Update for Everyone V: Born Under A Bad Sign

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Obviously, I'm happy about the Super Bowl results. I don't follow sports, so my biases are based on geography and history; New England beats out Atlanta in both regards for me.

Secondly, I'm in some weird fake flirt thing with two of my coworkers (best friends) who both pretend they're going to marry me. Weird. I'm hoping I don't get too attached to being treated like this before I graduate; in the past, such has led to my ruin.

I'm naturally nervous about my ability to complete my thesis. Outside of that, my semester'd be stress free as, despite taking 18 credits, this is really nothing I haven't done before, and my grad classes don't require much extra work.

I emailed an alumna who knows my professors and who works for the Michigan Gaming & Control Board. I've applied for 3 positions there within the past three months, and was wondering about the time table. Only information I've gotten back from her was that these things tend to take a while.

Reflections on Church Today: Due to the Superbowl, I opted to not go to my typical 9:00 PM Sunday mass on campus. I've missed the last two weeks, and this is possibly the first or second time since coming to school I've been a "regular" churchgoer, which is something I'd like to maintain. I instead walked a block or so north, past 6 Mile, to Gesu Catholic Church. The mass was led by one of the Jesuits from campus (I assume their being stationed here implies some contract with the parish); the homily was much more political than I'm used to--regarding the refugees and with a rather poignant set of readings--but due to the mic and the building's acoustics, he sounded like Gene Hackman, which was refreshing. I've only been there a few times before this, and the congregation was more diverse than I expected; my presumption was that it would be primarily African-American, but it seemed a rather even mix of both white and black. The norms of the parish struck me as notably different from the type of mass I typically go to. On campus, the setup loves to stress "community", so saying the Our Father involves leaving our seats and linking arms in the center of the room. However, in the real world, this manifestation of community spirit was evidenced through linking arms between sets of pews, and having people wander throughout the entire building to say "Peace of Christ be with you" (instead of "peace be with you"). Minor things, but jarring to an introvert such as myself. It prompted me to think about the nature of "community", and how it differed between different demographics, classes, and geographic areas.

[Mr. Smith]

Ironically, I skipped church today.

Kinda ended up oversleeping straight through it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I went to a church service for the first time today.

What Church is it? What's your prior background?

[Kingpoleon]

I went to a church service for the first time today.

What Church is it? What's your prior background?

I, too, am curious. The discussion of faith is always interesting to me.

[Lachi]

Why is school always so boring? I am just sitting here, with nothing to do, as I have already finished all of the stuff I needed to do.

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

I'm extremely irreligious, so I just find faith bizarre.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

A creepy, balded old guy was leering at me on the bus home today. 

Part of the reason I got so scared about him is that I ended up in an encounter with him before(about march or april of last year). He talking to me and he asked me whether I went to a particular school(probably other things as well, I think he mentioned "grandkids" at some point), I realized he probably had very unpleasant intentions, but of course it was after I answered the question. In hindsight, it was an attempt at grooming. A second time in that schoolyear, I saw him and I think I tried to hide in an upper part of the bus(My specific memory of these two events are hazy)

Back to today. He was staring at me. He would look around at things sometimes, but not in a "badly pretending you weren't leering" way. As I was getting visibly uncomfortable, and then visibly afraid, he just kept on, and when I moved up to the back of the bus(which had stairs up to them and were higher, among other things. And it was the very back.) he kept on looking. I moved to a different seat behind some random bigger guy to try to avoid him. The bastard still tried to crane his neck up at least once. Its important to recognize that everything about this guy said DANGER. I find it hard to explain with words exactly why he was so scary, but I don't want to know what he thinks about me. But I suspect that he got off to my fear, my look of terror. I'd say he wanted to rape me, but I think he wants even worse.


I'm still a bit shaken from it, but I'm calmer now.

[SATW]

A creepy, balded old guy was leering at me on the bus home today. 

Part of the reason I got so scared about him is that I ended up in an encounter with him before(about march or april of last year). He talking to me and he asked me whether I went to a particular school(probably other things as well, I think he mentioned "grandkids" at some point), I realized he probably had very unpleasant intentions, but of course it was after I answered the question. In hindsight, it was an attempt at grooming. A second time in that schoolyear, I saw him and I think I tried to hide in an upper part of the bus(My specific memory of these two events are hazy)

Back to today. He was staring at me. He would look around at things sometimes, but not in a "badly pretending you weren't leering" way. As I was getting visibly uncomfortable, and then visibly afraid, he just kept on, and when I moved up to the back of the bus(which had stairs up to them and were higher, among other things. And it was the very back.) he kept on looking. I moved to a different seat behind some random bigger guy to try to avoid him. The bastard still tried to crane his neck up at least once. Its important to recognize that everything about this guy said DANGER. I find it hard to explain with words exactly why he was so scary, but I don't want to know what he thinks about me. But I suspect that he got off to my fear, my look of terror. I'd say he wanted to rape me, but I think he wants even worse.


I'm still a bit shaken from it, but I'm calmer now.

Holy sh*t that sounds horrifying. Is there anyway to report these incidents? Do you know the driver of the bus? maybe he has a camera on the bus so you can spot him on there.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

A creepy, balded old guy was leering at me on the bus home today. 

Part of the reason I got so scared about him is that I ended up in an encounter with him before(about march or april of last year). He talking to me and he asked me whether I went to a particular school(probably other things as well, I think he mentioned "grandkids" at some point), I realized he probably had very unpleasant intentions, but of course it was after I answered the question. In hindsight, it was an attempt at grooming. A second time in that schoolyear, I saw him and I think I tried to hide in an upper part of the bus(My specific memory of these two events are hazy)

Back to today. He was staring at me. He would look around at things sometimes, but not in a "badly pretending you weren't leering" way. As I was getting visibly uncomfortable, and then visibly afraid, he just kept on, and when I moved up to the back of the bus(which had stairs up to them and were higher, among other things. And it was the very back.) he kept on looking. I moved to a different seat behind some random bigger guy to try to avoid him. The bastard still tried to crane his neck up at least once. Its important to recognize that everything about this guy said DANGER. I find it hard to explain with words exactly why he was so scary, but I don't want to know what he thinks about me. But I suspect that he got off to my fear, my look of terror. I'd say he wanted to rape me, but I think he wants even worse.


I'm still a bit shaken from it, but I'm calmer now.

Holy sh*t that sounds horrifying. Is there anyway to report these incidents? Do you know the driver of the bus? maybe he has a camera on the bus so you can spot him on there.

The bastard didn't break any laws. There's nothing that can be done.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Urgh. Sorry to hear that.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Urgh. Sorry to hear that.

^

[LLR]

That sounds really awful. You should tell an adult about it if you haven't already.

[Cassius]

Not a good situation to be in - I recommend, perhaps, that you take up some kind of self-defence, just in case the worst really does come to the worst. After all, it's not just good for this particular situation, but it'll stay with you for life and give you an extra skill.

[Crumpets]

Yikes. I guess the good thing is that there's not much he can do on the bus itself, as long as he doesn't know your stop or where you go from there. All the same, do you think you could get on an earlier bus or something?

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

Yikes. I guess the good thing is that there's not much he can do on the bus itself, as long as he doesn't know your stop or where you go from there. All the same, do you think you could get on an earlier bus or something?

I don't encounter him often. This was the third time in almost a year. Thinking about it from a calmer perspective, he could be dangerous, but he hasn't tried getting on at different times to be find when I usually get off or waited for my stop(yet). I'm fairly certain he'd do terrible things if he knew he could get away with it, but considering how he seemed to try to groom me at first and didn't bother following up after I realized what was going on and freaked out, he probably doesn't try to capture girls that he can't groom. Perhaps he thinks its too risky? He is old, and likely relies on coercion or drugs to do his "thing". But if I'd been just a bit more naive at that time and he was able to get close enough to become a "friend"...

I should still be ready to defend myself. I wonder how risky hiding a knife in my backpack would be?

[RaphaelDLG]

Yikes. I guess the good thing is that there's not much he can do on the bus itself, as long as he doesn't know your stop or where you go from there. All the same, do you think you could get on an earlier bus or something?

I don't encounter him often. This was the third time in almost a year. Thinking about it from a calmer perspective, he could be dangerous, but he hasn't tried getting on at different times to be find when I usually get off or waited for my stop(yet). I'm fairly certain he'd do terrible things if he knew he could get away with it, but considering how he seemed to try to groom me at first and didn't bother following up after I realized what was going on and freaked out, he probably doesn't try to capture girls that he can't groom. Perhaps he thinks its too risky? He is old, and likely relies on coercion or drugs to do his "thing". But if I'd been just a bit more naive at that time and he was able to get close enough to become a "friend"...

I should still be ready to defend myself. I wonder how risky hiding a knife in my backpack would be?

Get bear mace or pepper spray or something.  They have those on a keychain, that'd be more effective than a knife.

And I'd tell your parents immediately and try to switch buses immediately.

[DavidB.]

For the first time in my history on Atlas I now have a negative economic score on the Political Matrix. Started off as E 8.52 almost exactly two years ago.

At the same time, my social score is higher than ever.

[SATW]

For the first time in my history on Atlas I now have a negative economic score on the Political Matrix. Started off as E 8.52 almost exactly two years ago.

At the same time, my social score is higher than ever.

boooo. boooooooo

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Welcome to the dark side, DavidB. Where is your precious Flawless Beautiful Marco now?!

[DavidB.]

Welcome to the dark side, DavidB. Where is your precious Flawless Beautiful Marco now?!

The only right answer to that question is obviously Wainwright Park

[LLR]

For the first time in my history on Atlas I now have a negative economic score on the Political Matrix. Started off as E 8.52 almost exactly two years ago.

At the same time, my social score is higher than ever.

Getting smarter with age, I see.

[Cashew]

After going a few months without exercise, I decided to spend a few hours wandering around somewhat aimlessly at Lake Balboa Park. Now waiting for the tension headache to subside.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The band Yes makes me regret not having a stereo or headphones.

[LLR]

The band Yes makes me regret not having a stereo or headphones.

I've been listening to a lot of Yes recently as well, much to my dad's chagrin

[DavidB.]

Today is my vegetarianniversary.