i was at an ethnic supermarket to pick up some sweet sugary mexican sodas, at the checkout there was a young blonde woman working the register. if i were to guess she had just graduated high school, and was to be going into college soon. she had 8x12 paper scattered all over the counter "what's all this?" i asked. she blushed and told me to never mind it. glancing through the disorganized mess i gathered it was a story she had been writing. "oh, can i read this?" i asked "yeah like for a 100 bucks!" she joked. "hang on, i have something better.." i walk out to my car and return back in with an 8 pack of an off-brand energy drink, one i had leftover from when i was working within the confines of a MLM scheme. she was more excited to accept this offering than i thought she would be, and let me read the story. i struggled to sort the pages back in order, some of them didn't even pertain to the story itself but were just concept maps or long lists of phrases she enjoyed the flow of. off over in the rice aisle a couple of dudes were passionately making out, awkwardly and aggressively walking around as they did the deed, making sure as many people would notice them as possible. i look towards the blonde girl, point at them, and make that one stupid expression with my eyebrows. she sighs: "yeah, what can you do?" i shake my head, "and they're doing this with all this covid stuff going on too? i mean sheesh.." after getting the story in order i read two pages before deciding it isn't any good "this is great!" i said, "i'll bring it back to you tomorrow when i'm finished with it" i walked out of the store with no mexican soda, and no intent of ever returning the story. i was doing her a favor. instead of driving home i decided to go for a lindywalk on the opposite side of town, i felt like hiking the beautiful green wooded hills which look great during this time of early spring. storm clouds were gathering, and that made me all the more excited for the walk. i made it to the top of one of the highest hills, but at that time the storm hit much harder than i expected it to. with strong rainfall and even stronger winds, the ground quickly muddied and eroded beneath me, and i struggled not to slide down the slope. i decided to set out to find a more covered area where i could sit and dry for a while, so i wandered down into the woods. i didn't go very far in before out from the shade, a wolf and a sheep approached me at a moderate pace. the wolf was fierece, intimidating, growling as it locked eyes with me, while the sheep was walking backwards. "which fate would you rather suffer?" the wolf asks me "the shit of the sheep, or the bite of the wolf?" dumbfounded, i don't speak "...do you want your face shit on, or would you rather have a gash on your thigh?" i sidestep to my left in attempt to escape both fates. much like the retard i am, i am slowly and silently sidestepping, thinking if the wolf doesn't hear me speak or step, it won't realize i'm trying to escape. the wolf is staring right at me the entire time i'm slowly sneaking away. "this is working" i think to myself. in an instant, the wolf pounces incredibly high and far and blocks my path, and at this moment my hopes of escape are shattered. i realize there's no use in trying to run. "so you have decided you'll take the bite of the wolf" "...yeah, that's the one i was probably going to pick anyway"

[email protected] Alright I’ll probably write a text wall about this so sorry, but lain is probably one of the best shows of the last 25 years. Incoming obligatory pretentious 2deep4u lain essay: It correctly predicted the expansion of the internet into most first world homes in the 2000s and also so many of the problems and aberrant social norms that have come forth from the rapid advancement of and connection to the internet that it legitimately scares me. You have to watch it with that in mind at first, but you must also pay attention to the story it’s trying to tell and what it’s trying to say about human nature. Lain can be interpreted in many different ways, and none are necessarily wrong or right, but at its core lain to me is about the intrinsic human characteristic of being able to hide our real selves behind a veil and our ability to have many slightly or vastly different personalities that we switch between depending on our company, further elaborating on how we manage those personalities and which of those personalities are the “real” us. Furthermore, it narrates how the internet will more easily allow that behavior. It predicted things like social media, where it shows representations of different “wired” versions of people that act differently than their real life counterparts just because they assume that the wired and real world are not linked, when in reality, the wired(the internet) is just as real as the real world. It provides commentary on what it thinks the mass human psyche online will be and the naive idea that the internet is not real and cannot affect real life(this was even more prevalent of an idea when lain was created, we would later find out that the internet is just as real as irl and has very real consequences). The show even delves into whether anyone can even be completely anonymous online. Even past that it incorporates a narrative on creation, morality, ethics, the human psyche being affected by other people and sites online, etc. etc. That may sound boring, and you may find the show boring, but it’s a really worthwhile watch if you’re interested in that shit. Plus there’s a really good story once you understand it. Again, my apologies for the essay lol.