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capricores · 4 years

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🔥 MARS RETROGRADE GUIDE 🔥

— BASICS/FAQ.

what is a retrograde? a retrograde, put simply, is when a planet appears to be spinning backwards in the sky. during the times of retrograde, the energy of a planet is turned inwards. retrogrades are not usually the best time to try activating the energy of that planet. you may feel blocked, held back, or stressed around the themes relating to that planet. it will be a very internal time for that energy in your chart; wherever said planet is (as well as the planets it strongly aspects), will be pushed into introspective mode by the retrograde planet. consider the word retrograde itself; it is a time to reflect, review, reinvent, repurpose, etc. generally not the best time for starting new things, initiation, and so forth; but it is possible.

what does mars represent? a lot of people make the mistake of just associating mars with sex and lust. and although, sure, it does connect to that; it’s so much more. mars is about our motivation, it’s our energy, our pursuit of our passions and desires, drive, aggression, confrontation styles, self-expression, confidence, etc.

does it affect me differently if my natal mars is retrograde? some people believe retrograde transits affect those with natal retrograde less strongly. personally, i haven’t really noticed that entirely. i have natal saturn retrograde, and i actually usually feel ease when saturn transits retrograde; it’s like my saturn becomes “normal”. however, i have friends with natal retrograde planets who feel no ease during transit retrogrades. so again, i think it’s very dependent on your entire chart and the aspects of the planets currently. even i had quite a difficult time during the last saturn retrograde and did not feel any sort of ease. this time could be slightly easier because you’re used to having mars energy pushed internally, but at the same time, if it strongly aspects your natal mars (especially a conjunction - and even hitting your other planets), it might just makes things even more tense and amplified. but overall, i’d say you’re safe to read the same information on mars retrograde impacts as anyone else.

— GENERAL & WHAT TO EXPECT.

mars in aries does NOT do well in retrograde. i personally imagine those of you that have never felt too affected by a mars retrograde, will absolutely feel this one: and it will hit hard. i’m not saying this as a way to invoke fear: everything will be fine. but the energy of this retrograde is especially heavy, considering all the planets mars is currently harshly aspecting (saturn, pluto to name the standouts). the issue here is, mars & aries are both excited energies. they are bold, brash, reactive; they are initiators. they like to act before thinking. they are full of energy, passion and aggression. the retrograde is about (over)thinking before acting, slowing down, reflecting, turning inwards (mars energy likes to stay outward; noticed; loud), etc. the concept of retrograde opposes everything mars represents; especially when mars is in it’s ruling sign of aries; who greatly reflects mars’ energy.

mars rarely stations retrograde as well; usually every two and a half years (i believe), and it very rarely does so in aries. because most of us aren’t used to this planet stationing retrograde (unlike mercury, who likes to retrograde multiple times a year), it seems to just hit harder. i also want to specifically mention the fact this mars retrograde will be squaring saturn. mars square saturn is a very difficult aspect; i am someone that has this in my natal chart and it’s quite frustrating. saturn is about restriction and caution; mars is more fearlessness and recklessness. right now, it feels like saturn is holding mars’ energy back even more than the retrograde is. it’s not allowing the uninhibited expression of the mars energy. we may feel a lot of blockages in relation to the common themes shared by mars and saturn (especially career, work, pursuit of passion; as well as responsibility, control, power - authority figures, etc).

some general things to expect, regardless of your mars placement:

headaches: unfortunately; this is going to bring a lot of headaches, literal ones (although figurative ones as well). i think general body aches are going to be common due to the fact mars is aspecting so many planets. namely the saturn aspect will probably cause a lot of full body/bones/joint/muscle soreness, and probably a lot of toothaches and similar issues. i can even see abdomen/pelvic pain flaring because the pluto aspect. make sure you’re taking very good care of your health right now and see a doctor when you need to! (i’m not hugely into medical astrology, but i do notice these type of mars and saturn transits personally coinciding with an increase in headaches, toothaches, and overall soreness- for me and friends at least)

passive aggression, irritability, unnecessary hostility, arguments over pointless things, people who tend to bottle finally exploding, high tension

strong lack of energy, motivation, drive: lethargy and exhaustion are common (but again, be careful and see a doctor if these things are extreme)

tension in workplace environments; coworker disagreements, namely issues with management (power struggles)

feeling very blocked in terms of your goals; again especially in regards to work and your passions

you may also feel very blocked in relationships/pursuing relationships

likely an increased sex drive: i think all the tension and energy turning inwards is just pushing some people to maximum overload lol

confusion regarding passions/goals/relationships/etc: because we’re doing so much reflecting on mars themes, you may start doubting your wants/goals/interests/relationships/etc (depends on the transit house/aspects) as you’re thinking about them so much. it’s not inherently bad; reflection is a great thing! just be wary of overthinking. don’t be shocked as new things come to light and you start getting the urge to change paths, methods, etc

realization of mistreatment/acting on such: this is a BIG theme and i think we clearly see it in our world right now. since mars is/will be in harsh aspect to so many other planets representing power, control & authority (saturn & pluto) as well as jupiter who represents expansion, growth & excess; a lot of us are going to start setting boundaries. we’re going to be rethinking the times we’ve been mistreated, taken advantage of, the things we’ve let slide but shouldn’t have, and so forth. we’re especially noticing those abusing excess (jupiter) amounts of power (saturn/pluto/mars) both in our lives and in the world. this is THE time to start making and setting new boundaries; putting your foot down and denying those who don’t deserve your energy any sort of access to you! it may be a bit of a painful time if we’re reflecting on moments of abuse and similar; so take care of yourselves and please stay safe!

if you’re interested in what to expect/predictions based on what house(s) mars is transiting in your chart, as well as what to expect based on your natal planets that square/opposition/conjunct or quincunx mars; i’ll be making a post about such on patreon in a few days (i’ll add the link here when it’s up!). the patreon post also includes questions to ask yourself based on where mars is transiting for you, to help with your retrograde reflection/healing/journaling/etc!

if you’re familiar with astrology, just note the house mars is transiting through in your chart right now will show what area of your life is especially inward and lacking motivation. that’s where you’ll especially be needing to reflect on mars-related themes such as power, drive, expression, confidence, etc (same goes for the planets it is aspecting in your natal chart).

— ADVICE.

think hard before acting; don't jump into things without lots of consideration - much like venus retrograde be cautious of starting and ending relationships on impulse (end bad relationships tho pls!!! this is a great time for that!!! i just mean this in a way of like; if your significant other gets on your nerves once in a while and you wanna leave- think it over a few times; and also don’t jump into a relationship with someone you met yesterday)

don't start arguments/confrontations unless absolutely necessary (think: will this fight really benefit me, why am i REALLY upset right now, etc). i think it’s extremely important right now to make sure we aren’t bottling and exploding on people/in situations that don’t deserve it and weren’t the main cause of our frustration

exercise, stretch; do something physical to release energy from your body, if you can! mars is a very physical planet so any sort of movement can help a lot (just again be careful as always)

be gentle on yourself! it's okay if you need more rest during these times, don't be too hard on yourself for hitting roadblocks in goals - take this time to plan, think through what you really want, figure out how you’re gonna go for it and achieve this; then act after the rx or when you have more energy

start setting more boundaries; realize who does and doesn’t deserve to be in your life. realize that self-worth and how amazing you are!

ko-fi for tips 😊

#astrology #mars #retrograde #mars retrograde #mine #hope this helps you guys! sorry the post is so late!#i apologize for making the house interpretations patreon exclusive but a girl has got to pay rent 😭#ill have it up in a couple days!!!#its like half done but im trying to make it really extensive so its taking a while

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peachdoxie · 4 years

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Some of yall really need to stop it with the guilt tripping when people aren’t posting about the protests. “If you’re not reblogging this, you’re part of the problem!” “Make sure you read this, especially my followers who are posting unrelated stuff!” There are so many problems wrong with this outside of the guilt tripping, which is an utterly shitty thing to do on its own

Tumblr is a social media site. It is a not a news source. It is not a mandatory discussion board in a class. People come here for a variety of reasons. You do not get to tell people how to use this website, or any social media site for that matter. People are allowed to not post things if they don’t want to.

Some people come here as a break from the activism they do offline or on other social media sites. You have no way of knowing what someone else is doing or why they’re here on tumblr. You should not assume non-engagement everywhere just because of non-engagement on tumblr.

Some people are also just really stressed out and do not have the mental or emotional energy to spare when it comes to sharing about the protests, whether they’re involved in them or just dealing with shit in their daily lives. May I remind you that we are STILL in the middle of a highly contagious pandemic that’s showing no signs of stopping in the US? That millions of people are unemployed and don’t know when they’ll be able to find another job? That some people just have other fucking issues in their lives that leaves them no excess energy to spare? If you’re okay with the fact that some people can’t physically or financially engage with the protests, you have to be okay with the people who emotionally or mentally can’t engage with them other.

And from point 4: a lack of engagement does not mean a lack of support or a lack of compassion. It just means they’re unable to engage, for whatever reason, and that should be respected. People do not have to justify it to you.

Stop assuming that a lack of engagement on tumblr, or twitter, or facebook, or whatever social media site means that someone isn’t involved in the protests or isn’t supporting people who are. And stop guilt tripping people for not putting on the visible displays of support you think they should be.

This isn’t about respectability politics or about trying to be the “better person” than the people we’re protesting against. This is about having some goddamn critical thinking skills and some goddamn compassion. People need a break from activism! It’s not healthy to constantly be focused on such a stressful topic, and for some people, the limit for what they can take is really, really low. Making them feel guilty for taking a break from the chaos to post a few memes or whatever isn’t going to help. All it’s going to do is give you a sense of superiority for your performative show of support. It does nothing to actually help the cause you’re supposedly advocating for.

Don’t waste your energy on alienating allies or potential allies for some slight you think they’ve committed. We’re not going to make as much progress if people are more stressed and exhausted by the constant stream of guilt tripping for what you think isn’t “enough.” Your energy should go towards supporting people on the front lines of the protests and the people who have had their lives ruined by police brutality. And your energy should go towards stopping the people actively hindering the protests and harming people at risk of police brutality. Guilt tripping people for not reblogging things on tumblr is a goddamn pointless activity. Stop doing it.

I get that you want more people to be involved. I get that it’s frustrating when white people use their privilege to back out of supporting the protests. But there are better ways to go about convincing people to start supporting the protests and fighting against police brutality than guilt tripping them. That’s only going to make them more resistant to joining the cause. Yes, people with white privilege should be giving as much support as possible since we aren’t targets in the same way that POC are, and yes, they should be able to check their privilege and not get upset when someone calls them out on it, but we don’t live in a world where that’s the case.

Some people just aren’t educated and aren’t brought up in a way that enables them to have the knowledge and compassion necessary to understand why people get upset with them and why people are protesting so much. The way to convince them to help is to educate them. Sometimes that takes the form of directly confronting them. Sometimes that takes the form of reblogging things about the protests and black history so that they’ll be exposed to more world views and hopefully will change their stance and join us. But education should never take the form of guilt tripping. And white people: we’re the ones who are most responsible for educating other white people.

And I urge everyone else to take care in what posts you reblog. A lot of people who aren’t actively guilt tripping people reblog posts with additional comments that ARE guilt tripping - that’s where I got the two comments I made in the beginning of this post. While obviously reblogging a guilt tripping comment isn’t the same as making one, reblogging them contributes to guilt tripping others. There are hundreds of reblogs on any given post. Reblog it from a version that doesn’t have guilt tripping comments on it.

What we need right now, more than ever, is solidarity. Guilt tripping isn’t solidarity. It’s just mean.

#anecdotes by peachdoxie #2020 protests #i'm so fucking tired of the guilt tripping #and i know many MANY others are too #go find a better use of your time

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ghostbustermelanieking · 3 years

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oddly specific memories i have of listening to tma

in honor of the finale, and because i am a sentimental asshole, i bring you this potentially uninteresting and completely pointless list. i'm gonna miss this show a lot

half my original reasoning for listening to the podcast was to motivate me to walk on the treadmill. this did not work. but i did it the first time, when i was going through the trailers and anglerfish, and i remember the room where my dad keeps the treadmill is really dark and the spooky chanting sort of freaked me out

after the treadmill, i ended up listening to the bulk of the first four episodes on the couch, and halfway through i let my oldest cat, winnie, who always lived outside (i know, i was very against actually keeping her outside) in the house. and she jumped up on the couch with me, which she literally never did. (she was very grumpy and not super affectionate.) i had that cat since i was five, and she passed last june, and i really miss her. quarantine kind of gave us the opportunity to hang out with her a lot, because we were home so much. so i'm glad these memories are kind of intersected in my mind. (below: a pic i have from that day.)

my friend sarah relistened along with me the first time around, which was extraordinarily sweet of her, and also led to some interesting interactions. for example: she forgot when it was revealed that sasha was dead, so she accidentally spoiled that for me when i asked when the others would find sasha (and i spent all of season 2 just like. anxiously vibrating over this fact). she also made this post, when i was still in like early first half of season 1, and my immediate thought was "oh no martin is dead." i hadnt even MET martin at this point

back in early quarantine, my mom had this rule that we had to do something new every day (to keep away the depression... ha ha). anyways, all i wanted to do in my free time was sit around and listen to tma (and also watch this show i was into on netflix), so i came up with some lame excuses, one of which was "i'll give myself a pedicure." this led to the memory i ultimately associate with mag 56 (trevor herbert 2) being me sitting out on our roof balcony thing, giving myself a horrendous pedicure

another time, my family wanted to go play tennis, and they brought me along and brought a hammock for me to lay in. there was this excess material from the hammock, and the sun was in my eyes, so i ended up pulling it up and over me to block the sun and creating this ridiculous hammock cocoon thing. one of the episodes i listened to that day? "tucked in."

before i ever started the show, my friend sarah stayed with me while i was pet sitting. i remember when she got there, she'd just listened to 150 and was telling me how freaky it was (she was still trying to get me into the show), and she was like "of course we're staying on a CUL DE SAC." (that was also the weekend she watched us for the first time and was very upset because i slept through the whole thing, which is scary when you're staying somewhere by yourselves.) anyways, i spent the whole show waiting for the scary cul de sac episode

while i was listening to the show for the first time, my step-dad (an artist) started painting an EYE on the door downstairs near my bathroom. a fucking EYE. he didn't finish it til i had finished the show. but still weird!!

i binged like 12 episodes in one day to finish season 4, which is not impressive at all, but it's still my personal record. i just remember staying up late in my dark bedroom (til like.... 11 i'm lame and i go to bed early), listening to like 158 & 159 & 160 and just being knocked on my ass by how good it all was... i was SUPER spoiled by this point, through my own fault, and i knew exactly what was coming, but actually experiencing it was nuts

the second week i listened live was 167, where the public release was delayed by a couple hours by accident. i spent like 20 minutes refreshing spotify, thinking it was broken, before going on tumblr and seeing what the deal was. (and 167 remains one of my favorites of s5 because i remember just going "thank god it was worth the wait.")

this one car ride where sarah and i made some of our friends listen to the first three episodes of the show. it was the middle of the night and we were just like blasting down i40 listening to anglerfish and do not open etc

the night the what the ghost episode publicly dropped was the night after my graduation, and i was sleeping out on the couch in the living room so my grandfather could sleep in a bed. it was super dark, and i am a jumpy person, and i Remember being mildly disgusted with myself because the corny sound effects were actually freaking me out. (i think i mightve actually seen something weird that night, maybe, but that's another story.)

the weekend my parents moved me into college, we couldn't get the cable in the house we were staying in, and we were all sitting around doing nothing, so i jokingly suggested starting tma with them, and they were like ok grace. my step-dad promptly fell asleep and my mom zoned out -- which is probably good, she doesn't like horror and she's super claustrophobic, so it's probably better we never got to do not open

my brief roommate in college talked about how she was into those youtube channels where people just read scary stories, so of course i was like try tma out. so she listened to the first episode on her own, and we were out one night, and she started mag 02 while i went into an ice cream place. she was into it (she kept being like open it, ya pussy) and wanted to keep listening while we went home, and even back in our room. i had only been in town for a couple weeks, and barely knew my way around, but i also didn't want to turn the gps on and be interrupted every five seconds. so i tried to find our way back on my own. it took the entirety of mag 03, and into mag 04, before i did it. so now i will forever associate across the street with all those wrong turns i took in a dark, semi unfamiliar city, trying to get back to our college without a gps

the day of the early drop for 179 was the day i moved back home from college -- a five hour drive by myself. i ended up listening to it on the final stretch of the trip, when i was super tired and it was dark and i knew it'd probably be a crazy episode. just me full blasting down i40, drinking an energy drink (which i never do) through a hole punched in the top, listening to daisy's death

186 early dropped the day after initial u.s. election day (when we still didn't know anything). my mom had set up a "watch party" in the living room with these giant air mattresses, and we all sort of spent the day crowded around the TV watching the numbers. not much of a memory, but i remember sitting on that air mattress and listening to martin's monologue in the midst of that messy week

i had a virtual therapy appointment on the day of 187's early drop, and my dad was home, so i drove to an empty parking lot to do the session in some privacy. i was trying to listen to the episode before the session started, so i ended up listening to the last half sitting in my car, in the pouring rain, just staring at my radio in shock (187 remains one of my favorite s5 episodes)

my friend sarah had just come home for winter break the day 189 dropped, and we decided to listen together, just like driving around in circles drinking coffee and listening and speculating on whether or not that was really martin

i started my relisten right after thanksgiving and was just kind of blowing through fast as i could through the whole of december. i had to go back to college to empty out my dorm, and i went to the beach after, and i ended up listening to mag 11 while just like walking around in circles in the tide pools. the closer it got to christmas, the more christmassy i wanted to keep things, so i would like. listen in the mornings and turn on one of those Netflix fireplaces and get all cozy

my other friend went with me on a mini bagel road trip in december, and he was still trying to get caught up, so we listened to mag 169, 170, and 171 on the drive home. (by this point, i was accustomed enough to s5 and smiting scenes to automatically reach for the volume controls when jude perry and jared hopworth died.)

when i relistened to mag 47, i was sitting with my cat beezus. i paused the episode to write this big long meta, so i was in a different headspace when i pressed play again. jon immediately yelled for sasha and i immediately jumped, and beezus gave me a searing glare and just got up and left

i relistened to piecemeal while i was cooking, which i thought was kind of funny and also disgusting

after christmas, i got into the habit of bringing my cat georgia into my room in the mornings, and she'd crawl under the covers with me while i listened to tma

one story i've always liked to tell from my first listen is how when i first listened to the meat arm grinder episode, my dad asked me to help him cook hamburgers later that day and explained how hamburgers are ground up (to my disgust). i hit meat grinder in my relisten and um. you'll never fucking guess what i made for lunch that day

so i had all these arbitrary rules for myself when i started tma last april, and i've broken like all of them. i started listening to tma while virtually working -- you just pull it up on your computer and it works. (i got the life scared out of me when one of my coworkers started talking over the podcast, wondering who it was that had walked into jon's office and why he wasn't reacting and why i didn't remember it.) i also started listening a lot while driving, which led to several long meta posts i wrote being typed up in a parking lot somewhere

i spent the entirety of 194 anxious-cuddling georgia. (i tried to do this for 198 and then didn't have any anxiety to cuddle her over.) i fully plan on doing this for 200, where i am sure i will need it again

my favorite place to listen to tma probably ended up being the roof room at my mom's, and unless something goes awry, this is where i will listen to the finale. (with georgia, of course.)

this list is super uninteresting, like i said, but here it is. i'm gonna miss this show a lot. i can't wait to return to it, later in life, and make all new listening memories in the process

#the magnus archives #personal #food mention tw #pet death tw

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nettlestonenell · 4 years

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Armie Hammer wants a sequel to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.—shouldn’t you?

This post is a long time in coming, Gentle Readers and @jammeke, but now, though it might be here, before your very eyes, to think it will be well-laid out would be a mistake. It’s set to be just about as messy as Ilya’s misplaced loyalties and murky motivations.

How dare!

I probably first watched this film well over a year ago (courtesy @jammeke posting things about it). I used Sling OnDemand (I think on TNT). In the ensuing viewings I also watched it in that way, but as I was sitting down for a fourth(?) viewing, it kept coming to me that I was tired of watching it with commercials I couldn’t skip, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had been edited for time and I was missing out on scenes. [pointless aside: I was also watching the film in chunks, and never as a whole]

Where is she now? What’s the time stamp? How far along did she get? Are you shagging the hotel hostess yet?

So, I, uh, set out to buy it on DVD—without any luck! In the sense that copies I could find cost more (w/ shipping) than buying it to stream. So, I bought it to stream on Amazon. Do I regret my choice, Gentle Readers? No, no I don’t. I do regret burden of knowledge in learning that TNT was already playing the entirety of the film. That was a hard pill to swallow.

Nope, I’ve looked. That’s absolutely everything. Nothing additional lurking around here...

So here it is, as it is, @jammeke, “My Notes on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

Look, I don’t know what this film is. I probably can’t fully articulate its appeal. Or maybe I can--certainly after transcribing four page I’ve tried. Number One thing to know about me and fiction/films is that a top draw for me is seeing something out of the ordinary, such as beautiful locations, a historical era, delicious costumes. There are times, frankly, this can trump weak story and undefined character for me. (The best films, of course, combine all three) Certainly, The Man... delivers in the delight of the eyes. Additionally, I must confess that growing up as a person older than @reblogginhood but younger than Miss Fisher, so much of what was on TV was essentially reruns of this film’s iconic Look(tm). So, when I see women dressed like Gaby I am just another three-to-seven-year-old overcome with the drop dead glamour of it all.

Darling, tell me how you really feel...

Some questions I have:

· IS Armie Hammer a hulk of a man? Everyone in this film seems to think so, yet he always tracks to me as trim (rather than hulking)

· Why translate via captions some Russian speaking, but not all?

· IS Napoleon’s backstory directly cribbed from USA’s White Collar?

· DOES Gaby have a German accent?

· Does Ilya get preternaturally attached to all the people he’s ordered to look after? Also, what is his bonding rate with kittens?

Sorry, wrong iteration.

· If Lady Villain knows the lens is wrong—if her technical understanding is that in-depth--does she really need Gaby’s dad to make the bomb?

· How old was Gaby during the war?

· What happens when Ilya gets a NEW puppy assigned to him? (please let this be addressed in film #2)

Hooray for:

· That bathroom fight! *all the Burn Notice feels!

· Gaby is her own lady, and chooses sides as necessary—not always unilateral in her support for either male character. Case in point: she sides with Ilya over the clothes, and Napoleon over the incident of the wallet.

· That delicious (speaking as Rusty, here) Ocean’s 11-stylized action. It’s pretty, so I’m not bored with it. Sometimes a sandwiched montage gets shown, so I’m REALLY not bored. I’ve got 18 tiny moving boxes of things to look at!

· Pinkie rings. There, you’ve told me everything I need to know about that character.

· Solo in a beret. English has not yet found a word for the feeling it evoked in this viewer. Somewhere between ‘precious’ and ‘oh, no’.

See, there? Now you’ve felt it too.

· Goggles! All the accessories! Dune Buggies! (I mean, that’s what I’m calling Napoleon’s chase-scene ride)

Things I adore:

· It seems (after some research) that more than a few folks view Gaby as a third wheel, and though she’s not exactly a Princess Leia commandeering her own rescue and exuding competence and a deserved take-charge-attitude at every corner, she IS a foci for both male characters (though romantically it would seem only for one), just as Ilya is a foci for both her and Napoleon [no one seems to worry about Napoleon, though they should--film #2, anyone?]

· Mechanic Gaby not needing a beauty makeover, or being dragged into one. She gets some nice clothes, but it’s never suggested that she’s not attractive or acceptable before putting them on, and I respect, nay, embrace it.

Oh, my heart. She’s still not as tall as them!

· Ilya, drab pigeon Ilya, knowing fashion

· Oh man, don’t even get me started on the power of the statement, “it doesn’t have to match”

· You knew it was coming on this sublist: the wrestle-fight. I mean, c’mon. Poor little Gaby, locked behind the Iron Curtain, living a life of always being watched. She’s in the swankest hotel (I mean, Napoleon chose it, so we can be sure it’s swank with an E). She’s trying to celebrate her freedom, her liberation. She’s playing verboten music, she’s drinking to excess. Girl wants—and deserves—a party. And Ilya is…not built for that (that he knows of). For some fun, just imagine if she had been given Napoleon to room with instead.

o I will say that this scene, and some of their other interactions have what I would call early (non-sibling) Luke and Leia energy. Ilya seems to have moments of being struck by Gaby in a way Luke is struck by Leia in the early part of the trilogy. When Leia takes charge, and Luke accepts it. When Leia does something incredible, and Luke is left open-mouthed. *no, I don’t see OT Star Wars in everything. Shut up.

· “He fixed the glitch.”

· Again, shout-out to the non-action action.

· “I left my jacket in there.”

· The whole race to rescue Gaby I am in love with beyond words. [I have noted it as “Crazy Jeep Drive with Warhead!”] Probably b/c it comes across as totally egalitarian. Both men want her rescued. They’re no longer in competition. It’s just as important to Napoleon as it is to Ilya to catch up to her. Also, it is bonkers, like some sort of X-games version of a commercial for the vehicles they’re driving. And screaming Willie Scott does not make an appearance.

Someone says “winkle” out.

· Look! Another note about the screen divisions and how I love it, shout-outs to the original Steve McQueen The Thomas Crown Affair (a contemporary of when this movie is meant to be set), and TV’s 24.

Things that get a great, big NOPE:

· Jerrod Harris: you’ve been in so much streamable content in the last decade I can’t hate you, but frankly, you’re terrible here—unless you’re supposed to be giving a mannered, not-campy-enough-to-be-enjoyable performance here. Your American English puts me in the mind of Alex Hawaii 5-0′Loughlin where it feels you’re concentrating so hard on your accent that you fail to convince anyone that you’re a harried, over-worked and exasperated spy handler. Your performance is at odds with every bit of dialogue you’re given to say.

· That awful, mishandled title that doesn’t even connect to the film until the final moments (a sequel set-up, for sure)

· Look, you don’t introduce Hugh Grant casually mid-way through your film in a throwaway appearance. I mean, he’s HUGH GRANT we all know something’s up now.

· This is not exactly a great big NOPE, b/c I love a flat cap, Tommy Shelby—but I feel like a less tall man with a far rounder face in a flat cap would track more as Russian to me that AH does. To me, he just looks like he’s about to go golfing.

Over par? Unacceptable!

· Is Victoria a British-accented Italian? A British woman who married—what? Gaby’s uncle isn’t Italian!? An Italian who went to school in Britain? My head hurts. Also, is her hair meant to be unconvincingly bleached?

Other commentary:

· Napoleon’s adult ne’er-do-well backstory is so far from being emotionally equivalent to Ilya’s childhood trauma [and his enslavement to the USSR] it seems bestial when he calls it out on multiple occasions. Badly done, Solo.

· Gaby is the film’s key (sorry, Buffy fans). Everyone is connected to her. Yes, she could have been given a bit more on the character front, but I don’t see her as as much of a flaw in the film as some others/reviewers seem to.

· Look, essentially (and not very nuanced-ly), Ilya is a stalker. I think the film goes a certain distance in establishing that his early behavior toward Gaby is not normal, but concurrently it does not truly call him out on it. He’s essentially viewed as an odd-duck, sure, but not a true threat to her (should she not reciprocate or tolerate his intensity toward her). I think I might be able to cite his behavior when Gaby comes on to him (that he doesn’t jump at a chance with her) that maybe he’s given a little more nuance than a straight-on stalker, and it helps that he and Napoleon never get into a pissing match over Gaby’s person, only over her new clothes. But overall the film has to walk a fine line (and the jury is still out on how successful it is, I’d say) between playing Ilya’s laser-like attention to Gaby for its humor, and calling it out for the unsettling, threatening behavior it is.

· Honestly, it wasn’t until I engaged the Closed Captioning that I understood Napoleon was calling Ilya the ‘Red Peril’. So, that was nearly three viewings in.

· I give the screen credits A+, on both ends. Not to mention the end credits are actually INTERESTING with lots to see and learn! (Certainly we learn more about HG in them than we do at any time during the film)

Things I would have liked:

· More of fish-out-of-the-Iron-Curtain Gaby moments

· A better dichotomy shown of East vs. West Berlin/Germany. There’s nothing easy either visually or otherwise to distinguish the two.

· HC being given a more specific American accent (from an actual locality). This, for an American viewer, works better than the flat, unlocated American accent many a British actor will bust out. *Mind you, HC does a generally good job, but he fails utterly on both “Immediate” which he pronounces at least twice as “immeedeejt” [rather than imm-E-deeot] and “Nazi” as “NAHT-zee” [rather than “NOT-zee”]. And let’s not get started on that late in the film use of ‘earnt’, a word that—well, it’s just not in the American English twentieth century lexicon.

· C’mon. You gotta tease the Hugh Grant more.

· Solo is a blank before the war. I’ve read thoughts on the film calling out Gaby as the blank character, but they’re wrong. Solo is the blank. He’s the ‘made’ man, his identity seemingly assembled during the war and after. For example, he doesn’t go into the war a thief, nor (it would seem) a particularly educated or urbane individual. Now THAT’s a juicy backstory I’d love to learn about, perhaps in film #2--or #3? What creates a Napoleon Solo? What would he be doing if he weren’t on the government’s leash/incarcerated? Is anyone left caring about him back wherever he calls home? I mean, who doesn’t love a gender-flipped 60s-era Holly Golightly backstory? [And yes, I would love there to be an ex-wife or even a current wife mixed up in his origins as well—Guy Ritchie, call me!]

Notes I have that I’m not sure if they still make sense to me:

· Only mom calls me Napoleon (do he say it ‘mum’?) Is he a secret Canadian?

· Solo’s torture, 1st view recall Napoleon’s childhood? *I think this means that after watching the first time I somehow erroneously believed that during the torture Napoleon’s childhood was a topic gone over. This was wrong. HOWEVER, this would have made far more story-sense than the backstory we’re given on an easily disposeable villain.

· “Even the average Russian agent. You’re special.” ?

· Uncle is Baddie (*so glad I made this note to myself)

· Ilya’s dad IS an embarrassment. I’m not sure what genius commentary I had in my mind, here. Perhaps that Ilya himself is embarrassed of him? Not just Ilya’s handler’s? [Also, aside: Napoleon totally slut-shames Ilya’s mom, which is the doublest of double standards from ‘I got myself the biggest and most ornate suite b/c I-wanted-plenty-of-space-for-my-random-seductions’ and I really wish Ilya had thrown that back in his face] *yes, of course I know that Ilya and Napoleon would not likely equate a wife/mother’s sexual exploits with that of Solo’s, but let’s be honest, this film tweaks the nose of (I won’t say reverses, it doesn’t go that far) plenty of tropes and gender expectations, and this certainly seems like a missed opportunity to call Solo on the carpet (which I hope film #2 does far more)

Things I wrote down so long ago I don’t recall what they mean:

· CC-save

In conclusion:

What does film #2 look like? What title does it get? Will the Peter/Neil White Collar dynamic continue to grow? *note that I have no confidence a second film will ever come to pass...

In the end, all I know is, “It didn't help when American Tom Cruise, who was slated to play U.S. spy Napoleon Solo, dropped out, prompting the casting of Cavill (who had previously read for the Russian role).“ I would not have watched that film.

#tmfu #tmfu 2015 #ilya kuryakin #napoleon solo #gaby teller #henry cavill #armie hammer #alicia vikander #the man from uncle 2015 #the man from u.n.c.l.e.#the man from uncle #i don't know what this film's tags are meant to be to keep it from popping up in the TV series searches Sorry

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arofili · 4 years

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Dialogue meme: “You’re trembling.” For RogxMaedhros cause I am getting so deep into that Ship I need a lifejacket💚

(This got longer than anticipated! I wanted to figure out my feelings on how they came together, and how Fingon fit into the picture, and then they were talking about names and it turned into this. I’ll probably post this as its own work on AO3, not part of the drabble comp, because I like it a lot! But that won’t be til I’m done with all of these, lol. Anyway - enjoy!)

24. “You’re trembling.”

Maitimo froze. Behind him, Rôg sighed. “I did not mean to startle you. Forgive me, my lord.”

“No—please don’t call me that,” he rasped. “Just...” And again he found himself unable to say it, the name he’d always called himself. Maitimo he was no longer, but Russandol was Finno’s name for him and it felt wrong to give it away even if he could no longer look Finno in the eye, and Nelyafinwë would not do at all, not for a follower of of Nolofinwë...

And there he was, shaking again. Rôg crouched in front of him, his dark eyes steady. “Can I hold your hand?” he asked.

“I...what?” Maitimo said.

“Your hand.” Rôg extended his own: rough, callused, scarred. He was missing half his ring finger past the knuckle. “I find it helps, sometimes, if someone is there to ground you.”

No one had held his hand since... He shuddered, trying not to remember, and extended his palm. Rôg’s grip was firm, and despite himself Maitimo relaxed.

“Thank you,” he whispered, glancing back up into Rôg’s eyes. This was the one nér he had managed to look in the eye for longer than a moment since he had been freed—the one nér who looked at him with understanding, not pity or fear or hate.

Rôg looked nothing like him: he was broad-shouldered, not too tall, dark of skin and hair, and his scars were from hard labor in the mines, not the torture Maitimo had been forced to endure. He was an Avar who swore himself into Nolofinwë’s service; his loyalties were not to Maitimo. But he had been to Angamando and made his way out, and he knew, he knew what the others could not, and he knew how to help.

“You...your name,” he found himself saying. He wasn’t trembling anymore; Rôg seemed to absorb his excess energy into that firm and solid body. “Is it...Avarin?”

Rôg laughed, a low rumble that woke something in Maitimo he didn’t know he still could feel. “My first name was Rōka,” he said. “Strength, in the Hwendi tongue. But when I was taken, I fought like a demon, they said, and when they broke me they named me Rôg. A bastardized name, some said. A name to make me less elvish, more like them, others said. When I escaped I kept the name. I am a demon—but I am a demon to them. They will fear me and know me by the name they gave me, know who it is that will destroy them.”

This time, Maitimo shudder was of a different kind: not of fear but of admiration. Yes, this is what he wanted to be: vengeful, strong. Like the Valcaraucar—Balrogs, in the Þindarin tongue. Fire demons. Rōka was their demon; he could be, perhaps, their fire.

“I...admire that,” he said at last. “Very much.”

“You said not to call you ‘lord.’” Rôg tilted his head. “But you did not give me a name by which to call you.”

“None of my old names fit,” he admitted. Rôg rubbed circles on his hand with his thumb, and the tension slowly eased out of him as he continued. “But Moringotto...he did not give me a new name. I do not know what to call myself anymore.”

Rôg thought for a moment. “I am not one of your loremasters in the speech of these lands, or in the ones you came from,” he said. “But perhaps you could find what you like of the names you were given, and craft them into something new. Something you choose. I hear that the other lords are changing their names, to speak better with the Sindar. You may have to change it anyway.”

“Hm,” Maitimo said. “That is a thought.” He liked the idea; perhaps he would take the Mait from his amilessë, for he liked the sound. And Russ from the name Finno gave him, because despite all else he endured his hair still blazed like russet fire. Certainly Nelya would not do, not if he went through with his plan to cede the crown to Nolofinwë; Finwë would be pointless after removing himself and his brothers from the line of succession...

He lost himself in his thoughts, happily still for the first time in days. At last, Rôg rose, and to his surprise Maitimo found himself clutching his hand, not wanting him to leave.

“Oh?” Rôg said, a sharp-toothed smile glinting at him. “Do you wish me to stay, friend?”

Friend. Yes, that was something he was happy to be called—someone’s friend, someone’s equal. Not the poor thing Findekáno dragged home from the cliffside, not the fallen prince or Kinslayer waiting to bite the hand that fed him. A friend, a companion.

“If...you would,” Maitimo (Mait-russ?) admitted. “I...you are better company than any other. And—you bring me peace. I want you here.”

It felt strange, to say those words, when he thought he never would again, and with someone who was not Finno... But Finno treated him different now, no less loving, no less kind; in fact, even more, and that was what stifled him. It was too much; perhaps later, they could rekindle what they had, but now, he needed a nér who was solid, who was strong, who was real. A nér like Rôg.

“I want you,” he whispered as Rôg knelt back down, drawing his new friend closer. “I did not think I would want again, but I do, and you are...”

“Do you want me to kiss you, my friend?” Rôg rumbled, and Maitruss (no, Maedhros, with the Þindarin words, he would soon decide) blushed. “I know how it feels to miss touch, intimacy, and yet fear it. We need not do anything else.”

We, he said, and the word was sweet on his tongue. Maedhros clung tighter to his hand and Rôg cupped his face with the other that he could not hold, and then kissed him, and oh—his lips were even sweeter.

#silmarillion #maedhros #rog #roka #my writing #my fic #tefain nin #ask games #silm #tfog #i think they're together for a bit after this #and rog helps mae talk to finno about what he needs from him #and eventually mae recovers enough to leave for himring #but turgon has contracted with rog to help build nevrast #and he and mae part ways #finno and mae eventually figure themselves out #and mae always thinks fondly of rog #at the mereth aderthad they reconnect briefly #and then rog goes to help build gondolin and becomes a lord in his own right #he and mae meet again at the nirnaeth #at that point mae only has eyes for finno #but then suddenly finno is /gone/ and mae is alone #and rog is there to help him through this the second hardest time in his life #but rog has to go back to gondolin and mae has to lead his brothers so they dont destroy each other #and they dont see each other again until they're both reborn #idk what happens then #thank you anon this was really interesting to figure out!!#anon #answers

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cantusecho · 5 years

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(Episode 5 thoughtsssss.

OKAY. I took forever to write this one up since I couldn’t process my thoughts correctly, and still can’t. But going to try!

Episode starts with the government taking over S.O.N.G headquarters.

Thing about this is, it’s clear that Fudou is using his power and influence to stop them, but why? That’s at the end of the episode it seems and the reason I think is hinted here;

Honestly, the second he said this, it made me think of him wanting to make it into a sword for Tsubasa to use it. However, she clearly shouldn’t be able to handle it since she can’t wield divine power? Maybe Fudou thinks he can wield the power instead? He’s crazy strong, but does he believe he can handle it? It’s possible he does but his exact ideas/plans are still fairly in the dark.

And Noble Red really are just pawns for him. So, if they didn’t agree to his terms, then they would die since that blood is the only way they could live. Basically, this humanizes our villains, as to be expected, since they’ve been abused and experimented on against their will.

However, I’d still be happy with them not being forgiven for their actions (Millaarc especially) because of how much it’s effected everyone, especially Tsubasa. But that’s later on in the episode.

(also it’s interesting that they’re hiding within the remains of Carol’s Chateau)

Now the scene between Genjurou and Yatsuhiro is actually really really nice. It’s nice to see the two of them interacting more, but they’ve also come to a conclusion that it’s pretty much clear that Fudou may be behind Noble Red’s actions. Yatsuhiro says that they can’t jump to conclusions just yet despite being suspicious. Of course WE as the audience already knows that Fudou is behind it. But in terms of the characters, who don’t see what we do, it makes sense.

Also heard a small tidbit about this scene on twitter; according to people who actually know Japanese, one of the documents on Yatsuhiro’s desk is basically hinting to another name in the Kazanari family. The people who could read this made all the connections about Genjurou and Yatsuhiro’s names (they have characters in their names that mean numbers? I can’t remember them offhand but I think Genjurou at least means ten) and said that it’s very possible that Fudou has like...ten+ children. LOL.

Like, he had sooooo many kids, probably hoping one would fight for him, until Tsubasa was born. I can’t find the twitter posts that actually explain all this in much better words so yeah, sorry. Just some interesting stuff.

Moving on! Because of all this investigation stuff, all the Gear users are on standby and are literally left with nothing to do whatsoever.

Eventually, this gives everyone the idea to at least take a break. And so what Hibiki decides to do is invite Tsubasa, as well as Elfnein, to have fun in the town. This is really just a huge callback to S1 episode 9 where Hibiki and Miku take Tsubasa on a date. Lmao.

What’s cute about this is that Elfnein ACTUALLY TAKES A DAY OFF LOL.

AND SHE SINGS. ABOUT CAROL PRETTY MUCH.

But what’s clashing in this scene is that while Elfnein is singing and literally having fun, Tsubasa finally opens up and admits how she’s been feeling lately.

This is particularly sad because she literally said in episode 2 how much she loves singing. Before all the chaos in the concert and Fudou tearing down something she loves doing, Tsubasa was happy to sing and enjoy herself by spreading her music throughout the world. It’s taken a long time for Tsubasa to get to this point, even after the Zwei Wing disaster. So for her to feel this way is just really sad to hear and see.

And this sets up the brief argument between Hibiki and Miku.

Now my feelings on this scene is a lot but I’ll try to be brief as possible; personally, I don’t think Miku was in the wrong. This has been building up within her ever since season 1. However, was her outburst at the best time? No, it wasn’t. Miku isn’t a perfect person (in my opinion), no one is, but that’s what makes her interesting to me.

Even before S1, she’s been dealing with this guilt of hers for so long, so many years. And because she related to Tsubasa’s feelings of guilt and fear, it all came bursting out all at once...so she calls Hibiki selfish. I can see if people think this is rushed or literally came out of nowhere, or Miku’s wrong but it’s not as if Hibiki hasn’t done things wrong too.

Hibiki’s heart is always in the right place, yes, but she’s not perfect either. Normally, pulling people into her rhythm or ideas is fine and ends up working out really well. Her energy is enough to brighten those around her...but not all the time. Sometimes pulling people into doing something you think might help might end up hurting them instead. If you ask a person how they feel, maybe that way you’d be able to figure things out more.

But Hibiki didn’t ask Tsubasa. This isn’t to say that Hibiki doesn’t care about Tsubasa’s feelings, she cares deeply for Tsubasa, but she technically pulled her along into something that’s really only reminding her that she can’t enjoy songs. It’s hard to explain what I mean haha.

So even though Miku calls Hibiki selfish, which is debatable within itself but I don’t have time to explain it all lmao, I can kinda see her point. I don’t think Hibiki nor Miku are right or wrong here. It’s really just a clash of emotions and miscommunication. At least in my opinion.

And then having Hibiki ask her this question finally gets Miku to openly admit how she’s been feeling for years.

Can I say as a side note how crazy it is for Hibiki to raise her voice back, like she’s actually frustrated so she stresses the words? It made me feel so uneasy, no joke haha.

Moving on, Miku finally admits her guilt, and I think it’s a legit worry. A lot of things wouldn’t have happened in Hibiki’s life if she didn’t invite her to that concert. She wouldn’t have almost died. She wouldn’t have been harassed. Her family wouldn’t be as broken as it is. She wouldn’t nearly be dying all the time from fighting. Hibiki probably wouldn’t be fighting at all.

It may sound unreasonable for Miku to blame herself for all of this, but I can understand that blame somewhat so I guess I’m a bit biased in that regard lol.

Hibiki, who didn’t see all this guilt Miku’s been having, is surprised by her admission. Again, I don’t see anyone in the wrong for this exchange because of the miscommunication; Miku was too afraid to admit her feelings because she thought it would be a burden.

Hibiki, in my opinion, never once blamed Miku for the incident or never saw it in that light before, so she didn’t think Miku would have feelings like this.

I don’t intend to ever write Hibiki doing things right all the time. I enjoy writing her making mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

So I’ll leave it at that. After this, there’s Alca-Noise summoned into the city, so everyone separates. Hibiki tells Miku they’ll talk later as Miku takes Elfnein and herself away to safety.

Now this whole fight just shows how unstable Tsubasa is and possibly what that ability Millaarc used is effecting her still.

Side note: her song and transformation are REALLY good. Tsubasa’s transformation is really high if I had to rate them because it’s so beautifully animated. I love how special each transformation feels for each character this season. They’ve always been special and unique, but these intensify that to the max and I love it.

ALSO, during this scene, Hibiki makes a comment of thinking that the Alca-Noise are possibly a distraction. However, due to these other people from the government that took over, they don’t take her gut feeling seriously, which I think plays a part in the end. My child was being smart for once and they didn’t listen FFFFFFFFFF

Okay, but Tsubasa fighting.

She starts seeing Millaarc as her and Hibiki are fighting the Alca-Noise.

This is where Tsubasa starts attacking relentlessly.

Tsubasa is the most experienced out of them all, and to see her lose control over herself and nearly do all these huge attacks that start destroying the town instead is really the thing to see.

And all it really is is Tsubasa seeing the Alca-Noise as Millaarc. This is concerning because what if she ends up seeing one of her friends as Millaarc instead, and possibly ends up hurting them? I honestly was really worried that she would end up hurting someone with all these attacks. Luckily not. And she created a lot of damage to the city because of this.

It really feels possible that Tsubasa will have to sit out of fighting for a while. Not sure if they’d actually do that in the show, but it seems fitting. It may not make her feel any better though.

Now the cliffhanger;

Miku and Elfnein are still making their escape before being cornered by Millaarc and that same government man from earlier. Their goal was clearly to get Elfnein out of HQ so they could take her. I could be wrong, but I assume it’s because Fudou needs her help possibly to help turn the Vambrace into a sword? Or whatever else he wants done to it.

But they didn’t come for Miku, and Millaarc wonders what she should do with her before getting a “call” from Vanessa.

There’s no telling what Vanessa told her until probably the next episode I assume, but it ends on a large geyser of blood, making it seem as if Millaarc killed Miku.

I HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt this for multiple reasons; ---It’s just like episode 8 in G where people probably thought Miku died when the explosion at the tower happened. ---That random dude was there and it’s more than likely him being killed and seems the most obvious choice. ---Killing Elfnein seems pointless (unless she ran out in front of Miku even though Miku was protecting her at first) because they needed her. ---Would they really kill a main character only 5 episodes in?

I think that if Miku got hurt, they wouldn’t be showing so much blood coming out because that seems excessive. Or if she was actually hurt, I think it would have been sooooo much better if they actually showed Miku getting hit. That would make for a better cliffhanger in my opinion. But oh well. If they actually hurt Miku, I’ll be surprised. But for right now, unless the episode proves me otherwise, I don’t believe it at all.

What happens after this is a mystery; because if it’s actually the dude Millaarc killed, then what does that mean for Miku and Elfnein? Will they still hurt Miku another way? Possibly take her with them or just Elfnein? Would they get away?

I kinda doubt about them getting away because Hibiki literally saying “we’ll talk later” feels like “We’ll try to talk later but we won’t really because shizz goes down to prevent us from talking for a while” LOL.

But yeah, two more days until the episode to see how it all went down. Preview will be tomorrow so that can help stir some thoughts.

That’s really all I got haha.)

#ooc #(I wonder if I explained myself well enough in this; I feel like I wasn't but lol my bad)

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wayfaringmd · 6 years

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How safe are those hydrate spas? The ones where they put in an IV cocktail to “hydrate” you. Is it possible to over hydrate? I’m not in the medical field so I don’t understand the whole “fluids” thing but these spas seem a bit unsafe to me... even when they are run by medical professionals. Thoughts?

I will probably make some people mad with this post, but I am NOT a fan at all.

We don’t have them near me but I’ve heard about them. To respond properly to your ask I looked up some of these spas to see what services they offer. The commonality I found among all of them was vague benefits and uses of their products. Phrases like “boosts energy” “fights aging” and “immune boosting” were common. What follows is a basic explanation of common things they offer and my opinion on their usefulness.

1. IV fluid, usually normal saline, sometimes lactated ringers. It’s the same thing you’d get in the hospital. If you have functioning digestive system and kidneys you should be able to hydrate yourself effectively by mouth. Any excess fluid you take in is going to be filtered and excreted by your kidneys within the next day. $50 in the toilet.

2. B-complex/B12/B6/B2. If you eat a varied diet that includes animal products (not necessarily meat, but dairy and eggs count) and you don’t take any medications that inhibit the absorption of these vitamins (metformin and PPIs are big culprits) or have any medical conditions that affect these vitamins’ absorption (gastric bypass, pernicious anemia, heavy alcohol intake, among others), they’re probably pointless. If you need extra B12 because of one of the problems listed above, you can take it sublingually or in a shot without all the other crap on it. $25 in the toilet.

3. Glutathione - an antioxidant praised for its “anti cancer” properties, “immune boosting” and the ever-mysterious “detoxification”. You don’t absorb much of it orally, but it’s just a combination of 3 amino acids (cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine) that your body can synthesize from several different pathways as long as you are taking in the components. Certain other dietary substances (vitamin C, E, selenium, curcumin, and others) help increase your body’s production of it.

4. Vitamin C - take all you want, you’re just going to pee out what you don’t need later. Lick a lemon every once in a while, why don’t ya?

5. Zinc - Hey guess what? If you take in too much glutathione, it decreases zinc levels! As it turns out, your body is probably better than a spa is at regulating those ratios. You need zinc on the daily and luckily it’s found in like, a ton of stuff, but extra can give you the squirts pretty badly.

6. L-Taurine/L-Carnitine/L-Arginine- the L’s make them look fancy and science-y, but they’re the same as “regular” taurine/carnitine/arginine. The L form is the active form. Guess what? Your body also makes all of these from other amino acids and proteins that you take in when you eat a regular diet. Ok, to be precise, carnitine and arginine are conditionally essential, meaning that if you’re a premature infant, a dialysis patient, or you have a handful of really severe illnesses, you might need supplementation, but I’m guessing if you fit any of those categories you probably aren’t frequenting hydration spas.

7. Toradol - it’s an NSAID similar to your ibuprofen and aleve that you get at Walgreen’s but stronger. We do use it regularly for migraine treatment, so there’s that. But if you aren’t hurting, why are you taking it?

8. Zofran - for nausea. The orally-dissolving pill form is just as effective as the IV. And works about as quickly. And is cheaper. Nuff said.

9. Magnesium - If you don’t have enough, you can’t transport calcium and potassium (both very important for muscle contraction, nerve conduction, and regulation of heart rhythms) properly. Too much potentially causes respiratory depression, but that would be in much higher quantities than what I’d assume they’re giving in the spas. PPIs like prilosec do inhibit some absorption of magnesium, so it’s reasonable that a person on those meds might need supplementation. But you could just as well eat some nuts or spinach or take oral supplements.

For the average not-chronically-ill person, there is little to no benefit to elective IV hydration and nutrition over oral. So instead of spending the time and money on a hydration spa, eat a decent diet, drink water, and take a nap when you need to relax.

Tl;dr: Eat real food, drink water, ask your doctor if you are missing anything important, and skip the $100 water that you will pee out a few hours later.

#Anonymous #hydrate spas #vitamins #nutrition #medblr

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paraclete0407 · 3 years

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Everywhere I go I see these ‘morning’ novels about ‘getting life right the first time through.’ All these Asian girls I dated year after year and they expect / demand me to be totally established and take all their abuse - I will not complain more than that - when what I’ve wanted for a long time is literally ‘to live like an immigrant in one’s own country.’ All the people I admire seemingly married young such as the current Korean president and former UN Secretary General.

I keep thinking, ‘That ultra-miraculous Hail Mary 80K-or-so YA novel that will get me out of here and also annihilate all the evil YA novels that I hate and want to expurgate from BN, the libraries etc.’ The wolf-child teenage-assassin good-to-be-gay ultra-sensualize-Asian-girls good-to-get-raped good-to-be-anorexic good-to-hate good-to-be-cynical etc.

I tried to support ‘Finding My Voice’ author Marie Ok Myung Lee on Twitter b/c I saw ‘Finding My Voice’ at BN and went, ‘OMG they took Kim Minju’s face and it’s right there.’ I lived in KR; I don’t mistake faces; YA is ripping K-pop left and right but Minju’s a real person with a life, had panic-attacks, needed exogenous O2 from trying to ‘honor’ her fans. I wrote Minju ‘greentext fics’ talking about chivalry on 4chan but instead of motivating NEET’s to get a life or at least value and honor women it had people talking about rape, and various techniques of what might be called slave-breaking or the ways in which slavers and human traffickers so damage their human chattel as to render them unlikely to escape. Jordan Peterson on Twitter is defending 4chan for its truthyness I guess (despite JBP’s having dreams of Christ and the kings of this Earth bowing down after trying to smash each other), and also pointlessly dueling / debating actual rape- and trafficking-victim Yeonmi Park, a North Korean escapee, due to the fact that JBP is ultra-rich and invested in his brand / identity and probably delaying Christianity as long as possible. Marie Lee also got embroiled in a pretty pointless debate with a smart but mercenary Tory Toffish British professor called Dave Tizzard over precisely how much incendiary was dropped on to North Korean people and they’re still battling each other over God-knows-what. My parents also recently tried to duel me to the death over my interest in supporting Liberty in North Korea; about which my Dad said, ‘If you try to enter North Korea I will cut you off.’ I’m a communist defector for being anti-communist because this is 2021 in Babylon and reality is unreality. I’m sorry if I sound like Ben Shapiro but honestly facts and those ho handle them are sometimes more important to the art / science caring than narratives, the ashes of experience, personality, etc. People such as Joe Biden also appear to oppose food-relief to North Korea on the grounds that it will prop up the regime and, say, if we feed North Koreans they might have excess energy and actually develop WMD’s and non-conventional capabilities that could threaten the US; an eventuality we prevented in the past by making sure NK starved in the 1990s and also by disarming NK’s WMD operation in Iraq in 2003.

All jokes aside NK policy strikes me as incredibly mentally ill and by that I mean spiritually depraved (I really think so), racist, genocidal / annhilationist, desiring to erase both souls / individuals and history, confused, scared. IDK if I am allowed to even say that but I have a ‘black swan’ theory of history / WW3 in which some of the formerly colonized nations, such as NK and SRV (Socialist Republic of Vietnam), basically take over the world using special forces because in a way they deserve it and also because they know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of both malevolent colonial power and pseudo-benevolent or well-meaning-but-stupid-and-cowardly-and-non-committed paternal colonialism / imperialism. It could appear outlandish but if you study certain battles in history you find there are critical factors in terms of information, will, ‘moral factor,’ technology, the Hand of God.

I ultimately believe many of us on the Earth will have new neighbors very soon and we must honor them with worthy offerings, both out of justice and out of love for their souls (a-ga-pe, caritas / Charity). During the pandemic I repeatedly read Chancellor / Dr. / Pastor John Piper’s ‘Coronavirus and Christ’ as well as Francis Chan’s ‘Forgotten God’ about the Holy Spirit and how to invite(?) His counsel, comfort, wisdom, orders.

To anyone and everyone who might be reading this someday I also recommend highly Catherine Cho’s ‘Inferno’ which is about post-partum psychosis, mental healthcare in the United States, motherhood, demons, all of which are factors currently of critical importance to a lot of us. I had written a poem for Literary Shanghai which I think was accepted but which I then rescinded about ‘Inferno’ describing my own experiences with mental healthcare and terror of Hell and the Spirit. I had also spoken of a ‘Requiem’ which is something the pre-eminent English-language professor of the Korean War once called for though the essence of what might have happened during that conflict as well as what could happen again today is quite frankly literally a ‘Dies Irae,’ not the peaceful or nice part of the traditional requiem. I had actually wanted to write Korean War novels before I realized how mercenary this is about an operation codenamed Ripper under Gen. Ridgway, the part of the war that involved bullets as much as heavy bombers or whatever, huge masses of Chinese troops, situations of semi-indiscriminate firing into masses of Asians including refugees, not to mention numerous hapless boy-soldiers from China. All this stuff appears to be clawing its way out of the ground now - the Korean government recently awarded an American colonel in his 90′s for a certain unspecified action - but it’s 3:50 AM, billions born and unborn are at stake in other places, lands of miracle and menace, such as particularly Somalia with a birthrate that resembles that of the Republic of Korea prior to contraception etc., and I have personal problems to target and numerous ownership-issues when it comes to what is truly meant for me to do in the remains of my day(s).

It also appears that a large coterie / clique / posse of persons around here are obsessed with me magically forcing them to respect, cherish, etc. me which puts me in mind of my favorite K-pop song - maybe the only one I ought to care about anymore - (Ms. / Leader) Kim Taeyeon’s ‘Make Me Love You,’ which however was also released on the same day as a super-massive democidal chemical attack in Syria.

A while back I reflected somewhat - maybe not enough - on the idea of ‘counter-imperialism,’ by which I don’t mean Jean Paul Sartre or Mao or the Black Panthers, but using power, influence, etc. to circumscribe or delimit the excess ambitions of people who think they have the right idea but have lost their right minds or don’t really understand or care. At one point I thought wishfully, ‘America is like a counter-empire,’ but IDK if I was really thinking of America b/c to be a counter-empire by my definition you need control and reason and wisdom and SME (subject matter expertise), not just wishes.

I’m not sure any liberal democracy today has all these though my optimistic side looks to the current ROK president, Twitter moonriver365, who appears to be playing an almost impossible hand with literally every other country, flesh and spirit. I bought this leader’s autobiography but my Korean cuts in and out of comprehension. IDK if I’m too open-minded or not open-minded enough; I have my affections and I guess limerences (liking) as well. I don’t despise the current ruler of Russia either for he has been trying to do good things for a nation that paid a nearly incomprehensible price in WW2 (Great Patriotic War), and which was mocked and despised for no good reason by a smug West, which perhaps sunk into unworthiness of itself, after the first Cold War.

I remember looking at a picture the Moscow GPW memorial obelisk and being awed to tears - bodies and souls ascending into Heaven or hurled into Hell. Straight up, straight down. St. George and the dragon. ‘They are attacking again; are they mortal?’

However, I came to view this memorial partly whilst researching a fanciful Millennial anti-establishment curse-the-system-and-die novel about the mass-drowning of some 300 South Korean high school students in 2014.

I also made an effort to cultivate concern for children in the Midwest but somehow became sidetracked again just thinking about world events, the fact that every race is out to get every other race, these golden-haired Caucasian girls are probably taken to be ‘Little Women’ knockoffs or Henry James throwbacks or some Reddit category that can be easily demonized by Maoist flaks, BLM, anyone looking to score points or reduce the other in order to magnify the self and/or its tribal / identity-politics interests.

Over recent months I considered a lot - maybe still not enough - the categories or qualities of purpose; purity; and also presence.

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sandoirs · 3 years

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Your main energy source should be good fats. The rest should come from good fats (almost everyone does well on MUFA; SFAs are ok).

You need to deserve your carbs. The more insulin sensitive (i.e. lean and active) you are, the more carbs you can tolerate. Keeping carbs between 100–200g carbs works well for most people. The leaner and more active, the more carbs you tolerate and even need.

Avoid high-glycemic loads. Our ancestors never had the fast-spiking carbs we have now. Intense spikes in insulin are bad. (Whole books can be written -and in fact, are written — about the science).

Cycling into ketosis occasionally keeps you metabolically flexible. Metabolic flexibility is incredibly important. Just as our ancestors likely were, throwing in the occasional fast (cycling in and out of ketosis) keeps your cells great at oxidizing fats while remaining good at burning glucose. (For scientific explanation -and to all other points above and below- see the article I wrote which I linked at the bottom of this post)

Very low carb? A diet very low in carbohydrates is great for becoming metabolically healthy (e.g. fatty liver, insulin resistance, adiposity), but if you are already lean and active, going too low in carbs for too long periods of time can screw with hormonal health (sex hormones, thyroid, adrenals, IGF-1).

Do not only look at macros and micros. Calories are just as important. Perhaps THE most important factor when it comes to diet is simply the number of calories you eat. We are heterotrophic creatures. Energy intake is one of the most important things animals do. For adequate health and function (esp. hormonal health), sufficient caloric intake is required.

Protein intake. Around 1.5g protein/kg body weight.

Eat meats. We evolved as meat-eaters. Meats are highly nutritious and contain many nutrients (e.g. minerals, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, choline, CoQ10, etc.). Too bad, meat is bad for the environment.

Test out whether dairy is for you or not. For many people dairy is inflammatory, causes gut issues, bloating, lethargy and for some reason negatively affects the lipid profile. Most people think bad reactions to dairy are due to the lactose content. In many cases however, it is not the lactose, but the whey and esp. casein protein fraction of the milk. Both whey and casein evolved to have some hormonal activity. Both are quite bad for metabolic health. Besides, many people´s immune system reacts against certain forms of a1-casein.

Sugar/fructose in high quantities is bad. Not only does it elevate intrahepatic lipogenesis (fatty liver), but it also raises uric acid, which has a host of adverse effects itself. What is more, sweetness hooks you and you become addicted to it.

Avoid excessive Omega-6 intake and increase Omega-3 intake. Stay away from most vegetable oils (esp. soy, corn, sunflower). Not only are they precursors to pro-inflammatory eicosanoids, but they also screw with the different PPARs. Instead, make sure you get at least 2g of DHA and EPA. It is the building block for anti-inflammatory eicosanoids, acts on PPARs (transcription factors for metabolism) and is important for neuronal signalling.

What about fiber? What about fiber? You need both soluble and insoluble fiber.In my opinion and experience, around 10g of psyllium husk and 5g of inulin/acacia fiber is all you need. (for more about it, see footnote 9 in the article below).

From a health perspective, not much variety is needed. If vitamins and micronutrient intakes are adequate, we can eat the same foods and meals over and over again (and every other mammal out there animal does this). Do you think our primate ancestors had varied buffets available 24/7, 365 days per year? Hell no, they ate the exact same stuff over and over again. In fact, people in blue zones, in general, eat the same 20 or so ingredients for their whole lives.

Don´t miss the forest for the trees. Following these few points gives you 80% of the benefit for 20% effort. Overfocusing on tiny details is pointless.

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larvacola · 6 years

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An explanation

I’m sure many of you have noticed lately the rise in my posts regarding my personal life and the shit that is going down with it, and I just wanted to run something by you guys really quick -

Honestly, I know you guys have noticed because I have received a handful of messages letting me know that you guys are here to help. I want to thank you for that. It’s been really hard lately and you guys have continued to be kind to me. I’m not usually one to make posts like this because I hate the thought of attention being placed on me (or the idea that people think I am seeking it), but I have always seen Tumblr as a place for me to write out anything that I want. This is why you often see the posts I was referring to earlier. For me, Tumblr is a place where I can say whatever I want because not that many people in my personal life follow it. It allows me to get things off of my chest. A place for me to come yell and scream if I need to.

And things have been super hard lately, for sure. Words cannot explain what it is like to wake up one day to realize that your passions, your drives, your motivations, your desires, the things that make you happy are suddenly no longer effective. That you no longer have goals or ambitions. That you no longer feel connected to the people around you. That you would rather sit in bed all day under the covers and away from the world. That your life is essentially pointless and anything that you do in your lifetime will literally not mean a god damn thing. That the only thing you are looking forward to is taking a drug or drinking excessively in order to feel numb and distance yourself from the unknown hurt. That you are just coasting through your days, skipping all your classes and events and avoiding people, feeling nothing. It’s horrifying.

To wake up one day next to the boy you love, the boy you stopped your whole fucking world for (and I know you can all remember those posts), and feel nothing, just like everything else - that’s crushing. That is crushing. It is the most disgusting, horrible feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. I feel vile. I want to throw up. My stomach has been in knots for months. To no longer have the energy or desire to continue a relationship because your fucking feelings of sadness are outweighing every god damn thing in your life - it makes me want to tear my hair out. That my fucking head can so easily get in the way of what was probably the best thing that has happened to me in my 21 years. The anger I feel towards myself is unreal.

And the worst part is, is that I don’t know why I am feeling this way. There isn’t a clear reason as to why I feel so miserable all the time. I’ve put so much thought and energy into it in the hopes that I could figure out what the problem was, but I couldn’t find one. So how am I supposed to convey that to the people who care about me? How am I supposed to convey that to anyone at all? How am I supposed to look at my boyfriend (now ex) and tell him that I don’t want to continue this relationship but it’s not his fault, and that it’s actually because I’m just too fucking MISERABLE to put energy into anything - how the fuck do you say that? How am I supposed to validate these feelings when these feelings aren’t even feelings at all?!

I don’t know why I’m so sad. I don’t. I wish I did, but I don’t.

And so lately I have been feeling it in all its power and weight. There has not been a point up until now where the idea of me really not being here anymore actually started to seem like the better choice. I have run out of ideas and answers (if you could even call them that).

So I turn here. And I rant. I rant because it’s hard to keep it all in, and it’s really hard to deal with it (even though I know people are worse off). And you all bear the weight of that even though it is not yours to bear (and I would never wish to put it on you either). Yet you still choose to follow me and send me words of encouragement. So thank you, truly.

I hope that one day I won’t be making posts like I have been. But until then, I hear your words. Please don’t worry.

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bienready2122 · 4 years

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A War Movie For People Who Know Or Care Nothing About War

The previous summer, NBC's Brian Williams composed a piece called "The Hurt Locker: Hurting for a Fact-Checker" in regards to one of the best two competitors for Best Picture at this present end of the week's Oscars. Williams noted, "I found a huge number of specialized mistakes dependent on my couple of outings to Iraq during the tallness of the contention. Seeing the film caused me to return over a large number of the positive audits I read... [I]t is currently away from of them was composed by any individual who had invested any energy with U.S. military in Iraq." https://new-solarmovie.com/other-brands Williams proposed that the movie producers messed up the accompanying minor subtleties: the vehicles, the protective layer, the weapons, the caps, the outfits, the correspondences innovation, the military language, the unit structure, the order methodology, and the mission coordinations.

On the in addition to side, Williams noticed that the movie producers precisely depicted fighters' fingernails being filthy and their eyelashes being secured with dust. Score one for film verite! Williams additionally commended the film's exquisite desert landscape.

Williams finished, "I'd prefer to watch 'The Hurt Locker' with a battle veteran, yet my layman's eyes saw route as an excessive amount to squabble with."

Luckily for Williams, battle veterans have just observed the film. Sadly for chief Kathryn Bigelow, their analysis of the film is much more scorching than Williams'.

Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, presented an ongoing article for Newsweek reasoning that "Hollywood's most recent endeavor to characterize the Iraq War and the American soldiers who have battled in it is similarly as baffling as all the others created up until now."

Rieckhoff's evaluate, while bringing up extra and more nuanced mistakes than Williams', contends that the snowballing amassing of blunders in the film isn't unimportant, yet rather mirrors a messy, reprehensible rendering of the military that uncovers significant numbness and sums to incredible irreverence on the movie producers' part.

For instance, Rieckhoff censures the portrayal of the profoundly particular Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) bunch at the focal point of the film as calmly putting on other military caps in their extra time, expertly doing sharpshooter missions and kicking in entryways and checking structures for extremists, employments for which they could never have been prepared.

Rieckhoff states, "The scene with Jeremy Renner's character sneaking misguided to pursue a kid he is stressed over is as anecdotal as Jason Bourne... The men in my company adhered to rules and requests, and they stayed with their individual officers... They don't go around on their own except if they need to be court-martialed-or executed."

The L.A. Times' Julian Barnes refers to EOD colleagues in Iraq who damn "The Hurt Locker" with black out acclaim: they call it "a decent activity film on the off chance that you know nothing about defusing side of the road bombs or the military." (How about that sound altering!)

Barnes cites EOD professional Sgt. Eric Gordon saying, "I would watch it with other EOD individuals, and we would giggle." (Then once more, numerous individuals I know have had a similar response to individual Oscar chosen one "Symbol.") Gordon analyzed one officer defusing a bomb utilizing wire cutters to "a fireman go into a structure with a spurt bottle."

A considerably all the more calming analysis of the film includes its depiction of the fundamental character, Sergeant William James, as a peril adoring, adrenaline-dependent, convention destroying commando who wantonly upsets unit attachment and imperils unit individuals with unreliable, intense person playacting.

The Washington Post cites Iraq veteran Ryan Gallucci expressing that he needed to continue killing the film "or, more than likely I would have tossed my remote through the TV"; Gallucci concedes that he continued needing to see James "exploded... I needed to see his helpless colleagues get another group chief, who was really worried about their wellbeing."

In an exposition for The New York Times unpretentiously named "How Not to Depict a War," EOD group videographer Michael Kamber includes that the film's numerous verifiable blunders "are simple subtleties contrasted with the manner in which Sergeant James over and over struts up to bombs... [T]he odds of carelessly drawing nearer even a solitary order exploded bomb and enduring are very little. However we are made to accept that Sergeant James has debilitated more than 800 bombs in this foolish, rancher like design." (Yes, yet will the film win the sculpture for Best Sound Mixing?)

The most accursing arraignment of the film, in any case, originates from American-Israeli columnist Caroline Glick. She notes of the film, "There is no plot. We know nothing about these officers. We don't have the foggiest idea why they joined the US Army. We don't have the foggiest idea how they feel about Iraq... All we are given are GI Joes who defuse bombs. Probably by watching them, we should accomplish some more profound comprehension of the war. However all we see is sans setting savagery which shows us nothing war. Evidently James is a legend. Be that as it may, we don't have any thought what he's battling for. So for what reason would it be a good idea for us to think about him?"

So for what reason is "The Hurt Locker" selected for a gazillion Academy Awards? My hypothesis is that the film was made for, and appreciated by, individuals who either (1) think nothing about war, and are interested about what it resembles to be installed in the Army and ready to watch a cut of life in a specific unit, or (2) care nothing about war, and are enchanted to see it portrayed as a pointless, agnostic exercise that outlines the purposelessness of getting arms to battle for one's nation's security advantages.

The previous gathering are not getting a precise portrayal of life in the Army, in any event for this gathering in this contention.

With respect to the last gathering, Glick states, "The Hurt Locker works for them since its post-present day, setting free rendering of the war is a picture-flawless far-left depiction of war. No, the Americans aren't horrendous, they are nothings... War is pointless. There is no reason to war with the exception of remaining alive."

Glick counters this view: "[S]oldiers aren't two-dimensional and war isn't tied in with nothing. Furthermore, the war in Iraq is neither purposeless nor aimless. The Hurt Locker was a two-dimensional film about a good for nothing war and nothing officers."

As such: not all bad for Hollywood war films nowadays.

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hybridgeist · 6 years

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I don't make New Year's resolutions. I find it pointless to make promises to myself that I can't keep. Instead, I like to reflect instead on the progress I have made during the previous year to motivate myself to keep going, keep trying, and keep improving. I also don't normally publicly post these things, but I am up obscenely early for some reason and haven't had my coffee so perhaps my judgment is impaired. Sit tight, it's happening anyway. (Under the cut if no one actually cares lol)

In my 30th year of life I felt like I was staring down a black hole of no change, no positivity, no nothing. I started 2017 without a job basically, and while I still don't have one officially, steps are being made in that direction, but I digress. One I was able to rein in the mental health issues, I was able to really get serious about losing all this excessive weight I've gained in the past decade. My sleep schedule was awful, usually 4am-12pm then a nap from 2pm-4pm and repeat the cycle. I was tired, sluggish, and unproductive. I also figured out that my feet weren't killing me after standing up for 5 minutes just because I was heavy, but because I have severe plantar fasciitis, which is so totally and easily treatable and fixable. That means I can actually get some exercise without wanting to chop my legs off at the knees. I've gradually altered my sleep schedule to be more realistic, and that on top of cutting out soda almost entirely and keeping a closer eye on what I've been eating has made my energy and productivity improve ridiculously.

Which brings me to the most important thing. ART. I have made so much more art. While I didn't stick to my goal of having one thing for every month of the year to show, I accomplished about 75% of that. I've been feeling so disconnected and unhappy with my art for so long that it's extremely refreshing and motivating to be able to get up every morning and just start drawing. I've lost a few years of improvement from being disinterested and unmotivated, and that's sad, but I'm hoping that with all these improvements I have made that that part of my life is over. I haven't been so happy drawing since I was in high school using it for my escape. I can't wait to learn and apply bunches of new things and just CREATE.

The world itself may not be in the best of places this year, but I really needed to focus on my personal improvements, because a year ago I was weeping to the person I love most in the world that I didn't see a point to the day in and day out and if I had the motivation for ANYTHING other than sleeping I'd rather try to kill myself because I was a burden and a waste of space. I've still got a long way to go, but this has been the most effective start I've ever had and I plan to continue it into 2018 and beyond. I can't wait to get closer to the person I want to be, and I hope that even when the world wants to knock me down, now I will have the strength to get up, dust off, and keep going.

Other goals to work toward in the coming year for me will be: some better time management skills, MORE ART, keeping consistency in sleep schedule and not fall off this horse, make more money to pay the bills, cuddle my dogs even MORE.

#new years resolutions #improvements #personal #2017 #looking back

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lhs3020b · 7 years

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Euratom

So, based on what I’ve been seeing in the news, it appears the Hard Brexiteers have had their first defeat...

First of all, here’s the Guardian from a couple of days ago: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/10/brexit-pm-making-plans-to-replicate-membership-of-atomic-energy-group-euratom

Basically, several Tory MPs - either 7 or 9, I’m seeing different figures quoted in various places - made clear that they wouldn’t support plans to end all relations between the UK and the European atomic power regulator.

Now, I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to nuclear electricity. I’m also somewhat sympathetic to having tapwater that is tolerably-free of exotic radio-isotopes. While I think nuclear energy has its place, I also firmly believe that it needs robust regulation to ensure safety, control costs and avoid problems. Like, you know, the Windscale fire or that unfortunate incident that spread a cloud of radioactive fallout across the entire fucking continent in the late ‘80s.

I mean, don’t get me wrong - I love the Fallout games deeply and withy much video game passion. I just don’t want to live in one. And especially not if it’s the Brexit Poundland version.

But ass ever, enter the May ministry. Apparently this bonkers insane fuck-festival excuse for a government thinks it knows better. They seem to think that the UK doesn’t need any kind of nuclear regulatory body.

Incidentally, this is doubly-ludicrous - we buy our uranium from overseas. How do David Davis and Mrs May think they can avoid interacting with other countries’ nuclear regulation regimes? Is their post-2019 plan to turn us into a tuppence-ha’penny imitator of Iran? Is the Strangers’ Bar at the Palace of Westminster going to be filled with centrifuges spinning out weapons-grade Pu-239? Do they plan to grind up granite from deepest darkest Cornwall for its trace amounts of uranium? Are they planning on putting tankers of uranium hexaflouride on National Rail freight-waggons? (”The Southern Rail service to Brighton has been indefinitely delayed due to poisonous radioactive sludge on the line...”)

The whole thing utterly beggars belief.

Fortunately, on this occasion, sanity prevailed on the floor of the House. Enough Tories objected to an obviously-insane plan that it cancelled the government’s majority. (And yes, that’s cancelling it even with the entirety of the DUP on-side.) It seems that the rebellion was firm enough that Mrs May didn’t feel she could risk an actual vote on this, so the plans have been shelved for now.

It’s just as well sanity prevailed on this one (even if it was rather narrow). Because, frankly, this is worse than it looks. Consider this: a country that has a functioning nuclear deterent just tried to do something obviously-insane in the atomic policy area. Even if no-one’s saying anything openly, that will have been noticed (except possibly by the Tr*mp, who isn’t bright enough to understand all the big words). If the other Nuclear Weapons States get the idea that one of the original signatories to the NPT has gone off the deep end... Well, it’s hard to see that going anywhere good.

Let’s just say that I don’t think my comment about this government being a bonkers fuckfest is excessive in this instance. One could even speculate on how much Theresa May has just materially-damaged the UK’s national security with this particular pointless bunfight.

(Relatedly, I also notice that the BBC and the newspapers have been very, very carefully avoiding the “B” word for the last few days. One can’t help but wonder whether a panicky late-night memo’s gone out from CCHQ to their tame journo friends. “Guys, ionising radiation’s the only thing more hated than we are. Please don’t even the score!”)

Anyway, the good news is that #Remain’s finally won something. They do say that winning breeds winning, so let’s hope this acts as a springboard to build an active movement on.

But also, one more important thought. This defeat was only possible because of one thing, and that was what the electorate did on June the 8th. Even just a few thousand more votes the other way, and the Hard Brexiters probably would have got their way.

Oh well, I guess there’s some reassurance in the fact that at least the electorate itself seems to getting more sane rather than less?

#UK internal politics #Diary of a disaster #What the hell these lunatics are thinking I do not know #Worst government ever #Except possibly Cameron II

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lilithhawthorne · 7 years

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Title: Blood of the Brotherhood Fandom: Mass Effect: Andromeda Relationship: Sara Ryder x Jaal Rating: M Chapter: 8/? Cross posted on AO3 / FFN First // Previous / Next

Part Two of a DOUBLE CHAPTER WOOHOO POSTING EVENT

During their first trip to Voeld, Ryder had been in awe. Yes, it had been cold and there had been nothing quite as annoying as SAM reminding her about the limits of her core body temperature, but beyond all that she had appreciated the quiet, icy beauty of the planet’s surface.

Now she missed SAM’s voice and she found the quiet, icy beauty less enjoyable. She didn’t need SAM to tell her that temperatures were dropping but it would have been nice, for old time’s sake.

There was a familiar pain in her back as she pushed forward and it jolted with each step she took. She didn’t bother looking where she was going. There was nothing to see - nothing she could see- through the snow that came at her from all directions. Heavy, hard little balls that bounced off her armor that made an audible plink as they pelted her helmet.

When Ryder couldn’t walk any longer she dropped to her knees, crawling forward through drifts as high as her shoulders. White and black, that’s all she could see. White from the snow all around her. Black from the back of her eyelids, drooping, the urge to return to sleep chasing her from the last remaining fringes of consciousness.

Packed snow gave way to something slick and hard. A frozen lake. At least out here the snow didn’t crowd around her, working to bury her before she was even dead. But she was more exposed, the wind and pelting snow biting through her armor.

She couldn’t hear their song but she saw the glow of the yevara beneath the ice, inches from her face. They passed beneath her palms and she rubbed against the ice as if she could pet them. Jaal had told her how important they were to the angara, the living remnants of their past civilization and their life before the Scourge.

It seemed as good a place to rest as any.

Ryder pressed her face as close to the ice as her helmet would allow. It wasn’t worth fighting the weariness that seeped through her bones. She couldn’t even say what had woken her and why she had stumbled forward to begin with. It all seemed so pointless now.

She was tried and the yevara would sing her to sleep.

- x -

When the Nomad finally signaled for extraction, Lexi made quick work of dispersing the lingering crew that hung around the cargo bay. “Everyone! Clear this area and stay out from under foot! I don’t want to see anyone near the medbay until I’ve signaled you all, am I understood?”

Vetra opened her mouth to protest, but even Peebee knew better than to argue with the doctor and she waved her hand in front of her throat, motioning for Vetra to stay silent.

“Good.” Lexi nodded, pleased with how well behaved the crew was, as they scampered away from the hold. She noticed Gil’s head poking from over the railing and she knew that Liam had purposely left his door open as he and Drack hid just out of sight, but none of those distractions mattered.

She had an excess of energy that left her restless as she waited. Without the patient in front of her, it was difficult for her to direct her thoughts into productive planning. How long had Ryder been on Voeld? What were the extent of her injuries sustained during the initial fight and how had they been treated? Without that information she was left to plan for any number of situations and none were pleasant.

The Tempest shook all around her as they landed and the floor began to heave, the ramp lowering for the Nomad to drive directly into the belly.

It was hard to say how the moment would pass before it had happened.

Sometimes things would unfold around her as if in slow motion, each heart beat and pump of blood slowed down to a thousand times their natural pace, her hands just as slow and clumsy in response.

Other times she blinked and the damage had been done, a cavity filled with septic waste or brain activity snuffed out.

It happened like that now. An empty cargo bay in front of her when she took a deep breath in, a press of metal as the Nomad rolled to a halt when she let the breath out. Jaal held Ryder in his arms, her helmetless face pressed against his chest and her arms folded loosely in her lap. She looked like she was -

“She’s sleeping,” Cora said as she emerged behind Jaal. She had regained the color that she had lost while watching the video, but her eyes were still glazed and far off. Lexi made a note to check in with her after she had done a preliminary check on Ryder. “She’s… snoring and everything.”

Sure enough Lexi could hear it, the gentle vibration of breath through Ryder’s nose.

Lexi gave a wan smile and looked up at Jaal. “Take her to the medbay. Sleeping or not, she gets a full check up.”

As the two walked away from the hold, Lexi could hear Liam’s ghostly laugh behind her. “Just like her to take a nap while we’re all worried.” The joke almost echoed in the silence as half a dozen eyes trailed the limp legs dangling from Jaal’s embrace.

- x -

It was one of those things that she hadn’t thought about until recently, but Ryder was beginning to find that she did not enjoy the sensation of waking up on a numb arm to a bright light in her face while nursing a drug specific hangover.

“How kind of you to finally join us.”

That dry, merciless tone. It didn’t matter that the light made her head hurt and pushing herself up made her want to vomit, she had to see. She had to confirm that what she was hearing was true.

“Easy now,” Lexi warned, her hands pressing gently, yet firmly, against Ryder’s chest. “You were lucky that we found you before you lost anything more serious.”

“What?” Ryder raised one arm in the air and tried to wiggle the one pinned beneath her. She counted ten fingers, craned her neck to try and see her toes.

“I’m kidding. See how it feels to be worried?” A joke, wrapped in a lesson, delivered with the cool tone of a disinterested physician.

It wasn’t a dream.

Tears sprung from Ryder’s eyes and she was too glad to wipe them away, not even the least bit ashamed as they slid down her cheeks. Maybe at another time she would wonder about whether it was good for crew morale for the pathfinder to sob, but right now it felt good.

Lexi’s warm hands framed Ryder’s face, the friendly blue face coming into focus through the glaze of tears. “I knew you would like the joke,” she said, her thumbs tracing circles across Ryder’s cheeks.

They stayed like that for a while, Lexi perched on the edge of the bed, holding Ryder as she cried. She alternated between stroking Ryder’s hair, face and arms, making low, comforting sounds as she did.

“I’m okay,” Ryder finally said, the last of her tears drying against her lips. “I’m all out of water.”

“I’m not surprised given how dehydrated you are.” Lexi stood up, pulling out a data pad as she did. It was back to business, the softness of her tone replaced by the pointed inflection of a doctor. “I have a few questions. I’m sorry if this is a lot for you, and you can let me know if you need to stop, but I have to be sure.”

Ryder nodded, a go ahead for questions.

“You have a new scar on your shoulder that was healed professionally, but you have one on your back that was… not.”

Ryder winced as she remembered Jaal’s knife cutting into her shoulder and the further damage she had done trying to hold onto the shuttle as it flew away. That had been another tube of medi gel - “wasted,” as Murphy had reminded her for the second time.

“My back?” she asked, her voice heavy with confusion and exhaustion. She had just woken up, but after that cry she was ready for another nap.

“It was stitched by hand. It’s healed well enough,” Lexi shrugged as if that was all that mattered, but her eyes were hooded and wary. “When did you sustain the injuries?”

Hand stitching on her back? That didn’t make any sense. Ryder knew for a fact that Lia had used medi gel, had felt the barely there knot of scar tissue herself as she had changed into the jumpsuit she had been given.

She tried to think back to her few moments of lucidity on Voeld, crawling through the snow. Her back had hurt then. Had something happened after her meeting with Lonny?

Thoughts of Lonny darkened her expression and she hunched her shoulders. She could still feel his hands pressed against hers, that sad far away look on his face as he asked her about her school days.

“Ryder, what’s wrong?” Lexi’s hands were on her shoulders, a firm and friendly grasp to bring her back to the present.

“It’s… I don’t remember,” she lied. “I can’t remember a lot of the - “ she stumbled, “ - times that have happened.”

“You can’t remember the times that have happened?”

Shit, that was a half assed lie, but she couldn’t give away that she knew how much time had passed. Maybe it was stupid of her to keep her time with Lonny secret, and she assured herself that she would talk about it… later. When she was ready.

“I’m sorry, Lexi, I’m really tired. Can I sleep?”

Lexi didn’t say anything and Ryder avoided looking up, just in case her face gave her away and Lexi pressed for more solid answers.

“Jaal has been asking to see you,” Lexi finally said. “He’s been… distant since the ambush. I’ll let him know that you’re sleeping.”

As much as she wanted to see Jaal, she was tired and she didn’t think she could keep quiet about what had happened if questioneds. She knew, even without seeing him, that he would be blaming himself for her being shot.

She was tired, but she owed him answers.

“That’s okay, you can send him in,” she said. “I think I have enough energy to talk for a bit.”

This time she did look up, just in time to see Lexi’s knowing, half smile. “Mhmm, of course. I’ll let him know. Be right back.”

Ryder let her eyes rest in the few moments of silence that she had been afforded as Lexi searched for Jaal. The quiet was nice, but it was the smell that Ryder appreciated the most. Or, rather, the lack of smell.

She shifted, tried to roll onto her back but stopped when she felt the sharp, bright pain as the bed pressed against her.

“Oh, what the fuck?” she hissed.

“Pathfinder, I am happy that you’re awake but I have something to share with you. I thought it best to wait until Dr. T’Perro was no longer in the room.”

“SAM!” Ryder shot up, her fingers reaching for her ears. Her comms had been taken, both her link to the exiles and the block against SAM. “Oh, SAM, I missed your voice.”

“I am detecting a foreign body located just below your skin.”

A vein near her eye throbbed. “What?”

“I am having a hard time deciphering what it is, but I have pinpointed the location to the wound on your back.”

Her fingers found where a bullet had punctured her just a few days before. She had been healed, she was sure of it, but now the whole area was sore. The closer she inched to the wound the sharper the pain became. She willed herself to keep going, brushing her fingers against the lump of skin that had been stitched back together.

Lump. Not a good thing.

“SAM, what’s going on?”

“I am unfamiliar with the material that is present in your body, but it cannot be picked up by the ship’s medical scanners. I withheld the information from Dr. T’Perro when she asked for an internal report.”

“You can lie? Why would you do that?”

Before SAM could answer, the medbay doors opened up. Ryder’s attention, the bewilderment from her interrupted conversation with SAM still written across her face, snapped to the door.

Her heart hammered as she took in the hunch of his shoulders and the frown that creased his face. Jaal had the same hard look in his eyes that he’d had on Eos while hovering over her as he pressed her head into the dirt.

#mass effect andromeda #me:a fan fiction #rydaal #jaal x ryder #mass effect: andromeda fanfic #fanfic #fan fiction #blood of the brotherhood #text post

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geodude96 · 7 years

Text

English idioms

I know there are people in this fandom who aren't native English speakers. I also know that English can be a very difficult language to learn, especially with things like idioms that might not make sense if they're directly translated. So I thought I'd compile some English idioms that you might see in the AA games or fanfics, along with their definitions or explanations. I did something similar once before, split across several blog posts, but I thought I'd compile them here. The examples below will have specific gender and/or personal pronouns, but those are just for example and clarity purposes. They can obviously be changed to suit the context.

-I talked her into it - I convinced her to do it

-I talked her out of it - I convinced her not to do it

-she talked him down - she convinced him to descend (such as from a dangerous height); or she explained how to descend (such as giving instructions over a radio to an inexperienced pilot); or she convinced him to lower his asking price for something he's selling

-to talk (or hype) someone (or something) up - to explain the good points of someone (or something) in such a way as to create excitement, anticipation, or appreciation

-another (or “a whole other”) kettle of fish - a completely different story or explanation

-don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched - don’t make plans based on a theoretical result

-the last straw (or “the straw that broke the camel’s back”) - the last inconvenience, annoyance, indignity, etc. that can be tolerated

-more _____ than you can shake a stick at - an overwhelming or unusually large number or amount of _____

-at the drop of a hat - at the slightest provocation (”The baby will cry at the drop of a hat.”)

-as the crow flies - the direct distance between two places, regardless of roads or obstacles

-she made a beeline - she took the shortest and quickest route to a destination (usually a straight line)

-milk run - an easy or simple errand

-_____ run - an errand or trip with the purpose of retrieving or obtaining _____ and bringing it back ("Everyone at the party was hungry, so Apollo was chosen to go on a pizza run.")

-he talked down to her - he talked to her in a condescending, insulting, or patronizing way (not to be confused with “he talked her down”)

-she has him wrapped around her little finger - he will do almost anything she says, and/or will do almost anything for her, usually due to a crush or something.

-[name], eat your heart out - die of envy (said in a joking context)

-to play devil’s advocate - to introduce an unpopular opinion, theory, or possibility, despite its unpopularity, usually because it needs to be considered, even if the person introducing it disagrees with it

-a shot (or "a stab") in the dark - a guess

-water under the bridge - something that doesn’t matter anymore or that has been forgiven

-to tie the knot - to get married

-to jump the gun (or “to jump to a conclusion”) - to make an assumption or conclusion based on insufficient information

-born with a silver spoon in his mouth - born to rich parents; born into and grew up in a life of luxury

-he put his foot in his mouth - he (probably impulsively) said something that turned out to be embarrassing and/or made matters worse

-you bit off more than you can chew - you started or accepted too many tasks, assignments, or responsibilities at the same time

-to beat around the bush - to avoid a main topic, or to be intentionally vague about a topic that one is expected to discuss

-to let the cat out of the bag - to reveal a secret

-to spill the beans - to reveal a secret

-to beat a dead horse - to continue discussing a topic after it becomes pointless

-once in a blue moon - very rarely

-take it with a grain of salt - don't consider it too seriously

-we'll cross that bridge when we come to it - we'll deal with that problem only if/when it becomes necessary

-not playing with a full deck - lacking intelligence, or not thinking clearly

-a few ____ short of a ____ (for example, “a few bricks short of a load”) - lacking intelligence, or not thinking clearly

-he put his foot down - he insisted, or he asserted his authority against opposition

-to put the cart before the horse - to deal with problems in the wrong order —-This expression probably comes from the days when people still used horse-drawn carts. If a cart is “before” (which in this case means “in front of”) a horse, the horse can’t pull it.

-can’t see the forest for the trees - too obsessed or concerned with details to recognize the overall situation

-get-up-and-go - energy, drive, motivation (There’s an old joke that involves some variation of the following: happy person: “Where’s your get-up-and-go?” sad person: “It got up and went.”)

-way out in left field (or “it came out of left field”) - very unusual or unexpected

-he drives her up the wall - he excessively annoys her

-like talking to a brick wall - talking is completely pointless because the listener isn’t listening, isn’t interested, or doesn't understand

-get the lead out - hurry up (The word “lead” has two pronunciations and many definitions. Here it’s pronounced “led” and it means “a very heavy type of metal that blocks radiation”. It’s also the only thing Superman can’t see through.)

-to show him the ropes - to explain necessary basic things such as rules, boundaries, policies, procedures, etc. to a newcomer

-keep it under your hat - keep it a secret

-hang (or “hold”) onto your hat - brace yourself; get ready for the big startling/tense/surprising/scary thing that’s about to happen

-mind your p’s and q’s - behave yourself

-make sure to cross your t’s and dot your i’s - carefully check your work to make sure everything is done and/or done correctly (These last two are also examples of the only situation in which plurals ever have apostrophes, because if these didn’t, they’d look like a misspelled word or part of a word instead of indicating the plural of a letter. Like if “i’s” didn’t have an apostrophe, it’d be confused with the word “is”.)

-easy as pie - very easy

-piece of cake - very easy

-it’s all Greek to me - I don’t understand any of it

-______ is my middle name - ______ is my specialty

-to hit the nail on the head - to be absolutely correct

-the pot calling the kettle black - pointing out something about someone else that is just as true of oneself

-Keep your shirt on! - Be patient!

-like water off a duck’s back - easily; without any apparent effect

-What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? - How is that relevant to this conversation/situation?

-What am I, chopped liver? - semi-serious expression of annoyance at being overlooked

-you're toast - you're in serious trouble, ruined, finished, defeated, or destroyed

#arrow #the flash #legends of tomorrow #ace attorney #english idioms #english as a second language #english as a foreign language

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