#i need to go through my gear again and work on enhancing stuff because i'm like out of useable gear rn

[prince-aither]

idk who I wanna pick for my Moonlight Headhunt... I have the opportunity to grab Dragon King Sharun right now, but I'm not sure if I want her over Sea Phantom Politis or Dragon Bride Senya

I like the ocean-themed units, if you couldn't tell, hehe

Realistically I don't have the gear for any of these units right now, but shhh that doesn't matter, I'll work on it

Sea Phantom Politis and Dragon Bride Senya are probably more frequently useful than Dragon King Sharun, and they're both sooo pretty... maybe I'll wait and see if they pop up

[protemporescitor]

"Um Ackchyually…"

Rant incoming. Gird your loins.

It's like every time Cloud does anything even remotely cool-looking, someone in the fandom will invariably go "um achshyelly he can't be doing kewl stuff because you see he's actually a massive dweeb and…"

Every goddamn time, like clockwork. I swear, it's become a kind of mass neurosis for the fandom at this point.

I'm sorry, but "Oh he's just some try-hard dweeb" is such a paltry reading of this character, one that only furthers my belief that this fandom is mentally unequipped to parse any real kind of psychological complexity.

Yes, he can be unsubtle, envious, socially awkward, even dorky at times. That's part of the character's appeal. His extremely human frailties in that regard are what make him such an endearing and interesting (dare I say relatable?) character. He's also the man who ended the world's greatest soldier, so what does that say about his critics, the fans who believe he's just some feckless dork while ignoring that side of him entirely?

Now, lest you think I'm just headcanoning the character this way and talking nonsense, here's a quote from Yoshinori Kitase himself: "He isn't a straightforward hero like Superman; rather, he has lots of mysteries, self-doubts, and a real dark side."

What truly grinds my gears is the smug, gratingly knowing insinuation that portraying Cloud as a badass is somehow "wrong", or naïve characterization at best. and that only works which portray him some other way (awkward, goofy, insecure, etc…) are showing you the "real" character. And that, to me, is just nonsense.

Here's another example:

Same character, two different aesthetics, with different traits being emphasized. Both depictions are considered canon.

So the real question is, why does it have to be one or the other? Why is it so hard for people to reconcile the two?

I sometimes think we're in need of two separate fandoms, one for fans who want to Cloud continue to grow and develop as a character (like me), and the fans who just want him to remain the same awkward, insecure boy forever, i.e. people who prefer cartoon FFVII, and those who care about mythology and prefer to look at the story as a kind of bildungsroman. In any case, there's a reason why I keep underlining the darker, more feral side of this character, even to the point of over-emphasis, because it's at risk of falling prey to a fandom pseudo-narrative that simply rings hollow. Remember, his proper animal motif is that of a wolf, and that "cloud", as a verb, means "to darken, to obscure".

(Not just any wolf, by the way. The wolf.)

Lastly, I get the distinct feeling that we don't mean the same thing by "cool". Presumably, by "cool", some of you mean "cold and uncaring", which he is not. (Or possibly suave, depending on your definition.) The other is more a question of aesthetic cool on the one hand and valour on the other, both of which he possesses in spades. Cloud keeps taking on fights he shouldn't win, and yet often comes out on top, anyway, usually while pulling one insanely cool-looking stunt or another (e.g. the Shinra building escape, or putting a stop to Sephiroth's plans even without SOLDIER enhancements.)

It doesn't matter how much dorky nonsense the world tries to put him through; he'll always remain effortlessly cool in that regard.

While I've got your attention, I want to bring up one more thing related to mischaracterization (or rather, misperception): Aerith's temperament in Advent Children, specifically the idea that she's lost her original characterization and is just being depicted as some simplistic, incorruptible pure pureness (tm) messiah figure. Again, I don't think that's right. (It might be true for Kingdom Hearts, but tbh I never cared much for that series, so I'll refrain from further comment.) It's a long-running bit of accepted wisdom which, as far as I can tell, has no basis in reality.

The truth is, Advent Children's brief running time means there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for Square to focus on character building, but I contend that both Cloud and Aerith's original characterization is intact, just handled in a more subtle way. Note her comportment in scenes like the one above. She still evinces the same kind of playfulness as she did when she was among the living. For example, when Cloud tells her that he wants to be forgiven, her reaction is to ask "By whom?" in her usual, cheeky manner. She's still subtly poking fun at Cloud's tendency to take himself too seriously, while hinting at the fact that she doesn't blame him for her death. Or later, when she tells Zack "I don't want a kid that big!" She's still very much cracking wise, even in the Lifestream.

If she comes across as more ethereal than she did in the original story, well, that's because she is. Given that she's now in the afterlife, being that scrappy, streetwise flower girl from the slums is obviously less of a concern for her, at least as far as actual, physical scraps are concerned. But it's clear that her original personality is very much intact.

The same is true of Cloud and fans who grouse that he's being "emo"* in Advent Children, which is equally false. (*Lord help me but I detest that word. Being emo is when you're moping about listening to MCR after your girlfriend broke up with you, not dealing with the shattered pieces of your life and mourning the deaths of two of your closest friends. To call that "emo" is insulting to the character and narrative alike. In fact, it's an insult to language itself. If you care about good writing at all, I implore you to let this dreary, monosyllabic pustule of a word wither away and die in favour of more literate, meaningful descriptors.) He might be far more world-weary and disillusioned at this stage, but he still show various shades of mood (gentle, furious, defiant, haughty, protective, uncertain, disdainful, imperious, even cocky, much like OG FFVII):

Lastly, griping about this also denies character development and growth commensurate with where both of them are at this point in the story. During the events of the original FFVII, Cloud is still boyish and uncertain much of the time, whereas by the time Advent Children rolls around, he is older and tempered by experience. The same goes for Aerith. Same essential character, just acting according to her newfound circumstances.

I think that's it for now. I leave this rant here in the vain hope that somebody has something more interesting to say than "lawl emo chocobo-head boi!!!" for the millionth time.

I won't hold my breath, but it would be nice to be proven wrong for a change.

[csykora]

heya ! first of all sorry for spamming your motifs like crazy but a. i find your posts incredibly fascinating and b. you love alexander semin even more than i do which i didn't think was possible. OKAY so actually i have a question about How To Find A PT--i'm a figure skater and i want my knees to Not Do Bad Things anymore and i'm wondering if you might know how to find a PT who could help me from the perspective of making me a stronger skater and not just like. able to walk normally

hello—

No need to apologize! All I ever ask is that people add really great and/or dirty tags to my posts for me to laugh at on long shifts, and your Kuzy tag game is fuckin outstanding

(This goes out to everybody—I want to write for fans in the back, so even if you’re not up for talking directly, go ahead and engage however much you like. Yeah, I do usually take a peek at your tags or your blog if I see you interacting with a post, because it’s fun to see what you all are into, and sometimes if it looks like you have questions about something I’ll pounce, because I want information to be available. Please don’t worry about me peeking though. And also know I really won’t notice if either of us do something Tumblr-rude.)

b. Thank you! I do love him a frankly baffling amount. Your love is also lovely and I love seeing all of it. I vote we be friends and the circle of Sasha-love will only grow

(Listen I’ve been on tumblr for 5 minutes and I tried to fight this being my Thing for 2 of them, but what the hell. I’ve got a batch of new followers after last night and this is as good a way as any to warn you all)

He’s a thoughtful and a kind and a happy human being 

or possibly a husky in a hockey sweater. We just don’t know. I love anyway.

How To Find a PT

Congratulations on moving forward on strengthening your skating; I think this’ll be a lot for fun for you. This was a pretty cool question, because I’m not as familiar with figure skating resources and I got to do some exploring. A lot depends on your needs and wherever you are, but I think you’re going find more options than you might expect.

First, I agree that looking for a PT with experience working with skaters is probably right for you. You have a clear goal for yourself, and like I’ve discussed before on this blog your baseline posture/mobility and the ideal posture/mobility for what you want to do are gonna be different from a non-skater’s.

A good PT will do their research and be able to help you even if they haven’t seen exactly your case before, so if it turns out there isn’t a skating specialist around that’ll work for you, you can certainly get some benefit from a general sports PT. But if you can, filtering for skating specialists will save you time and trouble.

Use your networks

Figure skating is figure skating. Somebody is gonna know somebody. 

Figure skating culture can also really convince you that you the skater are not supposed to ask for things, though, so it’s a good idea to sit down with a notepad for a minute and think about:

what have I tried and what’s worked for me? 

 Have you had injuries or conditions that required medical care? 

Were you given those little paper sheets with rehab exercises to do and did you try them? 

Have you noticed any patterns or tricks like, “hey, it really hurts when I do ___ but if I ice before I do it that helps.”

What are my goals?

Are you thinking in terms of rehabbing to get back to your earlier level, or preventing further injury, or both? 

What’s your time frame? How much time can you spend, and how much do you want to?

Do you want to be in-and-done to get an official opinion and then work by yourself, or do you want more hands-on guidance and a working relationship?

 What kind of person are you looking for—a strict coach’s attitude to drive you, or someone who’ll give more encouragement?  

Then you can tuck that away and start poking around. I recommend a 50/50 of googling and talking to people, but go with whichever you trust and are comfortable with.

If you go to a rink, you can ask basically anyone there for their ideas. (You don’t have to tell them anything personal, you can just say, “So, skating, huh. You know any folks that’d help a fellow skate better?”) Any figure skating coach should be cross-trained, and they should know their resources. Rink managers will also know the names of local providers and may have deals worked out. If it’s a university rink, there’ll be an in-house sports med department who’ll often offer some services even if you’re not a competitive athlete for the school and will know your options. The skate mothers will Know.

Ask providers you’ve worked with in the past. If you have a primary care doctor, let them know you’re interested in PT. If you’ve ever had surgery on your knees, check in with that provider and see if they have any names to refer you to.

If you’d rather internet, you can search the American Physical Therapy Association database at MoveForwardPT by region. 

(I’m offering US resources based on your profile. If you or anyone else wants suggestions for other countries, let me know.)

 It’ll then offer you the option to filter by Practice Area—you’ll want to try Fitness and Wellness and Musculoskeletal. 

Each provider will then show up with their “practice focus” like this:

They write those themselves, so there isn’t really a standard meaning. ‘Sports Physical Therapy’ suggests that they do relatively acute, focused rehab. Seeing ‘Athletic Training’ and/or ’Sports Performance and Enhancement’ suggests that they work longer-term one-on-one as you train. (A lot people say both. Again, these just give you a sense of what they want you to know about them.)

If you then select a provider, you’ll see more on their professional experience, facility, and availability, with their contact information.

If you’re a member of US Figure Skating, you should be able to search for local providers and referrals from other skaters through the U.S. Figure Skating National Medical Network.

I personally wouldn’t trust USFS with a piece of string, and I don’t know how useful the database is outside of, like, the skating hub cities. But the PTs in the network are independent providers—they don’t all work for USFS, and most will work with any clients. You just need a membership ID to search the database, so if you aren’t a member you could find someone at your rink who is and ask them to help you search.

Once you’ve got a name:

Go ahead and contact them in whatever format you prefer. Their contact info is on their bios for a reason! You want to know if you’re a match before you start working together, and so do they. Just like a therapist or a surgeon or a tattoo artist, a good PT will want to tell you about their experience, the kinds of problems they see, and their particular style. They should be telling you about their privacy policy, and their non-discrimination policy, before you even ask.

When you meet:

Bring your notes

Go ahead and count the little things. We keep personal things in our offices on purpose to tell you about us. If you don’t like how much Chicago gear they have on the wall or how they talk to you or how they carry themselves around your personal space, count that. If you can chat comfortably with them, count that too; that’s worth a lot more than their degrees or how many other skaters they’ve seen.

Look for signs of respect. Look at where they sit: all healthcare providers are supposed to be trained not to get between you and the door, so if you see them deliberately moving, that’s a good sign. 

PT have to get their hands all up on patients, and the good ones are great about it: you should hear them say exactly what they’re going to do before they touch you,  explaining while they work, and see them deliberately warming their hands, only moving your clothes as much as they have to for each assessment, and covering you back up as soon as they’re done with something.

If it’s an office practice, talk to the nurse! They see all the patients that the PT sees, and their clinical judgement informs the whole practice. Ask them about the practice and tell them about your goals. The PT is a specialist, while the nurse is there to provide holistic care: they know a little about all the different resources that might be able to help you. And they also know or have worked with or know a nurse who’s worked with everybody in the area—they’ll be the one to say, “hey, water therapy really worked for our last client, maybe try that,” or “Dr. Bronner over on Spring Street does more work with clients like you, maybe give him a call.” They’ll also be able to help you with scheduling, which is a pretty big deal for long-term PT.

If one PT isn’t a match for you, it’s very appropriate to ask for them for recommendations!

Last:

Keep what you want in front of you, but be open to trying things you don’t expect. It’s very possible that a good PT will look at you and say, “I hear that your knees are bugging you, but that’s only happening because your hips are fucked up,” or “We’re going to start by relaxing your lower back and building strength in your core so you can use a posture that stresses your knees less.” Or you’ll go in wanting exercises to do on the ice but what ends up working for you is heat therapy or strength training. Try stuff, give it some time, and if that one thing isn’t the thing for you (including the first PT you work with), you can move on and something else will be. 

Good luck and you should let me know how it goes!

[thebibliosphere]

Hi, mom, I have a question about allergies. I am allergic to certain types of laundry soap, the worst of which is tide. I suspect that I am allergic to the borax that's in these soaps, as it's a common ingredient in all of the ones I'm allergic to, but do you know of any way to figure out for sure what causes the reaction. As a side note, there isn't an allergist at the practice I go to anymore, but I do have a pulmonologist, if that matters at all. Thank you so much in advance!

Oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear you’re having issues with laundry detergent @colehence, but rest assured you are not alone in being allergic to things like Tide, it’s actually super common.You didn’t mention what your reactions were (and pulmonology is really only going to help if it’s triggering asthma) and while it’s possible you are reacting to the borax, it’s also entirely possible it’s the synthetic scents, the presence of sulfates (huge problem for a lot of us with chronic allergies or things like eczema) or any number of things in brands like Tide. The smell alone of regular Tide triggers respiratory distress in myself, the second worst thing after that being Downy fabric softener which we found out was triggering an allergic reaction which manifested as panic attacks and migraines for me from even just walking down the laundry aisle in the grocery store, so now I don’t. I will do a loop of the entire store to avoid the laundry aisle unless I have my vogmask with me. Cause fuck all that shit.

Even Tide’s “Free and Clear” range scores an F for failure and high levels of allergy and toxicity through EWG.org due to containing Ethanolamine, Benzisothiazolinone (also found in pesticides, fun!) as well as Sodium Borate (Borax) which are all known skin irritants and just generally non allergy friendly. So fuck Tide for pretending to actually make something “free and clear” when what they mean is “we didn’t add the neon blue or that weird chemical scent, enjoy your other major allergens though!”.

The only way to really test this on your own without an allergist, is to try alternative laundry detergent brands. Unfortunately actual free and clear detergents are more expensive, but well worth the investment if you can find a way to get them in bulk. Cause y’know not itching to death/having constant headaches and coughs as well as clean clothes should be an attainable goal for everyone, not just people without allergies.

I have three brands I know I can use without major issue. And because this is going to get long, I will put the full ingredient list of each one under a cut <3

Planet 2x Ultra Laundry Detergent Free & Clear*

Whole Foods Organic Liquid Laundry Detergent, Unscented**

Seventh Generation Powder Detergents: aka I will die on the hill of this brand, I just wish it was more affordable.****

Another thing worth checking for along with trying to avoid borax is methylisothiazolinone which is in virtually every commercial main brand of everything cause it’s a highly effectiveantimicrobial and preservative. 

And it’s also highly effective at making me dead cause I can’t have anything that contains it in the house, no hand soaps, no laundry, no perfumes, no candles no nothing. Even all of ETD’s things, his soaps, shampoo, lotions, sunscreen, all of it had to go because just even him using it was making my skin break out. Which is unacceptable when you smooch as much as we do. Methylisothiazolinone is also often used hand in hand with benzisothiazolinone, which you may remember from our good worst friend Tide. So that’s another thing to watch out for, even if one isn’t listed, they often go hand in hand together.

Other brands which are low allergen and don’t contain borax but I haven’t personally tried are: 

 Biokleen Free & Clear, 

Ecover (which my mother has been using for literal decades, it’s great if you can get it but I struggle to find it over here at a reasonable price so I didn’t list it up there) 

Attitude: Little Ones Laundry Detergent (Fragrance Free),

Fit Organic Laundry Detergent (Free and Clear), 

and Green Shield Organic, which even their scented ones test low on allergens, so I may need to check those out.

Brands to AVOID if you have skin issues or respiratory allergies include:  

Tide in all shapes and forms, (I’m sorry, I know it’s cheap but compare that to the cost of your allergy meds/asthma meds and oh boy is it suddenly not worth it.) 

Wallgreens “Nice!” brand. 

Ajax. (it burns)

Kirkland Signature (you can hear the Costco lovers screaming) 

Arm and Hammer (yes really, even their free and clear contains sodium alylyr aryl ether sulfate which is a medium range allergy risk for skin and respiratory issues) 

J.R. Watkins ‘Natural’ Liquid Laundry Detergent, Fragrance Free (they don’t actually list what their surfactants are but based on my reaction I think it’s wheat based) 

and lastly, the insidious Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day product range which can honeslty just jump off a cliff with their synthetic fragrances and their methylisothiazolinone and all their other crap they hide behind their “we use essential oils so we’re SAFE” marketing horseshit. I’d literally rather gargle glass than touch any of their products again. It’d have roughly the same effect on my throat and lungs.

Anyway…I hope some of this is helpful for you in trying to work out if it is your laundry cleaning that is causing you the issue. If you want to hit me up on IM (I will be opening it up again this weekend) to chat allergies and what have you, I am totally down with that :) Take care!

*Planet 2x Ultra Laundry Detergent Free & Clear (liquid): Sodium Carbonate, Stearic Acid, Water, Sodium Gluconate, Lauryl Glucoside, PPG-5-Laureth-5 (possible skin irritant) and Laureth-7 (possible skin irritant).

I want to like this brand cause it’s easy for me to get hold of and it’s fairly cheap as “eco friendly” detergents go, but it just kind of doesn’t clean all that well. The powder one cleaned great! Unfortunately it has borax in it and a thing called C-10-16 Pareth-1 which as well as being a high risk ingredient for allergy and asthma sufferers, is also apparently raising some cancer concerns, so out the window that went. Except not really cause it’s not good for the environment and I didn’t want to give the squirrels cancer or something. idk, I worry about those things.

The liquid however is low allergy, it just didn’t seem to work very well in my hard water for when it came to cleaning. Other people might have better luck with it.

**Whole Foods Organic Liquid Laundry Detergent, Unscented: Soapbark, Glycerin, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sea Salt, Saponofied Cocos (coconut) Oil, Water, Xanthum Gum (yay gluten free. I wish I was kidding†.) Guar Gum, Thymus Satureioides, Aloe Vera Juice Powder, Sapindus Mukurossi and Acacia Senegal Gum.This is the brand I am currently using cause I wanted to try out cause I can apparently get 200 washes for $16 a bottle, which makes it way ahead of all the others in terms of price matching, and also to see if it worked better than other organic brands I’ve tried, which generally fell short of the mark when it came to actually lifting the dirt out of clothes. And it does actually really work well, I’m enjoying using it, if you can say such a thing about laundry detergent. Ewg.org does flag up some of their ingredients as high risk for asthma and respiratory reactions (acacia senegal gum is apparently not good for the lungs) but I’ve had zero skin or respiratory reactions to it, so I’ll keep using it until the bottle runs out and I can try something else.Ewg.org actually rates their non organic 365 Everyday Value 2X Concentrated Powder Laundry Detergent, Unscented*** as better for the environment, as well as being fairly safe for skin allergies, so that’s what I might try after my giant bottle of 200 washes runs out.

***Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value 2X Concentrated Powder Laundry Detergent, Unscented:  Vegetable Soap, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Metasilicate (possible skin irritant) and Alcohol Ethoxylates (c12) (possible skin irritant)

****Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent Powder:Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Silicate (water softeners and alkalinity builders), Zeolite (water softeners and alkalinity builders), Fatty Alcohol/Ethoxylated Fatty Ester Blend (coconut and corn-derived cleaning agents), Polyglucose (coconut and corn-derived cleaning agents), Magnesium Sulfate, Sodium Sulfate (performance enhancers), Sodium Percarbonate (non-chlorine bleach), Carboxymethyl Inulin (antiredeposition agents), Carboxymethylcellulose (antiredeposition agents), Protease (non-animal derived enzymes), Cellulase (non-animal derived enzymes), Oleic Acid (plant-derived anti-foaming agents) 

Seventh Generation is one of those rare few brands, where I am not allergic to their scents. I once switched to Trader Joe’s Organic Scented (powder) laundry, only to discover really quickly that they can’t actually verify whether their essential oils being used are cold or steam pressed. But I can tell you from my reaction to it, they’re not. They’re cheap synthetic alcohol based ones and if your allergies focus on synthetic scents, avoid TJ stuff like the plague until they get their ass in gear and actually source their scents better. Seventh generation POWDER detergents however, are the bomb, they work really well in my hard water due to added water softeners, and I can tolerate their scented versions through they are increasingly harder to find. 

Their liquid ones however, do contain methylisothiazolinone which is a high concern for allergies, respiratory issues and is really not good for the fishes if not polluting out earth is something you are concerned about.

†A lot of “healthy” brands are using wheat protein in things as a surfactant now, and for some of us that really can be an issue if we have allergies to wheat in any way or form. I found this out the hard way when I used a shampoo that contained it and broke out in body wide hives and had to drench myself in aloe vera and take all my meds to stop the itching, and even then I looked burned for several days until it calmed down. It also caused a huge chunk of my hair to fall out so if you’re celiac, gluten intolerant or have a wheat allergy in any way shape or form, avoid Avalon Organics Thickening Shampoo, it will, ironically, potentially make your hair fall out.