#“activity” levels on here. at least to state in my rules it fluctuates like hell.

[h1ghscre]

been a little quiet here, hasn't it?

[arkfeather]

a ramble abt humes, anomalies, and other weird things

ok so basically ive had these thoughts rolling around in my head for a while now, and with egos post from awhile ago ive been having even more of these thoughts so i decided to put them down on paper. i apologize if these seem a bit incoherant as im not really good at putting whatever my mind comes up with into words, but i wanted to share these so. here goes nothing.

so, ego was talking abt how the longer you are behind the veil or working with anomalies, the more non human or anomalous you get. now this ties into humes in an interesting way…  if you dont know what humes are, id suggest reading these two articles as well as these four supplements on thaumatology and reality bending to get a better grip on what im saying, or you could click the read more below for the quotes i based this whole rant off of. but anyways! as one of the articles describes, the hume levels of reality benders are abnormally high, and the area around them abnormally low. so! how does all this sciencey mumbo jumbo tie into egos theory? well, you remember the law of diffusion from science class yes? and how particles tend to move from high concentration to low concentration? (this is also mentioned in scp 3001!) so! what if when one spends enough time around anomalies, the abnormal hume levels the anomalies generate would “rub off” of said person, thus making them anomalous as well. this also ties into one of the three basic principles of thaumatology: “like produces like”. now i may be stretching the rules here, but as one of the big rules of the scp wiki states, “there is no true canon”, so i can do what i want. the whole “rubbing off” thing would also explain how quite a few of the researchers (at least, the ones that survive long enough) end up with an anomalous quality or two(eg king, gerald, iceberg)

not only that, but this also ties into how and why the foundation operates, or how i think it does, at least. you see, another rule of thaumatology is “Observation Changes Reality”. this, when combined with “Like Produces Like” and “The Part Affects The Whole”, can be expanded to mean that anomalies can “spread”. there is another thing that supports this as well, nexuses! nexuses are “population centers that also seem to attract anomalous amounts of anomalous activity”(mind the tongue twister), so if an area has a high enough number of anomalies, it can cause a snowball effect and drastically increase the anomalousness of said area. an example of this could be boring, oregon, where wilsons wildlife solutions takes place. now, keep in mind this is all purely speculation and just my version of canon so im obviously stretching things a bit! but!! what if the foundation is so crazy about keeping normalcy because if the whole world were to know and believe in magic, a situation like in competitive eschatology could happen? this is nicely explained from this lengthy quote from this magic orientation: “if everyone outside of Sigma-3 all became Type Blues like me — then our perspective on the world would change. And if that happened, we might not be able to hold back dangers to reality any longer….It could be the end of containment, forever. The end of the Foundation's preservation of normalcy. And then we'd all be at the mercy of all the horrible things out there, the old gods and demons that would ensure humanity does nothing but huddle in caves around campfires and scratch on the walls, forever…. And it ends with being unable to believe that Cthulhu can be contained behind sheets of steel and walls of stone.” this, is why the foundation operates, or at least how my version of the foundation operates. if the serpents hand or the chaos insurgency were to get their way, humanity would be more at risk of all the paranormal dangers in the world. of course, there is a big hole in this theory, that being how in the hell could the rest of the anomalous world not know about this??? one explanation could be that they do know, and just dont care, as both the hand and chaos wish to change the world to be more anomalous in some way. another, more implausible explanation is that this whole thing is simply overlooked in favor of the groups respective goals. again, this whole thing is really cobbled together and based off of a few lines from the wiki that i interpreted in my own way and this whole rant quite frankly kind of chaotic, so i apologize if some things dont make sense or if there are a few holes in this theory. 

So, bluh, thats my whole little rant/theory abt my scpverses rules n shit. I apologize for the general incoherence of this whole thing as my mind jumped around alot while writing this lol

SOURCES:

“A Hume is a way to determine the strength and/or amount of reality in a given area”

“reality surrounding them (reality benders) is usually slightly less real than normal. Secondly, their own personal Hume reading is usually a little higher than is normal”

“like affects like, and like produces like, too”

“The third and final way is to change the world, or wait for the world to change.”

"First of all… remember those three basic principles: Like Produces Like. The Part Affects the Whole. Observation Changes Reality.”

“Every time you utilize Aspect Radiation to make a change in reality, it bounces off the fundamental fabric of existence and causes a secondary effect called Backlash.”

"What you're seeing in the COLLICULUS headset is the EVE energy being given off by you and your classmates. You'll see that different people have different color and shape patterns.”

-these readings can fluctuate in vanilla humans

“And that means… overtime… the Hume field's going to want to… equalize,”

Nexuses. You probably know of them. Nexuses are population centers that also seem to attract anomalous amounts of anomalous activity

[kaibutsushidousha]

Can you give your opinion/theories on Kimi ga Shine? At least on each character?

Sorry for not having much on the theories department, but here are the character opinions. 

Hoemy is between Kai and Jou. Noel is between Kanna and Mishima. Hannaky is last. Gashuu is not anywhere yet since he was barely introduced.

Sara is a nice protagonist. She’s kinda basic but enjoyable, with her “samurai girl” style giving her a good bit of personality. Not only that, but she’s also pretty involved in the plot, both in her relationships with Jou and Kai in chapter 1 and with the whole mystery surrounding her father later on. Chapter 2′s Phantom Density mechanic is also a great addition to her character, showing the events of the game are having a deep effect in her. Jou sure has a priority there but it’s nice how she includes every dead character among her Phantoms, including Mishima, whose death had nothing to do with her. It’s a great way to show her “take charge, take responsibility” personality.

As for theories, I don’t have anything solid yet. The best I have is that her father is secretly a yakuza, and was involved in the past mafia death games mentioned by Keiji and Noel. The enemy mafia that they compete against obviously being Kai’s family, aka the kidnappers.

Like Sara, Jou is also very simple but very effective. He is just a friend and the writting is very in making him feel like a friend. He was pretty fun while he lasted and had some excellent moments in his attempts to protect Sara. Honestly, he was really well utilized, both in his role as the Scapegoat is the first Main Game and as the Phantom from chapter 2 onwards. He’s more of an accessory to Sara’s character than a character on his own, but he’s good enough as that.

I also really loved the concept of his execution, with Hoemy making use of Sara’s panic and desperation to prolong his suffering.

Keiji is quite decent but not my type of character. I’m at least glad that his backstory is already taking shape this early instead of having an overdone build-up that would lead to hype backlash. His interactions with Sara are also nice for how their trust for each other fluctuates a lot depending on the situation.

As for theories, we know that he was lying about still being an cop and that he was forced to kill his fellow officer at some point. Going by the name list, it’s possible that he got his Phantoms from killing Megumi right here in the first trial, but that wouldn’t explain how he lost his job.

The Yabusames are decently enjoyable and with many interesting aspects to them. I overall enjoyed the Reko replica better than the real deal but that’s because her status as a replica immediately plays into my favorite tropes. Still, I’m very interested in learning more about them and I really wasn’t expecting Alice to go down when he did.

There’s still a lot to learn about him, like the details of Alice’s crime and their unique relationship with gender but thankfully we still got Reko there to explain everything when the time comes.

(In case I haven’t properly explained the gender thing in the threads: Reko normally uses a regular feminine speech pattern but whenever she loses composure she quickly switch to an overly masculine speech pattern, sometimes correcting herself to the her usual form when she catches it. Conversely, Alice normally speaks with a masculine speech but switches to an overly feminine one whenever he loses composure. His name being Alice is also curious in this regard. That said, even in the moments were he’s talking the most femininely, he still says “I am Reko’s brother”, so I really don’t know what’s what.)

My opinion on Sou remains the same as when I was previously asked, but I definitely enjoying him a little more now that I know that a big part of his thing is that he is hopelessly conviced that Sara is evil.

As for theories, I don’t have much going on. Judging from the inconsistency in the name list and the fact Alice’s victim was named Sou Hiyori, I presume his real name is not Sou but Tsukimi. He can’t be the real Sou because Alice recognized the name but not the face, but if he chose that name, he must have had a connection to the real Sou, and consequently to the Yabusames. Why is he using Sou’s name and what does he plan to accomplish with his game strategize are still big question marks so far.

Nao is… really not interesting. I see her getting her moments showcasing her will to get braver and her well-paced progress getting there, but I haven’t gotten any reactions out of any scene aside from an apathetic “eh, that’s neat, I guess”.

That said about Nao, I really loved Mishima. His character was kinda one-note with his “gag” that he looks creepy as hell with his Komaeda face, Shinguuji way of talking and bizarre body language but is actually the nicest teacher ever, but his send-off was a very effective way of establishing the majority rules game (but practically and emotionally) and it had a great message there with the group losing its kindest member for judging a book by its cover.

Qtarou hasn’t had enough focus yet but he was a character taken in interesting directions, especially in chapter 2. I like all how he was consistently worried about Kai and interesting in finding out his true intentions (or at least proving he’s not evil) because his life in the orphanage lead him to be able to notice the loneliness of other people unloved by their parents. His orphanage story was also introduced very interestingly by the issue of his absurd accent.

The chapter 2 bad end was also a fascinating thing do with his character and really made his moments saving Gin in the end of the half-chapter much sweeter. He doesn’t seem too involved with the larger plot aside from his interest in Kai, so I assume we will get all of his best moments in game role interactions like these.

Gin is a sweet kid and his brother-sister relationship with Sara is really cute, but his focus in chapter 2 really showed there’s not really much to his character. Zero expectations for him going forward.

On the other hand, Kanna has been consistently all around excellent ever since the Chapter 1 Main Game started. Like Gin, she already has a full backstory that makes her quite unrelated to the larger plot but she makes up for it by being a quite active and competent player in the death game. Her partnership with Sou is being one of the biggest highlights of the story.

Still think she loves Kugie way more than she deserves though.

Kai was my favorite character so far. Chapter 1 presented him as an evil stalker and one of the kidnappers but with visibly a lot more to him, as evidenced by his angry attack on Hoemy when Mishima died and his last moments. He died by slicing himself before he could be executed and talking about how “small acts of resistance will ultimately lead to something bigger”, motivating the group (and mainly Sara) to do everything they can to upset the kidnappers and the game at every opportunity.

Chapter 2 connects all the dots by revealing Kai as someone saved Sara’s father and very dedicated to protect the Chidouins from the shadows. His e-mails are cleverly recontextualized into him being a double agent contating both the Chidouin yakuza and the kidnappers, stated to be an enemy yakuza led by his father. And than he is found out by said father and thrown into the game. And then the half-chapter ends with a seemingly high ranked kidnapper with the same family name as him, so it’s safe to assume Gashuu is Kai’s father and we’ll learn more about Kai through him. I’m looking forward to it.

The dolls so far have been the most fun thing in the game, aside from Hannaky. Hoemy and Noel managed to be impressively hammy in an unvoiced game, which sure is an amazing feat. I loved then enough just for their doll role, and to top it off, Noel managed to have a strong and genuine emotional moment I wouldn’t expect from the dolls. I hope their quality level stays like this.

[ouraidengray4]

Working Out on the Keto Diet Can Be Weird—Here's What Works

Oh, the keto diet. Everyone's buzzing about it—my friends, their friends, random Facebook friends I don't actually know but have somehow appeared in my feed. People simply won't shut up about how the keto diet has been yielding all these amazing results, like super-fast weight loss and increased energy. At first, I found this profoundly annoying, but eventually, I decided that if you can't beat 'em, well... I went ahead and tried it for myself.

Make fun of me for being the sort of person who would throw herself off a bridge if all of her friends were doing it all you want—at least I did my research going in: I learned early on that this diet is different, and I couldn't just try keto out for a quick week or two like most fad diets. Clinical nutrition coach Ariane Hundt, M.S., told me that, depending on your usual eating habits, it could take 1-2 weeks to drop into ketosis—a state in which your body turns to fat instead of glucose as a main energy source—and that it's best to go an additional two weeks to see significant results.

EDITOR'S PICK

That put me at a month of counting my macros like crazy, making sure that 75 percent of my caloric intake came from healthy fats, 15 percent came from protein, and a mere 10 percent came from carbs. To put that into perspective, on my 2,000 calorie-a-day diet, I'd have about 25-50 grams of carbs allotted per day, and one New York City bagel (which I am very, very fond of) has about 67 grams of carbs.

Once I realized my usual eating strategy (that focused mostly on protein and a healthy hit of fats and carbs) was about to fly out the window, I started to wonder how my workouts would fare.

At first, I didn't feel so hot.

Like any good dieter, I started keto on a Monday after a weekend of enjoying the f*ck out of some pizza and a few beers. More often than not, my calendar has a sweat session scheduled Monday through Friday, but I figured it'd be smart to take the day off from a hard workout in case I felt funky on day one.

That day came and went and I felt... fine. So I returned to my regularly scheduled programming on day two, starting with one of my favorite running-and-strength treadmill classes at Mile High Run Club. I know it's not a genius idea to try a brand new workout and a brand new diet (the fewer variables you have, the better) so I thought it was a safe choice.

I felt OK during most of the class—I didn't pass out or fly off the back of my treadmill—but whenever I kicked up the speed to my usual interval paces, I was quickly hit with fatigue. I rode the struggle-bus during the kettlebell portion of class too. Using the same weights I typically choose, I couldn't bust out as many reps as I normally do in the time allotted.

Menacham Brodie, C.S.C.S., C.N.C., head coach of Human Vortex Training, tells me this is normal. "Your body is using a different pathway to unlock the energy it needs to meet exercise demands," he says. "Plus, as a general rule, high-intensity workouts with repeated hard efforts tend not to go well with the keto diet, as your body is using fat for its fuel source. In order to get the energy it needs, the body has to break down fats as opposed to pulling from carbs, and that takes more time."

Which is why, for the rest of the week, I scaled back on the intensity of my workouts. "Understand that what you 'should' be able to do will be different, as you're asking the body to run in a different fashion, and on an energy system that can't keep up with demands in the way that you're used to," Brodie says.

I also wasn't fueling my workouts well enough, and I learned the hard way.

Toward the end of my first week, I was slammed with the keto flu, a series of nasty, flu-like symptoms that often crop up as your body adjusts to a new energy source and decreased electrolyte levels. I had a boxing class at Rumble scheduled but decided it was better for my body to rest—interval workouts needed to take a backseat as my body balanced itself out.

"For the sake of easing into ketosis, in the first week or two, it's best to focus on workouts that ensure appetite, cravings, and energy are balanced—like weight lifting two to three times a week, followed by low-intensity cardio," Hundt says. "Lower-intensity cardio burns more fat as fuel, while higher-intensity burns more sugar as fuel. That's why lower-intensity workouts allow you to move into ketosis with more ease."

What wasn't easy? Eating.

Another change I needed to make? Eating more. Because I was consuming such a high percentage of fats—which Hundt says can be very filling—I felt full a lot of the time. But I wasn't hitting my calorie goals. Brodie explained that if I was in too much of a caloric deficit, my body would kick into starvation mode, and that can lead to muscle breakdown and even more energy shortage than what I was already experiencing. It could also increase my odds of injury, he says, and there was no way in hell I was about to take myself out of the workout game entirely.

I thought I was doing enough, tracking every morsel on my Fitbit app and constantly Googling, "How many carbs does fill-in-the-blank have?" But I was still eating on the fly. Brodie explained that planning my meals in advance would make life on keto a lot easier.

EDITOR'S PICK

"Take a look at your energy demands for your sport, your daily energy demands outside of your workouts, and know with more certainty how much you actually need to eat," he says. "Then plan your nutrition throughout each day, breaking meals and snacks down into what you need to meet those goals."

Steady-state workouts were my jam.

Every so often, I have days when I totally draw a blank about what workout to do. When that happened during this month-long experiment, Brodie suggested I fall back on steady-state, endurance-style workouts.

"It's the fluctuation of effort that can kill you," Brodie explained. "When you start having these variations in intensity, that's when the carbohydrates are called upon to fill a quick need."

This actually ended up working out perfectly: I was signed up for a 62-mile charity bike ride right as my month of keto dieting was wrapping up. Rather than get bogged down with my normally interval-heavy workout schedule, Brodie gave me permission to hop on the saddle for exploration rides around the city. To stave off boredom, he suggested increasing my intensity once a week to see how I fared.

"Plan mini-experiments with increasing intensities in 1-2 workouts every 5-7 days," he says. "This will help you find your body's limits and continue to kick ass and take names while hitting your goals."

And strength training saved me.

While I did a lot of bike riding on the weekends, I focused more on strength training during the workweek. "Increasing dense, lean muscle mass helps the body burn more fat at rest and can supercharge you on your body-transformation journey," Brodie says.

Hundt agrees. "Strength-training workouts provide a much better metabolic effect than cardio workouts, whether you're in ketosis or not," she explains. So long as I busted out a routine that made me hot and sweaty, increased my heart rate, and reached muscle fatigue, I'd cash in on the coveted afterburn effect for up to 48 hours post sweat, she says.

Plus, strength workouts provide a boost in testosterone and growth hormone, which Hundt says shifts the body into fat-burning and muscle-building mode—two things I definitely wanted to experience on keto.

And there's at least some research to back her up: A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research recorded the results of 25 men following a resistance training program. Some were on the keto diet, and others were on a standard Western diet. While lean body mass increased and fat mass decreased in both groups during the first 10 weeks, only the keto group showed more of an increase in lean body mass during the final week, when carbs were reintroduced. Of course, a study of 25 people is hardly proof, but it is a good start to supporting evidence.

That's why Brodie suggested I incorporate 3-4 days a week of strength training. But seeing how much I love the tread, he said I didn't have to ignore the machine completely. "After your strength training, hit the cardio equipment for 20 minutes of low-endurance work based on heart rate," he suggests. My go-to? Audio-guided outdoor running and treadmill classes on the Peloton app.

At the end of the day, sure, I had to scale back on the HIIT classes I usually sign up for…

but that freed up time for activities I know I love but rarely make time for, like riding outside and lifting. And after that first week, so long as I fueled correctly, I could still work my body in an endorphin-producing, sweat-inducing, fat-burning way.

And now that I'm done? I have a hot date—with an everything bagel.

Samantha Lefave is a freelance writer who is living, eating, and sweating her way around the world. You can find her Instagramming her favorite destinations, squeezing a Friends quote into every conversation she can or—when there's downtime—eating peanut butter straight from the jar.

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