#sexy autoimmune disorder moments

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I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal. 

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok. 

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor. 

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.” 

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him. 

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it. 

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” 

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort. 

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.” 

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.” 

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?”  He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling. 

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet.  Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin. 

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower. 

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest. 

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now. 

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.” 

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin... 

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?” 

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit. 

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter.  But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view. 

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine. 

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.”  There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years. 

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile. 

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…” 

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.”  You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings. 

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…” 

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”  

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes.  Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves. 

#I'm not going to answer asks about the spoilers right now #because I want people to be able to avoid them until the chapter drops #but that should be sometime in the next week or so #votes for void

[transbee]

killing your principal is self care.

#got heat stroke at practice graduation 🤪🤪 im fine now but i did almost pass out lol #i did also throw up in the parking lot. #sexy autoimmune disorder moments #etemophobia tw #im gonna. fucking. nap. eat more popsacle. night #.txt

[outfitandtrend]

[ad_1] It seemed, at first, like a bit. Chris Rock made a bad joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head by referencing G.I. Jane. Then her husband Will Smith, the favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar, took the stage and struck Rock. Watching at home, it was hard to tell what happened, but the long stretch of bleeped-out silence that followed made it clear that it wasn’t a bit. Rock had, in Will Smith’s view, crossed a line. Smith responded with violence. After Smith returned to his seat, Rock struggled to regain his composure before carrying on announcing the nominees and winners of the Best Documentary Feature award. This was, by any definition, the sort of moment for which the phrase “What the fuck?” was invented.The fundamental maxim of show business is “the show must go on.” And it did. Rock announced the winner. Planned bits and subsequent awards followed. But the 94th Academy Awards can easily be divided into two halves: before the Rock/Smith incident and after. Even via television you could feel tension mounting as the evening rolled on to what felt like Smith’s long-predicted win for Best Actor, after years of near-misses for stellar work. Following an awkward reunion of Pulp Fiction stars Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Travolta celebrating, for never-explained reasons, the film’s 28th anniversary, the trio joyfully announced Will Smith’s name in unison. Will Smith then kissed Jada Pinkett Smith and took the stage to hugs, applause, and a standing ovation. Once again: WTF?There is some context to consider. Jada Pinkett Smith has spoken publicly about her struggles with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss, since 2018. Furthermore, the Smiths, like all celebrities of their stature, live under a microscope and their marriage has been the subject of much discussion, particularly after interviews in which they talked about “entanglements” and other unconventional arrangements. Co-host Regina Hall even made a joke about it earlier in the evening that, in the midst of a wretched bit about administering Covid tests to sexy men, landed almost as poorly as Rock’s. For all the upsides of being part of a celebrity power couple with thriving careers and unimaginable wealth, it also probably sucks.But the swiftness with which the Oscars — and those in attendance doing the applauding and hugging — rushed to paper over, even justify, this moment of violence? That sucked too. A tearful Smith delivered a bizarre speech that opened with an indirect reference to the assault by praising Richard Williams, the character he played in King Richard, as “a fierce defender of his family.” Smith roped co-stars Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton into his defense by saying he “got to protect” them and suggested he was “overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to be and do in this world” and that he was being called on to “be a river to my people.” (That line comes from Lawrence of Arabia. It’s spoken by Anthony Quinn in the role of Auda Abu Tayi shortly after he describes all the enemies he’s slain.) Then, after apologizing to the Academy and his fellow nominees (but notably, not Rock), he closed with a joke about hoping the Academy would invite him back. More applause. More hugs. Another standing ovation.But what about the rest of the Oscars? They now feel a bit like that old joke, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” [ad_2] Source link

[theconservativebrief]

Two Kickstarter campaigns between the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2017 set out with relatively modest goals: Each intended to raise around $20,000 to create products that claimed to relieve stress. Instead, both made millions and ended up helping to create an entire economy out of the treatment of anxiety with simple items.

The first, the Fidget Cube, raised nearly $6.5 million and predicated the most omnipresent toy trend of the following year, the fidget spinner. The second, the Gravity Blanket, raised $4.7 million with the promise of a better night’s sleep.

Neither went viral because a corporate behemoth like Mattel or Amazon decided to blindly diagnose the entire country with anxiety — they became so popular because regular people came across a video and donated with the belief that the devices might actually work.

Both, however, helped give rise to the growing anxiety economy, composed of adult coloring books, aromatherapy vapes, essential oils, and other products designed to calm us down. And though these items often have little, if any, scientific data supporting whether they really “work,” their explosive popularity sends a clear message: Americans are anxious as hell, and we’re trying to buy our way out of the problem.

Anxiety is quite possibly the defining characteristic for not only my own generation, but everyone alive at this particular time in history. It is already the most common mental health disorder in the US, affecting 18.1 percent of Americans each year and nearly one-third of Americans over their lifetimes, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and the National Institute of Mental Health. And it’s quickly getting worse among college students: The American College Health Association found in its annual survey that in 2011, half of undergraduates reported they felt “overwhelming anxiety.” By 2017, 61 percent did.

There are plenty of places to point fingers: your phone, the president, climate change, the recession, FOMO, divorce, social media, student debt, terrorism, the 24-hour news cycle, the economy, “the economy,” living farther from family, toxins in your gut, too many choices, too little sleep, too little sex. Or maybe we’re just overdiagnosing anxiety and actually, everything’s fine.

Unfortunately for the millions who do suffer from anxiety, everything is not fine. Though the disorder may be affecting a growing number of people, finding suitable care is increasingly difficult due to funding cuts for both treatment services and research programs and a generally broken health care system.

So it makes sense that more people are turning to digital therapists, meditation apps, and even tampon brands in lieu of access to medical care. Media companies have been built around the mental health crisis, while videos designed to calm us down go viral. Even our most primitive need — sleeping — has somehow become a fun, sexy industry.

As a member of that near-one-third of Americans with an anxiety disorder, none of it surprises me. My desk is filled with random bouncy, squishy, or clicky objects that have no use other than being futzed with, and cataloging them all makes me feel like a person who is laughably unfit for modern life — particularly when I live in New York, one of the most stressful cities on the planet. But it also makes me the Platonic ideal of a consumer of our era’s most marketable products.

Denver brothers Mark and Matthew McLachlan were tinkering with the idea for a few years: It would be a small toy, one that wouldn’t look out of place in the average office, that workers could click, flip, and spin. It would be intended not to help them escape the monotony of cubicle life but rather to give them something to fiddle with discreetly in order to better focus on actual work.

In September 2016, that idea became the Fidget Cube, which ended up becoming the 10th most funded project on the site of all time.

That was thanks to a few factors: a slick, well-produced satirical video that went viral when major Facebook pages like NowThis and Unilad began sharing it, a near-universal message (most of us have experienced the urge to fidget), and the novelty of an entirely new kind of product. After all, as Matthew explained to Vox over email, this was a time when “the phrase ‘fidget toy’ was not a household expression.”

[embedded content]

The spinning toy that was to take over classrooms was not the same one shown in the McLachlan brothers’ viral video. Due to trouble with manufacturers thanks to the unexpectedly massive scale of the Kickstarter campaign, the official Fidget Cube was plagued with delays, by which time the market had already been flooded with knockoffs.

Plus, there was already a cheaper toy ready to take its place: the fidget spinner, developed in the early ’90s by a Florida inventor named Catherine Hettinger. She had an autoimmune disorder that caused muscle weakness, and with a 7-year-old daughter at home, she wanted to create a toy that could distract and soothe young children.

After shopping the spinner to multiple toy brands, she secured a patent and even had a meeting with Hasbro, though the toy giant ultimately decided against producing it and let the patent expire in 2005. Later, variations of the fidget spinner were marketed by small manufacturers as therapeutic aids for children with ADHD, anxiety, and autism, but by late 2016, versions of spinning toys made with materials like stainless steel and titanium were being sold for as much as $199.

Even if the Fidget Cube had lost some of its edge in the market, by Christmas 2016, Forbes claimed fidget spinners as the “must-have office toy for 2017,” and in April 2017, they became the second-most-popular item bought on Amazon, right after the free 30-day Prime trial. Though it’s impossible to say how many have been sold, the payment platform Square, which is often used by smaller independent retailers, noted that while in January and February of 2017, only about 30 fidget spinners were purchased each month, by the end of May, 151,241 were. The market research firm NPD estimates that at least 19 million were sold, with others claiming more than 50 million.

Eight-year-old Tom Wuestenberg plays with a fidget spinner in a park in New York on May 23, 2017. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Spinners were a massive hit with children: They’re fun and cheap, and you can do cool tricks with them on YouTube. But they certainly owe the cube that came before them a big thanks for helping fidget toys rise out of their clinical niche.

Around the same time, another Kickstarter was blowing up. In the fall of 2016, the small media company Futurism, which covers science and technology, was attempting to build a new revenue model in the face of an increasingly competitive pool of advertiser dollars.

The newly created product team noticed that articles about the science of sleep and stress were getting a lot of traffic. In the process of brainstorming ideas, the team tossed out the idea of a weighted blanket. It would be around 10 percent of the user’s bodyweight (available in 15-, 20-, and 25-pound versions) and consist of a polyester cover atop a cotton inner shell filled with plastic pellets, providing the weight.

Though they’d been around for decades, weighted blankets were, until then, generally used to treat children with autism or adults with PTSD, among other disorders. Futurism’s prototype, called the Gravity Blanket, was different: Like the Fidget Cube, it took a previously niche clinical tool and adopted the aesthetics of a slick startup to market it to a mainstream audience with the promise that it could relieve stress and anxiety.

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“It felt like an interesting time to bring a physical product that wasn’t necessarily pharmacy-based or med-tech based, but just a really simple solution to a bigger population, and part of the strategy was to elevate the look and feel of it, too,” explains Mike Grillo, the president of Futurism’s product division. “Anything you saw prior to Gravity that was a weighted blanket was very clinical-looking, and I think would turn off the general consumer, so we worked hard to find the right fabric and came up with a pattern and really elevated it, both from a product perspective and then from a brand perspective.”

On top of its $4.7 million Kickstarter campaign, to date, the company has sold more than 70,000 blankets at a retail price of $249. Gravity succeeded thanks to similar factors as the Fidget Cube: good design, universal appeal (who hasn’t had trouble falling asleep?), and the product’s novelty. And it too was succeeded by many knockoffs on sites like Amazon.

Like the Fidget Cube, it took a previously niche clinical tool and adopted the aesthetics of a slick startup to market it to a mainstream audience

Meanwhile, other startups were creating conversations in the mental health space, like TalkSpace (the chat-based therapy app) or Calm (the meditation app whose goal is to become the “Nike for the mind”). “They’re more tech-focused, of course, not necessarily physical products, but all of these non-pharmacological, non-medical offerings for people to relieve their stress,” says Grillo.

There is also the fact that this was in 2016, arguably the most anxiety-inducing year in recent cultural memory (besides, well, the year after, or maybe the current one). Indeed, Futurism came up with the idea for the Gravity Blanket just a month after the US presidential election, in December 2016. When I ask whether it was an attempt to capitalize on the cultural moment, Grillo agrees, to an extent. “It truly felt like it was the right place, right time,” he says. “I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, we have to hit this while the iron’s hot,’ but it certainly felt like the right environment to go out into the market with something like this.”

To claim that the explosion of anxiety-quelling products was a direct effect of the election would be an oversimplification of trends that were already in place, however. Anxiety disorders among the general population were already on the rise, and mental illness was already becoming increasingly more socially acceptable to discuss. Plus, brands like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop had piqued the cultural interest in non-medical and alternative forms of treatment.

But the year was a turning point that helped create the groundwork for these sorts of startups to take off.

With millions of dollars to be made in the anxiety product economy, there arises the question of whether anyone actually should. One woman who has weighed this more than most is Meredith Arthur. She’d been working at a series of increasingly dysfunctional San Francisco startups while at the same time experiencing worsening migraines. It took five therapists and a specialized clinic before a neurologist told her, a few days before her 40th birthday, that she had generalized anxiety disorder. Like many who finally receive the diagnosis they’d always unconsciously known they had, she felt a deep sense of relief.

“I immediately knew it was true,” she says. “[My neurologist] picked me up off the earth, turned me around the other way, and set me back down. I was like, ‘Oh, okay. That’s what it is.’ Now, of course, because I have generalized anxiety disorder, what did I do next? Okay, research.”

That research eventually formed the foundation of what would become Beautiful Voyager, the online community she built for “overthinkers, perfectionists, and people pleasers.” When she launched the site in 2015, she recalls people receiving the idea with subtle condescension. “People were quiet. There was some, ‘Good for you, Meredith!’” she says with a laugh. But by the time the fall of 2016 rolled around, she noticed a shift in the way people talked about mental health.

“It was a watershed moment, where everyone was like, ‘It’s okay to be completely distraught.’ If I get in deep about it, I think of it as ego disillusion. I had to get over myself.”

Sister Charlene Favreau attends an adult coloring book event in Burlington, Massachusetts, on June 14, 2015. Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

In order to cover the cost of running the website, which also includes paying writers, Arthur has a retail section on her site, where people can buy items like weighted blankets from a seamstress in Illinois, coloring books, sleep masks, and a millennial-pink pillbox. As far as she’s aware, it’s one of the only communities/marketplaces devoted to people with anxiety, which gives her a heightened sense of responsibility to its members.

As a matter of principle, she’s upfront about where the profits go: There’s an entire section on the site devoted to the topic (she keeps 10 percent of sales; the rest goes to the manufacturer), and an updated list of every single item sold on the site. “That’s the only way I feel good about it,” she says. “Otherwise, you’re shifty. You’re trying to make money off people.”

Here is the truth that goes largely unspoken in the growing space where capitalism meets mental health: None of it actually solves the underlying problem, even if it helps assuage the symptoms. Last May, Gravity was forced to change the language on its Kickstarter, which claimed the blanket could be “used to treat a variety of ailments, including insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as circumstantial stress and prolonged anxiety,” after the news site STAT questioned Kickstarter about the claims, which appeared to go against recommendations from the US Food and Drug Administration. The new version simply said that the blanket could be “used” for those conditions.

And what very little research has been done on the benefits of fidget toys is largely predicated on the act of fidgeting itself rather than the specific tools used to do so. As Vox wrote at the height of spinner mania last spring:

There is some evidence that encouraging children with ADHD to squirm and move their limbs can help direct their focus rather than making them sit still. But that study looked at kids’ physical activity, not a small spinning device that barely requires any movement. And kids without ADHD didn’t benefit from the extra squirming.

Dr. Anna Lembke, a clinician and associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, explains that to date, nobody really knows for sure how these products work, besides the fact that they can help distract us.

“What’s key with these fidget toys is that they are physical,” she says. “So by engaging this hand motion, we reconnect with our bodies, which often has a calming phenomenon. You can achieve the same thing through exercise, right? People achieve a similar thing through meditation. The mechanism is slightly different, but basically what’s happening in meditation, for example, is you’re focusing on the breath. In focusing on the breath, you’re focusing on your body. And your physical functions are redirecting your focus away from these abstract thoughts that can be so debilitating.”

So, yes, meditation apps may help us meditate, and meditation may reduce anxiety. Weighted blankets may calm us down long enough to fall and stay asleep, which will help us feel better the next day. And fidget devices can distract us so that instead of ruminating on negative thoughts, we’re expending mental energy on something physical.

But no product will solve the underlying causes of anxiety, or ADHD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, or autism, whether it’s a $5 gas-station fidget spinner or a $250 blanket meticulously designed and focus-grouped by advertising professionals. That’s a far bigger task, involving: therapy (often difficult to access), medication (often expensive), or complete lifestyle overhauls that involve fitting exercise and healthier habits into our daily lives (often really, really hard).

So a weighted blanket it is. “We’re not understanding how to deal with [mental health]. Instead, we’re throwing products at it,” says Beautiful Voyager’s Arthur. “It’s very American.”

To be fair to fidget spinners, however, it can be difficult to treat mental health issues even with the tools backed by the best scientific evidence, including the ones Lembke uses with her patients: cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, such as Lexapro or Prozac), and lifestyle changes like diet, exercise, or creating a more heavily structured schedule.

“We’re not understanding how to deal with [mental health]. Instead, we’re throwing products at it. It’s very American.”

When I started therapy a year and a half ago, I expected my therapist to challenge my methods of fidgeting and physical distractions, developed over a lifetime, as unhelpful ways to avoid facing my underlying issues. Instead, she ended up doing the opposite: Over the course of a few months, she gave me a strip of wax-like putty to morph into shapes, a large stone to hold as a means of separating the concept of my anxiety from my actual self, and a smaller one for little reminders. It turns out that having the stuff did, in fact, help a bit, if only for a few moments at a time.

So when I first heard the term “fidget spinner” in the early months of 2017, I knew it was going to be extremely my shit. The first time I spun one, at a bar in Brooklyn, I joked that I’d never connected with a human baby as much as I’d connected with this. I rapidly acquired five of them.

But here’s the problem with using “fidgeting” as a marketing strategy: As any true fidgeter knows, you don’t need to spend money on a new object to futz with — objects simply appear, and you fidget with them. By the time the spinner craze was over, I’d long replaced them with a pile of other gizmos.

The author’s assortment of desk items. Amelia Krales/Vox

Yet the space only appears to be growing. Gravity, for instance, was able to expand its line to include melatonin spray, weighted sleep masks, a cooling duvet, a collection of infrared-ray-emitting loungewear that promises to help with muscle recovery, and an upcoming “mindful alarm clock,” which lets you sleep with your phone outside your bedroom but still connect to your phone so that a select few people will be able to reach you in an emergency.

The Fidget Cube and the Gravity Blanket raised millions of dollars because they diagnosed people with a simple problem: Have you ever felt a weird desire to fidget with random objects? Of course! Do you have trouble falling asleep? Who doesn’t?

Now that many more of us are aware — that we’re stressed, that we’re anxious, that we’re not getting enough sleep, that anxiety is really bad and will doom us to an early death so we should really take care of it, which of course makes us even more anxious about our own anxiety — it makes sense that our immediate impulse is to buy stuff that promises to deal with it so that we don’t have to. And if fidget spinners and weighted blankets haven’t quite been doing it for you, chances are there will be even more anxiety-quelling doodads to spend your money on in the very near future.

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Original Source -> Fidget spinners, weighted blankets, and the rise of anxiety consumerism

via The Conservative Brief

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Sauna reviews!

Locating the most effective mobile infrared sauna is will be a cinch with our buyer's guide and study I have personally done and good if you would like to keep looking healthy and feeling healthy about the move.

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First introduced in Finland in 112 AD, saunas was big enclosed regions full of all the heat that arose from sexy stones. While they began as a relaxing weekend convention, saunas have come a long way since then: really, modern saunas could be packed up and hauled with you, helping you to appreciate their numerous advantages in the greatest mobile infrared saunas. In reality, technological evolutions even led to infrared saunas which are wildly popular due to their viability and numerous skills.

More to the point, these convenient apparatuses are now easily available on the current market, in only about every cost range, thus saving you time and cash to go over to a gym to appreciate its many advantages.

If you'd like to get one of the very best mobile infrared saunas on the current market, continue reading for a short manual on making the best option.

Contents [series]

How can they operate?

Historically speaking, warmth and heat-related treatments are used to heal many different ailments for centuries. From sweat lodges to warm air baths, heat treatments used to be quite common in Ancient Chinese, Chinese, Eastern European and Native American medications.

Made by Dr. Kellogg, infrared saunas are currently utilized in many houses and health facilities all around the globe. These operate by releasing infrared light waves which produce warmth, hence allowing the human body to release toxins through perspiration.

Unlike a classic mobile sauna, infrared ones utilize a infrared radiant heater that promotes more toxins to be published through perspiration. Because of this, they feel a lot more relaxing than conventional ones.

While looking for the finest infrared sauna, settling for a single version may be a hard call, especially if you're a complete newcomer to such machines. Potential customers can readily be confused with the sheer variety of models available on the current market, which explains why it's very important to research just as much as possible to be able to make a educated decision.

There are a number of features to watch out for while purchasing a mobile infrared sauna. The primary ones include:

Amusement comprises: Simply sitting in a sauna for a protracted time period can get quite boring after a time. Fortunately enough, many cutting-edge versions include numerous features to help keep you entertained throughout your session. So watch out for versions which have sound and DVD players which can keep boredom at bay as you unwind. Lighting: the very best sorts of mobile infrared saunas have a tendency to possess internal light features developed to enhance relaxation whilst developing a pronounced sense of relaxation. Cutting-edge versions, as an instance, frequently feature various colors of hot blue or white lamps. Light therapy combined with saunas are proven to take care of several kinds of seasonal affective disorders. Control panels: This really is only one of the most crucial elements of your mobile infrared sauna. When most versions have a board on the exterior, an interior panel may be an additional advantage because you'll have the ability to correct the controls without needing to always escape the sauna, thus allowing chilly air in while interrupting your comfort session. Control panels are able to allow you to fix just about anything in the warmth to the moment. While most one-person saunas can accommodate heavier users, it is nonetheless a fantastic idea to concentrate a two-person model because these give you ample space to stretch out and perhaps even lie back again. Additionally, it is great to be aware that the industry also provides models that could accommodate up to six individuals. Remember that bigger saunas have the benefit of providing a bigger exposure to infrared heating. Advantages of infra-red

These kinds of saunas are in reality so valuable that NASA uses them to boost the metabolism of the astronauts, both before and following long term distance travel. The very best mobile infrared saunas are in fact conceived to present a whole head-to-toe comfort when reinvigorating the perceptions.

Listen to exactly what this 1 physician must mention...

Based on Doctor Rachel West from Sunlighten, infrared saunas helps detoxify your system, allowing a much better digestion when assisting people who suffer with ADHD, ADD, autism, immune deficiency conditions, autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigues, seizures as well as the likes.

Why utilize infrared saunas over conventional saunas?

In spite of conventional saunas, infrared variations don't function at too significant temperatures but rather offer soothing bursts of warmth which have also been proven to allow sleep comfort.

By the exact token, they moisturize the skin and enhances circulation, making it perfect for older men and women who suffer with arthritis.

Despite persistent rumors concerning the hazards of infrared saunas, many studies have proven these apparatuses are completely safe to use-- safer, in reality, than ordinary saunas.

A research completed in Finland really showed that guys who employed infrared saunas twice or thrice per week showed that a fall of 23% of their risk of a fatal heart attack.

Because of this, several physicians recommend these apparatuses as other remedies.

Not staying hydrated may actually deplete your own minerals or electrolytes, which explains why it's essential that you make sure that you drink sufficient water before and after your sauna session.

Utilizing a infrared sauna following or while drinking alcohol is not recommended either because it dehydrates the body, possibly resulting in heat strokes and heat fatigue. You also need to avoid using it through severe injuries or disorders.

What's EMF? And Can It Be dangerous?

Extra exposure to EMF, nevertheless, can have health dangers, leading to radiation burns. Because of this, it's crucial to purchase infrared saunas from accredited manufacturers simply and adhere to non EMF versions.

Professional infrared saunas are completely safe because they don't create lots of EMF. Actually, a number of the most effective portable infrared saunas on the industry fully cancel out ELF and EMF technologies, but these versions have a tendency to be expensive.

Before you step in the sauna, make sure you turn it around for a couple of minutes first so that you may step into a warm inside. You may want to initiate the session at approximately 70 degrees and let it warm up to 85 while you are inside.

Following a couple weeks of usage, it is possible to enable the temperature to scale around 95 degrees, but make sure you go at your own pace and not overdo it. Additionally, it is important to stay hydrated both before a sauna session and through.

Users must wait about two hours after ingestion before stepping into a infrared sauna. The ideal time to utilize these apparatuses is prior to bedtime should you suffer from sleeplessness, or early morning to reinvigorate your senses before beginning daily.

Experts agree There's a time limitation for novices...

According to specialists, if you have never used a infrared sauna earlier, do not go beyond 3 hour-long sessions each week and slowly increase your amount of sessions since you get accustomed to it.

Finest versions in the marketplace Here are a Few of the top portable infrared saunas in the marketplace:

The Very Best Mobile Infrared Sauna -- From Radiant SaunasLively Saunas

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It delivers a very affordable cost and yet despite this it doesn't compromise quality. The device provides five degrees of preset temperature settings that are further complimented by the built in thermostat to improve ease of use. Consequently, you do not have to step from the sauna to correct the heating system. You are able to pick any temperature around 150 levels.

Another amazing feature is the effortless fingertip controller which shuffles involving 6 different timer choices. There are almost no drawbacks in regards to this version. Some however may find it hard to prepare.

When having the most suitable and mobile unit is the principal priority for you, then the Gizmo Supply Digital Far-Infrared ought to be on very top of your search list. Designed to fortify muscle nutrient whilst removing toxins like heavy ions in the machine, this sauna blanket features three separate heating zones that you can replicate through based on your own tastes.

According to the makers, this blanket may burn up to 500 calories a hour, however there's not any proof to support these claims to stay wary.

If you are searching for a few of the most effective portable infrared saunas on the current market, you can not fail with the Far Infrared Portable Sauna. Although it isn't on peak of the package because of being it is higher price tag, this version is really improved by a negative ion detoxattribute. Do not expect a lot from this feature, however, it is more of a marketing ploy with consumers sense better only in the placebo effect.

This sauna employs a slim carbon fiber purifier that can help promote blood flow when improving perspiration. The hands-free layout is also a major bonus which permits you to browse, use your telephone or anything you need through your session.

Diagram

So far as the downsides are involved, the dimensions of the sauna might be a problem: several reports indicate it might happen to be roomier for extra comfort.

Created for weight loss, the Ridgeyard can be up there with the greatest mobile infrared saunas. According to the producers, 10 moments in this sauna equates to half an hour of jogging or running. As you likely won't automatically see instant significant weight reduction, you may feel lighter and shed quite a lot of water after a few weeks of routine usage. Designed to decrease stress and fatigue whilst assisting you to remove toxins, this sauna warms up very quickly and may go around 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Among the greatest features of the mobile infrared sauna is the way simple and swift it's to install: You will most likely have the ability to get it all installed in under 10 minutes. The sole drawback with this particular unit is the substance on the remote controller is somewhat slippery. You may imagine the mix of slick distant and sweaty palms may result in a tough time changing the preferences while at the sauna.

Contrary to tent-like saunas or blankets, this version takes the kind of a belt that especially targets problem areas like the waist and stomach. In reality, many users did report that a visible shift in these regions after a few weeks of continuous usage. Due to its portability, ease of use and efficacy, this version is one of the top sellers for mobile infrared saunas on the market.

But do not be tricked by those evaluations and earnings.

I guess that a few of them are fake, inauthentic testimonials written by men and women who have obtained the merchandise at no cost or in exchange for the payment. The belt is much too little to actually find the entire array of advantages of an FIR sauna method.

A high-end version, there is no doubt the DURHERM is one of the most effective portable infrared saunas in case you are willing to splurge a bit. This specific version is quite simple to prepare and contains droves of fans behind it. What you really ought to enjoy is its own low EMF degree in addition to the incorporated heated footpad which improve the perceptible sense of comfort. Believe it or not, they through in the canvas folding seat so that you're good to go from the start!

What you really ought to enjoy is its own low EMF degree in addition to the incorporated heated footpad which improve the perceptible sense of comfort. Believe it or not, they through in the canvas folding seat so that you're good to go from the start!

The only disadvantage with this particular model?

The sauna's heat-up timing isn't the quickest. It is just a little criticism and if you're well organised it ought to not be a issue in any way.

What if excite you about this version is that the inclusion of this wooden foot massage roller coaster which helped alleviate the stress points on foot, thus improving blood flow. Past this and like many other mobile infrared saunas examined, it is going to assist with problems like stress and fatigue, while relieving back and sciatica pains. This sauna also will come with a fingertip hand control that allows you to modify the temperate without disrupting your session.

The only drawback of this particular model is that the stipulations of the guarantee are somewhat harsh and provide small consumer protection. It is unlikely you will be given a faulty solution, but for complete coverage, it may be better to search for a broader guarantee from another producer.

Learn More

Made to accelerate weight reduction, the Far-Infrared Slimming Leg was made to be used as a oversized jumpsuit and features an integrated sauna to accelerate your metabolism, helping you to burn a great deal of calories each session. Hailed as one of the most effective portable infrared saunas on the current market, this specific version comes at a bit more typical in the purchase price category. When used along with a strict diet plan and physical fitness plan, you must report a substantial weight loss after a couple of months.

This sauna is completely watertight and sports a thermostat which lets you shuffle between 86 and 140F. Incredibly easy to clean, in addition, it includes ceramic heating wires in the outer coating.