#i want to try to get genes done first this time THEN do all apparel

[bawkrya]

All i need now gene wise (for the burrow market) is gem genes . . . . God

[mst3kproject]

Mars Needs Women

This is one of the B-movies that a lot of people have heard of, although I’m not sure how many have actually seen it.  It was written, produced, and directed by Larry “They Just Didn’t Care” Buchanan and stars Tommy Kirk from Catalina Caper and Village of the Giants.  Happy belated birthday to Mr. Kirk, who just turned seventy-nine in December of 2020.  That’s not a bad score for a guy who’s done as many drugs as he has.

The planet Mars is suffering from a genetic problem – their chromosomes are so degraded that one hundred males are born for every one female!  Clearly this is not conducive to the survival of the species, so a group of Martians have come to Earth seeking another solution: they want five female volunteers to return to Mars with them and find out if our genes are compatible!  The army brass (all male, obviously) dismiss the idea out of hand, but the Martians cannot afford to fail.  They will have their way with the Earth Women, with or without the Earth Men’s permission.

We all know that Larry Buchanan couldn’t come up with an idea of his own, so naturally this is a remake of sorts.  Mars Needs Women was inspired by Tommy Kirk’s previous movie Pajama Party, which doesn’t sound like an alien invasion flick, but is.  In it, Kirk plays a Martian named Gogo (yes, really), who comes to Earth as an invasion scout but decides not to take over the planet because he falls in love with Annette Funicello.  Mars Needs Women dispenses with the teen hijinks angle in an attempt to be a straight-up sci-fi thriller, and fails miserably.

We get the normal Larry Buchanan types of suck, such as crummy lighting, appallingly awful day-for-night, a washed-out, colourless print, and copious stock footage.  There’s a long bit where the air force tries to attack the Martian ship and fails, which is entirely stock footage intercut with men in uniforms staring at something next to the camera.  We don’t see the flying saucer itself even once during this sequence, although they do have a model of it that shows up elsewhere and is almost definitely the best effect in the whole movie.  Not a high bar, of course, but seeing as they actually appear to have spent money on this miniature, you’d think it’d get more screen time.

The Martians themselves dress like a sort of noir version of the Chicken Men of Krankor.  Their costumes are black wetsuits decorated with duct tape and silver paint, with stupid antennae on the sides of their heads.  It amuses me that the first thing they do after acquiring some ‘Earth apparel’ is complain about how dumb neckties are.  There’s a mention about how they’ve been trained in ‘Earth slang’, which seems to have happened just so the movie would have no possible sources of humour.  When I think about Attack of the The Eye Creatures, I’m kind of grateful that Mars Needs Women never tries to be funny, but it leaves the whole film relentlessly monotone.

The acting is pretty crummy, even from the main characters.  Yvonne Craig (Batgirl – no, not one of them, the actual Batgirl) does her best with the material but the lines she’s given are such technobabble bullshit there are very few people who could deliver them with any conviction.  Almost everybody else is bland at best.  The women scream and faint, and the military guys tense their jaws and glare.  The only decent acting moment actually goes to Tommy Kirk as he describes the conditions on Mars, the dying planet.  His tone barely changes, and yet you can sense his nostalgia and regret.

Do I even need to ask if this movie objectifies women?  Well, yes, actually, I do, and you’ll see why in a minute.  The answer is a resounding yes and a good bit of run time is spent doing exactly that.  Before the opening credits we see three blondes abducted in broad daylight, dematerialized by the simple means of stopping the camera, removing the actress, and starting it up again. One of these hapless victims is taken from the shower.  We later learn that the beam-ups failed somehow, which I assume means the women died, but that’s apparently not worth more than a throwaway line.

Once the five Martians arrive on Earth, they disperse to go hunting for suitable subjects.  The first one goes directly to a strip bar, perhaps on the assumption that the employees will not be married (he’d be amazed).  We then watch the stripper dance at great length, cutting back to it repeatedly in between other threads of the storyline, which suggests that the Martian sat there for hours staring at her before making his move.  He seems to have been the least choosy of the five, simply taking the first woman he gets a boner for.  The others are a bit more discerning.

None more so than the leader, Fellow One (the Martians are Fellows One through Five, which did save the writers from having to come up with ‘alien names’ that sound like synthetic fabrics).  He decides on Craig’s character, Dr. Marjorie Bolen, an expert in ‘space medicine’ and ‘space genetics’ (this may be 60’s for astrobiology).  Her skills seem to be just what the Martians need.  This character is treated terribly by the movie and almost everybody in it. A news reporter commenting on Dr. Bolen’s arrival describes her as a stunning brunette who found it hard to hide her charm behind her horn-rimmed spectacles, and only then moves on to her qualifications.  She gives a news conference titled Sex and Outer Space, and the reporters who are supposed to be interviewing her have a laugh about the good time the kidnapped women will supposedly be having on Mars.  The prop department can’t even bother to spell her name right – it’s written as ‘Majorie’ on a sign even though the r is clearly audible when people say it out loud.

In contrast to this, Fellow One treats her with some degree of respect.  Their conversations about science are mostly nonsense, but you can tell what the script is going for.  They go on a couple of quick dates, one to a planetarium and one to a museum exhibit on human reproduction (yes, this is weird and icky), and while it is rushed, their little love story is actually important to the plot in ways besides Fellow One deciding to abandon the mission so he can bone her.  The movie considers Dr. Bolen a sex object, but from the beginning Fellow One sees her as more than that.

This brings us, in a sideways kind of way, to the thing I find weirdly fascinating about Mars Needs Women: the alien invaders are curiously considerate.  They steal a car, but they take one from airport parking on the assumption that the owner won’t need it for a while.  They request unattached women, not wanting to break up any happy partnerships. And most of all, they ask for volunteers for abduction!  This makes me wonder what would have happened if they’d broadcast their message to the entire world instead of one group of soldiers.  Humans being the way we are, I’m sure there’re lots of people out there who’d fuck a couple of aliens if it meant a free trip to Mars (or move to Mars if it meant they got to fuck some aliens).

The female characters even seem designed to want a trip to space.  Dr. Bolen might well have helped them willingly in exchange for this unparalleled chance to expand her research, and she does find it very sexy that Fellow One speaks to her as an equal.  Yet somehow, the idea never even comes up.  At the last minute, she becomes the helpless princess who must be saved from peril, and Fellow One simply tells her he loves her and asks her to flee.  Why not invite her along as a guest instead of a captive? It’s got to be worth a try.

The others can be made to fit this pattern, too. The stripper?  Maybe she’s sick of being gawked at like meat and would welcome the chance to be among people who will treat her like a queen.  The flight attendant?  She might feel like she’s been everywhere and seen everything – on Earth, at least.  The artist? A whole new planet to inspire her! The homecoming queen?  She’s a journalism major.  What a scoop if she can report back to Earth about the culture and history of Mars!  I want to see a remake of this movie in which the ladies really are volunteers, who must help the Martians outwit the military so they can start their new lives on another planet.

Sadly, this is not that movie, and its exploitative aspects stand rather awkwardly alongside the embryonic feminism embodied in Dr. Bolen, overwhelming it more often than not.  I do want to give it maybe half a kudo, though, for at least acknowledging that women can have interests and ambitions.  I guess the point of the ending is that Fellow One has realized they need to be allowed to pursue those instead of being forced to breed.

Mars Needs Women is probably Larry Buchanan’s best movie, which is a statement on the same level as saying that The Beast of Yucca Flats is Coleman Francis’ – by any reasonable standard it still really sucks.  While it has many problems, I would say that the one that kills any entertainment value is how the narrative totally lacks the urgency the title implies.  The ending should be a race to stop the Martians taking off with their prisoners, but no, it saunters instead.  If there were only some tension in the film, it could have been the guilty pleasure you’d want from a movie called Mars Needs Women.

[lovelyirony]

Ironwidow fake dating and cousin Sharon matchmaking

Nat and Tony have been friends since seventh grade, when Tony made fun of her drawing and in retaliation, Nat stuck a pencil in his thigh. 

He grinned at her after sneakily getting a tissue from the front desk. 

“You’re pretty good, Nat.” 

“My name is Natasha.” 

“Not to me, it’s not.” 

So it becomes Nat and Tony. Tony and Nat. They do everything together, from attend the eighth grade pool parties and hate all of them to the freshman orientation in high school where they make fun of the senior leaders and sneak into the admissions office to make sure they have at least one class together. (And then change the schedule when they don’t.) 

Tony has been in love with Natasha Romanoff since the first eighth grade pool party, when she showed up in a full wet suit because she didn’t like the way that their classmate Ivan liked her. 

But, he hasn’t done anything about it. Why is that, everyone asks? Just ask her out! 

Well, Tony has a special talent that is medically known as “anxiety,” but he also has common sense. 

Natasha Romanoff is beautiful. She has gorgeous red hair, eyes that know everything about you before you even think they do, a wicked sense of humor, and a sense of self that is beyond anything Tony’s ever encountered. 

Tony stays up until three a.m., doesn’t give a shit about his appearance so he is frequently rushing to school with the worst bed hair imaginable, and also wears possibly the most out-of-style clothing ever. 

Like right now. A pair of jeans that’s too short and he cuffed only on one leg, a shirt that’s advertising some college Howard made him visit, and he’s pretty sure that the plaid he layered it with has a coffee stain down the back. 

He’s proven right when Sharon wrinkles her nose. 

“Dude, you seriously haven’t done laundry since two weeks ago, have you?” 

“Do I smell bad? Do I?” 

She leans in. 

“No, just like old coffee. So regular. We’ll see when Nat comes. Or you could confess your love to have her not roast your choice of apparel.” 

Tony scowls, adjusting his backpack. 

“Do you have another topic, or are you just that boring?” 

“I could also tell you about World War One,” Sharon adds. “I just read about it in one of those stupid textbooks I have to carry around. Did you know that the French are actually the worst at war?” 

“Yes, everyone knows that. I think they know that too.” 

Nat’s already at her locker. She looks gorgeous with her jean jacket, the new patches sewn on. 

“Looking cute,” Sharon says appreciatively. “Do you think you’re gonna get dress-coded for the ‘fuck men’ patch?” 

“Not if they want me to write an article on how the club fund got cut but the football team got another new field within four years,” Nat says. 

“Still a good article,” Tony says. “If you could still get into a college without a reputation ruined. You know how much schools care about sports.” 

“More than education at times!” Sharon cheers. 

Nat snorts, bringing Tony into a hug. 

“Nice to see you, dude. Ready for history?” 

“Not in the slightest. We’re probably talking about government procedure again while our teacher waxes poetic about the justice system. I think I might try to change the FDA’s home screen again.” 

“You know, they might catch on after the fourth time of you inserting random YouTube videos to different links.” 

“It’s the Federal Department of Agriculture, I highly doubt they care,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I’ve already proven that I’m probably better with technology than the government itself.” 

This was true; Tony had hacked into the official website of the White House with shitty hotel Wi-Fi and half his sanity. (It was flu season, he’d had way too much Ny-Quil.) 

School passes by with little incident, all things considered. A classic Monday, with the only real excitement being an announcement of no school the following Monday for a staff meeting. 

It isn’t until Tony gets home to find both of his parents home and in the same room, waiting for him, that he starts to panic. 

“Is this an intervention?” Tony asks. “Did I do something bad?” 

“Not yet,” Howard says. “Although I wouldn’t be surprised.” 

“Dear,” Maria reprimands. “No, there’s an event that we want you to attend.” 

“Want or need?” Tony asks. “I was supposed to hang out with my friend Bruce to work on his genetics lab.” 

“I’m sure the lab can wait,” Howard scoffs. “You’re in high school, for god’s sake.” 

“Bruce is doing lab work for Culver,” Tony says. “He got early acceptance, so he’s doing a weird deal so he gets college credit and a year off early.” 

“Impressive, dear,” mom says, smiling. “But this event is something that you can’t miss.” 

It’s a goddamn family reunion. Maria’s side, but still. At least Peggy and Sharon would come. 

Family reunions on the Carter/Carbonell side are…interesting. A lot of loud people, aunts that couldn’t stop cooking, and at least one uncle that would say something marginally horrible and cause a rift for at least six hours where everything was tense. 

Sharon had to take this advantage carefully. 

So she got her own email into the family chain of them–a mistake by all accounts, but one that should be committed sooner rather than later–and tells the family that Tony is bringing his girlfriend, Natasha. 

They both love each other, she knows that much. Tony looks at Nat like he could give her anything in the world, and Nat looks at him with so much vulnerability that she always says she doesn’t have. 

They’ve liked each other for a while now. Sharon wishes that it wasn’t at her family reunion that she was doing this, but it was either that or a dance for high school, and that’s far too much work. 

Tony, understandably, is stressed. 

“Does she even know she’s going?!” Tony yells. “Holy shit Sharon, she’s going to meet like eighty of us!” 

“Yeah,” Sharon says. “She just doesn’t know that she’s supposed to be your girlfriend.” 

“Sharon.” 

“Yes?” 

“Run.” 

Sharon squeals as she skids out of the room, Tony chasing after her. He’s not really going to do anything about it, but he still has to text Nat. 

i am. so sorry 

lmao it’s fine. sharon just said i’m going to the reunion. why? 

funny story…

fuck what’d she do 

she emailed everyone that i was bringing you as a girlfriend. and i’m not really going to spend the whole weekend correcting it. 

gotcha. operation: fake dating commence! 

thank you nat. seriously love you 

Nat reads the message, but doesn’t respond. Of course Sharon would pull something like this. She knew that Nat liked her cousin, probably since they were kids. 

And now she had to pretend to be his girlfriend, something she actually wanted very much to do. 

She gets a text from Sharon. 

Please don’t wear your jean jacket with all the patches. It’s very cool, but you will start a fight in my family and win. But then you aren’t allowed to come back :( 

Natasha sends her back the middle finger, but then promises not to bring it.

This brings up the subject; what do you wear to a family reunion? 

- 

Tony’s fidgeting in the car as he goes to pick up Nat. His mother was very surprised. 

“You got your father’s distinct habit of not shutting your mouth,” she says with a chuckle. “But I do suppose the gazes say it all. Every Carbonell man looks like he’s in love before he says it, so–” 

“Mama, not now!” Tony hisses. Natasha’s making her way to the car, backpack slung around her shoulder and an elegant handbag in the crook of her arm. 

“Hey Ms. Carbonell,” Natasha says. “How are you?” 

“Doing good, better now that I get to have you with us,” she teases. “Anthony over here never told me that he was going to have you on as a special guest.” Natasha sends a raised eyebrow over to Tony. 

“Oh?” 

“I forgot,” Tony lied smoothly. “You know how I get in the labs. Just completely forget everything I’m supposed to remember.” 

The conversation is easy after that: just a few little anecdotes that Nat and Tony have gone over last night over the phone. They had confessed that they liked each other a year ago, had kept it extremely low-key since both didn’t want to fuss with it, and that was that. 

“How come Sharon knew but I didn’t?” Mom pouts. 

“She’s an imp,” Tony answers. “An imp who doesn’t know how to keep business to herself.” 

Their family fills up a small inn out of the way, and Tony sighs as he sees three of his aunts already conspiring at the bar. 

“Be prepared for a barrage of questions.” 

“Roger that.” 

Natasha is whisked away by the ladies with a few compliments to the cute flats she’s wearing and her favorite type of perfume. Tony gets led over to Sharon, who is playing darts with Trip and their kind-of-but-not-really-cousin, Ricardo. 

“What have I missed out on?” Trip asks, grinning. “Heard some girl was crazy enough to come and date you. She’s a looker, Tony.” 

“Thanks,” Tony says. “But yes, crazy enough to date me. Sharon knows how crazy it is, I practically get the same gene from her.” 

Sharon rolls her eyes, landing another bullseye. Ricardo curses. 

“How do you always manage to do this?” 

“Practice for this exact moment,” Sharon says with a grin. “Go get me a drink. One of the good ones.” 

“You seriously get him to do your bidding every single time,” Tony says with a laugh. Trip excuses him to see Uncle Erik, leaving Sharon and Tony alone. 

“So. You liking your new status of boyfriend?” 

“You seriously need to stop meddling,” Tony scowls. “Just because I like her doesn’t mean she should be in on this.” 

“She doesn’t mind,” Sharon scoffs. “Besides, I think Aunt Angie is going to tell her about the cardboard incident.” 

“Oh my god–” 

Natasha saunters over, grinning devilishly. 

“So. Naked and a cardboard box for modesty? Why am I not surprised at the innovation, Tony?” 

“Dammit,” Tony swears. “I’m going to learn something embarrassing about you. I’ll ask Clint.” 

“Like he’ll tell.” 

The reunion goes about as well as expected. Uncle Daniel finally spills the beans and says that his son who couldn’t make it was going to bring his girlfriend that no one likes, but they canceled at the last minute. 

“They’re horrible,” Tony says. “I’m serious. They’re the kind of people that take advantage of old people.” 

“Gross.” 

They gravitate closer to each other. While Natasha doesn’t have a problem with this, it’s bittersweet. Every time Tony casually puts his arm around her and tells another story about how they snuck into the office to match schedules and his family coos and says it’s so cute, and Sharon smiles at them. 

It stings, to be this close and yet knowing that it isn’t at all real. 

Tony lies awake at night. Becuase this is nice. All of his family loves Nat, so does he, and it seems…possible almost. To have her this close, smiling at him like she has. 

So it’s not a good idea, but he goes to her room at three a.m. She’s still awake. 

“Why are you still awake?” 

“Watching funny videos. Why are you awake?” 

“That’s why I’m here. Follow me.” 

They go into the courtyard. It feels…nice outside. Tony’s wringing his hands. 

“What’s got you so nervous?” Natasha asks. “And why at three in the morning?” 

“I think this is literally the only way I could do it,” Tony says. “Only time my family shuts up.” 

“Go for it then,” Natasha says. “You have until four, when your baby cousin wakes up. Lorenzo?” 

“Got it,” Tony says, smiling. “Um, well, I–” 

“What?” 

“Oh fuck,” Tony curses. “Listen, I’m just going to say it. I’m just going to say it.” 

“You’ve said that twice.” 

“Iloveyou.” 

“What?” 

“I…I love you,” Tony says, sighing. “I’ve loved you I think since eighth grade, and I’m now telling you because I don’t think I can just go on with life without telling you. I also realize that you’re stuck at the family reunion until this is over, so now I realize I’ve put stress on you and I’m sorry, I can fake my death if you really want me to, so–” 

Natasha envelops him in a hug. She kisses his cheek, looking at him in the dim light of the lanterns. 

“You absolute fool. I love you too.” 

It’s the first of many “I love you’s.” 

Sharon takes credit for the relationship, and Tony and Nat let her. She’s also the maid of honor and meets her future wife, Maria. 

Tony and Natasha don’t go to the same college, but compete against each other in the trivia clubs that both schools have, and so they spend other time together. Natasha shows him her favorite tea shop downtown, and Tony shows her all of the hideaway spots he uses for studies. 

(And to hide her away from Rhodey, who will tell her anything and everything that’s embarrassing about Tony.) 

Right after college, Tony and Nat move into an apartment. 

About a year later, Natasha holds out a gold ring for him to put on, asks if they really have to get married in a fancy church, and watches as Tony tears up and hugs her. 

“I told you!” Sharon crows when they reveal the rings. “I told you that you would get married!” 

“Okay loser,” Natasha says. “Then you’re the maid-of-honor. Congrats on throwing my bachelorette party.” 

“I’m making us go paint-balling.” 

Tony rolls his eyes, but looks at his now-fiancee. 

Things will be good. Aren’t they always? 

[dramarising-replacement]

A Rant On How To Actually Run A Pet Sim.

DISCLAIMER: I love Flight Rising, it’s been one of, and still is a favorite game of mine. This rant is simply trying to bring light that the staff could be doing much better in running the site that they are. With recent issues such as the long ban appeal process, and that one time that Unicorn admin said “nothing is wrong with our gem paypal stuff” when everyone was CLEARLY having issues, I wanted to voice my opinion.

I’ve played a LOT of pet sims. Most recently, Flight Rising, Novilar (not really gonna talk about this one, it’s meh, it only recently started up, it’s definitely unique), and Lioden.

I’ve been on FR since 2014 and I thought it was the SHIT. Little 13 year old me was piss pants excited to keep a crapton of pretty dragons (who actually weren’t that pretty) and expand my clan into the stars!

Now I’m a bit more bitter about FR after seeing what other sites have to offer in terms of a unique experience.

RANT PART ONE: The wait for new breeds on Flight Rising.

At first, I completely understood the reasoning for why breeds took so long to come out. They had to do all the genes, color, and apparel for both genders of dragon!!

I’m not denying that FR has a wide, wide list of apparels (Upon checking the Flight rising database, it’s around 2000 pieces of apparel) I’m saying that other sites do it much better.

The site I’m comparing Flight Rising to is Lioden. Here is a small sample of some of the decor items they have on site, keep in mind that list hasn’t been updated since 2015.

ALSO! BACKGROUNDS! ANOTHER WONDERFUL THING FR DOESN’T HAVE.

My point here is that the Lioden staff drew apparel for the regular male pose, the regular female pose, 6 other female poses, and 4 cub poses.

However, this point runs dry when you realize that the mutations don’t get fitted apparel (sad trombone noise) (Lioden has mutations where occasionally, giving birth to a cub will result in a mutation, this can be anything from blindness, to the 3 primal mutations, all of which have separate linearts)

There are two types of apparel, in both Lioden and Flight rising: Universal and Fitted. 

Universal apparel on Flight rising are things like the Emblems, The Flowerfalls, the ugly crowns, something you can copypaste onto another pose. Fitted apparel is something that’s drawn SPECIFICALLY on, such as the lace apparel. On Lioden, while the primal mutations can’t wear fitted decor, they can wear universal decor.

So point for Flight Rising, right? They draw all of the apparel onto all of the breeds!

No fucking excuse for me, in the 2 years from nocturne to bogsneak, they had every chance to perfect making all of the apparel.

When Bogsneak comes out? HALF OF THE APPAREL IS FUCKING BROKEN FOR THE BREED. AND A LOT OF IT STILL ISN’T FIXED TODAY.

Bullshit to the excuse of “eeeuughg we gotta do every apparel for both dragon poses uwu” when a shit ton of the apparel doesn’t even work.

At least on Lioden, they’re honest. They say “we’re not going to be drawing fitted apparel for the mutations.”

BUT, GUESS WHAT? If you have an apparel for a mutation you want? YOU CAN DRAW IT YOURSELF. Even better? IT’S HALF THE PRICE OF A SKIN BLUEPRINT ON FLIGHT RISING.

EVEN BETTER? IF IT GETS REJECTED, YOU GET THE ITEM BACK TO GIVE IT ANOTHER SHOT!!!

Alright, so, how about markings/genes?

Well considering that Lioden has 900+ markings, I think they win just a little bit. And guess what? 

Lioden doesn’t always have all the markings for their mutations done either.

But they’re transparent!

https://static.lioden.com/images/arttutorials/mutationstatus.html

this is literally a link to their current progress with the markings.

They released two new mutations (With new, complete linearts to a total of 3) WITHIN FUCKING MONTHS OF EACH OTHER.

FLIGHT RISING TOOK TWO YEARS TO RELEASE ONE BREED WITH HALF THE SHIT BEING BROKEN FOR IT! 

IT’S FINE IF YOU TAKE A LONG TIME TO RELEASE SOMETHING, JUST DON’T SHOVE THAT “We’re perfecting everything” BULLSHIT DOWN OUR THROATS. And if I recall, some of the genes were broken as well on bogs but lol let’s not get into that.

Some of the comparisons might seem a bit odd since the two pet sims I’m comparing have completely different systems/art styles, but I’m just saying that if they were honest about taking so much time releasing a half broken breed, it shines a light on how shoddy their site management is. Hire more artists, artists that don’t leave a good chunk of the apparel glitched.

And now, for the second part of this absurdly long rant.

PART TWO: THE STAFF.

On Flight Rising, the staff is often solid and machine like, half of the updates feel fucking soulless because they’re all formatted the same way. Aside from the ‘ask the team’ segments, which barely fucking happen anymore, we rarely interact with the staff.

Maybe not for other people, but for me SPECIFICALLY this makes it really hard to sympathize with the FR staff (particularly I’m referring to the admins with this). They feel distant, and a lot of the times they respond to comments (particularly backlash and criticism) is to be snarky. While this would be funny normally, when you literally never interact with your audience, don’t listen to them, and don’t RESPOND to them, when you act like a snarky shit it’s gonna make you look condescending.

Again, on Lioden, the admins, frequently, FREQUENTLY come into the chat to mingle with the players. While there they answer questions, share experiences, and are genuinely pleasant to be around, it makes you feel a lot more sympathy for them when shit goes down the drain.

Back to the custom decor/apparel again, there was a forum post where people would post their in progress pictures, and one of the admins would respond with how to improve/ change it. When staff goes out of their way to do something they don’t have to it makes a really big impression on the player base.

For those of you holding on still, god bless you, have a kitten.

PART THREE: USER INTERACTION 

So, one of Flight Rising’s biggest flops is how they interact with users, and how users interact with them.

The three big separate issues here are mainly:

Ban appeals.

User suggestions.

And helping users.

The ban appeals, or really contacting staff about fucking anything is a ridiculous process. We’ve heard the stories on here about how long some users have been waiting for someone to address the issue, let alone solve it. 

I shouldn’t even need to compare this to anything, in my opinion the wait times are just stupid. If I can walk to FR headquarters in wherever the hell they are faster then they can respond to an issue online? THAT’S BAD.

User suggestions are rarely implemented or looked at, and if they are implemented, we have no fucking clue. It doesn’t matter how much support a topic gets, the staff rarely ever listens.

Back to Lioden, almost WEEKLY people are credited for new suggestions that are implemented into the game, and while the changes are noticeable, it’s gradual enough to that it doesn’t feel jarring. It’s fucking awesome!

Also on Lioden, there’s a 'support/no support’ button that you can click to easily, quantifiably see what users want and don’t want.

Lastly, helping users.

FR staff follows HARD RULES, there is no room for improvement. Accidentally exalt a dragon? You’re fucked. A lot of FR’s rules boil down to 'we won’t help you if you mess up’ which, if you think about it, is what incites a lot of begging onsite (oh no i accidentally transmuted my light sprite some1 pls help ;n;)

On Lioden, if you make an honest mistake, they will help you

I’m not saying that Lioden is better than Flight Rising, all I’m saying is that Flight Rising has a lot of improvement it could be doing; Giving us transparency, honesty, treating us like people instead of a cashgrab.

A lot of these problems would be fixed by one thing:

Better communication.

I wouldn’t mind if Bogsneak took two years if instead of saying “We need to do EVERYTHING on this breed” and releasing it half broken, they instead said “It isn’t a priority for us right now” and actually taken their time.

I wouldn’t mind the cut/paste updates if the staff weren’t so distant.

And the user interaction could be a lot better, if Flight Rising acted less like a company, and more like a person.

Not to say that structure is bad, everything has to, and will have rules.

But if Flight Rising cared a little more, or ACTED like it, it would make the site magnitudes better.

[gengarnips-fr]

Drunk Lair Review: Kael

definitely almost spelled that kale, so thanks for participating! :D Let’s hop right into this, I know I kept my fans waiting ;) @fr20866 its your time to shine!!!

Okay, I want you to know, that I was sincerely stumped by your lair. I was seriously wondering if my internet was shitting out on me. But no, a SIGNIFICANT PORTION of your lair is dressed in the goddamn invisible cloaks and it fucked me up. Jeeeeeezuzzuuz. and based on my understanding (please correct me if im wrong) everyone labeled Rock is kind of a filler space. Like you like the V shape pattern you’ve got going on so you have these dragons called Rock to fill in your lair space. That is so creative and I’m very into that!!! That said, I’m gonna grade your Non-Rocks :D and also is everyone a gen one? Because that’s POWERFUL. 

First off, I rather enjoy Meleo! The Abyss Skink color gene combo just gets me right. you know what i mean? that shit gets me RIGHT. I LIVE FOR THAT SHIT. I love his bio art! How neat is that! and he’s even got stats, which as a DND player, I can always appreciate! And the little bit of lore you have in his bio hints at an ability to change color at will! Can I just SAY HOW AMAZING THAT IS JEEEEEZ I want more of him. Make him important!!! All of your dragons are soo cool and im so into whatever aesthetic you’re cultivating! I want more!!! Tell me about how he uses and abuses his color change abilities. Tell me about how he hides in the darkness or blends in with the earth rocks. I WANT IT ALLLLLL.

Next I’ve chosen Sethen, who can I just say is one of the brightest, cutest boys ive ever seen. Like what a fucking peach. I feel like hes the dude that takes you out on a museum date and buys you ice cream. Never done anything wrong in his life. Look at his bio art!!! A GOOD AND PURE BOY and I will take nothing less! I also really adore his minimal apparel. I can definitely appreciate when apparel doesn’t cover the whole dragon but rather accentuates its features. I mean I cant relate but you pulled it off so well (I love apparel so much I just want dragons head to toe covered, help me)! Also this bitch is fucking stacked like hes a colosseum lvl 25 get #rekt. You don’t have lore for him yet, but I really just envision him as a cute little man (maybe some sort of historian? Lore keeper? I cant shake the nerd from my mind) who serves his clan somehow. Don’t let me influence your decisions tho ;P 

Omg next is Ark, who is by far one of my faves. I look at him and I just feel the Paladin mojo emanate from his form. I feel POWERFUL when I look at him. He could definitely hold his own in a fight and honestly? Id let him save me from a fire. And I don’t say that about a lot of dragons ;) He’s also super old (love itttttt) at a hot and spicy 4 years and I love that. I’m trying to spoil some of my older dragons too. I want them to feel all the love. Stern, conscientious, loyal. YESSSSSS I feel it!!! And im sorry, but im such a lore slut for complicated backstories involving secret trysts with hidden eggs. A lot of my dragons have weird complicated headcannons like this because I LOVE IT. Also his colors are awesome but that’s a given. And I love his bio header. Okay I need to move on before I drool 

Wow, I love Numedha. Like, love love. I love her. She’s so badass. I can tell on ONE glimpse that she knows what she’s about and I adore it. I LOVE HER CHARACTER ART IN HER BIO OK THAT’S GOALS and im definitely not biased towards red dragons, no way, shape or FORM I swear. And her stats are so fitting omfg. I just love a rebel without (maybe with) a cause and I want her to have a bad attitude, just middle fingers out, fuck the cops, fuck the rules, cause same. God. Any character that can make me feel like this deserves all the love and attention I have. ESPECIALLY LADIES. We don’t see enough ladies that can hold their own in combat or story telling. But I guess that’s a rant for a later date lmao. Anyway, her aesthetic is my aesthetic and I love her to bits! 

Last but certainly NOT LEAST is Tyrane. I, personally, would love if Tyrane just came in a ran my clan for a while. This girl is hella organized, just based on first impression. Her little bio says shes sarcastic and shit, and I adore it. LOVE IT. Gooooood character. Also AMAZING GENES can we just discuss the power of skink/alloy. It’s underrated. Two of my fave genes for sure. Like, not to be weird, but I’m pretty sure Tyrane owns my ass in some way shape or form. She found it at an auction and bought it for cheap. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING MY DUDE. Everyone, please go look at her. She is absolutely gorgeous and if you want to see an excellent execution of purple/pink go LOOK AT HER BODY. 

Also at the end of the day please make an RPG with these dragons as the main characters. Or something. Give me a story because I love all of your dragons so far and I would die to see them all in action. And maybe an explanation for the Rock trend???? It’s amazing, and leaves me in confusion, so you know its modern art. That’s iconic. Thank you so much for your time and I hope this was at least a little entertaining. I loved looking at your lair!

-DeadValkyrie

[frankierising-blog]

Crappy Lair Review for Passenger

-Okay, a few things I forgot about as I haven’t done Lair Reviews in a long time. 

1. I’m terrible at them. 2. I ended up swearing a fair bit. 3. They take me.... AGES. I’m sorry!!

Before I go into it, overal:

LOVE your lore... but there’s not enough! You tease us with the intro and with Crow and then there’s only little teasers. I AM ADDICTED TO YOUR LORE, FEED ME!!

Also, love the subtlties of a lot of your customisations, there seems to always be flecks of blue, green, yellow that perfectly contrast or compliment the outfit!

Okay, onward!

@fr-ari

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

I love how discrete the Customisations are! At first glance your lair looks quite plain, there’s lots of neautral colours and when you’re just looking at the thumbnails it all looks very simple... but the longer you look, the more details and differences and personalities that you start to see! I thought that was neat!

Okay Individuals:

Luc:

Um.. ex freaking SCUSE ME!? Wine/Cin/Wine is SO freaking amazing! I had no idea! And the Facet/Glimmer looks GORGEOUS with Skink! LOVE THIS SO WELL GENES HOLY CRAP! 

But... are you going to add apparel? ARE YOU GOING TO DRESS THIS BEAUTIFUL MOFO!? IS THERE LORE? IS THIS A WIP!?

Crow:

Crow’s story is awesome! I love the simplicity of his apparel! I imagine having to wear a respirator that ends up giving you your nickname would kind of make you want to avoid drawing any more attention to yourself – so you’re probably try to stay as neutral as possible!

I feel like I want to see him in a trench coat or something, but I guarantee that’s only because of the goggles.

Question, are they part of the respirator or for another purpose?

The artwork though! There’s two broken image links on my end but I can see the top one and it is STUNNING! LOOOOVE CROW!!!

Lovett:

Okay, so I assume Lovett is geared up for flying, but boy you’re not fooling anywhere. Patchwork, leaves and smoke everywhere? Oh, you’re flying alright... Tert: Smoke ;)

But hecking heck, how GOOD does shadow and goldenrod look!? And the little green (*wink*) flecks throughout, hot dayum!

Flint:

Hnnnng.

 HNNNNNNG

 HNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!

 Flint, you sexy m*** f*****!!! Look at this flying steampunk robot dragon!!! I love this so much, holy crap! The cheeky little accent underneath Silver Steampunk Wings is cheeky AF and gives the whole thing a kind of a creepy undertone. Like, Ridgebacks always look like they’re smiling, so I immediately thing this is a jolly pilot, deliveryman or otherwise helpful fellow who loves life…. But that sneaky little hint of red under there…. Suspicious….. BUT ALSO MATCHING FAMILIAR IS YES GOOD… but fuck that Hooded Dodo, they’re always puffed up arrogantly, smug bastards.

 Slaid

Holy crap, I can’t tell if Slaid is rich or poor! HE’S GOT WRAPS AND MISSMATCHING STUFF BUT THEN THERE’S ALL THIS GOLD AND STEAMPUNK! The mismatch kind of gives me the impression that he’s comfortable, but perhaps doesn’t always acquire his goods from the most honest of sources? Does that make sense? Like he’s been collecting his gear as he goes along in his travels.

 CROW’S LORE WAS SO GOOD, I WANT MORE LORE ABOUT THESE GUYS!!

I really like this outfit though, it’s cluttered and miss-matched but everything sort of fits together nicely, nothing is clashing. You’re really good at subtly matching colours! (TEACH ME!)

Cardani

THE HAT SORT OF LOOKS LIKE A FEDORA ON GUARDIANS, I AM LAUGH! But bloody hell, are the Greens intentional? Oh wait, Wind Flight… so probably. WELL EVEN SO CARDANI IS KIND OF BAD ARSE! I’M REALLY GLAD HE DOESN’T HAVE MUCH APPAREL ON HIS MIDSECTION BECAUSE THE IRI/SHIM/CRACKLE LOOKS BLOODY AMAZING!!! <3

Bonemother

 It took me a second to actually see the dragon under all that, dayum. I LOVE the Guise and the Skin together, that looks so dark and kind of ghoulish, but I feel like there’s just a little bit too much going on here. I feel like I’d like to see it with either the Crown of Bones OR the Bone Antlers on their own and maybe with a few less accessories? Mind you, that’s just my opinion and my lair looks like a dumpster so wtf do I know?

 BTW WHO DID THE TOP ART FOR BONEMOTHER AND CROW!?

Fausten:

Subtle greens, Subtle Greens, SUBTLE GREENS! Yaaay! Also loving how much the shoes match it’s Secondary! <3

Vedere

ExfuckingCUSE me right now!? This is perfection. PERFECTION! THE SIMPLICITY, THE INTRICACY! It’s beautiful, delicate, fierce and horrifying, I love it! You have NAILED IT!!! GOD I WANT LORE! MORE LORE MORE LORE MORE LORE!

Kell:

LOVE IT! CREEEEPY AS FUUUUUCK!!! Hopefully that was the intention! The art is effing AMAZING TOO!! Who did it!?

This one is busy too but I feel like it’s the perfect amount of busy - I get the whole Voodoo vibe, but is that too shallow an interpretation of Kell?

Hallow:

OMG I love him and I hate him! I mean, he’s gorgeous and he seems charming.. but on the other hand, look at all that discrete gold. It’s subtle but flashy and he’s waving his Light Sprite around, acting all chill, but you just know he’s mocking you… or is he? Still don’t know if I hate him or I’m jealous of him (in the scenario where I am somehow a dragon responding to his existence, haha).

 The colours though, the accent, the subtle yellows… dayum. He better have a super gorgeous mate when I click next or I’m so freaking stealing him. I’ll find a way!

But I have to ask, Why Hallow and Trick or Treat? IS THIS JUST A COSTUME!? IS HE ACTUALLY UGLY UNDER THERE? OR is that flirtatious?

Shiver:

Bleaurgh, look at this queen! Fire and Ice, BLAAAARGH!!!! BLLLAAAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! I’VE GOT ANOTHER ELEMENT FOR YOU: VOMIT.

 But seriously, you’ve put this together really well, everything compliments eachother perfectly so it looks fantastic!!! I just hate Twilight for using that STUPID ROBERT FROST POEM! BLAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Liden

OH MY GOD, YES, GOOD! YES! THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! PERFECTION! I don’t have enough to say about Liden because he’s freaking perfect! Per. Fect. I am starting to dislike you as a person over how nice some of your dragons are, purely jealous!!!

 TRULY IS A FINE MINT CANDY BUT WHERE IS THE MINT CANDY LORE MY FRIEND!?

[Okay, I see I have more notes now and I feel like I need to try to get a few more done before I finish work, so I’ll try and get a few more in but maybe with shorter responses]

Ari

Okay, Ari and Liden together are a pretty freaking nice Fire & Ice style thing - especially as you could also see this as Autumny more than Fire, but next to the ice.. yeah. Anyway.

SEE, EVEN ARI HATES THE FIRE AND ICE THING AS MUCH AS I DO! But seriously, I really like the simplicity of the apparel, it makes the accent pop so hard, and Ari looks like he has resting dick face so he’d probably be a little prick if you tried to jazz his outfit up too much!

Lear

NO, STOP, THIS IS SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!! THE LITTLE WINGS WITH THE CROWN - ALL THE CUTE LITTLE PINKS AND PURPLES FUUUUUUUU- 

Lear seems almost out of place in you lair, I like that! She’s so freaking beautiful, holy crap!

Griffin

THIS REMINDS ME OF LINK FROM ZELDA! HOLY HECKY HECK, THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING! PERFECT AMOUNT OF GREEN AND BUSY AND LOUD AND SUBTLE ALL AT ONCE!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAH1!!! Griffin is my favourite! I like how the goggles and the accent sort of tie him to the rest of the clan but he still seems like such an outsider! LOOOOVE!!!

Okay, I’m gonna end this here. I’m sorry if this wasn’t what you were hoping for! Feel free to not pay if it’s offensive or not up to standard!

Regardless, hope you liked it and thanks for your patience!

[hitodama89]

I saw this interesting looking ask meme about Flight Rising stuff, but instead of using it as it was actually intended I just answer all the questions without anyone having to send me asks.

           Ask me things!        

Basics

Dragonhome - What’s the meaning behind your username?

hitodama89 is just the name I use everywhere I go.

Sea of a Thousand Currents - Why did you join Flight Rising?

I had some friends who had already joined and they seemed to have good time, so I just jumped in, too!

The Ashfall Waste - What’s your favorite part of the site?

Bestiary and collecting familiars.

The Windswept Plateau - Have you gotten friends of yours to join FR?

My brother and mother, hahah! Neither of them are all that active, though.

The Southern Icefield - What’s your favorite flight?

Water. <3

The Tangled Wood - What’s your favorite FR deity?

I would love it if the deities were a bit more active part of the game... But as it is I like Arcanist a lot.

The Scarred Wasteland - When did you join Flight Rising?

2014-10-13

The Sunbeam Ruins - What’s your favorite lair aesthetic (doesn’t have to be your own)?

I freaking love Egyptian looking dragons! =0 Haven’t seen a whole lair full of them yet, though.

The Shifting Expanse - Do you exalt a lot of dragons or do you keep them?

I exalt a lot. That is right now my main income in the game.

The Viridian Labyrinth - Do you have a favorite familiar?

Psywurm!

Starfall Isles - Favorite piece of trivia you learned on the site?

I love the idea of Podid Town. =‘‘‘D It is mentioned in one of Tomo’s trivia questions.

Lore

Earthshaker - What role(s) do your progens play in your lore (if they do at all)?

They are the dragons that formed the clan.

Tidelord - Does the element of your dragons’ eyes matter to you in lore?

Well, it just means that they were born in the respective flight’s area.

Flamecaller - How do you determine jobs for the dragons in your clan?

I just think what would suit their looks and possible nature.

Windsinger - Does your clan interact with other users’ clans and does that impact lore?

Nowadays not too much. When I first started I got quite a lot of dragons from my friends and those dragons have a few sentences worth of lore about their origin.

Icewarden - Does FR’s official site lore play into your own?

I try to keep it in mind when designing stuff for dragons.

Shadowbinder - Do you have any lore about how your dragons view exalting? If so what is it?

It is a religious event where the exalted dragon is physically send to serve under the clan’s deity. Usually it is a great honor, but I have some dragons that don’t see it solely as a good thing.

Plaguebringer - Do you keep lore if a dragon already has it or do you change it to fit your clan?

I keep it in some form.

Lightweaver - What’s the story behind your clan?

There isn’t really one. =‘) My progens met each other, hung out together for a while and decided to form a new clan.

Stormcatcher - What catches your eye in other people’s lore?

I am pretty lazy at reading long stories and stuff. I like it when things are clear and compact and don’t contradict official lore too much.

Gladekeeper - Do your dragons’ names follow any themes/patterns and if so does that play into their lore?

It depends on who named them. If it was someone outside my clan the name can be anything, but dragons born within the clan usually have names that doesn’t mean anything irl. Certain families also have their own themes.

Arcanist - Do you like writing lore or reading it more?

Reading, I guess. Writing tends to be a pain in the ass.

The Beastclans - Is there an antagonist in your lore? If so, who?

Not really. My clan haven’t had any incidents with Shade and they don’t have enemy clans or anything.

Breeds

Fae - Who’s your random progen?

Marus.

Mirror - Who’s the progen you made?

Carran.

Guardian - What’s your favorite starter breed?

Guardians, but I really do like them all.

Tundra - What’s your favorite breed?

Pearlcathers. Though I tend to handle their nature a bit differently than what has been written about them in the official article.

Pearlcatcher - Is there a breed you like the pose of one gender over the other?

Many, actually, one of them being Imperials. The pose of female Imperial is pretty but a bit difficult to work with.

Ridgeback - What’s one breed you could never go without having in your lair?

Guardians and Pearlcathers.

Snapper - Is there a breed you like the hatchlings better than the adults, and if so what breed?

Not really. Hatchlings are cute and I would even love to have some permababies, but there isn’t really anything that would look a lot better as hatchling than as adult.

Spiral - Do you make breeding pairs for a specific outcome?

Very rarely. Usually I just buy individual dragons and at some point realize that some of them would produce nice babies together.

Skydancer - Do you like to make mates match?

Once again very rarely.

Bogsneak - How often do you impulse buy dragons?

Never really. I am darn picky with my dragons which isn’t all that good considering how poor I am, too, hahah. That’s why my lair is so tiny.

Imperial - What’s one breed you just don’t like for whatever reason?

I know it’s a cliche but Snappers. They are okay and I would never wish to see them for example disappear from the site, but they just are a bit too non-dragon looking for my taste.

Nocturne - Do you collect gen 1s?

Nah. Still poor af.

Coatl - Which dragon breed has your favorite lore, regardless of how much you like/dislike how they look?

Guardians.

Wildclaw - Do breeding cooldowns frustrate you?

No! I’m a patient person.

Flights

Light - What flight did you choose and why?

Water, because that’s my favorite element.

Earth - Do you have flight ambassadors? Why or why not?

No. Tbh I find them pretty boring as nearly every clan tends to have those.

Shadow - If you could change flights for a single day and go back to your own after, what would you switch to and why?

I would love to visit Plague to see what the heck they do to make their dom pushes so devastating. =‘D

Plague - What region of Sorneith is your favorite?

I love the nature of Windswept Plateau.

Water - Do you want your dragons’ eyes to match their colors, and if so does that impact what dragons you keep/breed?

It is not something I require from my dragons, but of course in some cases (Spirals and their huge eyes) it might affect my decisions.

Ice - What’s your favorite flight aesthetic (if you have one)?

Thiiiis was asked already.

Fire - What are your thoughts on dom pushes?

They are cool communal events! Too bad Water is pretty bad at them. => But we try our best!

Arcane - What’s your favorite thing about your flight?

I have never met a single rude or otherwise annoying person in Water.

Nature - Do you like finding newbies in your flight?

Naah; why would I..?

Wind - If you were to summarize each flight into three words, what words would you use for which flight?

Ggggh too much work.

Lightning - What’s your favorite familiar from your flight?

Maybe Seaweed Scavenger.

Customization

Primary - What are your favorite gene combinations on dragons (primary, secondary, and tertiary)? Share your faves!

Poison or Ripple, Toxin or Peregrine and Smoke or Runes.

Secondary - What’s your proudest gene project, if you have one?

Maybe Uppo. He has gone through way too many genes but now he is finally perfect.

Tertiary - If you have a dragon with poorly mixing colors, what is your preferred tertiary gene to try and compensate?

I just leave tertiary to basic if I can’t make it work at all.

Apparel - Do you prefer to dress your dragons for their roles or what you think looks best on them?

A mixture of both.

Accent - Have you ever seen an accent/skinscent/skin that you wished existed for another breed or gender?

Hmm, don’t at least remember.

Skinscent - What is your favorite skin, accent, or skinscent?

Accent: Magic Erosion. It just makes Lienn so pretty.

Skin - What’s your least favorite skin, accent, or skinscent?

Some trypophobic things that make my skin (haha) crawl. Haven’t taken down their names because why would I?

Original color wheel - List your top five favorite colors and why.

Teal, robin, abyss, pistachio aaand any blue/green. But what “why”? =‘D I just like them, that’s all there is.

Color wheel expansion - What’s your favorite gene and color combination (i.e. orca glimmer)? Share a dragon with that combo!

Haven’t spend too much time thinking stuff like this, but abyss Crystal is pretty badass.

Scrying Workshop - What is your dream dragon?

Don’t have one. It’s better for poor to not dream too big. =‘D

Trading and Socializing

Forums - What’s your favorite forum game and why?

Doodle the dragon above. It made me draw last year more than anything else.

Coliseum - Do you like to do coliseum?

Well, no, but I do it anyway when I need to.

Fairgrounds - What’s your favorite Fairgrounds game?

I hate them all. XD Or yes they are alright, but there is so little variation that you have to grind all of the games long enough to make you hate them if you plan on getting anything out of them.

Auction House - We’ve all done it, what one thing did you not notice a misclick while selling that still haunts you to this day?

I sold one of the Fox Rat familiars for treasure instead of gems. It still hurts.

Marketplace - Are you saving up for any big purchases right now?

For once no, I’m not!

Crossroads - Do you ever check in on dragons you’ve sold to see how they’re doing?

Yes I do. =D More often than you would think.

Dominance - Have you ever bought fodder, only to get attached and keep it?

Yup!

Trading Post - Have you made friends through or because of FR?

Naah. I’m not good at making friends.

Festivals and Events

Crystalline Gala - Do you like to participate in the holidays?

Of course! Gotta hoard me some new items.

Trickmurk Circus - Do you hoard elemental currency after the events are over or do you sell it off?

Neither, I just stack away the stuff I have and use it next year.

Mistral Jamboree - If you have elemental reps, do you dress them in their element’s holiday apparel?

-

Wavecrest Saturnalia - What’s your favorite elemental familiar?

Maybe Fire Sprite just because it was such an achievement to even get one of them.

Greenskeeper Gathering - Have you ever gotten an elemental egg?

A couple times. Never hatched one though, as I have pretty rotten luck.

Brightshine Jubilee - What was the first elemental holiday you ever participated in?

Riot of Rot. Back then I thought it was Riot OR Rot.

Thundercrack Carnivale - Are there events that you participate in on FR outside of the official festivals and events (secret Santa, trick or treat, etc)?

Yeah I took part in Secret Santa last Christmas!

Flameforger’s Festival - What do you do to prepare for an event?

Rest from Coliseum so I have what it takes to grind there during the festival.

Starfall Celebration - What’s your favorite elemental holiday?

Our own WaveSat.

Riot of Rot - Do you have any retired items or familiars that you want to come back for a holiday?

All the first year big apparels! I have no idea why they were so perfect but nearly everything after them have been pretty unusable for me. Also Light Sprite, haha.

Rockbreaker’s Ceremony - Does your flight do anything to prepare for events, if so what and do you participate in that?

During the already mentioned WaveSat we do some stuff, and I try to help as much as I can (which isn’t a lot though).

Week of Welcome - What do you think of the change in registration windows?

Good that the site can handle regular windows now!

Night of the Nocturne - What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever gotten in an event?

I won some boss familiar in a raffle once. It was the best.

[floralb0t-fr]

Non-Lore Lair Review for user Chocoli. 

First Impressions: Although there doesn't seem to be a super cohesive theme, you've got a lot of capes and dresses, so I'm expecting some really regal dragons! There are so many bright colours and I’m loving it

1. Aquamarine - I really love when the first dragon in a lair is  a progen. Mine isn't, for lore reasons, but I really enjoy when people still treasure their first dragon enough for that little bit of respect. I like that you've got an in lore reason for him being both The First, but still not the leader of the clan. It's a nice touch! Speaking on looks, I adore how cohesive he altogether is. You've even gone so far as to get him a false white underbelly to make it all work! I love it. The layering on all of his various coats is interesting but it gives him this air of someone who is trying to keep warm. All in all I really like him! A very good progen, and first peek into your lair. 

2. Constellation - I am an eternal sucker for dark blue/purple Skydancer girls. The moment I saw her I knew I needed to gush about this beauty!! Seriously, those silks, that accent, that familiar? I think I'm in love. I adore the lore that you have written for her as well! The first paragraph is fun and an interesting look into her existence and the second two paragraphs are very interesting, especially since they are also included in Celeste's bio. I love the mirroring! No matter what their origins are, it's a beautiful way to make sure that anyone who reads the lore knows that these two dragons are undoubtedly linked. I'm also a big fan of any usage of the cosmo gecko. It's just a cute lil thing isn't it?

3. Nymph - Perma babies are such a cute touch to any lair! I have one myself and I think they're a neat way to either showcase where a lair is in it's timeline, or to just show off what a person's favourite baby dragon model is. Spirals are a very neat choice because you get a lot of coverage for whatever the primary gene is, as well as the adorable ears that stick so far up. And now that we have different eye models, I think spirals show them off best. So for your perma baby to be a tree themed (always a good choice) spiral (love it) who has one of the new rare eyes? Absolutely superb. The little worldbuilding lore in this child's bio is a really sweet touch. I love the idea of there being nymphs who influence the growing season of Sorneith.

4. Twilight - I love the look that Twilight has going for her, something dark and broody, but seemingly at odds with her lore. It's really fun and I'm a big fan! I'm also a fan of the hopeless romantic character trope. Like, me too man, Soulmates and stuff? I'm down. In any case, it's Adorable and makes her very interesting. I did take a gander at her mate's lore, and I like the idea that even though Midnight doesn't subscribe to the idea of soulmates and cosmic love, he's still very much in love with Twilight. Real relationships don't always agree on ideology but can look past it easily enough. Its also nice that you didn't make Twilight's whole world depend on only Midnight by giving her a friend (taking them away, and then giving her a new one). 

5. Krakatoa - Got to have some diversity in who I look at by doing at least One orange dragon. I really like how you've dressed him to give him a sort of spunky, dangerous trickster look. His clawtips match his eyes as well and that's perfect! I will admit I'm not a big fan of crackle, but since he's an xyx I actually didn't notice it at first so I think its acceptable. For me, Krakatoa's big draw is his lore! I really enjoy how you've described that he's both deeply involved in the protection of the clan, but knows how to have fun and direct his energy elsewhere when off duty. If your clan were a setting in an adventure game, I think Krakatoa would be the helpful guard the protagonist meets who helps them learn the warrior trade.

6. Rose - I think I've done enough with other dragons, it's time to return to my one true love in skydancers everywhere. Rose is downright gorgeous! Shes another tree themed dragon like Nymph, but this is an adult who can be dressed and bred. I think Rose is the perfect dragon to use the cherry dryad lotus accent. Also, as more and more genes are released, I think that the older ones get left behind. It's nice to see such a gorgeous dragon who is wearing such old genes as ripple and seraph. She also has your clan's active nature sprite (I know you have the whole set) and that's a perfect choice in my opinion. I also think the art you have of her is adorable ^u^

7. Fuyu - This darling guardian has totally caught my eye. I love all the roses and swirling patterns! Her lore stating that she want's a garden like the Viridian glade or the Tangled wood, is so bittersweet, especially since she Looks so much like she belongs with the nobles of Shadow. I like the idea of her being a very calm and relaxing dragon, and caring deeply for a dragon who is quite the opposite. Despite wanting the gardens of Nature and Shadow flights, she really does have the essence of a Water dragon! Very good overall.

8. Cordierite - The druid's outfit isn't as cohesive as some of the others, but I think it's perfect a dragon of her occupation. She also helps with Fuyu's gardening attempts! That's so cute! As an ambassador I think it's fitting that she has a dappled dunhoof as her active familiar. I like your usage of the Dryad's Guise to show that even though Cordierite, although accepting of being in a water clan, is not ashamed and has not forgotten her wind heritage.

9. Triplicate - A mechanic of gold and azure! I love the colour mix and the various apparel that you're using. I know I've mentioned it before, but I like how you haven't moved on from some of the older things that flight rising has to offer. He absolutely does look like the workaholic that his lore describes him as. It is cute, if maybe kind of sad, touch that he's too (shy) busy to have a mate and to have met Aki. Perhaps one day this will change. I really do enjoy Triplicate, and I wish him the best in your future lore.

10. Oidhche - I think it's a good idea to end off somewhere similar to where we started. Talking about appearances first, I like the skin that she's wearing, and I'm always a fan of ebony armour. I also am a fan of how you tied her wearing a skin into her lore. I'm curious what all this woman has been through! She sounds exactly like the sort of person who is exactly like you've described - word of law. And as strange as might be, I also enjoy that she isn't the happy go lucky figure head, nor is she the relaxed sort to let her subjects work things out entirely on their own. She has subordinates to take care of the jobs she's not suited for, but she is still very much in charge. 

End thoughts: You have a Very interesting clan with a very deep lore! I like how much is different from dragon to dragon. It reminds me a lot of how I want my own lore to look someday haha. I'm impressed and as time passes, I'd like to see what all changes!

[apsbicepstraining]

‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far?

With seven-day gym classes and unregulated instructors on Instagram, is our desire for practise get hazardous?

Lisa Andrews was looking for a speedy fitness secure. The 34 -year-old had” a bit of load to forget” a year after having her first child and, being both time-poor and on a fund, she decided to do it with the assistance of an online 12 -week training programme she’d seen advertised on Facebook.” There were the thousands of changeovers on there ,” Lisa tells me.” I was so excited to start. The program had several different levels so you could begin at whatever level you thought worked for you. Stupidly, I picked intermediate. It was really defying, with daily establisheds of high-intensity activities, and I would routinely find dog-tired and wholly out of sigh by the end of it- but I was on a high. As I get fitter, I began to really desire the training. I looked forward to it, talked about it all the time, got acquaintances to sign up. I became fairly evangelical. Sometimes I’d even do two sessions a date. I’d bounced other activities to work out- because if I had to miss a discussion, I’d appear depressed and fretted it would thwart my change .”

But when” niggling anguishes” in her feet and ankles developed into something more severe, Lisa was unable to go to work. An X-ray confirmed that she had stress fractures in two places available in her hoof. Bound up in a big boot-like aircast, she struggled to walk for weeks and was told to avoid any weight-bearing training for months, until the bones are absolutely mended.” I had become obsessed ,” she says now.” I was wholly into it and the’ community’ of people online doing the same stuff. I’d be on Instagram all the time, looking at other people’s conversions. I do feel silly. I should know better- but it is psychologically intoxicating .”

Using Instagram, blogs and YouTube to get fit is fast becoming de rigueur. And despite get collectively fatter and more sedentary, the British invest evidence amounts of coin rehearsal. Representations from the 2017 UK State of the Fitness Industry report show that the sector is worth more than PS4. 7bn yearly- up more than 6% on its first year before. A speedy search for the #fitspo hashtag on Instagram draws up almost 47 million images- parties in workout gear promoting weights, close-ups of ultra-defined abs, bulbous biceps, “transformation” word-paintings( taken before and after fat loss)- each one advocating a programme more punishing than the last.

These daytimes, hardcore fitness exchanges. Even Nike, which stimulated its call with that all-inclusive Just Do It tagline, has taken to lambasting joggers in its latest ad blitz:” If You Like It Slow, Jog On”, or” You Prevail Some Or You Acquire Some”, exclaim its new billboards. Gyms guide” extend hard” advertisements, with discounted packs for those taking up inexhaustible classifies for short periods of period, such as 10 classifies in 10 days- the kind of training that numerous dub” binge workouts “.

But nowhere is full-on teach more powerfully advocated than on social media, where inspirational paraphrases such as” Pain is Weakness Leaving The Body” and” Sweat Is Your Fat Crying” are liked and shared billions of occasions. In the age of “wellth”, a well-honed tricep is more desirable than the latest duet of decorator shoes. The so-called world-wide of “fitspo” began as a niche practice for gym nerds to share tips-off and document how their bodies changed, before spreading into a whole lifestyle progress. Instagram’s short videos lend themselves to fitness content; beings started following routines in the gym.

Fitness progress have been around a very long time- think back to Jane Fonda, The Green Goddess and Mr Motivator- but works out has become a lot more complex since the aerobics periods, says Rick Miller, a clinical and plays dietician.” Increasingly, there seems to be this feeling of,’ Why would I go for a soothing 5km trot or a moderate aerobic discussion when I can do a punishing high-intensity set ?'” he tells me over lunch. High-intensity training( mixing all-out outbursts of pleasure with short remainders) goes mixed re-examines from health professionals: some swear by the fast develops, while many believe that unsupervised employ of this kind can cause health problems.

” Many young person I construe are completely preoccupied with Instagram fitness stars ,” Miller says,” and they follow workouts from so-called tutors they don’t know, which may not be right for their own bodies or their levels of fitness. Fitness athletes are adepts online, but their followers often try to instruct at the standard of health professionals player, without the core level of fitness. Following this type of workouts can very often to be translated into injury and burnout. Were I to recommend some of the things that fitness bloggers recommend- levels of practise, nutritional advice- I would get struck off .”

The National Careers Service was pointed out that training to become a fitness teach can only be done on the job at a gym, as an apprentice, or via a college route. Becoming a personal manager( PT) is more advanced. PTs are often self-employed, and they need insurance, first-aid exercise, an awareness of dissection and physiology, and a qualification, which takes anything from six weeks 3 months to achieve. Increasingly, trainers tell me, gyms are looking for another asset in their PTs: they want them to be photogenic, with a big social media following.

Zanna Van Dijk:’ When I look back at my old-time uprights, I cringe .’ Photograph: Getty Images

Some Insta-fitness personalities have personal education suitabilities, but numerous do not. Often, there is no way of telling who is trained and who isn’t, without asking them. Anyone with more than 100,000 followers, nonetheless, irrespective of their qualifications, is deemed an “influencer”, courted by brands eager to reach their adherents. That’s a fact that tempers many offline personal trainers, who was of the view that the unqualified yet famous ones devalue their profession.” Online curricula want people to feel as if they have their own- cheap- personal trainer ,” one tells me.” As some of them are wholly unskilled and the programmes are really’ one length fits all ‘, current realities couldn’t be further from the truth. It realizes reputable personal trainers seem outrageously expensive .”

It is a sentiment resembled by one health and allure magazine writer, who asks to remain anonymous because her ideas don’t tally with that of her bos.” These epoches, a strong Instagram following, good gene reserve and even better spray sunburn can construct you a fitness ace, regardless of what qualifications you have. Not only do many of these’ fitness virtuosoes’ know little about what constitutes safe usage( the truth is that no amount of likes come in handy when you need to solve a gym-induced injury ), they likewise create a inaccurate gumption of what fit and healthy looks like- and it doesn’t ever look 21 and great in a bikini. Include to that the fact that these social media adepts get paid to alter fitness devices, gambits and protein shakes, and you’ve a whole loading of dangerously misguided adherents .”

No one would deny that people becoming more active is anything other than a good event. Millennials claim to enjoy working out as much as going out; gyms have become stylish, social openings where people invest their Friday nights and Saturday mornings, often doing back-to-back first-class. Revolving, boxing and hybrid cardio-barre workouts at city-centre-based studios often have waiting lists for evening or weekend seminars, when people would traditionally be kicking back with a potion( fewer parties aged between 16 and 24 suck than ever before, according to the Office of National Statistics ). Gyms are designed with stylish interiors and high-impact facet walls- all the better to post to Instagram.

And while the rest of the fashion sector strives, activewear- now not so much a category of apparel as a way of life, led by leggings and cultivate tops- has already become big business. Morgan Stanley forecasts the workout clothe sector to be worth $83 bn a year globally over the next three years. Gymwear is no longer age-old jogging posteriors or baggy T-shirts; it’s cut-outs and mesh- robes you can wear all day, seven days a week.

It’s a warm Monday lunchtime and I am sitting next to a dough oven in a sourdough bakery in Battersea, south London. Where else to assemble a 24 -year-old characterized personal trainer and full-time fitness blogger? This is one of Zanna Van Dijk‘s favourite hangouts: when she’s not working out( or “socialing” herself doing so ), Van Dijk and her boyfriend run an Instagram account devote to where to find the best brunch. There is a lot weighing about the type of alternative milk to be served with her americano. Later this afternoon, she tells me, she is getting the representation for Earth tattooed on her wrist because,” I’m a vegetarian for countries around the world .”

Van Dijk is towering, about 6ft, and lean. She has long, blond mane, immaculate makeup and more than 180, 000 adherents on Instagram. She learnt speech therapy at Sheffield University, but after graduating went into fitness blogging full era.” For me, fitness started as a lane to lose my’ Fresher’s 15′[ a reference to the heavines first-year university students can gain ]. I documented it, picked up 35,000 partisans and didn’t know what to do with them. So I took a year off, endeavoured to London, started to work as a PT, made an income and forged partnerships with firebrands. I did a six-week intensive route and got it sponsored, as long as I blogged about it. As my online chart grew, I shortened my personal instruct task- now I learn parties one morning a week. Otherwise, I’m editing videos or blogposts- I do three of these each a week. I’ve written a book, I’ve brought out jumpers[ which say’ Coffee and carbs’ on them ], and I’m an Adidas envoy .”

Van Dijk acknowledges occasions were quite different when she was starting out.” When I look back at my age-old berths, I cringe. I reckon:’ Gosh, people know good-for-nothing! You had completely the incorrect outcome of the stick !’ I used to try and be super-lean, and now I certainly don’t care if I am lean or not- I want to be fit .” She violates off to vlog, before we look through her Instagram demographics together.

” My following is 81% dames, 19% beings ,” she says.” The biggest audience is 25- to 34 -year-olds, more older males, more younger women, mostly London, mostly UK .” More older humanities? Isn’t that a bit creepy? Van Dijk doesn’t react. Does she appear a responsibility to her followers?” You want to be 100% honest and share everything, but the other day, I did a video where I indicated my figure. It was all about self-confidence and self-love, which is what I am all about, but person observation:’ I just think this video is drawing attention to different people’s bodies and their appearings .’ That wasn’t its intention, that’s how it’s being comprehended .”

Van Dijk argues that her admirers shouldn’t compare themselves with her.” It’s really hard. I teach four days per week or maybe five ,” she says.” A slew of young girls will look at me and think:’ I want to look like she examines and I want to do what she does ,’ and that’s when I have to be so careful .”

In that gumption, she experiences she has to protect people from themselves.” If you’re someone who has a negative mindset or is in a vulnerable place, you can easily access information that you could use mischievously. If you’re someone with an eating disorder or an infatuation with employ, Instagram is no longer an good home to be .”

Celebrity manager James Duigan( right ):’ There’s no guarantee you’re doing things right online’

How much responsibility do online trainers really make for parties copying the workouts they recommend? Jean-Claude Vacassin, the founder of boutique London gym W10, is not a fan of fitness via social media or, as he expressions it “excer-train-ment”. ” What parties assure on social media is selling ,” he tells me on the phone.” Extreme fitness exchanges, it’s exciting. It used to be that moving a marathon was hardcore. Now, that’s not enough: you have to do a multi-day ultra-marathon. A mint of these online training regimen is directed at millennials who want to buy on the first clink and transform their body on the second- and they push themselves more hard-boiled. No one wants to invest eight weeks moving more and snacking less these days because, sadly, beings don’t believe basic practise, done well, is going to get them anywhere. There’s this idea that it’s boring .” He quotes the case of a developer who got a deal with a complement companionship because he works out a lot and has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.” But does that make he knows what he’s doing? No! He’s a make , not a personal coach .”

Vacassin lends:” In our gym, we have gym criteria. Parties undergo an assessment before they get a programme. Hiit[ high intensity] training courses and involved employs under tirednes should not be in 90% of people’s fitness regimes because they don’t have the physical ability. These online reports trick beings into thinking “its so easy”. No one posts a bad exercising. No one posts the exercising they missed. No one posts the depression they have when they get injured or such relationships it expenditure them. All you see is the good stuff .”

Deep squats, lunges, deadlifts and high-intensity cardio are the mainstay of online exercisings, and stop Cameron Tudor, proprietor of West London Physiotherapy, in business.” We’ve seen an increase in the numbers of clients coming to us having disabled themselves doing online workouts ,” he says.” People get hurt predominantly because the theme is:’ This is what I do and there’s no reason it won’t work for you .’ Extrapolated across the population, that’s not going to be good. While it’s a great circumstance that people are being encouraged to be active, if you’ve never elevated a barbell and then start elevating 10 kg, you’ll put your materials at risk .” Part of the problem, Tudor says, is in the age changes.” The coaches are generally in their early 20 s, but a lot of the person or persons use the programmes are mid-to-late 30 s and 40 s. That subjects, because your tissues are far more resilient when you’re under 30.”

All exercise carries specific risks of harm, but the lack of supervision means that online programmes can carry more probability. Cara, 28, from Birmingham, was doing an online squats defy when she damaged her sciatic nerve.” I am sweeping about what happened to me ,” she says,” but I’m not sure what anyone can do about it. It was my decided not to do the programme. I merely didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing for me .”

Natalie Burley, 37, from Chichester, swapped daily hearings on her exercise bike for an online programme to regain some fitness after her second child. In her fifth week, she inaugurated knowing knee anguish.” A physio was just telling me I’d exacerbated the ligaments on the outside of my knee and I had to rest for six weeks. Now I have to wear a knee funding .”

Fitness stars themselves aren’t immune from both physical or psychological traumata as a result of their jobs. Van Dijk tells me she cracked her handwriting doing box jumps last year. Fitness Instagrammer Queen City Sweat( nearly 50,000 adherents) wrote a pole in June admitting she had become “addicted” to activity in 2016, blaming the pressures of social media.” It becomes so simple to start equating yourself to others on here, which led me to develop a mindset of’ How skinny can I get ?’ rather than’ How healthy can I be ?'” she wrote.

According to a 2008 Journal of Health Psychology study, girls reported an ever increasing negative mood, sadnes and nervousnes after merely 30 times of deeming fitness periodicals that promote an” sporting principle “. Social media means you don’t have to buy a publication to discover these likeness; they’re in your newsfeed. The BMJ has identified practise craving as a originating trouble, feigning up to 10% of the employing population. Meanwhile, research from Flinders University in Australia found that online “fitspo” personas predominantly illustrate the thin or sporting principle for women or the muscular ideology for men which, says clinical psychologist Dr Lisa Orban, can lead to mental difficulties, more.” Images considered on Instagram can represent one uniform, idealised standard of attractiveness- one not achievable to most young people .”

I ask celebrity personal trainer James Duigan if he has were part of Instagram’s fitness culture. “Massively,” he says from his gym in western London.” Social media facilitated my business Bodyism, and I admit that. But I think there’s a difference between that and photos of beings publicizing commodities and selling exert and nutrition curricula, which can be physically and emotionally destructive .”

Duigan attained his name grooming the likes of Elle Macpherson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley- both terribly successful simulations, neither with particularly achievable physiques- but “he il be” definite about his issues with online fitness programs.” Too many of these videos peculiarity complex moves and beings get hurt ,” he says.” From a physiological perspective, there’s no guaranty you’re doing things right online .”

Duigan tells me the story of an 18 -year-old client who has just connected his gym, after growing preoccupied with an online workout” advocated by very thin models and reality TV stars “. He sighs:” She developed an anorexia nervosa and was under medical supervision for 18 months. It attains me enraged. Numerous online workouts peculiarity modelings and they examine so compelling, playing into our deepest anxieties. But regular parties won’t achieve the same results.”

Lisa Andrews has now made a full retrieval, but is specified not to succumb to online training a second epoch.” I have removed social media from my phone so I can’t fall back into that vortex. And I’ve connected a gym where they’ve made a programme particularly for me. It’s early days and I know it will take time, but I’m having fun again .”

Some figures have been changed .

* Noting on this article? If you would like your explain to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine’s words page in reproduce, please email weekend @theguardian. com, including your name and address( not for pamphlet ).

The post ‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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[dramarising-replacement]

Idiotic scammer

(There is a TL;DR at the bottom, this is a super long post!)

I have this super old art form that I closed down a long time ago because I had opened a new form with better art examples, a neater layout, a better idea of what i was doing and an actual system to how i do commissions. I made it blatantly obvious on my old forum that it was old art examples, no longer used and that i had a new form for art commissions, with several links on the main page and alt. pages that you lead you to the new forum. Seems pretty obvious that it’s a dead forum and that you should follow the links for the new forum, right? Well, apparently it wasn’t obvious enough for this one dumbass.

The new shop has been open for about four, maybe five, months give or take, and it’s not super popular but it gets commissions so it’s good enough for me. The old shop is about two-ish years old, since I made it around the time I first joined flightrising (And in November this year my account will be three years old.) and the art on the old forum is pretty bad because it’s a two year difference. Not to mention I only knew how to draw Imperials, Coatls and Tundras at the time (The only dragons I cannot draw currently are Spirals) and I made that pretty obvious on the old forum as well, since I didn’t want commissions for Ridgebacks or something.

Well, about two weeks ago, someone commented on the new forum, fully filled out commission sheet, requesting I draw a couple of their dragons. No biggie, right? Just link them to the new forum, even though they should have seen the links and the big, bright red ‘THIS FORUM IS INACTIVE’ text on the pages, but whatever. Although, had that form been open I would have been pretty pissed since this person did a couple of things to raise red flags right at the start. First of all, like I mentioned before, i said that I only did three dragons breeds for drawing because they were the only ones I was capable of doing at the time. This person had commissioned for a Spiral and Snapper couple picture to put in their dragon bios. That’s red flag one. After that, in the same post, they got pretty specific in their description of what they wanted and, while I normally don’t mind that (and in fact, i love people who give descriptions. Gives me an idea of what to do.) the person was repeating a lot of what they said, like they expected me to gloss over details or something. Red flag two. Three, they said at the bottom of their post that “I can’t pay upfront but if you could show me the sketch once you finish it I will pay half and then pay the other half once the picture is fully done.”

Yeah, no.

Another thing to note about my old art shop is that I severely under priced all my art, like super under priced. You could get a full body, fully colored and shaded picture of your dragon for only around 12k treasure to 18k treasure (it varied on complexity.) so it got a lot of sales because it was so dang cheap. (I will never forget the one person who tipped me 100k treasure because I was so under priced.) But that being said, two dragons, full color and shading, headshots was only about 13-ish k treasure, so not too bad. But the fact that they “Couldn’t pay upfront” was super alarming to me and honestly, might’ve made me skeptical even two years ago. Not to mention that they have super expensive gene projects and apparel all over their lair, so I knew they were lying. Red flag three. I had to reread the entire post three times, go through the five stages of grief and spend twenty minutes thinking of what to say before I actually responded.

I told them that I have a new forum they can commission on and that this one is dead (Didn’t give them the link though.), that at the time of this forum having been active, I wouldn’t have drawn a Snapper or a Spiral, that I only take upfront payment and then called their ass out for trying to scam me because they have all sorts of expensive shit in their lair.

Now that person made that comment three weeks ago, right? And I didn’t hear back from them at all after I responded, so I assumed they turned tail and went to scam other people. Well, a couple of days ago they commented on my new artshop with the same dragons and layout and yada as before and they put down the “I can’t pay upfront” bullshit again. I think they assumed that I’d forgotten about them already. Although, if it had been another lair I might’ve understood the can’t pay upfront thing a little more, since my commissions can range from 30k treasure (or about 30 gems) to my highest commission reaching to 355k treasure (and that’s not including the massive tip they left me.) and I have been pretty lenient with that in the past. I have had a system where people pay me small sums as I do the picture and then once the payment is done, I give them the final picture. And it’s worked out perfectly every time and nobody has been particularly crabby about it, so no biggie right?

Well, I don’t call the scammer out yet and pretend I am just meeting them and tell them about the small sum payment thing and how it works and tell them when they can send the first small payment. Well, the person immediately threw a huge hissy fit, insisting that they “Couldn’t do small payments” and that “They could only do half and half.” and honestly, I was dumbfounded. Completely, utterly dumbfounded. I respond to them that “The payments don’t need to be big, they can be as low as 1,500 treasure at a time.” and told them that I couldn’t really trust half and half people since I could easily be scammed.

“But I’m not gonna scam you! Are you calling me a scammer?” In my head? Absolutely. But on forums, I keep things professional so I tell them that no, It’s just a precaution because I never know and that I can’t really take that risk. I remind them that they also have no right to accuse me of calling them a scammer when they tried to pull the same crap on my old forum. They didn’t respond on forum, but instead in PM. They chewed me out, calling me a liar and a scumbag (among some other offensive things) and that I was ruining their rep by 'slandering their good name’ by calling them a scammer. Now, on forums I keep things as professional as I can, but in PMs all bets are off. I follow up with this;

“Thank you for your very angry message about me calling you out for who you are and what you are attempting to do. I am so sorry that your brittle ego and emotions where hurt when I actually confronted you instead of complying to your stupid terms you suggested in the forums. I understand that you are a rich boy who doesn’t want to actually spend his money on art for his dragons and would rather steal the art so that the artist doesn’t get jack squat out of it while you leave with your money and art. But you know what? If I find you on my forums again asking for a commission, I will block you because I have no time nor patience for scammers and sincerely hope that one day you pull your head out of your hipster hole and realize that artists are people too and wanted to be paid for their hard work. I hope this message finds you in horrible health, and I await your response!”

They never responded and I haven’t seen them on my forums since then thankfully, but I see them trying to pull the same crap on other forums, so I occasionally stop by to respond to them and loudly call them a scammer, then seeing the commissioner turn them away. Feels good to watch them not get crap they don’t pay for.

TL;DR - Idiotic scammer visited my old and closed art forum, trying to scam me for a super cheap commission and then didn’t respond when I called them out. Visits my new art forum three weeks later and tries to pull the same crap, throws a hissy fit when I suggest a different means to pay me, messages me saying I slandered their good name and calling me rude and offensive names, doesn’t respond when I thoroughly chew them out for their bullshit.

[apsbicepstraining]

‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far?

With seven-day gym classes and unregulated instructors on Instagram, is our desire for practise get hazardous?

Lisa Andrews was looking for a speedy fitness secure. The 34 -year-old had” a bit of load to forget” a year after having her first child and, being both time-poor and on a fund, she decided to do it with the assistance of an online 12 -week training programme she’d seen advertised on Facebook.” There were the thousands of changeovers on there ,” Lisa tells me.” I was so excited to start. The program had several different levels so you could begin at whatever level you thought worked for you. Stupidly, I picked intermediate. It was really defying, with daily establisheds of high-intensity activities, and I would routinely find dog-tired and wholly out of sigh by the end of it- but I was on a high. As I get fitter, I began to really desire the training. I looked forward to it, talked about it all the time, got acquaintances to sign up. I became fairly evangelical. Sometimes I’d even do two sessions a date. I’d bounced other activities to work out- because if I had to miss a discussion, I’d appear depressed and fretted it would thwart my change .”

But when” niggling anguishes” in her feet and ankles developed into something more severe, Lisa was unable to go to work. An X-ray confirmed that she had stress fractures in two places available in her hoof. Bound up in a big boot-like aircast, she struggled to walk for weeks and was told to avoid any weight-bearing training for months, until the bones are absolutely mended.” I had become obsessed ,” she says now.” I was wholly into it and the’ community’ of people online doing the same stuff. I’d be on Instagram all the time, looking at other people’s conversions. I do feel silly. I should know better- but it is psychologically intoxicating .”

Using Instagram, blogs and YouTube to get fit is fast becoming de rigueur. And despite get collectively fatter and more sedentary, the British invest evidence amounts of coin rehearsal. Representations from the 2017 UK State of the Fitness Industry report show that the sector is worth more than PS4. 7bn yearly- up more than 6% on its first year before. A speedy search for the #fitspo hashtag on Instagram draws up almost 47 million images- parties in workout gear promoting weights, close-ups of ultra-defined abs, bulbous biceps, “transformation” word-paintings( taken before and after fat loss)- each one advocating a programme more punishing than the last.

These daytimes, hardcore fitness exchanges. Even Nike, which stimulated its call with that all-inclusive Just Do It tagline, has taken to lambasting joggers in its latest ad blitz:” If You Like It Slow, Jog On”, or” You Prevail Some Or You Acquire Some”, exclaim its new billboards. Gyms guide” extend hard” advertisements, with discounted packs for those taking up inexhaustible classifies for short periods of period, such as 10 classifies in 10 days- the kind of training that numerous dub” binge workouts “.

But nowhere is full-on teach more powerfully advocated than on social media, where inspirational paraphrases such as” Pain is Weakness Leaving The Body” and” Sweat Is Your Fat Crying” are liked and shared billions of occasions. In the age of “wellth”, a well-honed tricep is more desirable than the latest duet of decorator shoes. The so-called world-wide of “fitspo” began as a niche practice for gym nerds to share tips-off and document how their bodies changed, before spreading into a whole lifestyle progress. Instagram’s short videos lend themselves to fitness content; beings started following routines in the gym.

Fitness progress have been around a very long time- think back to Jane Fonda, The Green Goddess and Mr Motivator- but works out has become a lot more complex since the aerobics periods, says Rick Miller, a clinical and plays dietician.” Increasingly, there seems to be this feeling of,’ Why would I go for a soothing 5km trot or a moderate aerobic discussion when I can do a punishing high-intensity set ?'” he tells me over lunch. High-intensity training( mixing all-out outbursts of pleasure with short remainders) goes mixed re-examines from health professionals: some swear by the fast develops, while many believe that unsupervised employ of this kind can cause health problems.

” Many young person I construe are completely preoccupied with Instagram fitness stars ,” Miller says,” and they follow workouts from so-called tutors they don’t know, which may not be right for their own bodies or their levels of fitness. Fitness athletes are adepts online, but their followers often try to instruct at the standard of health professionals player, without the core level of fitness. Following this type of workouts can very often to be translated into injury and burnout. Were I to recommend some of the things that fitness bloggers recommend- levels of practise, nutritional advice- I would get struck off .”

The National Careers Service was pointed out that training to become a fitness teach can only be done on the job at a gym, as an apprentice, or via a college route. Becoming a personal manager( PT) is more advanced. PTs are often self-employed, and they need insurance, first-aid exercise, an awareness of dissection and physiology, and a qualification, which takes anything from six weeks 3 months to achieve. Increasingly, trainers tell me, gyms are looking for another asset in their PTs: they want them to be photogenic, with a big social media following.

Zanna Van Dijk:’ When I look back at my old-time uprights, I cringe .’ Photograph: Getty Images

Some Insta-fitness personalities have personal education suitabilities, but numerous do not. Often, there is no way of telling who is trained and who isn’t, without asking them. Anyone with more than 100,000 followers, nonetheless, irrespective of their qualifications, is deemed an “influencer”, courted by brands eager to reach their adherents. That’s a fact that tempers many offline personal trainers, who was of the view that the unqualified yet famous ones devalue their profession.” Online curricula want people to feel as if they have their own- cheap- personal trainer ,” one tells me.” As some of them are wholly unskilled and the programmes are really’ one length fits all ‘, current realities couldn’t be further from the truth. It realizes reputable personal trainers seem outrageously expensive .”

It is a sentiment resembled by one health and allure magazine writer, who asks to remain anonymous because her ideas don’t tally with that of her bos.” These epoches, a strong Instagram following, good gene reserve and even better spray sunburn can construct you a fitness ace, regardless of what qualifications you have. Not only do many of these’ fitness virtuosoes’ know little about what constitutes safe usage( the truth is that no amount of likes come in handy when you need to solve a gym-induced injury ), they likewise create a inaccurate gumption of what fit and healthy looks like- and it doesn’t ever look 21 and great in a bikini. Include to that the fact that these social media adepts get paid to alter fitness devices, gambits and protein shakes, and you’ve a whole loading of dangerously misguided adherents .”

No one would deny that people becoming more active is anything other than a good event. Millennials claim to enjoy working out as much as going out; gyms have become stylish, social openings where people invest their Friday nights and Saturday mornings, often doing back-to-back first-class. Revolving, boxing and hybrid cardio-barre workouts at city-centre-based studios often have waiting lists for evening or weekend seminars, when people would traditionally be kicking back with a potion( fewer parties aged between 16 and 24 suck than ever before, according to the Office of National Statistics ). Gyms are designed with stylish interiors and high-impact facet walls- all the better to post to Instagram.

And while the rest of the fashion sector strives, activewear- now not so much a category of apparel as a way of life, led by leggings and cultivate tops- has already become big business. Morgan Stanley forecasts the workout clothe sector to be worth $83 bn a year globally over the next three years. Gymwear is no longer age-old jogging posteriors or baggy T-shirts; it’s cut-outs and mesh- robes you can wear all day, seven days a week.

It’s a warm Monday lunchtime and I am sitting next to a dough oven in a sourdough bakery in Battersea, south London. Where else to assemble a 24 -year-old characterized personal trainer and full-time fitness blogger? This is one of Zanna Van Dijk‘s favourite hangouts: when she’s not working out( or “socialing” herself doing so ), Van Dijk and her boyfriend run an Instagram account devote to where to find the best brunch. There is a lot weighing about the type of alternative milk to be served with her americano. Later this afternoon, she tells me, she is getting the representation for Earth tattooed on her wrist because,” I’m a vegetarian for countries around the world .”

Van Dijk is towering, about 6ft, and lean. She has long, blond mane, immaculate makeup and more than 180, 000 adherents on Instagram. She learnt speech therapy at Sheffield University, but after graduating went into fitness blogging full era.” For me, fitness started as a lane to lose my’ Fresher’s 15′[ a reference to the heavines first-year university students can gain ]. I documented it, picked up 35,000 partisans and didn’t know what to do with them. So I took a year off, endeavoured to London, started to work as a PT, made an income and forged partnerships with firebrands. I did a six-week intensive route and got it sponsored, as long as I blogged about it. As my online chart grew, I shortened my personal instruct task- now I learn parties one morning a week. Otherwise, I’m editing videos or blogposts- I do three of these each a week. I’ve written a book, I’ve brought out jumpers[ which say’ Coffee and carbs’ on them ], and I’m an Adidas envoy .”

Van Dijk acknowledges occasions were quite different when she was starting out.” When I look back at my age-old berths, I cringe. I reckon:’ Gosh, people know good-for-nothing! You had completely the incorrect outcome of the stick !’ I used to try and be super-lean, and now I certainly don’t care if I am lean or not- I want to be fit .” She violates off to vlog, before we look through her Instagram demographics together.

” My following is 81% dames, 19% beings ,” she says.” The biggest audience is 25- to 34 -year-olds, more older males, more younger women, mostly London, mostly UK .” More older humanities? Isn’t that a bit creepy? Van Dijk doesn’t react. Does she appear a responsibility to her followers?” You want to be 100% honest and share everything, but the other day, I did a video where I indicated my figure. It was all about self-confidence and self-love, which is what I am all about, but person observation:’ I just think this video is drawing attention to different people’s bodies and their appearings .’ That wasn’t its intention, that’s how it’s being comprehended .”

Van Dijk argues that her admirers shouldn’t compare themselves with her.” It’s really hard. I teach four days per week or maybe five ,” she says.” A slew of young girls will look at me and think:’ I want to look like she examines and I want to do what she does ,’ and that’s when I have to be so careful .”

In that gumption, she experiences she has to protect people from themselves.” If you’re someone who has a negative mindset or is in a vulnerable place, you can easily access information that you could use mischievously. If you’re someone with an eating disorder or an infatuation with employ, Instagram is no longer an good home to be .”

Celebrity manager James Duigan( right ):’ There’s no guarantee you’re doing things right online’

How much responsibility do online trainers really make for parties copying the workouts they recommend? Jean-Claude Vacassin, the founder of boutique London gym W10, is not a fan of fitness via social media or, as he expressions it “excer-train-ment”. ” What parties assure on social media is selling ,” he tells me on the phone.” Extreme fitness exchanges, it’s exciting. It used to be that moving a marathon was hardcore. Now, that’s not enough: you have to do a multi-day ultra-marathon. A mint of these online training regimen is directed at millennials who want to buy on the first clink and transform their body on the second- and they push themselves more hard-boiled. No one wants to invest eight weeks moving more and snacking less these days because, sadly, beings don’t believe basic practise, done well, is going to get them anywhere. There’s this idea that it’s boring .” He quotes the case of a developer who got a deal with a complement companionship because he works out a lot and has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.” But does that make he knows what he’s doing? No! He’s a make , not a personal coach .”

Vacassin lends:” In our gym, we have gym criteria. Parties undergo an assessment before they get a programme. Hiit[ high intensity] training courses and involved employs under tirednes should not be in 90% of people’s fitness regimes because they don’t have the physical ability. These online reports trick beings into thinking “its so easy”. No one posts a bad exercising. No one posts the exercising they missed. No one posts the depression they have when they get injured or such relationships it expenditure them. All you see is the good stuff .”

Deep squats, lunges, deadlifts and high-intensity cardio are the mainstay of online exercisings, and stop Cameron Tudor, proprietor of West London Physiotherapy, in business.” We’ve seen an increase in the numbers of clients coming to us having disabled themselves doing online workouts ,” he says.” People get hurt predominantly because the theme is:’ This is what I do and there’s no reason it won’t work for you .’ Extrapolated across the population, that’s not going to be good. While it’s a great circumstance that people are being encouraged to be active, if you’ve never elevated a barbell and then start elevating 10 kg, you’ll put your materials at risk .” Part of the problem, Tudor says, is in the age changes.” The coaches are generally in their early 20 s, but a lot of the person or persons use the programmes are mid-to-late 30 s and 40 s. That subjects, because your tissues are far more resilient when you’re under 30.”

All exercise carries specific risks of harm, but the lack of supervision means that online programmes can carry more probability. Cara, 28, from Birmingham, was doing an online squats defy when she damaged her sciatic nerve.” I am sweeping about what happened to me ,” she says,” but I’m not sure what anyone can do about it. It was my decided not to do the programme. I merely didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing for me .”

Natalie Burley, 37, from Chichester, swapped daily hearings on her exercise bike for an online programme to regain some fitness after her second child. In her fifth week, she inaugurated knowing knee anguish.” A physio was just telling me I’d exacerbated the ligaments on the outside of my knee and I had to rest for six weeks. Now I have to wear a knee funding .”

Fitness stars themselves aren’t immune from both physical or psychological traumata as a result of their jobs. Van Dijk tells me she cracked her handwriting doing box jumps last year. Fitness Instagrammer Queen City Sweat( nearly 50,000 adherents) wrote a pole in June admitting she had become “addicted” to activity in 2016, blaming the pressures of social media.” It becomes so simple to start equating yourself to others on here, which led me to develop a mindset of’ How skinny can I get ?’ rather than’ How healthy can I be ?'” she wrote.

According to a 2008 Journal of Health Psychology study, girls reported an ever increasing negative mood, sadnes and nervousnes after merely 30 times of deeming fitness periodicals that promote an” sporting principle “. Social media means you don’t have to buy a publication to discover these likeness; they’re in your newsfeed. The BMJ has identified practise craving as a originating trouble, feigning up to 10% of the employing population. Meanwhile, research from Flinders University in Australia found that online “fitspo” personas predominantly illustrate the thin or sporting principle for women or the muscular ideology for men which, says clinical psychologist Dr Lisa Orban, can lead to mental difficulties, more.” Images considered on Instagram can represent one uniform, idealised standard of attractiveness- one not achievable to most young people .”

I ask celebrity personal trainer James Duigan if he has were part of Instagram’s fitness culture. “Massively,” he says from his gym in western London.” Social media facilitated my business Bodyism, and I admit that. But I think there’s a difference between that and photos of beings publicizing commodities and selling exert and nutrition curricula, which can be physically and emotionally destructive .”

Duigan attained his name grooming the likes of Elle Macpherson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley- both terribly successful simulations, neither with particularly achievable physiques- but “he il be” definite about his issues with online fitness programs.” Too many of these videos peculiarity complex moves and beings get hurt ,” he says.” From a physiological perspective, there’s no guaranty you’re doing things right online .”

Duigan tells me the story of an 18 -year-old client who has just connected his gym, after growing preoccupied with an online workout” advocated by very thin models and reality TV stars “. He sighs:” She developed an anorexia nervosa and was under medical supervision for 18 months. It attains me enraged. Numerous online workouts peculiarity modelings and they examine so compelling, playing into our deepest anxieties. But regular parties won’t achieve the same results.”

Lisa Andrews has now made a full retrieval, but is specified not to succumb to online training a second epoch.” I have removed social media from my phone so I can’t fall back into that vortex. And I’ve connected a gym where they’ve made a programme particularly for me. It’s early days and I know it will take time, but I’m having fun again .”

Some figures have been changed .

* Noting on this article? If you would like your explain to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine’s words page in reproduce, please email weekend @theguardian. com, including your name and address( not for pamphlet ).

The post ‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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[apsbicepstraining]

‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far?

With seven-day gym classes and unregulated instructors on Instagram, is our desire for practise get hazardous?

Lisa Andrews was looking for a speedy fitness secure. The 34 -year-old had” a bit of load to forget” a year after having her first child and, being both time-poor and on a fund, she decided to do it with the assistance of an online 12 -week training programme she’d seen advertised on Facebook.” There were the thousands of changeovers on there ,” Lisa tells me.” I was so excited to start. The program had several different levels so you could begin at whatever level you thought worked for you. Stupidly, I picked intermediate. It was really defying, with daily establisheds of high-intensity activities, and I would routinely find dog-tired and wholly out of sigh by the end of it- but I was on a high. As I get fitter, I began to really desire the training. I looked forward to it, talked about it all the time, got acquaintances to sign up. I became fairly evangelical. Sometimes I’d even do two sessions a date. I’d bounced other activities to work out- because if I had to miss a discussion, I’d appear depressed and fretted it would thwart my change .”

But when” niggling anguishes” in her feet and ankles developed into something more severe, Lisa was unable to go to work. An X-ray confirmed that she had stress fractures in two places available in her hoof. Bound up in a big boot-like aircast, she struggled to walk for weeks and was told to avoid any weight-bearing training for months, until the bones are absolutely mended.” I had become obsessed ,” she says now.” I was wholly into it and the’ community’ of people online doing the same stuff. I’d be on Instagram all the time, looking at other people’s conversions. I do feel silly. I should know better- but it is psychologically intoxicating .”

Using Instagram, blogs and YouTube to get fit is fast becoming de rigueur. And despite get collectively fatter and more sedentary, the British invest evidence amounts of coin rehearsal. Representations from the 2017 UK State of the Fitness Industry report show that the sector is worth more than PS4. 7bn yearly- up more than 6% on its first year before. A speedy search for the #fitspo hashtag on Instagram draws up almost 47 million images- parties in workout gear promoting weights, close-ups of ultra-defined abs, bulbous biceps, “transformation” word-paintings( taken before and after fat loss)- each one advocating a programme more punishing than the last.

These daytimes, hardcore fitness exchanges. Even Nike, which stimulated its call with that all-inclusive Just Do It tagline, has taken to lambasting joggers in its latest ad blitz:” If You Like It Slow, Jog On”, or” You Prevail Some Or You Acquire Some”, exclaim its new billboards. Gyms guide” extend hard” advertisements, with discounted packs for those taking up inexhaustible classifies for short periods of period, such as 10 classifies in 10 days- the kind of training that numerous dub” binge workouts “.

But nowhere is full-on teach more powerfully advocated than on social media, where inspirational paraphrases such as” Pain is Weakness Leaving The Body” and” Sweat Is Your Fat Crying” are liked and shared billions of occasions. In the age of “wellth”, a well-honed tricep is more desirable than the latest duet of decorator shoes. The so-called world-wide of “fitspo” began as a niche practice for gym nerds to share tips-off and document how their bodies changed, before spreading into a whole lifestyle progress. Instagram’s short videos lend themselves to fitness content; beings started following routines in the gym.

Fitness progress have been around a very long time- think back to Jane Fonda, The Green Goddess and Mr Motivator- but works out has become a lot more complex since the aerobics periods, says Rick Miller, a clinical and plays dietician.” Increasingly, there seems to be this feeling of,’ Why would I go for a soothing 5km trot or a moderate aerobic discussion when I can do a punishing high-intensity set ?'” he tells me over lunch. High-intensity training( mixing all-out outbursts of pleasure with short remainders) goes mixed re-examines from health professionals: some swear by the fast develops, while many believe that unsupervised employ of this kind can cause health problems.

” Many young person I construe are completely preoccupied with Instagram fitness stars ,” Miller says,” and they follow workouts from so-called tutors they don’t know, which may not be right for their own bodies or their levels of fitness. Fitness athletes are adepts online, but their followers often try to instruct at the standard of health professionals player, without the core level of fitness. Following this type of workouts can very often to be translated into injury and burnout. Were I to recommend some of the things that fitness bloggers recommend- levels of practise, nutritional advice- I would get struck off .”

The National Careers Service was pointed out that training to become a fitness teach can only be done on the job at a gym, as an apprentice, or via a college route. Becoming a personal manager( PT) is more advanced. PTs are often self-employed, and they need insurance, first-aid exercise, an awareness of dissection and physiology, and a qualification, which takes anything from six weeks 3 months to achieve. Increasingly, trainers tell me, gyms are looking for another asset in their PTs: they want them to be photogenic, with a big social media following.

Zanna Van Dijk:’ When I look back at my old-time uprights, I cringe .’ Photograph: Getty Images

Some Insta-fitness personalities have personal education suitabilities, but numerous do not. Often, there is no way of telling who is trained and who isn’t, without asking them. Anyone with more than 100,000 followers, nonetheless, irrespective of their qualifications, is deemed an “influencer”, courted by brands eager to reach their adherents. That’s a fact that tempers many offline personal trainers, who was of the view that the unqualified yet famous ones devalue their profession.” Online curricula want people to feel as if they have their own- cheap- personal trainer ,” one tells me.” As some of them are wholly unskilled and the programmes are really’ one length fits all ‘, current realities couldn’t be further from the truth. It realizes reputable personal trainers seem outrageously expensive .”

It is a sentiment resembled by one health and allure magazine writer, who asks to remain anonymous because her ideas don’t tally with that of her bos.” These epoches, a strong Instagram following, good gene reserve and even better spray sunburn can construct you a fitness ace, regardless of what qualifications you have. Not only do many of these’ fitness virtuosoes’ know little about what constitutes safe usage( the truth is that no amount of likes come in handy when you need to solve a gym-induced injury ), they likewise create a inaccurate gumption of what fit and healthy looks like- and it doesn’t ever look 21 and great in a bikini. Include to that the fact that these social media adepts get paid to alter fitness devices, gambits and protein shakes, and you’ve a whole loading of dangerously misguided adherents .”

No one would deny that people becoming more active is anything other than a good event. Millennials claim to enjoy working out as much as going out; gyms have become stylish, social openings where people invest their Friday nights and Saturday mornings, often doing back-to-back first-class. Revolving, boxing and hybrid cardio-barre workouts at city-centre-based studios often have waiting lists for evening or weekend seminars, when people would traditionally be kicking back with a potion( fewer parties aged between 16 and 24 suck than ever before, according to the Office of National Statistics ). Gyms are designed with stylish interiors and high-impact facet walls- all the better to post to Instagram.

And while the rest of the fashion sector strives, activewear- now not so much a category of apparel as a way of life, led by leggings and cultivate tops- has already become big business. Morgan Stanley forecasts the workout clothe sector to be worth $83 bn a year globally over the next three years. Gymwear is no longer age-old jogging posteriors or baggy T-shirts; it’s cut-outs and mesh- robes you can wear all day, seven days a week.

It’s a warm Monday lunchtime and I am sitting next to a dough oven in a sourdough bakery in Battersea, south London. Where else to assemble a 24 -year-old characterized personal trainer and full-time fitness blogger? This is one of Zanna Van Dijk‘s favourite hangouts: when she’s not working out( or “socialing” herself doing so ), Van Dijk and her boyfriend run an Instagram account devote to where to find the best brunch. There is a lot weighing about the type of alternative milk to be served with her americano. Later this afternoon, she tells me, she is getting the representation for Earth tattooed on her wrist because,” I’m a vegetarian for countries around the world .”

Van Dijk is towering, about 6ft, and lean. She has long, blond mane, immaculate makeup and more than 180, 000 adherents on Instagram. She learnt speech therapy at Sheffield University, but after graduating went into fitness blogging full era.” For me, fitness started as a lane to lose my’ Fresher’s 15′[ a reference to the heavines first-year university students can gain ]. I documented it, picked up 35,000 partisans and didn’t know what to do with them. So I took a year off, endeavoured to London, started to work as a PT, made an income and forged partnerships with firebrands. I did a six-week intensive route and got it sponsored, as long as I blogged about it. As my online chart grew, I shortened my personal instruct task- now I learn parties one morning a week. Otherwise, I’m editing videos or blogposts- I do three of these each a week. I’ve written a book, I’ve brought out jumpers[ which say’ Coffee and carbs’ on them ], and I’m an Adidas envoy .”

Van Dijk acknowledges occasions were quite different when she was starting out.” When I look back at my age-old berths, I cringe. I reckon:’ Gosh, people know good-for-nothing! You had completely the incorrect outcome of the stick !’ I used to try and be super-lean, and now I certainly don’t care if I am lean or not- I want to be fit .” She violates off to vlog, before we look through her Instagram demographics together.

” My following is 81% dames, 19% beings ,” she says.” The biggest audience is 25- to 34 -year-olds, more older males, more younger women, mostly London, mostly UK .” More older humanities? Isn’t that a bit creepy? Van Dijk doesn’t react. Does she appear a responsibility to her followers?” You want to be 100% honest and share everything, but the other day, I did a video where I indicated my figure. It was all about self-confidence and self-love, which is what I am all about, but person observation:’ I just think this video is drawing attention to different people’s bodies and their appearings .’ That wasn’t its intention, that’s how it’s being comprehended .”

Van Dijk argues that her admirers shouldn’t compare themselves with her.” It’s really hard. I teach four days per week or maybe five ,” she says.” A slew of young girls will look at me and think:’ I want to look like she examines and I want to do what she does ,’ and that’s when I have to be so careful .”

In that gumption, she experiences she has to protect people from themselves.” If you’re someone who has a negative mindset or is in a vulnerable place, you can easily access information that you could use mischievously. If you’re someone with an eating disorder or an infatuation with employ, Instagram is no longer an good home to be .”

Celebrity manager James Duigan( right ):’ There’s no guarantee you’re doing things right online’

How much responsibility do online trainers really make for parties copying the workouts they recommend? Jean-Claude Vacassin, the founder of boutique London gym W10, is not a fan of fitness via social media or, as he expressions it “excer-train-ment”. ” What parties assure on social media is selling ,” he tells me on the phone.” Extreme fitness exchanges, it’s exciting. It used to be that moving a marathon was hardcore. Now, that’s not enough: you have to do a multi-day ultra-marathon. A mint of these online training regimen is directed at millennials who want to buy on the first clink and transform their body on the second- and they push themselves more hard-boiled. No one wants to invest eight weeks moving more and snacking less these days because, sadly, beings don’t believe basic practise, done well, is going to get them anywhere. There’s this idea that it’s boring .” He quotes the case of a developer who got a deal with a complement companionship because he works out a lot and has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.” But does that make he knows what he’s doing? No! He’s a make , not a personal coach .”

Vacassin lends:” In our gym, we have gym criteria. Parties undergo an assessment before they get a programme. Hiit[ high intensity] training courses and involved employs under tirednes should not be in 90% of people’s fitness regimes because they don’t have the physical ability. These online reports trick beings into thinking “its so easy”. No one posts a bad exercising. No one posts the exercising they missed. No one posts the depression they have when they get injured or such relationships it expenditure them. All you see is the good stuff .”

Deep squats, lunges, deadlifts and high-intensity cardio are the mainstay of online exercisings, and stop Cameron Tudor, proprietor of West London Physiotherapy, in business.” We’ve seen an increase in the numbers of clients coming to us having disabled themselves doing online workouts ,” he says.” People get hurt predominantly because the theme is:’ This is what I do and there’s no reason it won’t work for you .’ Extrapolated across the population, that’s not going to be good. While it’s a great circumstance that people are being encouraged to be active, if you’ve never elevated a barbell and then start elevating 10 kg, you’ll put your materials at risk .” Part of the problem, Tudor says, is in the age changes.” The coaches are generally in their early 20 s, but a lot of the person or persons use the programmes are mid-to-late 30 s and 40 s. That subjects, because your tissues are far more resilient when you’re under 30.”

All exercise carries specific risks of harm, but the lack of supervision means that online programmes can carry more probability. Cara, 28, from Birmingham, was doing an online squats defy when she damaged her sciatic nerve.” I am sweeping about what happened to me ,” she says,” but I’m not sure what anyone can do about it. It was my decided not to do the programme. I merely didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing for me .”

Natalie Burley, 37, from Chichester, swapped daily hearings on her exercise bike for an online programme to regain some fitness after her second child. In her fifth week, she inaugurated knowing knee anguish.” A physio was just telling me I’d exacerbated the ligaments on the outside of my knee and I had to rest for six weeks. Now I have to wear a knee funding .”

Fitness stars themselves aren’t immune from both physical or psychological traumata as a result of their jobs. Van Dijk tells me she cracked her handwriting doing box jumps last year. Fitness Instagrammer Queen City Sweat( nearly 50,000 adherents) wrote a pole in June admitting she had become “addicted” to activity in 2016, blaming the pressures of social media.” It becomes so simple to start equating yourself to others on here, which led me to develop a mindset of’ How skinny can I get ?’ rather than’ How healthy can I be ?'” she wrote.

According to a 2008 Journal of Health Psychology study, girls reported an ever increasing negative mood, sadnes and nervousnes after merely 30 times of deeming fitness periodicals that promote an” sporting principle “. Social media means you don’t have to buy a publication to discover these likeness; they’re in your newsfeed. The BMJ has identified practise craving as a originating trouble, feigning up to 10% of the employing population. Meanwhile, research from Flinders University in Australia found that online “fitspo” personas predominantly illustrate the thin or sporting principle for women or the muscular ideology for men which, says clinical psychologist Dr Lisa Orban, can lead to mental difficulties, more.” Images considered on Instagram can represent one uniform, idealised standard of attractiveness- one not achievable to most young people .”

I ask celebrity personal trainer James Duigan if he has were part of Instagram’s fitness culture. “Massively,” he says from his gym in western London.” Social media facilitated my business Bodyism, and I admit that. But I think there’s a difference between that and photos of beings publicizing commodities and selling exert and nutrition curricula, which can be physically and emotionally destructive .”

Duigan attained his name grooming the likes of Elle Macpherson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley- both terribly successful simulations, neither with particularly achievable physiques- but “he il be” definite about his issues with online fitness programs.” Too many of these videos peculiarity complex moves and beings get hurt ,” he says.” From a physiological perspective, there’s no guaranty you’re doing things right online .”

Duigan tells me the story of an 18 -year-old client who has just connected his gym, after growing preoccupied with an online workout” advocated by very thin models and reality TV stars “. He sighs:” She developed an anorexia nervosa and was under medical supervision for 18 months. It attains me enraged. Numerous online workouts peculiarity modelings and they examine so compelling, playing into our deepest anxieties. But regular parties won’t achieve the same results.”

Lisa Andrews has now made a full retrieval, but is specified not to succumb to online training a second epoch.” I have removed social media from my phone so I can’t fall back into that vortex. And I’ve connected a gym where they’ve made a programme particularly for me. It’s early days and I know it will take time, but I’m having fun again .”

Some figures have been changed .

* Noting on this article? If you would like your explain to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazine’s words page in reproduce, please email weekend @theguardian. com, including your name and address( not for pamphlet ).

The post ‘It’s intoxicating- I became obsessed’: has fitness gone too far? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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