In case I am no longer here. · 4:06am April 7th
Dear friends and readers,
When the time comes and when you come back to this blog, do not fear for me. Rejoice and be glad that I have returned to my Father's house. However, I pray for those who remain will be comforted for the tribulations ahead, that they may seek comfort in the darkest of days. If this site has taught me anything, it is that friendship surpasses all boundaries. So therefore, as a friend I am obligated to leave a message in case I am no longer active in this site.
Why I have written this is because I can no longer remain silent from what I have seen. You don't have to be religious to notice how much worse the world is slowly becoming. And with the signs I have been seeing slowly unfold before me, I feel it is imperative that I leave one (final) message should the worse come to pass. Don't be afraid, I am not dying nor do I intend to take my own life. However, life has a way of throwing the unexpected, only this time I fear that my time in this life will be drawing to a close. Friends of the Faith, you know of what I speak if you too saw the signs. I bid thee therefore to those left behind that you may find yourselves not in the path of self destruction but to redemption. All it takes is to let go the burden of sin and accept the lifeline provided. And while I do not believe that God shall "Rapture" his church before the end, it is only right to be prepared for such an event should I be proven wrong.
It has been a pleasure sharing my love for stories in this site. My only regret is that none of them may have a conclusion, or see the light of day. I will try to come up with a planned timeline for each of my posted fics as well as planned future stories for anyone interested in taking ownership in the future.
Your Friend,
Joe Toon, (self-proclaimed) Administrator of Toonworld
PS. Bear in mind that this is all to prepare any of you for the event that I may no longer be active in the site. It's not a call for help, it's just a heads up.
PPS. No, this is not a delayed April Fools joke, though it would be funny if I were to immediately vanish should the worst happen.
*Salutes with anime tears flowing* You will be missed, amigo.
Do not be afraid, God sends chastisement only for our correction because he loves us.
5775642
I'm not leaving yet but thanks. 😁
5775645
Okay, sorry about that.
The world is actually becoming better in all sorts of ways:
"We show that if solar photovoltaics, wind, batteries and hydrogen electrolyzers continue to follow their current exponentially increasing deployment trends for another decade, we achieve a near-net-zero emissions energy system within twenty-five years...our analysis indicates that a rapid green energy transition would likely generate considerable economic savings while also meeting the 1.5 degrees Paris Agreement target."
https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/publications/no-2021-01-empirically-grounded-technology-forecasts-and-the-energy-transition
Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don't believe it
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/12/1229891045/police-crime-baltimore-san-francisco-minneapolis-murder-statistics
Income inequality has been falling for a while now
https://www.slowboring.com/p/inequality-falling
This doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of bad stuff still going on, but we've managed to get rid of a lot of it and with hard work we can get rid of a lot more.
I pray that whatever situation you are in, God is with you and he loves each and every one of us.
Should the worst happen, I would be honored to take ownership of "The Sword in Equestria" fanfic to continue and finish making the story you made for us.
God bless you, Joe Toon.
5775655
If only I have your optimism, alas I cannot shake the feeling of something big about to happen.
My family has a long line of folks who can sense ill omen, and I've been feeling it for months now.
5775728
This isn’t a criticism of you, but big bad things happen all the time. If you're have a disposition to feel that bad things are going to happen soon, then the natural rate of big bad things happening will seemingly validate you, despite the two actually having no relation.
The media's focus on negative news (which brings more clicks) only serves to increase this. Meanwhile, positive big things typically happen much more slowly and thus don't get as much big stories. Despite the positive often outweighing the negative, these effects lead people to feel the reverse way around.
Perhaps you might benefit from subscribing to some substantial positive news newsletters. Two that I would recommend are Fix The News ( https://fixthenews.com ) and Squirrel News ( https://squirrel-news.net/newsletter ).
Good luck!
Please understand that the sentence is not smooth because I use a translator. I don't know what happened to you. I'm just a reader who has read your novel and opened up my imagination to look forward to the next episode. Certainly, the world these days is much worse than in the past, when it was relatively peaceful and stable. However, I hope you don't despair in such a world. As a believer of God who lives far from you, all I can say is always look up to the sky and don't give up. I hope you never give up like Paul, the apostle who was imprisoned, did, and Peter, who was working as a fisherman. I sincerely pray that peace and peace will always be with you in your day. I'll wait for your return.
To give you one piece of advice, please stop listening to fearmongers and liars. Media benefits from keeping people in a constant cycle of fear and outrage, most of it is based on nonsense. Despite what is commonly believed, the world is not getting worse, the past was not better. Think about how it would be like to live in ancient times, your life expectancy was short, medicine was often times useless and violence and war ruled the day. Powerful people could do what they please and children were often forced into arranged marriages with adults without any protection from the law.
It may seem like there is not stop violence and other evil things happening in the world, but that is because we are more connected to what happens in every part of the world due to the internet. While in the past people in one town might not be aware what happens in a number town in the same country if they were not very close. Because of that people might of had the illusion that there was less violence in the past. But in reality, the opposite is true. But there is still violence and crime because humanity has always been crappy, it is not new for this era. But it is just more obvious now due to our technology and because things getting worse is the narrative the media wants to sell you. It's honestly the reason I refuse to engage with politics in modern times, it's all designed to corrupt you.
Also consider this, Christians have believed that they live in the end of days for over 2000 years. It was originally believed that Jesus would return in the lifetime of the original apostles and every generation since have believed the end times are now. Of course I could be wrong but for all we know the end times could not be for another 2000 years. To quote Mark 13: 32: "But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven's angels, not even the Son. Only the Father." Yet many humans still claim to know for sure what they cannot possibly know. One piece of advice, do not follow blindly those who use spirituality as a tool to increase their own power. But rather those who has genuine empathy for even the worst among us.
I hope my words have helped you in any way. And if you ever think of ending it yourself, don't.