#all wp have rocks for brains for sure

[tariah23]

White people are so miserablenssja

[emvy]

first post idk

My friends had a contest on who could make the best 'fanfic' (fanfic, what they called a generic wp story). I didn't participate but I did create something afterwards. The contest was originally a joke (it still is) but I try and put my all into it, so here it is.

He was drunk. His aroma smelled of whiskey, his movement was stiff, his words slurred every third word, and he couldn’t help but think of the new pathetic low he had reached.

He tried to think of the empire he made, how he could be everywhere in the city and no one was able to catch him. How he knew the layout of every council man's house and how quickly and easy it would be to steal 5 million dollars from them.

Yet, with all he had, he still went to the bar, still ordered that old fashioned, downed it like nothing, and hollered for another.

He wondered what had happened to his alcohol tolerance. He was able to talk with senators, take a shot of vodka and then threaten them with a sex scandal, have them resign from there seat and give it to one of his own. He was able to do that and walk home with a satisfied smile, proud of what he did. It seemed to have disappeared here.

After the one old fashioned he had felt his skin burn, the drowsiness took over before leaving suddenly. He didn’t really care though, he wasn’t in the mood to care, not really.

He walked back to the old slum he lived in, he doesn't remember how much he drank, but almost missing his complex by a few blocks, he knew he was certainly buzzed. Taking a look at what street he was on. He was sure he walked a mile, but he barely walked five blocks.

“Stop.” His brain was working too slow, he didn’t recognize the voice, or how they’d recognize him. He turned around to face them, only realizing when facing them, how idiotic the move was.

“Look, I’m not in the mood for this-”

They had a gun pointed at him, not anywhere in particular, trying to locate their eyes, it looked like they were deciding where to shoot him.

He was fucked. The only reason he knew this was because the moment he saw the gun pointing at him, he thought of congratulating them. The "Untouchable Aiden Goode", killed by a lowly street thug.

The moment she saw him walk into the bar, she wanted to kill him on the spot. She didn’t know what with, completely flabbergasted he walked into this bar in the first place. Watching him, tracking him, she expects him to go to somewhere like The Caraval, not somewhere like L Street. There’s too many criminals that come here on a daily, too many with their lives ruined by him, nothing to lose, too willing to kill themselves trying to kill the "Untouchable Aiden Goode.” God it disgusted her right to her core.

She eyed him carefully, suspiciously, when he ordered an old fashioned then shouted for another. From her research and reports, he’d usually get vodka on rocks, drink as slowly as humanly possible, pay and leave.

She walked over to where he was sitting, from the other side of the bar, pouring him another drink before asking him, “Another?” with a smile.

He nodded, taking the drink from her hand. She watched his mannerisms, an arm lying stiff by his side while the other was used to let him drink. His eyes closed momentarily for a few seconds longer, from fatigue or from the alcohol, she didn’t know. She assumed he was capable of handling more, but 4 drinks in his words had begun to slur.

“Bring me anootherr.” His third word slurred, by then, if he hadn’t already noticed, there was a line of drinks, premade, waiting for him, unconsciously grabbing the next drink in line.

It was a sight to see, Xavier Goode drinking like no tomorrow.

She left early from her shift, begging one of her co-worker to take over for her. All her tips were now in the pocket of someone who didn’t deserve it and now with the loss of the money, had to make sure she doesn’t lose her chance.

She grabbed a pair of gloves from the glove compartment on the passenger side and put on a black hoodie over her white collared uniform. She popped a compartment under her seat, digging through the bunch of crap and found her safe-keep gun, her extra case of ammo and loaded the gun, putting it in her hoodie pocket and slamming her car door shut. Hastily tying her hair and putting it into her hoodie she waits for him to leave, letting him walk 20 paces before following after him.

They were only a few blocks away from the bar but the neighborhood they were currently in was shit, and fortunately, wouldn’t bat an eye to a gunshot, maybe report it in the morning if they had time. She scanned the area for security cameras, making sure to catch him in a blind spot. And even if they weren't, she made sure her back would be turned so she wouldn’t be identified.

“Stop” She called, she had her gun pointed at his back, she never imagined the day would come, where she was able to kill him.

He was unarmed besides an empty wallet and wasn't able to escape. Her eyes widened when he turned around, hoping she wouldn’t have to see his face when she killed him. She fumbled with the gun in her hand.

Anywhere would work, she thought, trying to find a spot to spot. He's gonna bleed out on the pavement, it wouldn’t matter.

“Look, I’m not in the mood for this-” It took him a few seconds to recognize the gun. She looked him over, his shoulders stiff, hair a bit lopsided, falling a bit on his left. She was practically immune to the smell of whiskey and beer from daily drunkards, but being alone with one, the smell seemed to consume her senses. She was going to gag, not before thinking of her mother scolding her for being so immature.

She aimed the gun at his heart, the head gave too much leeway. He could easily turn his head and she could easily miss. He had a large build, if she missed the heart, she could still hit a vital organ, he would bleed out on the pavement, he would effectively die.

He began to slump, if it was his plan to throw her off, it worked. Was this a sign of defeat? He couldn’t let her kill him this easily could he?

She tried to hide her confusion, her finger still on the trigger, she decided to take this opportunity.

He slumped his shoulders, the person in front of him had the gun aimed at his heart. He knew he shouldn’t have left things the way it was, knew he shouldn’t have drank how many drinks he had that night. But for everything he’s done, the universe seems to finally decide that this was his punishment. His last.

He closed his eyes, he didn’t want to go out like this. The universe can punish him however it chooses to, but he refuses to die like this. Not drunk, and certainly not by some street thug.

He forced his brain to reboot, forcing the alcohol out of his system so he could think straight. Opening his eyes he thinks of what he has on him and how it could be used to protect him.

Then he remembered, bulletproof vest, you have a bulletproof vest. A plan, so simple yet so effective was drafted into his mind.

He looked at them, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. Their hair pulled back behind them, boots fit for a woman that seemed snug on their feet, a nude color on their nails that seemed to be chipping. He knows now not to judge before getting firm confirmation from one of his spies. He then noticed the white striped texture that was under the hoodie. It felt familiar, he had plenty of guesses of where he’d seen it, but the voice had put him to place.

“This…..this is for killing everyone I have ever loved.” The bar. The girl at the bar with the similar collared shirt, who had a warm smile on her face when he offered her another drink, and had offered him his death.

She pulled the trigger, aiming directly at the heart. It left her ears ringing but she was satisfied when she saw the steps taken backwards, then falling to the ground. She walked over to the corpse, feeling for any sort of pulse on his wrist. There was none. He was dead. She killed him.

She didn’t feel anything. She didn’t feel bad for him, she didn’t feel better killing him either. She thought killing him would bring her some sort of joy, but it felt like luck, how he stumbled into her place of work. How he was drunk enough to admit defeat.

She wished she would feel something related to her dead family, happy that the killer of her family was dead.

But there was nothing.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

FFXV First Impressions

Impressions So Far (something like 2 hours in):

That opening scene of pushing the car was Actually Clever. It was trying to be clever, but if you succeed and ARE clever “trying to be clever” is allowed!

Running across open ground is a little boring. Definite “Open World-itis” there. They tried to mitigate by including fast travel back to your car. It...sort of mitigates it? But if you’re willing to shrink player perception of the space by including fast travel, then you should show less space and have more space implied.

Night is legit scary. One of the characters mentioned you needed to get in by dark because demons come out and I’m like, “Sure, but I’m an adventurer. Isn’t fighting demons my thing?” That night: I’m running around looking for a hunt target and the asphalt on the road in front of me starts boiling and then up pop a pair of red eyes (literally that’s all you can see of this thing if you’re not standing within 10′ of it). It’s an Iron Giant, and it is level thirty. At this point I am level three. I run. I run immediately and two of my friends still nearly die. I love how they handled night.

The conversation engine needed more time. It’s neat, and a lot of it is good, but it’s not good enough and like human face art it’s gotta be really great to fool humans because we’re used to focusing on it. Two hours in I’ve already hit two or three uncanny-valley type moments where people repeated lines - not just barks but whole conversations. When it’s barks it’s a person having a catch phrase. When it’s a conversation you’re suddenly watching Groundhog Day.

There are parts of this that remind me of the hashtags in KH3 - this weird and too-visible desire of the designers to incorporate some aspect of modern society and its relationship with media but it’s fallen apart because the media isn’t old enough (or the designer not prescient/deep enough) for the designer to conceive of how it really plays out, what it really means in a fantasy space. The mix of having digital GPS yet needing to get rumors about where stuff is on your local map from the local diners is...a weird choice.

When i realized you could mix any ol’ piece of junk you found lying around with your magic to make better magic? Yeah, that’s pretty hot. I wish the system had a faster cooldown for spells (As it is, spells are basically grenades you have to construct yourself before battle, using resources you only find in a couple locations - magic mining nodes, basically - plus whatever physical stuff you wanna combine with them. The magic nodes recharge daily, but you can only make 3 spell-grenades per grenade-slot and only get 4 grenade-slots as far as I can tell). Noctis, your main character, has MP, which should be WP because it’s used exclusively for Warping, at least so far in the game. Personally I think having to spend longer crafting a spell and then being able to use MP to cast it would be rockin’. Like, I would sit there farming up every possible combination of items and spell energy to fill out my spellbook. You could have crazy spells that use 3/4 of your mp gauge, and then you have to duck behind a rock to recover like a proper black mage would have to do and just...I don’t know, I had a similar response of “This was almost as awesome as the magic system I came up with just now that I haven’t tested” back when FFVIII came out. Who knows if my idea for a magic system would actually be any good in practice. It certainly feels good in my head, and frankly I appreciate how close this one came to awesome because this feeling of speculating about the one change to fix everything is really fulfilling for me.

I like the fact that there’s treasure points on your map, and food points on the map, and mining points on the map, but then every now and then you find something valuable that isn’t on the map. It makes wandering around feel just a little more rewarding - It’s better than the fast-travel system at making the open world feel like an okay decision.

I like how wide the range of survivability is! I ran from that level thirty Iron Giant, but I did a level ELEVEN hunt while I was still level THREE. Playing the fights well clearly matters.

I also really like the system for wounds! Basically you have a third score. Normal games have Max HP and Current HP. This game adds in “Current Max HP” which can be between the two. If you get knocked to 0 Current HP your character’s seriously injured and you’re literally limping around hoping for one of your buddies to heal you or trying to get out of immediate danger so you can drink a potion (or trying to limp and drink both at once). While this is happening your Current Max is bleeding out. Let’s say you had 100 max hp and you bleed down to 90 while you pull a potion out. A potion heals you by 50% of your actual Max (so, to 50) and if you can catch a breather out of immediate harm’s way you’ll quickly recover to 90, your Current Max HP. But you won’t recover to 100. Outside of combat, your Current Max rises by 1 every 3-4 seconds until it hits your actual Max HP. This makes it possible to get attacked again when you haven’t really recovered from the last fight, which...isn’t a feeling you get in a lot of these games, especially ones that have regenerating health systems as robust as this one. Just two hours in I’ve already had some really tense encounters where things started going really wrong for me and I pulled out of it but it built that sense of being winded, of being really rattled by the fight, in a way that doesn’t tend to happen.

I think Youtube videos about the game have already said this but I really like that you make your own photo album as you play. By the end of the game you’ve literally got the 200 most meaningful moments to you in that album, or at least your favorite pics. It’s just brilliant, in terms of making a retrospective of stuff that made the game great for you, personally, as the person who played this playthrough of their game.

The food looks delicious, and I’m precisely as disturbed by how much I want to eat it as various people are by how sexy they find cat versions of people in the new Cats movie. There’s one part of my brain that is telling me that it is cartoon food and not real (and that some of it, like the mystery lunchmeat “sushi,” would likely be Super Gross if you could smell it) and it is correct but is also incapable of shutting up the part of my brain that finds the same fake food appetizing.

The collector in me is starting by buying all the skills that grant AP. I have doubts as to whether the game is long enough that I’ll recoup the investment. Like, the one that makes it so Big Catches grant AP costs 99 AP. I think it makes them give 2 AP. Am I actually going to fish up 50 Big Catches in the fishing minigame? (It might even only increase the AP gains by 1, so I’d have to fish up a hundred to profit.) Well fuck it, I know I’m gonna buy every damn skill on every grid anyway so I might as well start with the ones that speed up that process, no matter by how small a degree. The camping and food ones, at the least, were no-brainers.

I have trouble telling the main characters’ voices apart. Say what you will about how dumb Donald sounds in Kingdom Hearts 3, but if Sora, Goofy, Donald, Kairi, King Mickey, Yen Sid, Axel, and Riku were all having a conversation there is no point where you’d be confused about who was talking even if your eyes were closed the whole time. The voices and speech patterns are as recognizable as the silhouettes, in the KH series. Not so much, in FFXV.

I love the way Prompto moves in combat. He is literally always tripping and scrambling to get back up. Seriously, if you have the game play the training session so you can see his move cycle in detail. He spends like half of it with at least one hand on the ground, and I just love it. It’s so dynamic, so expressive, so goofy, so immediately endearing. And then you think, “Wait, we armed our derpiest party member with a gun? What is wrong with us?”

[amessycorner-blog]

Zeke: adult brain, childish heart

Thank you, Isayama-sensei, for giving us a chapter chock-full of new meme material! " As expected of Pieck " will be the new " What is it, Eren? "

… jokes aside, I wanted to take advantage of this month's daily dose of Zeke to talk about something I've had in my head for a while, but couldn't express properly ( not being native to this language certainly doesn't help ). Bear with me if I make little sense; I'll try to tackle this topic to the best of my abilities.

Soooo… this post is about Zeke, of course; however, I won't tackle his patented Zeekretz , as tempting as it is, but his personality; bacuse since his very first appearance in the manga, I've always found him the most interesting, intriguing character in the whole story.

That's one way to make an impression, I guess.

In his first appearance, Isayama went out of his way to single Zeke out from the other Titans, or from the other Shifters, even, to make sure that we would notice him and remember him. From his unusual appearance ( I hope it will be eventually explained why his titan looks like an ape; after all, even Pieck's Titan doesn't look nearly as animalistic as Zeke's ), to the fact that he was the first Titan Shifter that could talk, and talk clearly ( ironic, isn't it, that the most animalistic of all the Shifters would also be the only one capable of intelligent speech while in Titan form ), to his affable cruelty and the unusual level of violence and brutality that permeated his persona ( damn you, Zeke; I haven’t forgiven you for Mike  ),Isayama wanted to make very sure we wouldn't forget this new character.

So, sixty chapters after his introduction, what do we know about him and his personality? For starters, he is certainly an extremely intelligent and rational individual: in every instance he has appeared, he's always seemed to be several steps ahead of everyone else, whether it was about knowing that Annie couln't possibly be under torture as Armin had implied, to knowing exactly how to manipulate Mads Mikkelsen the Marleyan military leader to get what he wanted, the man his clearly extremely smart and calculating ( sold his parents to the Marleyans and had the sense to keep his royal blood to himself at the age of seven, anyone? ). Having blood as cold as a snake is clearly a trait he doesn't share with Eren. What he does have in common with his half brother, though, is an inquisitive nature and his endless curiosity, as his desire to know more about the Walldians' 3DMG contraption shows well. Also, the man is clearly well read, as his house overflowing with books demonstrates. The man is also clearly capable of interacting with his superiors and treading a dangerous path without a hitch, as his interactions with the Marleyans show:

He knows, and has the cold rationality to take advantage of, the best way to manipulate his superiors into doing exactly what he wants to do.

This remarkable brain, though, is accompanied by a, er, less than stellar human sensibility, let's just say:

Yeah.

But, while Mike's death was certainly the most striking example of this personality trait of Zeke's, we've had plenty of other instances to remind us that our dear (?) monkey trouble is indeed a stone-cold motherfucker if ever there was one: remember when he decided to bet Annie's safety over a brawl with Reiner? ' Cause I do:

So, I came out from my first, superficial read of the manga with a strongly negative impression of him; his cruelty and coldness were too repulsive to me to bother going past this ugly surface and try to see if there was more to his character than a plain sociopath.

However, during successive rereads, I started to notice something else: if Zeke was cold, and cruel, and calculating, he was also, oddly, playful? Childish, almost, and in many instances. I've already mentioned how he quieted his men's desire to save Annie through a mock-fight, which is certainly an, er, odd way to settle such an important matter; but we also see this in many other instances:

In this scene, Zeke refers to Annie as Annie-chan, just like he does with Pieck in the now infamous scenes from chapter 95: using -chan as a term of endearment, a big-brotherly way to refer to them; certainly odd, when talking about fellow Warriors ( and Warriors who had saved his life at that, like Pieck in Shiganshina, or who had fallen in action, like Annie ).  It sounds strangely flippant, isn't it? And in the battle of Shiganshina, we have the most striking, chilling example of this behavior to date:

For Zeke, life is made to be enjoyed; a thought remarkably similar to Carla's, in a way, who believed life had meaning in and of itself, whether you became great or not; or even to Eren's who, unlike his father, is not moved by a great past or the belief in the existence of a chosen path for a select few, but finds his motivation in the belief that life is meaningful only when it's free. And yet… immediately after these words, Zeke proceeds to show us his own brand of " enjoyment": crushing people to bits with rocks.

Is this simple sociopathy, then? The figure of the " sociopath " is, in modern literature, a bit like what the " Dark Lord " was to older stories: an incarnation of evil without depth, cruelty born and incarnate; except that modern writers are apparently too cool for the concept of " dark lord ", and prefer to rely on the rationality of psychiatry to give their cardboard villain some flair and an aura of sophistication ( yes, I’m salty  ). Is Zeke really this, though?

I propose a different interpretation of his personality, especially in light of the most recent chapters, where it has become more and more obvious that the man has plans of his own, and that the direction in which these plans will swing might end up being crucial to the resolution of the story: Zeke has, in my opinion, a remarkably developed brain and rationality, accompanied at the same time by a stunted emotional growth. Studies made during the course of the last century have shown how crucial the depth of emotion we're shown in the first months of our life is to our maturation: as has been said, a child's early emotional experiences become literally embedded in the architecture of their brains, and this development is closely tied to the social and emotional enviornment in which they live ( Hardvard university, http://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2004/04/Childrens-Emotional-Development-Is-Built-into-the-Architecture-of-Their-Brains.pdf ); in particular, several studies, including Erik Erikson's on the early developmental stages of a child, show how crucial the first few years of our lives are in the development of our emotional perception of the world: by age 5, the groundwork of our emotiona responses has been laid.

What was Zeke doing during this crucial developmental stage? While he hadn't started his Warrior Programme yet, we do know one thing about him: his parents were already trying to indoctrinate him:

Worse still, from the day he was born, he wasn't just their baby to them, but the Chosen One, the savior of the Eldian Race:

Since childhood, Zeke has never seen from his primary caretakers, his parents, any sign of consideration for his person as an independent individual: to them, he was a symbol first and foremost. And while I do believe Grisha and Dina did love their child, in their own way,  how could Zeke have learned to see others as people, and to empathize with them, if since the very first days of his life he wasn't recognized as a person either?

Now, I want to make sure you know that I'm hardly an expert in developmental psychology; and that, obviously, every child is different and reacts to the circumstances of life differently. However, I do find this pattern in Zeke's life, specifically, to be remarkable and telling: the development of his heart didn't follow that of his brain.

Could that have an impact in his future actions in the manga? Of course it could: Zeke's basic lack of emotional empathy versus his logic and observational abilities are already evident in his first interaction with his little brother, Eren, when he automatically assumed that, since they had at least one parent in common, then Eren had to have gone through the same experiences he had: the thought of his father as a human being, as someone who changes and grows, and might not make the same mistakes again, especially in a different environment, doesn't seem to have occurred to him. And in this contest, I think it is irrelevant whether he really did mean to save Eren or not: even the mere evidence that Eren was not, in fact, son of Dina ( something he must have thought, given the accounts on his ability to use the Coordinate, but that was disproved by the evidence that Eren looked nothing like her, or Grisha for that matter ) was enough to shock this normally unflappable man, because he apparently hadn't thought at all of Eren's circumstances being different from his own. In what way will this personality trait of his influence the future plot, remains to be seen; however, I do believe that it will have a crucial role in future chapters, influencing, as it does, his basic perception of reality. As a bottom line, I came out of these successive rereads convinced that Zeke is not, in fact, a cruel, evil man, but an individual incapable of emotional empathy; and yet, as someone still capable of rational empathy, someone who could see the cruelty and unfairness of the Eldians' situation in the context of the bigger picture, and decide, with his cold logic, whether it would be best for him to take advantage of this situation, or rectify the pointless strife and loss of human life they're currently in to create and environment in which life could finally be enjoyable again.

[davehodgetts-blog]

Leaving Sipalay was heartbreaking. We could have stayed longer if time permitted. Due to the uncooperative weather condition, we missed some of its priced natural attractions, which made us feel that the trip was incomplete.

Also, I will surely miss the acquaintance I made, especially the staff of Easy Diving and Beach Resort, who had been very helpful.

The receiving hall and restaurant in Moray Lagoon

To negate the sadness, I thought of good memories and better pictures of what lies ahead of our adventure. Danjugan Island was our next stop. The stunning photographs of its lagoons and surrounding beaches started to populate my brain.

Moray Lagoon

Through the efforts of Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PRRCFI), the island was designated as a protected marine reserve and wildlife sanctuary. Its sustainable programs on conservation, environmental education, livelihood, and research made the island an esteemed ecotourism destination.

Today, the island serves as an outdoor classroom for students, a research area for conservationists, and a haven for tourist eager to experience nature at its purest. Please visit us with and open heart and open mind

-PRRCFI

Sipalay like us, you can take a bus for Bacolod, and then disembark at the same crossing. Travel time is just 20 minutes and the fare is ‎₱30.

A PRRCFI staff will greet you at Crossing Remollos to arrange your onward transfers. Make sure that you have already booked your visit and communicated your estimated time of arrival.

The mud house in Danjugan Island

Here are the tour packages you can avail:

Overnight Stay at Typhoon Beach – ‎₱3,950/pax

You and your friends can choose a bed from their mud house and dolphin house to spend the night. The mud house has 1 room with four beds and an en-suite toilet and bath. On the other hand, the dolphin house has two rooms each with 4 beds and with comfort room.

The overnight stay package also includes full-board meals with 2 snacks, boat transfers, use of snorkeling gear and kayak, guided tour, and conservation fees.

Mud house interior

Overnight Stay at Moray Lagoon Camp – ‎₱2,950/pax

The inclusions for this package is the same with the inclusions of the Typhoon beach package. The mere difference is the type and the location of the accommodation. At Moray Camp, you’ll share a cabana with other guests, but you will be provided with your own bed, pillow, and mosquito net. Shower rooms and toilets are also shared.

The check in time for the overnight stays is 12:00 noon while the check-out is 10:30AM the following day. Note that on bed counts, a queen bed is counted as two.

Day Trip – ‎₱1,950/pax

The day trip package is an 8-hour immersion and tour around the island. The activity will start at 08:00AM. It includes boat transfers, guided tour, use of snorkel and kayak, and lunch with 2 snacks. The payment is already inclusive of the conservation fee and accident insurance policy.

Danjugan Island

Eco-Tour – ‎₱950/pax

The eco-tour is only a 3-hour guided tour. But if you still have time, you can do snorkeling and kayaking, yet on separate fees. The 950-peso bill only includes your boat transfers, conservation fees, and insurance. If your group does not meet the 7-person minimum requirement, you have to shell out an additional ₱600 for the group.

All guests are allowed to bring food and drinks.

Discounts are also available. Senior citizens with ID can enjoy 20 percent off. Children with ages six to 12 years old will only need to pay half the price, while children ages 5 years old and below are free of charge.

To book your trip, email experience@danjuganisland.ph. Make sure that you indicated your date of visit.

Our guide, Tikyo, briefed us about the island and the advocacy

Trekking and Nature Walk – the guided tour will bring guests to different places of interest within the island. Guests are toured around, visiting beaches, lagoons, mangroves, limestone forests, rock formations, caves, and makeshift view decks.

The make-shift bamboo bridge

Tabon Beach is a nesting ground of the Philippine megapod or scrubfowl, also known as Tabon. So make sure to minimize your excitement when you happen to visit the beach to avoid disturbing them. By the way, Tabon Beach is one of the perfect places in Danjugan to grace the sundown.

Turtle Beach, Danjugan Island

Turtle Beach is an unadulterated white strip that faces the west. And when we say west, it is perfect vantage point to watch the sunset. Remember, sea turtles regularly lay eggs along beach, so listen to your guide before you go frolicking.

On the background is the mouth of the bat cave

Snorkeling is an activity that you should not miss in Danjugan. The island is surrounded with beautiful coral gardens that host a variety of colorful marine organisms. Feed your senses with the amazing wonders of the deep.

PRRCFI also offers marine and wildlife camps which provides training, workshops, retreats, and even volunteer programs. Participating one of those is truly fulfilling.

Enjoying the fresh air and the awesome view

www.prrcf.org | www.danjuganisland.ph Contact numbers: +63 915 234 7145 | +63 908 525 4108 | +63 (34) 441 6010 Email address: experience@danjuganisland.ph Facebook page: Facebook.com/DanjuganIsland

If you have no time to visit, you can also help through their “adopt-a-camper” program or via small donations.

Bank: Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Account name: Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation, Inc. Account number: 1393-1583-08

Danjugan Island Travel Guide: More Than a Wildlife Sanctuary appeared first on Freedom Wall.

[laseroy89]

The First Werewolf on the Moon

[WP] The first werewolf lands on the moon

I could feel the power surge within me as the craft neared its destination. My pulse quickened, sending ripples of energy flowing through my blood, invigorating my muscles. My limbs trembled with energy, itching to let loose their destructive potential. Yet, my brain remained calm and human.

"You feeling good, Tolstov?" James swivelled round in his chair, a concerned expression on his face. "That's quite some rustling from your suit there. Are you sure you're still...."

"Safe?" I answered with a composed smile on my face. "Don't worry James - and everyone else - I am still very much human. I still have control. I am just experiencing some physiological changes, but my mind is not affected, not until moonlight actually hits me."

The rest of the crew turned back to their stations, a little placated by my assurances. I looked at every one of them, typing and calculating busily, all doing their best to land the craft smoothly and safely. I was proud of them, yet fearful for their safety - and mine.

It must have been the combination of the unlikeliest and most irrelevant of factors, that led this crew and I to where we were today. It started with that particular lycan individual who couldn't handle staying indoors with the curtains drawn, windows locked and doors sealed under the full moon, causing him to go berserk on an extremely destructive killing spree. Then, some foolish senators were convinced by some crooked scientists that important minerals were detected inside the moon. Finally, someone drew the link, and thought that since we lycans could theoretically stay in our supernaturally stronger forms permanently on the moon, then it was a smart idea to send a werewolf to there, to mine the aforementioned minerals.

It was a really stupid idea.

I felt the familiar pull of gravity growing stronger, as the spacecraft descended. Everyone started bracing themselves, except for me. This celestial body gave me strength, and being so close to my source of power made me feel invincible, like there was a ball of energy at my very core, threatening to explode.

The vessel landed roughly, shaking everyone violently, but I shrugged off the tremors like brushing off fallen leaves, not feeling the least bit shaken.

"Right, Tolstov, are you ready -"James yelped as I stood up and cracked the lock of my containment chamber. That wasn't supposed to happen - but my body had grown infinitely stronger now, and seemed to have a mind of its own. Everyone else steered clear in awe, as I strode to the airlock quickly, and almost kicked the door open before a crew member opened it for me. This was totally not going according to plan - I was supposed to take note of my crew's safety, but the urge to exit was too strong. I was losing my mind now.

Once free of the craft, I was almost blinded by the light reflected off the surface. It was too beautiful - a barren landscape that stretched for miles, absolutely no constraints to me. A perfect playground, to wreck everything that stood in my way.

Without warning, I started growing. It has been a long time since fur sprouted from every inch of my skin, and my muscles tripled in size, tearing my spacesuit into ragged pieces. I flexed, feeling the powerful contractions ripple through my entire being. My snout elongated, my ears perked up - I wondered why my helmet didn't burst before I realised I forgot to put it on in the first place.

Never mind that. I took a deep breath - but it wasn't air flowing into my lungs. It stung my airways with a zest not unlike that of citrus, a refreshing respite from the stale air back in the cabin. Immediately, my eyes bulged out, my nostrils flared, and my ears quivered. It wasn't difficult to make out every little detail of the craters in the distance. My senses had been enhanced; a pity that the vacuum of space prevented the transfer of smell or sound. It was as if I've inhaled the very essence of the moon.

With a silent roar, I dug my claws into the ground, amazed at how readily the moon rocks crumbled beneath my impact. This was fun.....really fun, in fact, as I dug tunnels that ran deep beneath the ground, then returned back to the surface in a long loop. This was like one huge, really entertaining open-world game.

It wasn't long before I set my eyes back on the vessel that brought me here. It was so familiar, a reminder of the world I used to call home, but the faces at the windows....it suddenly looked more like a can of meat to me. No, what was I thinking?! These were heroic men and women who ventured bravely into space with a predator they knew nothing about.

But the allure of their pink, plump flesh was irresistible.

I took a step towards the spacecraft. Their expressions had changed from wonder, to something I was more accustomed to....fear?

I advanced towards them, a sadistic grin on my face. A shame, that in space, no one could hear them scream.

[westfallingforchaol]

Salaam! I’ve started to think that I should just stop apologizing for disappearing for weeks on end because I feel guilty, and then I end up making promises I can never keep, and it becomes a vicious cycle. So, no more apologies. Just that school started, and it’s already kicking my ass. Also, my laptop broke down- I have no clue what happened. One day, it just up and decided to become stupid, and I couldn’t use it for about a week and a half. That happened. But I got it back this afternoon, so I thought I’d start off by doing a much-needed January wrap-up.

Even though I wasn’t blogging much, January was a pretty decent reading month for me. I read a total of 8 books, which is good since I wasn’t reading anything at all the past couple of months. Quality-wise, you probably know how I am by now… it goes up and down. For the most part, the books I read ranged from good to pretty good, and that’s honestly all I can ask, ha. I did read something awful though, but more on that later.

Personal

So… guess who I met? If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you might be unaware of this but I met Zayn a week or so ago. I love him to death- I think he’s both an incredible artist and an incredible human being. I was never a One Direction fan, but I distinctly remember thinking that Zayn was super attractive and had a unique voice; when he went solo, I really began to pay attention to him. Almost a year after his album release, I still listen to his songs almost every single day. I’ve binge-watched interviews and videos and stalked his social media, and he’s such a humble, grounded, adorable person.

Meeting him was incredible. He was so gracious and lovely; when I was taking a photo with him, my hand was shaking out of nerves so he reached out and steadied my phone. He was so kind to all his fans… and just in case you’re wondering, yes, he’s just as attractive in real life. :)

I also saw one of my favorite bands live! I’ve seen Kings of Leon live once before back in 2014, and they’re so incredible that I couldn’t possibly miss their 2017 tour. Protip: there are two things you need to do in your life:

See a rock concert in Madison Square Garden

See Kings of Leon on tour

I won’t pretend like I’ve seen a ton of concerts, but I’ve been to a few big rock ones, and there’s something that sets Kings of Leon apart from the rest. They make sure their fans get their money’s worth of performances. They performed 28 songs. One after the other with minimal pauses in between- so energizing, so rapid-fire but so, so good. If you like even just a couple of their songs, I’d highly recommend seeing them live. Despite not being my favorite band of all-time (that crown goes to Linkin Park) I still prefer their concerts over anybody else’s.

On Choosing a Different Path for Myself

Some of you might know this already, but I’m studying Applied Psychology at NYU. I just started the second semester of my junior year, which means I’ll be graduating in just over a year- which is insane just to think about. But I’ve decided that I want to switch…

Well, not really “switch” per se, but do something more advanced. Which is medicine! Surprise, surprise. When I went to Los Angeles over the winter break, I had a talk with a couple of my relatives, both of whom are psychiatrists. By talking to them and their constant affirmations that I was born to go into medicine, I started thinking. What do I want from my life? What do I want out of my career? And you might judge me for this, and I know this is probably why I’ve been sorted into Slytherin my entire life- I want to be successful. I want to be rich, lol, and I want to work for the money I earn. I want to travel. I want a good house, and a nice car. I want to be able to give my parents the chance to retire and sit back and relax while I am able to fulfill their needs. I want to buy stuff without looking at the price-tag, and I want to be able to give to causes that I support without compromising my day-to-day actions for lack of finances.

But that’s not just it. I wanted to become a psychologist so I could help South Asian youth who suffer from mental illnesses and are stigmatized and dehumanized. And I can do that. I can do that if I become a psychiatrist. I can do something good all while making a decent life for myself and my family. It’s going to take many extra years, particularly because I’ll have to take an extra year after my undergraduate to fulfill my pre-med requirements. But that’s a cost I’m willing to pay, you know? It was a scary decision to make. I wasn’t sure I could do it. I’m still not sure I have the brains to get into med school, but you know. I’ll go down with everything I’ve got. It’s honestly a little terrifying, but I’ve enrolled for the first class that’ll help me get there, and I’m ready.

But that’s all I’m going to ramble about. You came here for a reading wrap-up, so here it is!

Reading Wrap-Up

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon | 1.5 stars | Review

This rating may come as a surprise to many, but I really disliked this book – not because the technical aspects were bad, but because the themes were so offensive that it didn’t sit well with me. I was enjoying it at first; the fun additions of notes and charts and illustrations added character, and I was interested in the character’s experience with her disability. But then the love interest was introduced, which made the book extremely insta-lovey, and that was also when the ableist themes came into play. This book was one big message of: you can’t be happy and you can’t have a normal love-life if you have a disability. Which is wrong on so many levels and completely downplays the experiences of so many. I explain it better in my review, so if you’re interested in learning more, check that out!

Goodreads | Amazon

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo | 3.5 stars | Review

I had high hopes for this book, and for the most part, it did not disappoint. The main character was immediately likable, and you fully empathized with her desire to move on from a traumatic event and to fit in with a new group of people. My favorite aspect of the book was definitely her topsy-turvy relationship with her father; the nuance and complexity of their dynamic definitely added an extra layer to the otherwise happy book. I also thought that the romance was incredibly cute, even though I thought it was a little insta-lovey. Also, let’s talk about how little attention is given to great female friendships in YA- if you’re looking for a good female-friendship dynamic, check this book out. Trigger warning for transphobia, depression, suicide attempt and outing.

Goodreads | Amazon

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire | 2.5 stars

I had very mixed feelings about this book; on one hand, I thought the world-building was incredible. Or rather, the potential for the world-building was incredible. Conceptually, the book was so strong, but I felt that a lot of the potential was wasted in execution. A ton of the world-building happens through dialogue rather than actual action. Which really bummed me out and kept me from enjoying the book. The characters fell flat for me too. I did, however, really enjoy the balance between whimsy and dark; I thought the plot was brilliant, and had it been carried out better, it would’ve definitely gotten a higher rating from me. Look out for my full review!

Goodreads | Amazon

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom | 4 stars

This was perhaps my favorite book of the month, which was a surprise because I didn’t know what to expect when I went into it. I’ve only ever read one other book with a blind protagonist, and this one was completely different in tone from that one. I was wary at first because the protagonist is so bitter and mean and sarcastic, and I approached it with caution because it seemed to give off the vibe that she was that way because she lost her sight. But as the story progressed, as the main character developed and grew through relationships and interactions with the people around her, as she learned more about her past and her life and came to terms with her vulnerabilities, the beauty of the book came to light. It was truly a beautiful book, and another one with really amazing female friendships. Definitely a must-read! And look out for my review!

Goodreads | Amazon

The Young Elites & The Rose Society by Marie Lu | 3.5 stars each

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So, I know I’m late to the game, and I know everyone and their mother loves this series- and I understand why. Even though I didn’t give either book a great rating, I really enjoyed them both and am definitely looking forward to the finale. I think what makes this series stand out so starkly amongst its peers is the fact that it’s basically a villain’s coming-to-power story and then I’m guessing her subsequent downfall. I love the complexity of Adelina’s character; I enjoy how you empathize with her but also constantly criticize her choices because she’s going too far. I love the world-building, and the writing’s solid. I sometimes feel that the secondary characters feel flat, and also that Adelina’s still too likable to be called a villain. I want to see her pushed further so I can fully give her the label of villain, because I don’t think she’s there yet. Which was my main gripe with the second book. I won’t be doing an individual review for each book, but I’ll do a joint review for the trilogy!

Goodreads | Amazon

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace (ARC) | 3.5 stars

I don’t read a ton of poetry, but I picked this one up because I’m mutuals with the author on Twitter, and it won an award, and it’s been getting a ton of hype. It’s basically word porn. I think a lot of the poems in this are incredibly relatable; it covers topics like mental health, body image, family dynamics, loss and death, abusive relationships, moving on, self-love, feminism and strength. A lot of the values I hold myself were reflected in this, and Lovelace definitely has a way with weaving words together so that they say a lot in very few characters. I enjoyed the first two parts of the book much, much more than the last one- which I felt was a little dragged and didn’t fit in with the tone of the other parts. But if you’re looking to get into poetry and aren’t sure where to start, check this out.

Goodreads | Amazon

Life in a Fishbowl (ARC) by Len Vlahos | 3 stars

Okay, so let me preface this by saying that the premise of this book is very misleading. The reality television aspect of it doesn’t come into play until well past the 30 or 40% mark- and believe it or not, I was really, really enjoying the book before the TV part was introduced. Definitely the strongest feature of the book is the writing. Vlahos is incredibly gifted; he’s clearly honed and polished his voice to perfection. It’s snarky, it’s intelligent, it’s satirical and hilarious and also surprisingly simple. Just reading his words made the experience delightful. His decision to tell the story from approximately eight perspectives was a gutsy move, but he pulled it off. The relationships, the themes were all spot on. It’s just that the storyline began to drag after the 60% mark, and the characters didn’t undergo any development, which I would have really liked to see. Even so, this was such a fun, fast-paced book, and I’d recommend it to anyone. Full review to come!

Goodreads | Amazon

Blogging

So, I’ve talked a little already about how I basically failed at blogging this month- I’ve never been so far behind my reviews. Because blogging sucked so much, I’m not going to do a post-to-post wrap-up like I usually do. But I’ll just leave a link to the Diversity Bingo 2017 event that I, and a few other friends are hosting. It’s basically a year-long reading event where you need to read 36 books that fit into a bingo sheet, each fulfilling a facet of diversity. You can find more information (and my TBR) here.

I also compiled a list of the diverse books releasing between January and June of this year. I know that I could have really used a masterlist, and in compiling it, I introduced myself to so many awesome-sounding books. If you’d like to check it out (and share, if you can please!), you can do so right over here.

The last post I’ll feature is my top 10 books of 2016. If you’re interested in seeing what the standouts of last year were, you can check them out here.

Also, I’m making a massive change to the blog- something that I think is important for my sanity, ha. I’m getting a co-blogger! I’ve already spoken to someone about it; she’s a friend that I got to know over Twitter. She’s incredible- kind, open-minded, thoughtful and just super wonderful in general. I’m not going to announce who exactly it is just yet- we’ll do that together when she writes her introduction post and she can officially be integrated into the website. Which also means that a URL change is in order. I can’t have a co-blogger and keep it my name. I’ll purchase the bookshelvesandpaperbacks.com domain soon, so just a heads up!

What I’ve Been Watching and Listening To

So, y’all probably know by now that A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on Netflix, which I binge-watched and freaked out over. The books were such an integral part of my childhood, and it felt so wonderful to revisit the characters and the story. The show stays so true to the books- from the narration to the sets to the whimsical, weird, magical-realism-type tone, everything feels like home. The casting is spot-on. I love Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf, and it took me some time to warm up to the children, but I love them all dearly now. Go check the trailer out:

As for music, I’m going to be fully basic and just talk about Zayn a lot more, ha. I barely listened to anything except for his new track with Taylor Swift. I really don’t like her, guys. The fact that the song is the soundtrack for Fifty Shades Darker really doesn’t help, but come on, it’s Zayn. I had to give it a try- and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. I’ve often wanted a version where it was just him singing, and guess what- yesterday, he dropped an acoustic version where it’s just him and a guitar. It’s honestly heaven-sent, and even though it was released in February, I couldn’t go without including it here. Check it out- it almost seems like a completely different song, and I haven’t listened to the original since!

So that’s it for last month’s wrap-up. I know, I had a lot to talk about- it was a busy month and a lot was happening in life. Kudos to you if you made it this far into the post. Let me know in the comments below what your month was like? As always, thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

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Wrap Up | January ’17 Salaam! I've started to think that I should just stop apologizing for disappearing for weeks on end because I feel guilty, and then I end up making promises I can never keep, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

[worldfootprints]

Transformational travel has been one of the biggest travel trends in recent years. Put simply, transformational travel is taking trips with the specific intent to experience something life changing in order to learn and grow as a person. Certainly more and more travelers are taking the opportunity to use their vacations as a way of developing and nurturing themselves, whether that’s through a yoga retreat, a volunteering experience or spending time in a more rural region of a country and getting to know the local people and culture. While these experiences can definitely change one’s perspective on the world, some trips can completely transform someone’s life. This happened to me four years ago when I decided to take a three-week vacation to Georgia.

In 2015 I was working a 50- to 60-hour week in a job that I had long lost my passion for. I lived in the city of Krakow, which, for all its massive advantages, had seen a huge gap grow between the cost of living, and the wages people receive. I was finding it hard to make ends meet financially; no matter how much I worked, I still didn’t have enough money coming in. As I was working so much, I stopped eating properly, I drank way more than is recommended, and what little free time I did have I felt shouldn’t be spent cleaning my apartment, so my living conditions declined. Mentally I was burned out, my physical health suffered and, worst of all, my relationships were massively affected – I just wasn’t fun to be around any more. Something had to change and, luckily for me that change came later in the year.

In September that same year I took a trip to the Republic of Georgia. Located in the Caucus region of Eurasia where Western Asia and Eastern Europe intersect, Georgia is a rare country because the native language is unique and not connected to any other. For a very small country, Georgia has a very diverse landscape that offers a little something for everyone, from adventure sports and beautiful scenery to an eclectic mix of old and modern architecture and a rich history.

My first stop in Georgia was the city of Kutaisi that is known for the centuries-old Bargrati Cathedral. Kutaisi wasn’t the most beautiful place I’d ever seen but I found the city captivating. I also fell in love with the food. Georgian cuisine has to be one of the best in the world, especially for lovers of cheese like myself.

Bargrati Cathedral

I traveled to many places in Georgia and found that each stop offered something unique. I found myself relaxing for the first time in months; managing to forget about work and my life in Krakow. There was simply too much stuff to see and do. I enjoyed the cafe culture, experienced a Georgian amusement park in Tbilisi, visited Stalin’s home town of Gori, hiked up a mountain to walk along the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan at Davit Gareja, and I soaked up the relaxed atmosphere in the heart of wine country, Sighnaghi. Every day brought a new experience that helped to slow my brain down and start enjoying myself again.

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In the latter part of my trip I visited the town of Borjomi, a resort famous for its natural spring water and national park. It’s an incredibly green city and there are plenty of places for strolling among nature. It was on one of these strolls that I came across a small stream running through a canopy of lush green trees, so I took a moment to sit on a rock and take a moment to really appreciate my surroundings. My thoughts turned to comparisons between how I felt in that moment and how I’d been feeling back home throughout the previous months. It was at that point that I started to realize something had to change for the sake of my mental and physical health. I sat there for quite a while thinking about what I really wanted. I wanted to travel more. I wanted to write more rather than be stuck doing a job I hated. I wanted to foster better relationships with the people around me, as well as meet new people. Most of all, I wanted to be happy. I had made the decision to change my life but I just wasn’t sure what that “change” would be.

When I was in my final destination of my trip, the coastal city of Batumi, my then manager began messaging me continuously, wanting me to take on even more work when I arrived back. After nearly three weeks of keeping thoughts of work to a minimum, I wasn’t particularly happy about having my holiday interrupted constantly over two days. By the third day I am ashamed to say I lost my temper and told her stop messaging me as I was on holiday. She reacted by emailing me to tell me she was cutting my hours to five per week since there were “better workers available”. Presumably my boss did this to prompt me to apologise; in fact, all it did was inspire me to resign. Instead of feeling petrified that I was no longer employed, I felt liberated and motivated; I was no longer in the job I disliked so much plus I had to move quickly to make sure I wasn’t without an income for too long.

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By the time I returned to Krakow I had lined up work in my friends’ hostel in another city just to bide my time while I thought about what to do next. I spent a year working in different hostels in Central Europe before becoming a full-time digital nomad, which I still do to this day.

Georgia will always be in my heart, not just because it’s such a wonderful country to visit and I loved my travels there, but also because it’s where I managed to pull myself together. Georgia afforded me time think about what I wanted for my life and how I could go about changing it for the better. Although there have been a few rough points along the way, I can say that I’m happy with what I’m doing now and I’m thankful for that one trip to Georgia for pointing me in the direction I needed to go.

How a Trip to Georgia Changed My Life Transformational travel has been one of the biggest travel trends in recent years. Put simply, transformational travel is taking trips with the specific intent to experience something life changing in order to learn and grow as a person.

[patheticphallacy]

This is part of my Music Monday series on my blog, where I talk all things music, from recommending songs to discussing my favourite music videos to compiling playlists based on prompts.

Summer is over!

I don’t want to say finally, because being off University has been pretty great, but I’m also so relieved the weather is going to get cooler. The weather fluctuated between INCREDIBLY HOT and ACTUALLY IT’S QUITE CHILLY in July and August and I just want it to be over please oh please.

So for Music Monday I figured I should do a little wrap up of the music I’ve enjoyed! I’ve made about 5 new music playlists for absolutely no reason at all other than I have no self control, and I keep having to edit down my 2019 playlist due to impulsively adding songs and then realising two weeks later that I honestly didn’t really love the song that much.

FAVOURITE SOLO ARTIST

My favourite solo artist this Summer was probably Sigrid. Generally with solo artists I get into one or two of their songs, and while those songs list in my favourite songs, the artist generally isn’t a new top favourite.

I’ve been a fan of Sigrid since 2017, and I finally felt like I was in the right space to listen to her new album Sucker Punch, which ended up solidifying her as one of my new favourite solo artists. She has a really intriguing voice and I love that you could dance to over half of this album because of how upbeat it is. There’s something to be said for lyrics that aren’t complicated, are easy to understand, because sometimes that makes them all the more relatable for a listener.

I also love how so much of her music is inspired by more than just romantic issues. There are crushes and friendship songs, songs about breaking free from toxic friendships– something that helped me as I reconcile with some of the more toxic elements of relationships I’ve had in the past– and there’s also a song inspired by not only Studio Ghibli, but also her attempt to control her image in the media, which is something I always love in music. Artists can be publicised so much we forget they are real human beings, and hearing their music about their public image is always humbling.

FAVOURITE BAND

  (Take This To Your Grave isn’t here because it wouldn’t fit, don’t fight me)

2008 Connie and 2019 Connie have one thing in common, and that’s their intense adoration of rock bands that formed in the 2000s. I’ve always been a fan of Fall Out Boy since I was little, but it’s only the past year I’ve actually started listening to all of their discography properly and begun appreciating what they’ve come out with.

This might be divisive, but I honestly think Fall Out Boy, of the ol’ rock/punk rock scene, have had the most consistently good albums since their debut. I think other bands have had decent albums and, in some cases, bad ones that only have one or two good songs in my opinion (Paramore’s self-titled album, I’msosorry), but not ones that have absolute hits.

Fall Out Boy are always great for me, every song on their albums that I’ve heard so far, and that’s why they are my favourite band of the Summer. They’ve changed with the times and the kind of music that’s popular in the moment without ever losing what made their earlier music so great. It’s just all very idiosyncratic, from the music videos to the content to the actual song titles, and I love them.

ALBUMS I LIKED

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Doom Days // Bastille

While doing some research on this album, I discovered that the concept for Doom Days is that it follows different points in the night at a party, a party that has a lot of “turbulent emotional chaos”. This explains why I love it so much.

In general, Bastille are a band that put a lot of thought into their music, and I think some really visceral imagery can be created from the concepts they shape the album around.

The titular song is actually my favourite of the album. It describes escapism from modern anxiety, and how, no matter how fucked the world is, you need to shut off sometimes. I struggle a lot with this– I constantly describe my own anxiety, something that I struggle with a lot, as having an IV line of straight modern horror flowing into me that I can’t disconnect from– and I think, as a song, it confronts modern fear– from climate change denial to porn addiction– without ever demonising those who make the decision to shut their brains off from it sometimes.

I think the Peter Pan reference especially reaffirms this. Yes, Peter Pan himself is a symbol of innocence, but at its core, Peter Pan’s narrative is about a girl who finds escape from the ‘real world’ long enough to figure out the issues of adulthood and growing up without losing herself along the way. In a way, that’s what this song, and the rest of the album, enforce. Escapism is good sometimes.

Third Eye Blind // Third Eye Blind

God of Wine has been one of my favourite songs for god knows how long, and after listening to a really bizarre mash-up of Welcome to the Black Parade with Semi-Charmed Life, I finally figured I should give the rest of the band’s music a try.

I’ve started with their self-titled first album, just because it’s easiest as I make my way through their discography, but I kind of stopped on this one. I just really love it. It mixes different sounds, sometimes crossing several in one song (Narcolepsy has an ending that jolts you out of your seat), with grim lyrics reflecting on suicide and mental health conditions, crystal meth, and sexual abuse.

Fun story: Semi-Charmed Life was very familiar to me before I’d even listened to the album, and when I researched into it, I realised that was because it was used in trailers for The Tigger Movie and, as a massive Winnie the Pooh fan and YouTube user, I had most definitely seen the trailer when I was younger and not put the pieces together. These trailers were obviously recalled because the song is about crystal meth, but I just think that’s a fun look into how little people actually pay attention to lyrics!

Sucker Punch // Sigrid

I’ve obviously discussed Sigrid in length earlier in this post, so I won’t say as much here. My favourite songs on the album are Basic, Don’t Kill My Vibe, and Business Dinners.

FAVOURITE SONGS

Arms Unfolding // Dodie

Oh, our fire died last Winter 

Heavy Metal Heart // Sky Ferreira

I describe the chorus and instrumentals of this as the musical equivalent of a headache, and I stand by that. Sky Ferreira’s voice is great, and I love the chaotic noisiness of this song.

Django Jane // Janelle Monáe

I actually only just listened to Dirty Computer. I tend to prolong listening to things until well after the hype surrounding them dies down, and I’m glad I did, as I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed the album otherwise.

I’m With You // Avril Lavigne

Can you tell I grew up goth? I remember memorising the lyrics to this when I was in year 3.

The Archer // Taylor Swift

Definitely the best song to come out of Taylor Swift’s latest album so far! I love the juxtaposition in the lyrics. I also wrote a whole post assigning her songs to Shakespeare Plays, if you’re interested in that sort of thing!

goodnight n go // Ariana Grande

I… don’t have much to say about this? It’s one of three songs I actually like off Sweetener. 

A Brand New Day // BTS&Zara Larsson

Everytime the first notes of this song play I get immediately hyped. I love the instruments used in this song, and I think the voices and sounds of the different collaborators in this (V and J-Hope, and Zara) all compliment each other really well.

Nightmare // Halsey

I Smile // DAY6

DAY6 were sold to me as a Korean rock group and I immediately jumped on that. I really love their album Sunrise.

Doom Days // Bastille

Someone You Loved // Lewis Capaldi

This has some iffy messages, especially concerning the idea of your partner– or a sole person– as a sort of therapist instead of pursuing other avenues (i.e. actual, paid-for therapy) to help you begin to tackle emotional issues. I do love Lewis Capaldi’s voice, though, and I think there are more ways to look at the song than just that. Remember kids: it’s okay to ask for help from loved ones and there should be a quid pro quo of support, but if your emotional issues are that bad, please seek professional help!

Kataomoi // Aimer

Baby Don’t Stop // NCT U

After how much time I’ve spent crafting paragraphs about music I love and trying to remain somewhat intelligent, I’m breaking that here: this song is just sexy. That’s the whole reason I love it. I’m sorry.

Ça Ira // Joyce Jonathan

This is a really fun song, it kind of reminds me of Sara Bareilles, only French. The fact that the music video is staged as her going on blind dates with people of all genders  is also really adorable and not something I see a lot of in music videos!

FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEOS

Spring Day // BTS

I spend most of my time attempting to deconstruct every music video BTS have ever come out with, but Spring Day is almost the be-all-end-all for me. There’s so many layers to this music video, from the philosophical references– The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K Le Guin is a direct inspiration for the music video– to its context within the general BTS ‘Universe’ they’ve created with their music videos. I know this isn’t considered a direct part of the BTSU, but it is to me, and I love it. I really love the music video for Lights as well!

Nightmare // Halsey

This is a fact not many people know about, but I desperately wanted to both be in a rock/heavy metal band when I was younger, and also date someone in a heavy metal band. So all of those black and white sequences of Halsey as the frontwoman for a rock band are honestly my favourite thing ever. I love the messages of this song; I know people are divisive over their opinion on Halsey, but I’ve always loved her honesty, so I really love this song.

Kataomoi // Aimer

It’s a very quiet music video and I love that! People can do a lot with smaller budgets and minimal people partaking, I think this music video is beautiful. My best friend actually recommended this song to me with the assurance that Namjoon from BTS talked about it before.

Winter Bear // V

Speaking of quiet music videos: THIS. It’s soft and mostly uses shots and clips V got himself walking around and touring, including a few Jimin got for him. I’m very much on both ends of the spectrum concerning music videos: I love so many large-budgets videos, but I also love ones that are minimalist and filmed on smaller budgets (if you don’t count the cost of what Taehyung is wearing, obviously).

What have you listened to this Summer? I’d love some music video recommendations especially, I think it’s amazing how carefully people can form stories and messages without ever using speech, especially when the imagery isn’t overt and you can do research into shots used to understand what it could mean.

Thank you for reading!

If you liked this post, consider buying me a coffee? Ko-Fi. 

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Music I Enjoyed This Summer This is part of my Music Monday series on my blog, where I talk all things music, from recommending songs to discussing my favourite music videos to compiling playlists based on prompts.

[bigbeaverdiaries]

Visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland

August 13, 2019. Pollards Point, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Not Larry and I got moving and out of Pollards Point at 13:00. It is tough to get going when there is so much going on all of the time and so many tasks to tackle!

We left Beatrice the Bendix behind for a couple of days while we get a new rad-hose to replace the one our lady now has pin-hole through. I guess that is her way of saying that she wants a few days to recuperate from the cross-continent drive. No problem honey. So, for this journey we set out in Not Larry’s Nan’s car for a trip up the western peninsula of Newfoundland. It is said to have stunning views.

[su_note note_color=”#19aedf”]Not Larry has been up the western peninsula of Newfoundland as a kid and as an adult, but it has been some years. The western peninsula is where she used to vacation with her family as a child. We even drove past a waterslide she used to visit at Cormack’s Funland Resort. “Big Daddy’s Lounge” is the bar at the children’s Funland Resort. Big Daddy’s Lounge… I am not sure I would be in a big rush to take children to a fun-land resort where patrons of Big Daddy’s Lounge hang out! Then just a little further down the road we passed a place called Killdevil Camp where Not Larry went to church camp when she was young. The irony of that place-name for a church camp is truly fantastic.[/su_note] 

Just past the gates of the Gros Morne National Park, Not Larry and I went into the discovery center where there seemed to be some outlandish scenes of animal porn taking place. It was ridiculous and I hope the display was designed by teenagers who can not believe that they got away with it:

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The Gros Morne National Park is beautiful. Things on this east coast are much older than that of the west coast. Not Larry told me that the hills here are the “Grandparents of the Rocky Mountains.” What is a great term! And there are people from all over North America here. At our first stop we saw license plates from Quebec, Nebraska, Texas, Alberta, Florida, Ontario, and Maine. Newfoundland’s peninsula is a busy place. How are people from Nebraska and Texas finding out about a park on the barren western peninsula of Newfoundland? And because of this new influx of tourism, Not Larry says that the towns are more vibrant than they were when she was a girl. The buildings are freshly painted and towns like Norris Point are lively and thriving as opposed to how they were dying when she was young. Tourism is doing great things for the local communities on the northern peninsula of the Gros Morne National Park of Newfoundland. It is great to see the little fishing villages here have been struggling for years. 

We stopped in Green Point on our drive north. The place feels magical with stacks of sideways flat rocks… [su_box title=”From the welcome sign:” box_color=”#31b3e1″ title_color=”#10100c” radius=”1″]This sequence of rock was originally flat. Each layer formed as much and organic debris settled to the floor of an ancient ocean. The younger layers were deposited on top of older layers. Later, tectonic forces tilted the rocks, so that today we find the older layers to the right and the younger layers to the left.[/su_box] 

Awesome! Ocean mud and sediment stacked upon itself on the ocean floor like long pancakes, piled high. The sediment and mud fossilized over time. Then, the tectonic plates moved which pushed the piles over to lay them on their sides. It is amazing to look at the changes in the earth. Nature does some wonderful things.

  Formerly horizontal, now vertical rocks!

[su_box title=”Fun Notes of Interest:” box_color=”#31b3e1″ title_color=”#10100c” radius=”1″] – Not Larry had some moose-soup at a snack shack on the side of the road. Newfoundland is special as it is the only province in Canada allowed to serve wild game. – There are tuckamore trees all along the road, which lean over like trees that have been hanging onto the earth for deal life in constant wind. Not Larry told me that the DNA of those trees has changed over time so that they now naturally grow on an angle. They look like something out of a cartoon. – There are signs for named brooks everywhere to draw in your attention and I realized that I have never been associated with a brook before. What is a brook? Is it something between a creek and a stream? I can imagine what one is but I am not sure if I could determine a differentiation between a creek, a brook and a stream.[/su_box]

The view at our $130 home for the night!

As we pushed further north, it felt like we traveled a lot but there was so much to stop and look at that the miles were not many, though the journey offered plenty. When we arrived in a town called Cow Head, Not Larry got us a hotel room for the night at the Sea View for $130 and with the outrageous price I realized that we have not stayed in a hotel for a while. I guess this trip is kind of our get-away from our vacation! But it was great as in the evening we went to a show and watched something called Newfoundland Vinyl, a musical with a live band tackling Newfoundland music from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. It was $65 each for the show and a lot of fun to listen to live story-songs about Newfoundland and culture. All songs in Newfoundland are based on what the ocean gives and takes and the four-park harmonies were so great to hear. Not Larry picked out the fake Newfoundland accents which made me laugh. There are two plays here every night through the summer. Things are vibrant and fun!

We had a couple of drinks including beer made from 20,000 year old iceberg water, and were in bed by 01:00, played out from the long day. 

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[su_box title=”[su_highlight background=”#c0f94d”]Thought to Ponder:[/su_highlight]” box_color=”#31b3e1″ title_color=”#10100c” radius=”1″]On the drive I saw a camper with a brand-name of Sea Breeze on the top. That got me thinking… If I was in a conversation with you and told you that, “I went down to the beach to enjoy the Sea Breeze in the Sea Breeze,��� which order did you envision what I was doing? Was I at the beach enjoying the wind in my camper or was I at the beach enjoying my camper in the wind? I would love to hear your visual order in the comments below![/su_box]

August 14, 2019. Cow Head, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Not Larry woke up at 06:30 and then woke up my mid-section. It was 30 minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off, but if a man is to be woken up early, it is tough to beat such reasons…

[su_pullquote]For $65 each, today was the day to make her dreams come true![/su_pullquote]We showered, had breakfast, and headed to the Gros Morne National Park again to go to the Western Brook Pond to get on a boat to see the gorge. Not Larry said that she always wanted to take the boat out to see it, but never had enough money to do it when she was young. She has come to the east side of the gorge on snow-mobiles, but has never approached it from the west.

We are doing it!

We had a one-hour hike through the park on a gravel path to get to the boat. The hike was awesome and is something we never seem to do anymore. We are becoming un-exercised lumps. It felt pretty darn good to get bodies moving this morning. I feel like my thought patterns are not in a straight line anymore and maybe that is do to a lack of exercise and oxygen through the body. So the brain-food hike was actually quite a treat! I feel smarter. Not Larry had to endure extra one-liners today. 

[su_note note_color=”#19aedf”]Life is different now. We do not live in Europe so that means we drive everywhere, and we are not backpacking so that means we are always in a car from Point A to Point B. That can not be healthy and we had better start to up our body usage beyond the horizontal holka-polka if we want to stay fit and still look like we will not be the last selected for a make-shift Sunday baseball team![/su_note]

The Western Brook Pond gorge.

There was a line-up to get on the top deck of the boat to take us out on the Western Brook Pond. Not Larry and I got two of the last seats on the top. It was chilly as the air temperature was lowered from the water, but the sights were beautiful and our guide was an entertaining local man who was full of great information of the Western Brook Pond. [su_box title=”Try Some of these Gross Morne National Park facts on for Size!” style=”bubbles” box_color=”#31b3e1″ title_color=”#10100c” radius=”1″] – The Western Brook Pond is not a true fjord because the pond is not salt water. It has not been a true fjord for 8,000 years and pretty much only the creosote bushes have an opinion from then and they are not talking! – The Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park is 165 meters deep at its lowest point, the highest cliffs are 717 meters high and the and has a total length of 16km. This entire gorge was created during the last ice age when the water melted and there was run-off. The running water cut through rock to create this beautiful geology. A flood in a small town makes the news today. Imagine if there had been papers during the melting of the ice-age? They would still be writing about it! – The water in the Western Brook Pond here in Gros Morne National Park is too pure for minerals required by most plants and fish. So, the pond is sparse with life in comparison to other ponds of a similar size. We did not drink a sample of it, and Not Larry did not seem interested in taking a dip to see how it felt on her skin. – A normal body of water of similar size to the Western Brook Pond here in Gros Morne National Park flushes itself 6 to 8 times each year. But, in the Western Brook Pond there is very little water coming in with the small water falls and only a small brook to take the water out, so the water in the pond takes 15 years to flush. That is under three full flushes during my entire lifetime! – There are 500 caribou in the Gross Morne National Park. There are also 2,700 moose in the park. The moose are not native, but they have thrived here. In 2007, there were 15 moose/km², so hunting was introduced to bring the number down to 2 moose/km². That is a lot of potentially delicious roasts and soup![/su_box]

The east side of the Western Brook Pond gorge.

At the end of the gorge at the very east side of the Western Brook Pond here in Gros Morne National Park, we let six people off the boat to hike back to the parking lot over the next couple of days. What a great experience that would be, but I was wearing cheap shoes from Peru, Not Larry was under-dressed, and neither of us had a morsel of food with us. So, we rode the boat back to the dock where we started. As compensation, we played spoons along with the Newfie music for the rest of the boat trip and everyone seemed to be happy with the whole morning.

After the tour, Not Larry drove us to Shallow Bay Beach as it is her favorite beach in the entire province Newfoundland and Labrador. The sand at Shallow Bay Beach was incredibly fine and soft grey in color. We have been collecting sand from beaches we have visited around the world, so I was trying to find a vessel to collect some of the Shallow Bay Beach. Other tourists were there and were watching me as I searched one garbage can, then another, and then another. All the while I had Not Larry’s purse on my shoulder. Eventually I found a plastic blue roller-dumpster with a Gatorade bottle in the bottom that I could not reach. So, I had to pull the roller bin out of the wooden holder to be able to tip it over to get the bottle from the bottom. Other tourists watched me do all this. They were probably pretty leery of me and must have thought I was pretty desperate for money as the purse I had stolen had obviously produced none. But, I got the bottle and I was able to fill it with sand to take home in spite of their curious looks!

Arches Provincial Park.

[su_pullquote]There is still trust up here and it is nice to find.[/su_pullquote]Not Larry and I stopped in Arches Provincial Park, and then carried on to St. Anthony, right at the top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of the drive north was right alongside of the ocean with occasional giant waves rolling into the pretty little sea-towns which welcomed us along the way. The Gros Morne National Park and the northern peninsula is truly a gorgeous drive. However, it was hard to find accommodation in St. Anthony and probably took 15 phone calls to find a room in the area. Eventually, we could a place about 25 minutes outside of St. Anthony. We rented a cabin for $148, which is kind of the going rate for a place to stay here. The lady who ran the cabins was entertaining as is the case with most Newfoundlanders. We were to arrive at the cabin late, after her office was going to close…but she told me she would leave the cabin unlocked and the key on the table. She did not even ask for my name or my credit card. There is still trust up here, the people are so sweet and all of it is so nice to find.

Just look at that view. So dang nice!

  Even in the gas stations and convenience stores, people greet you like they actually mean it. What a treat to be around sincerity humans.

  We have arrived in St. Anthony which was once known as ‘Vínland’, the first place settled by Europeans…the Norse Vikings back in the year 1000. This should be fascinating… 

For the fun video on the day, make sure you click here or click it at the top!

For a few more photos on Visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland:

The entrance to Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. I love the sweet innocence!

Rocky Harbour. The colorful vibrance of oceanside towns is global.

More of Green Point.

Moose Soup.

Try to not hit moose in Gros Morne National Park with your car. It clearly pisses them right off.

A blonde beautiy in a sundress on a gorgeous place.

Hiking to Western Brook Pond.

Try to not hit moose with your car. It clearly pisses them right off.

I love the hazy clouds at Western Brook Pond

It looks like something out of a dream.

Waterfalls in Western Brook Pond.

The waterfall is my favorite. It looks mystical in the way it comes down.

The east end of the Western Brook Pond. Beautiful.

See you later hikers. You’ve got this!

Shallow Bay Beach!

Inookshooks.

Eerily awesome.

Viking time!

Visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland. Visit Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland August 13, 2019. Pollards Point, Newfoundland and Labrador. Not Larry and I got moving and out of Pollards Point at 13:00.

[wordcreatr]

Okay, folks, the Land Manatee is back in Arizona after two glorious weeks visiting the relatives in the UK. I meant to keep blogging as I went along, but — well — it didn’t happen. The road to hell paved with best intentions and all that. You get the picture.

The (Kind of) Old Man and the Sea.

The good news is my cousin’s wedding was a success despite the threat of rain. I’m sure it will result in a long and happy marriage between the young couple. Had a lot of fun at the reception and ate too much, which seems to have been the theme for my trip.

The return trip

Considering my troubles on my outbound trip, you may be wondering if I had an uneventful return? Well, other than Virgin Atlantic’s ramp crew ruthlessly savaging my bag (missing wheel, bent frame) yes, it was fairly uneventful — well, for me. For my cousin, Martin, who drove me to the airport, things got a little more exciting. At Manchester airport, he decided to come in with me instead of just dropping me off. When I arrived in Atlanta, I checked the messages from our WhatsApp group and discovered his car had caught fire and burned up while we were in the terminal. And it took out several other vehicles with it (including a rather pricey Range Rover, I believe. Ouch!)  (You can read about it here in the Manchester Evening News.)

Hope you like your VW well done, Mart.

The fire brigade thinks it was possibly the car’s electrical system that sparked the blaze, but it’s still under investigation. Part of my brain was telling me my Land Manatee luck was rubbing off and taking out innocent bystanders — though on second thought, maybe it was good luck. The fire could have happened while my cousin was in the car with his kids or while parked in front of his house. His weird neighbor is already a pain in the ass over minor things. For example, he claimed the passenger door on Martin’s car swinging open over his driveway constitutes trespassing. Imagine if his car got accidentally barbequed, which was a distinct possibility with how close the two driveways are to each other.

Back in AZ

After a day of traveling, I felt shattered by the time I arrived home but didn’t want to go to sleep too early so I watched the series finale of Game of Thrones. (You have no idea how hard it was to avoid spoilers for 2 weeks.) Maybe it’s because I felt tired, but it seemed underwhelming for a finale and in general, I thought it kind of sucked. A disappointing end to a great series in my opinion.

Later on, the Houseguest showed up and the fact she no longer had to worry about killing my oleander bushes by failing to water them was a huge weight off her shoulders. (They’ve made another comeback after I nearly killed them twice through insufficient watering.) While the oleanders made it through my absence, unfortunately, there was a casualty — my car battery was deader than a doornail (which sucked since I had zero food in the house other than peanut butter and a stale street taco tortilla.) The Houseguest apologized because she hadn’t started my car while I was away. To be honest, I never asked her too. (I did request her to do so on my last UK trip during the Year of Sean because of the length of my absence and it occurred during the blazing summer). This time, I figured with the mild temps in AZ, it would be fine — and it should have been. The only thing I can think is the security camera in my car must have drained it. Supposedly it turns off automatically, but I suspect it’s wonky, but that’s just a guess. Hmm hopefully my alternator didn’t crap out — I guess I’ll find out when I try to leave work.

I fear dead car batteries

The Houseguest felt some measure of responsibility for the dead battery because she didn’t start my car while I was traveling, and I played along with it milking her guilt until she remembered I had forgotten to start her car while she was away. Admittedly, as a joke, I have a bad habit of letting her feel guilty about things. For example, she still thinks she ran the curbing over (pictured below) while backing out (Well, she won’t anymore after reading this post), but I actually did it when dragging the garbage can across the rocks because her SUV was in the driveway blocking it. (Hey, it keeps her humble — plus she did run it over once.)

The Houseguest failed to notice the telltale trash can wheel marks in the rocks.

Anyway, the Houseguest helped me try to jumpstart my car yesterday morning, but we failed miserably — no clicks or any attempt by the engine to turn over. Nada. Knowing my propensity to screw things up, she seemed highly anxious the whole time she held one set of clamps from the jumper cables and wanted me to call for roadside assistance. (The fact that I kept consulting Youtube didn’t bolster her confidence). As my readers may (or may not) know, I don’t have great experiences when it comes to electricity. I get super anxious when jumpstarting or disconnecting a battery due to the minor chance I could blow it up (a kid in my high school had one blow up in his face and I read about a dentist who almost lost his finger when he had his wedding ring on and touched the wrong thing).

Cautiously, I took the battery out and lugged it into AutoZone. Family friend and AutoZone manager Suzy tested my battery and confirmed it was dead. However, she told me the battery was still under warranty, so she exchanged it. Anyway, I did have some issues getting the battery back in place but eventually succeeded. And it started. Here’s to small victories!

  Readjusting

While I’m happy to be home, I’m also mildly depressed. I found it comforting to be around family. My cousins are mostly around my age and we have a lifelong bond. Now that my parents and brother are dead and my sis lives in Florida, it’s just me out here in the desert. Or maybe I’m just depressed because I’m back in the metaphorical salt mine? Eh, who knows?

Anyway, I feel guilty about not blogging and still feel lethargic, which is a bad sign. It’s time to get back in the saddle again and knock off the rust! Also, I’ve decided to get off my ass and get back to working on my book. We’ll see how that goes.

      The Land Manatee Returneth Okay, folks, the Land Manatee is back in Arizona after two glorious weeks visiting the relatives in the UK.

[jesseneufeld]

Dear Mark: Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Training

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m going to be answering questions about Maximum Aerobic Function, or MAF. If this is your first time hearing the term, MAF refers to a method of endurance training that maximizes the function of your fat-burning aerobic system. I’ve come down hard on conventional or popular modes of endurance training in the past for being too stressful and reliant on sugar. MAF training is the opposite: low stress and reliance on body fat.

Let’s dive right in to the questions:

What is MAF training?

MAF trains your aerobic fat-burning system to be more efficient and produce greater output at the same “intensity.” It means slowing the hell down to go faster. It means the slower you go, the more fat you’re burning and the better your mitochondria are getting at utilizing fat for energy. It means training up to but not over your maximum aerobic heart rate.

MAF was coined by Phil Maffetone, who came up with an ingenious way to calculate your max aerobic heart rate: subtracting your age from 180. 180 minus your age gives you the heart rate at which you’re burning the maximum amount of fat and minimum amount of sugar.

Say you’re 30 years old. 180 minus 30 is 150. To burn the most fat possible, you maintain a heart rate equal to or lower than 150 BPM. Now, and here’s the trick: It doesn’t sound like much. It doesn’t feel like much. It probably feels way too easy. But bear with me. It works. This is where the magic happens, where you accumulate easy volume, where the “base” is built, where you begin building more fat-burning mitochondria.

The hard truth is that if jogging spikes your heart rate past your aerobic max, you’re not very good at burning fat during exercise. Even if you don’t “mind” pushing that heart rate up. Even if you “feel fine” jogging at 153 bpm. 180 minus age is where you have to be to improve fat burning. That might look like jogging, or walking, or walking uphill, or running pretty briskly, depending on where you’re starting. It’s all relative to your aerobic fitness.

It takes patience to stay at the aerobic zone, but over time, if you’re consistent, you’ll notice that you can handle a higher and higher workload at that same “easy” MAF heart rate. You’ll be going faster while still burning mostly fat—and it’ll still feel easy.

What are the benefits of cardio using MAF training?

In some parts, I’m known as the anti-cardio guy. I coined the phrase “chronic cardio,” and the entire reason I got into this Primal business is that decades of elite endurance training—marathons and triathlons—wrecked my body and drove me to develop and pursue a different, more sustainable path to health and fitness.

But I’m not anti-cardio. In fact, moving frequently at a slow pace in all its incarnations forms the foundation of my Primal Blueprint Fitness philosophy. And MAF is just about the best way to do it.

When you build your aerobic base, you don’t just get better at running (or cycling, or rowing, or swimming, or whatever it is that you’re doing). There are more benefits that aren’t as overtly noticeable:

You get better at utilizing the fat you eat and the fat you store, paying huge dividends in other areas of your life.

You get steadier energy levels throughout the day. There’s always that big bolus of energy hanging around, ready to be consumed and converted into ATP. And you’re very good at burning it.

You have a lower propensity to snack. It’s easier to stick to a healthy way of eating and refrain from snacking when you can cruise along eating your own adipose tissue in between meals.

You have more mitochondria, and the mitochondria you have are better at burning fat.6 This is what everything comes down to. Mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent energy overload lie at the root of many degenerative diseases. The better your mitochondria work, the more energy you can handle, and the less likely you are to suffer the negative ramifications of chronic energy overload.

This seems to confer benefits to longevity. Although we can’t establish causation, moderate exercise—jogging up to 20 miles a week at an 11 minute mile pace—offered the most protection against early mortality in one study. Running more than 20 miles a week, or running at a 7 minute mile pace, offered fewer mortality benefits.7

Plus, having that large aerobic base helps with any physical pursuit, and not just endurance sports. A large aerobic base helps in CrossFit. A large aerobic base helps in football or martial arts or rock climbing. Whenever you can burn more fat, save more glycogen, and still get the same amount of performance, you’re winning.

When you’re aiming for MAF, how much cardio is too much?

As long as you stay in the MAF zone, it’s very hard to overdo cardio. You’re deriving your energy primarily (90/95%) from fat, a virtually inexhaustible energy source, and very little from carbohydrate. You have thousands of calories at your disposal. Your relative intensity is lower than the person who’s out there burning sugar, so your joints aren’t falling apart and your muscles aren’t getting as fatigued. You’re accumulating less stress overall.

When you start hitting intensities that elevate your heart rate beyond the 180 minus age MAF zone, your tally begins. The stress and joint damage begins to accumulate. You become more reliant on sugar compared to fat. You can still train like this, but your margin for error is a lot smaller.

If I had to put a number to it, I’d say that you shouldn’t burn more than 4000 calories a week from cardio.

How should you eat while doing maximum aerobic function?

MAF is most effective when paired with carbohydrate restriction. It doesn’t have to be keto reset levels, although that’s a great option. Standard Primal low-carb, staying under 150 grams per day, is good enough.

When you combine MAF training with carb restriction, everything is enhanced. You build more mitochondria after a single carb-restricted MAF training session than after the same session without the carb restriction. 8

Going low-carb while MAF training also continues the work when you’re at rest. If you burn primarily fat when endurance training but go home to a high-carb diet, you’re squandering a lot of progress.

What if I’m too slow?

One of the most common questions I receive comes from people worried they’re too slow. “I feel like I am going too slow. I can run a 7:00 minute mile no problem at race pace and a higher heart rate, but if I stay at 180 minus age, I can’t get my speed past 10 minute miles.”

You can keep doing the higher HR runs, but you’re not building a base and you may be setting yourself up for damage down the line. That means you are good at burning glucose/glycogen and have a good tolerance for discomfort, but it also means that in this current configuration, you suck at burning fat. The whole point of MAF training is to train at the highest heart rate you can handle (and highest speed) while still getting 90-95% of your energy from fat. Over time, you’ll find that as you get better fat adapted, your mile pace will come down at that same MAF heart rate. That’s the indicator that you are becoming more efficient with your burning of fat over glucose.

Track things over months, not workouts. It may take a long time to improve, but improve you will. Pro tip: if you are a well-trained runner or cyclist, you could probably add 5 to that 180-age number and be OK.

Isn’t my MAF pace way too easy?

It seems way too easy, and that’s the whole point. It’s also where people get tripped up.

You think you can handle a bit more, so you push the HR up. I mean, running at an easy pace couldn’t possibly make you faster.

Over time, you’ll find that as you get better fat adapted, your mile pace will come down at that same MAF heart rate. That’s the indicator that you are becoming more efficient with your burning of fat over glucose.

Just be sure you are always able to carry on a conversation and not get winded as the “guard-rail.”

Folks, that’s MAF training. If you want more details and a specific plan of attack, check out my book Primal Endurance.

If you have any more questions, ask down below! Thanks for reading, everyone.

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References

https://mi-psych.com.au/what-your-brain-doesnt-know/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201301/cognitive-restructuring

https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/33/5/article-p666.xml

https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-bias-4589618

https://ift.tt/2MsAdzb shows

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1540458/

http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/06/06/moderate-exercise-may-be-better-for-you-than-vigorous-workouts/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823511/

The post Dear Mark: Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Training appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Training published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

[scrappykat]

Hi everyone!  It’s been a minute since I last posted!  This is just a catch up post to let you all know what’s been happening and what is going on right now.  Also, what you can expect to see here in the future.

I moved out of my home and left my sons there because the rent is low and it’s a 3/2 home and there is no way they can afford their own place with the prices the way they are now.  (My sons are 26 and 22).  So my oldest son, his wife and child and my youngest son all live there together now. 🙂

I found a cute little 2/1 townhouse in downtown Bremerton near the Ferry terminal  (Prices are RIDICULOUS) but it is what it is right?  Anyway, it’s adorable and quiet and clean and I can live in peace and quiet (did i mention quiet already? LOL).  I am absolutely loving it.  I haven’t had much time to unpack and decorate yet because things have been non stop since I moved in.

My best friend Mona came for two weeks and so we did more playing than working while she was here, plus she had hurt her back (from the air mattress I think) so we couldn’t do much.  But we has so much fun just spending time together and making more memories.  I’ll post a few photos that we took while she was here.  Our other friend, Rexann spent a lot of time with us and it was just a wonderful two weeks.  Here is a recap of our time together:

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Best Friends Together Again

Kat, Mona and Rexann

The results – they were WHITER!!

Mona hard at work at Kat Scrappiness, pulling orders.

Three Amigos`

Paint Pouring Class (Doing the Mona again)

Doing the “Mona” Pose

I also got a new car a few months ago, a 2018 Toyota RAV4 Sport Edition.  Then while Mona was here, we got into an accident. Nobody was hurt but it was my fault.  Here’s a pic of my poor car’s boo boo.

So, next up…. My new craft room….  It is about 1/4th the size of my old craft room so I had to let go of most of my stuff.  Mostly scrapbooking stuff because I haven’t scrap booked in years. I kept all of my card making and art journaling supplies though.  I haven’t touched the new craft room because it’s overwhelming and I don’t know where to start or where to put all the “stuff” while I work out where the furniture will go.  Waiting for help to tackle that project!  I will of course show before and after pics and will update all of my organization posts when it’s done so keep an eye out for that over the next few months.  I may take a video of it as well, we will see 🙂  I’m not sure how long it will take for me to get to my craft room but AS I do it, I will post photos before and after….here is a before picture of how it looks now.

Lastly, an update on mom…..this is the hardest thing to write about.  Those of you who have been following me over the years know that my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s some years back.  She has now been diagnosed with something else too.  Supranuclear Palsy.  She is currently in the hospital fighting an infection and waiting to get a feeding tube (PEG).  She can no longer walk, talk, or even swallow.  This disease has progressed so quickly in the last six months or so, my dad has gotten to the point that he needs help taking care of her because she is no longer strong enough to “help” when he transfers her from one place to another.  She is perfectly “there” in her brain….she just cannot do anything or communicate. It’s like being stuck in a body that won’t do anything but your mind is normal.  It’s such a devastating disease and it takes a piece of my heart and soul every time I see her lose another ability to function.

At first she did not want the feeding tube which meant she would need hospice because she can’t live long without nutrition but once she was over the initial shock and depression about it, she finally agreed to it (thank GOD) because that will give us more time with her.  My dad has been our ROCK through all of this.  He has taken care of her 24/7 with not one complaint.  He continues to be there for all of us when we need him, not just my mom.  I get teary talking about him because he is such a blessing to us and I’m so grateful to have a dad like him.  He is my step dad technically but in my heart he is my DAD plain and simple.

Here is a picture of mom and dad at the hospital a few days ago:

When mom leaves the hospital and comes home, my dad will have some help from Palliative Care (?) I hope I spelled that right.  I’m not sure how long it will last or how much help he will get but hopefully things will be easier for him and mom.  I help when and how I can but I can’t lift her or anything because I am just not strong enough.

Anyway, your prayers and/or good thoughts would be greatly appreciated that we can have more time with my precious mom.  She is the most loving mom I’ve ever met and will always be my life long best friend.  I can’t imagine life without her so I just pray for more time, quality time.

That’s my update for now.  I will blog more when I have more to share.

I hope you are all well and that everyone in your life is happy and healthy.

New Home – Smaller Craft Room and Update on Mom Hi everyone!  It's been a minute since I last posted!  This is just a catch up post to let you all know what's been happening and what is going on right now. 

[onlinemarketingcourses]

6 Simple Ways to Use Neuroscience to Increase Marketing Productivity

Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary science that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. When applied to our professional lives, neuroscience can help us to unlock our greatest potential.

Increasing your meaningful productivity can have a huge impact on your day-to-day work and can greatly influence your professional success over a long period of time.

This week on the Science of Social Media, we’re examining the fascinating field of neuroscience and how it can positively influence our marketing productivity.

Think of today’s show as little tricks for your brain to work smarter, not harder.

6 Simple Ways to Use Neuroscience to Increase Marketing Productivity

What follows is a detailed summary of the episode transcript. Feel free to jump around and explore each of these top marketing lessons from history’s most influential leaders in this week’s Science of Social Media:

Let’s dive in!

Willpower and working smarter, not harder

One of core values here at Buffer is working smarter and not harder.

When we say productivity and working smarter not harder, we mean working on meaningful projects that make a big impact – not necessarily working more.

In the American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” survey, participants were asked to assess their ability to make healthy lifestyle choices, and willpower was the number one reason they cited for not following through with those healthy choices.

Many people believe their lives would improve if they could boost their willpower — more control over what they eat, when they saved for retirement, and how to achieve goals.

Luckily for us, using neuroscience we are able to increase our willpower, and therefore, our meaningful productivity.

Start your day with difficult tasks

First and foremost, start your day with your difficult tasks

There’s been considerable research into willpower and one of the pioneers in this area is Roy Baumeister.

Baumeister discovered that willpower actually operates like a muscle: it can be strengthened with practice and fatigued by overuse. Willpower in the brain is fueled by glucose and it needs to replenished in order for it to perform optimally.

Willpower and self-control is at its peak first thing in the morning, so this is the best time to make yourself take on the hardest tasks of the day.

When creating your to-do list (more on that later), make sure that you carve our time in the morning for the most challenging tasks. This will help to ensure you’re starting your day on the right foot.

Add value and meaning to your work

One subject that comes up quite often when looking into the field of neuroscience is dopamine. Dopamine a neurotransmitter, which means it’s a chemical release by your nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells.

There are a couple of different pathways for dopamine, and one of them plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior.

A team of Vanderbilt scientists conducted a study in 2012 analyzing the brain patterns of people they described as “go getters” and that meant they were willing to work hard for their reward, and the other group of people was “slackers” and they were not as motivated to work hard.

To quote the study “The team found that the go-getters had higher levels of dopamine in the reward and motivation part of the brain. The slackers had higher levels of dopamine in the emotion and risk part of the brain.”

Nothing will motivate you to be a go-getter if you don’t truly desire the reward that comes with the work. Tie your performance to something that contains value and meaning for you and you’ll quickly move to the go-getter side of dopamine production.

Avoid multitasking

We all like to believe that we’re master multitaskers.

NPR interviewed neuroscientist professor Earl Miller from MIT and he shared some interesting thoughts about multitasking. In short, the human brain is not engineered to multitask.

Miller is quoted as saying, “People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves, the brain is very good at deluding itself.”

What we can do, however, is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed.

The way to be most productive is to focus your full attention on one task at a time. Give it everything you’ve got. Then, once you’ve completed the task, move onto the next one and give that your full attention.

When you’re creating content for social, close out your email, turn off Slack, put your phone in your bag and focus fully on the content.

Take a deep breath

When you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, take a deep breath.

In a new study, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and their colleagues have identified a handful of nerve cells in the brainstem that connect breathing to states of mind.

The study demonstrated that slow breathing induces tranquility to your body. And if you think of it, that makes sense. Because if you were to start breathing really quickly right now you’d feel the state of your body starting to change completely.

We know that as marketers and business owners, tasks can really start to pile up throughout the day. Sometimes we feel like we won’t be able to complete everything, let alone at a high level.

Breathing not only reduces stress and increases focus, but it helps to bring a sense of clarity of what really needs to get done and what can be put off for another time.

When you have a million things to do during the day, that clarity is invaluable.

Create a to-do list

There’s nothing like a good to-do list.

It turns out we are not alone in our love of lists, our brains also love lists. That’s because it’s the most effective way for the brain to receive and organize information. Recent research suggests that the key to a more organized mind and productive brain is to make to-do lists.

Neuroscience tells us that the brain’s working memory stores information on a short-term basis.

According to Dr. Daniel Levitin, most people can hold about four things in their mind at one time. When we ask our brain to store more than is optimal, it causes our performance to decline.

Since our brain has an attention filter, urgent matters will be at the forefront. At the same time, our brain doesn’t forget those less important matters either, and won’t hesitate to remind you of them somewhere around 3:00am. If you have a to-do list, your brain can rest because it knows you’re on it.

Research also suggests that when we process information, we do so spatially.

Lists appeal to our general tendency to categorize things—in fact, it’s hard for us not to categorize something the moment we see it—since our brains chunk information into short, distinct components.

Take a break and move

Research into neurogenesis, the ability of certain areas of the brain to grow new cells, indicates that we can foster new brain cell growth through exercise. Our brain has the amazing ability to rebuild and rewire every day.

The area of the brain linked to learning and memory is called the hippocampus. Research shows that endurance exercise sparks new neuron growth in the hippocampus as a protein (called FNDC5) is released into the bloodstream when we sweat.

There’s also other productivity benefits as well.

Exercise can help boost alertness. When you exercise, you’re increasing blood flow to the brain, which can help sharpen your awareness and make you more ready to tackle your next big project.

According to the University of Cambridge, exercise releases serotonin into your brain that helps you feel better and improves your state of mind, making the stresses of work easier to handle.

Daily exercise results in:

Improved concentration

Sharper memory

Faster learning

Prolonged mental stamina

Enhanced creativity

Lower stress

An incredible tool in your neuroscience toolbox.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

Originally written Apr 16, 2019. Last updated Apr 16, 2019

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[rugbyquit5-blog]

Star Wars: In Concert “A New Hope” Review!

Bobby Roberts attended Star Wars: In Concert’s performance of “A New Hope” in Portland and shared his night at the theater with us.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the size of the screen, really.

You’d think it’d be that you’re at the symphony at all, with all this ornate decoration surrounding you—everything all fancy-schmancy and super-expensive and quietly intimidating—a sense of opulence hanging over your shoulders like a thin blue haze of privilege and smoke from decades back, when people were still allowed to do that indoors. But no, the immediate jolt upon entering the concert hall is the size of the screen suspended directly over the orchestra. Looming, really. A pop-culture behemoth imposing itself on highbrow tastes.

And then you go up the stairs and the gold-trimmed, curli-cued extravagance is cut through with the smell of cookies and pretzels, and echoing in the hallways behind you is the happy burbling of a venue filling up with excited families, and the tinny electronic sound of toy lightsabers sparking to life. And suddenly that giant rectangle, the words “Star” and “Wars” big as life and holding a spot for the landmark film that’s about to be thrown upon it, fits perfectly.

Star Wars: In Concert is a nationally touring concert series featuring live performances of John Williams’ full 1977 score timed (almost) perfectly to picture. Every performance is unique, and if you were a motivated fanatic of the Maestro’s work (and also unfathomably rich) you could follow the tour like some sort of film score Band-Aid enjoying the myriad variations on orchestral genius as each city’s symphony brings the score to life in their own unique way.

In Portland, the 70+ piece orchestra (featuring a violinist wearing Leia buns), conducted by Carlos Kalmar (rocking some bright red sneakers he put through a workout while hopping and bouncing through the performance) filled the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with some of the most beloved film music ever written, starting with the 20th Century Fox fanfare hitting the crowd like a tiny surprise. The Fox logo illuminated the screen shortly afterwards to a rolling cheer that didn’t let up until the 2nd paragraph of the scroll cleared the top of the screen, and just like that, the Schnitz became the best movie theater Portland’s ever had.

Star Wars: In Concert is a transformative movie-going experience. Muted lights illuminate the orchestra, shifting colors to accompany the visual and emotional tones as the film progresses. There is an intermission as the Millennium Falcon is sucked into the Death Star, and the subtitled 2011 blu-ray cut of the film has only the dialog and sound effects present.

A good percentage of the audience probably has that score memorized, and that level of familiarity can trip you up at first. Differences in performance, filtered through unfamiliar acoustics, might initially get interpreted as mistakes. And in brief, rare instances, that’s exactly what they are; my performance featured two missed transitions (which—again—not bad considering you’re asking a 70+ piece orchestra to one-take-jake Star Wars in front of a live audience). But the point of Star Wars: In Concert isn’t to bring the soundtrack in with you like a nun wielding a yardstick. Nobody—neither the audience and or the musicians—are there for a Gus Van Sant-ian Psycho-esque note-for-note recreation of music you’ve heard a million times before. The point is to see, and most importantly hear Episode IV in a way you’ll never hear it again.

It’s startling just how enveloping the music quickly becomes, and depending on the dynamics of any given scene, you can either forget there’s an orchestra providing that music right there in front of you—or be so aware of the beauty in their performance that you wish there was no dialog, sound effects, or subtitles at all. Just Gil Taylor’s imagery, the actor’s (impossibly!) young faces, and that music taking on subtle nuances only a new orchestral interpretation can reveal.

But you’ve got to be willing to go with those slight—but meaningful—changes. Star Wars: In Concert forces re-evaluation of a film you think you know front to back. Because once the music changes, so does the picture; once your brain stops keeping score against the version in your head, the textures of the film and its music begin revealing new things constantly; the lushness of the strings during “Burning Homestead,” the snarkily dismissive drop of Alec Guinness’ chin while Harrison Ford is running his yap, the crooked jank of Artoo’s dome hanging onto the barrel by a pair of wires, the guttural glee of tubas blurting out Jabba’s theme.

In the bigger moments, counterintuitive as it may sound—try to peel your eyes from the screen to watch the performers digging into the gold John Williams gave them. Even studied professionals will let go some childlike excitement at what they’re getting to do on that stage if you look at just the right moment. A percussionist animatedly bringing the Tusken attack to life, a cellist smiling as Luke and Leia go swinging across a chasm—there’s just as much joy on the stage as there is in the audience.

That joy is infectious and contagious, and by the time the last crescendo builds to a final, beautiful explosion, and the Star Wars logo bursts onto the screen one last time, I found myself—wet-eyed and grinning a mile wide—thinking a thing I’d never expected: “I believe I’m all good with this movie for a long, long time.” Because it’s not often something that familiar is utterly renewed like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had a theatrical experience with Star Wars remotely similar to it. Kalmar’s conducting of the Oregon Symphony’s performance was warmly extraordinary, immersive, and above all, transformative. And after all those years spent chasing after the nostalgia-tinted memories of my first trip to that galaxy far, far away, I have an amazing, vivid, new experience to cherish, and I think I wanna just let this version of Star Wars take up much-deserved room in my head (and my heart) and just be for awhile.

…at least, until The Empire Strikes Back: In Concert comes through town.

Source: https://makingstarwars.net/2018/09/star-wars-in-concert-a-new-hope-review/

[jesusvasser]

2017 Honda Civic Type R Four Seasons Update

We should be talking about trimming out the aero and going for that one brain-out qualifying lap at Indianapolis, or maybe how it felt to be the youngest-ever CART Indy-car winner or one of the three drivers to win in their IndyCar debut. Maybe the satisfaction of backing up that early promise with four IndyCar championships, a win in the Indianapolis 500, two overall sports car wins in the Rolex 24 at Daytona—the list of accolades is stunning and still growing. There’s so much you could discuss when you have an exclusive audience with Scott Dixon.

That’s not the helmet famous to race fans, but Scott Dixon is as serious as always when it comes to driving quickly.

But none of that stuff is on the agenda. We’re at Willow Springs Raceway in California, shooting an “Ignition” episode with a Honda Civic Type R, and Dixon is our special guest. Within minutes the formalities are over and we’re talking about New Zealand and London, about our families, and, of course, about hooning around in front-wheel-drive cars of various flavors in our youth and learning about understeer and (more pertinently) lift-off oversteer the hard way. It’s great fun. Dixon is completely relaxed and in no hurry whatsoever to get the hell out of Rosamond, California, and back to his real life. This might be a PR obligation, but it doesn’t feel like it. He seems to be enjoying hanging out and giving the Type R a right old beating for the camera guys. My mission today is to get to know the car and to watch and learn. Any time you get to be in a car with one of the world’s best drivers is a rare privilege, and I intend to spend a lot of time just enjoying the experience and trying to absorb some of Dixon’s incredible talent via osmosis. Fat chance.

No easy production: Jethro Bovingdon and Scott Dixon ruminate on the Honda Civic Type R’s finer points during a break in the action.

Our radio crackles to life with a simple, “We’re ready. Aaaaand … action,” and Dixon rips through first and second as we approach Turn 3. This is the part of the day the director calls “corners.” Our crew moves from corner to corner, shooting every turn with three cameras and probably two or three times over. Fourteen turns make up the Streets of Willow, so the process is a bit long-winded. But it’s a huge amount of fun, and Dixon and the Civic get quicker and quicker every time we hear the “Action!” cue. It’s also incredibly tough on any car, yet the Type R seems almost impervious.

This Type R is identical in spec to the Automobile Four Seasons long-term loaner right down to the color, and the giant-killer reputation it’s forging is well deserved. The 2.0-liter turbo-four doesn’t zing with the top-end fury of an old VTEC engine, but it’s got so much midrange, not to mention there are still plenty of fireworks if you hang onto each gear until the redline. You certainly feel every bit of its 306 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. What’s better is that the Type R knows how to use it. There’s a mild bit of torque steer, but it adds to the sense of excitement; think of it as a trait rather than a fault. You never deviate off line. Rather, the car gently wanders just a degree or two around your chosen trajectory.

Understeer? Even on the track there’s not much to speak of, and the helical limited-slip differential is fantastic. If you’re too greedy on the way into a corner and find the front pushing, you need to fight your instinct to back off. Instead, do the opposite. Jump on the gas. The diff locks up, and the nose comes back into line.

Not that Dixon is ever too greedy on the way into the turns. His style is economical, laser-precise, and somehow effortless. He gets the Civic into turns quicker than I thought possible. The forces are brutal, but the inputs are silky, and he always manages the car’s mass beautifully. It barely seems to pitch or roll, and it’s obvious immediately that Dixon’s feel for the tires’ contact patches is uncanny. The best drivers seem to find grip where there should be none and create speed almost from thin air. Dixon does that. You might watch and understand the process he’s engaged in, but if you try to emulate it, you tend to descend into scrappy understeer or simply fly off the track. It’s at once impressive and depressing.

“I remember going up and up and thinking, ‘This is going to hurt.’”

Of course, I have to ask him: “So, erm, what about that crash, hey?” I try to sound casual, but obviously I’m a bit nervous about bringing it up. Cool as a cucumber, Dixon barely bats an eyelash. “Yeah, it was a big one,” he says. Seems he’s a master of understatement too.

Our ace contributing editor Jethro Bovingdon is also at the wheel of the shows “Ignition” and “Head 2 Head,” along with co-host Jonny Lieberman, exclusively on the Motor Trend channel at MotorTrend.com. There you can catch the episode with Scott Dixon and all of Jethro and Jonny’s other adventures with the newest and hottest cars on the market.

In case you haven’t seen it, Dixon had a monster shunt during the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Another driver, Jay Howard, ran wide and tagged the wall on the exit of Turn 1. With a broken front suspension, he had no control over his No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda and veered back down the track toward the infield. Dixon was just exiting Turn 1 and had nowhere to go. His Chip Ganassi Honda launched over the back of Howard’s car, the flight turning the car hard left so Dixon was hurtling backward through the air toward the inner guardrail. At the last second the car flipped onto its side and impacted the top of a concrete barrier with the right-hand side of the carbon-fiber monocoque before spinning and tumbling back out toward the racetrack.

“I remember going up and up and thinking, ‘This is going to hurt,’” Dixon recalls. “Then I had the first big impact and thought, ‘I should be OK,’ but then it just went on and on.”

Observers held their collective breath when Scott Dixon took flight during 
the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Upon landing, Dixon’s car’s impact with the Indy wall was violent, but the Honda-powered chassis protected its driver well.

As the whole watching world held its breath, the team would have been terrified, and God only knows how Dixon’s family coped in those split seconds. But he was just in the moment, figuring out if he was going to get out of this one without bad injuries. Somehow, miraculously, he did. But how do you deal with that sort of crash, mentally speaking? “It’s actually pretty easy,” Dixon says nonchalantly. “It’s worse if you have a big crash and it’s your fault. Maybe you don’t know why it happened. That’s tough. But you know what? I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s the risk we take, but it hasn’t played on my mind since. Not at all.”

And now he’s in a Civic Type R at Streets of Willow. Is he really having fun? “Ah mate, this is great,” Dixon says. “I’m lovin’ driving this thing. I can’t remember the last time I drove a front-wheel-drive car. Let me think, yeah, I’m pretty sure it was a Honda CRX. I think I was about 16 or 17. It’s been a while.” However long it’s been, Dixon’s muscle memory for front-wheel drivers seems well intact. “To be honest, this is nothing like those cars,” he adds. “Response is fantastic, the way you can arc the car around corners. What really surprises me is there’s no on-throttle understeer, or very little.”

Dixon trails the Type R into corners on the brakes, but the car’s tail doesn’t budge. I comment on how stable the rear end feels. “That’s one thing I remember from my teens,” he says with a smile. “But this doesn’t have the big, loose, high rear feeling of a front-drive car on trail brake. You can drive it in deep on the brakes. Back in my early teens, I was caught out a few times and maybe damaged a few cars. But this is rock solid.”

By now I know Dixon is my sort of guy. He drives cars for a living but also for fun, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a 700-hp single-seater doing 230 mph around Indy or a 306-hp, four-door hatchback tackling curves out in the desert. Even better, he sees the Civic’s manual gearbox as a source of joy rather than as tenths lost from a lap time. “Manual’s back, man! I swore as a teenager I’d never drive an automatic,” Dixon recalls. “It’s just so cool and takes me back to when I got into racing. Having that substance and that feel of being attached to this thing and shifting gears and even messing up, y’know?” You don’t have to convince me, brother. I’m a believer.

The crew is almost done, the Type R needs new tires, and there’s a light dusting of gravel where Dixon’s been cutting corners, using every inch of track and a few more. It’s been a blast.

Often these superstar drivers become almost faceless: just another list of stats and facts and numbers. But Dixon is a great guy: funny, relaxed, and full of wonderful stories. No ego, at least not in this setting, plenty of charm, and all smiles. And he’s a car enthusiast to the core. If I run into him again someday, somewhere, I probably won’t talk too much about his career and future aspirations. Sorry. But I bet we’ll chat about that day at Willow Springs in a Honda Civic Type R. Oh, and the Ford GT he couldn’t stop talking about. He should have that by now. Like I said, a proper car enthusiast. He’s won a few races in his time too.

Our 2017 Honda Civic Type R

MILES TO DATE 9,642 PRICE $34,775 
(base/as tested) ENGINE 2.0L turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4/306 hp @ 6,500 rpm, 295 lb-ft @ 2,500-4,000 rpm TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual LAYOUT 4-door, 4-passenger, front-engine, FWD hatchback EPA MILEAGE 22/28 mpg (city/hwy) L x W x H 179.4 x 73.9 x 56.5 in WHEELBASE 106.3 in WEIGHT 3,100 lb 0-60 MPH 5.4 sec TOP SPEED 168 mph

IFTTT