#Significant as in like two or three kilos barely

[shiroselia]

TLDR on the new model creator so far

The models are Incredibly bottom heavy, the forearms literally never change size and the neck barely does either and it creates a Bit of a weird effect, I like the models, I think they’re good, but they definitely look a Little off because of how much more the thigh area changes between sizes compared to the torso and Especially the arms

[vee-angel]

Talynn’s Edge (Part 2)

(Just reposted the first part of this story with the corresponding illustration. This section will have a pretty significant amount of blood and violence, both sexual and non-sexual. And just an FYI, this part is not a stand-alone story by any means. If you want to understand what’s going on, I recommend reading the first part, and if you want to understand what’s going on well, I recommend reading the first part, and watching “Sonnie’s Edge” from the Love, Death + Robots anthology series on Netflix. If you want to completely understand, than do all that, and also read the short story by Peter F. Hamilton.)

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Something was different about the vibes tonight. Me and the rest of Sonnie’s Predators had seen plenty of fight nights, but this was the fight night. Khanivore vs. Hellcat. Me vs…. her.

Seems like a pair of woman beastie baiters going head to head was a bigger draw than I’d thought. Traffic is shit in the cities anyway, but the sludge of vehicles and bodies round the arena made it so the old twenty-wheeler’s cab had to slog inch by inch before we could unload Khanivore’s pod.

Hadn’t seen Talynn since that night months ago in the shitty spunk-stained hotel room. Fight promoters had set everything up. Closest thing we’d got to talking was signing the same fight contract. Still, she’d been in my head more than I’d have liked.

I felt ready, though. Near half a thousand dead rabbits made sure of that. Gotten to the point Khanivore had the muscle memory to spear a frantic hare running full clip near a hundred-percent of the time. Her bone-blade tentacles should make quick work of Hellcat even with its ungodly speed.

Wondered if Talynn still remembered the agreement we made that night. Winner gets to have their way with the loser. Ain’t exactly any way I’d have to pay up if I lose, but if I win, I wouldn’t mind a good shag. Honestly, I’d got a bit obsessive as of late, and needed the release.

I’d scouted the set-up a couple weeks before. Arena was bigger than the last one, but same basic set-up. Fight-pit dropped into the floor with rows and rows of people packed like sardines. Pit was the biggest one I’d seen so far, made room to maneuver, also meant her beastie had room to pick up speed.

After we finally got unloaded and took care of pre-fight business, we waited for the ring-master to start talking me up so I could make my entrance. Heard the clamor of the crowd before taking a step out into the open with Wes and Ivrina on either side. The Sonnie’s Predators fans jumped to their feet and went wild. My fans, I was the one putting it all on the line after all. God it felt good. I was the champion, and I wasn’t about to let some yankee cunt take that away from me.

Announcer kept on with peppy hyperbolic fanfare as I settled down in my signature zen pose at the edge of the pit. They could pretend they was excited because we were both undefeated, but really it was just that both pilots had tits for the first time.

Finally saw Talynn walking out from the other side of the arena. My heart beat a little faster and I couldn’t tell if it was because I still fancied her a bit or because the psychotic twat scared me a little. Honestly, probably a bit of both.

“Fuckin’ Hell, do you suppose that’s real?” Wes asked

“Fake stuff don’t clot like that.” Ivrina said back.

For half a second I wasn’t sure what they was talking about. Then I saw it. I mistook her for wearin that same shiny red skin-suit I’d seen her in last time, but it wasn’t that. It was blood.

Fuckin’ perfect outfit to intimidate, I figure. Ain’t nothing gonna scare the shit out of somebody quite like walking out naked smeared with gore. Her face was different, too. No babydoll grin, just this death scowl pointed right in my direction. Whole affair gave her this look like some kinda Aztek deity you could summon if you knifed out enough living people’s hearts as tribute.

She was taking this one serious, I figure. Ain’t no point in going the whole nine to intimidate unless you’re scared yourself. She didn’t think this up last minute.  Maybe over this last stretch this fight had been running through my head more times than it ought to, but now I knew. I’d gotten into her brain-space, too.

“You ready, Sonnie?” Ivrina’s voice came real gentle from the side. She didn’t want to fuck my concentration. I didn’t even look at her or Wes, just gave a quick nod staring straight ahead. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

“A’right, booting the Affinity Link… Now.”

There was a brief flash where I was falling through a thick ocean of pitch black, but my brain did quick work making sense of the sensorium coming through my body... Khanivore’s body. My eyes opened to the sight of the pod freshly opened and I stepped out on freakish strong thighs.

I heard the announcer saying my name and dashed out into the fight-pit. I moved quick, but not too quick. Didn’t want to telegraph how fast I’d become.

Hellcat got announced then. The black beast stalked out slow and confident-like. Didn’t make any fancy display like the first time I saw. She wanted to save all its energy for ripping limb from limb and then fucking the dead, bloody stumps.

This is when fear kicked in; locked in a pit with nothing between me and this prickly murderbeast that wanted nothing more than to kill me. This is when it got real. My survival instincts start screaming at me and I became primality incarnate. My body tensed, bone blades poised to strike, legs ready to dodge. This was it.

The fight lights went on.  

Nothing.

Hellcat stared, quiet menace rising off it like smoke. Didn’t strike, didn’t lunge.

It started to move, real slow like. Tense steps around the edge of the pit like it was circling prey. I did the same; wasn’t about to let it flank me. I couldn’t let my guard down. I’d seen how fast it was. Talynn wasn’t going to let me survive a mis-step.

We’d gone around a full three-sixty with careful slow steps, staring one another down. The crowd had gone quiet, too; just waiting. Was this her strategy? Wear out my patience, wait for a mistake? A reckless move? Not gonna happen. She can take as many moments as she likes, and I’ll savor every one. Because if I fuck up, I won’t be having any moments ever again.

I kept my nerves steady, If anyone was going to be reckless it’d be her. . . and she was. She kept on going round, but she was moving farther from the edge. She had her eyes locked on and couldn’t help but get closer. She may have been fast, but I still had murderous tentacular range. The spiny hyaenodon was inching dangerous close to the point where I could hit it before it could attack me.

Few more steps and the fucker’d be just within my attack radius. Decided to let it get a hair closer just to make sure…

By the time the crowd gasped, I had two bone-tipped tentacles buried near half a meter into the side of Hellcat’s neck. With two more vipering straight into a spot behind its shoulder.

Couldn’t have been more than a third of a second it took to get all four blades embedded in its flesh, and I wasn’t lettin go easy.

Turns out Hellcat didn’t plan on letting go either. Fuckin beastie rolled toward me, wrapping my tendril arms around itself and aerating them with hundreds of jagged porcupine quills. It near pulled itself close enough to start ripping and gashing with claws and teeth when I whipped it across the pit with a sickening velcro sound of spines ripping out of its back.

Hellcat hit the wall hard but made a quick recovery. Blood from its wounds had already stopped flowing. It felt like it left a couple of kilos worth of needles in each one of my bone-blade tentacle arms. That was going to slow me down. I shouldn’t have thrown it; I’d panicked. Fuck!

The beastie gathered its footing then rocketed straight across the pit. I tried spearing it, but I was too slow with the shredded muscles. I felt those diamond hard shark teeth clamp into my thigh and rip through a chunk of armor and flesh before dodging back to the far side of the pit.

I’d seen this before when it fought Minogore. Now that Talynn had relieved me of my best weapon, it was back to typical strategy. Hellcat was going to rip off little bits of me until there was too little left to fight back when it went in for the kill. Shit!!

I wasn’t gonna go out that way, couldn’t let it happen. Had to stay calm, strategize. Hellcat was digging in its feet for another rush. Just as it took off I speared the floor between me and it. The appendages might have been too slow to attack, but I could use them as a barrier. And stuck full of needles as they were, they’d be too nasty to bite through. Hellcat veered off and spun around looking damn near offended that I wouldn’t just lay down and die.

I stayed low and kept on with the same strategy. I was fighting defensive now, putting thorny tentacle arms between me and the beastie every time it lunged. A couple cycles in of this and I learned I could direct the fucker left or right as I pleased. Started using this to my advantage and swiped off a good few chunks of its back legs with clawed fingers.

For a minute I thought I was getting the upper hand, but then the little beastie got around the tentacular cage I’d been keeping myself in and nipped off a good bit of shin. Told myself I wouldn’t let it happen again. But then... it did happen again. And again. And again.

What the fuck was going on! I had a good strategy, but then it seemed like Hellcat somehow managed to get even faster. I got this sick feeling when it dawned on me. It wasn’t faster… I was slower. Why!? Khanivore had enough oxygenated blood to fight for an hour at least. It wasn’t near that long, yet. I’d barely lost a drop of blood. There was no goddamn reason I should be fatiguing just now! Did the team miss something after the last fight? Did Wes or Ivrina fuck something up in Khanivore’s pod?!?

Not now, survive first, kick their arses later. It wasn’t time for thinking or clever strategies no more. This was time to not die; to go for full berzerk primality!

Enemy was readying its footing for a death-blow. My thoughts had all collapsed into a single brutal directive: Kill.

Hellcat lunged, I lunged straight back at it. Clawed fingers shoved straight down its gullet as I tackled the fucker to the ground. Serrated shark teeth crunched my right hand straight off while my left was carving out its eye. I yanked the mutilated limb from its maw and put the beastie in a headlock with the stump. I felt every remaining spine it had digging into my guts, but I didn’t give the tiniest fuck. I was going to rip this cunt apart!

The beast thrashed about as the claws of my left hand ripped through its gut, yanking out bones and ribs before frantically scooping out every bit of meat and organ I could reach at through its soft underbelly. It kept thrashing about in a panic way longer than most, a testament to Talynn’s bioengineering prowess. But I could feel the life draining on account of my savage evisceration.

I had won. Hellcat was dying.

I dropped the scooped-out fiend to the floor of the pit to let it make it’s death-rattle before finally going limp.

I heard Talynn shriek as her Affinity link to Hellcat died. The blood-clad beauty wasn’t intimidating anymore. I saw her eyes filled with terror and hands shaking as she rushed forward. Look on her face actually made me feel bad for her.

The girl actually continued forward, making this panicked climb into the fight pit. Just kept repeating, “No, no, no, please no.” in this hysterical, teary voice. The drop into the pit was a good three meters, even from hanging. Looked like she cracked an ankle the way she limped over to Hellcat’s side.

She went prostrate next to her dead monster, face a mess of tears and snot, and started doing these great big heaving sobs as she laid her hand on its face. Whole thing was fucking tragic.

I had just enough strength to raise a bloodied arm in triumph, but the crowd wasn’t quite as thrilled as it should have been. The bloody crying girl really fucked the vibe. Couldn’t worry about it now; Khanivore needed to get back to her pod, and fast.

I hobbled back down the corridor on half-eaten legs and felt a relief when the pod sealed. Now that I was animating a human body again, I could appreciate the fight I’d just had and won. There was times I worried I was over-preparing for this one bought, but now I knew she was everything I was expecting her to be. Talynn was batshit, but fucking brilliant as a baiter.

I remembered our deal about winner fucks the loser, but by the look on her face out there, figured I ought to give her some time. I headed backstage and we opened up a nice expensive bottle we got just for this particular win. Had a toast to no more fucking rabbit stew.

Then something happened. Wes poured a shot and slid it over to me, but the glass shattered on the floor before I’d even raised my hand to catch it. It was the same feeling I’d had out in the pit…. I was getting slower. Wasn’t a problem with Khanivore’s body… problem was the brain inside it.

“Somethin’s wrong.” I told them. “It was like this out in the pit. My reflexes was getting slower right near the end. Still getting slower now. She did something to Khanivore, something that’s fucking up my brain.”

The team rushed to the pod. Wes hooked up the interface and checked some measurements and data I didn’t quite understand. Started looking real panicked. Came back to tell us something about something was wrong with the nervous system.

“Cheatin’ fucking cunt.” Ivrina said. “I’ll bet her beastie’s got some kinda neurotoxin on those goddamn spines.”

“And Khanivore ain’t got no filter organs; the pod can do the basic stuff but it wasn’t meant to contend with poison.” I was pissed off. Talynn meant to kill my beastie even though she’d lost. Only she didn’t know it was my brain inside of her. I pounded a fist on Khanivore’s pod. “She’s gonna tell me how to fix this, even if I have to beat it out of her.” I stormed out headin straight for the opposing team’s green room. The team called something after me about saying they was going to keep trying to see what they could do. They seemed shaken. I couldn’t blame them. I was too.

Made my way through the under-halls to the sound of spectators filing out above me, eventually burst in on Talynn sitting in the dark staring at the empty pod, knees hugged up to her chest.

“Talynn,” she cringed a bit hearing my voice, but didn’t turn around. Seeing her look so defeated drained the anger right out of me. Probably a good thing, too. I had to speak gentle. Ten seconds ago, I’d planned to go all fire and intimidation, but antagonizing her wouldn’t do any good. “Hey… I’m sorry about your beastie, but I got to talk to you. Something’s wrong with Khanivore, she’s still dying even in the pod. We got to thinking it might of been your Hellcat. Those spines got poison on ‘em, don’t they?”

There was a long pause, “Venom.” Talynn corrected in this little sotto voice.

“Yeah, all right. Go to admit, I never would have thought to do that.” I felt like a damn hostage negotiator, and come to think of it, I kinda was, “But the fight’s over now, so I need you to fix it. Give me the antidote or tell me what I got to do so Khanivore doesn’t die.”

“Why the fuck should I?” Talynn snarled all sudden-like, finally turning to face me. She stood, limping forward angrily and got right up in front of me. Olfactory presence almost made me wretch; drenched in rotted blood made her smell like a mass grave. “Hellcat died! You killed her! Why shouldn’t you have to watch your own precious Khanivore fade away?? Maybe then you can know what you did to me!”

“I won’t know anything! I’ll be fuckin’ dead!” I paused to steady myself. Talynn gave this narrowed eyed look of suspicious incomprehension. Fuck, I had to tell her. “I ain’t in here, not anymore.” I poked a finger aggressive at my temple, “This body’s just animated by a bioware processor stuck on top of a spine. My real brain’s getting rotted away by your fuckin venom right now. If Khanivore dies, I die.”

Talynn took a step back in stupefaction. She just stared for a moment like she was trying to figure out whether to take me serious or not. I didn’t even see her hand reach back to grab the three kilo wrench that’d been set down next to the pod. Not until she whipped it around and cracked open the side of my head with it.

“Fuckin’ hell!!!” My hand went to my temple, which was several centimeters sunken in now. For a second, my thoughts flashed that she was crazy, then I realized why she’d done it. If I was lying, she figured I deserved to be killed, and if I wasn’t, she wanted proof.

I guessed that one side of my skull looked like a Jack-O-Lantern left out ‘til July, so the fact that I was still standing there glaring at her should be proof enough that there wasn’t anything neurologically essential inside my skull.

Talynn looked wide eyed for a moment, “You’re… that’s fucking insane.” was all she said. Thought I saw a flash of a smile for a second as she turned around and rushed toward a big trunk. Yanked out a big handful of hypodermic syringes full up with some amber liquid. She handed some of them to me. “Three should be enough for Khanivore. I need to keep a couple as a backup in case one of my team pricks themselves while they’re...” she just trailed off, not wanting to say ‘handling Hellcat’s corpse.’

I rushed back without a word, and near crashed into Ivrina halfway. She came to look for me, worried that I’d collapsed or something. And honestly, I was feeling like my ability to control equilibrium was fading fast. I ended up handing the syringes to her while she told me just sit down on this grimy wooden bench in the hall.

My heart was pounding, for the next few minutes I sat there doing mental exercises and seeing how well I could touch my fingers to one another. Not that well, it was seeming. But after about ten minutes, my thoughts seemed to settle down, I felt like my brain was doing a proper job animating my body through Affinity again. The antidote worked.

For a while I sat there thinking about what if Talynn was right about me being the crazy one. She at least had the good sense not to get into the pit herself; except she did just that after her beastie died. Maybe the two of us were psychotic. Maybe that’s how come I didn’t feel mad at her no more. I didn’t just fancy her cuz she was pretty, maybe I like that she’s the only one I’d met who’s just as fuckin’ mental as I was.

Barely noticed the man walking up on me until he’d sat on the rotted wooden bench next to me. I recognized him as one of Talynn’s crew, older than the rest. Had this way about him like he was some detective from a noir style American film. Tough as nails type who’s been too jaded to care about rules no more.

I pulled my hood farther to hide the shattered skull, but he didn’t look in my direction, just stared straight ahead as he lit up a cigarette and started talking at me.

“I want to tell you a story.” His voice was deep and dark, full of gravel and gravitas. “Once upon a time there was a little girl named Tara-Lynn. She ended up in the care of the state at a young age. Parents abandoned her, or maybe they got themselves killed. Doesn’t really matter.” He paused to take a draw at the crackling ciggie.

“One day a couple comes along and decides that they’d like little Tara-Lynn to join their happy little family.” he continues, “Except she finds out it’s not so happy. Her new mommy and daddy expect her to pay back the adoption fees with interest. What’s little Tara-Lynn to do? Well… mommy and daddy thought of that, too. It seems they knew some men who’d pay them a lot of money for some time with little Tara-Lynn. You know the type of things men pay to do with little girls?” he paused to take another drag, “Yeah, I hear you know a little about that.”

Sitting there listening, I felt a sick bit of bile boiling up in my gut. Felt like I should say something, but he kept on before I had a chance.

“Story doesn’t end there. One night the police were called to Tara-Lynn’s house after a neighbor complained about a smell like a dead animal coming from the premises. Cops got inside to find mommy and daddy stabbed to death in their bed and little Tara-Lynn still clutching a bloody kitchen knife. Dried blood caked onto her pink pajamas. “Little girl went into custody, mommy and daddy went to the morgue. She said she didn’t do it, and for a while, they believed her. Medical examiner said there was no way a ten-year-old could have committed such a beastly crime. They were stabbed so many times, he stopped counting wounds after two hundred… each. “When they asked little Tara-Lynn what happened, she told them that an angel had come to rescue her. An angel named Talynn. After a few months visiting with a shrink, they finally got it figured out. She told them what they were doing to her, and she got a diagnosis. Split personality.”

“Jesus fuck...” the words came from my mouth an awed whisper.

“Talynn,” he ploughed on, “isn’t a person. And she’s definitely no angel. Closer to a demon. And demons don’t just sit quietly and wait when there’s nothing to do. Tara-Lynn may have escaped mommy and daddy, but she ended up with a new monster; one that lives inside of her.”

My mind flashed back to that night with her naked body across the motel room mattress. I remembered seeing all the scars that looked self-inflicted. It made sense now, Talynn had been hurting her. Wheels in my head turned, before things finally clicked into place, “That’s why she does it, then” I interrupt the man before he has a chance to keep talking, “She had a beastie livin’ in her head her whole life, then finds out she can just custom make a suit for the monster inside, then stick it in a pit an’ let it do what it does best.”

Man took a final puff on the cancer stick then stood up to snuff it under a cracked leather boot. “Except you killed the suit, broke the cage. And now the monster is pissed off.”

I took his meaning that he was frightened that with Hellcat dead, Talynn’s demon was going to go back to hurting her to get its jollies. Maybe even hurting others. “Ay!” I called after him as he started walking away, “the fuck you want me to do about it?”

* * *

I spent half a week giving the situation a good thinking over before I got around to calling Talynn. Normally I wouldn’t give a rat-shit about anybody, but something bout her story made me want to be helpful like. Maybe it was because I felt responsible on account of I killed her beastie. Maybe it was because she’d really been raped and brutalized while I was going round lying about it. Maybe I was just randy for her, I don’t fuckin’ know.

Anyway, I’d come up with this plan, right? If Talynn had this demon living in her head that might end up on a killer rampage unless it had somewhere to focus its hate, I was gonna give it something to focus on. A bit of tough love is what she needed, I figure.  

I rang her up, half expecting her to back out of the arrangement we had, due to I would have been dead if she’d won. She sounded downtrodden still, but also seemed eager for a bit of distraction and self-destruction.

I had her show up at the shit-hole warehouse that served as the home-base for Sonnie’s Predators. A good half the team lived there, but I threw them a few quid and told them to find someplace else to be for the night.

Khanivore was in her pod at the far side of the big room. She wasn’t terribly visible, since I’d turned out all the lights except for the big one over the training ring that clicks on with a big, dramatic snap. The circle we had laid out in the middle was roughly the size of a fight-pit, and used primarily for training and testing. Could still get a whiff of old rabbit’s blood if you was paying attention. Outside the ring was a few bits of machinery, but mostly some big crates filled with jugs of intravenous nutrient juice, and a few tanks of preservative fluid for when she needs her pod re-filled with fresh stuff. There was one big box with biohazard stickers all over it that had Khanivore’s excreta inside it.

I paced around a bit, half nervous, half excited. Then I hear a knock at the big metal door. I click the button that loudly rattles the huge metal warehouse door up. I see Talynn standing there; she hadn’t bothered to dress up for our ‘date’ by the look of it. She had this ragged sweater on, and even defeated as she looked, there was still a spark of fire in her eyes. She stepped inside and I clicked the door motors to put the door closed again.

“Welcome to the HQ.” I said with a flourish of my arms that was maybe I bit more smug than it had to be. Her eyes stayed locked on me.

“If you’re going to fuck me, just get on with it.” she said. I could tell it was Tara-Lynn speaking. The voice was little, and a bit scared. It wasn’t the big, bad beastie that lived in her head.

“I got a question for you.” she didn’t react. “When I made that deal with you. About the winner gets to have their way with the loser. Which one of you was I talking to?” ‘

Her face flashed a snarl for just a moment when she realized somebody told me about her bisected psyche. She took a few seconds to turn it over in her mind, “What’s it matter?”

“Matters ‘cuz I think that big, bad Talynn made a bet, and is here expecting little Tara-Lynn to pay up since she lost. So I got a new idea.” I toss her over a pair of those old fighting gloves they used in caged MMA matches. “Double or nothing. You and me, nothing lab-grown. If I win, I get to have my way with Talynn. I ain’t got no interest in bullying a crying, little victim; but a hard bitch who carves up pedos… that’s something that’ll hold my interest.”

She looked down at the floor, worried like. Then in an instant all the worry drained away and these inferno-hot eyes shot up to meet with mine. “And if I win, you’ll submit to me?” She growled the words as she stalked forward at me with these slow, menacing panther steps. A little grin formed at the side of my mouth as I saw the beast I faced in the pit a few days ago appear in front of me in human form.

“That’s the way of it, yeah.” The night was lookin like it’d shape up to be my own private carnival of depravity.

A few rips of velco had our fighting gloves on. I popped off my shoes so I was down to just the threadbare wife-beater and my capris. Talynn had a few more layers to get down to an appropriate amount of covering. Yank wasn’t acclimated to the London chill.

It’d been a good few years since I’d been in a proper scrap using the body I was in now. Last time was in my teen years when this little twat and her friend jumped me calling me a slut and saying I’d fucked her boyfriend. Had her in a solid ground-and-pound position when the friend glassed me in the side of the head with a bottle she’d hidden in her backpack. Probably still have the scar on my cheek from it, but nowadays it’s blended in with the mess of mutilation my face has become.

Talynn steps inside the taped off area that served as our make-shift pit. She starts circling real careful the way she did in her beastie form. I wasn’t having none of that bullshit, so I charge straight in stabbing and elbow into her left tit. She tries to grab on but loses her balance.

She’s on the ground and I start putting some kicks on her. One of her lips splits open pretty good before she sinks her teeth into one of my toes with this feral little-girl growl. I can’t get it dislodged even when she starts coiling the rest of her limbs around my leg. A couple good jerks and thrashes got me off my feet crashing onto the cement. She twists around and drives her heel straight up into my cunt a couple times.

Don’t rightly know how, but somehow I grappled her around until I had her under me, face down. That hair-glue she puts in her mohawk let me get a good grip on it even though there wasn’t much to grab. I said to her that she better admit defeat or I’d bash her face right open here and now on the rock floor. She says “Eat shit” and I bash her face a couple times so as to let her know I ain’t joking. She gets angry-quiet and doesn’t say anything for a while. Too long for my liking so I collide her face with the cement once more. Finally she admits that I’d won.

I take a minute to catch my breath. This fight went quick but I had to admit that Talynn had this brutal ferality that got me good and randy. She kept glaring at me as I chained her wrists strappado style up to this overhead winch that ran on a track the length of the warehouse. I gave her enough slack that she could kneel down without her shoulders coming dislocated, but not much more than that.  

I fade into the shade round the edges of the room for a minute to grab some of what I’d gathered in pre-planning. I stuck a good sharp straight razor in my pocket and picked up this novelty camera I’d gotten a few years back. It was supposed to look like one of them old nineteen hundreds ones that print out the pictures as you take them.  

I clicked off a few piccies and tossed the print-outs on the floor in front of her. Her face looked venomous at me as she realized her private humiliation was gonna be saved for posterity. I hang the insta-camera from my belt and got to work with the razor. I made a real show of turning her outfit into garbage.

I take a few more images of her naked body, making sure to get some real nice close ups of the intimate bits. Then I got to examining her real close, like she was a piece of meat. I figured neither of us put any time limit on things, so I didn’t have no need to be expedient.

Talynn didn’t resist, but she wasn’t really cooperating neither. Took a solid kick in the calf-meat to get her to put her legs apart. “You’re 0 for 2, beastie.” I whisper to her as I stand behind her and run my fingers from her cunt up over her arsehole.

“Ain’t so tough without a half-tonne of claws and teeth to slip in to, yeah?” She stood still just glaring off into the distance. I got up real close behind her and yanked her arse back against my hips. Put my arm around her waist and bend forward real close, so I was talking into her ear. “Tell me what it felt like when I was ripping your guts out.” Her teeth clenched so hard, I’m surprised she didn’t crack one.

“Staying quiet, eh? Maybe you need a reminder.” I put her in a headlock just the way I did in the ring, shoulders twisted to just near popping. I press the straight edge to her chest and slide it down between her tits, just hard enough to let out some drops of ruby red, but not so deep that she’d need more than a few stitches to patch her up. Carved a ragged line almost all the way down to her cunt hair.  

I hold her close as I whip out the insta-cam and flash a pic of us cheek to cheek. I see she’s got this look of sick disbelief in her eyes. The polaroid falls to the floor to stain with the drippies of blood slowly hanging out her torso.

I walk around real slow to get right in front of her. Her eyes was all fury and fear and fuck-yous. “You still with me, beastie?” I asked her. The carnal hate was my answer, it was still Talynn I was talking to. “Good, wouldn’t want you to miss anything.” I took her chin in my hand and hold up the straight-edge, “You remember the night we met? When you said about my scars that they was ‘love-letters written in flesh’ and asked if I get wet when I look at them. I’ll give you a chance to find out yourself.” I leaned in to kiss her lips real gentle, then I pulled back just far enough that I could see her eyes as I gashed one half of a Chelsea smile into the meat of her cheek. She started whimpering and her eyes filled up before angry tears started streaming down and mixing in with the blood.

I kept hold of her chin as I sliced the other cheek to match, a big red grin carved from the edges of her mouth more than halfway to her ears. I had this twinge of guilt, chopping up her face the way I was. Maybe I was going too far; then again, scars didn’t need to be permanent these days. Hell, I couldn’t go half a week without some twat telling me about a plastic surgeon that could make my face baby-smooth with the newest laser treatment. This bitch could afford it, anyway.

That was the agreement anyway, right? I won, so I get to do whatever gets my jollies. And seeing her here, helpless, crying, bleeding; fuck that gets me off. Best to keep going then.

A sort of artistry took over me, I didn’t want to randomly slice her up like some street-tough. I took my time; smooth, clean incisions all across her skin. Pretty red lines organized aesthetically across her light-tan flesh. I got caught up in myself, and all her screaming and crying turned into background noise, couldn’t even have guessed how much time had passed.

I finally came back to my senses when I took a step back to admire. I caught Talynn’s eye and slowly felt the reality that my canvas was a living person who’d been suffering the torments of Hell this whole time. Something about this felt like being in the fight pit again, yet different. Smell of blood, struggle of mortal fear, but this was quieter, meditative; almost loving in a way. I’d always been the fury and fire type, but I was beginning to see why serial killers who snatched women off the street and take them out slow did it that way. Except Talynn would be walking away tonight.

I almost forgot to take a few more pictures. She was dripping with so much blood, it brought me back to the way she walked out on fight-night. Except she wasn't full of menace any longer. She just looked… pathetic, defeated. Couldn’t let what little sliver of conscience I had left get in the way of the job I had to do. That beastie in her head needed a purpose, prey to obsess on; I was gonna make sure that was me.

“I’m… sorry.”

It came out in this little mouse voice that was so small I wasn’t sure if I’d heard anything. “You say something?” I shot back at her.

“I’m sorry!” She heaved it out through weepy sighs. “Whatever I did, I’m sorry, please just let me go. You win! You’re better than me! I’ve learned my lesson!”

I just stare at her for a good long second. “That what you think this is? I’m teaching you a lesson on account of I’m just a cunt who doesn’t like to be challenged?” She looked confused and fearful, I give her this real arrogant grin back. “Nah, it’s just the opposite, mate. I want you coming for me. See, I been winning so many times in a row now that I’m starting to lose the fear.” I get real up to her face and whisper the next bit, “I can’t have that, beastie. Fear is what gives me my edge. You gave it back to me fresh in our battle… I ain’t ready to let that go yet.”

She hung there from her wrists, heaving and wheezing and bloodied. Then all of a sudden she got grave-quiet, her head raised up to face me. Her gaze impacted me in a way that made my skin to ice. There was that babydoll grin again, “I should have known I couldn’t manipulate you. You’re just like me, aren’t you?” Her voice was rock-steady and psychopath calm, “That’s why it has to be me. I have to be the one to kill you, Sonnie.” I could tell soon as the words left her mouth that there wasn’t one molecule of bluff in them. Fuck, even like this, she had moments where she could still be absolutely terrifying; the fear elates me as the goosebumps on my skin start to smooth out.

“You want to do me in? I’ll give you a chance right here.” I toss the straight-edge to her feet amidst a pile of bloodied photo-prints and then stick the key to the cuffs into her hand. I start walking into the darkness round the edges of the warehouse, and make a show of tapping the side of my head and saying, “Case you’d forgotten, I ain’t in here.”

Wish I’d seen the look on her face, but I was busy starting up the automated protocol to shut down the Affinity link without a handler. Countdown started and I quick got into meditative pose so as I wouldn’t crack my skull open once motor control shut down. I felt that familiar sense of falling through darkness before the world faded in around me.

My pod was already opening. Khanivore’s muscles felt insane-strong. This body wasn’t fully repaired yet, but new pieces were in place. The replacement for the hand that Hellcat bit off felt like I had to concentrate real hard to get it to move; nerves grafts must not have taken full hold yet. My bone-blade tentacles had to be scrapped outright after what she did to them. Just as well, we’d been talking about an upgrade anyway. New set-up had five instead of four, and this was the first time I’d gotten to feel them. Put in more specialization, too, but they were still too fresh to really get a sense of that yet. With only the base muscle-structure implanted, my tentacular glory was blunt and unarmored. In fact, all five were still foetal soft.

Even so, I’d have to be careful. Last time I’d done this sort of thing was when Khanovire was turning Dicko and his Spetsnaz girl to mincemeat. Was the first time I’d felt what Khanivore’s body could do against human flesh; it was like a child manipulating this wet, cracking bit of playdough.

I saw Talynn in the light. She’d gotten her wristlocks undone and she had picked up the razor. She held it in two shaking hands in front of her in this defensive pose as I came into the light. She did this quick back and forth glance between the ten-centimeter hunk of metal in her hands, and the towering three-meters tall death-beast approaching her. She throws the blade to the floor with an echoing clatter and dashes fast toward the warehouse controls. Her feet slip on her own slick blood for a few steps before she can get traction, but that’s enough. I’d have laughed if I could, half a minute ago she was thinking she’d seize control of the situation, and now here she was practically shittin’ herself with mortal fear.

One powerful bound and a couple of steps puts me between Talynn and the door.  A tentacle lashed out faster than even I expected and had her constricted round the waist and pulled off the floor. I take a moment, and ease off; a firm twitch and I could turn her torso into something looks like a used up tube of toothpaste.

I take my time walking her back into the light, I was going to need it for this. Khanivore didn’t have the best fine-touch pressure nerves, so I’d have to do a lot of this by sight. Talynn kept looking up at me, convinced she was about to die. I figured I best let her know my intentions. Two more tentacles coiled around her bloodied ankles and slowly pulled them apart ‘til she was about two thirds to a full split. Look on her face was distress as she realized her imminant rape, but not so much agony as to make me think I’d dislocated a leg on accident. And my grip on her waist left her enough room to breathe, though not too deeply it looked like.

I lifted her up and the last two foetal tentacles lined up ready to go inside her, each of them thicker than the fists she was using to pound and flail helplessly against me. The way she screeched when I violated my way into her arse and cunt holes made me think I’d ripped my way in. The trickle of blood from her shitter said I was right. Kept a careful eye on the depth, even blunted, my tentacles were strong enough to rip their way well into her ribcage.

Suddenly I understand why Talynn gave her beastie a cock all full of nerve endings. I wanted to feel this; the clenching and thrashing as I raped my way into her. I wished I could feel every twitch, every weeping heave from inside of her body. I wanted to milk every ounce of divine pleasure from her torment and humiliation. Too bad Khanivore wasn’t built with the pleasure nerves for that sort of thing. Tearful screams came like music one after another as I thrust in and out of her.

It was beauty, pure and simple. A naked girl, ruby droplets still gently streaming from my cold steel artistry. Her expression spoke of equal parts shame and agony. It was so gorgeous I wanted to weep right then and there from the sheer resplendence. I want her to feel this, I want her to remember this always.

A few minutes of thrusting in and out of her tiny little body; then it seemed like something in her mind broke. The crying subsided, and she just got this look on her face like she wasn’t there anymore. I got a flash in my head of what this must have looked like, felt like. A monster, towering over her, raping it’s way into her with no regard for what it was doing to her. Christ, I’d taken it too far. I was making her re-live the way those pedo fucks had treated her when she was little. Part of me felt a bit sick with what I’d done. I decide to let her go and place her gently on the floor. I climb back into the pod and the A.I. program I rigged up knew to put Khanivore back in storage and put me back in human form.

I took a quick few seconds to collect myself. A part of me wanted to apologize, say I got carried away, but then that’d negate the entirety of what I was trying to do. If I wanted that psychological tumor laser-focused on me, I’d have to make sure it thinks I’m really that heartless.

Talynn just laid there panting. Seemed like the trauma left her in a state just before catatonic. I take a few last photo print-outs for posterity and then I tell her to get up. Had to repeat it a few times before she climbed shaking up to her feet. I grab the back of her neck and guide her to the big, rattling service door. I punch the button and the big slab of corrugated sheet metal starts curling up to the ceiling.

I push her out onto the asphalt, and the polluted, icy breeze of outdoors needles its way into her open wounds and gaping nethers. She gasps and seems shook out of her thousand-yard-stare. She moves her hands like she’s ashamed of being naked out in the open. She blinks a few times before her blue eyes point in my direction. She speaks quiet at me; not threatening or boasting, just meditative calm like she was making an oath, “I’m going to kill you, Sonnie.”

I hit the door-close and the big metal wall begins to inch its way down between us.

“You’ll have your shot.” I say it with this smug look right before the door makes us lose sight of each other.

I walk off into the warehouse and tell myself I did a good thing. I got the monster in her head obsessed on me so it wasn’t gonna be hurting anybody else. A deep down part of me knows that’s just horseshit. I liked hurting her, I liked raping her; I wanted her to know that I was better than her, stronger. And if next time I face her in the fight pit, it ends up being my last time, than a broken little girl gets to have justice. And that ain’t so bad, is it?

* * *

“Everyone out.” I dismiss the team calmly. This is a sacred moment. I need to commune with the new body I’d made for Talynn. Our own body still pains us from what Sonnie did. The scars still ache and itch even after all these months. I could have them removed; two, three treatments at most. But it wouldn’t matter. The pain of knowing that Sonnie is still alive after what she did to me is worse than any of the slings and arrows that could befall my mortal flesh.

We worked tirelessly, we needed a new body, a better vessel. We were too confident last time and Sonnie destroyed us. My avenging angel was trapped without a body of her own. How could she do this to my champion, to my love??

It didn’t matter now, her new body was finally finished. It had been so crowded in here with both of us. But now my white knight would finally get to put on her new armor.

I lowered the lights to a few lumens above pure blackness. Talynn would need time for her new senses to all properly synergize with one another, and with the bioware processor; it’s best not to overwhelm the senses right away.

I press a few buttons and the Affinity Link is active. I take a deep breath as I feel the pod open. Heavy footsteps thud against the cement hard enough to rattle the walls of the building.

She’s moving slowly on all fours, this arrangement of anatomy would take some getting used to. I felt her moving toward me slowly through the darkness.

A glint in the darkness catches my eye a foot or so in front of my face, her smooth, diamond-hard teeth. I blink a few times as my eyes adjust to the darkness, and I smile as the obsidian hide of her head comes into view. I reach up to caress her neck as her other two heads slowly begin to appear in the darkness.

“Welcome back, precious.”

[galfridus1]

Disasterous Diet

Part two of the Cath fic for Zelthur weekend. Also dedicated to @thestarrynightgazer and @maybeishouldwait - thank you to Tyler the cat for inspiration for this instalment.

Part one can be found here.

***

“We can’t do this to him! Look at that face…”

Arthur felt the protest die on his lips as Gelda regarded him, her violet eyes hard and cold. “I have been saying ever since that cat came into this house that he has a problem with food. Well, now we know that he does.

“The vet was quite clear,” Gelda continued sternly as she poured a small quantity of biscuits into a cup marked with measurements along the sides. “He has to lose two kilos.” The biscuits clattered like falling hailstones into Cath’s food bowl, barely covering the bottom of the dish and Arthur smelled the unappealing odour of dry, dusty meat. “He is allowed this much, three times a day,” she added as she placed the bowl deliberately on the floor. “Do not give him any more.”

As if on cue, Cath toddled over to the dish, looking over his shoulder at Gelda with a mournful expression and Arthur could swear he saw the animal scrunch up his nose in disgust. Nonetheless, thirty seconds later all of the biscuits were gone, the cat mewling pitifully up at Arthur, his wails more than enough to tug on the heartstrings.

“But he’s hungry,” Arthur moaned as he crouched down to stroke Cath’s fur, the feline pressing his head sorrowfully into his hand. “That was barely anything! Surely we can give him a bit more than that…”

“No we can’t,” Gelda snapped as she started unpacking more bags of the offending diet biscuits, placing them neatly in one of the kitchen cabinets. “The vet was very specific. At present he is at significant risk of diabetes and liver disease. Do you want him to get sick?”

Arthur rested his hand on the cat’s soft fur, ruffling the patch behind his ears. “No, of course not,” he said quietly, “but I don’t want him to be miserable! This just seems like nowhere near enough food.”

“I asked the vet the same thing,” Gelda replied with a sigh. “But she promised it would be sufficient for his needs. And if we help him exercise he can come off the diet more quickly.” At this Gelda removed a plastic ball from the bag. “I bought him this,” she added, a hopeful edge to her tone as she held the object out for Arthur’s inspection.

Arthur examined the ball, trying to work out what it was for. Whatever it was, he sincerely doubted it would be enough to get Cath moving. In a fit of extravagance, Zeldris had bought their pet an enormous multi-tiered scratching post on Amazon, lovingly putting the complicated contraption together late one Tuesday evening after staggering in from work. Cath had taken one disdainful look at it, then sprung up onto the sofa, falling asleep on Arthur’s chest. The look Zeldris had given the animal was enough to freeze rivers, but the post had sat untouched ever since.

As if reading his mind, Gelda flashed him a mischievous smile, opening a hatch in the ball and placing a few diet biscuits inside. “This will get him moving,” she promised as she placed the ball on the floor. Cath stepped up to it cautiously, sniffing with some trepidation before pushing the ball all over the kitchen floor with something approaching enthusiasm. Arthur stared in surprise: it was the most he had seen the feline move since the day the cat had demolished his birthday cake.

“That should help,” Gelda said and Arthur was sure he could detect relief in her tone. “The vet was quite sharp with me,” she explained as he took a step towards her, pulling her into a close embrace. “I had to tell her we got him like that from the rescue centre to avoid the lecture.”

They stayed locked together for several minutes, Arthur feeling her breathing grow steady as he held her. “He’ll lose the weight, I promise,” he said with finality. “I won’t cheat. Next time he goes to the vet she’ll be really pleased.” Gelda flashed him a smile before finally pulling back, stowing the empty shopping bag in a drawer before checking her watch.

“I’ve got to go pack. Work want me to present at a conference in Dubai and I’ve got to leave soon,” Gelda said, unable to keep the hint of pride from her voice. “It’s only for a week,” she said bracingly as she caught Arthur’s slightly crestfallen expression.

“What’s this?” a voice called from the kitchen door and both the others looked round to see Zeldris, looking completely worn out. His hair and suit were as immaculate as usual, but the dark bags under his eyes betrayed his exhaustion. He always looked like this on Friday evenings. “You’re going away?”

“I found out this evening. Work just emailed the tickets to me,” Gelda explained. “Charles has a stomach bug and can’t go.”

“He’s always letting you down,” Zeldris said crossly as he folded his arms across his chest.

Gelda sighed, pressing a hand to her temple and Arthur was unsurprised to see Zeldris move towards her to rest a hand on her arm. “It’s not his fault,” Gelda murmured, “His kid has just started nursery and is bringing back every disease under the sun. And I’m happy to go. This will be good for my career.”

“When’s your flight?” Zeldris asked, and Arthur saw him stifle a yawn.

“I’m taking her, Zel. You get some sleep,” Arthur declared as he grabbed the car keys off the hook on the wall. “I’m not working til Sunday, okay?” he said, cutting off the other’s obvious protest. “Now go pack,” he added as he gave Gelda a kiss on the forehead. She looked at him gratefully before leaving the kitchen, the sound of her feet padding up the steps reaching them a few moments later.

Zeldris rubbed his eyes, his shoulders collapsing and Arthur stepped to the fridge, grabbing a Tupperware container and shoving the pasta he had cooked earlier into the microwave, the smell of tomato sauce percolating through the room. Zeldris looked at him gratefully before wolfing down the meal, barely pausing for breath as he ate.

“You didn’t get lunch again,” Arthur said reproachfully. “Honestly you have to start looking after yourself. It’s not like you’re on a diet.”

“What do you mean?” Zeldris asked, his voice muffled with food. Arthur looked around, noting with some misgiving that Cath had given up on his ball, which lay abandoned next to the skirting board, the cat himself now curled up fast asleep in his basket. Zeldris followed his gaze and gave a snort of derision.

“Gelda took him to the vet today,” Arthur explained as Zeldris chuckled. “Cath has to lose two kilos. I don’t know what to do, Zel. I mean… he can’t go thirty minutes without eating. What are we going to do.”

Zeldris stared up at him, a gleeful look in his eyes. “I’m sure we’ll manage,” he said with a smile.

***

His boyfriend was not so sanguine the following day. After they had been woken up at five in the morning, then interrupted twice by Cath’s incessant scratching on the door, Zeldris had lost it completely and banished the cat to the garden, securing the cat flap with an echoing bang. The words ‘I never want to see that thing again’ had been used several times and Arthur did not dare let Cath back into the house. The poor feline stared at him forlornly from his spot under a tree, looking every bit as miserable as Arthur felt.

“He’s just hungry,” Arthur pleaded. “It’s not his fault…”

“Then whose is it exactly?” Zeldris snapped back, his hands on his hips as he too glowered at the animal. “Ours for refusing to feed him, in direct contravention of medical advice? No, I thought not,” he huffed as Arthur stuttered incoherently. “If he’s so hungry he can damn well learn how to hunt.”

Before Arthur could respond, Zeldris strode from the room, no doubt intending to take out his anger on the dust that had settled on the bookcases and shelves. With some annoyance, Arthur looked out at the garden, deciding that he would let Cath back inside no matter the consequences. His hand was opening the French windows before it fully sunk in: Cath was nowhere to be seen.

In something of a panic, Arthur ran out of the house, feeling the rough stone tiles under his bare feet. “Cath? Cath! Where are you?” he called, his eyes darting frantically under bushes and shrubs for a telltale sign of ginger. “I’m sorry!” he added as he stepped onto the lawn. The cat couldn’t possibly have scaled the high fence, could he?

The tremendous and utterly unexpected noise bursting like a machine gun behind him made him jump out of his skin: a horrifying mixture of wailing and squealing and hissing that practically made his blood run cold. Heart beating uncomfortably fast in his chest Arthur turned round, his eyes squeezed shut, forcing himself to open them as he looked at the house.

He was just in time to see Cath practically flying through the open doors, something small and fast skittering in ahead of him. Arthur groaned, cold dread dropping to the pit of his stomach. Forcing his unresponsive legs to move, he made his way back into the kitchen, stealing himself for whatever might lie within.

As it turned out his preparations were nowhere near enough. In the few minutes that had passed between Cath returning to the house and his own entrance the kitchen had been transformed into absolute chaos. The expensive, glass fruit bowl that Gelda has brought back from Venice was lying in shining shards all over the floor along with a multitude of upturned apples and grapefruits. The utensils which were usually carefully placed on the countertop were all upended, covering the granite surface in a jumbled mess. Arthur took several deep breaths, trying to calm the hammering in his chest, an exercise which was ruined by the appearance of a vicious squirrel, hissing and squeaking from the top of a wall cabinet as Cath mewled at it angrily from below.

“What the hell!” Zeldris shouted as he ran into the kitchen, his face drained of blood as he regarded the room. “Arthur! If that cat has done this…”

Pointing towards the intruder, Arthur interjected, “I think Cath took your advice about hunting.” He was amused to see Zeldris splutter, his eyes growing wide as he looked at the squirrel in utter astonishment.

“Get that thing out of here!” he yelled as Arthur gave way to the chuckle bubbling up in his throat. “Just look at the state of this place! I can’t… I… what…”

Laughing to himself, Arthur lifted a chair and placed it directly below the furious squirrel. Then, donning oven gloves, he took his position, reaching up to grab the offending rodent. He was surprised to find his effort was successful, and that he was able to grab the grey furball without much difficulty.

“Aw, it’s only a baby,” he exclaimed as he climbed down from the chair, Zeldris visibly flinching as he walked towards him.

“Just… just get it out of here,” his boyfriend gasped as he shrank backwards towards the wall. Arthur guffawed as he let the squirrel go in the garden, the annoyed animal shooting off into the trees at the first opportunity. When Arthur returned, he found Zeldris muttering angrily to himself as he picked up the larger splinters of glass from the floor.

Arthur grinned as he made a start on the countertops, placing the utensils into the dishwasher and wiping down the surfaces. Having finished his task, Arthur moved to the floor, picking up the fruit as Zeldris hoovered. It was only when the they had finished clattering and bustling about that Arthur noticed the rustling sound coming from within one of the cupboards. Experimentally, he opened a few doors, his face breaking into a grin as he found the source of the noise.

Cath was face-first in a pile of biscuits; the container had obviously been upturned in the ruckus allowing the cat to eat his fill. The crunching sound, along with the appreciative miaows, suggested that Cath was thoroughly enjoying himself. A few moments later, Zeldris joined him and together they watched as Cath gorged on the food.

“Let’s… leave him like that. He can start his diet tomorrow,” Zeldris murmured quietly as he leant against Arthur, who wrapped an arm quickly round him in response.

“Okay. And after we finish up in here, let’s take a shower,” Arthur suggested, not needing to look into the other’s face to sense his agreement. “I don’t know about you, this work has made me break out in a sweat…”

A pause, followed by a hand moving around his waist. “Ten minutes,” came the reply and Arthur smiled.

[thesethingsofours]

Take Your Time

During lockdown, our individual perspectives of time were shaken. If time is subjective, what do we do with it?

© Neal Gruer

Time and space are modes by which we think not conditions in which we live.  — Albert Einstein.

The defining feature of work as a commercial lawyer is not the suit, the intellectual discussion, the clients, the office politics, or the sloshing around of money. It’s something they never show in Suits or The Good Fight: the stopwatch. On every lawyer’s computer, a piece of software (unironically named Carpe Diem) provides rolling timers to be clicked on and off when moving from one task to another. Every moment is accounted for. 

At the end of each day, the minutes and hours are shovelled into a database, where the lawyer writes a detailed narrative for every block of time. The information is then used to build an accurate bill for the clients and to assess how hard each lawyer is working. In an industry where work is charged for by the hour, every minute has an exact, predetermined value; both financially, and how each lawyer is viewed as an employee. Time is quite literally money.

As a lawyer, sometimes, I wished the clock would speed up, desperate for my hours to increase towards my monthly billing target. On other occasions, it whizzed past unstoppably as I strained to meet an imminent deadline or demonstrate my efficiency. Time was rarely a neutral experience. Recording every minute of every day for analysis by my superiors made me extremely sensitive to how I perceived time. Maintaining a balanced temporal mindset in these conditions was a battle; a battle against time — the constantly conspicuous overlord I could never overcome.

Until I did. Sick of stopwatches, after four years I left to follow my passions of photography and writing. Now, when I am freely roaming the streets photographing a new city or pressing pen to paper, I typically lose all concern for time. It still requires my consideration — to finish photographing before nightfall, or ensure I still eat at reasonable intervals in the day — but I am no longer forced to attribute an arbitrary numerical value to it, financial or otherwise. I acknowledge it exists but tend not to think about it. In doing so, my levels of day-to-day contentment have dramatically increased.

In the lockdown spring, this sensitivity towards time was laid bare for all of us — how it passes through us in wildly different ways, how we scrabble for a method to gauge it, and the enormous effect it can have on our emotions. But what can we do about it?

I barely know what day it is.  — Everyone, 2020

Through every lockdown conversation, the above sentiment became a running joke. Days were long, weeks were short, or vice versa. For some, April went extremely quickly, while for others, it felt like an age. In any case, the unifying feature was a sudden discombobulation in the way we perceived time. Under the pandemic’s grasp, our familiar time-markers disintegrated, replaced by an erratic Covid-clock. Outside of Italy, you may have followed how many weeks behind the boot-shaped island your country was from getting a kicking (“Two weeks ’til we reach 1500 deaths a day”). Perhaps your measurement was a lament of absent activities (“This would have been our third day in Istanbul”; “Next Saturday would have been our wedding day”). Alternatively, you may have watched the kilos emerge around your waist like tree rings as you ate yourself towards comfort.

No matter how you compiled your days, the confines of our own, limited perception mean we construct time on the basis of both the individual — how it feels, and the collective — the metronomic hands of the clock. The clock is physics-driven — an objectively agreed approximation of an extremely strenuous concept, variously comprising of the big bang, Einstein, gravity, the speed of light, black holes, entropy, the multiverse and Back to the Future. This idea of time and its relativity to space is difficult to get one’s head around. Perhaps it’s so difficult because arguably, both spiritually and scientifically, time doesn’t exist at all. Instead, there are only sequential events and tangible atomic changes, which we consciously witness and translate into “time”. In that case, “time” is a primitive form of expression — a language for something we have waived our need to fundamentally understand.

Given the challenge of understanding time on that level, most of us simply live based on Earth’s rotation. Other than for a handful of space-travellers, whose time has theoretically bent and slowed, we experience time only as far as it visibly appears in our day-to-day lives: day turns to night, trees grow and shed leaves, skin loosens from taught to wrinkly (unless you’re Rob Lowe). For this reason, we speak of time in the comprehensible terms of three-dimensional, physical space — “the party is after lunch”; “I’ll be there in 10 minutes”. Even then, language and culture have a meaningful effect on how we perceive that spatial construct. Do you characterise time in terms of volume, like the Spaniards (“a full day”); or distance, like the Swedes (“a long day”); or dispense with the linguistic concept entirely, like the Amazonian Amondawa tribe? 

Time as a Feeling

Regardless of our rudimentary attempts to describe time, how it feels remains unique to each of us. Our memories, emotions, habits; body and brain function all play a role in how we perceive it. The feeling of minutes, say, from waiting for a train; hours, from hunger between meals; days, from waking up every morning; months (I daresay) from menstrual cycles; or years, from marking birthdays. In any given moment, a near-innate, biological “pacemaker” and measuring tools honed from our experiences combine to determine how long or short a period of time feels. These sensitive mechanics make our time perception deeply susceptible to external forces:

Time perception, just like vision, is a construction of the brain and is shockingly easy to manipulate experimentally… as subject to illusion as the sense of color is. 

Brain Time, David M Egelman, 2009

To this end, it is well understood that when the brain processes a large amount of information in a short period, such as absorbing a new experience or enduring a traumatic event, we later recall time as having passed more slowly. As children, for whom everything is new, a two-week summer holiday feels endless. For adults, such a break can feel achingly short.

That said, these psychological mechanisms are still subject to each individual’s unique personality and circumstances. For example, loneliness has proved to be a significant factor in slowing people’s sense of time during lockdown, while a greater use of digital devices is likely to have sped it up.

In the latter case, technology disrupts our internal pacemaker and increases our stress levels: if you have an hour to complete a task and it feels like 50 minutes, you’re subconsciously pressurising yourself to do things 20% faster. Even without the ubiquity of digital clocks in the corner of every eye, it stands to reason that our Pavlovian response to bombardment by notifications changes how we digest time. And that’s before you consider how much we outsource memory (a crucial aspect of time perception) to our phones, without understanding the cognitive consequences.

© GlobalWebIndex / Hootsuite / We Are Social

Between Zoom calls, smartphone scrolling, working on a laptop, binging Netflix, repetitive tasks, adaptation to new circumstances and unusual social occurrences, any given lockdown day was liable to speed up or slow down by the hour; further assembling into weeks, which would slip through our fingers or linger indefinitely. Disorientating, yes, but also a valuable reminder that our perception of time is subjective, and therefore something we have a degree of control over.

Take Your Time

While compliance with the clock helps us interact with others and make a living, we should be wary of allowing it too great an influence over how we enjoy or endure our experiences. Frustration from waiting, pressure from deadlines, habitually arriving late or early — all these arise from the way we process time. Finding ways to free yourself from its yoke can be useful, not only in an uncertain era where another challenging lockdown might be just around the corner, but also as we return to more conventional ways of living. A warped perception of time — whether too fast or slow — has been linked to stress, anxiety and depression. Insulating yourself from a fluctuating perception of time serves towards a consistent mental state.

In practical terms, it helps to do any fulfilling or challenging activity with no incantation of time attached: distance yourself from technology, wander aimlessly outdoors, read from a page rather than a screen, thin out your schedule, study something new, write down your thoughts. When you cannot control your activities, mindfulness has been shown to help. Focussing on the present moment hypothetically minimises stimulation of your internal pacemaker; slowing your sense of time and allowing you to relax into whatever you find yourself doing.

Whatever your circumstances or interests, the key is to take your time, to the fullest extent possible. Take life at your own pace, whatever that might be. Avoid the agitation of scoring life based on time achieved or missed. Wind your own clock and be sensitive to what makes it tick. As an ex-stopwatch jockey, I attest to its benefits.

[trxllest6vanity]

Tips on how to Shed weight in thirty Days Devoid of Energy

A great strategy to access your weight decline targets is always to add additional fiber towards your diet plan. Nutritional fiber allows you to really feel total faster. Also, high-fiber food items ordinarily contain a lot of chewing and crunching, therefore you truly feel more contented after you take in them. This slows you down, so your mind has time and energy to give you the signal that you're complete.

A terrific way to commence shedding bodyweight is usually to snack on a little something healthy each individual time you  really feel a hunger pang appear on.  Dieting is usually difficult and it can be common to present in to cravings.  By snacking on a little something more healthy, you may feed your hunger therefore you will not likely sabotage your diet program.

A good way to shed pounds is to join an internet based forum that is devoted to body weight loss. You'll have the capacity to share your ordeals with others and that consequently will encourage you to definitely carry on dropping fat. Forums may also be a fantastic location to seek and provides advice.

A good fat loss suggestion would be to ensure that you try to eat a good portion of protein, on waking every early morning.  Including protein to your breakfast plan, can substantially enhance your metabolic rate and keep you feeling whole right up until lunchtime.  Eggs and Greek yogurt are two easy, popular solutions to incorporate protein with your diet program, each and every day.  

You should look at this website dieta de 21 dias

When you try to lose body weight, watch your development by weighing oneself every day. Should your excess weight remains steady or results in being decreased, you might experience encouraged to continue your weight decline efforts. For those who have strayed out of your food plan and also your pounds rises, you might know instantly, so that you can take ways to accurate your situation.

Sign up for a weight reduction software, for instance Excess weight Watchers. Groups for instance these require you to definitely weigh in consistently, and a lot of individuals obtain this motivating. They perform harder to exercising and regulate caloric ingestion so that when they are weighed, all people will see that they have misplaced pounds. Several persons come across this method for being profitable.

A significant move in fat decline achievement is understanding portion dimensions. Get from the practice of looking at the diet label prior to you eat or drink something. Even though the carbs and energy may possibly glance great at the outset look, you can normally be surprised to search out there are two, three or even more servings in that 1 bag or bottle.

Fat decline mustn't be centered entirely on nutritional supplements and remedies you locate on-line. Sometimes, the most beneficial route is nice old fashioned training and cardiac exercise sessions. It's important to be ready to get out and jog that extra mile, in case you are seriously interested in shredding those people major kilos, right before the summer season. 

Mayonnaise is extremely adaptable. It is possible to pretty much put it on all the things! Sandwiches, dips, salad dressings, ham salad, egg salad, potato salad just to identify a number of. But it is so fattening and full of calories! Just isn't there anything that's equally as multipurpose instead of so bad for you personally? Properly actually, there exists: yogurt.  Use yogurt in just about any place where you would use mayonnaise cold, like those foods stated over. It tastes excellent on the sandwich and you may barely explain to the primary difference, additionally it is significantly more healthy in your case and can be more cost-effective than mayo if you buy the bigger tubs of simple yogurt.

When attempting to shed body weight, be sure that you do not fall target for the purging of recently eaten foods.  If this does manifest, it really is a illness and you also ought to seek advice from that has a health care provider or counselor for steering.  Not just is the body not acquiring the nutrients that it desires, that you are harming your esophagus and teeth too.

To find out more click this link dieta dos 21 dias

[bangdisocute-blog]

Huawei MateBook 13 evaluate

It’s not arduous to see the place Huawei laptops take inspiration. Simply because the MateBook X Professional aped so much from the MacBook Professional, the brand new MateBook 13 doesn’t precisely scream “authentic.” However this time, Huawei has its sights set on a brand new goal. The MacBook Air. Boasting a beginning worth of $1,000 together with a modern new design, the MateBook 13 seems prefer it has what it takes to problem the Air. Is it simply one other copycat, or is it the actual deal?

The brand new MacBook — I imply, MateBook

Once we say the MateBook 13 resembles the MacBook Air, we aren’t kidding. It has a silver aluminum chassis, skinny profile, shiny display, restricted port choice, and black chiclet keys. There’s even a “House Gray” coloration variant. Significantly. Apparently, Apple by no means trademarked that identify. However these are all surface-level comparisons. And today, what thin-and-light laptop computer doesn’t have just a little little bit of Mac DNA in themit It’s arduous to ding the MateBook 13 an excessive amount of for the affect it wears on its sleeve. And the MateBook 13 does perform a little to set itself aside. Riley Younger/Digital TendenciesWe like the best way the keyboard stretches practically edge-to-edge on the deck. The thinned-out bezels framing the display look good, too. Even the textured emblem on the lid provides some much-needed spice to the laptop computer’s easy end. What actually stands out, although, is the show. Its three:2 side ratio provides the laptop computer a boxy look that feels tailored for productiveness. It’s not fairly as refined because the MacBook Air, although. The lid has just a little little bit of give within the middle, and there’s the slightest quantity of flex close to the middle of the hinge. Huawei’s effort doesn’t really feel low cost, however the Air definitely feels most strong. What actually stands out is the show. Due to the taller rubber ft and chunkier lid, the MateBook 13 is lifted and seems thicker than it's. It’s really thinner than the MacBook Air, and solely a hair thicker than the Razer Blade Stealth and Dell XPS 13. In the meantime, the MateBook 13 weighs 2.eight kilos, simply barely heavier than its rivals. You’ll discover only a few ports alongside the perimeters of the chassis. There’s two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. The left aspect is for information switch and charging, whereas the correct aspect is for video output. That ought to care for most of your wants, although we do miss having the ability to cost and hook up with an exterior monitor over a single cable. So, what else is lacking? Effectively, a microSD card slot for starters. The dearth of Thunderbolt three can be a bit irritating. Almost all laptops over a thousand bucks embrace it now, together with the XPS 13, MacBook Air, and Razer Blade Stealth.

A irritating touchpad

Not everybody cares about touchpads as a lot we do, particularly not when you sometimes use a mouse. However as one of many major surfaces you work together with on a laptop computer, the touchpad’s high quality influences your general impression. For the MateBook 13, that’s dangerous information. For no matter motive, Huawei determined the touchpad was the place corners ought to be minimize. It’s not as glass floor, in contrast to most premium laptops. Gliding your finger throughout the touchpad creates uncomfortable friction that forestalls easy monitoring. It’s most blatant in click on and drag actions, equivalent to highlighting textual content or dragging home windows. It reminds us of a finances Chromebook. The touchpad can be a barely completely different shade of gray than the chassis, which makes it look misplaced. Riley Younger/Digital TendenciesThe keyboard fares significantly better. It’s comfy, there’s a wholesome quantity of journey, and the backlighting is uniform. It’s an ideal typing expertise, particularly in comparison with the MacBook Air, which options Apple’s low-travel butterfly mechanisms. That’s a pattern we had been completely happy to see Huawei keep away from. The structure isn’t too unusual, although there are a few devoted buttons within the perform row that appear misplaced. As an alternative of fast entry to Timeline or some media management buttons, the MateBook 13 has an unhelpful Huawei PC Supervisor key on the F10 location. The touchpad isn’t glass, in contrast to most premium laptops. One optimistic side of the perform row is the webcam. The experimental concept to cover the webcam underneath a perform key within the MateBook X Professional has been deserted in favor of returning it to the highest bezel. Whereas which means the bezel is barely larger, we expect it’s a better option for most individuals. It doesn’t embrace an infrared digicam, nevertheless, so facial recognition is a no-go. A Home windows Hi there-powered fingerprint scanner is constructed into the ability button on the high of the keyboard deck.

You’ll love this show

We’ve already gushed concerning the MateBook 13’s three:2 display. In case you’re coming from a typical 16:9 (or perhaps a MacBook’s 16:10) dimension, you’ll discover the distinction instantly. The taller display supplies ample display actual property, excellent for searching the net, multitasking, and phrase processing. Extra of your work and content material is offered, which makes an in any other case small 13-inch laptop computer really feel bigger. The MateBook 13’s 2,160 x 1,440 display isn’t an improve. It comes customary. It won't be as a pointy because the MacBook Air’s retina show (nor any of the 4K choices on the market), but it surely’s nice for a base mannequin. The identical goes for the touchscreen capabilities, which normally come as an improve for higher-end configurations. As for high quality, not one of the readings from our calibration device gave us pause. Distinction, coloration accuracy, and coloration gamut are common. They’re not high of the category, however they’re competitor general. Riley Younger/Digital TendenciesThe one side we observed straight away was brightness. At a max brightness of simply 243 nits and a shiny display in addition, it typically had a tough time overpowering our brightly-lit workplace. When taking a look at darker photos, we noticed our reflection staring again at us. On a shiny display like this, we wish to see brightness of not less than 300 nits. The Razer Blade Stealth, MacBook Professional, or Floor Professional 6 will crank up previous 400 nits. The audio system are situated on the underside of the laptop computer, which has turn out to be customary. The MacBook Air, Razer Blade Stealth, and Lenovo Yoga C930 have moved them to the entrance, which produce louder and clearer audio. Nonetheless, music on the MateBook 13 sounds uninteresting. It’s wonderful for the occasional YouTube video, however bass absent. Flip it as much as loud and the audio system begin to sound shrill.

Efficiency that pops

There’s not so much to complain about by way of efficiency. The MateBook 13 options the top-of-the-line specs we’d count on see. Up to date Intel Eighth-gen Core i5 or Core i7 processors of the ‘Whiskey Lake’ product line can be found. Each configurations include 8GB of RAM. We wish to see that as a praise to a four-core processor. The MateBook 13 pushes some spectacular numbers, particularly in an artificial benchmark like Geekbench. The MateBook 13 even surpassed the XPS 13 and Razer Blade Stealth in multi-core scores. When in comparison with the MacBook Air, which has a weaker dual-core processor that may’t deal with multitasking fairly as effectively, there’s no contest. We pushed the Core i7 more durable in a video encoding check, measuring how lengthy it could take to transcode a 4K film trailer from h.264 to h.265. It completed practically a minute quicker than final 12 months’s MateBook X Professional, regardless of that being a spendier laptop computer. It’s at all times good to see significant enchancment year-over-year. Huawei MateBook 13 In contrast To Each Matebook 13 configurations include a super-fast NVMe SSD, for fast learn and write speeds. On this case it’s a Western Digital PC SN720, which excels at write speeds, boasting speeds of over 1,300 MB/s in our checks. Sadly, the capability tops out at 512GB. The XPS 13 permits for enlargement as much as 2TB of storage compared. Each reminiscence and storage are soldered on, so no enlargement is feasible sooner or later.

Sure, you may Fortnite

Huawei has included an fascinating part that players will recognize. The Nvidia GeForce MX150. It’s an unusual GPU to see today, particularly as add-ons to 13-inch laptops. What’s important about this one? Effectively, it’s a 25-watt model of the cardboard. The current Razer Blade Stealth is the one different laptop computer we’ve seen use it, although the Razer’s mannequin additionally had 4GB of VRAM. The MateBook 13 solely has 2GB. However as you’ll see, there’s hardly a distinction. Let’s begin with 3DMark. The MateBook 13 checks effectively right here, touchdown scores considerably increased than its larger brother, the MateBook X Professional, which makes use of the 10-watt MX150. The MateBook 13 even beats out the Razer Blade Stealth within the Hearth Strike benchmark. Trying good to this point. We additionally examined the MateBook 13 in a few video games equivalent to Rocket League and Fortnite. Whereas the Razer Blade Stealth may common over 60 FPS (frames per second) with graphics turned up, the MateBook 13 solely hit 52 FPS. That’s almost certainly as a result of increased display decision of the MateBook. That’s nonetheless a major lead over laptops and not using a discrete GPU just like the XPS 13 or MacBook Air. Fortnite is playable. Barely. However, what about Fortnite? We all know you’re all considering it. The world’s hottest sport is, in actual fact, playable. Barely. We turned down the settings to Medium, which simply barely received us into the 60 FPS vary. It wasn’t the sport’s most interesting hour, however it's attainable to play the sport at a easy framerate with out decreasing the display decision. Whereas it’s not a gaming powerhouse, keep in mind that the Razer Blade Stealth is $300 costlier when outfitted with the identical GPU. Rating a win for Huawei right here. For individuals who don’t need to purchase a chunky, finances gaming laptop computer, the $1,300 MateBook 13 can function an on a regular basis laptop computer that simply so occurs to play Fortnite on the aspect. Whole lot. There may be, nevertheless, a catch.

With nice energy comes brief battery life

As with the Razer Blade Stealth, that 25-watt Nvidia MX 150 is a killer on battery life. The MateBook 13 ought to be a long-lasting thin-and-light laptop computer similar to its rivals. As an alternative, it will possibly’t get you thru a full day. In gentle net searching, the MateBook 13 lasts slightly below six hours on a single cost. In the meantime, the MacBook Air will get you over eight, whereas the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333 will web you over twelve. That’s twice as a lot battery for an $850 laptop computer. The MateBook 13 does even worse within the video loop, the place it lasted 5 and a half hours working a repeating 1080p clip till it died. The ZenBook lasts eight hours longer in the identical check! The Matebook 13’s small 41-watt hour battery is definitely accountable right here. A bigger battery is required to assist the 25-watt Nvidia MX150 graphics chip. Huawei claims the model with out the discrete GPU will do higher, and we consider them. How significantly better, although, we don’t know. Our Take Each laptop computer has compromises. The very best stability these traits to create an general satisfying product. For a small group of individuals on the market, a 13-inch MacBook that may play Fortnite will make sense. The MateBook 13 is that. The $1,000 base mannequin can be a compelling choice due to its worth level. We like the three:2 display and keyboard. However with shortcomings in battery, touchpad, and port choice, different laptops are a greater choice. Is there a greater various? The Huawei MateBook 13 undercuts loads of laptops on this class by just a few hundred dollars. The XPS 13 with an analogous configuration, for instance, will price you $1,200. The XPS 13 is a greater laptop computer in practically each manner, however you do pay for the benefit. The identical goes for the Floor Laptop computer 2, which has an analogous three:2 display however prices $1,200 for the same configuration. What concerning the MacBook Air? Effectively, the MateBook 13 is an honest competitor to it, but it surely’s not about to discourage Mac lovers anytime quickly. Its display is much less sharp, its touchpad isn’t glass, its battery life is worse, and the construct high quality isn’t as much as snuff. These quality-of-life variations are what Apple followers reside for. In case you’re actually making an attempt to save lots of a couple of dollars with out sacrificing high quality, take a look at the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333. It has ultra-narrow bezels, quick elements, and insanely good battery life for simply $850. How lengthy will it final? The MateBook 13 is a premium, well-made laptop computer. The elements will really feel updated for quite a lot of years, and the USB-C ports maintain it futureproof for peripherals. Huawei affords an inudstry-standard one 12 months restricted guarantee, which is able to cowl the value the elements and labor. Past that, you’re by yourself. Must you purchase it? No. The power to play Fortnite or Rocket League might tempt, however the general expertise isn’t fairly there. Now we have hopes that the thin-and-light laptops of the long run will be capable to play video games, however for now, some compromise is required. Read the full article

[ziggykazenzakis]

i heard medium is a dyieng website so imma drop here all i had there just to have it somewhere

Schedule

12:02  —  Get up slowly, smoke the first cigarette. Find out you’re out of toothpaste.

12:10  —  Watch the new episode of Men Are Important, a show about the world where Men Are Important.

12:32  —  Fall asleep in the middle of Men Are Important.

13:11  —  Wake up nervously, smoke the second cigarette. Eat something.

13:17  —  Download a collection of short stories by someone incredibly obscure, some comic books, bit of contemporary french cinema. Never open downloads.

14:00  —  Go to the store to get groceries and toothpaste, come back with cigarettes, white wine and frozen pizza.

14:23  —  Write post for Community Buzzfeed, titled “28 reasons my God is better than yours”.

16:00  —  Go outside.

17:00  —  Point fingers at journalism majors.

19:27  —  Tell strangers at a bar how comic books and radio are close as mediums.

20:52  —  Get hit in the face.

22:12  —  Come home, write an essay on cultural significance of 400 Blows (never watch 400 Blows). Smoke fourteenth cigarette.

23:49  —  Look in the mirror.

00:28  —  Read Batman comics, open another pack of cigarettes.

01:02  —  Read Batman comics, but ironically.

02:37  —  Think of your own grandeur for prolonged periods of time, do absolutely nothing.

03:58  —  Find the strangest porno possible.

04:49  —  Try to fall asleep, cry silently.

12:02  —  Get up slowly, smoke the first cigarette. Find out you’re out of toothpaste.

bad joke from 2014

a man walks into a bar man drinks and drinks as he tries to drown his sorrow in cheap yet over-priced liquor which is probably watered down too he comes to a realization epiphany, perhaps not even that though because he spent the most of his adulthood trying to shrug off that idea deep back into the ether he comes to a realization that whatever he does is meaningless meaningless beyond the point of comprehension he doesn’t care for dead philosophers mind masturbation nor for the idea of time and space being the same intertwined thing all he knows is that his actions have no impact on the world around him none

after that setup you might expect a cheerful twist or an absurd one nihilism is intensely boring you might think, “it’s not about the journey it’s about the destination, honey” well first of all, don’t patronize me secondly, we can still get back to the base of this anecdote some slapstick comedy, maybe? or salvage the entire thing with some pop-cultural references that y’all hate but pretend to love it’s actually quite an art, to be pretentious whilst talking about Batman of all things

man keeps on drinking he looks up at the tiny TV atop the bar it’s a rerun of some sports game is that what they called? sports games? the whole thing is ridiculous and way past my control over it commentator says, “stop wallowing in self-pity” man is confused he looks to his left he looks to his right he looks right at the screen and gulps a shot of whiskey “that is what you’re doing with your life? little cry-baby anyway, back to you Johnson” “the game is quite a race today, folks…” and the voice trails off barkeep already saw the game he doesn’t care it’s not like there was much to care about in the first place man pays the bill leaves a tip not too much, not too little he goes home he’ll try to forget and he’ll inevitably fail

the bar was called “Huge Sweaty Balls” are you happy now that’s the punchline that’s the joke you’ve been waiting for everything is fucking great

Banned Names

Amir left the subway, avoiding stranger’s gaze, awkwardly tapping into it ever so often, apologizing as much as he can for snow-covered ten gallon hat using only his eyes. Through side streets and backstreets, which lead to crooked steps, which lead to a heavy door, which leads to basement. Hit aperture with his hat, bowed a bit, came in. Through hallway, and must shake hands with everyone, came. “Sorry guys, slept through”, Amir said. “What’s with the hat, did Haggard die?”, said Jim. “I’ve decided, that the band is called Astral Cowboys”.

“No”, said Thrasy. “Why?”, said Amir. “Cause that’s some fucking bullshit. I disagree”, said Thrasy. Thrasy was sure that the might one is the right one. Not many people agreed with him on things but less have tried to argue.

“Your will and we would have been called Wacky Eugenics”, said Amir. “I like it”, said Jim, not expecting spited glances from both sides. “And what would that be, in your idea? Delta Witchhouse?”, said Thrasy. “Nah, pretty casual psychedelics”, said Amir. “Why not just post-punk”, said Jim, fully expecting spited glances from both sides.

“Alright”, said Amir, “Astral Cowboys, gimme something better”. “Heinous Crime”, said Thrasy. “Circumstances”, said Jim. “No, Complications”. “Upvotes From The Underground”, said Jim. “If you won’t take it seriously then shut the fuck up”, said Thrasy. “A Kilo Of Potatoes”, said Jim.

“You got some bad ideas, Astral Cowboys”, said Amir. “Where does this preconception comes from, that you got the final word?”, said Thrasy. “Main vocals, lead guitar, lyrics — who else?”, said Amir. “Richards rules the Stones”, said Thrasy.

“Imma smoke”, said Jim, and left. “And one who dares to think that Astral Cowboys is a good title for anything should not write anything let alone songs”, said Thrasy. “It’s a good title! Intentionally kitsch but comfortable, relaxed, some chick shit, in a good way”, said Amir. “Here’s what’s going to happen”, said Thrasy. “Justice will be accomplished. Great, strong people been showered in mud by the weak, time and time again. Because they were allowed to. We’re going to punk. And it won’t be a riot. It will be anger. My holy mission is to continue what the Ramones started, convinced conservatives and a bunch of beautiful, rare bastards. I’m going to hit you, and you are going to hit the ground, and the band shall be called Circumstances. Or whatever the hell, Jim had some good ideas, but not Astral Cowboys, chief”.

Jim looked at the falling snow under the light of the street lamp. As he was lighting up a cigarette, he thought that he should learn to draw. He opened up a two years old text file on his three years old phone which was titled “bandnames.txt” and contained such as “Damn, A Burger? Don’t Mind If I Do”, “The Whatnots”, “No Weekends” and so on. He added “Ciet Vong”, which put up the file at the top of the list, threw the cig into a snowdrift, and walked back.

Jim walked in on a couple of grown children, trying to wrestle somewhat, and to hit, and not to damage all the appliance around. “How about Homoerotic Subtext? For a band name”, said Jim.

The band was standing and smoking. “We wasted three paid hours without touching the instruments”, said Amir. “Next week, same time?”

et in arcadia ego

looked barely dead and the cats started chewing on my thigh. They are sure that I’m dead, that I have no need for it, and that the still warm flesh is much more enjoyable than dry feed. The screens around blink with bright imagery of sin. Pick up the phone, look at the list of recent calls, which consists of the same number. After a click, beeps, before someone could reply, say “large pepperoni”, tell address, say, that I won’t need the change. Full cats fell asleep under the warm screens. After an hour to the dot, knock on the door. A kid paler than me holds a large white box the content of which is covered in sand round-shaped bread. He left without saying anything with his ten percent tip (cause death isn’t a reason to be uncorteous). Someone vaguely familiar comes in, full of energy, greets, tells how someone somewhere robbed a bank and uploaded the video of it on one of those sites. Says that if you take a city map and connect all the banks and their subsidiaries you’ll see a pentagram made of pentagrams which are made of pentagrams. “Dude, the main problem with you-know-who is that he didn’t transform hell into heaven but just sits there being a cog”, he says. After a brief pause, I say “we gotta call some five acquaintances and play some basketball”. “Good thinking, dude, good thinking. If all’s well we gotta smash some ATM afterwards. I don’t know why people don’t do it all the time, those things don’t look that hardy”, he says. We leave, the weather is perfect.

untitled

Sportscaster screams “verbiage” when I’m on a stroll Decribing empty vistas filled with horny patrols My dead self is my best self mind not in Malcolm’s way Beware of feedback loops every step of the way Give me a reason to leave my poorly assembled set To this very day les tricoteuses make content

Well you have ears and you have eyes Don’t listen to me look at some other guy There’s some courage to be had Writing down history of victorious empty heads It must be side effect of broken sleep patterns Finding rhythm and beauty in fecal matter

Stinging bland colors exorting a laugh Soundbites of worst to offer, what a fun life I’m asking others how to feel Plateauted yet again it’s no big deal When there’s light again over parks and backdoors I’ll try to mute proclivities towards bromide and havenots

My Dear Friends

The only thing here separating a lion and a man is a lousy moat. Jack Drowsey stands alone in Miami Zoo and stares at the animal. The sun is high on this weekday, Jack ignores a text from his boss, the lion looks back at Jack serenely, Jack puts phone on silent when boss calls, the lion yawns and stretches, Jacks turns the phone off when his wife calls. Jack leaves the zoo and gets in a car for which he has a key. Turns the ignition on, rips off BMW Dealership sticker off the glass and drives. He spent four years in Florida and never seen an alligator, but plenty of idiots. When Castro died, he saw a miami cuban and a skinhead hug. He drives among palm trees and potholes and thinks of his childhood in rural California. He had two friends, Barney and Billy. Barney now lives in San Francisco doing “some gay bullshit”, as Jack calls it. Billy died a few years back, OD’d on Xanax. It gets dark as he crosses the state line. Back in Bakersfield, Jack, Barney and Billy had a game. There was this guy everyone called just Dirty who had a real oxy problem. He was about twenty, but no one knew for sure, while Jack and the gang were all thirteen at the time. The goal of the game was as follows: get Dirty in a cage. They had a cage. The game was usually lost, except for that one time, when Billy told Dirty that if he stayed in the cage for an hour, they’d give him twelve dollars. Dirty walked into the cage, the boys locked it and left. From then on, Dirty was the wiser. Jack has been driving for three days straight now. Once, Barney had a Problem, he wanted to enlist. This curly pudgy kid, the kind who listens to Talking Heads, seventeen at the time, decided he had enough. He shaved his head, started running in the morning, talking about some evils from abroad gathering upon our doorstep, with nothing but vile intentions under their brown skins. Jack didn’t really care, he was happy for his friend to lose some weight and get a better chance at getting laid, but Billy was fuming. For three weeks there were constant arguing, until the two stopped talking and shaking hands altogether. Two months later, Jack’s birthday, which he saw as an opportunity to reconcile his buddies. They spent most of the night at the opposite ends of the room until they were drunk enough to get into some altercations. The previously routine arguing quickly turned when Billy yelled “Bash the fash!”. He must’ve forgotten that previously an artsy cunt spent time working on his body, while Billy was smoking weed and telling young women that they should all look more like Suicide Girls. Barney broke Billy’s nose, who was then smiling and coughing blood laying on the ground. Barney cried a bit. Everything returned to normal. Jack is approaching LA. He hadn’t slept, he hadn’t eaten, he stopped at a gas station once and got a bottle of water. He shuts his eyes for a second at an intersection and a truck is swift and merciless. Now he’s in LA, of sorts. It’s snowing. Dirty approaches him, but he’s clean, and he’s dressed up as Elvis. “Hi, Jack, remember me?”, says clean Dirty. “It’s me, Bruce”, he says. “You’re dead, buddy. Billy is here too, you wanna meet him? Or maybe someone famous first, how does a date with Rita Hayworth sounds to ya, huh, old pal?”, says Dirty. Jack keeps walking, Dirty follows. There’s no sunshine, only snow. There are no cars and Dirty is the only person around. Where would be banners and posters and billboards that advertise a multibillion industry of boredom is nothing; all of them show nothing. “Where are you going, you little shit?”, says Dirty, and Jack finds himself to be thirteen. He keeps walking. “You think I don’t remember? Here it’s hard to forget. All you do is remember”, says Dirty to the kid. “Where the fuck did you even find a cage?”, says Dirty, stops walking, mumbles something, pulls out a cigarette. Jack stops walking too. “We were just kids”, Jack says. “Whatever, asshole. I don’t care. There isn’t some lesson to be had here. Just go”, Dirty says, puffing on a newport. Jack is adult again, and he keeps walking. Until he sees Billy, whose skin is whiter than the snow around. “Why did you leave them?”, he says. Jack punches Billy in the shoulder. “Why did you leave us?”, he says. Billy can’t handle the punch and falls on his ass. “You and Barney seemed to have it figured out, somewhat. He with his art, you with your wife and a job. Not a great job, but a real job, doing something, being able to afford shit and all. I had absolutely nothing. I had no one. I did not leave you two, you did that before. I had bills, I had no fun, I had an easy way out. I took it. What’s your excuse?”, says Billy. And Jack has none.

[brajeshupadhyay]

Burdened by debt and loss of livelihood, fisherfolk in Maharashtra's Palghar struggle to stay afloat

Editor's note: This article is the fourth in a multi-part series which examines how the COVID-19 lockdown has impacted one of the most backward districts in Maharashtra and the most disadvantaged section of the society living on the outskirts of Mumbai. Click to read: part I , part II  and part III

***

Ever since fishing resumed in the first week of August, Pankaj Patil has been receiving incessant phone calls. None of them bearing good news. “Every day, fisherfolk are meeting with accidents, their boats are breaking down in the middle of the sea,” he says. “The other day, a fisherman lost balance and drowned. The weather has been rough. But fisherfolk are risking their lives because they are desperate to get back on their feet.”

Patil runs a fishing cooperative society in Satpati, one of the largest fishing villages in Maharashtra. It is located on the west coast about 80 kilometers north of Mumbai in the tribal district of Palghar. The fishers in Satpati, who belong to the Koli community, fish in Maharashtra’s waters. There are also Adivasi khalaasis in talukas closer to Gujarat border — like Talasari and Dahanu. They fish in Gujarat waters. Together they make up for a significant fishing community with thousands of livelihoods dependent on it in the district of Palghar, which has a population of 3 million.

The community is trying to get back on its feet after the losses they incurred during the lockdown — enforced on 24 March to contain the spread of coronavirus. But the seas have not been welcoming. In the first week of August, hundreds of boats from Palghar were hit due to rough weather triggered by incessant downpour. At least 341 were stranded, and had to return midway through their journey. Some even suffered serious accidents.

Jitu Chaudhary, 31, a fisherman from Satpati, says his boat dashed against a rock near the shore because he couldn’t control it in the ominous weather. “Luckily, I survived,” he says. “But the boat did not. I could not salvage a single plank of wood. I don’t know if I can ever recover from the loss.”

Jitu took a loan of Rs 15 lakh to fix the boat – about 7 feet tall, 50 feet long and 15 feet wide. “I don’t know what to do,” he says. “How am I going to repay the debt? I had to go in the sea once fishing resumed in August because for two months after the lockdown we couldn’t do anything.”

Several activists believe it is unwise to restart fishing in the first week of August after the 61-day annual ban, which starts on 1 June. “The weather begins to settle down after 15 August,” he says. “These days, because of climate change, the weather isn’t stable even after 15 August. The profession has become more precarious. We risk losing lives, and the accidents pile up debt.”

Activists working with the fishing community, like Patil, have been calling for the extension of the annual ban period for a while. Until 2012, it was a 75-day period, which started on 1 June and lasted until 15 August. “The purpose of the annual fishing ban is also to preserve the fish species during monsoons,” says Patil. “It is a breeding period for various species of fish along the coastline. Netting the small fish is not the smartest thing to do.”

Adivasi khalaasis living in Talasari are better off than the fisherfolk. Nitesh Bhurkul, a khalaasi from the Warli tribe from Paraspada in Talasari, works for a businessman who lends his boat every season. Parth MN

According to Patil, catching the small fish means the fisherfolk reduce their chances of netting a bigger one in the future. “A bucket of small fish can be sold at Rs 2,500, while a big pomfret fetches us a few times more,” says Jitu.

Therefore, reducing the ban period defeats the purpose, and is counter-productive in the long run, the fisherfolk concede. “There won’t be anything to fish near the coastline, which would push fisherfolk deeper into the seas,” says Patil. “Those who do not have bigger boats would not be able to do that.”

Ever since the lockdown, the fisherfolk in Palghar have been dealt with one blow after another. The initial period restricted them from selling their catch. Once the restrictions relaxed a bit by the end of May, some of those who had resumed fishing had to return because of Cyclone Nisarga which hit the coastline of north Maharashtra and south Gujarat in June.

About 455 boats had to turn around mid-journey to make it safely back to the coast. And now, even with the annual ban over, the weather is not congenial for fishing as the district has been experiencing consistent and torrential downpour, deepening the crisis further.

Fishing, Jitu says, had become an unviable profession even before the lockdown. “You may think the fishers are doing great because pomfret is selling for Rs 500 a kilo. But that is not how it works," Jitu explains. "The overhead costs have increased dramatically. The fuel costs have gone up. We barely manage to secure meals for our families after the overhead costs and salaries of our khalaasis.”

Given the situation, number of fisherfolk quitting the profession has been on the rise, says Patil. “You will find them working as watchmen or drivers in Tier-II or III cities,” he says. “Every fisher is in heavy debt. They have been mortgaging their gold to stay afloat.”

The plight of these fishers has made the lives of some of the Adivasi khalaasis living in Talasari look relatively stable. They work for a businessperson who owns the boat. They earn a modest salary but the payment is stable regardless of how many fish they net.

Nitesh Bhurkul, 25, a khalaasi from the Warli tribe from Paraspada in Talasari, located 75 kilometers from Satpati, is all set to resume work. “I will go to the Veraval port in Gujarat and get on the boat,” he says. “The boat is owned by the seth. He pays me Rs 8,500 a month.”

Once Bhurkul starts the season, he says, they make at least 25-day trips in the deep sea. “We carry enough rice, enough water that lasts until we return,” he says. “We hand over our catch to our boss. They sell it at the fishing harbour and make profits.”

Every year, Bhurkul migrates out of the village around the same time and returns eight months later. This year, though, the lockdown forced him to change plans. “We were at sea when the lockdown was enforced,” he says. “We returned to the port to go back home but our Aadhaar cards had Maharashtra address.”

Authorities in Gujarat did not allow hundreds of such khalaasis to alight on their side of the border citing coronavirus-induced lockdown. “We lived on the boat that was pulled over at the port for a month,” says Bhurkul. “We were 135 of us in one boat. It was horrible. We were worried if we would have enough food so we used more water in our rice and made it watery.”

A month later, the khalaasis, after an intervention from the state government of Maharashtra, finally returned home to their families. But Bhurkul can’t afford to be scarred by the experience. About three months after being stuck on the boat, he is all set to return to the sea.

“My parents have a two-acre farmland but they barely survive on the rice we cultivate. My salary helps us sustain a livelihood,” he says.

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[torixus]

Hunger stalks southern Africa as climate crisis deepens

 Climate extremes: A year ago, Josephine Ganye was hit by a devastating flood -- now she is struggling with a crippling drought. Climate extremes: A year ago, Josephine Ganye was hit by a devastating flood -- now she is struggling with a crippling drought. BUHERA, Zimbabwe: Just under a year ago, Alice Posha fled her home in the middle of the night and then watched as it was swept away by floods. The torrential rain came from Cyclone Idai, one of the worst storms ever to hit Africa and the fiercest on record to strike Buhera, a district in the usually arid province of Manicaland in eastern Zimbabwe. Today, the scene in Buhera is entirely different. But the misery remains. The 60-year-old, who was rehoused in October, is going through the motions of weeding a field of maize that has been withered by the worst drought in 35 years. A little rain for her corn would be more than welcome. Zimbabwe begins national mourning Zambia reassures China after mine boss killing Zimbabwe facing 'man-made' starvation, UN expert warns "Seeing how the maize is wilting, we may have a very bad harvest," she said. It is a scene that is being played out across southern Africa, where chronic lack of rain is threatening mass hunger and ruin. Climate is being fingered as the big culprit. In the space of 10 months, Buhera and many districts like it have been hammered by extremes that scientists say are consistent with forecasts about climate change. In March 2019, the arrival of Idai unleashed devastation on eastern Zimbabwe and its neighbours Mozambique and Malawi. Over a thousand people died and the lives of millions of others were badly affected. "Our chickens and turkeys were swept away," said Posha's sister-in-law, Josephine Ganye, who now depends on food aid. She is among the 45 million people in southern Africa that the UN has said are threatened by famine. Its World Food Programme (WFP) sent out a stark warning last month. "This hunger crisis is on a scale we’ve not seen before and the evidence shows it’s going to get worse," said Lola Castro, WFP's regional director in southern Africa. For the past five years, the entire southern tip of the African continent, where average temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global mean, has suffered from a significant lack of rain. Every farmer, big or small, has been affected as well as breeders, hoteliers and teachers. - Prayers for rain - In Zimbabwe, the drought has added to a long list of crises, from stratospheric inflation to shortages of cash, petrol, medicines, water and electricity. For many, daily life has become a nightmare. "Almost everybody in my area is food insecure," said 68-year-old Janson Neshava, who is a headman, or senior leader, in Buhera. "We still do the traditional rain ceremonies, but to no avail. Even the wetlands are now dry and streams that used to flow throughout the year are all dry." The WFP says that 60% of Zimbabwe's 15 million people are currently food insecure. According to Patience Dhinda, a local official, this figure hits 80 percent in Buhera where the grain depot, which should house the state food aid, stands empty. A year ago, the crops in Buhera had already suffered from drought before being washed away by Idai. This year they risk being burned to a crisp by the relentless sun. - One meal a day - Around 800 kilometres further west, across the border in Zambia, first impressions suggest that the contrast is startling. The grass is tall, the roads muddy and the fields of maize are a vibrant, healthy green. In the village of Simumbwe, an hour and a half's drive south on a dusty road from Kalomo in the southwest of the country, the rains arrived in late December. But in the shade of the majestic trees, seated on the red earth, perched in the branches or on oxcarts, hundreds of people wait patiently for food to be distributed by an NGO, World Vision, and the WFP. Last year, the harvest was catastrophic for the second year running with up to 70 percent of the crops lost to the drought. "Last year, I harvested 18 kilos (39.6 pounds) of food. In other words, nothing," said Loveness Haneumba, mother of five and a "happy" beneficiary of aid in Simumbwe. "It is common that we eat once a day. The children ask me: 'what are we going to eat?' I answer: 'Just wait. Let me look around'." It is a question of buying time. For several years, the rainy season has been getting later and shorter, upsetting the traditional farming cycle. It used to be from October to May; now it is barely from December to April. - Most vulnerable - "The food we have here is not enough to cater for everyone," said Derick Mulilo, the World Vision food monitor in the yard of the school in Simumbwe. "We are focussing on the most vulnerable." He meant people like Loveness Haneumba and her stunted children. Her six-year-old daughter looked four and her four-year-old had the appearance of a two-year-old toddler. Lizzy Kayoba, another mother of a large family, also featured on the list of beneficiaries. She had walked five hours during the night, her youngest on her back, to arrive at dawn for the food handout. She left with 25 kilos of maize and 7.6 kilos of beans. "It will last me one or two weeks," she said. The next distribution at the school is a month away. A teacher, Teddy Siafweba, said about 15 children in his class were absent that day because of hunger. In the classroom next door, about 30 were missing -- nearly half of the rollcall of 70. And those who came often have an empty stomach. Some nod off in class, said another teacher, Tryness Kayuni. The 33-year-old watched the handout with a heavy heart. She was not one of the 862 beneficiaries. A single mother, Kayuni was not considered a priority as she had a job. And yet she had not been paid since September. Since then she had been holding out on one meal a day. "How do I survive?" she said. "I ask my colleagues if they can help me with some food." - Adapt to survive - Funding is desperately needed to meet the needs of the 2.3 million people in Zambia who sorely need food. The WFP has received only a third of the $36 million required. Desperate times are prompting desperate -- and corrupt -- measures. Thieves steal food supplies and unscrupulous men promise to put women's names on the food list in exchange for unprotected sex. That is not something that worried single mother Imelda Hicoombolwa, 49, who for the last three years has been one of a number of small farmers who gambled on agricultural diversification, opting for nutritious vegetables and using techniques adapted to climate change. "Food is not a problem. I have it," she beamed. (continues below)

A volunteer reads a list with the names of those who will receive bags with maize meal and beans during a food distribution organized by the World Food Programme and World Vision in Simumbwe on Jan 22. Funding is desperately needed to meet the needs of the 2.3 million severely food insecure people in Zambia. (Photo:AFP)

Before 2017, Hicoombolwa cultivated almost only maize. Today, she harvests cowpeas, which need very little water, as well as peanuts, pumpkins and sunflowers. "I can make 18,000 kwacha (1,100 euros, $1,222) a year. Before, I was making 8,000 kwacha a year," she said. "Before, the children were missing school because I could not always pay the tuition fees. Not any more." One big change is that Hicoombolwa no longer rushes to sow from the first rains. The farmers have learned to wait. In the recent past it was a different story, according to Allan Mulando of WFP. "Once they see a drop they plant instead of waiting for the moisture to be good enough," he said. "At the end of the day, they lose everything." Rain gauges have helped to change that attitude. As part of a joint programme launched in 2015 by the UN agency and the Zambian government, 165 rain gauges were distributed to farmers in the Zambian districts most affected by the drought. They have enabled the villagers to read the conditions and plant at the most propitious moment. - Rain man - Mulando says the rule of thumb is not to plant anything below 20 to 25 millimetres  of rain and to choose seeds that fit the weather forecast. If a short rainy season is expected, for instance, choose seeds that will germinate quickly. "If I had had access to this knowledge earlier, I would be relatively rich," said Godfrey Hapaka, a farmer. "I would have a decent car and my kids would not have missed school." Next to his modest house surrounded by flourishing maize fields, a rain gauge was planted in an enclosure, its value underlined by a brand new screen put in place to protect it. As soon as it rains, Hapaka, 58, checks the gauge and passes on the rainfall level to his neighbours. Sadly, the message is often ignored. Hapaka said some of them are "reluctant" to use the information. "They follow their parents and grandparents," he said. "They are stuck in the past." Farmers are not the only ones to follow the rainfall closely. From the Kariba dam on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, Geoffrey Chambisha, director of the power station on the Zambian side, watched the water level of the lake. He was worried. In the 14 years he had been working at the dam, he had never seen it so low. In early 2020, the water level was 476.61 metres  above sea level. Its lowest level, set in 1996, was 475.93m. In the absence of sufficient rain, the dam, the main source of electricity in Zambia and Zimbabwe, is expected to operate at only 25% of its capacity in 2020. Inevitably the two countries are enduring long power cuts, up to 20 hours a day, which is having a knock-on effect on the two economies. The town of Livingstone, where tourists from all over the world flock to admire the Victoria Falls, has been particularly hit. "This year has been horrendously bad," said Andrew Murrin, a Briton who runs a six-bedroom hotel. With temperatures climbing to nearly 45°C, customers have naturally been demanding air conditioning. Murrin had been running at full speed on his generator for some months and the cost was mounting. "In the past three months, the generator has cost me about 30,000 kwacha (US$2,000) for the diesel and the maintenance," he said. - Victoria Falls - Beyond the problems of electricity and air-conditioning, the tourist industry is suffering from recent publicity which it would rather have avoided. A video filmed in September by a visitor purporting to show the Victoria Falls reduced to a trickle made a massive buzz on social media even though it only reflected part of the reality. The video showed a dry portion of the 1.7-km-long falls and, much to the indignation of angry tourism professionals, ignored the rest of the free-flowing Mosi-oa-Tunya -- the local name which translates as "The Smoke That Thunders." Zambian President Edgar Lungu exacerbated the panic by leaping for Twitter. "These pictures of the Victoria Falls are a stark reminder of what climate change is doing to our environment and our livelihood," he tweeted. At Livingstone, the locals were incensed. Every year the Zambian part of the Victoria Falls, which is shared with Zimbabwe, is dry. "It is a natural phenomenom, it is seasonal," said John Zulu, who runs the Zambian site. Too late. The damage was done. Thousands of visitors cancelled their trips; tourism plummeted 25 percent in 2019. This month, the falls are again flowing along their entire length but the lack of tourists has bitten hard. Murrin has had to lay off four of his eight employees and the hotel next door to him has closed down. - Stench of death - Tourists have also become a rarity 1,500km away in western South Africa. In Northern Cape province, at the gateway of the Kalahari desert, the wild animals are used to extreme temperatures but even they are succumbing to the conditions. According to Wildlife Ranching South Africa, two-thirds of the wild animals in the Northern Cape have died in the last three years because of the drought. (continues below)

Two workers from the Thuru Lodge Game farm dispose of the carcass of a dead animal on the Thuru Lodge Game farm near Groblershoop on Jan 16. At the gateway to the Kalahari Desert, wild animals are used to extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. But after several years of drought, after animals have become weak, they die. (Photo: AFP)

In two years, half of the 4,500 buffaloes, hippopotamuses and kudus at the Thuru Lodge game farm near Groblershoop have disappeared. The average rainfall here is 250 millimetres a year. "But 250 millimetres, that's what we have had in five years," says its manager, Burger Schoeman. At the top of a hill that overlooked the 22,000-hectare private reserve, two huge holes served as mass graves. Paul Ludick is usually responsible for locating animal tracks for tourists. He now spends his time picking up the carcasses and feeding the animals that are still alive but struggling to survive. "I stink" of death, he said. - Abandoned sheep - The drought represents a financial black hole for the lodge, which spends 200,000 rand ($13,500) per month to feed the animals while cancelling the reservations of tourists on the lookout for "trophies." "We need to offer a fair hunt. Hunters can't shoot weak animals," said Schoeman. The South African government, which has declared a state of natural disaster in the Northern Cape, will release 300 million rand ($20 million) in aid. A drop in the desert. "I have never seen anything like this," said Johan Steenkamp, a 52-year-old farmer with a spread of 6,000 hectares. "It is just not raining anywhere. We lost many animals. I have 30 to 40 percent left." Over a hundred died because of the drought, with another 200 going prematurely to the slaughterhouse. It is becoming a familiar tale. According to the agricultural cooperative KLK, many farmers in the region have lost 30-70% of their livestock in the space of two years. Sheep still give birth, but they abandon their newborn lambs. "They have no milk," Steenkamp said. "They leave them there." Steenkamp's two older sons chose careers away from the family farm and the drought is painting a bleak future for his youngest son as well. "There is no future for him here," said Steenkamp. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); via Blogger https://ift.tt/39wdPyv

[weightlossfitness2]

Determining Heavy Loads and Understanding Intensity in Weight Lifting

Many books on weight coaching can have chapters on depth and its significance. They describe 100% depth as being no matter weight one can solely do one rep of inside a sure train. If you are able to do multiple rep of the actual train then its depth is decrease. Thus, the extra reps one can do, the decrease the depth the burden will likely be.

  This dialogue then inevitably results in what the utmost reps will likely be at sure intensities. Every trainee who has superior to the intermediate stage will likely be on this as they wish to be sure that they’re working on the appropriate depth for the reps they’re doing.

    They don’t wish to work with too mild an depth and so they additionally don’t wish to work with too heavy an depth, both. Many trainees do get a bit over-ambitious and err on the aspect of heavy. The lazier or timider will do the other. So, a information of the rep-intensity chart is significant.

  The Relationship Between Intensity and 5×5

For newer intermediate trainees, it could be determined that they are going to comply with one of many normal power growth applications the place they do 5 units of 5 (5×5) straight throughout. That’s what Berry, Starr, Ripp, and lots of others prescribe—as a result of 5×5 works.

  So, they take the suitable proportion for five reps for the athlete. This is about 89%, give or take, on common, usually rounded to 90% for simple math (as I’ll do right here). They could begin at 85% in the event that they wish to ease into a brand new program—and that’s okay since enchancment will come quick.

  Then, the trainee begins doing 5×5 for the squat, bench, and different power workout routines. However, 5×5 doesn’t work so effectively with the deadlift as it may be exhausting, however for many different lifts 5×5 will work high quality.

  After per week or so the trainee will likely be utilizing a full 90%. But issues don’t all the time go so easily. For instance, on the final set, the fifth rep could fail. What has occurred? Are they now getting weaker?

  The reply is not any. All is effectively, even with lacking that final rep. In truth, that could be a good signal. Why? Because it implies that their depth is on the preferrred level. How is that this so? They have been taught that you simply all the time do your full 5 reps.

  What is going on is that the rep-intensity charts are primarily based on doing solely a single set, not a number of units. In doing so, their creators have forgotten the necessary idea of fatigue. We solely have a lot within the tank for a given coaching session or day earlier than we have to relaxation. We can’t work to 100% indefinitely. We all are intuitively conscious of that.

  A sprinter can’t sustain with a marathoner for lengthy. Even the marathoner has to save lots of his pace for the tip of the race. This is true even for lesser than 100% intensities. The 90% reps additionally can’t proceed indefinitely for the reason that trainee will finally present indicators of fatigue. By the final set, he’s operating out of fuel.

  Actual, Relative, and Perceived Intensity

This is very true when one’s units have simply gone up in weight. Say one’s PR squat was 300lbs and he did 270 for 5X5, as suggested, and all 25 reps have been accomplished. One could then have examined their max and located that they might now do 320. In this occasion, the trainee then dutifully provides 18 kilos to their work units (the 20lb enhance x 90%).

    With renewed enthusiasm for squats, they discover that the final set could have solely consisted of Three-Four reps whereas the 4th set had solely Four. The trainee shouldn’t be weaker, as an alternative, they don’t seem to be but accustomed to working with the additional kilos.

  Their subsequent exercise will usually see them doing a full 4th set and Four reps on their fifth. Eventually, they’ll do the total 5×5. They have certainly gotten stronger with that further weight. It simply takes just a little adaptation time.

  Most trainees will likely be accustomed to this sample as they achieve expertise. What could take extra consciousness is what is going on inside a single set. It ought to be realized that the fatigue issue can also be at work even on the primary set. Let’s have a look at the primary set of a 5×5. The trainee above takes 270lbs for 5 since that’s the prescribed 90% of his 1RM.

  On the primary rep that 270 will really feel like 90%. That rep will take just a little out of the trainee so the 2nd rep will really feel like 275 or so. Not a sufficiently big soar to note for a 300 squatter. Then the third rep will really feel like 287 maybe. Number Four will really feel like 296 and the final rep will really feel like 300. Any extra reps will likely be inconceivable by definition since we’re speaking a couple of 5RM.

  That is how only one set at a 5RM will behave. Things get hairier once we go to a number of units in a 5×5. Depending on the person’s health, the results of fatigue will present up on the final units. On the fifth and even the 4th set that 270 first rep will really feel extra like 285 or so. Subsequent reps really feel ever nearer to 300 till sooner or later the perceived depth is bigger than 300. These reps will fail.

  What this all means is that when doing, say, 90% units throughout one, should understand that not all units and even all reps will really feel like simply 90% to your organism. One will truly be working at a considerably increased perceived depth. As such, one must determine that in when programming. But how can one counter these elements when planning a exercise?

  One manner is to try the total 90% on all units, realizing that there could also be failures on the final one or two units. At that time, one can transfer on to the following train and hope that the following session will see power enchancment. Alternatively, one can take a sixth set and make up the lacking reps if not including an additional rep or two. This leaves one in a greater way of thinking after making misses.

  Another manner, particularly if one is obsessive-compulsive about making all 25 is to begin at decrease than 90% such that rep 25 simply barely succeeds. This is a extra conservative methodology the place perceived depth is decrease at first however increased on the finish.

  Regardless of the precise methodology, the working weights will not be elevated till the trainee can do all 25 reps on the prescribed weight—this may preserve everybody trustworthy.

  Using the Drop Set

Yet one other manner is the “drop set” methodology borrowed from bodybuilding. When one feels just like the final reps will fail the bar may be lowered 5-10 kilos to make sure profitable reps. They will nonetheless really feel like max reps so little is misplaced.

  The solely drawback is that the lifter must cease in the midst of the set to vary weights. This may be prevented if one has two assistants that may rapidly take away the unneeded plates earlier than the final rep(s). In such circumstances, these plates ought to solely be floated outdoors the collars. Finally, the complete final set may be dropped in weight if no assist is accessible.

  Keep In Mind the three Forms of Intensity

The level of this complete article is for the trainee to comprehend the variations amongst precise depth (precise resistance), relative depth (% of 1RM), and perceived depth (i.e., how heavy the burden truly feels to the organism).

  When programming, it’s the latter that’s most related with regard to adaptation and restoration issues.

The post Determining Heavy Loads and Understanding Intensity in Weight Lifting appeared first on Weight Loss Fitness.

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[weightlossfitnesssinfo]

5-Day Meal Plan For Skin Repair & Cell Renewal

Jessica Bippen, MS, RD, teaches us eat our option to a greater complexion with a weekday meal plan for pores and skin restore.

There’s solely a lot that lotions, lotions, and serums can do on your pores and skin with out addressing the way you’re nourishing your physique from the within out. Nutrition performs a significant position in pores and skin well being, particularly with regard to pores and skin restore and cell renewal. The dermis (the pores and skin’s outermost layer) renews itself each 27 days, whereby superficial cells are changed by new ones. As we age, this means of cell renewal slows. However, if we nourish our physique with the correct vitamins, we will improve this course of. Here’s how.

Why this meal plan?

There are many components that every play a task in how effectively you age—certainly one of them being your pores and skin’s skill to restore itself on the mobile stage. When diet is missing and harsh environmental situations like air pollution, smoking, and extreme solar publicity are current, the pores and skin reveals noticeable indicators of getting older. On the opposite hand, once you restrict these stressors and give attention to nourishing your physique with pores and skin meals—these filled with antioxidants, wholesome fat, water, and important vitamins like omega-3s and nutritional vitamins A, C, and E—your pores and skin has a neater time repairing the harm it encounters often. In flip, your pores and skin stays hydrated and glowing, and isn’t as fast to indicate inevitable indicators of getting older like nice strains and wrinkles.

Top Foods For Skin Renewal & Cell Repair

Avocado

This vibrant inexperienced fruit is a wonderful supply of wholesome fat, that are extremely essential for protecting pores and skin supple and hydrated. They’re additionally supply of vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps defend pores and skin cell membranes from oxidative harm.

Berries

The star vitamin in blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries is vitamin C. In addition to having pro-aging advantages, vitamin C additionally acts as an antioxidant that may assist cut back irritation. Berries are additionally good sources of different nutritional vitamins, minerals, and vitamins, together with phytochemicals that defend and help the well being of pores and skin cells. Ellagic acid, an antioxidant present in strawberries, has been proven to guard the elastic fibers that preserve pores and skin from sagging.

Nuts and Seeds

Almonds, pumpkin seeds, and flax are only some kinds of nuts and seeds. They’re filled with wholesome fat, vitamin E, and minerals comparable to zinc and selenium. As talked about earlier, wholesome fat are terrific for moisturizing your pores and skin, whereas vitamin E helps defend your pores and skin from oxidative harm. Next, zinc and selenium are important for pores and skin well being and performance. They additionally bind to and take away toxins within the physique that set off breakouts.

Bell Peppers

These vibrant, crunchy peppers are a superb supply of beta-carotene, which your physique converts into vitamin A and helps regulate new cell development. Bell peppers are additionally a superb supply of vitamin C, which is critical for producing collagen.

Sweet Potatoes

Just like bell peppers, candy potatoes are additionally a superb supply of beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a part of the carotenoid household, which retains your pores and skin wholesome by defending pores and skin cells from solar publicity. It might assist forestall sunburn, weathered pores and skin, and cell dying.

Salmon

Fatty fish comparable to salmon are a superb supply of omega-Three fatty acids, that are essential for sustaining pores and skin well being and protecting pores and skin moisturized. Research reveals that omega-Three deficiencies could cause dry pores and skin. Another research discovered that omega-Three polyunsaturated fatty acids present potential to guard pores and skin from overexposure to UV radiation. UV publicity is a number one think about almost all pores and skin considerations together with dryness and dullness, redness and irritation, and getting older and pimples.

Green Tea

Green tea might defend the pores and skin from mobile harm and getting older. The helpful compounds in inexperienced tea are known as catechins, which work to enhance the well being of your pores and skin by defending in opposition to solar harm and bettering the moisture, roughness, thickness, and elasticity of your pores and skin.

Weekday Meal Plan For Skin Repair

Monday

Blueberry smoothie

Spinach salad with quinoa, rooster, strawberries, and avocado

1/Three cup roasted blended nuts with inexperienced tea

Sweet potato spinach frittata with avocado

Tuesday

Blueberry smoothie

Sweet potato spinach frittata with avocado

Carrots and hummus

Salmon and roasted veggies

Wednesday

Blueberry smoothie

Sweet potato spinach frittata with avocado

Almond milk or coconut yogurt with 1/2 cup sliced strawberries

Salmon and roasted veggies

Thursday

Avocado toast with 2 eggs

Warm quinoa bowl with rooster and roasted veggies

1/Three cup roasted blended nuts with inexperienced tea

Stuffed bell peppers

Friday

Avocado toast with 2 eggs

Warm quinoa bowl with rooster and roasted veggies

Almond milk or coconut yogurt with 1/2 cup sliced strawberries

Stuffed bell peppers

Recipes

These recipes for pores and skin restore are fairly simple. Feel free to regulate based on your style desire or add extra greens to bulk up a meal. To save time, I like to recommend meal prepping on Sunday.

Quinoa

In a saucepan, mix 2 cups of quinoa and Four cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover and switch the warmth to a simmer for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the warmth and fluff with a fork. Store in an hermetic container for the week. Makes about Four cups.

Poached Chicken

Poaching rooster cooks it extremely quick and is ideal for including to salads and grain bowls. Place 1-1/2 kilos of natural rooster breasts into a big pot. Add water or rooster broth so it simply covers the breast. Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt and a bay leaf. Heat on medium-low—which is essential to make sure the rooster isn’t powerful—till the water begins to simmer. Cover and proceed to simmer for Eight-10 minutes, or till the inner temperature reaches 165° F. Remove from the liquid and let relaxation for Three-5 minutes earlier than slicing. Store in an hermetic container.

Blueberry Smoothie

Combine 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 small banana, 1 giant handful of spinach, 2 tbs floor flax, 1 tablespoon almond butter, and a sprinkle of cinnamon in a blender. Blend on excessive till easy.

Spinach salad with quinoa, rooster, strawberries, and avocado

Place 1-2 cups of spinach in a bowl. Top with 1/2 cup cooked quinoa, 1/Three of poached rooster, 1/Three cup sliced strawberries, and 1 / 4 or half avocado. Make a easy dressing of 1 half avocado oil, 1 half apple cider vinegar, and a couple of tsp of mustard. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to style.

Sweet Potato Spinach Frittata

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a medium saucepan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Dice one giant candy potato and add it to pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-10 minutes or till the candy potato might be simply pierced with a fork. Add 2 giant handfuls of spinach and let wilt.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk collectively Eight eggs, 1 / 4 cup of almond milk, salt, and pepper till easy. Add the sautéed candy potatoes and spinach. Pour the egg combination right into a 10″ cast-iron skillet or sprayed baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes or till the eggs are agency and barely brown on prime. Serve 1/Three of the frittata with 1 / 4 or half avocado.

Salmon and Roasted Veggies

You’ll make two sheet pans of roasted greens to eat with salmon and add to grain bowls.

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Chop 1 giant head of broccoli, 1 head of cauliflower, 10 oz Brussels sprouts, and 1-2 giant candy potatoes into even 1-inch items. Place on the sheet pans and spray with avocado oil. Season with salt, pepper, and any spices of alternative. Place within the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Once the greens are carried out cooking, place the oven on broil. Add two 6-oz.salmon fillets to a lined baking sheet. Spray with avocado oil and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Place on the highest rack of the oven for Eight-12 minutes (relying on the thickness of your salmon). The salmon can be opaque and flaky when cooked.

Serve one fillet and 1/Four of the roasted greens. Store leftovers in hermetic containers.

Avocado Toast with Eggs

Toast your bread of alternative. Top with a half avocado and season with salt, pepper, or your favourite seasoning. Cook two eggs to your liking.

Warm quinoa bowl with rooster and roasted veggies

Place 1 cup of quinoa in a bowl and prime with 1/Three of the sliced rooster and 1/Four of the roasted veggies. Top with 2-Four tbs of pumpkin seeds.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Drain and rinse a can of white beans. Combine it with the remaining cooked quinoa (about 1-1/2 cups). Add a cup of marinara sauce to the quinoa and beans. Core Three-Four medium purple bell peppers and pour the combination into the peppers. Place the stuffed peppers in a small baking dish or loaf pan. Spoon extra marinara sauce over every pepper to assist forestall them from drying out. Bake for 30-40 minutes or till the peppers are tender.

Serve 1-2 stuffed peppers with a facet salad. Use any leftover spinach and prime with pumpkin seeds. Make a easy dressing of 1 half avocado oil, 1 half apple cider vinegar, and a couple of tsp of mustard. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to style. Store the leftover peppers in an hermetic container within the fridge.

Supplements for Skin Repair & Cell RENEWAL

In addition to following this meal plan for pores and skin restore, you must also contemplate dietary supplements for cell renewal. HUM’s Mighty Night is a novel method designed to help in a single day pores and skin cell turnover, scavenge free radicals, enhance pores and skin tone, and promote optimum sleep. It’s formulated with ceramides, CoQ10, and ferulic acid for the last word in a single day pores and skin restore. Consider supplementing with Mighty Night to optimize the advantages of this meal plan.

The post 5-Day Meal Plan For Skin Repair & Cell Renewal See more on: Weight Loss Fitness

from Weight Loss Fitness - Feed https://weightlossfitnesss.info/5-day-meal-plan-for-skin-repair-cell-renewal/

[olivereliott]

Woolie’s wild Pikes Peak hill climb racer

The Pikes Peak race is just two weeks away now, and the competition is getting red hot. We’ve already profiled the Zero SR/F, and Ducati has just announced that it’ll be running its Streetfighter V4 prototype.

There’s a chance that both those machines will be eclipsed by this fire-breathing monster from Deus Ex Machina, though.

It’s the latest incarnation of ‘Beastie,’ the ongoing race bike project from Michael ‘Woolie’ Woolaway, and this time it has a 200hp Ducati 1198 R engine.

The first version of the bike debuted at Pikes Peak last year and took second in its class. But the motor later blew up after it sucked in the air filter on a dyno run. It was back to square one.

“Last year, I learned so much,” Woolie admits. “This is a tough event, like no other in the world. I would say it’s like mountaineering, not only in the sense that it is brutal, but also because you are left with a sense of accomplishment even if you got it all wrong.”

This time, Woolie’s determined to get it right.

He’s used to building bikes for the likes of Orlando Bloom, Ryan Reynolds, and Bruce Springsteen, but he’s spent the last nine months mostly focusing on the Ducati.

He’ll be returning to Pikes Peak with a bike that is lighter, more powerful, and more reliable.

Little remains of the previous incarnation. That one was based on the Hypermotard SP, but this time Woolie’s adapted a Streetfighter frame, and welded on the adjustable steering head from a 999.

The triples clamp onto modified Öhlins fully adjustable USD forks, lifted from an 1198S.

“The shock is an Öhlins TTX,” Woolie says. “It’s shorter than the stock unit, with different valving for a longer swingarm and different link. This is all WSBK spec stuff.”

“The only parts I’ve kept are the front number plate and the seat section,” Woolie reveals. (The bare seat unit weighs less than an ounce.) “There’s a new motor and a new Nova gearbox, and the swing arm is in a different location.”

The RAM magnesium swingarm has a WSBK pivot link and the shorter shock means the bike now sits some four inches (ten cm) lower than before.

The gas tank is new. Fashioned out of 1100-O aluminum, it holds a little over three gallons, which is plenty enough to get up and down the 12.42 mile (19.99 km) Pikes Peak course.

The BST carbon fiber front wheels remain unchanged, but are anchored by a high-end Brembo system with full floating rotors from BrakeTech. The Microtec ECU is unchanged too.

Woolie’s main focus was to optimize the power-to-weight ratio. As well as installing an 1198 R engine (with sand cast cases), he’s ditched 88 pounds of factory trim from the Streetfighter—replacing a lot of it with minimal carbon fiber bits.

“It’s to combat the lower oxygen levels at the higher altitudes,” he explains. “They cause significant power loss, especially when approaching the summit.”

The Ducati now weighs 347 pounds (157 kilos) wet, with 2.5 gallons in the fuel tank. Woolie calculates that each horsepower is responsible for propelling only 1.7 pounds of motorcycle. That’s almost a MotoGP ratio, which in layman’s terms, means the bike will be crazy fast.

To stress-test the new engine setup, Woolie took the Ducati to his friend Geoff Maloney at GP Tech and spent two days torturing the motor in 118°f (47°C) heat.

The next step is the ultimate test, in the Race To The Clouds on Saturday, 30 June. Will ‘Beastie’ triumph on the 156-turn course, climbing to almost 5,000 feet above sea level? We’ll be watching with interest.

Deus Ex Machine USA | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Sam Bendall

[passionsarabia]

Every New Year’s Day signals a string of new year resolutions, and for as long as the desire for fitness remains at the top of everyone’s list, it will remain peak time for new gym memberships. Are you one of those yearning to lose those festive kilos with thoughts turning to Vilebrequin, tote bags and the summer’s beaches? Our hot fitness tip for 2019 puts you front and center of your training regime, and it’s all delivered at the flick of the wrist. What is it? A Fitbit.

Wrist-worn trackers have been around for years, and the world has developed a somewhat love-hate relationship with them. We’ve tended to feel the same way – we kind of wanted them to work and be part of our lives but, well, they never quite cemented the relationship. Until now that is…

Enter the Fitbit Ionic and Charge 2 (there’s now a new Charge 3 which, we’ve heard, steps up Fitbit’s game even further).

Massive battery life and a host of really-useful-apps combine to make these the essential accessories for fitness tracking, knowledge, and motivation. Hook them up to Fitbit’s own app, and they become super-useful tools. We used its personalized dashboard to check daily stats, see personalized insights and got reminders that kept us moving toward our goals.

The Ionic (above) provides deeply personalized guidance and insights; plus, you can upload your favorite music to keep the legs pumping and muscles flexing. Other headlines? Built-in GPS makes it ideal for recording routes (on foot as well as in the saddle), a Gorilla Glass touchscreen keeps it safe – whatever harsh treatment you’re going to subject it to, you’ll break before your Ionic does, super-sharp graphics, sleep monitor (the best we’ve seen is Fitbit’s algorithm), heart rate and cardio fitness monitoring, plus you can connect a wrist-load of apps to connect the Ionic with your smartphone.

In use, it is light on the wrist. If you’re a watch-wearer, you’ll feel an absence of mass. Non-watch-wearers will barely feel its presence. To get the best out of the Ionic, as well as all of Fitbit’s trackers, wear it 24/7 – be aware that some models are water-resistant, meaning you could probably shower in it, but we wouldn’t recommend it – however, sleeping with it is essential in building a full wellness-story for you. We haven’t worn a watch at night since our teenage and Casio years, so while the first two or three nights felt disturbed, it was worth persisting.

Sleep is perhaps the most important and yet overlooked element to any fitness regime. Ionic helps you better understand your sleep quality by using PurePulse® heart rate to track your time spent in light, deep and REM sleep stages. It’s good. Very good. While the Ionic didn’t send us to sleep, the information we gained did train us to be more aware of bed- and waking-times. After a month, we’re waking feeling more refreshed than before. Fact.

Heart-rate monitors are simple fare for all trackers today. It’s how the information harvested is used that sets quality above the average. Fitbit’s enabled us to learn how our cardiovascular health and fitness progressed by tracking our resting heart rate and following heart rate trends over time. We got a better understanding of our cardio fitness level and learned how to improve over time with a personalized Cardio Fitness Score.

Women can use Ionic with the Fitbit app to log their period and record symptoms, track ovulation and discover patterns in their cycle. As men, we imagine this can only be a good thing.

And what of the Charge 2 (below)? Effectively, it’s a stripped-down Ionic. Gone is the big, color screen. In its place is a sharply-defined monochrome screen. Data only. There’s no significant smartphone connection, although you can set it up to receive notifications of calls and texts. There’s no storage or playback for music either.

The Charge 2 is a no-nonsense tracker for the hardcore fitness freak. Via the app, you’ll get the data an Ionic provides, but without its bells-and-whistles – and in many ways, it’s all the better for it. Fewer buttons to press (there’s only one) and a single tap-screen facility means you strap it on at the beginning of the day and forget about it until it needs recharging (three or four days, minimum) – but don’t take a bath wearing it.

It links to the same powerful app as all Fitbits and gives the same feedback and notifications as the Ionic. You can access much of the information via a few taps of the screen, but in reality, you’ll find yourself popping open your smartphone, synching, and bringing yourself up-to-date there.

You can set both models to give you a prompt if you’ve spent too long sedentary. Sounds uninteresting? In fact, it’s a great way to draw you away from whichever screen you’re looking at, walk around the office, getting the blood flowing again, and catch up with one or two colleagues using the real face-time facility nature gave us. Use it. You’ll be surprised.

Who are they for? Well, while we excel in some areas, athleticism isn’t one of these. Nonetheless, we’re fearlessly motivated and on an endless quest for information that’s going to make our lives more productive and efficient. The Ionic and Charge 2 proved to be our ideal friends. A stream of reliable information fed into our motivation to continue along our road to health and fitness. It kept us connected (to our smartphones) and engaged (with our bodies). There are few pieces of tech that have worked for us (rather than having us work for them) in such an intuitive, empowering and approachable manner. Set goals and these two buddies will keep you on the road to fitness or weight-loss. They’ve got a huge range of accessories for when you get hooked.

It’s like having a trainer with you 24/7. But this is one you can turn off and walk away from on a Friday night.

Fitbit tip: they’ve also got a really useful blog. Useful whether you’re a Fitbit wearer or not. Health, wellness and fitness tips… here

via Passions Arabia

[atlchocolate007-blog]

Usa vs russia

Match Result

The United Expresses of U . s has verified that capitalism creates higher levels of productivity than any other kind of government and today the United States gross national product is 10 times that of any other nation and it is twice the other top-five countries directly below us combined. Russia and China, the two strongest of the BRICS militaries, alone make a formidable force on the surface. If the two countries had been to type a armed forces duo, they'd have got over 24,000 primary fights tanks, over 35,000 armored fighting with each other automobiles, nearly 8,000 self-propelled guns, over 12,000 towed artillery and more than 5,000 multiple start rocket systems. Simply because well as having solid fleets of tanks, the two countries are presently developing two brand-new tanks that are graded as highly as the new M1A2, in China's VT-4 and Russia's T-14 Armata.

The Russian nuclear forces are dependent upon her ICBM's. Her boomer subs and air flow pressure wouldn't get much launched (her bombers wouldn't make it to American airspace and her max of two deployed nuke boomers are trailed at all occasions by at least one American and one other NATO attack sub - they'd by no means make it to launch depth). But that does not matter. Even if only the two contemporary MIRV outfitted ICBMs function (the extremely advanced, RS-24 Yars ; and the fairly advanced RT-2UTTKh Topol-M ), that would end up being a total of about 125 ICBM's. (trust that the maturing RT-2pms, R-100Ns and Ur-36 still have got some bite).

There is certainly significant uncertainness about the amount of Russian nuclear weapons storage space sites, for many factors. First, the Russian federal government provides nearly no information regarding its nuclear warhead storage space plan. Second, Traditional western governments state extremely little about what they understand. Furthermore, quotes differ on what makes up a storage space site;” some count number each fenced storage space bunker as a site, also though there may be

The total amount of warhead blasts in the US would end up being no much less than 350 nuclear attacks (that's Simply no LESS than, but extremely most likely very much higher when old warheads are added in). Actually if just 350 nuclear attacks happened, and just 100 extremely essential focuses on had been chosen (doubling or trippling up on essential places), quickly the best 80 largest towns (every main city region) + the 20 most essential military focuses on were struck, the US would be wiped off the face of the map. The entire nation would end. Most people would be dead in six months due to disease and starvation. If ONLY the Russians struck (with no retaliation from the US), humanity might endure such an strike.

During the Chilly Battle, when professionals concerned frequently about sudden hits, there might have got been some inner logic that justified having hundreds of ICBMs prepared to release. Historians can, and do, argue whether this was prudence or paranoia. But actually with growing US-Russian tensions today, there is definitely no reputable evidence to suggest that either Russia or China is definitely enticed to initiate a full-scale nuclear turmoil by conducting a sudden hit to eliminate America's nuclear forces. While the risk is not zero, in a world of limited assets where priorities must become designated and costs and benefits considered, keeping and modernizing land-based missiles appears like a suspect task at greatest, and quickly the least valuable of the nuclear upgrades planned or underway.

America can still fight and win two major wars at the same time, or at least come near enough to winning that neither Russia nor China would see much hope in the gamble. The United Says can do this because it proceeds to keep the world's most powerful military services, and because it stands at the mind of an incredibly effective military services connections. Furthermore, Russia and China easily create extremely different military services complications, enabling the United Expresses to devote some of its possessions to one, and the rest to the various usa vs russia.

Russia still struggles with push projection, but the release of Kalibr cruise missiles at floor focuses on in Syria proved that Russia offers found a way to give actually their small ships some severe bite. An anti-ship version of the missile is definitely thought to become simply as able and, if terminated in a huge enough salvo, may become capable to conquer U.T. mail defenses like the Phalanx. Russia also fields the Club-K missile program, a land-attack and anti-ship sail missile program that can become concealed in delivery containers.

That and additional queries about Russian armed forces features and goals are acquiring middle stage as Putin displays a persistent willingness to make use of armed forces force in a heavy-handed foreign plan directed at fixing his nation's prominence as a globe power. In that search, he provides elevated the specter of resurgent Russian army might - from Ukraine to the Baltics, from Syria to the broader Middle East.

The United State governments deals with even more tough complications in the Pacific. Japan or India might have got an curiosity in the Sth China Ocean, but this barely assures their involvement in a battle (or also the level of benevolence of their neutrality.) The connections framework of any provided struggle would rely on the specifics of that struggle; any of the Philippines, Vietnam, Sth Korea, Japan or Taiwan could become China's principal focus on. The rest, U.Beds. pressure apart, might well choose to sit down on the sidelines. This would place extra pressure on the United States to establish dominance in the Western Pacific with its own assets.

The United Areas offers a considerable nuclear weapons arsenal and connected delivery systems. The 2001 Nuclear Position Review suggests that the United Areas may seek to develop, and possibly test, new types of nuclear weapons in the future. The United States destroyed its biological weapons by 1970 and is in the process of destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons. Some critics allege that elements of U.S. government biodefense research are in violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC).

The neocons and their liberal-hawk allies obviously possess in brain programs for producing the Russian overall economy scream and somehow design a program change” in Moscow despite Putin's current 80 percent authorization rankings. But this most recent structure - like the previous types - can be nearly certainly not really heading to end as its architects have got attracted it up. While the neocons and liberal hawks may fantasy about some Western-beloved liberal” getting transported into the Kremlin while Putin is certainly pulled apart, the possibility that the Russian people would place up with another circular of American-prescribed surprise therapy” - in which Russia's assets had been plundered, Russian lifestyle expectancy stepped, and different U.S i9000. advisers” and hedge money produced out like bandits - is certainly remote.

There can be a great side, and this is that just some of the requirements for the fight in the Pacific and Europe would overlap. The army in the United States would have to defend Europe, same as they did in World Battle II and the Navy blue would possess to concentrate on the Pacific. The US Atmosphere Push would perform a component in assisting both of them.

Approximately 50 W61 (variable yield bomb 0.3 to 340 kiloton) nuclear bombs inside an igloo at what might have been Nellis Air flow Pressure Base in Nevada. Prior to 2014, seventy-five igloos at Nellis store one of the largest stockpile in the free world,” according to the U.H. Air flow Pressure, one of four central storage sites in the United Claims.

Last but not really least, Russia's hands trade with China. Certainly, Russia is normally China's most essential provider of weapons and military services technology, but it is normally an open up key that Russia provides been cautious to transfer advanced military services technology to China - a potential competition. The Beds-400 missile system deal in late 2014 is definitely widely seen as a practical monetary decision instead of a tactical one. Russia's armed service assistance with China's neighbors, such as Vietnam, entails strong deterrence and controlling implications toward China in the Southerly China Sea. For example, Russia offers offered three kilo-class submarines to Vietnam since 2009, which are even more advanced than the boats China attained from Russia.

Much offers been made of the comfy relationship between Trump and Putin, which could well dampen tensions between the two countries. Nevertheless, the potential customer of the U.Beds. and Russia coming back to struggle continues to be a terrifying one for the entire globe. During the Cool Battle, after all, that they emerged perilously near to nuclear battle.

[sherristockman]

Can You Really Get Fit in Six Minutes Per Week? Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola You’ve probably heard that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can significantly cut the time needed in the gym, but just how little can you get away with? Could you actually get fit in as little as six minutes per week? The featured ABC Catalyst program investigates this claim. A significant piece of the puzzle relates to how HIIT affects your mitochondria, tiny organelles found in most of your cells, responsible for production of energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Your mitochondria have a series of proteins in the electron transport chain, in which they pass electrons from the reduced form of a metabolized portion of the food you eat to combine it with oxygen from the air you breathe and ultimately form water. As noted in the featured program, the more mitochondria you have and the healthier they are, the more energy your body can generate and the lower your risk of chronic disease. Disturbingly, research suggests half of people under the age of 40 have early onset mitochondrial dysfunction, which is one of the primary contributors to virtually all chronic degenerative disease, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s. The good news is, studies also show HIIT is very effective for boosting mitochondria and improving their function — and that results can be gained incredibly fast. Fit in Six Minutes a Week Your over 1 quadrillion mitochondria comprise an estimated 10 percent of your total body mass, so they make up a significant portion of your body and produce your body weight in ATP every day. In addition to generating ATP, your mitochondria are responsible for apoptosis (programmed cell death), and also serve as important signaling molecules that help regulate the expression of your genes. This is a function that even most doctors are unaware of. Aerobic fitness is determined by measuring the amount of oxygen your mitochondria can consume when you push yourself to the limit, a measurement called VO2 max. The lower your VO2 max, the higher your risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and more, and the higher your VO2 max, the greater your level of fitness and general health. Top athletes typically register in the 60 to 70 milliliters per kilo (2.2 pounds) per minute (mL/kg/min) range. The ABC reporter tested her VO2 max at the outset of her 15-week program, scoring a measurement of 36 mL/kg/min, which is a high average. The conventional recommendation is to get 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week. The problem is most people simply do not have that kind of spare time, and thus end up not exercising at all. But in recent years, scientists have demonstrated you can make great fitness gains in a fraction of that time. Three Minutes of HIIT Is as Effective as 150 Minutes of Moderate Exercise A 2016 study1 involving three groups of exercising men — a control group, a group doing sprint interval training and a group doing moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) — underscored the value of HIIT. After 12 weeks of workouts, the researchers concluded that three minutes of interval sprints per week (totaling 30 minutes in the gym) was as effective as 150 minutes of MICT, improving insulin sensitivity, cardiorespiratory fitness and the mitochondrial content in skeletal muscle to the same extent. HIIT also triggers mitochondrial biogenesis,2 which is important for longevity. By reversing age-associated declines in mitochondrial mass, you effectively slow down the aging process. As you’ll see later, this even includes some of the more visible signs of aging. As explained in my new book, “Fat for Fuel,” because mitochondrial dysfunction seems to be at the core of most chronic disease, activities like HIIT that support mitochondrial biogenesis will strengthen your body and help it fight the ravages of time. Just be sure to allow ample recovery time between workout sessions because as intensity increases, frequency needs to diminish. Doing HIIT more than three times a week can be counterproductive. Intensity Is the Key The key that opens the proverbial door to all of HIIT’s health benefits is to make sure the intensity is high enough. McMaster University exercise physiologist Martin Gibala, who has led many HIIT studies, describe the intensity required as “sprinting from danger-kind of intensity.” In other words, you need to give it all you’ve got, but only for about 30 seconds, repeated four to six times with a minute or so recovery time in between sprints. Your actual exertion time ends up totaling just two to three minutes per workout session. In one HIIT study, participants increased their endurance capacity by 50 percent on this kind of program. Typically, your VO2 max will improve by 10 to 15 percent in as little as a few weeks. Blood pressure and body composition also typically improves in that short amount of time. The improvement in VO2 max is largely dependent on the adaptation of your mitochondria. They’re what allows your body to process greater amounts of oxygen, resulting in greater energy production and thus power, strength and endurance. Not only does HIIT boost the number of mitochondria in your cells, it also improves their function and replaces old, worn-out mitochondria with new, better-functioning ones. Tests reveal subjects were able to increase mitochondrial function by 30 percent in as little as one month of HIIT. While the above information represents the current conventional view on the value of intense exercise, I have learned that it needs a radical revision to optimize long-term health. A far wiser approach would be less intense exercise more regularly. I describe my current view on intense exercise in the last section, and have a video to expand on it. Rather than going all-out two to three times a week, it is far more rational to do it two to three times every day for three minutes. I am convinced that spreading the exercise out over time is more beneficial. Exercise Can Slow or Even Turn Back Your Biological Clock Researchers are also honing in on the mitochondria’s influence on the aging process itself. It stands to reason that the two are linked. Indeed, one of the reasons your skin sags and wrinkles with age is because of the loss of mitochondria in your skin. Interestingly, HIIT may even reverse these superficial signs of aging. Mice genetically bred with a faulty mitochondrial system have only half the life span of regular mice; have thin, weak muscles, and develop gray hair and wrinkled skin very early on in life. When these mice exercised at a brisk pace three times a week, all of these symptoms of mitochondrial dysfunction were eliminated, including the premature graying and skin wrinkling. Human tests have produced similar results. In one test, skin biopsies were taken from sedentary seniors before and after three months of endurance training. After three months, their skin samples were indistinguishable from much younger skin under the microscope. The exercise basically turned back the clock by as much as 30 years. As noted in the program, this does not mean all of their wrinkles vanished, but the dead skin layer thinned, and the layer of collagen fibers thickened. It’s conceivably possible to dramatically reduce the number of wrinkles you end up with in old age by maintaining an exercise program throughout your life, thereby preventing the breakdown of mitochondria in your skin in the first place. Exercise physiologist Stephen Boutcher, featured on the show, is also using a modified HIIT program to address menopause and the visceral fat accumulation that tends to go hand in hand with the loss of estrogen. The women taking part in his program do eight-second sprints at very light resistance, with 12 seconds of light pedaling in between sprints. After 20 minutes, they have sprinted for a total of eight minutes. All of the participants report feeling better. Some have completely eliminated their hot flashes and night sweats, for example. What Fitness Gains Can You Get From Four Months of HIIT? The ABC reporter in the program did four 30-second sprints, three times a week for four months, equating to just six minutes of all-out exercise per week. What fitness gains did she reap? Here’s what her follow-up tests revealed: Body fat went from 26.6 percent to 25.1 percent In all, she lost 3.5 pounds (1.5 kilos) of body fat (mostly from her lower trunk and upper legs) and nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) from her waist VO2 max increased by 10 percent, from 36 mL/kg/min to 40 mL/kg/min, moving her into the “fit” category Her endurance dramatically improved, from barely being able to complete a 3-kilometer (1.86-mile) jog to comfortably running 9 kilometers (5.59 miles) HIIT Works Best for Aging Muscles While many still believe intense exercise is a recipe for a heart attack, research negates such worries. In fact, HIIT is suitable even for the elderly. In a study by Mayo Clinic researchers, three types of exercise were pitted against each other and a non-exercising control group, to determine which type of exercise works best to protect aging muscles.3 HIIT was a clear winner. The study involved 72 sedentary people aged either 30 or younger or 64 and over. They engaged in 12 weeks of HIIT on stationary bikes, vigorous resistance training or a combination of exercises (moderate pace stationary bike combined with light weightlifting). All of the exercisers experienced improvements in lean body mass and insulin sensitivity, and those who engaged in resistance training had boosts in muscle mass and strength. Among the HIIT group, improvements in endurance were particularly noted. However, additional notable differences were revealed when the participants' muscle cells were biopsied, revealing genetic changes. Among the younger exercisers, the HIIT group had changes in 274 genes, compared to 170 genes for the moderate combination exercisers and 74 among the resistance group. The changes among the older exercisers were even more striking. In the elderly, nearly 400 genes were upregulated, compared to 33 for the resistance group and only 19 for those doing moderate exercise, and many of the genes affected specifically influence mitochondria’s ability to produce energy for muscle cells. Boost Your Health With the Nitric Oxide Dump I now believe one of the best high-intensity exercises is the Nitric Oxide dump that I demonstrate in the video above, which is a modified version of one developed by Dr. Zach Bush. If you have previously watched this video, please review it again as it has been edited to show you how to perform this exercise properly. I do this exercise two to three times virtually every day, unless my schedule is massively overbooked. I use 8-pound weights in the video but it’s best to forgo the weights when you first start out. The whole routine takes about three to four minutes and is typically done two to three times a day every day, with at least two hours between sessions. I am now convinced that this gentler strategy, which has not been evaluated or compared to the HIIT protocols discussed above, is a far healthier strategy to obtain the benefits of HIIT without the downside. I only wish I had known about this more effective approach earlier. As noted in the featured program, mitochondrial decline with age is closely linked to reduced cardiorespiratory fitness, and decreased resting mitochondrial ATP production may be involved in the development of insulin resistance with aging.4 Exercise promotes mitochondrial health by forcing your mitochondria to work harder. One of the side effects of mitochondria working harder is that they're making reactive oxygen species, or free radicals, which act as signaling molecules. One of the functions they signal is to make more mitochondria. So, when you exercise, your body responds by creating more mitochondria to keep up with the heightened energy requirement. Aging is inevitable, but your biological age can be quite different from your chronological age, and your mitochondria have a lot to do with your biological aging. As noted in this program, HIIT appears to be an excellent way to boost the number of mitochondria in your body and improve their function. The end result is improved body composition and cardiometabolic health, and research shows it’s really never too late to start. Some of the studies discussed in the program involved people in their 70s, and even at that advanced age they were able to achieve significant health improvements.

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12 Refreshing Tips On How To Live A Stress-Free Life in 2017

You’re reading 12 Refreshing Tips On How To Live A Stress-Free Life in 2017, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

The Internet is full of resources on time management, tips for a stress-free life, and finding work-life balance.  Since we are unique creatures with varying personalities and goals, it’s nearly impossible to come up with a formula to a better lifestyle. The most we can do is to search, test, and share techniques that worked for us. In the bestselling self-help book Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, Heidi Grant Halvorson noted the science-based strategies on stress management. The principles, including having self-compassion and remembering the “big picture,” are recommended both for business and personal productivity. One of the most important tactics Halvorson shares is looking at your shortcomings with kindness and understanding. A study published in the Journal of Research of Personality suggests that self-compassion has significant positive association with happiness, optimism, and personal initiative. People with self-compassion are less depressed and more successful. For 2017, I vowed to make changes in my life. I refuse to waste away my energy worrying and devote my time on those that truly matter. Here are 12 techniques that helped me glide through the last year that might help you as well. #1: (Really) know yourself more

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How do you know yourself? Do you fully understand what triggers your anxiety, or what calms you down? In 1921, renowned psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s Psychological Types introduced two major personalities, the introverted and the extroverted types. Generally, an introvert draws energy from spending time in solitude while an extrovert functions better when surrounded by other people. Two years after Jung’s publication, the mother-daughter tandem of Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers began their study on the various personality types. They later came up with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) with the main purpose of making Jung’s theory of psychological types “understandable and useful in people’s lives.” By taking the MBTI, you’d have a deeper understanding on your perception, strengths and weaknesses, emotions, and how you deal with others. Your personality can also explain your workplace habits, guiding you on how to plan your next career moves. #2: Understand your mental condition

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For some people, following a set of recommended steps to a stress-free life is not as easy as it seems. There may be an underlying medical condition that hinders you from calming your nerves. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, roughly 18% of US adults are suffering from an anxiety disorder. This mental condition is characterized by restlessness or irritability, feeling tense and jumpy, pounding of heart and shortness of breath, upset stomach, fatigue, and insomnia. The treatments available include psychotherapy, anti-anxiety, and antidepressant drugs, and alternative medicine such as yoga and meditation. Anxiety can make other conditions such as depression and sleeping problems worse. If your anxiety is interfering with your daily activities, see a doctor immediately. #3: Be kinder to yourself

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Our mistakes and failures help define us. If your relationship didn’t work out, there’s a reason for that. For many years, I also beat myself up for a relationship that ended bitterly. There were nights when I would replay our last days together to analyze what I did wrong and how I could’ve made the situation better. I only benefitted from these painful reminiscing when I finally decided to move on and learn from these mistakes. The same goes with my business decisions. Whenever I make a wrong turn, I briefly identify the problems, draft a solution, and move on to my next course of action. As Louise L. Hay wrote in You Can Heal Your Life, “Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving yourself and see what happens.” #4: Aspire for quality sleep

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One key to a better life is adequate sleep. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults aged 18 to 64 should get seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. Working as a manager in a real estate company is not an easy undertaking. Meetings can last for hours, leaving me too exhausted to doze off at bedtime. Sleep deprivation has a serious impact on your well-being. It can increase your risk to diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, and weaken your immunity. According to the Harvard Medical School, insufficient sleep affect mental performance. “Concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity, and logical reasoning are all aspects of cognitive function compromised by sleep deprivation,” it warns. How do I manage to get right amount of sleep each night? I regulate my caffeine consumption. I skip coffee after 5 p.m. I also set a rule to disconnect from any electronic device (cellphone, laptop, and TV) at least an hour before bedtime. Finally, I decluttered my bedroom to free my mind from distractions. #5: Push yourself to exercise

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Like many people, I had my love-hate relationship with my rubber shoes. I could come up with the lamest excuses just to avoid going to the gym. Then about two years ago, I noticed that I could barely keep up with my older sisters when we go  malling on weekends. They called my attention. I was breathing hard and sweating profusely after only 15 minutes of walking. I weighed 20 kilos above my normal weight and I got tired easily. Getting into a fitness program is like climbing a mountain. The hardest part is the beginning. Once you get the hang of it, your body will demand it. I didn’t place any pressure on myself. First, I set an achievable goal—to log an hour of moderate exercise per day, three times a week. Then, I increased it to two hours, including 30 minutes of vigorous exercise. I also took note of my diet. I only eat the amount of calories I can burn in the gym. I lost 10 kilos in six months. More than losing weight and being able to move more freely, my perspective in life changed. I learned to listen to my body and prioritize its needs. #6: Less salt and fast food treats

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I only realized that I’ve been consuming too much sodium when I stopped eating in fast food restaurants for a month. Why did I do it? It was more of an experiment I placed upon myself after watching the Academy Award nominated documentary Super Size Me. In the 2004 documentary, American independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate only  McDonald’s food for 30 days. The result? Spurlock gained 11 kilos, and increased his body mass by 13% and his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL. Scary! My schedule was jampacked, juggling work, writing, and pursuing other endeavors. I usually had working brunches in fast food restaurants. The only time I cooked my food, which were not exactly healthy, were on weekends. Super Size Me gave me a new perspective. I came up with a challenge—to stop eating out for a month. The changes were amazing. I couldn’t stand too much salt anymore and preferred to prepare my food. Most importantly, I recognized a drastic change in my mood. I was less stressed and irritable. #7: Declutter your life

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Your unkempt kitchen, messy work desk, and pile of clothes in your bedroom are stressors. Professor Joseph Ferrari of DePaul University in Chicago said: “It’s the danger of clutter, the totality of one’s possessions being so overwhelming that it chips away at your well-being, relationships, and more, drowning in a sea of stuff.” He noted that a chaotic and disorderly living space can disturb your “sense of home and ability to bond with others.”

Organizing consultant and author Marie Kondo shares some tips on how to declutter your space. Keep only the items that make you happy or those that “spark joy.” Clean by category, not by location. You can start with your closet. Place your pile of clothes in a corner and decide on every item. You’d realize how much stuff you’ve accumulated. This also applies with your work area. The cleaner your desk, the clearer your mind!

#8: Use technology to make jobs easier, not more complicated

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We have an app for nearly every type of activities, from tracking a project to monitoring our heartbeat. Use these to help you finish tasks faster. How do you choose the right app for you? You can choose those with good reviews from fellow users. Try them and decide whether they work for you or not. If you run your own firm or manage some areas of company’s operations, take advantage of outsourcing. You can’t run a stress-free business if you try to do things on your own. One area you can outsource is your social media management. Explore bots that can help handle the influx of queries or a third-party firm that can aid in your social media marketing strategies. Discover Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that can help your sales team monitor accounts and activities, and generate reports.

#9: Revisit a hobby you’ve been neglecting

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Do you have a passion that you keep on putting off? This may be a cause of your high stress levels. Before I joined the workforce, I have been a film enthusiast and a prolific reader. I also submitted poems and short stories to several publications in and out of campus. I was convinced that working in the corporate somehow drained my creative juice. Organizing my schedule to allow time for film watching, reading, and writing not only reduced my stress. It also boosted my energy in the office and kept my moods high even on the toughest of days. #10: Disconnect as you see fit

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Is it the fact that you’re online, or that you know you can get summoned for work anytime, that’s causing you stress? According to a new study, “Exhausted But Unable To Disconnect,” the anticipatory stress and expectation of answering after-office-hours emails are adding pressure to employees. “If an organization perpetuates the ‘always-on’ culture, it may prevent employees from fully disengaging from work, eventually leading to chronic stress,” said study author Liuba Belkin of Lahigh University.

As a manager in a real estate company, I was guilty of putting my team on edge 24/7. I didn’t care if they’re resting at home or spending the holiday with their family. I sent them text messages or emails regarding their prospecting and sales activities. Later on, I noticed that we’re all stressed and agitated about work. Sales is an ongoing process, making it tough for us to impose a rule on disconnecting at certain hours. However, our team came up with an idea—I’d ask for their reports before we go off to holidays. If a sales agent is closing a sale on a holiday, he/she would let me know the approximate time I can expect his call for assistance or updates. When the business is done, we’d disconnect.

#11: Walk as often as you can

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Walking has therapeutic effects. Do you know that a 10-minute walk can be as good to your mind and body as a 45-minute workout? Whenever my many activities leave me burnt out, I grab my trainers and walk around our neighborhood. Walking has a strong symbolism for me—I leave the worries behind me with every step I take.  Then, I enjoy a hot cup of tea and listen to soothing music. These I do before going back to a strenuous work. #12: Live in the present

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“The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking this very moment. That’s all there ever is,” says Eckhart Tolle. For many years, I struggled with anxiety. I didn’t understand where my illogical fears were coming from until I talked to a professional. I was encouraged to do therapy, one of which is meditation. Meditation is not easy for first timers. I couldn’t shut out my mental discourses and usually ended up frustrated after a meditation session. Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now was my answer. It involved a mindset: being conscious about the present moment. I started by paying close attention to the sensations of my skin, the rhythm of my breathing and my surroundings. Whenever a difficult situation hits me, I stop and ask myself, “Do I have problem at this very minute?” The answer is usually no. According to Tolle, unless it’s quite rare to encounter a problem in the present moment. Most of our worries are in the past and future, which are inexistent. It is said that stress is the norm of our modern society. It is the norm because we make it so. Dare to change your lifestyle. At the end of the day, you’re the captain of your ship.  

You’ve read 12 Refreshing Tips On How To Live A Stress-Free Life in 2017, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement