u/xCosmicChaosx

Hi everyone,

I've been doing genealogy, both for my own family as well as for clients, for the past 10 years. I'm super passionate about history and research, and I absolutely love going through primary documents to put together a picture of a family's history. I'm wanting to offer this service to people here in Alameda, now, as well!

I primarily work with North American and Western European family histories, with some background on Mexican and Central American families as well. I utilize a mixture of public and private resources to track down family histories putting an emphasis on primary documentation. A huge problem with genealogy online now is a lack of proper vetting and supporting documentation for claims - that's why I prioritize compiling information based on primary sources and established research, so that the information I present can be presented with confidence.

I charge by hour of successful research - meaning if nothing of note is found in the hour, I don't charge you for it. I can focus on specific questions you may have about your family, or even just give a general outline of your background and history. The end result of my research is a family tree file which can be imported to any tree viewer, copies of primary documents, and any notes I am able to compile along the way.

I currently charge $25/hour, with deals for multiple hours of research or special projects. If you are interested, feel free to comment or reach out! I am happy to give a free consultation about the project you may be interested in, or to hear about your specific family case.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hi all,

I've always been very interested in historical linguistics and on the early spread of Indo-European peoples and cultures, but one blind-spot I have is for the early history of Indo-Iranian culture. I am wanting to read more about this ethno-linguistic-cultural group - especially from an archeological and comparative studies point of view. I'm particularly interested in early migrations and religio-cultural reconstruction. If you have any recommended readings on this, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you in advance!

Hi all,

I've always been very interested in historical linguistics and on the early spread of Indo-European peoples and cultures, but one blind-spot I have is for the early history of Indo-Iranian culture. I am wanting to read more about this ethno-linguistic-cultural group - especially from an archeological and comparative studies point of view. I'm particularly interested in early migrations and religio-cultural reconstruction. If you have any recommended readings on this, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you in advance!

Hi all,

This has been a really tough situation to deal with, and I really hope you guys could offer me some advice around this. My grandmother (78) has been struggling financially for a while, and has been struggling with loneliness for even longer. Me and the rest of my family have differing opinions about how much her age and cognitive reliability plays a factor, but we all agree that we are worried about it.

In December, she decided to join a Christian dating app to try to meet someone after feeling like God told her she would. In January, she met someone on their who she seemed to have really hit it off with - despite her being 10 years older than him. He claimed that he was a nuclear engineer working at the Nevada National Security Site and that this prevented him from making video or voice calls - he could only text. Her church friends also warned her against him, as they said his texts sounded like they were AI generated. Of course, she didn't listen to this and was absolutely confident he was real - more than that, she was confident that God told her that he was.

Fast forward to this month. They have been talking this entire time. She still has never met this person, never voice called, never facetimed etc. He goes multiple days with no reply often, and then makes up an excuse for why - she always believes it. He even primarily texts back in the middle of the night, but my grandmother is convinced that he just works late and hard. We have tried to talk about it multiple times over the past few months, but she won't have it - she also has stated that he never asks for money, and that what she gets out of their interactions emotionally is more important to her than whether or not it's "real". She is so invested in this, that they apparently talk frequently about getting married once he retires this summer and comes out to visit.

Recently me and some other family members decided to dig a bit deeper. We knew that she had photos of him on her computer, and that she claims he sent a picture of his license and passport over text at some point. I know it's wrong, but in our concern for her we looked for these photos on her laptop and ipad. We found a lot of photos he sent, all generic but not inauthentic looking, and a picture of his supposed drivers license and passport. The license is fake or expired, as when we searched it up it didn't return.

We did come across a screenshot of his facebook - and when we looked into it, it was clear that it was a hacked account. After a handful of years, the account posts exclusively in Spanish and makes posts about their grandchildren (he claims to have no kids) and the people who comment use feminine gendered words towards the poster of the account - the last post before going dark for 4 years was a post saying that they didn't know what was happening with their account. I also attempted to call the phone number, but it wouldn't even ring (I got an automatic recording saying this number is not in service, so I suspect the number is spoofed). But it got worse.

While looking for the pictures we came across text where he claimed one of his expensive pieces of equipment broke, and asked my grandmother to loan him something like 14k. He showed an obviously photo shopped picture of a wad of cash and his name, and claimed that he was only allowed to carry cash with his work and that he could give it all back to her when he sees her this summer. She didn't have the money to give, so thankfully she didn't send anything.

We also found a tax document from a legal company called LegalZoom and titled in his name. At first, we didn't look into it - but then we found that as early as March he was asking her to set up an LLC in her name and open a bank account under it for him to "deposit his retirement bonuses into for when they get married this summer". Apparently she did so, and she did so despite over 3 banks and at least one attorney telling her that it was likely a scam and that she was in danger doing so. She didn't believe them. So, I looked at the tax document and found it wasn't a tax document at all but an invoice for services for the LLC she created - when I looked it up, what do you know, it was registered in her name with her address - she opened a bank account with it, got an EIN, and shared all of it with this stranger. Obviously, this set off major alarms for us.

The next day I confronted her about it. I've been helping her try to figure out her financial situation, so I was able to use the suspicious charge to LegalZoom as an excuse to know. She admitted to it all (except still claiming he never asked her for money or to buy anything for him). I showed her the facebook, the invalid license, and how the number wasn't real. She got really defensive and basically broke down. We had a verrry long day with it -her claiming that life doesn't feel worth living and that this was her last chance at happiness, and that she didn't understand how someone could lie to her for that long and feel so authentic and "know the real her". She agreed to dismantle the LLC, but wasn't ready to accept the he wasn't real yet - she kept saying "I just want to see for sure first".

Within a day or two, she completely flipped again. She told the scammer that we had confronted her about the LLC and that we were grilling her about it, and he justified it and tried to assure her of its legitimacy. She now fully believes him again, refuses to shut down the LLC or cancel anything, and gets very defensive towards any of us asking anything (she has mentioned multiple times that I 'keep grilling her about the LLC' after following up with her about it only once).

We are at a loss. We are very worried for her. We tried contacting the police, but they said since she isn't cooperative they can't forcefully investigate it. We decided not to file an official report yet because we worry it will only entrench her for no actual end since its unlikely she will cooperate. We are trying to find out what bank she opened an account under the LLC with so that we can notify them, and we are thinking of filing a complaint with the IC3 and FTC but are worried that they both would go nowhere.

We are just really worried, scared, and at a loss for what to do. Any advice or wisdom would be greatly appreciated right now.

I recognize that this is not important to most religious believers, but for the subset that it might apply I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Essentially, I believe that Hard Polytheism is untenable as it currently stands as it asserts the primary ontology of multiple distinct divine beings without providing any way to discern the distinction of those divine beings.

A1: Human concepts and understandings of deities are historically and culturally contingent

A2: Religious traditions evolve through divergence, syncretism. reinterpretation etc

A3: Hard Polytheism asserts the existence of multiple ontologically distinct divine beings

A4: To assert that two divine beings are distinct requires criteria for distinguishing them ontologically

P1: Historically related religious and spiritual traditions naturally diverge substantially in attributes, narratives, roles, and identities

P2: There is no non-arbitrary way to distinguish when a historically related deity is either the same deity, different beings all together, or differing manifestations of one being

C1: Hard polytheism thus lacks stable criteria for differentiating divine beings from one another - attempts to do so lead either to arbitrary demarcations or collapsing into soft polytheism

To illustrate this problem, consider the split in Germanic beliefs of one of their gods. In Old Norse, the god Odin is historically tied to Anglo-Saxon Wotan and Old High German Wuotan. The Hard Polytheist is left to decide whether or not these are the same being with different cultural interpretations, or whether or not they are distinct beings. If they chose to say they are distinct beings, then they would need some criteria to define them as such. They would then be left with the problem of:

1. Were these beings always distinct? If yes, why were they once understood as one god? If no, how can they by ontologically primary?
2. How can you be sure that any god you believe in is not a convolution of multiple distinct beings, or rather is a derivative of one distinct being?

If they choose to say they are not distinct beings, then they are left with a different problem: how do you determine that they are the same being while other beings are not? I could draw on a stark example in this case: The germanic god Tyr, the Greek god Zeus, and the Vedic god Dyaus. All of these gods come from the same source, yet they occupy exceptionally different roles, imagery, and cults. In my experience, the hard polytheist is much quicker to differentiate these gods as distinct entities, yet they have the same connective background as the Wotan/Odin example above.

Hi all,

I have DNF'd the last three books I read, and im struggling to pick what I should read next.

Book 1: The Three Body Problem - after reading Project Hail Mary and liking it, I thought I would like this as it was suggested to me by many people. I was after a very specific feeling, and this book didnt deliver on that. But moreso, I just found the whole book boring and flat, with plot points that I found uninteresting. I DNF'd at 70% completion.

Book 2: The Hobit - i decided maybe I needed to stick to fantasy for now, but the last book I just completed before attempting 3BP was Memories of Ice. I absolutely loved that book, but with how thick it was and how heavy the content was, I was looking for something a bit lighter and easier, maybe even cozy. I discovered that I went too far the other way, as this book also was incredibly tedious to me because I found it too uninteresting/kids focused (which makes sense). I DNF'd after 37%

Book 3: Shadow of the God's - I decided I would try a middle ground and find something serious and entertaining, but not too dark and heavy nor too long. After really enjoying the Licanius Trilogy earlier this year I thought another trilogy would be a good move. But man, I am currently 27% through this book and it is just not hitting for me. The world is incredibly unimaginative so far, and the shoe horn of a hyper viking aesthetic onto everything just is not fun. I enjoy Norse mythology and medieval Scandinavia (i even studied Old Norse for a while in college), but this just feels like viking fan fiction. I am over a quarter of the way through this book and there feels to be no direction.

So now im not sure what to do. Im currently reading a non-fiction book and am having a great time with it, but I'd also like to keep a fiction book running (preferably fantasy). Some books I have really liked this year are: Licanius Trilogy, Malazan books 2+3, project hail mary - all for different reasons. The reason I liked Licanius is because I really enjoyed Caedens character, the plot twists, and the weird time travel stuff. I adored Malazan because of the absolute scope of the world and feeling like I was experiencing the events alongside the characters. And the reason I enjoyed project hail mary was actually because of the tension around Blip A when its first introduced - then the rest of the book just felt like a fun ride along.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated!

Title. I used the version from Myrient, but its the wrong version and so doesn't have any title updates.