#''optimize for battery life'' well can i do that all the time this is giving me a fucking headache

[seesboy]

guy who keeps his surface laptop charging every hour of the day because the "HD color" off the charger is fucking hideous

[scrumpledorph-writes]

Koben's Day Job (Underworld Hits)

I have something to live for now other than just marching through life for its own sake, and that means it’s time for some requisitions. Decent speeder for one thing, trudging through sand is considerably more taxing than marching drills. Casual civilian clothes, people keep mistaking me for a trooper for some reason, and also seem not to like them—I’m not quite sure why. Maybe a blaster pistol, every other person carries a blaster pistol around here, but my blaster rifle draws eyes. All those things take credits; a lot more credits than I’ve been earning.

It’s a fresh new subcycle, I’m up before the suns, my armors structural integrity exceeds military standard, and I took my blaster apart for a complete maintenance check last night. As far as killing for credits goes: I couldn’t ask for more optimal parameters.

The only wrinkle in the plan is I don’t know anybody on this planet willing to pay me—yet. There has to be at least one crime syndicate; the Empire has too loose a grip for them to not set up shop. Where there’s one, there’s usually two; and where there’s two, there’s usually conflict. Conflict leads to killings, killings lead to revenge, revenge causes collateral. Leave two people alone without a Storm trooper telling them to move along and eventually someone gets shot. Just need to make sure someone too lazy to do the shooting knows I’m really good at it.

Just got to town and the last sun’s already up. Speeder’s definitely my first purchase. Now, where would I find a congregation of low lives around here? I think criminals have morning shifts – I’m a criminal and I’m awake. Not that everything around here doesn’t look like a breeding ground for crime, but that’s the problem; it all blends together. Guess I should start walking down alleys.

Oh, perfect, this one leads down a side street, half the businesses are abandoned: got to be a front. An alien’s leaning against the wall, good start. He’s pointing a blaster at me now—this is going great! ‘Hey who the hell-’ Grab his blaster, twist his wrist – not hard enough to break it – start negotiating from a position of power.

‘Hi! I’m looking for work: do you have a crime boss who’s willing to hire people freelance? I don’t really have the option of being tied down right now, but as you can see I’ve got nerves of steel and great combat abilities. If he has a shooting range I’d be willing to demonstrate my blaster prowess too.’

‘I just keep a lookout for troopers you freak. Aren’t you a trooper?’ ‘This armor is stolen.’ Half true. Definitely not telling him I deserted, but every piece of gear I took with me is technically owned by the Imperial Armory, so continuing to use it for unsanctioned work is theft. I really wish I didn’t have to spell it out all the time. Maybe I should put a new paint job on the shopping list. But black and white are both such good base colors, and those are already official. Silver maybe, blaster metal gray?

‘Well, I guess stealing a trooper’s armor is pretty hardcore. Fine, lemme make a call.’ Better disconnect the battery so if he tries to shoot me I don’t have to deal with a nasty welt. Gun’s holstered, datapad’s out, door’s open. Give him a thumbs up and walk inside. This is going really well so far! If negotiations are quick I might even be done by lunch.

This place certainly looks like a crime den. Spice heads staring off into the middle distance behind curtained off rooms, vaguely erotic moans so thoroughly permeating the air that I can’t pin down a source, a bunch of scowling aliens of species’ I can’t quite identify with muscles and blasters to keep the peace. Did they use the Imperial information broadcasts on how to identify crime dens as a blueprint? I guess if they want to avoid people stumbling in here by mistake it’s better not to be subtle about things. That’s smart, these guys are smart.

Alright, in front of their boss, my hands are up and there’s four blasters pointed at me: standard protocol, liking the professionalism. That regular office chair she’s sitting in undermines her authority, but a very solid grasp of the fundamentals of power projection. Reminds me of an Imperial officer. Of her.

Her henchmen look nervous, why? Oh, my fists clenched. Unwind them slowly. ‘So, you’re looking for work?’ ‘Yes Ma’am!’ Not sure why they’re all laughing at a standard greeting, but it broke the tension and this negotiation is back on track.

‘You’re in luck. One of my men decided to form his own little gang. Ten thousand if you kill him. Take out as many of his pals as you can too – I’ll throw you an extra thousand per head. Ten of ‘em altogether. Ah what the hell: I’ll round it up to twenty thousand if you kill the whole crew.’ Oh that’s a good warm up to get me back in the habit, I guess she figured this wasn’t worth wasting her real members’ time with.

‘Before you ask, I’m letting you do it because it’s suicide: either you prove yourself to be a very dangerous, and thus very lucrative, partner – or you get out of my hair.’ Oh. I might need to look elsewhere for future career opportunities. But credits are credits. ‘I accept, I’ll get right on it.’

Alright, better look through the summary on the way. Apartment block at the far side of town. One of them’s out front shaking down anyone who tries to get to their home, two diluting spice in the basement to stretch for a profit, three putting together shoddy homemade weapons to sell folks, four relaxing on the top floor.

Wow. This operation is terrible! She could have just waited six cycles for it to collapse from being stretched too thin or dying of fumes or blowing half the block apart with their jury rigging. Oh well, her impatience is credits in my pocket.

Half hour walk and I’m there, not too bad. Big guy out front, they at least know to play to their strengths. Walk up towards the door, not him, he’ll put his hand out to stop me. ‘Hey that’ll be fifty-’ Knife from the utility belt on the other side of my body, push his blaster aside, aim behind the nape of his neck, clean my knife off on his shirt, stuff the collar into his throat to muffle the gurgling, wipe the blood off my visor – blue with white spots in it, nasty. Scan his face and I’m up a thousand credits. Good start!

A few murmurs from the crowd out front as he slinks down, but a finger over the mouth port is a gesture understood by almost every sentient. Would be nice to handle this without getting shot at.

Should probably work my way up from the basement. Boots thump all the way down the rickety old stairs. ‘Hey, who the hell are-’ I’ve had enough of exotic blood colors for today. Fingers cradling the neck, knuckles supported against the wall, thumbs on the trachea, pop!

He slinks down; hands on his throat twitching and scrabbling around like if he finds the right angle he’ll be able to un-collapse his trachea. He has a box cutter right there, this is just embarrassing. The field tracheotomy wouldn’t help because I’m standing right here, but if you’re not gonna do that at least die respectably.

His partner’s coming out to investigate. Human, I’m familiar enough with that one. Knife to the temple on her way out the door, spin her around to at least keep most of it off me. Swipe each side down the back of her shirt, let her fall. Two more scans, two thousand more credits.

Hope those stairs don’t give out on my way back up. A blaster just went off. Missed me by a few degrees, but the Twi’lek just died with a smirk on his face. Clatter and shouting upstairs. I didn’t give him enough credit.

Double time up the stairs, the luxury of surprise is gone and this basement is a death trap. Three of them at the hallway intersection, blaster pistols in each hand. I beat them to the draw, but none of us have time to aim. Blind fire for each of their midsections, clip two in the arm. Good enough. They have a smaller target, but more shots.

Close the distance leading with my left side; not coming out of a point blank shootout feeling good, but a melee gives me decent odds. Feel warmth, then heat, then searing pain ripple in waves through my arm as each successive shot connects. It only becomes a problem if I stop feeling it. Pin the one I didn’t hit to the wall. He’s bigger, but with the suit I’m heavier. A few stabs to the midsection is all I have time for. Just have to trust that my old Lethal Puncture Drills were ingrained deeply enough.

Throw him at his friends, their blasters clatter across the floor. Hard to line up a shot while the feeling’s receding from my fingers. Might just have to stab them. Why’s there an electrical whine coming from down the other hall?

Really wish I’d heard the other three setting up a turret, the barrel’s already glowing. Just jump back and hit the floor, it looks like that thing can’t pivot downward: they were expecting their friends to last longer. Taking a second look, I don’t recognize that model.

Oh, I see. It’s custom built. Those must be the engineers. There’s two dozen rifle grade bolts cracking through the hallway on separate angles. That’s clever, in a way. Much easier to hold ground when you can put fire downrange of an entire corridor at once instead of needing to swivel a traditional turret. These people would have had a great career in Imperial R&D.

Can feel at least five points of impact from my legs up through my back. Hear the battery whining again, I should have at least a few seconds to assess the situation. Just need to roll over and sit up. Body doesn’t want anything more than to lay here and die, it’s fighting me every step of the way. I’ve beaten stronger enemies.

They’re using the armor plating as a seat, and the battery’s facing me. All that effort put into this killing machine, and they mounted it backwards. Unbelievable. I’ll definitely be insulted when I have the time.

It’s an easy shot at this distance, even one handed. Haven’t had a chance to appreciate my visors light equalizing tech lately, but that ball of plasma rupturing and flaring up all at once would definitely have blinded me otherwise. It blinded them, but that’s because their eyes boiled and popped once the heat hit them. Hope there’s something left of them to scan.

Alright, up on my feet. See scorch marks on the ones I was fighting, friendly fire is a bad way to – wait a minute this one’s not dead. Oh hell, they’re one of those fluid based species’. The heat dispersed under their membrane enough not to kill them instantly, but now their bodily functions are shutting down one by one as they boil alive from the inside.

That’s nine accounted for, last one’s probably the type to send other people to die for him so I should be able to handle him even banged up like this. Got time to put this one out of their misery. Never really studied xenobiology, but a cut straight down the middle should do it.

There: the steam’s escaping, the fluid’s pooling on the floor. Mercy killed by an enemy combatant isn’t a bad way to go. Hope whoever gets me gives me the same courtesy. Nine scans, nine thousand credits.

Retire the blaster rifle for now, arm’s in too bad shape to brace at the foregrip, pick up one of their pistols. It’s about as low power as they come, but still enough to kill an unarmored target. Sights are a few degrees out, trigger’s stiff, corrosion on the battery terminal. All fixable, but why spend the time and effort on something that barely passes the threshold to stop being classed as a stun weapon?

I should pick up a good sidearm when this is done, something that can blow clean through the armor on a speeder bike in one shot. Not too worried about concealment, just need something I can fire one handed. Everyone’s always way more impressed by blaster pistol deadshots than blaster rifle point troops. I’d have an excuse to do a ton of firing practice too, only ever got trained with longarms.

Maybe get a blaster proof vest and some heat diffusing leggings and learn how to fight like those holovid adventure stars. On the other hand, I’ve killed scores of idiots who looked and acted like the holovid stars, so maybe that stuff only works from the other side of a projector.

Stairs. Three flights of stairs between here and the top floor. Probably a bigger challenge than the target at this point. A damage evaluation should help pass the time. The skin on my left leg is probably cooked and peeling considering the pain recedes somewhat whenever I take the weight off it. Right leg has sustained minimal blaster fire, might even escape with just a bruise. Left arm is limp but I already knew that. Right arm and head both uninjured. Dull aching in my back, but I have enough mobility through the pain that I doubt there’s any spinal flash fusion or damage beyond the musculature. Nothing that bacta can’t solve.

As for my armor, the heat weave will definitely need a proper evaluation, might even need to replace a few pads. Haven’t bothered looking, but I have to assume the polish is ruined. This has also been a pretty gore spattered mission now that I think of it. Strip the plates, strip the heat weave, soak each one in cleaning solution and plain water respectively, see if there’s any meaningful damage, reevaluate from there. Should give me time to do a quick cursory on the circuitry, but nothing seems broken so far.

The stairs are behind me. A locked door is in front of me. The only electronic door in the whole building. More foresight than I was expecting, honestly. The walls in this place are pretty thin though. Fire a few rifle blasts, don’t have to worry about accuracy, to compromise the structural integrity and they should cave to my body weight. Take a few steps back, draw the pistol, brace for a lot of pain trying to get these legs to run. Three. Two. One.

Two screams as I hurtle through the wall, one his and another from the woman he’s using as a shield. Shit. Really don’t want to cause collateral. Killed enough civilians for one lifetime. They don’t know that though. All they can see is two meters of jet black imperial steel cast in blood and tempered with blaster fire. Play it cool. Play this ice cold, Koben.

‘Drop the blaster or I’ll kill her! She’s a mother, you want a mother’s blood on your hands?!’ ‘I’ve killed plenty of mothers.’ Can’t shoot him yet, his last twitch would pull the trigger on her. ‘Whatever she’s paying you I can match it!’ ‘I can’t buy credibility.’ Point it at me, what’s one more burn?

Take a tentative step forward. ‘Don’t come any closer, I’ll do it!’ ‘I’m waiting.’ Pure theatrics, but I’m the only one who knows it. Hostage takers know they can’t kill their leverage: the second they do their position collapses. The fact I’m already here to kill him complicates that though.

He’s soft. Played at the criminal life and fell in too deep too fast. I can see the sweat on his brow, shake in his hands. Barely holding the blaster any more. Just have to bait him with a sliver of hope, then spring the trap when he bolts for it.

‘What’s your plan? Stay here, wait for the Empire to follow up on those blaster shots?’ ‘There’s a fire escape! I’ll go out the back, take my speeder, skip town! Skip the planet! Skip the system once I can afford it!’ Pause to let him think I’m entertaining that stupid idea. ‘Fine. Twenty thousand. On the table, then go.’ He’s shifting his body to reach for his credits. He doesn’t know his wrist moved, messed up his grip. Line of fire would just singe her chin. Skin grows back.

This trigger feels awful. Good thing I keep my gauntlet calibrated, might have missed otherwise. His face isn’t holding up well, maybe this thing packs more punch than I thought. Not quite sure what just splashed across her face, it all blends together once it gets flash fried. He’s down. She’s really lucky his blaster slipped off his finger. Better disconnect it, prevent any last minute misfires from making all that effort to avoid shooting her pointless. Ten bodies, twenty thousand credits.

She’s screaming. Of course she’s screaming, she’s probably never seen a man die before. Can’t sit her down, people don’t respond well to being touched when they’re in hysterics. Best thing I can do is probably get her something to wipe her face. I burst through right next to the bathroom, which is good because that’s about as far as I can walk.

Grab a cloth. Slightly damp already. Throw it towards her and fall to the floor as gracefully as I can manage. That breach was already pushing it. Can I scan him from here, will it reach? Just barely, but good enough. Scan locked in. Should probably do a few stretches, get the blood pumping again. I have a long walk back to get paid.

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ ‘Stretching. You can go by the way. Might want to clean your face. I threw you a cloth.’ I don’t know what her expression is trying to say, but I doubt she does either. She picked up the cloth at least. Not wiping very well, but the emotional numbness as her adrenaline responses level out is probably setting in. Hard to focus on wiping dried viscera like that.

Time to get up. Feeling a little better, should probably keep trying to get the blood flowing in my left arm. Looting rights are practically implicit contract text in bounty killing jobs, so I should see if he had anything worth taking. Speeder keys, not bad. Pocket change. Of course he wasn’t carrying twenty thousand, nobody does.

She’s crying in the corner. Right, that’s what happens to your emotions if you’re not experienced. I guess she probably thinks I meant all that stuff I said. She’s unarmed, the helmet can come off. On the coffee table it goes, next to both blaster pistols. ‘I didn’t mean those things I said. I was just bluffing so he’d flinch.’ She’s still crying.

Not really sure what else to do. I should try to get some of this blood off of me, it’s really been building up on the edges of my visor. He only had the one cloth. I think I saw a dish cloth in the kitchen. The tears have receded into a rocking sob. ‘I’m sorry you had to watch your boyfriend die after he pointed a gun at you.’

She’s looking up at me. That’s progress. She’s angry too, so she’s at least past the numbness. ‘He wasn’t my boyfriend you...fucking idiot! He was a client! He was a regular. I thought he was pretty okay. He tipped a lot and he was always really up front about when he wanted to do weird stuff and sometimes we’d chat and one time he got his friends to really scare a clingy client and. I’ll miss him.’

Oh. She’s sobbing again. I don’t think I can make her feel any better. She got all the anger out so it doesn’t eat her up inside like a necrotic wound at least. The visor’s clean. I can help her plan at least. Always thought forward pretty well.

‘Can you get home?’ Her head just moved up and down between her knees. ‘Alright. I need to leave now. You should leave too. Sex work is illegal. It doesn’t matter to me, but the troopers will arrest you if you tell them the truth, and if you don’t they’ll still probably take you in for questioning and make you relive the whole thing.’ She’s getting on her feet. My helmet shows more emotion than her eyes are right now. ‘Yeah. Thanks. Hope I don’t see you around, but this is a small town. If you ever need a thrill, I guess I’ll take your credits. Bye.’

Decide to give her a few minute head start so we don’t have to stare at each other in the hallway. No bacta spray in the medicine cabinet, mostly just cheap street drugs. Some painkillers and antiseptic though, could use those. Probably already pushing it on the troopers showing up, so no time to strip down for some proper first aid. Got them wrapped up in a bag for later, making my way to the fire escape. That part of his plan was sound.

Half tempted to just throw myself over the edge. It would be faster, and if I land splayed out enough it might hurt less than walking down all those flights of stairs. Better not. Gravity is one of the few things it’s really hard to make armor for.

I’m shocked that his speeder is brand new. Guess he was a speeder guy, spent his first haul of ill gotten gains on it. More flashy than practical, but it should do the trick. Five minutes to get back, I could get used to not needing to march everywhere. Injuries notwithstanding, this job wasn’t a bad way to get my foot in the door on this planet. I saw a few eyes peeking out at me from the apartments during the gunfight, the HoloNet will be talking about the gang that just got taken out. Doubt she’ll go talking to the troops, so no names: just the jet black trooper who killed ten gangsters by herself. Word gets around, folks will want that trooper doing jobs for them, and I’ll have more credits than I know what to do with in no time.

One step out of the speeder and I’m on the ground. The fall knocked the wind out of me, and my good mood with it. Really have to ask them if they have any bacta spray, that was not a lot of pressure to put on that knee. Take a few seconds, breathe, push up on your less bad leg. There. I can already see that shifty doorman. Not fast enough to get the blaster out of his hand right now.

‘I’m the one your boss hired.’ Back in the holster. ‘Oh, right, sorry. You look like shit. What the hell’d the boss have you do?’ ‘Kill a rival gang.’ ‘Oh, like what, hunt them all down? You got that done pretty quick.’ This guy could go all day, and I really can’t right now. ‘I want to report back to her, not you.’ A clueless nod, quick ping on the datapad, the door opens. Mercifully.

I can put up with a few chuckles from the bouncers watching me limp and wince my way to the back room as long as the credits are good. Her Empire aping veneer of disinterested professionalism didn’t last long, I barely got in the door.

‘You lived? I’m already seeing news broadcasts about the gang being massacred. Half the video is blurred out. Why the knife, what happened to those three burnt ones, good Emperor on Coruscant why did you have to dissect that watery one?’ Too tired for professionalism or entertaining inane curiosities. ‘I could talk better after a bacta spray. Figure you don’t have a tank so I won’t even ask. Also my credits.’

Got a booth to myself and as many vials as I need. She offered to get some very pretty working girls to help spray me, but I’ve always preferred handling this myself. Armor plates still come off well, nothing’s been welded together. Body glove still slides off easily—oh yeah there’s a bunch of thigh flesh hanging off of it. Mostly bruising otherwise, minor first degree burns. Oh hell some necrotic flesh on the left arm. No way around that problem other than through.

Can’t use the usual method of testing what’s still alive considering I can’t feel anything below the shoulder, so I guess I’ll just have to settle for carving out the black parts. Burn goes deeper than I thought, I’m faced with a problem: it won’t heal right if I don’t carve out every last piece, but as soon as I do I’ll start bleeding out faster than I can bandage it. Nothing else for it I guess. ‘I need some help with this. Don’t pick a cute girl, they’ve gotta have medical experience.’

An alien half as tall as he is wide is waddling sideways through the door. ‘You know first aid?’ ‘I’m a doctor.’ He has an accent I couldn’t place with an astronav, but I’ll have to take his word for it. Flop the arm down on the table, four of his six hands start poking and prodding for a response. I don’t have one for him. ‘Not good, but with your field dressing I guess you already knew that. You used a combat knife for this? Why not just lop the thing off, cauterize it on a speeder exhaust?! I’ve got tools.’

He wasn’t lying about his medical skills. I can’t physically feel it, but watching him work is a relief. Finer and finer flakes of black carbon are starting to pile up on the table and not a drop of blood. Medical droids didn’t used to do this clean of a job, and all he has is a magnifying glass and a scalpel! This man should be serving the galaxy’s richest and finest, not working out of a place like this.

‘Why are you working out of a place like this with your skills?’ ‘Imperial officer came into my clinic. Told me he had a son with a rare neurological condition. Needed a full neuroskeletal graft or he’d never move again. Very tricky job.’ ‘And you didn’t succeed?’ ‘Hell no! He was a dick. His son was a bigger dick. Insulted my looks, insulted my staff, insulted the art I had up on the walls. Waved a credstick in my face like that’d make it all okay. I have my pride – I botched it on purpose. Didn’t just botch it, made it so nobody could unbotch it. That takes talent. Now he breathes in with a pump, out with a vacuum!’ He’s laughing so hard he has to pause.

‘Then he tried to have you killed?’ ‘You got it. So, don’t make fun of how I look, how I talk, or anything else; and I’ll stitch you up as good as a bacta tank!’ All I can respond with is a slow nod. ‘Speaking of, all done. Only a tiny bit of good flesh came out with it, but even that set off the waterworks. Keep it wrapped up for a week and it’ll be like it never happened.’ ‘What about the nerve damage?’ ‘What about the nerve damage? Bacta it, keep that armor off so it has room to work and you’ll be able to juggle before morning. You can pull a spray nozzle, can’t you?’ I’m starting to understand the hostility that led him here, but the spray is already starting to soak in. Second coat, it’s starting to leave a thin film, done.

The only parts of me that didn’t get hit were my feet and head, which means the only parts of my suit I can wear are the boots and helmet. Glad I always wear shorts and a tank top under the glove. Still feel naked walking back to her office with the rest of the suit bundled up in my arms.

‘I’ve given it some thought, and I don’t want to hear the story. You seem to value discretion, and you’ve shattered my expectations – I took you for a lunatic with a deathwish who’d only gotten this far through a string of bad decisions; but consider that opinion retracted. You solved a lot of problems for me today, and set the groundwork for a good deal of credits in my future. Consider the medical treatment a professional courtesy, just this once. Your payment.’

Suits me. ‘Just put it on the pile. Could you break change though? I can’t exactly do it at a bank, and paying in ten thousands looks suspicious. One of those, nine thousands, and ten hundreds please.’ ‘That’s the least I can do. You never gave me your name by the way. If we’re going to forge a friendship in credits, I’ll need something to call you.’ Her attitude changed completely now that she knows I’m useful. Maybe she really did used to be an officer.

‘Trooper.’ ‘Trooper. Trooooperr. Vague enough to be plausibly deniable, but not something that comes up enough to cause confusion. Well then, call me Vranki—and enjoy your credits Trooper.’

‘Affirmative Mrs. Vranki. If you have any contacts who could use my skills, pass my call sign along.’

I put enough bacta on that most of the pain has already receded. The skin isn’t visible through the film, so I can’t judge the actual healing, but at least the dull ache has been replaced with a gentle tingle.

The suns aren’t even at their apex yet. I should head home, rest up. Get started on that maintenance. Haven’t been injured that badly before midday since my jedi hunting days.

[buzzmeehsblog]

Apple Watch Battery Replacement: Keeping Your Smartwatch Powered Up

Are you experiencing reduced battery life or unexpected shutdowns on your Apple Watch? It might be time to consider a battery replacement. In this blog post, we'll explore the importance of maintaining your Apple Watch's battery health and provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to get your battery replaced efficiently.

Understanding Apple Watch Battery Life

Apple Watches are designed to provide reliable performance, but like any electronic device, their batteries can degrade over time. Factors such as usage patterns, charging habits, and environmental conditions can all contribute to a battery's lifespan. It's important to monitor your watch's battery health and consider a replacement when it starts to significantly impact your daily usage.

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Maintaining your Apple Watch's battery health is crucial for ensuring its longevity and optimal performance. With Buzzmeeh's reliable and convenient doorstep battery replacement service, you can keep your smartwatch powered up and ready for your daily adventures. Book your repair today and experience the peace of mind that comes with a well-maintained Apple Watch.

[ultracarepro1]

MOI Plus: The Future of Period Pain Relief

Hey there, womanhood warriors! We get you, and we especially get you on those days of the month. Period cramps are a real problem for women out there, and there is no way you can escape its clutches! 

Period pain affects more than 80% of women in India, mild or adverse; it doesn’t matter. The sad reality is that it “affects” women, and it affects them in the negative. Abdominal pain, namely cramps, comes in conjunction with headaches, fatigue, loss of appetite, and bloating. Women are born multitaskers, and a cramping sensation in parts of their bodies knocking in every time they are out to ace a task is unacceptable! 

But women, if you think there is no way out of this debilitating circle of period pain, you are mistaken! Once more, UltraCare PRO is here to rescue you! In December 2022, we launched MOI, an Instant Period Pain Relief Device. A combination of TENS and heating therapy, MOI successfully provided period pain relief to more than 2,00,000+ women. 

Working on the love you have showered our way with MOI and pondering on a mission to make pain-free menstrual health accessible to all, we are back with something advanced for you! 

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You must be thinking, When we call a cramp relief device “advance,” what do we mean? Here is what we mean.

2X Power: With 99 intensity levels to choose from, MOI Plus gives you the remote control of your own comfort. Whether the cramps are mild or intense, MOI Plus gives a perfect level of relief at the touch of a button. Every level of pain will find optimal relief with MOI Plus. 

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Heating soothes muscles and increases blood flow to the pain area, which, in addition to TENS therapy, provides additional relief and comfort. 

The dual action of TENS and heating offers drug-free period pain relief that is 100% natural and safe. 

So, if you are worried about the side effects this device will bring to your plate, worry not! MOI Plus will give you the relief you desire, without making your body fall victim to redundant side effects. 

A Note of Relief from MOI Plus!

Hello Beautiful ladies! 

I am MOI Plus, your loyal period partner. My TENS + Heat Therapy will provide you with relief from menstrual cramps. No no, I don’t just give you relief from abdominal pain, I can provide relief from any and every period pain, including back pain, thigh pain, period-related muscle spasms, and everything! 

Wondering how I do it? Well, I send in soothing electrical stimulation to the body, which sends “all is okay” signals to your brain. These simulations allow your brain to release endorphins, natural feel-good hormones in the body that reduce pain. And, not to forget, my adjustable heating modes provide comfort and warmth, which eases stressed muscles without letting you worry about any side effects. 

I am on a mission—a mission to make your periods “easy and pain-free.” Let’s relieve your pain & say, “Excuse me, Periods.”

[visgrapplinghooks]

More linuxposting! See this other post for some context:

After spending a week on Sway, I ended up going back to GNOME due to power management resources. My battery was draining like crazy on Sway and I didn't really know why or have the mental energy to figure things out. Was using power profiles and everything. The battery was really good for a few days, then just started to suck in day-to-day uni workloads.

I'm not entirely sure what happened or what process was eating my battery life, but it was just easiest to switch back to GNOME. Instead of trying to troubleshoot when I needed my laptop the very next day for uni work.

That being said, I do think trying to use a TWM for that period of time for a few days was a very valuable learning experience for me. I learned that I... do not actually like tiling all that much. A lot of what I do feels most natural on fullscreen windows and I mostly have just one or two windows active on a workspace at a time.

However, I really like a lot of the basic workspace management stuff I got on Sway that got me in a workflow where I was using individual workspaces for specific tasks. I can to some extent recreate this on GNOME, with keyboard shortcuts, but things like assigning a workspace to a monitor or getting certain programs to automatically go to certain workspaces isn't exactly something I can recreate. However, I do love the Activities view in GNOME and missed a lot of the visual motifs of GNOME as well as trackpad support for when I'm using my laptop as a laptop.

Anyways, out of curiosity I decided to install the Enlightenment Desktop/Window Manager to see what it's like and it was surprisingly charming. I didn't spend much time theming it, but I'm wondering how it'd feel to use it full time. I'm contemplating giving it a spin for a week to see what it's like.

After that I might hop to Plasma.

I just think it's really fun to switch up my workflow every few weeks. As someone who does a LOT of creative writing, the simple act of changing how I interact with the space I write in (my computer) often feels like it has the same effect as changing your environements, writing in a coffee shop as opposed to a park or in your home, etc. Something as simple as a change of pace in how I use my computer is really exciting for me and scratches that itch for my brain.

I'm not really searching for an "optimal" experience like a lot of distrohoppers, I'm fully aware of what I like. I like using GNOME on Arch and that'll probably be what I use for most of the time. But I enjoy change for change's sake.

[awesomeblog-92]

The slim design makes it easier and more comfortable to brush

Sonicare 2100 vs 4100 A review from September 2022 in WireCutter says that if you call SonicCare, you can get a free plug adapter. I bought the 4100 from Amazon just now. I don't have the serial number yet because the product doesn't come until tomorrow, but SonicCare customer service just told me that they would send the free plug adapter as soon as I gave them the model number and serial number. They made sure that there is no fee. Once I give them the serial number, they will send me the plug adapter in 7–10 days. When the product comes tomorrow, I'll do all of that. Yes it does. It makes a different sound than the Toothbrush, but it is not an alarm with a tone. Most likely, the vibrations will change briefly to show that thirty seconds have gone by. I've had mine for four years and there's no mold on it, but every time I rinse the bristles, I also rinse the space between the head and the body.My husband bought the same thing I did in the same order. I think he doesn't rinse his as well as I do, so it starts to smell. The slim design makes it easier and more comfortable to brush your teeth. The SmarTimer with QuadPacer makes sure that you brush for the two minutes that dentists recommend. There are two levels of strength that give a soft but effective clean. The battery can work for up to 14 days. Going electric might seem like a big step, but this brush will help you do it right. It's small, easy to use, and has a familiar-looking head. It has everything you need and nothing you don't. Included are one Philips Sonicare 2100 electric toothbrush, one SimplyClean (C1) brush head, and one USB charger (wall adaptor not included). A 2-minute SmarTimer with QuadPacer makes sure that you brush for the amount of time that your dentist recommends. The package comes with a Philips Sonicare 4100 handle, an Optimal Plaque Control (C2) brush head, and a USB charger (wall adaptor not included). The pressure sensor lights up red when you're pushing too hard, telling you to back off. This keeps your gums from receding, and the two strength settings give you a comfortable, custom clean. The switch to electric might seem scary, but with this brush, you'll be fine. A pressure sensor and two levels of intensity keep gums from getting too much brushing.Its familiar shape and design make it easy to use and give you everything you need for a thorough clean. One Philips Sonicare 4100 electric toothbrush, one Optimal Plaque Control (C2) brush head, and one USB charger are included in the kit (wall adaptor not included). A reminder to replace the brush head makes sure that your brush head is always working. The Sonicare technology pulses water between your teeth in a gentle way, which makes a big difference. With two strength settings, you can also choose a gentler clean. In the box, there is one Philips Sonicare 2100 electric toothbrush, one SimplyClean (C1) brush head, and one USB charger (wall adaptor not included). Long battery life and a light to show when the battery is low: One charge will last for two weeks. The Sonicare technology sends soft pulses of water between your teeth. This is the same as brushing your teeth by hand for two minutes per month. The QuadPacer tells you when you've spent the right amount of time on each part of your mouth, and the SmarTimer lets you know when your two-minute time limit is up.

[samuelryanlilly]

Steam Deck First Impressions

For anyone unaware, the Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer developed by Valve with the main purpose of getting their Steam library onto a portable platform. After the their commercial flop of the home console the Steam Machine, they basically shifted towards a number of solutions to make sure their next attempt to bring Steam games to more people would go a little smoother. Enter the Steam Deck, a device that's best described as a chunkier yet beefier Nintendo Switch that is specifically tailored to run Steam games quickly and conveniently. I've been using it for roughly a week and half now and wanted to share some of my first impressions.

The physical design is pretty good. While it's a bit big to be going in any pockets and a bit heavy too, it's ergonomically very fitting to the hands. There's enough to hold onto so that makes it feel a bit lighter and to be fair, it's not as big as the promotional materials lead me to believe. For size comparison, it's about as long as the Switch with the Hori Split Pad Pro joycons on, though still thicker. Or relatively similar in size and feel to the Wii U Gamepad, though notably heavier than that. I got the 512GB model but it does have a microSD card slot for external storage expansion. There's also a headphone jack and a USB-C port for charging and peripherals. I tested these out some with headphones and a headset in the jack. I used the USB port to connect a mouse, a keyboard, a controller, and a USB hub to do all three at once no problem. I even connected a USB-C to HDMI cable to use it on my TV in the meantime waiting for the official dock to come out (which has at the time of writing this). I didn't test anything with the bluetooth connection but most of the USB stuff I connected with a USB-A to USB-C adapter with no issues.

After a quick setup I was logged in and ready to start using the Deck. The SteamOS interface here is pretty smooth aside from a few pages that require touch input or a mouse to navigate. You can tweak some settings but the biggest ones are brightness and frames per second because these will make a noticeable difference in battery life. While it's only a 1280x720 16:10 LCD display, being able to play in 60fps with this much powerful hardware is definitely a jump up from a Switch in handheld mode. One of my absolute favorite things they've implemented on the Deck is the compatibility system. Fixed specs means they can test if games are compatible or not pretty easily. Anything with a green check mark is considered great on Deck with full compatibility. A yellow “i” means it'll work but some features may not be ideal for the Deck such as interface, text, and so on. There are unsupported titles which may work just fine but are considered too much of a hassle to get working, among others I'm sure just won't work. I haven't found any yet that failed to launch or run but I did have one poorly optimized indie game become more trouble than it was worth to fix. And then there are the question mark ones that aren't tested enough to categorize. The reason I love this compatibility system is because I can just open up the store or the library, filter for everything with a green check mark, download, and I'm playing. No need to hunt through specs and hope it'll magically work with my configuration.

It's also even easier to play because most games will pick a default template for the Steam Deck controls, but you can also change templates to other presets or custom community ones. Plus the trackpads, touch screen, and extra back buttons give you lots of extra inputs and ways to control games otherwise not well suited to controller inputs. The innards of this machine are pretty respectable as well. Sure, it's no match for a full gaming rig, but for a portable system it does an admirable job delivering great performance and visuals. It feels so nice to just turn on a game, have it work, and be able to play with controller-type controls. I mostly have been watching YouTube stuff on the side while playing and it's great. No need to setup at my computer and plug in all my stuff. I can just pick this up, turn it on, and go. You do need internet for the cloud sync or downloading games, though. Cloud sync actually lets you switch between that and your PC pretty seamlessly. You can also use the auto-suspend of putting the Deck to sleep to resume games later without closing or leaving the system on. So easy and convenient and capable.

Is the Steam Deck a Nintendo Switch killer? Probably not. The libraries don't really overlap a ton so if anything it's like a Switch companion because if you already like playing games that way then you'll probably be more enticed to get through your Steam backlog on the Deck. It could replace it if you used a Switch emulator but that's not likely very legal. And to be fair, while I know you can do tons more with the Steam Deck in terms of emulators and dual booting operating systems and all that, I really just got it to play Steam games. That's what it was made for. And in that regard I think it excels incredibly well. It's a much cheaper alternative to gaming laptop for the ease of portable PC gaming. It's easier to pick up and play at a moments notice to relax than on a PC too. It can play a lot more games with more options and content than modern consoles and handhelds as well. And for anyone on the fence about which way to lean between console and PC, this comes in not only as a good midpoint experience, but also a midpoint price. It's just so impressive and it really does exactly what I've wanted for my Steam games for the longest time. It gives me the ability to spend less time troubleshooting and more time actually playing. If you think you'll like the Steam Deck already, you probably will. Go for it. It's worth it. But we'll see how it holds up past these first impressions as time goes on. I'll keep ya posted. Until then, thanks for listening to me ramble. It's just really nice to still find reasons to be excited about gaming.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/uDrC7yvKnyg

[facebookfree]

Soundpeats qy7 mini lightweight wireless stereo headsets

I was very impressed with the overall sound quality of these athletic type earbuds. Right off the bat the low end bass was very solid, hitting way lower than I expected. First up, as always, I began with George Dukes “Dukey Treats”. So, with a few of my “go to” favorites I began to listen. The files take up much more space than mp3’s do but I can certainly tell the difference. The music on my phone was downloaded as lossless files, the highest quality I could get with iTunes. I was very happy to see that along the top of my phone, in between the time and battery life indicator, the QY7 displayed the Bluetooth logo and its own battery life meter. I used my iPhone for testing the QY7 headphones. Phone in the bluetooth menu and hit enter. Pairing is a breeze, I just simply found the device on my Pushing the power button for about 3 seconds turns the headphones on, with a verbal confirmation. The other side has the mini usb charge port. Powering up and pairing. One side has the power button, volume up/down. This battery provides up to 5 hours of talk/playing time and 145 hours of standby time.The headphones are connected by a soft flat cable. It is armed with a powerful battery that boosts its battery life and allows you to enjoy music for longer time. This high quality material ensures that the pair of headphones is not as fragile as many other headsets in the market. This Soundpeats Qy7 Wireless Sports Headset is made up of high quality material and hence is durable in nature. Therefore, you get to listen to your favourite songs for hours without facing any discomfort. This is what makes it ideal to be used during workout sessions or any other physical activity. The distinctive design of this pair of sports headphones reduces friction and hence is sweat-proof. Sweat-proof, durable design and longer battery life With this feature, you can listen to all sound beats and details effectively. The feature of ‘High-fidelity stereo music’ is vital when it comes to experiencing CD quality stereo sound instantly. With the SignalPlus feature, you can keep your music device wherever you want like left/right side, above/below the waist. Hence, your music device is always connected with the headphones and the chances of losing connectivity are minimized as well. The Soundpeats Qy7 Wireless Sports Headset is equipped with the SignalPlus feature that gives better signal quality. Better signal quality and High-fidelity stereo music Moreover, the clear speech feature further enhances the quality of this appliance and allows you to speak clearly. This feature eliminates white noise and enhances the sound quality by generating clean sound. The Soundpeats Mini Lightweight Wireless Sports Headset is armed with the feature of ‘PureSound In-ear’ which reduces listener fatigue and generates clear sound every single time. PureSound In-ear feature for a clean audio experience This headphone reduces background noise and generates clean sound through its innovative technology. Designed especially to create a soothing sound experience for your ears, this wireless headset produces clear and detailed sound and makes your favourite music tracks even better. The Soundpeats Mini Lightweight Wireless Sports Headset is another addition to this effective range of music devices from the brand. The brand of Soudpeats is known for its innovative music devices that optimize your audio experience and allow you to enjoy high quality music. Description Superior music, soothing experience

[pineraustralia]

Trafe in instashare projector

#Trafe in instashare projector movie

#Trafe in instashare projector install

#Trafe in instashare projector mod

#Trafe in instashare projector android

#Trafe in instashare projector mod

The Motorola Projector Mod also has a built-in battery. So you get an additional hour of projection time*, even if you're phone's power is running low. *All battery life claims are approximate and based on a mixed use profile (which includes both usage and standby time) under optimal network conditions.

#Trafe in instashare projector android

This Android malware bypasses multi-factor authentication to steal your passwords Loud and clear hands-free calls on built-in speakerphone.How to clear the cache on your iPhone (and why you should).Built-in battery for extra screen time.Īctual battery performance will vary and depends on many factors including signal strength, network configuration, age of battery, operating temperature, features selected, device settings, and voice, data, and other application usage patterns. The 5 best Netflix alternatives: Binge-watch elsewhere #Photo mod instashare projector android Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is finally gone.

#Trafe in instashare projector movie

Moto Mods give you options to add a 360 camera, loud stereo speaker, portable movie projector, optical zoom camera, extra battery capacity, wireless charging, stylish shells, and more. The newest Moto Mods is the Polaroid Insta-Share Printer and I've been capturing and printing photos for the last week. The Polaroid Insta-Share Printer mod is currently priced at $149.99. The list price is $199.99, but there is a special 25 percent off holiday sale going until December 23. If you are at all interested in this Moto Mod, now is the time to pick it up. First, I recommend you check out my thoughts below and read some other reviews of this Moto Mod. The Polaroid Insta-Share Printer is a white plastic Moto Mod with the iconic rainbow color stripe subtly positioned between the camera opening and the printer paper exit. There is a large white button that ends up being on the upper right of the Moto Mod when you attach it and rotate your phone into position. The button is used to launch the Insta-Share app and then to also capture an image.

#Trafe in instashare projector install

To use this Moto Mod, you need to first install the Polaroid Insta-Share application. #Photo mod instashare projector android.#Photo mod instashare projector install.This product is really worth the money you pay. Therefore, you can carry it around whenever you don’t want it to be on your phone. It allows you to watch videos and films in a pinch. The Moto InstaShare Projector is suitable for business use. Indeed, it surely has its uses, not to mention a bit on the price tag. Now, you got all the essential information you should know about the Motor InstaShare Projector. Therefore, you can determine when you need to pause to get your charger. This model offers a quick notification once the mood battery is about 15%. To get it right, the unit only has to take 3-4 seconds. Although it has no autofocus, it comes with a turning wheel to cover that. This feature makes it simple to get up and watching. Moreover, you needn’t hook the device up to an external projector. This one can share presentations to watch videos. That’s why it becomes one of the two more pricey Moto Mods. To charge your device, as well as the projector, you need to plug your phone into a power source. Although this one comes with a USB Type-C port, the positioning of the product has this facing down towards the table. It is sure to give you a battery with 1 hour lifetime. Once you do not use the product, you just need to press and hold the button. It also allows every incoming notification to display only on your device. However, you can press the power button to go into the setting. The product comes with automatic keystone image corrections. Also, it is simple to perform this projector. However, its color and brightness are suitable for everything less than a 50-inch diagonal image. It is sure to give you the pretty crisp image in the proper lighting condition. The projector also comes with the standard connector as well as the battery level button. The top includes an abatement for the camera.Ī hinge includes a slim metal piece.

[syubub]

BTS cuddle habits

Hi guys! I wanted to have a fun little silly read on what their cuddle habits are! It's cute and light and soft so I thought it might be nice!

Disclaimer: this is entertainment only and not to be taken as fact. This is only my interpretation!

Oki let's begin

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Seokjin

The first thing I thought of when I saw this is that he's not a strong grip cuddle kinda guy

He's more of the "if you're there and need cuddles I'll do it I guess" kinda guy

I think too he's very vigilant and whomever he is cuddling he is very aware of how to maximize the other person's comfort?

Like it almost seems for him, he'd be fine without cuddles

It's just not important to him as much as it is for others

But he knows that some people feel good when they get cuddles

So

All this to say

He doesn't preticularly seek out cuddles and prefers to be the one doing the cuddling

He knows that it's a way to give others comfort

It's definitely a low energy kinda thing for him too

I think any kinda pseudo cuddle would be preferable

Like, "I'm laying next to you and tapping your head, does that count"

Lol

It's a way to show comfort and to show that he's there for the person.

Definitely takes that time to learn more about why the person might be sad or in need of cuddles

It's a perfect time to talk it out

Definitely platonic cuddles wouldn't faze him at all

10/10

Very comforting

He'd give advice if needed or prompted

Wouldn't particularly tangle himself up with the other person

More like comforting "I'm here for you" back rubs and taps

Playing with hair

Yoongi

STOP

Yoongi no

Okay

So

He's definitely more cuddly with his s.o than he his with friends

His cuddle style is very balanced

Probably likes to mirror his cuddle buddy

So like, facing each other

Probably holding hands

Also spooning and he'd be down for little spoon or big spoon depending on how he's feeling

Let me get a bit honest here

Cuddling for yoon is like holding the entire world

Sounds dramatic lol

It's a super intimate thing to share personal space like that

Even more than sex for him because the only objective is comfort and holding space for him and his person

Kinda. Intimacy in any form that it takes is really special and intense for him when it regards someone he truly cares for

This is about cuddles and not about how yoongi regards the act of bumping uglies

So

Platonic cuddles are a little less... wanted for him

Not that he hates it or anything. He just likes his space and would actively search for platonic cuddles often if every (if he knew a more physically affectionate person really needed to be held and comforted he wouldn't mind providing that but its just not something he typically looks for)

Because the thought of sharing such close personal space with someone is quite.. daunting? He feels a bit flustered

This is all heavily focused on yoongi preferring to have his cuddles with the people that he has the utmost respect for and trusts with his life

Definitely most comfortable with a romantic partner though

Definitely would love to have his hair played with and would reciprocate the favor

When things get rough in his head I think he would prefer to be held

Or like

I heard "held together"

Oof yoobi

Overall it's seems to be an act of trust and love and respect and anyone who gets a yoongi cuddle should feel honored

You guys

Just look at this cards

I CANT

Hoseok

Yo

Hobi Is definitely an enthusiastic cuddle buddy

Probs prefers to hold the other person

Definitely loves platonic cuddles all the way

Very much physical affection

Also very light and fun and giggly

Like, yoons is a more emotionally heavy feel

But hobis is so light and fun and recharging

It's not the destination

Like its not an event to have cuddles for him

It's almost as natural and fluid as just going in for a hug?

It's a continuation of a hug

Hobi snuggles more than cuddles?

Like any burst of affection he just goes in for a snuggle squeeze

I think as a human his body temperature is just always warm too

Versatile cuddles

Kinda octopus-esque

Can be kinda like a quick little battery charge for him

A good solid hobi cuddle would be like transporting to a new world where there are no worries

Very nice and secure

Would probably like sunshine cuddles or outdoor cuddles (without bugs)

I think sometimes he just likes to share his space with other people

Very warm friendly lovely I love it

Namjoon

Joon

Joo

Bb

Soft

Talk about tension release lol

Cuddles for him aren't something he seeks out often but when he does...

It's like taking the cap off of a soda

Definitely a daydream type

Idk why but I think he cuddles himself? Like when he's super stressed

He probably hugs himself

Or maybe he has a weighted blanket?

He definitely has a calm way to sooth himself

But with other people

I think he likes more mellow, soft type cuddles

Definitely a repetitive movement type of person

Like gently tapping/patting or making shapes

I can't tell of he would like that or if that's what he does

Probably drifts to sleep if cuddling for a longer time lol

It's very seren and lovely energy tbh

A sleepy morning type of cuddle would probably help him calmly sort his thoughts and plans for the day

Just time to exist

Platonic cuddles y e s

Like I said, it wouldn't be something that I would see him searching for often at all

But its very helpful for him when he does

This makes me think of one time I went to a park with my friend

we found a nice patch of soft grass and had a nice little cuddle just existing in each others presence and feeling a nice soft breeze bring in the sweet summer smell

It was just kinda like time stopped and I could daydream and look at my priorities without feeling overwhelmed by them??

Like having a person physically with you to anchor you to reality and provide comfort

Idk it's just such a nice lovely type of thing that is really special when those moments come around

Jimin

Definitely loves cuddles

We know this

But this is really sweet

It's very emotionally fulfilling and I think it's an easy way for him to show his love and appreciation for someone

This sounds dumb but I think he physically tries to morph his body to other people?

Like cling film?

It's really cute?

Tbh any kinds of cuddle is a good cuddle for chim

I think physical touch just in general is really important for him

cuddles make him feel loved bc sometimes he needs to be reminded

Definitely will cuddle or be cuddled

With the 8 of wands I think he just kinda goes with the flow really

The ace of cups makes me almost see it as an exchange of energy?

Like swapping good vibes or recharging your good vibes

It's really sweet

I bet he'd be the type to make it a special event on occasion

Like all the blankets and pillows and a movie or book or album or something

And just be comfy

Comfy is the best way to describe this

Comfy

10000% platonic cuddles

No one is spared

(Some are spared)

It's not like he's attached to them or needs them to breath

But physical touch is really important for him

And this is very optimal

I also think he'd be the type to go for drive by cuddles?

The 8 of wands can be a fast card so

Quick cuddles

Little snuggles

V good

10/10

wouldn't mind face to face cuddles at all

THIS ALL JUST FEELS SO WARM AND NICE

like a freshly washed blanket that's all warm and smells nice

Yes

Taehyung

Jesus

It was hard enough trying to interpret normal cards and you throw me this shit??

Here we go

It's definitely a mental resting point to have some good cuddles

Tae can be quite a physical person too so it doesn't suprise me to see

It almost feels solitary?

But not physically obviously

Kinda like joon he really benefits from having a reality anchor

But

He might be physically resting

And his mind is resting too

But??

It's like he fucking Astral projects or some shit

Hear me out

It's like having a safe and comfortable environment being with someone you trust

He just kinda

Lifts up??

Like this might seem like daydreams to him but it's like... the Astral?

Lol definitely unexpected

It's not like this everytime

He benefits from cuddles when he is having a hard time and needs comfort

Also just because it's something that he finds relaxing

But like, let me explain

Death is like letting go of attachments

Four of swords can be like meditation

Wheel of fortune can be like opportunity or destiny?

And like, we all know tae has his angel and stuff

I think maybe his angel or guides or whatever take any opportunity where he is in a good enough state to just... yank him up to them??

THIS SOUNDS DUMB

But think about it

If he's comfortable and in a mental state where this is possible, it would be the perfect opportunity??

Like?

I want to expand on this later maybe

It doesn't exclusively happen when he's cuddling its just a time where his mind is open to it?

Also yes platonic cuddles yes yes yes

Wtf tae?

Jungkook

These are all the cards that came out and all of them are relevant apparently

So

Firstly let's look at that lovers card and the magician

He's definitely down for a good cuddle and it's a sign of trust for him

Having a nice restful time where he can idly chat with someone probably helps him work through situations in his head

The magician can signify a powerful man...

I think he really enjoys being held and like, holding people tightly

Like it feels more secure like that

Definitely a release of stress and worry

Probably prefers cuddles more in the evening after he's worked hard and done stuff bc then he feels like he's earned the right to relax

Definitely down for platonic cuddles but with people he knows super well

This might sound weird but

I bet if the chance to cuddle arrives and it's not a suprise like "hey come here and cuddle" kinda thing he'd prepare

Like if there was a movie night and he knows it's gonna be nice and comfy he'd probably wear his favorite hoodie or shirt or whatever and pjs or sweatpants or whatever

Whip out the nice body butter

Some good smells

Fresh fabric softener smells

In a 100% not creepy and very platonic way

That sounds sarcastic but its not

Its called self care

Would also be the type to seek out cuddles if he has a bad day

Like the kind to flop down beside someone or put his head in their lap and just non verbally demand cuddles?

Like, have you ever been super frustrated and you just need someone to pet your hair? Or like hold you bc your working out your own shit internally?

Yes

It probably doesn't happen often and not when something really big is bothering him

Just smaller things

Would like repetitive motions/soothing motions

The six of swords make me think soft rocking would put him directly to sleep lol

Kinda like cars too

Very nice very nice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was intresting and I didn't really know what it would be like but I didn't think it would be this lol tae was unexpected

Who are you guys most like? I think I'm maybe part jungkook and part yoongi? I'm not the most touchy feely person with friends but I am a lot more with partners. Jungkookie style cuddles is me when I'm around people that I've know for forever and are really good friends. Pull out good blankets, clothes, candles ect. Anything for optimal comfort. Joon style cuddles definitely sound like the most relaxing thing in the planet and makes me a bit nostalgic

[alarajrogers]

Everything Makes Sense: The Human Body and Energy

I wrote a thing. It is a very long thing. It probably contains very little information that most people didn’t already know, but it puts it together in a way I’ve never seen it before.

Most of it will be behind the cut but you get the first few paragraphs out here where you can see them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything Makes Sense: The Human Body and Energy

So you know how you read all this bullshit about “X improves your energy” and “Y gives you quick energy but then you crash” and “Z improves your metabolism” and it all just sounds like words? Technobabble from the world of science fiction television shows?

It may surprise you to know that practically everything you’ve ever personally observed about energy levels makes sense, as do a lot of the layperson observations you’ve heard in your life, and that there are really good reasons why being sick makes you sleepy and why exercising hard on weekends when you’re a slug all week is bad for you, and that all of this is very understandable from a layperson perspective. Or maybe not, maybe you know all this. I’ve spent years knowing all this, but recently it just dawned on me that it’s all interconnected.  All the things I know are pieces of an amazing whole.

So I’m going to explain this revelation I’ve had, and when you read it, my guess is you’ll come away thinking “But I knew all that already… but now I understand how it all works together!”

Metabolism

First, let’s talk about metabolism. What is it?

We usually use the term to mean something like “the speed at which my body does the things I’m not consciously controlling it to do.” Like, “I have a really fast metabolism, so food just runs right through me!” Or “I have a very slow metabolism so I have to be real careful about how much I drink.”

To metabolize means for a living thing to process something it has ingested. Metabolism is usually used to mean the process of converting food and nutrients into energy. Sometimes we use it to mean the levels of efficiency or speed at which a body does this, which is where we get “a fast metabolism”. Here, I’m going to try to use metabolism specifically to mean the process by which your body converts stuff to energy.

Life Energy

No, a vampire from an alien planet can’t suck it out of you, but you really do have life energy! Otherwise, you wouldn’t be alive.

The fundamental molecule of life energy, the thing that if it wasn’t there no life processes would be possible because they would not have any energy to work, is a battery called ATP. Its full name, adenosine triphosphate, is a bit of a mouthful, but it basically means that this is a molecule with three phosphorus atoms.

You may have learned in chemistry class, once upon a time, that chemical reactions can be endothermic – they use up energy – or exothermic – they emit energy. Fire is an exothermic reaction; you get it started with heat, usually, but it generates a lot more heat than it took to make it burn in the first place. Your baking soda and vinegar volcano from the science fair a long time ago is also an exothermic reaction. You didn’t put any energy into it to make it bubble like that. On the other hand, melting ice is endothermic. You don’t get any energy when ice melts. It uses up energy to melt.

When ATP releases one of its phosphorus atoms, it becomes ADP – adenosine diphosphate, meaning just two phosphorus atoms! This is an exothermic reaction. ATP turning into ADP is what powers pretty much every single endothermic reaction in your cells. It’s the battery that you run on.

Charging the Battery

Fortunately ADP is rechargeable! An endothermic reaction turns it back into ATP.

The mitochondria do this. You may be thinking, “aren’t they something the lady who wrote A Wrinkle In Time made up?” And you’d be close. The mitochondria appeared in the sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door. Madeleine L’Engle didn’t make them up, but she did make up “farandolae”, little creatures in the mitochondria, which don’t exist as far as we know. (Although, if scientists do discover little thingies in the mitochondria that let it do its work, they’ll probably name them farandolae because scientists are big geeks.)

Mitochondria in reality are organelles, components of a cell that do work. They’re independent organelles, which have their own DNA and do all their own reproduction. The only other things we know that work like that are chloroplasts, which are only found in plants… so far. (Personally I think being able to photosynthesize from my skin would be awesome and I am eagerly awaiting the day that genetic engineering allows us to put chloroplasts in human skin, but this isn’t a thing yet.)

Mitochondria combine glucose – a molecule made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, in the formula C6H12O6 – with oxygen, an element that comprises about 22% of our atmosphere, to create carbon dioxide (there’s that di again, meaning two – carbon dioxide is one carbon and two oxygens), water (our old favorite, H2O, sometimes called “dihydrogen monoxide” as a joke about weird chemical names), and enough energy to put a phosphorus atom on a molecule of ADP. Now it’s ATP again! Glucose and oxygen combine in an exothermic reaction.

(Ever wonder why all life on earth depends on the sun? Converting CO2 and H2O into glucose and oxygen is an endothermic reaction. Plants use their chloroplasts to absorb energy from the sun so they can convert CO2 and water into glucose and oxygen. Then animals, like us, eat the plants to get the glucose, and breathe the oxygen. Without the sun, chloroplasts wouldn’t work, plants wouldn’t make glucose, and we’d all starve.)

The Basic Things We Need For This To Work

There are a lot of components going into this system.

The mitochondria need a steady supply of oxygen, but oxygen, being a highly reactive molecule, can’t just float around in the bloodstream like glucose can. (Glucose is iffy too, more on this later.) Hemoglobin, a molecule made with iron, bonds to oxygen and can carry it around safely. Red blood cells are full of hemoglobin. They float in the bloodstream, which goes everywhere in the body. Vitamin B12 is involved in the production of these red blood cells. The bloodstream also carries glucose, but hopefully not too much of it, because glucose is also a reactive molecule and if you have too much, it starts tearing shit up.

The lungs draw in the oxygen that the red blood cells carry, and expel the carbon dioxide. The heart forces the blood to go around and around in this system of blood vessels. The pancreas makes insulin, the hormone that binds up the glucose and regulates how much of it is available in your bloodstream for your cells to take. The speed with which all of this happens can be regulated by thyroid hormone, which requires iodine, and also a working thyroid.

You need all that and a million other things for the system to work perfectly. If the system does not work perfectly, you’re not making as much energy as you could be. That’s pretty obvious.

But here is the thing that’s obvious once you spell it out, and yet, we so often behave, as a society, like we don’t understand it or don’t believe it:

An optimized system still puts out a finite amount of energy at any given time.

If you were in perfect health, right now, you would still have a limited supply of life energy to work with.

We know this. But we behave as if it’s not true. As if we can power through exhaustion with willpower, because being exhausted is a flaw in the system, rather than a really obvious application of the laws of thermodynamics.

What Uses All That Energy?

We also often don’t think about the systems that use those energy, and what they use it for.

The Brain:

The brain is a huge energy hog, using up a whopping 20-25% of all of the body’s energy while awake and conscious (or dreaming – a dreaming mind is as active as a conscious one.) Asleep (but not in REM sleep), the brain still uses about 85% of that, which, lemme do some math here, is 17% if the waking mind was using 20%. A living being can drop to about 50% of that with certain types of anesthesia, but that – the minimum required for a brain to keep a body alive – is still 10% of total energy consumption.

It's not clear how much energy on top of that a very active brain needs. Estimates of how much energy complex and difficult thought consume range from 100 calories a day to 6000! It’s plainly not much on top of basic consciousness, or there’d be no such thing as a fat person doing highly intellectual work all the time, but it’s evident that it’s something.

The Muscles:

We all know about this one. Hard-working muscles use up a lot of energy. How much? Well, swimming, one of the few activities we do that can fully engage the leg muscles and the arm muscles to the same high level at the same time, can burn as much as a quarter of a normal daily intake of calories in a single hour. Most of the time our muscles are not working that hard, but anything more strenuous than vegging out on a couch does burn resources.

The Immune System:

This guy. This guy is the one everyone forgets. The immune system is hard at work all the time protecting you from infections (and, if you’re one of the zillions of people who have allergies or autoimmune disorders, things like cat dander, pollen, and yourself apparently), but when an infection has actually taken hold, the immune system goes into high gear. Most of the responses you experience when you’re sick – nausea, coughing, sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, fever – are actually things the immune system is doing to you to get rid of the infection. Nausea, to expel it through the mouth. Diarrhea, to expel it through the anus. Coughing, to expel it from the lungs, and sneezing, to expel it from the sinus cavities. Mucus, to trap it so it can be expelled. Fever, to kill it, because germs are a lot more sensitive to temperature variation than you, a large multi-celled creature, are. It takes a lot of energy to do all that. Plus there’s white blood cells and T cells and antibodies, all doing their thing.

The Digestive System:

Ever hear the expression “It takes money to make money?” That’s true of life energy as well. The work of moving your food all along the gastrointestinal tract, breaking it down, squeezing and mushing it, making the enzymes to convert it to molecules small enough to get out into the bloodstream, and then pushing the waste out – that’s a lot of effort. There’s no such thing as a free lunch!

The Reproductive System:

Making sperm costs energy. Making a lining for an egg and then expelling it if it’s not used costs energy. Firing up the hormones that cause libido costs energy. And then there’s all the energy burned by the muscles in actually having sex.

Heart and Lungs:

Typically we don’t think of these things as needing a lot of energy because, quite simply, your body’s going to take the energy it needs to run these essential systems whether you want to or not. There’s no re-allocation of baseline energy away from the heart and lungs. But in exercise, when the oxygen demands and the needs of the muscle cells to get more and more fuel increase, the heart and lungs need more energy too.

This is a rough breakdown. You have other systems – we haven’t talked about kidneys and liver and stuff like that – but we’re going to look at these systems in our simplified model.

Everything takes energy. And you have a finite pool of it. Eating more food does not give you more energy – your mitochondria can only work as fast as they can work. If you weren’t at capacity, then yes, food can give you a boost, but it consumes energy first because digestion is work, and if you’re at capacity, any extra calories get stuffed away as fat because extra circulating glucose is bad for you.

By the way, this is why sugar gives you a quick pick-me-up, and should probably be considered a stimulant! Sugar – sucrose, which is basically 2 glucose molecules smushed together, or fructose, which is glucose but in a different shape – supplies your bloodstream with glucose fast, with very little extra work. And it can start doing it in your mouth, because your saliva can break sucrose into glucose and your mucuous membranes can pull glucose into your bloodstream.

But as soon as you start ingesting sugar, your pancreas revs up your insulin production (assuming you don’t have diabetes, or that if you do, it’s type II and not so advanced that you basically don’t have your own insulin anymore.) Insulin, you may recall, is the hormone that keeps circulating glucose levels in your bloodstream down to the levels where the mitochondria can use all of it and there isn’t a lot extra. Extra glucose that nobody is using damages your blood vessels, making them harder and less elastic, which is why circulation problems are a big thing with diabetes, and why my feet are SO FUCKING COLD all winter, not that I’m bitter or anything.

So. You ate sugar, and your body prepared to balance your glucose levels with a lot of insulin. But then all you ate was sugar. You didn’t add fats or proteins or complex carbohydrates in any significant amounts to keep the glucose coming after the initial burst was over. So now you have all this insulin and it went and picked up all the extra glucose and now you know what? Not only is there no extra glucose anymore, there isn’t even enough to keep the home fires burning! Woo, dizzy. Low blood sugar hits the brain hard, because the brain is the energy hog, and feels any dip in energy levels before any other body systems do.

In short, you may have given yourself a quick burst of extra fuel, but in the long run, it may actually make your energy levels drop. And if you ate a substantial meal to go with that quick snack… now we have to send power to the digestive system. And that is why eating more food does not give you more energy unless you’re starving. (Or diabetic, more on this later.)

Energy Trade-offs:

You know the drill. Finite amount of energy. Many systems competing for it. Brain takes the most. So what happens when one system suddenly needs extra?

1.       Complex thought shuts down.

I know you’ve experienced this. You’re overtired, or you’ve just done hard exercise, or you have eaten a big meal, or you are sick. You can no longer brain at the levels you expect. Study? Maybe, but retention and comprehension will suuuuck. Math? Probably not. Reading? Depending on how difficult reading in general is for you, maybe this is just the thing, but the topic’s going to be light and easy to comprehend, like fiction, or maybe this article here that you’re reading. Or, maybe reading’s out of the picture. Watching TV? For most people, this is ideal, but if you’re autistic and have an auditory processing disorder and facial recognition issues, hoo boy. Not that I know anybody like that, or anything.

2.       Muscles need to be at rest.

Muscles don’t have to move a lot. You could be sitting on a couch. You could be laying in a lawn chair. You’re awake, but you don’t want to move your muscles because it’s hard.

When what you lack to burn your fuel is not glucose, but oxygen, you can get by sometimes. As long as there’s some oxygen. But the byproduct of making energy without enough oxygen is called lactic acid. Which is acid, and it’s in your muscles. Not good! Nobody likes extra acid in places where extra acid shouldn’t be. So your muscles burn. The good news is, the body breaks down lactic acid pretty fast. The bad news is, you may be building it up faster than the body can break it down.

Hard exercise? You’re gonna feel the burn. But you may run into this same problem attempting to walk to the bathroom if you’re very very sick, because all the energy has been re-routed to the immune system, so there’s nothing there for the muscles.

3.       Consciousness itself shuts off.

The unconscious brain still consumes a lot of energy, but we’re cutting what we can, and you being conscious is not helping here. Shut down anything we don’t immediately need to use. That includes consciousness.

If you are bleeding out and there’s not enough blood in your body to carry the fuel –

If your blood pressure is low or your heart has stopped working and so the fuel isn’t moving fast enough to where it needs to be –

If your circulating glucose is too low because there’s too much damn insulin –

If there isn’t enough water in the body, so blood pressure drops because blood is mostly water –

If you have a fever, which makes all the chemical reactions in your body go kind of screwy and inefficient –

-- You pass out. You cannot remain conscious because your body has to cut services to keep the whole thing going, and this is how.

Sometimes stupid shit triggers this reaction. Like vasovagal syncope, which can happen from triggers like extreme emotional stress or the sight of blood. Like getting blood drawn (which is probably also vasovagal syncope but seems to have a more physiological basis than some of the other things that can cause it, given that it can occur in people who are absolutely cheerful and fascinated by the fact that blood is leaving their body and not upset about it at all. Not that I would know anything about that, either.)

4.       Or, you are highly encouraged to shut down consciousness.

The digestive system is hard at work. There’s no emergency, per se, but this work would get done a lot faster and with less stress if you would just go the fuck to sleep. Thus, “carb coma” or what the cartoon “The Boondocks” called “The Itis.”

The immune system is busting its ass. Things aren’t so serious that you need to pass out. Falling asleep vs. fainting is kind of like shutting down your computer vs. suddenly losing power. You definitely want to go to sleep if the situation is not dire enough to require immediate shutdown of consciousness.

Your body needs to run nightly maintenance. Several systems that operate in low gear when you’re awake need to rev up, and your brain actually needs to do some shit to organize your memories while you’re not recording new ones, and extra energy is needed for the immune system because it’s doing nightly sweeps. Or something like that. We don’t really understand everything that sleep does for us, but we know that if we don’t get it:

-          The pancreas doesn’t work right, resulting in getting fat and maybe diabetes

-          Also high blood pressure

-          Also memories are kind of shit

-          Also the immune system doesn’t work too well

We don’t actually know how your brain would operate without sleep if it wasn’t saturated with the “go the fuck to sleep” chemical GABA, which is broken down while you’re sleeping. GABA does a lot of things, but in this context, GABA builds up in your body to send the signal to your brain to stop using so much damn energy and sleep already. And if you attempt to function mentally with high GABA levels… well, you can’t, okay? Your brain is full of GABA receptors that tell it to turn things off. So those things are turning off. How well does your computer run when it's in the middle of shutting down? I thought so.

(Actually we kind of do. There are chemicals that block tiredness. People who use these chemicals can function on significantly less sleep at significantly higher cognitive levels than people who are not on these chemicals. But the stuff like the high blood pressure, the diabetes, the immune system weakening… all that appears to still be happening. Sleep happens for a reason.)

5.       Other systems that are highly dependent on energy levels shut down.

 -          Exercised your ass off? Now your digestive and immune systems have been tamped down because the energy went to your muscles. Eating when the digestive system isn’t working at full capacity results in stomach cramps or nausea. Forcing the digestive system to work when the muscles need maximum energy levels causes muscle cramps. This is why you’re not supposed to go swimming after a big meal – muscle cramps while swimming can kill you.

-          Ate a big meal? I bet you are not feeling like having sex right now. Probably also not winning any chess tournaments. And don’t move around too much!

-          Feeling sick? Cough, runny nose, sneezing? You’re probably not too hungry. (Especially not when you have a fever. Fevers burn a lot of energy.) You probably do not feel much like having sex. Your muscles ache and you don’t want to move around much. And you are sleepy.

-          Feeling randy, baby? You are probably not also feeling hungry.

What Happens When We Game The System?

I briefly mentioned stimulants above – chemicals that artificially reroute energy levels back to the brain, improving concentration and mental acuity, at the expense of everything else.

Well, not literally everything else. Stimulants suppress pain to some slight extent, increase heart rate and blood flow, and make your muscles more eager to do work. Many people report that stimulant use also makes them horny. So those systems are in good shape too. But you know what took a hit? Your digestive system and your immune system. Now, your digestive system… you can feel that immediately. People take stimulants in order to lose weight, sometimes, because they’ll suppress your appetite. Energy rerouting to brain and muscles means the body shuts down digestion. What’s already there will get processed but let’s not add to it, okay?

You did not feel your immune system slow down and weaken. You won’t, today. But maybe tomorrow you’ll get sick. Maybe the day after that.

Oh, but you gotta work, right? The boss won’t tolerate you not coming in. So you stuff yourself full of stimulants – pseudoephedrine, dries up your nose and keeps you awake; caffeine, keeps you focused – and go to work anyway. With energy being forced away from your immune system to keep your brain and your muscles working. That’s not gonna work out well for you, now is it. You wanna pull the military off the front lines to have a parade, when you’re being actively invaded?

Keeping your brain functioning at full capacity, continuing to use your muscles, when you’re sick, will slow your recovery time, because you took the energy away from your immune system to pump it through your brain. Because the amount of energy you can produce is finite, and relatively fixed.

Oh, you can improve some things. Your blood and everything it does, and practically every chemical reaction in your body, is totally dependent on the presence of water, so stay well hydrated. Stock your body well with the vitamins and minerals you need to make all these things function. Are you getting enough oxygen, citizen? Eat food, but with the right balance of carbs and proteins and fats so that your digestive system isn’t overtaxed, you don’t end up with an insulin spike, and you’re not wasting resources. If your system lacked any of these things, then you can improve metabolic efficiency, and your energy levels, by providing them.

But stimulants can’t give you energy. They can make you feel like they did because the energy is going to places where your conscious mind can feel it… but they didn’t increase the amount of energy you have. Resources are being taken away from other areas. Your immune system is taking a serious hit right now. And you can’t feel that, but it’s gonna fuck you up later.

Brains That Have To Work Extra Hard At Basic Stuff

This is a simplified model, but: all brains are full of little modules that do things. And consciousness, ego, is actually pretty bad at most stuff. The little modules that do things are like dedicated co-processors for specific tasks. Spatial processing. Language acquisition. Basic math. Recognizing faces. Managing executive functions.

The neurotypical mind comes with a basic set of things that neurotypicals don’t even realize exist unless they study psychology or spend a lot of time with neurodivergent people, because they all have them. The thing that recognizes faces. The thing that processes sound into speech. The thing that generates speech from thought. The thing that picks up social rules. The thing that can look at letters and figure out easily and quickly how to pronounce them. The thing that tunes in to body language cues. The thing that’s always aware of how loud you’re talking. The thing that enables you to kind of guess how much time has passed. The thing that lets you control what you’re paying attention to. The thing that does basic math.

Many of these little modules need to be trained – language and math and reading don’t suddenly appear in people’s brains, they’re taught – but once trained, the little modules just… do the thing. The person doesn’t have to think about it. They no longer experience any sense of “I’m doing a thing”, it’s just happening.  

Not all neurodivergent minds have these things. Many such minds have found a workaround. Use conscious processing power, not black box processing power, because the black box isn’t there, but main cortex is. You can apply intelligence to solve problems like “who is that guy, I know that I know him” and “what are the words those people are saying” and “how do I turn those letters into a sound”. “How do I keep track of how much time I am spending on this?” “How do I make myself do shit that bores me?” We use conscious mind processing power, not the much more efficient black boxes that people aren’t even aware they have.

But what happens when energy is sucked away from the conscious mind, and we’re reduced to vegetating, still awake but without the ability to perform complex thought right now?

If we’re routing skills through the conscious mind, we will lose those skills in proportion to how much we lose the ability to think in general, as energy is drawn away from the brain. And NTs, using the much more efficient black box modules, have no idea that this is even a thing that can happen. It would take far more drastic energy loss for them to lose the work the black boxes do.

Some of us have black boxes that the average NT does not have. I can do complex worldbuilding in my head when I’m so exhausted I can’t talk anymore. There are people who just know the answers to complex arithmetic problems the way most of us just know the answer to 2 times 5. Some people have advanced spatial processing coprocessors that mean they’re almost never lost, because they’re effortlessly creating a map of their surroundings any time they go anywhere, and something in their head is tracking what direction they are in and what turns they’ve made. But some of us do not. Not all of us get a trade, skill for skill. And some of us get black boxes that turn out to be kind of useless. Like, suppose a person more or less effortlessly memorizes the name of every dinosaur ever discovered. Unless they are a paleontologist, when is that going to help?

The important thing to note here is that even a small drop in energy can cause a noticeable drop in an ND’s ability to fake being “normal”, because they are using a less efficient means of computing to perform those skills, and it cuts out on them when energy has to draw down from the brain to go somewhere else.

Spoonies

People with auto-immune disorders are constantly using high levels of energy to do useless and self-destructive shit (not that they want to, but their immune system did not ask first), because their immune system is always on high alert against things like their own nervous system. Overactive immune system consumes energy; body parts taking damage consume energy.

People with cancer or other diseases that lead them to take chemo are burning a lot of energy trying to replenish vital functional cells that the chemo keeps killing. Chemo destroys fast-dividing cells… like white blood cells, and the ones in your mucous membranes, and the ones in your hair follicles. And you can do without hair, but you sort of need your mucous membranes and your white blood cells.

People with fatigue disorders might be suffering from an auto-immune issue, or they might be suffering from a metabolic issue. For instance, low levels of thyroid hormone will cause metabolic processes across the board to slow down, drastically decreasing the available energy.

People with depression might literally actually have a fatigue disorder that manifests in not having enough energy to process serotonin and dopamine correctly. Also, serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine are brain chemicals that do energy routing, having an effect on what the body is putting energy into. Failures to produce enough of those or at appropriate times, or spending energy breaking them down when you still need them, will screw with the body’s ability to deliver energy to the right places.

Whatever the reason, if you have a disorder that drains your energy… even if that’s all it does, even if it literally has no other symptoms, having something that lowers your available energy for your brain and muscles makes it literally impossible for you to function at the levels you would like to. Like, the same way it is impossible for a Chevy Malibu to go 800 miles on one tank of gas. The available energy is not there. Either it is going someplace stupid that you’d rather it didn’t, or metabolism itself just isn’t working well.

If you are neither a spoonie nor neurodivergent, odds are, your body’s working at a reasonably high level of efficiency already, so you can get a dramatic improvement when you find one of the few things you lack, and you fill that need. Hydrate? (Everything runs on water) Exercise? (Speeds up circulation, and fitness in general will cause your metabolism to be more efficient) Vitamins? (Sure, if you’re missing some, vitamins are real useful.)

But if the problem is, you’re pouring energy into activities society requires you to engage in but your brain cannot do them easily and efficiently, so they cost you a lot more than others; if the problem is, your body is wasting a lot of energy on an immune response to things that shouldn’t need an immune response; if the problem is, there’s a food your body can’t break down, so you’re eating enough to feel full but never getting enough energy from it; if the problem is, your metabolism is lacking something esoteric that almost everyone else has enough of, so it’s nearly impossible to figure out what’s missing… exercise and hydration and vitamins will not help. Or, they may help, if you were lacking them, but they won’t fix the problem.

Expecting you to just push through a lack of energy through willpower is a total misunderstanding of how the brain and body work. You cannot do what you don’t have energy to do, and if you route energy to your brain or muscles to accomplish something that requires really pushing yourself, you are taking it away from somewhere else. Probably your immune system. So you’ll get sick. And then you’ll be even more overtaxed.

It’s amazing the degree to which ignorant people think that all bodies literally work the exact same way. (And yet many of these ignoramuses think that people of a different race are somehow completely different from them in some fundamental way. Make it make sense.) What’s even worse is the number of doctors who believe that the only way bodies can malfunction are the ways they happen to know about, so anything outside their experience is fake.

But if you understand how complex the system is and how variable the things that can go wrong with it are, and you understand the role of energy, and energy distribution, in the body, it becomes obvious. You can’t force yourself to do what you don’t have the energy to do without taking it away from somewhere else.

Weight and Energy

There is no question that it’s possible for a human to get to a place where their weight is a severe drain on their energy levels. But very few people are actually there.

Muscle is heavier than fat. But muscle does the work of dragging the weight of a body around. A body with good muscle tone – fat but fit – is in a much better position, in terms of energy production and distribution, than a thin body with weak muscles.

Fat actively helps with energy conservation in the cold. A fit fat person – someone whose musculature is strong and healthy enough that they have no difficulty moving their own weight – has reserves to burn in the event of a disorder that consumes so much energy, it inhibits digestion. (To be honest, so does a weak fat person, but they’re losing energy every time they move because they’re too heavy for their own muscles. But this is true of physical weakness in general.)

Not everyone can be fit! Exercise, if you recall, is one of those things that burns a lot of energy! If you already have very little energy, you’re going to have a very hard time exercising enough to become fit.

All of this is normal. It’s natural. It makes sense. Why would being fat automatically make you less healthy in all situations than someone thin? Being underweight is correlated with a significantly shorter lifespan than being overweight.

I’m Gonna Talk About Diabetes Here

We’re told over and over that there’s a giant health crisis among Americans of increased obesity, and this is causing diabetes.

Bullshit.

Consider this. Diabetes is a disorder where you don’t produce enough insulin, but many Type II diabetics got that way because their body massively overproduced insulin to the point where they wore out their pancreatic cells. Remember when I said insulin takes circulating glucose out of the blood stream and stuffs it somewhere safe? You know where it stuffs it? Fat cells. Doctors have been telling people that being overweight causes diabetes… when we know for a fact that diabetes is caused by insulin resistance, a condition where the cells don’t respond well to insulin, so insulin levels go up, and the body’s ability to produce its own insulin is worn down by heavy overproduction. Do the math. You had high levels of insulin production for years because your cells were resistant to insulin? Insulin stores sugar in fat cells, as fat? Gosh, I wonder if the condition that led to your becoming diabetic happened to be the exact same condition that caused you to get fat!

In a case like that, losing weight wouldn’t do jack shit for your insulin, but changing the way you eat so there’s less circulating sugar in the first place would, and this would cause you to store less in your fat cells, which would cause you to lose weight. But it’s not the weight loss that helped you. You couldn’t solve your problem by cutting calories, because calories didn’t get you into this position. High levels of circulating glucose did. Exercising super hard and going on a diet and actually losing weight – which would be hard, because super high levels of insulin storing all that sugar as fat, and yet your blood sugar is still high because your cells don’t respond to the insulin, but let’s say you pull it off – that does nothing. Maybe you see an improvement in your symptoms because eating very little produces very little circulating blood sugar… though now you’ve got some other symptoms. Namely, no energy. And any improvement you experienced is temporary, because you’re addressing a symptom, not the problem.

Doctors know that insulin stores sugar as fat. Doctors know that diabetic people with Type II generate higher and higher levels of insulin as their body tries to compensate for not responding to it, until finally the cells give up and the patient needs to take artificial insulin. And yet, somehow, we are still hearing “fat causes diabetes, lose weight and you won’t get diabetes!” There’s a disconnect here.

Overclocking

I’m going to talk about something as dangerous as fuck here.

When your body’s natural systems are not regulating your blood sugar, and so you can have greater than normal levels of sugar in your bloodstream… this can make the pie higher.

Remember I said you can’t increase your energy levels by adding more fuel, because the mitochondria can only work as hard as they can work? Well, that’s not completely true. Mitochondria can apparently work harder than that, if they have access to more sugar. It’s just that more sugar is destroying your circulatory system, resulting in damage to your retinas, the nerves in your hands and feet, your ability to regulate the temperature of those extremities, the speed at which you can grow back skin in an injury, and, oh, pretty much everything else.

Get to a certain level of blood sugar and you feel like absolute shit. But in the range between that – higher than you should be but lower than the levels you can actually feel bad in – you have more energy.

This is fucking awful, to be honest. Everyone wants more energy! Energy helps you get shit done! More energy to the brain makes your brain work better.

And you want the sugar. You want the high glucose. You don’t know that’s what you want, but you know you crave sweets and carbs, and when your glucose is high (but not too high), it’s a stimulant. You’re awake, you can focus, your mental energy is good. Cut down the way they tell you that you need to, when you’re diabetic, and now you’re sluggish and depressed.

It’s killing you slowly but not doing it is depressing and hard and the slow death isn’t causing you any significant amount of suffering, until it does, and then it’s too late.

Sugar is a drug and you’re addicted. But it’s food. There are no regulations to protect you from eating all the food you want. There is no social opprobrium in general against sweet foods or carb-high snacks. (If you are fat you might suffer from this, but thin people are allowed to eat whatever the fuck they want, and honestly if you’re fat you will probably catch shit for eating a nice big steak, which is a lot better for you if you’re diabetic than a piece of toast.)

You’re overclocking your brain, the same way gamers overclock their PCs to get higher performance. Except that when they melt their CPU they can just buy a new one. You are not buying a new brain anytime soon.

I Am Not A Doctor

I didn’t go to medical school. I did study biology at the graduate school level, but no medical degree.

But everything I’m saying is backed up by pretty much any source I look at. It’s just that the conclusions that I’m drawing, while they are logical outgrowths of the things I’m saying, are for some mysterious reason not the conclusion that people who go to medical school are drawing.

Bodies are all different. Bodies are very complicated with many interlocking systems. Many, many things can go wrong with bodies. Far more things than science is fully aware of yet. Therefore it makes perfect sense that if someone is tired all the time for no good reason, there is a good reason and we just don’t know what it is. If someone can’t easily do a thing another person can do, that is absolutely normal and expected, unless that other thing is something that falls into a range that most humans can easily do. Then all of a sudden it becomes impossible to imagine that a human couldn’t do it? Bullshit. We don’t understand the brain perfectly.

It is absolutely normal that when a person’s energy levels are high, they have the resources to accomplish things they cannot do when their resources are low. The notion that if you’re disabled, there’s a thing you can’t do and you can never do it and that is the way it has to be, is nonsensical. Yes, of course some people are disabled in that way. If you have no legs, then no matter how much energy you have, you will never have legs. But you might be a lot better able to tolerate uncomfortable prosthetics when your energy levels are high.

“If you could do it today then why couldn’t you do it yesterday?” I don’t know, Karen, why couldn’t you vacuum your carpet after you’d been working all day, when you were pushing that vacuum around with no trouble last weekend? People can accomplish more when they have more energy. Doing things consumes energy. Once your energy is consumed, the fact that it can only replenish at a finite rate means you have to wait to get more. While you’re waiting, you can’t do stuff, because stuff takes energy, that you don’t have, because you used it up on other stuff. What part of this is unclear?

Being fat is a symptom of underlying conditions in most of the diseases that it’s correlated with. It’s not that being fat is unhealthy, like losing weight would make you healthy again; it’s that it is a symptom of your disorder that shows up before the more definitive symptoms do. It is possible to improve your health by exercising and changing what you eat, and sometimes, this may result in weight loss, but it wasn’t the weight loss that improved your health. It was becoming fitter (more muscle) and eating stuff that isn’t poisoning you because some of your metabolic pathways don’t work. If you don’t lose weight, you may still be getting healthier.

(I suspect it’s actually true that being fat will damage your joints. You’re putting more of a load on them, so it makes logical sense. What doesn’t make sense is to say that being fat causes diabetes and high blood pressure when we know for a fact that overly high levels of insulin cause both being fat and diabetic, and overly high levels of blood sugar cause high blood pressure, heart disease, and general circulation problems, so. Um. All of these things come from insulin resistance? That is the problem? Not the weight, that’s a symptom?)

And sometimes, sugar is an addictive drug. If you’re feeling self-satisfied because you’re not an alcoholic, and you don’t smoke, and you’ve never taken an illegal drug, but you can’t do without your blueberry muffin in the morning and your ice cream after dinner… stop feeling superior to people addicted to illegal substances or well-known vices. The only difference between them and you is that you got addicted to a substance that will kill you but that is safe for most people, and because it improves your mood and your productivity, capitalism is more than happy to let you indulge it until you drop dead.

[www-razaya4life]

Dark Matter Alternate Ending #1

Not after Aya said goodbye to Razer's tombstone, Hal and Kilowog go to comfort her. "Hey kid, how are you holding up so far?" Kilowog ventured. "My processors aren't firing at optimal levels Green Lantern Kilowog." "I think what Kilowog means is..." "I am aware what Green Lantern Kilowog means Green Lantern Hal Jordan. If you are looking for a more direct answer, then it is I am not holding up at all. The memory of his demise plays repeatedly in my memory banks on an endless loop." "That'll happen to you." Hal sighed. "Back on the Interceptor, before I shut down my emotions, I asked you how does one make the pain go away. You never answered my question Green Lantern Hal Jordan."

Hal scratches the back of his head, unsure of what to say to her. But without a universal threat to distract him, he can only give her a direct and honest answer. "Aya, the truth is...pain like this doesn't go away overnight. It never does. The best thing you can do now is try to work through it and move on with your life. That's what forges experience and it has been said that experience is the best teacher." "So what you are saying Green Lantern Hal is that I must find a way to...live with the pain and not let it bother me in future." "Exactly! On my planet, it's called coping. Doing so ain't easy, but it's the sensible way to go about things." "How does one cope with pain?" asked Aya. "There are a lot of methods of coping. You just have to find one that works best for you." "You've given me plenty to think about Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Thank you." "Any time Aya,"

Without saying anything else, she hugs Hal tight to which he kindly reciprocates. After the hug, he looks at her and says, "Take care of yourself Aya." She smiles and nods knowingly. Hal then leaves with Carol, discussing the future. Kilowog looks over at Aya and says, "If you ever decide you want to come back to Oa, you know where to find me." "Affirmative Green Lantern Kilowog." "Like Jordan said, take care of yourself kid." He then gives Aya another hug before disembarking back to Oa.

Long after the two Green Lanterns went their separate ways, Aya continued to stay where she was; kneeling over Razer's tombstone. Ganthet floats over to her. "You must have truly cared for Razer didn't you." "Affirmative." "It's a shame, he would have made an excellent blue lantern. From what Hal Jordan told me, Razer never gave up on you, even when everyone else did." Aya's eyes begin to well up again. "You know Aya. There is another to honor Razer's memory." Aya looked at Ganthet, perplexed. "How so?" "By continuing Razer's training; picking up where he left off." "Do you think that would suffice?" "Only time will tell my child." Aya looked at Razer's grave and then back at Ganthet. "I will need more time to analyze." "Take as much time as you need. We'll be at Battery Temple whenever you are ready." Ganthet floated off to rejoin his blue lanterns.

Since Aya never needed sleep, she spent the entire night pondering what Hal Jordan had said about needing to cope with her pain. She continued to analyze Razer's grave and reflect on the moments leading up to his demise. How Razer could never bring himself to kill her and how that lead to his own downfall. She also thought back to their last conversation, "I was a threat to all life. In that one moment, you could have struck me down. Why didn't you?" "How could I kill you? My Red Lantern constructs are powered solely by hate. And there is no hate in my heart for you Aya. Only love." The memory replayed itself throughout her memory banks. Tears streaming down her face as they did so. She almost couldn't bear it. But that was when she reached a decision.

The next morning, Aya flew over to Battery Temple. Ganthet was already there, inspecting the battery. "Ganthet?" "Yes?" "I have reached a conclusive decision. I will join the Blue Lanterns in Razer's place. If nothing else but to honor his memory and what he later stood for." Ganthet smiled. So from that day on, Aya stayed on Odym to train with the Blue Lanterns. They taught her everything she needed to know about holding onto hope, even in the darkest of times. As the Corps continued to grow, so did Aya. Yes, she was still saddened by Razer's death, but she didn't let herself be consumed by it.

Five years had passed until one day a lone figure stood over Razer's tombstone and placed a familiar blueish-purple lily like flower beside it. The figure is revealed to be Aya but different. In place of her usual green components, she is now a shimmering blue color with the blue lantern corps logo on her chest. She has fulfilled her training and found peace with Razer's passing. As it turns out, she stops by his grave every year on the anniversary of his death to tell him all about her progress and the adventures she's had since then. "Life hasn't been the same without you Razer." She sighs mournfully. "Hopefully, you have peace with Ilana at last." Just then, her ring goes off requesting her presence back at Battery Temple. She smiles to herself as she turns to Razer's tombstone saying, "Rest well beloved." Aya kisses the tombstone before flying off into the sky.

On Razer's tombstone, a new oath has been written : "With Lantern lights, be it blue or red; may they lead your soul away from dread. As it heals the deepest, darkest wounds of hate; let no-one else decide your fate."

THE END

[sanoiro]

Lucifer Meta: “Choices”

“Choice is a funny thing…-“

Those were Dad’s words not mine back in 3x26. Before P2 dropped I was always saying that episode should be considered one of the core episodes if we wanted to understand S5 and Dad as a whole.

“Give someone different options, different circumstances, will they themselves end up different?” -Dad in 3x26

Lucifer S5 P2 spoilers ahead (I will add more screenshots later on)

I always liked the idea of Lucifer having a choice although his vulnerability theory of mine back in S2 was born out of a different thought.

But angels self-actualise however that applies to wings, a face and powers. In Michael’s case it was his posture as broken as he felt. Otherwise how we could explain that only he tried to urge Chloe on killing him but was rather docile when he believed he would face an immediate death.

Now what we didn’t know is that Gods also self-actualise. Therefore it is a genetic trait if you like. So let’s take this concept when we study Lucifer.

Lucifer has made his own choices over the years and the choices he made were the ones that brought us to the events of S5. However something doesn’t add up. Like yes, he chose that face in Hell because of his shame and how he viewed himself. Lucifer admitted it in 4x08 and Dad confirmed it as well in 5x11. So what is the two things amiss? Well one mostly throughout the series? His glowing red eyes.

The majority of the fanfiction out there express his eyes as an evidence of his Devilness, a connection to Hell while I believed for a very long time it was a manifestation of him being the Lightbringer but what does that constitutes?

Back in S2 Mum constantly calls Lucifer her ‘Lightbringer’, Lucifer lights up Azrael’s blade alone fleetingly when angry at his mother in Trip to Stabby Town. When the Medallion of Life is put on the blade his pain over Chloe flames it up for several seconds before it stops. Only when Lucifer assembles the sword, the medallion and the binding element, also known as Amenadiel’s jewelry. But there is again something amiss. Lucifer does flame it up in 2x18 but Mum’s words suggested that with all the pieces gathered she could do it herself. In a sense it is how Michael did it. No lightbringing power needed but what is that power?

I’m sure you remember back the finale of S3 where Lucifer’s face is licked by fire, his Devil face shows and his eyes glow red. Cain then agrees with Lucifer that ‘You cannot escape what you are’ moving forward in 5x16 Lucifer says I love you to Chloe and he is set on fire very much like he did in S3. Then we see a light we have associated mostly with Mum and Chloe wakes up.

So let’s think of this.

Lucifer apparently since his birth is known as the Lightbringer for no apparent reason. He lit the stars sure but only Mum and Dad are adamant on calling him that the only two beings in the universe that were omnipotent and above all? Omniscient. But they had a pitfall. Not even Mum could see she would be sent to Hell. That leads us to believe that there are choices which lead to as Uriel said to ‘patterns’. Different choices, different patterns. A thousands paths we can take but we cannot which one eventually will be taken and probably Dad and Mum held an optimism.

So let’s assume that when it came to Lucifer they knew one thing. That he had the ability to become a God - perhaps that is why Mum searched for him as he was also a key on changing things, if he became God then essentially she had won but she knew his potential. Now that’s another interesting thing…. Potential.

Dad in S5 tells Ella that the darker the darkness the brighter the light. In Lucifer, Dad mournfully notes that his son has so much light it blinds even him (aka Lucifer).  Perhaps what we as perceived as unseen darkness -even him- is, in reality, a blinding light. Like a torch, you have no idea how to adjust your eyes to and everything seems like it's not light but darkness. So Lucifer had to go from being blinded by his own light to target it outwards in order to light the room. That was his potential. 

Lucifer’s potential for goodness had to be harvested as was his ability to love. He liked humanity, respected them to a point, loathed them to another. Still does actually. But here is the thing. Potential think of Lucifer like a piece of coal or a battery whatever suits you best. Coal can be used to start a low grade fire that can spread from there but by itself it is but a black piece of nothing. So what if what we witnessed in the past five seasons was Lucifer being a slowly burning coal?

Let’s go back to Pops in S1. Lucifer is vulnerable when he takes Chloe out of the flaming restaurant and although he was burned he managed exceptionally well. In S4 he gets out of the exploding building albeit Chloe is far away and his clothes are not burned… Now let’s go to 5x10. Funny if you think that Lucifer manages to stop the chemist flame from burning which is weird as yes he stops the oxygen source to the flame so it us put out but two things happen. One his sleeve gets burned but it is also put out once the flamer does. Lucifer blames it on the polyester mix when we know he does not wear any and if he does it should have spread more.

If Lucifer was completely invulnerable then his suit would have been fine like it was in S4. Sure we have seen bullets not hurt him but have an issue with his clothes but to quote 4x02, it’s all about fire not the suit-superman effect.

Now in 3x23 Lucifer realises that Chloe does not need him but she choose to have him in her life and as such he is willing to leave his 2x12 miracle knowledge behind. In 5x06 Chloe talks about vulnerability which is based on a choice of Lucifer to be vulnerable around her. But with that choice to forward their relationship in 5x07 Lucifer is also making the choice subconsciously to expose himself to her emotionally and physically. At that point that choice stops his vulnerability probably because there is nothing to fear from her anymore. His vulnerability per 5x10 made him felt something he self actualised physically the vulnerability he felt but when she accepted him in her heart and stared a physical relationship his exposed himself differently emotionally.

Therefore Lucifer is still by choice vulnerable to Chloe but not physically as now he is in a healthier place. He opens up to her he is giving a conscious choice to be vulnerable to her while his body stops this stress induced self actualisation -perhaps- of being physically vulnerable. When he is hurt he shows it, he tells her what is going on even if it takes some time. Perhaps at the kitchen at her apartment Chloe didn’t draw blood from his body but certainly did from his soul and he allowed that.

When Mum in S2 said that Chloe was the key she was correct but not for lighting up the flaming sword but lightening up Lucifer. Lucifer needed to reach the point of choosing to be emotionally vulnerable around her and realising he was capable of love and that he loved Chloe, loved humanity.

In 5x16 when Lucifer is starting to burn up, most I’m sure went back to Michael’s words of Lucifer burning to the crisp if he went to Heaven as he was banned. But here is the thing Lucifer made a sacrificial move like the kid in 509 did for the family business. The ring simply bought him time. Lucifer left Heaven but I do not believe he was banned from there or at least I believe that Heaven had a safety net. We saw that even Gods have limitations so let’s think of this:

If Lucifer had listened to Mum and went to heaven the ring would have bought him some time but eventually he would have been either expelled or died(?). Again there are many things to consider here:

-What does it mean to be a God? Is it about power? Is it about being a Creator? Is it about the choice to become a carer? Lucifer became a carer in Hell albeit a rather unconventional one and as we may see things will change.

-Dad and Lucifer have a common thing they love humans and humanity in general. No other angel aside from Amenadiel and only due to his son does do far and in Amenadiel’s case it is not unconditional.

-The fact Lucifer was willing to be God not just for Chloe but because the system was rigged and he loved humans like Daniel and thought that he had to protect the innocent or at least provide a chance for a second chance.

-The song in the end when Lucifer is presented as a God, we listen to the Klergy sing that in a sense it was always mean to be.

I know I have been all over the place but let’s return to the whole lightbringer Lucifer now. So remember Dad when he gets angry. He is meteorologically inclined. In the family dinner and not only there we hear a thunderstorm rumbling close by, lighting ominously lit up the room in a way that Lucifer’s eyes light up in a very eerie yet calm way in many instances, in Le Mec’s case included.

There was always something brewing in Lucifer so when he gets to Heaven, with the same attributes Dad had and to a very different level, Lucifer experiences a metamorphosis. Now Mum and Dad didn’t have physical bodies but Lucifer did. Dad as well Mum in S5 provided us with a manifestation of a human body but they were not born in a flesh like celestial body like their kids did. So when Lucifer gets in heaven he is experiencing what Mum did in S2, he bled light but in a place of souls not on the earthly plane.

Again Lucifer’s body changes but he is not a ‘flesh sack’ as Mum puts it like Charlotte’s body was in S2 for Mum. He is still Lucifer that’s still his body but when Lucifer gets to Heaven he makes a choice again not just a throne to save humanity but his own life which of course leads us to the passage of the Revelation. 

In the end, Chloe was the key and fuel for the coal to lit up to a full blazing fire. Not bad :) I mean he lit up Heaven long before he took off his ring ;) 

“I choose you, I love you”

Michael, the Dragon & the ‘Virgin Mary’. But that’s a meta for another time, one that I have written in the S&S but will be updated for S6.

“And no matter how badly you want to nudge them in the right direction You know they need to find it on their own.”

[iam93percentstardust]

hey! i hope you’re having an amazing day. this is just me popping in your inbox to say that’s youre one of my favourite writers and you got me really interested in winteriron (honestly one of the cutest ships) are there any fics/authors ii could reccomend?

Hi there! Thank you so much! I love this ship so much, they’ve got such potential for both fluff and angst. They really are one of my favorite ships to write and I’m glad I was able to write so much for them this year. I certainly do have plenty of recs for you, starting with my favorite authors:

@riotwritesthings: started writing last year, I highly recommend just about everything Riot writes but especially Road Hazards, Melt into Me (Your Words are My Own), and When is a bed not a bed? (When you’re not in it)

@hddnone: so many stories and all so good! Has nearly 100 Winteriron works on ao3 and you will not regret reading any of them, though fair warning that some of them are Team Cap Critical. Especially recommend Honey Pot, You’ve Got Mail, and A Bit(e) of Danger

@monobuu: mostly an artist but sometimes writes stories as well. i recommend Ravioli, Invincible Summer, and Meet the Fam

@tisfan and @27dragons: can’t make a Winteriron rec list without including the both of them. They work together a lot but you should definitely take a look at their own stuff as well. I recommend Safe and (the) Sound, Kiss Me Thru the Phone, and Stark, Naked

@ad1thi: currently taking a bit of a hiatus and working on non-Marvel works but I love everything Adi writes, particularly her entire Bollywood but Make it Gay series, which isn’t always Winteriron but wonderful nonetheless. I recommend the Greek Gods AU, 1000 Lives (For You), and we’re connected

@the-winter-writer: lots of smut and all absolutely fantastic! I like Precious Treasure, Winter Wings, and Instinct

@rayshippouuchiha: definitely an iconic writer for this fandom. Really great if you’re looking for genderbends. Writes a lot of absolutely incredible fics and not just for Winteriron but my personal favorites are The (Not So) Great Pretender, Fearful Symmetry, and The Mistletoe Kiss Polka

Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar): once again very iconic. you’ve probably read at least one of their works even if didn’t know. I recommend Shameless, Today’s Forecast, and Practice Makes Perfect

@lovelyirony: mostly writes ficlets here on tumblr and a multishipper (I don’t know why I’m saying that like it’s a bad thing, I’m a multishipper), also a fan of Sharon Carter and that’s the thing that made me follow her so you know

@amethystinawrites: I only recently started working their works but I’m loving everything I’ve come across so far. I recommend Tech Support and I Won’t Hold My Breath

AvocadoLove: also writes a lot of Stony and Stuckony, which I love a lot, but for their Winteriron works, I recommend Amalgam and Dead Man’s Switch

Dracusfyre: another one I’m new to. I literally just started reading their works today so I don’t have any recs for them yet but one of my friends loves them so I’m going to go with you should definitely take a look at their works

Eirlyssa: has some anti-Team Cap works so keep an eye out for that if that’s not your thing but writes very good Winteriron. I recommend Guide Me Home (Guide My Heart) and Always (I’ll Be There)

@imposter-human: one of the first MCU blogs I ever followed! I recommend childhood memories, speak my language, and lost in translation

As for specific works I like:

Four Strings and Second Chances by Vashoth

It was reluctance to let one of his finest inventions ever out of his grasp that made him take a couple days over a week to send the arm to Pepper’s office. But all things considered, Tony figured that sending finest prosthetic that had ever come into existence--literally grasping an olive branch--was one of the classiest gifts he’d ever given. He’d included a note and everything. ‘Barnes,

Can help with installation. Or not. Up to you. --Stark'

Who is the Mechanic? by @akira-of-the-twilight

The Asset watched as his handlers brought in a stranger—a man with a metal object stuck to his chest that was hooked to a car battery.

The handlers shoved the man onto the stool where many who had operated on the Asset’s arm in the past had sat before.

“Asset,” one handler said, “meet the Mechanic. He will be responsible for the upkeep of your arm. Should anything malfunction, kill him.”

The Asset eyed the Mechanic. The Mechanic was glassy-eyed and unresponsive.

He’d probably be dead in a week.

The Fix by SleepsWithCoyotes

Right, because Tony...Tony fixes things. He remembers thinking that, not for the first time.

Paths are Made by Walking by @potrix-the-queerschlaeger

The road to recovery is long, winding and a different one for every person walking it. Bucky chooses to help himself the only way he knows how; by doing what he does best.

Or, alternatively; the one in which Tony is a mess and accidentally kick-starts Bucky’s protective mother hen instincts.

The Evidence by StrivingArtist

Didn’t notice. Right. Sure. Two brilliant minds, two super spies, and a god didn’t notice when the chattiest man they knew stopped making sound. They just seemed happier than before. Brighter and more cheerful than before. They just seemed like they were more comfortable with him around when he was stone silent.

Fuck it.

He knew they noticed.

And he knew they liked him better this way.

Shadowed Hearts and Winter Souls by NotEvenCloseToStraight

The mid-1800s and Antonio Carbonell Stark is caught in a scandal with his lover. Desperate for a chance to escape the trouble and his own broken heart, Tony accepts a proposal from a mysterious Russian heiress and flees the country.

Natalia Romanova is in trouble of her own and has enough secrets to make Tony's head spin but somehow they settle into a fake marriage and calm day-to-day together, and everything works... until her half brother comes home and their life is disrupted again.

James is somber and silent, brutal and nearly broken and scarred, a soldier of the resistance. His heart is cold and gaze like ice, but his hands are hot and lips are warm and Tony finds himself ignoring the blood on James's palms and the shadows in his soldier’s eyes, and falling in love.

When danger lands at their doorstep, Natalia and Tony have to pack up and leave, running away in the middle of the night and leaving their men behind.

The distance between Tony and James gets longer every day, and Natalia has been keeping a secret for that can’t be hidden much longer. With no place to call home and a thousand miles between them and the men they love, what are Tony and Natalia supposed to do?

Puppy Love by Reioka

Bucky is learning to become a person again. When some guy starts crying all over Natasha's dog, he decides he's doing better than he originally thought.

Describe Your Perfect Date by ali_aliska

After getting turned down by Bucky, Tony decides it’s time to move on from his massive crush. He tries online dating—Pepper’s idea, not his—but the only thing worse than getting rejected is getting rejected and finding out your soulmate-level match is Clint Barton, all in the same day.

Clint, of course, does not let opportunities like this go to waste, but he’s driving Tony nuts for a good cause, he swears.

Bucky’s just trying to do the right thing and fails spectacularly, but it all works out in the end.

Rocket Science by marsmaywonder and orbingarrow

Sleep-deprived and under-caffeinated, grad student Tony falls asleep in a conveniently empty classroom and wakes up in the middle of Bruce’s Physics 101 course. After seeing a groggy Tony fumble a simple question, actual-student Bucky offers to tutor him. In a moment of “oh no; he’s cute” panic, Tony takes him up on it. Now, in addition to his already complicated life, Tony has to figure out the answer to the incredibly messy question: “How do you look like you’re failing the class, when you literally wrote the book?”

What’s Good for the Goose by Taste_is_Sweet

For this nonny prompt at the Imagine Tony and Bucky comm on Tumblr:

"A soulmate AU where an immortal goose shows up one day to lead you to your soulmate, the challenge is surviving the goose." (Full prompt in notes.)

We all have soulmates, and every soulmate pair shares an animal guide. The Guide is there to lead you to your One True Love, and they represent the aspects of the psyche that you both share. They appear when you're about to meet your soulmate, and often materialize in moments of great personal crisis, offering hope and support. There are stories upon stories about how someone's Guide appeared to lead them to their One True, or how the barest glimpse of their Guide eased their hearts and gave them hope in the midst of despair. The newly-rescued almost always attribute their Guide with giving them the strength and courage to hang on.

Animal Guides are ephemeral, ethereal, and elusive. They are, most often, no more than a warm presence or flicker out of the corner of one's eye. They are incarnate symbols of perseverance, optimism and hope. Foretellers of happiness, and the grand destiny of love.

Except for geese. Geese are assholes.

and so, we unfold by TheKitteh

Senbazuru. Thousand Cranes.

An ancient Japanese legend that promises anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. Some stories believe you are granted happiness and eternal good luck, instead of just one wish, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury.

Bucky’s not big on believing in any legends, not after all that has happened. He just wants to create something for a change, not destroy.

He needs to prove himself that he can be trusted to handle something delicate. He doesn’t need a promise of a wish come true. He just,- needs to do this for himself.

He doesn’t need noticing how sad, tired Stark looks. Doesn’t need to want to do something for the man, when he can barely do anything for himself. --- Tony simply goes through days and motions. He deals with the Avengers, with R&;D, with the rewritten Accords. All of it, it’s nothing new really. He just wants to get things done.

What’s new is seeing Barnes hunched over the coffee table, one step away from ripping a glossy magazine apart in the middle of the night.

And why the hell Barnes keeps looking at him during the days after like he’s a puzzle to be solved?

Welcome to the Winteriron fandom! We’ve got a lot of incredible authors and artists both and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

[jinned]

seasonal | seokjin

pairing: seokjin x female reader

genre: fluff

au: domestic relationship, slice of life

rating: pg

word count: 931

warnings: the briefest mentions of seasonal depression, y/n has been in a slump but this is super fluffy

a/n: this is my third drabble from @bangtan-dreamland’s Drinks & Drabbles Game! Here’s the original post –> here! a lot of authors are participating in this event so go check them out!

 @bangtiddies​ said: hello beanie baby i come to order jin + hot chocolate + can they also be drinking hot choco? it's winter and cold down here so some soft 🥺 warmth pls 🥺 also i lob you bby

emi! thank you so much for requesting this! i hope this brings a little warmth over to you :) ily

The tip of your nose scrunches against the sharp bite of the winter winds. Warmth from your cup radiates through your gloved hands, bringing them up towards your face to feel the steam of the hot chocolate under your chin. A smile naturally pulls on your face as you breath in the rich chocolate scents.

The balcony attached to your bedroom has newly strung fairy lights weaving around the white painted posts. Battery operated candles are also placed carefully around the floor, accompanied by a thick woven picnic blanket. Of course, since no pillow could possibly be appropriate to place on the ground outside, even on a balcony, the cushions from the patio furniture is used instead. And it's quite comfy.

"I'll admit it," you sigh with a smile, turning to your boyfriend who's looking up at the stars peeking out from the darkening clouds, "you really outdid yourself this time."

Seokjin turns to you and mirrors your smile, his own cup of hot chocolate cupped tightly in his hands. The tips of his ears are starting to turn red despite the proud smile he carries. You know all too well that it's not the cold turning those ears a different color.

"It just seemed like you needed something special," he says simply, yet sincerely. And it's true. Winter came around and brought a heavy weight with it that just seemed to rest on your body. Everything has seemed more gloomy lately and it's been harder to be thankful for the little things. Seokjin has been the only thing keeping you grounded lately. With stolen glances throughout the weeks and finding little notes throughout your apartment, it's hard not to smile about that.

Still holding your cup, you lean forward and press your forehead to Seokjin's, closing your eyes as your skin touches. It immediately sends a comfortable warmth inside your entire body and you hope he can sense that you're trying to convey how thankful you are for him.

Seokjin tilts his chin down and sneaks a quick kiss onto your lips, lingering only for a short second before his nose brushes against yours. He smiles widely as he continues the Eskimo kiss. And how could you not shake your head a little more vigorously than you should have? The playful smacks to his nose just make you laugh. It feels like you haven't laughed genuinely like this in a long time.

"Sometimes I feel guilty you know. You do so much for me. I really need to step my game up." You laugh, but it's more from the nerves.

"Y/n," Seokjin laughs more with ease, "I love you. I don't do all of this to receive anything in return. I do it to make you happy, which, by the way, you do plenty to make me happy. Even in your darkest times." He sets his hot chocolate down on the ground and scoots closer to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into him.

You rest your head against his chest, feeling the calming rhythm of his heartbeat. "Like what?"

"Well. The other day? When you were stressed about one of your exams? You still took the time to fold all of my laundry, even though I said I'd do it when I got home."

"It just didn't seem fair for you to be at work all day and have to come home to more chores when I was home," you grumble.

Seokjin's smile is brighter than before as he chuckles at your response. "Fine. Then how about last week? You went to the store to buy more hair ties, right? But what else did you come home with?"

You look away from him, feeling embarrassed by the sudden praise.

"Y/n. You bought all of my favorite snacks. I didn't ask you to get those. You did it on your own. All of these little things are just as important, if not more, than bigger gestures like this. It shows me that even when you're feeling low, you still think about me. How could someone not feel loved when they come home to all of their favorite snacks lined up for them on the counter?

"Don't forget, Y/n. Relationships aren't always fifty-fifty. If you're feeling like you're at twenty percent, then I need to step up and be the eighty percent we need- and no! Before you try to interject and say 'that's not fair!' it's how relationships work! When I'm not at my best, you step up as well! You need to give yourself more credit." His hand rubs up and down the length of your upper arm as you take another sip of hot chocolate to avoid saying anything. You wish you had his optimism. And sometimes you wish you could see yourself the way he sees you.

"Oh look!" Seokjin eagerly points out, his other hand gripping your shoulder tighter. "It's starting to snow!"

You watch as the flakes slowly start to fall from the dark grey clouds. It didn't snow this winter, oddly enough. Considering how winter is nearing its end, this might be the first and last snow of the season.

Seokjin places a warm hand against your cheek. He must have just taken his glove off because his hand burns with warmth. It's soothing against your cheek and you lean into his touch. He strokes your skin lovingly with his thumb and kisses your temple before wrapping you fully with both arms.

"Don't worry, Y/n," he whispers into your hair. "Spring is just around the corner."

𝓂𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉

© all rights reserved. do not copy, modify, translate, or repost. Jintobean 06/20/20

[system76]

Behind the Scenes of System76: Sales Team

The System76 Behind the Scenes series aims to give readers an inside look at the people behind our mission. This week, we spoke with VP of Sales Sam Mondlick about the challenges of conducting business during a pandemic, and how long it’ll take the Sales Team to make a certain blog author a millionaire.

You know. The important things.

Take a moment to describe the different functions of the Sales Team.

The Sales Team itself is currently made up of two different positions. The Customer Experience Specialist (CES) is the first line of conversation with System76 with regards to anything order-related. Their job is to make your process from purchase to shipment as easy as possible and provide you with as much information as you might need, such as giving status updates about orders or answering questions that may have arisen.

The other position within Sales is Account Management. They’re the people you talk to from first inquiry to System76 about products. These guys help anyone, from my 80-year-old grandma who’s looking to transition from Windows to Linux, to Fortune 50 companies. They deal with a wide variety of customer base, so they’re pretty much experts in getting the customer what they need.

Then there’s the Product Management side of Sales. The Product Manager stays up to date on all-new technology, and then informs and directs the team. The position was built to ensure System76 is at the forefront of new and exciting technologies, whether that’s within the Thelio product line or in the form of updates that come to our laptops. And that could be as simple as tracking memory updates from DDR4 to DDR5, or with PCIe 3.0 updating to PCIe 4.0. For things like that we’ll track and update products throughout their lifetime.

What is the guiding principle for how the System76 Sales Team operates?

The Sales Team philosophy we push is what I call, “Consultative Sales.” We’re here to be an assistant to the user in order to get them the right product for the job; we’re not going to upgrade you for the sake of upgrading. The team is there to understand what you want to accomplish so that they can get you the right machine with the optimal performance for your use case.

What factors into the decision to introduce a new product?

There’s quite a few factors internally that we’ll go through. Looking at our product line we ask ourselves, is there something that’s missing from it? And if we do find something, what are the benefits to it? How is it going to make us as a company better, and us as a provider of Linux-based technologies the right fit for our customers?

For the Lemur Pro, battery life had always been a high-value item for our customer base. Before the Lemur Pro and Darter Pro were introduced about 2 years ago, the average battery life on a System76 computer was about 3-5 hours. The ability to introduce a product with a higher battery wattage allowed us to extend battery life almost threefold. That value is really what drives a product forward. 

What is your team’s background with Linux?

A lot of the team members have a background in Linux as users. That’s what we tend to typically hire and bring on. They are apt in review and understanding, and helping customers that have specific tasks and needs within the Linux environment. Charles was using Raspberry Pis in order to do some cool things, and Bradley used Ubuntu even before he was hired. The same can be said for Jeremy and John. They all believe that Linux is the right tool for people, and they showcase that for incoming customers. Even if they’re not tech-savvy within Linux, there’s a background there with using it and seeing it in the wild.

What challenges did the pandemic present when it first started?

I think at the very beginning, the biggest challenge for us was the loss of the team camaraderie. A lot of Sales is personal relationships, and the team feeds off of each other, so having everyone in the same area was a huge benefit pre-pandemic.

In the first month or so after it started, there were definitely challenges with productivity and communication because Sales works a lot with Engineering, Support, and other departments in order to give the customers the information they need to make an educated decision, or to update them on the status of their order.

But, I think one of the best tools we have is our employee messaging client. That was already ingrained in us as something that was used pre-pandemic that really started to show its value post-pandemic, especially with the team members being in different homes—and in some cases, different states. It allowed us to provide our staff with as much as they needed to make their environment feel like they were still in an office, still able to get the camaraderie, and still able to get almost the same instantaneous response as they would in the office, but now done remote.

Our ability to put tech first, especially within Sales and Service, is one of the things we do really well. We never throw people at a problem. By that I mean we don’t delegate a problem up the chain to solve it. Instead we work for a solution, and our people evolve into that solution. From my viewpoint, we’ve established that a remote environment is as productive as an in-person environment, which has opened up the door for System76 to grow. Instead of working within a local pool, we’ve now moved to the ocean. Whereas you used to have to hire and work to provide resources for new hires to move to Denver so they can work with the team, now we can bring on team members from pretty much anywhere on the globe to come help make System76 better. 

System76 has seen steady growth in the past year despite drastic political and economic changes. What do you attribute the success to?

I think we’ve matured as an organization. We have introduced products and product lines that are meeting and exceeding a lot of different customer requirements. When I look at our desktop line from when I started seven years ago, our options were the Ratel, the Wild Dog, the Leopard, and the Sable. With production moving in-house and the introduction of Thelio in the last two and a half years, keeping in mind both Intel and AMD, we’ve gone from offering a four-desktop solution to nine.

Laptop and desktop quality has also increased in the last seven years, and a lot of that has to do with what we’ve done in our new manufacturing facility. We have made leaps and bounds with regards to what we’re doing with software engineering now. There’s a huge demand for what our Software Engineering Team has done, driven by Jeremy and our open firmware/open EC that speak to a lot of people. Companies are looking at an open source solution instead of proprietary because they want more control over what their team and their organization are doing.

One of the things we’ve noticed is that our business clients have grown. There’s significantly more support and drive from both the end user and the corporate side to make it so Linux is a valued and desired solution for their teams. Today, I can probably put a Windows 10 machine next to my Pop!_OS 20.10 machine and accomplish everything in the same amount of time or faster. Maybe I’m not using the same applications, but anything I as a businessperson could do within Windows, I can now do with Pop!_OS or Ubuntu. The Linux ecosystem is continuously changing, and that only helps us as a company.

You’ve been at System76 for quite a while. What’s it been like watching the company grow?

It’s amazing. When I started at the company, I was really the first Sales-oriented person. I was the 8th employee at the time, and now I’m the 5th-oldest employee of System76 out of over 50 employees. So it’s huge, man.

When you look at a lot of big corporations, change is hard to make happen. It’s looked at as too different, too risky. But here, change is really something we strive for. We work to be different, to be new, to figure out new ways to help our customers or create solutions to help them, or figure out ways that can change us for the better that you just typically wouldn’t see from a corporation.

What was your favorite moment?

When I first looked at System76, back when we were only offering Ubuntu, I saw the beginning of something very similar to another major player. Very grassroots, very much specialized and hardware-specific. They also created their own operating system, so when I interviewed in 2014, I made comments during my interview with Carl that I expected us to probably produce our own operating system as well. I thought that would be our endgame as a company. At that time, and Carl might contradict my memory on this, but I remember he didn’t think that would ever happen. And then in October 2017, we released the first version of Pop!_OS. That made everything come kind of full-circle for me.

The following year, we brought hardware inside in order to make it the best that we could. So in three short years from me starting, we took what we were doing and elevating it to something that only a handful of companies do, and do well. Our potential is really limitless from what I’ve seen so far, and it’s very apparent with what we’ve done with Pop!_OS since its release, as well as where we’ve taken Thelio. I bet you we never thought we would’ve implemented something like i3 tiling into Pop!_OS. I really goes back to how we view change. We embrace it. We see it as trying to do something better than we did before. Carl and the Engineering Team view software as always being about revision, and we bring that philosophy back to hardware and back to the company as a whole.