#am still getting side effects which i can have for up to 90 days

[w3bgrl]

billie’s hair eras

a/n: eras marked with a ♡ are fan-favorite or viral hairstyles!

survival show/hellevator & i am not

debuted with a natural dark brown to go with the natural-ish colors the other members had

not the healthiest it’s ever been since she had dyed her hair in the past but it was pretty close!

juyeon said during this time that although she did like to dye her hair, she really loved natural colors on people

i am who? ♡

ariel era!

third musketeer of the redhead trio during my pace (felix & jisung)

stays lovedddd the red. she was easy to spot at events and often had other fandoms asking “who’s the girl with the red hair?”

definition of iconic

tried really hard to hide her new color and did a great job until the few days before the album release when she posted a photo that had one (1) stray hair on her shirt

i am you

back to brown!

somehow had really healthy hair this era? luscious and long and beautiful even after the red

faded into black by the end of the era

also styled her hair mostly straight this era in contrast to the ariel curls of my pace

she was soooo girlfriend during i am you era (≧∀≦)

clé 1: miroh ♡

juyeon’s favorite dye so far; the ombré

miroh also had a natural hair kinda vibe minus jeongin so juyeon got to have best of both worlds - natural color and dyed

she also got to style it really curly most of the time which was a huge plus

played a huge part of why she gained a lot of her popularity during miroh era

clé 2: yellow wood, double knot, & clé: levanter

no dye for these comebacks :(

for side effects juyeon dyed over the remnants of the ombré with a dark brown to fade into her natural color.

by double knot her hair was fully back to black. styling was usually lazy curls if not straightened.

levanter era came around and juyeon said she was getting antsy to dye her hair again. at the time she mentioned blue, pink, or another round of red. however, she actually didn’t do any of these colors next.

go live ♡

listen,

blonde juyeon stopped the space-time continuum. stay twitter was in a frenzy. you would have thought that someone died. someone probably did honestly

god tier comeback with god tier looks. god’s menu era was such a time to be alive.

after having her natural hair for the past few comebacks juyeon was so excited to be a blondie!!

stays were wondering what she’d do after the blonde as it became more brassy color by the end of this era, which is how stays were literally fed by the back door comeback

in life

blueyeon? are we kidding?

started out as a really vibrant royal blue color but as it started lightening it became more of a teal.

juyeon held on to this blue hair for as long as she could until you could almost see the bleach underneath :( she loved the blue

almost as iconic as her red hair era but just not quite there. yet you can still find blueyeon stans talking about her impact to this day

no easy & oddinary

and would you believe it or not, she went back to black.

somewhat healthy? certainly a little fried from the blonde but it was not falling out so that was a win.

she actually went back to black immediately before they went on kingdom, which is when she found out that most people agreed she had a whole different vibe with black hair.

scorpio rising queen

maxident ♡

finally!! short hair juyeon!

after years of stay begging for short hair juyeon, not only did she deliver but she served.

lots of buns off-stage in this era. something about short hair made her wanna put it up more.

it was black for 90% of this era and then one day it was brown?? cute either way!

her comment sections in this era was actually ridiculous and honestly a little cringe but stay were serious about showing their love for the bob

5 star & rock star

during 5 star her hair was a more chocolate-y color from the tail end of maxident era before she went back to black again for rock star (are we seeing the pattern here?)

while juyeon did like the short hair it was certainly just a comeback style for her and she secretly decided to start growing her hair back out the day after she cut it

during the gap between maxident and 5 star (october 2022 - june 2023) she let the bob do its thing until it hit her shoulders and then she started wearing extensions

juyeon’s hair also grows like a weed so the divide between the extensions and her natural long hair is hard to find

now in rock star era it seems that her hair is completely grown out to her usual natural color and length

#♡ billie #skz oc #stray kids oc #stray kids #stray kids 9th member #stray kids imagines #kpop added member #kpop oc #kpop addition

[silent-partner-412]

I am on a bus for 90 more minutes and have nothing better to do so I’m just gonna put expanded thoughts under the cut. Read as much or as little as you care to. I haven’t played a lot of these since I was like 12 or 13 so take this with a grain of salt.

S Tier

Majora’s Mask is the pinnacle of what the original Zelda formula can do and one of my favorite games of all time on simply a conceptual level. From the 3 day time loop to the masks to the focus on side quests that actually have interesting stories (something the series struggles with), it comes together in a way no other game in this series does for me. I think it’s got the only story in the series to genuinely emotionally impact me when I first played it, which granted I was also 12 then and haven’t read through the script in a long time but I still think that says something. I know the game’s not for everybody but it’s my favorite in this series and one of my favorite games period.

Oracle of Ages takes the best part of Zelda dungeons and makes a whole game out of it. It’s basically a puzzle game with a Zelda skin, and they take that concept to its limits. Probably has the most fun overworld to traverse of any game in the series (at least of the 2D games) and easily the best 2D dungeons. Other than TOTK this is the game I’ve played most recently so there’s some recency bias here too but in terms of pure 2D Zelda gameplay it really doesn’t get better than this.

Twilight Princess was the first game in this series I beat and easily my favorite iteration of the Link to the Past/Ocarina of Time game flow. Love the atmosphere, love the dungeons, Midna is great… it really is basically Ocarina of Time 2.0 so I get why it’s not everybody’s thing but I personally think it’s basically Ocarina If It Were Good. Lmao!

Tears of the Kingdom is very new and I haven’t beaten it, so this is very subject to change. But as of now it takes the winning formula of Breath of the Wild and puts in actually interesting non-exploration based gameplay mechanics, so I don’t think it’s going to lose its luster as much once I finish the game. Either way I’m absolutely addicted to the game, it’s extremely hard to put down which is a huge plus since it’s harder than ever for me to focus on playing and beating video games nowadays lol.

A Tier

Minish Cap is just very charming. I love being able to turn small and what that does for world traversal, the game is gorgeous and easily the best looking 2D game in the series, and it’s just easy to pick up and play. Has a lot of small issues that keep it out of S tier (sometimes progression is too vague, the world is pretty small, dungeons really aren’t great outside of the Palace of Winds) but still. Very cute game, I like it a lot.

Breath of the Wild has incredible exploration based gameplay and basically nothing else. Honestly for the longest time I would’ve had it in S tier since the exploration was truly that good, but sadly Tears of the Kingdom exists now and effectively outclasses this game in every way. Still love this game though, and it’s legacy is actually kind of astounding.

A Link To The Past is shockingly great. It’s a little jank to play nowadays but still, they got a lot right considering it was more or less the game that standardized almost everything about the series (until Breath of the Wild at least). Just a fun, fast paced experience that feels like Zelda purified down to its bare essentials, and I mean that in the best way possible.

B Tier

Skyward Sword feels like a 3D Oracle of Ages in that the majority of it feels like dungeon content, which is also its strongest aspect. It has major pacing issues which kind of cripple it (also because a lot of the content in the sky is basically worthless), but when it’s at its best it’s honestly fantastic. I’d probably say this game has the overall best 3D dungeons in the series? Yeah that sounds about right.

Oracle of Seasons is the action/combat based counterpart to Oracle of Ages, and I’d say it’s executed about the same in terms of what they’re going for, it just means the game doesn’t stand out nearly to the degree that Ages does. Still a fun game, and has some great moments, but it’s hard not to compare it to its counterpart which I think is significantly better.

A Link Between Worlds is a solid reimagining of A Link To The Past that felt like they were testing the waters for bringing Zelda back in a truly open direction, and it mostly succeeds for me, but something about it just doesn’t work as much for me the way ALttP does. I think it’s a combination of the art style not being my favorite + the dungeons feeling more quantity over quality? It’s hard to say. Still a solid game though!

Link’s Awakening is the Gameboy Zelda that is the most interesting in terms of its setting and writing and least interesting to actually play. It’s not even a problem with it’s age because I had the same feeling even playing the remake where I just wished I was playing one of the Oracle games instead. I do get why this is a lot of people’s favorite! And it is pretty fun for what it is. But it’s not necessarily for me.

Four Swords is a game I have almost no memory of, other than I played it with my sister years ago and we had a good time. I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it’s design or what it did right or wrong, just that it was short, sweet, and I enjoyed the time I spent with my sister. Which, you know what, I think that’s a win for the game.

Triforce Heroes is also good fun multiplayer content, and I remember having a lot of good times with it as well. I think it’s hurt by being in the Link Between Worlds style and also because you’re forced to play with three players, which is very hard to do nowadays. Also the single player sucks, I honestly think it was barely even worth adding in. But the memories I have playing this game with friends when it was new are very sweet, also there’s a lot of fun LP content of this game on Youtube I greatly enjoyed.

C Tier

Ocarina of Time is the most important game in the series and one of the most beloved games of all time. But man it is a chore to play in 2023. It’s very slow, basically none of the first half of the game is fun, and many games that came after did essentially the same thing but better. But hey, the adult dungeons are generally pretty good, and it gets major props from me for influence.

Wind Waker is extremely fun once you get the swift sail and the entire sea opens up to you. Until you get to that point it honestly kind of sucks. The dungeons in this game are probably as bad as it gets (minus the Earth and Wind Temples which are both great), and you’re so railroaded at first that even it’s greatest claim to fame doesn’t even get to shine until hours and hours into the experience. For what it’s worth though, it does get a lot better later on. It only takes like, ten shitty hours of a 20 hour game to get to that point.

Phantom Hourglass is another game I have almost no memory of, I just remember it was probably the game in the series lacking the most flavor. It gets points for novelty with the touch screen and isn’t awful to play, but it really doesn’t have a lot of high points (plus the Temple of the Ocean King is very very bad). It’s basically the Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon of the Zelda series, it’s on the DS and everything.

D Tier

The Legend of Zelda (OG) kickstarted the series and was quite ambitious for the time. Unfortunately it is an NES game. And playing it feels like eating bricks. I don’t actually think I beat the game as a kid, just got to like the second to last dungeon? Either way I feel no need to go back to it. It serves its purpose in history but I would rather play every other game in the series instead of it.

I haven’t played the rest (at least not substantially), but I do plan to play Four Swords Adventure soon since Dolphin now works in tandem with MGBA which means I can actually play this multiplayer now. I don’t know if I’ll ever play Spirit Tracks cuz it’s a gimmicky DS game that I can’t imagine would work emulated, and I’m not shelling out hundreds of dollars for a Phantom Hourglass sequel. I’ve played some of Zelda 2 at some point but not nearly enough to have a solid opinion on it. Game looks cool though! Maybe I’ll play more of it one day.

#zelda #the legend of zelda #zelda series #writing out my thoughts made me think i should put skyward sword in a tier #and then move phantom hourglass down to d tier #but other than that these are my current thoughts on the series

[yandere-romanticaa]

I want to be pretty so bad but I don't know what to do, the BBL era is apparently over and now all of my friends are suddenly super skinny and 've been on the heavier side my whole entire life and I don't know what to do... I want to be skinny, I want it so bad, I want to look like my friends, I hardly eat anything anything but my friends can eat all the fatty foods they want and still stay so skinny, it's so unfair... I just want to be pretty and I don't know what to do.

Baby I'm sorry if this isn't what you want to hear but I feel like I need to say it - Life isn't fair.

I know exactly how you feel and I can sort of low key relate to what you say. I too have always been a heavier individual and it's surreal how hard I was bullied because of this, how much pressure was put on me for never being pretty enough and not to mention just how hard it is to find certain clothing sometimes. But we weren't all dealt with the same cards in life, people have extremely different body shapes and their biologies are so different that I don't even know how to describe them. 90% of my friends are all girls who are extremely skinny and can find anything they want, wherever they want and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't envious of that sometimes.

This is honestly much easier said than done but you need to learn to love your body.

Fashion trends are always changing. Let's say you suddenly get super skinny now but suddenly in 5 years the BBL craze is back on, then you won't ever feel satisfied with yourself and you'll just stay miserable and I don't want that for anyone. Hell, I've even seen some people being shamed for being too skinny, it feels like no matter on what side you tip the scale you can never win.

The best advice I can probably give you is that you eat well and don't starve yourself. That is not only extremely harmful for your body but can even end up causing the OPPOSITE effect which is clearly something that you don't want. Manage your portions and be mindful of what you eat, it's also okay to indulge in sweets but don't go overboard with those!! Don't lose your identity in trying to appease others because at the end of the day it's YOUR body, YOU'RE the one that's using it and no one has the right to make you feel like shit but people will still do that because the world is cruel.

This probably wasn't very helpful and it risks sounding cliche but that's what I really think. I often get extremely insecure over the way I look especially if I stand next to an extremely skinny person because I somehow end up looking bigger than I actually am. But I'm doing that less and less and have made peace with the fact that I just have a naturally bigger body and that's okay!! I can't exactly have an E cup and be a size 0, it's just not possible!! Please please take care of yourself and stay away from places like TikTok and such because they really WILL NOT help. The gym is a solid option if you want to lose fat (or gain it, there are healthy ways to do so!) and eat well!

#anon asks #girlie says

[ruethos]

I figured I'd ask cause I've been following you for a while and you post transformers every so often, and I'm finally caving and want to check it out. So I'm curious what you might recommend to start at? (Cartoon-specifc)

Oh boy, okay SO this really depends on what exactly you're looking for in a show, so I'm gonna give you a variety to choose from.

The Transformers/G1: It's silly!! A fun Saturday morning cartoon that doesn't take itself too seriously. The Autobots and Decepticons, caught in their millions year long civil war, crash land on Earth and continue their battles. This is just a vehicle for Shenanigans to happen. You WILL get whiplash from how quickly the first episode changes scenes. 3 full seasons total, season 2 is the best one imo. You can watch it for free on Tubi.

Transformers Animated: not AS silly but still light-hearted. A fun cast with some of the best human characters in the franchise and a great overarching plot. Basically throws out the "in disguise" part and makes the bots heroes in futuristic Detroit. Some of my FAVORITE versions of these characters. 3 seasons and SHOULD'VE had a fourth but Hasbro killed it (something of a running theme in the franchise as a whole). You can watch it for free on Tubi.

Transformers Prime: a more serious take on the franchise that still manages to keep some levity. Small teams of Autobots and Decepticons (lead by Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively) continue their civil war in secret on Earth, vying for control of the energy rich planet. Absolutely STELLAR 3D animation and good character designs. A take on Cybertronian culture that has influenced so much of what has come after it. Middle of the pack human characters, /I/ think they're fine but a lot of people don't. 3 seasons and a TV movie, also got cut short. Season 1 is available on Netflix and the rest is for free on Tubi.

Transformers Cyberverse: I love Cyberverse to bits. Poppy art style that’s pleasing to the eye with a good mix of the 3D animation and 2D effects. I was gonna describe the plot until I realized that uh, it changes? Autobots vs Decepticons, except when it isn’t. Really has fun with the setting of Cybertron (once they get there), and is one of the few series that actually go PAST the war. 3 seasons and season 4 was two tv movie specials. Killed too soon. The only down side is that the episodes 15 minutes or so. I love this show so much. You can watch it for free on YouTube.

Transformers Rescue Bots: actually one of the best shows in the franchise and I am being 100% serious. A team of first responder bots have to team up with a family of first responders and keep the island of Griffin Rock safe while posing as highly advanced non-sentient robots. It's the baby show. Completely new cast of characters with some guest appearances from the heavy hitters (Optimus Prime and Bumblebee). The BEST human main and side characters. There's a musical episode. I honestly love this show so so so much please don't let the art style fool you it's SO GOOD. The only series to get 4 seasons and they are WELL. DESERVED. Also it takes place at the same time and in the same continuity as Prime, which will never not be funny to me. Season 1 is on Netflix, seasons 3 and 4 are available for free on The Roku Channel, but I can’t find anywhere to watch season 2. But, well, there are ways around that.

Transformers Beast Wars: listen. LISTEN. This is the best show in the franchise. Bar none. Look past the goofy late 90′s cg animation. Yes its fun to make fun of but eventually you stop paying attention to that because the show is just THAT. GOOD. Two ships, one full of Maximals and the other full of Predacons (the descendants of Autobots and Decepticons, respectively) are sent back in time and crash land on prehistoric Earth. GREAT characters, wonderful story, introduces SO many things that are still used in the series to this day. I love Beast Wars with literally all of my heart. It’s available for free on Tubi.

Honorable Mention: Transformers Earthspark. This is only an honorable mention because season 1 isn’t even finished yet but what we have of it so far is VERY good. Great characters, wonderful animation, great music, and a lot of promise going forward. I’m so excited to see where this is gonna go.

EDIT: I actually forgot to mention, you can watch most of these for free on the Transformers Official youtube!!

EDIT #2: Added proper summaries for all of the shows.

#Kassandra talks like someone's listening #Kassandra answers things #anon this absolutely made my night #I hope one of these is to your liking!!! #The fun thing about Transformers is that there are so many takes on the world and characters #that there's almost guaranteed to be something for everyone #anyways getting this in my inbox really made the rest of work bearable :^) #let me know when you see this!!! Have fun!!!!

[thefloatingstone]

hello cpuff, how are you?

i have an adhd related question and need your advise

i would like to try a medical treatment for my adhd again but im very traumatised by my first time. it was apparently a small dosage and the side effects were horrible (i do believe my therapist was only for children too)

how did you find out what treatment was right? do you need a treatment to get by in everyday life?

im going to university soon and i dont want to fuck it up.. :')

thanks in advance!

Hey Toast!

I'm in a unique position in that despite being born in the late 80s and growing up in the early 90s, my dad is a doctor and my mom was heavily involved in his medical practice. So I was very lucky to be diagnosed with "Type 2 ADD" from the age of 4 or 5. My mom did have me on Ritalin as a small child but I wasn't on the medication long although she can't remember why she discontinued it. But something wasn't working for me.

As an adult, my ADHD is a type that is high functioning for most things, thankfully. I still have big struggles, and as a result I developed the fun little splinter skill called "Anxiety disorder" to counteract the forgetfulness, procrastination, avoidance and general executive dysfunction. It works for a lot of things... but it's still an anxiety disorder which has its OWN symptoms and detriments.

As a result, I'm not on any ADHD specific medication. Although most of them are illegal here anyway due to them being an amphetamine. The medication I am on is for the anxiety disorder which became necessary after some extremely traumatic events in 2018 when I hit my limit.

When I was in matric, I self medicated with vasts amount of diet coke (it was the caffeine which helped focus). I still have an extremely difficult time with studying if it's a subject I don't find interesting as my brain will heavily resist the study period itself and will "dump" any information I learn during studying because it doesn't produce dopamine and so the brain function considers it "useless information." (this isn't me trying to be cute. This is a gross simplification of what actually happens cognitively).

At the moment I am trying to study for the ILETS exam and I admit it's very difficult and I am avoiding it a lot.

I am using a star sticker reward system which has worked for me in the past. (it doesn't seem as effective these days but it used to work very well). And I try and limit how much I study to extremely short sessions more frequently than doing long study periods. I also do a lot more cramming the day before as a result of how my brain treats "undesired information".

The flip side is I remember random trivia and knowledge in subjects I enjoy for literally decades...

Anyway I'm rambling.

I don't know if it would be beneficial to you and your ADHD make-up, but I find that behavioural therapy, reward systems and structure work better for me in lieu of medication. (outside of the anxiety meds to manage anxiety symptoms. The medication does not take away the functional anxiety that counter-acts the ADHD luckily). The only downside here is that BECAUSE of my ADHD I struggle to do a lot of the therapy practice specifically designed to help manage my symptoms. (but I am not in a place where I can find ADHD specific therapy to help me with how my brain functions). But I DO find repetitive practice, structure, and breaking things down into the tiniest most basic tasks does help a TINY bit.

That, and doing more than one thing at once. THAT one is a winner for me. Cooking supper? Put on a video to listen to as I do so. Driving? podcast time. Working? youtube tutorial time. reading? music time. (just no lyrics). Jogging? More podcasts/audiobooks.

As well as different methods of processing information. If you can, try to find places that present the material you want to learn in a unique manner. I'm currently 1/4 through the first Dune novel because a DJ made a 23 hour video putting the audiobook to his own lo-fi mixes and trippy visuals. Which resulted in me very quickly memorising a LOT of names and world building which I'm normally terrible at. I tend to internalise information best through video than reading. But when I do read a physical book, audio input is a big must as my brain gets bored otherwise and I lose focus.

My friends with ADHD have great success with journalling in bullet point although it doesn't work for me. (I start, it works great, then I stop doing it and forget it was a working method.) They found breaking things down into bullet points helps them bring order to their thoughts. Same with calendars.

Use multi coloured pens. This is a BIG help. Just writing every paragraph in a new colour helps so much for re-reading notes and stops you skimming a huge text wall.

Speak to your lecturer and make them aware that you will doodle in class while they lecture, and that you are doing so because it stops you from getting visually distracted while they lecture and helps you process audio better. Maybe they won't care but it's best just to let them know "I'm not ignoring you so don't call me out."

I hope some of this can be helpful in SOME way... I still struggle a lot so I don't have a lot of answers because I mostly feel like I don't function well at all. And what I do function with I only function with out of dumb luck.

I know I have adult mutuals who also have ADHD so maybe some of them can help chime in with more tips. (I won't tag them because I don't want to call them out without permission)

#ADHD #C-Puff answers

[crystalelemental]

Unit “Teambuilding” - Norman

But Christ, if you thought Glacia was bad, wait until you hear about this guy.

General Overview I am not going to mince words.  Unless Cheren's grid goes even worse than Glacia, Norman is my uncontested worst unit in the entire game now.  He is actually that bad.

Imagine your entire life has been a meme.  You're a striker who not only didn't get multipliers for damage, but is also a Normal type who can't hit opponent weaknesses, who is somehow further limited by the fact your main damage move, Double Edge, kills you instantly.  It's hard to imagine anything worse off than that.  Even Roark, who has the same instant death problem, can be memetically charged up to one-shot an opponent if so desired because Rock-type means you have advantage sometimes.  But not Norman.  Norman just gets to be sad, waiting for his grid, and watching the newer recoil characters get better and better values, until modern free BP units get a full Standfast 9.  The anticipation is killing you as you wait for the reduction of recoil that is your due. And when it arrives, what did they give you?  Standfast 5, and Standfast 3.

Let's do some quick math.  Double Edge deals 25% of damage to you as recoil. Standfast 5 cuts that by 50%, then Standfast 3 cuts that remainder by 30%. Effectively, the total is 65% reduction in recoil.  This means you take 8.75% recoil from your attacks.  Much improved, right?  Okay.   Norman has around 700HP.  If Norman deals 8k in one move, he killed himself instantly.  For context, if he deals 4k, he is half dead in that one move.  4k is not a high benchmark. Dealing 4k is like maybe half of the sides on a good day.  It's certainly not breaking records.  He does it twice, and he's dead, with no other damage applied.

Norman was trained wrong as a joke.  His own Standfast tiles are bait tiles for inexperienced players who didn't know how to calculate the math.   Norman's damage comes from sync, which is Valerie-tier bad, with only a 50% multiplier for having paralysis on a foe.  Which is something he sets up really well, thanks to Hostile Environment 2, for a 90% chance on Body Slam.  That's something! Consistent paralysis and a multiplier!  He could deal numbers with sync nuke!

You know.  If it weren't for Whitney.  Norman's sync, provided foe is paralyzed, hits for 8547.  That's with three nodes and the Hostile Environment 2.  Whitney's sync nuke, with full Inertia, hits 15,330.   Without Inertia, just with the flinch that she can now set up, it's 11,497.  With both, it's 19,162.  In fact, with only +2 speed, from one use of X Speed, Whitney hits 10,183.  She outdamages him the instant she gets one (1) X Speed use in.

Maybe one day, Norman will get an EX, and be able to hit that sweet, sweet AoE damage in CS that could do something better than Whitney.  But until such time, Norman has exactly one job.  He paralyzes.  That is all he is here for.  He is equivalent to an Eggmon.  Hell, at least the eggmon gets speed boosts or Gradual Healing or something, and is exempt from harsh criticism for not having a grid at all.

I...cannot do this.  Look, I'm sorry, I won't.  Admittedly, I don't always love doing these things for characters I'm not excited about, and having looked this over? There is nothing for him here.  He's a paralysis bot for Gauntlet, nothing more.  If you expect him to contribute literally anything else, don't.  And I can't with that. What am I supposed to teambuild exactly?  Like oh yeah, "I think he'd do really great with like...SS Morty and Hilda against Cobalion, because he can keep paralyzing it."  Yeah, he can, but so can Tech Electabuzz.  "You can use him with an Electric-type that can't paralyze reliably, like Elesa, against Tornadus!"  Yeah you can, but again, so could like...Erika.   Who's actually more reliable because Piercing Gaze means Stun Spore never misses, while he's technically still under 100% success, to say nothing of Erika's debuff to special defense and huge MGR potential.

To level with you...sure.  You can probably win a match with him.  I will undoubtedly try just to see if it's possible.  Sonia, Hop, Hilbert; the usual suspects for buffing, and Classic Elesa for paralysis with debuffs, since he will definitely need both.  There you go.  There's your attempt at offense.  And when that turns out to still be a challenge because they only gave him a 50% bonus to sync and removed his chance at DPS, you'll understand why I'm so thoroughly at a loss.

#pokemon masters #norman #unit teambuilding

[quoteoftheweekblog]

…

26/2/24 - CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD

’ “My God! … what wouldn’t I give to get out of this hole of a town for a day or two!” ’ (Isherwood, 1999, p.156).

REFERENCE

Isherwood, C. (1999 [1935] ) ‘Mr Norris changes trains’ in ‘The Berlin novels’ pp.1-236. London: Vintage.

*****

…

TO MY FRIEND FOR THE HOUR OR TWO AND LUNCH

…

AND CHEERING ME UP DURING

DIRE TIMES

XXXX

FOR BOOK GROUP 2024  20 (90) GLORIOUS YEARS

…

’ “Have you read 'Winnie the Pooh’, by A. A. Milne?” ’ (Isherwood, 1999, p.29).

…

WINNIE THE POOH

YES I HAVE

📚

IN FEBRUARY OUR MEMBERS ALSO READ …

…

THE CHOIR

&

…

THE MEN AND THE GIRLS

‘What I enjoy particularly about her books is understanding life from the different perspectives of the various characters and being able to empathise with them, even if their thoughts and feelings are different from what my own might have been. Her characters are plausible.’

📚

…

THE INK BLACK HEART

‘I thoroughly enjoyed it but did get a bit fed up with all the “on line” chatter though I could see the point of it, it was definitely part of the story. I feel she must be very up on how computer games work, which I am most definitely NOT!’

&

…

THE DEAD OF SUMMER

‘I enjoyed this and it did not end as I expected it to which I thought was quite clever and that she kept me guessing.’

&

…

CHARLES III

‘Very readable.’

📚

…

THE GOLDFINCH

‘It's very long and I loved about three quarters of it, lots of descriptive writing, a tragedy at the beginning when there is an explosion in an art gallery, a young boy's mother is killed, an elderly man and his grand daughter survive. The boy takes the picture of the goldfinch off the wall and we follow his journey being cared for by a furniture restorer and becoming attached to the young girl survivor. But I got bored with the latter part of the book when the narrative concentrated on criminals finding the painting and bartering it between rival gangs … ‘

&

…

WHISPERS

‘ … a couple move into an old house and there are old diaries left there and people "see" and "hear" people and strange things happen … not my usual kind of book.’

&

…

I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE

 ‘ … a “thriller”, some mysterious deaths from long ago are investigated and it was quite a good read but nothing special!’

📚

…

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS

‘Lent to me by a friend, I had not wanted to read it. But contrary to my fearfulness, although dark and with a horrendous outcome for the little boy, his family and all Jews, it was very readable. 

Set in WW2, it is written through the eyes of the 8 year old boy, Bruno, whose father is commandant of Out-With. It took me ages to realise what this was!  It is written with the naivety and curiousness of an 8 year old, using his observations through simple language and short sentences … very effective. Consequently the reader is somehow spared the brutal facts until really the very end. But all along we know exactly what is happening on the other side of the fence. 

You can tell it’s made a big impression on me.’

&

…

MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG

‘Enjoyable, light but less light than Richard Osman. It was more thoughtful, the language was richer and the religious context was interesting and informative!’

MEANWHILE THE OTHER HALF

…

ACT OF OBLIVION

‘ … finished … ‘

&

…

HORSE UNDER WATER

‘ … now reading … ‘

📚

OUR READER LEADER

…

AUGUST BLUE

‘This is a very readable, slightly surreal book, about a famous pianist who was a child prodigy, but comes to grief when she ruined a concert in Vienna, when she was playing with an orchestra, and suddenly began to play something quite different. It has a rather enigmatic ending.’

&

…

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

‘ … still reading … As I only read one or two pages a night, it will probably take me the rest of the year! Although I am about three quarters way through.’

&

…

ALL THINGS ANGLICAN

‘ … by Marcus Throup (a priest in the Winchester Diocese). It is a short book about normal Church of England practice and belief, which I felt I should brush up on because of church politics.’

📚

…

BOOK GROUP

*****

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD

*****

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2011 - 2024

…

12 EPIC YEARS

*****

FROM THE ARCHIVE

…

16/8/21

*****

[selormohene]

day 64 (tuesday, september 5th 2023)

I went for a run today, in hopeful preparation for the upcoming 5k, so some notes on running. I'm not an expert on this, this is just synthesised from common sense, experience and half-remembered (perhaps misremembered) stuff I read on the internet at some point. If you're training to run a long-distance race, let's say a 5k or above (though I guess that's really middle-distance but whatever, it's long-distance for me), there are four fundamentals you need to focus on in training. There's endurance, speed, intervals, and then there's fundamentals.

So first endurance: you want to build up the total distance you are able to run at a go, as slowly as necessary. This should be well in excess of the distance you're aiming for. The idea is that even if you wake up on the day of and it's the worst day in the world and nothing is going your way, you should be able to get up and just slog it through, perhaps at a crawl, but at least you'll be able to finish the race comfortably without falling over the finish line. Then there's speed. Here the idea is that you do a few intervals, let's say anywhere between 30 to 90 seconds — or maybe even less, 10 or 20 seconds if you really want to blaze it — where you just run as fast as you possibly can. Analogously to above, here the speed you're aiming for will be well in excess of the speed at which you intend to run the actual race. The interesting thing about endurance, or the capacity to run in the face of discomfort, is that you generally don't run at your maximum capacity, or at a fixed proportion of what you're capable of doing, but at a fixed proportion of what your brain thinks you're capable of doing, given what you've done in the past. So I often note that after I've done just a few minutes of sprinting, if I go out on a long run a few days later it feels a lot less painful, just because the sprint told my brain "you're capable of a lot more than this, this isn't the max." So that's sprints. Intervals are a mixture, whose unique use is that they help you to transition between the two modes, and also more accurately simulate the sorts of challenges you'll face in an actual run. And then the fundamentals are things like weight training, nutrition, sleep, pre-empting injury, etc., things which limit your potential downside and raise your maximum capacity.

It strikes me that there's an analogy here to performance in all sorts of fields. You rant to increase your general functional capacity for performing in the area, the maximum level at which you're capable of operating, you want some situations where you mix things up a little bit, and then you want to lay the groundwork which isn't itself what you're doing but is prerequisite for it.

Still feeling overwhelmed about school and all that starting up. Also, the math has become boring again. Also an unpleasant side effect of the semester's having snuck up on me is that I didn't get a chance to sit down and properly figure out which classes I'd have to take in order to be ready by the time I graduate to complete a Masters en route, or to get an ad hoc PhD (nor am I sure whether any of that would actually help me with immigration-related stuff). Need to sit down and figure that out properly, but also in doing so to come up with a concrete course of study. (Maybe applied math with a focus on complex systems, or statistics with a focus on extreme values?) Feels like life is passing me by and I'm just letting it. Can't allow hope to die.

[theyoungblooded]

Anonymous asked: Transition + Lippmann for the word meme!

“ You want to know about my transition? ” The actor smiles jovially despite the personal nature of the inquiry, more than used to this line of questioning by now. When he first became famous he was ‘Hollywood’s First Trans Teen’, & he maintained that label to this day although the meaning of it has… changed somewhat.

“ I first became acquainted with the term transgender & transsexual when I started attending private school at 13, up until that point I was being privately taught at home. I know what it sounds like, I got influenced by being around kids my own age for the first time & they made me think I was female. But that really wasn’t it. From the time I was very young - I want to say five or six - I remember feeling a very strong disconnect with how the world perceived me. Like it’s pretty normal for kids to get changed with their same sex siblings when they’re little right? The idea made me uncomfortable. The fact I was automatically pushed into changing with the boys, my mother trying to set up play dates with her friends’ sons for me when I wanted to just do my own thing… it all made my deeply uncomfortable.” He explains thoughtfully as he pushes a lock of blond hair behind his ear.

“ Was I ready to make irreversible medical choices for myself at six? Absolutely not. I did some stupid things as a teen when my parents wouldn’t support me, I’m lucky I didn’t hurt myself or make myself sick. HRT makes you sterile eventually, which is fine but most people don’t realize that. To anyone out there who’s really young who feels like nobody supports you & so you need to steal hormones or order them from some sketchy black market website. Don’t. Please don’t. Gender is so much more than breast growth or having a deep voice. Do not risk hurting yourself with self medicating because the side effects are really scary, trust me. You don’t want to deal with that alone. I know it’s hard to be patient, but things do get better once you’re in the position to make the future & life you want for yourself, I promise. ” He says to the camera, his voice gentle & pleading yet serious.

Realizing he’d gone off on a bit of a personal tangent he redirects himself back to the question. “ I identified as male to female for pretty much all of my teens, 13 to 18. My life has been filled with highs & lows, & that part of my life was… mostly lows, I’m not going to lie. I did intend on a full transition throughout my teen years. I had facial feminization surgery as soon as I was emancipated from my parents & was on HRT for a while, & that’s when I started to realize… my dysphoria actually disappeared by like 90% once I looked in the mirror & was visibly… ambiguous I suppose? I realized it wasn’t masculinity that made me uncomfortable, it was people assuming how I looked reflected what I am. I’m genderfluid, & androgyny more or less alleviated all of my dysphoria. I can dress like a woman & no one will look at me & go ‘oh that’s a dude in a dress’ or ‘she’s a trans woman’. Realizing that, I decided not to go through with seeking breast implants or what’s known as bottom surgery, I didn’t see the need anymore. I worked with my medical team so I’m on just the right amount of hormones to not undo any of the work I’ve put in. I may not identify as a trans woman anymore, but I definitely think I still fall under the trans umbrella, somewhere beside my Enby friends. ”

Seeing the director of the show motion to him behind the scenes he shoots a dazzling, million watt smile at the camera, “ Thank you very much for the question, I really appreciate it! The next one we have is… ”

#I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SUPERSTAR { LIPPMANN } #gender dysphoria // #medication //

[dzpenumbra]

7/26/23

The creaks woke me up again. I still have no idea whether these are new neighbors or I was just too distracted by my cat being sick to notice these sounds before. I really don't feel like it was this loud during the winter, I think these are new tenants. That creaking sound is very distinct and unique, I feel like I would've remembered it. Maybe the new tenants put a couch right on that floorboard and the last tenants didn't, who knows.

Either way, I was up after 4 hours of sleep. I gave up on going back to sleep and played more of that Mini Motorways game. Then decided to apply my time a bit more productively and played around in Magic (the visualizer program) again. I made some pretty cool effects. But since I have open-backed headphones, I could hear the creaks loud as hell. And they are fucking loud... like I had the volume blasting, playing metal, and I could hear it clear over the music.

I eventually went up and added another shim to the molding. Maybe they kinda worked their way out from abrasion, I don't know. I got them in there as far as I could with just my hands and it seemed to make a difference. Guess this is my life now... Really makes me sit on the fence about renewing my lease, but there is literally nowhere else to go. The only other option would be me talking to my building manager and seeing if I could change units... or find some other arrangement. Which is a shame, I like my unit number (111). But I also like sleep. So... yeah.

The caffeine detox is actually going surprisingly well. I was expecting worse headaches, but I've been doing good. I went from 1 liter of coffee daily to one cup of green tea daily. Pretty big jump. The tradeoff is... I've been adding honey, and I drink coffee black... so there's more sugar in my diet. But honey is healthier, right? Right?

But yeah, I went back to sleep to get a nap in around 2PM. It sucked because it was actually a nice day out and I wanted to go skating. I put on a binaural beats thing made for a 90-minute nap and ended up sleeping through three of them. So I didn't get up until like... 6:30?

That shit really fucks up your day. Starting your day at 6:30PM just throws off all your rhythm, even if you're accustomed to a nocturnal life. I got everything prepped for "breakfast", made my tea and did my yoga. By the time I was done with breakfast, it was past 8PM. That's always a stressful moment. Like... "oh shit, when am I going to eat dinner then?!"

I went on a Blender deep-dive today. It just pulled me in. My experimentation with Magic earlier in the day led me back to the idea of importing a mandala as... each component being a separate 3D model part that can be manipulated individually. So like... rings, leaf and pedal shapes, stuff like that. And once make one of those shapes, I have it forever, so I can just plug it into a new scene. That led to me diving headfirst into my first experiment with making a 3D mandala model. Meaning - it looks like a mandala when looking from bird's-eye view, but it is actually a 3-dimensional structure, a temple. I can see it taking shape, I see its potential. I just... have very little experience with the workflow of 3D modeling, so I sank several hours into just... learning how to do the basics.

After that, I did dinner. Something basic, pesto with tomato and fresh mozz on the side. I watched Dan Corrigan explain his extremely unhealthy methods of focusing his anger, pain and frustration into sheer willpower and determination in order to skate better. Which is... probably why he gets hurt so often... And he was describing how other people he knows don't do that, and he "can't do it" their way. How they can just walk away from a trick and take a breather and then come back. And he "can't". And I said out-loud, "no, Dan, you won't." But man... do people get upset when you say shit like that to their face. Because it's fucking true. It's true. You really want to tell me that you are physically incapable of walking away from a trick and taking a breather? You just completely lose a concept of free will? You could try. But you don't want to. Because that's the system you're used to. That's what gets results. That's your method. Even if it's unhealthy, even if it physically hurts you, even if it knocks you out of skating for weeks at a time and will likely end your career years shorter than it has to... it's yours. It's what got you this far, and no one can take that from you, right?

That's where I think it's super important to really... be mindful, be aware, of what behaviors and actions you identify your self with. And whether they are really achieving your goals, whether they are worth the cost. Using this example... he skated for like... probably half an hour to an hour? With a rock in his fucking shoe. Because he "could not" stop trying the trick until he landed it. Because sitting down and taking the rock out of his shoe would take a while because his hips carry a tremendous amount of tension (I wonder where that came from...), then he has to take the shoe off, and get the rock out, and then put it back on and stand back up. It's a whole thing. And by the time he's back up, he's afraid he will have lost all his momentum.

That's the core of it. He's afraid walking away from the trick will fuck him up and he'll lose his progress. Like his mom is calling him for dinner but he hasn't reached a savepoint in a video game without autosave. That example today made me see the differences between determination, self-punishment and fear-driven obsession - different types of "motivation" - and many shades where they overlap. I started to see where I still use it, and how much I've changed since then.

I remember about a year ago noticing this in Andy Schrock, too. How tense he holds his body, specifically his shoulders. Dan... I guess it's in his hips and neck, but it's not as obvious. Andy is super obvious, he carries a tremendous amount of tension in his shoulders, arms and hands. And he had to get surgery on both of his shoulders to correct that. It's gotta be so fucking hard to be a doctor or a physical therapist, man. Good lord. When you can visibly see that someone is fucking up their body because they're just holding tension in the wrong places, and all they have to do is fucking relaaaaax. Just get massages, take a bath, do yoga, practice relaxation. Practice letting go. But as that doctor... you can't say shit without sending them into a rage. Pride's a real bitch.

I can't even begin to tell you how valuable practicing relaxation has been in my yoga practice. That psoas routine I've been doing off and on for months? There's a pose in it... let me see if I can find it... It's basically Lizard pose, but you bring your back foot up behind you, then reach back with your opposite arm and grab your toes and bring your heart to the sky. I hadn't been able to reach my toes at all. Like... it felt like it just was never gonna happen. But the last time I did this video and today, I just sorta... found extra room. By relaxing and moving in different ways. And bracing my knee so the pressure against the floor didn't hurt the nerves above my kneecap. And I was able to do it pretty easily. A lot of the problems that I have, like struggling with my hips and sitting crosslegged, are 100% because I just struggle to relax. And I've struggled to relax those muscles for so long... that I forget how to use them. I forget what relaxing them feels like.

Such an incredibly valuable tool, not just for the body... not just for longevity and avoiding injury from accumulated bad habits... but for the mind as well. The regular practice of willful, mindful relaxation and letting go has been crucial in my mental health care. Which is why I was a bit baffled that I can overlook F35s flying over my apartment every week... but this creaky board... I just can't let it go. I just can't get used to it. Welp, progress isn't perfection. But it's still progress!

Speaking of progress, I began detail work on my grip tape. As with all improvised details in a permanent medium... it was spooky. Look, improvising abstract designs like the bubble designs, those are a different story. Those are comparatively pretty easy. Mandalas... see, the whole impact that a mandala has, the impressive effect of it is its symmetry. The more symmetrical it is, the more "wow" factor. Typically, at least. So... there's always that inner pressure to like... make sure all the iterations are identical. To the point where I get urges to grab a fucking ruler. And I had to remind myself regularly that I am not an architect, I'm not an engineer, peoples' lives don't depend on these measurements. In fact... with this piece in particular, I'd prefer some variation. The piece alternates gold rounded pedals and red pointed leaves, eight of each. It naturally has a very organic feel. So I really like the idea of individualization, of letting each leaf have its own personality, but being themed the same. It was pretty inspired by my Pothos leaves. How the new leaves are very clearly the same species and plant, and look very similar, but have their own personality. So, you know... allowing little quirks like circles not perfectly lining up, or a leaf to be a little lopsided, or subtle variation in shading or base texture. These variations are not visible at all from a distance, even to my eye, and I designed and painted the damn thing. But once you get up close, you can see that they actually don't all have the same exact design... not like a computer mirrored and cloned them... but each leaf within itself is a symmetrical, balanced composition - that's an effect you can only get from adding in the extra effort of designing each leaf individually.

So far, I got the inner 3 layers of the mandala done, the finest details. The rest will elaborate on the last corresponding color's layer designs, basically taking the last design and blowing it up to a larger scale, and then adding in new details within that detail. So... kind of a fractal effect, in a way. I just need to be cautious about adding in too much detail, or else... I won't be able to skate for the next 2 weeks! XD

Yeah, I'm still not sure how to go about skating this thing before the detail is done. It's at least 2-3 more days of painting, unless I really sit down and marathon session this thing. Which... honestly is tempting. We'll see. I might have to find a better way of transporting it in the time being, I'm afraid that was really what scuffed the paint... not my shoes, but my backpack. I might have to put the board inside my backpack instead of using the straps on the back. We'll see.

Alright. Well... I want to get to bed, the birds are making it very clear that despite me not seeing any daylight, it is absolutely dawn. I am also becoming more aware that... I haven't done tarot in a long fucking time. That sleep deprivation just like... hard-reset my life. My workout routine is gone, my tarot study is gone, my diet planning is gone. Ugh. Welp, let's baby step some tarot study back, shall we? One card, something to keep an eye out for tomorrow.

:( Inverted Ten of Cups. Ten of Cups is the happy ending, joy and harmony with loved ones. Inversion being... a disconnect, a dissonance in this symbol.

It's always so hard for me to see this card, especially approaching... 37 in a few months... and having never been in a "real" relationship, a healthy "real" relationship. Relationships and bonding have been on my mind (and my subconscious) a lot lately. Maybe tomorrow will be an opportunity for me to find a bit more awareness of what specifically is preventing me from finding this life. Maybe I already have some good ideas there... like me never leaving my house... and spending all day every day alone... Maybe I can use this symbol as inspiration to try to resolve that dissonance.

Maybe if I get up at a decent hour... I can go check out a cool hippie vegetarian restaurant nearby and see if anyone who works there is cool? Maybe scope out prices on the yoga studio nearby and see if taking a class there would be a nice way to both get some assistance with my practice and maybe meet like-minded people?

Good lord, just thinking about it gets me emotionally overwhelmed. It's hard to explain. It just feels... loud. Like... going from a library to the middle of a crowd at a concert. I've been away from these venues for so long that the mere thought of it just immediately makes me think "oh god, that's gonna be intense." And the classic, "be careful, you might fuck it up with your lack of practice."

God, the same excuse with art, with music, with skating, with streaming, now with just having a fucking conversation. That gut instinct that says "hey man, it's been a while since you've done that... you might... fuck it up. You might... make a mistake. And embarrass yourself, or weird people out. Can't afford that, can you? Better stay home, play it safe." Hey, gut instinct. Fuck you. I mean, you're me so... I love you... but... you're really not being helpful in this situation. XD

To close this out, I want to share a moment I experienced tonight in another one of those Adam Savage videos. He said very explicitly - and this was like... pure enlightenment - after a 40 minute rabbit-hole of measurement systems and how you can't actually measure anything completely accurately because once you zoom in far enough, everything is sorta... deeply entwined with its environment and current state and nearby things, and is always changing. It was very interesting, but it was a bit besides the point. The point being... meh, fuck it, I'll just transcribe. "...we don't make how-to videos so much as we make 'what happened' videos, and what almost always happens are mistakes and screw-ups. In fact, they're completely integral to making and, honestly, to being a person." What a beautiful message. What a comforting and reassuring reminder, from someone that worked at Skywalker fucking Ranch, that "to err is human". And gracefully experiencing those mistakes, and understanding them, is the process of us gathering XP and leveling up. The only real mistake... is never trying.

So you know what? Lets say I go to the restaurant and I'm super sleep deprived and I stumble over my words. Or I'm super emotionally intense because I rarely interact with people, and tend to interact with full genuine emotional expression. And the person I'm interacting with thinks I'm an idiot or weird or something. Well... that would make them judgmental. And I should not cater my plans (or my life) to the opinions of people who judge a book by its cover.

#diary #journal #online journal #stream of thoughts #stream of consciousness

[emilycritchley]

TOXIC BLOWJOBS

Please sign & share the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618978 In an era of energy insecurity, illegal pollution levels in our cities, climate breakdown and “insect armageddon”, why are we still gardening with fossil fuels? For years I had no idea that my daughter’s school, the park where she plays, the street we live on and every garden in my vicinity, were all “managed” in a way that routinely poisons the air and threatens every living species in proximity. November is the cruellest month. Like so many in this country, I am terrorized at this time of year by the headache-inducing roar of petrol-powered leaf-blowers and the kerosene-laced dust clouds left in their wake. Yet few know the dire effects of these super-polluters on human health – from permanent hearing damage (any sustained sound above 85 decibels; most leaf-blowers reach 90) to exacerbating asthmas and cancers, to serious psychological distress. Or that, in the name of ‘landscape maintenance’, we’re wiping out food and habitats for millions of bugs, birds and mammals, annihilating microorganisms in the soil and damaging the health of our carbon-sequestering trees. I’m aware that, in climate terms, petrol-powered gardening tools seem a comparatively trivial, even parochial, problem. Limiting flying, driving and food waste, avoiding products that contribute to the deforestation of the earth or the denuding of our oceans are vital. These are large-scale examples of the narrative of man + machine vs natural world that is the core of our environmental emergency. But I’ve become convinced that mending our broken relationship with the living earth has to start at home: in an ability to see and think differently about the non-human life struggling to survive in our streets, backyards, towns and cities. It is by now well documented that the climate and biodiversity crises – twin catastrophes to all life – are fundamentally related both to each other and to human health. Let’s expose these gas-guzzling power tools for what they really are: yet another front in our war on nature, and thus on ourselves, and call for them to be banned. Trees have shed their leaves for millennia. These get broken down to form nitrogen-rich humus – a gardener’s best friend – which give both the trees and every living creature that depends on them a nutrition boost through the winter. That is until late twentieth-century America invented a way to crack the confected problems of ‘messy lawns’ and ‘slip risks’ with the highly profitable, highly-polluting petrol leaf-blower. I can’t account for the taste of people who prefer golf-style green deserts to the visual delight of autumn leaves (the history of poetry shows the aesthetes are not on their side), but even if we focus on the safety aspect, the use of these machines cannot be justified. Emitting approx 30% of their petrol / oil fuel mix instantly as a carcinogenic aerosol, petrol leaf-blowers add new pollution to the already illegal levels in our cities. They have been shown to release 50x more brain-damaging particulate pollutants than all the engines in a busy junction at rush hour. They are 300x more polluting than a car for ground level ozone pollution, which kills more people globally each year than died in the entire Covid pandemic. They also stir up and widely distribute existing pollution in a toxic cocktail. Leaf-blowers pulverize whatever they come into contact with into unnaturally fine dust which is then blown far and wide: animal excrement, manure, fertilizer, pesticide residue, moulds, street dust: dust from brake linings, including asbestos, grease, oil and carcinogenic carbon black from tire wear. Because the particles of this dust are so fine (less than 10 microns), they can stay airborne for days, bypassing the protective cilia in our airways and going straight into our lungs and even into our bloodstream. This is especially bad news for children.   On contact with their blast, insects and soil microorganisms are annihilated; leaf-blowers can also kill or maim any small animal who happens to be hiding or hibernating in a leaf pile at the time. The 1990s saw an exponential rise in the availability and use of petrol leaf-blowers, along with an exponential fall in formerly common mammals such as the British hedgehog, voles, moles, bats and dormice. So fatal are these machines to wildlife, that Germany recently restricted their use after a disturbing report warned of an ongoing “insect armageddon”.  This shouldn’t just be of concern to entomologists. We are literally destroying one of the key chains in the life cycle whereby soils remain healthy and our food pollinated. The shameful truth is that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world with, on average, only about half its biodiversity left – far below the global average of 75% according to the Biodiversity Intactness Index. That puts us in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity. In spite of this, the practice of hoovering nature’s free fertilizer into plastic bags, only to then have to purchase (in different plastic bags) the artificial fertilizers, composts, pesticides and herbicides required once we rid our ecosystems of the biodiversity that formerly produced nitrogen, shared minerals, pollinated flowers, rationed water, and so on, has become commonplace in this country. And the problem, as well as the trend for immaculate lawns and slip-free public spaces (in case of punishing law suits), seems to be growing. Domestic sales indicate that more and more homeowners are purchasing these power tools, every landscape gardener and grounds management company has a collection of them, schools use them to maintain ‘safe’ playgrounds and councils to clear roads and parks, all regularly poisoning the air we breathe. And, like so many other environmental problems, this practice has an exponentially negative impact when scaled up. For the fact that we’ve ‘unwilded’ almost every square mile of the UK, through industrial farming, destructive building projects and other catastrophic land practices, means that every domestic garden, park, urban and suburban green space now really counts in terms of both its ability to sequester carbon, prevent flooding and provide somewhere for wildlife to go. The organisation Plantlife.org.uk makes this vitally clear through campaigns such as ‘No Mow May’. Bees, butterflies, birds, frogs and hedgehogs all need wild or ‘untidy’ corners of gardens, fields and parks. They rely on fallen leaves and leaf mulch, along with ‘weeds’ like dandelions and daffodils, for food, to nest in, lay eggs on, and hibernate in. And we need them: if lockdown taught us anything it was surely that the physical, mental and emotional succour nature provides humans – as proven recently by science, but documented by artists and writers for centuries – is essential to our health. At the same time – and of course these problems are interconnected – we have serious physical health issues throughout our cities. London “systematically and persistently” exceeds European legal limits for air pollution and has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Recent research by King’s College London estimates by how much air pollution in English cities stunts lung growth in children.  In the capital, that figure is 12.5%. Why wouldn’t we immediately call a halt to any practice that, whilst being unnecessary (we still have brooms and rakes), adds to these damning statistics? As a country we have a choice: business as usual – tens of thousands suffering and even dying from air pollution-related illnesses every year, mass species extinctions, pollinators wiped out, our gardens and green spaces becoming microbial deserts with only artificial fertilizers to keep anything growing – or a collective push to legislate against one of the most harmful and unwarranted practices we have hitherto put up with. In the war on nature, we know which side the current government is on. I urge you to email your council, your MP, your local school and whoever else has a ‘duty of care’ to demand they end this toxic practice. Only people power can save us. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618978 Sources: https://www.alternet.org/2014/08/modern-pestilence-leaf-blowers-generate-infuriating-noise-toxic-gases-and-hazardous-dust/ https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/Health%20and%20Environmental%20Impacts%20of%20Leaf%20Blowers.pdf https://www.zmescience.com/science/leaf-blowers-health-noise-hazards/ https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-000212_EN.html https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/leaf-blowers-insect-noise-pollution-germany-gardening-a9208366.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7322062/ https://cleanairlawncare.com/doctor-raises-concerns-about-leaf-blowers/ https://canadianaudiologist.ca/leaf-blowers-trying-to-kill-us-feature/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-ear-splitting-leaf-blower-it-also-emits-more-pollution-than-a-car-1513346400 https://www.momscleanairforce.org/leaf-blowers-health/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50431827 https://www.clientearth.org/media/zf2hmbjr/what-impact-does-long-term-exposure-to-air-pollution-in-your-city-have-on-childrens-health-coll-en.pdf https://www.webmd.com/lung/features/outdoor-pollution-and-lung-function-effects and many, many more

[maplecornia]

and now here comes my babe Woosung reminding me what good music is

Come Down :: 89%

this was such a ethereal song to start off the album, and with the symphony of his unique voice, you are immediately drawn in almost as though a siren were taking you to the depths. Listening to this made me feel almost as if I was in a dream sequence and I'm sorry but I can't help but be addicted to it. The only thing I don't like is the repetition in the second verse, I feel like he could have done more with that and he didn't which was a bit of a disappointment

Side Effects :: 75%

I didn't like this song as much as I did the others on the album, and it made me sad to say it, but this is still a solid song. It's one of those songs where I really like it, but there are other songs which are just practically better, so I am forced to put it in a lower tier WHICH KILLS ME. Plus I think the feature was a bit uncalled for, but I mean they made it work so I'm not really complaining

Phase Me :: 98%

THIS WAS SUCH A GOLDEN TITLE TRACK ISTFG. LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL F-- WOOSUNG YOU NEED TO CALM TF DOWN ISTFG IM FERAL. This man's KNOWS the affect he has and BOY does he make use of it. But hey, who's really complaining at this point. In any case, I absolutely ADORE this song, I can't get enough of it, and it's perfect title track material, I can't deny. Like even if I liked another song better on the ep I don't think I would want it to replace the title because it's just that perfect

Modern Life :: 100%

And here we go coming up to my hidden bside gem. I really REALLY love this song and the pain and anger behind the words. It really screams the truth of how you can feel like the loneliest person in a room of a thousand others, and I LOVE THAT. Plus the way he used such simplistic but captivating tones in his instrumental really highlight THAT GEM OF A VOICE and he really makes me feel something with what he says. AHIWKEKDD I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS FOR DAYS but dw I will spare you

TOTAL :: 90%

AGQUSJIDDK WHY DOES HE MAKE GOOD MUSIC I CANT ANYMORE

#maple charts 🍁 #maple 🍁 #woosung #moth #woosung moth #woosung comeback

[daenqyu]

— doing their eyeliner at 12AM

includes: bakugou, kaminari, kirishima, and hawks

warnings: suggestive (LOTS of making out)

a/n: did i write this just because i love doing my eyeliner and i really want to sit on a guy’s lap while i do his???? maybe. but that’s none of your business 🙄☝️

bakugou katsuki

it’s canon that he wears eyeliner and even if it wasn’t,,, he’d still try it at least ONCE

in this case you had to ask him

well more like beg him 

“babe please, i promise i’ll make a good work!” 

“how? you suck at doing yours”

you scoff before punching his arm, making him let out a hiss as he glares at you

“i don’t you idiot, now can you shut up and stay still for a second?”

of course he ends up giving in bc come on, he’d do anything just to make you happy and if that meant letting you put makeup on him at 12AM because you thought he’d look ‘pretty’ then so be it

bakugou doesn’t voice out any of this though 

instead, he keeps complaining and even tickles your sides from time to time just to get on your nerves

“bakugou,” he frowns when his last name falls from your lips, not liking how it sounded at all. “stop fucking moving or i’ll stap your eye.”

“tch, stop telling me what to do, dumbass.”

but he does stop

after all, he didn’t really want you to get mad at him

he entertains himself by tapping his fingers against your thighs to the beat of the music playing from your speaker 

his touch makes butterflies flutter in your stomach, but you ignore them and continue to draw on his eyelids 

you decide to keep it simple; just a very defined line that’s not too thick, but enough so that it’s visible 

“okay, i’m done”

after you put the eyeliner down and notice bakugou’s eyes were focused on you, you completely forget how to breathe

the black makes his vermilion eyes look even brighter and in contrast with his blonde hair...he simply looks beautiful 

he takes your silence as a bad sign and thinks you probably did fuck up, but when he looks at himself in his phone camera, the makeup looks fine to him so,

why the heck weren’t you saying anything?

“what is it? do you not like it?”

didn’t like it? couldn’t he see you were practically salivating bc of him?

“uh no, you look really good actually,” you look away before continuing, not trusting yourself to look at him while you said the next words. “you look pretty”

bakugou is a little surprised by the compliment, but he wastes no time before teasing you

he leans in, and once he’s close enough, he takes your chin so you’re looking directly at him

a smirk takes over his lips when your eyes avoid his

“what’s got you so shy?” he teases

“i’m not”

“then look at me” 

you didn’t want him to know how big of an effect he had on you, so you turn your head around and face him, even tho you’re flustered beyond belief

his eyes slowly look down at your lips and then back to your eyes, making you a little anxious as to what could happen, but bakugou decides to drags it out

just to have some fun of his own

he places one of his hands on the back of your neck, gently pulling you forward until your noses are almost touching 

the other one caresses your cheek softly, then his fingers slowly trace out your jaw, eyes still stuck on your own 

it’s infuriating really

the way his fingers carefully touch your lips, applying a bit more pressure on his thumb that’s touching your lower lip so he can open your mouth ever so slightly 

the way he acts as if he has all the time in the world, as if he could do this all day

and you know he can

but you don’t 

so you lean in to close the distance with a deep kiss

it’s messy and sloppy; his tongue clashing with your own as his hands roam all over your body to feel you

you end up sitting on his lap, lips still connected and hands all over each other

you pull away, chest heaving as rough breaths leave your mouth and smirk when you notice bakugou is looking at you 

his hair is messy thanks to your gripping and the eyeliner fits him so nicely

for a moment you almost can’t believe he’s your boyfriend 

“have i ever told you how handsome i think you are?” you ask him with a goofy smile on your face, fingers playing with the ends of his hair

“hm, once or twice but you can always remind me again” 

“let me just show you”

he quirks an eyebrow at your implication, licking his lips as his eyes darken

“oh? bold, aren’t we now?”

“learned from the best”

“fuck yeah you did”

to keep it short, you guys didn’t sleep a lot that night 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

kaminari denki

he was DEFINITELY the one that came up with the idea

something just tells me he probably spends 90% of his time scrolling through tiktok 

and if he feels like it, maybe he’ll even posts some of his own

so it’s no surprise that he’s caught up with all the trends and challenges

and even dances (which surprisingly, he’s damn good at)

i’m guessing you guys already know what i’m trying to get at

he had seen way too many tiktoks of couples doing their partner’s eyeliner and he thought it was the coolest thing ever

not only was he curious to see how the makeup would look on him, but he also just wanted an excuse to spend more time with you

he had been thinking about it for a few weeks now, but couldn’t seem to find the perfect moment to ask you

until one night you guys were having a sleepover on your dorm and a video of said trend pops up on his ‘fyp’

you’re cuddling, your head against his chest as his fingers trace random pattern on your back, when he brings it up

“hey babe?”

you hum in response, eyes fluttering open to look up at kaminari

he smiles before pecking your lips, thinking about how beautiful you look all cuddled up next to him

“do you think you could do my eyeliner real quick?”

the question takes you by surprise,

tho you’re used to yout boyfriend being quite spontaneous and random at times, so you don’t really question it

instead, you nod and move out of the bed to get the makeup product, which sits on your vanity

“where should i sit?”

he asks you once you walk over to him, but you simply smile before taking a seat on his lap

you position your legs on either side of his hips so you’re in a straddling position and kaminari almost forgets all about the makeup because of this

but can you really blame him?

you just look so perfect like this

he has to physically stop himself from flipping you over and kissing you all he wants

and you giggle when you notice a pout forming on his face

“what’s wrong?”

“nothing”

“you sure?”

“yeah, just hurry up and do it so i can kiss you”

you laugh, “yes sir”

when you start, he can’t help but giggle at the feeling and you have to hold his face in place so he would stop moving

he gets used to it after a while 

almost even falls asleep from how soft your other hand felt on his cheek

since you know kaminari likes to be a little extra, you attempt to draw a lighting bolt right below one of the lines

it’s not the best, but it looks decent enough so you decide to leave it there

but when you finish, you feel like something is missing; like it could be better

then you have the fantastic idea to use eyeshadow

kaminari feels you getting up from his lap and he whines 

“where are you going?”

“hold on, i’m feeling inspired right now”

“okay?”

he doesn’t understand what you mean at all, but he lets you be

you take a random eyeshadow palette and make sure it has a nice black color on it

then you reposition yourself on his lap

“open your eyes and look up”

he does as he’s told and you proceed to put some more black on his lower lash line and waterline (not too much)

when kaminari doesn’t feel your touch on his face anymore, he looks down at you with a smile, which inevitably makes you smile too

“how do i look?”

you chuckle lowly, examining his eyes once more 

he always looks gorgeous, but the eyeliner just...makes him hit different

and the fact he’s wearing one of his chokers doesn’t make it any better

he looks straight out of alt tiktok

“you, my beautiful boyfriend, look very attractive”

he smirks at your teasing tone, “oh? is that so?”

“i’m afraid it is” 

he doesn’t even bother looking in the mirror because all he could think about was kissing you

and that’s what he does

he holds your face with both of his hands before pulling you in to kiss you

his lips feel hot and so does your whole body when he grips your hips

after a few more kisses, he pulls away and looks at you with excited eyes

“can i do yours now?”

you chuckle at his cuteness before nodding and letting him draw on your face

it’s not perfect, but hey! baby tried his best and that’s all that matters

besides he looks so proud of himself, telling you how cute you look and how lucky he is to call you his

“you look soooo pretty! i mean you always do, of course, but you look even prettier which i didn’t know was humanly possible yet here you are”

he ends up going on a rant about all the things he loves about you and you’re pretty sure you have hearts in your eyes by the time he ends

“i love you”

“i love you too, my pretty girl”

kirishima eijirou:

this man has absolutely tried on eyeliner at least once in his life

has it been good? probably not

but he likes it and thinks it looks very cool

sometimes you do yours and kirishima lives for it

he likes the way it compliments the shape of your eyes and how happy you get when you get the line right from the first try

whenever you’re getting ready and he’s with you, he doesn’t take his eyes off you

a smile spreading across his lips when he sees you bite down on your lower lip in concentration, your fingers skillfully tracing the marker on your eyelids 

and that’s when the idea pops in his head

he ponders on it for a while tho, not sure how to bring it up or if you’d be up to do it

it takes him a few days before he asks you and when he does, he looks all nervous 

you’re both hanging out in his dorm cuddling as you just finished watching a movie

a yawn leaves your lips and you stretch your arms, looking at the time on your phone screen

it reads 12:33 AM 

you hum, moving your head up to look at kirishima from your place on his lap

he looks down at you and offers you a sweet smile before placing a quick kiss on your lips

“i should get going,” he pouts at your words, his hold on your waist tightening so you couldn’t stand up and you giggle, turning around completely so you’re facing him

you wrap your hands around his neck to pull him closer, just until your lips touch

you teasingly smirk at him before kissing his cheek and he frowns

“what? don’t you like my kisses?” you pout at him 

kirishima scoffs at your stupid question and grabs your jaw gently, looking you in the eyes

“stop being a tease”

you roll your eyes, “you’re so impatient”

nevertheless you comply and connect your lips with his, your hands now slightly massaging his nape

he hums against your mouth, prompting you to keep going

before things can go any further tho, you pull away 

he huffs childishly, not liking the way you kept leaving him hanging

“i seriously should get going,” you press one last peck on his lips. “don’t wanna risk getting caught here” 

“then just stay the night”

“baby i already did yesterday”

“uhh your point?”

you chuckle, “good try babe”

you attempt to stand up but once again your boyfriend stops you from doing so

you open your mouth to ask him what’s up 

but he beats you to it

“actually, i wanted to ask you something” he’s looking away from you and that makes you a little nervous, not having a clue about what he wanted to talk about 

you nod, silently telling him to keep going

“could you...do my eyeliner?” a blush creeps onto his neck, his eyes still not meeting yours and you think he looks adorable. before you can answer him, he talks again. “but i mean only if you want to cause’ i know it’s kinda hard so it’s okay if you don’t but i think i’d be really cool and-”

“oh my god eijirou it’s okay!” he finally shuts up and looks at you with big eyes

“it is?”

“hm, i’m more than happy to do it,” he lets out a sigh after hearing your comforting words and you kiss his nose. “besides you’ll look super manly”

if kirishima was already head over heels for you, then now he just wanted to straight up marry you

you got up and started to look around in kirishima’s bathroom drawer since sometimes you left some of your stuff behind just in case

luckily, the eyeliner was there

after you took it, you sat in front of kirishima once again, your legs crossed and you moved closer to him

he kept still and let you get comfortable, looking down at your lips briefly when you got a bit too close

“close your eyes”

and so he did

like i mentioned before, you’re a bit experienced with this since you practice on yourself quite a lot

so it doesn’t take you too much time

the line you drew was a bit thicker than normal but not too much

and instead of doing a straight line, you did it a bit more upwards

“and done!” you say happily while retracting your hand from kirishima’s face

he opens his eyes and offers you a grin

the action is small and meaningless, but it somehow makes you nervous

the makeup really suits him and you can’t help but admire him for a while 

by admiring i mean shamelessly checking him out

of course he notices it

and he teases you about it

“does it look good?”

“yeah,” you answer while looking away, trying to hide how flustered you are. “really good”

he hums before placing his hands on your waist and sitting you down on his lap, making you look at him with a surprised expression on your face

one of his hands stays on your waist while the other travels up to hold your face

you let out a heavy breath at his actions, feeling your heart thumping against your chest

his fingers caress your cheek softly and you lean in to his touch, loving the way he was always so gentle with you

without any warning, kirishima smashes his lips against your own

your eyes widen for a moment, not expecting this at all, but you close them when you feel his tongue touching your lower lip

you open your mouth and let him take the lead, a whimper coming out of you when you feel his hand wrap around your neck, pressing slightly

he pulls away with a smirk, both of your chests heaving from the lack of air

“still wanna leave?”

you sigh while moving your head, yet a smile was evident on your face, “i guess i can stay”

“atta girl”

takami keigo (hawks):

another one who canonically wears eyeliner !!

unlike bakugou (who does his eyeliner to cover up the gap between his mask and eyes), keigo does his solemnly because he thinks it looks good on him

wait, let me rephrase that

he knows it looks good on him

it’s part of his morning routine, he does it every time before going to work

so sometimes while you’re both getting ready for the day, you see him doing it

you open the bathroom door sleepily, barely managing to keep your eyes open

you walk over to the sink next to keigo’s and splash water on your face to wake yourself up

beside you, keigo smiles at your antics

he thinks you look the cutest in the mornings, especially when you’re grumpy

feeling his eyes on your figure, you turn around to face him with a raised brow

“why are you looking at me like that?”

“like what?”

“like i have something on my face”

he laughs at your attitude and walks over to place a kiss on your cheek

his lips feel warm against your cheek and it makes you smile

“good morning to you too” his says teasingly

“morning birdy” your tone matches his and he rolls his eyes playfully before pulling away from you to finish doing his eye makeup

you brush your teeth quickly while thinking about what you were gonna have for breakfast, and whether keigo had time to eat with you or not

once you finish, you place your toothbrush on its place and look over to your right

only to be met with the number two hero doing his eyeliner

in one hand he holds a feather of his against his eyelid, as if to help him do a straight line, and with the other he holds the actual makeup product

he has a concentrated look on his face, his brows slightly furrowed

and you look at him with nothing but adoration in your eyes

he looks so effortlessly beautiful

his golden locks are messy, yet perfectly in place and his wings rest by his side

he has his hero costume on, except for his coat

meaning his muscular arms are in full display for you to see

you don’t realize you’re staring until keigo finally finishes the second eye, and puts down the eyeliner

he smirks at you through the mirror and you look away, embarrassment clear on your face 

“come on, i made us breakfast”

instead of teasing you, like you thought he would, he simply grabs your hand and leads you to the dining table

your heart swells for the man and you look at the two plates in awe, “you did this?”

“is it so hard to believe?”

you roll your eyes before turning around and kissing him, a soft “thank you” leaving your lips as you pull away

that morning you can’t help but keep stealing glances at your boyfriend’s flawless eyeliner

and later that night, when you’re both cuddled up in each other’s arms  watching a movie, you get the sudden brilliant idea

“hey babe, can i do your eyeliner?”

keigo doesn’t even question you, he just nods before pressing a kiss to your neck and you giggle happily

you stand up to get the eyeliner from your shared bathroom and once you return, you take a seat right in front of him

“do you even know what you’re doing?” 

“shut up, i do my makeup too, you know?”

keigo laughs, “i’m just teasing baby”

“you’re mean”

he leans in towards you, pulling you closer by your hips until his lips hover over yours

unconsciously, your eyes look down at his lips, wondering whether he was gonna kiss you or not

but being the little shit he is, keigo doesn’t 

“you should hurry up,” his lips are still inches away from yours, but he doesn’t plan on closing the gap any time soon. “i wanna finish the movie”

this fucker

you clear your throat and move away from him, enough so that you can actually do the makeup, but his hands stay on your hips

you try your best to do it the exact same way he does it

a sharp, straight line that covers part of his outer v and also a small portion of his inner corner

giving his eyes a cat like shaped form

to add your own touch, you draw two small hearts on both sides of his cheekbones 

“m’kay, you can open your eyes now”

and when he does, your breath literally hitches in your throat

of course it’s not the first time you’ve seen him wearing eyeliner

but your faces are still close and his amber eyes are stuck on yours and you just feel like you’re about to explode

your reaction doesn’t go unnoticed by keigo and he smirks 

“i take it you like how it looks?” his tone is flirty and it makes you snap from your trance

you smile at him, softly tracing the two hearts with your fingers, “hm, you look lovely”

“oh really?”

“yeah”

“not as lovely as you, i bet”

and before you can even disagree with him, he presses his lips against yours

you let out a soft moan when he moves you so you’re sitting on his lap and his tongue explores your mouth ever so passionately

keigo takes his sweet time kissing you, taking in every little sound you make and the way your hips slowly move against his thigh

when you pull away, your lips are swollen and you have some spit coating them

which is enough to make keigo go crazy, but before actually doing something, he takes the eyeliner on his hand

you furrow your eyebrows at his action

“what are you doing?”

“well it’s my turn now”

“why do you oh so suddenly want to do my eyeliner?”

he smiles, leaning down to whisper in your ear, “because i wanna see how it’ll look when i make you cry it off”

your eyes widen at his words, but you make no attempt to stop him

keigo kept his promise and he indeed made you cry all of your eyeliner off 😁👍🏼

#bnha imagines #bnha headcanons #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha x reader #bnha oneshots #bnha fluff #bakugou x reader #kaminari x reader #kirishima x reader #hawks x reader #mha imagines #mha oneshots #mha fluff #bnha smut #mha headcanons #bnha x reader #bakugou katsuki #kaminari denki #kirishima eijirou #takami keigo #bnha hawks #bnha #mha

[lilliganmusic]

You liked my Top 10 Favourite Anime OSTs, so I hope you'll enjoy my Top 10 Favourite Anime OPs and following that EDs.

I'll be weighing up the sakuga, animation quality, editing and even foreshadowing in the OPs, as I'll be swayed going by song alone. As I'll be looking at foreshadowing, there may be some spoilers, so skip if you don't want any. Mother’s Basement does all the analysis on a whole bunch of these OPs, way better than I ever could, so check him out!

I made all the gifs in this post!

Honourable Mentions for OPs that didn't make the cut!

Assassination Classroom - S2 OP4

"Bye Bye Yesterday"

Cowboy Bebop - S1 OP1

“Tank”

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - Part 2 OP2

“Bloody Stream”

Kakegerui - S1 OP1

“Deal with the Devil”

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun - S1 OP1

“No.7”

And now on with the chosen ones!

10.

Teasing Master Takagi-san - S2 OP2

“Zero Centimetres - Yuiko Ohara”

If I don’t talk about this OP no one will! It’s not the most spectacular OP ever, but it doesn’t need to be. For an OP so soft, it’s hard hitting with the foreshadowing, such as the joke box Nishikata makes and the rubber Takagi lends him. I think this OP is so sweet, and I remember I used to get butterflies during that dance scene and that scene at the end where Takagi writes on Nishikata’s back. I don’t know the singer AT ALL, but her voice is so lilting and sweet! She really captured the essence of a childhood crush in 90 seconds. I can’t wait for S3!

9. Demon Slayer - S2 OP2

“Zankyou Zanka - Aimer”

Demon Slayer is a simple shounen, and the OP fits that; there’s no grandiose foreshadowing to events that happen seasons from now, but god take a look at this stunning OP.

LOOK! AT! THE! FUCKING!! ANIMATION!!! THE MUSIC!!!! THE FORESHADOWING!!!!! This OP is CRAMMED with sakuga! My poor heart BROKE when I saw Rengoku’s hilt guard at the start. Poor Uzui’s backstory is hinted at, but they get you so hyped up for the upcoming action and BOY DID THEY DELIVER THIS SEASON! I want to kiss Aimer on the mouth for giving us such a good OP, I didn’t think LiSA could be matched.

8. Kaguya-sama: Love is War? - S2 OP2

“DADDY ! DADDY ! DO ! - Masayuki Suzuki feat. Airi Suzuki”

AHHHHHHHHHHH I DIDN’T THINK THIS WOULD BE A FAVE BUT HERE IT IS! The music! The animation! The subtle details! Mwah mwah mwah! Brilliant! They fall in love with each other more every season! Their battle for love in the first season was fierce, unapologetic in its brutality, deadly! Here, it’s blossoming into something gentler, but not losing its intensity in the slightest. Also we get to see the side characters up to their antics at well, which is never a problem.

Btw this song is a MASTERPIECE, seeing the name of the song has you singing along already, I am dying to see what they do for S3.

7. Ranking of Kings - S1 OP2

“Naked Hero - Vaundy”

I already did my analysis on this ahah! Wow, I didn’t think you could pack so much emotion and foreshadowing into an OP but boy was I wrong! You can feel the love pouring out of Hiling’s gaze, and the love that went into making this superb OP. I love Vaundy, and I was so ecstatic to see them doing the OP for one of my now favourite anime ever.

This OP will definitely have the same nostalgic effect in ten years, where you burst out singing as soon you hear it. There’s a few like that on this list too. Oh yeah, and this may be the only OP on here to make me cry upon its first viewing. I would love to give it a higher ranking — I would’ve based on Vaundy alone — it could easily sit in the Top 5 any day, but we’ll see how the season ends first :D.

6. Attack on Titan - S1 OP1

“Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen”

YEAAAAAAAAH!!! FIRST ANIME BABY!!! And I used to skip the OP WPEOSKDMSOEN. Still, this OP is utterly ICONIC!!! We all scream “JAEGER” at the top of our lungs, there’s no denying it.

The ~cinnamontopography~ 😩. The organised ranks of soldiers in almost blinding monochrome against the chaotic titans in splotchy neon colours. The way Annie, Mikasa and Eren move is so goddamn satisfying and beautiful to look at. That’s some REAAAAAL nice sakuga, straight from Studio Wit themselves. This OP was really the best first OP for a series like AOT, they knocked it outta the park!

5. Nichijou - S1 OP1

“My Ordinary Life - Kataomoi”

If that zooming shot isn’t the coolest thing you’ve ever seen in your life shut up with your butt up. The OP is so funny and the song is such a FUCKING BOP!!! They instantly set you up for all the gags that might take place over the course of the show and let you know you’re in for the craziest “slice of life” you’ve ever seen. Get ready to dance your ass off when this comes on, I’m making sure your feet leave the floor!

4. Neon Genesis Evangelion - S1 OP1

“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”

ICONIC!!! GODDAMN ICONIC!!!! I love everything about how this OP looks and sounds. All that religious imagery and symbolism. Whatever could it be foreshadowing :0. Seeing flashes of the monstrous Eva 001 sends a thrill up your spine, and those frames of text let you know this ain’t your average mecha. I love those long sweeping shots, this anime really killed it with its editing. I’m glad the song is so iconic— it should be with such a sexy name. If you’re not singing along when you hear the lyrics, I’m gonna cause the third impact on your ass.

3. Beastars - S1 OP1

“Wild Side - Ali”

The minute I saw stop motion I was hooked, there was no doubt this was going down as one of my favourite openings. I love the chase at the start, the foreshadowing of the fountain, the confusion between lust and hunger in Legoshi's mind, THAT BEAUTIFUL DANCE SCENE? I got butterflies for like the first 30 times I watched it over and over. The song is an absolute bop as well, I hope ALI keep making music for a long time to come.

2. Mob Psycho 100 - S2 OP2

“99.9 - Mob Choir”

I nearly orgasmed every time I heard that damn bass riff at the start. Down bad for that bass. This OP is so creative visually, like it’s jaw dropping in the execution of all these different styles and mediums. That 3D spinning Lego animation at the start is fucking AWESOME! My favourite shot would be where all the layers that make up Mob separate and then hit him all at once, that shit gave me goosebumps. S2 went to new heights and the second OP definitely outdoes the first.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - S1 OP1

“Again - Yui”

Anime fans are weeping knowing that something belonging to FMAB is in first place. It’s a good OP!!! It slapped me in the face with it’s foreshadowing and I failed to notice, smiling demurely like a fool!

It is a perfect OP, you hear this shit and you’re already singing. It’s such a beautiful OP as well, with plenty of sakuga, emotional beats and hype moments. Of course, every time you hear Yui start singing you just know things are gonna be good. Starting with the transmutation circle that started all this shit, and ending with Ed throwing his arm in the face (eye?) of GOD??! Wow, I implore you to check out Mother’s Basement for more in-depth analysis of this masterpiece of an OP.

(Please don’t ask me why this GIF is like this, I have no idea)

#assassination classroom #jojos bizarre adventure #jjba #jjba part 2 #jjba stardust crusaders #kakegerui #cowboy bebop #toilet bound hanako kun #tbhk #teasing master takagi san #karakai jouzu no takagi san #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #kny #kaguya sama wa kokurasetai #kaguya sama love is war #kaguya sama #ranking of kings #ousama ranking #attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyoujin #snk #nichijou #neon genesis evangelion #nge #beastars #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #FMAB

[appalachiananarchist]

1. Vaccine data on preventing disease

I will start this post by summarizing (hopefully as simply as I can) a handful of studies pertaining to how well the vaccines work at preventing disease. I will start by looking at some of the early vaccine studies for the mRNA vaccines (as these are the ones I have researched most heavily). These are older studies done back before vaccine distribution really got big. In fact, I remember doing a journal club meeting on one of these articles sometime late last fall.

The first is one of the Pfizer studies. This one excluded people with compromised immunity which I understand, but angered me greatly when it came out (as a person with compromised immunity). Note that it was designed and funded by Pfizer, though when you look at the protocol and stats it appears well-designed. Like other studies discussed here, infection with COVID-19 used the FDA definition which is a positive test with at least one symptom (which can be basically anything). However, in summary, they found that a 2-dose regimen offered 95% protection against COVID-19 infection per the above definition. (SOURCE)

The second study (on Moderna) was funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the study protocol was designed by Moderna with their assistance. This study also used the FDA definition of COVID-19 as a positive test with a symptom and excluded the immune compromised. However, it found that a vaccination was 94.1% efficacious in preventing COVID-19 infection. (SOURCE)

Now that that part is out of the way I wanted to go over some more real-world data; that is, how are these vaccines actually functioning out there? Are they working on a population level like these studies suggest they ought to? Well...

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from April through July of 2021 shows that vaccination reduces chances of catching COVID 5 fold. This report was important in examining how the vaccines are responding since the delta variant of COVID-19 has started to surge. (SOURCE)

A study out of California found in July of 2021 that COVID-19 infection rates in unvaccinated people are ~5X higher than in vaccinated people. (SOURCE) They do raise the concerns that more studies are needed on how long immunity lasts and whether it will wane. 

Another study examined COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness among health care workers, a group that is heavily exposed to COVID-19. They looked at whether the vaccines would prevent disease (in their study, defined as a positive test with at least one symptom). They specifically looked at the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna). The study found "a single dose...to be 82% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and 2 doses to be 94% effective." (SOURCE)

And before you say "but those were only symptomatic cases!" here is another study also looking at health care workers. This study spanning  December 2020-March 2021 basically tested all of their enrollees for 13 weeks and found that those who received 1 vaccine dose had 80% lower chances of getting COVID, while those with 2 doses had a 90% lower chance of getting COVID. This testing was done regardless of symptom burden. (SOURCE)

There is ongoing data collection on how long immunity lasts with some new reports (warning - following study is not yet peer reviewed) suggests that vaccine efficacy may drop to ~85% after 6 months in preventing disease, but efficacy in preventing severe disease remains very high, at 97%. Still, though, 85% is pretty good. (SOURCE)

So here are just a TEENY TINY number of the many studies coming out regarding the vaccines. I could sit here and list so many more, but then this post would be way too bloated and repetitive because they all say the same thing: the vaccine works. This conclusion is both consistent and reproducible, which when talking about scientific studies, means there is some good research backing it up. And before anyone says anything--YES, you can still catch COVID after getting a vaccine. Nothing works 100% of the time. Just because my car has an air bag and I use seat belts doesn't mean I won't get injured if I crash my car. But based on the available data, it works well in preventing infection in a lot of people, and furthermore, there is one other MAJOR benefit to the vaccine which I will discuss below.

2. Vaccine data on preventing severe disease:

Probably the most important realization that has come out of the past few months is our understanding of how robustly these vaccines effect disease course and severity. I am from eastern KY so one of the big hospital systems in my area is Appalachian Regional Health, which spans 13 facilities. According to their latest stats, they have 213 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 16 are vaccinated. That means a little over 92% of the COVID patients there sick enough to need hospitalized are unvaccinated. For further reference, another major hospital in the region, Pikeville Medical, today reported that 70 of their 88 hospitalized COVID patients (~80%) are unvaccinated, and 20 their 24 (83%) ICU COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Another regional hospital, Kings Daughters, had recently reported that 86.5% of those hospitalized with COVID are unvaccinated and 100% of COVID patients in their ICU are unvaccinated. So before I even get to national statistics, you can look at these numbers as already see a trend, and I would hope you can see that these numbers are way too high and too consistent to be coincidence. For sources on these numbers you can visit the ARH, PMC, & KDMC websites or facebook pages where they post their stats (HERE, HERE, and HERE)

Now to post a few studies backing this up:

A recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (we talked about this one earlier) shows that vaccination reduces chances of hospitalization due to COVID-19 by ten fold. (SOURCE) The same report shows that vaccination reduces the risk of death due to COVID-19 by ten fold, as well!

Another recent study that incorporated delta variant data into their research has found that "unvaccinated adults aged ≥18 years are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized compared with vaccinated adults." (SOURCE).

Another study coming out of California, also post-delta surge, showed similar results, with hospitalization rates ~29X higher in unvaccinated people. (SOURCE)

Another study looked at how the vaccine protects adults over age 65, which is going to be a more vulnerable group. It found that adults >65 who received 1 dose of a COVID vaccine saw a 64% reduction in hospitalization if they contracted disease, and those with 2 doses saw a 94% reduction in hospitalization with disease. (SOURCE)

To me, studies like these are really important. What we are seeing over and over again right now is that our health care system is being absolutely flooded by unvaccinated COVID patients who need to be hospitalized. This is stressing the health system in ways it was not built to endure. We do not have enough equipment or staff to manage the volume of patients we are seeing. 

Sadly, this does not just affect COVID patients. When a bunch of unvaccinated people get sick and take up ICU beds, that means anyone who gets sick with non-COVID problems, like strokes and heart attacks, also suffer when there aren't beds left for them. For example, your grandmother who developed a bad bacterial pneumonia and is in respiratory distress may die because an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient got there first and took the last vent in the hospital, and there aren’t any ICU beds to transfer her to nearby because the wait lists are all so long because all the ICUs are also filled with unvaccinated COVID patients. I'd argue this is the biggest problem we are facing right now regarding the pandemic even if this problem is invisible to people who don't work in healthcare. Please believe me when I say this: we are drowning, and we are drowning because of unvaccinated COVID patients who are getting severely ill. This is completely unnecessary and avoidable when we are seeing over and over again that vaccination does wonders to prevent you from getting sick enough to need the hospital at all.

Don’t believe me still? I want each of you reading this to visit the webpage for some of your local hospitals. Most of them are posting daily or weekly COVID admission and death statistics. Just take a look at them. Take a look at who is getting admitted and who is dying.

3. Vaccine safety:

Any vaccine, medication, herbal supplement, or what have you that goes into your body carries the risk of an adverse side effect. As a result each of us has to ask ourselves, do the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks? To answer that we need to better understand the risks associated with COVID-19 vaccination, and that means turning back to the data we have available. 

According to NYT Vaccine Tracker, there have been 5.73 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide since its release. This generates an abundance of data for us to work with--more than we have for most medications you take every day--in regards to understanding safety profiles of these immunizations. Given that impressive number, we are by no means seeing widespread death or disability popping up due to the vaccine, but let's get more specific. We have seen a couple common possible adverse effects:

Flu-like symptoms: Most common by far is going to be flu-like symptoms or redness/pain at the injection site. This is actually a good side effect because it means that the vaccine is doing what it is meant to do. I won't talk much more about this one because I doubt flu-like symptoms are the reason people are scared of the vaccine. But for most of you, if you have any side effects at all, this will be as bad as it gets. You are more likely to have these symptoms after dose #2.

Anaphylaxis: Anaphylaxis can occur in anyone when you encounter a substance you have a try allergy to. This is going to be a rare side effect (2 to 5 people per million, or 0.00025%), but is also why you are asked to wait 15-30 minutes to be monitored after receiving your vaccine. That way if you show any signs of distress you can be given immediate treatment. Any time you get a vaccine or start a new medicine a severe allergy is a possible reaction, but if you already KNOW that you are highly allergic to something in the vaccine, you should not receive it.

TTP: This is a disorder that causes abnormal clotting or bleeding. It seems to be associated exclusively with the J&J or AstraZeneca adenoviral-vector vaccines based on current data trends. While rare, this is going to be the most serious adverse effect from the immunization. Data suggest the highest risk is for women under 50, but it is still remarkably rare with only 45 confirmed cases of TTP after over 14 million vaccine doses given. This is an incredibly, incredibly low incidence. Of note, however, patients with the actual COVID-19 virus have a SIGNIFICANTLY increased risk of clotting, especially in severe disease. This increased risk may be due to the production of auto-antibodies in response to COVID-19 infection. Summary: your risk of a blood clot is much higher with the actual virus than the vaccine.

Myocarditis/Pericarditis: These are conditions involving inflammation around the heart tissues or heart muscle. There does appear to be an increased rate of myo/pericarditis after vaccination. This is more common in teenaged males who received an mRNA vaccine (such as Moderna or Pfizer). This is also very rare. According to VAERS, 1404 cases of possible myo/pericarditis were reported after vaccination through September of 2021, though only 817 were able to be confirmed. A CDC report from June 2021 estimated about 60 cases of myo/pericarditis may develop per 1 million vaccine series completed (if you are male aged 12-17; otherwise the rate is lower). However, that same report also estimated the prevention of 71 ICU admissions, 2 death, and 215 hospitalizations among that same group per million vaccines given. Again it is a risk-benefit discussion, but here the numbers definitely point to a benefit overall. Vaccine-induced myocarditis and/or pericarditis are generally one-time events with an excellent prognosis, so rarely represent a threat to life. As the authors of the study linked above stated, "The absolute incidence was extremely low, cases were mild, and all patients recovered. Fear of myocarditis or pericarditis should not influence COVID-19 vaccine decisions."

Guillain-Barré Syndrome: This is a disorder of the nervous system that can cause temporary weakness and paralysis. It is commonly seen after immunizations or infections with various pathogens. It has been associated with adenovirus-vector vaccines (J&J, AstraZeneca) at a very low rate (about 0.0008%) with J&J reporting ~100 cases per 12.2 million doses per VAERS data, and 227 cases out of 51.4 million doses given per EU/EEA to the EMA again through June 2021. People with a history of Guillan-barre are more likely to get it again, so your risk is probably slightly higher if you have had issues with this before, so people with this history may want to opt for an mRNA vaccine which has not been associated with this. 

4. Addressing Common Concerns

If the vaccine works, why do you feel unsafe if I don't get it? A vaccinated person is more protected from you than if they were not vaccinated, but no vaccine (or medical treatment in general) works 100% of the time, so there is always a risk of spreading disease no matter what. This is true for every single vaccine in history so COVID shots aren't special in this way. The data supports indisputibly that the vaccine reduces the RISK of getting COVID, but does not protect against it perfectly, so people should still use common sense. Also, vaccine works much, much better when everyone gets them, which is why vaccinated people enourage others to get the shot too. Think about it. Most of the studies I linked said the vaccines were in the range of 90-95% effective at preventing disease. If everyone in the room is vaccinated, the chances any of them (with their 90-95% protection) are infected and spreading COVID is going to be lower than a room of unvaccinated people, who have no protection against disease. Think now of yourself as a vaccinated bystander inside each of those rooms. In room 1, there is a low rate of COVID-19 being spread around, so your vaccine-induced immunity is now bolstered by the fact that there is also low spread in the community, making your overall chances of getting sick extremely low. In room 2 there is likely moderate to high spread of COVID-19 virus, meaning that even if you are vaccinated, because your vaccine can never be 100% effective, you sadly still have a chance of getting sick (even if it is lower than it would be if you were not vaccinated). Does that make sense?

If vaccines work, why do I have to wear a mask? Same reason as above. We can get into masks later, but point is, both offer protection against the spread of COVID-19, but neither is 100% surefire perfect immunity. Human bodies just don't work that way, sadly. By using both, you increase your chances of preventing catching or spreading disease more than if you did either one in isolation. Bringing back the car example, a seat belt is good, an air bag is also good, but I'd definitely prefer to get a car that has both a seat belt AND an air bag.

Why is the vaccine not approved for kids? Lacking data on safety and efficacy, as young children were excluded from many of the trials that looked at these vaccines. 

We don't have long term safety data. It is unprecedented for an immunization to cause new side effects years later. These shots work by activating your immune system. Any problems they are going to cause will occur surrounding that period of immune activation (meaning, at most a few weeks after you get it). That is why this vaccines typically have any side effects show up within days to weeks of administration. The idea that novel side effects will pop up YEARS later is unlikely. Now, a vaccination may have cause side effect that has long-lasting health implications, such as developing TTP and having a stroke from it, but my point is that will start within weeks of vaccination, not randomly 5 years later after the vaccine has long since left your system. As a result, any side effects from the vaccine are things we will already be seeing right now. The virus, though...   I can tell you that scar tissue in lungs doesn't magically vanish, and brain damage from hypoxia doesn't vanish. I can tell you that those who develop a generalized COVID inflammatory response are dealing with symptoms months post-infection. I can tell you that the virus itself is causing irreversible health problems and disability, and we KNOW that right now without waiting another 5 years. And we know that being unvaccinated increases your risk of getting sick enough to have these permanent disabilities. We also don't have time to wait 5-10 years on more data to deal with this problem. Action has to be taken now, or a lot of people won't be alive in 5 years to talk about the long term effects. I wish none of this had ever happened, but it did, and we have to do something or it won't get any better. This is a global pandemic; we have to cooperate with each other to eradicate it.

Vaccines should not be mandated by the state or companies. I don't really disagree. I do not think authority figures should be able to tell any person that they have to put any substance into their body against their will or else face starvation or homelessness, which is a real threat if people get fired over their vaccine status. HOWEVER neither your nor my beliefs on this topic change the fact that the vaccine works and is VITAL to keeping our health system from collapsing, and you really should be choosing to get it on your own based on the available data regardless of what your boss is saying. Please don't refuse to get the vaccine just to "send a message" or take a stand against your boss or whoever, because I promise you they will fire you without a second thought, and the only person you are sending a message to is that little grandma we talked about earlier who needs intubated but can't find a free vent or ICU bed, so dies in the emergency room while unvaccinated people take up all the space in the hospital.

5. In Summary

There are risks associated with COVID-19 vaccination, as with any vaccine or medicine, but they are remarkably, remarkably low. The potential benefits of vaccination are significant, with a decreased risk of infection, hospitalization, and severe disease among those who are vaccinated. This benefit extends to the community as well, in that it means you are less likely to catch (and therefore spread) COVID-19, increase the rate of herd immunity in your area which protects everyone (especially the medically vulnerable), and reduces preventable, unnecessary COVID-19 admissions that are weighing down the health system and clogging up hospital beds. If you look at this purely from a risk-benefit standpoint there is no mathematical reason not to favor getting the vaccine, and I strongly urge everyone who can safely do so to schedule it.

I suppose my take-away statement is this: I am a physician. If you are willing to trust my advice when you show up to the hospital in respiratory distress, trust my advice now in trying to prevent you from getting to that point. 

Please.

#covid-19 #pandemic #covid vaccine #covid-19 vaccination #medblr #medical #population health #preventative medicine