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june2734 · 3 years

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The Short Lived Golden Age of Nerdy Web Shows

There was a time between the years of, let's say, 2007 to 2015 that I like to call the golden age of nerdy web shows. It consisted of a lot of small low to no budget productions that had a lot of heart, the kind you just don't see very often anymore for some reason. Many of these show have found a dedicated home on streaming services like The Fantasy Network, some have even gained enough steam to be featured on big name services like Netflix and Amazon like The Guild and LARPs The series respectively. I'm not exactly sure why the web show trend died out so hard, maybe the crowds just aren't there for them anymore like they use to be with some many pieces of high budget productions on streaming services vying for their attention. Every once and a while I'll jump onto Google to try and find new web shows that have that same heart and feel but rarely if ever do I come up with anything. As far as I can tell the only place new nerdy low to mid budget web shows or films gets any attention is at GenCon or small streaming services like The Fantasy Network. Who knows if there will ever be another nerdy heartfelt web show created that captures the spirit of those old series I hold so dear to my heart, but regardless if it happens or not I'd like to bring some attention to a few of my favorites. They may be old by the standards of the internet and maybe even cheesy by today's standards, but I really think they were something special and if you give them a shot maybe you'll think so too. If you have any others that you think would fit in with shows like this feel free to let me know.

The Gamers: Hands Of Fate

Zombie Orpheus Entertainment use to be one of my favorite channels for nerdy fantasy related content back in the day. You could always see the quality and passion that they put into every piece of content they out out on their channel. They're still around today but they've shifted their focus to other ventures such as the ever popular trend of live streaming table top games rather then making scripted content. That being said their old stuff is still well worth a watch and The Gamers series, particularly The Gamers: Hands of Fate, is some of their best work they’ve ever put out. The series centers around a group of table top gamers(the same that can be found in most of the other The Gamers creations by ZOE), particularly the character by the name of Cass, as he steps into the world of one extremely popular card game hopes of impressing a woman who's a huge fan of it. But this is seemingly simple premise is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this series. The show also features a secondary narrative that involves the characters that actually exist in the card game as as the players decisions in the real world effect their lives and leads one character, Buckstahue(not sure if I’m spelling that right), in particular to start questioning what mysterious forces are controlling their lives. The show is a real treat filled with twists and turns I never saw coming, it's fascinating seeing how the real world actions of this card game effects the card characters lives as well as question if and when Buckstahue will figure out what strings control her actions. The stories surrounding the other characters in the party might not be as engaging but they are by no means a weak point of the series either, many of their subplots are engaging in their own rights and pay off certain character moments established in proper The Gamers creations. If this peaks your interest then the series can still be found on Zombie Orpheus's Youtube channel or as a movie on The Fantasy Network. ZOE had pivoted more towards live streaming as opposed to the scripted content of their past but I'd love to see more content from The Gamers one day. Source

LARPs The Series

LARPs The Series first premiered at GenCon 2014 and took home the award for Best Independent Series. The year after it was picked up by Geek and Sundry as a part of a push for more scripted content on the channel which was where I and many others first got a chance to watch it. When the short trailer for popped up on the G&S channel everything about it screamed that I was absolutely going to love it, and I wasn’t wrong. The series centers around a 4 man party of larpers (AKA Live Action Role Players) by the names of Will, Brittany, Arthur and Sam and their DM (Dungeon Master) Evan as we follow their lives in and out of the game. The show is surprisingly heartfelt and sympathetic towards the characters involved in this often misunderstood and mocked hobby as it shows how larping enriches their often turbulent lives and connects them all as friends on a deep and meaningful level. These characters felt real and you really rooted for them as they deal with, work, relationships and the many other hurtles of adult life as they wait eagerly to gear up for whatever peril might befall them in their next campaign session. The show was also pretty hilarious, seeing them play out classic predicaments that any party, whether they be larpers or table top roleplayers, have experienced such as one player trying to roll to kill a tavern owner or romances between PCs were always a joy to watch unfold. Another thing that most will notice right away is how the production value and direction are surprisingly astounding as well, especially in season 2. I was shocked by just how much quality was put into the show from the costumes and sets as well as from a writing standpoint. If you're interested in checking out the show then it can be found on Amazon Prime but they can also still be viewed for free on YouTube or in The Fantasy Network. Beanduck, the production company behind LARPs The series, is working towards a funding campaign in hopes of earning enough to produce a third season so if you have any spare change you might want to toss it their way in support. Regardless if you decide to help or not, LARPs The Series is a show that I think any nerdy individual will enjoy. Source

Glitch

Glitch was another show produced by the team over at Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, but it never seemed to get the same kind of love as many of their other productions. The concept was brilliant: What if one day you woke up and found out your life operated on the logic of video games? Well this is the predicament that a programing temp nicknamed Glitch finds himself in. Most episodes of the show centered around particular game mechanics causing problems in his and his friends lives and how he tries to figure out ways to work around or fix problems they've created. Glitch, Wyatt and Samus were all fantastic characters and it was always fun seeing Glitch trying to work through some real world problem with game logic like trying to flirt with a woman he likes using a conversation wheel like in Mass Effect or figuring out how to "defeat" his boss at work who he see's as an actual game boss. Another thing I liked about the show was how the characters really felt like real people I knew, they played games on the couch, debated about which Sci-Fi starship captains were the best, and they grilled each other in nerdy ways while working in slang from their favorite bits of nerd culture into their daily vocabulary. I always hoped that ZOE would eventually put out a second season but unfortunately for whatever reason that never became a reality. Now days the channel that originally hosted Glitch has changed their name to Burger Orchard and rarely if ever uploads anything, but luckily those original episodes of Glitch can still be found on their. Give it a watch, it's short but sweet and if you really enjoyed the show a lot there are little companion shorts that can also be found on the channel. Source

The Street Fighter

The Game Station was an early find for me back in my early college days, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I shaved away many hours watching all kinds of gaming related content on that channel instead of studying for exams. One production, created by one of the channels founders Layne Pavoggi, which came out in late 2011 and was a cut above much their already fantastic content was a short lived series was called The Street Fighter. The series centered around a single dad by the name of Phil who has just lost his job and decides to take up a short career as a professional Street Fighter player to provide for his son as well as keep his mind off of the stressful and highly competitive job market. This a real underdog story that’s extremely reminiscent of old sports 80s films where the protagonist has everything working against them, with that being said you might think that such a trope filled narrative would make things a little predictable and you wouldn’t be wrong but there’s still plenty to love since this concept has really never been explored with videogame to my knowledge. Phil is a guy you’d be hard pressed not to warm up to, especially when you see him interacting with his preteen son Ryan or his best friend/semi love interest Camile (played by former All That star and all around spectacular person Lisa Foiles). Seeing him trying to make his way into the job market, taking odd jobs here and there just to try and get by while also playing Street Fighter to destress and become better for the sake of winning a competition for money to support his son really makes to root for him through all of it. One aspect of the show that I really this is fantastic is how it feels truly authentic to the FGC (Fighting Game Community) when it comes to talking about all of the technical aspects of play Street Fighter on a competitive level. There are moments when Phil goes into detail about his “bread and butter” combos or talks about different strategies when it comes to taking on different characters compared to his main. The show was short lived but it can still be found on The Game Stations channel, if you’re looking for a heartfelt underdog story then I highly recommend giving The Street Fighter a shot. Source

Versus Valerie

Versus Valerie is a bit of series finale for a fictional character created by Hannah Spear for the character more commonly known as the Sexy Nerd Girl on her YouTube channel. Even if you didn't watch the characters vlogs over the years leading up to the web series I still think you'll find something to enjoy in this extremely charming show. It centers around Valerie Lapomme, the titular Sexy Nerd Girl, as she lives life hanging out with with her best friend Guy, shopping for comic books, going on dates, vlogging, and trying to make something of herself as a mid 20 something living in Toronto. The brilliant thing about this series is how each episode is structured like or makes homage to popular shows, films and games such as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Memento, and The Matrix just to name a few. On top of that the show is surprisingly well produced and written for something that spawned from a fictional vlog series, Valarie and Guy are much more fleshed out and all the characters including them have some really fantastic character arcs and moments in the show. Valerie’s awkwardness and extremely nerdy imagination felt embracingly relatable to me personally since I often imagine different situations in my life in relation to my own nerdy fandoms. What I was often taken aback by when I first watched the show years ago was just how enjoyable all of the episodes were in their own special way, and the pay off of it all really feels like a proper satisfying ending to the strange and imaginative journey we’ve been on with Valerie. If it peaks your interest at all then you can still find the full series on the Veruse Valerie YouTube channel as well as some of the vlogs prior to the series on the Sexy Nerd Girl channel as well. It’s well worth a viewing and aside from the fantastic lead characters of Guy and Valerie the show also managed to grab Mark Meer as a supporting character, aka the voice of COMMANDER MOTHER F^*$(^% SHEPARD BABY!!! Source

#Web Shows #geek and sundry #Zombie Orpheus Entertainment #LARPs the series #table top rpg #larping #web series #a few of my favorite things

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dalekofchaos · 3 years

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I know you don't like Chloe Price anymore. But since you like to change things about your favorite things like Star Wars, DC, Marvel and Horror, how would you change how DONTNOD/Deck Nine handled Chloe?

A lot. I will start with BTS and then LIS. But to be fair, I’ve grown to like Chloe again. My big problem is how she treats Max, the fact that we cannot choose who Max focuses on(again I’d choose Warren and Kate if I could) and well the hateful and toxic Pricefield fans ruined Chloe for me. But here’s how I would change Chloe if I could

BTS

First of all, hire someone who actually understands how teenagers talk(especially teenage girls) and make the dialogue less cringey(this goes for both games)

Give Chloe more of a character arc. I don’t feel that Deck Nine did Chloe justice. The writers attempt to evoke empathy with Chloe feeling grief which is done via exactly one emotion- which is a very childish understanding of how loss and coping works. She had no character arc, considering she was the exact same character that we already knew in LiS Episode 1 (A bitter disaffected teenage youth with no regard for authority) so we didn’t get to see Chloe evolve into the character we loved in the first game. She just already was it. The gameplay undid the narrative we were given about Chloe being a loner in that you can talk to and make friends with pretty much anybody and they all acted like they liked and were genuinely happy to see Chloe. Very rarely were there interactions with Blackwell students that ended with Chloe’s presence not being welcomed, only Wells, Victoria and Nathan showed contempt for Chloe(even with Nathan that goes away when he claps for her at the play) The reason this is done is because the game wouldn’t be fun if Chloe actually was a loner. The core mechanic of Life is Strange is being able to talk to people and experiment with your surroundings. A game where nobody wanted to talk to Chloe works against the core mechanic. But in making her the main character it undoes the weight of the narrative of Chloe being alone until Rachel/Max. I just strongly feel that Deck Nine did not understand Chloe as a character and did not do her justice. We should’ve gotten Chloe at her lowest, evolving from Max’s best friend to the character we know in the first game and Rachel helping lift Chloe through the worse point of her life. Chloe and Rachel together having fun rocking out and Chloe starting to live again and show that Chloe Price loves Rachel Amber and Rachel loves Chloe. Chloe losing Rachel and showing how Chloe has to deal with Rachel missing, how she became in debt to Frank and how she got involved with Nathan and how Chloe ends up in the bathroom.

The game should have 5 episodes. The first 2 episodes focus on Chloe and Rachel’s first year together. Episode 3 focuses on 2011. 4 focuses on 2012 and the final episode focuses on 2013 and Chloe’s breakdown over Rachel’s disappearance. A bonus episode “Firewalk with me” to show us Rachel’s final days and the choices that led her to the Dark Room. Needless to say, those fans who were against LIS 2 would have something to look forward to cause Deck Nine would take their time with BTS in this scenario.

Make it very clear that David is abusive. The problem with their dynamic in BTS is that they go out of their way to make Chloe irrational for not giving David a chance. In BTS Chloe says she hates David because he calls her “girly” and the game practically implies Chloe is at fault for the conflict between Chloe and David for not accepting David’s photo...what kind of abuse apologetic bullshit is that? Okay so start off by saying in her journal that “Joyce really remarried the first asshole she saw in Two Whales.” because by the time of 2010 in the canon of the first game, they are already married. Have it implied in her entry about David that it’s like “living Full Metal Jacket” that alone implies emotional and mental abuse if you’ve seen the Bootcamp scenes. Chloe in the entry would continue to say, life’s been a living hell ever since David entered the picture and Joyce takes his side every time. We would get the impression that David does not understand nor does he care about Chloe's depression and grief for losing William and Max moving away. When fighting with Joyce about David, say “he keeps hitting me and you keep defending him, how do you expect me to get over dad by letting some abusive asshole take his place?” Joyce would respond with “you keep pushing him, what did you think was gonna happen” And worse, David just started the Security Officer job at Blackwell. Needless to say Chloe is not taking any of this well. So when David and Chloe go to Blackhell, he’s basically ordering her around, talking down to her. Telling her “You’ve had two years free of having a father figure in your life. I am your father now. I’ve been showing you what a stable home is like, yet you keep pushing me.” Chloe back talks him and it results in David smacking her. David would then say “Look what you made me do.” Later in the game, Chloe would get herself expelled just to get away from David and David would berate her and call her a loser. Near the end of Episode 3 or 4, Rachel would have dinner with Chloe, Joyce and David. Rachel would see the way David treats Chloe and stands up for her girlfriend. Threatens to call the cops on David if he ever hurts her girlfriend ever again. This of course would spark down David’s obsession with surveillance and his investigation into stalking Rachel, all because he wanted to save his pathetic fucking ass.

Actually give Chloe a transformation. The problem with BTS, is that Chloe is the same character from the first game. We don’t get to see how the innocent and happy Chloe becomes the Chloe from the first game. She’s just like this immediately. We should get a Batman Returns Catwoman like transformation for Chloe. Chloe’s had it with David, Joyce, Blackhell and now Rachel for leaving. So Chloe would basically be destroying her room and tossing everything away that belonged to the old Chloe.

Make the game about Rachel helping Chloe down the worst moment of her life. Chloe’s “Rachel was my angel” comment showed a lot to how Chloe loved Rachel and how much she meant to her. Chloe tells Max that Rachel entered her life when was at her absolute lowest and that it was she who helped her deal with the grief of having lost her father but the entire game is centered around Chloe being the one who is supporting Rachel as she deals with a serious family drama of her own. What Before The Storm should have been. Rachel helping lift Chloe through the worse point of her life. If Rachel had stopped Chloe from committing suicide… as was the commonly believed interpretation to what happened between Chloe and Rachel up until BtS, then Chloe’s ”“she was my angel” would have meant it was truly special and real. But instead they bump into each other at an illegal concert and Rachel distracted some thug who works for Damon and we spend the game finding out who Sera is in a reveal we all saw it coming and only to have Rachel taken out of the third episode where Rachel never talks to her and makes the whole thing feel pointless. What the game should have been was Chloe and Rachel together having fun rocking out, becoming girlfriends and Chloe starting to live again and show that Chloe Price loves Rachel Amber and Rachel loves Chloe.

Do Chloe’s past with Victoria better. A minor change, but they kind of make Chloe and Rachel look like jerks in the Victoria drugging in part 2. If you let Rachel drop out the play, you drug Victoria or back talk her out of doing the play that she was given. Also it lines up with the first game better this way. In LIS, if you choose to take the picture with Victoria in paint, when seeing said picture, Chloe will say “Boo-Yah skank! Karma’s a bitch!” So I guess we can have Victoria bullying Chloe with her mean girl bullshit, Chloe fights back, Victoria gets scared, so Victoria helps get Chloe expelled by reporting her graffiti(as is the reason she was expelled from Blackwell)

When Rachel goes missing, we spend the final episode looking for her. It’s a very sad and tragic episode. We all know there is no hope in finding Rachel, but we still try anyway, in some hope that Rachel is still out there. So Chloe leaves up the posters, is in debt to Frank and tries to steal money from Nathan. Which leads Chloe to that faithful day in the bathroom.

LIS

Chloe does not park in the handicapped space(I don’t even have to tell you why this was a bad idea to begin with)

Chloe stops guilt tripping Max after the first truck ride

If you chose not to come out of the closet or not take the blame, after lashing out at Max, Chloe will apologize for lashing out at us. Same for if we chose not to fire the gun.

Does not get pissy if we take Kate’s call, in fact prior to Chloe’s test, Max would explain the situation with Kate and Chloe would be understanding as she understands being depressed herself and would even help Max out in finding evidence to implicate Nathan and David.

It’s not the handicapped fund, it’s the “Prescott Donation”(aka Sean’s bribery money) this way we can feel less guilty about not stealing from the handicapped fund and Chloe doesn’t look like an ableist

If Chloe does snap after finding about Rachel and says the same things she did about Kate as she did in canon. Max can then lose her shit and stand up to Chloe. Basically says the way she treats her is not okay and if she wants to help her find Rachel and seek justice for Kate, then things are gonna have to change or they are finished. Then Max leaves Chloe behind with Chloe realizing that she needs to change. Ideally something like Bojack Horseman “You can't keep doing this! You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself as if that makes it okay! You need to be better! Chloe, stop. It's not alcohol, drugs, or your parents, David, Rachel or all the bad things that happened to you before. It's you. It's you. I want to find Rachel and get justice for Kate, but if this is how you’re gonna keep treating me...Fuck, man... What else is there to say?“ I know LIS came out way before BJHM or that particular episode, but it’s the perfect example of how Max could’ve stood up to Chloe’s toxic behavior

After the returning from her time jump, Max returns to her dorm and goes to Chloe. Chloe properly apologizes for how she’s been acting since they got back together and agree to put everything in the past so they can work together to find Rachel and give Kate justice

Max is given the option to enter the Everyday Hero’s Contest. If you saved Kate, Max with Kate’s permission, Kate would let Max take a photo of her in the hospital. And Max enters her photo at the last minute when she returns to Blackwell. If you did not save Kate, then Chloe would give up the Butterfly photo so Max can enter the photo. Either way Max will win the contest. Max wins the Everyday Hero Contest. Max gives an inspiring speech about how everyone can be a hero and that Kate has always inspired her, how much she loves Kate and that she hopes that Kate knows that she is loved by everyone in Blackwell and everyone, especially Chloe, Warren, Victoria would cheer Max on. This would also give Jefferson the means and opportunity to drug Max without killing Chloe at the Junkyard. Chloe doesn’t die because it’s a public place and Jefferson has Max where he wants her. It honestly works better than Jefferson magically appearing at the Junkyard with no explanation(and it never being brought up).

What could happen in Episode 5 is basically the same thing, only in an act of desperation, Chloe goes to David to help save Max. They put their differences aside to save the person Chloe loves the most and David gets to stop Jefferson. Chloe could not be there to save Rachel, but she can be there for Max. Chloe saves Max and Jefferson goes to jail. Together Max and Chloe goes directly into the eye of the storm to save everyone at the diner. However instead of using Warren’s photo to save Chloe, Max uses it to warn David about Jefferson and to reach the Lighthouse. The same choice is given to us and instead of a copout ending, Max actually uses the photo to save Chloe and the town. Warns David and David barges in and catches Nathan redhanded with the gun and uncovers the truth of Rachel, Kate and Jefferson. Max warns the town of the storm. Everyone listens. After Jefferson’s arrest, the police clears the bunker of Jefferson’s predatory display and the town hides in the bunker. The town is rebuilt. A town can be rebuilt, but you can’t build another Chloe. Jefferson and Sean are rotting in prison and Nathan is getting the help he desperately needed. Chloe finally moves on from her hatred of David and the Price family gets to start over. A montage of Max and Chloe together either romantic or platonic and if you chose to romance Warren, a little clip of Going Ape, if just friends, then we see Warren, Kate, Max and Chloe Going Ape! It ends on Rachel’s funeral and the final scene shows the Doe spirit as both Max and Chloe smile as Rachel’s spirit finally rests.

Chloe’s arc is lashing out at a cruel world, learning to let the right people in, healing and letting go of her hate and starting over. It just doesn’t work if she has to die to actually learn this and also that character arc goes out the window of you choose the save Chloe ending (and makes max look like an awful person for killing all her friends and Joyce). Chloe gets to live, she’s at peace knowing that Rachel was brought to justice, she’s willing to start over with David, she has her best friend and mother in her life. If you chose the Pricefield route, then Chloe is at peace with Rachel passing on and she starts anew with Max. If not, then Chloe still has her best friend and knows she will always be there and she will always be there for Max in return.

Also, I like the idea of Max and Chloe road tripping together as was demonstrated in LIS 2, but I also like the idea of Warren, Victoria and Kate joining them as well and they live in their own commune. Maybe Max, Warren and Chloe are in a poly relationship, while Kate and Victoria are together!!!

#Life Is Strange #Chloe Price #Amberprice #Pricefield #Anonymous #Asks

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viking-raider · 4 years

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Services Due *One-Shot*

Summary: You’re promoting your new Amazon Prime show at a convention and decide to toss a coin to your Witcher, Henry, who’s there promoting the Witcher.

Pairing: Henry Cavill/Reader

Rating: Silly Fluff

Word Count: 1,444

Inspiration: This post by @thesapphichistory

A/N: just a fun little one shot that crossed my mind after seeing the post and wondered what Henry would do with you since you “paid” for his Witcher skills.

(Cred to @hcavillier for the lovely photo of Henry)

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You came to the Comic Con to promote your web series that was due to premiere in two weeks You’d been signing autographs and taking selfies for hours, and finally got to go on your lunch break. But you were stopped by another pair of fans, so you indulged them and signed the few things they had for you and took several selfies with them, but turning to head over to the vendors, when one of the two girls squealed and started dancing in place, like a dog excited to get a treat. You turned to look at what she was going on about, following her eye line to a tall, broad shouldered man, with an ass you’d know from anywhere; Henry fucking Cavill. You two knew each other decently well, you’d met in 2011 on the set of Immortals, where he was the lead and you were one of the random lesser goddesses. You couldn’t recall the last time you’d seen the Brit, his Man of Steel premiere perhaps. The two fan girls finally managed to get a handle on themselves and scurried over to Henry, clamoring all over him, but Henry just smiled brightly at them, patiently and graciously did everything they asked of him. Satisfied, the girls went off, leaving him be.

Taking advantage of lull between fans bombarding you both, you dug into your pocket and found what you wanted, and moved over to him. “Henry!” You called to him, getting his attention, you watched as huge smile come across his face, meeting his blue eyes. You smiled back at him, and tossed the object in your hand at him, which he caught smoothly one handed.

“What’s this for, y/n?” He asked, looking down at the coin in his hand.

“Toss a coin to your Witcher.” you laughed, stopping in front of him.

He tried to fight the smile crossing his lips, biting his bottom lip to try and stop it, but failed miserably. “I should have fucking known.” he chuckled, pocketing the coin. “Is there a monster you’d like me to slay for your payment?” he asked, playfully.

“Yeah.” You nodded, feeling your stomach growl. “My stomach.”

Henry’s smile turned into a sly grin. “I can do that easily.” he told you, turning back to the table he had been signing things at and leaned over it to grab his coat. “I know a great place.”

Henry led you out of the convention building and to his rental car. You both took the time to where ever it was he was taking you, to catch up with each other since the last time you’d seen each other. Henry did several more Superman movies, Justice League and did Mission Impossible: Fallout with Tom Cruise. You’d done several movies in the time between your last encounter, but had done mostly tv and web shows and took a year off just to recharge your batteries before you started filming the web series you were promoting for Amazon Prime. Henry pulled into a parking lot of a local famous pizza place and parked.

“Aren’t you on a stupid strict diet for the Witcher?” you asked, following him inside.

“I am.” he laughed, finding a booth for them in a back corner so any prospective fans wouldn’t see them and come over. “But, it’s my cheat day.”

“Then, I have the perfect timing to utilize your Witchering skills.” You teased him.

“You’ve always had good timing.” He teased back, giving you a mischievous wink.

You rolled your eyes at him as the waitress came over to the table and ordered at medium cheese pizza with a Dr. Pepper for you and water for Henry. The waitress brought the drinks and let you know the food would be done soon, before going off to her next table. The conversation between you and Henry lulled for a moment as you both downed some of your drinks.

“So, how’s it feel not to be Superman, anymore?” you asked him, around your straw.

He heaved his shoulders and frowned down at his water. “It feels alright. I enjoyed playing Superman and all. But it takes a toll, it’s a big thing to live up. I just hope the guy that takes my place does a better job than I did.”

“You did a great job at Superman, Hens!” you told him, impassioned.

“Well, if you think so.” he grinned at you. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“You’ll always be my favorite Superman.” You smiled back at him, tapping the side of his calf with your foot to drive the point to him.

Henry tapped your leg back as the pizza arrived, “I bet you, your coin back, that I can eat more slices than you can.” He challenged you, seeing your hungry gaze at the food and set the coin on the table between the two of you.

“I’ll have you know I haven’t eaten since last night, when I got off my flight.” You warned him, glancing up at him from the mouth watering pizza. “There’s a mighty beast to be slayed in my stomach.”

“Oh, I’ll slay that beast and kick your ass by eating more for good measure.” He warned you back, picking up a slice. “You may not have eaten in a while, I haven’t eaten in two months.”

With that, the two of you dove into the pizza with all haste. You’d just finished your second slice as Henry started reaching for his fourth, to stop him from grabbing it you kicked his foot under the table, making him retract his hand and giving you the diversion to grab the slice he’d been going for and stuff the first bite into your mouth.

“That’s cheating.” Henry laughed, picking up a slice.

You shrugged your shoulders at him and smiled around the now half gone slice. By the time the pizza was gone you’d caught up with him and there was only one slice left on the pane between you. Henry eyed you and you stared back at him, it started to feel like a Wild West duel at the O.K corral; who was going to grab the proverbial gun and win. You narrowed your eyes at him and he narrowed his back at you, and suddenly felt both of his feet pin yours down, preventing you from kicking him again, if you tried.

“Is that all for you.” the Waitress asked, seeing only one slice left and seeing if you wanted the check.

“Almost.” Henry told her, still watching you.

You turned your head out the window. “Is that Luke?” you asked, frowning.

“Not falling for it, short stuff.” Henry replied, shaking his head.

“Don’t need too, Godzilla.” You laughed, as Luke Evans knocked on the window after seeing the pair of you.

Henry turned his head and blinked, seeing it was actually Luke, which gave you the advantage to snag the last slice and devour it. Henry looked back at you as you inhaled the slice and rolled his jaw, the competitive part of him annoyed he’d lost, but the other part of him was amused at the sight of you engulfing it.

“This is mine.” You said, picking the coin up off the table.

“Hey, guys.” Luke greeted you coming up to the table and sliding into the booth beside you. “What’s going on?”

“Henry used his Witcher skills to slay the hungry monster in my stomach, then I kicked his ass by eating more than he did.”

“Oh, I let you win.” Henry chimed in.

“Like, fuck you did.” you laughed at him.

“I did, and you cheated.”

“I did no such thing.” You grinned, guilty.

“How’d you cheat?” Luke asked, amused at the bickering between you both.

“She kicked me in the leg, for a start.” Henry told him. “Then she tried to trick me into thinking you were outside…”

“Blasphemy!” You proclaimed. “It wasn’t a bloody trick, he’s right here.” you said, waving your hands at Luke, in demonstration.

“You know very well you did it to make me look away, whether Luke was here or not.” Henry countered, crossing his massive arms over his equally large chest.

’Christ, playing the Witcher has made him even hotter.’ You thought.

“Alright, fair.” you gave in, rolling your eyes at him.

Henry winked and rubbing his foot up your leg. “I don’t mind losing to you, y/n. Spending time with you is enough for services due.” he assured you.

#henry cavill #Henry Cavill/Reader #Henry Cavill/You #Geralt of Rivia #Geralt #The Witcher #Superman #Clark Kent #Theseus #Immortals #Napoleon Solo #man from uncle #August Walker #Mission: Impossible – Fallout #Viking-Raider Fics

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nikkoliferous · 5 years

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Now, About That Sceptre

Based on hair growth, if nothing else, it seems that a fair amount of time must have passed between Loki's appearance in the post-credits of Thor (2011) and his dramatic entrance via the Tesseract in Avengers Assemble. Despite the apparent time jump, Loki's physical well-being is still clearly... not great. His appearance has improved in some ways from the horror show above (the burns have healed, his mouth isn't full of blood), but he shows a number of signs of heat exhaustion, at a minimum (something especially relevant because, remember, Loki's a Frost Giant). He's visibly exhausted and disoriented, he nearly collapses on multiple occasions, he's sweaty and pale with dark and sunken eyes. This is not a healthy man. And while there was maybe an argument to be made for his prior physical distress being contributable to the effects of the wormhole, whatever's happening here is all Thanos.

Beyond his immediate physical state, he comes across as paranoid, afraid—desperately fighting to get through just this one moment, and then the next, and then the next. If he just holds it together a little bit longer, he'll be safe. He'll be able to rest. Watch how he stumbles. Observe his deathgrip on the sceptre and on the truck rail. Look at his desperate facial expression and body language. He's trembling.

Now we're getting into psychology, and well... Loki says some odd things throughout this film. The Loki of Thor (2011) was clearly dealing with a mental health crisis, but the Loki of Avengers Assemble seems—not to put too fine a point on it—crazy. And he's not just crazy. His words and his body seem to, at times, be in direct conflict with one another. He may talk down to the humans, but he appears to take little pleasure in actually hurting them. And yet he summons an army of aliens with the expressed purpose of doing just that. He's sassy and grandstanding while facing the Avengers, but on the occasions where he's violent with civilians, as well as whenever he's alone, he appears to dissociate from himself. Look at his face. This is not remotely fun for him. He looks dead inside.

Overall, Loki's body language and facial expressions often betray a Loki who is struggling to justify his actions. He seems, at times, almost as though he is speaking to himself as much as he is taunting the Avengers or humanity. Here are some quotes/scenes that grab my attention.

For a start, there are these exchanges with Fury shortly after he first arrives via the power of the Tesseract:

Fury: "This doesn't have to get any messier." Loki: "Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else."

"I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Loki: "I come with glad tidings of a world made free." Fury: "Free from what?" Loki: "Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart, you will know peace."

He goes on to reiterate his bizarre speech about "freedom" again in Stuttgart.

"The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

This all sounds a lot like indoctrination to me, and it's worth noting that the Black Order—for whom Loki is ‘working’ in this movie—is literally a cult. In fact, they use very similar rhetoric at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. Compare this to Loki's rhetoric on the nature of freedom:

"Hear me... and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No. It is salvation. Universal scales tipped toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile, for even in death you have become Children of Thanos."

And then there's Loki's outburst directed at Natasha after the Avengers have taken him prisoner for the first time and she's trying to get information out of him:

"You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you and they will never go away!"

Before this moment, he seems relatively calm and in control. Something changes here; he becomes disgusted and aggressive. His words could easily be applied to himself as well. Here Loki is on Midgard, pretending to have his own agenda. "Something that makes up for the horrors". Yet as much as Loki claims to be free of sentimentality, we as the audience know better. We can see it in his microexpressions and his body language. We know of his being psychically linked to The Other. We see the nature of Loki's interactions with them: the tears in his eyes, the threats and his attempts to suppress and hide his fear, the pain they're able to inflict on him with just a touch.

"If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain."

There are also subtle indicators that Loki's memories might have been tampered with, such as his initial conversation with Thor.

"Our father—" "YOUR father. He did tell you of my true parentage, did he not?" "We were raised together! We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?" "I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss."

Yes, of course, it's possible that this is hyperbole on Loki's part. Regardless, it's worth noting as part of a pattern of bizarre, cult-like behaviours that Loki displays throughout the movie. It becomes even more noteworthy in light of the revelation that Loki was being influenced by the mind stone all the while. The specific phrasing Marvel uses is, "fueling his hatred over his brother." Does that include distorting his perception of what's happened between them? It's not conclusive, but it's certainly possible.

Now, Loki does at times appear to be genuinely enjoying himself. I'm not denying that or sweeping it under the rug. But look at the context. Notice when he seems to be the most amused. It's when he's grandstanding. It's when he's the center of attention. When people run screaming from him. When he's being interrogated. It's not the violence that pleases him; it's the recognition. For the first time in his life, he's center stage. He feels powerful. And Loki will always take negative attention over no attention at all.

Simmer down there, you lovable maniac.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, we have moments like just before he stabs Thor, in which he looks at the destruction around him with legitimate panic and horror written on his face. As though he's awoken from a haze and is only just realising the extent of what he's done. (Side note: for the life of me, I'll never understand people who call Loki a psychopath. Every single time we've seen Loki hurt Thor, he does it literally with tears in his eyes. And yet Ragnarok would have us believe he's done so all throughout their childhood just for funsies).

Surely this isn't the expression of a man who wants all this death and destruction—who's carrying out his own will. And why should he? Even if he truly meant to/cared about ruling Midgard, there's little reward in ruling a world of corpses.

Which brings us to our ultimate conclusion. As mentioned above, there have long been theories—now confirmed canon—that Loki was under the influence of the sceptre AKA the mind stone throughout Avengers Assemble. An observation I had missed initially is that some fans desperate to cling to Loki's identity as a Villain™ have differentiated between the total mind control of Barton and Selvig and the 'influencing' of Loki's behaviour via the sceptre. But note that the same language is used for both instances:

"Gifted with a sceptre that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the sceptre was also influencing him."

I do believe that the mind control over Loki was less effective; he clearly maintained some measure of autonomy, despite the sceptre's influence. But I still think it's important to note the consistency of language used. And in fact, it’s worth noting that his control over Barton and Selvig wasn’t absolute either. Barton admits he may have failed to kill Fury because of his connection to him; Selvig installs a failsafe for shutting down the portal.

We also know—thanks to yet another stupidly discarded deleted scene—that The Other can hear and communicate with Loki at all times. Look at the longing on Loki's face when Thor tries to reason with him. He wishes so badly that he could accept Thor's offer. But this is still a hostage situation. He's on permanent speakerphone, and he knows there's no safe escape route for him.

↩️ back to the compendium

#the big damn ragnarok sucks compendium #avengers assemble #loki meta #loki #topic: the chitauri sceptre/mind stone #thanos #the black order #mcu #topic: loki was tortured

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knives-out20 · 4 years

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Magnetic Pull - Erik Lehnsherr x Male!OC - Part 6

Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011)

Pairing: Karmel Rosenstein (OC)

Warnings: Spoilers for X-Men: First Class, Swearing, Internalized homophobia,

Notes: I couldn’t find the gif I wanted of the Lincoln Memorial scene. Be sure to pick up the Hamilton reference!

Karmel, Erik, and Charles sat on the great front steps of the Lincoln Memorial, talking.

Well, Erik and Charles did the sitting and talking.

Karmel wasn't quite up to the same level of maturity, patience and 'ability-to-sit-still-ness' as the other two men, so he stood by the 19-feet-tall statue of Lincoln sitting, jumping up and around it to try and grab hold of something. He wanted to climb it. If climbing the 19-foot-tall statue of a sitting 16th president who happens to be long dead, distracted Karmel from his vile, non-platonic feelings towards Erik, then so be it. He'll climb it.

"Can't stop thinking about the others out there" Charles told, "all those minds that I touched. I can feel them. Their isolation, their hopes. Their ambitions. I can tell you, and I can tell Karmel later, we're at the start of something incredible, Erik. We can help them."

Erik and him stared out across the lake, over at the looming Washington Monument."Can we?" He questioned, turning around to check on Karmel."Identification, that's how it starts. It ends with being rounded up, experimented on, eliminated."

Karmel was currently attempting to use his vines as a lasso, and if that didn't work, he'd use them like rock-climbing rope, next."'In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever!'" He read the quote carved into the wall behind Lincoln's stone head aloud, scoffing. Karmel stood in a position where it looked as if Lincoln were pointing right at him."Beware, it goeth before the fall!" He repeated to the statue he pointed back up at (as if it was listening and sentient) the same thing he told Erik in Hank's transmitter.

Erik's eyebrows knitted together once again, in confusion. But also slight interest...what a strange specimen, that Karmel was. But why was he so weirdly enticing?

Charles grinned softly."Weird one, isn't he? Restless, too. More than anyone I've ever met" he commented, glancing down at the chess board between Erik and himself.

"What does that mean?" Erik whispered to himself, referring to Karmel's recurrent quote.

"'It goeth before the fall', eh? It's a quote adapted from the biblical Book of Proverbs. It means that people who are overconfident, or- or too arrogant, but mostly prideful, are likely to fail. Quite a strange circumstance to use it under, but I'd let the poor man live. I wouldn’t question how a Jewish man knows a quote like that; it’s been brewing around for ages.”

Karmel was able to lasso a vine around one of Lincoln's ankles, the vine automatically tying around like a knot. He chuckled in surprise, at how it actually worked."Gotcha, bitch." Karmel shed himself of his black leather jacket, tossing it away, towards Charles and Erik. He was blissfully unaware that they became technical audience members to his small mission.

Erik reached out, grabbing the coat and pulling it closer. He hummed softly, folding it neatly and setting it aside.

Charles noticed, deciding to keep out of Erik's mind for now.

Karmel placed a foot flat on the marble block under Lincoln and his chair, grip tightening around his vine. The thought of Erik's eyes had that effect on him, where he'd tightly grab something he's holding.

"Should we stop him?" Erik inquired.

Karmel grunted, tugging on his vine-lasso as he made his way up the block, rock-climbing style. He had both feet flat on the block, slowly making his way up, step-by-step. This was quite a feat of his own; Karmel had never gone rock climbing before.

"No. And to answer your question, Erik-" Charles turned back over to Erik."Yea, not this time. We have common enemies. Shaw, the Russians- they need us."

Karmel's vines seeped back into his body once he stood vertically again, panting lightly after he accomplished phase one.

Erik looked over at Charles, diverting his gaze back over to the Washington Monument. He wondered if Karmel would ever try climbing that."For now."

Karmel stepped onto the smaller stone above the platform he just got onto, hopping onto the pedestal above that. He lightly kicked one of Lincoln's hard, faded shoes."Sick kicks, Abe" Karmel teased, looking up at him. He hooked his thumbs around his suspenders, pulling them off so that they hung at his hips. Karmel rubbed his hands together, throwing an arm over his head as he bit his lip.

Erik glanced back over at him.

"Baggyass pants, though" Karmel cackled, stepping onto Lincoln's flat foot. He reached up as high as he could, barely getting to the president's knee. Karmel leaned against the statue's leg, vines crawling out from behind his back and sliding over the thigh of the leg he was on."Risque" he grinned, holding onto his vines and beginning to hoist himself up.

"How do you feel about Karmel, anyway?" Charles inquired.

"This sounds like the beginning of a 'what are your intentions with my daughter' speech" Erik compared, locking eyes with Charles."Whatever do you mean, then? Karmel's...I see quite a bit of myself in Karmel, weirdly. He seems quite hot-headed, and by the looks of it, is physically courageous. He'd be a dogged adversary" he explained.

"Yea, he seems like he'd be one who’s prone to losing his temper. If I do say so myself, he practically feeds off of his emotions. But trust me, Erik, there's a lot of stuff hiding in that little head of his."

Erik arched a brow."Does consent mean nothing to you?" He joked.

Charles chuckled."It does when it can. Karmel's problem is, though, that I don't need to try to read his mind sometimes. Sometimes, he projects his thoughts so much that I strangely end up reading them whether I want to or not. He has such...such strong emotions, I'll word it. That he hides away, keeps it under a lock and key. Out of pure instinct, and fear for what people would say. There's internalized aggression to these emotions, he doesn't want them to exist, and believes that he's made them up for whatever reason. Poor chap, he is" He read Karmel like a book.

The unknowing mutant just made his way onto Lincoln's knee.

"Karmel, don't-" Charles called, contemplating whether he should get up and walk over or not.

Karmel laughed in triumph, leaning against the statue's thigh."Boy, I'd tell you what I want for Christmas, if I even celebrated it" he crossed his arms, content in Lincoln's gigantic lap. Karmel decided to ignore the fact that he had to physically turn away from Abraham’s crotch- but, he used the classic excuse that come on, it’s RIGHT there.

Erik just watched Karmel in Lincoln's lap, wondering why he suddenly wished he were a 19-foot-tall statue of a dead president. He shrugged to himself, thinking it would be a fleeting feeling, an intrusive thought.

Karmel rolled his shoulders back, hands on his hips as he looked out at the view."Some view this is, guys!" He yelled over."The sixteenth president's view of a monument for the very first president!" Karmel told, pointing out at the Washington Monument in the distance. He turned around, raising his arms as if reaching for Abraham's neck. Karmel's vines came shooting out, wrapping around Lincoln's neck.

"Don't choke him!" Erik joked, earning the sound of Karmel's sweet laughter.

"Don't encourage him-" Charles mumbled, standing up.

Erik gestured for Charles to stay."Please, he's having fun for once in the past couple days. Nobody's going to catch him, anyway" he smiled slightly.

Karmel huffed softly, repeating his previous actions and rock-climbing his way up Lincoln's torso, in a one-hand-in-front-of-the-the other way on the vines. He made it up to Lincoln's shoulder and hopped on, steadying himself as Erik's playful voice rang in his ears. Karmel's vines untied from around the statue's dusty neck, reeling back in like yo-yo strings. He held onto the side of the statue's face before he sneezed, to steady himself. Once stable, vines shot out from behind Karmel's back, around Lincoln's forehead.

"He's almost there."

"Yes he is."

"Think he'll stop?"

"Absolutely not."

Karmel glanced over at Erik, a smile zapping onto his lips at the mere sight of him. Maybe this'll impress him. Slowly and steadily, Karmel climbed up the side of Abraham's huge, angular face, facing a bit of difficulty around the ear area. Maybe this activity will make him 'man up', and out of whatever Erik made him dumb down to 'acting like a sissy.'

"You got this!" Erik yelled in slight encouragement.

"We believe in you!" Charles sighed; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

"Beware, it goeth before the fall!" Karmel answered, not taking his eyes off where he was going. Erik's encouragement was some heart-racer for him. He groaned lowly, gritting his teeth in determination as he felt his internal organs flop when he went at an upside-down-like angle around Lincoln's ear."You have a nice face shape" Karmel whispered, chuckling as he made his way up Lincoln's smooth temple.

"He's quite driven" Erik noted, followed by a small 'huh.'

"Determination's filling him to the brim like an overflowing shot glass."

Karmel landed on his stomach atop Lincoln's head, coughing a bit."Does no one shower this thing? Dirty as fuck" he complained, taking his time to get up. Karmel put his fists on his hips, standing proudly on top of the 19-feet-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln, America's 16th president, in all his glory."I did it!"

"Yes you did!" Charles laughed through his words, clapping a bit like he was praising a child at a dance recital, or a school play.

Erik tilted his head, slowly getting up."Impressive, Karmel" he complimented, slowly clapping along."I wish I had your patience."

"Patience?" Karmel cackled."Erik, thank you, but this is pure determination. I have an endless uphill climb, this was it in a physical form" he specified."Hey, did you guys see Lincoln's hands? People think he's doing sign language for 'A' and 'L', his initials. Isn't that cool? It's 'cause back when he was alive, he was familiar with ASL. It also has something to do with him giving a university for the deaf- Gallaudet University- the authority to grant college degrees. There's other stuff to it, but I can't remember because holy shit, you two! Look at me! I'm ON Lincoln! The- The Lincoln Memorial, I’m ON the Lincoln MEMORIAL!” Karmel quickly corrected himself.

"Doesn't he have something to prove? Nothing to lose, that one" Charles whispered."His pace is relentless, I tell you. He'll waste no time of ours, or anybody's."

”Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves for ME!” Karmel yelled, at no one in particular.

Erik hummed in response, delving deeper into Karmel's character as he watched the vine mutant stomp on the statue's hair."Karmel doesn't hesitate."

"Exactly."

"He exhibits no restraint to these things. He'll take, and he'll take and he'll take if need be, he'll do what it takes to survive. He'll keep winning anyway, he'll change the game, he'll play and he'll raise the stakes with his restlessness. We'll need him on our team for this whole thing, no doubt. But..." Erik caught himself eyeing the man."We'll need someone to keep an eye on him."

Charles grinned, holding back from saying 'looks like we already have someone for that job.' He cleared his throat."I feel like you could keep him in check- allow me to explain" Charles put his hands up in defense."Karmel is very loyal to the people he cares about, possibly like this team. And from what I know, you both in particular, are similar in an array of ways. No doubt that if Karmel is approached by someone with possibly a similar view of the world to his, similar morals, similar character, he'll do as they say because you give him a sense of...stability? Stable familiarity, perhaps? If you told him to do or don't do something, he'll do it or won't do it, because you said so. You clearly mean a lot to him, regarding this, so he'll listen to you, despite whatever his anger is telling him in that moment. What'd'ya say?"

Erik looked at Karmel, and figured soon that attitude of Karmel's would be his doom. He nodded."I'll see what I can do."

"I'd say it's almost as if Karmel was raised to fend for himself, think for himself, act for himself...Be for himself, if that makes sense. I wonder what it was like for him, growing up."

"Most likely different from me" Erik piped up."He was raised here in America, I know that's for certain."

Charles looked between Erik and Karmel, Erik's gaze on Karmel softer than it used to be.

#X-men #X-men OC #xmen #xmen oc #erik lehnsherr x oc #erik lehnsherr x male #erik lehnsherr x male!oc #male x male #male oc #male x oc #male x canon #canon x male #canon x oc #oc #oc x male #oc x canon #brad pitt oc

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arthurainw268 · 4 years

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15 Up-and-Coming Trends About Mortal Kombat X Generator

Skin Packs.

Luckily, fighting games are best appreciated versus a human challenger, and also solo play is additional if you have the ability to discover a competing partner. MKX has plenty of nice touches that cater to competitive-level players, like comprehensive frame data, the option to include diagonals in your action inputs, as well as button checks (with push-to-set controls) at the personality pick screen. But there aren't sufficient guidelines to help bridge the space between professionals as well as newcomers. The few tutorials are sporadic, with virtually absolutely no guidance on exactly how to appropriately utilize each variation; there additionally aren't any type of trials to show gamers which combos ought to be their bread-and-butter attack strings.

Mortal Kombat Vs Dc, Mk9, And Also Mkx.

Good gameplay, ruthless battling, renowned preferred personalities past as well as present. I got this game not understanding that XL is kinda the very same game however with Jason. and various other fun competitors. I will pick up from this mistake and also maintain the bargain I won't return it yet possibly a close friend or relative might like the X copy? Sorry I did not recognize I honestly assumed they were different games, like sequels.

Mortal Kombat X incorporates unparalleled, cinematic discussion with all brand-new gameplay. For the very first time, gamers can choose from several variants of each character influencing both approach and also dealing with style. For regional single-player, the game supplies Story setting, a plot-driven setting with cutscenes between battles; as well as Living Towers, a progressed kind of Mortal Kombat's Obstacle Tower where the play conditions alter. Playing online, the play modes include 1 vs. 1, King of capital, Survivor, and Examination Your Good luck.

Besides, I feel it's more important to depict a personality's motivations and individuality via gameplay than cutscenes. The settings, meanwhile, are several and differed, thinking about that ultimately Mortal Kombat X adapts definitely to the template of a 3D arcade competitor used a 2D airplane. Tower mode offers the conventional game development design, as well as provides a number of rotates on dealing with the game's cast https://mortalkmobileguide.info/ back-to-back.

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After that there's the tale setting; some five-to-eight hrs worth-- relying on your capacity-- of fights amidst reams of cut-scenes. Component character-spotters' follower solution, part guided tour of different boxers' designs, the story mode is teeming with hackneyed dialogue. Thus, while it's no instance of the computer game type's narrative potential, it does a marvellous job of evoking a feeling of those ridiculous gallery cut-scenes infamously located in light weapon games. And also somehow, it's a style that suits Mortal Kombat X rather well. Its astonishingly terrible strikes and also casualties-- which somehow take care of to trump even those of its 2011 precursor, Mortal Kombat, in their imaginative gore-- could verify hard even for some developed players to stomach.

Matt Elliott of PC Player had actually blended feelings about the online gameplay and also stated that "Mortal Kombat online just isn't durable enough to continue to be affordable".

For the very first time, Mortal Kombat X provides gamers the capacity to pick from numerous variants of each character influencing both method and combating style.

Players step into an original story showcasing a few of the game's most respected characters including Scorpion as well as Sub-Zero, while introducing brand-new oppositions that represent the forces of great as well as wicked and also tie the story with each other.

Mortal Kombat X is NetherRealm Studios' following extremely prepared for installation in its fabulous, critically acclaimed fighting game franchise that drives the iconic franchise right into a brand-new generation.

Players additionally will certainly come across solid however occasional blasphemy, consisting of "f-- k.". Precisely what you would get out of a fighting game or certainly a mortal kombat game, they made enhancements on all elements of the game, produced lots of game settings, presented some brand-new characters and also took a step forward. Mortal Kombat X offers the best story setting I have actually ever before directly seen in a fighting game. Its cohesive plot and also expanded cinematics makes you feel far more like a participant in a film than a player on the couch. The combating is frantic, fluid, and also dynamic, with the marvelous goriness of the X-Ray relocations commonly transforming the trends of fight.

DLC IntrusionGoro is plainly used in game modes as an A.I. He gets on the personality choose screen, but this serves only as a tease for the costs DLC. While the last game retold the classic narrative, Mortal Kombat X offers an entirely new tale. Though the story does not really take place during a competition, it strikes all the notes MK fans can desire from an all-new arc.

Yet beyond the blood and viscera is a really well-made combating game that's accessible to laid-back players as well as simultaneously gratifying for even more specialized gamers who invest time in finding out each character's seemingly endless range of strikes. Moms and dads require to recognize that Mortal Kombat X is an amazingly terrible fighting game with a few of one of the most extreme representations of characters eliminating one another ever before seen.

Fighters can do points such as punch openings in opponents' upper bodies to disclose their spinal columns, make use of swarms of insects to consume flesh to the bone, and cut skulls in fifty percent to allow their brains ooze out. Killing enemies is up to players, however also nonlethal assaults mid-match can show visuals representations of blood as well as gore, including X-ray shots of bones being damaged and organs obtaining shredded. All the combatants plainly take pleasure in carrying out these gory assaults and executions.

Mobile Game.

Honestly, both games are great simply the XL and also X being the same yet with bonus offer fighters kinda tossed me off. Mortal Kombat X has actually changed the game with the 3 variation fighting system, you pick a character, after that among 3 variations! there are brand-new brutalities, which occur when a gamer is at low health and you do an unique relocation, as well as quitality's, which occur when a player online quits, as well as there head explodes.

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redsoapbox · 4 years

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MY TOP FIFTEEN TRACKS BY WELSH ACTS IN THE PAST DECADE.

Pictured - Davey Newington. Davey features in the list twice - as Boy Azooga and as a member of the gone but not forgotten Houdini Dax.

In my introduction to Pop Hack, my debut collection of reviews/interviews, I make the claim that ‘some of the best records I have heard in my lifetime come from the unsigned and unsung acts that I stumbled upon covering the Welsh music scene’. I repeated that claim the other day while being interviewed by Bill Cummings for his Cymru Am Bop podcast (see link below), so I thought it was about time I put some flesh on the bones. In no particular order, then, are fifteen tracks from some of the best singer/ songwriters and bands in Wales.

1. Dan Bettridge - Third Eye Blind (2015)

Released as a single in 2015, and wisely included in Dan’s exceptional debut album Asking For Trouble three years later. “Third Eye Blind” is a stirring soul workout, hugely influenced by Van Morrison’s classic track “Real, Real Gone”, and a surefire set closer by anybody’s standards.

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2. Pretty Vicious - Cave Song (2014)

The mighty tune that famously sent the major record labels into a lather and into a headlong race to Merthyr in pursuit of the teenage rockers. I caught the band at the EVI (Ebbw Vale Institute), a few months after they had signed on the dotted line, and filed one of the earliest national reviews of the band for Wales Arts Review. I spent most of the review decrying their major label status; ‘Pretty Vicious has signed with Virgin, it’s the first uncool thing they’ve done’ I moaned. I ended the review on a note of caution - ‘Pretty Vicious would be wise not to rush into the recording studio just yet. You never get a second chance at a debut album’. My scepticism about the multinational’s motives was on the money - the band was unceremoniously dropped by Branson and Co in 2017 without even releasing an album!

https://soundcloud.com/prettyviciousuk/cave-song

3. Houdini Dax - Found Love In The Dole Office. (2015)

I was a huge fan of Cardiff’s sadly defunct power-pop trio, whose two albums, You Belong To Dax Darling (2011) and, particularly, Naughty Nation (2015), are packed with bangers/earworms/crackers - take your pick. I was bemused by their complete lack of success, but nevertheless surprised when they morphed overnight into Monico Blonde. Drummer Davey Newington went on to bigger, if not necessarily better things, with Boy Azooga of course. “Found Love In The Dole Office” is a typical Dax track, matching a punchy melody with a clever lyric.

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4. Jodie Marie - Everyone Makes Mistakes (2015)

Taken from one of my all time favourite albums, Trouble in Mind (2015), “Everyone Makes Mistakes” is one of four or five outstanding ballads that form the centrepiece of this truly fine record. This is a heartbreaking song that leaves the listener reeling!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNBraJss7-4&feature=youtu.be&autoplay=1

5. oblong - Light Sleeper (2019)

I tossed a coin with this track. Llanelli’s bilingual post-punk combo has released two scorching albums, Brilliant...Gwd (2017) and Hollalluog (2019), which are brimming over with terrific tunes. Any one of them will set the pulses racing.

https://oblong1.bandcamp.com/

6. Danielle Lewis - West Coast Sun (2016)

When we beat this virus and lockdown truly ends, this is the record that I’m going to emerge from my hideaway playing. A joyous tune that deserves the sun on its back and for people to be of good cheer when they listen to it. Danielle’s current single “Flowers” is another beautiful composition.

https://daniellelewis.bandcamp.com/track/west-coast-sun

7. Aled Rheon - Wrap up Warm (2016)

It’s never the done thing to quote oneself, but as this feature is partly to publicise my book Pop Hack I’m going to take a diabolical liberty! In my review of the song I write ‘It’s a beautifully judged lyric with a performance to match, as Rheon’s fine-grained vocal manages to make James Taylor sound like Jello Biaffra’. Not bad, even if I say so myself!

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8. Armstrong - Gratitude (2019)

Although this song dates back a good number of years, it was included in the deluxe release of Armstrong’s majestic album Under Blue Skies (2019). As with oblong, above, I was spoiled for choice and very nearly chose the exquisite “My Resistance”, then again I very nearly opted for the heartaching “Perhaps It’s Time To Say Goodbye”. “Gratitude”, though, has a life-affirming quality that somehow transcends the times in which we live.

https://bigtakeover.com/recordings/ArmstrongUnderBlueSkiesTheBeautifulMusic

9. Climbing Trees - Aliosi (2013)

Does this song really contain ‘the most romantic couplet in the history of pop’, as I somewhat fancifully speculated in my review of Hebron, the Pontypridd combo’s debut album? Perhaps not, but that’s what a great pop song can do to you. I happily plead guilty to getting carried away by ‘Sunlight streams into my eyes, It always brings me to / I didn’t mean to wake you darling, but I can’t keep my eyes off you’. If that doesn’t set your heart racing, what will?

https://ilikeclimbingtrees.bandcamp.com/track/aloisi

10. Silent Forum - Limbo (2017)

Silent Forum had a great 2019, with their debut album Everything Solved At Once earning them rave reviews across the board. It’s a wonderful album and it would have been easy to choose its centrepiece, the stupendous “How I Faked The Moon Landing”. I opted, however, for “Limbo” an old favourite of mine and a song that stood out for me the very first time I saw the band play in 2015. This is Indie-noir incarnate!

https://silentforum.bandcamp.com/track/limbo-2

11. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard - Love Forever (2019).

Can there be any doubt that Tom Rees and his band are heading for the big time? The man writes killer tunes and has the chutzpah to carry them off. Rees is a real political animal, but he tends to separate that out from his music. On “Love Forever”, an ‘all you need is love’ protest song, he puts a hippy-dippy toe in choppy political waters for the first time.

youtube

12. Boy Azooga - Loner Boogie (2018)

After missing the boat with Houdini Dax and Monico Blonde, Davey Newington’s ship finally came in with his solo project Boy Azooga, leading to support slots with the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. This tune is as fun ‘n’ funky as pop music gets.

youtube

13. Burning Ferns - Bullet Train

Newport’s Burning Ferns are often compared to stellar names like Big Star, Teenage Fan Club and The Byrds, so if you admire classic songwriting, chiming guitars and three-part harmonies then their two fine albums on Country Mile See Saw Seen (2013) and Public Mono (2017) are must-have records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM6m3GTm7DE

14. Georgia Fearn - Catch Me When You Can (2018)

An edgy and imaginative songwriter, Georgia Fearn was just 17 when she released her debut album, the dark delight that was Perfect on Paper. Equally influenced by TV, cinema and literature’s tales of the macabre, Perfect on Paper is something of a black comedy, one that you might want to listen to crouched into the foetal position whilst hiding behind the sofa!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgVmBKAbn6c

15. Head Noise - Microwave (2018)

It defies explanation that Mitch Tennant left the mini-masterpiece “Microwave” off last year’s 14-track debut album Uber Fantastique. A fun pop artefact in the vein of Landscape’s “Einstein A Go-Go”, every home should have one - “Microwave” the song, I mean, not an actual microwave. Although I’m given to understand by the cooks in the household that a microwave is a product that comes in handy, personally I never venture into the kitchen, so I can’t properly comment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wXV_7fr7k8

The five next best

Travelator - Anonymous Iconoclasts, That Night at the Table - Beth Goudie, Just Rock ‘n’ Roll - I Fight Lions, Obsolete - Matthew Fredricks (not yet released), High -Clwb Fuzz.

http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2020/05/11/podcast-cymru-am-bop-episode-three-featuring-kevin-mcgrath/

All of the above acts are featured in my book Pop Hack

http://bit.ly/PopHack

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tlbodine · 5 years

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A Decade of Horror Recommendations

With 2020 approaching, we’re reaching the end of a decade that has been uncommonly good to the horror genre, especially the last few years. Here’s an overview of some of the stand-out titles and my recommendations. Feel free to ask me about any of the titles on this list and I’ll happily share my more in-depth thoughts on them!

Note that, of course, I have not seen every movie that’s come out in recent years, so I’ve probably missed some titles -- feel free to jump in with your own recommendations!

Also this post is really long and has gifs, so I’m putting it under a cut. Sorry for the dash spam, mobile fam. Tell Tumblr to fix their shit.

2010: Supernatural Horror Starts Making a Comeback

Some stand-out films:

Insidious: An important film for modern horror history, helping to usher in the new wave of paranormal/hauntings/demon films. It lays the tropes for a lot of the films that would get big in upcoming years. I thought it was pretty solidly decent.

Devil: A clever script about being trapped on an elevator with the devil. It’s a bit too ambitious and doesn’t quite live up to those ambitions, but it’s solidly decent and refreshingly original. A hidden gem for the year.

Black Swan: Maybe the height of Darren Aronofsky’s career as a household name. Not my favorite of his movies, but a pretty solid psychological suspense.

Frozen: No, not that one. This is a clever movie that embraces a narrow scope: some teenagers get stuck on a ski lift and have to endure the elements and some hungry wolves below. Not a great movie, but worth watching as a study in what you can do with limited resources.

Black Death: Quick shout-out for a dark and grisly historical horror involving witchcraft and torture. It’s not a fun movie to watch, but it’s got Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne, and I feel like both original screenplays and historical horrors are rare enough to warrant support.

2010 also had its share of predictable franchise tie-ins (a Saw movie, a Resident Evil movie, remakes like I Spit on Your Grave and The Crazies, etc.) The Horror Renaissance was a few years in coming.

2011: The Year of the Predictable Remakes

So many franchises getting flogged to death this year -- tripe like SCRE4M, Final Destination 5, Human Centipede 2, a Hellraiser reboot literally no one watched, and Paranormal Activity 3. Blech. BUT. 2011 also brought us a couple of my favorite movies ever:

You’re Next: I would credit You’re Next with re-defining the “final girl” in horror. Also it’s a damn good home invasion movie with buckets of gore and a smart script.

Cabin in the Woods: This one’s a bit divisive -- some folks really hated it I guess -- but it’s such a loving deconstruction of horror, and it’s wholly original even while being comfortingly familiar. Also it’s hilarious.

2012: A Few Important Titles

I feel like 2012 was full of movies nobody has actually ever seen or talked about. But some of the good ones that I’d recommend:

Sinister: Like Insidious in some ways, but maybe better. Also, “Snakes don’t have feet.” Honestly just a very good, solid demon/haunted kid movie.

V/H/S: A must-watch for horror buffs. It didn’t invent the found footage genre, but it did refine it and really show off what it could do best.

Smiley: OK so like. This is not really a great film, but I think about it a lot and recommend it a lot. It’s stuck with me quite a bit somehow, and in some ways it feels very much ahead of its time as a creepy prediction of what internet culture would be like at the end of the decade. “We did it for the lulz.” Seriously, watch this movie today, and remember that it was made eight years ago, and see if it gives you chills too.

I guess I should also mention Prometheus here, which lots of people liked. I was not one of them, but it was a heavily talked-about film I feel like and of course an Alien franchise tie-in.

2013: The Year the World Remembered It Liked Horror

This was a big turning point year, launching some new franchises instead of just re-treading old ones:

The Conjuring: I personally hate all of these movies, but they are huge and you can’t swing a dead cat in the modern horror fandom without encountering one of them. The first Conjuring film was at least decent. For extra credit, watch it as a triple feature with Insidious and Sinister and do a compare/contrast.

The Purge: Not only the start of a successful franchise but also a pop culture phenomenon and a damn good movie to boot.

Mama: I love this movie. I have this movie on DVD. It’s kind of bittersweet and may not completely follow through on all of its promises, but it’s still quite good and has some lovely performances.

Warm Bodies: Not really a horror -- kind of a romance -- but it warrants mention here because zombies were a hot item in 2013, and that’s a current special interest of mine on account of having a zombie book of my own coming out that is more than a little influenced by this story. (the film is a pretty good adaptation of the book, although honestly you could just skip the movie and read the book and get a better experience.)

Willow Creek: I feel like I recommend this movie a lot, but that’s just because I think it’s very good and a very smart use of its own resources. A found footage mockumentary that actually manages to make Bigfoot frightening. Totally worth the watch.

Mr. Jones: Here’s another hidden gem, also in found footage style (I feel like that was a prevailing theme in the years after V/H/S) but it’s surprisingly fresh. It’s a folk horror piece that doesn’t go at all where you might expect despite its thoroughly well-trodden ‘couple in secluded house’ setup.

A bucketful of remakes and sequels this year too, including an Evil Dead reboot, V/H/S sequel, Insidious sequel, etc. I should also probably mention World War Z, which was not actually very good and also had nothing in common with the book of the same name, but does mark an important moment in the mainstreaming of the zombie revival, especially considering it came out the same year as Warm Bodies.

2014: Fuck Yeah People Actually Like This Shit Let’s Make More

I feel like maybe our current horror renaissance started this year. Some recs:

The Babadook: No surprises to anyone who follows my blog, but I love The Babadook and I will defend it to the bitter end against its detractors. It is one of my favorite horror films of all time and one of the best of the decade.

It Follows: Ok confession, I actually did not like this movie at all. I thought it was ridiculous and over-hyped. But it makes the list because a lot of other people really, really loved it, and I accept that they saw something in it that I didn’t. Watch it and make up your own mind (and report back with your findings).

As Above, So Below: This may be the most claustrophobic film ever made, and it deserves to be studied on that merit alone. It’s also pretty creepy and I suspect a lot creepier for folks who are unnerved by Christian horror/mythology (I am not, but I know lots of folks really are).

Housebound: A hidden gem from New Zealand, this one is worth a watch because it takes a familiar haunted house premise and gives it a surprising and honestly delightful twist.

Jessabelle: Not a great movie, but deserving of a spot here because it’s a Southern Gothic and features a main character in a wheelchair, which I think is neat.

13 Sins: I feel like I’ve written about this movie for the blog before, and I recommend it a lot. But it’s clever and is a great early example of the “killing game” genre that has become increasingly prevalent (I mean, aside from the Battle Royale/Hunger Games version).

It was neat to see so many original horror stories (as opposed to reboots/franchises) coming out, and that’s a trend that would continue (and is something that makes horror one of my preferred genres - there are more original stories in it than in many other types of film).

2015: Hell Yeah Let’s Ride This Horror Train

So many excellent movies this year! Ahh!

Crimson Peak: Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to the Gothic. What I love about this movie (aside from Tom Hiddleston) is it plays all the tropes straight. It’s not trying to be a new spin or reinvent the genre or break all the tropes. It’s just a gothic horror story, told exactly like what it is, by a guy who makes damn good movies. I felt like that was really brave and surprising at the time.

The Visit: M. Night Shyamalan had basically made a joke of himself after a string of awful movies, but this movie was enough to earn back a bit of respect in my book. It’s a clever premise and a smart use of found footage.

The VVitch: Creepy-ass slow-burn supernatural historical horror, sign me up. I actually don’t like this movie as much as a lot of people (see above: religious-themed horror doesn’t push my fear buttons much) but it’s beautifully made, thoughtful, and artistic in a way that makes people sit up and pay attention to just how good the horror genre can be.

Krampus: This movie is extremely silly and I love it. A holiday favorite I watch every year now. It’s hilarious, and imaginative, with some really creepy visuals and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

The Invitation: For me, some of my favorite horror movies are the ones where the film is uncomfortable to watch before the actual horror stuff starts up. This one has an almost unbearably tense build-up and pays off in an incredibly satisfying and creepy manner.

2016: Horror Goes Hella Mainstream

I feel like 2016 was another year of just...lots of kind of fun unique premises tossed out like spaghetti to see what would stick. And I am here for it.

Don’t Breathe: Home invasion gone wrong is a great trope, and this one gets extra points for having the single most disturbing sequence utilizing a turkey baster I’ve ever seen in film.

Hush: Speaking of home invasions. This one is pretty standard fare -- homeowner fights back! -- but the deaf main character is a neat twist.

Lights Out: It’s pretty cheesy at times and the plot sort of falls in on itself, but the opening sequence is genuinely frightening and the movie almost literally killed @comicreliefmorlock so that’s a commendation I guess?

Train to Busan: An Asian take on the zombie survival story. It’s a really good movie (if horribly bleak) and it does such an excellent job of making you genuinely care for all of the characters.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe: A really neat premise with some wonderful slow-build horror. The storyline kind of goes off the rails, and it asks a lot of questions it doesn’t answer, but it’s quite good regardless.

The Forest: I was disappointed with this one -- it just failed to live up to my expectations -- but it’s decent, and it’s a good attempt at capturing the creepiness of Japan’s Suicide Forest.

Before I Wake: This one was sad more than scary, I thought, but it fits so neatly into a certain aesthetic that I am always a sucker for -- dreams and nightmares bleeding into reality, yes please.

Split: Say what you will, I thought Split was amazing, and James McAvoy deserves a goddamn Oscar for his performance in this movie.

The Monster: A hidden gem that’s worth watching to see how well it delivers on its premise: two characters stuck in a car with a monster outside. It’s not amazing, but it’s neat, and sometimes it’s nice to have just a straightforward creature feature with a bit of emotional heft for good measure.

2017: Did Somebody Say Blockbuster?

In hindsight, they’ll probably say 2017 was the start of the horror renaissance, but we’ll all know they’re a few years too late. Still, this was another great year:

Get Out: Funny, dark, deeply uncomfortable and with some real meat to it -- Jordan Peele knows how to make a great movie. This absolutely deserves all the awards.

It: Not a perfect movie, but a good adaptation of a difficult-to-adapt book. The kids are great. Pennywise is menacing, but that fucking flute lady is the scariest part.

It Comes At Night: I didn’t like this one much, but a lot of folks did so it makes the list. See above re: It Follows.

Gerald’s Game: Everything that’s wrong with this movie (ie, the ending) is wrong in the original story, so where this movie fails it’s a matter of sticking too close to its source material. But the premise is truly, genuinely horrifying, and the degloving scene almost made me vomit. So that’s cool.

Happy Death Day: Another horror-comedy, with a healthy dose of self-awareness. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s what allows it to be fun.

The Babysitter: This movie is hilarious. It’s also super bloody and clever and clearly made by people who love slashers, and the affection shows.

The Ritual: So-so in the acting and pacing, but the creature design is A+ and the concept is really neat. Seriously just watch this one for the monster, it’s super cool looking.

I should probably mention Mother here, but I can’t speak for it as I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. It’s a very divisive film. One of these days I’ll watch it and let you know.

2018: There’s More Where That Came From

If 2016 was the year of filmmakers just trying stuff for the hell of it, 2018 was the year of talented filmmakers and studios realizing that, oh shit, you can make really good horror movies with mass appeal.

A Quiet Place: I’m glad I caught this one in theaters, because it really deserves to be watched in a dark, quiet room where no one dares to make a sound. The ending left a lot to be desired, but it was a clever premise.

Hereditary: The best horror movie of the year imo. Painfully uncomfortable - I’m not sure I could watch it again - but highly recommended.

Apostle: Watch this one in a triple-feature with The VVitch and Hereditary. A really good period piece with a character you actually want to root for.

Bird Box: I didn’t like this movie much, but it was hugely popular. I bought the book recently and suspect it is much better. Still, it’s worth a mention for its impact on mainstream viewers (lots of people who don’t like horror really liked this movie). I won’t budge from my initial opinion that it’s just A Quiet Place meets The Happening, though.

What Does 2019 Hold?

We’re only halfway through the year, so we’ve got some time to see what is coming down the pipe. Lots of things to look forward to! But some solid titles so far this year that I’d heartily recommend:

Us: Jordan Peele is at it again. It may not be as good as Get Out -- there’s some plot holes where the internal logic of the world is at odds with the message it’s trying to send -- but it’s thoughtful and gives plenty to chew on. And there are places where it’s just unbearably tense and creepy.

Brightburn: I had high hopes for this movie and was not disappointed. This is a super (ha, ha) good film.

The Wind: A Gothic on the American frontier. It accomplishes what I think It Comes At Night was supposed to do, but more effectively (for me anyway). Bonus points for being written and directed by women. Double bonus: Caitlin Gerard, the main actress, is also the lead character in Smiley.

I have not yet watched Velvet Buzzsaw, Ma or Midsommar this year, but I really want to. I’m also looking forward to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark film despite having some reservations about the whole concept.

#horror #horror movies #horror movie recommendations #movie recs #long post #gifs #horror by the decade

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polyrolemodels · 5 years

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JoEllen Notte

1. How long have you been polyamorous or been practicing polyamory?

As far as I am concerned I’ve been polyamorous since leaving my marriage in 2011. In the aftermath of my divorce I had some very strong feelings about how I did and did not want to live the rest of my life and among them was the belief that I never wanted to be monogamous again. That said my first “official” (in my head at least, I didn’t get a toaster or anything) poly relationship started in May 2013, and then my first successful poly relationship began in December of that same year.

2. What does your relationship dynamic look like?

I have long said that I am like Gonzo from the Muppet show, I’m a “whatever”. That said, my dynamic most closely resembles solo poly. I have 3 partners who I love dearly and who all live nowhere near me (seriously, one just moved to a place about an hour away and it’s the closest I’ve lived to anyone I’ve been involved with in 5 years). For an anxious introvert, this is an amazing set up because it gives me space when I need it and requires way less schedule worry and potential over-extension. It also keeps all of my relationships separate. I don’t really do the “let’s all meet each other’s partners, we’re a happy polycule” thing. I appreciate and respect my partner’s partners and we all ask after each other (I spent a bunch of time looking out for available apartments for a partner’s partner recently) but for me, it’s really about my relationship with each partner, I don’t need to hang out with everyone else.

I try to avoid hierarchy because I hate the idea of ranking people I love but it is undeniable that I have an anchor partner (I see him about every two weeks, he spends christmas with my family, he’s my dog’s “dad”). Additionally, I have a partner who I refer to as my “boyfriend” who I see 2-3 times a year and email with multiple times a week and he has his own anchor partner. I also have a friend with benefits situation that has been going on for over 6 years (so maybe that’s my first poly relationship?) with a man who has his own wife and girlfriend.

3. What aspect of polyamory do you excel at?

The talking. Seriously, being someone who talks about feelings and teaches people about concepts for a living makes all the talking that comes with poly a bit easier than I’d imagine it is for the typical person.

4. What aspect of polyamory do you struggle with?

Oh, there are a couple of things here.

On a grand scale, I struggle with the degree to which the world has no context for heterosexual female agency and thus often portrays non monogamy as something men revel in and women tolerate so they don’t lose their man. From the descriptions of famous people suspected of nonmonogamy to the stock photos that run with nearly every article on it (If I see that one with the guy surreptitiously holding hands with one woman behind the back of another woman with her arm around him, one more time I’m going to scream.), the message tends to be “this is something that exists for male pleasure”.

Additionally I have coped with a lot of folks making assumptions about my sexuality: men who assume I am the key to the FFM threesome they’ve always wanted, people who imply I MUST be bisexual because why else would I want my relationships open, and endless people tossing the “I read an article that said no women are really hetero!” line at me. I hate complaining about this because I see my actual bisexual friends struggle so hard with the erasure of their identities but, seriously, since becoming nonmonogamous I have way too many people argue with me about my orientation.

Within my own relationships my struggles are largely entwined with my physical/mental health issues. So, I’m often not great at staying in touch, especially when the anxiety and depression kick in and that can leave my partners feeling ignored. Additionally, I get worried that my limitations (I have terribly low social stamina and often need mellow, quiet time) make me “not fun”.

5. How do you address and/or overcome those struggles?

The grand scale ones kind of fit in with the mission of my website: making sure everyone knows that they get to be who they are so I just try to channel my anger about it into making sure I never write things that tell people who or what they are is wrong or doesn’t exist. It’s actually part of what has shaped me as a writer.

As for within my relationships, so much talking. I try to be as honest as I can about what’s going on with me. That includes my health stuff and my insecurities.

6. In terms of risk-aware/safer sex, what do you and your partners do to protect one another?

Testing and barrier methods mostly. I also had a tubal ligation in 2016 so pregnancy is not a concern anymore. (Fun fact: my partner was with me when I went in for the procedure and every doctor we saw mentioned that vasectomies are significantly less invasive. We told each one “we’re nonmonogamous so we are doing both” and every single doctor replied with something along the lines of “cool, that’s smart!” because, Portland.

7. What is the worst mistake you've ever made in your polyamorous history and how did you rebound from that?

In that first relationship in 2013 I didn’t take the time to determine whether the other person and I meant the same thing when we said nonmonogamous. This resulted in my (very jealous) partner freaking out whenever I tried to see anyone else (each time insisting it was “just that specific guy” he objected to) and constantly pushing me to attend sex clubs so he could “look over and sex you with someone else” (so far from what I wanted). For me non- monogamy looks like everyone having their own relationships and no ownership of anyone while for this man non-monogamy looked like everyone knowing I was “his” and him “allowing” me outside activity that he approved of/was in the room for.

When I got out of that relationship I quite literally rebounded into my relationship with my now-partner of almost 5 years. When I met him I laid out what non monogamy meant to me and found he was on the same page. Basically, I learned the valuable lesson of not assuming everyone who wasn’t monogamous was okay with the same things. It seems obvious now but back then I was just thrilled to find other nonmonogamous people.

(Bonus: Do you have any groups, projects, websites, blogs, etc. that you are involved with that you would like to promote?)

I am working on my first book, The Monster Under the Bed: Sex, Depression, and the Conversations We Aren’t Having and have a Patreon where supporters can read weekly book previews and help shape the book by participating in monthly polls.

—

Support Inclusive Polyamorous Representation at https://www.patreon.com/PolyRoleModels

#polyamory #author #Sex education #polyamorous

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snkpolls · 6 years

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SnK S3E07 Poll Results (Anime Only Version)

The poll closed with 118 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note this is the anime only viewer version of the poll. Manga readers, please click here for the results of the manga reader poll!

RATE THE EPISODE 110 Responses

Another episode with an overwhelming amount of positive feedback and high ratings!

20 minutes of everything that makes the series great

Best episode of the season by far. Rod is a poor guy. Historia did Destroya.

Best so far!! This season is truly getting better with every episode. Idk how I'm going to survive to the end of it tbh, I'm already dead!!!!

WE FINALLY GOT TO HEAR THE TWO NEW VOCAL TRACKS. YOUR REACTIONS?

Out of the new tracks, Kenny’s remix had its fans, but Historia’s headstrong theme got the most love! Anyone excited for the OST’s release?

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WERE YOUR FAVORITE SCENES? 107 Responses

The rematch between Levi and Kenny was most compelling, closely followed by Historia remembering Ymir’s and stand-up against her father. Viewers also seemed to enjoy Mikasa slicing some MPs and Eren’s emotional breakdown.

Eren's emotional monologue broke me. I teared up even on the second watch. Maybe I'm just too invested in this show lol.

Mikasa's pose when she kicked a bitch in the face

HOW EMOTIONAL DID SPRINGLESTEIN’S FIRST KILLS MAKE YOU? 105 Responses

For the most part, viewers more or less had some feelings toward Springlestein’s first human kills. They grow up so fast!

jean best boi

TRAUTE HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT HER LOYALTY AND KENNY’S DREAM. WHAT’RE YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT HER AS A CHARACTER? 108 Responses

Almost half of you believe Kenny’s right-hand woman to be bright and rational, while there is nearly an even split between not having much of an opinion and thinking she’s being manipulated by Kenny. Two of you compared her to Annie: “bootleg Annie”/ “grumpier Annie”

She just has a different ideology than Erwin and co. and is prepared to fight to death for it.

Honestly there was just so much going on I didn't really think about her

I am open to more of her.

I’m loving her just as much as Kenny, she’s a fun villain.

HOW HEARTBREAKING WAS EREN’S BREAKDOWN? 108 Resposnes

There were a variety of responses for this one, though overall people found Eren’s breakdown to be a bit of a tearjerker.

It's traumatizing right now, but he will get through this.

Now's not the time Eren. You can do this at any other time just not right now.

HOW BADASS WAS HISTORIA YEETING HER DAD? 108 Responses

A vast majority of viewers are applauding Historia throwing her father on the ground and calling him on his bullshit!

Damn that girl always gets the best music whenever she does something awesome

Good for her:) She took a stand on her own.

I liked the reminder that she is actually a fuckin' soldier, when she tossed her pops and threw his spine out.

FAVORITE KENNY-ISM SO FAR: 108 Responses

Kenny has quite a few quotable moments, but people find his introduction line to be most favorable.

HOW’RE YOU FEELING ABOUT EREN RIGHT NOW? 107 Responses

72% of the voters sympathize with Eren’s despair and want people to cut him some slack, while a fair amount believe this is not the time or place for him to fall apart.

It's nice to see him actually consider the consequences of his actions for the first time basically ever.

Always been a cry baby and spoiled brat

I mean... they've all been through a lot.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR EREN’S EMOTIONAL STABILITY AFTER HIS HEAVIEST BREAKDOWN YET? 104 Responses

Despite his breakdown, a majority of voters believe this is just another bump in the road for Eren. There are some that think this is just the beginning of his stability worsening.

It'll take some time but with the help of his friends they'll level him out. Needs a good talking to from Mikasa

He’ll pick himself, but it will take a while.

I'm expecting a change in his demeanor. I've been reading that he sheds his hot-headed persona, so I'm looking forward to that.

He's gonna be a cooler, wiser and more mature character.

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO HISTORIA TOSSING THE SERUM? 106 Responses

Again, the support for Historia’s actions and words is overwhelming!

DID YOU EXPECT KENNY’S (NOW-ABANDONED) PLAN WAS TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE TITANS? 106 Responses

While a decent amount of viewers suspected Kenny wanted to ultimately take the Reiss’s titan power for himself, a majority did not expect his confession.

HANGE: DOWN OR OUT? 106 Responses

Despite being grappled and thrown against a pilar, 79.2% are confident Hange will pull themself together!

My theory: Hange will be in a coma from her injuries, but wakes up upon Moblit coming back to give her a kiss :)

They foreshadowed Hange going down masterfully

HOW MUCH DO YOU TRUST ROD’S EXPLANATIONS? 106 Responses

Rod did a lot of infodumping about Grisha’s sins and his family’s secrets the past couple episodes. What’s the truth and what’s a lie? Most believe there is some truth to what he is saying along with a few lies purposely placed.

He is telling the truth. At the same time he's a selfish, manipulative villain hellbent on using Historia.

I trust Rod about as much as I trust the old tub of sour cream in the back of my fridge dated "12/04/2011".

The very first thing he did in the episode was manipulating Historia's emotions with her dead sister. Fuck that guy.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

And the oscar for best performance goes to... YUKI KAJI!

First legitimately great episode of Season 3. Not hindered by the breakneck pacing and/or infodumps.

I hate Rod. I feel bad for Eren. I'm excited by Kenny. Historia is doing better for herself.

I don't think anyone is getting eaten so either Rod's dumb titan form will be a threat some other way or we will finally know how people can can turn into shifters without eating another shifter.

Was It Armin who figured out Kenny's troupe maneuver gear weaknesses? Because the anime kinda implies that... And this is awesome.. he os brilliant

Fights are awesome

This was the weakest episode so far. On paper, it should be one hell of an episode, but regrettably the the way it was executed left a lot to be desired. In particular, I found Historia's and Eren's scenes to be quite disappointing. The storyboards and direction for those scenes were the most insipid and uninspired so far in the anime's entire run. The VAs did all they could, but the directors let them down. The scenes paled in comparison to Reiner+Berthold's reveal and Eren's breakdown from S2. Lastly, the art was pretty awful at various instances throughout the episode. From what I read about the production on Twitter, it seems WIT has already started to experience difficulties managing the production for this season, which probably means the art will keep on getting worse. I'm now deliberating on whether to go ahead and read the manga and watch the anime once the Blu-rays are out.

Shits getting good now.

The smokescreen was fucking awesome. And I had a laugh with a friend after we repeatedly said we would never go on an assault if it meant attacking through a narrow door.

Moar Squad Levi plz now and for forever

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 102 Responses

Thank you again to everyone who took the poll. See you back on Tuesday!

#snk poll #snk polls #snk spoilers #snk s3 #poll results

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ontarioyoga · 3 years

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Is Baby Yoga Harmful

New Post has been published on https://www.ontarioyoga.net/is-baby-yoga-harmful/

Is Baby Yoga Harmful

Yoga Can Be A Source Of Knee Pain Or The Ideal Therapy Here’s A Primer On Keeping The Joint Healthy On And Off The Mat

August 28, 2007

The chorus of pops emanating from Kyle Ray’s knee was his first clue that his body wasn’t happy in . It was the end of a relaxing yoga class in Louisville, Kentucky, and the teacher had instructed everyone to assume a seated position for some chanting. Sure, Ray’s knees had acted up on occasion, but he’d gotten himself into Lotus before and was confident he could do it again. He slowly nestled his left ankle into the crook of his hip. Then, grabbing his right calf, he used his arm strength to muscle the top leg into position.

“The noise was awful,” says Ray, 31. A second later, a quick, sharp pain shot through his knee. He gingerly unfolded his legs. After class, it was all he could do to hobble home and place an ice pack on the swelling joint. It took six months for him to be able to walk without pain. Although his knee pain did subside, Ray still frets about the stability of his knees and generally avoids knee-taxing postures like .

A Viral Video Shows A Russian Fitness Instructor Swinging A Newborn To Give Her A Workout How Dangerous Is That

Many new moms turn to yoga to get themselves and their children in shape. But a Russian fitness teacher living in Egypt is trying to push the trend beyond prenatal yoga and mommy-and-me classes. The instructor, Lena Fokina, made a “baby yoga” video that went viral this week showing her swinging a 2-week-old baby by her tiny limbs, even flipping the infant over her head. Is this an innovation that will help parents raise stronger babies, or simply child abuse?

This is a form of abuse: This video clip is absolutely “horrifying,” says Linda Marsicano at . This “so-called Baby Yoga” looks certain to “dislocate a limb or two!” Fortunately, it seems highly unlikely that “swinging newborns” will catch on in the U.S. — “to me it looks like child abuse.”“Baby Yoga: You have to see this horrifying video! Plus Mommy & Me yoga classes”

It is not as scary as it looks: Lena Fokina “isn’t actually hurting the baby,” says Sasha Brown-Worsham in , just swinging her “with highly controlled, almost circus-like motions.” This is just a “slightly amped-up version” of workouts many moms do with their newborns.” I wouldn’t try it, but Fokina’s a pro, and she’s doing this to help the child, not hurt her.“Chill out! Baby Yoga with Lena Fokina looks fun”

In Assessing Product Information I Rely On Scientific Sources And The Expertise Of A Medical Doctor

To begin with, I have been researching consumer product ingredients since 2012. I dove into this subject because I was looking for non-toxic products for my newly born son. Do you know what I discovered? First, that manufacturers’ claims often do not mean much. And second, that as consumers we should take responsibility for raising our own awareness regarding product materials and ingredients.

So, using three university degrees and my bank analyst experience, I started doing research. The scientific sources I use are comprised of reports from Cosmetic Ingredient Review Panel, the European Chemicals Agency, PubMed publications, the Scientific Committees on Consumer Safety, and so on. I also use the EWG Skin Deep database, despite its flaws. Plus, functional medicine doctor Myrto Ashe, MD, MPH, IFMCP reviews medicine-related information in my posts.

As a result of my commitment to reading ingredients, large consumer goods companies seek my professional counsel on their products. And to find out what documentary they interviewed me for, visit my page.

Baby Yoga Can Give You Better Rest Increased Flexibility And A Happy Baby

After nine long months, you’re delighted to have a sweet baby to cuddle and love. But a new baby means a new schedule, and you may find yourself with less time to focus on your health. It’s important to find an exercise regimen that is gentle enough for your body but is also challenging and exciting.

Whether you’re new to yoga or were a committed participant before you had your child, baby yoga is an excellent way to get you on a structured postnatal wellness path. “We recommend baby yoga for anyone who is looking for a healthy, playful bonding activity to do with a new baby,” says Lauren Chaitoff, co-owner of New York City children’s yoga studio Yogi Beans and contributor to .

Check out these nine reasons to do baby-centric yoga that will have you and baby feeling great in no time!

It’s a Great Bonding Experience With Your BabyMom and baby programs focus on both of you. “We modify traditional yoga poses so that moms can practice yoga while holding and rocking their babies,” states Laura DeNino, baby yoga instructor at the Yoga House of Charleston. The result is time dedicated to bonding.

You’ll Be Able to Ease Back Into YogaUnlike high-level adult yoga classes, child yoga acknowledges the changes that a new mom’s body has been through. You’ll work with your recovering and changing body instead of against it.

So grab that yoga mat and find a baby yoga class near you. Your body and your baby will thank you!

Care directory

Itsy Bitsy Yoga For Babies With A Parent/caregiverages: Newborn To Pre

Itsy Bitsy Yoga is a calming and nurturing yoga practice filled with ways to enhance bonding and make babies happier and more comfortable in their bodies. This class contains dozens of unique yoga postures designed specifically to soothe and support the development of a baby’s body. During the BABY Itsy Bitsy Yoga class, babies are mostly lying on their tummies, backs or in a parent’s arms. For parents and caregivers, this class provides a special time to bond with and learn about your baby’s emerging personality. Most of the yoga we do in Itsy Bitsy Yoga is for the child, but you will learn breathing and relaxation techniques and possibly practice some yoga yourself.

With or without yoga experience, Sweet Pea Yoga will teach poses and techniques from the Itsy Bitsy Yoga® program that:

Promotes parent-child bonding in a relaxed environment.

Improves your baby’s digestion and helps her sleep longer and better.

Calms a fussy or crying baby almost immediately using IBY Magic Poses™.

Helps you to understand your child’s developmental patterns.

Encourages your child to develop a healthy body, a confident self-awareness, and a happy spirit.

Fosters nurturing moments in and outside of class with special IBY Rhymes.

Benefits of Itsy Bitsy Yoga® for BABIES may include:

Better and longer sleep.

I Recommend A Cork Yoga Mat Instead Of A Polyvinyl Chloride Yoga Mat

Other popular mats nowadays are TPE yoga mats and eco-friendly yoga mats. I have tried them and described my experience in my Eco-Friendly Yoga Mats: Safe or Toxic? post. You will also learn what TPE material is.

So, after trying several yoga mats, I ended up with a sustainable cork yoga mat by . What I like about this biodegradable non-toxic yoga mat is that it is thick, not bulky, and not slippery. In fact, it has rubber backing against sliding. I also like the unique design of this non-PVC yoga mat, which contributes to my general feeling of ease. Read my review of the Scoria yoga mat to learn more about it.

Baby Yoga: 10 Reasons You & Your Newborn Should Consider Practicing

Doing Yoga with your baby has a lot of health benefits, and there are many reasons why you should give it a try.

Yoga: the great mind, body, and spirit connective activity. Despite yoga being very popular, many are unaware that those invaluable connections can be explored outside of one’s inner self. In fact, mothers who practice yoga with their newborns can experience an entirely new type of connection among a variety of other great and positive benefits.

RELATED: 15 Moms Who Should’ve NEVER Worn Yoga Pants

In addition to getting comfortable in one’s new mom role, moms are often trying to get comfortable in their new mom’s body and get adjusted to their new mom hours. There is a pretty good chance yoga can help with all of that. Read on for more ways to get that mom and baby on.

Rumor: Video Shows A Woman Wanted By The Fbi For Torturing A Baby

Video shows a woman wanted by the FBI for torturing a baby.

REAL VIDEO; INACCURATE DESCRIPTION

Although what’s depicted in this video is real and strikes most viewers as highly disturbing and dangerous, it isn’t a unique circumstance nor is it illegal, and the woman shown in the video isn’t “torturing a baby for fun” nor is she wanted by the FBI or other U.S. law enforcement agencies.

What’s shown in this video is the controversial back in January 2011. The video embedded at the head of this page is more of the same, showing another instance of an infant’s being put through a “dynamic gymnastics” routine.

As CBS News reported of the original video in 2011:

If you haven’t seen it yet, the video, which comes out of Russia, shows a woman tossing, twisting and spinning a baby in midair. She never lets go of the child’s arm, but the images of a child being tossed around like that are pretty jarring to an American eye.

The baby yoga guru is Lena Fokina, a 50-year-old Russian who lives in Egypt teaching yoga, free-diving and “dynastic gymnastics” .

Fokina said baby yoga helps children have more mobility, freedom and independence and has been practiced in Russia for three decades. “They are early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers. You haven’t seen anything like it anywhere!”

The blog also wrote of that video:

In Russia, parents pay to bring their children to Lena Fokina and have her put them through “baby yoga” routines:

And, although it is legal, it is highly controversial.

Is Tpe Material The Answer For Producing Sustainable Yoga Mats No

A while ago, I got a ThinkSport yoga mat as a present from a family member. Since another non-toxic blogger had researched the product and gave it the thumbs-up, I relaxed. Obviously, there was nothing else for me to do but to practice yoga. Then, while holding my pose, I took a deep breath on the mat. It smelled of toxic chemicals.

It Is Crucial To Use Credible Sources In Evaluating Pvc Yoga Mats

For starters, I have been in the product safety research business since 2012. Both my MBA degree and financial analyst experience have been of great help in the field of research. Nowadays, due to my expertise in this area, manufacturers and online retailers hire me as their product research and development consultant. I was also in a documentary that you can learn more about on my page.

Using credible sources is crucial in evaluating product information, so I do not rely on marketing claims. Instead, I read Cosmetic Ingredient Reports and PubMed publications. Additionally, I go to the European Chemicals Agency and the Scientific Committees on Consumer Safety databases, to name a few. The EWG is a useful tool, too, but you must learn to use the Skin Deep Database the right way.

Several years ago, when I did my first research on PVC yoga mats, I concluded that I should avoid PVC products. I was definitely glad that I did not own a polyvinyl chloride yoga mat. However, when I revisited the subject, I discovered articles by the chemical industry extolling the virtues of PVC. After reading them, it is easy to conclude that PVC is one of the best materials created by humankind. From every angle – environmental, production, safety, application – they described vinyl as an ideal material for every area of our lives. But to formulate my opinion about product safety, I look at independent sources to get a well-rounded view.

The Life Cycle Of Pvc Yoga Mats Produces Dangerous Byproducts

According to the European Chemicals Agency, vinyl chloride – the main ingredient in PVC – is a human carcinogen. Thus, the first report of liver cancer induced by vinyl chloride was in 1974 . Since then, new research has demonstrated the carcinogenicity of VC to other organs and at lower concentrations. I have no scientific evidence that one can get cancer from regular yoga sessions on a polyvinyl chloride yoga mat.

Additionally, one of the concerns with PVC is the generation of carcinogenic dioxins, byproducts of the manufacturing and disposal processes. Thus, the EWG rates 10 out of 10 due to high cancer concerns.

Because PVC is not biodegradable, the only way to get rid of it is to burn it. When burning, chlorine produces dioxins that end up in soil, fish, animals, water, air, and, ultimately, in humans. Dioxins are persistent . As a result, they may cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, and interfere with hormones.

Therefore, US Environmental Protection Agency regards dioxins as highly toxic persistent organic pollutants. And the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants emphasizes the importance of limiting the processes that produce dioxins.

I think those are good reasons to avoid PVC yoga mats. Clearly, we cannot get rid of all plastics, but let us do what we can by making informed decisions. So, what yoga mat do I use?

In My Opinion The Best Exercise Mat Is Scoria Cork Yoga Mat

After having no luck with ThinkSport and Jade Harmony, I was excited to try one of ’s sustainable yoga mats.

This biodegradable non-toxic yoga mat is made of cork and has a natural rubber backing against sliding. Also, it comes in two thicknesses , is not bulky, and is not slippery. It does have some smell, but it is minimal, and it rolls well.

I really like this yoga mat! It is comfortable, has a unique design, and makes me feel good.

You can learn more about it by reading my review of Scoria yoga mats. So far, it has been the best workout mat I have used. You can purchase it on the Scoria website. It is a Canadian company, but they ship to the USA without any taxes and duties.

Yoga More Dangerous Than Previously Thought Scientists Say

Yoga is more dangerous than previously thought and causes as many injuries as other sports, a study has found.

The 5,000 year-old Indian discipline is said to boost physical and mental wellbeing, and celebrity fans include Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen – as well as David and Victoria Beckham.

However, in a recent study yoga caused musculoskeletal pain – mostly in the arms – in more than one in ten participants.

The scientists behind the research, which was published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, also found that the practice worsened over a fifth of existing injuries.

Professor Evangelos Pappas, of Sydney University, the study’s lead researcher said: “Yoga may be a bit more dangerous than previously thought.

“Our study found the incidence of pain caused by yoga is more than 10 percent per year – which is comparable to the rate of all sports injuries combined among the physically active population.

“However people consider it to be a very safe activity. This injury rate is up to 10 times higher than has previously been reported.”

International Yoga Day 2017, in pictures

His team assessed more than 350 people who attended yoga classes at two studios in New York.

Yoga is an increasingly popular complementary or alternative therapy for musculoskeletal disorders, with millions of people practising worldwide.

At a glance | What’s in a yoga class?16 photographs that prove we’ve reached peak yogaAbout | A-list yoga crazes

Baby Gymnastics: Russia’s ‘potentially Dangerous’ Therapy

Oleg Tyutin is a psychotherapist, but for the past 20 years he has been practising a different kind of medicine.

He trains young mums like Victoria Kurzina to do the kind of exercises with their babies that would spark an outcry in the West.

Mr Tyutin holds Victoria’s baby by the legs, so that little Pavel is dangling upside down – and swings him gently from side to side like a pendulum.

Then, like the game of cup and ball, he swings the baby up towards him and catches him in his chest.

Pavel is just 17 days old.

The Russians call this dynamic baby gymnastics.

The practice is legal in Russia and widespread. There are believed to be hundreds of practitioners across the country.

Oleg maintains it gives babies a head start in life.

“When they’re born, babies are very tense,” Oleg explains.

“They’re frightened by the wide, open space around them. This procedure helps a baby adapt to their new surroundings. It makes infants more open, more sociable, more relaxed. It also helps them develop more quickly.”

After lesson one, Victoria doesn’t feel confident enough to have a go herself.

“It’s a bit frightening really,” Victoria admits. “A specialist – well, his hands are confident, he has all the experience, he knows what to do. But I’m still at the learning stage.”

Lubricants In Plastics Reduce Friction During Processing

Apparently, there are external lubricants and internal lubricants. While the former reduces friction between the PVC and the processing equipment, the latter work on the PVC granules . It looks like there is no way for PVC yoga mats to work around these either.

“With PVC, typical external lubricants are stearic acid and its calcium, lead, cadmium, and barium salts, myristic acid, hydrocarbons such as paraffin wax, and low molecular weight polythene and certain esters such as ethyl palmitate… Amongst internal lubricants used for PVC are amine waxes, montan wax ester derivatives, glyceryl esters such as glyceryl monostearate, and long-chain esters such as cetyl palmitate.”

Among these, my concern lies with lead and cadmium salts for the reasons I stated in the heavy metal section.

Plasticizers Make A Polyvinyl Chloride Yoga Mat Flexible

First of all, a plasticizer makes plastic flexible, resilient, and easier to handle. Therefore, a plasticizer is crucial in PVC yoga mats.

While the most common plasticizers are phthalates, many products boast that they are “phthalate-free.” This is because phthalates have a bad reputation as endocrine disruptors .

So, is a phthalate-free polyvinyl chloride yoga mat safe?

Well, I encourage you to always ask what the manufacturer uses instead of phthalates. For example, other plasticizers are adipates, glutarates, sebacates, phosphates, polymerics, trimellitates, and epoxy compounds. The good news is that none of these seems to be as toxic as phthalates. However, they may have limited safety data, meaning that they do not know enough about their safety yet. And most of the time manufacturers do not tell us what they use instead of phthalates. So “phthalate-free” may sound good, but it may not mean safer.

Trying To Foam Roll A Muscle That Hasnt Been Warmed Up

Timing with foam rolling is important because if you spend too much time in a single area, there is an increased risk of bruising or injury. The risk is especially high when this is done on what’s called a cold muscle. This is essentially a muscle that hasn’t been properly warmed up before doing physical activity.

Foam rolling a muscle that has not been warmed up is preferable to static or dynamic stretching, however. Foam rolling is actually the first recommended step in warming up to exercise.

The risk associated with foam rolling too hard is similar to the risks associated with massage-bruising. If you experience this after rolling, ice can be used to comfort the area, however, any sort of swelling, loss of function, range of motion, or strength indicates that you should see a doctor immediately.

When you begin rolling a cold muscle, you should always start with softer pressure in order to avoid further damage or inflammation. When you move the roller too aggressively over a cold muscle, you run the risk of damaging muscle tissue which could make muscle aches even worse. Instead, keep the roller still, and maneuver your body gently in order to give your body the time to generate heat and further warm-up, which leads to the loosening of tense points.

Is Baby Yoga A Good Activity For You And Your Child

Categories Kids and family

To put it simply, yes, baby yoga is bound to be helpful to both you and your child on different levels.

For them, it’s more on the physical spectrum that aids in their development, while for you it’s finding the time to relax and decompress as well as help your body deal with postpartum stress, be it physical or mental.

Baby yoga at its core is nothing exceptionally complicated. Yoga poses range from the simple “tummy time” and baby massages we’re all used to doing with our kids, all the way to special yoga poses that include both mommy and baby.

The general idea behind it is to help kids who are facing difficulties in development due to the modernization of baby gear, as they too have started to suffer from becoming “lazier.”

Focusing On Certain Areas Of Your Body For Too Long

It goes without saying, but some areas of the body might have more pressure than others. With that being said, you don’t want to overdo it on any one spot by staying focused on it for too long. The recommended time to roll any one area would be 30 seconds to one minute.

30 seconds should be spent holding the muscle over the roller all while applying consistent pressure. 30 seconds can then be spent exploring dynamic pressure on the area. Dynamic pressure means that the foam roller is moved, as opposed to applying static pressure by just holding it in place.

It’s a good idea, to begin with, static pressure and then move to dynamic pressure. A great way to conduct this is by keeping the roller in a single place as you twist from side to side, moving your body across the roller and up and down the length of the muscle that you’re focusing on.

What Is Tpe It Is A Mix Of Undisclosed Ingredients

In the meantime, thermoplastic elastomers . Do these sound like proper materials for eco-friendly yoga mats?

According to the British Plastics Federation, there are seven main TPE groups available commercially. For example, one of the most common and least expensive ones is Styrenic Block Copolymers. To clarify, these are based on two-phase block copolymers with hard and soft segments. Thus, the styrene end blocks provide thermoplastic properties, and the butadiene mid-blocks provide elastomeric properties. Considering its properties and areas of application, I venture a guess that some so-called sustainable yoga mats are made with this kind of TPE.

If we look at the individual chemical polymers, this is what we will see.

First, they produce styrene in industrial quantities from ethylbenzene and use it to make plastics and rubber. The International Agency for Research on Cancer .

Second, butadiene is a chemical that they produce from petroleum and use to make synthetic rubber. The Department of Health and Human Services, IARC, and EPA classify it as a human carcinogen .

Based on this, I am skeptical about TPE. If a manufacturer describes their yoga mat as made of TPE material without specifying the ingredients, I interpret it as lack of transparency. In short, TPE is a blend of undisclosed synthetic materials that have not been proven safe.

Are TPE eco-friendly yoga mats biodegradable? No.

You would expect sustainable yoga mats to be biodegradable, right?

Heat Stabilizers Prevent Pvc Decomposition By Heat

To begin, stabilizers in plastics prevent environmental effects of heat or UV light and mechanical degradation during processing and use. The available heat stabilizers for PVC are organotin compounds, antimony, organochlorines, lead compounds, and cadmium .

First, the organotin compounds in PVC are mainly mono-butyltin . This evaluates their toxic effects on in vitro human cells. All three had a negative impact on human cells. DBT and TBT revealed the most toxic effects even at low concentrations.

Second, antimony enhances the flame-retardant effect of chlorine in PVC. In 1990, the state of California added antimony oxide to the list of carcinogenic chemicals , antimony may damage fertility or the unborn child. Also, it may cause cancer, harm breastfed children, and damage organs through prolonged or repeated exposure.

Third, organochlorines are synthetic pollutants to humans. Thus, many organochlorines are linked to endocrine disruption or cancer in experimental assays . Like antimony, organochlorines enhance the flame retardancy characteristics and the impact strength characteristics in PVC.

Heavy metals in PVC yoga mats

These substances in your polyvinyl chloride yoga mat can enter your body through skin contact and inhalation. In addition, they may contaminate your body via ingestion of the dust containing heavy metals.

And cadmium is linked to reduced mineral density in bones, preterm labor, kidney disease and damage has classified it as “carcinogenic to humans.”

Baby Yoga Promotes Healthy Development And Bonding

As a parent, your main priority is to keep your child happy and healthy. But you may need a chance to relax, too. Baby yoga is a healthy, engaging way for caregivers to bond with their newborns, tune into their cues and de-stress. Babies are “natural yogis;” you may have noticed your infant doing yoga poses already.

“Baby yoga is all about bonding with your infant through stretches, lots of tummy time and high-energy activities to help with the baby’s developmental path,” says Patti Ideran, OTR/L, CEIM, a pediatric occupational therapist at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, who is also a certified educator of infant massage and a certified instructor of baby and toddler yoga. “I really look at this class as preventive medicine.”

It is well understood that yoga is a great way for adults to de-stress, but babies also benefit from participating.

The Problems Kids Face That Baby Yoga Helps Solve

The so-aptly dubbed “container babies” who end up spending more time in strollers, car seats, baby swings, and similar are the ones who suffer from the laziness problem the most, in the same manner that we adults do nowadays.

They start being a lot less active, which leads to their metabolism slowing down, in turn ending up making colic a more frequent occurrence from the digestion problems that come alongside it.

There’s also the problem of this inactivity causing delays in the baby’s developmental cycle, as well as issues caused by abnormal head shapes due to constantly having it rest somewhere.

All of these get properly sorted out through the application of baby yoga exercises; this way your little one then gets to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Frequently Asked Questions About Yoga For Babies

Is yoga safe for babies and tots?According to pediatricians and nurses, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Itsy Bitsy Yoga® is safe, gentle and very effective when done with proper instruction. The parent is responsible for carrying out all of the baby’s yoga movements until the baby can walk. In the more active Tots Yoga program , parents are there to support and assist their toddler into yoga poses whenever necessary. Parents can also enjoy the time practicing yoga poses, while letting their child imitate and explore yoga on her own two feet.

How do I know which class is right for me–Baby or Tots Itsy Bitsy Yoga? If your baby is not yet crawling class so you won’t need to switch levels mid-session.

What if my baby cries during class?Crying is one of the ways babies express themselves and vocalize their needs. Just take a breath, center yourself, and attend to your baby’s needs. A wonderful benefit of the Itsy Bitsy Yoga program is that you will learn a number of the exclusive IBY “Magic Poses” which can literally calm crying in seconds when practiced with the right intensity.

What if my baby is hungry during class?We encourage you to attend to your baby’s needs at any time during the class. This is an environment supportive to both breastfeeding and bottle feeding parents. Out of respect to the potential allergies of other parents or children, we request that you not bring solid foods into the classroom.

Baby Yoga Video Is Real And Real Scary But Safe

January 20, 2011 / 12:06 PM / CBS News

Yes, the yoga baby video is real and really terrifying, at least to watch. But is it safe for baby?

Some speculated the baby wasn’t even real, but Nathan Thornburgh, a former Time magazine editor who blogs at , says he tracked both baby and baby swinger down for a chat.

The baby yoga guru, writes Thornburgh, is Lena Fokina, a 50-year-old Russian who lives in Egypt teaching yoga, free-diving and “dynastic gymnastics” . The baby, he says, lives a few hours outside of Kiev, Ukraine, was only two weeks old when the video was shot, and is doing just fine two years later.

In fact, Fokina said baby yoga helps children have more mobility, freedom and independence and has been practiced in Russia for three decades. “They are early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers. You haven’t seen anything like it anywhere!!” she told Thornburgh.

Baby Yoga Woman Is Back With New Video: Unsafe

March 2, 2012 / 4:46 PM / CBS News

In 2011, Lena Fokina shocked the world when a video of her twirling and slinging his two week old baby from side to side went viral. She’s back again, swinging a new infant in a new video by Barcroft TV.

Last year, Fokina told the Dadwagon blog that the dynamic gymnastics practice — which was dubbed baby yoga — gave children a boost in life. Other Russian parents echoed her sentiments, saying their children walked and swam earlier.

Still, many viewers were outraged, prompting YouTube to take the original video down because it was in violation of their policy of “shocking and disgusting content.”

Baby yoga video is real and real scary, but safe?

Barcroft TV’s new video, uploaded March 1, 2012, catches up with the 51-year-old yoga guru as she teaches parents in Dahab, Egypt the art of baby yoga. She’s still dangling the infants by one arm or leg, while the children wail in glee or sheer terror, depending on who you believe.

Reasons Why Baby Tossing Is Good For Your Baby

Baby tossing spans the globe, from harrowing rooftop rituals in India to gymnastics training in Russia to baby Yoga studios in California and New York. Don’t be afraid to take your babies and toss them around, horseplay and otherwise push your limits with what you feel is a responsible level of baby tossing for your baby.

WARNING: THIS POST IS AGAINST EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER LEARNED!

While we don’t advocate stressing babies or doing anything that endangers babies, many new parents have no idea that there are major health benefits to tossing and turning babies. We’re told repeatedly not to shake or toss babies, so we thought we’d look around and see what people are doing to thumb their noses at doctors’ advice.5 facts that baby tossing is good for your baby:

Doctors say horseplay with kids is good!Some are going on the record to say that it’s about time we accept the good in horseplay and start baby tossing. The Art of Roughhousing includes the the testimony of doctors who say “rough-and-tumble play can nurture close connections, solve behavior problems, boost confidence, and more.”

Dynamic gymnastics in Russia makes babies happyIt’s hard to deny the sheer joy and pleasure in this next video. “Gymnastics with Jaromir” demonstrates a tradition in Russia that some advocates say help train many of the best Olympians the world has ever seen.

Parents Should Beware Of Shaken Baby Syndrome

The supposed benefits of the so called are certainly doubtful, and the possible dangers are far more evident. Experts have long warned that inflicting unnatural and very vigorous movements on young babies can in fact be very dangerous and can be classified as child abuse.

We know that Shaken Baby Syndrome is a condition that can be caused by intentional shaking of a baby. It can cause internal bleeding of the brain and/or the retina, swelling of the brain, visual impairment, motor impairment and even cognitive impairment to varying degrees.

The type of injury to a baby from shaking is quite distinct from injury that occurs due to falls, trauma or impact, and will typically have no outer signs of the injury but the kind of damage that can occur can be fairly extreme and could even be permanent.

The Benefits You Get From Attending Kids Yoga

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s not just your little one who reaps the benefits of yoga, you will too.

Whether you’re a new parent or not, chances are that you are going to be struggling with postpartum stress and potential postpartum depression.

Taking baby yoga classes will help you deal with these in a warm, friendly, and accepting environment filled with like-minded individuals.

Whether it’s the other new moms who came here for the same reason as you or the certified yogi who’s there to teach you, it’s a place where you can get in touch with serenity and let your troubles melt away – at least temporarily.

A place where nobody is going to mind if your baby has an accident mid-session or starts feeling uncomfortable or crying for any reason. In fact, they’re more likely to help you out than anything.

Plus, it lets you expand your social circle and share advice with all of these other new mothers and the yoga teacher.

Your active little yogi may even foster some new friendships with the other kids. Anything is possible, as long as the kids yoga class is kept nice and interactive.

Now, I haven’t personally attended any of these baby yoga classes yet, but have managed do delve deep enough into it that I’d definitely give it a shot if hubby and I ever intend on expanding to baby #3.

That said, a couple of my mom friends who introduced the concept of child yoga to me in the first place described the experience they had for their first time at the yoga studio:

Is It Safe To Do Bikram Yoga During Pregnancy

Bikram yoga or hot yoga is fast gaining popularity all over the world. This type of yoga takes place in heated rooms with high humidity. Bikram yoga has many health benefits that are attracting more and more people. A better heart, improved physical fitness, reduced stress- all are pros of doing hot yoga.

However, there is a debate on whether bikram yoga is safe for pregnant women. Some people believe that the high heat and humidity required for this yoga can prove harmful fir the fetus. It can also harm the mother. This type of yoga is quite rigorous and might physically harm the mother and the baby. Pregnancy is a crucial phase in every woman’s life. It is important to know all about the benefits and risks of doing bikram yoga during pregnancy.

How Many Times A Week Should You Do Hot Yoga

As often as possible, the more you practice the more you will see progress and results. For good results regularly practice 3 times per week. For life-changing results, 4 or more times per week. Professional/amateur athletes cross train with Bikram Yoga 1-2 weekly.

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Baby Yoga What Is It And Why Should We Care

We explore the ins and outs of sharing a mat with your mini.

Melanie Dimmitt

When presented with the notion of yoga for babies, I scrutinized it as I would a designer diaper bag. A lovely idea, in theory, but do I really it? Amid the plethora of mommy-and-me offerings – music classes, French lessons, sign-language… even Salsa dancing – why choose yoga? Babies are naturally bendy, are they not? It isn’t called a ‘happy baby’ for nothing. However, on closer inspection, there’s more to baby yoga than child’s play .

First things first. What is it, exactly?

Baby yoga tends to mean one of two things – an adult yoga class that you bring baby along to, or yoga that is actually for your baby. In a parent-focused class, bub takes the role of spectator-slash-adorable-prop.

“The babies lie on a blanket in front of the parents’ yoga mat,” explains Neelu Shruti, of Love Child yoga studio in New York. “Throughout class, which includes upper body stretches and glute strengthening, we will include baby in poses such as ‘push-up kiss baby’, or hold baby while doing squats, lunges or abdominal exercises.”

Love Child studio’s Baby & Me Yoga class incorporates restorative poses and sequences well suited to new parents – so long as they’re okay with the occasional flow interruption and not-so-silent Savasana.

But there are, according to Neelu, ample reasons to abandon your landslide of laundry for a class such as this.

We’re listening.

Now… will a yoga mat fit in my new designer diaper bag?

Limit Babys Activities To No More Than 15

Most yoga classes are between 45 minutes to an hour. That’s fine for mamas, but that length of time is too much for babies. While a baby is more than welcome to have some tummy time or sit and babble happily away while you perform additional, restorative or strength-building poses, your baby should only be actively doing yoga for 15 or 20 minutes. Anything more than that can overtax his/her already busy and developing body.

The Yoga Instructor Should Be Certified

Certifications and credentials are always a good thing to verify when trusting your well-being – and your baby’s – to someone else’s expertise. However, yoga certification should be an essential “prerequisite” before enrolling in a class.

First and foremost, the instructor should be trained and experienced in teaching parent-and-baby classes, understanding which postures and holds are safe, and which aren’t, to keep your baby safe. Your safety is also a priority. Your connective tissue is still very elastic from the hormonal changes that took place to accommodate pregnancy, labor and delivery. Postnatal classes should support that, keeping you safe from stretches or postures that could lead to potential strain or injury.

If you find out your baby isn’t as into the classes as you are and you opt to take a yoga class on your own, make sure to inform the instructor you are XX weeks postpartum as s/he will probably amend certain poses for you until you’re body is further along in its recovery.

Is Any Yoga Harmful For Corona Patients

Health Sciences

Coronavirus affects the respiratory system causing damage to it. The virus targets our lungs and restricts its capacity, thereby, causing breathlessness. Yoga like Pranayama – an easy and rhythmic breathing exercise can help in improving the breathing and our psychological well-being. It helps in strengthening the entire respiratory system along with our immune system. A person’s maximum speed or breathing out air and low blood oxygen levels can be remarkably improved with the aid of yoga exercise. Blood oxygen levels are an important marker in determining the severity of the infection in patients.

According to a research study conducted by the Harvard Medical School, practicing yoga can modulate our stress response system. Yoga can have soothing effects and help to flush our negative thinking that can be linked with anxiety and depression .

Yoga just not gives us the physical strength to defend against Coronavirus, but also provides us with emotional stability and mental balance to negotiate through this tough period of crisis.

Benefits Of Postpartum Yoga For Mothers

It helps ease new parent jitters. Get started by attending a class taught by a trained instructor — it’s a safe and structured way to engage with your baby.

It’s a little TLC for your body. Any kind of yoga gives you an opportunity to nourish and care for your body through focused stretches and mindful breathing exercises, which is especially important after carrying a baby for nine months and then giving birth!

It stretches and strengthens the muscles that need the most TLC. The gentle movements and mindful breathing that are integral to yoga boost abdominal strength and activate the pelvic floor muscles, which aids recovery from giving birth, while classic poses — from upward facing dog to cobra — help open up the shoulders and chest you rely on for all of the rocking and cradling you do in the first few months with your baby.

It helps you meet new moms. After baby is born, you might not have as much time for socializing. But it’s reassuring to talk to other mothers who are going through the same experiences as you are. Yoga class provides a safe and nurturing environment for new parents to discuss worries and concerns. You’re not alone!

It helps you and your new baby bond. Yoga is a healthy, playful activity you can enjoy together.

Ten Reasons Yoga Might Be Bad For You

Ten reasons yoga might be bad for you isn’t a list of reasons not to do yoga. It is intended to encourage people to do yoga consciously, with a specific eye on what their body needs in the moment, but also, possibly more importantly, what the body needs to age well. I often say in classes that I teach that what your body can get away with in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s might come back to haunt you in your 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

While I love yoga for the workout it provides, it should be more about building a vessel that accepts and cultivates the breath in pursuit of a long healthy life. From my perspective you need to approach your practice as a means to change, rather than reinforce, long held conditioned patterns. Certainly, exercising is better than not exercising – and very important for everybody – if you are doing it incorrectly it will not be good for you.

1. Forward Head Posture And Headstand

2. A Tucked Pelvis And Tadasana

It is essential to our pelvises.

3. Having Excessively Loose Joints

4. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome And Downward Dog

If you are doing downward dog with heel of the palm flat on the floor, rather than creating a tunnel for clear passage of the median nerve to travel through to the hand, you can actually make the problem worse. shares an affective technique for creating space in the carpal tunnel.

5. Weak Core Muscles And Wheel

6. The Shoulders And Chaturanga

8. Opening the Chest and Breathing Abdominally

A Polyvinyl Chloride Mat Is Not A Non

To lay the foundation, let us look at the essence of PVC.

Polyvinyl chloride, commonly called PVC or vinyl, belongs to the group of chloropolymers. They produce chloropolymers from alkenes by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms with chlorine. Polyvinyl chloride is the third largest-selling commodity thermoplastic after polyethylene and polypropylene. Imagine that more than 40 million tons of PVC are produced worldwide every year .

Further, the raw materials for PVC come from salt and petroleum. First, they produce chlorine by electrolysis of saltwater. Then, they combine chlorine with ethylene obtained from petroleum to form vinyl chloride monomer . Next, they polymerize VCM molecules to form PVC resin. Finally, they compound PVC resin into PVC compound. During this process, they combine PVC with additives which determine the properties of the products, e.g., color, clarity, and flexibility.

All PVC materials use functional additives which include heat stabilizers and lubricants. Additionally, they use plasticizers to make your polyvinyl chloride yoga mat flexible . Potentially, PVC yoga mats have all these additives, so let us talk about them.

Applying The Wrong Amount Of Pressure

Foam rolling should only be used when applying the correct amount of pressure, not too much or too little, or it may not be able to repair the damaged muscle tissue correctly.

Beginning at a medium speed may be the most effective at relieving tension, without causing too much strain on the muscle. That being said, it may take a while for the muscle that you are focusing on to relax. This will also change depending on the area of the body you are focusing on, because some muscles have trigger points, or may get tighter than others.

Different muscles will have varying degrees of tension, so it’s important to listen to what your body needs, and apply pressure accordingly. It can be difficult to tell the correct amount of pressure, however, it shouldn’t feel comfortable to do, especially with certain trigger points.

However, if you’re feeling no discomfort, you may not be applying enough pressure. Excruciating pain is not good either and communicates that you must lessen the pressure. Also important is not going too fast over certain sections, because this could lead to a lack of enough pressure.

Is Rubber Better Than Tpe It Depends

After my disappointment with ThinkSport yoga mats, my research led me to Jade eco-friendly yoga mats. When I received the mat, it had a smell, too, but not as strong as the ThinkSport mat. Despite its excellent properties – non-slippery and thick – I did not like it because it still smelled after several weeks.

According to the website, all Jade’s sustainable yoga mats are “made with natural rubber and contain no PVC or other synthetic rubbers.” However, the description also says that the mats contain both natural and man-made components, and the precise components are proprietary. In my correspondence with the company, Jade revealed to me that “these other ingredients are necessary to give our mats their properties .”

Additionally, Jade states that their yoga mats contain no heavy metals, ozone-depleting substances, PVC, TPE, phthalates, and formaldehyde.

It sounds good, but what bothers me is that there is no proof of any of those claims. I requested third party reports from Jade that would confirm the statements above. When I get them, I will update this post.

Flexible Muscles Vs Flexible Joints

To properly assess this safety issue, a distinction needs to be made: flexibility in joints is a different matter than flexibility in muscles.

Joints are where one bone connects with another bone. Joints are held together by ligaments. They are further stabilized by muscles and tendons. As Dr. James Garrick, M.D., orthopedic surgeon and Director of the Sports Medicine Center at Saint Francis Hospital in San Francisco, states in his book, Peak Condition:

Ligaments have some elasticity. They can stretch a bit, but if they stretch over about 10 percent of their length, then they are like Saran Wrap — you stretch it too far and it stays that way. It won’t go back.

The job of ligaments is to help hold a joint in alignment, yet still allow for normal range of motion. If a ligament is over-stretched, then it is unable to stabilize the joint as well as it did before. The joint becomes more vulnerable to injury unless adequate muscle strength is developed to compensate for the extra looseness.

If the ligaments are stretched sufficiently — either from a sudden impact — the joint will be injured. There will then be inflammation and pain in the joint, for inflammation is the body’s mechanism for stabilizing the compromised joint.

Therefore, in yoga or any other activity, care should be taken never to stretch the ligaments. Dr. Garrick states in another of his books, Be Your Own Personal Trainer

What Do We Wear And Take To A Class

Parents and babies should both wear loose, comfortable clothes that are easy to move around in. Jogging bottoms, loose t-shirts or vest tops are ideal.

For babies, I would recommend a sleepsuit with a short-sleeved vest underneath. Sleepsuits are comfortable and easy to whip off when needed.

During the baby massage you will have to take off the sleepsuit, hence the need for a vest. Some babies don’t mind being only in a nappy, whereas others hate it. Both of mine did when I took them to massage classes!

Most classes will tell you what to bring when you book a place, but a towel and/or a yoga mat will most likely be necessary. Some classes will provide the mat depending on where you go.

Many classes take place in a village hall or similar, where the floor can be cold and hard, so a mat is essential. Having somewhere warm and soft to lie your baby down is vital. Babies won’t relax if they’re not comfortable.

I’d also recommend bringing some water. It looks like gentle exercise and it can be taken slowly. However if you’re a newbie or trying to get in shape again, it’s going to take you a little while to get back into things!

Exploring The Benefits Of Baby Yoga Beate ChungCertified Yoga Instructor

Beate has taught yoga as a certified instructor in the US for over 7 years then she moved to Taiwan in 2010 to open her first yoga studio.

Baby yoga doesn’t seem to be as familiar a term as yoga itself, but more and more parents are seeing the benefits of yoga as a form of exercise that can help them bond with their little one while promoting the development of their babies’ gross and fine motor skills. This practice comes with many physiological benefits. It also improves social interactions among new parents and their babies. Let’s have a look at the benefits of Baby Yoga!

Is It Safe To Do Yoga With My Baby

There are so many reasons why doing yoga with your baby is a fantastic idea. In addition to getting you out of the house and into the world of mamas who are on the same journey as you, taking a Mommy-and-Me type yoga class is a sweet way to bond with your baby outside the confines of the normal daily routine.

Additionally, yoga is a safe, healthy way to speed up your postpartum recovery. It strengthens core and pelvic muscles, and rebuilds strength, flexibility, and balance in your post-pregnancy body.

That said, safety is always always the top priority for you and your baby. Check in with your OB before signing up for a class. Most physicians recommend postpartum moms wait at least six to eight weeks before getting back into an exercise routine, and you may need to wait longer than that depending on your labor and postpartum recovery process.

Yoga safe and fun to do with your baby as long as you adhere to the following conditions:

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

First of all, the number of people practicing yoga has increased, which explains some of the increase in the number of injuries. It does not explain the situation entirely, however, because not only do there seem to be more injuries than increased numbers of participation can explain, but also there is a wider variety of types of injuries, especially for the knees and lower back, as reported in the above article. So what else has changed in the last ten years?

For one thing, there has been a great increase in the popularity of heat-based and power types of yoga, which tend to be fast-paced and to foster a certain degree of competitiveness. There are also a lot more yoga teachers with little or no formal training stepping up to meet the demand for these classes. More and more yoga students in power and hot yoga classes are getting injured more readily as they push the limits of their bodies with little, if any, regard to safety.

Lorraine Kreahling stated that some physical therapists question the value of excessive joint flexibility, saying that it can lead to inflammation and pain. Some asanas that require extreme bending of the knees such as squats and sitting backwards on folded knees were particularly cited by a sports medicine doctor as examples of postures that are most likely to cause tears in knee cartilage. This naturally raises the question of the safety of Vajrasana and similar asanas.

Ways To Protect Your Knees In Yoga

1. Avoid Hyperextending: When joints are overly mobile and flex too far back, they’re hyperextended. In the knees, hyperextension often occurs in poses in which the legs are straightened, such as Trikonasana , putting an unhealthy tension on the ligaments. If you’re prone to hyperextension, keep a slight bend in the knees during standing poses and keep your weight evenly distributed among the four corners of your feet. In seated forward bends, place a rolled-up sticky mat or towel under the knee of the extended leg or legs.

2. Start With Your Feet: Proper alignment through the feet is the key to building strength evenly in the ligaments on both sides of the knee; when all the ligaments are equally strong, the kneecap glides effortlessly up and down and the cartilage doesn’t get worn down. Separate your toes and press actively through the four corners of your feet in every pose, even inversions. If your feet are out of alignment, your knees are going to suffer.

3. Keep Your Knees in Line: When moving into deep knee bends, such as Virabhadrasana II , first align your bent knee over your ankle, then draw your kneecap in line with your second toe. Maintain awareness in your back foot, pressing down evenly, while lifting up from the arch of your front foot. “If you let the arch drop, the knee falls inside the big toe, and you’re set up to suffer a number of different kinds of overuse and acute knee injuries,” says Angela Smith, a professor of orthopedic surgery.

For Your Baby Stretch Sense Sleep

Babies are extremely limber and this dexterity can help them perform basic yoga poses with ease. Obviously, the stretches are guided by an instructor or the parents. Yoga can help the baby sleep in more regular intervals, and the stretching and posing foster the baby’s gross and fine motor development. The practice has also been found to be effective in promoting better digestion, preventing constipation and relieving colic in infants.

For Yourself Touch Attach Connect

Aside from the physiological benefits, baby yoga fosters deeper emotional attachments between the parent and the baby. Throughout the exercises, the parent holds and touches the baby and the sedation of touch helps strengthen paternal or maternal bonds. The sensation of touch also promotes circulation, which gives both the parent and infant feelings of calm and relaxation. Parents who enroll in baby yoga classes are also given the opportunity to socialize with other mothers and fathers and discuss “new parents’ stuff”. The classes are also great places for babies to interact with other infants for the first time.

You Asked: Can Hot Yoga Be Harmful

Does Yoga change your body?

Although practicing hot yoga is safe for most people, it can cause some people to overstretch, and suffer from dehydration. In extreme cases, it can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To practice hot yoga safely, drink plenty of water, ease yourself into classes, and leave the room if the heat becomes too much.

Can Being Too Flexible Be Harmful

In When Does Flexible Start to Mean, Lorraine Kreahling asks, Does too much stretching cause injuries?

Ten to twenty years ago, when I was teaching yoga in San Francisco, one rarely heard of people being injured from practicing yoga.

During this time I worked both as a chiropractic assistant and in sports medicine research. To the extent that we saw yoga injuries at all, it was usually something that would be caused by going into or out of an inversion inappropriately. But even that was rare.

Recently, however, I’ve heard that the sports medicine clinic where I worked now treats yoga injuries more regularly than it did ten years ago. What has changed since then?

Yoga During Your First Trimester

Whether you have never practiced yoga a day in your life, or you are a dedicated daily yogi, this post is for you! You both have something wonderful in common. You’re newly pregnant and creating a beautiful life inside of your miraculous being. Yoga is a great exercise during pregnancy as it relieves stress, aches and pains, connects you to your baby inside, and allows you to discover a new strength and power from within. Check out our post about the benefits of prenatal yoga .

Before practicing any type of exercise, it is always important to consult with your doctor to ensure that it is safe for both you and your growing baby. There are many things to consider before starting or continuing your yoga practice during the first trimester. How do you feel? What is your goal with the practice? Is this your first pregnancy? How is your pregnancy going in the eyes of your doctor? You and your doctor know your body and your situation best so it is important to take a little bit of time to evaluate what kind of yoga and how much is best for you during this vulnerably delicate time. If it is deemed safe, yoga is a great exercise to pick up if you have never practiced a day in your life during your pregnancy. It is also something that experienced and dedicated yogis should continue to practice throughout their pregnancy, especially if yoga alleviates stress and anxiety in your day to day life.

Here are some general guidelines to practicing safe yoga during your first trimester.

Foam Rolling In The Wrong Areas

While most muscles aren’t an issue, there are some specific areas you should steer clear from. One of the biggest mistakes is to roll your IT band, which in actuality cannot be loosened. If you have a tight IT band individuals should focus on rolling quadriceps, glutes, and around the knee instead.

After this, you can focus on strengthening and physical therapy designed to strengthen your glutes and further take pressure off the IT band. This will decrease the likelihood of IT band syndrome occurring.

What Should I Do After Hot Yoga

How to refuel after a hot yoga class…

You’ve just had an amazing hot yoga class and you sweat more than you thought was possible. …

Try to avoid drinking coffee, caffeinated tea or alcohol after a hot class. …

Ultimately, listen to your body and get it the proper nutrition it needs. …

Here is some more great advice on what to do post yoga practice:

16.04.2013

When Should We Start Baby Yoga

You can start baby yoga as soon as you like. It really depends on when you feel ready, especially if you’re a mum who has just given birth.

Ideally wait until your six week check-up so your GP can give you the all clear for exercising. This is important if you’ve had a C-section, or have had any postnatal complications.

Dads can take their babies whenever they like – there’s no reason to wait. It can really help dads and their babies to bond, particularly if mum is breastfeeding.

Understanding Range Of Motion

So then we must ask, if a joint has a less-than-optimal range of motion, should we do anything to increase the range of motion? This is often referred to as stretching or opening up a joint. If the range of motion is restricted due to weak and/or tight muscles and tendons, then the answer is “yes”: we do want to increase the range of motion. If the range is limited due to the body’s structure , then, the answer is “no.”

Most of us never become so flexible as to feel that our bony structure is limiting us in our ability to go deeper into a posture. Back in my dancing days, I heard that in the not-so-distant past, the U.S.S.R. used to x-ray young, hopeful, ballerina girls’ hip joints to see if they had the maximum structural capability for 180 degree turnout. It sounds as though it was a terrible system, but I have to wonder if their ballerinas had fewer injuries caused by forced turnouts — and less need for hip replacements later in life — than their non-x-ray-selected counterparts in other countries.

Muscle is elastic and is meant to be flexible as well as strong. If flexibility is not maintained, the muscles will once again shorten. They have the ability to go back and forth from being short Tendons are the endpoints of the muscles where they attach to bones.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Kevin Can F**K Himself Shows Why The Laugh Track Needs to Die

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The title card for the new AMC series Kevin Can F**K Himself isn’t accompanied by a jaunty tune or a wild sound effect. When the title appears on the screen, it’s soundtracked by a smattering of aggressive laughter. Creeping up below the laughter is a distressing screeching noise, meant to indicate the rapidly fraying sanity of our heroine.

So it’s quite fitting that Kevin Can F**K Himself makes a compelling case for why laugh tracks (or canned laughter) need to die a quick death. The series centers on Allison McRoberts (Annie Murphy), a woman trapped in a marriage to the titular Kevin. Kevin is an infuriating man-child. He throws keg parties on his wedding anniversary, spends obscene amounts of money on sports memorabilia, and treats Allison like an accessory. He is emotionally abusive, often making Allison feel worthless by telling her things like she’s a bad driver or that she never finishes things so that he can keep her all to himself.

Approximately a third of the series takes place in lala sitcom land in which the lighting is abundant, the set is clearly facing an audience, and Kevin is always there, chewing up the scenery like Pac Man chowing down on glowing dots. However, whenever Kevin exits, Allison finds herself in a more contemplative and complex (aka: single-camera) existence. The trouble is she doesn’t have much of an identity anymore because her entire life has hinged on being Kevin’s long-suffering wife. The juxtaposition of the sitcom world against a more realistic setting serves to illustrate just how jarring and unnecessary canned laughter is to a TV show. When we watch dramas, we don’t hear people bawling over the sad parts or gasping during the shocking moments. Nope. So why do laugh tracks persist?

As an early millennial, I grew up in a world in which laugh tracks were the norm. From “Must See TV” on NBC in the ‘90s to the vintage sitcoms on Nick at Nite, comedy was always served up with a heaping side of giggles and guffaws. Historically, the sitcom cadence did rely on a call-and response reaction as they actually were often filmed in front of a live studio audience, but it was rare that the responses that made it to the final episode were genuine and uncut.

To be clear, when I’m referring to canned laughter here, I’m not just referring to the prerecorded kind. Sure, that might be the official definition, but even the laughter we hear from live studio audiences is goosed in some way prior to airtime. The practice of “sweetening” the laugh track, or adding in favorable reactions to amplify certain jokes has been in practice for decades, and it’s still in use today. While the creators of a show might be able to proudly say that the reactions came from an actual audience, the reactions are almost always tweaked in post-production in order to punch up the jokes that the creators or network want to land. Therefore, the laugh track on all of your favorite sitcoms is a lie.

An argument could potentially be made that the practice of adding in a laugh track might make people feel a sense of camaraderie or community with others watching. And this is somewhat true. In a 2011 article on laugh tracks, NBC News noted a 1974 psychological study in which it was found that people laughed more frequently if they heard canned laughter following a joke. These types of social cues can make individuals feel comfortable, but they can also promote conformity. Looking back on the history of sitcoms, it sure seems as if laugh tracks have been complicit in keeping misogynistic and racist messaging at the forefront of comedy.

Kevin Can F**K Himself plays with this idea in every frame of its sitcom world. Nothing is actually very funny within the brightly lit walls of the McRoberts’s house. As previously established, Kevin is simply awful. He’s a huge loser. Yours truly wanted to throttle him, Homer Simpson style, during every scene he was in. Yet, since the sitcom land dictates that Kevin is a damn delight, the audience plays along.

(It’s worth noting here that Kevin Can F**K Himself was filmed in front of a studio audience. However AMC tells us that, due to COVID restrictions, the audience was small and far away, so the laughs were not picked up on the audio. Therefore, much of the laughter you hear on the show was added in post-production.)

The dynamic between Kevin, Allison, and the viewers in the studio is an exaggerated version of a tableau that has been unfolding on our TV screens for decades. We see a harried, hot wife play a straight man to a dumpy doofus husband, and we’re all supposed to think it’s simply hilarious. It’s worth noting that Kevin Can F**K HImself cribs its title from the Kevin James’ sitcom Kevin Can Wait, in which the series unceremoniously killed off James’s first super hot wife on the show (Erinn Hayes), only to replace her with his prior super hot sitcom wife, Leah Remini. Because women are oh so very interchangeable in the sitcom world, the laugh track on that show never skipped a beat.

Canned laughter has historically enabled the entertainment world to lift up mediocre men such as Doug Heffernan (Kevin James), Raymond Barone (Ray Romano), and Kevin Gable (Kevin James, again) at the women’s expense. For ages, only a very small handful of white males were allowed to create content as showrunners, directors, and writers at networks. As they had control over the laugh track, they became the arbiters of what was funny and what was not funny. They got to shape reactions according to their worldview, painting the schlumpy dudes as heroes and the women as eager sidekicks.

While there are oodles of examples of the long-suffering wife throughout sitcom history, we rarely think of these women as victims. All in the Family is considered a classic, but Archie Bunker was viciously verbally abusive to his wife Edith in almost every episode. Sure, it was a different era (and Archie surely isn’t intended to be a role model), but take away the laughs, and what’s left is a depressing portrait of a red-faced husband straight up screaming at his beleaguered wife. And don’t even get me started on The Honeymooners classic line, “to the moon, Alice!” Ahahahaha, yes, spousal abuse. Hilarious. Well, the laugh track thought so, anyway.

In more recent years, verbal abuse on sitcoms focusing on husband-wife dyads has given way to a more subtle form of emotional abuse. Often, this appears in the form of financial abuse in which a spouse spends or hides money from the other in order to keep them in their place. In Kevin Can F**K Himself, Kevin consistently spends money without consulting Allison first. In one episode, he even proudly states that a recent purchase cost “more than our wedding, but less than our car.”

This type of abuse has played out in sitcoms forever. Doug Heffernan often hid his spending from Carrie, Raymond Barone invested in a go-cart venture without telling Deborah, and even Fred Flintstone stole money from Wilma’s hidden stash (yep, The Flintstones was a cartoon, but it inexplicably also had a laugh track). These transgressions are generally perceived to be harmless on screen, leading to those canned laffs and a resolution in 30 minutes or less, but in real life, this type of clandestine behavior in relation to finances can be catastrophic, trapping an unhappy wife in a relationship with no means to escape.

Even TV series that didn’t utilize the wife/husband premise – notably Frasier and Friends – often used audience laughter to support misogynistic punchlines. Friends notoriously used the laugh track to support harmful jokes about fat shaming and transphobia while Frasier’s archaic attitudes towards women were often played for comedy. Personally, I will never ever get over how Frasier Crane treated Roz Doyle, slut shaming her at every turn for over a decade when, in fact, Frasier was sleeping with half of Seattle with nary an eyebrow raise in his snooty direction. (Sorry, rant over. But, seriously, Peri Gilpin rules. #JusticeForRoz)

Laugh tracks help normalize these behaviors. If you’re not laughing at the joke when everyone else is, something must be wrong with you. Women have faced this exact dilemma since the beginning of time. Laugh along or be judged as cold and unfeeling. Be in on the joke or be tossed to the side. This truism is even noted in the recent HBO Max series Hacks in which aging comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) confesses to a newbie comedienne why she makes fun of herself in her own act. With a wan smile, Deborah says, “I realized they would rather laugh at me than believe me.”

These are the same exact challenges that Allison finds herself facing in Kevin Can F**K Himself. When Kevin is around, Allison tries her best to play the role she’s been given so that he won’t make her life even more miserable. No one believes or cares that Kevin is awful because they think Allison is lucky to even have landed a man at all. The series overtly illustrates that these types of stories have always just shrugged at viewers, telling us, oh well, boys will be boys, while women’s suffering is shoehorned into punchlines instead of taken seriously. Rather than confronting the thorny reality of disentangling the institutions that lift the Kevins up and keep the Allisons down, the sitcom world treats women’s pain like a joke.

After years and years under Kevin’s oppressive thumb, Allison isn’t laughing anymore. She’s full of rage and ready to break free. When we see her in her life without Kevin, there are no prescriptive beats dictating what’s funny and what’s not. And it’s so refreshing. Life can be funny! Sometimes Allison is funny in her real life too! Annie Murphy is also very very funny! And yet, even in the absence of a laugh track, viewers can pick up on the funny. Because in this modern age of entertainment, viewers are savvy enough to know what they feel.

As canned laughter has slowly disappeared, TV has opened up to more nuanced emotion, allowing viewers to discover and explore the highs and lows for themselves. It’s probably not surprising to learn that the few existing series that do still use laugh tracks, such as United States of Al and Bob Hearts Abishola – both airing on CBS and both created by Chuck Lorre – have been critiqued for leaning on racist and sexist stereotypes. Oddly enough, an urban myth has been circulating the internet for years, claiming that everyone on laugh tracks is actually dead because the recordings were made so long ago. As modern audio engineers now update their recordings regularly, this is not true, but the truth is that the laugh track itself is soon headed to an unmarked grave in the entertainment cemetery alongside tube televisions, Smell-O-Vision, and home video rentals.

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With critically acclaimed comedies such as Schitt’s Creek (also starring Annie Murphy!), Fleabag, and The Good Place getting laughs without any pre-recorded assistance, home audiences are getting more savvy as to what’s actually funny and what’s just a cheap shot. In addition, social media and the ubiquitous sharing of memes have effectively displaced the laugh track, as people can now actually be part of an interactive community with others, watching and reacting to the same show at the same time.

In Kevin Can F**K Himself, canned laughter has finally taken its rightful place as a relic of the past. The chuckles and chortles that pepper the series are a knowing nod to a bygone era in which TV series tried to force the funny on viewers instead of letting them find their own way. Finally, laugh tracks aren’t in on the joke; they are the joke.

Kevin Can F**k Himself airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

The post Kevin Can F**K Himself Shows Why The Laugh Track Needs to Die appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Pogo Swingadcock Games By: Austin Adcock

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Pogo Swingadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Basketball

Electrode, Comp-8f48ad1c-ca48-4ed9-9030-0db4f3767f5b, DC-scus-prod-a13, ENV-prod-a, PROF-PROD, VER-20.0.42, SHA-b0b214dbb2ff184c24c271bef207a1, CID-5ef184e4. Recently, I’ve had a lot of talks with friends my age (we’re all generally around 21) about getting older — something we know a fair amount about. Okay, I lied about the parenthetical part of that intro. We’re all pushing 40. And we’ve found ourselves in that awkward “not-old, definitely-not-all-that-young-anymore” phase. Well, not all that young unless we’re hanging out with.

Pogo Swingadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Play

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webmarket01 · 4 years

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40 Weight Loss Tips for Over 40 | Eat This Not That

New Post has been published on https://weightlosshtiw.com/40-weight-loss-tips-for-over-40-eat-this-not-that/

40 Weight Loss Tips for Over 40 | Eat This Not That

There are certain things everyone over the age of 40 should be doing to guarantee that the second half of life’s big game is as exciting as the first half. After all, once you hit 40, your body begins to lose muscle mass, the lean tissue that helps you burn fat and calories; women drop about half a pound of muscle per year after crossing 4-0, according to Pamela Peeke, author of Body for Life for Women. That’s why 40 tends to be the dividing line between those who are headed for a long, healthy lifetime of lean, and those who are headed for an early (and probably much larger) grave.

To keep you in top shape, we’ve uncovered these 40 essential weight loss tips for playing your second half perfectly.

Ditch the Yo-Yo diets.

The cabbage soup diet? Really? Just no. Restricting calories and losing body fat too quickly can wreak havoc on insulin, leptin, ghrelin and other hormones, prompting a surge in hunger and a slump in metabolism. These effects can last for more than a year, even after the diet is abandoned, according to a 2011 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Yo-yo diets also prompt a decline in dopamine, which means you’re left feeling unmotivated and sluggish.

Educate yourself before eating out.

Eating out is a treat and is probably something you’re doing because you deserve it—maybe it’s your birthday, you’re celebrating a family member, or just getting together with old friends. But letting yourself indulge doesn’t mean you have to be completely blind to just how deceptive many restaurant menu options can be. From breakfasts that have more sugar than seven Snickers’ bars to pastas that have more saturated fat than 50 eggs (yes, 50), it’s well worth your time to read up before you go out.

Take your sleep really seriously.

Over the years, you’ve probably had moments where being able to get by on very little sleep was almost like a badge of honor. But as sleep medicine progresses and people are learning more about sleep health, the ties between your Zzzs and your LBs on the scale are becoming clearer. Losing just an hour of sleep each night for three days can prompt a surge in the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and a slump in the hormone leptin, which tells us when we’re full, says Norfolk, Va.-based clinical psychologist Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., co-author of The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan. Deep sleep, on the other hand, fuels the production of the fat-burning human growth hormone (HGH).

Stop reusing your water bottles.

You think you’re being economical or environmentally friendly, but you’ll want to start avoiding those plastic bottles in the first place. A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to toxins like bisphenol A (BPA), organophosphate pesticides and phthalates may be fueling weight problems. “We are starting to see a lot of human studies showing an association between the presence of chemicals and obesity,” says University of California, Irvine, researcher Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D., who coined the term “obesogen” to describe such toxins. A 2011 Harvard study found that adults with the highest concentration of BPA in their urine had significantly larger waists and a 75 percent greater chance of being obese than those in the lowest quartile. Reusing plastic bottles with BPA adds to the risk because temperature changes and the gradual breakdown of the plastic will increase the rate of the release of the chemical.

Go mason jar crazy.

Nope, we’re not just talking about Pinterest-y D.I.Y. decor tips. Some of the healthiest food trends out there right now suggest using mason jars—namely, mason jar salads and overnight oats. While eating salads or oats out of a mason jar may make you feel good, it’s what you put in them that will make you look good—and earn you a flat stomach. We aren’t saying you have to toss out your Tupperware; we’re just saying you might beat boredom and find slimming down all that much easier.

Start Instagramming your food.

Speaking of social media, it’s time to take a cue from those iPhone-crazy millennials because it might just be the weight loss boost you want! Holding onto that food memory may help you eat less at breakfast…and lunch…and dinner. An analysis on a number of “attentive eating” studies printed in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that if people recall their last meal as being filling and satisfying, they tend to eat less during their next meal. Researchers found techniques like writing down or drawing meals (and even keeping food wrappers and receipts!) to be particularly beneficial.

Be pessimistic for a moment.

Picture this in your mind: You’ve dieted and worked out for the past 10 years and you’re fatter than ever. Your health is in shambles and you’re hopeless at resisting food temptation. You know better, but you look and feel unhealthy. It’s that kind of “negative fantasizing” that researchers say paradoxically provides powerful motivation for weight loss. According to the Zero Sugar Diet, a study in the journal Cognitive Therapy & Research revealed that obese women on a weight loss journey who had the most positive fantasies—showing off their new, hot bodies to friends a year later—actually lost 24 pounds fewer than those with the most negative thoughts. While it’s fun to visualize the future benefits of weight loss success, researchers say negative fantasies about weight loss mentally prepare dieters for temptation and hardship.

Go easy on the hand sanitizer.

We know, we know: It’s flu season. But we’re sorry to say that, after our research team here at Eat This, Not That! dug into the science, we have some bad news for you: Your hand sanitizer could be making you fat. Triclosan is a synthetic antibacterial agent frequently added to soap. It’s referred to by researchers as an “obesogen”—a compound that can potentially cause weight gain by disrupting the body’s endocrine (hormone) system. Studies suggest that triclosan can negatively affect the thyroid. As thyroid hormones control metabolism, any hit to the organ’s functionally could cause you to gain weight. The evidence is of particular concern for hospital workers, researchers say, as they’re exposed to the antibacterial agent on a regular basis and often show significantly higher levels of triclosan in their urine. A study in the journal PLOS One found a detectable level was associated with a 0.9-point increase in body mass index (BMI). If you’re a frequent hand-washer, experts recommend sticking to good ol’ soap—not the antibacterial kind—and to buy organic cleansers when possible.

Beware the viral Facebook videos.

You know the ones: In 30 seconds or less, you watch a mysterious pair of hands layer cookie dough with Oreos with brownie mix. Bake, cut, and oh how yummy—and insanely, ridiculously, break-the-chair fattening. “The internet and social media sites are basically making you fat,” Lisa Hayim, MS, RD, and founder of The WellNecessities, told us for our article on The 30 Worst Flat Belly Mistakes Women Make. “If it isn’t 25 ways to eat tater tots then it’s [another] national [something] day. The internet has made it basically impossible to stay away from cravings and indulgences. These are not excuses to eat unhealthy food.” Next time you see one of those videos, ask yourself how you could make it healthier—and if you can’t, click out of it and never look back.

Reassess your comfort foods.

This one has a surprise twist you won’t see coming. “When you eat things to which you’re sensitive or intolerant, you get an increase of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, so you literally get a high,” says Pamela Wartian Smith, M.D., co-director of the master’s program in medical sciences at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, who explains that this reaction can result in cravings for the very foods we should avoid. Food sensitivities may also lead to inflammation and water retention. To compound the problem, over-the-counter antihistamines bolster appetite and dull energy, studies show.

Get a stand-up desk.

At this point, you’ve spent around 20 or more years in the workforce. You’ve paid your dues and ran circles around your competition—resulting in your own office, possibly. So, why aren’t you owning that space like the boss you are? The first tweak for your office makeover: Invest in a height-adjustable stand-up desk. Here’s why this can be such a game-changer for your waistline: A British study found that standing at work burned 50 more calories per hour than sitting. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider this: If you stand for just three hours of your work day, you’ll expend more than 30,000 extra calories per year—which amounts to about 8 pounds of fat!

Do it yourself,

Remember when you were 23 years old and wouldn’t even dream of spending your coveted cash on letting someone else mow your lawn, wash your car, or paint your living room? Try tapping into that scrappy, resourceful inner you a bit more and you’ll wind up torching calories. For example, a 150-pound person will burn around 200 calories if they wash and wax their car for 40 minutes.

Make it tea, all the time.

We get it: You’ve been in a relationship with coffee longer than your spouse. But the benefits of tea are so incredible. Here’s the thing about tea: Study after study proves that tea boosts metabolism, turns on your fat-burning hormones, and help reduce stress. You can put it in smoothies or even cook with it, like food journalist and author Kelly Choi suggests in these 60-Second Weight Loss Tips Celebs Swear By. If you don’t know which tea to start with, go for matcha: It’s the superhero version of the already-mighty green tea.

Once upon a time, you probably thought white bread was a basic staple for the pantry. And you’ve maybe switched to wheat, which is something of an improvement—if it was still 1996. But if “enriched flour,” “high fructose corn syrup,” or “sugar” is one of the first few ingredients listed on your bread’s label, you’re not doing your waistline any favors. The trio to try for: Look for bread that comes in less than 80 calories, has less than 3 grams of sugar per slice, and lists whole grains as the first ingredient. Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Bread and Alpine Valley Organic 21 Whole Grains Bread both fit the bill.

Stop the soda habit.

If you have one soda a day, studies show that you’re accumulating fat around your organs (visceral fat) and likely giving yourself a “soda belly”—a protruding, beer belly-like gut that’s the result of about 1.8 pounds of fat pushing out your belly. And that’s in addition to all the other harmful things we know about soda. (Diet doesn’t do you any favors.)

Drink 2 cups of water before each meal.

Drinking water is essential for all your body’s functions and it dramatically ups your odds are of staying thin. In fact, one University of Utah study found that dieters who downed two cups of water before each meal lost 30 percent more weight than their counterparts who didn’t sip any H20 before noshing. If you don’t have a water cooler at your office, fill a BPA-free bottle with water at home. If you drink two cups before breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that just leaves you with two more cups before you meet your minimum recommendation for the day. So easy!

Let legumes take charge.

According to a review published in the journal Obesity, legumes—including beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas—could keep you from the snack drawer until dinner. Researchers found that subjects who consumed between ¾ and 1 cup of legumes daily felt as much as 31 percent fuller than those who didn’t! But there’s a catch: Although participants felt fuller when they ate legumes, they didn’t always eat less throughout the day. It’s still up to you to tune out the call of cravings—a completely different beast than hunger. But when it comes to willpower boosters, beans are a great way to get a jumpstart.

Don’t drink so many calories.

That zero-calorie diet soda is its own death sentence. But as for that cream-and-sugar coffee every morning? That’s 80 extra calories, and that’s if you’re ordering normal coffee and not one of those tricked-out frappa-cappa-whipped-something drinks from your favorite coffee shop that have a couple hundred calories. Many fruit juices, energy drinks, and even big-chain smoothies are loaded with calories.

There’s a host of benefits that come with walking more, from stress relief to stronger leg muscles. But the simple act can ward off weight gain simply because you expend more calories than taking the elevator or parking as close as possible to the door. But for weight loss and to actually start burning, you’ll need to walk 3 mph, which is as if your plane is about to start boarding and you are still walking toward your gate. And while they don’t have to all be 3 mph steps, the average recommendation is 10,000 steps a day.

Sit less.

Sitting is the new smoking. Researchers from Toronto recently showed that sedentary behavior can lead to death from cardiovascular issues and cancer, as well as cause chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes. Prolonged sitting, meaning sitting for 8-12 (or more) hours per day, increased your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 90 percent. And weight gain. So. much. weight gain. Be mindful of not plopping down on the couch all evening and if you can swap times you sit at work for standing. Have you heard of stand-ups? They’re meetings where everyone stands and many people love them because these meetings often wind up shorter than other meetings where people get too cozy at that conference table!

Slip in other ways to be active.

Whether it’s playing with your dog, carrying the stroller for your family members with little ones, or exploring a nature path, it’s crucial to fit in extra activity when you can. “Metabolism and hormonal changes in your 40s create an ideal environment for excess fat storage in women—especially in the midsection,” says Marisa Moore, MBA, RDN, LD. “In your 40s, activity is essential.”

Boost metabolism with micro workouts.

That mom of three who also teaches spin class and always looks fantastic? Awesome. But that’s not attainable for everyone, which can leave you feeling frustrated that you can’t be a workout god or goddess, too. The good news: You only need 2 ½ minutes to boost your metabolism and start burning calories, too. Research printed in the journal Physiological Reports showed that people who did five 30-second bursts of max-effort cycling, followed by 4 minutes of rest, burned 200 extra calories that day and boosted their metabolism for the next 24-48 hours. It’s highly unlikely you have a stationary bike handy at your place of work, but a similar result could be achieved by running up the stairs and doing jumping jacks.

Let your body fast.

When Eat This, Not That! spoke with the dieting and fitness experts from My Diet is Better Than Yours, we learned some pretty incredible tips. One idea that seemed more attainable for someone over 40 is from wellness expert Jovanka Ciares, who said try eating only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. (Can you imagine a college guy or a new mom abiding by that rule?!) As long as you are still getting enough calories to keep your metabolism up, this tactic can help you lose weight because it puts your body into a fasted state, which Ciares says can make the process easier and faster.

It can get overwhelming to keep up with all the superfoods out there, we know. But if there’s one amazing food you should be getting more of (and that we know you’re not), it’s seaweed. The sea plant is a great source of iodine and you can enjoy seaweed in sushi, broth-based soups, as chips or snacks, and more. “Without sufficient levels of iodine, your thyroid function becomes impaired and it’s harder for your body to burn fat,” says nutritionist Dana James of Food Coach NYC, who suggests sneaking sea vegetables into your diet at least three times a week. Seaweed also contains a compound called alginate, which has been shown to significantly cut fat absorption, says Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, author of Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear–with Fiber.

RELATED: Your guide to the anti-inflammatory diet that heals your gut, slows the signs of aging, and helps you lose weight.

Learn about ‘eating clean.’

You’ve heard this buzzy phrase a bunch of times by now, right? It’s way more mainstream than you may realize, though—and much more attainable than you think. The basic rule of eating clean—and, forgive us for watering it down—is to eat more real food and less fake food. Doritos are not food. Those sketchy frozen enchiladas by Big Store Name Brand are often not much better. And that cream of something soup you mix into every chicken dish is a way of life that’s making your waistline expand.

Stop doing sit-ups.

Not only is this antiquated exercise less effective than something like a front plank, sit-ups are terrible for your spine and can cause herniated discs. Fact: A traditional sit-up puts around 3,350 newtons of compressive force on the spine, but the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states says anything above 3,300 newtons is unsafe. Now you can understand why Mark Langowski, celeb trainer and author of Eat This, Not That! for Abs hates to see people do sit-ups. “I created an entire workout plan to give you a rock-hard core and it doesn’t involve one single sit-up,” he says.

Try meditation.

The older, wiser, less-bendy sister of yoga, meditation is an amazing activity that people can reap major rewards from. Studies show that people who regularly practice mindfulness meditation have more activity in their left prefrontal cortexes, which makes you calm and happy. Plus, a 2014 study found that individuals who meditate are less likely to overeat or give in to emotional eating. To get started, unroll a yoga mat or sit on a carpet in a sunny room (east-facing if possible) and take five uninterrupted minutes thinking about something that you’re grateful for. You’re supposed to lose a few LBs, but even if you don’t, we guarantee you’ll still be glad you made meditation part of your life.

Live by the half-plate rule.

Nope, the rule isn’t to only eat half of what’s on your plate. It’s that half of your plate should always be made up of veggies. This rule is most effective when you eat all the veggies, first. You’ll feel fuller faster, longer, and be less likely to go for seconds. As always, don’t fret about cleaning your plate or wasting food; it will go to waste whether you eat it or not!

Eat less salt.

High amounts of sodium can lead to belly bloating and there’s a good chance you are already getting more sodium than you need. To cut back on salt intake, Alexandra Miller, RDN, LDN, Corporate Dietitian at Medifast says to eat fewer processed foods like bread, pizza, and condiments. “Read the Nutrition Facts label to find how much sodium is in each serving,” she says. “Very Low Sodium is 35 milligrams or less per serving; Low-Sodium is 140 milligrams or less per serving; Reduced (or less) sodium is at least 25 percent less sodium per serving than the usual sodium level.”

Don’t fear the fat.

Sometimes, you have to eat fat to lose fat. Specifically, healthy fats—those with omega-3 fatty acids, monounsaturated fats, and oleic acid—dramatically help to satisfy hunger and fire up your metabolism. Think avocados, walnuts, coconut oil, and even full-fat dairy.

Use your non-dominant hand.

Remember when you were little and would try to write with different hands? Eventually, a long time ago, you probably gave up on that. But personal trainer to the stars Jay Cardiello says it can be a great weight loss trick. “It takes 15 minutes for your brain to realize that you’re full,” he explains. “To give your mind time to catch up to your mouth, simply switch your fork to non-dominate hand. It may be frustrating, but it’s a simple and unnoticeable way to curb overeating and lose weight.”

Cut back on wine and booze.

You deserve that glass of Scotch or wine, we know. But the unfortunate truth is that your body doesn’t metabolize alcohol as efficiently as you age. So, not only are you going to add on (or not be able to lose) weight because of alcohol, you also wind up looking older and sleeping worse. “[As you age] it will be increasingly difficult to get a good night’s rest with alcohol in your system and sleepless nights lead to carb and sugar cravings the next day,” says registered dietitian Martha McKittrick in 30 Foods You Should Never Eat After Age 30. Meanwhile, alcohol zaps moisture from your skin making fine lines more noticeable and speeding up your skin’s loss of elasticity.

Be your own therapist.

In an Orlando Health survey of more than a thousand respondents, only 10 percent of people listed their psychological well-being as part of their weight loss journey. The problem? Not being in tune with your emotions and their connection to food is why nearly 66 percent of people gain weight back after losing it. “Most people focus almost entirely on the physical aspects of weight loss, like diet and exercise,” neuropsychologist and Program Director of Integrative Medicine at Orlando Health Diane Robinson, Ph.D. said in a press release. “But there is an emotional component to food that the vast majority of people simply overlook and it can quickly sabotage their efforts.” To stop emotional eating and unlock the door to weight loss success, try keeping a journal that tracks your food choices and current mood. Then look for healthy and unhealthy patterns, which can help you identify the specific life and emotional connections you have with food.

Eat for health, not weight loss.

“To see real results, you need to eat real food,” says Angelo Grinceri, People‘s one-time Sexiest Trainer Alive. “When your eating habits consist of eating a variety of real foods that provide the body with nourishment, a healthier body is created. And the healthier you are, the faster you’ll recover post-workout and the better chance you’ll have at losing fat and building muscle.” Plus, eating for health instead of weight loss means you’ll develop a habit that makes smarter food choices easier and easier.

Buy organic.

By now, you should know that weight and health problems are often the result of an accumulation from what you’re consuming. With that in mind, take a moment to think about how you’ve had at least four decades to accumulate toxins from food and drink—some seriously bad stuff that can lead to obesity. Many of those come from pesticides and hormones in your meat and produce. So start choosing organic fruits and vegetables and hormone-free meat.

Always be prepared with snacks.

Remember the Boy Scout motto about always being prepared? At 40 or older, you most likely have more things demanding your time and attention than ever before. To make it easier to eat lower calories and avoid stuffing your face when you’re starving, always keep your desk, pantry, car, and purse stashed with healthy snacks. Raw almonds and bananas are two of the easiest, but you can get more ideas with these healthy snack ideas under $1. And whatever you do, do not hit up any vending machines!

Turn off the tube.

Studies show that lean people watch less television, plain and simple. A recent analysis of multiple studies found that for every two hours spent watching TV, the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and/or early death increased by 20, 15 and 13 percent, respectively. Because you’re expending less energy as you zone out in front of the telly, there’s a surplus blood sugar flooding your bloodstream and contributing to weight-related risks that crop up in your 40s and beyond. Even knitting like will keep you younger than just sitting and watching show after show!

Many people stop working out or become less active as they age because they’ve started experiencing more joint pain or discomfort from old injuries. This is why swimming can be a great solution. It’s low-impact, builds endurance, and burns calories. Dive in!

The benefits of Greek yogurt are far and wide while making your figure tighter and slimmer. High-quality Greek yogurt is low in calories (less than 100 for 6 oz.), has a very high amount of protein (20 grams), and provides your gut with some much-needed probiotics. Flavored, non-Greek yogurts, on the other hand, are often packed with additives that harm your health and can even make you hungrier. If you’re not a Greek yogurt fan, do know that it can be an acquired taste—but mixing in some berries, walnuts, or homemade granola might just become your new, belly busting addiction!

Adopt a weight-loss mantra.

There’s a lot of advice out there, but having a go-to mantra that gives you strength can be a powerful weapon in your weight loss arsenal. “There will always be another meal” is just one of the 25 Weight Loss Mantras Nutritionists Swear By and The Nutrition Twins explain that they came up with it because people all too often eat as if they’ll never have their favorite foods again. Find your mantra and make it work for you!

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A Look at Our Main Cast

The World without Authors features a rather big cast, and losing track of people between chapters is quite easy. That’s why I thought that it is the right time to toss in some more information about the main cast, to help follow who’s who in this huge thing where giving enough space to everyone is always a difficult balance.

As such, I will be using this post to write some “behind the scenes” of my characters, and Aelit’s, which I hope will be useful for understanding them, or at least get up to date with the things that are told in my previous works and are important to understand them now. And, why not, learn some of the odd details about their creation.

Sergio Turbo

Birthday: October 27th, 1991 HST Age: 22 years old as of Unravel Height: 180 cm Blood type: 0

Sergio has been one of the main characters since the very first chapter of Mai Dire Fine, released April 13th, 2006.

At 14 years old in 2006 HST, he was one of the oldest characters in the Mai Dire Fine core cast, with only Kathleen and Pyro being older by just a few months. This, combined with his leader-like attitude and me being one of the more prolific authors, not only led to him becoming the de facto leader of the “Kids of the War”, but also led to some of the other writers taking time off the development of their own characters to give it to the Sergio-Sakura-Syaoran love triangle.

Said love triangle, by the way, was born due to me writing one particular scene badly. “Sakura” (actually, Nikki) had just died on a cursed treasure, and I overstated his reaction to her death to the point the other authors convinced themselves he had a crush on her… and, once “Sakura” was brought back to life, ran with it.

Sergio, circa 2007 HST, with his trademark red jacket and bandana.

So, yes. One of the driving forces of of my following stories wasn’t my idea, and wasn’t planned on my part at all. It is also interesting to note that, as per PPC convention, Sakura’s death and resurrection was so out of what’s allowed in CLAMP canon that what came out simply had to be a Character Replacement at that point – so, contrary to what he believed, he had never made the actual Sakura fall in love with him (assuming she was ever present in Mai Dire Fine, and wasn’t Nikki all along).

Sergio, circa 2011 HST, as a PPC agent.

Another interesting fact is that he was supposed to have a weaker “copy” of Kathleen’s power, passed on by her when he was still in his test tube because… well, she thought it was a fun idea. He only ever used them once subconsciously, and so much time has passed that said “copy” likely has worn off or athrophized to the point of being no longer usable. As such, anything out of the ordinary he does is either a result of the genetic manipulation Marcus did on him, the result of his skills honed in years of fighting, or a combination of both.

Nikki Cherryflower

Birthday: April 1st, 1994 HST Age: 20 years old as of Unravel Height: 168 cm Blood type: A

Since she was originally meant to be Sakura Kinomoto in Mai Dire Fine (in which her first appearance was in Chapter 3), Nikki didn’t get her own name until Planes, Guns, Gun, Clones and other usual PPC stuff, originally released five years later in 2011.

As I’ve already mentioned in another post, Nikki wasn’t originally meant to be the same individual as the Sakura of Mai Dire Fine, and was created at first with the simple idea of “let’s toss another Sakura at Sergio and have fun at his awkward reactions”. This is quite noticeable in her first mission, A Very Awkward Exorcism, where I still didn’t have a clear direction on how to develop her character. But that’s OK, she didn’t know what to make of herself either at the time.

Nikki, circa 2011 HST, as a PPC agent.

It wasn’t until I was already planning Blank Sprite that I merged the characters, after realizing that my failed Sakura was actually quite close in characterization to Nikki. This gave her a development arc focused on regaining her lost memories, and fits with the overall theme of rediscovery and acceptance of the past.

A still from the first Cardcaptor Sakura movie, which gives a pretty good approximation on how Nikki looked during Mai Dire Fine. Just pretend she’s on a vaporetto in Venice instead of Hong Kong.

Perhaps one of the things that made Mai Dire Fine‘s “Sakura” and Nikki so similar is the fact that I deliberately avoided rewatching Cardcaptor Sakura while writing Nikki’s first few appearances. I wanted to make sure I was developing Nikki freely, without copying Sakura or deliberately doing the opposite, but this probably caused me to subconsciouly draw from my earlier “Sakura” iteration and from other sources – in fact, I believe Nikki ended up being more similar to Ran Mouri from Detective Conan than to Sakura.

Corolla

Birthday: May 25th, 2010 HST Age: 4 years old as of Unravel Height: 140 cm (full size form), 30 cm (Unison Device form), 15 cm (“Fun size” Unison Device form) Blood type: N/A

Corolla was created in 2010 specifically for my Protector of the Plot Continuum works, and to be the opposite of Sergio: ditzy, unfocused, and incapable of staying serious for more than a few seconds at a time.

Her name, as per Lyrical Nanoha naming scheme, comes from the 1983 Toyota Corolla GT, the US market version of the Toyota Sprinter Trueno Sergio drives. I’m a big fan of that car (oddly enough, not due to Initial D: I actually am quite angry at that series for making it too popular… and expensive to get), but I never decided if Corolla took her name on Sergio’s suggestion or if it was her own idea.

I was a huge Lyrical Nanoha fan a the time, and decided to make her an Unison Device to take full advantage of what her tiny size and tecnomagical nature would entail in term of funny situations.

I kept developing her throroughly during my PPC works, adding more facets to her personality and turning her into the ditzy, mischievious genius with a heart of gold and an undying loyalty towards her friends everyone knows and loves.

Corolla’s early appearance between 2010 and 2011 HST.

While everyone nowadays knows her with light blue hair in pigtails, she wasn’t like that when I originally created her but used to have brown hair in a ponytail. Her current appearance was only introduced in Planes, Guns, Clones and other usual PPC stuff, where it was the result of her getting zapped by Grace Leon’s failed hologram projector. She took a liking to the color, and so never had her hair pigmentation fixed.

She also switched to pigtails as a way of enhancing her “genius ditz” image, and she actually makes her “idiot hair” forelock herself by using hair gel on some strands every morning.

Corolla has been defined “Best Character” by more than one of my readers (though I’m mostly looking at you, Huinesoron) and I wholeheartedly agree: while she doesn’t have literally anything in the way of a character arc, that’s perhaps what makes her such a fresh supporting character alongside her free and wild personality.

Ami Tanegashima/Ami Cappuccino

Birthday: December 28th, 1993 HST Age: 19/20 years old as of Unravel (depending on whether Ami Cappuccino or Ami Tanegashima is considered) Height: 150 cm Blood type: A

Ami was introduced posthumously in I don’t like luxury cars, specifically to build up her later role in Blank Sprite.

Her background, in particular the death of her parents during the 2007 Organization War, was designed to make her into someone Sergio could relate to: they both lost the people they held dear, and kept fighting to make sure their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

That, combined with her kind and honest personality, managed to somewhat break into the wall Sergio was already building around himself… only for her death to put back every brick and then some.

The “confession” outfit. Cute, but fails at making her look more mature… in fact, it does quite the opposite.

Her short (at 150 cm, she’s the shortest of the human girls in my main cast) and cute appearance is a leftover of her original “ill girl” concept I recycled from another story I never wrote, but I think I’ve managed to turn it into somewhing to give her more characterization. She’s quite self-conscious about her height, and does make an effort to look more mature by, for example, being the only girl in the new Strike Dove to go for the pencil skirt variant of the dress uniform. However, she also loves cute things, as exemplified by her collection of plushies and the single pigtail she wears with her Barrier Jacket and wore in chapter 12 of Blank Sprite during her failed confession attempt.

I grew so attached to the character that I decided to take advantage of the chaos caused by the Unravel to bring her back through Ami Cappuccino: her self-insert from a fanfiction she wrote some time before her death. During the Unravel, Tanegashima’s soul and memories crashed into Cappuccino’s body and merged with those already there.

As Tanegashima based Cappuccino off herself, it was a rather quick process which incapacitated her for just half a day as her brain tried to to deal with the sudden doubled amount of conflicting memories, but I still feel like it help set the theme of cross-fictionality that I’m using for building up the leftover world canon and original characters found themselves in.

Ami’s early concept.

Another oddity about her is that I took a lot of time to finalize some details of her appearance: while “short and cute” was set in stone since the beginning, I only finalized her hair and eye color while I was already writing Blank Sprite. In fact, for most of the time I spent working on the main plot synopsis before starting to write the first chapter and until around chapter 5 or 6 I was leaning more towards brown hair and reddish brown eyes, and only switched to the other style (black hair and purple eyes) as I was writing chapter 7 to make her resemble Homura that little bit more and cause a flashback to Sergio.

In hindsight, though, I do think the final combination suits her more, so I’m happy I switched.

Caterina “Kathleen” Leone

Birthday: July 31st, 1991 HST Age: 17 years old as of Unravel Height: 163 cm Blood type: 0

Kathleen, like her brother, was first introduced in Mai Dire Fine. However, due to her author, Aelit, only joining the writing group when the story was already ongoing Kathleen was introduced fairly later compared to the other main characters of Mai Dire Fine.

The subplot of her being Sergio’s sister was also developed well after her introduction, and Aelit and I came up with the idea of making our characters Marcus’ offsprings independently.

We can sum up the exchange roughly this way:

“Hey, SergioTurbo, I had this great idea about Kathleen but it involves Marcus so I want your opinion first: what if she’s his daughter?” “Aelit, I… actually was going to make the same thing for Sergio.” “So, they’re actually brother and sister but they don’t know it? Cool!”

With a bit of rework (namely, Kathleen actually knowing about Sergio but feigning ignorance) we dropped it in, but this hastily thought plot development we made while writing a terrible fanfiction is going to finally be developed properly now, ten years later, as the arc in which we were using it is also the one we never finished.

Aelit’s Notes:

Like Sergio, Kathleen began her life as a self-insert. Her personality was based partly on mine and partly on what I wished mine to be. That said, when I made her I was in middle school, and that’s why her personality never stood the same for more than two chapters: every time I tried a new style or saw something cool, she would change accordingly. Now Kathleen is only a little part of me and mostly her own person. This is part of the reason why I wanted this Kathleen to be from a timeline different than Mai Dire Fine‘s one, I wanted a sharp break between the two.

Federica “Faith” Leone

Birthday: February 13th, 1988 HST Age: 21 years old as of Unravel Height: 172 cm Blood type: A

Faith was one of the last characters created for Mai Dire Fine. She was introduced only during the last arc and had very few appareances as a result.

As such, we had never really developed her personality much past “kind, polite and refined girl from a wealthy background”, which however came with the fact she was also an almost completely white canvas we could work on without having to deal with our past sorry attempts at making characterization.

We do have something to work on – her refined background, her skills as a sniper and especially her relationship with her cousin and lover Kathleen (Don’t look at me that way, Aelit’s idea here. And CLAMP did it before us anyways, look at Tomoyo. And Tomoyo’s mother.)

Part of her planned development will be actually inspired by all of this: she will realize that, having spent most of her life keeping Kathleen safe both from outside danger and her own wild and reckless antics, she’s not sure about what she actually wants for herself.

Aelit’s Notes

I made Faith at the time I started questioning my sexuality and originally her only purpose was to be the starcrossed lover of Kathleen who’d die not long after being reunited. A clichéd romantic tragedy brought forth by the mind of a typical emo teen. The idea was that she was to stay dead, but later I felt sorry for her, since she didn’t have the opportunity to evolve as a character, and like Sergio’s anticipated I’d like for her to realize she literally only lived for Kathleen and start being independent. As for the cousins part, I honestly don’t remember much but knowing myself I probably did it for the shock value… at the time I was naïve and didn’t know most fandoms have their fair share of incest ships. If only, the fact that they’re cousins and not sisters makes for a much milder ship than most in the Web.

SergioTurbo’s Note on Aelit’s Notes

If you compare what Aelit just said to what I’ve said in the past, you’ll notice that we remember differently about how we were planning to play out Faith’s death: I actually remember that her death was to be undone by the main group coming back to the present after the “trip to the future”. This goes a long way to show how badly coordinated we were at the time, with people changing ideas or retconning things all the time.

Keiko Caterina Turbo

Birthday: April 13th, 2019 HST Age: 16 years old as of Unravel Height: 165 cm Blood type: 0

Sergio and Nikki’s daughter, Keiko was introduced in Youthful Indiscretion, a story I wrote with Desdendelle in 2016 which became the first of her own spinoff set in 2035 HST.

Of my characters, she’s the one who spent the most time in development limbo: a “daughter from the future” character was actually planned to be introduced in a later arc of Mai Dire Fine, though at the time it would’ve been another “serials filed off” character like Carol Liddell, with the stll unnamed daughter character being based off Nanoha Takamachi.

I think at the time I’ve briefly considered calling her Sara, being an Italian name that sounds pretty close to Sakura (as Nikki hadn’t “split off” from her at that point). As much as of a silly idea that is, it is actually the only Italian name I’ve ever considered for the character.

Keiko’s Magical Girl outfit. She wants it clear that it isn’t her design.

When I started working on her more seriously for a PPC context, I did briefly consider having her called after a canon character (Nanoha again), before scrapping that idea too. I wanted something more unique and used Akane as a placeholder, but I realized pretty soon that her parents would have chosen her name by looking at the meaning. And that’s where I found Keiko (“blessed/lucky child”) to be fitting: as her parents were the only survivors of the” Kids of the War”, and with everything they faced after, they believe Keiko is very lucky to have had the chance to exist.

Her second name, Caterina, is Kathleen’s legal first name. Sergio and Nikki decided to homage her as the “slap from behind the grave” she did to Sergio in Chapter 13 of Blank Sprite was one of the factors in Sergio regaining his lost confidence, and gaining the courage to finally face his past instead of running away from it.

Sergio and Nikki would’ve actually contemplated using Ami as a second name instead, if the actual Ami didn’t tell them not to. While I hadn’t come up with the idea for The World without Authors yet at the time, it would’ve indeed made things more awkward for her and Hajime.

Her parents wanted her to be able to live the normal childhood and teen years that they were denied themselves, but at the same time they let her make her own decisions. Even if they weren’t completely onboard with her becoming a Magical Girl first and a PPC agent later, they still supported her no matter what.

Which means that, somewhere in the multiverse, there was a world in which one of the top-ranking anime of 2032 was “Dream Guardian Wave Keiko”.

Hajime Irene Turbo

Birthday: April 13th, 2019 HST Age: 16 years old as of Unravel Height: 160 cm Blood type: A

Sergio and Ami’s daughter from an alternate timeline, Hajime was created specifically for The World withouth Authors, and is still somewhat work in progress as a character.

Despite being literally Keiko’s alternate timeline incarnation, they only really share a father: having different mothers and growing up in different continents made them into completely separate individuals.

Compared to Keiko, who had more of a “normal girl” life (Magical Girl shenanigans aside), Hajime grew up planning to become a Strike Dove operative like her parents – not unlike her mother herself did. As such, despite having a sweeter personality compared to Keiko, the more thorough survival training she had made her quicker to take practical decisions.

Like with Keiko, I decided that her name was to be a meaningful one for her parents: Hajime means “beginning”, symbolizing the beginning of a new life for the alternate universe versions of Sergio and Ami after all the fighting and losses caused by the 2007 Organization War.

Her second name, Irene, comes from Irene Johnson, Colonel Leroy Johnson’s daughter, Kathleen’s natural mother and Sergio’s genetical mother who disappeared in 1995 HST. It was mostly a thank you gesture by Sergio and Ami towards Leroy, who took care of Ami after her parents’ death and was the closest to a father figure Sergio ever had.

Ai Minase

Birthday: July 11th Age: 17 years old as of Unravel Height: 171 cm Blood type: 0

Ai is the only “proper” canon character in my core group, having been borrowed from Koikatu (the very same game I’m using to make illustrations due to my absolute lack of drawing skills).

I decided to use her as both her backstory as a troubled schoolgirl and origin in an H-game had a lot of storytelling potential in my setting, but a lot of it is spoilers so I’ll have to let you learn about her as the story proceeds.

One little interesting tidbit, though, is her height: as extrapolated from the game’s files, this cute, babyfaced girl is actually a lot taller than she looks. At 171 cm

Ai in her school uniform, the one she wears in Koikatu and in chapter 2 of The World without Authors.

she’s not only the tallest heroine in the game, she’s also the tallest of the Asian girls in my core cast (beating Nikki, who is already pretty tall for a Japanese girl, by three centimeters) and is the second tallest overall losing to Faith by only one centimeter. This actually led to some difficulties while making the “beach fanservice” illustration as she was the perfect victim for Corolla’s Super Soaker shenanigans, but with Corolla being the shortest at 140 cm it took a bit of fiddling to make the angle at which Corolla was firing her water gun look right.

#blank sprite #world without authors

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