#formatting on this one seems to be a bit iffy my b

[scoutdoesstuff]

last but not least, august 31st fic features a crossover because why not.

sam and dean get to meet ted lasso. this one was hard to wrangle and definitely exceeded the word count and still wouldn't wrap up neatly haha but it was fun to write.

a chunk of this is inspired by a ted lasso fic i read awhile back that asked what it would look like if ted was a witch, given richmond's uncanny good luck.

our last flavor on this little journey is Purr-fectly Very Berry, a pun i haven't yet managed to work into this story.

“Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Lasso?” Dean Winchester asks, bleeding profusely from the forehead.

“I think that ghosts need to believe in themselves,” Ted answers with great enthusiasm as he mops up the worst of the mess on Dean’s forehead and roots around for a bandage.

“Oh my god,” Sam Winchester says, horrified in the bitchiest possible way and braced against the locker room to keep it from opening under the poltergeist’s onslaught. “We’re gonna die.”

TWELVE HOURS EARLIER

The one problem with being unbelievably tall is that people tend to notice you no matter where you go. It’s hard to go incognito when you’re literally a head taller — sometimes a head and shoulders taller — than the rest of the people around you.

“Do you think people are smaller here?” Sam asks as he and Dean size up the exterior of Richmond FC’s pitch. They’re eating ice cream cones in an attempt to look less conspicuous but the sheer force of the Americaness of their clothes probably undoes anything they try to blend in.

“Not the people,” Dean says around a chunk of his Cornetto, “doors. The doors are so fucking small here. And the cars? How do they move bodies in this town?”

“Huh, never thought of it like that,” Sam says.

“The club is locked down pretty tight,” Sam says, a little while later when they’re back in their weirdly damp hotel room, with his laptop perched on his knees.

“Probably due to the owner being stalked within an inch of her life by the paps,” Dean sighs, cutting out fake press passes.

“Yeah, can’t blame her for that one.”

“Her ex is such a fucking creep.”

“God, right?”

“Anyway,” they both say at the same time rather than admit they’d both spent several hours on the local gossip rags.

“Think you can pass as a sports journalist?” Dean asks, chucking a fake press pass at Sam.

“I’ve done weirder,” Sam replies, snapping his laptop shut.

SIX HOURS EARLIER

The initial plan had been to sneak into Richmond’s club house during a game. It’s easier to pretend to be a member of the cleaning crew, check for ghost weirdness or hex bags, and then get the fuck out when there’s a crowd to blend into at the end of the job. They’d set up their schedule, haggled their way into some tickets from a local hunter, and were set to handle whatever was upsetting the general vibes over at Richmond FC as a favor to Bobby right up until three fans suffered simultaneous heart attacks while watching a friendly between Richmond and another team.

Then the next Richmond match got cancelled out of a sense of respect or something painfully British which eighty sixed their whole fucking plan.

They’d had to improvise and the best they could do was as a weird American soccer fanboy journalist looking to get an exclusive interview with the Rebecca Walton and Dean just … sneaking in.

“I can’t believe this is the best we’ve got,” Sam had muttered on the way in, smashed into their too small British car.

“If I get caught, we pretend I’m your photographer that you forgot to mention,” Dean had said, smiling from ear to ear. He’d missed clean and simple B&E’s. Those were the best.

FIVE HOURS EARLIER

Turns out Dean didn’t need to break in. The head coach just fucking let him walk in the door.

“You seem like a sunny young man!” The guy says when he catches Dean skulking around the back parking lot. “Would you like to come in for some tea?”

It’s been a really long time since Dean hasn’t had anything to say back to someone. What do you even say to that? How does this guy grow a mustache like that in 2022?

“I don’t know if I’m much of a tea drinker?” Dean means to make it a statement but it comes out a question.

“Neither am I,” the mustached man replies, beaming. “I have secret coffee in my office!”

Dean could go for some American coffee. This is probably a trap, but Dean wants American style black coffee too badly at this point to care.

(Espresso is good, don’t get him wrong, but sometimes you just want something that feels like home).

Sam isn’t expecting to find someone like Rebecca Welton relatable, but he knows what it looks like when you’ve spent a considerable amount of time developing a considerable amount of control over yourself and your environment. They have nothing in common, but there are a few moments here and there where it feels like he’s looking in a mirror.

“So how does an American find himself interested in football?” she asks as they settle into her office. Her hair is perfectly coiffed. Her clothes are remarkably pressed.

“Uh, I have to admit that we call it soccer on my side of the pond,” Sam says, playing for time. She laughs obligingly. Sam can’t pretend to care about sports so he flips the question back at her. “What made you fall in love with football, Ms. Welton?”

She smiles obligingly again. And they’re off. Fluffy question meet fluffy answer. Rinse, wash, repeat.

TWO HOURS EARLIER

“It’s like my memaw used to say — all in the butter, you know?”

“Exactly! People don’t respect how fucking important the butter is! Is the European stuff here really as good as they say?”

“It is!”

They really should’ve been caught or at least called out a few hours ago when Rebecca and Ted had decided to reconnoiter for lunch and brought Sam and Dean along for the ride. Instead, they’d bought their bullshit about how Dean was Sam’s photographer. Now, Dean and Ted Lasso, head coach of the somehow not terrible Richmond FC, were having a heart to heart about baking.

Their lives were so fucking weird.

Sam gives in and asks Rebecca if she plays any strategy games.

They play chess while Dean and Ted yell about the differences of jam and jelly.

ONE HOUR EARLIER

The lights flicker violently.

“Oh, there’s Marvin!” Ted says.

“Marvin?” Dean glances over at Sam. Sam shrugs. That hadn’t come up in the interview at all.

“He’s named the poltergeist,” Rebecca explains.

“He’s named the what?” Sam and Dean say together, with rising alarm.

“He does that,” Beard says, speaking for the first time in about an hour and half, eyes not moving from his newspaper. He’d introduced himself to Sam and Dean and then somehow maneuvered his chair so that he’d become one with the farthest corner of the room. “You get used to it. Or you don’t.”

“He’s our poltergeist. I’m assuming that’s what you’re here for?” Ted sets down his mug and opens up a window that somehow looks out to another room. “He likes to have the window open when he does his little fly bys,” Ted explains with a wave of his hand after turning around to see Dean and Sam staring at him. “You guys are hunters, right?”

All Sam and Dean can do is nod, shell shocked, at this point.

“And you’re hear about the heart attack victims?”

Sam and Dean nod again.

“Great! Is there anything we do to help you with the whole great white whale hunt?”

“I’m sorry —“ Sam starts.

“Hold the fuck up —“ Dean continues.

“You knew? The whole time?” The both finish.

“Oh yeah, we just wanted you guys to feel like you had to full experience. I know the infiltration and costumes part is really important to the whole shebang — or at least that’s what my Ma told me when she was telling me to avoid you guys,” Ted says, beaming.

“You mother told you to avoid us?” Sam asks, eyebrows condensed into a unibrow of confusion.

“Oh! Not you you,” Ted says, quickly like he was worried he’d hurt Sam and Dean’s feelings. “Just hunters in general.”

“Why?” The Brothers Winchester ask slowly in union.

“Oh! I’m a witch,” Ted clarifies.

The lights go out.

#formatting on this one seems to be a bit iffy my b #also i realize now that i mixed up who plays chess on the ted lasso crew unfortunately #and didn't get time to rope in the rest of that gang :( #think this one is another story that's going on the i'd like to fiddle with this a bit more list tbh #spn #my fic #tea prompts #ambivalent about putitng this one in the ted lasso tag as i don't think i've nailed their voices yet lol #omggg it's the last one guyssssss #i'm feeling a little emo about it tbh

[halflingkima]

Most Surprising Books of 2022

Finally we’re on the upswing! These weren’t necessarily the best books I read this year, but they were certainly the ones that blew me away the most, which I think also deserves the recognition. There’s really no consistency in these picks except they met my expectations and then pleasantly pushed past them.

Here we go! My ten ranked most surprising books of 2022 (again, read this past year, not necessarily published in the year)

10. Chocolat (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Joanne Harris When the mysterious Viane moves to a quiet French village, she reinvigorates the residents, much to the dismay of the local clergy.

Starting off lightly, this one didn’t exactly blow my expectations out of the water, but I was thoroughly impressed with how well it met them. This is one of my favorite movies and I was unsure how the whimsy would translate in the original text, but it did so well that it deepened my love of the film. The book allows a much deeper dive into characters’ inner lives while keeping the same magic of the film alive.

9. Ella Minnow Pea (⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Mark Dunn The island of Nollop reveres the pangram, but when letters begin to drop off of the pangram monument, leaders decide no one may use the fallen letters, leading to dire consequences.

This book is mostly a gimmick, given that it’s written in letters to residents of an island that must by law begin restricting their use of letters of the alphabet (i.e. as letters become illegal to use, they must communicate more and more creatively). Beyond that, I was incredibly impressed by the plot the book managed to pull off. Being that capital punishment is introduced so it gets quite a bit darker than I expected, and the ending was quite hopeful. Given the constraint of the text I was. impressed. not sure what else to say about it lol

8. The Fiction Class (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Susan Breen Arabella Hicks teaches a fiction writing class while navigating her relationship with her ailing mother.

This was a reread that I first read at far too young, and loved it despite that. In my mind it was an Adult Romance, but it’s actually an adult contemporary. Ultimately I was surprised at how well it held up. The romance was as iffy as I remember, but the writing class insets were even better than i remembered. Additionally, I could now appreciate the focus of the mother/daughter relationship that the whole story sits upon that went over my head before. I’m also now aware of ensemble casts and why I like them and this did fully hit those marks.

7. Sky in the Deep (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Adrienne Young When captured in battle by a rival clan, Eelyn learns her brother is alive and living with the enemy; she must grapple with her definition of family and decide who she fights for.

This was an impulse read that I had next-to-no expectations for because I’d never heard of it before. I figured if it was well done and unique, I would’ve seen reviews or even just mentions. Which meant it was quite easy for it to surpass those expectations. This might’ve been my barbarian main taking over but I really enjoyed the cultural worldbuilding and also like. the violence :). and the romance! and the found family. Lotta trope buttons hit and hit well when I didn’t expect them at all.

6. Ex Libris (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Matt Madden A meta exploration of the graphic novel format and what it can do for its readers.

This weird shaped book was the bane of my existence at work this year because it didn’t fit on the shelf nicely and I finally snapped and checked it out myself. idk if I’ve made it clear but meta narratives are my shit. And this was a great one. It also really uses the format to its fullest while also exemplifying what it can do and why its an important art & story form. It’s a simple story but it did give me a stab of existential fear. Loved it!

5. Glitterland (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Alexis Hall A pretentious, bipolar writer meets a boy who glitters and can’t seem to stay away.

This one I had middling expectations for because it’s by my current favorite author, but it’s one of his indie published backlist. And I found it just as good if not better than his traditionally published stuff (so far). It has the unique, often maudlin, magic of an (good) indie gay romance with the magic of Hall’s unique writing style. I do think it even made me cry.

4. All My Broken Pieces (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Hollis Shiloh During re-certification for his job at the police precinct, Tim, a disabled wolf shifter, is paired with Levi, a human who helps Tim discover and define what he actually wants in life.

This is the most surprising list, not a list of quality, and thus this beat out Glitterland. This is not what I would call a good book. Mainly, it’s a self-published indie that needed a heavy editing hand; the plot was meandering and circuitous, the world building was shallow, and it was far too long and long-winded. Despite all that, I found the premise interesting, I was invested in the romance, and the heat level was just about perfect for my taste. But above all, the representation of disability and like, the mental comorbidities that result – severe depression, anxiety, loneliness, exhaustion – really spoke to me, I guess. I found it heartwarming when others finally began to reach out to the MC, to empathize and help him better his life by just providing information and options, and Tim doing the work (mainly emotional) to allow himself to heal in so many areas. Basically, the book was far more intensive than I expected, and I became far more invested in the main character than I had planned.

3. Follow Me to Ground (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Sue Rainsford Ada, a more-than-human, un-aging healer of sorts, uncovers secrets about herself and her father when she tries to strike out on her own.

This was the first book I read of the year and it absolutely blew me away. I had heard of it and picked it up simply bc I needed an audiobook for a drive. The full cast was an exceptional experience and really layered on the southern gothic that I don’t think I would’ve interpreted myself, which I think was a huge part of my enjoyment. I also didn’t know it was a sort of light horror, and the creep factor was perfectly to my taste. I was so shocked by this that when I finished it, I rewound and started listening again lol.

2. The Subtweet (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Vivek Shraya Two trans desi musicians befriend, idolize, and ruin each other.

This was my first Vivek Shraya (mainly because I’m a little afraid of the emotional pain in her other works) and it left me slack jawed. I think I’d describe it as a modern story in the tradition of a greek tragedy. It focuses very narrowly on the experience of brown trans women indie musicians in canada but does not feel narrow in the slightest. It’s a heartbreaking tragedy of female friendship that feels inevitable in the culture in which it’s set. I was also impressed with how deftly social media was handled in the work – there’s no thread inserts, no breaking of narrative walls, all we get is the characters interpretations of certain “posts,” and it drives the narrative while avoiding the reader feeling like they’re doom scrolling. Very artfully done.

1. The Wonder Spot (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) by Melissa Bank A sort of non-linear memoir, Sophie recounts moments in her life that shaped and taught her.

This was by far the most surprising read of the year. It was a general women’s fiction sitting on my bookshelf since I was in elementary school. I had no clue what it was about and the internet provided very few answers. When I picked it up, I found a poignant story that I wish I’d read in college or nearer to graduating. I think this book flawlessly executes what that millennial ennui genre tries too hard at – or at least, executes what I want when I dare to pick up millennial ennui stories. I’ve taken to calling this gen x ennui because it’s a realist narrative, but also has that hint of hope that I need from my escapism. Fully expected to unhaul this book and it is now in a place of pride on my keeper shelf.

#maddy's reads

[ygg-yiggles]

Old Art: Inktober 2022, part 1

I have participated in Inktober since 2019, on Twitter up until now. To breathe some life into my blog here, I'll post my work from past years over the next few days, along with my thoughts and explanations where relevant, using the more long-form format of tumblr to its advantage. Please mind this small content warning before you continue reading: Some of what I drew for this quite odd and creepy, and in at least one case (day 14), arguably gory. Keep this in mind as you read and view the art.

Day 1: Gargoyle This one was fun. I did a poor job of making it actually look like it was perched on the wall and the wall itself was a pain, ultimately resulting in something kind of halfassed and iffy looking, but still, I had fun with it, and I think the gaping red maw looks pretty decent, all things considered. I used a grey ink--if I recall, it was Noodler's Lexington Gray--for this one, though only sparingly.

Day 2: Scurry Some of the anatomy is screwy here, in particular the catgirl's hands are all kinds of gnarly in ways I didn't intend. Ink is unforgiving. These aren't really meant to be any characters in particular, but I was probably influenced a little by Nazrin from Touhou Project and undeniably heavily inspired by Maekawa Miku from The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls. You might immediately notice two things about this image: firstly that it is clearly more true to the color of the paper and secondly that the left edge curves away, gets blurry, and has a bit of a shadow. Day 1's drawing was simply captured by my phone camera, but I used my scanner for this one. That took time to set up (I have a bad habit of putting things on top of the machine and I have to reposition the whole thing because the USB-B cable I have is too short), so I didn't always use it. There's another scanner now, though, which I can use much more easily.

Day 3: Bat GAHHH why did I go right back to the phone camera? Oh well. The anatomy here is really poor especially around the legs, but I tried to be a little more dynamic with the pose than I usually would be. Evidently, I didn't properly plan this from the beginning, since the torso is on a somewhat different perspective plane than it should be. Oh well, not everything works out as you'd want it.

Day 4: Scallop I love drawing spooky little creatures. Here, we see a sea scallop, but with spindly arms and legs. This is only slightly more monstrous than what live sea scallops actually look like. Did you know they have like 200 eyes, all lined up in a row along the edge of the "mouth"? Crazy. There's also a moray eel in entirely imaginary colors here. It seems about as freaked out by the scallop creature as is appropriate.

Day 5: Flame Dragon girl! I should really put this under the scanner someday. Overall I mostly like how this turned out, though I clearly had no clue what to do with the breasts. Probably should have grabbed some references.

Day 6: Bouquet This time, the gnarly fingers were absolutely intentional. Here we see an elder vampire or something, perhaps some other kind of aged fantasy man, enjoying several flowers. I think they were based upon a couple specific real flowers, but I can't quite recall exactly what they were.

Day 7: Trip This is one I'm really glad I went through the trouble to use the scanner for. There are certainly things that could have been improved, but overall, I'm still quite proud of this one. Two girls on a road trip in an Autobianchi Bianchina, stopped on the side of the road for... I dunno, looking at the scenery, I guess. I don't know if that car was ever sold in this color, but it's what color I'd want one in.

Day 8: Match Matching outfit elves. The anatomy and basic geometry of this one was completely unsalvageable by the time I realized what was going on. Alas, at least it was properly scanned.

Day 9: Nest Sometimes you go into a drawing with an image in your head that's too complex to hold for long and when you zoom in in your mind to look at the details, you lose it. Ultimately, though, when I look at it now, that worked out better than if I had faithfully rendered every piece of trash in the garbage heap that this giant, mechanical bird-thing has built. Seriously, this looks way better than I remember it looking. I also used the grey ink here again, I think to much better effect than with the gargoyle.

Day 10: Crabby Crabby child, crab hat, "Feelin' Crabulous!" shirts. Not much more to say other than wow that mom character looks weird. I think I did a pretty decent job of depicting a child in the middle of a tantrum over god-knows-what here.

Day 11: Eagle A man and his concerningly large eagle. If I recall, this was meant to depict a Haast's eagle, an extinct species from what is now New Zealand. Or at the very least it was mostly inspired by that. In other words, it's completely nonsensical for a man in a heavy coat, fur hat, and snow goggles to have one as his companion, but somehow it just felt right. I used a bunch of different colors of brown micron and even fountain pen ink for this, and I think the effect turned out well.

Day 12: Forget Creepy creatures what take your brain out and make you forget things. The head being comically outsized compared to the rest of the body was actually intentional here--I felt the strange proportions would further bring focus to the point of the action and also just make the whole scene feel even weirder.

Day 13: Kind More weirdo creatures. I thought it'd be fun to depict kindness between alien things rather than more easily relatable humans or animals. This color palette also happens to be enjoyable to me. This is another one featuring some fountain pen inks, but I can't recall what they were.

Day 14: Empty Yeah, this one is pretty gross and freaky. Sorry about that. But hey, that was the idea. Mission accomplished, right? If I remember correctly, this one included Diamine Oxblood ink, to get that fleshy cavern look.

Day 15: Armadillo Yep, it's Tarkus. As in, the album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I guess you could consider this a gijinka? The nameplate thing bearing the day number and prompt is based on the colors of the ground in the album art.

..And that's it for now. I'll do days 16-31 tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much I can think of to write about those. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and for looking at my art.

#drawing #traditional illustration #inktober

[cursedsleep-blog]

Updated Feedback on Crimson Vow

Mechanics and Such

The mechanics felt a bit less interesting than Midnight’s. This twist on Disturb was cool though, and D/N was still a good change.

Addition as of 4/27/23: Actually, I’m not to sure it should’ve kept D/N. I did read the article where why it returned was mentioned, but it still feels out of place given the (mostly ignored/underdeveloped) premise of the Eternal Night.

Blood is OK, but is too mechanically similar to Clues IMO. The discard cost doesn’t really feel like enough to differentiate them. Also, I like Clues more personally, and Blood seems applicable to less sets and worlds. Also, while they are nice for the Madness Vamps of SoI Block, they don’t seem to synergize or overlap well with the ‘Bloodthirst’ Vamps of MID.

Addition as of 4/27/2023: Actually I’ve started to like Blood a bit more. The iffy synergy with Bloodthirst Vamps still stands though, as do the concerns of widespread applicability and having them alongside un-supported Clues.

Newer addition as of 12/6/2023: I take back the applicability concern and sort of the Clue concern. I don’t really favor Clues more now, but I think they should have been properly supported in MID if they were going to reappear there.

Still 4/27/2023: Additionally, a lot of the Vamp’s that cared about sacrificing Blood for other purposes seemed too weak. In particular, maybe Wedding Security could’ve triggered on the EtB too. The only Blood Vamps I ever saw in Standard formats were Epicure and Bloodtithe Harvester.

Cleave is a fine mechanic, but for Innistrad something like Clues or a graveyard/death mechanic would have probably been better.  I think not reusing Flashback was a good idea, but Cleave did not seem like the right replacement.

The Cleave cards were fine to be clear, but the mechanic did not feel flavorful or fit with the setting. Using Cleave for the flavor of rule-breaking honestly does seem good, so maybe it would’ve felt better in New Capenna after all, as a non-family mechanic like Hideaway. 

Training is fine, but seemed generally worse/less interesting then Mentor for me. I think it may have been because Mentor could help other creatures, whereas Training only really helps the creature with Training. Could just be nostalgia though.

Exploit was also nice, but tbh I really liked Decayed and would have loved to see more of it.

As for the Draft, it was absolutely way too prince-y.  I still enjoyed some of the archetypes, like BG Toughness and UG Mill, but it was still an issue.

Story, Setting, and Stuff

VOW didn’t follow up on MID’s ideas, but I already went over that in my feedback on MID. What story it did have was pretty bad and focused on the least interesting thing it could have, given the whole “Eternal Night” thing.

Potential aside, the wedding was uninteresting. It is NOT that the idea of having a Vamp Wedding was terrible, just having it as the focus over everything else was.

I also worry that focusing on one tribe at a time may have left the others a bit flat.

Double Feature was lame. The B&W filter over the cards did a disservice to the art underneath and made the colors were hard to read. Felt like an cash grab targeting collectors and Innistrad nostalgia.

Addition as of 4/27/2023: Misc.

Why did Midnight Scavenger get Ward but not Cemetary Desecrator?

While I still have many criticisms of the set, some of its cards did end up being useful in my janky BR Party Aggro deck, my janky WBR Modal-Superfriends deck, and my janky UB Control deck, so thanks for that.

The 2-Attacker theme in WR is interesting, though I barely noticed it for a while. I am surprised the Samurai of NEO were not made to work alongside those cards (i.e. to also be up to 2 Attackers, or to be only one Samurai/Warrior at a time)

#Innistrad: Crimson Vow #magic the gathering #cursedsleeps mtg feedback

[raynavelbasejr]

so now that rvb15 is over and i don’t know what to do with my life, here’s some thoughts on the overall season. (rvb 15x21 spoilers below) (also kinda long)

pros:

the little scenes between characters. i can’t stress enough about how this is definitely joe’s high point, especially between characters that haven’t had a lot of interaction before. caboose and simmons, tucker and simmons, tucker and grif, carolina and wash, etc. i know carolina and wash have had a lot more screentime in the past together, but he was really able to write thoughtful and sometimes sad scenes between characters and make it intereting.

red team development. red team development. RED TEAM DEVELOPMENT. we finally, after years, got development for our beloved reds. grif’s entire character arc was so well done, from initially leaving, to making volleyballs of his teammates while they were gone, to being more active in wanting to save his friends (and actually calling them his friends), to his “why are we here?” part when trying to figure out who the real simmons was. it was so good to see grif shine and i hope he does in future seasons, too. simmons being on his own for the first time and not really knowing how to deal was good too, and sarge’s arc was kinda iffy at first, but i believe it was tied together well.

tucker and caboose’s relationship. it was never really a main point of this season, but i think it’s something worth reflecting over (and having a separate bullet point). tucker and caboose never had a great relationship, but tucker is a hell of a lot more protective and kind towards caboose than he ever was. there’s still some “god dammit caboose” because there always will be, but it’s great to see them getting along better. specific highlight: when caboose finds out church is really gone and tucker consoles him about it.

joe’s characterization for most of the characters is pretty spot on. he shines with the reds (grif, simmons, sarge), but he seems to have a grasp on the blues, too (tucker, caboose) even though he said he had a lot of trouble with caboose. it’s kind of an unpopular opinion but i thought tucker was written fairly well this season. he was vulnerable with church’s death, so when a guy who comes along that looks like church and sings his praises, saying he fights like a freelancer, the people he obviously somewhat looks up to? of course he’s gonna latch on.

locus’s arc was great, in my opinion. i know there’s a pretty big divide of whether or not he deserves redemption, but i think locus knows he doesn’t deserve it. his interactions with the reds and blues were funny as hell (especially grif, more grif and locus tag team please) and i hope he returns.

temple was a villain i truly hated. like he had a sad backstory, but god damn he was a piece of shit. i like that he seemed to try to hard to be a villain and just went over the top with it. it’s good to have villains to just hate sometimes.

episode 5. just....the entirety of episode five was amazing it deserves it’s own bullet point. 

cons:

the main plot was a bit convoluted. it just seemed far-fetched that there were a group of reds and blues almost exactly like them before, so they just did it again with new reds and blues to keep church safe. i guess you could hand-wave it away and say it was mostly jax’s doing, since he’s a bit of a unreliable narrator and maybe tweaked a few details for his script, but i don’t know. could have been better.

dylan and jax seemed to kinda lose their footing about halfway through the season. they started out strong, lost their footing, but i do believe they came back around with the last three-four episodes. i get that they’re not the main characters of the story, the reds and blues are, but they seemed to just kind of...be there at certain points. i have no idea if they’re gonna come back, but i kinda think it would be better if they came back if they’re needed and not be permanent mainstays.

donut and wash could have been written better, donut being the main one. his one part of development (being a fabulous ghost) didn’t really get talked about, and he was just kind of there for a lot of the season. it’s possible that he’s gonna be a major part of the story next season or a later season, with him being struck by the time machine thing at the end, but i don’t know. wash was really only there for his scene with carolina on the beach and him being delusional. i think he could have been a bit more involved, like carolina was. i’m pretty sure joe said donut was one of the hardest characters for him to write, and the same might be for wash, so i guess we’ll just have to see about them in future seasons if joe sticks around.

some of the jokes fell flat. that happens with almost every season, but yeah, some of them just didn’t really stick.

lots of loose-ends. it feels like a lot of the plots needed to be talked about more or spent more time on. wash getting shot kinda seemed to be hand-waved away at the end, and temple never told carolina about why he hated her so much. it feels like there should have just been more time with some of the plots.

not sure if i like the “movie as a season” format. i believe that’s what joe said he wanted this season to be like, and i think this season definitely works better to be watched all at once or in a binge type of setting. i just don’t know if i would want that for future seasons. 

overall, this was a good season. joe really shines with interactions between characters and how those characters are characterized/how they think, but i think he fell flat with trying to push too many things at once. personally, i think it’s more of a “first season jitters” type of thing. despite this, i would like joe to write season 16, maybe even do a new trilogy/saga if he were up to it. he seems pretty in-tune with criticism, so i would like to see where he takes the show from now on. if i had to give this season a grade, i’d probably give it a B or a B-, considering i think joe makes up for a lot of his faults with his high-points.

#rvb15 #rvb15 spoilers #i'm not kidding when i say this is long

[biohackerblogger-blog]

Want to get ahead in life and live forever? Biohack your brain and body today!!

Welcome back reader. My previous blog discussed what biohacking is and some aspects of human biology that can be tweaked to great returns. Biohacking is basically tweaking your biology to improve your life.

In my self-improvement adventures I use scientific research to justify whatever changes I make to my lifestyle whenever I can. If the science says something shows promise in improving x, y and z—I test it out for myself and if it works, I keep it. I’ve found that Reddit, the popular discussion platform, is a great place to find aggregations of links to relevant literature and is in of itself a repository of anecdotal evidence.

As promised, I’m going to be going more in-depth into my personal biohacking experience in this article, talking about the specific improvements I’ve made to better myself and the scientific justifications behind them.

Supplementation

My primary goal mentioned in my previous blog was optimising cognition. Supplementation seemed like a good way to tackle this issue.

To begin, I started with the basics. Well-researched, basic micronutrients that many people lack in their diets and provide clearly defined improvements. I went to the lab near my house and got bloodwork done, testing for everything (Thank you Belgian insurance).

Omega 3/6 Fatty Acids

These are one of the most well-researched, beneficial classes of molecules that are lacking in our diets today. Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), found in plant oils such as flaxseed and canola, is an essential fatty acid—meaning your body cannot synthesize it independently so it needs to come from your diet. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (found in fish) can be produced by conversion of ALA but in minimal amounts—so practically you’re better off getting these from your diet/supplement also.

Omega acids are a critical component of the membranes that make up the surface of each of your cells. They regulate the fluidity of these membranes, the signaling between cells and also maintain cell structure. They’re also involved blood pressure maintenance, the nervous system, regulating inflammation and have been linked to the prevention of alzheimer's (so cognitive benefits too). This study goes more in depth as to the physical benefits these molecules provide.

People don’t eat enough fish especially in western diets to get enough of these on a daily basis so I would strongly recommend a supplement—this is the one I get. The ratio between the amount of omega-3 to omega-6 is also important and is discussed in this study.

Vitamin D

Our skin produces its own vitamin D when exposed to sunlight regularly. A problem with living in a northern country like England is that there’s not a whole lot of sunlight to go around. This isn’t helped by the fact that we’re not naked cavemen anymore who stand outside all day in the sun. Vitamin D is important for calcium absorption into the bones which is why a deficiency can cause malformations such as rickets. Deficiencies can also cause depressive symptoms and exacerbate mental health issues. Decreased sunlight during winter can also increase the incidence in a temporary depressive disorder known as seasonal affective disorder (also known as SAD—ironic, I know). Light therapy has proven an effective way of increasing vitamin D and treating SAD.

I take it on the reg to stave off the winter blues as a supplement-if I’m happier my brain is happier too. When possible, Vit D from sunlight is a much better source than from a supplement. This is the one I take.

Vitamin B complex

B vitamins consist of 8 different vitamins. B12 is likely the most well known and is involved in neurological function and production of DNA. B9 regulates cell division and formation of blood cells. Each vitamin has specific roles in the body that a deficiency could significantly interfere with. Natural sources are typically animal products and high protein plants.

You can conveniently get supplements that contain all 8 in one which simplifies things immensely. They have been linked to reduction of stress, anxiety and depression and I thought that would be of use to me. I take this one.

Zinc, Magnesium, Calcium and others

Each mineral has a different purpose when it comes to human health but all are important. Zinc plays roles in immune function, DNA synthesis, inflammation and much more. It also boosts testosterone, a hormone providing many health benefits for men (and some for women) that I touched upon in the previous article.

Magnesium can significantly improve your sleep if you get enough of it (and good sleep just improves everything) and calcium is important for bone health. These are all very important micronutrients so make sure you’re getting enough in your diet or supplement them.

Probiotics

You know those icky bacteria lining every inch of your body and intestines? What if I told you that they actually affect your life a whole lot more than you think—Especially your mood.

Research into the gut microbiota (community of microorganisms in the gut) is an incredibly hot topic right now. The presence or lack thereof of certain bacteria in the gut can affect your digestion, risk of developing diseases, even your position on the autism spectrum. It sounds crazy but the research is substantial. Many digestive problems and others can be solved by rectifying the ratios of different bacteria in the gut, by introducing healthy bacteria. I’ve tagged along to a couple of conferences with my psychiatrist mother discussing the interaction between the gut microbiota and health (physical and mental) and have also had several assignments on the topic during my time at university.

I now take a probiotic supplement every morning. Probiotics are basically pills containing millions of live, healthy bacteria.

Creatine

This one maybe isn’t as important for most people but I’ll mention it because it’s part of my daily regime. It’s a very well-researched supplement used by athletes to increase performance by increasing water retention in the muscles. With the added benefit of making your muscles look bigger, creatine can improve strength and endurance during sport. I take it to improve my workouts which itself benefits my life. Optimum Nutrition has some really good products, I go with them. Here’s another review article if you’re interested.

Other cognition-enhancing compounds

(I’m not recommending anyone take any of the following as I am not qualified to be giving out advice on scarcely researched compounds but hey, if you do your own digging, decide the science is sound and there’s no risk, you do you.)

Described above are the supplements I use to benefit my life currently. They are all well-researched staples with plenty of studies to support their efficacy. There are, however, less researched compounds that could be potentially beneficial that are hidden from the public eye.

There exist a number of alternative medicines like St. John’s Wort to treat depression that can have beneficial effects on health. Some medicines are alternative for a reason, we don’t really know enough about them to know how they work but we just know that they do for the most part.

Withania somnifera (Ashawagandha) is a herb that reduces stress and has anxiolytic (anxiety reducing) properties by reducing cortisol, the stress hormone. It’s also implicated in helping with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and Alzeimer's disease but more large scale studies are needed to prove it’s therapeutic potential. Lion’s mane mushroom is another cool one thought to also help with cognition that I’ve been looking into recently

Nootropics (cognition enhancing compounds) are quite popular in the biohacking community. Many people take so-called “stacks” of supplements that synergize and work well together. A simple example of a stack would be taking L-theanine and caffeine, (caffeine is the most well-known nootropic) where the caffeine works to give you energy and the L-theanine smooths out the “edge” of caffeine, eliminating the crash you get.

This is gonna be an iffy one to talk about in a uni assignment but I already gave my disclaimer at the top of this section. Microdosing is an increasingly popular trend popularized by big innovators such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates—It involves taking sub-perceptual doses of psychoactive compounds.

Psychedelics such as LSD and MDMA have become very hot topics of research particularly in the psychiatric field. There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest their utility in treating addiction, depression and anxiety when paired with psychotherapy. Psychedelics have a very impressive safety profile despite the bad rep they get.

David Nutt, a prominent researcher into the field collated the answers of a panel of experts (from law enforcement to doctors) to attempt to objectively rank common drugs in terms of addictive potential and harm. LSD and Ecstasy are significantly less harmful than the legal substances tobacco and alcohol. The 2017 Global Drug Survey also supports this claim.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some risks to psychedelics if used irresponsibly (such as triggering the onset of schizophrenia in those genetically predisposed to it) but overall, they have untapped potential in research as they significantly increase brain plasticity (ability of brain to adapt and change) and connectivity of neural networks. Microdosing them can increase productivity/creativity and allow the formation of novel neural pathways (which is probs why they help with addiction). I was actually considering psychedelic research as a career path as lots of big names like John Hopkins University are heavily involved in research into the field.

Anyway, some may say that all these supplements are a bit excessive, and maybe they’re right. But I say eh, works for me.

Habits and Lifestyle changes

I discussed the benefits of meditation in my last blog already but that is a very useful meta-tool for improving on all aspects of life. There are small ways we can all change our environments to improve our lives depending on our goals.

Procrastination in particular is a huge issue that many people face, students in particular. Many people struggle to understand why we do this but they aren’t aware that our biology isn’t designed to be able to cope with the huge amounts of stimuli that have arisen from the invention of the internet and social media. It’s now well-known that willpower functions similarly to a muscle—we don’t have an unlimited supply of it, it can get tired. What we can do to get around that is reduce the need to strain that muscle by changing our environment.

I’ve personally deleted all forms of social media I’ve found to not contribute anything meaningful to my life and with the rest I’ve unfollowed/unsubscribed to anything I thought would distract me too much. When studying, I use earplugs to block out as much stimuli as possible and I keep my phone off for most of the time.

This is what my phone’s home screen looks like:      

Simple, practical, not distracting. All the distracting applications like social media are kept on a different screen so I have to put in more effort to get to them. My phone’s also in greyscale but the screenshot doesn’t pick that up. Greyscale removes all the bright colors from your phone screen, significantly reducing the addictive potential of your phone. If you find yourself checking your phone too often, this might help you out.

This article from lifehacker talks about it in more detail. Many phone manufacturers have rolled out updates to help people curb their screen time, adding options to put time limits on your apps and overall screen time.

These are only some of the small changes I’ve implemented.There’s plenty of things you could be doing to make your environment facilitate your goals, you just have to be a bit creative.

That's pretty much an overview of my personal experience with biohacking. I hope you found this interesting and informative and it inspired you in some shape or form to read into science more and improve your life in every way you can.

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Stock images all courtesy of google images

Supplements:

Omega acids -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004MASMXG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Vitamin D -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072L235Z5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Vitamin B Complex -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Z70OUQS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1