#I think it's funny that she feels this way considering she becomes more Buddhist later on and accepts oblivion instead

[desertdragon]

has there ever been a time where they feared for their life?  why?

This is difficult for me to answer because I don't think Vaste so much fears for her life, as she fears the consequences of her loss on those around her, as well as dying having lived honoring her spiritual beliefs- there's a big difference since one implies importance on the Self while the other suggests importance on Others/Culture

So it's hard for me to answer the question and feel as if...I answered the question lol

To make Vaste fear for her life you'd have to put her in an ultimatum, in a situation where the risk is complete oblivion from existence, and even then if she has a level of choice over it the fear is alleviated- but to have no choice in permanently ending her existence would be frightening

So for example, all the fuckery she does fighting in a soul form against Hydaelyn and Zodiark? Risky, death there would mean she's gone forever having not accomplished her goals- the same with one of my apocalyptic What Ifs where Lewena can't control her connection to the Primals and simply becomes a monstrosity that kills the universe, there's no coming back from that that Vaste can control either, it's the complete destruction of life with nothing her powers can do since Lewena would be far stronger than even her, Ms. Cheese going bad is something everyone wants to avoid

And for fun, any characters who are Reality Writers would also pose a massive threat given that they can just decide they prefer a reality without her in it, then boom, gone from existence

There's the Cosmic Horror aspect as well, any cosmic level entity that by default she can't defy would create a genuine dread

In essence, utter annihilation from existence especially before achieving satisfaction over her life is the one way she truly fears for herself, rather than an Other

-

@lettersnorth I have an addendum as I'm heading home from work:

I think a further example of Vaste fearing for her life under Cosmic Horror also applies in the sense of being taken over by such an entity, especially since she can't understand what it is or entirely what it wants because it Is unknowable- I know I listed that she can't be mind controlled in her powers/abilities on the carrd, but I think a Cosmic being surpasses that restriction just as much as a Reality Writer does, just because mind control I feel is one being forcing its Will on another, it's not a part of nature as it's a choice, a power dynamic created consciously or subconsciously, and Hydaelyn protects the WoL from that

A Cosmic being however Is nature personified, it Is a piece of the law which constructs the universe, it Is the primordial fabric all matter requires to exist- gravity, physics, entropy, creation etc. we can attempt to quantify these Principles with formulas, but I don't think we'll ever truly understand them nor fully comprehend all their potential, as they've existed since before the first living thing drew breath- they will outlive all life by the very same virtue of their existence

(As a side note this is why I don't fully follow the Heat Death of the Universe theory, I'm a fan of the Cyclical Universe Theory instead; I think it's extremely arrogant of humanity to presume it Knows something so vast and ancient and fundamental as the universe down to the date and method of death, and that it can only exist Once- especially when we more than likely will never be there to verify it actually Dies and doesn't just restart the Big Bang, even if we achieve cellular immortality on schedule or sooner)

Because a Cosmic being/aspect simply Exists then it has no Will to force, no agendas, it just Is- and you can't fight what just Is, in the same way you can't fight those cosmic principles I listed, or the fact that you need air to breathe, that you are subject to natural forces, that you are made of cells etc.

This is how The Slaughter from TMA would take her over into becoming an Avatar because the more you reach for a cosmic being like the Concept of violence and fearing violence, at a point you have allowed that cosmic force inside, you are under its microscope- and I think that would make her fear for what life she has as a living thing, until the pull of the Entity strips that away, too

[gynarchyboi]

Part 1

How to find a domme to serve. The following is especially true, if you are one of the rarest of men, a true service slave......Finding a woman to serve is actually easier than you think IF you have the right attitude. Nothing is fool proof but what do you have to lose?.....Pick one of your female friends who you like, and who trusts you. Also, pick one who works full time. Do NOT pick someone you know at work. This might be construed as sexual harassment. And, don't pick the bitchy woman you know. She's probably not a dominatrix. She's probably just a bitch. Pick one that deserves a servant......Ask if you can do her yard work. Anything. .Give any excuse you can think of giving for wanting to do it. Tell her you are working off a penance. Tell her you have become a Buddhist and it's part of your path. Tell her you want to learn how to garden. A good way to start is to clean her car. You can do that without invading her personal space......Keep cleaning her car until she expects it done. Do a very good job. Soon, you'll be doing her yard work......Sometimes, it helps if you tell her and her closest friend of your proclivities. Together they will feel safer.....mSay whatever you have to say and do whatever you have to do to get started. Then make yourself very useful......Eventually squirm you way into doing her housework. Maybe you can talk your way into doing the downstairs or common areas. It may be a while before she relents and allows you to clean her bedroom. Do this with passion and precision. Never even hint of kinkiness or romance. Just do the work. Again, just do the work. No funny business. None. Do it week after week......Encourage her to keep dating. Make her and her boyfriend dinner. Make it clear that you support her romantic life. Just do the work......Learn to do the work properly without constantly bothering her about it. Then, after a month, with her permission, start taking care of the something else. Then a month later begin another service. Keep going. Find things to do for her. Never ever give up......Here is what is wonderful. 90% of the women in the world will start expecting you to do more. Keep digging in deeper. You will arrive eventually as her slave. You might have to switch women once or maybe even twice but you won't go through too many women before you find one that likes having a servant......She will not think of you as a man if you act like a servant. Do you dare to humiliate yourself?.....Again, I think you should start this process with a woman who knows and trusts you. In other words, a friend. If you don't have any friends then you should start asking yourself some serious questions about how you treat others. Why don't you have female friends.? Who can you use as a referral? Why don't you have referrals?.....Maybe, you should pull yourself away from the TV and computer and get out more. Join a service organization that is trying to save the world. Pick the campaign of a woman running for office. Volunteer for the scut work......Treat women like queens who through age or looks do not command much sexual power. Women talk. Word about you will circulate. Women talk and we listen to other women when they recommend a man. Consider this. Every working woman in the world needs a slave of her own......Think about this fact constantly......Repeat this mantra daily. "I am only a slave, it is a priviege to serve." Choose the object of your affection carefully. You might be serviing for the rest of your life......I don't think you should do this unless you are truly desperate. Consider coming out. Tell others about your desires. Word will spread. If you tell a woman about your desires and she rejects you completely, the first thing she will do is tell her friends about your kinky proposal. We talk among ourselves. One of them will listen, act shocked, and ask, "What did you say his name was again?" It's what we do.

[izzymcfeegles]

Yet another post about Sebastian Stan:

I'm seriously tired of making these posts, but over the past few days, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Sebastian's most recent IG post, and as a result,more things are resurfacing and its become impossible for me to ignore. I'm going to try my best to give a fair assessment, but if I'm being honest, this all appears to be a pretty troublesome pattern of behavior. Before I get into any of that, I think it's important to mention where I stand on cancel culture. As someone who is a longtime fan of wrestling and classic rock, I'm no stranger to seeing some of my favorite artists act in ways that would be considered unacceptable by today's standards. I do think that stan Twitter has a tendency to be a bit harsh when it comes to judging things that people have done in the past. That being said:

Context is important. The reality is that there were many things that were considered to be socially acceptable at one point in time, that we've since learned can be harmful, particularly to those who are marginalized on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Something that was considered to be acceptable 2005, we later find can be toxic and harmful. Do I think it's productive to cancel for someone for something they did decades ago that was considered to be acceptable at the time? Not necessarily. However, if this person continues to exhibit the same behaviors to this day, then yes, they should be rightfully taken to task.

In Sebastian's case, he has a documented history of saying and doing things that are ignorant and tone-deaf. In the early 2010's he made an comment about playing Bucky as a "transvestite," a word that is considered to be dated and offensive to Trans people. If I'm being honest, if I saw the interview the date it aired, I probably wouldn't have blinked twice as I was not as educated on Trans issues at that time. I now know that the comment was unacceptable and hope Sebastian does too.

Regarding the Jeff!Seb pedo memes, I'd be lying if I said my edgy 2009 self wouldn't have found them funny at one point, however in 2017, my adult self was not amused. And coming from someone who was playing an abuser at the time, liking those memes was a bad look. Same goes for the Kneegate meme, especially when you consider the amount of hatred black NFL players were receiving from people including the President of the United States for kneeling in protest during the national anthem. It was tasteless, tone-deaf, and he should have known better. The fact that his "apology" over the incident was surrounded by quotes, and as some fans speculated, copied and pasted did not help matters. Mind you, many fans were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and forgive him, and for a while things seemed okay.

Fast forward to 2020. After the man made it a point to shame Miami spring breakers for vacationing during the pandemic, he is seen months later vacationing in Ibiza and later Tulum. The fact that he used his money and Romanian passport to go on vacation while many of us were either stuck at home or worse, putting our lives at risk to put food on the table, understandably did not sit well with many people, especially when taking his previous comments about pandemic vacationers into account. The fact that his traveling partner is a socialite who has a history of doing cultural appropriation, including doing brown face and using the word "savage" in reference to her friend doing a native war cry made it sting even more. I'm not going to go into depth about her because she doesn't deserve the attention and this is about holding Sebastian accountable, but the fact that he is still with her and they appear to be inseparable, it's clear that her history of CA is a non-issue for him. Make what you will of that.

Moving to recent actions. The current project Sebastian is working on is controversial in its own right. As someone who has been a Mötley Crüe fan for almost 20 years, I am familiar with the history of that relationship and how toxic is was and will never defend Tommy and the abuse Pamela suffered at his hand. While my issue is mostly with the producers, it doesn't change the fact Sebastian and Lily are still willfully participating in a series that Pamela herself does not wish to be made.

Sebastian's most recent post seems to be catalyst for the most recent wave of Twitter outrage. I am well aware that Tommy is/was a practicing Buddhist and that things like Buddha statues were part of his home decor. That's not the issue. The issue lies in the face Sebastian chose to make in the photo where he appears to be prying to the statue, along with the caption "find your zen fuckerz." Once again, I am aware of Tommy's speech patterns and get that it was "in character," but to use the combination of that photo and that caption as a non-Buddhist, it's understandable why some Buddhist fans were offended and saw it as disrespectful. And as a non-Buddist, I don't think it's right to tell these people what they should and should not be offended by.

So for those of you who hate paragraphs, TL/DR:

Sebastian has a documented history of ignorant behavior and posts and as of now does not seem to be interested in addressing these things and learning about why the aforementioned behaviors are problematic and why some fans are hurt. This is not okay and we should not be defending him.

I understand that for many of you, he has been a source of joy. Bucky is still my comfort character and I will always be grateful to Seb for portraying the him with the nuance and care he deserves. I'm not asking anyone to stop staning Bucky or to take down your Seb x Reader fanfics. Life is short and you're entitled to the things that make you happy. Just understand that his actions have hurt a lot of people and why fans are upset and lashing out. While I do not condone any threats or doxxing aimed at his direction, the same goes to people who criticize him. I've seen people go to some vile lengths to defend him, from going after Pamela, a victim of abuse, to telling Buddhists how they should feel about their own religion, to anons telling the blogs who call him out to go kill themselves. None of this is ok. At the end of the day, Sebastian is a 38-year-old white man who has a great deal of money and influence and has more social capital than the people calling him out. He will be fine regardless of what happens and does not need people to protect him. The same cannot be said about the people he hurt through his actions.

[mst3kproject]

The Manster

Who has two thumbs and is back on terra firma with working wifi?  This MSTie!

As for my chosen subject this week… I don’t think I have to justify this one.  It’s called The Manster, as in a portmanteau of man and monster.  It was directed by a guy who mostly made cheap-ass jungle movies, and stars a bunch of embarrassed actors who don’t know how they ended up here.  It’s old and it’s dumb and it’s often pretty funny though never on purpose, and the perfect stinger moment comes very early in the film… you’ll know it when you see it.

So we have Dr. Robert Suzuki, who lives on top of a volcano.  When people have ‘Dr’ in front of their names and live in isolation with a bunch of blinky light machines, that’s usually a pretty good clue that they’re mad scientists. Tragically our hero, Larry Stanford, is not that observant (Larry’s obliviousness would have been a constant target for Mike and the bots and he would have deserved all of it).  He’s a reporter who wants an interview about Suzuki’s theories on the causes of mutations, but too bad for him, he arrives just as the mad doctor has run out of family members to experiment on.  Under the influence of Suzuki’s injections he’s soon devolving into an animalistic frat-boy, drinking, carousing, and murdering… oh, and he’s growing a second head. Will that be a problem?

So basically this is a werewolf movie with a fake mustache on… or perhaps a Jekyll and Hyde movie of sorts, as discussed in the denouement.  It wants to explore the dichotomy of good and evil in every one of us, using the very silly device of a two-headed man.  I have to say, I understand the metaphor, but it wasn’t put to nearly good enough use.  The movie would have been ten times more fun if we’d gotten to see Larry and his second head arguing over whether or not they’re going to kill somebody.  Not better, mind you, just more fun.

As far as just being a movie goes, The Manster is better than a lot of things I’ve watched for this blog.  The characters have names and look different enough that you can tell them apart, the story makes sense on its own terms and everything that happens is relevant to the plot.  Photography is honestly pretty good and the actors are competent.  All this happens to be in the service of a really silly story with awful special effects (I love Larry’s rubbery second head bouncing as he runs) but it’s engaging enough that you want to keep watching.

What I really like about The Manster, however, is that it offers a lot to analyze.  I’m not sure much of it is intentional.  The Jekyll and Hyde side of the story is elucidated in an ending speech, as Larry’s friend Ian tries to reassure Mrs. Stanford.  He says there was good and evil in Larry, and they’ll just have to wait and see which side wins.  This is not a very satisfying ending, really.  We’ve just seen Larry’s evil side plummet to its death into a volcanic crater… and the surviving good side is under arrest as a serial killer.  Dr. Suzuki and his assistant, the only people who could testify that Larry was not responsible for his actions, are both dead.  This guy’s going to jail.

The really interesting thing in the movie, though, is one that comes up by accident.  Dr. Suzuki’s work is on evolution – his theory is that cosmic rays can induce mutations, producing new species more or less overnight (this is called ‘macromutation’ or ‘the hopeful monster theory’, and lurked on the edges of the mainstream in the 40’s and 50’s) and he hopes to induce the same effect chemically.  When he tries, however, his efforts invariably produce monsters.  Emiko, his wife and former research partner, turns into something resembling the closet monster from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die.  Kenji, his brother, turns into a yeti, and a similar fate awaits Larry.  These mutants cannot understand human speech, and their behaviour is irrational and violent.

This implies a couple of things.  We hear vague mentions of Dr. Suzuki experimenting on fungi, but his heart is mostly in his human experiments.  That tells us that his goal is to speed up the evolution of humanity, and one presumes that this is intended to improve us somehow. Of course, this is not how evolution works.  Evolution does not make things better – this is why biologists have mostly dropped the descriptions primitive and advanced in favour of the more neutral basal and derived.  Dr. Suzuki’s quest is therefore quite misguided, as illustrated by his monsters. In no way could they be considered ‘better’ than humans – in fact, they’re significantly worse at surviving and reproducing (the thing natural selection selects for) than ordinary people are.

There’s another layer here, though.  ‘Evolution makes things better’ is a misconception that’s been around since Darwin, and dates back to even earlier ways of organizing the natural world.  When Linnaeus created the classification system for living things that we’re still saddled with today, he did it under the believe in the Great Chain of Being – the idea that you can order everything that exists into a hierarchy with mold at the bottom and god at the top, and that after god and the angels humans are the best thing that exists (as proved by our being the only creatures able to create classification systems).  It’s an idea that appeals to human vanity and to our need to impose order on the natural world, and it isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.

With that in mind, perhaps there’s another reason Suzuki’s experiments fail.  If you believe that humans are the best living thing around, particularly if you believe we are the image of god on earth, then maybe it’s not possible to improve on us.  Any change you make to people that takes them away from humanity will automatically make them worse.  This idea does appear to be manifest in the fates of Emiko, Kenji, and Larry, all of whom become more apelike, less ‘advanced’, as they change.

In that case, what does The Manster think makes for a good human?  We see a little of Larry before he starts to mutate, so we can compare that with what he becomes.  Rather surprisingly for a movie of this vintage, the fact that Larry is white seems to be pretty incidental.  He is a foreigner in a faraway place, but this serves mostly to drive a wedge between him and his wife Linda.  Except for a couple of rather troubling moments, the film does not present Japan in an exotifying light.  We do see things like a bathhouse and a geisha bar, but these represent Larry’s personal slide into debauchery, rather than the country as a whole.  We also meet normal working people among both the Japanese and the American expat community – reporters, police officers, and even priests.

There’s a very nice bit, actually, where Larry comes upon a Buddhist priest praying, and when he realizes this man doesn’t speak English, Larry takes the opportunity to unburden himself.  It makes him feel better to talk about his moral quandaries aloud, and the fact that the priest doesn’t understand him means he cannot judge him.  This is a very relatable and human moment, one of the best in the movie.

Unfortunately, it also segues into a couple of the most distasteful things in the film.  As I’m sure you’ve guessed, Larry does murder the priest, but before he does, he stares at a particular statue in the shrine – a representation of a three-eyed, fanged being that I am in no position to identify, although it looks a bit like Vajrapani.  Before Larry grows a full second head he sprouts an extra eye in his shoulder, and the implication is that the three-eyed statue draws his attention to the monster within himself. I don’t know much about Buddhism but I do not like the idea of casting another culture’s religious figures as symbols of monstrosity.  The west has done plenty enough of that.

But back to the question of acceptable humanity. We watch Larry get drunk, violent, antisocial, lazy, and promiscuous, which tells us that the ‘good’ man is the opposite of these things: sober, peaceful, friendly, hardworking, and chaste. The film pays particular attention to how Larry relates to women.  The fact that he’s been faithful to his distant wife is established early on, and one of the first symptoms of his devolution is his willingness to discard her.  First he makes out with a couple of girls at the geisha bar, and later he takes Dr. Suzuki’s assistant Terra (who has a tragic backstory but we frustratingly never find out what it entails) as his mistress. On the phone with his wife Linda at the beginning of the film, Larry tells her he loves her and promises to be home soon.  Later, when she comes to Japan searching for him, he shouts at her and makes a show of preferring Terra.

One conversation he has with Linda is particularly revealing.  He tells her he has no desire to settle down in one place and wile away his time drinking coffee and playing bridge when there’s a big wide world out there.  She asks him what about her plans, and he declares he will ‘put her in her place’ and ‘slap her down’.  Since this is when Larry is the opposite of what a good man should be, we can take from it that a good man respects his wife and takes her opinions and needs into account.  For the late fifties, this is actually kind of surprising – I’ve seen films from a decade or two later that were far more backward about this.  So hey, points for that.

All things considered, The Manster is a pretty well-made movie.  It’s dumb and full of clichés, such as the man scientist destroyed by his own creation, the femme fatale who sacrifices herself for the hero because she’s fallen in love with him, theremin music to represent the monster’s appearance, etc etc etc… but it’s competently put together and whether intentionally or no, contains a lot of interesting material. It’s the sort of movie I can watch repeatedly and always find something new in.  Definitely recommended viewing for the 50’s Monster Flick fan, although with the caveat that there is a scene in which one character urges another to commit suicide.

[antagonisms]

BASICS

Name: Evan Czarnecki

Gender & pronouns: cis male, he/him

Species: werewolf

Age: 27. Jokes about being 63, because he was a wolf for 6 years, which is 42 dog years + those 21 normal human years. Either way, age is a really weird concept now.

PERSONALITY

Traits: Pretends to be flippant to put the world at a distance. Vulgar as a means of distancing himself from genuine vulnerability. Perceptive, but won’t let you know that. More self-aware than he lets on. Self-absorbed. Self-destructive. Loves being seen, hates being known.

Moral alignment / MBTI / enneagram: Chaotic neutral. INTP-A. 5w6.

Values: In other people, he likes independence, open-mindedness, the ability to dress well, a lack of tolerance for bullshit, genuine altruism, and resilience.

Flaws: Judgmental. Narcissistic as a defense mechanism. Occasionally rude, but mostly just cheeky. Not a team player. Reckless. Hedonistic. The brokest bitch in Blackrock.

HISTORY 

( shorter version is in the app. i just like details. trigger warnings for child abuse and sex as self harm.)

1) CHILDHOOD

You had a family, once. Your mother’s a piano teacher and your father is — you don’t know, really, but he’s got enough old money to buy nice things even if he’s stingy on principle. He’s polite, and she’s funny, and your fellow patrons at Sunday Mass love all three of you because you’re down-to-earth, surface-level beautiful — a perfect American family.

But they don’t know what happens inside the too-big house at the foot of the mountain. Your mother’s a pessimist, and your father’s a sniveling piece of shit who copes with his worthlessness by making everybody feel small. He’s kinda good at it. They’re both as loud as they are erratic and it’s all a matter of bracing yourself for when the floor inevitably falls through. You make do, mostly. You hide in your room. You lock the door. You put your ears behind headphones. You drown out their screaming matches and your too-loud mind. 

It all falls apart when Mommy decides she hates Daddy more than she loves you. No goodbye. No explanation. She just leaves. 

Her departure plants a lesson you will later find impossible to uproot: love is earned, Evan, you’re not working hard enough. At least your father stayed. At least he sometimes loved you. At least, you think so. He might have loved you when he took you fishing, or gave you that book you really liked, or when he buys you clothes that look really nice. You flip through your mother’s old sheet music and fumble through the piano keys, and you think he might love you when he watches you fill this house with her memory without saying anything.

But mostly, he’s not very kind. You don’t want to think about it anymore.

2) ADOLESCENCE

You inherit your mother’s cynicism and your father’s stingy heart. The skill you develop is as much a sense of humor as it is a safety net. If life’s a joke, beat it to the punchline. By the time you’re fifteen, you can no longer pretend that your world is worth saving. You keep it at arm’s length. Your mind makes a mockery of the darkness to keep its jaws at a distance, because if you couldn’t do that, your pitch-black pessimism would swallow you whole.

Growing up feels less like maturing and more like mutating. By the time you’re sixteen, you stop feigning perfection to earn the affection of a father who’s heart is colder than your Blackrock winter. Popular misconception claims control is a word you never learned, but that’s just what you let everyone think. The truth is: control is a lesson you pried out of your body when the need for acceptance evolved into a need to rebel. You’re an embarrassment, Evan. Adolescence meant insurrection. You’re a failure of a son. Pills and booze and boys and girls biting the hand that hit him. Your heart is a bullet and your mouth is a shotgun and you will make yourself repulsive if the alternative is admitting that — Evan, I wish you knew how difficult it is to love you.

You only apply yourself when it matters. You get into Stanford. You take a loan. You don’t let your father pay for tuition, because you’re not letting him control your life anymore. You leave your tar pit town the way your mother did, and it’s only a matter of time before your goodbye is permanent. 

It gets better as much as it gets worse. You leave home, but home doesn’t really leave you, and you don’t recognize your body when it’s not in pain. You’re beautiful, though. People see you and want to make you theirs. You let it happen. Too-rough hands salve the ghosts of bruises your father left you. This is the ugliest way of putting it: you feel damaged. Every person you kiss has too-sharp teeth, and maybe that’s exactly how you want it, because if this body doesn’t feel like it belongs to you, then offer it up in a way that feels good.

You always leave first. You love much how it tears them apart. This is your inheritance: your Momma’s love of leaving, and your Daddy’s stingy, stingy heart.

3) THE BITE

Unlike your mother, you tried to come back. Your father called one night, asking if you wanted to return for Christmas, and the small, stupid flicker of hope that your pessimism couldn’t kill begged that you give him a chance.

He didn’t change. He argues about the degree you’re taking with the money you don’t have and insists on carving a future for you, his way. He doesn’t like your independence. He doesn’t like your protests. Your fights are explosive until they aren’t, until a raised fist reminds you exactly what violence he’s capable of.

At least he sometimes loves you. Maybe he loved you when he picked your wounded body up, carried you out of the woods, and bandaged up bite on your side. Maybe he loved you when he brought medicine to your room, and maybe he loved you when made you chicken soup just the way you liked it, even when you didn’t ask. Maybe he loved you when he sat by the side of your bed, and talked about his father, and his father’s father, and how none of them really knew how to grow up without making their sons feel small.

But the fever is strange. A new kind of anger tears out whatever capacity for forgiveness you might have had. Your bones are changing. Something wretched twists and grows inside you, and with a hot flash of pain, you’re something new entirely.

You have one last coherent thought before the wild takes your mind completely.

I have to kill him. So you do. 

3.5) THE THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW

The news of your father’s death spreads like wildfire in Blackrock. It’s not your father’s mangled body that causes intrigue, it’s your disappearance. Wolf attacks, while uncommon, aren’t exactly rare, and everyone’s heard the folktales. Neighbors assure that you were there during the evidence, but the police find no evidence of carnage, not a pound of flesh nor drop of blood to support the fearful need to conclude that there’s nothing supernatural about this. You can’t prove the Czarnecki kid isn’t a werewolf, the gossipers say. Nobody can even prove that he’s dead.

4) WOLF-HOOD

You don’t know what strange circumstance landed you in your new body, but maybe you don’t care. Maybe the bite and the fever killed you, and the Buddhists were right. You don’t really know if you earned enough good karma to deserve this reincarnated form, but either way, you’re never letting it go. You hunt deer. You roll around in the snow. You snarl at any predator that dares to get near, and bite the ones that move into your space without permission. Sometimes you walk into the backyards of strangers and wait for children who aren’t afraid to try and approach you. You don’t eat them, because just because you’re a monster now doesn’t mean you don’t have principles.

You lie down. You let them rub your belly.

It’s a really nice life.

5) NOW

Six years after you thought you died, a woman drags you out of the woods you back into your body. Even a lifetime of pain couldn’t prepare you for the shift back. New bones tear your animal flesh apart, piercing your skin open to make room for your wretched old body. It aches in too many ways. The people — the wolves — the ones who did this to you, they tell you this is your home now.

So it wasn’t Buddhism. Maybe it’s the Catholics who’re right; eternal damnation does await the unrepentant sinner, and it looks like this: you’re here, trapped in a frat house for furries, without a  cellphone, a car, or clothes of your own, or money to pay a doctor to confirm whether or not you’d acquired a tapeworm.

You realize you owe Stanford 213,000 dollars.

You are a very tired wolf.

TLDR:

Evan has a bad childhood. He becomes a wolf. He kills his father. He mistakes lycanthropy for reincarnation and lives in wolf-nirvana for six whole years. You drag him out of nirvana. The realization that he didn’t actually die puts him in a terrible mood. 

CONNECTIONS 

( So uhhh I wrote up possible prompts for the existing werewolf skeletons before I knew what anyone was like and I think they can be good jumping points! If you don’t feel this fits your character, or if you want a different sort of dynamic, just message me! )

1) WOLVES (AND BITTEN HUMAN)

ALDER: You’ve seen him at his ugliest — a small, scared creature writhing on the floor, that horrific cross between a howl and a screech leaving his shifting throat. Now there’s a flare of red-hot resentment in his eyes whenever he looks at you, and it makes you wonder if he’s more monstrous as a human than he is a beast. You saved him from death. You realize you cannot save him from life. He’ll never forgive you for that.

HEMLOCK: You are a bootlicker and he does not like you.

HICKORY: It’s not your job to keep the feral wolf in line, but your brother seems to resent whatever circumstance it was that landed him the role of mongrel babysitter. Consider picking up the slack. The guy’s only half-terrible — sullen and strange but mostly manageable, and maybe earning his trust is only a matter of affording him the patience that nobody else wants to offer. If it’s an opportunity to prove this pack your worth, try taking it.

MAPLE: You’ve worked too hard to protect this pack, to earn your position. Now your lot has dragged some feral creature out of the woods, offered him their home, their humanity, and still, he has the nerve to be ungrateful. He makes it clear that he doesn’t trust you. He makes it even clearer that you cannot trust him. Maybe the demons in your head are concussed, but the new demon in your home now insists on giving you a migraine. 

PINE: You are a mirror of lost days. You are the young flighty creature he once was and can never become again. Home is a word you might have both forgotten, but circumstance has offered you both a new roof over your heads, and a family to go with it. Maybe these similarities should draw you closer, but there’s a glimmer of resentment in his eyes whenever he looks at you. You don’t know why it’s there. It could be pity. It might be envy. It must be grief. 

OAK: He had a father, once, and that shit didn’t end well. For some reason, he sees it fit to pass some unearned blame on you, and now years of buried resentment are yours to bear. Family’s a broken word, he seems to think, but you cannot let him break yours. Still, it’s evident that he lacks the capacity to be as self-sufficient as he’d like, and as long as that’s true, it’s your thumb he’ll be under. You know he needs you. Offer an open hand, or pull the leash tighter. The choice is yours.

REDCEDAR: He shows up at the bookstore to read a new title of Animorphs every other day and you don’t know how that makes you feel.

WILLOW: He might take more kindly to you than he does the others. You’re both new to a home you’re not sure will ever welcome you, and more importantly, you both wanted this. The bite. This beastliness. The difference is that he’s certain. Your condition is a new part of yourself that you have yet to fully love, but he seems to think he can teach you. Man and beast are equally monstrous, he tries to convince you. So let’s be the kind with bigger teeth.

2) OPEN CONNECTIONS

( Open to humans ) has taken an interest in the Czarnecki Werewolf Conspiracy. They’re familiar with the incident — a dead father, a missing son, and the wolf that allegedly kill them both. All the facts line up too neatly, and when somebody who looks to be the ghost of one Evan Czarnecki returns to haunt the streets of Blackrock, they think it’s finally time they get some answers.

( Open to humans ) once knew Evan. Yeah, the kid who always got straight A’s and played piano for Catholic mass? What the actual shit happened to him? They’re watched Evan go from familiar face to murder case overnight, but now, the town recluses have found a new adoptee — and he’s the splitting image of the boy they once knew. Maybe it’s time to reconnect.

3) VAGUE CONCEPTS

he uhhhh (spins wheel) flirted with ( open ) at last drop for free drinks and then realized that spending six years as a wolf made him de-acquire the taste of liquor and now he’s having a crisis

( open ) tells him he needs therapy. evan laughs

this is actually very hard he’s so unsociable

jsut message me... we’ll think of something

[adamwatchesmovies]

Doomsday Book (2012)

When you watch a horror anthology, you have to sort of expect a mixed bag. I can't think of any where every chapter is of the same quality. Doomsday Book continues this trend, with one weak entry, one that's ok and a third that is far above the other two. There is no wraparound story, so let’s just dive right in.

A Brave New World

A Brave New World begins with a geeky, military research scientist Yoon (Ryoo Seung-bum) being bullied by his family into cleaning up their disgusting home before they leave on holiday. His luck turns around when he goes on a date with an attractive young lady (Go Joon-hee). Their evening is ruined by contaminated food, which turns them into flesh-eating zombies. The plague begins to spread uncontrollably.

There’s nothing you haven’t seen before here if you’re familiar with the zombie-genre classics. There isn’t even some kind of Korean twist or anything, it’s just a basic zombie story where no one understands what is going on until the zombie apocalypse is too far gone to stop. The one element that makes it stand out is one that makes absolutely no sense. Early in the short, Yoon throws away a moldy, disgusting apple in the garbage. That garbage gets recycled into cow feed, which for unexplained reason becomes the cause of the zombie outbreak. Is it a coincidence? Is it symbolism? According to the biblical quote at the end, taken from the book of Genesis and telling us about the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, it’s some sort of cautionary tale about knowledge or humanity getting into business it has no business in. It makes no sense.

The Heavenly Creature

Easily the best of the three stories, Park Do-Won (Kim Kang-woo) is a young technician called to inspect an android named RU-4. The robot (voiced by Park Hae-il) has given itself the name of In-myung and claims not only to have become a Buddhist but to have achieved enlightenment after working (and studying) in a monastery. The monks there want to know whether it is telling the truth or if it is a technical glitch. When Do-won gives the robot a clean bill of health, no one knows how to respond.

There are many fascinating ideas in this short. The robot has become self-aware and understands the un-scientific subject of religion. If the first robot Buddhist can attain enlightenment while so many humans fail to do so, what does it mean? Robots are already more durable, more intelligent, and better at countless tasks than we are... are we also inferior to them in matters of faith? Seeing the characters debate the question is terrific. Even if you aren't familiar with Buddhism, it's broken down very well and easily digestible. The one gripe I have with The Heavenly Creature is a long monologue about why robots need to be different from humans and what they can and should be able to be and do. It’s interesting, but feels forcibly inserted and kills the pacing. It's well worth your time but would have benefitted greatly from being a standalone film with enough room to spread out its messages and ideas more organically throughout.

Happy Birthday

A young girl named Min-seo (Jin Ji-hee) orders a replacement 8 ball for the one she broke. To do this, she steals her mother’s credit card and places an order through a strange website. Hopefully, her pool-obsessed father (Lee Seung-jun) and uncle (Song Sae-byeok) won’t notice it’s gone until the replacement arrives in the mail. She throws the original ball out of the window and it falls into a strange hole in the street. Two years later, the planet is being threatened by an asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter headed straight for them. In the upcoming end of the world, the dysfunctional family begins to bond.

There are some nice moments in the short and some amusingly unexpected twists. but this fails to live up to its potential. We’ve got theories about wormholes, aliens, ironic deaths, moments you think are going to be dark but aren’t all jammed in next to some stuff that doesn’t make any sense. There are funny moments with the side characters of the film (seen in news broadcasts and infomercials) and I really like the premise, but the ending is terrible. If you see the film and don’t get why, ask yourself if there was not a better way to stop what happens from happening (considering what the game of pool is all about) and if the destruction we see is really what it would look like, particularly considering the circumstances. Also, why is there an alien? It’s a mess. Someone could polish rework this one into a solid horror comedy though.

Overall, Doomsday Book is worth watching, but not good enough for you need to rush out or make a big effort to see it. Your best bet is to rent it. Then you get the opportunity to see the stories at a low price. It’s sort of in that middle where you’re kind of let down but also pleased with the good moments. (On DVD with English subtitles, June 27, 2014)

[youcantunringthebell]

The Lyin’ King

This is the 99 percent true* story of a friendship that was at least 50 percent false.

Surprising, because I never thought of myself as a gullible person. Shouldn’t a newspaper reporter have the strongest bullshit detector imaginable? (Yes, there was the time my colleagues convinced me the boss was forcing us into “treadmill meetings,” but in all fairness, she seemed to have some body image issues, and the company gym was right there.) In situations where things seem ideal, though, I’m often the first to Google that shit and start finding the flaws.

Except for with Leo. **

I met him through my ex-husband, but after a handful of happy hours, he was more my friend that my ex’s. We had something in common: Upbringing in ultra-conservative Christian families followed by fallout when we left those systems. He was coming out as gay and leaving the church, I could help him navigate that and, being newly divorced, I had a lot of time on my hands. We bonded over mutual rejection and our newfound addiction to online dating.

I try not to use the word “perfect,” because a Buddhist friend reminds me that nothing on this earthly plane fits that description. But Leo was perfect: young, model-gorgeous with a wardrobe to match. Charming in any social situation. Wickedly funny, useful in a crisis, an attentive listener. Go places with Leo and, over time, you will meet literally hundreds of people drawn into his light. Some of them get to stay. It’s intoxicating.

He barely made an effort at work and won employee of the year consecutively. Eventually, he earned a lofty position that absolutely nothing on his resume would demonstrate he could fill, and his bosses loved him there, too. He sang beautifully, danced sexily, painted passably. He ran marathons and lifted weights. Leo even perfectly curated his imperfection, to wit, a scar that came with a hilarious story about a brown recluse hiding in old pants.

He lived with my husband and me briefly, between men, but there were usually men. Never as attractive, typically more accomplished, although that second requirement could be suspended if it looked like the other option was extended singleness. So when Leo started talking about the man he would marry, I burst out laughing and told him he was full of shit. He started crying because I didn’t believe him. I begged him to forgive me.

Looking back, that should have told me something.

Because if Leo had been sitting on a computer in Nigeria emailing me that he was a displaced prince and needed my bank account number so he could reclaim his lost wealth, I’m not completely sure I wouldn’t be bankrupt right now.

The new boyfriend was close to becoming a doctor. The Doctor told me his medical specialty was hugging — that’s how earnest this guy was. He and Leo moved to another state for a residency and, sure enough, got engaged soon after that move. I spoke at their wedding.

Their marriage didn’t last long. Something was always wrong with The Doctor. He wasn’t attentive enough. He walked funny. He overspent. Leo had to take a second job — working weekends at conferences around the globe — to pay the bills. He texted me pictures of scenery in exotic locales. “This looks fun, but you seem angry all the time now,” I told him. Of course he was angry, living with all the stress of keeping them afloat, Leo said.

They got divorced, and Leo announced he was moving home to Nashville, but first he had to move in with a co-worker suffering from a brain tumor to see her through it, plus he was getting more involved in church and going to therapy. No more men, he said, just work, caretaking and the spritual journey of self-discovery for him. Every single phone call came back to the church, therapy or the friend with cancer. I started to feel petty, wanting Leo to come home when there was such important work where he was. Our conversations got awkward.

“Leo always reminds me we’re best friends, but I don’t think I know him at all anymore,” I told my husband. He shrugged. Friendships change, he said.

Instead of Leo moving back to Nashville, The Doctor moved back. Leo called, frantic, with the news. Turns out the doctor had been cheating on him all along with a colleague! He stole all Leo’s money! Leo was ruined! Wasn’t it awful?

So when The Doctor, who worked less than a quarter-mile from my office, texted that we should have coffee now that he was back, I ignored that asshole. A few months later, when he texted that he was thinking about me and asked how I was, I wrote back, “Fine, thanks.” This slow thaw went on for about a year, and eventually it seemed nuts NOT to just forgive him and have coffee. Let he among us who hasn’t cheated for the length of a marriage and then left our spouse destitute cast the first stone, right?

The first half-hour our visit, we discussed weather and work. The Doctor finally introduced the elephant.

“Why do you think Leo and I got divorced?” he asked.

“That’s not important,” I said. “Water under the bridge.”

“I seriously want to know,” he said.

I considered for a moment. “Because you’re a compulsive philanderer and thief?”

The Doctor looked prepared for that answer. No, he said. Just the opposite.

And through a series of lunches with The Doctor plus light stalking, I learned that many things Leo told me since he moved were lies. The weekend conference job was a cover for an affair that predated the marriage — The Doctor figured that out thanks to an unexpected credit card statement. It was a man The Doctor knew as a family friend, a straight husband and father. That meant the pictures sent to me were probably from Google Images. Leo’s co-worker with cancer probably never actually had cancer, and if she did, her daughter already lived in the same apartment.

There really was a church, turns out, because Leo and his lover joined it on the same day, according to an online bulletin.

I started to investigate some stories that didn’t have to do with Leo’s marriage. More lies. The timing on my Nancy Drew act was bad, because Leo was hopping a plane home to see a concert with me the next week.

I emailed him what I’d found out, too afraid I’d fall apart during a phone call, and apologized for the times I came off as judgmental about other people’s affairs. It was none of my business, I wrote, and I could see where it made it impossible to tell me what was going on. We set a time to talk, and Leo tearfully copped to the affair, but nothing else.

“What made you think you couldn’t just tell me the truth?” I asked.

“I always wanted to be so perfect.” He was crying, struggling to get the words out. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be my friend anymore.”

We were silent for a moment, and then I heard a muffled, cheerful greeting. “I’ll be in there in a sec!” Leo shouted. No tears.

“Where are you?” I asked.

He was outside a wedding shower and had to go. “I assume, in light of all this, I shouldn’t come to Nashville,” he said.

“Of course you should still come!” I said. “You need to come now more than ever so we can figure out what the hell happened between us.”

He sent the text a few hours before I was supposed to pick him up from the airport: I’m being called last minute to work one of those conferences, and with my financial situation, I can’t afford to say no.

Even with the truth in the open — realizing that I knew the conferences never existed and The Doctor hadn’t stolen from him — he retreated into the lie. It was like he had no choice. I couldn’t stop staring at my phone.

The way my decade-long friendship with Leo ended shook me for about a year. Now that he was gone, my friends who knew him could step forward with their own experiences. I could look back on things he said and see the cracks. I’ve never felt more stupid. Mostly, my feeling was that because he was so beautiful and charming and talented, and because I am a fat, middle-aged lady with a few jokes and decent writing ability, I never allowed myself to be skeptical with him for fear he’d stop talking to me. I believed someone else with more self-esteem who was a little brighter would have seen right through Leo. This isn’t me being self-deprecating, this is how I actually saw it.

With a few years’ perspective and after meeting a couple more Leos subsequently, I have a theory. I think there may be a lot of Leos out there among us.

Those of us raised ultra conservative, who wake up to the damage that extremism does, face a choice. The day comes where we either speak our truths and stop accommodating the family system, or we always keep a little bit of a lie going so we can keep their favor. Leo was like that. Once he told his family he was gay and they could live with that, he had to construct a perfect gay marriage to a perfect candidate. It couldn’t be troubled like other marriages. There couldn’t be an affair. It had to be perfect.

But those of us who stop accommodating, who say you’re wrong and refuse to support even the slightest vestige of that system, who take our lumps and live with the displeasure ... we get to be rigorously honest. Once we’ve made a stand that life-changing, it no longer matters what our friends, or our boss, or anyone thinks.

We’ve earned our truth. And we may live so strongly in that truth, it seems impossible for someone we love to be enmeshed in lies. We may be completely taken in by that person.

And that’s OK. Maybe even beautiful.

* I’ve changed one name.

** That’s the name.

[mymentalmasochism-blog]

MentalMasochism Review: Maid-Sama! - anime

Straight up, this is a difficult review to do. Not because I found this anime good, far from it, but because there’s so little substance here that I hardly know where to begin. Starting off, I was a little surprised that the characters actually do seem to show some growth, so I was almost excited to see how the anime would progress. I was a fool for having high hopes. There is no real overarching plot, so each episode essentially stands alone in the grand scheme of things. We follow Misaki Ayazumi, the student council president of Seiko Highschool, who works a part time job as a maid at a cafe in order to help support her family, which were abandoned by their father and left in massive amounts of debt. She puts on an incredibly rugged appearance at school, and does her best to hide her secret part-time job, but is unsuccessful when a classmate, Usui finds out, along with three other students.

Now you’d think that if there’s no real overarching plot that they would at least put a lot of focus on how these two love birds grow into being a couple, right? WRONG, very little actually changes up until the end. Usui is there for her 24/7 and Misaki never makes her feelings clear to him one way or another until the very end. However since there really is very little overarching plot, I’ll be primarily focusing on the main characters for this review. Our main protagonist, Misaki, is essentially your typical tough girl character, she focuses on trying to make the school a more suitable place for female students, as it was originally an all-boys school. She somehow manages to balance being the student council president, top of her class, a part-time job, and being unbelievably outstanding at basically all sports. It’s not exceptionally interesting, and all I really question is how she’s even capable of handling such a workload, which is actually talked about in one of the early episodes. She overworks herself, gets sick, takes a day off to rest, and that’s basically all there is to it. We clearly see her working well into the evenings, and she later explains that all-nighters are child’s play for her. It really makes me wish that they had made this a multi-episode subplot later on, rather than making it into just one episode. It ends up feeling rushed, and also doesn’t explain how she manages it in the long run.

A fairly common trend in romance animes is where either the main girl or main guy are oblivious to the others’ feelings, even if it’s literally spelled out for them, other times they reject it simply because they themselves don’t know how to feel about the other. This trend needs to die. I can maybe tolerate it if it doesn’t last particularly long, or if it’s used to promote character growth. However, 26 episodes of this?! Seriously? Misaki and Usui have a few sweet moments, but she instantly gets flustered at anything “romantic” that he does, and in one case it throws her off so much that he literally has to kiss someone else in front of her just for her to stop being flustered… Like seriously girl, I know high school is an awkward time, but he’s incredibly upfront about his feelings, so either tell him to buzz off, wait, or that you feel the same.

Usui on the other hand has the absolute perfect timing, and proves himself capable of doing just about anything, from being a butler, to literally jumping off a rooftop just to catch a picture. At first, it’s a little sweet, he really helps her out, right? Then it just becomes irksome, partly because it feels like Misaki gets to the point where she can’t do hardly anything without his assistance. Which is saying something, considering she is also capable of basically anything, such as winning a sporting competition that she’s a first-time player of, and literally breaking a set of handcuffs early on in the series.

They tried introducing a love triangle in the last 6 episodes, with Misaki’s childhood friend, Hinata Shintani, a skinny guy with a wicked sense of smell, capable of discerning what food people have on them without looking. He had promised to follow, and is strangely whimsical about the circumstances of his childhood, that had long separated them (basically his parents died, he lived with his farmer grandfather until his grandfather couldn’t really feed him anymore, and he returned to go to school on his inheritance). Usui and Hinata, both vying for her love, have various jealousy issues that come across as just forced and uninteresting. Had the triangle been built up over time, then maybe there would be some of the classic “who will she choose??” but it’s pretty clear that she’s going to choose Usui, which basically made the whole exchange feel just pointless. I also get the feeling that we’re meant to feel bad for Hinata, but honestly I don’t. I know he was her childhood friend, but his entire determination is essentially based on a fantasy, and it seems incredibly obvious that it’s not going anywhere between them.

One rather creepy episode features the class going to a Buddhist temple. Now normally you’d think your typical silly class things would happen, maybe some supposed ghosts, people getting scared, that sort of thing. Nope, how about all of the boys get so sleep deprived that they literally want to prey on the girls. So the guys become zombie rapists? What? I mean, I get that they’re just trying to make it seem like the guys aren’t actually going to rape the girls or anything, but considering that the teachers are supposed to barricade them off from where the girls are, it’s easy to interpret it in such a way that it’s just disturbing, especially with this gem of a line….

As one expects, Usui and Misaki finally end up together. Not exactly in a boyfriend-girlfriend deal, as she explains that she is incredibly confused about her feelings for him, but she wants to be with him regardless. What a wild ride that anime was, honestly. I rather felt bad for Usui, because a minor character pointed out, he’s basically enduring everything for her. He takes all of the times she shouts at him, and is still there for her whenever she needs him. But of course, despite this, Hinata swears that he will indeed be continuing his fight for her heart...

Bottom line: This anime seems to do a lot of “it’s funny at first, but let’s beat it to death and maybe it’ll be more funny!” It never really works. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for a romantic comedy anime set in high school, but I was at least hopeful for something of interest in it. Perhaps if I were only about ten years old, and this was my first anime, then maybe I could find something to enjoy, because a lot of this just seems like a very childish view of comedy and romance. I understand that comedy in particular can stretch how the world operates, often inflating things in such a way that they become funny, but it feels like all of this does it to such an extreme that it stops being funny. Characters that can jump off buildings, break handcuffs, and routinely beat people up, but they still get flustered when it comes to actual feelings. While even that concept could be enjoyable, if they made them a certain extreme level of bad@$$, but they’re not really. Their levels of extreme, while it fits the character, is also just not a really new concept. This is a fairly worn out idea as it is, and this anime really didn’t bring many new points either, and if it did, then it didn’t do much with them.

[milenasanchezmk]

Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild

Last month, you asked a ton of great questions in the comment section of my post on reclaiming your wildness and being less civilized, covering everything from rock climbing to role playing games, grappling to kung fu, walking meditation to grounding. For today’s post, I’m answering as many of them as I can.

Let’s get right to the questions.

Anthony Munkholm asked:

How about some tips for indoor rock climbing. Really been getting into this lately as great cross-training. Went outside in Colorado last summer and I’m hooked.

How do I increase finger strength? What about how being outside on a rock brings you so present?

I’m no expert in climbing, but from what I’ve gathered from friends who are, the best way for relative beginners to improve finger strength for climbing is to climb. Climbing places a specific type of stress on the fingers that is hard to replicate without actually climbing.

You can make it more systematic, of course, by moving back and forth between holds.

The same concepts that apply to training in general apply here as well. Don’t overdo it. Don’t train to failure every time. Stop short of the point where your grip totally fails.

On the rock, death or serious injury are serious possibilities. You slip, you fall. Even if there’s a pad underneath or a rope hitched to your waist, the lizard brain within perceives the situation to be dangerous. It forces the flow state. Riding the wave of the present and staying in the flow becomes a lot easier when death is on the line.

Chad Clark asked:

From your experience with grappling drills, how would you adopt martial arts into Primal aligned fitness endeavors? Also, what is keeping you from becoming more involved in the martial arts you listed? Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter?

I’d treat it like a high-intensity interval or sprint day. Grappling is seriously exhausting—and I wasn’t even going very hard at all!

I’m not sure. I may look into it a bit more. There’s certainly no shortage of training facilities these days. Keep you posted.

Ha! I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi earlier in life (Tolkien, Dick, Dune, etc), but never did dip my beak into D&D. These days, I frankly don’t have the time to get into something as involved and time-consuming as pen and paper role playing games.

Georgina wrote:

Excellent ideas. How about an article on “walking meditation in nature.” This is a formal practice with a blueprint to follow. this can be done solo or holding the hand of another. It connects us with the earth. It cultivates joy and gratitude. It places us in the present moment. Peace from n.c.

I love walking meditations. It’s the closest thing to an actual meditation I can sit (or walk) through. Beginners should probably start with Tara Brach, a Buddhist teacher who publishes guided meditations and lectures on her fantastic podcast and is a proponent of walking meditation (PDF). She suggests walking along a short predetermined path of 20-30 paces somewhere quiet and familiar. This creates boundaries and reduces distractions. Once you’re more confident in your ability to maintain focus, you can go on unstructured, longer walks through unfamiliar surroundings. The important thing is to pay attention to the shifting weight of your body as you walk, the feel of your footfalls, and the sensation of gliding through the air. As with sitting meditation, allow thoughts and other distractions to come and go; acknowledge but do not dwell on or judge them.

I find it much easier and more effective than sitting meditation.

There’s even a study which showed that a walking Buddhist meditation practice reduced depression, improved fitness and vascular function, and lowered stress hormones in depressed elderly patients to a greater extent than the same amount of walking without the meditating.

Alan requested:

Good article. I would like to see you write more in the future about finding balance between living less civilized and still within society. For example, whether love or hated the reboot of Point Break, there is a line in there that Bohdi says that really resonated with me. He said “We live on the grid, just on our own terms.” I would like to see you write about how that applies to the primal lifestyle. Thank you! Alan

Oh boy, this could turn into an entire post. I’ll keep it short and perhaps revisit it later.

As I allude to in the original post, for civilization to flourish and progress, we need both wildness and dependability. Creativity and diligence. In fact, each person must embody both energies.

First, figure out what you’re doing here on the planet. What are you trying to accomplish? Who or what are you responsible for? What gives you meaning? What’s best for you, your loved ones, your friends, your community?

Keep those in mind. Aim toward them. Then, indulge your wildness, but make sure it serves your ultimate goals of doing good, meaningful things, taking care of yourself and those around you, and improving your corner of the world.

Shake off the silly parts of civilization, like “taking the safe path” or “doing what you’re told,” and start thinking bigger, crazier.

bamboosmith asked a clear-cut one:

I live out in the country and do a lot of hanging from trees type pull ups. i’m older and wondered about going back and learning karate. i studied the martial arts in my 30’s for a few years and miss it. i feel like i may be too old 30 years later. any thoughts?

Just one: You’re not too old. Go, now.

I totally love this. I have 6 year old (wild) twins and it seems that this is what they do all the time. All I need to do is join them:) I also like to break out in dance or song spontaneously, and then the kids join me:)

Yes, follow them and do what they do. Funny story: A buddy of mine, Angelo Delacruz (master bodyworker, personal trainer, miracle worker, ninja, and PrimalCon star), was hosting a friend and his two young children at the gym one day. After noticing how much varied movement the kids did just inadvertently by being kids, he and a couple other trainers decided to follow them for ten minutes and do whatever they did.

After ten minutes, they were warm and loose and ready to train. Every joint had been articulated through every possible angle. It was the perfect warmup. For many, it’d be the perfect workout.

Sue Moore said:

Great article! New goal for 2018 is to take the road less travelled and be more spontaneous.

How’s that going for you? Don’t wait!

Megan said:

I work with elementary aged children with behavioral issues. Your post, especially the parts about embracing your inner weirdo, really spoke to me today. I’m going to take my students outside this week (or around the building if it’s still 15 degrees out here in Chicagoland) and look for ways that we can empower creativity and diversity of action inside the educational setting.

Beautiful. I know that standing desks have been shown to reduce behavioral issues and improve focus in elementary school students, so you may get good results! But there’s so much more to be found outside the desk space.

Ethan asked:

I’d like to see posts on how we normal, full-time workers, with kids, and all of that chaos, can find time to create, or play, or get involved.

What are the practical ways to do this?

The things you’re going to create, the ways you’ll play, the things you’ll want to involve yourself in are personal. You have to decide what appeals to you. However, there are a few ways you can increase the opportunities you have to create/play/involve yourself.

Figure out how much time you’re wasting on things that aren’t increasing your happiness, furthering your goals, or allowing you to express your wildness. Get a rough number—hours per day—and work on eliminating those wasteful practices. This will free up hours for you to do cool stuff.

If you haven’t started planning the week’s meals ahead of time, do that. Knowing what you’re going to make and having the ingredients ready to go (or even prepared ahead of time) saves a lot of time, reduces meal-time stress, and makes dinner a more harmonious, enjoyable. When you’re not stressed out from rushing to get dinner ready and on the table, you’ll have more mental energy to have a real conversation with your family, to discuss the day, to make plans for the weekend. That’s creation—positive energy where none existed before.

Don’t waste time on devices or social media. Don’t abstain entirely. Just don’t be one of the statistics who uses their phone for 4 hours a day just to avoid being alone in your own head.

Get to bed early and wake up early. Waking up before everyone else is magical in a quiet, simple way. It also gives you a nice chunk of free time to pursue any creative endeavors—working on a new side business, writing, reading (which I consider to be a kind of creation), exercising.

Gus Frey asked:

I have always wanted to learn a martial art, and was happy to read your lifelong desire and recent dive into it. Why do you recommend a grappling style as opposed to something like Kung Fu or something less about grappling? Thank you

As a kid, I loved roughhousing. This consisted mainly of wrestling, throwing, rolling around, pretty low skill-level stuff. It was intense and personal and hyperreal. It was also safer than throwing punches at each other. Fewer bruised egos, damaged friendships that way.

As an adult, grappling still seems safer to me than striking, though I know it’s all in how you train.

Brad wondered:

I’m interested in your take on grounding.

I wrote about it several years back. Check out the post.

Ive said it before on these pages, but I hunt.

It takes you off tracks, because that is where the game is. There is a pattern dictated by terrain, weather and vegetation – wild stuff – and there is a randomness, because you are pursuing something that you cannot know perfectly. Instead of following that trail that others have walked, you go where the situation dictates… even if no other human has set foot there for centuries, if ever!

There is sitting around a fire with your “tribe”. People who are there for the same purpose that you are, with whom you have a memory of shared experiences….. and who have shown time after time that they will put themselves through hardship to help you.

There is rolling out of the swag before dawn in lousy winter weather, knowing that the domesticated people couldn’t face that…..

Beautifully said, Peter. It hit me hard. That’s all.

Dugan said:

Honestly, based on the thoughts Mark laid out here, LARPing is firing on all cylinders. It takes creative thought to make a character, roleplay, and come up with armor and weapons. Then, depending on how serious you get, you can study and train in real martial arts in order to better your in-game play. You interact with a group of people equally zealous as you are. It takes time and organization to be efficient in crafting your needed items. And, depending on what LARP you do (anything from high fantasy to zombie apocalypse is out there) you can definitely interact with the environment in atypical ways. Heck, I’ve played a straight barbarian before, about as primitive as you can get. It’s great exercise and you can do it barefoot (in most cases.)

For all the jokes, LARPing really does sound like a good time and a perfect summation of the spirit of the post. If you ever watch those videos that people like to laugh at, you can’t help but notice the participants are ALL IN. Great comment.

Jason said:

Create vs Consume. While I may not have the right plan in place for create, I have had a large frustration with the amount of consume. I have been working towards consuming less (TV, phone data…useless stuff). A good way to get my butt in gear more often.

Yes, the ratio doesn’t have to be 1:1 or anything like that. The world wouldn’t work if everyone created more than they consumed. The trend is what to watch, and what to focus on changing. Do a little more creation and a little less consumption. Get it in where you can. Small steps.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and asking. Be sure to follow up down below with any further questions you might have.

Take care!

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[watsonrodriquezie]

Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild

Last month, you asked a ton of great questions in the comment section of my post on reclaiming your wildness and being less civilized, covering everything from rock climbing to role playing games, grappling to kung fu, walking meditation to grounding. For today’s post, I’m answering as many of them as I can.

Let’s get right to the questions.

Anthony Munkholm asked:

How about some tips for indoor rock climbing. Really been getting into this lately as great cross-training. Went outside in Colorado last summer and I’m hooked.

How do I increase finger strength? What about how being outside on a rock brings you so present?

I’m no expert in climbing, but from what I’ve gathered from friends who are, the best way for relative beginners to improve finger strength for climbing is to climb. Climbing places a specific type of stress on the fingers that is hard to replicate without actually climbing.

You can make it more systematic, of course, by moving back and forth between holds.

The same concepts that apply to training in general apply here as well. Don’t overdo it. Don’t train to failure every time. Stop short of the point where your grip totally fails.

On the rock, death or serious injury are serious possibilities. You slip, you fall. Even if there’s a pad underneath or a rope hitched to your waist, the lizard brain within perceives the situation to be dangerous. It forces the flow state. Riding the wave of the present and staying in the flow becomes a lot easier when death is on the line.

Chad Clark asked:

From your experience with grappling drills, how would you adopt martial arts into Primal aligned fitness endeavors? Also, what is keeping you from becoming more involved in the martial arts you listed? Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter?

I’d treat it like a high-intensity interval or sprint day. Grappling is seriously exhausting—and I wasn’t even going very hard at all!

I’m not sure. I may look into it a bit more. There’s certainly no shortage of training facilities these days. Keep you posted.

Ha! I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi earlier in life (Tolkien, Dick, Dune, etc), but never did dip my beak into D&D. These days, I frankly don’t have the time to get into something as involved and time-consuming as pen and paper role playing games.

Georgina wrote:

Excellent ideas. How about an article on “walking meditation in nature.” This is a formal practice with a blueprint to follow. this can be done solo or holding the hand of another. It connects us with the earth. It cultivates joy and gratitude. It places us in the present moment. Peace from n.c.

I love walking meditations. It’s the closest thing to an actual meditation I can sit (or walk) through. Beginners should probably start with Tara Brach, a Buddhist teacher who publishes guided meditations and lectures on her fantastic podcast and is a proponent of walking meditation (PDF). She suggests walking along a short predetermined path of 20-30 paces somewhere quiet and familiar. This creates boundaries and reduces distractions. Once you’re more confident in your ability to maintain focus, you can go on unstructured, longer walks through unfamiliar surroundings. The important thing is to pay attention to the shifting weight of your body as you walk, the feel of your footfalls, and the sensation of gliding through the air. As with sitting meditation, allow thoughts and other distractions to come and go; acknowledge but do not dwell on or judge them.

I find it much easier and more effective than sitting meditation.

There’s even a study which showed that a walking Buddhist meditation practice reduced depression, improved fitness and vascular function, and lowered stress hormones in depressed elderly patients to a greater extent than the same amount of walking without the meditating.

Alan requested:

Good article. I would like to see you write more in the future about finding balance between living less civilized and still within society. For example, whether love or hated the reboot of Point Break, there is a line in there that Bohdi says that really resonated with me. He said “We live on the grid, just on our own terms.” I would like to see you write about how that applies to the primal lifestyle. Thank you! Alan

Oh boy, this could turn into an entire post. I’ll keep it short and perhaps revisit it later.

As I allude to in the original post, for civilization to flourish and progress, we need both wildness and dependability. Creativity and diligence. In fact, each person must embody both energies.

First, figure out what you’re doing here on the planet. What are you trying to accomplish? Who or what are you responsible for? What gives you meaning? What’s best for you, your loved ones, your friends, your community?

Keep those in mind. Aim toward them. Then, indulge your wildness, but make sure it serves your ultimate goals of doing good, meaningful things, taking care of yourself and those around you, and improving your corner of the world.

Shake off the silly parts of civilization, like “taking the safe path” or “doing what you’re told,” and start thinking bigger, crazier.

bamboosmith asked a clear-cut one:

I live out in the country and do a lot of hanging from trees type pull ups. i’m older and wondered about going back and learning karate. i studied the martial arts in my 30’s for a few years and miss it. i feel like i may be too old 30 years later. any thoughts?

Just one: You’re not too old. Go, now.

I totally love this. I have 6 year old (wild) twins and it seems that this is what they do all the time. All I need to do is join them:) I also like to break out in dance or song spontaneously, and then the kids join me:)

Yes, follow them and do what they do. Funny story: A buddy of mine, Angelo Delacruz (master bodyworker, personal trainer, miracle worker, ninja, and PrimalCon star), was hosting a friend and his two young children at the gym one day. After noticing how much varied movement the kids did just inadvertently by being kids, he and a couple other trainers decided to follow them for ten minutes and do whatever they did.

After ten minutes, they were warm and loose and ready to train. Every joint had been articulated through every possible angle. It was the perfect warmup. For many, it’d be the perfect workout.

Sue Moore said:

Great article! New goal for 2018 is to take the road less travelled and be more spontaneous.

How’s that going for you? Don’t wait!

Megan said:

I work with elementary aged children with behavioral issues. Your post, especially the parts about embracing your inner weirdo, really spoke to me today. I’m going to take my students outside this week (or around the building if it’s still 15 degrees out here in Chicagoland) and look for ways that we can empower creativity and diversity of action inside the educational setting.

Beautiful. I know that standing desks have been shown to reduce behavioral issues and improve focus in elementary school students, so you may get good results! But there’s so much more to be found outside the desk space.

Ethan asked:

I’d like to see posts on how we normal, full-time workers, with kids, and all of that chaos, can find time to create, or play, or get involved.

What are the practical ways to do this?

The things you’re going to create, the ways you’ll play, the things you’ll want to involve yourself in are personal. You have to decide what appeals to you. However, there are a few ways you can increase the opportunities you have to create/play/involve yourself.

Figure out how much time you’re wasting on things that aren’t increasing your happiness, furthering your goals, or allowing you to express your wildness. Get a rough number—hours per day—and work on eliminating those wasteful practices. This will free up hours for you to do cool stuff.

If you haven’t started planning the week’s meals ahead of time, do that. Knowing what you’re going to make and having the ingredients ready to go (or even prepared ahead of time) saves a lot of time, reduces meal-time stress, and makes dinner a more harmonious, enjoyable. When you’re not stressed out from rushing to get dinner ready and on the table, you’ll have more mental energy to have a real conversation with your family, to discuss the day, to make plans for the weekend. That’s creation—positive energy where none existed before.

Don’t waste time on devices or social media. Don’t abstain entirely. Just don’t be one of the statistics who uses their phone for 4 hours a day just to avoid being alone in your own head.

Get to bed early and wake up early. Waking up before everyone else is magical in a quiet, simple way. It also gives you a nice chunk of free time to pursue any creative endeavors—working on a new side business, writing, reading (which I consider to be a kind of creation), exercising.

Gus Frey asked:

I have always wanted to learn a martial art, and was happy to read your lifelong desire and recent dive into it. Why do you recommend a grappling style as opposed to something like Kung Fu or something less about grappling? Thank you

As a kid, I loved roughhousing. This consisted mainly of wrestling, throwing, rolling around, pretty low skill-level stuff. It was intense and personal and hyperreal. It was also safer than throwing punches at each other. Fewer bruised egos, damaged friendships that way.

As an adult, grappling still seems safer to me than striking, though I know it’s all in how you train.

Brad wondered:

I’m interested in your take on grounding.

I wrote about it several years back. Check out the post.

Ive said it before on these pages, but I hunt.

It takes you off tracks, because that is where the game is. There is a pattern dictated by terrain, weather and vegetation – wild stuff – and there is a randomness, because you are pursuing something that you cannot know perfectly. Instead of following that trail that others have walked, you go where the situation dictates… even if no other human has set foot there for centuries, if ever!

There is sitting around a fire with your “tribe”. People who are there for the same purpose that you are, with whom you have a memory of shared experiences….. and who have shown time after time that they will put themselves through hardship to help you.

There is rolling out of the swag before dawn in lousy winter weather, knowing that the domesticated people couldn’t face that…..

Beautifully said, Peter. It hit me hard. That’s all.

Dugan said:

Honestly, based on the thoughts Mark laid out here, LARPing is firing on all cylinders. It takes creative thought to make a character, roleplay, and come up with armor and weapons. Then, depending on how serious you get, you can study and train in real martial arts in order to better your in-game play. You interact with a group of people equally zealous as you are. It takes time and organization to be efficient in crafting your needed items. And, depending on what LARP you do (anything from high fantasy to zombie apocalypse is out there) you can definitely interact with the environment in atypical ways. Heck, I’ve played a straight barbarian before, about as primitive as you can get. It’s great exercise and you can do it barefoot (in most cases.)

For all the jokes, LARPing really does sound like a good time and a perfect summation of the spirit of the post. If you ever watch those videos that people like to laugh at, you can’t help but notice the participants are ALL IN. Great comment.

Jason said:

Create vs Consume. While I may not have the right plan in place for create, I have had a large frustration with the amount of consume. I have been working towards consuming less (TV, phone data…useless stuff). A good way to get my butt in gear more often.

Yes, the ratio doesn’t have to be 1:1 or anything like that. The world wouldn’t work if everyone created more than they consumed. The trend is what to watch, and what to focus on changing. Do a little more creation and a little less consumption. Get it in where you can. Small steps.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and asking. Be sure to follow up down below with any further questions you might have.

Take care!

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[cristinajourdanqp]

Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild

Last month, you asked a ton of great questions in the comment section of my post on reclaiming your wildness and being less civilized, covering everything from rock climbing to role playing games, grappling to kung fu, walking meditation to grounding. For today’s post, I’m answering as many of them as I can.

Let’s get right to the questions.

Anthony Munkholm asked:

How about some tips for indoor rock climbing. Really been getting into this lately as great cross-training. Went outside in Colorado last summer and I’m hooked.

How do I increase finger strength? What about how being outside on a rock brings you so present?

I’m no expert in climbing, but from what I’ve gathered from friends who are, the best way for relative beginners to improve finger strength for climbing is to climb. Climbing places a specific type of stress on the fingers that is hard to replicate without actually climbing.

You can make it more systematic, of course, by moving back and forth between holds.

The same concepts that apply to training in general apply here as well. Don’t overdo it. Don’t train to failure every time. Stop short of the point where your grip totally fails.

On the rock, death or serious injury are serious possibilities. You slip, you fall. Even if there’s a pad underneath or a rope hitched to your waist, the lizard brain within perceives the situation to be dangerous. It forces the flow state. Riding the wave of the present and staying in the flow becomes a lot easier when death is on the line.

Chad Clark asked:

From your experience with grappling drills, how would you adopt martial arts into Primal aligned fitness endeavors? Also, what is keeping you from becoming more involved in the martial arts you listed? Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter?

I’d treat it like a high-intensity interval or sprint day. Grappling is seriously exhausting—and I wasn’t even going very hard at all!

I’m not sure. I may look into it a bit more. There’s certainly no shortage of training facilities these days. Keep you posted.

Ha! I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi earlier in life (Tolkien, Dick, Dune, etc), but never did dip my beak into D&D. These days, I frankly don’t have the time to get into something as involved and time-consuming as pen and paper role playing games.

Georgina wrote:

Excellent ideas. How about an article on “walking meditation in nature.” This is a formal practice with a blueprint to follow. this can be done solo or holding the hand of another. It connects us with the earth. It cultivates joy and gratitude. It places us in the present moment. Peace from n.c.

I love walking meditations. It’s the closest thing to an actual meditation I can sit (or walk) through. Beginners should probably start with Tara Brach, a Buddhist teacher who publishes guided meditations and lectures on her fantastic podcast and is a proponent of walking meditation (PDF). She suggests walking along a short predetermined path of 20-30 paces somewhere quiet and familiar. This creates boundaries and reduces distractions. Once you’re more confident in your ability to maintain focus, you can go on unstructured, longer walks through unfamiliar surroundings. The important thing is to pay attention to the shifting weight of your body as you walk, the feel of your footfalls, and the sensation of gliding through the air. As with sitting meditation, allow thoughts and other distractions to come and go; acknowledge but do not dwell on or judge them.

I find it much easier and more effective than sitting meditation.

There’s even a study which showed that a walking Buddhist meditation practice reduced depression, improved fitness and vascular function, and lowered stress hormones in depressed elderly patients to a greater extent than the same amount of walking without the meditating.

Alan requested:

Good article. I would like to see you write more in the future about finding balance between living less civilized and still within society. For example, whether love or hated the reboot of Point Break, there is a line in there that Bohdi says that really resonated with me. He said “We live on the grid, just on our own terms.” I would like to see you write about how that applies to the primal lifestyle. Thank you! Alan

Oh boy, this could turn into an entire post. I’ll keep it short and perhaps revisit it later.

As I allude to in the original post, for civilization to flourish and progress, we need both wildness and dependability. Creativity and diligence. In fact, each person must embody both energies.

First, figure out what you’re doing here on the planet. What are you trying to accomplish? Who or what are you responsible for? What gives you meaning? What’s best for you, your loved ones, your friends, your community?

Keep those in mind. Aim toward them. Then, indulge your wildness, but make sure it serves your ultimate goals of doing good, meaningful things, taking care of yourself and those around you, and improving your corner of the world.

Shake off the silly parts of civilization, like “taking the safe path” or “doing what you’re told,” and start thinking bigger, crazier.

bamboosmith asked a clear-cut one:

I live out in the country and do a lot of hanging from trees type pull ups. i’m older and wondered about going back and learning karate. i studied the martial arts in my 30’s for a few years and miss it. i feel like i may be too old 30 years later. any thoughts?

Just one: You’re not too old. Go, now.

I totally love this. I have 6 year old (wild) twins and it seems that this is what they do all the time. All I need to do is join them:) I also like to break out in dance or song spontaneously, and then the kids join me:)

Yes, follow them and do what they do. Funny story: A buddy of mine, Angelo Delacruz (master bodyworker, personal trainer, miracle worker, ninja, and PrimalCon star), was hosting a friend and his two young children at the gym one day. After noticing how much varied movement the kids did just inadvertently by being kids, he and a couple other trainers decided to follow them for ten minutes and do whatever they did.

After ten minutes, they were warm and loose and ready to train. Every joint had been articulated through every possible angle. It was the perfect warmup. For many, it’d be the perfect workout.

Sue Moore said:

Great article! New goal for 2018 is to take the road less travelled and be more spontaneous.

How’s that going for you? Don’t wait!

Megan said:

I work with elementary aged children with behavioral issues. Your post, especially the parts about embracing your inner weirdo, really spoke to me today. I’m going to take my students outside this week (or around the building if it’s still 15 degrees out here in Chicagoland) and look for ways that we can empower creativity and diversity of action inside the educational setting.

Beautiful. I know that standing desks have been shown to reduce behavioral issues and improve focus in elementary school students, so you may get good results! But there’s so much more to be found outside the desk space.

Ethan asked:

I’d like to see posts on how we normal, full-time workers, with kids, and all of that chaos, can find time to create, or play, or get involved.

What are the practical ways to do this?

The things you’re going to create, the ways you’ll play, the things you’ll want to involve yourself in are personal. You have to decide what appeals to you. However, there are a few ways you can increase the opportunities you have to create/play/involve yourself.

Figure out how much time you’re wasting on things that aren’t increasing your happiness, furthering your goals, or allowing you to express your wildness. Get a rough number—hours per day—and work on eliminating those wasteful practices. This will free up hours for you to do cool stuff.

If you haven’t started planning the week’s meals ahead of time, do that. Knowing what you’re going to make and having the ingredients ready to go (or even prepared ahead of time) saves a lot of time, reduces meal-time stress, and makes dinner a more harmonious, enjoyable. When you’re not stressed out from rushing to get dinner ready and on the table, you’ll have more mental energy to have a real conversation with your family, to discuss the day, to make plans for the weekend. That’s creation—positive energy where none existed before.

Don’t waste time on devices or social media. Don’t abstain entirely. Just don’t be one of the statistics who uses their phone for 4 hours a day just to avoid being alone in your own head.

Get to bed early and wake up early. Waking up before everyone else is magical in a quiet, simple way. It also gives you a nice chunk of free time to pursue any creative endeavors—working on a new side business, writing, reading (which I consider to be a kind of creation), exercising.

Gus Frey asked:

I have always wanted to learn a martial art, and was happy to read your lifelong desire and recent dive into it. Why do you recommend a grappling style as opposed to something like Kung Fu or something less about grappling? Thank you

As a kid, I loved roughhousing. This consisted mainly of wrestling, throwing, rolling around, pretty low skill-level stuff. It was intense and personal and hyperreal. It was also safer than throwing punches at each other. Fewer bruised egos, damaged friendships that way.

As an adult, grappling still seems safer to me than striking, though I know it’s all in how you train.

Brad wondered:

I’m interested in your take on grounding.

I wrote about it several years back. Check out the post.

Ive said it before on these pages, but I hunt.

It takes you off tracks, because that is where the game is. There is a pattern dictated by terrain, weather and vegetation – wild stuff – and there is a randomness, because you are pursuing something that you cannot know perfectly. Instead of following that trail that others have walked, you go where the situation dictates… even if no other human has set foot there for centuries, if ever!

There is sitting around a fire with your “tribe”. People who are there for the same purpose that you are, with whom you have a memory of shared experiences….. and who have shown time after time that they will put themselves through hardship to help you.

There is rolling out of the swag before dawn in lousy winter weather, knowing that the domesticated people couldn’t face that…..

Beautifully said, Peter. It hit me hard. That’s all.

Dugan said:

Honestly, based on the thoughts Mark laid out here, LARPing is firing on all cylinders. It takes creative thought to make a character, roleplay, and come up with armor and weapons. Then, depending on how serious you get, you can study and train in real martial arts in order to better your in-game play. You interact with a group of people equally zealous as you are. It takes time and organization to be efficient in crafting your needed items. And, depending on what LARP you do (anything from high fantasy to zombie apocalypse is out there) you can definitely interact with the environment in atypical ways. Heck, I’ve played a straight barbarian before, about as primitive as you can get. It’s great exercise and you can do it barefoot (in most cases.)

For all the jokes, LARPing really does sound like a good time and a perfect summation of the spirit of the post. If you ever watch those videos that people like to laugh at, you can’t help but notice the participants are ALL IN. Great comment.

Jason said:

Create vs Consume. While I may not have the right plan in place for create, I have had a large frustration with the amount of consume. I have been working towards consuming less (TV, phone data…useless stuff). A good way to get my butt in gear more often.

Yes, the ratio doesn’t have to be 1:1 or anything like that. The world wouldn’t work if everyone created more than they consumed. The trend is what to watch, and what to focus on changing. Do a little more creation and a little less consumption. Get it in where you can. Small steps.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and asking. Be sure to follow up down below with any further questions you might have.

Take care!

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[fishermariawo]

Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild

Last month, you asked a ton of great questions in the comment section of my post on reclaiming your wildness and being less civilized, covering everything from rock climbing to role playing games, grappling to kung fu, walking meditation to grounding. For today’s post, I’m answering as many of them as I can.

Let’s get right to the questions.

Anthony Munkholm asked:

How about some tips for indoor rock climbing. Really been getting into this lately as great cross-training. Went outside in Colorado last summer and I’m hooked.

How do I increase finger strength? What about how being outside on a rock brings you so present?

I’m no expert in climbing, but from what I’ve gathered from friends who are, the best way for relative beginners to improve finger strength for climbing is to climb. Climbing places a specific type of stress on the fingers that is hard to replicate without actually climbing.

You can make it more systematic, of course, by moving back and forth between holds.

The same concepts that apply to training in general apply here as well. Don’t overdo it. Don’t train to failure every time. Stop short of the point where your grip totally fails.

On the rock, death or serious injury are serious possibilities. You slip, you fall. Even if there’s a pad underneath or a rope hitched to your waist, the lizard brain within perceives the situation to be dangerous. It forces the flow state. Riding the wave of the present and staying in the flow becomes a lot easier when death is on the line.

Chad Clark asked:

From your experience with grappling drills, how would you adopt martial arts into Primal aligned fitness endeavors? Also, what is keeping you from becoming more involved in the martial arts you listed? Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter?

I’d treat it like a high-intensity interval or sprint day. Grappling is seriously exhausting—and I wasn’t even going very hard at all!

I’m not sure. I may look into it a bit more. There’s certainly no shortage of training facilities these days. Keep you posted.

Ha! I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi earlier in life (Tolkien, Dick, Dune, etc), but never did dip my beak into D&D. These days, I frankly don’t have the time to get into something as involved and time-consuming as pen and paper role playing games.

Georgina wrote:

Excellent ideas. How about an article on “walking meditation in nature.” This is a formal practice with a blueprint to follow. this can be done solo or holding the hand of another. It connects us with the earth. It cultivates joy and gratitude. It places us in the present moment. Peace from n.c.

I love walking meditations. It’s the closest thing to an actual meditation I can sit (or walk) through. Beginners should probably start with Tara Brach, a Buddhist teacher who publishes guided meditations and lectures on her fantastic podcast and is a proponent of walking meditation (PDF). She suggests walking along a short predetermined path of 20-30 paces somewhere quiet and familiar. This creates boundaries and reduces distractions. Once you’re more confident in your ability to maintain focus, you can go on unstructured, longer walks through unfamiliar surroundings. The important thing is to pay attention to the shifting weight of your body as you walk, the feel of your footfalls, and the sensation of gliding through the air. As with sitting meditation, allow thoughts and other distractions to come and go; acknowledge but do not dwell on or judge them.

I find it much easier and more effective than sitting meditation.

There’s even a study which showed that a walking Buddhist meditation practice reduced depression, improved fitness and vascular function, and lowered stress hormones in depressed elderly patients to a greater extent than the same amount of walking without the meditating.

Alan requested:

Good article. I would like to see you write more in the future about finding balance between living less civilized and still within society. For example, whether love or hated the reboot of Point Break, there is a line in there that Bohdi says that really resonated with me. He said “We live on the grid, just on our own terms.” I would like to see you write about how that applies to the primal lifestyle. Thank you! Alan

Oh boy, this could turn into an entire post. I’ll keep it short and perhaps revisit it later.

As I allude to in the original post, for civilization to flourish and progress, we need both wildness and dependability. Creativity and diligence. In fact, each person must embody both energies.

First, figure out what you’re doing here on the planet. What are you trying to accomplish? Who or what are you responsible for? What gives you meaning? What’s best for you, your loved ones, your friends, your community?

Keep those in mind. Aim toward them. Then, indulge your wildness, but make sure it serves your ultimate goals of doing good, meaningful things, taking care of yourself and those around you, and improving your corner of the world.

Shake off the silly parts of civilization, like “taking the safe path” or “doing what you’re told,” and start thinking bigger, crazier.

bamboosmith asked a clear-cut one:

I live out in the country and do a lot of hanging from trees type pull ups. i’m older and wondered about going back and learning karate. i studied the martial arts in my 30’s for a few years and miss it. i feel like i may be too old 30 years later. any thoughts?

Just one: You’re not too old. Go, now.

I totally love this. I have 6 year old (wild) twins and it seems that this is what they do all the time. All I need to do is join them:) I also like to break out in dance or song spontaneously, and then the kids join me:)

Yes, follow them and do what they do. Funny story: A buddy of mine, Angelo Delacruz (master bodyworker, personal trainer, miracle worker, ninja, and PrimalCon star), was hosting a friend and his two young children at the gym one day. After noticing how much varied movement the kids did just inadvertently by being kids, he and a couple other trainers decided to follow them for ten minutes and do whatever they did.

After ten minutes, they were warm and loose and ready to train. Every joint had been articulated through every possible angle. It was the perfect warmup. For many, it’d be the perfect workout.

Sue Moore said:

Great article! New goal for 2018 is to take the road less travelled and be more spontaneous.

How’s that going for you? Don’t wait!

Megan said:

I work with elementary aged children with behavioral issues. Your post, especially the parts about embracing your inner weirdo, really spoke to me today. I’m going to take my students outside this week (or around the building if it’s still 15 degrees out here in Chicagoland) and look for ways that we can empower creativity and diversity of action inside the educational setting.

Beautiful. I know that standing desks have been shown to reduce behavioral issues and improve focus in elementary school students, so you may get good results! But there’s so much more to be found outside the desk space.

Ethan asked:

I’d like to see posts on how we normal, full-time workers, with kids, and all of that chaos, can find time to create, or play, or get involved.

What are the practical ways to do this?

The things you’re going to create, the ways you’ll play, the things you’ll want to involve yourself in are personal. You have to decide what appeals to you. However, there are a few ways you can increase the opportunities you have to create/play/involve yourself.

Figure out how much time you’re wasting on things that aren’t increasing your happiness, furthering your goals, or allowing you to express your wildness. Get a rough number—hours per day—and work on eliminating those wasteful practices. This will free up hours for you to do cool stuff.

If you haven’t started planning the week’s meals ahead of time, do that. Knowing what you’re going to make and having the ingredients ready to go (or even prepared ahead of time) saves a lot of time, reduces meal-time stress, and makes dinner a more harmonious, enjoyable. When you’re not stressed out from rushing to get dinner ready and on the table, you’ll have more mental energy to have a real conversation with your family, to discuss the day, to make plans for the weekend. That’s creation—positive energy where none existed before.

Don’t waste time on devices or social media. Don’t abstain entirely. Just don’t be one of the statistics who uses their phone for 4 hours a day just to avoid being alone in your own head.

Get to bed early and wake up early. Waking up before everyone else is magical in a quiet, simple way. It also gives you a nice chunk of free time to pursue any creative endeavors—working on a new side business, writing, reading (which I consider to be a kind of creation), exercising.

Gus Frey asked:

I have always wanted to learn a martial art, and was happy to read your lifelong desire and recent dive into it. Why do you recommend a grappling style as opposed to something like Kung Fu or something less about grappling? Thank you

As a kid, I loved roughhousing. This consisted mainly of wrestling, throwing, rolling around, pretty low skill-level stuff. It was intense and personal and hyperreal. It was also safer than throwing punches at each other. Fewer bruised egos, damaged friendships that way.

As an adult, grappling still seems safer to me than striking, though I know it’s all in how you train.

Brad wondered:

I’m interested in your take on grounding.

I wrote about it several years back. Check out the post.

Ive said it before on these pages, but I hunt.

It takes you off tracks, because that is where the game is. There is a pattern dictated by terrain, weather and vegetation – wild stuff – and there is a randomness, because you are pursuing something that you cannot know perfectly. Instead of following that trail that others have walked, you go where the situation dictates… even if no other human has set foot there for centuries, if ever!

There is sitting around a fire with your “tribe”. People who are there for the same purpose that you are, with whom you have a memory of shared experiences….. and who have shown time after time that they will put themselves through hardship to help you.

There is rolling out of the swag before dawn in lousy winter weather, knowing that the domesticated people couldn’t face that…..

Beautifully said, Peter. It hit me hard. That’s all.

Dugan said:

Honestly, based on the thoughts Mark laid out here, LARPing is firing on all cylinders. It takes creative thought to make a character, roleplay, and come up with armor and weapons. Then, depending on how serious you get, you can study and train in real martial arts in order to better your in-game play. You interact with a group of people equally zealous as you are. It takes time and organization to be efficient in crafting your needed items. And, depending on what LARP you do (anything from high fantasy to zombie apocalypse is out there) you can definitely interact with the environment in atypical ways. Heck, I’ve played a straight barbarian before, about as primitive as you can get. It’s great exercise and you can do it barefoot (in most cases.)

For all the jokes, LARPing really does sound like a good time and a perfect summation of the spirit of the post. If you ever watch those videos that people like to laugh at, you can’t help but notice the participants are ALL IN. Great comment.

Jason said:

Create vs Consume. While I may not have the right plan in place for create, I have had a large frustration with the amount of consume. I have been working towards consuming less (TV, phone data…useless stuff). A good way to get my butt in gear more often.

Yes, the ratio doesn’t have to be 1:1 or anything like that. The world wouldn’t work if everyone created more than they consumed. The trend is what to watch, and what to focus on changing. Do a little more creation and a little less consumption. Get it in where you can. Small steps.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and asking. Be sure to follow up down below with any further questions you might have.

Take care!

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

[cynthiamwashington]

Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild

Last month, you asked a ton of great questions in the comment section of my post on reclaiming your wildness and being less civilized, covering everything from rock climbing to role playing games, grappling to kung fu, walking meditation to grounding. For today’s post, I’m answering as many of them as I can.

Let’s get right to the questions.

Anthony Munkholm asked:

How about some tips for indoor rock climbing. Really been getting into this lately as great cross-training. Went outside in Colorado last summer and I’m hooked.

How do I increase finger strength? What about how being outside on a rock brings you so present?

I’m no expert in climbing, but from what I’ve gathered from friends who are, the best way for relative beginners to improve finger strength for climbing is to climb. Climbing places a specific type of stress on the fingers that is hard to replicate without actually climbing.

You can make it more systematic, of course, by moving back and forth between holds.

The same concepts that apply to training in general apply here as well. Don’t overdo it. Don’t train to failure every time. Stop short of the point where your grip totally fails.

On the rock, death or serious injury are serious possibilities. You slip, you fall. Even if there’s a pad underneath or a rope hitched to your waist, the lizard brain within perceives the situation to be dangerous. It forces the flow state. Riding the wave of the present and staying in the flow becomes a lot easier when death is on the line.

Chad Clark asked:

From your experience with grappling drills, how would you adopt martial arts into Primal aligned fitness endeavors? Also, what is keeping you from becoming more involved in the martial arts you listed? Or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter?

I’d treat it like a high-intensity interval or sprint day. Grappling is seriously exhausting—and I wasn’t even going very hard at all!

I’m not sure. I may look into it a bit more. There’s certainly no shortage of training facilities these days. Keep you posted.

Ha! I was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi earlier in life (Tolkien, Dick, Dune, etc), but never did dip my beak into D&D. These days, I frankly don’t have the time to get into something as involved and time-consuming as pen and paper role playing games.

Georgina wrote:

Excellent ideas. How about an article on “walking meditation in nature.” This is a formal practice with a blueprint to follow. this can be done solo or holding the hand of another. It connects us with the earth. It cultivates joy and gratitude. It places us in the present moment. Peace from n.c.

I love walking meditations. It’s the closest thing to an actual meditation I can sit (or walk) through. Beginners should probably start with Tara Brach, a Buddhist teacher who publishes guided meditations and lectures on her fantastic podcast and is a proponent of walking meditation (PDF). She suggests walking along a short predetermined path of 20-30 paces somewhere quiet and familiar. This creates boundaries and reduces distractions. Once you’re more confident in your ability to maintain focus, you can go on unstructured, longer walks through unfamiliar surroundings. The important thing is to pay attention to the shifting weight of your body as you walk, the feel of your footfalls, and the sensation of gliding through the air. As with sitting meditation, allow thoughts and other distractions to come and go; acknowledge but do not dwell on or judge them.

I find it much easier and more effective than sitting meditation.

There’s even a study which showed that a walking Buddhist meditation practice reduced depression, improved fitness and vascular function, and lowered stress hormones in depressed elderly patients to a greater extent than the same amount of walking without the meditating.

Alan requested:

Good article. I would like to see you write more in the future about finding balance between living less civilized and still within society. For example, whether love or hated the reboot of Point Break, there is a line in there that Bohdi says that really resonated with me. He said “We live on the grid, just on our own terms.” I would like to see you write about how that applies to the primal lifestyle. Thank you! Alan

Oh boy, this could turn into an entire post. I’ll keep it short and perhaps revisit it later.

As I allude to in the original post, for civilization to flourish and progress, we need both wildness and dependability. Creativity and diligence. In fact, each person must embody both energies.

First, figure out what you’re doing here on the planet. What are you trying to accomplish? Who or what are you responsible for? What gives you meaning? What’s best for you, your loved ones, your friends, your community?

Keep those in mind. Aim toward them. Then, indulge your wildness, but make sure it serves your ultimate goals of doing good, meaningful things, taking care of yourself and those around you, and improving your corner of the world.

Shake off the silly parts of civilization, like “taking the safe path” or “doing what you’re told,” and start thinking bigger, crazier.

bamboosmith asked a clear-cut one:

I live out in the country and do a lot of hanging from trees type pull ups. i’m older and wondered about going back and learning karate. i studied the martial arts in my 30’s for a few years and miss it. i feel like i may be too old 30 years later. any thoughts?

Just one: You’re not too old. Go, now.

I totally love this. I have 6 year old (wild) twins and it seems that this is what they do all the time. All I need to do is join them:) I also like to break out in dance or song spontaneously, and then the kids join me:)

Yes, follow them and do what they do. Funny story: A buddy of mine, Angelo Delacruz (master bodyworker, personal trainer, miracle worker, ninja, and PrimalCon star), was hosting a friend and his two young children at the gym one day. After noticing how much varied movement the kids did just inadvertently by being kids, he and a couple other trainers decided to follow them for ten minutes and do whatever they did.

After ten minutes, they were warm and loose and ready to train. Every joint had been articulated through every possible angle. It was the perfect warmup. For many, it’d be the perfect workout.

Sue Moore said:

Great article! New goal for 2018 is to take the road less travelled and be more spontaneous.

How’s that going for you? Don’t wait!

Megan said:

I work with elementary aged children with behavioral issues. Your post, especially the parts about embracing your inner weirdo, really spoke to me today. I’m going to take my students outside this week (or around the building if it’s still 15 degrees out here in Chicagoland) and look for ways that we can empower creativity and diversity of action inside the educational setting.

Beautiful. I know that standing desks have been shown to reduce behavioral issues and improve focus in elementary school students, so you may get good results! But there’s so much more to be found outside the desk space.

Ethan asked:

I’d like to see posts on how we normal, full-time workers, with kids, and all of that chaos, can find time to create, or play, or get involved.

What are the practical ways to do this?

The things you’re going to create, the ways you’ll play, the things you’ll want to involve yourself in are personal. You have to decide what appeals to you. However, there are a few ways you can increase the opportunities you have to create/play/involve yourself.

Figure out how much time you’re wasting on things that aren’t increasing your happiness, furthering your goals, or allowing you to express your wildness. Get a rough number—hours per day—and work on eliminating those wasteful practices. This will free up hours for you to do cool stuff.

If you haven’t started planning the week’s meals ahead of time, do that. Knowing what you’re going to make and having the ingredients ready to go (or even prepared ahead of time) saves a lot of time, reduces meal-time stress, and makes dinner a more harmonious, enjoyable. When you’re not stressed out from rushing to get dinner ready and on the table, you’ll have more mental energy to have a real conversation with your family, to discuss the day, to make plans for the weekend. That’s creation—positive energy where none existed before.

Don’t waste time on devices or social media. Don’t abstain entirely. Just don’t be one of the statistics who uses their phone for 4 hours a day just to avoid being alone in your own head.

Get to bed early and wake up early. Waking up before everyone else is magical in a quiet, simple way. It also gives you a nice chunk of free time to pursue any creative endeavors—working on a new side business, writing, reading (which I consider to be a kind of creation), exercising.

Gus Frey asked:

I have always wanted to learn a martial art, and was happy to read your lifelong desire and recent dive into it. Why do you recommend a grappling style as opposed to something like Kung Fu or something less about grappling? Thank you

As a kid, I loved roughhousing. This consisted mainly of wrestling, throwing, rolling around, pretty low skill-level stuff. It was intense and personal and hyperreal. It was also safer than throwing punches at each other. Fewer bruised egos, damaged friendships that way.

As an adult, grappling still seems safer to me than striking, though I know it’s all in how you train.

Brad wondered:

I’m interested in your take on grounding.

I wrote about it several years back. Check out the post.

Ive said it before on these pages, but I hunt.

It takes you off tracks, because that is where the game is. There is a pattern dictated by terrain, weather and vegetation – wild stuff – and there is a randomness, because you are pursuing something that you cannot know perfectly. Instead of following that trail that others have walked, you go where the situation dictates… even if no other human has set foot there for centuries, if ever!

There is sitting around a fire with your “tribe”. People who are there for the same purpose that you are, with whom you have a memory of shared experiences….. and who have shown time after time that they will put themselves through hardship to help you.

There is rolling out of the swag before dawn in lousy winter weather, knowing that the domesticated people couldn’t face that…..

Beautifully said, Peter. It hit me hard. That’s all.

Dugan said:

Honestly, based on the thoughts Mark laid out here, LARPing is firing on all cylinders. It takes creative thought to make a character, roleplay, and come up with armor and weapons. Then, depending on how serious you get, you can study and train in real martial arts in order to better your in-game play. You interact with a group of people equally zealous as you are. It takes time and organization to be efficient in crafting your needed items. And, depending on what LARP you do (anything from high fantasy to zombie apocalypse is out there) you can definitely interact with the environment in atypical ways. Heck, I’ve played a straight barbarian before, about as primitive as you can get. It’s great exercise and you can do it barefoot (in most cases.)

For all the jokes, LARPing really does sound like a good time and a perfect summation of the spirit of the post. If you ever watch those videos that people like to laugh at, you can’t help but notice the participants are ALL IN. Great comment.

Jason said:

Create vs Consume. While I may not have the right plan in place for create, I have had a large frustration with the amount of consume. I have been working towards consuming less (TV, phone data…useless stuff). A good way to get my butt in gear more often.

Yes, the ratio doesn’t have to be 1:1 or anything like that. The world wouldn’t work if everyone created more than they consumed. The trend is what to watch, and what to focus on changing. Do a little more creation and a little less consumption. Get it in where you can. Small steps.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and asking. Be sure to follow up down below with any further questions you might have.

Take care!

Want to make fat loss easier? Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

The post Rapid Fire Questions and Answers: Getting Wild appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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