#and klops is also very very bad

[mk-wizard]

The Workbench Entry 11/26/2024: Up in Man-At-Arms?

Hi, birdies. Today on the Workbench... we need to talk and please let's keep the tone kind and calm.

Recently, I got wind of the casting choices for the upcoming live action He-Man film which I am very excited about and I saw that Idris Elba is going to play Man-At-Arms. I love this actor and I think his presence in the film would be an excellent, but I can't lie. I think casting matters and I make it no secret that I do not agree with "swapping", in this race swapping, because I find that every time you do, it is wasted opportunity to showcase an existing character or an original one. I would have used this opportunity to showcase the obscure hero Clamp-Champ who I'm sure would have been well received or Man-At-Arms' mentor Dekker would have been more fitting since he does have that wise and strong look. Plus, I also admit I would have felt the same way is a white man who did not look he could pass off as Man-At-Arms and did not have the signature moustache was slated to play him.

However, I also accept that just because it is not a creative decision I agree with doesn't mean other artists can't go for it anyway. It also definitely doesn't mean I am any less excited about the film or believe it won't anymore. Who knows? Maybe Mr. Idris Elba will prove to be a shining bright blue moon as Man-At-Arms the way Samuel Jackson was as Nick Fury even though he is canonically white. And even if he isn't, as long as he does his best, I can let it slide.

However, this is NOT the topic I want to talk about really. What I want to talk about is how when I expressed my disagreement and gave this argument, it was not received the right way. I was attacked, shamed, gaslighted and even subtle hinted to be a fool just because people did not agree with me. It is a very depressing experience when you express an opinion even in the kindest way possible while backing it up with a sound argument and alternative yet all people hear is the part where you say "I don't agree with this". This is not the way the He-Man community should be. It's not the way any fandom community should be. We should be free to express our opinions even when they don't match up in so long as you're not offending anyone. With that said, I wasn't. I am not offending the actor, a group or anyone for believe that when it comes to live action, you should look the part to an extent. Also, I'm not the only person who thinks this way. If you don't agree, that's ok. Creative choices are debatable and up to the artist. Yet this is not the way a lot of people are in many fandoms anymore and it is depressing.

Fandoms should be a safe inclusive space for everyone where free speech and free thought should be welcomed not punished by singling out or in some extreme cases driven out. So I don't agree with this casting choice, so what? I also didn't like He-Man's haircut in the original cartoon, but I still liked the show. I didn't like Teela's design in the 2002 reboot, but I still liked that show too. I don't like how Tri-Klops was reimagined in the Netflix CGI cartoon, but I still like that show as well (and for the record, I fully accept that it is a reimagined new story with some key elements staying the same not a retelling). You can't not like things about something and still like it overall. Nothing is perfect and art subjective.

Differences of opinion don't ruin fandoms or medias. Bad attitudes do.

Shoutout to my sponsors the @tntmtheshow team and my editor @headdypidgeon4180

Thanks for hearing me out. - MK_Wizard

Check out my current project Psychoborg (which is ironically inspired by He-Man) though be warned that it is rated M. Also, please subscribe to it on the Webtoons mirror too and like my work so I may qualify for the Super Like. Every little bit helps. Also, check out my Linktree to find my other socials and ways to support me.

[austrianshitposting]

Faschiate Laberl is the only valid word you savages

ANYTHING else is chaothic evli. 

Meat ball in German dialects.

[emperorsfoot]

Hello there! I didn't approve of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe CGI Series at the Beginning, but then I watched a few Episodes. I thought this He-Man TV-Series was Good and I'm already looking forward to the next Season, I also hope that some well-know Characters from the Masters of the Universe Franchise will appear in this He-Man TV-Series like Stratos, Man-E-Faces, Moss Man, Mekaneck, Fisto, Tri-Klops, Two-Bad, Mer-Man, Stinkor, Jistu and more.

Same.

I'm not gonna go so far as to say I didn't "approve" of the new CGI show since I was not its target audience. It is very clearly a show made for children and designed to appeal to children. Its not going to appeal to adults like us. Its not being made for us.

That being said, it was a very well done show.

They only gave us a few episodes, but the attention to detail was incredible. The level of world building and character development without making she show feel heavy or bogged down. The story didn't lose any momentum, but we still got emotional moments and fun comic relief.

My personal favorite characters are Tuvar and Baddrah (who I'm hoping become Two-Bad in the second season), and the Beastaboid Bots. They're all so sassy and have some great one-liners.

The CGI MotU is a good show!

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reacts: Masters of the Universe Revelation: Episode 2

(So I took a deep breath cleared my head of all the criticism and positive takes. and I am just going to focus on the show itself)

Spoilers below

-And they are in a garbage dump. Odd start, I'd almost think it means something.

-Is that STINKOR?

-THAT POOR POSSUM'S CABBAGES?!

-And Teela has an undercut. Why is that like the go to hair cut when a female character tries to leave their old life.

-Well at least she paid for the damages. You know what. i will give her credit for that. Good on you Teela.

-'No glove no love" Condom joke.

-And they are going "Tech is better than magic" thing because... Of course they are. Also like yes I know they arent middle ages and all... Wait what exactly is the time line/ Tech level? I am very perplexed. Like it did have tech but also...

-So Teela keeps seesawing for me. One moment she says something off putting but then something kind of sweet. Its hard to get a read on her.

-Well this old lady is sus as hell.

-This old person is Evil-lyn. I am calling it now.

-Teela is like "I am leaving everything in my life behind." But now is all for snake mountain. I am very confused.

-oh flashback of He-man. Look how great they were fighting together. You know what would be great? More He-Man

-And now the place is tech-ed out. Well I am kind of not really feeling this whole overhaul.

-So they dig their way through. That is actually kind of clever. Points.

-How long ago did Teela Leave? I am curious on how much time has past.

-Also WHY ALL THE CYBORGS?

-Motherboard?

-Wait is it a tech cult lead by Tri-klops?

-What the s*** is that stuff?

-So it makes them cyborgs?

-So they basically are like, Skellator failed so tech is only salvation. Well it seems he is just replacing one crutch for another, but thats kind of the point.

-So I will say the action is well animated.

-Seeing the minions all tech-ed out is interesting.

-And the little girl is mechanical cause obviously... (I will say that the twists are very predictable this episode.)

-I wish they would actually show the gruesome finishes.

-Haha Kaboom. But it doesnt kill. Yet one minion got a buzzsaw to the face... LOGIC.

-So Andra can use throwing stars.

-So the tech cult is down for now.

-Okay so Teela's little rant just kind of reminded me of the end of episode 1 and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I am trying to move past this but how can I when they keep rubbing my nose in it? But it just keeps reminding me They killed off He-Man FIRST EPISODE!

-So far I like Andra and she is alright. But no cap, I think Andra deserves better than this version of Teela.

-And Teela will do this for Andra.

-Andra is right, the place is not the same without the skull

-WOW THE SORCERESS GOT OLD!

-AND EVIL-LYN REVEAL, cause they knew from the start.

-CRINGER?!

-Wait Evil-lyn was doing... good? Now that aint right.

-Oh its just she gets magic, okay.

-So Eternia dies if magic vanishes.

-So the swords split in half and now those swords need to be found. And Andra says that basically they need to go to heaven and hell to fix it. Which means there is a heaven and Hell is a thing in eternia?

-Can we have teela not complain for 5 minutes? Have her fight more goons. It feels like every line outside of her kicking butt or complimenting Andra (which Andra deserves) is her complaining. I am trying to like her! WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS DIFFICULT!?

-Cringer, you are precious and you are trying so hard to make Teela not sound like an awful person right now. i appreciate you.

-Okay, so will Teela stop complaining now? Cause if she does then maybe this wont be so bad

-man-at-arms!!!!

_____________________________________________________________

Okay so I will give this a 4.5 out of 10.

The action scenes were fun and I did enjoy the flashback scene. But it just reminded me, oh right, He-Man isnt here.

I was iffy on the tech stuff.

I am not entirely sold on everything but this ending didnt leave me as bitter as episode 1 and it seems like Teela will stop complaining every 5 minutes so... Also I like Andra.

Teela and Andra seem to be together but I think its too early to tell but it seems when she is complimenting Andra are the only parts where Teela doesnt complain.

[tepkunset]

Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather was surprising (in both good and bad ways)

The Western Genre and I have never mixed, save with a very few exceptions. That statement should come to no surprise, considering I’m an Indigenous person and Westerns are typically nothing but power fantasies for American white male colonialists. I was browsing through Comixology previews of 1960′s Rawhide Kid as part of a thing I’m very slowly working on, taking about Marvel Comics history with Native characters... and realized I actually kind of liked the sheer goofiness. However, the racism is so strong it’s hard to enjoy anything past it, which is why I decided to try a modern take on the character, to see if it was maybe the same goofy but at least with less racism. Thus, to no one’s more surprise than my own, I started to read Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather. And it is. It is very goofy and exaggerated and extremely campy.

TL;DR Synopsis:

Your typical gang rides into a small town and starts causing all kinds of trouble for the sheriff, much to the disappointment of his son who has extravagant notions about what a good Wild West Hero should be. Cue the Rawhide Kid who offers himself up as temporary deputy, because he might as well save the day while he’s passing through. Because he’s the best he is at what he does, and he probably should’ve copyrighted that while he had the chance.

Of note: I have no idea why this comic is marked explicit. There is no sexual content, and there is no violence beyond what you see in pretty much any Wolverine-centric comic… Which pisses me off, because the only conclusion I’m left to make is it’s because he is very openly gay. So if you’re concerned with that warning, don’t be.

The Good:

The biggest takeaway from this series is the way it plays up genre tropes to the extreme… then defies expectations by turning them on their heads. My favourite example of this is in the last issue when the Kid asks the Mayor to gather up everyone in the town, and the townspeople grumble about him going to ask them to ban together against the gang… only for the Kid to tell them to get the fuck out so he can do his job without them in the way. 

There is also a lot of lampshading. The Rawhide Kid himself is no exception this, with characters often commenting on how he’s “not what you’d expect from a gunfighter.” I thought this was a cute nod to the fact that the Western Genre is so often just as straightwashed, for lack of a better term, as much as it is whitewashed from actual history. Cowboys be gay, ya’ll, and the Kid doesn’t give a fuck if people think he’s ‘unmanly,’ because he’s the best gunfighter around and if anyone has an issue they can take it up with him. (But hold this thought, because there are things to be said about this in The Bad section as well.)

The goofiness is well complimented with moments of solemnity that keeps the series grounded. What’s more is I did not experience tonal whiplash like you sometimes do with series that bounce between these two opposite moods; the transitions between them flow quite naturally, with only a few exceptions of misplaced comments. The heaviest case of seriousness is easily the flashback of the Kid as an actual kid: We see a group of other children tie him to a tree and beat on him, and when he calls to his father for him, his father instead joins in the assault and pejorative name-calling, saying he has to fight his own fights. It colours the whole series with why the hell he’s so concerned with this random father and son, and I suppose why he learned to fight. Because sometimes there are homophobes that need punching.

Red Duck: Well ain’t this some hen party we got goin’ on here. Next thing ya’ll be swappin’ recipes an’ playin’ with dolls. You ain’t nuthin’ but a big sissy! Har! Har! Har!

(Rawhide Kid punches him in the face with a ‘Klop!’)

Duck: You broke muh nose! You broke muh nose!

Rawhide: I warned you about name-calling!

The fight scenes are fun and sometimes played for laughs, which is a good way to go when you have a hero whose stock in trade is being the best around, rather than any genuine risk of harm—this is also something that made for a twist I admit I was taken back by in the end.

The art works very well for the genre; it’s scratchy yet clean. I also want to give a special shout-out to the women being drawn with the same scratchiness as the men, which is not something you can always say in fear of them not looking like anime models. But no, they look just as in place as all the men.

The humour is hit and miss, but I mostly found it entertaining. The fact that cheesy humour has entered something of a renaissance works in its favour.

I’m going to finish this section with my favourite part of this series… Young kids often annoy me in comic books. They’re written as props or plot devices rather than actual characters. Children are not objects or extensions of their parents / guardians. They are people. Being young doesn’t make them not people. However, in some ways this series is centred around Toby just as much as it is the Rawhide Kid, and Toby is not a prop. He is a fully used character with his own story arc and development. He also reads like an actual kid, too, with the way his mind works. I really enjoyed this and found it to be the most refreshing thing in the whole story.

The Bad

While I don’t think there was any malicious intent with the Rawhide Kid’s gayness, there are faults that I’m going to attribute to plain old fashion heteronormative ignorance. The Rawhide Kid is depicted with a lot of stereotypical qualities, and that in itself is not a problem. Some gay men are what is considered effeminate and so what? Fuck gender norms and live your damn life. I’m a walking lesbian stereotype some days myself. The problem is as far as I’m aware, this writer is not gay himself, and so while I think I get what he was going for, there are times when the Kid comes off as a gay caricature rather than feeling real, you know? The biggest flaw is the way the Kid talks. He talks like a modern day stereotypical gay man, and it really takes you out of the setting. I assume this is because the writer didn’t know how to write him any other way. Like I said, heteronormative ignorance. I’ve seen way more insulting things in Deadpool, where I really have read him being attracted to men as the punchline before.

The racism is nothing compared to the 60’s comic, but boy howdy is it there. You’ve got some typical native slurs, talk about indian dream interpretations and magic, there’s one side character named Thundercloud who is only there to be a joke that I won’t even start on… There’s Catastrophe Jen, who is going to get her own section… And some of it is just plain weird, too. There are these random two Chinese ninjas? No, I’m serious. (I guess they’re no more out of place as the random French Zorro looking fucker.)

I didn’t bother fact-checking everything, but there were some things that I am quite suspicious about historical accuracy. And honestly, it wouldn’t bother me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that in the same way as how the Kid talks, it does take you out of the setting.

The Ugly

Catastrophe Jen... where do I begin.

There is a character in this series by the name of Catastrophe Jen, and when she is first introduced, I was so on board.

Catastrophe Jen: What if it’s me that gets him?

Cisco Pike: What’d I just say, Jen?

Jen: You said, “for the man who kills the Rawhide Kid.” I’m a girl.

Red Duck: Not from what I heard! Haw! Haw! Haw!

(Jen throws a knife and it hits Duck’s leg with a ‘thuk!’)

Cisco: Uhhhhhhh... Okay, sixty if Catastrophe Jen gets him.

We got ourselves a beautiful butch Black cowgirl who outguns the men around her... and everything goes very downhill fast. The running joke with Jen is that she keeps killing all of Cisco’s men. She also has lines like “okay, penis-owner” and wanting to rape women. She’s also insulted not just by the other villains but the Kid, the protagonist himself, calling her “horribly butch” because for a man who claims to have taste, apparently he didn’t drink his Respect Butches juice… Jen is probably the biggest insult in this series. It’s racist and I would argue even more homophobic than Rawhide Kid; imagine if he was portrayed as a killer predator like this, walking around killing women and raping men.

In the end, Jen is shown attending the sheriff’s wedding with a girlfriend and deputy badge, suggesting she takes over the job now that the Rawhide Kid is leaving. Under any other circumstances I would call this cute, but you can’t spend a whole series writing a character like this and then expecting me to go “aww.” It doesn’t work like that.

Catastrophe Jen could have been a really cool, but instead, we have this. Now, fortunately she is still only minor character, and so I was able to move past her, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t unnerve the hell out of me.

Ya'll Take'r Easy Now

In the end, I would genuinely love to see another miniseries with Rawhide Kid written by someone who has personal investment and experience, and who you can trust to handle stereotypes well. I think the best thing that could happen to the Rawhide Kid is falling into the hands of a gay writer. I would also trust there’d be no Catastrophe Jen characters. There is potential still there!

As far as this series goes, despite the many problems I did overall mostly enjoy it, to be honest. At least enough that I’m going to check out The Sensational Seven as well.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Sundance 2020: Day 5

Number of Films: 3 Best Film of the Day: Minari

Palm Springs: A difficult comedy to write about, as it involves a plot twist (revealed early on) that is best no revealed. Let us say, then , that Max Barbakow‘s comedy updates and expands upon a well-regarded previous film’s philosophies in ways that feel sufficiently fresh and soulful. Andy Samberg stars as Niles, a loose, devil-may-care dude stuck at a wedding in the desert, and trying to make the most of his experience. Cristin Milioti is Sarah, the older sister of the bride, who is every bit as cynical and self-loathing as Niles is irresponsible and irascible. Naturally, the two of them find each other and start to hang out, but a lot more is in store for Sarah than she can possibly understand, including the sudden appearance of Roy (J.K. Simmons), a dark-clad commando with a crossbow, who seems to have it totally in against Sarah’s new-found friend.  Samberg’s greatest comedic aspect is his mouth, which can shift instantly from leading man handsome, to hopeless goofball. Meanwhile, Milioti is fantastic in a role that requires her to carry the emotional weight of the film through to the end. Smooth without feeling slick, much as its obvious predecessor, it manages to pack a significant emotional klop without being cloying.

Minari: Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical film about a South Korean family who move from California to Arkansas in order to start a vegetable farm is a joy to watch. Not just in the sense that its so precise and well-made, but also because it embraces such a wide swath of life, good, bad, indifferent, and doesn’t try to convince us, Hollywood style, that any truths can be simple unto themselves. When Jacob (Stephen Yeun) first moves his clan to the countryside, his wife, Monica (Han Yeri), is deeply unhappy with their predicament, his children, daughter (Noel Cho), and 7-year-old son (Alan S. Kim) are struggling, and his attempt to turn the land into a worthy investment questionable. But through perseverance, hard work, constant negotiation, the arrival of Monica’s mother (Yuh Jung Youn), and, it must be said, the willing support of the locals, the family figures out a way to improve their lot. There aren’t easy answers to any of this, to Chung’s credit, and even the ending, the substance of which you can predict halfway through the film, is handled in a way that feels organic and downplayed. The film is certainly charming, but that’s not to diminish its straightforward approach to its characters’ plight. It doesn’t shy away from the their difficulties, and as a result, it doesn’t cheat towards smarmy emotional closure.

Assassins: One of those docs where the scraps of knowledge you might remember on a specific subject prove to be laughably off-base. In 2018, Kim Jun-nam, the older brother of North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jun-un, was brazenly murdered in a Malaysian airport by two young women wiping an extremely dangerous nerve agent on his face. Once captured, the women were initially condemned from all sides, facing the death penalty for their alleged crime, and seemed doomed. But gradually, with the help of their lawyers and the diplomatic work of their home countries (one was Indonesian and the other Vietnamese), a very different sort of story began to emerge. Ryan White has made a captivating doc on the rigorous planning of an international murder, the peculiar legal system of Malaysia, and the more-than-disturbing nature of North Korea’s current political climate.

Tomorrow: I start my day with Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers; check out Braden King’s The Evening Hour; run as quickly as possible to take in Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s doc, The Truffle Hunters; try and make it to Edson Oda’s Nine Days; and finish out a busy schedule with Jeff Baena’s Horse Girl.

Into the frigid climes and rarefied thin air of the spectacular Utah Mountains, I've arrived in order to document some of the sense and senselessness of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Over the next week, armed with little more than a heavy parka and a bevy of blank reporter's notebooks, I'll endeavor to watch as many movies as I can and report my findings.

[emeraldnebula]

Motor City Comic Con 2018: The latest art acquisitions

It's been a week since Motor City Comic Con, and an insane work week (plus another misadventure in cooking for the workplace) delayed my posting about it, but hey, better late than never, right?

Highlights of last weekend include, but are not limited too:

- wowing both Neal Adams and Trevor Von Eeden with Mark Texeira's 2015 He-Man pencil sketch...and freaking both of them out over the $100 price tag it came with

- treating Lobo co-creator Simon Bisley to Thomas Edison's 1910 film adaptation of Frankenstein, which both enthralled and terrified him

- confusing several people over Jeff Wayne's 20+ years of hijacking the international rights to War of the Worlds in an effort to force Hollywood to adapt his musical (30 Days of Night's Ben Templesmith was especially stunned as to why the book hadn't been public domain until just last year)

- surprising Star Trek Continues star Todd Haberkorn with the Star Trek Complete Comics Collection DVD-ROM...and the wacky Peter Pan Records comics which merged Uhura and Rand AND Sulu and M'Benga into the same characters

- running into a fellow Dearborn High School ‘97 graduate by pure chance on Saturday...and I hope she's feeling better after her leg surgery (going around at a con on crutches and/or a wheelchair is not fun -- I know from my own experiences)

- meeting one of my all-time favorite comic book artists and a guy I regularly commission, Tom Grummett (best known for his work on Superman)

- finding out that my disdain over DC's self-destruction with "Rebirth" and Marvel's ongoing idiocy is shared by fans and comic book pros alike (but said pros still need to make a living, so they have to go along with it anyway)

- discussing the current ThunderCats Roar controversy with some of the artists in attendance, and debating whether a humorous approach is inherently bad or if the real problem is the showrunners ripping off Steven Universe right down to the visual style

And of course, for me the chief appeal of any comic con is getting sketches. And I got me some good ones, including the grand finale of a jam piece started in February and getting a new, much bigger one started. I also made a point this time to go full-tilt classic sci-fi/horror for the bulk of my collection, most of it stuff the artists hadn't drawn before. So here it is now.

This jam piece was started in February at Great Lakes Comic Con, with pencils by Keith Pollard and Darryl Banks. The final inks were done at MCCC by Jason Moore.

It wasn’t the only Batman/Catwoman sketch I had done. Ken Wheaton of Popeye took his own whack at it.

Next we have Pop Mhan, who was one of the people responsible for He-Man getting his well-earned happy ending with the DC New 52 series. But rather than having him do yet another He-Man sketch, I engaged him to do a Ralph McQuarrie Darth Vader instead.

I did, however, leave He-Man in the very fine hands of Anthony Marques...

...and the Minor Brothers, who started a massive Masters of the Universe jam piece to be completed later. Jake did the layouts and penciled He-Man himself, while Matt drew Skeletor. The remaining brother, Kevin, has first crack at coloring it once it’s finished.

For anyone wondering, the remaining characters to be plugged in are Evil-Lyn, Raqquil the Beast Man, Kronis the Trap Jaw, Mer-Man, Tri-Klops, and He-Man’s Bizarro double Faker. Three local artists -- Will Jones, Erik Hodson, and Scott Zambelli -- already staked their claims to which characters they want to do for this, so that will have to be tended to as time goes on. (I’ll also have to pick an inker to bring this whole thing together when it’s completed. Decisions, decisions....)

Moving away from He-Man, we get to the really good stuff. Here’s Arvell Jones’ take on Count Orlok from Nosferatu.

Had time permitted, Dexter Vines would have inked this, but the sketch was finished too late and Vines was too swamped with other sketches. But he did express interest in inking a blueline version of this, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Next we have Jay Fosgitt’s take on the Thing, James Arness Edition:

Katie Cook’s rendition of the Edison Frankenstein:

Adriana Melo’s version of Inspector Burke/The Man in the Beaver Hat from London After Midnight:

The Fly (1958 version) by Andy Bennett:

Frank Sinatra doing Die Hard (the original, intended casting, per Sinatra’s earlier film The Detective), by Dan Dougherty. But since Bruce Willis is so stamped into that role now, Dougherty played Sinatra-as-John McClane/Joe Leland for laughs.

On a more serious note, we next have Tom Raney’s take on the Maria Robot from Metropolis:

The Invisible Man, by Buzz:

And last but not least, the big showstopper of the con: a War of the Worlds marker sketch by Dave Aikins. Some people couldn’t believe it wasn’t a painting, others wanted to buy it even though the sketch had already been pre-arranged.

All in all, not a bad round-up. Lot of off-the-cuff stuff and artists stepping WAY outside their comfort zones. Here’s hoping August’s Michigan Comic Con is just as fruitful!

[brydav-massbear]

Not bad, however, there are a few things I would change.

For starters, I would have made Snowflake and Bixbite's voice actor from Ian Jones-Quartey to Roz Ryan and Nola Klop respectively. And I know that the former is canon to the show, while the latter is a reference to OK KO, I just don't think one male voice, should be the voice of two completely different characters. Also, I think Bixbite should talk like a pirate because, well, I saw a drawing of her wearing pirate attire and just fell in love with what that Beryl was wearing. And yes, Bixbite is a Beryl, most likely the one referenced by Bismuth. And while Beryls are elite gems, I feel like that Bixbites while still being elite would probably be at the bottom of that elite totem pole due to them being head carpenters.

Also, Andy is Steven's uncle, not his cousin. And while you did fix it with Smokey, the problem there is that Smokey technically isn't Andy's nephew, or niece.

Other then that, it was very enjoyable. I still don't know what Teal Zircon's original job was. But if I had to guess, she is probably some advertiser.

And while am glad some of the other members of the Ruby Squad made a return. These Rubies being Doc, Army, and Leggy. I feel like these three should remain as antagonist. Although, they basically serve as support and most of them are kind clueless of why they are still antagonizing the Crystal Gems. I think the Ruby Guards Nanefua has will be based on the Ruby Guard Trio from the Diamond Spinel AU. These Rubies would be Chesty, Forearmy, and Handy (Mutey). Also, it is based on hilarious short comic I saw on Tumblr about how Aquamarine is talking about how her Ruby friends are always there.

Also, I don't like the designs of certain uncorrupted gems, so expect me to give them a redesign at some point.

Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 2: Guidance (originally published December 14, 2020)

Author’s note: I think I’m gonna try releasing new chapters every Monday, for Part 1 at least. Anyway, here’s Guidance.

Synopsis: Steven helps the students of Little Homeschool get jobs, but they’re not very good at them.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven, Onion

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate,

Ian Jones-Quartey as Bixbite, Snowflake Obsidian

Michelle Maryk as Larimar

Aparna Nancherla as Nephrite

Charlyne Yi as Doc, Leggy, Army

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Kimberly Brooks as Zebra Jasper, Cherry Quartz

Natasha Lyonne as Smoky Quartz

Colton Dunn as Mr. Smiley

Dave Willis as Andy

–

On another lovely day in Beach City, Amethyst was walking along the boardwalk with a blindfolded Steven into Fish Stew Pizza. “Okay, two steps to the left.” Amethyst instructed him as the two stepped into the pizza shop. “There’s a chair right behind you.” Steven did as he was told and sat down across from his sister figure. “Sit down aaaaand….okay.”

When Steven undid his blindfold, he found himself inside Fish Stew Pizza with Amethyst in front of him and another Gem making pizza for them. “TADA!” Amethyst exclaimed with her arms excitedly spread out.

“Fish Stew Pizza? What a nice surprise.” Steven giggled amusedly. “I mean, it has been a while since we last been here.”

“No, that’s not the surprise.” Amethyst corrected him. “Notice anything different?” She gestured over to the Gem working with Kiki Pizza, perfectly slicing the toppings to pieces with utmost grace, laying them atop a crust that was put into the oven by Kiki.

“Oh, hi Steven!” the crab-like Gem greeted Steven.

“Bixbite? Is she working here?” Steven asked Amethyst.

“Yeah dude, and she’s crushing it!” Amethyst answered. “Bixbite is an expert on slicing and dicing, and now she can put those skills to good use in a pizza parlor.”

Another pizza came in fresh from the oven courtesy of Kofi, and Bixbite obediently brought it over to her friends. “Order up you guys!” she declared while setting the pie down. “So, any thoughts?”

“That’s awesome!” Steven gasped at the pizza in awe of how well-made it was.

“Check out that ‘za brah.” Amethyst agreed, shapeshifting her hand into a ruler and a protractor to measure Bixbite’s cuts. “Each slice exactly the same length, 45 degrees.” She concluded, and then took a slice to eat. “Wow, pure perfection! I almost feel bad for eating this! You made me proud Bixie.”

“Thanks for the compliments you guys.” Bixbite thanked the pair. “And I couldn’t have gotten here without you Amethyst.”

As Bixbite walked away, Steven took a slice of the perfect pizza too. “I didn’t even know she wanted a culinary career.”

“Yeah, we talked a lot about her interests and experiences the other day.” Amethyst revealed. “Then I set her up with Kofi, and here we are. Bixie is just the beginning y'know. I’ve been wanting to do something big for the school, so I’ve been helping Gems get human jobs, and everything is going amazing so far! I call it Gem-Human Excellence Mentorship, or G.H.E.M for short.”

“I get it, like Gem.” Steven came to a realization, much to Amethyst’s mild frustration.

“No, I said Gem-Human Excellence Mentorship.” Amethyst corrected. “Anote the H.”

Suddenly, a Ruby clad in a suit and sunglasses burst through the door and let out a war cry while tearing off her sleeves, revealing the gemstone on her left shoulder before regaining her composure. “All clear my mayor.”

Another Ruby dressed in the same clothes entered Fish Stew Pizza, wearing her shades over a yellow visor, by somersaulting into the room and stood alongside her compatriot. “All clear too.” She repeated before allowing Mayor Nanafua to enter the pizza joint.

“You got Rubies in your program too?” Steven asked. “And why those Rubies in particular? I mean, they didn’t try to kill me like Eyeball and Navy did, but they’re still a little intense. Especially Army.”

“I just found them to be a little more agreeable compared to those two.” Amethyst replied while Doc & Army surveyed the area and Leggy helped the mayor to a chair. “Anyway, I got them working as bodyguards for the mayor.”

“How many other Gems have you given jobs?” Steven asked again.

“Glad you asked!” Amethyst replied with a smile, and took Steven outside to show him her progress.

Keep reading

[gethealthy18-blog]

318: Fecal Microbiota Transfer (FMT) for Gut Health and Autism

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/318-fecal-microbiota-transfer-fmt-for-gut-health-and-autism/

318: Fecal Microbiota Transfer (FMT) for Gut Health and Autism

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this episode may go deep on a topic that you aren’t even familiar with or probably, most likely, have not tried. I am here with Dr. Jason Klop, who has been working in the field of digestive health and microbiome restoration for many years. During his time, he’s focused on conditions that were not responding to pharmaceutical interventions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, otherwise known as SIBO.

Dr. Klop has learned that the foundation for all health lies in the gut, and through his extensive experience has incorporated FMT with great results. And he has broadened his focus to offer this treatment to children with autism and autism related symptoms. Now, if you don’t know what FMT is, you are not alone. This is a new and somewhat cutting-edge treatment, and he’s going to explain what it is, how it works, and some of the amazing results that they are seeing. So, without further ado, let’s join Dr. Jason Klop.

Katie: Dr. Klop, welcome and thanks for being here.

Dr. Jason: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on, and I’m excited to share.

Katie: I am excited to jump in with you because you are an expert on a topic that I don’t know a lot about, but I’m extremely fascinated by. And, I mentioned in the intro something called FMT, but I left it vague. And so, I think that’s exactly where we need to start. Can you explain what is FMT, and basically, what are some of the ways that you use it?

Dr. Jason: Perfect, yeah. Great question to get us started just so that all of the listeners are actually cued into what FMT really means. So, what it stands for is Fecal Microbiota Transplant. And, if you, kind of, break down the word, or the words, it sort of makes sense. But, in essence, what we have is, we’ve identified donors who are extremely healthy who meet very rigid criteria about what healthy actually looks like, both from a medical history standpoint as well as stool and blood screening. So, if they, you know, achieve all those things, we know that they have a very healthy gut microbiome, which is sort of the microbiota part. And then, we have somebody who is the patient or who is sick, and you asked me, “Well, who is that that we normally work with?”

Well, traditionally FMT is only used in those, you know, in the U.S. and Canada, for patients that have C. difficile, or at least that’s the only approved use. Outside of that, though, there’s a lot of really compelling evidence for other conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, IBS, I do almost exclusively work with kids with autism, and the list goes on. Basically, any condition where you know there’s a lot of gut dysbiosis or disturbance in the gut microbiota. So, with this very healthy patient, we have a very sick patient, or not always very sick, but we know they have gut disturbance and they have symptoms as a result of that. We take the stools from this very healthy donor, it goes through a processing, a lab processing which has, you know, pretty standards associated with that. And that’s implanted into the patient who is sick, and there’s several routes of administration, there’s the oral route, there’s a…you know, and they call it bottom up, which is the enemas, or there’s colonoscopies. So, those are the main routes of administration. And so, that’s the basic premise, you know, you have someone who’s got a really great gut, someone who doesn’t, you take the person with a really great gut, you process their fecal material, and you end up with really highly concentrated bacteria, and then, that is then implanted via some mechanism into the patient.

Katie: That makes sense. And it’s so amazing to me, I know that we’ve done all this research, and we know just how important the gut is. In fact, I think the more research comes out, the more clear it is that gut health pretty much is connected to or dictates every other aspect of health. And so, I think it’s amazing that we’re able to now use technology and use science to do things like this, but I think there’s also still, when people first hear about it, there’s a little bit of like a, “What now?” Kind of factor with something like this. But, let’s go a little bit deeper on how we can see such a drastic effect in the gut from this type of procedure.

Dr. Jason: Sure. And you’re really right. I mean, when people hear what I do, they kind of break down into two camps. One camp is like, “I have no clue what you’re talking about and that sounds disgusting.” And the other camp is like, “Wow, that is so fascinating. How do I get one,” or, “how do I learn more about this?” So really, it is that way. And, I think, you know, there’s a lot of misconceptions about this, and a lot of people sort of have the idea that it’s a dirty, messy process, and then it’s smelly and all these other things, which it really isn’t. You know, once it goes to the lab processing, then it is something that comes out very pure, and is really quite palpable. I actually was just in Copenhagen meeting a researcher and somebody who manages the lab there, and we’re just collaborating on some things, and the capsules that they use, you can still see the color of the material, they are double encapsulated. And, he said in the beginning, he was worried about what people might think when they could actually see the color of what was inside of the capsule. And then, he said to me, “Well, you know, they wouldn’t be sick enough if they wouldn’t be willing to take these capsules, just seeing the color,” which is a really good point. So yeah, that is a common thing. Getting into your question now. I know I went a little off-topic here. What were you wanting to know specifically?

Katie: I’d love to go deep on, kind of, what kind of results are you seeing with this clinically? Because, like I said, I definitely understand, at least, through my research in the whole probiotic, prebiotic, all those things that just how important the gut is, but I feel like this is a completely different level, and you’re able to do things in a much more complicated and probably have a much bigger effect. So, what kind of results are you seeing with this?

Dr. Jason: Sure. And, to comment a little bit on the probiotics angle, there’s been no research to date that shows us that there’s actually engraftment. So, what engraftment means is that you’re giving some of these probiotic strains, you’re putting them into the body, but none of them actually stick around. So, they go through the system, they have a bit of a transient effect, which can be good, which can be important, at least for the time being. But then, if you do testing later on, you’ll never find that that strain has increased. So, for example, I’ve had patients who’ve spent two years taking every different kind of probiotic out there trying to build up, let’s say, lactobacillus or Bifido. And, after the two years, they’re just totally frustrated because the levels are not going up. And, that’s really the difference between probiotics and all those other types of supplements out there. They can be good, and they can really result in some changes in symptoms, but none of them stick around. And, that’s the main distinguisher between probiotics and FMT, which is, we’re taking these microbiota from a healthy human. We try to optimize the gut as much as possible before we do the transplant, and after that, when we do testing later on, we can see that these specific strains that we can at least test for, do go up, and with that the symptoms improve.

So, what do I see? I mean, I told you a little bit off the air that I work with a lot of autism, and so that’s a primary part of my work now. I used to work with a lot of different conditions, some of the ones that I’ve described to you a little earlier, like the IBS, IBD, and some neurological symptoms, and so on, and so forth. So, those are the main areas that I have experience in, although, before getting into those, I do want to mention C. diff because I think it’s really important, again, as we’re talking about this, that people understand that this really is only approved for C. diff in Canada and the U.S. Although, there are other ways of getting this, which is, you know, kind of what I do, is helping people who don’t fit into that category. But, with C. difficile, it absolutely has the most research. In the research, there’s a greater than 90% cure rate with the treatment of C. difficile after just one or two treatments with FMT. So, phenomenally effective, and in all of that research, very safe and very well tolerated, which are two areas that I think are very critical, you know, when making the decision to use this kind of a treatment. So, that’s the case for C. difficile.

The other conditions, it really varies. The best, you know, study, if you will, for kids with autism came out of Arizona State University. And, in that study, they actually treated these children for eight weeks using FMT. They did beforehand Vancomycin, as well as a bowel cleanse, which is also similar to what we do. And, after 8 weeks, they checked up 8 weeks of FMT daily treatment, they checked in at 18 weeks and they found an 80% improvement in digestive symptoms, and about a 25% improvement in the autism-related symptoms, which can look like anxiety, or hyperactivity, or sleep disturbance, or cognitive challenges, and language issues. So, they’ve seen about a 25% improvement in that. And then, again at 2 years later, they followed up at that point again, and they’ve seen that the 80% improvement in digestive symptoms maintained, which by the way was huge. These kids with autism have very debilitating and severe GI symptoms in many cases. And then, further to that, at that 2-year point, they’ve seen an additional improvement of 20% in the autism-related symptoms. So, 8 weeks of treatment, 80% improvement in GI symptoms and close to 50% improvement in the autism-related symptoms at the 2-year check-in.

So, what this tells us is that eight weeks of, you know, improving the gut function, that treatment doesn’t only last, so it’s not like a probiotic, let’s say, where when you stop it, it stops working, and the improvements that you see continued to build with time. Now, one of the things that we do that it’s a little different compared to that study is, we actually treat for even longer so we’ve doubled it, so we do 16 weeks of treatment. And, I would say that our results are on par, perhaps exceeding in some areas of that study, and, I think, primarily, because we’re extending the length of the treatment. So those are the main things. I mean, I could talk about some anecdotes of what we see with kids, some stories and things, but that’s a really great study, to help explain, from a research standpoint, what they’d seen.

Katie: That’s really fascinating, and especially understanding, I know there’s a lot of speculation and research about autism having a connection to the gut, so that absolutely makes sense. And, you’re able to do this with kids, which is incredible, and to see those kind of statistical changes is, kind of, unheard of in this field. I want to circle back to C. diff for a second, just on a personal note. So, my husband, his appendix ruptured years ago, and he got a C. diff infection, it was in his body internally after the surgery. And then, he struggled with gut issues for years and he eventually had SIBO as well. And, finally, now, I’ve gotten everything under control, but that’s incredible to know that this is actually approved for anybody who has C. diff. That’s an important one, I want to make sure we just highlight that for anybody who actually has that condition.

Dr. Jason: Yeah. The only, sort of, little caveat here, which I don’t honestly believe is a crime against humanity is, is that, you need to go through three rounds and fail three rounds of conventional fairly hardcore antibiotics, and at such point as you’ve failed those three rounds, then you can use FMT. So, in the treatment, using those three rounds, it can do a lot of damage to people. And, that may well have been why your husband ended up later on developing SIBO because he had to go through and use different antibiotics. Now, he had a ruptured appendix, so, I mean, yes, you absolutely need antibiotics. I’m not suggesting that people shouldn’t use them, but anytime you do use an antibiotic, you are damaging your gut microbiome and you’re increasing the likelihood that you’re going to develop some type of illness that is connected to poor gut diversity. Which, as we continue to do research, nearly every chronic disease is in some way connected to gut disturbance of some sort or another.

And so, yeah, it’s extremely effective, however, you first need to use antibiotics three times and have it not work any of those three times, then you can do an FMT. And, at that point, you know, one, these people can be in extreme pain, having diarrhea, and bleeding, and all sorts of stuff, and, within a day or two, they’re absolutely back on track. So, it’s really phenomenal. And, I personally wish that people didn’t have to try three times, maybe once, or maybe not even at all if they choose. But, nonetheless, those are the standards that we have to follow.

Katie: Wow, yeah, that’s definitely frustrating. So, I’m curious when someone comes to you and you’re working with them on any of these potential things, what does that process look like, how do you prepare their body for this, and then what does the after procedure look like, how do they maintain it?

Dr. Jason: Sure. Great question. So yes, I do really believe there’s something as trying to, as much as possible, optimize the gut to receive, if you will, this treatment. Now, a lot of times, why people are choosing to do FMT is because they don’t have a lot of the good bacteria that they want. And so, they’re saying, “Okay, I don’t have a lot of this stuff that I want, I want to put it in there.” But, the challenge is, is that there’s a lot of other things that we don’t want there because, you know, having a good healthy gut microbiome means that it can manage the environment, and keep out infectious things, and keep overgrowth of bacteria, and fungus, and other things in check.

However, if you don’t have a lot of gut diversity and a lot of really healthy strains of bacteria, that doesn’t happen, and so people have an overgrowth of different types of bacteria. Sometimes, they’re just commensal, they’re within the body, they’re healthy, there are just way too many of them. Same thing on the side of the fungus, it can be a very similar thing. It’s normal to have fungus in your body and Candida, it’s just, when you get too much of it is when you start to get symptomatic and problems are created. So, because of that, before we do FMT, we want to kind of clean the slate, if you will, and try to reduce the amount of burden or reduce the amount of overgrowth that there are.

And sometimes, we’ll do stool testing to get a better sense of what’s really there and what type of interventions we need to include or consider as a part of the pre-treatment process, but ultimately, typically includes a natural antimicrobial of some sort, it could be one or two. Oftentimes, we use Biocidin, otherwise, it oftentimes, especially with kids with autism, does include Vancomycin. Vancomycin is used as a pre-treatment as well in the Arizona study, but in many other studies, it’s something that this field of people that work with FMT have often included beforehand, and that really brings down overgrowth.

And so, you know, some people sometimes say to me, “Well, I’m really against doing any kind of, you know, antimicrobials or antibiotics,” which I totally understand. And the question is, should we do those types of treatment beforehand? And, usually, the way that I explain it is, is that, when we’re doing FMT, we’re trying to climb a mountain. And, the mountain is much easier to climb when there’s less pits, and boulders, and steep parts, and cliffs, which is usually the overgrowth. So, our likelihood of getting to the top of the mountain and seeing a relief in symptoms is going to be higher if we make the climb easier. And the climb will be easier when we clean the slate. So, usually, that’s what happens, we’re getting rid of an overgrowth of bacteria, in some cases parasites, and Candida, and whatever else.

And then, immediately after that, we start with FMT. Now, just before doing the FMT, in some cases depending if we’re working with kids or adults, with adults, we usually get them to do a slight fast, oftentimes a 24-hour to 48-hour fast. Again, fasting will help clear out bacteria. And then, after that they do a bowel cleanse, so we just kind of clean them out even more, usually using magnesium, and increasing doses to the point where they have loose stools. So that’s the pre-part, and then, you know, the treatment part is, again, there’s variables depending on the condition and everything else. But, just relating to the work with autism is, is that we start out with a big loading dose. So, it’s a large amount of bacteria in the beginning, either via capsules or via enema, and then, after those two days of the loading dose, we just go on and do a daily, fairly low, maintenance dose. Now, when I say low, it’s like 2.5 billion bacteria every day. Which is not super high but still high enough. And we do that for the next 16 weeks.

Now, you asked a really good question of, how do you maintain the treatment? There’s a couple of things. One, you want to make sure that you don’t do things that are going to kill off this transplanted bacteria, which we want people to avoid whether or not they’ve done an FMT. But antibiotics as much as possible, you know, eating foods that are going to be damaging it, whether you’re trying to choose organic where possible, and other types of things that we know can damage the gut microbiome. So, that’s one big one but probably as important as that is, trying to get as much diversity in the diet as possible. That’s how you maintain a healthy gut microbiome, is eating as many different foods as you can in about a week, is the way that we put it.

So, the kids or even the adults that we work with, our goal is to initially get up to 50 different kinds of foods in a week. And, from that, you know, once they can reach the 50 foods, then we have them try to shoot for 100 different foods in a given week. And, I’ll admit, that’s hard, that’s not easy. But the standard American’s eating like maybe 10 to 15 different foods in a week, which is not a lot, and that tells us then, that their gut microbiome is not going to be diverse, which is a problem. So, to have a diverse gut microbiome, you need to be eating a lot of different foods, which is why, you know, I take issue with a lot of diets out there which are generally limiting.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you should eat a lot of different junk food, because there’s a lot of that too, but it’s just as much different kinds of foods as you possibly can. And, people, you know, typically it’s like, “Oh, I just eat the same oats.” Well, why not trying different grains, or why not trying different kinds of seeds, and nuts, and so on and so forth. So, that’s a huge factor in helping to re-grow that. And, as you can get that gut to begin healing, that’s when you’ll start to see symptoms even outside of the gut, because, initially, typically, we see the improvements in the digestion first. You know, it depends on how quickly that can happen. In some cases, it’ll be a couple of days where a child would have had diarrhea, in some cases, for three years every single day, within two, three days of doing FMT, bang, normal regular bowel movement.

Same thing with chronic constipation, we have cases where they’re doing enemas every single day just to have a bowel movement. A couple days later, regular form bowel movements using no laxatives, no enemas, no nothing. But, as you can imagine, as that gut begins to heal, and, you know, there’s a lot of talk out there about gut-brain function, and, you know, the gut-brain connection, as well as leaky gut and everything else. Well, as we begin to heal the gut, we then begin to see improvements in many other areas. And so, that’s, you know, really, really promising and, of course, that encourages whoever is experiencing those types of symptoms, to, sort of, you know, pay reverence to these new gut microbiota because they are so transformative. But, they do engraft, so they do become a new part of your microbiome.

And, this is a question that I get a lot as well, “I do it once, do I have to keep coming?” And, the answer is generally, “No, you don’t.” So long as you respect the gut microbiome and continue to try to nurture and build it, you shouldn’t need to continue to redo treatment. Although, there may be some conditions where that’s necessary, just taking Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis as an example, where, you know, you may put somebody into remission, which absolutely can happen. But, as time passes, perhaps something comes up, or they go through a stressful period, or they need to go on an antibiotic, or something like that, in those cases, you may need to consider doing a short burst of a treatment just to reboost that gut microbiota, and, you know, prevent someone from going into a huge flare again. So, that’s the general overview.

Katie: That all makes sense. I would love to talk a little bit more about fasting because you mentioned that you sometimes encourage fasting before because of the gut changes that it leads to. And, I am a huge fan of fasting in my own life. I’ve never done FMT, but I’m curious, just from your perspective and your research, what type of fasting are you using, and what kind of changes can people expect to see from that?

Dr. Jason: Sure. So, I agree with you, I think fasting is awesome. I think even doing intermittent fasting for a lot of people is quite achievable, it’s not very hard to do. And, it really gives the whole body a break. And, there’s a lot of research in a lot of different areas on the benefits of fasting. However, as it relates to FMT, our main goal is, really, to starve off bacteria, and fungus, and things that we don’t want there. And so, that’s really the goal of it, is to reduce overgrowth even further. So, we have somebody do a couple weeks course of say antibiotics, or herbal antimicrobials, or other things, and then we have them stop all of that for 48 hours before starting FMT. And, our big goal with that is because we don’t want any of these bacteria to start killing off, you know, the newly transplanted bacteria, and then we have them do a straight two-day fast.

If they can do it, you know, if they have enough vitality and strength, because some people don’t, and then, of course, young kids, I mean, it’s really hard to keep food from a young child who doesn’t understand what it is you’re trying to do. So, in many cases, we don’t do it in that regard, but as it relates to FMT, our primary goal is to kill off overgrowth of bacteria, as well as, kind of, clean things out and have more space, if you will. You know, sort of, air quotes there “space” for this transplanted bacteria. And then, following, you know, that fast, you do a bowel cleanse, you just clean it out even more. And now, when you do that large loading dose, there’s more, sort of, real estate, if you will, for these transplanted bacteria to go in and have their effects.

Katie: That’s fascinating. And, another thing that you mentioned that I think is probably also just great advice for any of us listening was about eating much more variety in food, and a much more varied diet. This is something I know I’ve read about how in our current diets, like you mentioned, many of us eat the same foods over, and over, and over. And, there are so many benefits across the board from the micronutrients, to the gut diversity, etc., when we eat a whole, like wide variety of foods. Is that something that you recommend even with patients who you’re not doing FMT with?

Dr. Jason: Oh, absolutely, yeah. And, it can be really hard. I mean, you mentioned SIBO before. Well, there’s the typical diets for SIBO, right? Whether it’s SCD or low FODMAP, or, you know, antiSIBO, or whatever the diets are, there’s a lot of them, and they can definitely result in improvements. And I advocate for them, but what I advocate is for short term. You know, some people just get comfortable sticking with a very restrictive diet, and that oftentimes doesn’t work out in the long term. And, you know, there’s always, sort of, fads that are popping up, right, like carnivore diet. I mean, some people are seeing phenomenal improvements with that against autoimmunity and other conditions. But, my concern is, is that, by doing and following those diets, long term, you’re going to be restricting the gut microbiome even more. And depending on how long you’re doing them, you know, perhaps the numbers of those bacteria go down, and then, with time, once you do reintroduce food again, you know, perhaps they’ll come up again to a level that’s supportive of the body. Because, the body does have a, sort of, fingerprint, if you will, of what a healthy gut microbiome is, especially if you do have an appendix. However, the longer you do and follow a restrictive diet, that the bigger the problem that it will create down the line.

So, yeah, I’m definitely a huge proponent of trying to have as much diversity as possible in the diet, but even, you know, beyond that, I think we have to keep in mind, the number one source of all of the bacteria within our gut originated in nature. So, as well as eating as much different types of foods as we can in a week, let’s say, the big goal too should be able to get out in nature, you know, hug trees, walk barefoot, you know, do gardening, do all of those things that expose you to different types of environments. And, for those of you that like traveling, you know, you can just use it as an excuse to go traveling and, you know, put your feet in different sand or things like that. But, I really think it’s important that as much of eating different foods is important, it’s also getting out in nature, and, you know, forest walking, and all these other things that have shown real benefit. And, I think a part of that is just because of the microbiome.

And a lot of the issues that we’re dealing with now is…well, in part it’s overpopulation, and we don’t have the exposure to parks, and fields, and everything else, but as well with that, people are just wanting to be clean all the time. And, I think that, in part, has created some of the issues that we have now, and that’s this whole idea of germ theory and people, you know, concerned about not getting any types of bacteria. But, that doesn’t really help the body or help the immune system in the long run.

Katie: Got it. Yeah, I’m also a huge fan of spending time in nature gardening, my kids just being outside barefoot climbing trees, interacting with the whole microbiome of the environment. I’m curious if, because this is able to make such a huge change in the body, and, I mean, it really is staggering, the things you’re saying it’s able to do. How can you make sure that it’s not going to cause a negative change? In other words, is there any instance where the bacteria that’s being transplanted isn’t optimal, and then, it leads to problems?

Dr. Jason: Yeah. No, this is a really a great question. Now, I’ll explain my experience, but really, what I think is more valuable than my experience is the large depth of research that we have. And, when you do proper donor screening and you make sure there’s nothing infectious there, then the likelihood of having any kind of negative reaction is very limited. And, if you look at the wide range of research, and they’ve done this on all kinds of different conditions by now, they always, at the end of the studies say, you know, “Safe, well tolerated, effective in many cases.” And so, that’s key. I mean, that is really key. However, if you do this wrong and you don’t do donor screening properly, absolutely, this can be a huge problem. I mean, I’ve seen cases, usually, people doing it at home, and, you know, there’s like, “Oh, my sister’s boyfriend tells me he’s very healthy and I’m not very healthy at all, and so, I’m going to use his stool.” And, there’s no screening, and then, later on, they come to find out, “Oh, my God, I’ve got H. pylori, and I’ve got all these other issues.” And then, you go ahead and test this, you know, sister’s boyfriend, “Oh, he had H. pylori too, and he had these other infections.” We just didn’t know about it because he was extremely healthy, or at least appeared to be healthy, and his immune system was strong enough, and he wasn’t showing overt symptoms of that.

So for us, you know, we do a lot of blood screening looking for anything infectious, hepatitis, HIV, syphilis, all of that stuff, blood screening, all of those, plus stool screening, so looking for parasites, you know, viral infections, and Candida overgrowth, and so on, and so forth. There’s a long list of things that we test for. And that’s really important, of course, testing. But more important than that is even their medical history. So, all of our donors are breastfed, vaginally born, never used antibiotics in their life. In our case, they’re not vaccinated, although I don’t know that that’s an absolute criteria, but just so happens to be that those are the donors that we work with. And then, you know, they’re not overweight, you know, they’re athletic, they’re in sports, and the list goes on.

So, we need to make sure from a blood and stool testing standpoint that they’re very clean, as well as from a history standpoint, making sure that you know, no immediate family members have cancer when they’re 30, or brother who’s got, you know, a skin condition, or other things like that. So, it’s really…the donor screening is really, really critical in making sure that it’s safe and effective. Because, if you have a low quality donor, you may not see any change of symptoms because they are not giving you a lot of gut diversity. Same thing with, if you do take stool from a donor and they are not properly screened, and it turns out, you know, Yersinia or some type of infection, that could cause real problems in someone whose gut is compromised.

So, yes, there are risks, but they can be mitigated by proper donor screening, and so that’s absolute number one. And, this is why I’m not a huge advocate for home FMT or DIY FMT. I know some people resort to that, and I understand why people do, because it’s not easy to get it and it’s not exactly cheap either. But, I think it’s just really, really critical that you make sure that proper donor screening is done, because when it’s done, it’s extremely safe. We do see mild symptoms, you know, when we do the enemas, for example, there can be an increase in gas, a little bit of cramping, things of that nature. Kids with autism, sometimes we’ll see some increase in their existing symptoms. So, perhaps, they’re a little hyperactive, they may be a little more hyperactive for a short period of time.

And a big part of that is because we’re introducing a large amount of bacteria, and it’s kind of having a fight, if you will, with the existing gut microbiota to find some sort of equilibrium. And, in the process of finding that equilibrium, there’s a bit of a fight. Some of them die, and when they die, the body has to detox them out. And, if the body has trouble in detoxing, that’s when it can become an issue where they can experience some symptoms. Because, in effect, there’s an increase of inflammation in the body, and anything that’s already going on will be exacerbated somewhat. So, actually, a lot of what we do, or a part of what we do is, is we have most people do, supporting their liver to really make sure that their liver can properly detox whatever we’re killing off.

Katie: Got it. That makes sense. Okay, so for anyone who’s listening who maybe has SIBO or has some kind of diagnosis, or has a child struggling through autism symptoms, what is the process like to find you or someone like you, and how can they begin that process?

Dr. Jason: Sure. So, to find someone like me, there’s not a lot of people like me. I’m the only one that I know of right now in the world that’s duplicating the study for autism. In effect, we’re duplicating it in many ways, although we’ve improved it in others. So, there’s nobody else that’s doing it the way that I am. Although, there are other clinics that do FMT, so I’m not the only one to do that. But for us, I mean, most people are either referred by their physician or they hear about it through somebody who got really great results, you know, another parent. So, those are two big ways. And, they usually just send them to our website, which is fmtsolution.com, and they can learn a lot more about that.

And, for us, for autism, I would say most kids with autism are absolute candidates for FMT. I mean, I’ve just looked at so many stool tests now and heard from so many families by now where I don’t even think twice about whether or not I think someone who has autism and a lot of digestive symptoms, they should definitely consider it if they’re considering therapies and they want to go down the route of treating the gut, I think that’s definitely the case. However, in other cases, like IBS, and SIBO, and IBD, and things, I definitely think there are some people who are better candidates than others. And so, for us, we really make sure that we screen and we really get a sense of, hey, is this person likely to show benefit from FMT? And, if they are, great, we can have a discussion about what that treatment might look like. But, if not, then, you know, perhaps go do something else.

And really, what I think is important, of course, if you have C. difficile, you’re in a, you know, acute state, you’ve got a lot of problems, you need treatment. So, we don’t really treat C. difficile. But, for other conditions take IBS, for example, actually, the research is quite compelling based on the improvements that people can experience with FMT. But, it’s not the first place that I would start. You know, if somebody came to me and said, “Oh, I have IBS.” And, I’d say, “Well, what kinds of other treatments have you done today?” Well, nothing really. I took a supplement that I found on Amazon somewhere. Well, I think you need to do a lot more first, right? Like, let’s see, you clean up your diet, let’s see you get your lifestyle, improved, reducing stress, getting more physically active, and the list goes on. If all of those things fail, then yeah, I think you might consider doing FMT. But, otherwise, you know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. For Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, similar thing. I mean, those are conditions that are generally more severe, but it’s definitely something that, you know, I still think you need to really make sure the foundation on the groundwork stuff has already been done.

And then, SIBO, this is an interesting one because I used to treat a lot of SIBO. In my experience of treating a lot of SIBO, I’ve never come across a patient that didn’t first have some form of really bad gut dysbiosis. Meaning that, perhaps, I hear these stories all the time it’s like, “Oh, well, in my 20s, I was given antibiotics for acne for five years,” or, “I had one month where I was in IV for pneumonia infection,” or “I got ear infections all the time as a kid, and then I had antibiotics every couple of months, and then leading into that, I had constipation throughout my teenage years, and then in my 20s, you know, I got out of university went to work, it was extremely stressful and everything just fell apart then.” But oftentimes, when things fall apart, it’s just a matter of time, it’s just the straw that broke the camel’s back, but what’s really happening is, is that there were many signs before that, that showed that the gut was becoming more and more deplete of these healthy beneficial broad-spectrum bacteria. And so, that’s usually the case.

Now, you know, given that I’ve treated a lot of SIBO, I don’t personally see FMT as a treatment for SIBO. Although, there is a very, you know, small study that did show that, that it is actually something that can treat SIBO, and quite effectively, actually, I was surprised. But, what I think, if you do consider treatment with SIBO, you definitely need to make sure that you’re reducing the overgrowth to begin with, kind of, like we talked about before, right? It’s a mountain, we’re climbing it. We’ve got to try to reduce this overgrowth as much as possible to make it so that we can get to that ascent.

But, really, I would consider it if someone continues to relapse. I believe a lot of the relapse is not around, “Oh, well, you just started eating, you know, food again too quickly.” Or, you know, whatever it is, “You didn’t stick as close to the low FODMAP as you should have.” I think it’s just because there’s nothing to counteract it. It’s just like you have a garden, right, and you get rid of all of the weeds, but you never put in any corn. Well, the weeds are just going to come back, it’s not like when, it’s just how soon? And so, you need to rebuild the gut. And, for some people, they can do that through expanding the diet slowly, and then, slowly working on that. Remember, I said there’s a bit of a fingerprint. However, if that fingerprint is gone and there’s no memory of what a healthy gut looks like, it’s going to be nearly impossible, in some of those extreme chronic cases of SIBO, to totally, you know, be into long term remission, able to eat and have a normal healthy lifestyle again. So, in those cases, I might consider doing it, but it would follow a pretty intensive pre-treatment to, kind of, clean out that garden, if you will.

So that, when you have done that, you can immediately follow it up with FMT, lock in those benefits, and see that it doesn’t continue to relapse. And, I’ve definitely done that, and that works quite well. But again, you know, people, when they’re at the point of considering that, they’ve usually gone and done and tried a lot of things, because, you know, for a lot of people, it’s quite an extreme thing to travel for this and to, you know, pay the money that it takes to get it done, and be gone from work. And so, there’s a lot of variables that come into play. So, usually the people that reach that point are more severe, I would say.

But, yeah, so that’s the premise. I mean, people find out about me through a lot of different ways. We screen to make sure that, A, they would benefit from this, and B, that they’re very well informed. You know, we want people to really understand what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and if they have any question that they’re very clear on it, so that there’s not a, “Oh, wait.” They know they show up, and, “Oh, wait. What, you’re actually using, like, fecal material?” It’s like, “Well, yeah, that’s what we do here.” So, really, making sure people are very well informed and that they can make a decision from that place. And then, if so, you know, we go into the logistics and planning of arranging their treatment, and taking care of things that way.

Katie: Got it. Are there any, like, contraindications or downsides? I know you said you guys screen really carefully, and I think it makes total sense that someone should try other things first and at least have a really solid foundation with diet and other lifestyle factors. But, are there contraindications or concerns people should know about this?

Dr. Jason: Yeah. For the most part, not really. However, close to a year ago, there was actually someone who died from FMT. And, the reason that they died is…well, there’s a couple of factors. One, they were in their 70s, which doesn’t really have any bearing, I’ve treated lots of patients that are elderly, but the other thing is, they had no immune system. So, they had, you know, a medical condition that meant that they had no immune system. I don’t just mean, like, a weak immune system, they get every cold, that kind of thing. Like, they had no immune system. The donor had a certain strain of E. Coli that was what we call an MDMR, so it was a multidrug-resistant organism, MDRO. And, that E. Coli strain was resistant to antibiotics.

So, the patient had no immune system to fight it off, the antibiotics couldn’t kill it. And so, what actually happened, tragically, is that this patient died. So, I would be cautious, now, to treat anybody that had no immune system. And, you know, someone that might be in that case would be really advanced cancer, or HIV, or other conditions like that. Most people have an immune system, but here’s a case where they didn’t. Now, on top of that, we screen for all these multidrug-resistant organisms to make sure that donors don’t have them, as well as that they don’t have any risks of having them, for example, you know, traveling to developing or, you know, Third World countries, you know, spending a lot of time in or around people that are in hospitals, or working in the healthcare field, and the list goes on. So, we make sure our donors don’t check any of those boxes as well as screen for it. But, I would say that’s, you know, quite likely a possible indication.

The other one is having a perforated bowel, right? But, we would know about that, and someone to be in a pretty acute state. So, if someone had a perforated bowel, you wouldn’t want to go putting in a whole bunch of bacteria because that would then leak into their system. As you, you know, sort of, talked about with your husband, you know, he had a perforated appendix, I mean, that’s a pretty severe thing, and, you know about it because you’re in severe pain, or you’ll find out pretty quickly if you haven’t found out immediately when it happened. So, those are some of the main ones, but otherwise, I wouldn’t say there’s any other strong contraindications. But, the main indication, I would say, is, is that there’s a history of damage to the gut microbiome, even through natural stuff. You know, I’ve had a lot of patients that have just spent years taking all different kinds of natural herbal antimicrobials. And, they’re less damaging, but they can still be damaging if you do them long enough, you know, combined with limited restrictive diets or bad diets, and the list goes on.

Katie: Got it. Okay. Yeah, that’s really helpful to understand.

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Katie: And, I think you’re right, like, this seems like, probably, a foreign concept to a lot of people. But, like you’ve explained so well today, there are so many applications for this, you just want to make sure that your body is well prepared, and that you are doing the right things afterwards. What kind of future applications do you see for this that you think we’re not even aware of yet?

Dr. Jason: Yeah, great question. So, I really truly believe that every chronic disease, take heart disease, take cancer, take neurological diseases, diabetes, and the list goes on, I believe they all have a connection to some type of dysfunction in the gut. And, the more that we’re doing the research, the more this is becoming clear. Take, you know, Parkinson’s for example, they’ve identified, now, certain bacteria that are missing or, you know, not present or not present in high enough numbers in people with Parkinson’s. So, what’s going on there, right? Like, something’s going on, and so, how are we going to treat that? So, yes, I believe that all chronic diseases will be treated with time with FMT or variants of it. You know, companies are working on identifying certain strains, I don’t think that’s going to work. I think having the full spectrum of the gut microbiota is really going to make a difference.

But, just to give you some context, they’re actually even studying right now, the study started up in China, using FMT for the treatment of coronavirus. You know, the study was just posted, they’re just starting to do this research. So, wow, you know, that’s crazy, this is a virus and they’re using FMT. But, it happens to have some gut symptoms and other things, and so, the immune system is very connected to it. But, I think that, and as well, they’ve done some research on using FMT in certain…while patients are using certain chemotherapeutics. And, more explicitly, they study this in mice, where mice taking certain chemo drugs, and then they give them FMT, seeing a better outcome. And so, I don’t know, you know, why exactly that is? Is it just that the FMT is so beneficial or is it that it’s helping to enhance the effectiveness of the chemotherapeutics, and it’s likely a combination of the two.

So, I think there’s going to be a lot more indications as we begin to understand, you know, the pathophysiology, if you will, of the development of that condition, and we’ll be able to see, “Oh, you know, this is what’s happening.” So, they’re even, you know, using it for hepatic encephalopathy, right, which is a condition of the liver, and they’re seeing great results with that. So, I truly believe that all chronic disease, with time, we’ll learn how to treat it effectively with FMT. And, it’s not to say that, you know, everybody with a chronic disease that would get FMT would necessarily see dramatic improvements, but, you know, taking cancer for an example, you know, a drug will get approved when only 10% of people show improvement of it, you know, not even a cure or anything else. So, I think there’s going to be very wide application.

And, as we move into this world where we’re using so many antibiotics, and our environment is so polluted, and, you know, our air is polluted, our water is polluted, our food system is polluted, I mean, all of those things just wreck havoc on the gut, and that is hugely concerning. And, as we, you know, have more of these external forces through the environment, plus our lifestyles, plus all the antibiotics, we’re going to be ending up with, well, more chronic disease, but also superbugs, and things that we cannot control, or our immune systems and our gut microbiome will not be able to control, and that we can’t, you know, quickly come up with, you know, a vaccine or something like that to handle. So, I think there’s going to be application in other cases where once we start to get these, you know, conditions where there’s superbugs and things that we can’t treat with their standard therapies, this will be something that will be used to try to treat those types of conditions. So, that problem is only getting worse and worse. If you see what’s happening in hospitals and beyond, I mean, they’re fighting crazy stuff, and the most intense treatments are not killing it off. And so, you know, what do we do?

Katie: Yeah, that’s a great point. And, with what you’ve explained of how people see such drastic changes, and that these changes actually last, which is in stark contrast to so many of the other treatments available, I think you’re right. I think it’s going to be a really fascinating next couple of years as we start to see this practically applied more, and just continued research on it. For people who want to, like, learn more from you, or maybe even learn more about starting this process, where can people find you?

Dr. Jason: Yeah. So, I keep a fairly low profile, partly A, because it’s my nature, and partly B, because there’s a lot of people that don’t think FMT is all that great, and they want to stop anybody doing it, which is, to me, kind of crazy, but nonetheless. But, the best way to learn more about me is on my website, it’s just www.fmt, (Fecal Microbiota Transplant), www.fmtsolution.com. And so, that’s the main and easiest way to get a hold of me. There’s a lot of information there, we’ve got a long list of FAQs, for people to really understand what they’re doing. And then, also on that site, if you are serious about this and you don’t just want to, you know, talk about the weather or talk about, you know, what you’ve done in your life and everything else, but you really are serious about FMT after reading through the website, then definitely there’s an opportunity where you can book a call and speak with a naturopathic doctor on my team to better understand the process and determine if you are a fit.

The website is really geared towards families with kids with autism, and so that’s most of the information. But, nonetheless, if you have a different condition, we do accept other patients who have different conditions and you can still feel free to reach out. We will alter the treatment program, somewhat, depending on the condition. So, not everybody does 16 weeks of treatment, you know, many times people can just do 10 enemas, and that’s it. Or, perhaps they need to do longer, you know, it really, kind of, depends. But, yes, that’s the best way to find me. If none of those ways seems to be getting a hold of me, you can also just hit me up personally on my email which is [email protected], and I’m happy to answer questions, and/or forward you to speak with the other Doc in my team if I think the call is warranted.

Katie: Awesome. And, I will make sure that those are linked in the show notes, as well as, I think I’ve seen some of the studies that you’ve mentioned, I’ll link to those as well so people can read. Because, I think, like as I said, it’s a really fascinating area, and one that we’re just starting to explore, certainly, I’m just starting to explore. And, I’m grateful for you and your time today, and explaining both the process and the science of how this works. And, I think you’re right, as we see more chronic problems and more acute dangerous problems, I think we’re going to need solutions like this to be able to battle them. I’m grateful that you’re there on the front line doing this right now.

Dr. Jason: Cool. Well, thank you so much. And, I think just to add to that quickly. I think to help us improve even further, the outcomes, will be to better identify how we can match a donor and a patient. Right now, we really follow what I call, like, the shotgun approach. Sure, we make sure we have a really high-quality donor, but we’re not totally clear on what of that high-quality donor is making such a dramatic difference in a specific patient. And, I also have some cases where, you know, we’ll have two people that come get treatment for ulcerative colitis, one of them just has phenomenal outcomes goes into remission stays into remission for years, and then the other person will see little or no change. And so, why is that? And so, I think that with time, and this is a project that I’m tackling currently, is trying to better identify how we can match a donor and a patient. And, as we begin to learn or create that type of model, that will help us to become even more specific for the types of conditions that we can treat and how specifically to treat them. So, if we’ve got a, you know, sort of, a Rolodex, if you will, of healthy donors, and we understand their gut microbiome, how can we take a look at these patients and say, “Well, here’s somebody to match you up with?” And, that’s really the fine-tuning of this sort of process, is to try to figure that out.

Now, I might not ever figure it out, because I think this is much more complex than we might imagine. For example, you know, some people think it may not actually be about the bacteria, it could be about the phages, or it could be about something else that’s not just about the bacteria. So, I think it is really a complex problem that I’m here working on trying to solve. But, I do think that that will allow us to increase the benefits that we see, the improvements that we see, as well as helping to identify what types of illnesses or conditions could benefit from this, and/or how to maximize the improvements for people.

So, yes. But, otherwise, yeah, thank you so much, Katie, for having me here. And, I really appreciate you asking some great questions.

Katie: Thank you for your time, and thanks to all of you for listening and for your time sharing one of your most valuable assets with us. We’re so grateful that you did and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/fecal-microbiota-transfer/

[alberteamllc]

‘A’ Prom in Warlock Street Part 2 7/10/2019

Starring Flinty McClintock Ardis Sarmasik Beatrice Catamount Mungo Fungo

Featuring Albertine Rosenbee Bon Jean Bovi Daedalus Anuria Marshal Chanchala Chala Kriwalke Sawbones Guilotte Crevette Pitchfork #6 Pitchfork #9 “Tiger” Cesnoq Leyland Jacqueline “The Lion” Bryl Felix Wychelm Washy Whilikers Zmitra Mehindru Hesperus Hapax Ricky Ringo Bingo Mungo Fungo  

The Bumblejacket continues to negotiate with Ardis and Flinty, who recognizes her easily as her former jailmate, Albertine Rosenbee. They persuade her to leave with just one of the weapons and will take the rest themselves, despite Alberteam’s warnings about the 500. Just then there’s a raid, and Chanchala, Guilotte, and Sawbones bust in, but Ardis manages to bluff them away, but not before Guilotte’s claw incapacitates Daedalus and Bovi.

They decide to hide the weapons in Flinty’s parents’ house.

Meanwhile Tiger Beatrice remembers her youth. She’s scolded as a cadet by Leyland for being cocky and sluggish, and her weapon is taken away, but for the upcoming battle against Washy Whilikers the leader of her order, Jacqueline Bryl, gives her a chance to act as a scout and liason with a young bard, Felix Wychelm. However things go very poorly in the battle. She’s rescued by a young warlock named Pitchfork, who is gathering the wounded in a safe location to be moved out, where she also runs back into Felix. Attempting to escape on her own, she runs afoul of Washy, and despite the intervention of Bryl, is knocked unconscious.

A year later, she and Felix, disgraced survivors, are on a busywork task to recover Bryl’s axe, which was looted by someone after the fight. They’re uneasily infatuated with each other but becoming fed up with their quest, and Felix toys with the idea of abandoning it and attempting a new life on the frontier. As they argue, they stumble upon Washy wandering the roads. Beatrice is spotted and meets him in awkward conversation. Felix’ attempt to backstab him is inept and he seems intrigued by their fear and hatred of him. He teleports away and returns with the axe, some money, and a bottle of wine, and tell them to enjoy a holiday on him if they promise to seek him out and take another shot some day.

The two return back to Agresjia with the axe and a new friend, Zmitra Mehindru. Beatrice however is rejected from her order, as Tiger Leyland, the new leader, tells her she’s pregnant. The three discuss what to do and decide to try being adventurers unbeholden to any specific order, and celebrate by running to watch the Mopsy Klops Wilderness Show. They meet an ambitious halfling, Mungo Fungo, who galvanizes their resolve, and they form the Crystal Cats.

In the present day Beatrice goes and wakes up Ardis in the middle of the night for a super late dinner at RIcky’s. She apologizes for her bad teaching and opens up a bit before offering to really show her everything she knows, beginning after prom. Ardis leaves, and Beatrice then summons Mungo Fungo, who is afraid she’s either dying or found out about Hologram Hambeaux. But no, Beatrice just wants to reminisce, which Mungo is weirded out by.

[faridhafk]

Letter to the Most Lovable and Humble girl in this Planet

I actually wrote this letter in the week of my friend wedding preparation. I supposed to send it on 29 October 2017, but I hold it and think that this platform is much better to share it to her rather than send her an email.

I feel nostalgic as I wrote this. My other friend is just did the sacred wedding ceremonial in last Friday (24 Syawal / 28 June 2019). And it reminded me to one and half year before. When I had to let my really good companion to be the wife of the person she come to love. As I thought, it’s hard to hold back the tears while writing this.

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21 - 28 October 2017

Letter to my very dearest friend

As I know that this is not the exact time to feel like this, and blabbering too much to my dearest friend, I'd like to use this opportunity to clearing and tidying up my feeling.

Reminiscing the first time we met. She was not the first girl who came and talked to me when I just enrolled as undergraduate student in Universitas Indonesia. And she was not the first person who came to my mind if I talk about new friends in college. Maybe Astari, Nurul, or Maul will come to my mind first if we mention about new friends. Well there were some reasons for it.

First, because at that time for the most crucial course (Calculus!) I'd be together and enrolled the same class as Nurul and Astari.

Second, I stayed in Pondok Cina for my first and second semester, and seldom visit my friends who mainly stayed in Kukusan (Kutek).

Third, I casually talked to Maul and Maryam the first time I followed orientation schedule in University, when I think about it, it was really exhausting event, duh.

Fourth, Inferior feeling. Haha, I see her as a proper Muslimah, with proper manner and well dressed. While I am just a person with little bit knowledge of what a Muslimah should be.  

Well, when I just started my collage life, we were a bit  distant. Though, we slowly got closer after that. Thanks to some miracles which made our schedule become exactly matched with each other, even though we did not plan it at all!! Moreover, we got to match the schedule after we started the 3rd semester. I shall be grateful to Allah for planning that situation for us. I don't think my college life would be same if I did not have those schedules. We got closer and we would be seen together, often. Our friend would always ask one of us if we were seen alone. We shared so many memories together, and It's impossible to talk and write about it now. I did not regret it though, because even when I did not write it in a diary like some other people, I have my whatsapp archive which yeah, so many trash talk and stories stored. It is amusing that I'm still saving those chat. I always ensure myself that I think I'll need it later. :P (maybe).

Actually, I never think that I brought good influence to her. What I could recall right now that I brought more bad influence than good. :P , I mean not in bad way but more useless way, like our childish way to express happiness, or how we talked about politics even though we knew nothing about it. I think we talked more about rubbish story rather than some useful or important talks. Well, it just because how we are with each other. I feel compatible with her and "klop", I don't know the exact phrase to describe it. But we would, sometimes talk about some wonderful things, some things we were dreaming of, our future, and our contributions to the world (at very least to Indonesia or our small environment) after we graduate. Those talk could not be compared with how many rubbish talk we were talking about, though. If I have to make comparison, it will be (trash : meaningful talk = 90:10).

There no way that we never encounter any problem, maybe I'd feel discomfort with her behavior and the same with her toward me. We are all humans, and we are not perfect. We are not created flawless, are we? We may feel like that but chose not to be upward with those feeling. She is more like a hero for me.  Really, she is my heroine, since the first time we built this friendship up until now (by the way, we never declared our friendship, it was not important anyway, and you know it just the friendship built along the way during our time in college-- OK lets skip this). She who knows more about my past and the men related to my interest. My struggle though it's not really hard struggle. My dreams which now are the exact opposite of what I've dreamed of before, and many more. She who will come to my mind and I'll go ask her an opinion about something which disturb and waver me. She who helped me with my graduation and she who encouraged me to attend it (due to work reason, I thought not to attend my graduation day). By the way, She also helped my father found his seat during my graduation day, and because of that My father respect her so much, he think highly of her. I don’t know how to thanks her for this special kindness. She who helped me with my studies, and she who will be more mature than me during my hardest time. She is so dependable during important time of my life and I am so thankful for it. There so many kindness that she has shown to me. She show me how to be dependable and dorky at the same time. She was one of the reasons for me to Istiqomah doing my duty as a muslim. She was the one who invite me to contribute in Islamic organization in Collage. She was one of the reason that I set my standard as high as I can especially if we talk about our chosen Man, about dream, about dunya matters but she also the one who teach me to let go. (She may not realize it though :D).

There was a moment when I'd feel so depressed about something and could not bring it up to my surrounding and even to her. She of course would not know about it since I kept it hidden, but there was no need for her to know, because she will keep joking and ease my heart. (Had it ever crossed your mind that your best-friend will left you cried and took a bath instead cheered you up? Hahaha, yes Indeed, when I was overwhelmed and could not hold my tears any longer, rather than consoled me, she let me cried. Then she joked, and I felt much better. Everyone has different way to console other right, and it was her way to make me feel better).

There was a moment when I'd feel as failure and sad because of the feel being left behind. There was a time when I regretted my choice. She consoled me, then I could hold up my tears because it is so hard for me to cry in front of her. She always success to make me feel happy and ease.

However, not all memories are beautiful. I hate to admit that I had a moment when I feel dejected and fed up. I myself never bring this up to her because she herself did not even remember it. It was happened when she liked someone and blinded her eyes with some faith and expectation about this man. Actually the man she had crushed on was a kind man, he was smart, and he had good manner. But he could not make a choice and too dependent of her (or it is just because she is too kind and caring?). Okay I did not want to talk about the man but the event happened that time. It was last year maybe, 2016, the independence day or heroes day (I forget). On the weekend before the day, we made a plan to go and play, I am not sure whether we already fixed the plan or not, but I think I did. Then on Wednesday, she said that she came up with a plan to play with him and his friend to PIK, mangrove park. Actually I was sad, that she actually forgot and chose to go with him. And their itinerary had been created as well. I could not bring myself to say something which might make her cancel her plan with him, moreover after she said that happily. When I think about that I relieved when I hold back my feeling. Since I realized, even though I complaint to her, she would still go with him and I'd feel betrayed. Hahahaha. Do you think that I'm possessive? of course not, it just I that sad because the dearest friend of mine had forgotten our plan for someone else. And after some time, I found a quote in the Internet. It said, "when the woman fall in love, she will forget her friend and only see the man in front her". Wow, it might be quite true, I just don't in the phase yet. :) However, I knew and tried to understand.

Part of my memories of her also the sorrowful parting. Which will complete our stories. Every journeys come to an end at some points. It's been 3.5 year of college life. She chose to graduate earlier than the rest of my friend, 3.5 years. When she struggled with Undergraduate Thesis  I struggled with my seminar. When she would embrace new challenges and take the next step, I failed my seminar. When she left me behind for good and I have to struggle for starting up my seminar from the start. When she struggled with new environment and caught her dream and I worked hard to left behind my miserable self. We were working hard to adapt to new environment. She with her post graduation life and me with my life as student without her companion. The thing that made me grateful so much was, Allah chose her as my friend and she kept contact with me. She helped me with my undergraduate thesis and the last days of my college life. I just hope that I also left remarkable things to her during those time. It just looked like our usual day, the only difference was we communicated virtually by whatsapp. We talked about rubbish things, chatted without purpose, chatted about things we were not knowledgeable with. And it's continue up until now. The saddest and hardest part about that time were more than one. I had to go to campus alone. I had to go breakfast alone. I'd spent the night alone while usually I took time to spent the night in her room just for chatting or lying around. One of hardest thing at those time was when I had to hide from my friend because I was utterly embarrassed due to my seminar failure. I had to find another place to do my thesis instead my usual place (in Elkel). I also did not even dare to go to Telco Lab. And I chose to confine myself in new Lab building. I felt so weak which made me realized how miserable I am without her. But, fortunately I overcame my fear, I had Astari, Luthfi, Nurul, Maul, Yanti, Sister, Rini and so on. And in the night, she will eventually chat me, and I realized that I was not alone.

The next part of her life is marriage life with the chosen one. Actually I felt a little bit sad, this time will different than last time. We already understand about our role as married women, theoretically. We have to prioritize our husband over ourselves. We will have less time to chat, and to play. And I will have to learn to overcome everything independently.

Haaaaaaah, no matter what you'll overcome in the future I just hope the best for you. I hope you two will overcome the every single obstacles that may come in your life. Marriage is not the end, it is the start of new journey. There is no school to become good wive or good parent (you will become one right), you will learn about it eventually. I believe you two need time to know and understand each other, and it will take a long time. It's hard but that is when your love will go bigger and bigger and that is when the love become the way for you to get closer to Allah. When the time come for me, please help me to conquer the anxiety and help me to be strong as you've been too. I hope all barakah will come to your marriage life, the love between both of you become rahmah and the warm of your household lead you to contribute to our little world.

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It’s almost two years since the sacred day. You already become a mother of a handsome boy. And you both (you and him) must have compromised a lot to reach this far, though it is still a long way to go. I’m happy to meet you, really. It’s blessing for me to have you as a friend. I’m sorry for all the talk that may hurt you. I hope we can keep this friendship until the end of our day, and until Jannah. :)

Thank you for being my good friend, very very good friend :)

[emperorsfoot]

Keldor and/or Malkyn and/or Stinkor and/or Danger Noodle: ☮ ♥ ♒ (friendship, family, cooking/food)

Keldor

☮ - friendships : prior to becoming Skeletor, I headcanon that Keldor was friends with almost all of his Evil Warriors. But his best friends were Beastman and Trap Jaw. It's canon that Beastman was the first to follow Keldor, so they've known each other the longest. Trap Jaw (as of the 2002 reboot) was retconned into a Gar, Keldor's same species. But Keldor was raised among humans, so Trap Jaw would have been one of the first (if not the first) other Gar Keldor ever met. Together the three of them form the "disaster trio" trope.

♥ - family : canonically, Keldor is the son of King/Captain Miro and the brother of Randor, this also makes him the uncle of Adam and Adora. He doesn't keep in touch with any of them. Keldor is the bitter uncle who was chased out of the family by his racist dad and has built a family of his own out of his friends. Beastman and Trap Jaw are his brothers now. He also, canonically, has a kid with Evil-Lyn, and I like to think before he became Skeletor, he was a good dad. Whenever dealing with his son, Keldor would ask himself "what would Miro do?" then do the exact opposite of whatever it was. In this way, he became a pretty decent father.

♒ - cooking/food : Keldor either grew up the son of a soldier and learned "battlefield cooking" or else grew up a prince and never learned to cook at all (he had people to do that for him). As such, Keldor is a terrible cook. Not even Beastman's menagerie of creatures will eat his cooking. Two Bad tossed a plate of his cooking into the lava of Snake Mountain once and it turned into a monster.

Malkyn (Skeleteen)

☮ - friendships : growing up as "the Son of Skeletor" literally the only people he had means and opportunity to make friends with were the children or apprentices of other Evil Warriors. His best friends are Trap Jaw II and Tri-Klops II. He used to be very close with Odar, Stinkor's son, until they hit puberty and Odar started to develop the same stink as his father and it became impossible to hang out in person. They still talk over coms and play co-op mode of video games. But they're not as close as they used to be. Once he meets Dare and his generation of Masters of the Universe, Skeleteen is willing to make friends, but people from the Light Hemisphere are so different from the Dark Hemisphere, sometimes its like they're not even speaking the same language and forging friendships is hard and slow.

♥ - family : when asked, Skeleteen will answer that his "family" is Evil-Lyn and Skeletor, his biological parents. What he doesn't say out loud is that they are just his biological parents. His "real" family are his friends whom he views and loves as siblings, and Beastman and Trap Jaw whom he views as surrogate parents. Growing up, Beastman was always the one to take care of his skinned knees, brought him soup when he was sick, pestered him to wear socks, and was just generally a mom. Trap Jaw kept a bit more distance, not wanting to infringe on Evil-Lyn's territory, or disrespect Keldor's memory somehow. But he did teach Skeleteen weapons combat and how to fight dirty. He also taught Skeleteen every bad word he knows.

♒ - cooking/food : Skeleteen does not cook. But he eats a lot of hot-chips and orange soda.

Stinkor

☮ - friendships : it's been hard for Stinkor to form friendships ever since he was mutated. He tries. But most people aren't willing to meet him half way. Skeletor likes having him around because he's useful against the Masters, but that's not the same as having friends. He eventually makes friends with Faker. Since Faker is a robot, he can just turn off his smell receptors at will. Hanging out with Stinkor is easy for him. Everyone else has to wear a breathing mask or use some similar adaptation to spend time with him.

♥ - family : canonically, Stinkor's parents disowned him years before he was mutated into Stinkor, and he's not really close enough with any of the Evil Warriors to consider them a surrogate family. But, he does also have a son in the Dare|He-ro II time period, so we know he found someone who could stand his smell at some point. I headcanon her as being a Qadian, not the same species as Stinkor, but also a furry-type non-human. But more importantly, she has congenial anosmia and cannot smell. At all. So she's unaffected and unbothered by his stink. They go out and she's into him and likes the way he treats her and they eventually get married and have Odar. At first it seems like Odar did not inherit Stinkor's smell mutation. Until Odar hits puberty and the smell starts to develop and everyone realizes that Stinkor's freak mutation is now a genetically inheritable trait.

♒ - cooking/food : Stinkor would be a good cook if his smell didn't taint the food. Whiplash threw some of Stinkor's cooking into the lava of Snake Mountain, and it became another monster.

Danger Noodle (Trap Jaw II)

☮ - friendships : Noodle's best friend is Skeleteen. They tell each other everything. Noodle knows Skeleteen's mixed feelings about his father, and that he secretly resents his mother, and Skeleteen knows that every embarrassing thing Noodle did or thought since forever. When Noodle was younger, he didn't realize he was adopted. Since he had a prosthetic jaw, and Trap Jaw had a prosthetic jaw, he just assumed all boys in their family had prosthetic jaws. Never mind the fact that Noodle is a Snakeman and Trap Jaw is a Gar. Its all about the prosthetic jaws! That's how you know someone's your dad! Eventually he figures out that that's not how genetics work and realizes that he must be adopted since he's a Snakeman and his dad is a Gar. He goes and cries to Skeleteen and they catalogue all of Noodle's Snakeman traits and figure out (at least one of) his bio-parents.

♥ - family : Noodle is adopted. He is a Snakeman that Trap Jaw found as a new hatchling. He was abandoned in a creche because he was born deformed. without a lower mandible of his jaw. As someone who also did not have a lower mandible of his jaw, Trap Jaw felt an immediate kinship with the little Snakeman hatching and brought him back to Snake Mountain with him. As far as Noodle is concerned, Trap Jaw is his dad. Skeleteen helped Noodle figure out who his bio-dad was when they were younger, and Noodle rejects him. Trap Jaw is his father. Trap Jaw's bio-daughter is his sister. They are his family. Anyone who says otherwise can catch these hands.

♒ - cooking/food : Noodle eats a whole goat once every 2 days. He eats it raw, and prefers it fresh. He is capable of digesting bones, skin, horns, and organs, but Trap Jaw lovingly butchers the goats form him, removing the entrails and chopping off the horns. Sometimes he'll even debone it. To eat, Noodle removes his prosthetic jaw, opens his throat wide, and swallows his meat whole. This can make some people uncomfortable, so he prefers to eat in private. When Noodle is in a new place and someone offers him food to be hospitable, Noodle politely declines, saying, "Nobody wants to watch me eat."

[alberteamllc]

‘A’ Prom in Warlock Street Part 3, 7/16/2019

Starring Flinty McClintock Mungo Fungo Featuring Beatrice Catamount Pitchfork #3 Nico Kladenets Ramon Silulimesh Carmine Whistling Goloff Silulimesh Greg Hogswain Haurchefant “The Egg” Hogswain Tartuffe Eikhorn Maddy McCallister Tantan Weechy Hologram Hambeaux Aparna “Panther” Panchali Jeanne Klops Aramingo Fungo Chanchala Chala

Beatrice and Mungo continue to reminisce, and Beatrice asks him his impressions of how Rumble Force fared as a team in the Palace of the Vocaloids, particularly Ardis. Mungo was impressed by their fighting skills but wary about their purpose and integrity. He tells her about Ardis’ fight against the simulated Beatrice and how savage it was-- Beatrice is impressed. Flinty drops off the weapons and evades capture by a Pitchfork patrol. She discovers a note in Cromply’s bed revealing that he has had to fake his death to keep the family safe, and that they are all in good hands, so she stands there and cries a bit before coming home. On little sleep she then blunders into a lot of Rumble Force drama. As she arrives, Pitchfork #3 is there conducting a suspicious audit, she suspects searching for the dubiously acquired weapons. Nico keeps him busy but eventually he turns to gossip and reveals his influence on the press, as well as revealing that in Rumble Force’s absence the press that published the fake Ardis memoir has been suppressed. Next Flinty becomes suspicious and annoyed by Tartuffe, making pancakes and appearantly having spent the night. She ponders the depravities of Ardis’ love life in fury and disgust while figuring out who is getting paid and who is not. She also meets Ramon’s niece, Goloff, who arrived a month ago to help install secret hiding spaces for Pitchfork sweeps, and who sets off alarm bells immediately. 

She checks in with Ramon about the condition of the friends wounded in the previous night’s fight. Daedalus and Bovi are in bad but stable condition, Ardis is battered but fine. Tartuffe, Greg, and the Egg stayed by her all night to help mend everything. Flinty, paranoid about surveillance, wonders if Ardis was bugged, or the base, or what, and asks Goloff to help secure the place against spying.

She then intercepts a fancily dressed Mungo Fungo and drags him up for a briefing on curing the plague. He interrupts by sheepishly presenting her with Mopsy’s disgusting hat, offering it as prom-wear. Anyway, their idea is that instead of mass-dispelling magic like they did before, they can isolate the specific spell causing the plague and dispel it on a mass scale, unwriting it as a “spell” as such. The problem is that that would require a wizard-- a caster that understands magic as the language of matter-- as well as knowing what the specific spell actually is. Flinty offers to help. Mungo’s vaguely pessimistic time-table is based on halflings being immune, and when Flinty informs him this is no longer the case he begins to panic a little. He indicates that there is now probably very little time.

Flinty then runs into Panther in the yard, who appears to be working with Nico to help start a garden. She talks about growing up in a place often out of favor with the valley, having to know how to grow things from scratch the hard way, and extols the virtue of it. Flinty softens a little and tells her to be nice to Ardis.

Mungo is met by Hologram Hambeaux, who observes that his depression has been detracting from his work with Puffin and the HOTDAD crew. She proposes that going to the prom might recenter him and offers to accompany him. He gets his hopes up but when he talks about visiting Aramingo she becomes cold and analytical again, although he leaves with tentative hopes of drawing her out of her shell.

Mungo struts over to Crystal Cats HQ to make peace with his daughter, and finds her emotional and receptive. He also finds that Jeanne has returned to the city, albeit keeping a low profile, and is eager to ask Bovi to prom. However things turn sour when she invites him onboard for her expansive vision for the future of the Crystal Cats-- a nation-wide army to replace the defunct orders of old. He’s horrified but she explains the benefits, as she sees them, of the stability and inspiration they represent, notwithstanding Chanchala and Helena. He rejects this and defends his Cats, she counters by arguing that their downfall was precisely not being beholden to a higher body, as hers would be. Mungo is no fan of the state at this point and is disgusted and horrified, especially as Aramingo begins to talk shit about her mom as a traitor and mad woman. She eventually lets him in on the long-term plan-- to eventually remove Pitchfork back to Bifrons as part of a transition from the waning rule of Queen Elbise to the ascendent reign of Astrid, and to install a popular but malleable figure-- Panther-- as a “regent” who could act as an unwitting figurehead for the capital. Mungo is heartbroken and bewildered but realizes that the return of everyone’s memories didn’t totally mend anything. He cautiously tells Aramingo about Hologram Hambeaux-- she cautiously agrees to meet with her and they part in uneasy truce. However.... her guard, peeping at the door, was Chanchala in disguise, who floats off cackling and scheming.