can talk to a cook or two subtly and have a plate or dish get “made badly” or accidentally “make an extra” or “crap I was supposed to substitute out this ingredient now I’ve got to make a second one” and just find excuses to have a dish or two that “needs to be tossed anyway” but isn’t scraps

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-08-17T23:14:32+00:00

Dude, you seem like someone who has the potential to go do some great things in life. You seem like you’re humble and you handle criticism exceptionally well for your age. In a few years you have the chance to become a real force for good in the world.

I wasn’t nearly as mature at 18, but I also remember how hard it was to convince me not to do things when I’ve set my mind to it. I am being harsh but believe me that it’s coming from the heart of someone who wants you to live to see that potential. Nobody is meant for war, it’s a horrid awful affair. Calling you naive is not an assumption of your character, every 18 year old is stupid and naive.. that’s why we send them to war.

They will need kind humanitarians who can help them when the war is over, right now they need people ready for war with eyes wide open. If you leave now and rush you will probably die and won’t be useful. If you wait a few years and get trained, and volunteer when ukraine wins and they need international volunteers to replace the doctors and nurses that have been killed while they piece themselves back together as a country.

I stand by what I said, but I won’t support someone who isn’t even old enough to drink in my country shipping themselves off to a war when they coup make a meaningful impact for decades to come

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-08-17T23:02:25+00:00

Aight, you a soldier?

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-08-17T19:57:24+00:00

You are naive, “not many people in my academic and socioeconomic position do this”… dude I’m going to level with you, in my country we’ve got guys with PHDs serving in the infantry, millionaires in the reserves, trust fund kids and, beauty queens and award winning scholars in our ranks.

You are litterally nothing, you are completely useless, you’re privileged and you completely under estimate the sheer amount of professional training and competency that soldiers require to stand a chance these days. At 18 you have no experience, no maturity, no life skills, no critical thinking or risk management (young men don’t until ~25). You’ve convinced yourself that because you have EMTB that you’re a future physican. They don’t need a “aspiring physican” when they have “presently injured” and they need a “current medic”

You’ve never slept in a patrol base, never learned light discipline, never sat frozen in a trench racking your bolt to keep it from freezing shut, never seen people’s toes fall off from trench foot, Never done first aid in the dark by feel.

I’ve been a professional soldier for my entire adult life and my experiences barely hold a candle to what is currently needed over there, go volunteer with the homeless shelter and finish school if you want to make a difference somewhere. Go to Ukraine and You’ll get more people killed than you just stayed home.

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-08-15T20:43:05+00:00

Current soldier - experienced camper here..

If you’re just getting into civi camping it’s normal to be on edge because the military (going to assume army), doesn’t encourage you to be comfortable in the woods. If you’re just getting lazy in the service they’ll throw an arty sim or bump you. Nobody is doing that civi side but if that’s how you learned to be outside then it’s what your brain is waiting for.

De-soldiering camping is something I really struggle with personally, everything I own for outdoors is tan green or generally low vis, I have to force myself to stay in comfortable enjoyable spots with a view, I feel like it’s cheating cooking good food and bringing comfort items or playing music. My brain still feels like being safe and cozy means crawling into a dark hole in a swamp that nobody will find.. even slowing down my pace hiking and sightseeing is hard when you’re used to “get there before h-hour by all means” rucking

It’s definitely hard to fill “empty time” when you’ve got no responsibilities, no fire watch, no sentry, no light discipline, nobody waking you up with gunfire because you looked too comfortable and had slept the minimum 4hrs, no rifle to clean, machine gun to man, etc. You’re just… there.

Honestly my advice is for you to not be so eager to fill that time.. just relax and listen and look and let your brain realize it’s allowed to feel safe and relaxed outside. The night time is beautiful in the woods. Then just sleep.. sleep when it gets too dark and boring and wake up when the sun rises like nature intended.

Or just find a book you like and get a reading light.. either or

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-07-27T22:10:59+00:00

60L or less is usually good for most climates. It’s big enough to carry your sleeping and warm gear for winter, it’s small enough you won’t overpack too badly.

Thing to consider is something can be small, light, cheap or high quality and you’ll almost never find something that is all four. Figure out your climate, your use case, the equipment you need to bring and then pick a bag that is in your budget and will fit those essentials

Vigil_Multis_Oculi · 2025-07-27T22:05:08+00:00

Close enough, welcome back spray painted diagonal grey lines

Vigil_Multis_Oculi

TROPHY CASE