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#and just crank it from a 10 to a 100 without thinking twice about it
mapleshmaple · 4 years
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#its. really incredible how my mom always somehow manages to pinpoint EXACTLY whats making me feel like shit#and just crank it from a 10 to a 100 without thinking twice about it#and when i tell her that 'hey. maybe can you possibly NOT do that please' shes like 'WELL I SAID IT WITHOUT THINKING#SO THAT JUSTIFIES/EXCUSES IT >:/'#and just. drops that shit and i mean!! ok. thats cool. thanks for that.#i was feeling like shit about how im not gonna live to see 30 at this rate and just. really missing my grandmothers that passed recently#and its my grandpas birthday/her step-dads birthday today and hes 94 and shes walks in on my three hours of sleep having ass#like 'this may be the last birthday we have with pete- both him and grandmom do a lot for us' AND I MEAN#I WAS GONNA GET UP ANYWAY WITHOUT THE FUCKING. THAT. SO THATS REAL COOL. SUPER APPRECIATE THAT.#that and shes going back to work and literally just sitting there all day and our boss is like 'hm. im gonna bring everyone back#and start back up on six days a week. even if we only make like. five sales a day.' and moms just#been going off about that and about how i need to get bloodwork done and its.#i dunno!!! i dunno. im just real fed up with everything right now and really burnt the hell out#cuz i feel like now everythings on a fucking invisible timer and i cant take my time with anything or else mom'll fukcing#go back to treating me like im six and take away whatever it is of mine she doesnt like and just throw it at the donation bin or some shit#so if im. slow to reply im really sorry i just need to kinda vibe for a bit bc im on the ass end of being burnt the hell out tldr
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lunerbean · 3 years
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Witch Tips 24
Holy shit it's been over a year since I posted one of these but it's because I kept setting myself up for failure by putting way too high of expectations on myself to crank out 10 new and unique and helpful tips everytime I got 100 new followers except first it was 10 and then it was 50 and holy shit I got so stressed about these so I've just been writing them down as I've thought of them instead and now here we are, please be gentle.
Hello here are tips
1. Use transfer paper and a hair dryer to decorate candles.
Maybe you're doing a spell for someone & you want to put a picture of that person on the candle. This can be a way to help you better visualize the effects of the spell on the person the spell is for. Or maybe you need a picture on the candle for some other reason. Maybe you want to put pictures of coins on it for a money spell. Or hearts for a love spell. Simply print out whatever you want on transfer paper, cut it out & place the image face-down on the candle. Then, you'll want to get your hairdryer and a piece of tissue paper (I highly suggest the tissue paper is the same color as the candle, otherwise you risk getting that color onto the candle. Which can also be fine, but if it's not what you want...) use the blow dryer on a low-warm setting to melt the photo onto the candle side. Remove the tissue paper and there you have it! A picture printed onto a candle.
2. You can incorporate witchcraft into ANYTHING... even brushing your teeth.
I recently got this fucking delicious toothpaste from Trader Joe's. I'm one of those people who sometimes struggles to brush my teeth twice a day because I hate the taste of toothpaste. So I got a super unconventional toothpaste flavor instead, "fennel, propolis, & Myrrh. And about a week after using it, it struck me -holy shit these ingredients have meaning behind them. Most obviously, myrrh is associated with wisdom and meditation. And fennel has been used in magic for centuries! Even if you use regular mint toothpaste, that ingredient has power behind it! Obviously this goes more so for natural toothpastes but I'm sure you can find a way to enchant other varieties as well! Use the ingredients already infused into your toothpaste for enchantments & glamours!
3. Actually study your grimoire.
If I sound at all harsh by saying this, it's only because I'm being harsh with myself too. Study your grimoire. Don't just write everything down & then expect to have it all perfectly memorized & be a master in everything you research. Reread it. Rework it. Learn.
4. Feel drawn to be a sea witch but you don't live by the ocean? Get a saltwater aquarium!
First off, I'm not saying that it's a flawless solution. Being a witch of the sea is more than just using salty fish water in your craft. HOWEVER, with that out of the way, there's no way that a salt water aquarium will harm your craft as a sea witch. Think of it like a houseplant for a green witch. Sure, living in the forest would be better but it's still something special to be able to bring a little piece of your craft into your home.
5. Personal taglocks make a spell more powerful, but exercise caution when using them.
Undoubtedly, using a taglock (such as a strand of hair) can better connect you to the spells you're performing, but they're not always wise to use. I only use them in extremely personal spells and crafts. Things that no one except for me can have access to. I would never suggest using a taglock on something that you wish to give another person (especially another witch) such as a spell bottle or sachet. Even if you're best friends. Even if you're siblings. Even if you're MARRIED. You never know when a relationship can turn south or what someone is capable of when they're extremely angry with you. Don't risk it.
6. Be respectful of the deities that you don't worship or work with
I don't work with deities. Shocker, I know. I have my own belief system when it comes to higher powers that I won't get into on Tumblr, probably ever. But I do believe in showing respect to all things, both living, dead, & otherwise specified. If a deity approaches you who you're not interested in working with, please remain kind & respectful with in declination. You're allowed to say no to anyone and everyone.
7. Just because someone is more experienced doesn't necessarily mean they're always right.
Without naming names or being too specific, there was a witch I followed on Tumblr for a long time. They were much older than me and had been a witch for like 20+ years. I followed everything they said as fact. But slowly, over time I started to learn more and realized I didn't always agree with them. They were SO negative. If they heard basically anything new that younger witches were coming up with, they'd have a whole 10 paragraph post about how "stupid and wrong and ridiculous and fake" these new witches were. There was not an ounce of open mindedness with this person. And because of that, I started to feel really bad about myself and my craft. Things they said would stick with me and I'd feel so shitty about it. Well fuck. That. More experience means absolutely nothing if the person is unwilling to learn or expand their minds beyond their previous knowledge. Anyone can learn and anyone can teach. Age means nothing. Surround yourself with open minded people.
8. Put full moon water into your humidifier to charge your space.
This is an idea that only just occurred to me while I was setting up my crystals & jar of water to charge under the full blue moon on Samhain. I always turn my glowing humidifier on at night while I sleep. As I watched the mist begin to arise out the top I thought to myself, 'if I'm charging that water (the glass jar on my altar) for the full moon, why not this water too?' So now, I just add a little splash of full moon water into my humidifier water whenever I'm performing rituals or doing spell work. This way, the full moon water can charge my entire bedroom with the power of the full moon as I work.
Speaking of...
9. You can charge water under more moon phases than just full.
I don't know if that wording was weird or not so I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense. My point is, I always see people talking about moon water as if it's only full moon water. The moon holds power in every phase she goes through. Adding to the above tip, you can put new moon water into your humidifier to cleanse your space. Waxing moon water to help you plan and focus. And waning moon water to assist during a banishment spell. Hell yeah dude, all phase of the moon are useful and powerful!
10. Incense matches are a great alternative to full incense sticks
I love burning incense, but sometimes it can really overwhelm the area, especially because my house is small & I dont want to expose my cat to it. Incense matches are literally matches that are covered in incense powder. They burn for just a few minutes & produce a steady stream of smoke for spells. They come in a bunch of different scents. I buy them locally for 30 matches for $1.05USD but you can probably find them cheaper online. Still be sure to keep them away from pets & those who are smoke-sensitive.
Thank you so much for reading, follow me for more #10tips, search my blog for the previous 230 tips, & have a magical day.
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sugoi-writes · 4 years
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KC! Would you write domestic headcanons for my boy Karamatsu????
As a KG, I got you boo 💙
Can you say adorable? That would be the best way to describe your lover.
Whether you chose to get married, or do away with traditional relationship norms, he is perfectly content to be a Y/N Boy
With you living together, you may end up being the “bread-winner”. But he still manages a job to keep up will bills, and to take you out on dates every chance he gets!
He's the type of guy who strongly rejects complacency, so if he ever senses you being dissatisfied, he will spice things up. Whether that’s through the way he tries to court you (he will still call it this even after 10+ years) or other things... he’ll do it all. 
This man will burst into tears at the sight of a grand or small gesture. Whether you spoil him with a fancy date or set up a pillow fort to watch Princess and the Bride... he’ll fall in love with you over, and over, and over--
He’ll be sheepish about it at first, but will totally let you read through his journals, where you can find sappy first drafts of songs about you, and sweet sonnets/love letters that were never delivered. 
Some were written even before you started dating 
What can he say? He falls hard and fast. 
The way he prefers to wake up is with you by his side, facing him somehow. He loves the way the sun dances off of your hair and your skin. He’ll give you gentle head scratches while you sleep, in no hurry to wake you up. 
If you ask him to cook, he will do it. If you ask him to help with dishes, he’ll sing along to any song you put on. Chores are a wholesome part of your daily routine together (even when he tries to be lazy/distract you). 
If you ask him to dance with you, he’ll sway with you in the kitchen, or (try to) rouse you with a dorky samba or tango.
Birthdays and holidays are a HUGE deal and time commitment. He will have to dedicate equal times with you and his family (he will bring you along, as always!)
His brothers and parents adore you, as you’re the reason why Kara thrives. 
They can see and understand his love for you, and it makes almost every Matsuno beam. Kara has always struggled to be genuinely confident and happy. 9 times out of 10, it’s usually a facade that he pulls to make others worry/dote over him less. 
But with you... he’s 100% transparent, and happier than ever. 
He’s had some rough patches in life... and his family loves that you’re able to make him see the good in himself. 
They will practically beg you to stay anytime you’re there (whether that’s secretly because they enjoy your company over Kara’s... that’s up for debate.)
He’s still that fashion-deaf, hopelessly romantic knuckle head, after all. 
Don’t be surprised if his fashion sense either cranks up 200%, or down a few notches. He knows he can be himself around you, but that you appreciate him without the makeup, the clothes, his aesthetics. He can just be a sparse-browed, soft man while he cuddles you in bed. 
11/10, if you ever mimic his fashion sense, or you wear something with his face on it... he will sob. Openly. And he will never let you wear anything else. He thinks it’s so endearing, and he can’t help but try to hide the blush that’ll rise on his ears. 
If you steal his shirts??? Keep them. He’ll wear them when you’re away so he can have you there with him 
He’s a little weird about it, but loves your scent. Whether it lingers from your laundry/clothes, or on the bedsheets... every little thing about you drives him crazy.
As far as preferences for the future... your ideal scenarios may change as time passes. He may want to adopt or have children, depending on your circumstances. He may want to buy a minivan and travel the world with you. He may want to settle in the country, and raise a bunch of plants and animals with you. Kara is a very openminded person. If your preferences or goals ever change, he CRAVES communication.
He can get hyper fixated on pleasing you, so if there is something you want to change, or that you’re not as into anymore, let him know. He has trouble being direct, as we’ve seen in the show/manga... So be sure that if something needs to be said that you be as clear with him as you can. 
As you get older, don’t ever expect the passion to die. There will be photo albums, memories, big trips, momentos from dates, songs and poetry... everything he can hoard and lock away for you two to enjoy later, he will absolutely keep it. 
As long as you’re with him, he doesn’t care what you do together with the time that you have. Whether it’s meant to be forever or not, he will treat you right. 
I hope you’ve enjoyed so far! Here are some n/sfw headcanons, under the cut! Juuuuust in case you’re curious~
F r e a k in the sheets, if you demand it. But he tends to be on the romantic, submissive side. 
Don’t expect him to know a lick of anything about sex, unless you casually mention it or bring it up. All Kara knows is what he’s read in erotica (or worse... hentai/porn). 
HOWEVER: Kara is an incredibly patient and FAST learner. 
He would absolutely lose his shit if you were dominant in any way, and may even dabble into darker fantasies, as long as you lay out what that means in its entirety. 
His top kinks involve body worship, oral of any sort (giving/receiving), facesitting, dirty/flirty talk, and a few others. He can be a mostly tame guy, but cranks it up a few notches if there’s something you’re into. 
If anything you’re into involves something that can be dangerous or harmful to either party, he establishes safe words and spaces in advance, so the act can stop at any time. Communication during the deed is so important to him. He will bring himself to an entire halt if you’re not okay/hurt/want to stop. 
SO UNDERSTANDING...SO HANDSOME;;;;;
If you call him baby, angel, good boy, Daddy...expect this man to be puddy in your hands. 
He will probably be a big ass/thigh fanatic, but absolutely loves every part of you. He’s also VERY. VERY.... into facesitting. So much it has to be said twice.
Just know that anything sexual is a fire that GROWS over time. Instead of your flame withering over the years, you find that he’s only growing more and more into you. 
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part vii
part i part ii part iii part iv part v part vi
Welcome back, friends! I know it’s been a long time since I updated, and I’m sorry for that - I just finished up my junior year of college, and combined with all of the protesting an unrest going on in the US (where I’m from) it’s been hard to write on schedule. On that note, I want to say that as a person and a writer I unequivocally stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and those protesting for an end to police brutality, the demilitarization and downsizing of the police, and equal rights for all - noting especially that these issues particularly affect LGBTQ+ people of color, particularly Black trans women. I am always striving to keep myself as educated and informed on how to be an antiracist, and encourage everyone to take a look at https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ for resources to educate yourself, donation links if you’re able, and petitions to sign. Breonna Taylor’s murderers still have not been arrested. I love writing, and I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations. Please reblog as always, and pop into my inbox and let me know what you think!
part vii
February 14
Dress like I’m going to a diner? Cass was more than a little confused as she pulled one leg through the pair of her good jeans (the ones without ripped knees, she wore them out with Mat and to less-important meetings and even to church once or twice when she was feeling particularly daring) as she slipped into her pea coat, toying with the button by her wrist as she opened the door to the crisp February air. It wasn’t snowing, but it was cold enough that her hands were still jammed firmly in her coat pockets. She could see her breath when she breathed out. Matt pulled up a few minutes, an apologetic look on his face as he slammed his hazards on and scrambled over the chair to push her door open. 
“Sorry I’m late,” Mat said breathlessly. “Parkway was backed up.”
Cass waved him off. “It’s not a big deal, just crank the heat up.”
“I know you said you didn’t want anything too fancy, so I hope you like it,” he added hesitantly, looking in between her and the road as he turned a corner. 
Cass squeezed his hand that was hovering just above the gear shift. “I’m sure I’ll love it, Mat.”
It really had been hard for Mat to figure out what to do for Valentine’s. He was leaving the next day for a weeklong road trip, but it was still, you know, Valentine’s, and he wanted so badly to get it right. So he tapped Jordan, called Tito, even somehow got ahold of her roommates to ask them what they thought she might be interested in. He wouldn’t admit it, but there also might have been a text or two back home to his sister for a second (third? fourth?) opinion. He wanted it to be perfect, but even more than that, he wanted it to be her. Dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant and a Tiffany’s necklace might be all well and good, but it didn’t really matter if the proverbial shoe didn’t fit. The handful of Valentine’s dates he’d gone on in the past had mostly been the standard roses-and-chocolates type, and while Cass did love chocolate, this evening meant so much more to him than any previous attempt. 
He didn’t want to do anything to mess it up, anything to jeopardize what was hands-down the most meaningful and serious relationship he’d ever been in. He’d dated girls for longer, sure, but there was something about what he had with Cass that made him feel like she had been in his life forever, like she was already a permanent fixture who made everything else make sense. They drove down the island of Manhattan, his thumb running back and forth over the palm of her hand until he pulled into a hotel parking lot. Cass looked at him quizzically. “Easiest place to park,” Mat said by way of an answer. 
He parked, opening Cass’s door and helping her out. “Where are you taking me?” Cass said with a small laugh, looking across the street at the dozens of couples taking an early dinner. 
Mat held up a finger. “It should be...right up here,” he said, double-checking his phone. “Ah-ha!”
A dusty green awning and flyer-covered window greeted the couple. It was a pizzeria, and it was perfect. It wasn’t just the fact that, like any sane person, Cass loved pizza, but the fact he knew what she wanted and prioritized that over any expectation or preconception about what the “right” way to celebrate was. And she could really go for a dollar slice. 
They squeezed into a two-top table in the corner. Cass hung her bag on the back of her chair, scooping back to go order at the counter. When it came to food, Mat was a simple man with simple tastes. He liked pepperoni. “I got us garlic knots because it’s Valentine’s day and I love you,” she said, setting down the trays, “and also because I’d willingly murder a man for garlic.”
Mat picked one up, biting in and nearly moaning. God, these are good. “Babe, you’re going to be a lawyer. You can’t just go around getting yourself arrested for murder. I don’t think your garlic defense would go over well with the judge.”
Cass shrugged. “I can get myself off.” Mat raised an eyebrow. “Ew!” She threw a packet of red pepper at Mat, promptly hitting him square in the chest. “Get your mind out of the gutter. There are children present.” To be fair, aside from them the restaurant was filled mostly with high school students, nervously holding hands and sipping each others’ Cokes while they tried desperately to make small talk. And to be fair, she could get herself off. 
“Are you finally going to tell me what we’re doing?” Cass asked, biting into the last bit of her crust. 
“In a minute,” Mat said, twisting around to rustle through the pocket of his leather jacket. He pulled out a small, flat square box, sliding it over the table to her. Cass traced the edges delicately with a finger. 
Mat smiled softly at her. “Open it.” 
Cass tapped the box against her palm until the bottom fell softly into her hand. Inside, nestled in a cloud of cotton, was a beautiful silver bar necklace. It was simple, elegant, not too flashy. But it was her, and it was hers. 
“I know you don’t like me spending money on you,” Mat shrugged, “but you deserve nice things. You deserve to be treated well.” He reached over the table to tuck a curl behind her ear. 
She picked it up, touching the chain, clasp, pendant. “Turn it over,” Mat said pointedly, with a smile on his face. Cass flipped it. There was an engraving on the back — well, two, really. 10-28-20. That one she knew. That one was their anniversary. WWRD. That one she didn’t know. Glancing back up towards Mat with a confused look on her face, she raised an eyebrow. “What would Ruth do,” Mat supplied. It took Cass a moment, and once she realized, she almost fell over, dissolving into peals of laughter. What would Ruth do? “I know I’m nothing but a filthy Canadian,” Mat started, “but I also know you love her and look up to her. You don’t just have a mug with someone’s face on it for no reason.” That was true. For Secret Santa last Christmas, Ryanne had 100% gotten Cass a mug with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s face on it. And she 100% used it every day for her morning tea. 
“Plus, I read on Wikipedia that before she was a judge, she was a lawyer and did a lot for women’s rights and stuff. Which is really cool.” Cass nodded. That’s sweet, she thought, he actually did his homework. 
It was Cass’s turn to turn to Mat, leaning forward and cupping his cheek gently. He leaned into her touch. “It’s beautiful, Mat. I love it.”
“Let me put it on for you?” Mat asked. Cass nodded, he stood up and shuffled behind her, delicately grabbing the necklace and brushing her hair to one side. Cass shivered at the touch of his fingertips. After a few seconds, he managed to clasp it, leaning down and brushing a kiss on her shoulder before walking back to his side and grabbing his jacket. “You ready to take off?” His eyes flickered down towards his watch. It was nearing 7:30. “We’ve got to be somewhere by 8, but they said to get there early.”
“Who’s ‘they’?” Cass asked curiously.
Mat cracked a grin, sliding her hand into his as they walked out of the restaurant. “You’ll see.”
Two minutes of walking later and Cass was staring into the lights of Broadway. Even living only a few hours away, she had only been once before. The Lion King, in 5th grade. Her little sister Eliana was more of a theatre kid than Cass; field hockey and lacrosse kept her too busy in high school, any spare time she had between sports and work study was spent spending time with friends or reading old books. Eliana was four years younger than her, and when she got the lead in Heathers, Cass had never been happier to live only twenty minutes away from home. El killed it, she got to have a night at home, and was able to make pancakes with her mom in the morning. It was a win-win-win scenario. But Cass still loved musicals, listened to soundtracks while she studied, tried to make the drive once a year to Boston  — Eliana was at BU — to see a winter or spring show.
So when she was suddenly looking up at the ten-foot-tall poster for Waitress, her mouth kept opening and closing like a fish. “Do you like it?” Mat asked hesitantly. “We can find something else to do if you’re not into it, I know —”
Cass cut him off, squeezing his hand tightly and standing on her tippy toes to press a kiss to his jaw. “It’s amazing, Mat. I just didn’t know what to say. I still don’t, really. This is such an...unexpected gift. But I love it.” Mat relaxed. He genuinely was nervous about the choice; her roommates had told him that she liked the soundtrack and she had recommended that Sara Bareilles album to him way back in October, but he didn’t want to assume that meant she’d want to see it live. Mat was glad that he was wrong. 
Mat gently pulled the tickets out of his coat pocket, flashing them to the usher and handing Cass’s to her. “You ready for a show?”
---
“So, what did you think?” Cass asked as they walked out of the theater. 
“I liked it!” Mat said. And he really had liked it. Some of the music definitely confused him, and he didn’t understand how quick changes were physically possible, but it was good. “Earl’s a class-A dick, though. Jenna’s much better off without him.”
Cass nodded. “Correct.”
 March 4 (thurs)
 Cass glanced down at her watch, making sure it was a good time to call. It was just after 6 in New York, which would mean it was...5 in Winnipeg? Was that right? Mat probably hadn’t gotten to the arena yet, or if he did, it was more likely dinner than training or warmups. Clicking on his contact, it rang for less than ten seconds before Mat picked up. 
“Hey babe! You good?” It wasn't per se unusual for them to call each other — especially during road trips, they tried to talk or FaceTime every day — but it was usually Mat who called first, and usually just after games. So it was understandable that he was a little confused. 
Cass giggled. “I’m good, really good. Got some good news, just wanted to hear your voice.” 
“Awww,” Mat teased, “you loooove me.”
Cass didn’t really blush, but if she did, her cheeks would be scarlet. “Yes. I do. Shut up.”
Mat let out a laugh. “Just teasing you, babe. Good news, eh? What kind? Did you hear back from any of the places you applied yet?”
“No,” Cass huffed. “Not that.” She had sent out her résumé to somewhere around ten different firms and nonprofits, mostly in New York, but some as far south as D.C. and as far north as Boston. She had also sent in an application for a clerkship at the Supreme Court months back as some sort of pipe dream, but hadn’t heard anything back and had long since abandoned it as a lost cause. “I’ve done a few interviews, but nothing permanent. It’s still pretty early, though.” And that part was true  —  out of everyone in her circles back at school, there were maybe a handful who already had jobs lined up after graduation, most of them having evolved from summer associate positions they’d taken with some highbrow firm in Manhattan. Or D.C. One was even going to London to do something very intellectual-sounding with trade negotiations. 
“I know you’re probably a little nervous, and I totally get that. But don’t worry, Cass. You’re incredible and so smart and so qualified and someone’s going to see that, even if it takes a little longer than expected.” 
“Thanks,” Cass said, breathing out deeply and smiling softly. Mat was getting good at reading her, so good that he could tell when something was bothering her even without being face-to-face. And he gave damn fine pep talks. 
Mat cleared his throat. “So. Good news?”
Cass screwed up her face. “Good news. Right. I just got out of the office, and you know how I said I was almost done with my hours?” It had taken Cass longer than usual to finish her experiential requirement, since nearly all of her peers got it knocked out in a summer and she, obviously, was a little more busy when it actually came to term time. “Mhm,” Mat responded. “I just got done with the last of them today!”
Mat was confused. “So...your good news is that you’re finished? I thought you liked working with Chris?”
“Right, yeah, I do.” Cass tried to backtrack. I should have explained. “Chris told me I’m welcome to stay on, and I’m going to. I genuinely like what I’m doing. Since I’m not doing it for school anymore, he put in a request for a status change with HR, and it just got approved. So,” she paused for dramatic effect, “the good news is that now I’m getting PAID.” 
“Awesome!” Mat said. “You’re going to be the one making the big bucks now.”
“I’m making 16 dollars an hour. It’s barely above minimum wage, but it’s nice to finally get something back.” 
Ten minutes later, after they had hung up, Mat leaned back in his hotel bed. He really was proud of Cass, unbelievably so, but hadn’t yet admitted to himself just how nervous he was. Not about their relationship, really, but about where things were headed. He absolutely saw them together as a long-term thing and at least from what Cass made it seem like, so did she. But they hadn’t really spoken about where they saw this whole thing going, or what it would look like, or really anything beyond vaguely discussed plans for the summer after her graduation. The uncertainty wasn’t really concerning him. Mat’s new contract locked him in through 2026, so he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. And he wouldn’t want to, he loved hockey and loved New York and loved his team. 
Cass was a whole different story. She was probably the smartest person he’d ever met, and Mat knew that she could and would be able to go just about anywhere for a position. She didn’t have to stay in New York if she didn’t want to. And sure, New York was a pretty good place to be a lawyer — it didn’t take a genius to know that — but the worry kept popping up in the back of his mind that she’d get an incredible offer somewhere like California or Chicago or even somewhere international and would leave the city. Leave him. Mat would never dream of holding Cass back from her dreams. It would be a dick move and she’d worked way too hard to let everything go to waste. But the idea of doing something long distance, like true long distance, scared the shit out of him. It wasn’t just that he’d miss the sex or seeing her in the stands at games or early morning coffee dates, but Mat thrived on closeness, he thrived on intimacy of all kinds. It would terrify him to have to be away from someone who meant so much to him for so long. But this was Cass, his Cass, and if he’d go through it for anyone, it would be for her. 
I’m overthinking this, Mat thought, as he flipped his phone over and over in his hands. Don’t make up problems where there are none. 
 March 13 (sat)
Cass tapped her fingers nervously as she walked through the doors of the Islander’s practice rink. It was family skate, and Cass couldn’t help but feel like she didn’t quite belong. 
“There you are!” Mat said, his bag slung over one shoulder as he greeted her with a kiss. “You ready? I know Tito and Paige are already down there and they’re starting to get on the ice.”
“Yep!” Cass said brightly, forcing a smile and grabbing his hand a little too quickly. 
Mat raised one eyebrow. “Alright, what is it?”
Cass dropped the face. “It’s just...this seems different than all of the other things I’ve gone to. It’s not like when I’m in the box at games or we go out with the team or I hang out with the girls when you guys are on a road trip. It’s like,” she let out a huff, “this is small. This is close. This is meant for family, wives and kids, and I’m not...I’m not family. I’m your girlfriend, sure, but…” She trailed off. 
Mat squeezed her hand. “I plan on keeping you around for a long time, Cass. You’d better get used to it. And besides,” he said, looking at her softly, “wives have to start somewhere.”
Luckily, Cass didn’t have time to get too into her head, because she was suddenly engulfed in a bear hug from Paige. “I know we got coffee on Monday, but it’s been too long, Cass. I swear, you’re working too hard.”
Mat chimed in. “Tell me about it.” Cass swatted at him. “She’s been studying and editing and sending in her résumé to every office she can get her hands on.” He sat his chin on top of her head, arms crossing in front of her chest to hold her hands. 
“Alright, Mr. Clingy,” Cass giggled, twisting her head to look up at Mat. 
“But you looove your clingy boyfriend,” Mat whined, leaning down and softly kissing Cass. 
She scrunched her nose. “Regrettably so.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “You ready to go out on the ice?”
“Yeah.” Cass nodded, taking a pair of skates from the rack. By the time she had unlaced her boots and set them to the side, Mat had already tied his hockey skates, an extra pair he kept in his practice bag. 
“Let me,” Mat said, gently taking the skates and kneeling down in front of her. 
Cass rolled her eyes, but her cheeks heated all the same. “If you insist,” she said, holding her left leg out. 
“Okay, Cinderella,” Mat chuckled, holding her ankle for support as he wiggled her foot in, pulling the laces tight and tying them. “Double knots are more secure,” he said, blushing, as he finished the second skate. 
“You’re cute when you blush,” Cass said, pinching Mat’s cheeks, which only made him go more scarlet. 
He straightened out the knot, reaching out a hand so Cass could stand up. She steadied herself on the skates. “How much skating have you done?” Mat asked as he led her to the door. 
Cass shrugged. “A little? I went a few times as a kid and the girls and I go to Rockefeller Center around Christmas every year, but not a ton. Skating’s an expensive enough sport as it is, and my parents were already having to deal with coming up with the fees for Noah before he started working.”
Mat grimaced. “Yeah, I get that. I hate it, how cost prohibitive the sport is, and I try to help out back home when I can, but knowing that there’s so many kids who love the sport and could be so good,” he took a tense breath, “but aren’t able to because their families don’t have the means. It’s really shi—” He cut himself off, noticing his teammates’ children skating around. “It sucks.”
“It does.” Cass nodded. “But I know you have a good heart, and I know you’re helping where you can.” She gave a half-smile as they stepped onto the ice, her hand gripping his forearm as she tried to find her balance on the slick surface, which had been passed over by a zamboni right before the group’s arrival. “Wipe that smile off of your face,” she said, sticking her tongue out. 
“Yes ma’am,” Mat said with a grin, pulling her along. 
---
After an hour or so of skating, Cass had gotten the hang of it enough to where Mat was good to step off the ice for a few minutes and talk to some of the boys. “They have goldfish,” he had mentioned. “I think the snack table’s supposed to be for the kids, but I’m not above theft in situations like these.” So Cass skated around with Paige, Lauren, and some of the other WAGs, nearly all of whom were much, much better skaters than herself. 
“For someone who grew up on hockey, you’d think this would be way easier for me than it is,” Cass grumbled, tentatively pushing off from the sideboards. 
“You’ll get it eventually. I believe in you,” Paige said, poking her cheek. 
She grimaced. “Hopefully. I can see the Athletic’s morning headline now: ‘Cassidy Cabrera Shaw, Girlfriend of 2018 Calder Trophy Winner Mat Barzal, Falls on Face While Attempting to Skate.” 
“Sue them,” Paige suggested.
Cass laughed. “That’d be nice, wouldn’t it? Wish I could.” She stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. “No grounds for defamation if it’s true.”
“Laws are dumb.” 
“They can be,” Cass admitted, looking over to the bleachers. “You want to go get drinks? I think I saw Whiteclaws in the adult’s cooler, and I know how you feel about those.”
Paige was already halfway across the rink. “Only if all the limes haven’t been taken!”
Cass shook her head, turning like Mat had taught her and skating over to the benches. Paige had gone over to sit with Anthony, a lime Whiteclaw successfully in her hand, and it took Cass no time to find Mat. He was sitting in the second row next to some of the other guys, and he was holding a baby. A very cute, very small baby. She gingerly made her way over to the group, catching Mat’s eye. He beamed at her as she took a seat next to him. 
“And who’s this little cutie?” She asked, smiling at him. 
“This is Milo,”  Mat said softly, turning him slightly so she could wave at him.
Cass absentmindedly remembered asking whose son it was — an offseason trade from Colorado, she vaguely recalled processing the contract at work — but she really couldn’t say which one. But she stroked Milo’s face with one finger, puffed out her cheeks at him, and suddenly he was in her arms and everything else fell away. She bounced him for a few minutes, easily falling back into her old routine — she was an older sister, after all — before handing him back to Mat, who was clearly having some separation anxiety. 
Lauren sat on the edge of the bench, gently touching Cass’ shoulder with Collins on her hip. “He looks really good like that, doesn’t he?” She asked. Cass’ cheeks burned. She didn’t know anyone had seen her looking over at Mat and Milo. “Yeah, he does,” she said, a soft smile crossing over her face.
 March 26 (fri)
 A steaming cup of tea in her hands, Cass threw her head back against the couch, knocking her reading glasses askew. She straightened them with a huff. There were two days until the deadline for the law review, and she still had two articles to get through for last-minute edits and spelling checks. It was just past 11, which normally wouldn’t have been all that late for her, but she had been staring at her computer for hours and it was beginning to take a toll. She had been at the library until 8 or so, making more than one trip to the coffee cart in the lobby before she realized that she wasn’t going to get anywhere sequestered away in a cubicle on the fourth floor. The Islanders were playing that night, so Cass shot Mat a text that she was headed over, packed up her bags, and headed over. 
He had just given her a key the week prior, and it was her first time using it. Even though he constantly told her she was welcome to go over, whether he was there or not, she had more than her fair share of nerves as she jingled her keychain, thumbing over her apartment key and mail key and car key and key to the house back in Connecticut before she opened the door. She set the kettle to boil and grabbed the little-used box of English Breakfast from the cabinet before crashing on the couch, where she had been pretty much ever since, save for a bathroom break after a thrilling review of a paper on recent intellectual property rulings of the 2nd Circuit Court. 
The doorknob turned and Mat walked in, shower-damp hair, still clad in his gameday suit with his duffel slung over his left shoulder. “Hey, babe,” he said, dropping the bag and walking over to the couch to plant a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “Still at it?”
She nodded ruefully, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah. I ordered takeout earlier in case you’re hungry, there’s an extra gyro in the kitchen,” she pointed to a bag on the counter, “and they threw in free baklava if you’re still hungry.”
His eyebrows perked. “Baklava?” Cass had discovered early on in their relationship that hidden beneath his curated meal plans from the team nutritionist and smoothie kits was a surprisingly committed sweet tooth. She was a stress-baker, and Mat had been more than willing over the past few months to serve as her taste tester for cookies, pies, and anything in between. 
Cass giggled. “Yeah. Better get it before I steal the last piece, though.” 
Mat returned later with the pastry on a napkin, shrugging off his suit jacket and collapsing onto the cushion beside her. “Anything else interesting happen today?”
Cass shrugged her shoulders. “I had yoga in the morning like usual, which was fun. I tried a hot yoga class today, though, and you would not believe how much I sweat. It hurt my soul.”
“No pain no gain, baby,” Mat chimed in. Cass rolled her eyes at him. 
“But then I had law review and my Entertainment Law seminar before I headed over to the office. Pretty normal, they had me looking over some leasing agreements for the next season. Called my grandma, she’s shipping my serape stole over next week and needed my address,” Cass added.
“Serape stole?”
Cass adjusted her position on the couch so she was facing Mat. “It’s a Mexican thing. You know how graduation gowns usually have stoles for the school or whatever?” Mat nodded. “It’s pretty common to have cultural ones too, Black students will often wear what’s called a kente cloth stole and Mexican and some other Latinx students have serape stoles. Give me a sec,” she said, grabbing her phone and scrolling through her photos. “Here’s a graduation photo of me and the girls from UConn, Ryanne’s in her kente stole and I have mine.”
Mat looked bewildered. “Why are you wearing so many of them?”
Cass laughed, realizing which photo she pulled up. “Okay, fair enough. So there’s the normal school one on the bottom, then I had one for the honors program, then on top of that is the one from my sorority, then on top of that is the serape. Most of the other photos it’s just one or two, like in the ones when I’m with the sorority or the Mexican Student Association or whoever. We thought it would be fun to take one where we’re just drowning in stoles and leis. Made us feel fancy.”
“You do look very fancy,” Mat said, leaning his head on her shoulder. “You also look very tired, Cass. You need to go to sleep.”
Cass scrunched up her nose. “I’ve only got the two papers left to look over, and I’d really like to get them done before I head back. Get them all knocked out, y’know?”
“Stay here,” Mat said easily, as if it wasn’t even a question. “Stay here, you can finish reviewing them in the morning. Plus, I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t taking the subway alone at half past 11.”
Cass sighed. He had a point. “Fine,” she said slowly, “but you have to promise to wake me up if I don’t get out of bed by 8. Okay?”
Mat gently took her laptop, setting it on the coffee table. “Okay. Now go take a shower and hop into bed, pretty girl. You’ve had a long day.”
“Thanks,” Cass said, smiling gratefully and padding down the hall to the bathroom. Shedding her clothes, Cass stepped into the shower, expecting to use Mat’s Old Spice shampoo — which, to be fair, didn’t smell half bad — when a white floral bottle caught her eye. She had mentioned offhand once that she was picking up a new bottle of shampoo, and Mat must have been listening more than she gave him credit for. Because, without asking, he had gotten one too.
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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years
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A How artistic are you? I’m not at all. Do you want to go to Africa? I’d love to stay at Giraffe Manor! AC/DC or Aerosmith? Aerosmith. 
Do you know what Armenia is?
  Yes.
B
 What’s your beer of choice (if any)?  Blech, none. Do you know the title of Buffalo Springfield’s one-hit wonder?  Okay, I didn’t recognize the name so I Googled it and yes, I am familiar with their one hit wonder. I actually wasn’t familiar with the song title either, but after reading the lyrics I quickly realized what song it was. Do you have a brother? (Do you like it that way?) I have two brothers, and yes I love them. Which bank do you use?  Not sharing that. C
 Which comedian do you most enjoy?  I think Kevin Hart is funny. Would you ever live in California?  I have all my life. Is it possible/likely that you’ll become a cat lady?  *Dog lady, but yes. How many different countries have visited? Just one. D
 Do you believe there’s a devil? Yes. But demons maybe?  Yes. Does eating dessert often make you feel guilty?  Nope. Can you legally drive?  I’m definitely old enough to have my license, but I don’t.  What have you been diagnosed with (if you don’t mind sharing)? Depression, anxiety, and other physical health stuff. E
 How often do you drink energy drinks?  I like to drink Starbucks Doubleshot energy drinks often. 
Where did you live when you were 11 years old? The house next door to where I live now, ha. We had our big move to the house next door to us haha about 10 years ago because our landlords wanted to install new flooring and stuff to our house, but since they had just finished this one they offered for us to just move in here lol. Do you like the actor who played Edward Scissorhands in that movie?
 Why not just say Johnny Depp? Anyway, yes, I think he’s a very talented actor. Have you ever felt an earthquake?  No, just aftershocks from one. F
 When was the last time you saw your father one-on-one? Yesterday. Do you think French is the most beautiful language?  I don’t know what I’d say is the most beautiful language. Is Friday your favorite day of the week?  No. All the days are the same for me, so meh. Have you listened to Jimi’s song ‘Fire?’  Doesn’t sound familiar. G
 Do you have real gold jewelry?  No. How often do you watch ‘Gossip Girl’?  I never have. Is Google your homepage?  Yeah. 
Do you like Geico’s commercials? Most of them are annoying. The gecko character is cute, though. H
 When did you last feel happy? Uhhh. Do you prefer Hollister, Hot Topic, or H&M?  Hot Topic is the only one I shop at now, but I used to shop at the other 2 as well. Did you dress up last Halloween?  Nope. I stopped doing that a few years ago. Would you voluntarily watch the History Channel?  Yeah and I do if there’s something of interest on. I
 Have you ever been on an island?  No. I live on one in Animal Crossing, though. ha. Would you be able to locate Indonesia on a globe?  I think so. Do you know if Iceland or Greenland has more ice?  Greenland. I remember it’s the opposite of their name for some reason. 
Did you watch the last presidential inauguration?  No. J
 Do you enjoy jogging?  No. On which instrument could you most easily play ‘Jingle Bells’?  I’ve played it on the piano. How much do you know about John Lennon? *shrug* I know some stuff. Do you know how Jell-O is made?  I know how to make Jell-O with the mix, but no I don’t know how the mix itself is made. K
 Have you tried Krispy Kreme doughnuts? (Was it love at first bite?) Yeah, but no they’re definitely not my favorite. They’re not real donuts to me, they’re just pure sugar.  
How many pairs of khaki pants do you own? “Uh, khakis?” ha, if you know, you know. Anyway, I don’t own any. 
Have you ever been a fan of the Killers?  Yeah. L
 Does it bother you when couples are lovey-dovey in public? No, unless they’re having like full on makeout sessions, straddling each other and feeling each other up and whatnot lol. Hand holding/locked arms/arm around each other, hugging, little pecks, and just being playful with each other is cute.  
Do you have your own lighter (why or why not)?  No. I don’t have a need for one. In how many languages (besides English) can you count to 100?  I can in Spanish. What’s your favorite lollipop flavor? Not a lollipop fan. M
 Do you believe in miracles (why or why not)? I do because I'm a woman of faith. What do you think of shows like Maury and Jerry Springer? I used to like watching Maury, Jerry Springer was just for laughs.  
Do you care that Mars (the candy co.) uses deadly animal testing? I haven’t heard that... I’d have to fact check. How did you form your opinion of marijuana? Based off the research supporting that it has a lot of benefits. I was especially swayed when I saw how it helped cancer patients.
N
 How often do you sleep naked?  Never. I wouldn’t find that comfortable at all, I very much like being clothed.  Do you actually check the Nutrition Facts before eating something?  Not usually, but I sometimes will just out of curiosity. 
Who is your favorite musical artist/band beginning with ‘N’? Nirvana. 
How nerdy are you (in what ways)? I’m socially awkward, for one. I also cared about school and did well, which is often considered nerdy. Also, a book nerd, Star Wars nerd, Marvel and DC movies nerd...  I enjoy those things so I don’t care, but they’re deemed “nerdy.” What do you think about olives?  Black olives are good, green olives are gross. Are you much of an outdoorsy person? Not at all. The only time I enjoy being outside is when I’m sitting out at the beach. How big of an Oprah fan are you?  I don’t really consider myself a fan. How often do you shop online?
  Quite often. P
 Are you looking forward to your prom? If you already went, how was it? My prom was over a decade ago D: Anyway,  I danced with the guy I had a huge crush on at the time, so hey it wasn’t too bad. How are your local policemen? I think they do a pretty good job overall.  What is your ideal PB&J sandwich like? Just peanut butter and grape jelly, pretty simple. What do you think of the movie ‘Pineapple Express’? I could not get into that movie at all.  Q
 How true is the saying, ‘quitters never win and winners never quit’?  I mean, can’t say “never”, but the main point from the saying makes sense. Do you prefer Quiznos or Subway and why?  I’ve gone to Subway many times, but I think I’ve only been to a Quiznos once or twice. Have you learned the quadratic formula yet? (Do you remember it?) I think I actually remember it. What is the one question you most want to ask someone and who?
  I don’t know. R
 How many rooms are in your home?  2 bedrooms. 
Do you like raspberries?
  Nah. What’s one of your best memories from during a rain storm? Hmm. I don’t know, but I just really love that kind of weather. 
Have you actually read Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’?  Yeah, my freshman year in high school. S
 Do you know any Sign Language?  I know the alphabet and a few sayings. What is your sleeping schedule generally like?  Oh, my sleeping schedule is an absolute joke. How well do you sing? I can’t sing well at all. How often do you listen to 60-70’s music? Now and then. I actually have several songs on my main Spotify playlist from those decades. T What do you think of Twitter?  I like being able to post my random thoughts and following certain celebrities and just interesting people for funny and interesting stuff. How much do you value the Ten Commandments?  I value them a lot. Are there many trees where you live?  Not really. 
How much taller/shorter do you wish to be? “I wish I was a little bit taller.” 🎶
U
 Where do you usually buy your underwear?  Various places. How do you define ‘ugly’?  It goes a lot deeper than just the outer appearance. Do you like to shop at Urban Outfitters?  I’ve only been to an actual store a couple times and I’ve checked out their website a few times, but I just think they’re ridiculously overpriced. V
 Would you like being described as ‘voluptuous’? No one would use that word to describe me. 
For listening to music, do you like to crank up the volume or keep it calm? I like it at a reasonable level, I don’t need it blaring.  Do you ever watch the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show? They cancelled that a few years ago, but I never had any interest in watching that. 
Would you agree that ‘variety is the spice of life’?  Yeah. W
 Are you currently on wireless Internet?  Yeah, that’s all I have. I haven’t had to connect to a wifi router or whatever with a cord in a very long time. Can you recall memories of learning how to whistle? I still can’t do it. Do you go to White Castle or just vicariously through ‘Harold & Kumar'? I’ve never actually been to one cause they don’t have one anywhere near me (they’re on the east coast, I’m a west coast gal). I’ve only had the the White Castle burgers from the store that you cook in the microwave. I actually like them, but I’m sure the real deal is even better. X
 Why did you need your most recent x-ray and what were the results? I had to get a CT Scan a couple years ago. When it comes to ‘xoxo’, do you interpret ‘x’ as the hug or the kiss?  It’s hugs and kisses, so the X’s are hugs. What does X stand for in Roman numerals? Can you write the previous number?  X is 10, IX is 9. Why do you think xylophones are only popular with young children? That’s true, that is a pretty common baby toy. At least it was when I was little. Also, I played the xylophone in music class in elementary school. I don’t know why that’s a thing with kids. Y
 Can you explain the meaning of the yin-yang symbol? Opposite, but complimentary principles. Like, you can’t have good without bad, lightness without darkness, etc. It’s about balance. Do people more often mistake you as being younger or older than you are? Younger. Did you know that yawning is contagious?  Yeah.  Would you like a bottle of Yoo-Hoo or it’s not really your thing?  I actually like Yoo-Hoo, but I prefer it in the little carton or whatever with the straw (kinda like a Capri Sun, but it’s a box carton). It’s the perfect size, not too much. The strawberry one is my favorite. I haven’t had one in a long time, though. Z
 How many places’ zip codes do you know by heart?  Uhh, not many. What comes to mind when I say ‘Zero to Hero’? Disney’s Hercules movie.
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thestatewearein · 6 years
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Day 31 and Day 32
Two big 'uns totaling around 16-hours saddle time.
Day 31:
Fort Collins, Colorado to Franklin, Colorado.
Miles today: 105
Total miles: 2086
Had a weird look-twice moment when grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen sink in the early hours. Saw an apparition of a man in the turkey pen at the end of the garden.
Went back to bed and in the morning met a Jacob's third flatmate, Dan, who'd been working away and got back in the middle of the night. He couldnt sleep so went to see the turkeys. Phew.
Really, really nice guy who could not do enough for us. He ended up giving us loads of cereal bars which he'd proudly stolen from the Holiday Inn when away with work. He said we should just get our heads down and cycle because there is nothing but flat farmland between here and McCook, our next stop.
After messing around in Wallmart and a phone shop, we didn't get on the road until after 12:00. We bashed out 100 miles by 19:30 though and effectively slept in someone's back garden for $10.
Got my first puncture of the trip but that was sorted promptly. Just put a new tube on rather than faffing with the repair kit.
Not too much to report other than that: Faffed-cycled-ate-slept.
Day 32
Franklin, Colorado to McCook, Nebraska
Miles today: 156
Total miles: 2242
Given that we haven't reached stifling midwest heat/humidity yet and we wanted to get to McCook by the evening, this was earmarked as a good opportunity to see if we could hit 150 miles in a day.
Alex hadn't hit 150 before, obviously I haven't either. As you can see from the "miles today" bit, we managed 156 which equates to 249 kms. Pretty crazy writing that actually. Didn't think i would ever cycles 250kms in a day! It didn't go without drama, though.
I got a slow puncture and it transpired the spare intertubes I'd be given didn't fit the tyres. Alex has slightly smaller tyres so his wouldn't work either.
We must have spent three hours through the day playing musical chairs with inner tubes as all four tyres are different sizes. Eventually, after some wizardry from my skilled sidekick, we made it work.
We moved into Nebraka *obligatory picture at state line with Alex not looking*
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A nice thing happened around noon as we stopped for fruit at a supermarket. A lady asked us about our trip and said she'd passed us twice in her car that morning. We told her briefly about our plans for the day and she left.
I then came to pay for my lunch and the assistant said "sir, this is already paid for". She'd covered our bill.
I didn't tell Alex as I thought it morally questionable so he got to the checkout and the same thing happened. How nice is that? My only regret is not deciding we needed a DVD player.
Also had my first ever popsicle. I've had plenty of icepops before but never a stateside popsical. It's one of those words that's nice to say and also a bit creepy at the same time.
Popsical...
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Alex drank his first Gatorade of the trip, too. Normally a strict water and coffee man which is why this is semi-significant. See it neatly camouflaged in front of that sky blue top? I thought it worthy of a picture.
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The end part of the day was hellish. We were cycling in the dark (with lights, don't worry) but the amount of bugs was horrible. They hit you in the eye and go in your mouth so no talking. The humidity also cranked up a notch.
And the day went on and on and on. Turns out 150 miles is fairly tough. It's interesting though, my legs were okay (mind and torso not so much) until we got to our town. They then started to shut down very quickly, it's as if they know the ordeal is almost over. Enough is enough.
Eventually, around 22:45 we arrived with our hosts, Matt and Shelly. We were greeted with big smiles, warm hellos and loads and loads of delicious food and great beer.
After only 10 minutes they asked if we would be hanging around the next day as they would love to show us around McCook and Nebraska. Done. The thought of day off is blissful and these people were clearly worth hanging around for.
The family own and run a bakery/coffee shop and we are staying in a loft apartment above it. The spot is usually reserved for touring musicians who play there. Matt is folk music enthusiast and a chance meeting with a guy called John back in Wyoming has led to this. More relative strangers (to begin with) looking out for us and helping us along our journey.
Sorry for the lack of pics. As Dan prophesied, It really was a "head down and get on with it" stretch of land.
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ludonarrativediss · 4 years
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“I’m Not Buying Video Games in 2019″ - End of Year Update
In 2019, I decided to challenge myself and not buy any video games. I spent the month of December 2018 looking backwards at the last couple years of my life and my growing reliance on consumerism. With my father’s death a year before combined with the general anxiety that we all feel in the modern world, I recognized that I’d been coping by buying, and for me that manifested mostly with video game purchases. In 2018 I had bought over 100 video games and spent over $4,000 on video games and related products.
I also spent the month of December 2018 looking forward at how to make “don’t buy any video games” a real resolution, and not just a thing that lasted two weeks and then I abandoned (like all my previous resolutions). I thought about what made me buy games, and found that the most money was actually spent on sales for games that I never ended up playing, but bought in order get a good deal. I also found that I had a lot of anxiety about watching for those sales, and then even more anxiety when I bought from those sales, despite the original purchasing rush. I also recognized that I couldn’t go cold turkey, that there would be new releases that I would want to play throughout the year, games that I would want to be engaged in the discourse with, and so I gave myself four games I could buy throughout 2019 (1 game a quarter). Additionally, I left myself open to earning more game purchases if I accomplished big life goals, like creative milestones.
The days leading up to January 1st 2019, I committed to this plan by driving to every game store and staring at the shelves with a ton of stress. What last minute games did I need to stock up on before they were out of reach for a year? I was suddenly a prepper trying to make sure his bunker was adequately stocked, but in retrospect, that wasn’t a new thing but what I had been for years—adding to a backlog that I would never be able to finish, waiting for some hypothetical future when I had time and desire to play all of these old games.
And so now, at the end of 2019, how did I do? What worked and what didn’t? What have I learned from this experiment?
First, I did it. I followed my rules, and I only bought five video games in 2019. Four were my quarterly provisions, one was “unlocked” because I wrote a 10,000 word short story, something that despite identifying as a “writer” I hadn’t done in 5-10 years. A real creative accomplishment that I’m quite proud of.
The five games I bought were:
Mortal Kombat 11
Super Mario Maker 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
Control
Death Stranding
I’m incredibly surprised that I was able to crank down 100 game purchases to five. Some of this was due to loopholes, such as buying up a year of Xbox Game Pass in 2018 to last me to 2020. Having a continually updating list of games I could play without buying meant that I was free to try new things, but also free to abandon them—something that’s harder to do when you’ve spent actual money.
Another thing that helped was just the changing nature of video games. Most of my time this year wasn’t spent chipping away at my backlog of games or playing the five new games I purchased, but instead continuing to play the games as a service titles that I had been playing in 2018. In other words, I played a lot of Fortnite and a lot of Destiny and a lot of Forza Horizon 4.
I gave myself permission to buy new hardware and DLC for games that I was actively playing, but that didn’t add up to very much. A Fortnite skin and a couple Destiny 2 expansions. The biggest purchase I made this year was on an Xbox Elite controller, which is also the purchase I’m most happy with. It’s made all of the games I play better, and if you play games regularly on Xbox or PC, I highly recommend it.
This is the first New Year’s resolution I’ve ever succeeded with. I credit several things: 1.) The support of my partner, 2.) The fact that this is something I really wanted to accomplish, 3.) The month I spent before the new year really considering it from every angle and building a plan that worked for me.
When I started this last January, I expected that I would be writing and filming constant updates to keep a hypothetical audience informed and to keep myself in check. In reality, I did that once or twice, but really it was a personal journey that was more about introspection than public blogging. I also expected that I would really miss being involved in the gaming discourse, that I would miss buying games day one to be able to talk about them and listen to podcasts about them. In practice, I bought the games that I wanted to spend my time with, they were personal decisions based on my own tastes and what I was looking for at that point of the year. I’m happy that I saved money on games that have now dropped significantly in price, but mostly I’m happy that I saved time. I’m looking at you, Anthem.
I consider this whole experiment a success, and although I won’t be repeating it again in 2020, I think the lessons I’ve learned will inform my purchasing decisions and time management decisions not just in games, but in all facets of my life. I’ve learned that it makes no sense to buy something on sale if you’re not going to touch it for months or years. The sales are stressful, the backlog is stressful, and the joy I’m looking for comes from the thing itself, not from buying it. I’ve learned I don’t need to get everything just when it comes out. I don’t need to wait for sales, but I need to wait for when I actually want to play it/watch it/read it. Specific to games, I always want to be knowledgeable about the industry, but I’ve learned that the way to do that isn’t by buying and playing every new thing that comes out. I can play what I’m interested in, read about the rest, and still be exactly where I want to be in the discourse.
Most importantly, I’ve spent a year not buying things to feel better, and by removing that, I’ve found new, healthier ways of coping with the world around me and its challenges. This resolution was very personal to me, and I understand that a lot of people reading this will scoff at “stress” and “anxiety” as it relates to video game purchases and backlogs, but I think the reality is we all suffer from very similar things that manifest in very specific ways, and I hope that you can be inspired by this and work to improve yourself as I hope I have.
Anyway, guess I’ll see everyone at the local game store on January 1st. I’ve got a few indie things I want to pick up, hoping I can get a copy of the SoulCalibur or Dead or Alive that I missed this year, and who knows, I might get The Witcher 3 on Switch or Dragon Quest Builders 2, both games that I think I’ll really like having portable. Thanks for reading, take care out there.
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gadgetsrevv · 4 years
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Liverpool 2-1 Leicester City: James Milner’s late penalty extends Reds’ perfect start
James Milner’s penalty was the 34th time Liverpool have scored a 90th-minute winning goal in a Premier League match – at least nine more than any other side
James Milner’s injury-time penalty earned a dramatic win over in-form Leicester City and maintained Liverpool’s flawless start to the Premier League season.
Brendan Rodgers’ side looked to be on course for a hard-earned point on his return to Anfield after James Maddison’s low finish 10 minutes from time equalised Sadio Mane’s 40th-minute strike.
And then, with the clock ticking into stoppage time, a communication breakdown between Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel and substitute Marc Albrighton ended with the latter bringing down Mane.
The penalty was awarded after consultation with the video assistant referee (VAR) and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp celebrated wildly as Rodgers turned away in despair.
Leicester will feel they had done enough to earn a point and their frustrations boiled over at the final whistle, with substitute Ayoze Perez involved in angry exchanges with several Liverpool players – who were celebrating increasing their lead over Manchester City at the top of the table to eight points.
City can reduce the gap to five once more when they host Wolves on Sunday (14:00 BST).
Liverpool forced to sweat again
This is the closest Liverpool have come to dropping points in the Premier League this season – but once again late Anfield drama provided a twist in the tale.
Leicester looked to have seen out the worst to claim a point. However, it was no surprise Mane was involved in the decisive incident the Foxes players contested so hotly.
Mane was not just his usual attacking threat – scoring his 50th top flight goal for the Reds after racing on to Milner’s pass and expertly beating Schmeichel in the first half – he also worked tirelessly in his defensive duties to subdue the threat of Leicester full-back Ben Chilwell in the first half.
The Senegal forward now has world-class status and came to Liverpool’s aid once more when it looked like the visitors would repeat their feat of last season and leave Anfield with a draw.
Liverpool are now on a run of 17 Premier League victories, bettered only by Manchester City’s sequence of 18 wins between August and December 2017.
They are also unbeaten in 44 league games at home – 34 wins and 10 draws – which is the longest current run in Europe’s top five leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain).
The hosts were not at their fluent best but, like at Sheffield United last time out, they got a break when needed and cashed in.
Leicester show top-four steel
Leicester are guaranteed to stay inside the top four in the Premier League table on Saturday
Leicester City arrived at Anfield with many tipping them as serious top-four contenders given the crisis at Tottenham and the transitions taking place at Chelsea and Manchester United.
Nothing on view here suggested this is a false claim. This is a very impressive side superbly organised by Rodgers.
Rodgers may feel they took too long to crank up the attacking threat on Saturday – but the manner in which they remained calm, composed and frustrated Liverpool’s world-class attack for long periods bodes well for the season ahead.
Jamie Vardy only had one chance in behind the Reds defence but his touch let him down, while Maddison was relatively quiet until he stole in on the end of Perez’s pass to shoot under Adrian, although Liverpool’s keeper surely should have done better.
It was the overall look of Leicester that suggested they will be a top-four force this season – a good blend of youth and experience, pace and resilience.
It says a lot about them that they will leave so Anfield so bitterly disappointed. They were not in awe of a team that have carried all before them in the Premier League this season.
Man of the match – Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Sadio Mane has scored 50 goals in 100 Premier League appearances for Liverpool
‘We knew it would happen’ – what they said
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp speaking to BBC’s Match of the Day: “It was a super game. We upped the tempo. The football we played was so important. Leicester’s goal really stopped us but then we wanted to go forwards.
“The penalty was obviously a penalty. We knew it would probably happen, we knew we were going to fight for the win – and we did. Without luck, we cannot win the amount of games we have won, but over the 90 minutes we deserved it – we deserved the three points. Milner held his nerve and that was superb.
On the late challenge on Mohamed Salah by Hamza Choudhury: “How can Mo be OK? How did he only get a yellow card? Mo limped off the pitch. That’s hard. It was done to slow Mo down and that is not OK.”
‘It was not a tackle’ – watch Klopp’s angry reaction to Salah foul
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers on Sky Sports: “I thought we deserved more than that. It’s cruel to concede so late. I am very proud of the team. We’re playing against the European champions and we looked like we could get goals. We were always a threat in the game, we had the confidence to pass the ball. We are showing our personality in how we played.
“We are bitterly disappointed to concede the penalty and it did not look clear and obvious to me. I think Mane made the most of the contact. I don’t think if it had not been given by the referee it would have been overturned by VAR. When the referee gives decisions it is hard for them to overrule it.”
Liverpool 2-1 Leicester: Brendan Rodgers ‘proud’ of Foxes’ personality
Leaving it late – the best of the stats
Milner’s penalty was the 34th time Liverpool have scored a 90th-minute winning goal in a Premier League match – at least nine more than any other side.
Liverpool are the first side to win their opening eight matches of an English top-flight season twice, having also done so in the 1990-91 season.
Since the start of last season, Leicester City have conceded four 90th-minute winning goals in the league – at least twice as many as any other club.
Mane, making his 100th league appearance for Liverpool, scored his 50th Premier League goal for the Reds. He is the 10th player to reach the milestone for the club in the competition, more than any other side.
Maddison’s equaliser came from Leicester’s only shot on target of the match and the midfielder has scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since December 2018.
What’s next?
It is now an international break meaning Liverpool are not back in action until Sunday, 20 October when they travel to Old Trafford to take on rivals Manchester United in the Premier League (16:30 BST). Leicester play a day earlier at the King Power against Burnley (15:00).
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thepunklounge-blog · 5 years
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Billy Tee - DONT DO DRUGS kids you hear!
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So...where to begin? I guess I really started to dream about being in a band at around 8 yrs old, after getting the Adam & The Ants Prince Charming L.P as my first real record and played it on repeat on my tiny mono record player for the next 10 years, but it wasn't really until I found a copy of a Lords Of The New Church ' Live at the Spit' in a second-hand record store in my hometown in '89, that I really got the urge to be a performer. Bands like The Dogs D'Amour, Dead Boys, Hanoi Rocks, The New York Dolls, The Sex Pistols. The Murder City Devils and Iggy all massive influences. 'Cardboard Town' and 'On The Rocks'  by the Dogs D'Amour fed me my lust for the lowlife. I read Bukowski, I drank Thunderbird wine, smoked Marlboro reds and swaggered about in my silver-tipped boots, I was a kid, I was a walking clique, pretty much still am haha,  more interested in the decadence than anything else really , it spoke to my outcast and bullied teenage angst and I drifted quickly into the drug scene, romanticizing the gutter-life and sure enough I soon descended into the same holes my heroes sang about and its taken me over 25 years to manage to crawl my way back out of it.   My first band, a laughable affair named 'Drunken Debauchery' was formed in 93/94, I forget exactly, but, Jesus, what a state that was, we played one show, my first ever show, after three practices, and covered The Anti Nowhere Leagues ' Woman'.We were awful. Amazingly almost 23 years later I had the joy of supporting ANWL twice at the 100 Club with my lot The Black Bullets. After that disastrous first attempt in a band, I stopped for many many moons. Eventually, I picked up the guitar and started doing trash covers down my local boozer. Now I'm not a guitarist by any means, but I gave it a good go, often getting lumped with 40-minute support slots for local punk bands. It was hard work, especially for a guitarist as shit as me. Fortunately, I was picked up by a bunch of gnarly fuckers called Junction XIII, and they were asked me to be their front-man. They played furiously fast and dirty punk n roll and it was perfect for me. We carved ourselves a brief stint of drunken notoriety, toured the UK with U.S Sleaze kings Crank County Daredevils and enjoyed supporting Towers Of London when their manager told us his band were shit and would rather work with us. Of course, that didn't happen Junction burnt ourselves out through excessive drug and drink abuse. I learnt a lot of lessons through my drug idled stupidity, I've learnt to respect the other bands, the audience, other peoples lives, being an arrogant coked up prick won't win you any favours however cool and rebellious you think you're being at the time. I got Junction and The Bullets barred from many a venue. whilst playing a show, swinging from a chandelier and pulling it out of the ceiling is just one occasion. Bands always have highs and lows and we've had our fair share. We have had to replace the original singer, who went to the states and married Kory Parks of Nashville Pussy fame, then replace the guitarist who magnificently has gone onto great things with his own band and to playing for Warrior Soul and Jizzy Pearls Love/Hate. We are currently on our third bassist in three years. Each one awesome in their own light but our current four-stringed wonder, Alice has helped us take it up a notch with her killer live performances. Carl, our drummer is the only original member haha.  Hopefully, this is how it stays. As for highs, there have been many, great, great gigs mostly, playing with great bands like Starsha Lee, Backyard Babies, U.K Subs, Main Grains, The Idol Dead, L.A Guns, The Dogs D'Amour even. Playing on a cruise down the Thames with Warrior Soul has to be a personal highlight this year along with NLC Fest and HRH.  Cracking gigs, cracking audiences. After we are nothing without an audience. When people ask me about 'getting into the business' I normally say 'don't'  haha. Don't let it become 'a business', as soon as it becomes a 'business' it loses its mystic and the fun just gets sucked out, also avoid pouring stupid money into it, money always destroys a band eventually. Keep it D.I.Y never lose sight of who you really are and most importantly of all...DONT DO DRUGS kids you hear  ;) Having said all that, we, The Black Bullets have quite an exciting next few months taking us into 2019. we have a brand new single and video 'When The Devil Comes Knocking' being released on Nov 16th through The Animal Farm Records, which is just a taster for our album due for release in the middle of next year.  We will be starting a pledge campaign for that in January. We are supporting  the  legendary Darrell Bath and his outfit  The Crybabys in  Dec at The Hope and Anchor, Islington and  have a few fantastic festivals already booked next year, Call Of The Wild, Amplified, Dementia Aware Fest in London and we return for the second running, to the awesome up and coming Alice's Wicked Tea Party Festival . We are in discussions with promoters about a possible tour Germany and  Spain again but don't hold your breath ...not with Brexit hanging over our heads like a noose for all of the U.Ks  underground music scenes. Best of luck to all of us! My dream mic...  I have spent most of my singing career using microphones  already supplied by the venues and sound engineers so I'm not particularly knowledgeable on that stuff but if I were to have the money to buy my dream mike I guess id buy a Neumann KMS 105 MT, preferably wirelessly rigged and a custom built , single piece mike stand along the lines of Steven Tylers but id probably  break them in a week anyway . https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackBulletsUK/ https://www.facebook.com/Deathrattle-Designs-Artist-207111725977193/ http://www.andrewsjmccarthyphotography.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR1QWqrH3mkOFtYGpgUOvYQ-KiorxCRzFwO5MV5AChzjWCmQi-Q8DHq4-i8 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=517342148280641&ref=br_rs https://open.spotify.com/artist/7ki8XQJTuxpX0GM4kgtQ06?si=S_S2q5eyQyGAxcKcGr2krA Read the full article
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francetaste · 6 years
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One of the highlights of my life is a family vacation in Italy with my parents, my siblings and their families, plus an aunt. It was before the arrival of the Carnivore and our kid. I was the tour guide.
Room with a view. The top photo was also shot from our villa.
Here were the calculations: Europeans go on vacation in July and August, because school vacations don’t start until then (some places get out in mid-June). So for smaller crowds and lower prices, we would schedule the trip for right after the kids got out of school in late May. 
Second youngest with second oldest.
Having so many people was going to be tricky, especially with kids ages 2, 3 and 4, and elders ages 61, 71 and 76, none of whom were up for walking all day. We wanted to sleep under one roof (which ruled out my one-bedroom apartment in Brussels) and have a place for two minivans to park. Good weather would be a plus (which also ruled out Brussels). These things also eliminated Paris–we’d have to get pretty far out before being able to find a house big enough and in the price range, and getting around Paris isn’t very easy if you aren’t on foot (and no, I was not going to try to herd 13 people in the Metro). The weather could be freezing or gorgeous, most likely both…in the same week. So despite the fact that I adore Paris and had the advantage of speaking French, I opted for Tuscany. (I had been to the south of France only once then, so I didn’t think of it—now I know better! But Tuscany was great.)“You don’t want to go to Italy, hon,” Dad informed me, pronouncing Italy like IT-lee. “It’s a mess. You can’t drink the water. I’ve been there.”
  Yeah—when he was in the Army, with the U.S. occupation after WWII.
“It’s changed,” I told him. “You can drink the water now. It’s all fixed up nice.”
It was before the advent of AirBnB, but online rentals were available, with horror stories outnumbering the selection of properties. OK, confession: it was in 2001.
From the villa’s site…all my photos have 14 people in front of the house.
I found a beautiful villa outside Florence, Fattoria la Capitana, on a hill with sweeping views, a pool and lots of bedrooms and bathrooms. They have upgraded the décor; it was more basic when we were there, but very comfortable–you really have to check out the web site to see how pretty it is now. Rural enough that the kids could run wild around the grounds. Not too far for trips to Florence (30 minutes by car), Sienna (45 minutes), San Gimignano (45 minutes), Pisa (1 hour 15 minutes, to see the “bending tower” and also the beach at Livourne) and, twice, Rome (just over an hour). Plus the cute, less famous villages of Tuscany. 
I’d reserved two minivans, but unfortunately, they had only one; the second vehicle would instead be a full-size monster called a Ducato. It had a horizontal steering wheel, like a bus. It held nine people, so we still needed the normal minivan, which held seven.
Can you see the megavan?
The next challenge was driving from Rome to the villa. My siblings, being pros at crazy roadtrips, had brought walkie-talkies (which, FYI, are called talkie-walkies in French. In Italian: walkie-talkie). I had a cell phone, but it was still early days and so expensive the others would have had to take out second mortgages to pay for international service (what a horror…I also had a “callback” service–illegal–where I called a computer in the U.S. with my Brussels landline and then hung up. The computer would call me back and patch me to an open line from which I could call U.S. numbers at domestic U.S. long-distance rates and not the approximately $5,000 a minute that Belgacom charged for international calls. It’s far more reasonable now). 
Wine tasting in Chianti…of course!
Anyway the walkie-talkies worked great as long as we were in range. And the patter was nonstop. 
<<static>>”I thought you were supposed to stay on one side of the dotted white line.” <<static>>
<<static>>”Yeah, well, most people think that.” <<static>>
<<static>>”She never could paint inside the lines.”
<<static>>”You gotta fix those things when they’re kids or you can see what happens.” <<static>>
What one family member called the “bending tower.” 
One of the adults would ride shotgun and consult the gigantic fold-out paper map (it was before GPS, too). One time in Rome, I asked my co-pilot which way I needed to go only to see the huge map getting frantically turned around one way, then the other. 
“We’re on … V…I…A…We’re on Via!” somebody from the back seat called out triumphantly.
Did I mention that nobody spoke Italian? (EYE-talian, as Dad said)
An uncle-niece game of kid croquet.
Cooking lesson with the villa’s owners.
Another time, some of the women went to Greve, a very quaint town. The guys weren’t there when we got back. When they finally arrived, one made a grand wave at the other two and said, “Let me introduce you to Louis and Clark.” They had gotten very lost trying to go to the supermarket in Montevarchi.
No harm, no foul. No accidents, either.
The pope! (center, in white)
There was another time, again in Rome, when a local colleague, who had generously gotten us tickets for the Mass with the Pope in St. Peter’s Square, was going to make the handoff as we drove down a boulevard near his home. I was talking to him on my cellphone (BAD) and trying to watch crazy Roman traffic while trying to spy the landmarks he was telling me to look for. Finally seeing him, I eased into the right lane and slowed to a crawl. My co-pilot rolled down the window, stuck a head and hand out, and snatched the tickets before anybody rear-ended us or even honked. Smooth as spies.
The Duomo in Florence.
Most tourists probably don’t realize there’s an underground parking garage at the Vatican. With low clearance. Happily, the rental company didn’t look at the roof of the megavan when we returned it. 
Then there was the time I got near the Coliseum and looked for a place to park, only to go down a street like a funnel—it got narrower and narrower, until I had to back out. Which mean the normal minivan with the rest of the family had to back out first because they were behind me. 
The Coliseum in Rome. Big hit with all ages.
And the time I was trying to get the megavan out of the tight turn on the villa’s driveway (which was so steep that our dad described a little grotto alongside the drive as “right before you go over the cliff”). Another guest’s car was in the way (there are also a couple of apartments on the property). One of the guys in front and another in the back directed me: get closer, cut it sharper, crank it the other way. They made catty remarks about how I was riding the clutch. “Might as well burn it out on a rental,” one said. “She’s just warming it up,” the other observed, adding, “She ain’t even spittin’ gravel yet.” At that moment, I gave it gas and sent a couple of pebbles flying. They cheered.
Florence…so many statues of naked people…
It was so difficult to park in Rome that we generally went to a garage then hoofed it. The littlest kids were in strollers, but our parents weren’t as lucky. Instead, I put them in a taxi, with our aunt, at the Trevi Fountain and told the driver “Piazza Navona.” I will never forget the image of three shocked faces looking at me through the back window as the taxi peeled off. They thought I would come with them. But I had figured that, with traffic, we would arrive on foot before the taxi (and it was true). 
Trevi Fountain in Rome…despite the throng, we didn’t lose anybody.
Our other challenge revolved around Italian dining customs vs. toddler attention spans. The kids were angels, but too much time sitting nicely at a table is no fun. So we would try to be fairly organized, to have our meals before meltdowns. Good Midwesterners, the guys would order coffee with their meals. They were new to wine, and certainly not at lunch. The waiter would nod, si, si, signori. Of course, the coffee wouldn’t arrive. They would remind the waiter, who would nod and say, what we figured was “don’t worry, I didn’t forget.” Dad would thank them with a heartfelt “Garcia!”
Roofs of Sienna. The black spots are birds.
The kids would grow restless. No coffee yet. Then the kids would get VERY restless. No coffee…because of course, coffee is served after dessert, which we hadn’t yet eaten. Eventually we would need to leave—unhappiness in toddlers increases exponentially as you have more toddlers, so if one meltdown is X, then two meltdowns are X10 and three meltdowns are X100. (It isn’t their fault; it’s a fact of nature, like gravity.) Another famous Italian espresso so close, yet so far away. Eventually, the coffee lovers ventured to a café in Magliano. “The cup was about the size of a thimble,” one described afterward. “The foam barely covered the bottom of it. But I tell you, it was enough!”
Another view of Pisa.
We operated with a bucket list (the only thing we didn’t get to was Venice, too far at three hours’ drive each way), but didn’t schedule anything. One day at a time. The trips to Rome and Pisa took full days but the rest of the outings were for a few hours max, leaving lots of time for relaxing, chicken fights with the older kids in the pool and cooking lessons from the villa’s owners (who didn’t speak English or French, but we did fine. I still make their tiramisu.) At dinner, we would loosely plan the next day. Or not. Sometimes we did it on the fly. Our aunt was such a wonderful traveler, always game for anything, answering “why not!” to every suggestion. She seemed perfectly content to sit overlooking the breathtaking view and read a novel, yet was always ready to hop in the van at a moment’s notice. (Another time, looking at a guide’s suggestions for what to buy in Florence, she said, “But I don’t want any of this stuff.” I love her.)
A dip in the Mediterranean.
It was great to have a kitchen, so we could have breakfast and sometimes other meals without the excesses of eating out for everything. It was great to have a TV, so tired kids could watch the only video we had (“Mulan”) over and over and over. It was great to have a single “home” that we could keep coming back to.
Cousins.
Our dad would regularly leaf through the photo albums (it was also before digital photos) for years afterward. Our mom had the villa’s brochure and some photos put into a big frame, and it moved with them to assisted living, where our parents were always more than happy to recount the adventure to all the aides who came by. The trip brought us closer together, though the littlest ones don’t remember it aside from the photos, and now there are two more kids, and even grandchildren, in the family and our parents are gone. I started writing this as a way to explain how to juggle the wildly different ages and a large group on a vacation, but in the end, it’s more an excuse to relive and immortalize the happy memories.And if you wonder whether a big family trip is possible, remember: Why not!
PS: I will write soon about a similar hub-and-spoke itinerary for the south of France. We have two AirBnB apartments on the same floor, in the center of Carcassonne—they are both good for couples, but one has a small single bedroom and a sofabed, making it possible to sleep five people there plus two in the adjacent apartment. And the huge kitchen is ideal for a family.
14 travelers, ages 2-76, in Italy One of the highlights of my life is a family vacation in Italy with my parents, my siblings and their families, plus an aunt.
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heathertruitt · 6 years
Text
Ranking the best fat burners for men of 2018
Men have a hard time cutting fat, especially around the stomach.
Like a daily mens vitamin, many men use a daily fat burner for men to help melt belly fat.
When extra weight is stored as fat, the only way to get rid of it is by burning it.
Diet and exercise help, but a fat burning supplement might be able to increase your fat metabolism beyond what you’d otherwise be able to achieve.
This can kick-start your weight loss and help you lose weight faster and improve your health.
Concerned about finding the right fat burner for you? Check out our rankings of the best fat burners on the market right now.
1. Instant Knockout
Click here for the lowest price
Instant Knockout is a trendy mens fat burner that has taken the industry over.
The formula was originally engineered to help MMA fighters melt fat before their fights. Several professional MMA fighters take the supplement, including Diego Sanchez and his training coach Greg Jackson.
We love Instant Knockout because its been proven to work (many times over) and the ingredients are natural and effective: green tea extract, cayenne pepper, glucomannan, caffeine, zinc, chromium, green coffee bean and piperine.
The result? Testimonials like this:
Loaded mix.
Worth the daily routine for any man wanting shed more fat.
Click here for the lowest price
2. Evlution Leanmode
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Evlution Leanmode is great for caffeine sensitive people who still want a strong fat-burning supplement.
It focuses on extracts that up-regulate your body’s fat burning capabilities without keeping you awake like caffeine does, and all of its active ingredients are popular weight loss supplements in their own right. Green coffee bean extract, garcinia cambogia, and green tea extract are the three standard-bearers for this fat burner.
3. Old School Labs Vintage Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Despite the name, Old School Labs’ Vintage Burn has got all the latest supplements in it. Most anything that’s grabbed headlines recently is in its ingredients list: raspberry ketone, green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, forskolin, and garcinia cambogia, just to name a few.
There are also a few supplements inside that haven’t hit it big yet, like olive leaf extract. Vintage Burn is tremendously popular, so maybe their nutritionists are onto something with these sleeper ingredients. The caffeine content is modest, at 150 mg–a cup and a half of coffee, roughly speaking.
4. Lean XT
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
If you want to keep things simple, Lean XT is a great choice. It focuses its efforts on only three key ingredients: Acetyl-L-Carnitine, green tea extract, and forskolin.
The proprietary black pepper extract BioPerine is present too, but that’s just to enhance absorption and bioavailability of the other ingredients.
5. Genius Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
If mainstream fat burners aren’t doing the trick for you, think about giving Genius Burn a try. The Genius company, which has a reputation for creative and innovative supplements, keeps that habit strong with Genius Burn.
It uses several less-common naturally-sourced supplements, and it doesn’t rely on caffeine as a crutch to burn more energy. While the proven supplements are probably the best place to start, it’s good to have a fall-back option in Genius Burn.
6. BeLive Moon Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Moon Burn offers an interesting take on the classic fat burning pill–instead of being a stimulant that energizes you during the day, it claims to burn more energy while you sleep.
While it does include caffeine, the content is very low, so it shouldn’t keep you up. Instead, it doubles down on other thermogenic compounds like white kidney bean extract, chromium, raspberry ketone, and CLA.
7. Base Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Base Burn doesn’t have a lengthy list of ingredients. It focuses on a few proven fat burners: chromium, 5-HTP, capsaicin extract, forskolin, and green tea extract.
These are delivered at a pretty high dose, which indicates that it would really crank up your metabolism and increase fat burning. Notably, except for the small amount of caffeine in green tea extract, Base Burn is caffeine free.
8. BURNZ
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
As the label warns, BURNZ is an incredibly heavy-hitting fat burning supplement. Pretty much everything it has, it delivers at a high dose. The formula is lean on direct supplements and heavy on biological precursors like choline, L-carnitine, and higenamine.
The supplements it does include–cayenne pepper extract and huperzine A–are reputed to be strong fat burners. The caffeine content might be a bit much for some people at 250 mg per capsule.
9. Cellucor Super HD
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Cellucor Super HD combines a strong dose of B vitamins with a proprietary blend of over a dozen different extracts and supplements.
It’s very popular but has mixed reviews; part of the problem might come from the fact that, with so many ingredients, each fat burning ingredient is present at fairly low concentrations. It might be worth a shot if simpler fat burning supplements aren’t working for you, but if you want high doses of the most effective ingredients, there are better options.
10. Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Hydroxycut has been one of the leading fat burning supplements for years, but its formulation has not stayed the same. Because of a series of safety concerns, Hydroxycut is now centered around robusta coffee, forskolin, and a strong dose of caffeine (270 mg to be exact).
These stimulants together might give even the most resilient of weight loss enthusiasts the stimulant jitters. By now, Hydroxycut is showing its age, and there are better options out there.
11. Skald
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Skald claims to assist with respiratory health as well as increasing fat burning. The company claims there is a synergy between increased oxygen delivery to your cells and an increased ability to burn fat.
The supplement has all its ingredients wrapped up in a “proprietary blend” on the label, so it’s hard to evaluate the legitimacy of these claims. Some of the ingredients should cause concern, too–bitter orange has been associated with health problems, and it’s never good when you don’t know how much caffeine is in a supplement.
Fat Burner for men benefits and side effects
For men, weight loss is a great goal, but fat loss in particular is even better. If you can selectively lose fat mass while retaining your muscle mass, your health will improve even more and you’ll look even better.
Figuring out how to tune your body to burn more fat while on a weight loss program is in large part a matter of picking the right supplements.
Benefits
When it comes to fat burning supplements for men, there are a tremendous number of options, and these have widely varying levels of evidence for their efficacy.
One of the most-proven and reliable fat burning supplements is green tea extract. Researchers initially noticed that obesity was less of a problem in nations that tend to consume a lot of green tea, like Japan and China.
However, many other confounding factors could cause that type of association, so a specific kind of study was needed to determine whether there was a real effect.
Such a study came along in 2005, when scientists in the Netherlands examined a large group of obese and overweight individuals over a four-month period (1).
When they analyzed the data, they found that a green tea supplement improved weight management during the follow-up period, independent of caffeine consumption.
This is an important observation, because caffeine itself is a powerful fat burner (which is way some men use caffeine pills). That’s why a number of fat burning supplements, even ones without green tea derived ingredients, still include caffeine.
Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that administration of even a small dose of caffeine has significant fat burning effects (2). This study looked at a single 100 mg dose of caffeine, which is about as much as one cup of coffee.
Many fat burning supplements have twice this amount or more. The caffeine dose had a significant fat-burning effect in both obese and “post-obese” (meaning people who had lost weight and were no longer obese) subjects. The good news is that the energy expenditure increase appears to be greater in the obese subjects, even though the relative dose that they get is smaller.
Due to their larger body mass, an obese person usually has to take a higher dose of a supplement to get the same effect. In this case, though, perhaps due to the increased number of fat cells in the body, an obese person actually gets more benefit from a given dose of caffeine.
Back on the topic of green tea extract, though, the mechanism of action for green tea extract seems to be related to its active ingredient, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).
Research in the International Journal of Obesity has found that EGCG independently increases the metabolic activity in fat cells (3). Furthermore, this effect appears to be magnified by caffeine, meaning that the two work synergistically to increase fat cell activity.
The exact mechanism involves some complex cellular biology, but the net effect is a magnification of fat burning activity beyond what would be achieved with either supplement on its own.
The upside of this is that, unless you want to avoid caffeine in your fat burning supplements for its side effects, you should look for at least a moderate amount of caffeine alongside green tea extract for maximum efficacy.
Another strong fat burning supplement you should look for in a fat burning supplement is conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA. While robust studies in humans are lacking, there is good evidence from animal studies to suggest that it both reduces your appetite and more importantly increases the metabolic activity of fat cells, making CLA a staple in many appetite suppressants. 
A study in the journal Obesity Reviews cites a number of studies on CLA and recommends that it be considered as a legitimate long-term weight loss supplement (4).
Among some of the more modern and newly discovered fat burning supplements, the most attractive is almost certainly capsaicin, also known as cayenne pepper extract.
According to research published by scientists at the Manchester Food Research Center at Manchester Metropolitan University, a significant body of experimental literature indicates that capsaicin is a beneficial fat burning supplement (5).
In their study, they pooled the results from several different experiments, with a grand total of over 500 subjects. The data showed that capsaicin, when taken for one to two years, can significantly reduce fat mass.
One benefit of capsaicin over other proven fat burners like green tea is that it does not require caffeine to work optimally, and does not seem to have the same stimulant-inducing effects.
There are many other supplements with varied levels of scientific support: chromium, forskolin, green coffee bean extract, and garcinia cambogia are all found in many popular weight loss supplements, but the experimental evidence for them does not rise to the same level as caffeine, green tea extract, capsaicin, or CLA.
This doesn’t mean they don’t work; indeed, there is good evidence from cell culture experiments or studies on mice, but the human studies aren’t there yet.
Side Effects
Fat burning supplements have been an area of supplementation that’s been rife with side effect controversies. Market leaders like Hydroxycut have had to reformulate their ingredients several times because of safety concerns related to ingredients like ephedra, synephrine, and hydroxycitric acid.
Fortunately, the best fat burning supplements have side effect profiles that are pretty mild. One notable exception to this is also one of the most surprising: caffeine, of all things, has a pretty lengthy side effect list.
In high doses, like those found in some of the more extreme fat burning supplements on the market, caffeine can cause jitters, irritability, nausea, and (as you might guess) an inability to sleep.
Knowing your own caffeine sensitivity is very helpful when figuring out what level of caffeine you can tolerate.
The best-proven fat burning supplements also tend to be the safest. Green tea extract has no significant side effects; indeed, it’s often taken for its ability to boost general health and well-being and fend off chronic disease.
CLA, as a natural food ingredient, has a similarly unremarkable adverse effect profile.
Capsaicin has been widely studied for its pain-relief properties; the only side effect noted in those studies was localized burning sensation when capsaicin is applied to the skin.
By analogy, this could cause an upset stomach, so pay attention to the capsaicin content of your supplements if you have a sensitive stomach.
Recommended Dosage
The ideal dose of a fat burning supplement for men is going to vary greatly depending on what the ingredients are. For the most part, reputable manufacturers deliver the ingredients at the appropriate dosages.
With caffeine, the thing to be careful about is not taking too much. Even small amounts of caffeine have fat-burning effects, so you don’t need to overdo it with a high dose that’s likely to cause adverse effects.
Just 100 or 150 mg is plenty to induce a thermogenic effect (more on thermogenics here). Green tea extract is typically supplemented at 400-800 mg doses, which seem to be ideal for fat burning.
CLA needs to be delivered at a higher dose; some studies recommend doses as high as a few grams per day. Capsaicin, given how new it is as a fat burning supplement, does not have a well-established effective dose.
For what it’s worth, published studies so far use doses in the range of 3 to 10 mg per day, though a few studies have used more.
Recap
Though your options for a fat burning supplement seem endless, keeping a few basic guidelines in mind can help select one that’s right for you.
Look for a supplement that has at least a few of the well-established and reasonably effective fat burning ingredients, like green tea extract, moderate doses of caffeine, CLA, and capsaicin.
Other ingredients can be helpful too, but your best shot is going to come from these ingredients. If you are getting a supplement with green tea in it, its efficacy can be magnified by a moderate amount of caffeine.
Finally, be patient. These supplements aren’t going to work overnight, but the evidence is pretty good that they do gradually increase your fat mass loss over time.
https://bodynutrition.org/fat-burners-for-men/
https://bodynutritionorg.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/ranking-the-best-fat-burners-for-men-of-2018/
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4wdsupacentre-blog · 6 years
Text
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
New Post has been published on https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/news/?p=268
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
PART FOUR OF OUR SERIES FOR HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR 4WD IN A DAY
100 easy and essential DIY mods for under $100!
25 – AUTO-OFF HEADLIGHTS
COST: $10 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 Use a multimeter to figure out which pin on your headlight relay powers up when you turn your headlights on, then use another relay triggered by accessories power to turn your headlight relay on. Run a switch to your dash to be able to cancel the auto-on headlights if you need to, and make sure to only add to any factory wiring, never replace so your lights can still operate like normal.
24 – PORTABLE CAMPING TOILET
COST: $70 TIME: None! DIFFICULTY 1/5 Don’t wanna answer natures call out bush the traditional way? Get yourself an Adventure Kings Portable Camping Toilet and it will change the way you do your business out bush!
23 – TOWBAR VICE
COST: $50-100 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got an old vice laying around, get some 50×50 thick wall square tubing and bolt the vice to it, and drill a hole for your hitch pin for a vice out on the tracks.
22 – BUDGET TINTING
COST: $80-100 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 2/5 It’s not gonna look as nice as the professional window tint, but for an easy tint job, get some cheap rolls of tint online and install it yourself at home for a bit more shade on the long drives.
21 – TRAILING ARM GUSSETS
COST: $50 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 3/5 Get a bit of flat bar or steel rod, and weld it to your trailing arm as a DIY gusset. It may just save your arms the next time you hit them on a rock.
20 – NEVER SPILL A DROP
COST 10 bucks DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 10 minutes TOOLS drill, holesaw MATERIAL Oil filler cap for your model 4WD, funnel
METHOD
Get yourself a second oil cap that fits your motor and drill a hole in the top the size of your chosen funnel.
Fit the funnel into the oil cap. You can secure the funnel to the cap, or it may fit snug enough that you don’t have to.
Screw the cap onto your motor and top up your oil with no mess.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Don’t rush when you drill into the plastic oil cap as you can damage it.
Make sure you clean off any plastic burs so you don’t get them in your motor.
19 RELOCATE YOUR SOLENOID
Keep your important winch control box nice and dry with this super easy mod. COST $20 DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 1 hour TOOLS spanners, sockets, crimping tool, multigrips, soldering iron and solder MATERIAL exhaust clamps, 4 gauge wiring, terminal lugs, heat shrink
METHOD
Figure out a good mounting point for your Domin8r Winch control box in the engine bay.
Disconnect your control box from your winch and move it up to where you want to mount it.
Mount your control box in its new location and then connect your new wiring to the existing. points in the control box. Be sure to use heat shrink and solder where necessary.
Run the wiring down to your winch, wrap them in conduit and connect it up.
Cable tie the wires so they don’t rub on anything and test out your control box.
This is the perfect mod if you already have an in-cab winch switch.
WHAT NOT TO DO Don’t do this mod unless you have run a cable for your winch switch or you have in cab winch controls, otherwise you will have to pop your bonnet to winch.
18 – UHF SPEAKER
COST: $30 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 You can get your hands on an external UHF speaker that fits your UHF for next to nothing. Think outside the box on where you want to run it. You could sit it in the back with your kitchen setup so you can listen out for mates if they’re out on a night run.
17 – REVERSE CAMERA
COST: $40 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you can’t see out of the back of your 4WD when it’s loaded up, you can get those cheap reverse cameras that clip onto your rear vision mirror. They’re awesome for a budget way to see behind you.
16 – CORK BUNGEE CHORDS
COST: $5 TIME: 10 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you don’t want to spare a precious cable tie to keep cords and wire neat, drill two holes in an old wine bottle cork and tie some old rope or bungee cord to it. Then just loop the cord around your coiled wiring and secure it over the cork and tighten.
15 – EASILY GREASABLE WHEEL BEARINGS
COST: $10 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Fit a couple of grease nipples to your trailer bearing dust caps by tapping a small threaded hole into the centre of the caps. A bit of thread locker later and you’ve got your own DIY greaseable wheel bearings. Heaps better than a wheel falling off when a bearing blows and net cost is free if you’ve got some old parts you can pinch grease nipples off.
14 – BUDGET REVERSE LIGHTS
COST: $25 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a waterproof reverse light, mount the light to the inside top of your rear door and cut out a square in your tinting. Then use a bit of plastic from an A4 folder folded around the bottom to stop glare in the cab.
13 – MULTIPLE COMPRESSOR LINES
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got your Thumper Compressor hard mounted in your 4WD, run a T-piece fitting in the line, and two lines off that to either side of your truck for easier air access. Just make sure each hose is finished with regular clip on tyre valves.
12 – INTERIOR CANOPY CLOTHESLINE
COST: $10 TIME: 5 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 On longer trips if you’ve got a ute, some rope between the headboard and the rear ladder rack for hanging your clothes up on the road is perfect for drying them but keeping the dust out too.
11 – ROOF POWER THE RIGHT WAY
COST: $10 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a neat way to run your wiring, run it down behind the snorkel and into the bonnet through the bailey channel below the wipers. To be real neat, drill a small hole and install a rubber grommet to keep the wires safe.
10 – BETTER TRAILER WIRING
Make charging your camper trailer batteries easy as pie with some simple wiring mods. COST about $80 depending on cost P/M of wiring DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 30 minutes TOOLS Soldering iron
METHOD
If you tow a camper trailer when you head bush, get about a 10m length of 6 B&S cabling and wire in a mini Anderson connector on each end.
When you pull up to your trailer, you can reconnect the vehicle to the trailer quickly without having to back exactly back into position. It’s useful particularly if you want to crank some 240v power into the batteries when the trailer is at home.
If you have solar power, you can also connect the cables straight to your solar panel on your roofrack back to the solar controller that charges the trailer’s batteries, rather than have it go into the vehicle’s aux batteries and then all the way back to the trailer, which avoids the issue of voltage drop.
9 – TENT FANS
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 On a sticky night when there’s no breeze there’s nothing like having the fans cranking. If you have a trailer, cable tie the fans to the trailer’s centre tent pole, which means they stay perfectly in position when the tent is folded away which works just as well with an Adventure Kings Rooftop Tent, then all you need to do is wire it up.
8 – FREE BEER OPENERS
COST: Free! TIME: 30 seconds DIFFICULTY 1/5 Chances are your 4WD already has this mod and you don’t even know about it. Did you know that you can open a non-twist top beer using the door latch inside your B-pillar? Well it works on most Toyotas – there you go, you just saved $5.
7 – ORGANISE YOUR GRUB
COST: $20-100 (depending on cases) TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cheap plastic tubs break up on the first 100m of dirt road and you will find yourself unpacking your entire vehicle to look for the onions that have rolled everywhere. Keep all of your spices together in a plastic lunchbox and your bigger food in a Spacecase for the ultimate storage. If you’re planning on making a roast at camp, pack all the ingredients you need inside your Bedourie Camp Oven before you go – so its simply a case of pulling the Camp Oven out of the 4WD and you’re ready to go!
6 – MILK CRATE TRACTION BOARDS
COST: Free! TIME: 15 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cut up an old milk crate into sections and cable tie them together so it folds out flat. It won’t be as effective as proper boards but it costs next to nothing and is better than digging for hours.
5 – GRAVITY FED WATER TANK
COST: $75 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount your jerry cans on your roof standing up, and run a line down off your roof to a tap. If you have more than one Jerry, join the lines with a T-piece.
4 – MOMENTARY CANOPY LIGHTING
COST: $15 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount a momentary switch at your canopy door so that the interior lighting comes on when you open the door.
3 – EXTERNAL COMPRESSOR FITTINGS
COST: $20 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you have a hard mounted compressor, run your airlines to points outside the 4WD for quick access. It costs bugger all and means you won’t burn your hand again disconnecting the hose.
2 – DRY PAPER
COST: Free! TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Get an old coffee container or CD spindle the size of your toilet rolls and cut a slit in the side. It keeps your valuable paper dry, and gives you a slot for it to come out when nature calls.
1 – THIEF-PROOFING ON A BUDGET
Keep the grubs away from your pride and joy with a few simple mods COST $50 bucks (depending on how much you want to do) DIFFICULTY 2/5 TIME 4 hours TOOLS Mig welder, sockets, drill, screwdriver MATERIAL Knead it, lock nuts
METHOD
Grab a few drill bits and round out any Philips heads / flat heads. Just make sure you don’t need to get them off in a hurry.
Use a MIG welder to spot weld the end of screws, or weld nuts and bolts on. If you want to go extreme you can just weld the bracket to your mounting point – make sure you’re happy with its position though.
Get creative and use some Knead it or similar on the end of screws or you can make a dome over nuts. Chuck a bit of paint once it is dry and it’s enough for anyone to think twice. The problem with grubs stealing stuff is if they really want it – they are gonna get it eventually. All you can do really is slow them down…Hopefully long enough to catch them.
TOP 10 MUST HAVE DIY TOOLS!
This is our list of 10 must have DIY tools to make your job easier
Adventure Kings Socket Set.
Adventure Kings Ring Spanner Set.
Soldering iron and solder.
Adventure Kings Heavy Duty Screwdriver and Plier Set.
Power drill.
Various clamps.
Vice grips.
Circular saw.
Grinder.
Vice.
GET MODDING!
You know what you need to do – now go and do it!
Tell ya what, there are some absolutely cracking DIY projects in there and wanna know the best part? Some of the best ones came from you! Just goes to show that us 4WDers are pretty bloody good at thinking outside the box. It doesn’t matter if you drive a big dollar Cruiser or a budget built Zook, DIY is in our DNA. So this weekend, call your mates round, order a couple of pizzas and a few cold ones and get cracking on some DIY projects of your very own. The best part is if you do it together, you’re guaranteed to learn something new and exciting about your truck – after all, isn’t that why we work on our trucks anyway? (And to fix the stuff we broke out bush…)
0 notes
latriceduke · 6 years
Text
Ranking the best fat burners of 2017
When extra weight is stored as fat, the only way to get rid of it is by burning it. Diet and exercise help, but a fat burning supplement might be able to increase your fat metabolism beyond what you’d otherwise be able to achieve.
This can kick-start your weight loss and help you lose weight faster and improve your health.
Concerned about finding the right fat burner for you? Check out our rankings of the best fat burners on the market right now.
1. Evlution Leanmode
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Evlution Leanmode is great for caffeine sensitive people who still want a strong fat-burning supplement.
It focuses on extracts that up-regulate your body’s fat burning capabilities without keeping you awake like caffeine does, and all of its active ingredients are popular weight loss supplements in their own right. Green coffee bean extract, garcinia cambogia, and green tea extract are the three standard-bearers for this fat burner.
2. Old School Labs Vintage Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Despite the name, Old School Labs’ Vintage Burn has got all the latest supplements in it. Most anything that’s grabbed headlines recently is in its ingredients list: raspberry ketone, green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, forskolin, and garcinia cambogia, just to name a few.
There are also a few supplements inside that haven’t hit it big yet, like olive leaf extract. Vintage Burn is tremendously popular, so maybe their nutritionists are onto something with these sleeper ingredients. The caffeine content is modest, at 150 mg–a cup and a half of coffee, roughly speaking.
3. Lean XT
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
If you want to keep things simple, Lean XT is a great choice. It focuses its efforts on only three key ingredients: Acetyl-L-Carnitine, green tea extract, and forskolin.
The proprietary black pepper extract BioPerine is present too, but that’s just to enhance absorption and bioavailability of the other ingredients.
4. Genius Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
If mainstream fat burners aren’t doing the trick for you, think about giving Genius Burn a try. The Genius company, which has a reputation for creative and innovative supplements, keeps that habit strong with Genius Burn.
It uses several less-common naturally-sourced supplements, and it doesn’t rely on caffeine as a crutch to burn more energy. While the proven supplements are probably the best place to start, it’s good to have a fall-back option in Genius Burn.
5. BeLive Moon Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Moon Burn offers an interesting take on the classic fat burning pill–instead of being a stimulant that energizes you during the day, it claims to burn more energy while you sleep.
While it does include caffeine, the content is very low, so it shouldn’t keep you up. Instead, it doubles down on other thermogenic compounds like white kidney bean extract, chromium, raspberry ketone, and CLA.
6. Base Burn
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Base Burn doesn’t have a lengthy list of ingredients. It focuses on a few proven fat burners: chromium, 5-HTP, capsaicin extract, forskolin, and green tea extract.
These are delivered at a pretty high dose, which indicates that it would really crank up your metabolism and increase fat burning. Notably, except for the small amount of caffeine in green tea extract, Base Burn is caffeine free.
7. BURNZ
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
As the label warns, BURNZ is an incredibly heavy-hitting fat burning supplement. Pretty much everything it has, it delivers at a high dose. The formula is lean on direct supplements and heavy on biological precursors like choline, L-carnitine, and higenamine.
The supplements it does include–cayenne pepper extract and huperzine A–are reputed to be strong fat burners. The caffeine content might be a bit much for some people at 250 mg per capsule.
8. Cellucor Super HD
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Cellucor Super HD combines a strong dose of B vitamins with a proprietary blend of over a dozen different extracts and supplements.
It’s very popular but has mixed reviews; part of the problem might come from the fact that, with so many ingredients, each fat burning ingredient is present at fairly low concentrations. It might be worth a shot if simpler fat burning supplements aren’t working for you, but if you want high doses of the most effective ingredients, there are better options.
9. Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Hydroxycut has been one of the leading fat burning supplements for years, but its formulation has not stayed the same. Because of a series of safety concerns, Hydroxycut is now centered around robusta coffee, forskolin, and a strong dose of caffeine (270 mg to be exact).
These stimulants together might give even the most resilient of weight loss enthusiasts the stimulant jitters. By now, Hydroxycut is showing its age, and there are better options out there.
10. Skald
Click here for the lowest price on Amazon
Skald claims to assist with respiratory health as well as increasing fat burning. The company claims there is a synergy between increased oxygen delivery to your cells and an increased ability to burn fat.
The supplement has all its ingredients wrapped up in a “proprietary blend” on the label, so it’s hard to evaluate the legitimacy of these claims. Some of the ingredients should cause concern, too–bitter orange has been associated with health problems, and it’s never good when you don’t know how much caffeine is in a supplement.
Part Two: Fat Burner benefits and side effects
Weight loss is a great goal, but fat loss in particular is even better. If you can selectively lose fat mass while retaining your muscle mass, your health will improve even more and you’ll look even better.
Figuring out how to tune your body to burn more fat while on a weight loss program is in large part a matter of picking the right supplements.
Benefits
When it comes to fat burning supplements, there are a tremendous number of options, and these have widely varying levels of evidence for their efficacy.
One of the most-proven and reliable fat burning supplements is green tea extract. Researchers initially noticed that obesity was less of a problem in nations that tend to consume a lot of green tea, like Japan and China.
However, many other confounding factors could cause that type of association, so a specific kind of study was needed to determine whether there was a real effect.
Such a study came along in 2005, when scientists in the Netherlands examined a large group of obese and overweight individuals over a four-month period (1).
When they analyzed the data, they found that a green tea supplement improved weight management during the follow-up period, independent of caffeine consumption.
This is an important observation, because caffeine itself is a powerful fat burner. That’s why a number of fat burning supplements, even ones without green tea derived ingredients, still include caffeine.
Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that administration of even a small dose of caffeine has significant fat burning effects (2). This study looked at a single 100 mg dose of caffeine, which is about as much as one cup of coffee.
Many fat burning supplements have twice this amount or more. The caffeine dose had a significant fat-burning effect in both obese and “post-obese” (meaning people who had lost weight and were no longer obese) subjects. The good news is that the energy expenditure increase appears to be greater in the obese subjects, even though the relative dose that they get is smaller.
Due to their larger body mass, an obese person usually has to take a higher dose of a supplement to get the same effect. In this case, though, perhaps due to the increased number of fat cells in the body, an obese person actually gets more benefit from a given dose of caffeine.
Back on the topic of green tea extract, though, the mechanism of action for green tea extract seems to be related to its active ingredient, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).
Research in the International Journal of Obesity has found that EGCG independently increases the metabolic activity in fat cells (3). Furthermore, this effect appears to be magnified by caffeine, meaning that the two work synergistically to increase fat cell activity.
The exact mechanism involves some complex cellular biology, but the net effect is a magnification of fat burning activity beyond what would be achieved with either supplement on its own.
The upside of this is that, unless you want to avoid caffeine in your fat burning supplements for its side effects, you should look for at least a moderate amount of caffeine alongside green tea extract for maximum efficacy.
Another strong fat burning supplement you should look for in a fat burning supplement is conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA. While robust studies in humans are lacking, there is good evidence from animal studies to suggest that it both reduces your appetite and more importantly increases the metabolic activity of fat cells.
A study in the journal Obesity Reviews cites a number of studies on CLA and recommends that it be considered as a legitimate long-term weight loss supplement (4).
Among some of the more modern and newly discovered fat burning supplements, the most attractive is almost certainly capsaicin, also known as cayenne pepper extract.
According to research published by scientists at the Manchester Food Research Center at Manchester Metropolitan University, a significant body of experimental literature indicates that capsaicin is a beneficial fat burning supplement (5).
In their study, they pooled the results from several different experiments, with a grand total of over 500 subjects. The data showed that capsaicin, when taken for one to two years, can significantly reduce fat mass.
One benefit of capsaicin over other proven fat burners like green tea is that it does not require caffeine to work optimally, and does not seem to have the same stimulant-inducing effects.
There are many other supplements with varied levels of scientific support: chromium, forskolin, green coffee bean extract, and garcinia cambogia are all found in many popular weight loss supplements, but the experimental evidence for them does not rise to the same level as caffeine, green tea extract, capsaicin, or CLA.
This doesn’t mean they don’t work; indeed, there is good evidence from cell culture experiments or studies on mice, but the human studies aren’t there yet.
Side Effects
Fat burning supplements have been an area of supplementation that’s been rife with side effect controversies. Market leaders like Hydroxycut have had to reformulate their ingredients several times because of safety concerns related to ingredients like ephedra, synephrine, and hydroxycitric acid.
Fortunately, the best fat burning supplements have side effect profiles that are pretty mild. One notable exception to this is also one of the most surprising: caffeine, of all things, has a pretty lengthy side effect list.
In high doses, like those found in some of the more extreme fat burning supplements on the market, caffeine can cause jitters, irritability, nausea, and (as you might guess) an inability to sleep.
Knowing your own caffeine sensitivity is very helpful when figuring out what level of caffeine you can tolerate.
The best-proven fat burning supplements also tend to be the safest. Green tea extract has no significant side effects; indeed, it’s often taken for its ability to boost general health and well-being and fend off chronic disease.
CLA, as a natural food ingredient, has a similarly unremarkable adverse effect profile.
Capsaicin has been widely studied for its pain-relief properties; the only side effect noted in those studies was localized burning sensation when capsaicin is applied to the skin.
By analogy, this could cause an upset stomach, so pay attention to the capsaicin content of your supplements if you have a sensitive stomach.
Recommended Dosage
The ideal dose of a fat burning supplement is going to vary greatly depending on what the ingredients are. For the most part, reputable manufacturers deliver the ingredients at the appropriate dosages.
With caffeine, the thing to be careful about is not taking too much. Even small amounts of caffeine have fat-burning effects, so you don’t need to overdo it with a high dose that’s likely to cause adverse effects.
Just 100 or 150 mg is plenty to induce a thermogenic effect. Green tea extract is typically supplemented at 400-800 mg doses, which seem to be ideal for fat burning.
CLA needs to be delivered at a higher dose; some studies recommend doses as high as a few grams per day. Capsaicin, given how new it is as a fat burning supplement, does not have a well-established effective dose.
For what it’s worth, published studies so far use doses in the range of 3 to 10 mg per day, though a few studies have used more.
Recap
Though your options for a fat burning supplement seem endless, keeping a few basic guidelines in mind can help select one that’s right for you.
Look for a supplement that has at least a few of the well-established and reasonably effective fat burning ingredients, like green tea extract, moderate doses of caffeine, CLA, and capsaicin.
Other ingredients can be helpful too, but your best shot is going to come from these ingredients. If you are getting a supplement with green tea in it, its efficacy can be magnified by a moderate amount of caffeine.
Finally, be patient. These supplements aren’t going to work overnight, but the evidence is pretty good that they do gradually increase your fat mass loss over time.
https://bodynutrition.org/fat-burners/ http://bodynutritionorg.blogspot.com/2017/11/ranking-best-fat-burners-of-2017.html
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4wdsupacentre-blog · 6 years
Text
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
New Post has been published on https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/news/?p=268
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
PART FOUR OF OUR SERIES FOR HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR 4WD IN A DAY
100 easy and essential DIY mods for under $100!
25 – AUTO-OFF HEADLIGHTS
COST: $10 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 Use a multimeter to figure out which pin on your headlight relay powers up when you turn your headlights on, then use another relay triggered by accessories power to turn your headlight relay on. Run a switch to your dash to be able to cancel the auto-on headlights if you need to, and make sure to only add to any factory wiring, never replace so your lights can still operate like normal.
24 – PORTABLE CAMPING TOILET
COST: $70 TIME: None! DIFFICULTY 1/5 Don’t wanna answer natures call out bush the traditional way? Get yourself an Adventure Kings Portable Camping Toilet and it will change the way you do your business out bush!
23 – TOWBAR VICE
COST: $50-100 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got an old vice laying around, get some 50×50 thick wall square tubing and bolt the vice to it, and drill a hole for your hitch pin for a vice out on the tracks.
22 – BUDGET TINTING
COST: $80-100 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 2/5 It’s not gonna look as nice as the professional window tint, but for an easy tint job, get some cheap rolls of tint online and install it yourself at home for a bit more shade on the long drives.
21 – TRAILING ARM GUSSETS
COST: $50 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 3/5 Get a bit of flat bar or steel rod, and weld it to your trailing arm as a DIY gusset. It may just save your arms the next time you hit them on a rock.
20 – NEVER SPILL A DROP
COST 10 bucks DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 10 minutes TOOLS drill, holesaw MATERIAL Oil filler cap for your model 4WD, funnel
METHOD
Get yourself a second oil cap that fits your motor and drill a hole in the top the size of your chosen funnel.
Fit the funnel into the oil cap. You can secure the funnel to the cap, or it may fit snug enough that you don’t have to.
Screw the cap onto your motor and top up your oil with no mess.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Don’t rush when you drill into the plastic oil cap as you can damage it.
Make sure you clean off any plastic burs so you don’t get them in your motor.
19 RELOCATE YOUR SOLENOID
Keep your important winch control box nice and dry with this super easy mod. COST $20 DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 1 hour TOOLS spanners, sockets, crimping tool, multigrips, soldering iron and solder MATERIAL exhaust clamps, 4 gauge wiring, terminal lugs, heat shrink
METHOD
Figure out a good mounting point for your Domin8r Winch control box in the engine bay.
Disconnect your control box from your winch and move it up to where you want to mount it.
Mount your control box in its new location and then connect your new wiring to the existing. points in the control box. Be sure to use heat shrink and solder where necessary.
Run the wiring down to your winch, wrap them in conduit and connect it up.
Cable tie the wires so they don’t rub on anything and test out your control box.
This is the perfect mod if you already have an in-cab winch switch.
WHAT NOT TO DO Don’t do this mod unless you have run a cable for your winch switch or you have in cab winch controls, otherwise you will have to pop your bonnet to winch.
18 – UHF SPEAKER
COST: $30 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 You can get your hands on an external UHF speaker that fits your UHF for next to nothing. Think outside the box on where you want to run it. You could sit it in the back with your kitchen setup so you can listen out for mates if they’re out on a night run.
17 – REVERSE CAMERA
COST: $40 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you can’t see out of the back of your 4WD when it’s loaded up, you can get those cheap reverse cameras that clip onto your rear vision mirror. They’re awesome for a budget way to see behind you.
16 – CORK BUNGEE CHORDS
COST: $5 TIME: 10 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you don’t want to spare a precious cable tie to keep cords and wire neat, drill two holes in an old wine bottle cork and tie some old rope or bungee cord to it. Then just loop the cord around your coiled wiring and secure it over the cork and tighten.
15 – EASILY GREASABLE WHEEL BEARINGS
COST: $10 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Fit a couple of grease nipples to your trailer bearing dust caps by tapping a small threaded hole into the centre of the caps. A bit of thread locker later and you’ve got your own DIY greaseable wheel bearings. Heaps better than a wheel falling off when a bearing blows and net cost is free if you’ve got some old parts you can pinch grease nipples off.
14 – BUDGET REVERSE LIGHTS
COST: $25 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a waterproof reverse light, mount the light to the inside top of your rear door and cut out a square in your tinting. Then use a bit of plastic from an A4 folder folded around the bottom to stop glare in the cab.
13 – MULTIPLE COMPRESSOR LINES
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got your Thumper Compressor hard mounted in your 4WD, run a T-piece fitting in the line, and two lines off that to either side of your truck for easier air access. Just make sure each hose is finished with regular clip on tyre valves.
12 – INTERIOR CANOPY CLOTHESLINE
COST: $10 TIME: 5 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 On longer trips if you’ve got a ute, some rope between the headboard and the rear ladder rack for hanging your clothes up on the road is perfect for drying them but keeping the dust out too.
11 – ROOF POWER THE RIGHT WAY
COST: $10 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a neat way to run your wiring, run it down behind the snorkel and into the bonnet through the bailey channel below the wipers. To be real neat, drill a small hole and install a rubber grommet to keep the wires safe.
10 – BETTER TRAILER WIRING
Make charging your camper trailer batteries easy as pie with some simple wiring mods. COST about $80 depending on cost P/M of wiring DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 30 minutes TOOLS Soldering iron
METHOD
If you tow a camper trailer when you head bush, get about a 10m length of 6 B&S cabling and wire in a mini Anderson connector on each end.
When you pull up to your trailer, you can reconnect the vehicle to the trailer quickly without having to back exactly back into position. It’s useful particularly if you want to crank some 240v power into the batteries when the trailer is at home.
If you have solar power, you can also connect the cables straight to your solar panel on your roofrack back to the solar controller that charges the trailer’s batteries, rather than have it go into the vehicle’s aux batteries and then all the way back to the trailer, which avoids the issue of voltage drop.
9 – TENT FANS
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 On a sticky night when there’s no breeze there’s nothing like having the fans cranking. If you have a trailer, cable tie the fans to the trailer’s centre tent pole, which means they stay perfectly in position when the tent is folded away which works just as well with an Adventure Kings Rooftop Tent, then all you need to do is wire it up.
8 – FREE BEER OPENERS
COST: Free! TIME: 30 seconds DIFFICULTY 1/5 Chances are your 4WD already has this mod and you don’t even know about it. Did you know that you can open a non-twist top beer using the door latch inside your B-pillar? Well it works on most Toyotas – there you go, you just saved $5.
7 – ORGANISE YOUR GRUB
COST: $20-100 (depending on cases) TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cheap plastic tubs break up on the first 100m of dirt road and you will find yourself unpacking your entire vehicle to look for the onions that have rolled everywhere. Keep all of your spices together in a plastic lunchbox and your bigger food in a Spacecase for the ultimate storage. If you’re planning on making a roast at camp, pack all the ingredients you need inside your Bedourie Camp Oven before you go – so its simply a case of pulling the Camp Oven out of the 4WD and you’re ready to go!
6 – MILK CRATE TRACTION BOARDS
COST: Free! TIME: 15 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cut up an old milk crate into sections and cable tie them together so it folds out flat. It won’t be as effective as proper boards but it costs next to nothing and is better than digging for hours.
5 – GRAVITY FED WATER TANK
COST: $75 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount your jerry cans on your roof standing up, and run a line down off your roof to a tap. If you have more than one Jerry, join the lines with a T-piece.
4 – MOMENTARY CANOPY LIGHTING
COST: $15 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount a momentary switch at your canopy door so that the interior lighting comes on when you open the door.
3 – EXTERNAL COMPRESSOR FITTINGS
COST: $20 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you have a hard mounted compressor, run your airlines to points outside the 4WD for quick access. It costs bugger all and means you won’t burn your hand again disconnecting the hose.
2 – DRY PAPER
COST: Free! TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Get an old coffee container or CD spindle the size of your toilet rolls and cut a slit in the side. It keeps your valuable paper dry, and gives you a slot for it to come out when nature calls.
1 – THIEF-PROOFING ON A BUDGET
Keep the grubs away from your pride and joy with a few simple mods COST $50 bucks (depending on how much you want to do) DIFFICULTY 2/5 TIME 4 hours TOOLS Mig welder, sockets, drill, screwdriver MATERIAL Knead it, lock nuts
METHOD
Grab a few drill bits and round out any Philips heads / flat heads. Just make sure you don’t need to get them off in a hurry.
Use a MIG welder to spot weld the end of screws, or weld nuts and bolts on. If you want to go extreme you can just weld the bracket to your mounting point – make sure you’re happy with its position though.
Get creative and use some Knead it or similar on the end of screws or you can make a dome over nuts. Chuck a bit of paint once it is dry and it’s enough for anyone to think twice. The problem with grubs stealing stuff is if they really want it – they are gonna get it eventually. All you can do really is slow them down…Hopefully long enough to catch them.
TOP 10 MUST HAVE DIY TOOLS!
This is our list of 10 must have DIY tools to make your job easier
Adventure Kings Socket Set.
Adventure Kings Ring Spanner Set.
Soldering iron and solder.
Adventure Kings Heavy Duty Screwdriver and Plier Set.
Power drill.
Various clamps.
Vice grips.
Circular saw.
Grinder.
Vice.
GET MODDING!
You know what you need to do – now go and do it!
Tell ya what, there are some absolutely cracking DIY projects in there and wanna know the best part? Some of the best ones came from you! Just goes to show that us 4WDers are pretty bloody good at thinking outside the box. It doesn’t matter if you drive a big dollar Cruiser or a budget built Zook, DIY is in our DNA. So this weekend, call your mates round, order a couple of pizzas and a few cold ones and get cracking on some DIY projects of your very own. The best part is if you do it together, you’re guaranteed to learn something new and exciting about your truck – after all, isn’t that why we work on our trucks anyway? (And to fix the stuff we broke out bush…)
0 notes
4wdsupacentre-blog · 6 years
Text
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
New Post has been published on https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/news/?p=268
100 BUDGET DIY MODS PART 4 OF 4
PART FOUR OF OUR SERIES FOR HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR 4WD IN A DAY
100 easy and essential DIY mods for under $100!
25 – AUTO-OFF HEADLIGHTS
COST: $10 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 Use a multimeter to figure out which pin on your headlight relay powers up when you turn your headlights on, then use another relay triggered by accessories power to turn your headlight relay on. Run a switch to your dash to be able to cancel the auto-on headlights if you need to, and make sure to only add to any factory wiring, never replace so your lights can still operate like normal.
24 – PORTABLE CAMPING TOILET
COST: $70 TIME: None! DIFFICULTY 1/5 Don’t wanna answer natures call out bush the traditional way? Get yourself an Adventure Kings Portable Camping Toilet and it will change the way you do your business out bush!
23 – TOWBAR VICE
COST: $50-100 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got an old vice laying around, get some 50×50 thick wall square tubing and bolt the vice to it, and drill a hole for your hitch pin for a vice out on the tracks.
22 – BUDGET TINTING
COST: $80-100 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 2/5 It’s not gonna look as nice as the professional window tint, but for an easy tint job, get some cheap rolls of tint online and install it yourself at home for a bit more shade on the long drives.
21 – TRAILING ARM GUSSETS
COST: $50 TIME: 3 hours DIFFICULTY 3/5 Get a bit of flat bar or steel rod, and weld it to your trailing arm as a DIY gusset. It may just save your arms the next time you hit them on a rock.
20 – NEVER SPILL A DROP
COST 10 bucks DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 10 minutes TOOLS drill, holesaw MATERIAL Oil filler cap for your model 4WD, funnel
METHOD
Get yourself a second oil cap that fits your motor and drill a hole in the top the size of your chosen funnel.
Fit the funnel into the oil cap. You can secure the funnel to the cap, or it may fit snug enough that you don’t have to.
Screw the cap onto your motor and top up your oil with no mess.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Don’t rush when you drill into the plastic oil cap as you can damage it.
Make sure you clean off any plastic burs so you don’t get them in your motor.
19 RELOCATE YOUR SOLENOID
Keep your important winch control box nice and dry with this super easy mod. COST $20 DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 1 hour TOOLS spanners, sockets, crimping tool, multigrips, soldering iron and solder MATERIAL exhaust clamps, 4 gauge wiring, terminal lugs, heat shrink
METHOD
Figure out a good mounting point for your Domin8r Winch control box in the engine bay.
Disconnect your control box from your winch and move it up to where you want to mount it.
Mount your control box in its new location and then connect your new wiring to the existing. points in the control box. Be sure to use heat shrink and solder where necessary.
Run the wiring down to your winch, wrap them in conduit and connect it up.
Cable tie the wires so they don’t rub on anything and test out your control box.
This is the perfect mod if you already have an in-cab winch switch.
WHAT NOT TO DO Don’t do this mod unless you have run a cable for your winch switch or you have in cab winch controls, otherwise you will have to pop your bonnet to winch.
18 – UHF SPEAKER
COST: $30 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 You can get your hands on an external UHF speaker that fits your UHF for next to nothing. Think outside the box on where you want to run it. You could sit it in the back with your kitchen setup so you can listen out for mates if they’re out on a night run.
17 – REVERSE CAMERA
COST: $40 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you can’t see out of the back of your 4WD when it’s loaded up, you can get those cheap reverse cameras that clip onto your rear vision mirror. They’re awesome for a budget way to see behind you.
16 – CORK BUNGEE CHORDS
COST: $5 TIME: 10 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you don’t want to spare a precious cable tie to keep cords and wire neat, drill two holes in an old wine bottle cork and tie some old rope or bungee cord to it. Then just loop the cord around your coiled wiring and secure it over the cork and tighten.
15 – EASILY GREASABLE WHEEL BEARINGS
COST: $10 TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Fit a couple of grease nipples to your trailer bearing dust caps by tapping a small threaded hole into the centre of the caps. A bit of thread locker later and you’ve got your own DIY greaseable wheel bearings. Heaps better than a wheel falling off when a bearing blows and net cost is free if you’ve got some old parts you can pinch grease nipples off.
14 – BUDGET REVERSE LIGHTS
COST: $25 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a waterproof reverse light, mount the light to the inside top of your rear door and cut out a square in your tinting. Then use a bit of plastic from an A4 folder folded around the bottom to stop glare in the cab.
13 – MULTIPLE COMPRESSOR LINES
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 2/5 If you’ve got your Thumper Compressor hard mounted in your 4WD, run a T-piece fitting in the line, and two lines off that to either side of your truck for easier air access. Just make sure each hose is finished with regular clip on tyre valves.
12 – INTERIOR CANOPY CLOTHESLINE
COST: $10 TIME: 5 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 On longer trips if you’ve got a ute, some rope between the headboard and the rear ladder rack for hanging your clothes up on the road is perfect for drying them but keeping the dust out too.
11 – ROOF POWER THE RIGHT WAY
COST: $10 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 For a neat way to run your wiring, run it down behind the snorkel and into the bonnet through the bailey channel below the wipers. To be real neat, drill a small hole and install a rubber grommet to keep the wires safe.
10 – BETTER TRAILER WIRING
Make charging your camper trailer batteries easy as pie with some simple wiring mods. COST about $80 depending on cost P/M of wiring DIFFICULTY 1/5 spanners TIME 30 minutes TOOLS Soldering iron
METHOD
If you tow a camper trailer when you head bush, get about a 10m length of 6 B&S cabling and wire in a mini Anderson connector on each end.
When you pull up to your trailer, you can reconnect the vehicle to the trailer quickly without having to back exactly back into position. It’s useful particularly if you want to crank some 240v power into the batteries when the trailer is at home.
If you have solar power, you can also connect the cables straight to your solar panel on your roofrack back to the solar controller that charges the trailer’s batteries, rather than have it go into the vehicle’s aux batteries and then all the way back to the trailer, which avoids the issue of voltage drop.
9 – TENT FANS
COST: $20 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 On a sticky night when there’s no breeze there’s nothing like having the fans cranking. If you have a trailer, cable tie the fans to the trailer’s centre tent pole, which means they stay perfectly in position when the tent is folded away which works just as well with an Adventure Kings Rooftop Tent, then all you need to do is wire it up.
8 – FREE BEER OPENERS
COST: Free! TIME: 30 seconds DIFFICULTY 1/5 Chances are your 4WD already has this mod and you don’t even know about it. Did you know that you can open a non-twist top beer using the door latch inside your B-pillar? Well it works on most Toyotas – there you go, you just saved $5.
7 – ORGANISE YOUR GRUB
COST: $20-100 (depending on cases) TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cheap plastic tubs break up on the first 100m of dirt road and you will find yourself unpacking your entire vehicle to look for the onions that have rolled everywhere. Keep all of your spices together in a plastic lunchbox and your bigger food in a Spacecase for the ultimate storage. If you’re planning on making a roast at camp, pack all the ingredients you need inside your Bedourie Camp Oven before you go – so its simply a case of pulling the Camp Oven out of the 4WD and you’re ready to go!
6 – MILK CRATE TRACTION BOARDS
COST: Free! TIME: 15 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Cut up an old milk crate into sections and cable tie them together so it folds out flat. It won’t be as effective as proper boards but it costs next to nothing and is better than digging for hours.
5 – GRAVITY FED WATER TANK
COST: $75 TIME: 1 hour DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount your jerry cans on your roof standing up, and run a line down off your roof to a tap. If you have more than one Jerry, join the lines with a T-piece.
4 – MOMENTARY CANOPY LIGHTING
COST: $15 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Mount a momentary switch at your canopy door so that the interior lighting comes on when you open the door.
3 – EXTERNAL COMPRESSOR FITTINGS
COST: $20 TIME: 30 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 If you have a hard mounted compressor, run your airlines to points outside the 4WD for quick access. It costs bugger all and means you won’t burn your hand again disconnecting the hose.
2 – DRY PAPER
COST: Free! TIME: 20 minutes DIFFICULTY 1/5 Get an old coffee container or CD spindle the size of your toilet rolls and cut a slit in the side. It keeps your valuable paper dry, and gives you a slot for it to come out when nature calls.
1 – THIEF-PROOFING ON A BUDGET
Keep the grubs away from your pride and joy with a few simple mods COST $50 bucks (depending on how much you want to do) DIFFICULTY 2/5 TIME 4 hours TOOLS Mig welder, sockets, drill, screwdriver MATERIAL Knead it, lock nuts
METHOD
Grab a few drill bits and round out any Philips heads / flat heads. Just make sure you don’t need to get them off in a hurry.
Use a MIG welder to spot weld the end of screws, or weld nuts and bolts on. If you want to go extreme you can just weld the bracket to your mounting point – make sure you’re happy with its position though.
Get creative and use some Knead it or similar on the end of screws or you can make a dome over nuts. Chuck a bit of paint once it is dry and it’s enough for anyone to think twice. The problem with grubs stealing stuff is if they really want it – they are gonna get it eventually. All you can do really is slow them down…Hopefully long enough to catch them.
TOP 10 MUST HAVE DIY TOOLS!
This is our list of 10 must have DIY tools to make your job easier
Adventure Kings Socket Set.
Adventure Kings Ring Spanner Set.
Soldering iron and solder.
Adventure Kings Heavy Duty Screwdriver and Plier Set.
Power drill.
Various clamps.
Vice grips.
Circular saw.
Grinder.
Vice.
GET MODDING!
You know what you need to do – now go and do it!
Tell ya what, there are some absolutely cracking DIY projects in there and wanna know the best part? Some of the best ones came from you! Just goes to show that us 4WDers are pretty bloody good at thinking outside the box. It doesn’t matter if you drive a big dollar Cruiser or a budget built Zook, DIY is in our DNA. So this weekend, call your mates round, order a couple of pizzas and a few cold ones and get cracking on some DIY projects of your very own. The best part is if you do it together, you’re guaranteed to learn something new and exciting about your truck – after all, isn’t that why we work on our trucks anyway? (And to fix the stuff we broke out bush…)
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heathertruitt · 6 years
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Ranking the best fat burners of 2017
When extra weight is stored as fat, the only way to get rid of it is by burning it. Diet and exercise help, but a fat burning supplement might be able to increase your fat metabolism beyond what you’d otherwise be able to achieve.
This can kick-start your weight loss and help you lose weight faster and improve your health.
Concerned about finding the right fat burner for you? Check out our rankings of the best fat burners on the market right now.
1. Evlution Leanmode
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Evlution Leanmode is great for caffeine sensitive people who still want a strong fat-burning supplement.
It focuses on extracts that up-regulate your body’s fat burning capabilities without keeping you awake like caffeine does, and all of its active ingredients are popular weight loss supplements in their own right. Green coffee bean extract, garcinia cambogia, and green tea extract are the three standard-bearers for this fat burner.
2. Old School Labs Vintage Burn
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Despite the name, Old School Labs’ Vintage Burn has got all the latest supplements in it. Most anything that’s grabbed headlines recently is in its ingredients list: raspberry ketone, green coffee bean extract, green tea extract, forskolin, and garcinia cambogia, just to name a few.
There are also a few supplements inside that haven’t hit it big yet, like olive leaf extract. Vintage Burn is tremendously popular, so maybe their nutritionists are onto something with these sleeper ingredients. The caffeine content is modest, at 150 mg–a cup and a half of coffee, roughly speaking.
3. Lean XT
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If you want to keep things simple, Lean XT is a great choice. It focuses its efforts on only three key ingredients: Acetyl-L-Carnitine, green tea extract, and forskolin.
The proprietary black pepper extract BioPerine is present too, but that’s just to enhance absorption and bioavailability of the other ingredients.
4. Genius Burn
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If mainstream fat burners aren’t doing the trick for you, think about giving Genius Burn a try. The Genius company, which has a reputation for creative and innovative supplements, keeps that habit strong with Genius Burn.
It uses several less-common naturally-sourced supplements, and it doesn’t rely on caffeine as a crutch to burn more energy. While the proven supplements are probably the best place to start, it’s good to have a fall-back option in Genius Burn.
5. BeLive Moon Burn
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Moon Burn offers an interesting take on the classic fat burning pill–instead of being a stimulant that energizes you during the day, it claims to burn more energy while you sleep.
While it does include caffeine, the content is very low, so it shouldn’t keep you up. Instead, it doubles down on other thermogenic compounds like white kidney bean extract, chromium, raspberry ketone, and CLA.
6. Base Burn
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Base Burn doesn’t have a lengthy list of ingredients. It focuses on a few proven fat burners: chromium, 5-HTP, capsaicin extract, forskolin, and green tea extract.
These are delivered at a pretty high dose, which indicates that it would really crank up your metabolism and increase fat burning. Notably, except for the small amount of caffeine in green tea extract, Base Burn is caffeine free.
7. BURNZ
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As the label warns, BURNZ is an incredibly heavy-hitting fat burning supplement. Pretty much everything it has, it delivers at a high dose. The formula is lean on direct supplements and heavy on biological precursors like choline, L-carnitine, and higenamine.
The supplements it does include–cayenne pepper extract and huperzine A–are reputed to be strong fat burners. The caffeine content might be a bit much for some people at 250 mg per capsule.
8. Cellucor Super HD
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Cellucor Super HD combines a strong dose of B vitamins with a proprietary blend of over a dozen different extracts and supplements.
It’s very popular but has mixed reviews; part of the problem might come from the fact that, with so many ingredients, each fat burning ingredient is present at fairly low concentrations. It might be worth a shot if simpler fat burning supplements aren’t working for you, but if you want high doses of the most effective ingredients, there are better options.
9. Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite
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Hydroxycut has been one of the leading fat burning supplements for years, but its formulation has not stayed the same. Because of a series of safety concerns, Hydroxycut is now centered around robusta coffee, forskolin, and a strong dose of caffeine (270 mg to be exact).
These stimulants together might give even the most resilient of weight loss enthusiasts the stimulant jitters. By now, Hydroxycut is showing its age, and there are better options out there.
10. Skald
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Skald claims to assist with respiratory health as well as increasing fat burning. The company claims there is a synergy between increased oxygen delivery to your cells and an increased ability to burn fat.
The supplement has all its ingredients wrapped up in a “proprietary blend” on the label, so it’s hard to evaluate the legitimacy of these claims. Some of the ingredients should cause concern, too–bitter orange has been associated with health problems, and it’s never good when you don’t know how much caffeine is in a supplement.
Part Two: Fat Burner benefits and side effects
Weight loss is a great goal, but fat loss in particular is even better. If you can selectively lose fat mass while retaining your muscle mass, your health will improve even more and you’ll look even better.
Figuring out how to tune your body to burn more fat while on a weight loss program is in large part a matter of picking the right supplements.
Benefits
When it comes to fat burning supplements, there are a tremendous number of options, and these have widely varying levels of evidence for their efficacy.
One of the most-proven and reliable fat burning supplements is green tea extract. Researchers initially noticed that obesity was less of a problem in nations that tend to consume a lot of green tea, like Japan and China.
However, many other confounding factors could cause that type of association, so a specific kind of study was needed to determine whether there was a real effect.
Such a study came along in 2005, when scientists in the Netherlands examined a large group of obese and overweight individuals over a four-month period (1).
When they analyzed the data, they found that a green tea supplement improved weight management during the follow-up period, independent of caffeine consumption.
This is an important observation, because caffeine itself is a powerful fat burner. That’s why a number of fat burning supplements, even ones without green tea derived ingredients, still include caffeine.
Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that administration of even a small dose of caffeine has significant fat burning effects (2). This study looked at a single 100 mg dose of caffeine, which is about as much as one cup of coffee.
Many fat burning supplements have twice this amount or more. The caffeine dose had a significant fat-burning effect in both obese and “post-obese” (meaning people who had lost weight and were no longer obese) subjects. The good news is that the energy expenditure increase appears to be greater in the obese subjects, even though the relative dose that they get is smaller.
Due to their larger body mass, an obese person usually has to take a higher dose of a supplement to get the same effect. In this case, though, perhaps due to the increased number of fat cells in the body, an obese person actually gets more benefit from a given dose of caffeine.
Back on the topic of green tea extract, though, the mechanism of action for green tea extract seems to be related to its active ingredient, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).
Research in the International Journal of Obesity has found that EGCG independently increases the metabolic activity in fat cells (3). Furthermore, this effect appears to be magnified by caffeine, meaning that the two work synergistically to increase fat cell activity.
The exact mechanism involves some complex cellular biology, but the net effect is a magnification of fat burning activity beyond what would be achieved with either supplement on its own.
The upside of this is that, unless you want to avoid caffeine in your fat burning supplements for its side effects, you should look for at least a moderate amount of caffeine alongside green tea extract for maximum efficacy.
Another strong fat burning supplement you should look for in a fat burning supplement is conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA. While robust studies in humans are lacking, there is good evidence from animal studies to suggest that it both reduces your appetite and more importantly increases the metabolic activity of fat cells.
A study in the journal Obesity Reviews cites a number of studies on CLA and recommends that it be considered as a legitimate long-term weight loss supplement (4).
Among some of the more modern and newly discovered fat burning supplements, the most attractive is almost certainly capsaicin, also known as cayenne pepper extract.
According to research published by scientists at the Manchester Food Research Center at Manchester Metropolitan University, a significant body of experimental literature indicates that capsaicin is a beneficial fat burning supplement (5).
In their study, they pooled the results from several different experiments, with a grand total of over 500 subjects. The data showed that capsaicin, when taken for one to two years, can significantly reduce fat mass.
One benefit of capsaicin over other proven fat burners like green tea is that it does not require caffeine to work optimally, and does not seem to have the same stimulant-inducing effects.
There are many other supplements with varied levels of scientific support: chromium, forskolin, green coffee bean extract, and garcinia cambogia are all found in many popular weight loss supplements, but the experimental evidence for them does not rise to the same level as caffeine, green tea extract, capsaicin, or CLA.
This doesn’t mean they don’t work; indeed, there is good evidence from cell culture experiments or studies on mice, but the human studies aren’t there yet.
Side Effects
Fat burning supplements have been an area of supplementation that’s been rife with side effect controversies. Market leaders like Hydroxycut have had to reformulate their ingredients several times because of safety concerns related to ingredients like ephedra, synephrine, and hydroxycitric acid.
Fortunately, the best fat burning supplements have side effect profiles that are pretty mild. One notable exception to this is also one of the most surprising: caffeine, of all things, has a pretty lengthy side effect list.
In high doses, like those found in some of the more extreme fat burning supplements on the market, caffeine can cause jitters, irritability, nausea, and (as you might guess) an inability to sleep.
Knowing your own caffeine sensitivity is very helpful when figuring out what level of caffeine you can tolerate.
The best-proven fat burning supplements also tend to be the safest. Green tea extract has no significant side effects; indeed, it’s often taken for its ability to boost general health and well-being and fend off chronic disease.
CLA, as a natural food ingredient, has a similarly unremarkable adverse effect profile.
Capsaicin has been widely studied for its pain-relief properties; the only side effect noted in those studies was localized burning sensation when capsaicin is applied to the skin.
By analogy, this could cause an upset stomach, so pay attention to the capsaicin content of your supplements if you have a sensitive stomach.
Recommended Dosage
The ideal dose of a fat burning supplement is going to vary greatly depending on what the ingredients are. For the most part, reputable manufacturers deliver the ingredients at the appropriate dosages.
With caffeine, the thing to be careful about is not taking too much. Even small amounts of caffeine have fat-burning effects, so you don’t need to overdo it with a high dose that’s likely to cause adverse effects.
Just 100 or 150 mg is plenty to induce a thermogenic effect. Green tea extract is typically supplemented at 400-800 mg doses, which seem to be ideal for fat burning.
CLA needs to be delivered at a higher dose; some studies recommend doses as high as a few grams per day. Capsaicin, given how new it is as a fat burning supplement, does not have a well-established effective dose.
For what it’s worth, published studies so far use doses in the range of 3 to 10 mg per day, though a few studies have used more.
Recap
Though your options for a fat burning supplement seem endless, keeping a few basic guidelines in mind can help select one that’s right for you.
Look for a supplement that has at least a few of the well-established and reasonably effective fat burning ingredients, like green tea extract, moderate doses of caffeine, CLA, and capsaicin.
Other ingredients can be helpful too, but your best shot is going to come from these ingredients. If you are getting a supplement with green tea in it, its efficacy can be magnified by a moderate amount of caffeine.
Finally, be patient. These supplements aren’t going to work overnight, but the evidence is pretty good that they do gradually increase your fat mass loss over time.
https://bodynutrition.org/fat-burners/
https://bodynutritionorg.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/ranking-the-best-fat-burners-of-2017/
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