Shit is happening

[Kosheh]

uhh, just to put into perspective

you see, the bar we went to see this concert at was 150m away from la belle équipe, but we kinda got lost on our way to it
we were walking down the rue de charonne -heading towards la belle équipe- but like 30-50m before getting there i noticed we had gotten too far and we turned around

for those who weren't glued to their televisions the whole time grabbing every last detail

"La belle équipe", a very popular bistro, was one of the attackers' targets. The attackers wore suicide bomb jackets and also had concealed firearms (like the storming of the concert hall); and they originally were trying to get seats in the restaurant to "dine in" and then wreak havoc as planned. however, it turns out that La belle équipe was filled to the maximum and they were unable to enter. So they went with Plan B: Open fire outside the restaurant (and the rest of the street) instead. Once they finished, they headed down the street to the Charrone station.

tl;dr Things could have actually been much, much worse, as La belle équipe was at max capacity. but I'm starting to think the people who organized this didn't have very well-thought out backup plans (see also: the stadium suicide bombings that resulted in...one civilian death total. As opposed to the completely full stadium)

I didn't find out until I spoke to Lexou that the bar he was at was literally adjacent to La belle équipe. In other words, Lexou was extremely close to the incident. I'm still like completely shocked.

Which, out of curiosity, Lexou - is France still in a state of emergency? Are the French borders still closed?
I seem to recall hearing that there were eight attackers tied to the attacks, but I can't remember if they said they were all apprehended/killed yet.

oh, also, news update:

I'm hoping the French government is able to narrow down who's behind this and deal with it accordingly. But yeah, man - my thoughts and prayers are going out to you and yours. :/

Currently, Daesh (which you guys might have heard them call themselves "Islamic State") took credit for the attacks. France's president since has said "We will be merciless in the fight against Daesh" so
might be a good ass kickin' or two in the Middle East. the only thing is, this is kind of a tough battle to fight as it's not a battle of strength and power, but rather, it's a battle of ideologies