#fwiw i don't like this track. never have

[batsplat]

one of the more useful resources for understanding different circuit characteristics is brembo, a company that provides braking systems to motogp riders and has these 'identity cards' for different circuits. not always readily available in high definition, but handy to get a better sense of differences between circuits

here's an old identity card from 2016

below I've compiled and lightly edited some text from here, here and here provided by brembo about the circuit - there's a fair bit of overlap, but just enough unique information to make it a worthwhile exercise. I also chucked in one clarification from the motomatters preview for motegi, which you should read anyway. where there's conflicting numbers, for obvious reasons I've gone for the more recent ones. rating systems for these have also changed (apparently, in 2016 only one of the corners was considered 'highly challenging', but by 2019 five are considered 'very demanding' - make of that what you will). so if you spot slight discrepancies, that's probably why

The MotoGP bikes use the street circuit, which stands out for having very few fast corners and many slow ones interspersed with medium length straights. There are seven corners that the bikes have to take going less than 100 km/h (62 mph). ​ Right from its first World Championship debut in 1999, the circuit has always been considered among the most challenging on brakes due to the significant amount of curves taken in second gear and how difficult it is to cool down the discs between one braking section and another. The perfect surface provides good grip levels and improves the amount of braking torque discharged to the ground resulting in increased stress that the brakes are put under. The Grand Prix regulations approved by the International Motorcycling Federation allow MotoGP bikes to use carbon discs with diameters of 320 mm, 340 mm, and 355 mm. However, for Motegi, Buriram, Sepang, and the Red Bull Ring, in dry race conditions, riders are prohibited from using the 320 mm discs. At these tracks, they must choose between the 340 mm and 355 mm discs. Nobody uses the 340 mm disks any more - everyone having moved on to the 355mm discs which this generation of MotoGP machines need to get themselves stopped. This rule was developed in collaboration with Brembo, which, based on data, demonstrated that brakes are particularly stressed on these tracks. As the disc diameter increases, radial heat dispersion improves. To facilitate heat dissipation and increase the surface area for air exchange, MotoGP riders have been equipped with finned discs, featuring 355 mm fins, since 2022. In 2017, despite the rain falling for the entire race, the top 9 finishers and 13 of the top 15 used carbon discs. Merit also of the Brembo technicians who assisted them on the track, explaining to them the methods for the correct use of carbon in the rain.

According to Brembo technicians who work closely with all MotoGP riders, the 4.8 km long Mobility Resort Motegi is categorized as highly demanding on the brakes. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 6, it rates a 6, largely due to the abundance of slow corners that hinder the cooling of braking systems. Riders use the brakes 10 times per lap for a total of 33 seconds, with deceleration exceeding 175 km/h during half of these braking zones.

Brake Use During the GP From the starting line to the chequered flag, each rider uses his brakes for more than 13 minutes. The track contains 7 corners that are taken at less than 100 km/h, preventing the MotoGP bikes from reaching very fast speeds and thus reducing deceleration peaks: the average deceleration is limited to just 1.17 g. Since there are three braking sections of modest length (between 35 and 92 meters each, or 115-302 feet), the mean deceleration is not very high; adding up all the force applied on the brake lever by one rider from the starting line to the chequered flag, the sum is more than 1.2 tons. But this is still higher than that registered by a Honda Civic Type R when braking from 100 to 0 km/h. ​ Summing up all of the force applied by a rider on the Brembo brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result comes in at more than 930 kg (2,050 lbs).​ Of the 10 braking sections on the circuit, five are considered very demanding on the brakes, while two are of medium difficulty and three are light. On those five highly demanding sections, riders apply the brakes for more than four seconds. This explains the 33 seconds in which braking systems are being operated per lap, which is equal to 32% of the entire race, one of the highest percentages for the World Championship. 

The Most Challenging Zones The one that puts the most stress on the braking systems and the riders (1.5 G in deceleration) is the 90° corner at turn 11. The MotoGP bikes arrive at it going 308 km/h (191 mph) and then brake for 5.1 seconds to slow to 86 km/h (53 mph). In this short time span, the riders apply a 5.7 kg (12.6 lbs) load on the lever while travelling 250 meters (820 feet) and the pressure of the Brembo HTC 64T brake fluid gets to nearly 12.3 bar. ​ Also at turns 1, 3 and 5 the deceleration measures 1.5 G. Turn 3 in particular stands out for the force demanded of the riders (5.1 kg or 11.2 lbs load on the lever) and the brake fluid (11 bar) in order to slow down from 277 km/h (172 mph) to 93 km/h (58 mph) in 4.2 seconds and 202 meters (663 feet). ​ The measurements are more contained for turn 5, but still they are higher than the average of the other corners on the track: The bikes have a braking space of 216 meters (709 feet) and 4.8 seconds to reduce their speeds by 194 km/h (121 mph), from 271 km/h (168 mph) to 77 km/h (48 mph).​ Also Turn 1, because it requires the riders to brake for 4.6 seconds and 225 metres. Three times the bikes brake in under 50 metres: at Curve 6 the bikes decelerate from 200 to 183 km/h in 47 metres; at Curve 8 they go from 133 to 112 km/h in 41 metres and at Curve 12 they slow from 167 to 143 km/h in 40 metres, the same length as about twenty Dance Dance Revolution platforms.

[etihw000]

share with the classss what are some things youve gotten into lately

you a cop? 🤨

I don't get into new things I circle back into old interests every couple of years ad infinitum like some sort of death spiral

right now it is a manga called nanbaka that doesn't have an official english translation anymore due to end of serialization and the author took it down to self publish so it's a pain to read legally. The wiki is outdated by about 250 chapters. it has an anime but I can't really recommend it unless you like the manga because the second half of s1 gave me whiplash. iirc s2 was fine

Its 300 yen / 3sgd / I don't know how much this is in USD probably like 2 to get access to the whole thing for a month, and I theres gdoc translations available, so it's not expensive it's just ... Yeah. it's a pain

fwiw it gets very chaotic especially around c250-320 because of the amount of characters that get airdropped in but if you don't care that much and don't take things too seriously it's a pretty good time.

if you do start reading it:

1) push through the first few chapters because it started as a self indulgent gag manga and while the self indulgence never really goes away re: character design, the story does turn towards a more serious shounen story and

2) ymmv on the ending I personally didn't enjoy it. the end of serialization was looming real heavy for a long time so it's kind of abrupt (and I personally believe is the reason for the amount of characters that get dropped in, I couldn't keep track of who is named what lol). I think the creator said there'd be a sequel / continuation eventually

[susiecarter]

hey susie! hope you're doing well! i've been a little down so i've been re-reading some of my favourite superbat fics of yours for comfort, and got to wondering how on earth do you plot out such long and complex stories? do you hit a word count target daily/weekly or do you just go a little crazy and write 20k over a week?

thanks for all the work you've shared!

Hey, anon! <333 I'm so sorry you've been feeling bleh, but fwiw I can't tell you how wonderful it is to hear that my fic is a bright spot for you when you need one. ;-;! (Obviously I also hope you now feel awesome, continue to feel awesome, and never need to revisit my fic again. :'D BUT IN THE MEANTIME, I appreciate it so much. <3!) And! The answer to your first question is: OUTLINING. It took me a while to figure out that outlining is really important to my process :'D but outlining is REALLY important to my process, and never more so than when I'm working on a long complicated AU of some kind! I do a lot of brainstorming/pre-planning, working out what exactly is going to happen (what the ripple effects of a canon divergence ought to be, what will change AND what won't; exactly how many different characters' POVs need to be in there, and what each of those characters is going to be doing; &c) and what order it's going to happen in ...

... and that process is what allows the answer to your second question to be: when it's time for me to actually start drafting, I ABSOLUTELY go hog-wild and write 20k in a week! Once I've got my outline squared away, when I'm feeling good about a fic and the idea is eating me alive, I top out at a little over 1k an hour. Aaaaaand when I'm not feeling like that, I don't write a single word. /o\

I have a wordcount-tracking spreadsheet that color-codes itself automatically, mostly for my own amusement, and under the cut is a cap of it for this year, January through the end of June.

TADA.

It's probably pretty easy to tell when I had a deadline approaching or a story to finish :'D and when I didn't, lol. (And you can also tell I tend to burn myself out a little, because after one or two of those purple 8k+ days, there's usually either some blank spaces or some very light green!) I'm trying to get better at writing more consistently instead of accordioning myself like this, but as you can see, a word-heavy May led to a pretty lackluster June, especially toward the end. :D WORK IN PROGRESS.

Anyway, yeah. If you want to know more about my actual process for working out the plot of something, just drop me another ask! <3 And thank you so much not only for the compliments, anon, but also for the excuse to natter on a little. :D <333!

[wyldblunt]

hi personal post just under a cut, it's not even serious or negative or anything i just feel like blabbering and it's embarrassing to have it out in the open lol

i NEED......... to get over how shy i am abt playing w ppl in game... it's not even just Running Content, i mean i get anxious/shy about even just. goofing around aimlessly/map completing with anyone i haven't known for literally years. or who i am not literally married to.

idk what it is!!! my brain immediately kicks into overdrive and gets completely clogged up with "am i not talking enough. are they getting bored. am i moving too fast/slow. i don't know what to do. this is stressing me out" and i have zero idea how to stop myself from getting like that. literally yesterday (SORRY IF THIS WAS YOU??? I THOUGHT YOU WERE NICE FWIW) someone came up to me and marina in game and said hi nicely and asked what we were up to and i like. Answered Once, and then did not talk again the whole time, and we sort of ran around together for a bit until i kind of lost track of them but the ENTIRE TIME i was agonizing over "am i being totally unfriendly and weird by not chatting. am i coming off like i want them to go away or just generally like an asshole" and as you can see i am also still agonizing about it now. even though objectively it was probably completely fine.

and EVEN WITH very good friends i've known for a long time i clam up like that... when i was trying to get into ffxiv some very good friends stopped by to give me stuff/say hi to my character etc and i got the exact same way!!! ppl i literally talk to all the time on twitter etc but then the second we're behind in game avatars i just get stressed out and start feeling super awkward and aside from like. jumping in place a few times suddenly forget literally every single thing i have ever known about human socialization

but it's dumb!!! and i'm so over it!!!! i wanna run dungeons and fractals and stuff, i even wanna scrape a group together to kind of activate my old guild again and claim a guild hall, stuff like that... and i KNOW the tumblr community is a great way to do that bc u guys are all so friendly and chill and it's way better than trying to throw myself into pugs or whatever. but oh my god. my fucking BRAIN, man

as i type this all out i do wonder if maybe a solution would be getting on voice chat w ppl while trying to play stuff together bc i truly feel like 90% of my anxiety comes from "i cannot type in chat and play at the same time, therefore i get super overwhelmed and confused about how to communicate naturally" and i feel like vc would solve that. but uh. if anyone does not mind sometimes running content with a guy who will probably be mostly silent and weird the whole time (the real glyndwr experience!!!!) please feel free to hit me up and i will get back to u between three and six billion business days

EDIT adding on more bc im still thinking lol. i just have a huge huge fear of coming off like a dick or like im unfriendly or something. ppl have constantly told me im intimidating for ages and it hurts my feelings and i get really antsy about it (this is why i never play reblog games abt like "rate how intimidating the person u reblogged from is" etc bc if anyone actually said they were scared of me i would get sad for real lol!!!). i naturally usually have a kind of flat/dry affect online and i make friends slowly, and i don't feel like changing how i express myself bc it's natural to me but. agh!!!! agh!!!! my wittle feelings!!!!!!

[arvensimp]

I always wondered what you think Arven does in his free time. Like sure he has mabosstif and he’s a great cook, but does he have other hobbies, would he be open to learning some of his friends or s/o’s?

It's tricky I think to write a fic based on s/o's hobbies for reader inserts, BUT fwiw i do think this sweet boy would be willing to give a lot of things a try.

In terms of hobbies he picks up, I think it's important to note that he decides in the story to pursue cooking full time as a career and to become a chef, so cooking becomes more than just a hobby to him.

I think he might try to pick up some tangential skills related to cooking and preparing healthy and tasty food, just on his own. So like, while I don't think he'd be one for fad diets in a sense of him going entirely Paleo or keto or whole30 or vegan or anything like that (especially not for health reasons), I think he'd have fun trying different recipes and sampling meals of different diet styles. Like he would never be an almond mom kinda guy, but I could definitely see him, say, trying keto for a few days just to say he's done it. I think he'd also become interested in the field of nutrition and science in that regard (which would give him a major respect for foods of all kinds!).

I think he could also probably become interested in gardening and growing his own herbs and vegetables.

But even then those hobbies are related to his work. He needs something away from that for himself to decompress.

Personally, I imagine he'd be privately interested in art and literature. He's in the humanities track at the academy, so I think this is something he probably chose for himself.

I don't think he'd be much of an artist or a writer, but I think he could appreciate and analyze elements, ya know? Like he can dig into a book of poetry. Or maybe he likes fantasy novels (cough like his parents liked the scarlet/violet book cough). I think he would be a neat person to go to an art museum with because he'd have opinions on the different pieces and could give thoughtful explanations on what he does or doesn't like about them.

But between the cooking, pokemon training, and all the camping/hiking/picnicking he does, I think any other hobbies he picks up would be fairly relaxed. Boy can't be going non-stop, ya know?

[epersonae]

director's commentary for what makes me kind and the cannonball series: your stede and ed povs in both these fics/series are SO perceptive and in character and well done. can you expand on how you tackle the pov writing process/style for both, and what you find most challenging and most fun in writing from each character's pov?

First of all: thank you! I care a lot about doing that well! I think a lot of it is about inputs:

Some of that is on my somewhat bananapants process of writing Hungry for love, ready to drown, which involves watching an episode over and over and over and over again, sometimes in chunks of just a couple of minutes. And every time I do I catch some nuance or detail that I hadn't quite gotten before, plus I think I absorb a little bit of the dialogue style as I go. That ends informing everything else I've written, for sure!

I've just watched a lot overall, not so much the last couple of months, but I am officially in the "has lost track of number of watches" camp.

I've also read a LOT of fanworks: what I can only describe as an unconscionable amount of fic, as well as a ton of meta. And I have opinions and preferences, and I've found myself nudged into different reads over time. I don't write meta, generally, but I find myself incorporating other people's into how I think about and write the characters. (A few people who I would like to give special mention: @chuplayswithfire, @knowlesian, @amuseoffyre, @meanmisscharles, and @triflesandparsnips, which I know is leaving out lots of folks with interesting takes!)

Writing process wise, there's a lot of reading out loud to make sure it sounds right, but also just, I dunno, VIBES?!?!?!

For Ed in what makes me kind (and sort of in can't cross the same river twice), it's "do I feel like my head is full of bees?", while in bad taste in our mouths/twinkle in your eye, I wanted to capture something of the tiredness of his life before Stede. (that one was also heavily inspired by the line "the old Blackbeard would have seen that coming a mile away", which I think is a fascinating bit of insight.) Ngl, anything post-S1 there's also just a lot of my grief feels in it.

And Stede is also lots of run-on sentences, but more like the thought just keeps going somehow? One of my personal criteria for a good Stede characterization in someone else's fic is whether I yell at some point "Stede fucking Bonnet you absolute dipshit", and so if I can do that at my own work then I know I'm on track. For post-S1 Stede, I'm also very consciously aware of trying to work on his growth arc, that he's going to try talking about his feelings, and it's going to be hard, but he's committed to it!

Reading out loud helps a LOT, because then I can hear if the cadence works, and the word choices feel in keeping with how the characters talk in canon. (FWIW, reading out loud is one of those classically great pieces of writing advice in any genre. It's kind of a pain in the ass but I never regret doing it.)

Which, here's the big challenge with Stede, which is also one of my favorite things: his verbal register is all over the place. A lot of people lean fancy, which I think is an easy mistake, and then people complain about how that's not how he talks, but it's not NOT how he talks, either. "Forthwith" and "kick their asses" are in the same sentence. "Sometimes a man has to take responsibility for the things he's done and the people he's hurt" is right before "Calm down Mister Wavy Blade." Getting the balance right is so fucking hard, and when it's right, it feels really good.

Similarly, the challenge with Ed is getting a very specific balance, that I can honestly only describe as "bees but not too many bees." He's so smart and he's thinking about so many things, but again, the trap to avoid is making him too manic (or in grief mode, too maudlin).

Here's a funny thing, actually, about what I enjoy writing each of their POV: I always crack myself up, writing Hungry for love, ready to drown, when I get a bit where Stede is just phenomenally unaware of what's happening, either in his own head or what's going on around him. Something where it's super clear in canon but I'm pretty sure my dude had no idea, yeah? And so that's one of the great pleasures of it, playing with that irony. On the other hand, one of the things I enjoy in writing Ed POV is how much he notices: like in bad taste in our mouths, he knows that Jack is probably playing him, and he decides to see where it goes. So I guess there's something about those two sides as something that I like digging into.

(which is probably a personal thing, but also heavily influenced by all the very interesting posts about unreliable narrators, which is a thing I haven't played with much in my writing over the years, until I started writing for OFMD.)

Thanks again for asking, this was fun to think about, and I may have actually figured out some things about my process that I hadn't considered before. I do run on vibes quite a bit, as a writer.

Fanfiction writers: director’s cut

[iamnotawomanimagod]

Awwww, why don't you like is there somewhere?

I like it! There's only like, five or six Halsey songs I truly dislike (not counting collabs lmao.) I'm just really surprised it's such a deeply beloved fandom song.

I remember there was some small grumbling when Halsey took it off the Love & Power tour setlist because it's considered "the fandom song." That's the first time they clarified that "Darling" is for us, and I think, on some level, Halsey does intend for "Darling" to kind of replace it in terms of the sentimentality connected to it.

I know they used to go out into the crowd (sometimes even crowd surf, in the early days) during the final part of "Is There Somewhere," so I'm sure that's a big part of why hardcore stans like it.

But - and I'm almost definitely projecting here - there's part of me that wonders if Halsey doesn't fully get why it's so popular either. She doesn't talk fondly about it the way they'll sometimes reference "Gasoline" or "Colors." "IST" also never saw the same "mainstream" exposure, though.

Tbh though, I think it's just kind of a mid song when it comes to Halsey tracks. It's got a very sweet, dreamy, nostalgic sound - but so do a lot of the songs on Badlands/Room 93, that was kind of just Halsey's sound back then. The lyrics are poetic ("you're writing lines about me, romantic poetry/your girl's got red in her cheeks/'cause we're something she can't see" is so vivid,) so I have no complaints there.

Buuuut it's also very non-subtly about cheating with someone who you know has a partner, lmao. (And uh, it's hard to forget that it's [rumored to be] about Matty fucking Healy these days.) Not my favorite message.

It actually kind of reminds me how "One Last Time" became the Ariana Grande fandom song even though it's also about being the other woman. (The rumors it was the last song before/playing during the Manchester arena bombing are false, fwiw.)

People just love the wistfulness of a forbidden romance, I guess. I can't knock it, even if I don't feel the same way, typically.

But I think there are much better songs in Halsey's discography, and "IST" is actually my least-favorite (not most-hated! that's important!) track on Room 93. There's an alternate universe where H didn't abandon "Empty Gold" and I'd get to sing that with the crowd at her shows instead. I yearn for that world.

[bisluthq]

Hello, I found you blog this morning after what you said about Harry and Stevie. I love their relationship, and Harry seems to have a lot of support from legends in music, like Paul McCartney was the first person to interview him solo, and I just think that's so cool. I just checked out your "nat talks harry" tag. You can ignore this because it's a topic from 2 years ago. I'm just really interested in Harry's songwriting because he doesn't talk a lot about it. I think he might have a bit of imposter syndrome, especially when it comes to writing. He doesn't give himself enough credit, and casual fans might not be aware of everything his collaborators have said. Annoyingly, Harry doesn't take production credit even though he would be well within his right to take significant credit because if you listen to Harry, you would think he does hardly anything, but listening to his collaborators, they are saying Harry is really producing and he his telling them every note to make. Then you have the songwriting credits which he seems to be very generous with even Tobias Jesso Jr. saying he was completely shocked by the credit because section he contributed is barely on the song because Harry changed it. That being said for people to start giving him credit he needs to put lyrics at the forefront because, although I don't think this way, people think songwriting=lyrics (like the other day I saw two Swifties who I would consider to be pretty intelligent say Aaron Dessner isn't a good songwriter because the lyrics for the national aren't like Taylor’s). So Harry needs to start listening to the songwriters he has worked with him telling him he is an excellent composer and start believing it, and also he needs to stop being so generous with the credit because although they are very minimal to start with people like to inflate the number, saying he has a team of 4, 5, 6 and some even saying 10 people on every song when he actually has 2 like Taylor. Sorry this sounds like a huge Harry stan rant hyping him up for something not there, but Harry Styles as a songwriter is so interesting because it seems like people within the songwriting space are of the opinion that Harry is a great songwriter and really talented, but critics seem to think he sits in the studio and says “write something that sounds like this song”.

I think he absolutely does have bad imposter syndrome and I do think he needs to believe in his songwriting a bit more and take more credit for the production/even the level of engagement he takes in terms of curating collaborators. I said a few days ago that Bey never writes solo and has HUGE teams of collaborators and Swifties for example often use that to shit on Bey but (I’m a big Bey fan) I think what people don’t understand is she changes those collaborators depending on her vision for the album/era (which she very much curates herself). Getting in people who can help you put together what you’ve imagined doesn’t make you less talented, it just means you recognize that this person has something valuable to contribute to what you’re trying to make. She also (and Harry sometimes and I can see him doing it more) finds people who are very much not mainstream and includes them in the process because she likes their stuff and it’s a HUGE opportunity for them but also useful to her because she gets in people who… can help create and execute her vision. That’s also a skill. Harry is good at his job. Aaron D is great at his job and lmao @ Swifties saying he’s not a good songwriter when we KNOW he wrote most of Tay’s folkmore tracks himself and she added in lyrics like they worked together? Her lyrics wouldn’t work without his tracks and fwiw his tracks inspired her lyrics? Bizarre attack on him tbh but Swifties often behave in bizarre ways and say bizarre things lmao.

[struggling-to-be-healthy]

I'm gonna give you a different kind of accountability. FWIW I'm not a fan of diets or WW for me but whatever works for you, as long as you don't get mentally/emotionally sick, is totally valid.

I don't think you're asking "why am I gaining" because you don't know. You know what you are doing. You aren't dumb- you know full well what you are eating and how you are moving and how that impacts your health and weight. I think instead you are asking why are you still eating and moving in a way you know doesn't work best for you, and that probably has a complex answer!

Willpower isn't really a thing- like, you don't have it or not. Willpower is more about our overall energy (not just physical, but emotional and mental as well). The more decisions you have to make, the harder it is to make "good" ones. Most people don't have a lot of willpower- it's not willpower that keeps them making "good" choices but rather development of habits so the "good" choices are made without much if any actual thought or effort. I'm somebody who legitimately doesn't develop habits easily (meaning, any "habit" I have is likely a habit of not-doing; I can't even brush my teeth habitually). Every decision I make is effortful. It's a real thing that some people really do not develop habits, and this isn't to excuse you or to say not to try, but it's something to think about as you think about how to talk to yourself too. There is a huge difference in how I feel when I say stuff like "I'm not making good choices unlike all these other people who seem to do so much better in similar situations" versus "I am stressed and not making the best choices I know how. Other people who make better choices tend to form habits better than I do. It is harder for me, and that means sometimes I'll do worse than them, and I deserve to give myself some grace." When I'm more down on myself, I tend to make even more not-so-good choices because I'm more drained from being so negative/not kind.

I also want to just remind you that there are diseases and illnesses out there that can cause weight gain. I'm not suggesting you have any, but its a reminder that weight loss occurs when calories in < calories out, and while both are highly variable and we can't determine them perfectly with any formula, if you seem to be not losing weight or gaining weight when you are controlling calories in, that may mean there's an issue with the calories out portion related to illness, like hypothyroidism, and that may be a reason to go speak to a (weight-inclusive if possible) doctor. (Also, stress -> cortisol -> messed up sleep and hunger signaling and even changes in metabolism and muscle mass)

Idk if any of this is helpful for you, but shame and guilt, though they can be powerful, can also have counter effects and don't usually lead to long-term positive change- it tells us what not to do, but not what to do instead. We usually need empathy and understanding to ID why we made the not-so-great choices, and then we can find alternatives to meet the same needs. I hope you can forgive yourself and move on and find a better way of handling any kind of stress in your life.

Thank you for this! I'm currently pretty exhausted and don't have the energy to do a full reply, but what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

I think WW appeals to me because it is suppose to be a life time change, not just some fad diet. I don't know. I've had good experiences with it I just always fall off track and gain everything back. I thought about giving Noom a try, but I don't know.

I have my blood work checked at least a few times a year and it has never shown anything was wrong. I do take anxiety medication and birth control that may cause weight gain, but I really need both of those things.

I usually find a way to forgive myself. Sometimes it just takes awhile.

[jenroses]

In the past 30 days: I came down with covid and the flu simultaneously Devoting all my executive function to taking covid/flu meds religiously on time led me to be late on my ongoing antiviral once, by 6 hours, so I had a brief flare of both shingles AND cold sores. They calmed back down once i got back on track. And now I have a bladder infection.

You would think, with my history (rheumatoid arthritis and resulting immune suppression and steroid-induced diabetes, asthma, obesity, physical and mental health issues, EDS, fibro, clotting disorders, etc.) that coming down with four viruses and a bacteria in this period of time would be horrible.

But you know what? Modern medicine is a good thing. Antivirals are a good thing. Antibiotics are amazing. I took ONE dose of the antibiotic and my symptoms for the UTI are already loads better. I got over the flu in THREE FUCKING DAYS. The flu used to take me out for 2 weeks, sometimes 3 if I got a secondary infection, and that was when I wasn't on immune suppressants. Tamiflu plus elderberry, taken soon after symptoms start, work like magic. Covid was minor. Yes, I know it's minor for a lot of people but with my risk factors? And getting it with the flu? I took an anti-covid antiviral, and of course was already taking elderberry for the flu. I have a few minor lingering issues but they're basically issues I already have, just kicked from a 6 to a 6.5, ish. Like I used to hate black pepper and then I learned to tolerate it and now I can't tolerate it again. That kind of thing. Sensory stuff is more brittle than it was, suboptimal pants are not an option. But seriously, shingles used to be a mandatory 6 week excruciating ordeal. I noticed the tingle-itch-prickle in that nerve, took my not-today-satan pills (famcyclovir) and it never really managed to get going. Cold sore was a specific prickle and a single small bump, never even scabbed. My kid was diagnosed with both flu and strep today, and he's not very sick either, and I don't even have to get swabbed for strep because the UTI drug will also treat strep. (Cefdinir)

I caught Covid 2 weeks after the bivalent shot, went off my immune suppressing drug, and kicked it to the curb with the help of targeted meds and a little herbal knowledge. I've been miserable for days with this UTI and finally got the executive function to get us to the doctor and boom, better.

I am begging you. If you get sick, and you know you're sick, if you can, get tested quickly and treated quickly. Tamiflu is supposed to cut hours off the flu, but in my experience combined with elderberry, it has taken a 14 day illness and turned it into a 3 day illness, several times now. I've never had a flu shot. (I don't object to them in principle, but my body can have garbage reactions to immune provocation and by the time Covid happened the tamiflu/elderberry=3 days sick thing made the flu shot moot for me. The math on Covid works out well in favor of the covid shot.)

There's no benefit in suffering. Especially with Covid and the flu, which mutate constantly and can bork your immune system permanently (see: triggers for autoimmunity. I have 6 autoimmune conditions, fun times.) Covid, especially, can target the cells which remember Covid. Kick it to the curb, kick it hard, kick it fast, use the tools we have.

I didn't even catch bronchitis from all this, and I ALWAYS used to catch bronchitis. because CPAP.

FWIW elderberry also helps the immune system clear out post-vaccine yuck faster. Without, I had inflammatory flares for a month. A dose ended that cycle. Next immunizations I took elderberry sooner and didn't have anywhere near as bad a time. (It is not "just" an "immune booster", it specifically promotes the production/function of tumor necrosis factor and this makes it specifically good for things like influenza.) My reaction to the bivalent shot was a sore arm for a day and then a couple days of local pain. A minor RA flare, short lived, not severe.

Anyway. Wear a mask. Get your shots. If you get sick, have them swab you for both flu and covid, not just one or the other, and strep too, if you're getting a sore throat, because we are past the days of one or the other. Get the antivirals and take as directed. Hydrate. Rest, and rest an extra day on top of it, more if you can, to give your body a chance to really kick it all the way. Use the tools available to you.

[thewynne]

East Coast US suburban high school!

1) if you were close enough you walked/biked, if you had a car or a nice enough parent you drove/got a ride, everyone else took a yellow school bus (fwiw kids in actual cities w/ functional public transit tend to get a student pass and use that - most kids in the big east coast city where I live now take the subway/city bus, ditto my relatives from NYC)

2) Depends on the school. Private/religious schools tend to have uniforms, some public city districts have uniforms (see: city district where I live now), but suburban public schools like I grew up in tend to not have them.

3) You do have to pay in the cafeteria but low cost/free lunch programs exist. Sometimes the school makes everyone puts their money on their school ID so kids in the free lunch program don't feel singled out. I usually brought my lunch tho.

4) Eating outside is hyper-regional, in my experience. I do know people who grew up in southern California who had cafeteria seating outdoors (like you see in a lot of teen movies set around there), which was wild to me. We never had that on the east coast, too cold and rainy. Up through middle school you usually went outside after you ate, but that mostly stopped in high school. Seniors in good standing could leave campus for food, tho.

5) Schools do have mascots! Genuinely not used for much beyond decorating the gym and putting it on club t shirts and sports uniforms etc. There was a kid in a costume who would go to Big Games and Pep Rallies. Go Panthers.

6) Depends on the sport. My school tried to get people into football/The Big Homecoming Game despite our team being awful, but that was NOTHING compared to what they do in the Midwest/South (look up Texas homecoming mums - I knew girls who brought theirs to college).

People did kind of care about our football rivalry with the town next door for some reason (tho we had to cancel The Big Homecoming Game a couple of times bc their team was going to States the next day lol), lots of temporary murals of our mascot fighting their mascot in the run up to the game, that sort of thing.

Our basketball teams were very good tho, and the school DID go a little crazy for them. We'd have pep rallies when one of the basketball teams made it to States. If you were in a different sport it wasn't a big deal at all, players got out of class a little early to travel to games sometimes but that was it.

Worth noting that even schools that don't really care about football will still have more people show up to football games in the US, just bc that's where the marching band & cheerleaders do their thing. Marching band has their own competitions but mostly plays at games. Cheerleading is similar, ours did stuff at games & pep rallies but they weren't a Clique like you see in the movies and idk if they ever competed on their own.

(Also re. Jocks, we HAD them, but it just meant you were on at least one of the bigger sports teams and that was where most of your friend group came from. Mostly football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, and sometimes track kids. They weren't, like, a menace to the rest of the student population or anything like that.)

jock anon here! I have more questions about western schools because I always wondered how much is true :

Do you really drive to school?

Do you not have uniforms?

Do you really pay in the cafeteria? are you allowed to eat outside?

Do you have mascots?

are school sports THAT big of a deal?

(Sorry if these sound stupid but I really wanted to know )

To answer, I grew up on farmland in rural Canada

If you have your own car and a driver's license, you can drive to school. It's definitely too far to walk, but some people might bike. The city bus only goes through every four hours, but the school bus isn't too bad. If these don't work your guardians might drop you off before they go to work.

No, we did not have uniforms, that's rich city bitch shit. I personally enjoyed the fishnets and stompin boots combo but no, no uniform. Loosely-enforced dress code, too.

Yes, the cafeteria costs money. There are snack programs for If you don't have money but it's usually apples and granola bars, sometimes mac n cheese for a dollar or something. We can eat anywhere we want, just not the library, gym, or art rooms, and nobody's allowed up the trees.

We had a mascot but we didn't really use it. There was a costume but I think I only saw it twice.

I could not have given less of a shit about team sports, and I was *on* a sports team. We didn't really watch the teams play, either. From what I've seen in America it is NOTHING like they do. No parades or parties or sirens in the street, just trying to make it to nationals, maybe get a scholarship. (Didn't work for me, I was an art kid.)

It doesn't sound stupid but maybe ask an American for Wilder stories, holy fuck the sport team I saw had a fire truck wailing around town when they won once holy fuck damn near shit meself

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I haven’t seen Nabari no Ou (tho I'm going to start it now that you mentionned it!) but Shimanami Tasogare doesn't have a bad ending. Without spoilers, it’s really a sweet manga. I have the impression that the goal was to tell an encouraging story and above all to inform peopel about several queer identities. Of course there is some hard moment but overall it's really sweet. I encourage you to check it one day if you feel like you can ^^

Warning for anyone who may be tempted to start Nabari because of me, this is official art for the series I have had saved for like 5ever.

Nabari, is loosely, about this 14yo boy named Miharu, who lost his parents in a plot-related tragedy many years ago and lives with his grandparents now. And then he realizes his family was a ninja family and he has this godlike ninjitsu called the Shinrabanshou that basically can do whatever the hell he wants it to do.

But he doesn't actually know how to make it work, and he's extremely apathetic and depressed, so he doesn't really want anything enough to make it work, either.

So the various ninja clans realize he has this thing and they all, in various ways, try to get it to use it for themselves. And then he runs into this young intersex ninja named Yoite, who is ostensibly on the side of their worst enemies, who threatens Miharu's friends and family if he doesn't agree to help Yoite "Never have been born."

(Although at this point, I should mention that the anime does not make Yoite intersex explicitly, but he is explicitly intersex in the manga. FWIW)

So Miharu agrees, and they both sort of set out on a quest absolutely zero other people want them to be on in order to figure out how to make this stupid thing work so Miharu can make Yoite never have been born, and they bond and, arguably, fall in love. And Yoite stops wanting to die (although I'm compelled to point out that in this series, never having been born and dying are not at all the same thing) so badly and Miharu starts becoming invested in his life and care about people, and.

Well, I'll stop there to not share All The Spoilers.

The anime doesn't exactly end badly, but it does end tragically, and somehow the gay couples/implied couples all end up sadly but the straight couples make it out okay, and that annoys me in retrospect although it didn't really register at the time.

I have heard the manga ends much better, but I have not once heard that it ends happily. I actually have the fist 6 volumes still on my manga bookcase, and then sort of lost track of it because Money, but the college friend read the scans and filled me in on some of the other stuff.

I do still like Nabari. It didn't make me angry the same way that Banana Fish. The tragedy is much more narratively sound (although I have many arguments I'd like to make about the anime version of it that I know don't track for the manga), and frankly, cathartic, and I don't think it's a harmful tragedy in the way Banana Fish is.

[highdio]

Hey! I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but, I have been into JoJo for some time now and never really bought any merch for it because I don't have much space! Do you have any recommendations for something to buy for someone like me without the room for something like a figure or poster? Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask!

Great ask and I feel like I don't have as good an answer, so first off, if someone reading this wants to reply with suggestions in the comments/reblogs with suggestions, feel free to add.

Some ideas:

1. Maybe look for merch that serves another purpose at the same time so it doesn’t need its own designated space - like apparel, glassware/dishes, jewelry, etc. There's lots of Jojo goods in these categories.

2. Small merch. Especially if you don't mind chibis, there's some lines of SD Jojo figures like Chara Heroes, World Collectable Figures, tomonui ('microorganism' Jojos), tsums, etc. (fwiw I don't recommend nendoroids as much if space is an issue bc, like larger figures, they've got boxes you'll want to hold onto plus accessories ... unless you can limit to just a couple of them). Plushes seem to take up a lot less space than figures since they don't need a dedicated location for display.

3. Designate a small space to display a couple of Jojo items (I have a bookcase top that's only 11 x 18 inches that I keep a few of the figures I really love on top of).

4. Hanged-up or keychain merch. Basically, stuff you can carry around with you. Again, there's some good Jojo merch in this category.

4. Artbooks and manga volumes. It's usually easier to find room for books than figures/other goods and there's some really good Araki artbooks.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Also fwiw mfc has a ‘goods’ category and while iirc it’s far from complete, it can give you an idea of what’s available for each character. Since he doesn’t have much stuff here’s Diego’s link as an example: https://myfigurecollection.net/entry/41383. You can see in addition to his figures, he’s got a drinking glass (along with Valentine), coaster, t-shirt, and the infamous cell phone holder (also fwiw, some of these type goods are harder to track down but always rewarding when you find).

[dyffryn-ddibwys]

Brad Paisley's "Wheelhouse"

If you ever have a moment and the chance, I recommend checking out Brad Paisley's 2013 album called "Wheelhouse". You might recall the single he had back then called "Beat This Summer"; it's on the same album. And FWIW, the acoustic version of "Beat This Summer" is one of the best things ever made, solidly in The 5-Star Club, and I legit don't know why anyone ever listens to the non-acoustic version. Unless it's because they don't have it, because I believe the acoustic version may only be available on the special Cracker Barrel edition of the album (I'm not making jokes; that's actually what it's called).

There's a song called "Karate" that goes "He's in a bar chasin' Cuervo with Tecate/He doesn't know she's been takin' karate/The way she figures it, about July/She'll finally have the belt to match her eye". It's basically that movie Sleeping With the Enemy played out in 4 minutes, but at the end, instead of shooting the guy, she whips his ass. And listeners get to hear Charlie Daniels describing said ass-whooping in play-by-play detail over the sound of his own fiddling. So, in spite of the irritating subject matter, the song is worth knowing.

I don't like that "Accidental Racist" song featuring LL Cool J, and never did, but the rest of the album is good stuff. There's an instrumental with killer guitar; the title is some Asian characters I don't know how to pronounce. "Outstanding in Our Field" is a good ride, and so is "Harvey Bodine", "Those Crazy Christians", and "Pressing on a Bruise". "Mona Lisa" has one of the best sentiments I've ever heard as it's chorus: "I feel like the frame/That gets to hold the Mona Lisa/And I don't care if that's all I ever do!"--dawww.

There's also a song called "Death of a Single Man" with some badass steel guitar, and a folksy, feel-good melody, in spite of it's kinda eye-rolling Saving Silverman theme, comparing a wedding to a funeral: "I didn't understand, why, with champagne and cake/We celebrate the death of a single man."

But I'm not gonna lie, the best thing about the latter is the other track on the album, 42 seconds long, called "Death of a Married Man". After a musical intro it goes, "I had a heart attack/While I was playing charades/Everybody yelled "Heart attack!" ("Pledge of Allegiance?")/But it was too late." And that's the whole song! And it's hilarious. :D

[infiniteglitterfall]

oh my god yes.

I need to apply this to mental health/emotional pain especially. Because not only does shit like depression tell you "this doesn't really matter and there's no way to fix it anyway and it's not bad enough to do anything," but then also, it doesn't take long for me to get so fucking used to it that I don't notice it.

So I might not specifically tell my doctor, "my antidepressant/antianxiety meds are doing nothing and I'm at an 8 on the mental health pain scale that you probably don't know exists but my distress is at a 1 because.... I don't have the emotional spoons to worry about it... because I'm at a fuckinf 8 on the mental health scale... except when I'm actively freaking out, at which point my distress about it is at like a 10 but I'm not capable of taking any action around it... So anyway what the fuck else can I take that doesn't prevent my ADHD meds from working?"

But if I remember that my distress level doesn't have any relevance to how bad it is, I might be a lot more motivated to email him SOMETHING. because then I'm not using my very inaccurate sense of how bad it is to decide what to do about it.

also HOLY SHIT I'M AT AN 8 I HAD NO IDEA UNTIL I LOOKED IT UP FOR THIS POST THIS IS REALLY BAD I GUESS?!?! (someone who isn't me would definitely think this was really bad and I've been researching what else I could take that would work better, but gee maybe I should just infodump at my doctor and see if that gets me anywhere any faster)

(I've definitely reblogged the mental health pain scale somewhere in here, but here's a link)that

Add “distress” to your pain scale

Pain scale? More like pain in the booty. No two people seem to read it the same way, and chronic folks tend to downplay their pain.

So here’s an idea: when asked to rate your pain, provide a number to rate your distress levels in addition to your pain levels.

Some examples:

“I’m at a 5 on the pain scale, but my distress is basically a 1 because this is my usual.”

“I’m at a 3 on the pain scale, but my distress is a 7 because this is new pain and affects a part of my body that’s very important to my work.”

It’s a great way to consider how your pain is impacting you—and to get a doctor’s attention where it’s actually needed.

[unsoundedcomic]

Hello! The Brothers Adelier is my favorite chapter! I frequently re-read it. Poor Lemuel gets a bad rap. FWIW, I never really thought Lemuel was actively involved in Duane's ambush. I do think he learned about it at some point though, and decided not to interfere for reasons hitherto unknown that he thought would serve his country. Am I on the right track at all? Is this spoilers? Is this not even a proper question? I'm shy and don't really post things on the internets :/ #awkwardanon

-- Hello there, awkwardanon! You don’t need to be awkward or shy around me; I’m only mean to people who have questionable taste in cartoons <3

I like that chapter too. I needed to reference something in it the other day and wound up rereading a big chunk. It’s always difficult for me to look at my older stuff because I’m perpetually stopping to make a note of what I want to improve or change, but I found I wanted to do that a little less with chapter 14 - so that must mean something!

Unfortunately I can’t answer anything about Lemuel, but if it’s any comfort he’ll be popping up again in the story fairly soon. I can at least say that you’re right in thinking there is something going on with him that is contrary to... how the situation appears :)