#I AM a Laura/Max enjoyer

[sargeantsarmy]

Enjoy this that I made on a random Tuesday afternoon

Here’s mine:

No I don’t take criticism

[laura1633]

hey Laura,

so idk if i’ll say the right words but i’ll try because you seem to be having a pretty tough time and that’s honestly very understandable.

i’m quite new to f1, i missed the big shit show that was 2021 and icl i’m quite happy because i’m not sure i would have survived going into the tranches for Max as he won his first wdc. however, i’m happy to do so this year and it’s been even more enjoyable that i know people believe and would do the same, especially you!

when i entered the f1 fandom, you were one of the first i started to follow and to read. you’ve always seemed to be one of the kindest and you are, truly. your writing has saved me from sad nights and i’m very very grateful for that. i don’t know if you’ll remember but 3 weeks ago you wrote a lestappen prompt just because i told you i had had a bad day. that’s the kind of thing you do for others in here, and that is just so nice to do when you’re new to the fandom. i’ve always felt truly welcome and it’s hugely thanks to you!

now you’re totally right. the fia is being unfair (euphemism) and they’re just acting like a bunch of clowns. the whole organization seems to be acting against Max and it’s truly disgusting because he is such a big part of their sport. like, truly, the sport wouldn’t be the way it is today without Max. one thing sure, he left for the future his mark on this sport, and many many many children look up to him and he’s going to be their role model. so when the fia is bothering me as they are currently, i tell myself that they would be nothing without Max and i feel better, because he’s really an icon that they don’t deserve yet he stays because racing is a huge part of his life. and idk, as long as he gives them a chance, i give them a chance, albeit part of me giving them a chance is just to witness Max shine and shit on their obvious bias.

and it warms my heart that so many drivers backed up Max : Charles, Pierre, Esteban, Kevin, George, Alex, Lewis… everyone knows that Max is one of the best drivers if not the best and that the fia is doing a terrible job. maybe it’s not enough but at least we have that!

just know that i love your anti era and that i wish it would suffice. i wish you’d let all your anger be on this blog or to your friends or in your writing and that it’d be enough but sometimes all you need is a break and if you feel like it’s something you need, we’ll support you during this time.

now i already told you, you’re so kind that i wanna be that kind to you. know that we’ll keep rereading your work, that we’ll wait for you if you ever wanna come back, and that in the meantime we’ll support Max twice as much as we do today.

just tell us if we can do something for you. we can send a hundred lestappen snippets or prompts in you ask box, we can send as many Max pictures as you want, we can shit on the fia, shit on some drivers, shit on everything. just know that you created a community and that this community will be there no matter what!

take care Laura xx

Thank you so much anon, what a beautiful message to receive.

To anyone reading this I know that I am being overly dramatic but I have just had a bit of a rough week and F1 is normally something that brings me joy so it’s sad that it seems to be going in such a negative direction. 

2021 was indeed very stressful, I was not on Tumblr then but I was on twitter which was not good!! It was actually the reason I deleted my twitter account because it became too toxic. I mostly stay away from there now. 

I’m so glad you have felt welcomed into the fandom and that in some way I have been able to help with that. You are definitely right, supporting someone is easier when you know there are others who are also rooting for them and sending them the love they deserve. 

Max is truly an icon of the sport. He has had to put up with so much rubbish over the years and I cant’ believe how well he seems to deal with the pressure. No matter what they do or say his name will go down in the history books as one of, if not, the greatest of all time. Going on to other racing series and achieving great things will also cement that. I also do believe that he will do great things for younger generations coming into the sport and he will do this without requiring fanfare but because he loves the sport. If certain sections of the sport embraced him as much as they should they would see what an amazing ambassador he is for racing.

I have been pleased that a few times this season, when the media has tried to make a big deal out of something, a lot of the other drivers have stood up for Max. Unfortunately I do feel that there are drivers that may use Max’s ‘reputation’ and try and play up to the good v bad thing to sway the public and the penalties handed out. It’s a tactic I find rather cowardly and I was very happy that when we had Max and Charles fighting at the front Charles did not try and revert to this tactic. 

I try not to be too open with all my anti thoughts because I don’t want to invite lots of people arguing with me in my inbox but I am sure most of you can probably work out how I feel about certain things without me having to explicitly state it 😂

You are so kind anon. 

I will probably return to writing at some point point because I have loved trying to develop and improve my writing style and I love writing lestappen (and I will continue with my ongoing story because I think that it would be unfair to stop!) 

Honestly just seeing everyone’s love and defence of Max is enough to make me happier. I will be hanging around here and am still happy to chat to you. I might just not have the energy to be writing about this sport right now. 

Thank you anon for being so lovely <3

[maxcuntstappen]

Alright so hi,

I read your latest ficmas. Absolutely loved it. The way you write max and charles is amazing and I'm (as a mainly lestappen reader) very glad you're writing more lestappen 🫣

Anyways, you also mentioned you're looking for prompts. And since you did a fic based on slut! Here are some more songs that I think would fit them very nicely (by artists that you already like, I think)

This town by Niall Horan (I think this one would fit them so well given how much history they have)

I can see you - taylor (self explanatory)

All you had to do was stay - taylor (but with a happy ending hehe, or it could also be sad, whatever you'd like more) -> the "it could've been easy" line, and then "you were all I wanted, you ended it"

You have no idea how excited I get when I get email from ao3 that says you posted new work 🫶���

The Arthur × max one was unexpected (pairing wise) but sooooo soooo good

hello!! ty for this lovely message. it made me smile super big. i am glad you are enjoying ficmas!! it's nice to know that people are actually reading n engaging with it and that it's making them happy <3

thank you for sharing your ideas with me. i already have an idea for the fic based on this town (GENIUS song suggestion btw) and i hope to post it within ficmas (a lil gift to u)

arthur x max one was something i really couldnt see myself liking till Laura's fic. she did such justice to the dynamic and it was so enjoyable to read that it made me want to write them. i am glad that despite the pairing being unusual, you as a lestappen shipper, liked it!!! i think i will be writing more of them in the future

[livingasaghost]

september was not great folks, but we're trying <3

in the saddest realization of the season i discovered that my favorite part of the day is my 40m drive to work because it's chilly and i can see a lot of trees and the morning light and i also am in the perfect headspace to listen to Good Music and it's like when i used to make my morning playlists for opening the coffeeshop except soooo much more enjoyable

been listening to lots of holly humberstone and NF's new album and justin vernon stuff (bon iver, BRM, etc) and unfortunately gracie abrams - there's just something about all these artists being like "I AM THE PROBLEM ITS ME IM SORRY" that just speaks to me! that's not concerning at all!

laura and i talked for like two hours last night and it was like old times and god i really do miss when we'd just ride the same bus home and i could walk to her house ):

i've been trying to make taylor's chai cookies for like a week and i realized i absolutely have time to make them today so i'm trying to buck up the energy to do that in the next two hours before i have to be a person and go to a photoshoot

"good day" by olivia barton

i'm trying to get back into crying in h mart because mom finished reading it and we're supposedly buddy reading it so we can discuss it but i haven't felt like reading all month because i've been depressed...but like damn cancer sucks guys

in other news, i think because i've had such a shitty brain month this september i've almost pushed myself so far that halloween season sounds really fun!!! i'm trying to work through my halloween hate bc i think it's kind of silly and all my friends love halloween so i should love it too! and like i wanna watch spooky movies and be chilly and have FUN! god!

i kinda forgot a vital piece of jennalore which is that when i was a kid my mom's college roommate used to send us frosted sugar cookies shaped like bats every halloween and it was actually kinda the best thing ever? so i'm trying to channel that energy this season

work is batshit insane and i'm so exhausted by it i literally slept for 11hrs on like wednesday night bc i was so tired but also......when we're busy i always feel like i'm actually Doing Something and my bosses are so happy with the work i do so like.....it's good even though it's bad!

therapy has actually been really really good? like it Sucks bc it's therapy and i hate talking about my feelings but my therapist is the sweetest NB person ever and they're always just like "uhhh that's emotional abuse my dude!" and i'm so fucking excited bc at the end of october they're gonna have saturday openings which means i can finally go talk to them in person and not on my lunch break in our tiny break room!!!! at this point i have to pretend like my coworker can't hear everything i say during therapy otherwise i'd go insane so i always leave my sessions being like ......did max hear that i'm aroace and i have depression and i might be neurodivergent??? idk!!!

which speaking of, even though max and i definitely aren't like friends by any sense of the word....we are also just like having a time together! it's wild i see him most out of all the people i know but i think we're both going a little insane from the workload and being Depressed so we just spend all day being kinda wacky and for whatever reason i've reached a point where i stopped having a filter with him so i just start talking about the most random shit and he's cool with it lol

i think i might maybe be a little lonely! idk! i've been struggling to figure out what i need or who to talk to and i generally just want to talk to like two or three of my friends or my gc and everyone's just busy ): but then when i have the chance to talk to anyone and i Sit Down to try to interact bc i know some people are probably around i just get a little overwhelmed idk make it make sense!!!

and i realized i don't have a lot of IRL friends anymore bc a lot of the ones i had from the coffeeshop are Not My Friend and the ones i met on instagram are also Not My Friend and the ones i used to live with are Not My Friend and so my list of people to hang with is teeny tiny and idek what i need or want anymore so it's just my brain screaming .

the most frustrating thing rn is that i know i'm in a bad mental place however i cannot distinguish what i need! but when someone asks me what i need i get this intense panic/dread and i spiral real bad and if anyone tries to be kind to me it makes me feel worse and so it's like....i'm stuck in this stand still where i can't get what i need but i don't know what i need so i just eat cereal, listen to music, and go to bed early!!!

i don't wanna watch anything, i still haven't finished this season of only murders, i need a DVD player bc i want to watch the director's commentary of hill house, there's a bunch of shows and movies coming out soon that i feel overwhelmed by at the moment and it's just like !!! this is all so unfair

and i need to make all these appointments like getting my oil changed and going to the doctor for my annual but i cannot bring myself to do those things but also like should i ask my doctor about medication for depression??? surely it isn't that serious but like maybe it is idk!!!!

the depression isn't as bad as it's been in the past (i think?) like i felt a lot more hopeless in 2017 and i think a lot of that is because i do have a support system and a therapist and a good paying job and things to look forward to but like i'm very aware that many days i do just feel that feeling of "everything is meaningless and nothing will bring me joy ever again" so it's like !!! idk!!!! maybe i'm gaslighting myself into thinking i'm not that bad when in actuality i am!!!

i've just been stuck in that space of middle limbo with all my "diagnoses" that i cannot rationally understand if i'm allowing myself to see myself the way i am? like i always felt like i wasn't depressed enough to be Depressed bc i'm not suicidal but like ??? that's silly !!! maybe i am Depressed!!!!! but i don't even know how to go about getting meds and what they would do and it's almost more overwhelming to think about that than to just be depressed ): bc i still am convinced a lot of it comes down to the heat and the lingering effects of summer

but now i'm thinking about 2021 when it was the bad times and i stopped working on creative stuff or literally any year from 2017-2020 when i just spent the early fall Not Creating and having a crisis that i'd never create again and it's like.............is that bc i'm always depressed around this time? it's comforting bc i know life is seasons and i will come back around to making things and doing my silly projects but it's just sort of making me wonder how it would be different if i tried to find a way to get meds ....like would that Fix Me....would that Solve the Problem....what if it doesn't! what if i'm not depressed enough for that!

(this is all just thoughts, i'm fine, etc, just haven't let myself fully think about the depression this month bc i don't think there's a solution rn i'm just trying to get through it)

anyway, "good day" by olivia barton

[papersandkeyboards]

5/31 to 6/5: (everything else and) Prom

36th WEEK, MAY 31-JUNE 5, 2016.

English class has always been interesting to me. If I think about it, English class (be it here as a first language, or back home as a second language) is always more fun than Indonesian Language class back home. In my class in Rainier Beach, which is IB English Language and Literature, we read classics and Shakespearean plays and interpret those. (don’t get me wrong, I had to read The Scarlett Letter for English Lang class during my short stop in Houston and it was painful, but something about how English teachers’ way of teaching is so interesting and, of course, not boring)

For the semester’s big project, however, we were told to make podcasts. About anything.

I understand that podcasts aren’t much of a thing in Indo, but the simplest way to explain podcasts in a nutshell is audio lectures, audio books, discussions, serial stories, or anything about a topic. And honestly, it’s not even just lectures. You can talk about anything in a podcast (in my Theory of Knowledge class, we listened to a series of online podcasts entitled “Serial”, which covers a story for each season that is told in an interesting and comprehensive way).

But this time, Mrs. Shaw doesn’t limit us to just audio, but we can put visuals in it as well. So, basically saying, our big project was to make an audio or video file talking about things which has our arguments in it. And we could do it individually or in groups of three, max.

Me, being myself who essentially resents group works can be quite an individualist, of course, decided to do the podcast by myself.

And me, being myself who almost always aims to be anti-mainstream, chose a topic that most people would hate and throw rocks to after the first glance.

I argued that zoos aren’t necessarily inhumane to animals. For a side that believed that zoos are downright cruel and disgusting, I stood against them.

Of course I know people aren’t always going to agree with me, but as a (used-to-be) debater, I tried to smother everything in good wording (and some solid arguments can i get a hell yeah), and at the end, all I need to be satisfied was Mrs. Shaw saying “you got a point.” (aka “hmm iya juga ya”).

It was an enjoyable school task to do. Ehe.

Anyway, the next two days, Wednesday and Thursday, were two sacred days we all students acknowledged dearly as Early Release days. The neverending amazement of Seattle has turned me into somewhat a Dora the Explorer, even though it was clear that I have always been a damn-straight home person back home. Would rather stay home that being somewhere else.

But an exchange student logic was that you’re missing a lot of you spend a lot of time at home.

So Kira and I hit the waterfront and rode the Seattle Ferris Wheel.

And the next day I spent by myself, visiting the Seattle Art Museum and indulging my fangirl side by watching X-Men: Apocalypse.

Remember I mentioned once that it was the time of SIFF—Seattle International Film Festival?

Karen, Eric, and I looked up the showtimes and movies, trying to find anything interesting, and of course the choice went to an Indonesian movie, entitled “Copy of My Mind”, so we watched it on Friday evening.

It never occured to me that films in film festivals aren’t those up the regular theaters. Most of them are months old before the time of the festival itself, some even a year old or more. But I guess that’s the point of having film festivals: as a platform to promote films, because almost all of them don’t include big starry actor names, and all of them aren’t in a franchise.

Copy of My Mind, however, was starred by Chico Jericho and Tara Basro (blame was on me for just recognizing these names for the first time), and soon after the movie started, I got why I’ve never heard of this film before back home: it would never be able to air in Indonesia. Simple as that.

As usual, my movie-goer sense was so much indulged in cheap plots of franchise films where every message is shown explicitly during the film with a mandatory happy ending and a bonus of occasional car explosion, so when I saw the ending of Copy of My Mind, I was disappointed. I didn’t get the message.

(later I googled the film and it turned out to be a hard-core social and political satire towards my own country) (so yeah, go watch it guys) (majukan perfilman indonesia)

On Sunday, I was reminded by the remaining days I have by attending Nouha’s goodbye party. She would leave three days after the goodbye party, which is June 8, and I’m still staying here until the end of the month, but surely it sucks to remember that you have to leave eventually.

But the goodbye party was a fun one—sliders, chips, other typical tasty American barbecue snacks in the backyard, people bringing going-away presents, and of course, pictures.

(I swear the pictures were up somewhere but now I couldn’t find them)

---

Aight. That’s quite a brief (???) summary of how the first 5 days of the week went. Whereas I usually said the fun part comes in the weekend, this WHOLE week was full of fun and things to do (thank God for early release). HOWEVER, though, however,

this weekend was Prom.

That’s right, everyone, you heard it. The infamous American High School Prom.

....

Gitu aja sih. Ehe. OKAY. Prom in Beach... was definitely UNLIKE Proms in other, harshly saying, white rich school everywhere else. But the part where people ask other people to Prom, well, that was done everywhere, I guess.

I was walking the hallway when Rebecca and the others stopped by and Rebecca asked me, “Nabila, who are you going to Prom with?”

“...????? I don’t know??? No one asked me to.”

“It’s America, you can do whatever you want. Why don’t you ask somebody?”

yaela yang bener aja lu dasar ampas kepala.

Jadi gini sih. The way Prom works (or at least in my school) is that only the seniors are invited, unless the seniors ask somebody else from other grades—juniors, sophomores, freshmen, or people from other school—to be their prom date, then those persons are also invited. And I know Kira is a junior, so I asked Kira as my prom date so she can experience prom and everybody is happy. Also because Rebecca and Emily were committees so there are fellow juniors there. yaela padahal karena emang gaada yang ngajak dan akhirnya ngajak temen sendiri supaya tidak garing

I didn’t take too much trouble setting up a promposal—Prom proposal—unlike those who are seriously dating—a friend from Theory of Knowledge class made a poster and got his football team to promposed his girlfriend, it was very sweet—and because I was an awkward unromantic piece of shit, I asked Kira to be my prom date during stretching before softball game.

She was appalled. At least she wasn’t repelled, which was good. Good thing she didn’t expect a canon of flowers or posters or an orchestra playing for her to be promposed.

And that’s the story on how I got my prom date.

Which was totally not unusual, because at Prom night I found out that Alex asked Justin, a junior, so that Justin can experience Prom with his senior fellows too. Zion, who is gay, asked Nina out of friendship. A lot of people do that that night. Many people even went with their squads instead of being in pairs.

When Kira was scrolling through numerous online shops to find a dress, I bought mine in Nordstrom Rack—which was basically Nordstrom but they sell old stuff that were cheaper (because I didn’t feel like spending hundreds of bucks on a dress I’m gonna wear, like, once or twice for my whole life). Not only I bought it in Nordstrom Rack, I also bought it last Febuary, which was before Winter Ball. That being said, I used the same dress as what I wore for Winter Ball. Which was good, because I didn’t want to waste money on dress I would most likely use once. The admission ticket was around $40 anyway, while other schools my AFS friends were in charged around $80-100 for it. sekolah saya miskin emang, tapi asik.

Sementara ada temen-temen saya yang ‘melamar Prom’ pakai poster, bunga, permen karet (dia nawarin sekotak permen karet gitu trus pas dibuka ada tulisannya ‘Prom?’ trus dikasih bunga, lucu abis sih), ada juga temen yang asal ngajak cewek manapun yang kebetulan lewat, dan kalau ditolak, geser dikit trus ngajak cewek lain terdekat. But then again, I didn’t know how significant a prom date is—whether being asked to be prom date equals being asked to be one’s girl/boyfriend, or is it just a one-time occasion thing?

Whatever it was, I do know that at least Prom in Rainier Beach High School doesn’t shun single people. Yay. Nabila can go to Prom without worries.

HOWEVER.

However, around a week before Prom, I found out that Indonesian Students’ Association of Seattle University (ISASU), which was like a couple blocks from my house, was holding some sort of event, and guess who came as a guest star.

....

NO.

I DO NOT LIKE HOW THIS TURNS OUT.

I REALLY DON’T.

After contemplating which one is rarer: to experience a classic American high school Prom night every exchange student wants to be a part of or meet a massive Indonesian dazzling pop-star in person, I did what I thought was best for me: I chose Prom and let go of Raisa, with the arrogance of “I’m Indonesian, she’s Indonesian, we’ll meet again but I only have this one chance for Prom” without realizing that that will least likely to happen.

I came to Kira’s house on Saturday afternoon, June 4, 2016, and ate Indomie for pre-Prom dinner (Prom dinner paling tidak modal sepanjang sejarah manusia). Then we had a photoshoot in which Kira and I look like a happy couple of lovers. Then Laura drove us to the venue. Which was a not-so-big space in SoDo but enough for the whole class lah.

(pic credit to whoever took this)

Long story short, it was fun. At first it wasn’t really because both Kira and I did not know many seniors despite some people I recognize from classes I am in, so we talked with Emily and Rebecca. Then people I know started to show up—Nina, Justin, Zion, Alex, Gretar, and others—and we danced. What was fun about it was that everyone didn’t dance with their dates, but mixed in into big groups of friends and was having a pure hyped-fun time instead of a romantic one. (not to brag but Nina and I did some duets and we were killing it) (kapan lagi bisa hacep dan meliar kaya begini ya)

The King and Queen of Prom, instead of voting, was done by a raffle (maybe so that everyone can get a chance instead of a cliche competition of popularity). Rony got King and Antoneyah got Queen. There was also two photo booths, an elegant one with a sofa and a fun one like a photobox along with hats and fake mustache and other stuff you could use.

(’twas Rebecca, Emily, Rony the playboy, me, and Kira)

(terus baru 3 tahun kemudian AFS menggerayangkan gerakan AFSPride)

(mampos kenapa w pendek sekali, bahkan dalam standar orang indonesia)

(tUH udah naik tangga pun masi lebih pendek)

THEN, the event continued for whoever wants to join everyone to the Seattle Ferris Wheel, while free tickets were provided! We sporadically went to the Ferris Wheel by Uber—some people didn’t come due to curfew and probably an after-party somewhere (I finally convinced Kira to join after many considerations. Since the Wheel was closer to my house, she agreed to crash in my house after).

Lucu banget aih. Anak-anak remaja pakai baju-baju bagus, sebagain berpasang-pasangan, dan sebagian lagi bergerombol kelompok, dan rame-rame masuk ke kereta Bianglala.

(’twas Gretar, Alex, Justin, me, Kira, Zion, and Mohamed)

Kapan lagi kaya gini huhuhu seneng.

It was—I don’t remember—a bit after midnight? After we were done Kira and I took an Uber back to my house, had ice cream in my bed while watching Monsters University, and fell asleep halfway through the movie (and my laptop ran out of battery).

---

Aaaand that’s probably as close I could ever be with Raisa: in the same city, neighboring neighborhood.

But at least, thinking back, I would not trade the experience I just had with anything else.

Salam dari penghadir Prom Rainier Beach High School dengan style hijab paling cantik (karena memang satu-satunya),

Nabila Safitri.

[newstfionline]

What’s a delightful way to get more time out of the day? Savoring

Laura Vanderkam, Ideas.Ted.com, June 12, 2018

Feeling like you’ve got all the time in the world is a wonderful sensation; too bad it occurs so rarely. But by developing the skill of savoring, you can maximize your moments--and your experience of time, according to author Laura Vanderkam.

People who feel like time is abundant approach the present in two ways. There’s the practical: they learn to be where they’re supposed to be in enough time that they can relax. Then, the more daring psychological feat: they find ways to savor the space of time where they currently are.

Actively savoring the present stretches your experience of time. To savor is to feel pleasure, and also to appreciate that you are feeling pleasure. It takes normal gratification and adds a second layer to it: acknowledgment. That this appreciation expands time can be understood by thinking of the opposite. When you want time to pass quickly, you might wish yourself elsewhere. When you want to prolong something, you hold yourself right where you are.

The richest experiences of savoring involve an awareness of the past and the future, as well as the present.

The concept of savoring turns out to be a critical component in the field of positive psychology. Intriguingly, the richest experiences of savoring involve an awareness of the past and the future, as well as the present. In their book Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience, researchers Fred B. Bryant and the late Joseph Veroff share Bryant’s account of summiting the 14,000-plus-foot Snowmass Mountain in Colorado.

He was in awe of the physical grandeur, of course. But he also knew he’d likely never be there again, so he did more than enjoy the view. He embraced his friends and told them how happy he was to share this moment with them. He looked back into the past, recalling a back injury that had almost ended his climbing career. He let his mind go to a time when he thought he would never experience this moment. “The realization that it is here now intensifies my joy,” he thought.

Bryant projected himself forward into the future and thought about how he might look back on this memory. He thanked God for enabling him to be there, and for creating mountains to climb. Then with “a strong sense of the fleetingness of the moment” and a desire “to remember this moment” for the rest of his life, he made special efforts to capture the scene. He turned in a deliberate circle and recorded small details: a forest of aspen and spruce, a river below. He noticed how his lungs felt, what he was smelling. He felt the cold. He selected a stone from the summit as a souvenir. He thought of sharing the memory of the mountain with his loved ones and thought of his late grandfather, who also loved outdoor adventures.

Bryant and his companions weren’t on the summit long. But all this savoring made the experience seem more vast than the ten minutes he told me it encompassed. Down off the mountain, he worked with Veroff to learn more about how people savor happy moments.

Scanning the past and imagining the future were intimately part of the experience. “A conceptual model of savoring must consider not only reminiscence, but also anticipatory processes,” they wrote. They produced the “Ways of Savoring Checklist,” which they used to evaluate how different people hold on to experiences.

“There are so many ways to use the mind as a time machine,” says researcher Fred B. Bryant. “Mental time travel is so beautiful and rich.”

For instance:

* You can think about sharing the memory later with other people, or consciously taking in every scent during the event.

* You might remind yourself how long you had waited for this event to happen, or think back to a time when the event hadn’t happened and you really wanted it to.

* You might try to become more alert, take deep breaths, or slow down.

* You might tell anyone else there how much you value the moment and how happy you are that the other people are there with you.

* You could remind yourself that nothing lasts forever. And so, you must enjoy this moment now.

Any good event can be deepened in these doable ways. Bryant, who calls savoring “an acquired skill,” has his own tactics to cultivate savoring. He teaches psychology classes at Loyola University Chicago. In my experience, professors sometimes grumble about teaching undergraduates. Bryant, on the other hand, envisions himself at a nursing home in the future. His health is failing. He can no longer get around on his own. He pictures himself looking back on his life and wishing he could be in front of a classroom again, feeling healthy and mentally alert. Oh, what he would give for just one more day. Then he opens his eyes and realizes, “That’s today!” He doesn’t have to give up anything to get this privilege. This contrast--akin to George Bailey getting his second chance in It’s a Wonderful Life--awakens him to the joys of normalcy. “There are so many ways to use the mind as a time machine,” says Bryant. “Mental time travel is so beautiful and rich.”

By clearing the calendar of what you don’t want to do, you can linger when you’re doing the things you do want to do.

You can also engineer lingering moments. By clearing the calendar of what you don’t want to do, you can linger when you’re doing the things you do want to do. An after-work happy hour can turn into dinner. A planned ten-mile bike ride on an out-and-back trail can become sixteen miles if the weather is nice. I love to create completely open days when all I do is write. I’m off the clock and savoring a project I’m really getting into.

If setting aside a whole day is not possible, try what Bryant and Veroff called the “Daily Vacation Exercise.” This is a compact way to allow you to practice lingering in pleasurable experiences. Each day for one week, plan to do something enjoyable for ten to twenty minutes. Some recent vacations for Bryant have included playing the guitar, composing music, walking his dog and calling an old friend.

Here are a few possibilities for your daily vacation:

* watching the sunset

* sitting outside at a café with a good cup of coffee

* visiting a bookstore on your lunch break

* going for a walk in a nearby park

Choose a time when you can minimize distractions, so put your phone away or in airplane mode. During your daily vacation, per Bryant and Veroff, “try to notice and explicitly acknowledge to yourself each stimulus or sensation that you find pleasurable. Identify your positive feelings, and explicitly label them in your mind. Actively build a memory of the feeling and the stimuli associated with it, close your eyes, swish the feeling around in your mind, and outwardly express the positive feeling in some way.” At the end of the week, recall all seven vacations.

The truth is, we take 10-minute breaks in normal life anyway. We fill this time by deleting emails, we scroll through social media or we putter around our houses, so this doesn’t register as leisure time. Consciously lingering in pleasurable downtime reminds us we have downtime. And that can make us feel like we have more time than when it slips through our hands.

Another way to practice savoring: if you don’t have to move fast, try moving slow. If rushing makes people feel like they lack time for things they want to do, then conscious deliberation can feel like a treat. Bryant reports that in the lab, when subjects are given a chocolate-chip cookie and told to max out on their enjoyment of it, they almost universally slow down. They try to notice each bite fully. He says, “Slowing down makes it last longer. The enjoyment itself is sustained.”

Moving slowly also allows you to pay attention to more things. “Slowing down is a conscious effort, so you’re controlling the experience, and you’re becoming more aware of what’s going on,” says Bryant. This slowness can be as delicious as a savored cookie. I might read a book more slowly if I am enjoying it. While there is pleasure in figuring out how something ends, there is also pleasure in rereading a few sentences of choice prose.

But I wish to stress that not all parts of life lend themselves to slowing down. Sometimes slowness is lingering, and sometimes it’s dilly-dallying. Furthermore, not all situations deserve lingering. By myself I might spend hours in a museum; taking a kid, I aim for an hour and feel lucky if we make that. As the mother of three small children, I know that many ideas for living the good life are harder to implement when you have toddlers. Even if you’re sitting in front of a delightful fire, it is hard to linger in the moment when you’re trying to keep a child from leaping into the fireplace.

Lingering is about enjoying the enjoyable. It’s about understanding you have the power to stretch time when you are in it and when you wish to stretch it. All time passes, and you cannot linger in anything forever. Hedonic adaptation--which is the human tendency to become accustomed to anything--means even a view from the mountaintop becomes the scene out the kitchen window after a while. But for a few minutes, with the right mind-set, it can be more.

Excerpted from the new book Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done by Laura Vanderkam.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1195

Monday, January 8, 2017

 I gave it the old college try but I was thwarted again from catching up on all the comic books that I wanted to read last week by life's little events. My Dad's 85th birthday meant an evening out with family. Spent most of one day off cleaning the whole house in the aftermath of Christmas being put away for another year. One extra loading and unloading of stuff to take to the monthly Capital Trade Show because I was flying solo for this one took part of another day. Penny came to help and keep me company yesterday at the beginning and the end of the trade show. Thanks to our neighbour vendor Chris for helping me load up after the show. This week has us dealing with our cars having to be serviced. Penny's Soul has to go in for a recall. The ever ominous "service engine soon" light came on the dashboard display of my X-Trail yesterday. The transmission didn't engage a couple of times but I managed to get it going by adjusting the stick shift. I hope it's just the extreme cold of the last week that's causing the problem. I hope I get a bit of alone time to read more this week. Here are comments of the few that I got to.

 Phoenix Resurrection #1 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). The gang's all here. I still read Astonishing X-Men so I recognised that team and I figure the other two teams are Blue and Gold. Correct me if I'm wrong. So they're bringing back Jean Grey/Phoenix again just in time for the spring release of the movie starring Sophie Turner better known as Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones. There's enough mystery here to keep me reading but I have issues with all-powerful beings and wonder if we need another super human on the racks right now. This 5-issue mini comes out weekly so I will be able to decide whether it's good enough to read the whole story very quickly.

 Batman and the Signal #1 - Scott Snyder & Tony Patrick (story) Tony Patrick (writer) Cully Hamner (art) Laura Martin (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). This 3-issue mini lets the Signal shine solo as he tries to figure out where his powers come from. I'm not familiar with Duke but I've seen him fight alongside Batman before. DC is probably hoping that his partnership with Batman will help sell this but here we have another young super hero fighting young super villains. I predict Signal will get into deep trouble and then find a way to win the day. The art would be the only reason that I would read the rest of this story.

 Rogue & Gambit #1 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Pere Perez (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This 5-issue mini takes the two off again romantic partners on a mission to save other mutants. The art is very nice and the last page got me good. I'm going to read the next issue to see what happens next.

 The Snagglepuss Chronicles #1 - Mark Russell (writer) Mike Feehan (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Paul Mounts (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). The art got me to pick this off the rack to read with it's mix of human and anthropomorphised animals walking around on two legs. The only thing I recall about the old Hanna Barbera cartoon was Snagglepuss's voice. It sounded snooty to me. The one in this 6-issue mini would sound snooty too since he's a big time playwright. The story takes place in the late 1940s when the government was going after communist sympathisers in the entertainment industry. There are a couple of surprise twists that make this worth reading even if you were never a fan of the cartoon character.

 Dark Nights: Hawkman Found #1 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Bryan Hitch (pencils) Kevin Nowlan (inks) Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Skipper (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I thought that I was done reading any more Dark Night books but then I saw the creative team on this one-shot and had to see what's up with Hawkman these days. I really enjoyed reading this book. They captured the warrior spirit of Carter Hall very well. I was disappointed by the Groundhog Day twist at the end however. As a fan of Jeff, Bryan and Kevin, this book was a blast to read but it didn't make me want to reach for more Dark Night books.

 Jessica Jones #15 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Michael Gaydos (art) Matt Hollingsworth (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The return of the Purple Man has a great twist that you don't want to miss. If you've watched the first season of the TV show you will get added enjoyment from having a deeper insight into the relationship between Jessica and Killgrave.

 Action Comics #994 - Dan Jurgens (writer & pencils) Art Thibert, Trevor Scott, Johnny Desjardins & Joe Prado (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Ugh, I can't wait for Booster Gold's guest appearance in this book to be over. In order for this time travel snafu story to have any emotional impact Dan has to make Superman act in a stupid and selfish way. Any hero should know better than to mess with time, but no, Superman MUST find the answers he seeks. That bothers me a lot.

 Moon Knight #190 - Max Bemis (writer) Jacen Burrows (pencils) Guillermo Ortego (inks) Mat Lopes (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Crazy Runs in the Family part 3. I really like how Moon Knight's multiple personalities are interacting with each other in Marc's head. The reintroduction of an old supporting character and the surprise twist on the last page gave me that "what a great comic book" chuckle.

 Batman #38 - Tom King (writer) Travis Moore (pencils & inks) Giulia Brusco (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). This one is a mind bender. Batman flexes his detective's muscles as he solves a serial murder case. The fisherman in me loved all the red herrings.

 Invincible Iron Man #595 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Stefano Caselli & Alex Maleev (art) Marte Gracia & Alex Maleev (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The Search for Tony Stark part 3. We're getting closer to finding Tony but meanwhile the Infamous Iron Man has problems with the Hood and RiRi has problems with the board of directors of Stark Industries. It's all very entertaining.

 The Demon: Hell is Earth #2 - Andrew Constant (writer) Brad Walker (pencils) Andrew Hennessy (inks) Chris Sotomayor (colours) Tom Napolitano (letters). Jeepers, this is awesome sauce. Not only is the art incredibly nice to look at but the writing is so much fun. I like this Etrigan and Jason Blood pairing. One of the things that made this evil demon character appealing to me was how Jason could control him somewhat. Things have changed between them now and it makes their relationship more interesting. I am definitely going to read the rest of this 6-issue mini.

 Punisher: The Platoon #4 - Garth Ennis (writer) Goran Parlov (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Rob Steen (letters). I know that Frank survives this story but I am also hoping the young Vietnamese guerrilla fighter makes it through the war alive too. She's a great character and I keep wondering when she and Frank will meet.

 Superman #38 - Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason (writers) Sergio Davila (pencils) Vicente Cifuentes (inks) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Super Sons of Tomorrow part 4. I am assuming that future Tim Drake/Batman changes into a character named Savior in the Teen Titans tie-in. I don't care how that happened so I'm not going to read that tie-in. All I now is that he's bad and his team mates in the future Titans show up to help the kids and Jon's dad. I can't wait for this time travel story to conclude in Super Sons #12 which hits the racks January 17.

[twisted-seduction]

Enjoyable Green Coffee Benefits in Hindi

Green Coffee Beans For Weight Loss : Add Green Coffee Bean Max to your weight loss program (My Review)

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What is Green Coffee Bean Max?

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Green Coffee Bean Max is a nutritional supplement that claims to help you lose weight when combined with a healthy diet and rigorous exercise routine. It’s not going to help you to lose weight while sitting on the couch all day, but it can complement your existing weight loss program.

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[classicfilmfreak]

New Post has been published on http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2017/09/21/the-glass-menagerie-1950-starring-jane-wyman-kirk-douglas-and-gertrude-lawrence/

The Glass Menagerie (1950) starring Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas and Gertrude Lawrence

“In these trying times we live in, all that we have is to cling to each other.” —— Amanda Wingfield

1950 was one of the better years in the wake of moviedom’s 1939 peak, mainly for three momentous films—Sunset Blvd., All About Eve and The Third Man.  The Glass Menagerie, which also was released that year, is now generally forgotten, not because it was unfairly overshadowed by these three, but because it was never in their class, not at the time, not in critical retrospect.  The first of Tennessee Williams’ plays to be filmed, it is the least remembered and the least thought of by the general public as typical of the playwright, who developed a penchant for darker, more sensational subject matter—hypochondria, impotency, homosexuality, promiscuity and nymphomania.

Menagerie launched a seventeen-year, eleven-work string of his best known, most often-filmed plays.  Among them are six of the best literary/dramatic works of the twentieth century, able to stand alongside the greatest of any American playwright.  The eighteen plays that followed in the next twenty-one years, however, were of lesser quality; even their titles seem less well-chosen, save one,The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Any More from 1963.

Unlike so many of Williams’ creations that are shrouded in a musty, decadent Southern milieu,The Glass Menagerie takes place in St. Louis, though often thought of as a “Southern” city.  Still, even without the usual depressing Williams themes, the play emerges thoroughly Southern.  It has the resonance of the playwright’s Southern background and hints of that gift for language and the creation of mood through dialogue alone, the backbone of the later plays.

For the flaws, phobias and foibles of his many characters—and they all seem to be flawed, either physically or mentally, or both—Williams drew upon traits from members of his immediate family, his mother, father and two siblings.  And underlying this was his own personality, which became more and more dominant the longer he wrote.

As Williams said years later of his art, “All work is autobiographical if it’s serious.  Everything a writer produces is his inner history, transposed into another time.  I am more personal in my writing than other people . . . ”

Whatever its flaws, The Glass Menagerie is an enjoyable, easily watchable film, considering that new ground is being broken, the first Williams play to be filmed.  Directed by Irving Rapper, it is artistically photographed by Robert Burks, sensitively acted by its four main players and nostalgically supported by Max Steiner’s low-key score.

Memories of Williams’ own memory—Menagerie is subtitled “A Memory Play”—surface in the character of Amanda Wingfield. Williams’ own mother, Edwina, was, as he saw her, a faded Southern belle living in the past, talkative, over-formal and possessive of her children.

Early in the film, Amanda instructs her grown son, Tom, in table etiquette: “Honey, don’t push your food with your fingers.  Must push with something, push with this crust of bread.  And chew your food.”  When Tom is offended by his mother’s directive and rises from the table, she further admonishes him: “You’re not excused from the table.”  When he says he’s going to get a cigarette, she says, “You smoke too much.”

Quite expectedly, of the four characters Amanda is central to the play.  In the movie she is played by stage star Gertrude Lawrence in a rare screen appearance, hampered by an unreliable Southern accent.  She has been unfavorably compared with Laurette Taylor who had appeared in the Broadway premiere in March, 1945, and, to many, remains the ideal Amanda.

Laura is her shy daughter (Jane Wyman) who walks with a slight limp and escapes into the imagination of her glass menagerie.  Failing her first day at secretarial school has only increased her inferiority complex, and she escapes further into her own little word.

Her brother Tom (Arthur Kennedy) is away at sea in the opening of the film.  He narrates in flashback the story of his earlier life in the rundown apartment in St. Louis he once shared with his mother and sister.

Amanda, always pressuring and cajoling her two offspring, now encourages Tom to bring home from his workplace in a warehouse a friend who might be interested in Laura.  Amanda makes elaborate plans for the meal for this “gentleman caller” (the original name of the play).

When Laura learns ahead of time the caller’s name, Jim O’Connor (Kirk Douglas), she remembers that she had a crush on him in high school and feigns illness and refuses to come to the table.  Amanda finally persuades her to join the diners, then arranges for Jim and Laura to be alone afterward.

Sensing the girl’s problems, Jim tries to draw her out of her shell and shows interest in her collection of glass animals, even getting her to dance with him and giving her a kiss.  When Laura stumbles, she knocks a unicorn from its shelf and breaks its single horn.

Jim suggests they go to the Paradise Ballroom to dance and mentions he is engaged.  Surprisingly, Laura doesn’t take it all that hard.  She gives him the unicorn and invites him to return in the future with his fiancée.

It is Amanda who is most upset by the failed match game she had engineered and criticizes Tom for giving his sister false hopes for a suitor.  Now Laura seems to have a more positive attitude.  Her limp seems to have disappeared and she waits with renewed confidence for another “gentleman called,” this one named Richard, who is seen walking down the sidewalk toward the apartment.

Williams objected to this corrective “happy ending,” quite different from the more negative conclusion of the play.

Irving Rapper makes a conscientious effort to lessen the impression of a filmed play, showing Tom on his ship, Laura in a typing class, Tom and Jim in the factory and Amanda and Laura in a department store.

Jane Wyman brings the kind of tenderness and vulnerability that shapes many of her roles, particularly the deaf-mute girl in Johnny Belinda (1948), for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress.  Kirk Douglas is calmly sympathetic, suppressing the tight energy he gives to so many of his roles.  Arthur Kennedy is straightforward and on the mark.  He was an underestimated actor who never achieved the top-star status he deserved, perhaps denied that by so many unchallenging parts.

As an avid spokesman for the play itself, Donald Spoto wrote in his biography of Williams, The Kindness of Strangers, “ . . . nothing [he] ever wrote after The Glass Menagerie has its wholeness of sentiment, its breath of spirit and its unangry, quiet voice about the great reach of small lives.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUvX3BAXu7I

[isaaccongdon-blog]

Beachbody Transformation: Laura Lost 30 Pounds and 7% Body Fat!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Laura Alexander lost 30.3 lbs. in four months with Body Beast. She entered her results into the Beachbody Challenge, and won the $500 Daily Prize for March 7th!

Tell us about your life before you started the program. How did you feel about yourself and your body? I’m a little irritated that I did not take advantage of weights at a younger age — when results just come naturally and more quickly because of that roaring metabolism and signs of gravity were just beginning to show. I have had great results in just a few months at the age of 49. I just feel like I lost an opportunity to see how my body could have looked under optimal circumstances. No worries, I’m having a great finish!

What inspired you to change your life and begin your transformation journey? I read that we lose an average of 5 percent of our muscle mass every 10 years after the age of 35 — unless we do something about it. I was super out of shape and just turned 49. One Saturday morning, I was snuggled in bed, drinking my creamy coffee, and watching Sagi’s Body Beast presentation. And I started wondering…about weights.

What is the greatest challenge you faced before beginning the program? How did the program and Beachbody help you overcome that challenge? I spent a few weeks wondering if I would really be able to make this kind of a change in myself. I have let myself down before. I kept thinking of Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.” At some point, I nearly felt a click in my brain and I knew that I would finish it. I often recited Philippians 4:13 when I felt like skipping a workout or eating junk. The DVDs progress with various members of the crew in such a way that you almost feel like you’re getting to know them. They have a funny and real comradery that makes the workout a lot of fun. I once told my husband that I was going downstairs to work out with the guys — you know…Sagi and those guys I work out with. “Oh, ok” he says. He comes down to the basement a little later looking to meet the guys…he is ridiculously easygoing!

What in particular did you like about the program you chose? Great results without a ton of cardio. Lifting weights changes the shape — you don’t just get smaller. It doesn’t take as much time as people think. It’s fun to be a fly on the wall, listening in on the gym talk of a bunch of Arnold Schwarzenegger types. They crack me up. Glad there aren’t women. It would change the whole dynamic.

Describe the results you achieved with your Beachbody program. Which achievements are you proud of? I lost 30 pounds and 7 percent body fat. I will turn 50 in January, and it’s a lot easier to be excited about it when I’m looking and feeling good. I had considered competing in a bodybuilding bikini contest, but opted to do a photoshoot instead. These photos were a fun way for me to benchmark my progress and celebrate some success along the way.

How has your life changed since completing your Beachbody program? I know my husband is proud of the way I take care of myself — romance is at an all-time high! Clothes shopping is now an enjoyable activity. I have had so many friends purchase Body Beast, because they asked how I accomplished this. I have had women even 20 years younger than me telling me I am their inspiration to make a transformation in themselves. That is a really great feeling.

How did a Beachbody supplement, nutritional product, or program affect any existing health conditions you have? I used Fuel Shot, Base Shake, MAX Creatine, and Super Suma.

Did you achieve any other measurable improvements with a Beachbody supplement, nutritional product, or program (e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, etc.)? I can check when I have my next physical.

You can change your life, too. Take the Beachbody Challenge for the tools you need to Decide, Commit, and Succeed! Complete any Beachbody program, and enter your results for a free gift and a chance to win cash and prizes.

Results vary depending on starting point, goals, and effort.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Beachbody Transformation: Laura Lost 30 Pounds and 7% Body Fat! was originally published on Isaac Congdon