#based on my actual in-game experience where i farmed light dragon parts for a few hours and then left a silent princess

[primarinite]

gift for my beloved

[thebigladjake]

Year 2: Summer Brief - Cognitivation: Enemies and Wildlife Design

One of the most endearing parts of Earthbound was it’s enemy design and feel. Since it’s set in the modern world, no longer are you fighting dragons or demons or little blob creatures, instead you arm yourselves up with a baseball bat, grab your favourite hat and start knocking out Runaway Dogs and Spiteful Crows! 

When you go into the next town, you’ll run into New Age Retro Hippies who may bash into you carelessly, Cranky Old Ladies that swing their bags at you for massive damage and Annoying Revelers that spend a turn to grumble about today’s youth!

The enemies encountered on your way between towns are more than likely going to be some kind of little everyday creature that we can encounter in everyday life. Just a little more dangerous to our heroes! Enemies are made to fit their environments. Caves are the home to moles or mushrooms or ants, while the deserts are open to scorpions and snakes!

Of course, this isn’t the only kind of enemies that are affected by Giygas’ influence. Giygas of course has his own henchmen that wield the very psychic powers that you have been using!

And finally, perhaps the most iconic of Giygas’ henchmen. Complete with a simple, sleek design that easily establishes their authority and position in the Giygas hierarchy. The many classes of the Starmen provide for some of the most challenging battles in the game.

So, as you can see, the enemy design of Earthbound is absolutely fascinating. They establish a mood in the battle with either their goofy designs or gestures or make you feel uneasy and maybe that the battle will be too much to handle! They all appear in the appropriate places, you don’t get a Starman just wondering the streets of Ness’ hometown at the start of the game. You don’t get scorpions in water. Every location was thought about clearly and the appropriate enemies were placed into them. 

Although, not all of the enemies are based off of objects, I really liked that aspect of Earthbound. Like just an everyday object that can be turned into a weapon or a menacing little enemy to fight. So much so, that I messaged a few of my friends and asked them to give me an object and from their suggestions, I generated these little characters in the spirit of Earthbound.

Series 1 - Cognitivation Enemies

From left to right we have: - Sock (Suggested by Alex) - Chicken Wing (Suggested by Nathan) - Gooch (Suggested by Keanu) - Keychain (Suggested by Kyle) - Vase of Flowers (Suggested by Joe) - Spliff (Suggested by Matty)

For this series, I knew I wanted to have some weird looking enemies and rather than forcing the ideas to come, I simply asked around and got some pretty nice results from their suggestions! We’ll start things off with Sock.

The Sock of Suffering crawls out!

The Sock of Suffering is a sock that was influenced by the Enigma, gaining consciousness and becoming aware of what it is! Waking up in a draw of someone’s room, it becomes too aware and wants it’s pain to end! 

Typically found in messy rooms of people that don’t care for themselves, the Sock generally hids out of the way of people, only encounter-able in dark places. Once found, the Sock shall begin to scream in an attempt to warn off it’s predators. Generating a thick saliva that it’ll shoot out to poison it’s opponent! Though, that is the extent of it’s combat abilities.

Many breeds of this sock exists, coming in all different sizes and colours! Most definitely not available in a store near you.... Or maybe they are?

The Scalding Chicken Wing bursts in!

A chicken prophet, prays to it’s god before it’s sacrifice, dousing itself in hot sauce it prays for a fire based attack to land! Once it does, it’s power transcends that of a normal chicken! It’s emotional stability goes out the window! Gaining access to the most offensive and potent Fire attacks known to all PSI users!

These can typically be found in Fast Food stores after being greased up in a fryer! The chickens they come from can be found on the farms of the eastern sides of the island, they all pray to the one true lord; Colonel Sanders and pray that their sacrifice will not be in vain! It will use different sauces to enhance it’s capabilities in battle! Although, if it’s paired with a hungry teammate, they may just tuck into it! No matter how hot the chicken wing may be!

The main inspiration for the Chicken Wing’s design was actually hot sauce. Like how hot it can actually be and how it might make you react in pain or anger.

The Armoured Gooch rolls up from behind!

One of the objects that cropped up that was not made from Enigma’s influence, instead they were sent by Enigma itself to patrol the world and keep guard at certain areas of interest! The Armoured Gooch rolls around, it’s face smushed inside it’s tough armour. It’s defences are high, but lacks an offensive front. It’s not powerful or smart enough to handle PSI based attacks, so it usually rolls into it’s foes.

Wherever Enigma has infected, Gooches will be patrolling the place making sure nobody intrudes. Abandoned factories, city halls, etc. They tend to initiate battle by sneaking up behind it’s opponents, getting the jump on them! Armoured Gooches generally don’t work in teams due to their sheer incompetence, their allies will tend to flee from the battle only to get away from the Gooch!

This is only the basic Armoured Gooch, many breeds exist with many different armour sets to distinguish their ranks. This blue colour being the second to lowest rank.

The Body-building Keychain swings his keys!

Found abandoned on the streets, this little toy bear keychain had to learn to fend for himself the hard way. Being thrown into it’s situation and linked to a heavy set of keys, the Keychain got sick of it and worked on himself. Transforming him into the Body-building Keychain! A tough, hench little bear who wield his set of keys. Throwing them into opponent or stabbing at them with the keys themselves. It’d probably be more effective if he was bigger than a keychain...

These critters are typically found in abandoned streets or fairgrounds where prizes like these keychains are likely to be.

The Dooming Bloom... Blooms!

An experiment given life, the Dooming Bloom are a team of three flowers trapped together in a vase! Their absurdly long necks and hefty bodies aren’t a good match as they can’t really stand up on their own, plus they can’t survive without being in water! Much like a normal flower! 

The three flowers all represent their life cycle, left is them coming into bloom, a little tired and low energy since they haven’t reached their own potential yet. 

Whereas the middle is the happiest little chappie alive! Wearing a big innocent smile, they only want the best in life and tries to pursue every dream they’ve ever had.... Too bad they’re all evil plots to destroy orphanages, cause nationwide pandemics and leave scathing reviews on upcoming movies before they come out! So, don’t feel bad when this guy dies.... 

The Mean Green lights it up!

This shifty character is the Mean Green! The Sinister Minister! A devious figure that was created out of Enigma’s own imagination to go down to Earth and unleashing his devious deeds upon hopeless people. Mean Green sells a lot of illegal merchandise that does more harm than good, since it’s corrupting the people of the Earth and letting Enigma take control of their minds!

Working from the shadows in big cities, he’s got a lot of the criminal underworld now on his side. With knowledge of the entire city layout, he knows everywhere to hide and everywhere that’s perfect for operating his plans...

Helping to Develop the World

When it comes to developing stories with deeper narratives, I tend to stick to a very loose plan so that if I develop something I can usually add it in easily without having to majorly change anything. And with designing these creatures first, it gives me a feel of what the world will be like. What locations and challenges can our heroes face? 

Maybe they go to an Amusement Park, fighting strong keychains and scalding chicken wings! Maybe they have to venture into the deepest parts of the city to stop Mean Green’s evil schemes!

Not only that, but it’s a lot of fun to look at an object and see how it can be turned into a mean little character that can pack a punch!

[cuzimjustme-blog]

“School of Dragons” Review

Style: MMORPG, adventure Publisher: Knowledge Adventure, Jumpstart Games Inc. Developer: Jumpstart Games Inc. Release: Dec. 4, 2014 Platform: Steam, Android devices

Summary

School of Dragons is a game based off of the book, movie, and tv series How to Train Your Dragon. The game is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, and it’s been a very friendly community every time I’ve logged on.

The game is made up of several quests that have you running all over Berk and other locations. Some of these quests involve basic science lessons like the water cycle and the scientific method. There also is a strategy based mini game that asks questions about history and science to allow larger winnings when answered correctly.

My Play

When I paid to be a member I was given access to all the different lands and missions. And when I was choosing my first dragon I was given a couple other choices such as the Whispering Death, Skrill and Thunderdrum; as well as the standard four. And every month I was given gems so I could purchase more unique dragons and items faster.

You can get the same things if you play for free, it just takes a much longer time to get the gems to do so. You can get gems from certain mini games like Battle Tactics and also with daily logins. Or you can purchase them.

Graphics/Art

The graphics definitely aren’t like what you would see in games released on the newest platforms; they actually remind me of the graphics on PS1 games, they’re cleaner though. You can easily tell apart the different characters, but they have this dead eyed stare that’s slightly creepy. There’s also a large variety of dragon designs. Since it’s a game mainly geared towards younger kids I didn’t expect the graphics to be the most stellar, but at least good enough that the kids playing can easily recognize the characters.

Occasionally there are different events that go on, right now there are lights and trees set up all over the map to celebrate their version of Christmas called Snoggletog. And with these different events there are different outfits or decorations you can get for your farm and viking for a limited time.

Sound

The music that makes up the bulk of the game’s soundtrack comes from the movie itself, which I’ve always enjoyed, so I wasn’t disappointed with the developer and publisher’s choice. The one I hear used the most is “This is Berk”. If you’ve never heard the soundtrack expect a lot of horns and percussion instruments.

With our favorite vikings celebrating Snoggletog at this time, there’s some specialty music that has more bells in it to fit with the festive theme that’s going on during this event.

Cinematics

The first time I played there was only one cinematic. It was when you hatched a dragon and touched their head as you bonded with them. Now though they have added a whole new one. After you’ve created your character you are placed in the middle of a fight to help protect Berk from an enemy ship. The short video is of you flying around on Toothless with Hiccup as your guide before you are given control over actually flying and fighting for the first time. It’s a well done clip that doesn’t feel choppy and has a smooth transition back into the regular game.

Story

There isn’t a large overarching story unless you do the larger missions, they’re typically only available in the expansion packs that members get for free. There’s one expansion that you can purchase with coins at this time, maybe later on the others will be purchasable with coins-rather than gems-as well.

Every now and then there are raids that happen that fit with the beginning story of fighting off enemy ships. A message will show up in your chat telling you where the raid is so you can join it and get prizes for helping take down the ship. There are the occasional issues though where the ship doesn’t actually show up for people to see or it doesn’t lose health.

Controls

The game has the usual basic controls of WASD to move and some hotkeys like F to breathe fire and R to mount your dragon. The mouse is mainly used to change the position of the camera and to interact with your dragon, yourself and other players.

There’s also of course a chat system that allows you to talk with other players and then a separate one so you can talk with your clan if you are a part of one. If you do use inappropriate language you will lose your access to it, though the chat apparently dislikes me since it was giving me warnings the first time I used it when all I’ve said is “yes I did.”

Replayability

It has an alright replayability when you pay for membership since there’s the crazy amount of missions you can do and it’s easier to get a larger variety of dragons since you get gems every month as a member. But as a free to play person there are always the mini games like the alchemy lab game, a racing game between players, a precision shooter and that Battle Tactics game to keep your attention.

But for me as a twenty-two year old there isn’t a lot pulling me back in besides getting to fly a dragon and seeing the characters I love from one of my favorite franchises.

There are a few glitches that happen that take away from the experience like missing out on raid bonuses if you can’t see the enemy and missions repeating themselves or quest items disappearing so you are unable to complete them.

Final words

I’d say the game is probably better suited for younger kids that can get more out of the basic science and history lessons that happen. But if you just want to go around raising and flying around on a dragon, I’d say you’d get your fill from this game.

And if not, at least you get to listen to a familiar soundtrack.

[starstruckcloudgalaxy]

I hope you’re keeping well and safe at home, dear friends; I know, the Easter weekend is coming up and the weather is nice, but we’ll have to sit this one out and stay in if we don’t want to risk our own lives and those of many others. So, I’ve been thinking of more tips to give you on what to do at home in order to keep happy and healthy; and the term ‘wellness’, which has been very popular in recent years, came to my mind. So what exactly is ‘wellness’?

The term has actually been around since the late 1940s, meaning feeling well all around – physically, mentally and socially. No need to say that some big parts of this concept are out of order right now: you can’t go out and meet your friends or even your family, you can’t go to the gym or the swimming pool, and let’s be honest, we’re all a bit on edge psychologically both with all those changes to our everyday lives and with the dreadful news we keep hearing all day about deaths and shortage of doctors and hospital beds and more deaths to come.

Still, there are lots of things we can do to make us feel better in all three sectors, even in these strange days – so let’s start with a combination of the physical and the psychological aspect of wellness: activities involving both your body and your mind.

  Dance!

As I’ve told you, dear friends, I’m not exactly the sporty type, so I can’t give you too many tips on how to keep fit indoors; the obvious things are stretching and aerobics (there are lots of videos for that which you can follow on YouTube), running up and down the stairs in your house or apartment building, and – dancing! And it’s got a double function: it gives you the necessary exercise, and the music will cheer you up as well.

So put on a CD, or have a look on YouTube for some hot music with a great rhythm to dance to – be it some good old rock n roll, or disco, or even an old-fashioned Charleston! Just move any way you like, or try to remember some exercises from your PE days at school… Here’s my all-time favourite ‘exercise song’ – doesn’t that just make your feet and body itch?!

  Relax in a hot bath

At the core of many of today’s interpretations of ‘wellness’ is spoiling your body – and there are few better ways of relaxing that having a bath. Just get a bottle of foam bath from the supermarket which will give amazing satisfaction not only to your skin but also your nose – aromatherapy is an important part of a good bath, it’s not only about cleaning yourself up!

While you’re there feeling wonderfully light in the warm water, you’ll have time to collect your thoughts; but do avoid thinking about the latest Coronavirus news, please… There are so many beautiful things to think about; your last summer holiday, or the romantic movie you watched last night – or simply absorb the feeling of your body relaxing and the lovely smell of lavender or rosemary. You’ll feel like new when you’ll get out of the tub!

Unfortunately, not everybody’s got the luxury of a bathtub at home; but you can still enjoy a long hot shower, spoiling yourselves with a delicious shower cream, and you can also boost your blood circulation with a little Kneipp cure. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s one of the best things my upbringing in Germany taught me, a water treatment method named after the 19th century pioneer of alternative medicine, Sebastian Kneipp: alternating hot and cold showers, starting with your legs and arms and then moving on to the rest of your body. It’ll make you fit as a flea in no time!

  Having a massage

Another popular feature of ‘wellness holidays’ on fitness farms and of spas and water parks is providing a massage service for customers; and it’s another thing you can do perfectly well at home. The ideal situation is, of course, to have someone with you who can massage you and vice versa; all you’ve got to do is look up the basics of a massage online, there’s no need to become a professional masseur or masseuse… Here’s one I find very helpful and informative:

https://www.wikihow.com/Give-a-Full-Body-Massage

Again, there are many people who are currently all on their own, with no one to massage them – but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your body massage as well! You can do it yourself, and here’s how:

https://www.wikihow.com/Massage-Yourself

  Meditation – just think positive!

I must confess I’ve never really been into yoga and all those other popular ways of meditation; if you want to learn some yoga techniques, there are plenty of videos on YouTube for you. My own way of gathering my thoughts is based more on the psychological principle of directed thinking and positive thinking. How to do that? It’s really quite simple: you can STEER your thoughts, there’s no need to be a slave to them; and especially in difficult times, when your brain is being bombarded by bad news, you can force yourself by sheer willpower to think of something positive.

Get hold of a negative thought that keeps going around in your mind; like, for example ‘I can’t even go on an Easter trip because of this lockdown’. Then, start a positive counterattack: think of your last holiday and the great time you had – picture the green hills of Ireland, or the beaches of Greece, or the casinos of Las Vegas you saw, or even look through your photos and at the souvenirs on the bookshelf. Then, concentrate on your next holiday, whenever that may be – where are you planning to go? Look it up on the internet, look at the photos and videos and other people’s travel reports – and reassure yourselves that you ARE going to go there, too, some day. Now that’s a goal, isn’t it?

Cooking

Since deliveries aren’t really an everyday option for most of us, we’ve all got to cook at home these days, anyway, so we might just as well enjoy it… Like my daughter Marianna, who until recently hardly knew how to do a pancake or a pot of spaghetti – now that she’s all on her own in our flat in Piraeus, she’s learning new recipes every day, and she loves it! No matter whether you hardly did any cooking until now, or just the necessary, or whether you’re a hobby cook anyway – this is a great time for trying out new things in the kitchen.

Simple things like sandwiches or pasta sauces can bring endless fun with new variations (I’ve already put together some recipes for those two categories, you can look them up on my blog; and there’s more to come soon), and there are lots of cookery programmes on TV every day where you can learn even more – some of them combine cooking and travelling, too, so you can explore Italy with the Hairy Bikers or France with Rick Stein without having to leave the safety of your flat – and without paying a penny for the journey!

  Play games

I’ve pointed out before on my blog how important it is to play a game once in a while, but this goes double, of course, in our present days of lockdown. The good old board games, like Scrabble, Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit, Draughts or Snakes and Ladders bring everybody in your household together in neverending hours of fun! And if you don’t happen to have any of those at home, you’ll at least be able to obtain a deck of cards from the newsagent to play some Poker or Canasta – and if you’ve never played any card games before, you can always look up the rules of one online! Here’s a very simple one I used to play with my family back in Germany when I was a kid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau-Mau_(card_game)

If you’re alone, of course, the only pal you’ve got to play with is your laptop, tablet or smartphone – but even that can provide hours and hours of fun and entertainment! There are countless free games you can play online or download for free – want to build a farm or a town, or even an empire? Want to combat dragons or zombies? Want to solve puzzles or mysteries? You’ll find literally EVERYTHING on the Web. And you can even play with other players online and get to know new people that way!

  Have a drink!

Let’s face it: this is NOT the right time to quit drinking. Unless you’ve always been a teetotaller or haven’t had a drink in years, you’ll probably all feel an enhanced need for a drink in these trying days – especially after the evening news. So, let’s not develop a guilty conscience about it: it’s not our fault, and we’ll all go back to normal once this crisis is over, because we’ll have the willpower to do it.

Try to keep a lid on it, though, because too much drink can lead to depressions, or to rows with your partner or flatmates. And don’t just knock it back like a bitter medicine – enjoy it, and experiment with it, try out new cocktails and mixtures, make it a part of your effort to cheer yourselves and others up during these dark days! And another tip: diluting alcoholic drinks with soft drinks like lemonade, cola or soda water makes them last longer and less dangerous.

Watch a funny programme

Comedy isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but this isn’t the time for gloomy melodrama either. No matter whether – like me – you’re perfectly satisfied with any sort of nonsense from “Carry On” to “Father Ted” (both of which are regularly shown on British Freeview TV), or whether you expect something at least as sophisticated as an Oscar Wilde play, it’s important these days that you choose something for your evening entertainment that’s at least in some way uplifting. There’s nothing wrong with a good laugh and a happy ending, and we all need it more than ever!

Especially over Easter, British TV channels are making a real effort to entertain us all day long, so we won’t miss our trips and walks too much; you can check the programme here any time:

https://www.tvguide.co.uk/

And here’s an online guide for my American friends:

https://www.ontvtonight.com/guide/

So, look out for those comedy programmes, dear friends!

  Talk!

This is the social aspect of wellbeing, and the maybe MOST important thing to take us through this pandemic: talking to people. Talk with your loved ones about how you feel, ask them how they feel, cheer them up, laugh with them, until you and they forget about the grimness of the situation. Keeping your thoughts and feelings to yourself is the worst thing you can do; your brain will start going around in circles, and depression will set in. Share your hopes and fears, your worries and dreams, your inner self with someone, and you’ll immediately feel better.

Being in lockdown with your partner and/or children or a good friend is, of course, the ideal thing – I find it unbelievable how many couples are fighting these days because they’re cooped up together, instead of being happy and thankful that they’ve got someone to hold on to! While there’s lots of less fortunate people who are all on their own right now – but even for them it’s perfectly possible to talk, even in lockdown…

Thanks to our modern technology, we’ve now not only got the phone to talk to our loved ones who are far away from us, but also video calls, messaging, emails and so on – so nobody really is alone! And even if you can’t think of anybody to ring up or send an email to – why don’t you sign up to a social media site if you aren’t on one already? You’ll get to know lots of nice people in no time, you’ll find other lonely people who are looking for someone to talk to, you’ll find people with similar interests – and you won’t feel lonely anymore!

Those are my tips for you, dear friends, for achieving this marvellous thing called ‘wellness’; there are so many different ways of feeling happy, you’ve only got to find the ones that work for you. And if you find a new one, I’d love to hear about it in the comments – we can learn so much from each other!

Discover wellness: Spoil yourselves during lockdown! I hope you’re keeping well and safe at home, dear friends; I know, the Easter weekend is coming up and the weather is nice, but we’ll have to sit this one out and stay in if we don’t want to risk our own lives and those of many others.

[nancygduarteus]

The Bespoke High Is the Future of Marijuana

I’d been traveling for work—to Europe then to Asia then to Europe again while pinging back-and-forth from L.A. to New York. For months my carryon contained the sneakers that I didn’t use in the hotel gyms I never visited. I was exhausted to the brink of tears since previous to this spate of travel. I had a schedule so rote I could give myself jetlag by sliding lunch up half an hour.

I’d gone straight to the weed store from LAX—ragged—trundling my suitcase past the spangly Turkish restaurant with the outline of a hookah on the sign, ducking into the alleyway with the Thai massage parlor on one end and my dispensary on the other. On the inside the shop looks like a cross between an Apple flagship and a Danish lighting boutique except there’s a security guard with a gun and a brown-haired girl who checks your I.D. and card and buzzes you through.

I bought a vape pen. Two actually.

I didn’t know I’d ever want a vape. It seemed like getting into magic or Crossfit—a whole production and the mandatory acceptance of an accompanying ethos. But at the time I was susceptible to marketing and there was a display with samples and nifty disposable rubber nubbins that went over the mouth end to keep it hygienic.

I often get overwhelmed purchasing marijuana. Like when you go to Ikea without a game plan. I waffle endlessly. There’s just too much to look at. I understand that top-shelf stuff commands flaunting. (How else to show off the bushiness of the cured flower and clusters of trichomes—those hairy crystalline sprinkles of cannabinoid?) But it’s like explaining music by smell or flavor by dance. I want to know how I’ll feel.

The vapes I bought are made by a company called HMBLDT. There are six Hmbldt formulations on the market and they’re labeled according to what they do. I got Sleep, the one for sleep and Calm for in case my rush-hour Lyft driver was chatty (in L.A. they’re always chatty!). They’re disposable which might be appalling given their staggeringly, demoralizingly expensive price-tag at $100 a pop. It means that you’ll need a separate pen for each ailment but it also means you don’t have to fiddle with cartridges or even flower. I don’t consume cannabis fast enough for any denomination of actual buds not to become petrified and uninviting and Hmbldts have 200 doses so you can hang on to them for a while.

White, slender with a rounded tip—they’re the vape version of smoking Capri cigarettes and they’re about as long as one but wider. They look, to be honest, as if Muji made a tampon. They take their name (in a very web 2.0-y way) from Humboldt County in Northern California which evokes marine layer, Redwoods and (for those in the know) very good weed from 1996 onwards when proposition 215 made growing medical marijuana legal in the golden state. And probably illegally since before.

Part of my decision was the brevity of the buying experience. No faffing with specials or personal suggestions (which I sometimes love but not always) but mostly it was that these days I’m scared of weed.

The thing is, at my age (mid-30s) a joint is produced with reliable frequency—barbecues, outdoor shows, birthday parties, and even a few picnic-situations where babies are present (provided they’re upwind). Basically any occasion that calls for rosé.

And I like weed. A lot. Enough that I wish I could smoke every vehicle for marijuana that crosses my path. But the last time I took a wee toke of a smoldering cone passed to me by a trusted friend in the spirit of conviviality it took me out of commission for the rest of the day. I couldn’t even speak. I watched my hand lift the joint towards my face and then it was tomorrow.

It’s not news that we’re living in a golden age of legalized marijuana. If golden is to be defined by weed so mighty it renders you catatonic. Two years ago a 19-year-old in Colorado leapt to his death upon eating a pot cookie. Louis C.K. has a bit about how he, “didn’t know they’d been working on this shit like it’s the cure for cancer.”

It’s true. Weed is virtually unrecognizable. It’s incredible to think pot’s changed this much. It used to feel low-rent like Boone’s Farm or Whip-Its. But now it’s the recreational drug version of the kid who was a nothing in middle school who becomes God-hot over summer break. To a genetically—celestially—engineered degree that could irradiate you. Weed, frankly, had evolved past my enjoyment of it. Especially if I have a job where one of the requirements is that I show up.

It’s for these reasons that I understand when people aren’t into it. It seems somehow both sleazy and intimidating. On one hand it’s a drug that’s illegal in most parts of the country and on the other, you’ve got luxury brands that are touted as the “Hermès of Marijuana,” and the Beverly Hills Cannabis Club that sells buds that cost as much as their weight in white truffles.

Plus, people who know too much about weed are annoying. Most invitations to smoke are accompanied by a story that serves as a kind (ha) of tax about Sativas or Indicas and how hybrids are the sweet spot and OG Kush or Girl Scout Cookies or else how Alaskan Thunderfuck is a magical journey. It’s like how Pappy Van Winkle bourbon doesn’t become interesting until someone threatens to pour you some. The really inviting thing about Hmbldts (and perhaps this is true of most vapes), is that there’s less pressure to share.

The pens are aesthetically pleasing—certainly more so than a hand-blown glass bong resembling a dragon or those cumbersome oblongs known as box vapes. Each three-second pull you’re doled out exactly a 2.25 mg dose with just under 2 mg of active agents. The vape vibrates to let you know when you’re done. Comparatively a puff of a joint, deploys around 3 mg of cannabinoids.

The edibles company Kiva Confections is good at this too. Their Terra Bites—chocolate enrobed morsels like coffee beans and dried blueberries—carry 5 mgs each. But Hmbldts aren’t just low doses, each pen is color coded and blended in specific formulations for a prescribed effect. The thinking is that when you smoke you’ll know where you’re headed. Hmbldt is owned in part (24 percent) by Anomaly, the ad agency that does Coca Cola and Beats by Dre which explains their slick packaging (that could inspire suspicion in a #wellness product) but it’s the first to design directional highs.

I can report that Sleep is good at sleep. Inducing it and then keeping you under. I did have a wicked weed hangover the next morning (that grogginess of not being quite finished sleeping but running out of time) but eight consecutive hours was a profound relief.

The Bliss pen was pleasant. An all-purpose high and familiar as a Sativa dominant strain or a “morning weed,” the way Indicas are soporific and considered better at night.

Hmbldt also sells Relief for pain management, Arouse to promote intimacy and Passion for seismic culminations of aforementioned intimacy. If it seems as though it’s overkill or gimmicky that we’d need Arouse and Passion, I’d say I agreed with you. That is until I tried them.

The medicinal properties of marijuana are well known—that it’s effective for alleviating physical discomfort and insomnia, or how CBD (cannabidiol), the lesser-known, non-intoxicating cannabinoid (the active agents in marijuana) behind the psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) is an effective treatment for seizures—but I’m a recreational user. We’re so used to seeing drugs in binary terms—sober or altered—and while intensities differ (nursing a beer vs. any time you think shots are a good idea) we rarely administer a white wine spritzer for headaches or a Long Island Iced Tea for anxiety. Usually it’s blunt-force drinking. A holistic approach to anesthetizing.

But there are benefits to customized formulations that I hadn’t before considered. Calm skews heavily CBD, you’ve got a body high without any of the mind altering effects of THC.

“THC activates a system in our own bodies called the endocannabinoid system,” says Igor Grant, the director of The University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) and the chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. The CMCR studies the effects of cannabis on HIV Neuropathic pain and how it impairs your driving skills. “[They’re] signaling molecules that have to do with functions as basic as appetite control, inflammation, coordination, memory and other cognitive functions. The effect of THC is to affect these circuitries in the brain. CBD does not appear to have direct psychoactive effects. It doesn’t cause changes in cognitive function or emotions. Or neurologic coordination issues.”

Typical marijuana flower has a THC to CBD ratio of 20 or 40:1. Hmbldt’s Calm has THC to CBD ratio of 8:1. Relief is 2:1. With Calm I don’t experience paranoia—that running commentary of how high I think people think I am. I can even write on it which makes it singular to any marijuana I’ve ever sampled.

There’s a new formulation that hasn’t hit the market called Focus with a CBD to THC ratio of 4:1. It will be blended with cannabinoids that narrow your attention span to the task in front of you without compromising your creative process.

Samantha Miller the chief science officer at Hmbldt says there’s a spectrum of response to cannabis but she blends to cover the bases. For one in four people, CBD is an upper for the rest of us it isn’t. “I’m trying to effect a balance between who’s going to go one way and who’s going to go another and how to help bring some of that 25 percent over,” she tells me.

She also adds cannabinoid profiles that drives towards the myriad issues associated with each ailment. “There’s a lot of different issues with sleep—going to sleep and staying asleep,” she says. “Those root causes could be anxiety, pain, restless leg syndrome—there’s all of these sleep disrupters. The THC and terpene profiles shut off the frontal cortex get you into that mode where you can be sedated and CBD inhibits the enzyme in our liver that breaks down THC so that extends the benefit while you sleep.”

When Miller talks about terpenes, she means the essential oils that give fruit and plants their smell and flavor, likeLimonene in citrus peel or Myrcene in mangoes. Paired with cannabinoids they do all sorts of other things.    

Before Hmbldt, Miller pioneered cannabis testing with her lab Pure Analytics. The majority of CBDs strains available domestically had their start in her lab, from two to over 80 in the span of a year. She’s personally tested tens of thousands of strains. She's also sampled thousands of types of cannabis. Hmbldt formulations have been tested by over 750 consumers, with three to seven iterations for each “destination” or effect. And while Miller manipulates CBD and THC ratios and percentages and Terpene profiles, akin to twirling dials on a sound mixing board, the oil inside the pens are blends from strains grown in Humboldt county. “In Sleep you have fuel strains like OG Kush and Sour D and Bliss is three different Jack Herer strains that I blended,” says Miller. All the formulations reflect what she calls “the terroire” of Humbldt. “In Relief one of the Terpene profiles is from a strain called Silly Strawberry that was developed by Sunshine Johnson,” she says. “Her family owns the regional radio station.”

The marijuana used in clinical studies with institutional review also comes from a particular location. “To do human studies we only have one legal source of marijuana,” says Dr. Grant. “The federal government. They have a marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi. The highest strength is 12 percent THC. Street marijuana has gradually increased the concentration where the average is 12 to 15 percent and there are reports of much higher.”

I wouldn’t smoke Sleep recreationally but one puff of the Relief feels like taking off your outside pants after a long day at work. The priority isn’t all the Cheetos nor is it affixing yourself onto the surface of a couch until Netflix asks if you’re still there. It’s an immersive experience, like pot-VR where I’m inhabiting a kind of skin, a wakeful dreaming where I know I’m dreaming but it doesn’t freak me out not to be awake.

The souped-up CBD quotient feels different in the Relief formula. And truthfully I don’t know how much of it is the blend or the smallness of the dose. In my dismissal of marijuana because of its brute high I’ve often wished there were more bespoke drugs. More types in existence. I’ve wanted to micro-dose LSD since Ayelet Waldman’s book where she treated a painful shoulder and bipolar mood swings by taking a tenth of the dose needed to trip, but I didn’t know where to get it. I didn’t have a magical professor friend-of-a-friend who was nearing the end of his life and wanted to bequeath it to me.

But the Arouse pen is such an odd bird. It’s designed to lower inhibitions in initiating sex but it’s also a type of high that I didn’t realize could exist in the quiver of marijuana highs. You’re aware of the way the ground feels underfoot and how your toes feel in your socks. The racing of inputs—the din of being high—like how the cars are loud and so are other people or that feeling of maybe it’s me, it’s probably me, never kicks in. It’s a level high. An even keel. As with Relief you’re conscious of how you’re steering. Arouse is wavy. Or else sparkling. It’s the tissue-soft cotton of a T-shirt washed hundreds of times rippling in a warm breeze. They may as well have called it Tulum. Or Pink.

And, for the record, Arouse and Passion are nothing alike.

Just as it’s not recommended you take Ambien every night, I wouldn’t suggest revolving through Hmbldt’s entire catalogue for every pinch of discomfort and tiny indignity. Marijuana isn’t addicting from a pharmacological or physiological standpoint but it is habit-forming and creates withdrawal. The thought of becoming reliant on Focus for every email or edit is unwelcome (as is paying for it). And if this directional, reliable mood altering is where the marijuana industry is headed, I’m excited.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/hmbldt-weed-pen/530832/?utm_source=feed

[ionecoffman]

The Bespoke High Is the Future of Marijuana

I’d been traveling for work—to Europe then to Asia then to Europe again while pinging back-and-forth from L.A. to New York. For months my carryon contained the sneakers that I didn’t use in the hotel gyms I never visited. I was exhausted to the brink of tears since previous to this spate of travel. I had a schedule so rote I could give myself jetlag by sliding lunch up half an hour.

I’d gone straight to the weed store from LAX—ragged—trundling my suitcase past the spangly Turkish restaurant with the outline of a hookah on the sign, ducking into the alleyway with the Thai massage parlor on one end and my dispensary on the other. On the inside the shop looks like a cross between an Apple flagship and a Danish lighting boutique except there’s a security guard with a gun and a brown-haired girl who checks your I.D. and card and buzzes you through.

I bought a vape pen. Two actually.

I didn’t know I’d ever want a vape. It seemed like getting into magic or Crossfit—a whole production and the mandatory acceptance of an accompanying ethos. But at the time I was susceptible to marketing and there was a display with samples and nifty disposable rubber nubbins that went over the mouth end to keep it hygienic.

I often get overwhelmed purchasing marijuana. Like when you go to Ikea without a game plan. I waffle endlessly. There’s just too much to look at. I understand that top-shelf stuff commands flaunting. (How else to show off the bushiness of the cured flower and clusters of trichomes—those hairy crystalline sprinkles of cannabinoid?) But it’s like explaining music by smell or flavor by dance. I want to know how I’ll feel.

The vapes I bought are made by a company called HMBLDT. There are six Hmbldt formulations on the market and they’re labeled according to what they do. I got Sleep, the one for sleep and Calm for in case my rush-hour Lyft driver was chatty (in L.A. they’re always chatty!). They’re disposable which might be appalling given their staggeringly, demoralizingly expensive price-tag at $100 a pop. It means that you’ll need a separate pen for each ailment but it also means you don’t have to fiddle with cartridges or even flower. I don’t consume cannabis fast enough for any denomination of actual buds not to become petrified and uninviting and Hmbldts have 200 doses so you can hang on to them for a while.

White, slender with a rounded tip—they’re the vape version of smoking Capri cigarettes and they’re about as long as one but wider. They look, to be honest, as if Muji made a tampon. They take their name (in a very web 2.0-y way) from Humboldt County in Northern California which evokes marine layer, Redwoods and (for those in the know) very good weed from 1996 onwards when proposition 215 made growing medical marijuana legal in the golden state. And probably illegally since before.

Part of my decision was the brevity of the buying experience. No faffing with specials or personal suggestions (which I sometimes love but not always) but mostly it was that these days I’m scared of weed.

The thing is, at my age (mid-30s) a joint is produced with reliable frequency—barbecues, outdoor shows, birthday parties, and even a few picnic-situations where babies are present (provided they’re upwind). Basically any occasion that calls for rosé.

And I like weed. A lot. Enough that I wish I could smoke every vehicle for marijuana that crosses my path. But the last time I took a wee toke of a smoldering cone passed to me by a trusted friend in the spirit of conviviality it took me out of commission for the rest of the day. I couldn’t even speak. I watched my hand lift the joint towards my face and then it was tomorrow.

It’s not news that we’re living in a golden age of legalized marijuana. If golden is to be defined by weed so mighty it renders you catatonic. Two years ago a 19-year-old in Colorado leapt to his death upon eating a pot cookie. Louis C.K. has a bit about how he, “didn’t know they’d been working on this shit like it’s the cure for cancer.”

It’s true. Weed is virtually unrecognizable. It’s incredible to think pot’s changed this much. It used to feel low-rent like Boone’s Farm or Whip-Its. But now it’s the recreational drug version of the kid who was a nothing in middle school who becomes God-hot over summer break. To a genetically—celestially—engineered degree that could irradiate you. Weed, frankly, had evolved past my enjoyment of it. Especially if I have a job where one of the requirements is that I show up.

It’s for these reasons that I understand when people aren’t into it. It seems somehow both sleazy and intimidating. On one hand it’s a drug that’s illegal in most parts of the country and on the other, you’ve got luxury brands that are touted as the “Hermès of Marijuana,” and the Beverly Hills Cannabis Club that sells buds that cost as much as their weight in white truffles.

Plus, people who know too much about weed are annoying. Most invitations to smoke are accompanied by a story that serves as a kind (ha) of tax about Sativas or Indicas and how hybrids are the sweet spot and OG Kush or Girl Scout Cookies or else how Alaskan Thunderfuck is a magical journey. It’s like how Pappy Van Winkle bourbon doesn’t become interesting until someone threatens to pour you some. The really inviting thing about Hmbldts (and perhaps this is true of most vapes), is that there’s less pressure to share.

The pens are aesthetically pleasing—certainly more so than a hand-blown glass bong resembling a dragon or those cumbersome oblongs known as box vapes. Each three-second pull you’re doled out exactly a 2.25 mg dose with just under 2 mg of active agents. The vape vibrates to let you know when you’re done. Comparatively a puff of a joint, deploys around 3 mg of cannabinoids.

The edibles company Kiva Confections is good at this too. Their Terra Bites—chocolate enrobed morsels like coffee beans and dried blueberries—carry 5 mgs each. But Hmbldts aren’t just low doses, each pen is color coded and blended in specific formulations for a prescribed effect. The thinking is that when you smoke you’ll know where you’re headed. Hmbldt is owned in part (24 percent) by Anomaly, the ad agency that does Coca Cola and Beats by Dre which explains their slick packaging (that could inspire suspicion in a #wellness product) but it’s the first to design directional highs.

I can report that Sleep is good at sleep. Inducing it and then keeping you under. I did have a wicked weed hangover the next morning (that grogginess of not being quite finished sleeping but running out of time) but eight consecutive hours was a profound relief.

The Bliss pen was pleasant. An all-purpose high and familiar as a Sativa dominant strain or a “morning weed,” the way Indicas are soporific and considered better at night.

Hmbldt also sells Relief for pain management, Arouse to promote intimacy and Passion for seismic culminations of aforementioned intimacy. If it seems as though it’s overkill or gimmicky that we’d need Arouse and Passion, I’d say I agreed with you. That is until I tried them.

The medicinal properties of marijuana are well known—that it’s effective for alleviating physical discomfort and insomnia, or how CBD (cannabidiol), the lesser-known, non-intoxicating cannabinoid (the active agents in marijuana) behind the psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) is an effective treatment for seizures—but I’m a recreational user. We’re so used to seeing drugs in binary terms—sober or altered—and while intensities differ (nursing a beer vs. any time you think shots are a good idea) we rarely administer a white wine spritzer for headaches or a Long Island Iced Tea for anxiety. Usually it’s blunt-force drinking. A holistic approach to anesthetizing.

But there are benefits to customized formulations that I hadn’t before considered. Calm skews heavily CBD, you’ve got a body high without any of the mind altering effects of THC.

“THC activates a system in our own bodies called the endocannabinoid system,” says Igor Grant, the director of The University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) and the chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. The CMCR studies the effects of cannabis on HIV Neuropathic pain and how it impairs your driving skills. “[They’re] signaling molecules that have to do with functions as basic as appetite control, inflammation, coordination, memory and other cognitive functions. The effect of THC is to affect these circuitries in the brain. CBD does not appear to have direct psychoactive effects. It doesn’t cause changes in cognitive function or emotions. Or neurologic coordination issues.”

Typical marijuana flower has a THC to CBD ratio of 20 or 40:1. Hmbldt’s Calm has THC to CBD ratio of 8:1. Relief is 2:1. With Calm I don’t experience paranoia—that running commentary of how high I think people think I am. I can even write on it which makes it singular to any marijuana I’ve ever sampled.

There’s a new formulation that hasn’t hit the market called Focus with a CBD to THC ratio of 4:1. It will be blended with cannabinoids that narrow your attention span to the task in front of you without compromising your creative process.

Samantha Miller the chief science officer at Hmbldt says there’s a spectrum of response to cannabis but she blends to cover the bases. For one in four people, CBD is an upper for the rest of us it isn’t. “I’m trying to effect a balance between who’s going to go one way and who’s going to go another and how to help bring some of that 25 percent over,” she tells me.

She also adds cannabinoid profiles that drives towards the myriad issues associated with each ailment. “There’s a lot of different issues with sleep—going to sleep and staying asleep,” she says. “Those root causes could be anxiety, pain, restless leg syndrome—there’s all of these sleep disrupters. The THC and terpene profiles shut off the frontal cortex get you into that mode where you can be sedated and CBD inhibits the enzyme in our liver that breaks down THC so that extends the benefit while you sleep.”

When Miller talks about terpenes, she means the essential oils that give fruit and plants their smell and flavor, likeLimonene in citrus peel or Myrcene in mangoes. Paired with cannabinoids they do all sorts of other things.    

Before Hmbldt, Miller pioneered cannabis testing with her lab Pure Analytics. The majority of CBDs strains available domestically had their start in her lab, from two to over 80 in the span of a year. She’s personally tested tens of thousands of strains. She's also sampled thousands of types of cannabis. Hmbldt formulations have been tested by over 750 consumers, with three to seven iterations for each “destination” or effect. And while Miller manipulates CBD and THC ratios and percentages and Terpene profiles, akin to twirling dials on a sound mixing board, the oil inside the pens are blends from strains grown in Humboldt county. “In Sleep you have fuel strains like OG Kush and Sour D and Bliss is three different Jack Herer strains that I blended,” says Miller. All the formulations reflect what she calls “the terroire” of Humbldt. “In Relief one of the Terpene profiles is from a strain called Silly Strawberry that was developed by Sunshine Johnson,” she says. “Her family owns the regional radio station.”

The marijuana used in clinical studies with institutional review also comes from a particular location. “To do human studies we only have one legal source of marijuana,” says Dr. Grant. “The federal government. They have a marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi. The highest strength is 12 percent THC. Street marijuana has gradually increased the concentration where the average is 12 to 15 percent and there are reports of much higher.”

I wouldn’t smoke Sleep recreationally but one puff of the Relief feels like taking off your outside pants after a long day at work. The priority isn’t all the Cheetos nor is it affixing yourself onto the surface of a couch until Netflix asks if you’re still there. It’s an immersive experience, like pot-VR where I’m inhabiting a kind of skin, a wakeful dreaming where I know I’m dreaming but it doesn’t freak me out not to be awake.

The souped-up CBD quotient feels different in the Relief formula. And truthfully I don’t know how much of it is the blend or the smallness of the dose. In my dismissal of marijuana because of its brute high I’ve often wished there were more bespoke drugs. More types in existence. I’ve wanted to micro-dose LSD since Ayelet Waldman’s book where she treated a painful shoulder and bipolar mood swings by taking a tenth of the dose needed to trip, but I didn’t know where to get it. I didn’t have a magical professor friend-of-a-friend who was nearing the end of his life and wanted to bequeath it to me.

But the Arouse pen is such an odd bird. It’s designed to lower inhibitions in initiating sex but it’s also a type of high that I didn’t realize could exist in the quiver of marijuana highs. You’re aware of the way the ground feels underfoot and how your toes feel in your socks. The racing of inputs—the din of being high—like how the cars are loud and so are other people or that feeling of maybe it’s me, it’s probably me, never kicks in. It’s a level high. An even keel. As with Relief you’re conscious of how you’re steering. Arouse is wavy. Or else sparkling. It’s the tissue-soft cotton of a T-shirt washed hundreds of times rippling in a warm breeze. They may as well have called it Tulum. Or Pink.

And, for the record, Arouse and Passion are nothing alike.

Just as it’s not recommended you take Ambien every night, I wouldn’t suggest revolving through Hmbldt’s entire catalogue for every pinch of discomfort and tiny indignity. Marijuana isn’t addicting from a pharmacological or physiological standpoint but it is habit-forming and creates withdrawal. The thought of becoming reliant on Focus for every email or edit is unwelcome (as is paying for it). And if this directional, reliable mood altering is where the marijuana industry is headed, I’m excited.

Article source here:The Atlantic