#not super-old or experienced but also she watched like five men die when she was fourteen and fifteen

[swan2swan]

This line is one of my Absolute Favorites from this show, because it really digs right into the new world that the kids are in:

They're not kids anymore.

There's a furious man threatening harm to Bumpy and her friends, and Sammy puts herself square in the middle of the argument, turns on the charm and promises that she'll make it up to him...and when he doesn't acquiesce, she immediately turns Stern. She bluntly tells him to go home. As an adult talking to another adult.

She has her own property. Her own life. Her own world. She has authority now. The days where they're kids hiding from robots or businessmen or sneaking away from big game hunters and mercenaries are over. Sammy has land, she has responsibilities, and she's not backing down from them. Sammy Gutierrez is an adult woman, and she's going to act like one.

[minuteminx]

Revolutionary

Pairing: Preston Garvey/ Female Sole Survivor

Summary: In the aftermath of personal tragedies, Preston and Charlie both seek to make a difference in the Commonwealth and those around them. They could never anticipate the impact that they will have on eachother in the process.

Chapter Five: Coast’s Clear

Chapter Summary:    Charlie doesn't know many things for certain since she woke up in the future, but one thing she does know is that she will never watch someone she loves die again. Not if there's something she can do about it.

[First Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

[AO3 Link]

“For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.”

― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

Quincy Ruins, June 2288

Charlie hadn’t lived in Massachusetts for long when the bombs fell.   She and Nate moved up from West Virginia in July of 2077, she’d gotten a position as a postdoctoral fellow in neuropsychology at Medford Memorial Hospital, more than a  little  excited to make use of her shiny new degree.  Shaun was born two months later.  After spending most of her life moving from place to place for her education, she was ready to settle down. She never made it that far.

Needless to say, she’d also never made it down to Quincy.  Though, at the moment, she desperately wished she had.

Preston had this way of looking at her sometimes when he thought she didn’t notice, a lingering glance over his shoulder, a careful observation of her face as if he expected to find some twinkle of pre-war nostalgia in her eyes when entering a new area, memories from a time when the air didn’t reek of sulfur and rotting flesh, and no one had to worry whether or not they’d be run out of their homes and mowed down by mercenary cults.  She could offer him no solace.  She could barely even look him in the eyes.

In more comfortable times over the past eight months since they had met, he simply asked her if she was familiar with locations or landmarks.  Once, he asked her if she had fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and she informed him that she was two hundred and thirty-seven years old, not well over five hundred.  His smile had wrinkled up his eyes that day as he laughed away the embarrassment.  Today, there were no stories to be told, no jokes or laughter, just Preston, Charlie, Amelia, a handful of other Minutemen and a large pile of ashes that used to have names.

“I don’t like this,” Charlie muttered, more to herself than anything.

She jumped when Preston replied, “Me neither.  Not one bit.”  

She hadn’t expected him to hear her, or even pay attention.  She could barely see his eyes from under the shadow cast by his hat, but she didn’t need to see to know that he wasn’t okay. He wasn’t one to wear the overwhelming grief he experienced on his face, anyway.  The last time they’d visited a Minutemen graveyard, as the Lexington Super Duper Mart had turned out to be, he had to excuse himself from a barricaded room filled with deceased members of the militia.  She found him in the feral-corpse littered hallway, green around the gills and sweating.  He didn’t have a weak stomach, but reminders of his loss seemed to impact him viscerally.  She wondered how he managed to keep his composure now, standing in the place where it all started.

She was drawn from her thoughts by a thunderous boom that left her ears ringing.  She hated that noise. Looking up towards the direction of the blast she saw a small, mushroom-cloud pouring up from a nearby building.  A fucking nuke. Hadn’t people learned a damn thing?

Charlie scanned the area for someone holding a Fat Man.  She’d been toe-to-toe with wielders of those atrocities enough times to know that she had to act, and fast.  Movement on the roof of the nearby church.  Just right if the belfry stood a large figure, someone in power armor, with the exact weapon.  Without another thought, she charged in his direction.  If she got close enough in range she could keep him from firing again.  He wouldn’t get another shot. Not if she had anything to do with it.

She tangled with very few Gunners on her way to the church, thankfully.  Most of them were distracted by the small militia that accompanied her.  A couple of grunts took shots at her once she made it inside, but they missed and she fired back, hitting each of them once.  She didn’t stop to make sure they were incapacitated.  There wasn’t time. She needed to get to the roof.

The stairs that led to the belfry were worn and rickety.  In less of a panic, she probably would have made her way up them gingerly, avoiding the obvious areas of dry rot.  Still, she managed to make it to the top without event.  She hoped the luck would stay on her side just a little bit longer.  She just needed to take out the Gunner with the Fat Man, or at least distract them long enough to protect the Minutemen. Her Minutemen.

“Hey,” Charlie shouted, pointing both of her pistols at the man loading a mini nuke into his gun, “Asshole!”

“What the--” he looked up from what he was doing just in time for her ballistic round to strike him between the eyes.

“Yes,” she said under her breath.  How had she gotten to the point where she felt relief at another person’s death?  Is this what the Commonwealth made of all its inhabitants?

She moved in closer to examine the man’s corpse, still standing erect in the power armor shell. A whole lot of good that did him. He was a relatively young man, mid-thirties, and she wondered if he had a family.  MacCready had been a Gunner once, he’d told her as they sat drinking whiskey in The Third Rail, bloodstained and bathed in red neon light.  It was a gig, a way of making money to support his young son when he had no better options.  What if this man had been just like him?  Charlie didn’t want to think about it.

Noting a fully loaded, modified laser pistol on the ground near the dead Gunner, she picked it up, discarding both of the 10mms in her hands.  They’d just been spares, and she was out of ammo anyway.  She also looted a stimpak and a good chunk of caps before standing up and adjusting her belt.  A loud crash of metal and puffing of hydraulics rose up from the street beneath her and she rushed to the edge of the roof, crouching to keep out of view.  

Preston. A more practical person would have noticed the handlebar mustache wearing the T60 first, the actual source of the commotion, but then again she never claimed to be practical.  Why was he alone?  Why hadn’t he fallen back to the gates with everyone else, where it was safe?  She’d run at a man shooting nukes to protect him and there he was out in the wide open, staring down who could only be the notorious traitor Clint, if the militia hat and sheer aura of son-of-a-bitch were any indication.  It was out of character for Preston to be so reckless.  Maybe he’d forgotten that was her job.

The two men spoke, but she was too far away to make out any of the conversation.  She’d never seen Preston look so visibly angry or shaken.  She needed to get to him before something bad happened, but she needed to be careful.  Frantically, she dug through her various pockets looking for one item in particular. Hoping, praying she still had it.

She smiled and let out a sigh of relief as she pulled the stealth boy from her satchel.  That Railroad operative, Deacon, had given it to her as a welcome gift when she’d agreed to help him out.  At the time, she’d shrugged it off as a passive aggressive commentary on her lack of discretion.  She’d have to thank him next time they crossed paths.

Charlie rushed back inside the church tower, and down the rickety steps as quickly as she could, flipping open the cap of the stealth boy and pressing the button as she did so.  By the time she reached the street, she was completely invisible.  Later, when she and Preston were safe and sound back at Sanctuary, she’d ask Sturges how it worked.

As she crept her way up behind Clint, the man reared back and punched Preston so forcefully it sent him flying into an old junked out Corvega parked nearby.  She brought her invisible hand to her invisible mouth to keep herself from gasping audibly.  As far as she knew, stealth boys weren’t sound proof.  She took some deep steadying breaths, ignoring the burn of tears in her eyes.  Now wasn’t the time to lose her shit.

Moving into position directly behind Clint, she noticed Preston’s eyes on her.  He must have noticed the movement in the air.  She lowered the stealth field, watching relief wash over his face as she smiled and drew her finger to her lips.  Clint would not take him away from her.  She wasn’t in a cryochamber this time, and she would not stand helplessly by and watch someone she loved die.  Never again.

“What’s so fucking funny,” she heard him ask Preston who was, despite it all, laughing.  

“Nothing man,” Preston answered, slurring his words in a way that made Charlie uneasy, “Nothing at all.”

She took that opportunity to fire, aiming her fancy new pistol at the legs of Clint’s power armor.  She had noticed that they were damaged as she moved in, knew it wouldn’t take much to disable them.  Sure enough, after a half-dozen or so shots, the T60’s leg’s locked up, forcing the man to jump out.  He turned in her direction as soon as he did so.

“You little bitch ,” he snapped, and christ, if Charlie didn’t hate being called a bitch.

He tried to raise his weapon and fire at her, but she’d already pulled the trigger, launching a blast of burning red energy into his chest, and filling her nostrils with the sterile scent of ozone.  She holstered her weapon and hovered over him for a minute, shaking her head.  “I’m not a bitch.”

Charlie then brought her eyes back up to Preston, where he sat leaned up against the car, worry tightening her chest.  It wasn’t a good sign that he hadn’t even tried to stand up yet, so unlike him to not make an attempt to brush off his injuries and press forward.  She ran over and knelt down in front of him, cupping his face in her hands and turning it to the left, then the right to check for any signs of external bleeding.  When she saw nothing more than a couple of superficial scrapes she brought up her pip boy and flashed a bright beam of light into each of his eyes.

Shit , she thought, but hid her worry behind a laugh as he flinched and squirmed away from the light.   Only one of his pupils had responded to the flash, which meant that he had a concussion at the very least.  She refused to entertain the other possibilities at the moment.  The tears she had held back just minutes earlier returned to her eyes, and she didn’t fight them this time.

“You’re okay,” she told him, kissing his forehead reflexively, “Looks like you might have a concussion, but you’re safe.  I’m here.”

He blinked up at her a few times, and she wished she could live up to that version of her that reflected in his eyes.  She wished desperately that she could be everything he needed her to be, but with Shaun, and the Institute, and--

“You’re really scary sometimes,” he interrupted her snowballing thoughts, a smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth, “You know that?”

She knew she shouldn’t take any of his concussed statements seriously, but an embarrassed laugh bubbled up from her chest, and she couldn’t hold his gaze.  “I’m sorry, I just… I’d just watched Clint knock you into the car, and he was about to kill you, and I just…”

She trailed off, internally chastising herself for failing to conjure up a coherent response.  She wasn’t even the one with the head injury.  A gentle tap, and tug at her chin guided her eyes back to Preston.  He let his hand linger where it was as his smirk turned into a full-on smile.

“No,” he said, laughing softly, and shaking his head, “It’s kinda hot.”

Heat rose to her face and she snorted gracelessly at his compliment.  She didn’t know how or what to feel, couldn’t put her finger on why his affection made her so overwhelmingly sad.  She shrugged it off and wiped a tear from her face. “Jesus, you hit your head harder than I thought.”

He didn’t respond, and his eyes fluttered closed instead, hand falling limply from her face.  Panic surged up into her chest and she leaned forward to catch him from falling over on his side.

“Preston,” she called out frantically, as she repositioned herself so that she could ease his head down onto her lap, removing his hat and setting it on the ground by her hip. “Preston?”

Again, no response.  “God damnit,” she snapped, slamming the side of her fist into the metal of the car door behind her, body finally giving into the sobs she’d been fighting, sobs that weren’t solely in response to present events.  She doubled over, knuckles turning white around the fabric of his duster she clenched in her fists.

“I’m sorry, Preston,” she whimpered, knowing he couldn’t hear her, knowing it didn’t matter because she would continue to let him down. “I’m so sorry.”

Charlie stiffened at the sound of footsteps, straightening up to see Amelia, her long brown hair flying out of it’s braid, followed by the others who’d accompanied them.  She found herself wishing MacCready was there, Codsworth, Sturges, anyone except the contingent of unfamiliar faces peering down at their commanding officer having a temper tantrum. Amelia glanced between Charlie and Preston, pretty blue eyes filled with concern.

“He’s okay,” Charlie explained, scrubbing tears away from her swollen face, “Just unconscious. He hit his head pretty bad.”

“What happened?”

“Clint-- at least I think that guy over there’s Clint-- hit Preston so hard he sent him flying into this,” Charlie pointed to the car behind her and watched as Amelia approached the body of the man Charlie’d just killed.

The woman frowned, shook her head, and kicked the corpse before returning to Charlie’s side. “That’s Clint alright, the bastard.”  She offered Charlie a reassuring smile, and then glanced down at Preston, “You got a stimpak on you, General?”

Charlie recalled the one she picked up from the Gunner she’d taken out.  She could have slapped herself for not thinking of it sooner.  She reached into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled it out, showing it to the other woman.  

“Perfect.  Let’s give it to Preston, just in case he’s more banged up than he looks.”  She took the syringe from Charlie’s shaking hand gently and removed the cap, and jammed it into Preston’s upper arm.  He jerked slightly at the pain, but didn’t stir.  Amelia continued speaking, “What do you say we have a couple of the boys move him someplace comfy?  There are some abandoned apartments up the street.”

“Yes.” Charlie nodded.  “What about the--”

“Coast’s clear.  Any of the Gunners we didn’t kill ran off.” Amelia smiled.  “Quincy’s ours again.”

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #430

“when the girl in the corner is everyone’s woman, she could kill you with a wink of her eye”

What kind of dog do you find most ugly? What a mean question. ;-; I don't think they're ugly, but I probably find chihuahuas to be the least visually appealing. Do you like wood floors or carpet better? Wood. Do you think the USA bullies other countries? Quite frankly, yes. Are you currently in love right now? No. Favorite fast food joint? Sonic. What would you do if your ex contacted you? THE ex, have a panic attack. Cry. Be wordlessly ecstatic. Be scared and confused. Do you still have feelings for your ex? Two, yes, but one is unrealistic considering I have no idea who he is anymore. It's been way too long for me to possibly, accurately like him. Ever tasted a flavored condom? No. Do you know CPR? No. How much do you care about your best friend? I'd die for her. Do you watch Dr. Phil? No. What age would you like to have a child? I don't want kids ever. Are your parents wealthy? Mom, absolutely not. Dad seems to be financially stable, but not wealthy or anything. Pick one state you’d love to live in? Alaska. How many pets do you want? And of what? Man, I want a LOT. I know I want more ball python morphs, a plains hognose, a woma python, numerous tarantulas, a fat-tailed gecko, a boa, orchid mantises, a sphynx, a tegu would be super cool... I'd love to have like an empire of pets one day, aha, but only so long as I could maintain them all and adequately provide for them. Have you ever asked someone out? Yes. When do you want to get married? I mean, I don't have a set age in mind. I want to get married when I'm ready. Can you play a musical instrument? I played the flute for yeeeaaaars in middle and high school, but I remember almost nothing by now. What if you stopped orgasming for the rest of your life? Idc, honestly. Does money make you happy? Money probably makes me happier than it should, but I'm not like madly in love with it or anything. Happens when you're poor your whole life. Your favorite breakfast food? Ugh, cinnamon rolls are a godsend. When was the last time you went to a funeral? I actually don't think I've ever been to one... only wakes. I really, really wish I could have gone to Jason's mom's, though... There was just no fucking way that I was going to risk upsetting Jason on THAT day of all days by popping up. Have you ever stolen someone’s boyfriend/girlfriend? Well, we never actually dated, but you could say that... Tell me the date of your first kiss. I don't know the exact date, but it was March 2012. Are your legs long or short? Normal, I guess? How many phobias do you have? Man, a lot. Is there a bookshelf in your room? No. Do you use the Facebook chat often? Barely at all. I only really use it to chat with Girt on the rare occasion we talk. Who got you hooked on the addiction you're addicted to (If you have one)? I discovered Mark on my own; I needed help in an Amnesia: The Dark Descent custom story, so I found his playthrough and watched it. Got a few laughs, subscribed. It was Jason who introduced me to Amnesia, though, so I can indirectly thank him, I guess? haha Are you currently worried about your parents finding out about something? No. Have you ever lived with a friend? Yeah, for a couple months. Have you ever only liked someone because you found out they liked you? No. Ever been on a real diet, or did you just stop eating? I've tried multiple diets. Have you ever known a white supremacist? I know multiple. Welcome to the South. Do you like the smell of a barbecue? Yesss. It's funny because I hate the food itself. Have you ever gone out in public in your pajamas? Yeah. It's not rare, if I'm being honest. How many times have you been to the ER? Too many times because of being suicidal. How many people are you currently texting? None. Anything exciting coming up? My nephew's birthday is in a few days! Would you rather get money or gift cards for your birthday? Money, so I can use it for anything. Do you have Instagram? I have three, ha ha. One for my basic photography, another for my morbid photos, and I went through a very short phase of having an Instagram for my pets. It still exists, but I don't really use it. Have you ever spoken to a detective before? No. Do you believe in ghosts? Yes. Do ladders scare you? Yes. Hot dogs or hamburgers? Cheeseburgers may possibly be my favorite food. Do you have any tattoos on your arms? I do. Have you ever owned or known someone who owned a black cat? I've owned plenty of black cats. What album is the last song you listened to from? It's from Disguise. What’s the last funny movie you watched? Probably Elf. Can you remember your parents’ birthdays? Mom's, yes. I only remember the month of my dad's. If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you pick? I think I want to get my tribute to Teddy next. How do you feel about band tattoos? Hey, go for it. I see nothing wrong with it. What piercing do you like most on the opposite sex? Probably snakebites. Lip piercings in general are hot lmao. Are you any good at applying make up? Noooo, my hands are so shaky. How old were the last 3 people you kissed? Sara's 23; idr the exact ages of Girt and Tyler. I think Tyler was a year younger than me, and Girt is at the bare minimum three years older than me. If you found out you got someone pregnant, what would you do? Well, I'm a cisgender female, so... Do you ever wonder what your ex is up to? Very frequently. Do you like your cell phone? I mean it's fine, but I'd like a new one. Is rap your favorite genre of music? No, it's actually my least favorite. Have you ever thrown up on anybody? Oh god, no. Do people think you’re happy? I think it's safe to say most people who know me know I'm clinically depressed. Or you know... maybe not. Quite a few people have been surprised to learn that about me because I can put on a good facade. What band would you stand in line for 24 hours to see? None, honestly. That's way too long. What was your worst childhood experience? I guess my dad's alcoholism. As a child, I thought it was a normal thing, but I do wonder if my fear of men has anything to do with how volatile drinking had a 50/50 chance of making him. He never hurt anyone, but he was just so mad and hateful towards the world sometimes. You can trade another person’s emotions for your own. Whose do you take? I have no idea. What was/is going to be your first waltz at your wedding? That'll depend on my partner and what song means the most to us/fits us best. "When It's Love" by Van Halen has been a consideration for forever, though. When it’s not summer, what do you miss most about it? I hate summer. I miss nothing about it. Do you consider yourself patriotic? No. What is the one thing that you need to do to die happy? Feel like I accomplished something notable. Do you consider yourself mainstream? No. What’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done? Overdosing on cold medicine. What is life’s greatest mystery? Probably from whence we came. Humanity has fished for a definite answer forever. What was your favourite make-believe game as a kid? Pretending I was a meerkat hiding in a "burrow" that was a blanket fort, ha ha. Do you try your best at everything? Honestly, no. Who is your shoulder to cry on? My mom, without fail. What’s your standard excuse for not doing something? I dunno... it depends on the topic. Name the most beautiful person you know. As far as physical appearance goes, my friend Alon. Have you ever been to jail? No. What is one moment you wish you could have taken a picture of? Sara's face when I surprised her at her house for her birthday. It was absolutely fucking priceless. What place holds the most memories for you? Jason's house. Who was your first date? My puppy dog-love middle school bf Aaron. We went with a group of friends to a skating rink. My first one-on-one date was Jason. What’s the best trip you’ve ever been on? The zoo in 5th grade. It's the one and only time I've seen meerkats. For some weird reason, our zoo moved the meerkats not long after that visit. I THINK they said the environment just wasn't suitable for them, which I never really got... I think they mentioned the cold, but like, you have heating for them, and also, have you ever experienced a desert night? You consider all the other areas that have meerkats in their zoos and it's like... why, man. Bring my meerkats back. ;_; What do you think the earth will look like in 1,000 years? Oh dear God, I do NOT want to visualize that. My gut tells me it'll be a wasteland, probably without humans or most forms of life we have now. We have to get our shit straight, so very badly. I could rant for hours about how horribly and ungratefully we abuse our planet. Who makes you happy to be around? Sara! I feel like I can be my 100% authentic self, and we just vibe really well together. Like every time I've been there and she here, our friendship felt so natural and chill. I really, really need to save up for another trip up there. What secret have you tried to hide but it got out anyway? I kept the Joel situation to myself from pretty much everyone, but it eventually came out in front of Mom and Jason. It was actually the night of the breakup; I don't remember how it was relevant at all to mention, but I did in some form. Mom wisely never asked about it, and Jason obviously didn't. I was a stupid 12-year-old anyway, it's whatever now. Who/what is your everything? I will never. Ever. In five billion millennia. Let anyone be that again. How many people have you turned down when they asked you out? Ummm three? I think that's it. How many exes do you have? If I include everyone who ever had a title of "boyfriend/girlfriend," I have six. Who was your worst relationship with? Tyler. It was just pointless and the result of nothing but loneliness. What’s your ‘label’? (ex. punk, prep) I really, really don't care. Do you swear? How much? Like a sailor. I swore some beforehand, but I got really bad when Jason and I started dating. He swore a lot, and his mother did even more. I was around them as much as possible, so it rubbed off on me. What is the one thing that would make everything in your life fall apart? Losing my family, like being disowned or something like that. Especially when it comes to Mom. I rely on her so heavily, as much as I hate that. :/ What takes your breath away? Nature is very capable of that. Something like seeing big waterfalls in the mountains or something would marvel me. Are you patient? No, honestly. Are you a good dancer? No. Even when I took dance, I don't think I was great; however, I do think I was pretty skilled at clogging. Who would you call first in a life-threatening situation (not 911)? My mom. Who do you miss? Jason and his family, Megan, Alex, Hannia, Emily, Journee... a lot of people. Do you like snakes? I adore snakes.

[panharmonium]

stranger things 3, a visual summary:

more coherent thoughts under the cut, because wow.

......okay.  that was a Trainwreck.  an absolute mess.

i remember when my coworkers were watching S3 (and still urging me to start season 1) and they were saying how amazing the latest season was, and honestly i think there must just be a difference in people who watch tv just to be entertained and people who watch tv and automatically evaluate the story (aka fandom veterans and English majors, lol - cue Me twice), because WHO could watch this critically and praise it that way?

it's honestly hard to know where to even begin; i've been sending frustrated notes to @brambleberrycottage ever since episode three and now that i'm done with episode 8 there's just......so much more to say

first, good things:

erica is a great character.  she's what max should have been (aka, uh.......interesting!)  i liked the realization moment where dustin was like "you're a NERD!"

that entire sequence where will is so upset with lucas and mike for not being engaged with the dnd game was very well done, especially the conversation he has with mike out in the rain.  i loved that moment where mike asked him "did you think we were just going to hang out in my basement playing games forever?" and will said, "yeah.  yeah, i guess i did."  i really felt that.  [edit, now that i've finished: this was never resolved.  will giving away his dnd books at the end was not an actual resolution to this conflict.]

steve is still a good dude, and robin was pretty cool.  i'm down for them being super friends.  but i'm still mourning the steve+nancy+jonathan trio that was a thing for like 5 seconds and then never returned.

i loved how genuinely excited steve was to see dustin when dustin came back from camp.  that was adorable.  "HENDERSON!!!!"  "how many children are you friends with?"

and uh. yeah.  i had more problems with this season than praise-bestowing moments, so.  here goes that bit.

OVERARCHING PROBLEMS:

1. keep it simple, stupid

remember in the office when dwight quoted the above advice to ryan as michael's rule for making a sale?  the same advice applies to storytelling.

season 1 of stranger things is so simple.  there is One Monster.  that is the danger.  and somehow, that single monster manages to be a thousand times more terrifying than all of these new "bigger, scarier, more epic" threats crammed into the second two seasons.

how goofy is the stranger things season 3 plot, seriously?  russians are blackmailing a small-town mayor so they can buy up land to steal power from the town while operating a secret lab under the mall to open a gate to the Upside Down (WHY?), while simultaneously a remnant of the malevolent force that was "defeated" last season has reanimated itself and is making people scarf chemicals (WHY?), and then it possesses one of them and uses that person to possess a bunch of other people in order to build itself a body made out of melted people, in order to kill el, whose only story this season is breaking up with her boyfriend, and we have to infiltrate this russian base in order to close the gate (same endgame as last season - BIG NO-NO) to kill the goo monster, except last time the "mindflayer” survived the gate being closed, so why would this even WORK, and -

the fact that there are so many "round-up/info dump" scenes where characters summarize what's going on and make implausibly accurate connections/guesses about what it all must mean is a red flag.  the characters shouldn’t have to tell your story to the audience.  if it's too complicated for us to keep straight on our own, it's too complicated.  

the amount of energy that goes into trying to lash together a Chaos Plot with too many shaky legs leaves nothing left over for nuanced character development or mood establishment.  you're constantly running to catch up to your own flimsy story before it collapses on top of itself.

2. the horror!

S1 of stranger things was the scariest thing i'd ever seen.

granted, i don't watch a lot of horror, because i don't like it.  i get scared too easily and then i legitimately can't sleep.  i watched a horror movie five years ago that i still think about every time the lights are off in my house.  but still, ST1 was something i had never experienced before.

it wasn't creature horror, and it wasn't just suspense.  it was the UNSETTLINGNESS of it all.  it wasn't really about the monster.  it was about the Upside Down.

the reason ST1 is so successful is because of how much we don’t know.  it's the horror of not understanding what is happening, and the terror of knowing that nobody thinks it’s real.  feeling like you're going crazy and being cut off from all assistance.  the conspiracy and the cover-up.  and the sheer unsettlingness of the whole parallel worlds things just tipped me over the edge - the idea that you can take one wrong step and then be suddenly and without warning completely off the map, simultaneously right next to the people you want to get to and also utterly beyond their reach.  that was fucking scary!!!!  

and they do it all with so little.  i have literally never been more scared in my life than when i would see those christmas lights start flickering.  and they're just LIGHTS!  yes, we see the monster later, but it's the uncertainty that's most frightening.  we don't understand how it arrives in our world, and we don’t know where it will show up next.  it could be right next to you - on the other side.  you could be standing on top of it.  you just don't know.  it’s like what jonathan says to nancy in her bedroom - “it can’t get us in here.”  and she says, “we don’t know that.”

the later seasons of stranger things, by comparison, did not scare me at all.  season two was like a zombie movie - hordes of weak enemies that you can just shoot with a gun.  and season 3 was even less frightening - upping the ante and making things gorier, more explosive, and bigger just isn't the vibe they set in S1.  i'm not scared of that giant goop monster.  it's like godzilla.  it's not horror; it's just a lot of noise.

the unsettling, "creep" factor that made season 1 so effective was gone.  it just turned into a regular old monster movie, and i didn't find that particularly interesting.

3. illogical, captain

a while ago there was a wave of pushback against people complaining about plot holes, but you know what?  there is, in fact, an appropriate place for us to talk about plausibility, as well as the point at which our suspension of disbelief collapses.

ST3 is a bona fide plausibility disaster.  i did not believe half of the story, because it was not unfolding in a believable way.

half of the plot points in this season would not have happened if the characters had been behaving with any kind of sense.  it is absolutely impossible for me to believe that none of these children IMMEDIATELY went to joyce or hopper the minute they knew something weird was going on.  it makes no sense.  after the shit they've seen?  it makes sense in season 1, because the kids are still so young that they have that kind of magical thinking that makes all of this seem kind of like an adventure.  but they're teenagers now, and developmentally, they’re past that stage.  they know the evil creature is back and they're pretty sure it's possessing billy?  for some unfathomable reason, they don't go to an adult, but try to trap billy in the sauna and just see what happens.  the other group has actual proof that russian soldiers are up to something shady in the mall?  they don't tell an adult; they send a TEN YEAR-OLD in through the AIR DUCTS to investigate the secret room guarded by MEN WITH GUNS.

this is ridiculous.  none of this should have happened.  none of this WOULD have happened.  it breaks the boundaries of disbelief.  it completely sabotages the audience’s engagement with the story - joyce and hopper's whole detour with alexei and murray is so dull, because its entire purpose is to bring hop and joyce up to speed on something that we, the audience, already know.  the other characters already found out this stuff, but did not communicate it - the gate is being opened again in a russian lab underground.  there's no suspense for us.  nothing new is revealed.  we're just waiting for them to hurry up and finish finding out so we can move on to the next thing.

moreover: there are so many other problems besides just "these characters would have talked to each other."  why on earth would murray, whose sole characteristic is extreme paranoia, take alexei wandering around the festival for hot dogs and carnival games.  why would hopper be so virulently against the possibility that weird shit might be happening again?  does he remember the past year or what?  how on earth would the kids be able to fight off that massive monster with an ax and a hunting rifle?  it's made out of dead guts and bones; why does it care if they shoot it?!  how in the WORLD is this russian facility so penetrable?  i'm sorry, it's just - beyond believable.  it doesn't have cameras?  the russians guards really can't tell that murray isn't a native speaker?  they don't check his id when they don't recognize him?  joyce and hopper really just got that lucky, to be asked a question and have “smile and nod” be the right answer?  nobody ever got shot?  it's silly.  it's just silly.  so many things - erica uses the "Open" button to open the elevator door in order to let steve and robin and dustin inside, but once the elevator is at the bottom of the shaft, robin explains the door's inexplicable non-opening because......you apparently need a keycard to use the buttons????  THAT MAKES NO SENSE; ERICA JUST USED THE BUTTONS A SECOND AGO.

even the entire endgame of this season is a contradiction!  if the mind-flayer survived el closing the gate last time, it doesn't make sense that closing the gate this time would kill it.  literally the entire plot of last season was "we need to get this thing out of will, because the creature will die once the gate is closed, and we want to make sure will doesn't die with it."  but apparently the creature didn't die upon closing the gate; it just got trapped in our dimension.  but now apparently it WILL die upon closing the gate.  for whatever fucking reason.

i'm sorry, but that’s a mess.  that’s a bona fide mess.

4. watch your tone

i honestly think the tonal change is the thing that made me the most frustrated about this season.  it's possible to have a terrible plot and still stay relatively true to your characters - you'll still have a bad season, but at least you didn't bastardize your characters in the process.

i had issues with S2 and i definitely was not as impressed with it as i was with S1, but at least in S2 joyce and hopper were recognizable.  in S3, i felt like i was watching strangers.  the tonal shift was bizarre and off-putting, more so with hopper than joyce, but it affected both of them.  

even as early as the very beginning of this season, i was feeling weird about how often hopper was being used for comedy.  and as the season progressed, this trend only became more pronounced.  almost every scene we had of him felt silly - and not like there was just something funny in the scene for me to laugh at, but like the audience was almost being asked to laugh AT him.  like he was constantly the butt of the joke.  

this really bothered me.  from that incredibly sincere and heart-wrenching portrayal of him in season 1, when they kept him rooted in the trauma of losing his daughter and the breakdown of his marriage, and then how that same trauma made him so driven to save will and protect the kids - what a change.  even in season 2 i was frustrated how the throughline of his daughter wasn’t touched again until the very last episode, and now in season 3 we’ve left that part of him so far behind that he's just there for us to laugh at.  we're supposed to laugh at scenes of him being drunk and a mess.  every scene he's in is either him arguing with joyce for comedic relief or being way over the top with alexei or the mayor.  he was like a caricature of himself, and i didn't recognize him.  

joyce suffered from the same thing, just by virtue of proximity.  she spent almost all of her time in this season with hopper, and virtually all of that time was taken up with silly shenanigans or comically overblown arguing.  what a departure from the desperate mother of season 1, who was maligned by everyone in town and only taken seriously by the audience.  now it’s the audience who are supposed to be chuckling at her.  

i dunno.  the tone shift was very dramatic, very obvious, and it impacted the entire season.  are we supposed to be taking this seriously or is it supposed to be a joke?  a little bit of humor to break tension can be a good thing, but when it's constant, it confuses the mood.  

and i personally don't think it was appropriate or respectful to either of these characters, in this case.

SMALLER THINGS THAT BOTHERED ME:

this show has 100% hit maximum character saturation.  by the end of this season there were 13 core characters onscreen at the same time, in the same scene!  it’s too many people!  they cannot reasonably develop that many people in the space allotted.

i still am not interested in max.  i don't feel anything for her.  she doesn't feel real.  i don't hate her, but she's just an empty vessel, and i really do think she's superfluous to this show.  i think you could remove her with very little reworking and the show would be stronger for it.  (they TRIED to do something interesting with billy, and i might have cared if we had been given literally any reason to care about him previously, but there was no investment earned there.  they didn't do the front-end work to make him somebody we were interested in.)

weird relationship sunderings from previous seasons.  i felt very strange about jonathan barely even seeing will this entire season.  i felt very strange about steve having almost zero contact with nancy.  i felt very strange about joyce hardly ever interacting with her kids.  all of these were core relationships - the characters were BUILT on those relationships, and they don't feel real outside of them.  not seeing these characters devote time to these relationships makes it feel like i'm watching a slightly different show.

the VIOLENCE.  apparently this is a beat-em-up now???  i really felt like every other scene somebody was getting beaten to a bloody pulp.  there was SO much smashing and bashing and throwing people into walls and fistfights and head trauma like - first of all, i find that stuff pretty boring, and second of all, all of these people should be in the hospital.  

the GORE.  other people’s mileage may vary, obviously; i just didn't like that.  i looked away at the scene with the rat, and all this...goopy dissolving human shit, and the stabbings, and just...general grossness level - season 1 managed to be bloodcurdlingly terrifying without any of this stuff.

i know this borders on nitpicky, but yet more medical malfeasance - another example of someone receiving an injection via the mysterious 90 degree angle neck route, plus - was anyone else losing it at the fact that steve and robin “puked up” a drug they received……..via injection??????  IT’S NOT IN THEIR STOMACHS, FOLKS!  THEY CAN’T PUKE IT UP!  IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT!

the complete lack of follow-up to last season.  the whole S3 plotline (such as it is) feels like a weird side quest.  last season seemed to be furthering the mythos and setting us up for "there are other children like el/brenner is alive" - but this season, that fact appears to have been forgotten by everyone (even el!!!) and has nothing to do with the story that we're given, which is a goofy and redundant story about russians opening a secret lab under the mall which requires us to solve the exact same problem as last season (closing the gate).

this show's inability to keep certain throughlines in its headlights/keep things visible on the periphery instead of dropping them completely and then bringing them back whenever they feel like they need it again.   i already talked about hopper’s daughter as an example of this (done well in S1 and poorly in S2 and S3).  another example is that scene with nancy and her mom - it’s such a good scene, and yet it misses out on so much resonance, because they completely dropped the plotline of karen feeling locked out of her kids’ lives and desperately wanting to connect with them.  if they had continued to reference that throughout season 2, then this scene would have been so much more powerful.   as a third example, season 3 starts with a clear context/premise, and it’s INTERESTING - the town landscape changing because of the mall, business slow to non-existent, small town discontent over big corporations moving in, hopper pressured to break up the protest against mayor kline when he should have let it proceed - and then the show just drops that entire context.  you expect season 3 to stay rooted in the "our small town is being strangled by this mall" and then to eventually deal with the revitalization of hawkins, but nah.  it's never mentioned again.

LASTLY:

i'm not really gonna get into hopper "dying," because he's, like...clearly not dead.  but the whole situation was stupid and contrived (i was so sick of that arnold schwarzenegger lookalike by the last episode, god that whole thing was so dumb) and it's even cheaper knowing that he'll obviously be back.

what i AM gonna say is that i was livid that they brought back that peter gabriel cover of "heroes" to end this season.  their use of that song in S1 blew my mind - it had me stunned with how GORGEOUS it was and just, the way it worked in that particular scene - absolutely incredible.  floored me.  gave me chills.  to recycle it at the end of such a poorly constructed season made me so mad.  yOU CAN'T MAKE ME FEEL THINGS JUST BY REUSING THIS SONG.  I REFUSE TO HAVE EMOTIONS JUST BECAUSE YOU PULL OUT THIS BEAUTIFUL TRACK THAT YOU ONCE USED TO GREAT EFFECT; YOUR STORY WAS STILL TERRIBLE THIS TIME AROUND; DO NOT TRY TO TRICK FEELINGS OUT OF US THAT HAVEN’T BEEN EARNED.  

and that's it.  i’m sure later i’ll think of other things i neglected to mention here, but...yeah.  i was not impressed.  

[swanmciden-blog]

𝓂𝒾𝓈𝒸 𝒶𝓅𝓅 ( deborah ann woll. female, she/her, bare + wildes. ) supposedly, ROSEMARY AMALIA HARING is a SWAN MAIDEN. they look like they’re THIRTY-FIVE, they act like they’ve been on earth for THREE HUNDRED FIFTY SIX YEARS. i just saw them at ALARA’S ANTIQUES, i think they’re an EMPLOYEE there. at night you can always find them going home to STATEN ISLAND by BUS. (mina, 20, she/her, pst)

time to bomb this, because rosemary is forever fighting me about her story and ‘correcting’me. so lets see how much of a mess this ends up being. BUT, i do hope you come to love her as much as i do.

rosemary is a swan maiden, which is fae women (there are men too but it seems that they are just a little too reckless and either stay human forever because ‘why the fuck do i want to be a swan? that is too delicate for MY MANLY NATURE!’ or they just die because of the wars they have experienced so far) who were born from mortal women and the Fae King of Germany. she was daughter #6, and definitely someone who indulged in everything that meant to be a swan maiden. her sisters would travel across germany, enjoying the nature of their beloved country and living in beautiful bliss from the world outside. 

however, the eldest daughter of the fae king, swanhilde, was kidnapped and taken away by a hunter who desired her as his wife. everyone tried to save her, and nobody fought as much as amalia did. however, nothing could occur without swanhilde’s robe of swan feathers that aided her transform. 

the whole swan family had to watch from a distance as their beloved sister lived a mortal life, aging normally and bearing children and eventually dying of old age. they never could find the robe, and it was a warning to them all to be protective of each other, and to be ready to defend yourself. keep your swan feathers close to you no matter what. 

rosemary and her sisters that she lived with (amelira and heleyns) all moved away from germany, being nomads across europe until they arrived to england and heard about America ! (the united states, specifically) by this time, people could sense the tensions in the air and the arrival of what would be world war i arising. amalia (rosemary), amelira and helenys all decided that they would go to the united states, in hopes of a restart of their lives not only as fae women but as ‘pretend’ human women.  

their life had started over, and though they had a feeling of despair for not having anything anymore, they were able to move forward because they still had the one side that was never unchanging. their fae side remained the same, and it followed them no matter where they met. it seemed that no matter what environment they ended up in, they always transcended the elegance and etheral beauty that swans possessed and many fell for them. it seemed to be harder to shun the people away since they were far more persistent than before. however, it also became easier to fight them off, which rosemary appreciated greatly. 

each sister ended up in different fields. one became a factor worker, the other became a nurse, and rosemary became an office assistant. each lived a life they enjoyed, and it was wonderful.

helenys, a factor worker, was able to find the love of her life, a fae man who ended up taking her away to the greater area of canada. rosemary and amelira were left, and they stuck together like two peas in a pot. 

HOWEVER! All good things come to an end, and rosemary was the next to go unvoluntarily.

she didn’t learn from her sister’s life and ended up having her own robe of swan feathers taken from her by a vampire she had a ravishing one-night stand with. he had been someone she had met through work, and they both had an obvious connection. but as rosemary says to this day, “he was a lonely motherfucker who decided i was going to be his companion for life. you know, nosferatu style. or dracula style.” 

she despises this man to this day, and he has dragged her all around new york as she follows  in hopes to get her swan coat back through murder or other methods. though this man is charming, and though she finds him endlessly attractive, the hate within her body possesses her more and she requires some sort of satisfaction. some sort of REVENGE.

unfortunately, the swan coat has a power over its fae women, and it requires them to be dragged along to the person who possesses, so rosemary hasn’t been able to leave this messed up relation. though, amelira was able to figure out her sister’s mistake and has joined her in her travelling around new york. 

they both had established themselves in Staten Island out of their pure intention. quite frankly, they don’t give a shit about the division that the supernaturals have at the current moment doesn’t make sense, and honestly, staten island is not that bad. 

they both opened an antiques shop, amelira being the main manager while rosemary was the dealer and often the one to go and find these items that they sell.

rosemary is seriously such a “i dont give a shit” lady. she doesn’t necessarily watch people, but she has lived long enough to know human nature and is quite over it all. she is straight-forward, direct, and has no time to sugar coat things. she loves being her own person, she loves living her own life. which makes this sort of plot line so hard on her because she is legit having to follow someone else because they have something of hers. 

rosemary does see herself quite blessed to have been swan maiden, and still to this day wishes she could go revisit that. she wishes to just turn back into her swan self and just enjoy the blissfulness that her life was once again. she is still a fae, but also half mortal. so unlike the seelie, she can lie. and she does, only when necessary. 

okay just think of an embodiment of hollywood stars from the 1920s, 30′s, 40′s. that is her, she is quite visually pleasing, she always looks like an elegant working woman, modern society hasn’t quite reached her. some inspiration are grace kelly, marilyn monroe, and like forest nymphs that are like half naked bathing in rivers, lakes, and oceans. 

she loves taking charge, she loves dressing elegantly, she loves dresses, but she has come to quite enjoy nice pant suits, fancy pants with dress shirts. kind of hipstery business styles. her hair is hella long and wavy, and its gorgeous af. she is super confidant in herself, she is lowkey vain, and is honest about her preferences. 

galas? her shit. business parties? her shit. business meetings? she is gonna fuck it up, kenneth. 

she loves to tease people, so don’t be upset if she teases you. 

um um um, she loves fruit so much. meat is okay, but not her favorite thing. sweet juicy shit? that is her shit. 

just omg. she is something else. i love her. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS !

okay lets do this. i would love fae friends / enemies / frenemies. swan maidens are just what humans and a fae king created in germany. so i’m sure there is either speculations of how they are just second best to the seelie / unseelie. some might just respect them as a separate division of fae species, etcs. jazz dance club friends, who are basically people she has met when she has gone to the local jazz club where jazz is often played. if you can’t tell, rosemary is very much stuck in the past of great music, swing dancing, and swaying to dean martin’s voice in the background as she considers rather to take this man home or not. WITH THAT BEING SAID! One-night stands would be great, exs is great too, current people who have a sort of sexual tension with her, people who are enchanted by her because swan maidens are depicted kind of like mermaids / sirens? just, instead of their voice, their very appearance can be enchanting to the human eye, and you best believe she has a tendency to raise the charm level to 2000% all the time when she sees someone looking at her. i need friends who are like her, 7 Rings Ariana Grande, Who run the World? Girls beyonce style. love strong independent woman and she needs that. customers / regulars at the antique shop, because rosemary loves her history, she loves her antique artifacts, and loves talking about those things. and then, i think rosemary could use a super chill friend who just balances her over-the-top personality. just keep her in check and calm her down when she is ready to fight someone.

just like this, and i will pop up in your ims and WE CAN PLOT! just please, she needs this. 

okay, this was a struggle but im done. byyyeeeeee!!

[professorpalmarosa]

Commander Mars (Martian to a Different Drum)

Commander Mars has a rather playful (but hard to read) personality in Pokémon Special (Adventures), an impulsive (and occasionally explosive) personality in Diamond Pearl Adventure, and a sassy, snarky mannerism in the anime (until the rushed ending, but the less we talk about that the better).

Fandom-wise, my favorite interpretation of Mars is in @galacticenergyco​ ’s ongoing story at FanFiction.net: Redshift. In Redshift, Mars is a diehard, eternally loyal subordinate who just can’t get over the man who meant so much to her five years ago. She’s willing to break Charon out of jail, rush into the Distortion World, and even break into the old HQ to help poor Cyrus make a full recovery. It’s ongoing and well worth a read.

I kept all of those iterations (and Mars’s game iteration) in mind when I designed her scent, but Redshift!Mars is where most of the inspiration came from. I wanted to create a fragrance that matched that personality most of all.

Mars has a temper when she’s pushed into a corner, so I wanted to pick a set of oils with a warming effect and a “warm” smell. Hers is the only scent in the entire set that has this quality. I also knew from the get-go I’d want the bomb (or at least the water) to be red, so that made it a bit easier to determine what my main scent would be.

I decided that the main scent in this synergy would be Cinnamon. There are various types of Cinnamon Essential Oil on the market. Cinnamon Bark, Cinnamon Leaf, Cassia Cinnamon, etc. Each have a slightly different smell and slightly different therapeutic properties.

I ended up selecting Cassia Cinnamon because Mars has it in her to occasionally be sweet (especially if your name is Cyrus) and that particular cinnamon oil smells like cinnamon sugar. I always keep a big bottle of it in my ridiculously large collection of oils. I collect these things like Pokémon. The 92-oil case I got for Christmas is already 80% full.

By this point, I had a few options: make this thing smell like an Atomic Fireball candy (been there), Big Red chewing gum (done that), or something more complex. I opted for more complex, since Mars is far from a one-dimensional Commander.

The next two oils I added to her synergy (Allspice and Nutmeg) are, like cinnamon, traditional spices for mulled autumn treats. You can find them together in pumpkin pie, pumpkin ale, spice cake, molasses spice cookies, and so on.

But I didn’t want Mars to simply smell like a glorified spice rack, either. I added a good amount of Sweet Orange to give the spices a fruity note, and some Balsam of Peru for a vanilla-like end note.

The end product brings to mind cozy sweaters, changing leaves, crisp autumn air, spiced fall treats, and the warmth of your home after rushing out into the cold. It’s like wrapping yourself up in your favorite blanket, but as a scent. Very comforting…and the Cassia Cinnamon really does make your skin tingle!

In the tub, Mars’s bomb (Martian to a Different Drum) ends up looking like those colored pictures of the surface of Jupiter, complete with the Great Red Eye. See for yourself! The water’s a dazzling vermilion once the suds dissipate and the smell lingers on your silky-soft skin well into the following morning.

And if your cat has no sense of self preservation (like mine), he may try to lick your legs before you make it into your bathrobe.

Now it’s time to talk about the pros and cons of these oils from a safety perspective...

Aromatherapy isn’t just about pretty smells and scented bath water. Essential oils are in such a high concentration that even absorbing them through your skin can leave you with the therapeutic (and potentially toxic) benefits.

If you are allergic to a plant, you are 100% without question going to be super allergic to the essential oil.

There’s also such a thing as contraindications: where some oils may affect you in weird ways if you have a certain medical condition or take certain medications.

The information below is for your safety if you want to attempt to make this blend at home (as a bath bomb, a body spray, or even scented bath salts). And do be sure to wear gloves. Some of these oils (especially the Balsam of Peru) have recommended dilution rates as small as 0.4%. You don’t want that to slide on bare skin!

Cassia Cinnamon Essential Oil

Everyone knows the soothing, savory, spicy scent of cinnamon. It’s used in Asian cuisines to add flavor to meats and savory dishes. In the Western world, cinnamon can also be used in candies and sweets. It’s one of the most recognized, universal scents in the world.

The type of essential oil I used came from Cassia (Chinese) Cinnamon. This type of cinnamon is the most commonly purchased type of cinnamon (as opposed to Ceylon Cinnamon) within the United States.

Pros:

Cassia Cinnamon can be used to assist with issues pertaining to diabetes, intestinal gas, muscle and stomach spasms, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, infections, loss of appetite, chest pain, hernias, high blood pressure, kidney disorders, and the common cold.

Some people use it to treat bed-wetting in small children.

In part of a multi-ingredient treatment, Cassia Cinnamon can be used to treat erectile dysfunction. This is probably due to the numbing properties of eugenol (a chemical found in Cassia Cinnamon).

For female health, Cassia Cinnamon can also be your friend and assist you through menopausal symptoms, menstrual problems, cramps, and heavy menstrual flow.

Cassia Cinnamon contains hydroxychalcone and similar chemicals. These chemicals seem to improve insulin sensitivity. Cassia Cinnamon also contains chemicals that may activate blood proteins that increase blood sugar uptake. These effects may improve blood sugar control in patients with diabetes.

Cassia Cinnamon also contains cinnamaldehyde. This chemical might fight against some strains of bacteria and fungi. It also seems to stop the growth of some types of solid tumor cells.

Cons:

Due to the high eugenol content of this essential oil, Cassia Cinnamon Essential Oil is toxic (and potentially fatal) to cats and dogs. If you plan to diffuse this, don’t trap your poor pet in the room with you!

In some countries, Cassia Cinnamon is used as an intentional abortifacent, since it can bring forward your menstrual flow and cause a miscarriage. If you’re pregnant or trying to become pregnant, avoid this essential oil.

Cassia Cinnamon can be overused and abused. Too much of it over a long period of time may cause side effects in some people. One of its chemicals (coumarin) may cause or worsen existing liver disease.

If you’re diabetic, Cassia Cinnamon may lower your blood sugar levels. Watch for signs of hypoglycemia and monitor your blood sugar carefully.

Cassia Cinnamon may lower your blood sugar and interfere with blood sugar control during and after surgery. If you’re scheduled for surgery in 2 weeks, don’t use this essential oil.

Nutmeg Essential Oil

Nutmeg is the shelled, dried seed of the Myristica fragrans plant and is used to make traditional medicine. It has an effect on the central nervous system and the spice is used in a lot of autumnal blends. Think of pumpkin ale, carrot cake, and so on.

Pros:

Nutmeg is an effective treatment for several gastrointestinal issues (diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain, and intestinal gas). I’ve also seen improvement with my kidneys on days I diffuse Nutmeg or use this bath bomb, but this may not be true for you. You know your body better than I do.

Since Nutmeg affects the nervous system, it can also be applied (with a carrier oil) to the skin to reduce pain caused by mouth sores, toothaches, or rheumatism.

Although some people claim that Nutmeg can help fight cancer, there’s not enough evidence available to validate that claim.

Some of the chemicals within this essential oil make Nutmeg a great sleep-aid with the added benefit of more vivid, interesting dreams. I diffused this oil a few months ago had a super weird, vivid dream about a society where all children were brought into the world by surrogate mothers (Dames) and all valid sperm came from a group of men listed in a Universal Catalog (Sires). Childless couples were rewarded because the world was overpopulated, Sires and Dames could only bring a total of 4 children apiece into the world to avoid the risk of inbreeding, and those who made kids the old-fashioned way were heavily fined. Then things got even weirder when somebody’s teenage daughter at a Catholic school got pregnant and claimed that immaculate conception transpired. In short, Nutmeg turns your dreams into a private REM cinema and there’s no telling what your brain will come up with!

Cons:

Since Nutmeg is an emmenagogue (it can increase menstrual flow), this essential oil is best not used by pregnant persons or those attempting to become pregnant. This oil may cause a miscarriage due to its abortifacent nature.

If you are experiencing issues with constipation, hold off on using Nutmeg, as this essential oil can harden your stool. It’s good for diarrhea; but not so good for the opposite issue!

Since Nutmeg has an effect on the nervous system, overexposure to the oil may result in hallucinogenic episodes.

People who use and abuse Nutmeg (120 mg or more daily) have experienced nausea, dry mouth, dizziness, palpitations, agitation, and hallucinations. It’s also possible to overdose and die by Nutmeg.

If you are taking any of the below medication, exercise caution with Nutmeg, as they may interact:

Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) substrates) such as Chlorzoxazone, Theophylline, Bufuralol, etc.

Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) substrates) such as Clozapine (Clozaril), Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril), Fluvoxamine (Luvox), Haloperidol (Haldol), Imipramine (Tofranil), Mexiletine (Mexitil), Olanzapine (Zyprexa), Pentazocine (Talwin), Propranolol (Inderal), Tacrine (Cognex), Theophylline, Zileuton (Zyflo), Zolmitriptan (Zomig), etc.

Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450 2B1 (CYP2B1) substrates)

Medications changed by the liver (Cytochrome P450 2B2 (CYP2B2) substrates)

Phenobarbital (Luminal)

Allspice (Pimento) Essential Oil

Allspice is one of my favorite smells in the world. The essential oil version of it is strong enough to fill an entire house with its relaxing, flavorful scent. The unripe berries and leaves of this plant are used to make medicine.

Pros:

Like Clove and Cinnamon, Allspice has a high eugenol content, which means this oil can be used effectively for antibacterial purposes. Some dentists even use eugenol to calm down toothaches.

Allspice can also alleviate a lot of gastrointestinal issues (intestinal gas, indigestion, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation).

Fevers, colds, and flu can also be treated by diffusing Allspice.

Some studies indicate Allspice can be used to help with diabetes and obesity problems.

I mostly use Allspice on account of what it can do for my unwelcome time of the month. It’s one of the best essential oils to use if you have heavy, painful menstrual periods or endometriosis. It regulates the flow and melts away your aches and pains.

Cons:

Due to the high eugenol content of this essential oil, Allspice Essential Oil is toxic (and potentially fatal) to cats and dogs. If you plan to diffuse this, don’t trap your poor pet in the room with you!

Allspice can slow blood-clotting. If you are going in for surgery in the next 2 weeks, don’t use this essential oil.

Balsam of Peru

Here we go: the controversial ingredient!

Balsam of Peru is a resinous substance that comes from the Myroxylon balsamum plant. It smell is reminiscent of vanilla with a touch of clove and cinnamon. As a result, it pairs beautifully with those oils--as well as orange oils!

It’s one of the most versatile oils not only with its scent, but with its therapeutic benefits...so long as it’s done in moderation.

Note: Balsam of Peru only makes up about 5% of the Martian to a Different Drum blend, but you can certainly smell it. Please read.

Pros:

Balsam of Peru has been used for centuries to treat tumors, expel intestinal worms, and flush out your kidneys by overstimulating them. It’s a powerful diuretic.

Some people occasionally put Balsam of Peru directly on the skin for infected and slow-healing wounds, burns, scrapes, ulcers, rashes, and itchy areas...though I’d caution against this. Plant Therapy, the company I bought my oil from, recommends 0.4% dilution for Balsam of Peru, so definitely do NOT apply that stuff directly on your skin. Diffusing it in your tub should be OK. Just make sure the bath is full before you go in!

Some dentists use this essential oil to treat dry sockets: a painful condition that occurs when a tooth is extracted and a clot forms in the gums too soon.

It’s an immunity booster! Not only have some studies shown that Balsam of Peru can stimulate the immune system and eliminate free radicals in the body, but it’s also got strong astringent and antimicrobial properties. People can even use it to treat mites and bedbugs!

It fights your anxiety! Balsam of Peru’s calming scent contains a slew of chemicals that promote a peaceful, calm mind. It makes it easier to breathe and brings about a comforting scent.

Breathe more easily! Balsam of Peru has natural expectorant properties, making it easier for you to blow out whatever’s left of your stuffy nose or clogged-up throat. Just be sure to inhale. Don’t swallow!

Pamper your hair and scalp! Balsam of Peru can help you combat dandruff and a dry, itchy scalp.

Cons:

Despite its many benefits, Balsam of Peru is one of the most allergenic substances known to man. If you get headaches over artificial vanilla, strong perfumes, or scented things in general, chances are you’re allergic.

Although Balsam of Peru can be used over short periods of time (never more than 1 week), people can build up a tolerance to it and suffer allergic skin reactions if the substance is abused.

If you use this essential oil, use plenty of sunblock when you go outside: especially if you have light skin. Balsam of Peru increases your sensitivity to the sun.

Do not use this essential oil if you are nursing or pregnant, as not enough is known about Balsam of Peru to say it’s safe. Ere on the side of caution.

Since Balsam of Peru is a powerful diuretic, prolonged usage of the oil may result in kidney damage (even failure). Do not use this oil if you have kidney problems. Period.

[agentredfort]

ruby redfort fic masterlist

What is this- geek central?

welcome to the Ruby Redfort fic masterlist, where I do my very best to collect every single bit of fic that’s out there on the internet for your convenience!

I’m not listing these based on quality (and besides, there’s not exactly a lot out there so i can’t pick and choose) so there’s going to be a wide range of fics in this list. any fics that I especially like will be marked as [PERSONAL FAVORITE]. any fics that I’ve added in recently will be marked as [*NEW*]. ships will be tagged!

if there’s any fics that you’ve noticed I’ve missed- or if you’ve written something yourself!- either shoot me an ask or a message via Tumblr and I’ll add it straight away. 

Onwards!

A Guide To Love For A Bozo [wattpad] by TeamSpectrum [multichapter, ongoing] Ruby/Clancy

This is a cluby fan-fic written by Agent Baker. Take a look to find out what happens.

despite the sparse description, this is actually pretty good.

Always [ff.net] by mockingjay341 [Oneshot, complete!]

Ruby is suffering from nightmares, but Clancy will always be there to make her feel better.

hella sweet. ruby needs a hug

Aren’t We All a Bit of a Bozo? [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [oneshot, complete!] Hitch/OC 

Heather looked across at Lydia as they ate their morning toast. “LB reckons there is going to be a new coding agent today, some kid. You know, the one Hitch is looking after.”

interesting concept!! 

Bozo [wattpad] by Kaya_Tano [multichapter, ongoing] Clancy/Ruby

Ruby Redfort, a thirteen year old Spectrum Agent, is facing more than just trouble at work. Her hormones are raging and her best friend Clancy Crew has fallen for her, hard. But Ruby doesn't notice because she is too busy trying to solve her latest case at Spectrum, and how will she cope when one of her closest friends is killed by the notorious murderer The Count, who is supposed to be in a high security prison? And who is the mole at Spectrum who is leaking information to him?

 not bad. i’m not a big fan of the ‘spectrum pairs ruby up with a cute boy her age’ plot, but this seems to be decently-written.

Changed at Birth [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [Twoshot, now complete!] Background Hitch/Blacker 

“They said mum should have killed me with iron,” whispers Ruby.

the folk tale au i never knew i wanted tbh. only halfway done at the moment but it’s such a cool concept and it fits really well??

Convincing LB [wattpad] by Jasmine3103 [Oneshot, complete!]

I really wanted to know what Hitch said in CYD to convince LB to give Ruby another chance. So here is my version.

this was a really good missing scene sorta fic! give it some love if you’ve got a chance, the author seems really lonely to me

Family Ain't Just Blood [ao3] [tumblr] by celestialskies [Oneshot, complete!] [*NEW*]

Ruby looked up, aware that she probably looked like someone had tried to rock her to sleep by dragging her through a hedge backwards several times. Six hours of sleep over three days can do that to a person.

"Couldn't sleep," she muttered. In her tired state, she barely noticed Hitch's expression shift from one of surprise surprise and mild amusement to one of concern.

Ruby can't sleep, and Hitch steps in.

goddamn, i’m always a sucker for unconventional family stories. i actually squealed when I saw this one, which should give you  a pretty good idea of how much i enjoyed it

Five times Clancy Crew chained his bikes to Ruby Redfort’s and one time he didn’t [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [Oneshot, complete!]  [PERSONAL FAVORITE] 

The first time it was a mistake- honestly the chain accidentally went through the frame and well, it only held Ruby up temporarily.

this is really hecking cute and is just generally really great. it made me smile a lot. please check it out

Grains of Sand and Love [tumblr] by  blackers-donuts [Oneshot, complete!] Ruby/Clancy

Being sixteen suddenly brought the barbecues on the beach, adolescent drinking and all the drama that it comes with.

it’s no secret by now that I love this author, this is soft and lovely and good and you should really read it

High School Sweethearts [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [Oneshot, complete!] [PERSONAL FAVORITE] Ruby/Del, Hitch/Blacker

There was no way you could look between Blacker and Hitch and think ‘brothers’.

short and oh so very sweet. i think i’m crying. this one is so good, my gay little heart is appeased

hold on tight [wattpad] by w0nderland-writing [multichapter, ongoing]

Ruby Redfort never gets a break, and in this story Ruby goes on an epic adventure in the Grand Canyon.

pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. a bit scattered but mostly coherent.

In which Ruby was right to worry [ao3] by Wolfiethepretzel [oneshot, Complete!] [*NEW*] [PERSONAL FAVORITE]

Froghorn was a constant nuisance in Ruby's life. But as soon as he disappeared she realized she'd rather him be about.

perfect Ruby characterization and some really hecking good bonding/character development. if you read nothing else on this list, at least check this one out.

Look Into His Eyes And Take Your Last Breath [wattpad] by WARNINGwhovian [very long, complete!] Clancy/Ruby, background LB/Baker [PERSONAL FAVORITE]

Meet Ruby Redfort, a super cool teenage wannabe spy. She's been through thick and thin and survived things from a giant sand timer to a legendary sea monster to invisible thieves to mythical wolves. She's already one of the most experienced agents in her agency, Spectrum, without even being an official one yet. She thinks she seen it all. But Ruby's entering a dangerous stage of life where she is vulnerable to many things, lots of things she knows nothing about. But Ruby is unduly worried about the years to come. She's a dauntless girl. But when things start to go wrong in her social life, her agent training in Spectrum and the return of an old foe start kicking off and suddenly, everything happens at once. And Ruby is faced with a choice. A dream job at a top secret spy agency with an astronomical pay, or a scrawny boy who doesn't believe in a dangerous life. Ruby Redfort, the choice is yours.

to my knowledge, the only completed longfic in the fandom so far. although it could do with a bit of editing, the quality is overall excellent and there’s some twists in there that even i wasn’t expecting. I especially loved the Ruby-Hitch dynamic and interactions in this one. If you’ve got a spare hour or two, I definitely recommend that you check it out!

Riding the Rails [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [Oneshot, complete!] Crossover with Railhead 

“The Guardians want you, Ms Redfort,” says a station worker as Ruby stops her game of Rock paper scissors with Zen.

I can honestly say I’ve never heard of Railhead before, but was super cool nonetheless. it feels super surreal and the details were a+++- go check it out

Rosetta Redfort: Freefall [wattpad] by TeamSpectrum [multichapter, ongoing] background Clancy/Ruby

Ruby's daughter, Rosetta, discovers her secret-Spectrum.  A conspiracy to steal a gem that will lead to a collapsing mountain and a giant flood.  Will Rosetta crack like a diamond under pressure or will she stand strong?

an interesting take on a future-fic. might not be everyone’s cup of tea but i kind of liked it.

Love is blind, well Ruby is. [ao3]  [tumblr] by Neondragon54 [Oneshot, complete!] Blacker/Hitch

It's well known to the entirety of Spectrum not to go into the coding room after Hitch had returned from a mission. Everyone (Blacker) is distracted and more than once has an important agent (LB) walked in on two agents kissing.

Ruby doesn't know this rule.

Goddamnit, now I’m invested in this ship. this is also super good, read it.

Movie Night [tumblr] by goldstarsforall [Oneshot, complete!] [*NEW*] Blacker/Hitch

They got to the cinema a lot earlier than either of the men expected. It was a clear night, the air felt crisp and clean and if they hadn’t booked Hitch would have just wanted to sit in the park and talk.

heckin’ cute lil’ oneshot. a Good Ship. a Good Fic.

Ruby Redfort: Don't Look Around [wattpad] by maybeitsdella [multichapter, ongoing]

Welcome back Ruby Redfort: every smart kid's smart kid. 

After making Larva, Ruby Redfort's career in espionage is sending her off the ground running. There's no time to sit at home, with Clancy (who might just have a crush on her), sipping on banana milk, watching Crazy Cops. Not when the Count is still out there, and not when the Silent G is just sitting there waiting for her to fail (or die).

A promising start, this fic looks quite interesting. It’s only got a few chapters so far but I’m definitely going to be following it closely

Ruby's Rule 6 [ff.net] by mockingjay341 [Multi-chapter, ongoing!] [PERSONAL FAVORITE]

Ruby and Clancy have each other's backs - no matter what. So what will they do when they realise that sometimes our greatest strengths can also be our biggest weaknesses?

hell yeah, multi-chapter!! i really love how Ruby and Clancy bounce off each other so far, it feels super real. I’m honestly looking forward to reading more from this author. i haven’t felt this excited for a fic in a while

Silence Is Golden [tumblr] by blackers-donuts  [Oneshot, complete!] [PERSONAL FAVORITE]

There was a sharp knock at the door. Ruby was finally going to bury the hatchet with Froghorn by asking him for help. 

this is possibly the softest thing i’ve read in my entire hecking life. basically just the code team chilling around and bonding and honestly it’s just so sweet and good

Some kinda death wish [ff.net] by Bubbly Washing Machine [Oneshot, complete!]  [PERSONAL FAVORITE] 

They stood at the bottom of the stairs, in the dark, and argued. "Rube, don't go up there," said Clancy desperately, "just wait for the rest of the team." "Look bozo, someone's gotta take her out before she catches on and splits the scene." Clancy looked her in the eye, pleading. "Please. Wait for backup."

Beautiful little character study- cute and poignant.

Sweating Is Totally (not) Necessary [tumblr] by blackers-donuts [Oneshot, complete!] [*NEW*] [PERSONAL FAVORITE] Blacker/Hitch, Ruby/Del

The phone finally picked up, Ruby knew it was still Clancy’s first few weeks at the desk of Buzz and he was getting a grip with the phone system but it really should be quicker.

This wonderful person wrote this for my birthday, so of course I freaking love it. it’s a great character study and just generally all-round a Good Thing- there was a coding segment midway through that I particularly enjoyed!!

Other Things

The TeamSpectrum Collection on Wattpad- an assortment of short fics, competitions and discussions that’s been put together by a whole lot of users, including me! Definitely worth checking out. 

My own wide very small assortment of fanfiction, located over on this page! it’s not included here on the masterlist because- well, posting my own stuff is a tiny bit awkward- but i hope you read and enjoy my work all the same

My ongoing Social Media AU can be found here. 

LAST UPDATED: 14/08/2017

[tessatechaitea]

Kamandi Challenge Special #1, Part Three

I'm falling further and further behind on my comic reading because of this Kirby shit.

This is not a vortex.

Jim Starlin's OMAC story must have been really fucking weird for it to get the label "mind-blastingly" over the Kamandi story. Kamandi enters the Vortex which carries her away to a parallel universe. But that's not the weird part. By the 70s, that was cliché by DC's standards. The weird part is when Doctor Canus and his friend Sherlock Dog (who has a sidekick named Doile) try to help their parallel universe friend Pyra not die from a lack of energy. To do that, they need the help of the mutants who managed to open the huge doors in the Wondrous Western Wall which led to the vortex. But the dog-men can't get close without their radiation suits which were destroyed by the energy of the vortex. And because of all that, Pyra's ship turns into a bug.

I should have stuck to my original idea five years ago: critiquing Penthouse Forum letters.

My mind is pretty well blasted already so I hope this Special doesn't include Starlin's OMAC origin. I don't know why it would unless the Kamandi Challenge is going to feature a heaping helping of the One Man Army Corps. On her journey through the infinite reaches of all space and time, Kamandi learns that he gets to be the focal point on which all futures rely.

Yeah but if there are infinite realities where all choices are possible, doesn't she actually choose all of them and none of them at the same time? So none of this really matters!

I suppose I'm being too hard-headed and should probably work with the story. I get what the Voice is saying. All these realities exist but sometimes some special person or event can change them in ways outside of the usual "all choices exist as parallel" worlds paradigm. And Kamandi is that special person! Sometimes I like to argue with and correct myself before I have to hear from a blowhard Internet Actually Nerd. Mostly because their responses are never funny. They really should work on their material. It might not be so bad to be Actually'd if I could have a laugh at the same time. Kamandi's friends are about to be murdered by the Kangarat Murder Society while Kamandi runs off to a brand new Earth that never experienced a natural disaster linked with radiation. The last hope her friends have is that Kamandi will turn away from this last temptation, turn away from the voice of the vortex devil, and return to sacrifice herself for her friends. I mean, she won't really sacrifice herself. But she is giving up a world where she can probably wear something nicer than the crusty Daisy Dukes she's been wearing for years and where her hair won't be full of lice and where they probably still have toilet paper. On Kamandi's way back home, he's grabbed by Brute and Glob who decide to take him to The Sandman. Oh. That's probably why this issue is being featured! So that people reading it can go, "Oh shit! That's where Brute and Glob came from?! A Sandman comic before The Sandman! It's so nice that new kids are being born all the time so that comic book companies can use the same characters over and over again so that they seem new but then older fans who never grew out of comics can be jazzed about seeing old characters done in a modern way! Or something!" The Sandman decides that Kamandi needs to learn that whatever she's seen in the vortex is as real as whatever she sees in dreams. So not real at all? Anyway, it seems like an unneeded delay for Kamandi. She's just being hassled by some guy who feels the need to prove that his job is way more important than it actually is. Don't get me wrong, I love dreaming! But if the person behind my dreams was all, "Stop thinking of them as entertaining! They're fucking super important, asshole!", I'd just think he was a twat with low self-esteem. You can't force people to appreciate things the way you think they should be appreciated. I suppose this whole control freak side of The Sandman is reflected in Neil Gaiman's take on his Sandman. To teach Kamandi the lesson that needs to be taught for some reason, The Sandman decides to show him a movie about the some war on Santa Claus. He wants Kamandi to "watch and learn what an alternate Kamandi named Jed once learned long, long ago." I hate learning things that other people learned. How is their learning relevant to my life? Boring! Anyway, Christmas is saved and Jed manages to make it back home where she saves her friends and everybody lives happily ever after. What Did I Learn? The Glob and Brute story in The Sandman makes a lot more sense to me now! I mean, it made sense before in the context of The Sandman that a few nightmares had escaped and created their own mini-Dreaming while manipulating humans into thinking they were the real Sandman. Of course it makes this story a little bit darker than it should be knowing that this Sandman will eventually kill himself due to Glob and Brute's machinations! Oh, I also learned that Kamandi's grandfather was OMAC and that Kamandi's world is OMAC's nightmare of what the world will become if he fails to do his duty. I also learned that I can only take about three Kamandi stories before I get tired of writing about Kamandi stories and just sum up the last story in one sentence.

[disappearingground]

Step into the Ring with Boxing Superfan Jenny Lewis

VICE / Noisey March 4, 2019

We talked to the singer about how a head injury led her to develop an obsession with boxing.

By Mark Ortega

I’ve spent the last decade-plus writing about boxing. I’ve spent even more time as a fan of Jenny Lewis’ music. In 2012, I was attending a fight almost every weekend. To kill time during lulls in the action, I would scroll through Twitter on my phone and, to my surprise, I’d find the singer weighing in on them. Boxing became a regular theme in Lewis’ social media presence. Even when she performed with the Postal Service at Coachella in 2013, she watched a Canelo fight in her trailer before taking the stage. It was like I was George Costanza and my worlds were colliding.

Years later, I bumped into Lewis in person a couple of times and our conversations always drifted towards boxing. I first met her at Willie Nelson’s Ranch at 2016’s SXSW. Our entire 20-minute conversation revolved around the sport, as a few days earlier she had attended a low-level fight at a Marriott in the Valley. Late last year it was on the rooftop of the Fonda Theatre after a Phoenix show, and we were both headed to The Forum the next night for a fight. Her seats ended up being next to mine, and I offered her some insight into the stories behind each fighter. After that, we stayed in touch and I actually brought her along to a Manny Pacquiao public workout before his fight with Adrien Broner in January, a fight for which she flew solo to Las Vegas.

The Pacquiao workout took place at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, located in a dingy strip mall on Vine Street. Lewis attended just one day after her 43rd birthday and got a photo with Pacquiao, later saying it was a great birthday present. She wore a Wild Card Boxing Club t-shirt, becoming one of those fans who wears the band’s shirt to their concert. At a press conference for the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight title fight a month earlier, Lewis had reacted to meeting Freddie Roach the way some of her superfans probably react when meeting her. They traded stories about Aimee Mann, another massive boxing fan with whom Roach had a very close relationship.

Lewis is a very studious boxing fan when she’s watching the fights ringside. She wants to know the backstories of each fighter, enamored by what it must take to send someone down a career path where they get punched in the face for a living. She doesn’t look down at her phone while the fight is taking place. She might dig into her purse for some snacks—at the Pacquiao fight it was a share-sized bag of peanut M&Ms—but otherwise it’s all business.

Though she’ll be the first to tell you she isn’t an expert, make no mistake: Jenny Lewis is a die-hard boxing fan. She goes to low-level club fights in the Valley when she can, something that most self-proclaimed boxing fans won’t do. She’ll be touring in support of her first solo album in five years, On The Line, for much of the spring, but you can call it a happy accident that the tour has a break when fellow redhead Canelo Alvarez fights Danny Jacobs on Cinco de Mayo weekend in one of the biggest fights of the year.

I spoke to Jenny Lewis about what made her a boxing fan and how she even slipped a boxing reference into her latest single “Heads Gonna Roll.”

Noisey: How did you first get interested in boxing? Jenny Lewis: I'm later to sports in general than most people. Growing up, my mom had a younger boyfriend who was into boxing. He would watch the Tyson fights and I wasn't interested in the sport but found the theater of it really interesting, even as an eight-year-old.

So my interest as an adult came about in 2012. I had a head injury that I got on New Year’s Eve 2011 where I passed out after a combination of wine, weed, and a really tight belt. And I had to get nine staples in the back of my head. Six or eight weeks after the head injury I started experiencing severe insomnia and I didn't know what was happening to me, and it was really one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was unable to sleep more than 30-minute increments. I watched the entire Sopranos series. I also started watching the [Arturo] Gatti-[Micky] Ward trilogy. And I think I had seen The Fighter. I just started spiraling out on YouTube boxing. Then, after that, I got a subscription to HBO and started watching the HBO 24/7 series. I don't know if that's a gateway for normal people to get into boxing, but after the first episode I was hooked.

For me, as a kid, I was always around boxing, but the thing that sort of thrust me into being a die-hard was this HBO series called Legendary Nights about old fights they had on HBO before my time. It talked about fights in such a theatrical way, it hooked me. The theater of it all is really what appealed to me initially and the element of triumph over adversity. Going through a really difficult period, I didn't know what was going on, I couldn't fucking sleep. Just this idea that you can fight your way out of any circumstance. The first fight I went to was the [Julio Cesar] Chavez [Jr.] vs. [Sergio] Martinez fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in September, 2012. That particular 24/7 was the classic tale—the rich kid versus the poor kid. I just remember fucking hating Chavez Jr., thinking this fucking shit was not training properly. He's so privileged, he has these opportunities and I kind of went into the fight with a bias. But being in the arena—first of all, the feeling in the arena during a fight is unlike any other feeling in the world. I haven't been to a lot of sporting events aside from my third-grade soccer matches in Van Nuys.

I just knew the vibe in the room was electric and I was really... the fight was really fun to watch. And by the end of it, I was like, “OK, Chavez. I feel you, bro.” He knocked Martinez down in the 12th round and I was really impressed, and I kind of accepted him and accepted the theater of the sport. You gotta have a protagonist, you have to have an antagonist or a super villain in order to get people to watch.

For that fight, your sister came along with you. What was that experience like? That was our first fight and we went together. I had been staying with her on and off, and we had never really gone to an event together outside of one of my concerts or her shows—she plays in a cover band in the Valley on Saturdays. So this was a big deal for us, a big bonding moment. My sister has always really been into sports. We drove out there together and it was a really great experience for us. She couldn't believe the vibe in the room and, at one point, I looked back and she was being carried off by like five giant men singing the Mexican national anthem. I was like, “Come back! Don't leave me here alone!” But we had a fucking blast. I think the fight culture, just for both of us talking to people in Las Vegas—which is our hometown—about boxing, is just like a built-in community. And people are so willing to share their knowledge with you.

You said the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight title fight, which took place at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles in December, was your favorite thing you did last year. What made that the case? The fight itself. I had never seen a heavyweight fight. I've been to Valley Fight Night a couple of times. So to roll to a heavyweight title fight, it was so exciting and felt like an event from the past. And I brought my friend Jessica, who had never seen a fight before, knows nothing of the sport, and grew up orthodox Jewish, and was asking all these basic questions. Like, “Why would these men hit each other like this? Aren't there other opportunities to get out of the ghettos than fighting? Aren't there other sports? What about tennis?” Just to have this juxtaposition with my friend who is new to the sport and asking all these really cool entry-level questions. The fight itself was just incredible to watch. And the vibe in the crowd with all the Brits—I've never seen such a wasted audience. Everyone was really fucking drunk, it was crazy.

And the story learning about Fury, I don't know a lot about British boxers. I've sort of been more interested in Mexican fighters and American fighters, but learning about what he went through [Fury returned from a three-year hiatus after dealing with depression and drug and alcohol addiction] and seeing his transformation was really inspiring. To go and see this physical manifestation of this transformation in person was pretty great.

One thing you said after the fight when we were talking that really stuck out to me, was when the two guys hugged each other at the final bell. You said, “Wow, it must be a super intimate experience to go through that with someone, almost like having sex.” I also thought it must be as intimate as writing a song with someone. Is that a fair comparison? Sure. I think any collaboration is heated and intense, and songwriting can often result in verbal blows. [Laughs] But with Wilder and Fury, it seemed really sincere, their connection at the end of the fight. Whereas with Floyd Mayweather it's so money-focused. He's so amazing to watch but you realize his whole thing is about money. But this was about the struggle and the triumph and the intimacy of that moment. Just the idea that it's two men standing up there with their entire past. Their histories, their traumas, their triumphs, wherever they come from, and you bring all of that with you into the ring.

That's gotta be pretty similar to songwriting, right? You bring all of that stuff into what you do and it's such a personal and raw way to make a living. Yeah, you're toe-to-toe with your demons. I keep having this dream about fighting myself in the ring. It's pretty cliché and a pretty obvious Psych 101 thing, but where you're truly battling it out with yourself.

One thing you touched on earlier—these fighters' backgrounds. It's basically a lot of their way out of whatever difficult upbringing or tough surroundings. You come from this child actor background where you were the provider from a really young age. I feel like there's a kinship between you and fighters in that regard. I remember from that initial HBO 24/7, an interview with Martinez about growing up in Argentina and how he explained growing up in poverty. They didn't always have enough to eat. That resonated with me. I was the breadwinner from the time I was three or four years old. And my family we are working-class, showbiz folks. My grandfather was on vaudeville. He didn't succeed. He was actually a Golden Gloves fighter as far as the story goes. But he started out as a singer and that didn't work out. He was a fighter, he was a gangster, ended up in jail.

I feel like my people have fought their way out of poverty. My grandmother was a dancer. Showbiz was really the only way out without an education or money to get an education. My mom grew up very poor in Echo Park and singing was her only way out of the hood. She was married at 15 to a Mexican gangster. She went to Vegas with a dream of getting out where she met my father, who was a kid on the road from the time he was 12 or 13 with this vaudeville harmonica group. They met and hustled in Vegas and got a gig playing the lounges in all the hotels where they were paid in cash and got to live in the hotel rooms and they'd go down and work and leave me and my sister in the room with the do not disturb sign on until my sister was old enough to join the group. So it really is a hustle to survive.

Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach is one of your favorite people. And I feel like you might be the Freddie Roach of indie rock. In your touring bands, you've had people like a young Danielle Haim, Natalie Prass, Tristen, all these people that have gone on to success after leaving your live band. You always take on these young talented rockers. I wonder if you ever saw that role for yourself? Well, first of all, that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, so thank you. I'm always looking for great talent. I've always reached out to women to help me with my music, but also I've found myself in this mentor position. Which isn't necessarily intentional from the jump.

With Danielle, it was her first tour ever. She was still keeping kosher and I had to meet with her parents before she came out on the road with me. And then her sister Este joined my band for a show. Then at one point we talked about Alana also joining the band. I talked to the Haim patriarch "Moti" and he was like, "Well, next time all three of them!" And then they blew up on their own. I'm always happy to provide a safe environment for women in my band and hopefully they've all had positive experiences. But I've also had not just women. Blake Mills was in my band, Jonathan Wilson. I've been really lucky in my career to collaborate with some of the best musicians around.

Have you ever thought about if you were a fighter what your walk-out song would be? Wow, I have not. Let me think about that one because that's a great question. But there's a song on my new record called "Heads Gonna Roll" which is a boxing reference. I don't know if people are gonna catch onto that but in the first verse: "I'm gonna keep on dancing until I hear that ringing bell.” It's a Mayweather reference.

I always thought the Rilo Kiley song "Moneymaker" would have been a great boxing walkout song. Even though that song is about sex workers, it would have fit. "You've got the moneymaker, this is your chance to make it out of here..." I think that's the one. Can we get that song to Floyd?

Is there anything else you want to say to the Jenny Lewis or boxing fans that will read this? I wanted to give one shout out to my favorite boxing podcast. It's called Beating The Odds with Beeb.

[saiqianxi-blog]

Eye-opening

QianXiSai Make money Diary（How to make money）

Friends found a girlfriend, 90 years.

He commented highly on her. Where is Gao?

capable.

The girl's work is a bit half-physical and she works and sleeps. He appreciates...

Whenever you talk about this advantage.

I always have different opinions. What do I think if a woman turns herself into a porter? This is not a woman who wants to find a good individual at farming. What time is it?

Do not dress up, can not play, this is a good woman?

I think it is worth discussing.

I have been thinking that these girls around me, who are around 90 years old, are the best?

After much deliberation, Mei Er.

She does not have a car and room, there is a full-time driver, this is very Niu B, can basically be volunteers for her driver, is not seeking any return, just for more contacts, is not to think bubble she was?

Her feelings are very cold, and generally the man turned himself down.

Unless it's me shameless.

How do we know? I studied yoga in Qingdao. The assistant told me about the experience of traveling to my hometown.

She said that there was a classmate who opened a yoga studio in our county and had a very good business.

I recommended the business card to me. It was the beautiful children. They were together. He participated in a crash course for yoga instructors in Jinan.

Plus, just after the eleventh eve, Meier had an activity, 300 yuan experience a week, after experiencing 300 yuan, I went and paid 300 yuan, but I did not experience, after a long time, she always I felt that my heart was a thing and asked me on WeChat.

It meant that I could not return my money.

I said, no need to retire, please let me eat.

So we ate together.

Later, I reported a private tuition class for 6,600 yuan, but I didn't go on. I just thought she was very good and she simply supported her business. Even though she had a good face value, she could play a joke, but I didn't think about soaking her.

On the contrary, we talked together very well, talked about business, talked about life.

The man is actually the species that will most likely look at the dishes. Different women have different attitudes.

If a man goes up, he will sing with you. To illustrate, you must give him the wrong signal and let him see you as frivolous.

For a long time, we are commensurate with men and women.

Occasionally go out and play together, I introduce: This is my girlfriend.

She also responded with a smile, this is my boyfriend.

I think women's gas field is too strong. Men do not dare to use hands. We live alone on many occasions.

The most exaggeration is nothing more than hug or courtesy. Of course,

according to my intuition, it is smooth, but I still do not do so.

I feel that when a friend is good, she can talk and talk. She can understand me.

She is unmarried and has no boyfriend.

I called her to spend time in communication, then she must hurry up to make up a sentence: ignorant.

She has too many human resources and spread all over Shandong. How do you know? She graduated from the Master of the Mountain, and in the senior year of that year she worked as a market for a training company.

At that time there were 250,000 high-end courses. She might be brainwashed too thoroughly. I borrowed money to attend this course.

Do you know what the result is?

She became the star of the entire course.

Those entrepreneurs either recognize her as a sister or be a daughter, that is, for her hard-hearted infection, I remember that I wrote this before, and some called her to go to work in her own company, while others suggested she start her own business. Is willing to invest in her.

For example, I would like to visit the fine art museums in the province. After I was listed, she could contact me directly to the person in charge.

When I went, everyone was treated as a guest and I was completely convinced.

Yoga is not really her main business.

Her main business is actually purchasing. In the duty-free shop in Khorgos, the surface is for tourists, in fact, mainly through WeChat sales, the network is very large, purchasing the most profitable thing is actually smoke, wine, but these two are in fact It is the business of wiping the edge.

WeChat plays a very good hidden role. You have to know that the highest cost of tobacco is the tax, and the smoke has a characteristic, the customer group is very stable, and there will be big customers.

Of course, not considering legal risks.

All studied thoroughly.

The illegal costs have been calculated, and Khorgos will be the main port for foreign cigarettes. There are a number of other port restrictions. At present, this port only has a monetary limit.

Of course, the policy will also change at any time. The former cross-border e-commerce has been doing too much at one go. Therefore, five policies were changed within one year.

In the end, everyone did not have to play.

There is no problem in the short term...

She once wanted to cooperate with me and only cooperated with spirits. Spirits are also a huge market, but I always feel that these things are full of uncertainty and I am negligently rejected.

At the time, there was another reason that I found I was blackened by her. I hurriedly called and asked her.

She hurriedly said, no, no.

Hang up the phone, and call me again for a while. Explain that she had talked about a boyfriend and was a very good man in those days. He was a company and he was almost the same age as me. Divorced, the man was Looking through her chats at night, I found that I was too embarrassed with me.

And those days we just discussed the issue of where to go. It was a joke. As a result, I was darkened by her boyfriend.

After a while, plus me, I reconciled with my boyfriend about me.

After a while, I said to my boyfriend.

Happy for her, she also sighed: I'm not fit to fall in love.

On one occasion, we went for picking together. In fact, the whole process was actually quite boring...

I told her that in the future, similar activities should not call me. It is not interesting. You should spend your time on the knife. If you visit the entrepreneur someday, you can call me.

I would also like to participate if you pay me. The class is completely a waste of time.

She asked, do you think the visiting company has someone attend?

I said, do not be positioned as a visit to the enterprise but as an experience. It is fresh every week. For example, take everyone to sit and sit in Ferrari and visit the villa.

This is something that we cannot reach in our daily lives. Too many, 10 places, you do not want to profit, just for your own play.

She said this is good.

I said that there is definitely a market. For example, everyone goes to see Super League and even goes to Shanghai to watch F1 and even listen to Guo Degang together.

Let's do it.

There was an experience tour in Qingdao with red wine, equestrianism, golf, a sports car, and photographers. Each person took a group of photos. At the time, the fee was 1,500 yuan, of which 1300 yuan was the cost and 200 yuan was her. profit.

It is just looking out at the well.

This line is very good, at least I think it is value for money, I also recommend that she engage in the children's version is to allow children to experience and see how the rich lives, we come to experience a lot, and for many people It is just the normal state of life.

On the eve of Christmas last year, she had also engaged in a visit to a bookstore. At that time, there were 11 people.

When I talked about it, everyone was very shocked. I have autographed living famous artists here. Even inkbo, I talked about these writer's heads, who is the character, who has any stories, who loves to drink, and who loves to smoke...

Everyone sends 5 books, I charge 300 yuan, and she charges 500 yuan.

She also sighed: After visiting the lap, I had a totally new understanding of you, and I looked around.

Each of them also prepared some questions, such as how the article was conceived, whether it was a hand-in-hand or a draft, and I answered one by one.

Very interesting, I also gained a lot, and also harvested a hardcore female fan, most people take a photo with her shoulders at the most.

She is ringing my waist and is a big sister in Texas. She looks like a doctor and believes in the Buddha. On the first day of the first month of this year, she ran to Thousand-Foshan to burn incense and also photographed me. She said that I wish you peace in my wishes.

Because there are family dinners on weekends, I rarely participate in activities organized by the United States. In addition, watching dramas and riding yachts are not very attractive to me. I will not go.

Two more times are very interesting.

One time we went to Shandong to visit the radio station. The radio station arranged the first beauty to accompany us for dinner.

It was very extroverted, familiar, and self-proclaimed to be the first beauty in the universe. It can only be said that the long is very beautiful, but it is not a big beautiful woman. She had just born a child soon, still quite fat, mobile phone screensaver is a picture of her son, pointing to the photo and said: See no, this is the first handsome guy in Jinan.

We asked a lot of questions, and more about business. For example, if you sell fake Maotai in the middle of your show, what do you think about the anchor?

She hurriedly corrected it. It was Maotai liquor, not fake wine.

All in all, she was grateful for these advertisements, which means that if there were no such owners, they might starve to death.

Many of the questions I ask are biased. From an outsider's point of view, what questions do you understand?

For example, I asked her, usually you go to some fans in the store to spend, like a single?

She said it was absolute.

I ask, do you usually meet fans?

She said that we often make face-to-face meetings, or more.

I ask, is there a die-hard fan?

She said that it was particularly large.

I asked, is it more than now?

She said that in the past, there were too many radio shows and fans were not loyal.

I asked, is the program a good mouth?

She said: No, we must do our homework one day in advance.

I asked, who is the column of your radio station?

She said that it is me, as early as 7 to 9 o'clock, do you think about it? Is there a more gold time than this? Morning class time.

I ask, don't you help people to hold a wedding?

She said, no, I am not familiar with the process. I often preside over some auto conferences.

I asked, did anyone complain about your show?

She said that there are ah, such as playing the mayor's hotline, saying that Valentine's Day is a holiday for foreigners, and why the radio broadcasts Valentine's Day. Why is such a program not banned?

I said, isn't it a neuropathy?

She said, who is not a neuropathy who will complain to us? You like to listen and listen. If you don't like to listen to a channel change, it's much easier.

I asked, in the eyes of your colleagues, are you their idols?

She said that I hate it, after all, my position is what they want.

I said that it was not particularly about your rumors.

She said yes, it is said that all leaders slept with me.

I laughed……

I asked seemingly indecent, she answered in the same way, but she knows that I understand her, do not look at her so bold, in some issues will also be blushing, and a little, the sound is really nice, especially laugh, some Excuse me, it's sexy.

I was particularly impressed with another event. I went to visit the hometown of local tyrants. This local tyrant is doing new energy.

His house is in the X House compound and is similar to the general building. There are only very high-level talents, and only one yard 11 families, first-class security, he is a direct increase of 2 million to buy, say plain, not for sale.

Many things we cannot imagine.

For example, hierarchy.

He usually sits on a very ordinary PASSAT. The decoration of the home is very simple. It is not like local tyrants.

I praised his table at home. He came to the sentence: This table is the least in the whole house.

Ass took the horse and hung up (oh, a little...).

There is a full-time chef at home, and we have 9 dishes for us. It is a bit similar to Japanese cuisine. Each dish is one or two chopsticks and it is very delicate.

He has two Ferraris, one black and one red, the same paragraph, the number plate is similar, but the first two letters are different, the ending number is 458, the car usually parked in a car private club, not far from the circuit.

On the track, everyone experiences a lap, not open, but sit.

The man's life is very careful, sleeves on the sleeves, very chic.

It turned out that some people live in this way.

He also visited private clubs. Private clubs are all similar to hotels. There are no signboards in the office buildings. The interiors are too luxurious.

The toilets are all music toilets of the ININA INAX. One is about 100,000, and the other is close to the toilet. The lid is automatically down, and it automatically flushes out of the toilet and is still pneumatic.

After joining the club, members can entertain customers here.

very good.

And it's hidden. You can't swipe in the door.

We can never imagine, yeah, this office building still has this one...

Every month, there are member salons. Some famous artists are invited to give lectures, or to speak Buddhist studies or to study Chinese culture.

All are masters. Each period has a group photo, and there are two types of participation. Individuals can join or join the company.

The annual fee is 10 Million yuan, of course, can not be used to get money, but also need sponsors, clubs are very low-key, I specifically Baidu for a moment, without any relevant information.

The day before yesterday, I went to America to send red wine. We also had a chat.

I said that you do something more meaningful than doing training.

It means opening a window and giving us the opportunity to see the outside world. If there is no bridge, we have no chance to experience it.

We cannot find a place to spend money.

She said that I myself have gained a lot.

I said that sometimes chatting with other people may cause people to say something unintentional. It makes us very inspired. It is much better than lectures. We can see and feel that it is really shocking.

Travel is just watching the scene and it is difficult to go deeper.

What about this model? It is another different kind of scenery.

It's more attractive to us.

I said that, in fact, you can expand the geographical scope of the country and include celebrities in your goals.

She said that it needs to be gradual.

I said that the fees can be higher and the frequency reduced. For example, only 12 issues a year are needed.

If I am a well-known Chinese writer, then you can do my lunch, for example, 5,000 yuan per person, 10 people, and everyone can Asking questions, in fact, you are the biggest beneficiary.

As for the cost of our three points, you have one, I have one, donated one, linked to the public interest.

She said, good!

I said that everyone has a price tag. Apart from the front line business people, if you have lunch for 20,000 yuan, you have to pay for lunch or you have a higher price tag. At least, the writer can take it all.

This matter is totally unintentional.

This year, we want to be a monthly center, and talk to the market about it. We all say that it is a sunrise industry.

Then we need to do a lot of market research.

Investment is not a trivial matter, and it cannot be blind. In addition, it does not make sense from the surface. Because you cannot see the content, you need to find the real practitioners and investors and talk to them.

So, I commissioned Meimei to help me find a better month center in Shandong.

When she went up, she introduced us to a tall building. In Qingdao, the 30-room-sized moonlight center has invested close to 20 million in the light decoration. It was also the owner who personally received us.

They are the capital operation route that they take. There are also risk funds involved, the high-end route to go, the cheaper room is 40,000 yuan/month, and the high-end one is up to 160,000. The boss said that it is decorated according to the standard of a five-star hotel.

We have three people to visit.

The boss is also very knowledgeable, but also just opened soon, the blueprint is very ambitious, in the next three years to open 17 in Shandong, and even the GEM listing plan.

The three of us had similar feelings when we went out: The store will close in less time.

why?

One of the deadliest mistakes has been made. The house is oriented towards something. If the center of the month is not north-south, it will die because the child must sunbathe and the room without the sun can easily cause depression.

There is such a tall room, smelly in the hallway.

Management is also not standardized. For example, we went to visit and we put us in without measuring our body temperature. We only gave masks and shoe covers to each person. When we visited the room, we encountered a nurse lying on the couch and sneaking.

The boss knows about the monthly center that it is simply superficial. He thinks that the month center is nothing more than a five-star hotel + medical care service.

Therefore, he used all the hardware on the blade and introduced the hardware during the introduction. What is this TV? The brand's shower card was what it was. The shower was introduced for a long time...

I asked the two teachers accompanying me: Are you, will you come here for a confinement?

The answer is NO.

We recognize this market, but we cannot blindly, because the market is in the incubation period. It is the entire industry that is in the cultivation period.

Even the oldest and most expensive month center has been opened for so many years, but it is only a few hundred customers. If there are more than one thousand, a city may have more than a thousand customers and fewer counties.

The future will surely increase.

Can we survive the cold winter?

When we don’t make money, will we still stick to our hearts? For example, health, food, service.

Later, we heard that Fu Manyuan did a good job and contacted Zhang. I wanted to go through the inspections. Zhang always reminded her that she must be informed one day in advance so that she would be prepared to prepare some classic monthly meals for us to experience. Some time.

I am very curious, what does the monthly meal mean?

In my understanding, the monthly meal is old hen stew, meaning nothing.

Let's go.

Being stopped at the door, identifying the identity, measuring body temperature, wearing protective gear, giving us a very formal feeling, and one thing is particularly good, that is, fingerprint verification, can ensure the personal safety of the mother and baby.

The rooms are generally decorated and some are out of date, but the overall humanistic atmosphere and management atmosphere are particularly good. After a chat, Mr. Zhang talked about the view that the core of the month-month center is actually the monthly meal + service process, that is, the soft culture. Is the core competitiveness, hardware is not a core competence, not that hardware is not important, as long as the sun, health, quiet, warm enough, no fancy.

The entire process was visited and it was quite beyond my expectations.

Especially the experience of the monthly meal, I did a great job. There were cakes, fruit, soup, and meat, all of which were small dishes. It was a bit like the meal I was eating at the local tyrants.

I felt a bit special at that time. Deep, if it were to open such a private dish, it would be a perfect fire. In fact, I would say that everyone would understand it as an advertisement. In fact, it is really good. At least in the north, we rarely encounter such delicate meals. In the south, there are, for example, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Or three of us went to visit.

On the return journey, we all talked about the shock of the monthly meal to ourselves, and we repeatedly pondered a bit. In fact, confinement is to eat and what to eat is important. Why do you eat so well and lose weight? It is the amount of grasp, just right, a month to lose 20 pounds.

They are not heavy meals.

When we left, we had some regrets that we didn’t let go. It was mainly the whole process of busy exchanges.

We were not too shy to say that we were too ugly to eat. Zhang always reminded us not to look at the number of samples, but in the afternoon there were 4 More points will be hungry, and sure enough...

Before we went there was a general budget of 1.5 million or so. However, after returning from the visit, we felt that there was a budget of 300,000, because the kitchen would require 300,000 investment, and we may have misunderstandings about the understanding of the monthly center. It is actually not the case that the emphasis is on the care of the child and the shaping of the mother.

Another point is that we must treat it rationally, that is, open 10 homes may die.

In other words, we have 80% probability of failure.

This is the truth.

what is the reason?

Everyone overestimated themselves and underestimated the market. They always felt that they had touched the door and went to visit several homes to be able to touch the pulse. This is not the case.

This is a systematic project. Zhang Zeng told us this sentence: If you are ready to devote the rest of your life to the monthly center, then this matter will surely become a success. If you want to work part-time or be a shopkeeper, you must not be fooled.

Makes sense.

The franchise fee is 300,000. There is a support period, which is to help with it. I also talked with partners about the cooperation model. She didn’t have much doubt about her initial fee. She talked a bit: In fact, Zhang’s sentence is worth it. For money, she said that the house must not be chosen for something.

Before this, the houses we selected were all east-west oriented. We did not think about this issue at all.

The core is to find a house.

I think now that entrepreneurship, capital is not a problem, as long as there are good projects, everyone is willing to follow the vote, but it is still very difficult to really do things, need full-hearted input, handling trivial matter, in fact, our county is the most suitable for the month In the sub-center, there are top-three hospitals that can radiate three or four neighboring counties, and our location is very special. The distance from Linyi City is the same as that of Qingdao Jinan, which is 2 hours. The one who made the first one is the easiest to survive. ......

Actually, for this matter, I only want to be an investor. As a shareholder, I can help a lot, such as coordinating some resources and the like. At the same time, I can pull many customers.

Even if I am not pregnant yet, I can help them. Signing the slip as I can enrich my life experience may lead me to writing this book.

Of course, people may not need my funds, but as long as things can be done, I am quite happy because I learned a lot during the inspection process. For example, when we visited Fumanyuan, the light management manual was as thick as a dictionary.

There is one thing I think is particularly bullish, that is, each person is a member of a number of positions, staggering the time, very good, and talented people are highly efficient.

Come back, I talked about these experiences with Meier. She said that she can actually open up a sign shop and join the whole country.

I talked about my own ideas.

I think that if it is a lie fee, this gameplay is not a problem, and it does have such a play, but if you want to pursue success rate, then it is too difficult, because it can be done is a probability problem, and the probability is very small, and all aspects are There is a relationship, the boss is doing things for the people, the house is facing or even for heating...

So, I don't think this path is feasible.

This is something that has inspired me a lot. It was before our visit that our little partners prepared a series of questions, consulted one by one, and took notes seriously.

I think this is the attitude of doing things. Carefully. Demonstrating that the inspection of the market is very important, both the avant-garde investment awareness and rational investment attitude.

Even if the result of the final argument is that this is not possible, it is also meaningful.

In addition, I also have a new understanding of investment promotion. For example, now the monthly center is the outlet.

The monthly centers that we visit are relatively good are all need to make an appointment. The reason for the appointment is that the schedule is very tight, almost every day.

All have been inspected in the past, and things are so good that nobody joins.

Think of where to write, write so much first.

......... End of article .........

Special Note:

The article non-Documentary entity, I do not necessarily mean me, he is not necessarily him, not on the right seat.

About qianxisai:

Since 2008, write a diary daily, unhindered.

Based on entrepreneurial experience and life experience.

The article inside the material, story, case all come from my communication with friends, life experiences and experiences.

There is no empty theory and advanced technology, are the actual life experience and successful experience.

In my country, I have 10 million fans in 10 years. Annual article dues Hundreds of thousands of dollars.

My readers are civil servants, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, rich second generation, official second generation, entrepreneurs. They are everywhere in every city in my country.

I am now actively promoting my favorite book. Before I go to bed every night, I read it and carefully understand the true meaning of life.

I hope my essay can help you, inspire you, affect you, make you understand entrepreneurship, understand making money, understanding humanity and understanding the mysteries of success.

Share with you:

The perspective of society in turn has three levels, technology, system, and culture.

As small as a person, as large as a country, a nation, any kind of fate in the final analysis is the product of that cultural attributes.

Strong culture to create strong, weak culture to create the weak. This is the law, can also be understood as Heaven.

If you want to get the success of life and the happiness of life, please pay attention to my article.

I wish you success and happiness.

PS:

If you do not understand this article, or have any questions, you can write an email to me.

E-mail address: saiqianxi@outlook.com

          saiqianxi@gmail.com

We learn together, improve together and look forward to becoming friends with you.

From this perspective, the men in the dust are also wonderful...

[infinitewatchlistt-blog]

Some Mother’s Failson: AJ Soprano and the Millennial Condition

In upper- and upper-middle class American culture, receiving a new car on your sixteenth birthday is a cherished rite of passage. Countless episodes of My Super Sweet Sixteen, a seminal work of the early 2000s (known in some online circles as the "McBling" era), feature an eager, bouncing teen rejoicing as her parents hand off the keys to a new convertible or SUV. Mom and Dad grin as they point out all the great safety features of the new car, while daughter or son caress the leather interiors and fantasize about how great the car will look in the parking lot of their school or the background of their MySpace pics. For thousands of teens growing up before the recession, their first car was a material signifier of both adult responsibility and enviable status. Fictional teenager AJ Soprano, from David Chase's masterpiece HBO series, is no exception.

For some participants of "weird Twitter", meme groups, and other obsessive online media-consumption communities, AJ Soprano has become a symbol for the beloved "failson" - a millennial who is pitiable and ironically hilarious for his constant inability to make anything of himself. Though many AJ fans were likely too young to watch The Sopranos when it initially aired, the show's continued popularity and presence on streaming services has led many young people (self included) to revisit the show. Those in the millennial age group - commonly recognized as those born between 1981 and 1997 - are likely to recognize many of the material goods that occupy AJ's adolescence: Mario Kart, metal posters, skate apparel, a personal computer kept in the bedroom (perfect for shirtless message board posting). These are items cherished by those who, unable to fit in with the more socially-adept "cool kids" (ie. those featured on shows like My Super Sweet Sixteen), retreated into a more insular world of teenage angst and video games. But AJ was not just any awkward mid-2000s teenager: he was the son of a wealthy mobster, and thanks to that, he will receive a car.

In the season five episode "All Happy Families", Tony interrupts one of AJ's belabored tutoring sessions to present him with a brand new Nissan Xterra SUV. AJ's face lights up when he sees the car, while his father tells him about "sensors in the seatbelts" and Nissan's "triple-safety philosophy". Though he notes that SUVs are less environmentally friendly, AJ is as pleased as any disaffected teen can be; but his expression changes when Tony tells him that the car will stay in the garage until he can bring his grades up to a "C". It's an attempt on Tony's part to motivate his son, but AJ immediately expresses annoyance at his parents, irritated that the gift has a catch. As in other episodes of the Sopranos, Tony and Carmela attempt to set standards for AJ, but in their materially-obsessed lives, their hopes for his success can only be expressed through expensive goods. By giving AJ a car dependent only on his continued studying and eventual attainment of good grades, Tony provides a physical representation of the gap between AJ's current self and what his parents expect him to be.

It's no wonder, then, that after the car catches fire in the series finale "Made in America", AJ tells his therapist that he feels "cleansed" by watching it explode. On a subconscious level, AJ is able to recognize the chasm of expectation that the car represents. Just moments before the car was destroyed, he was making out with a beautiful young model and listening to Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), claiming to finally "get" Dylan's music. AJ was experiencing a sense of pleasure and accomplishment at having matured in a way that had nothing to do with his parents' vision of his future. Though it was accidental, setting the car on fire was a both a dumb mistake and a youthful "fuck you!", allowing the real AJ to stick it to the imagined one that hangs over each of his failures.

This imagined AJ heavily influenced his family's view of him, but it also had an overpowering effect on how AJ saw himself. Like many teenagers, AJ strived for adulthood, sneaking into clubs, doing drugs, and trying to shrug off his parents at every turn. But AJ didn't completely reject the nuclear family he was born into: the ideal of the strong, mature head of household - someone like AJ's father - led him to pursue Blanca, a young single mother he met at one of Tony's construction sites. Blanca and her three-year-old son Hector were a ready-made family unit, practically an adult male starter pack. When AJ and Blanca start dating, he immediately jumps into the idea of caring and providing for them. Early in the relationship, he attempts to scare off men making noise outside Blanca's apartment because that's what Hector's father used to do. He takes Hector to the Puerto Rican day parade, keeps a baby seat in the back of his Nissan, and invites them to all Sopranos family functions, much to his mother's barely suppressed chagrin. AJ is so enamored with the idea of settling down with Blanca that he proposes to her, presenting a diamond ring of McBling-appropriate bigness. Blanca is unsure, and though AJ tries to convince her by saying that he'll soon be night manager at the pizzeria where he works, she ultimately declines the engagement and breaks off the relationship. This sends AJ into a deep depression, one that culminates in a suicide attempt and hospitalization. Though his father and sister try to give him perspective and insist that he'll recover from the heartbreak, AJ's failure to build a family and achieve this benchmark of male adulthood devastates him. The viewer (and AJ's more mature loved ones) is able to recognize that AJ did not put in the time and effort a nuclear family typically requires. As with the relationship between the SUV and AJ's academic performance, AJ has put the cart before the horse, and thus failed again to meet the standard provided for him.

Cognitive dissonance is the fuel that keeps the Soprano crime family running. Throughout the series, characters are constantly embroiled in petty arguments or obsessed with minor slights while downplaying the violence, death, and destruction that keeps their pockets lined. Though AJ does not participate in his father's "business", he is aware of it, often seeing news reports and internet articles about the mob's crimes. Instead of turning his burgeoning moral consciousness on the Sopranos family's actions, he fixates on other political concerns: the environment, the Israel-Palestine conflict, factory farming. Millennials recognize AJ becoming "woke" and may guiltily relate to the scenes of AJ sitting at the dinner table, claiming the steak his mother cooked with sprayed with pesticides and insisting that his father read the newspaper. AJ is so divorced from the real tragedy in his life that, just weeks after losing his cousin, he snottily tells Tony to "just bury his head in the sand" regarding the injustices of the world. As the privileged son of a well-to-do family, AJ's political concerns are linked more to his youth and his depression than to any real relationship to these struggles - it seems unlikely that he would care so much about the plight of displaced Palestinians if he had a good job and stable relationship.

Thinking that you're the only person who really understands the world is a classic symptom of youth, and AJ is a perfect symbol of perpetual adolescence. Though he's able to spend thousands of dollars on Cristal at the club, his life is largely a monotony of 9:00 AM cartoons, afternoons working at Blockbuster, and “lincoln log sandwiches” prepared by his mother. Robert Iler's round, wide-eyed face always looks thirteen-years-old, even after AJ grows a hideous chinstrap beard. His continued presence in his childhood home and constant in-and-out of academic institutions prevents him - and the viewer - from establishing a clear timeline for his life; in later seasons, I have little sense of how old AJ is from episode to episode. It's difficult to imagine him ever fully extricating himself from the comfortable life that his parents provided for him. Though the viewer sees the ways in which AJ is forced to grow and change, the series suggests that he - like every other character, and like all of us - will always be stuck in the same framework he was raised with. The last scene of AJ's story (diner scene not included) shows him leaving his job at Little Carmine's film company - a gig that his father got for him - in a new BMW M3, driving to pick up his hot model girlfriend. He tells a friend over the phone that, compared to the old SUV, the new car's environmental impact is "not that bad". The girlfriend gets in the car, and they drive off to one of David Chase's pitch-perfect music cues, as the Noisettes sing to "scratch your name into the fabric of this world."

AJ would be 31-years-old in 2017. When his father was that age, he already had a wife and two children. He had a clear career path and a strong foundation for the rest of his life - a foundation built on bodies buried in backyard, but a foundation nonetheless. We cannot know for certain what AJ Soprano’s life is like ten years after the events of the series finale - David Chase, in the handful of post-finale interviews where he isn’t frustratingly coy, hasn’t given indication about where AJ’s life may have lead. The viewer may speculate that, having seen his father die right in front of him, AJ decided to avenge him. It’s possible that he managed to continue his father's legacy as Don, running the Bada Bing stripclub and ruling New Jersey with an iron fist. For this viewer, it's difficult to really imagine sweet, sensitive AJ, the “happy little boy” Carmela remembered him as, the prodigal son whose father tried desperately to steer him away from a life of crime, following in the family tradition. The perpetual adolescent can never truly progress into the realm of adulthood he so long imaged. Here's a more likely scenario: AJ Soprano, 31-years-old, living with roommates, or a live-in girlfriend, piecing together a life working for Little Carmine’s production company, blowing thousands of dollars on today’s fashionable equivalent of Cristal (high-end mezcal? Humboldt County kush?), and still, always, sensing that great chasm, knowing that he can never progress to being the man his father was, or return to the child he used to be.

[handsingsweapon]

i feel like the women in yoi are pretty awesome and don't get enough attention. so do you have any headcanons about any of them? or any stories from behind the scenes in any of your stories?

they are awesome! i feel like i don’t know quite enough about them to have the kinds of elaborate ideas i have for the men, but i’ll give it a shot:

mila babicheva

12850813/10 babe factor

guilty of a number of crimes, including but not limited to:

sneaking yuri plisetsky into concerts all over st. petersburg

working on out-drinking the rest of the russian skating team

she’s already ahead of georgi and she’s got her sights set on victor

she knows better than to try to keep up with lilia

having surprisingly (scandalously) high scores in “purity tests” - everyone except for the hockey brother (see below) and yakov are always shocked

has three brothers. is the youngest. learned how to beat them all up when she was little and getting bullied so now they all fear the wrath of baba-yaga (and also there’s a reason why she can lift yuri plisetsky and this is it)

her mother was so delighted when they finally had a girl that she immediately enrolled mila in girly things which is why she can do ballet and why she’s shown helping yuri plisetsky, supposed ballet prodigy-child, get better

because she’s more experienced than he is, even

one of those brothers is a hockey player

so she can also skate on hockey skates and play a little? but it’s always bad whenever she plays pick-up because she tries to use the pick to stop and hockey skates have no pick and why are you in the wall again mila

anyway, he keeps getting offended when she dates his teammates

he keeps trying to warn the team but look at her

she’s a red-headed babe, so naturally nobody listens to him

bi-sexual

when she’s a little bit older she’s going to find herself sitting around with the other skaters at some event

and she’s going to get into a long discussion with christophe

reactions will be as follows:

christophe torn between delight and a fierce competitive streak in regards to who can say the most suggestive shit

yuri plisetsky will keep making howling noises and/or want to die while pretending like he’s not taking notes from both of them

yuuri katsuki will be the shade of a tomato while pretending that he and victor never do any of these things

victor nikiforov will be cheerfully encouraging them both (victor voice: “wow!”)

don’t be fooled, she is lilia’s actual favorite

okukawa minako

203588532/10 wish i could grow up into this

do not attempt to outdrink this woman

FOXY-FOX LADY would 3000% write a story in which she, mari, minami, and yuuri are actual kitsune (someday, someday lbr snaggle-tooth child is there already it’s practically canon)

knows lilia and/or had a rivalry with lilia at some point on the ballet circuit

young lilia is all formal and distant. extremely polite. reserved. curt.

young minako hosted drinking parties and got the rest of the cast drunk

it’s like the movie black swan without the crazy twist at the end, e.g. picture lilia as portman-swan and minako as kunis-swan and there you have it

they’re past it now but young lilia was like ugh and they gave her an award wtf gross even though at the time her expression was :|

and then, according to minako, her face froze that way

there may or may not have been a moment where minako actually got young lilia drunk that old lilia refuses to speak of

but you’ll note that old lilia can now drink anyone under a table

and has minako-sensei to thank for that

went to school with hiroko

a couple years older. original shipper of the s.s. katsuki, though

firmly believes she’s responsible for mari’s conception and the subsequent rapid wedding that occurred

there was an incident involving a young katsuki toshiya who may have been given too much to drink by a young okukawa minako

and you know what drunk katsuki men do best amirite? they go seduce the shit out of the loves of their lives

totally had a fling with celestino in barcelona after their night out drinking from ep. 11

totally drunk-told him that he’s older than the men she usually sleeps with

zero bedside manner for celestino’s hangover the next morning

just straight up left the poor man there

katsuki hiroko

could have been the star of some nana-esque shoujo series about how she was the sweet nice girl who looked up to badass amazing okukawa minako

had the world’s biggest crush on katsuki toshiya

refused to do anything about it

minako intervened

mari was a pre-engagement surprise

hiroko broke down in all kinds of tears when she found out because scandalous

toshiya proposed immediately

but also apologized profusely because hiroko is a saint AND LOOK WHAT HE DID 

minako also made him get on the ground and grovel about it, just for her own amusement?

and then she did whatever the equivalent of a late-1980s japanese high-five was

has never gotten over her schoolgirl-girlcrush on minako which is why both of her children took minako’s dance classes

is one of those women whose life dream has always been to have a home and a family

like, her friendship with minako is odd because young!minako was dangerous and ambitious

and all hiroko has ever wanted is a husband who gives good back massages and to have the kinds of feelings she had when someone at a hospital first put mari into her arms or when she watches yuuri skate

just. loves. her. children. phichit and victor and kenjirou have fights over who is yuuri’s number one fan right up until the point where katsuki hiroko quietly and politely clears her throat and then they all shut the fuck up

but! she doesn’t expect anyone else to want what she wants which is why she’s so supportive of mari and yuuri and the way their gender-roles are very much reversed?

has realized that her son’s gay ever since the “let’s order more victor posters, mom!” spree

has had more than one conversation with minako about how she still can’t believe yuuri managed that, though

katsuki mari

203852/10 i love her

flannel-wearing lesbian

doesn’t date all that often though? super low-key about it

just like the rest of her family when she’s in a relationship it’s usually by dumb luck or fortuitous accident

got all of her advice about this initially from minako which is why they’re now friends and why mari travels with her to barcelona

actually went of to college in osaka? didn’t like it. came home with a few tattoos, more piercings, a cigarette habit and transferred back to someplace more local (prob. fukuoka) to finish her degree

has had to reassure both parents that being at the onsen is actually what she wants

super-pragmatic, so she got her degree in something she actually thought would help the family business: hospitality. and she’s taken culinary classes

will discover later in life that she likes ceramics / making things with her hands

will wind up being ridiculously good at it

develops slight fame / interest in her work

shows pieces at the onsen / sometimes in museums

pretends to be the least invested in yuuri’s career

but gets the most shouty if the wifi starts sucking and the stream goes down while yuuri’s competing in another country and she’s not there

extremely protective of her baby brother in spite of her attitude

the best in the family at getting yuuri to perform functional tasks when his anxiety is at its peak

beat the everloving shit out of the first person to ever bully yuuri in school

“your sister is terrifying” - nishigori takeshi to katsuki yuuri

threatened to beat the everloving shit out of nishigori takeshi for knocking yuuko up

babysits the triplets all the time though

worst enabler for their skating otaku behavior

sara crispino

i think i’m so weirded out by mickey that it’s hard for me to like her / i’ve avoided developing headcanons about them

24/7 energizer bunny type energy levels

yuuri thought he was tired after shopping with victor? this is some next-level shit, honeychild

imagine if you will a day that all the skater!friends spend at the beach

imagine that at the end of this day, something like three in the fucking morning, sara is trying to convince everyone that it’s a great idea to stay up just a few more hours because then they can get breakfast ^o^

meanwhile phichit chulanont is asleep on christophe’s shoulder

yuuri looks like he’s about to die

victor is pretending to be dead already

yuri plisetsky already gave up and left

even mila is like … struggling

italian, though! so many great things about italy

routinely offers to host friends with the crispino family and/or meet them in italian cities while they’re on vacation to show them around

mickey 100% always misinterprets this gesture as “sara trying to date someone”

in reality she’s just super-ultra proud of her country and wants to share it

culturally catholic but not that strict about it

knows precisely where the best pizza is in naples (and naples has the best pizza, so)

beats mila in beach-babe contests every time

after she retires she pursues two careers:

she becomes an italian television personality because she starts commentating for all the olympics and the nation immediately decides that she’s a national treasure

goes into costume design for skating. a+ really good at it best fashion sense 10582082/10 should wear again

[ruthellisneda]

7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports

Today many older adults are like Energizer bunnies — they keep going and going, running marathons in their 80s, teaching yoga in their 90s, competing in the National Senior Games and more. Research shows it’s totally fine — dare we say encouraged.

For example, researchers for the Journal of Physiology concluded that masters athletes have “impressive peak performance capability and physiological function capacity.”. Older basketball players maintain their hand-eye coordination to sink free throws, German researchers reported.

If that’s not enough, title master athletes maintain muscle strength, power and endurance that’s above average for their age and continue to perform well in running and jumping events into old age, according to a study in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity.

There’s also the long list of benefits of staying active, including better memory, the need for fewer prescriptions and being less likely to be admitted to the ER.

Meet seven inspiring 60-plus athletes who prove that you should never let age limit you:

PHILLIP CIANCIOLO, BODYBUILDER, 60

Cianciolo first started lifting weights in middle school to put on weight for football. When the pigskin plan didn’t pan out, he turned to wrestling in high school and then joined a powerlifting team in college. He competed — and won — locally and regionally during those years and after, with his last appearance at the 1981 Mr. America competition. Or so he thought. Cianciolo continued to “live the bodybuilding lifestyle” and decided to compete again this year. “I knew it would help me with my pain, hurt and betrayal I felt [from a recent divorce] and get me clear-headed and goal-oriented. It worked,” he says. In his most recent competition — against guys not even half his age — he placed first in Masters Over 60, second in Masters Over 50 and fourth in the Open.

His fitness advice: “Getting in shape is not a means to an end; it’s a lifestyle that demands good daily habits. You have to make time and get your workout in your daily schedule, letting nothing deter you. Excuses are a cop out!”

JOHN NERGER, CYCLIST, 60

A life-long runner, Nerger “discovered that eventually age starts taking its course on one’s body,” and turned to cycling in 2015 to substitute for, and complement, his running. He’s had the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa — a seven-day, 400-plus-mile ride across the state — on his fitness bucket list since 1979. He finally crossed it off last year, starting the race on his 60th birthday even though he had crashed a week before. “I pressed on and am sure glad I did. It was a super experience, one I hope to repeat in the future,” he says.

His fitness advice: “If you hit a wall, an injury or life change, be prepared to adapt your fitness regimen. You may be an avid runner now, but you may need to adapt later in life as I did to stay active. I see too many who used to be very active and fit do little today because their primary sport or fitness regimen no longer works for them. I’m an example of what the average person can do when making fitness and exercise a priority.”

PAT GALLANT-CHARETTE, MARATHON SWIMMER, 66

At 46, Gallant-Charette considered herself a spectator mom. “The extent of my exercise was going for a walk in the neighborhood with other neighborhood moms,” she says. Then tragedy struck her family: Her brother, 34, died suddenly of a heart attack. He’d won the Peaks to Portland, a 2.4-mile ocean swim in Maine twice, and soon after his passing, Gallant-Charette’s 16-year-old son said he wanted to do the swim as a tribute to his uncle. “I was deeply touched by his words,” she says. “I said to him, ‘That’s so sweet, I wish I could do the same.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You can, if you try.’” So she began training and soon fell in love with swimming. She’s now completed five of the most challenging swims in the world, set a world record and is participating in the Oceans Seven Challenge, which is considered open-water swimming’s Seven Summits.

Her fitness advice: “Twenty years ago I never imagined that I was going to become a marathon swimmer and go on to set a few world records. My young son’s encouraging words, ‘You can, if you try’ inspired me to try something that was unimaginable. I would encourage others to try something new in life because it may bring them down a road they never imagined.”

READ MORE > SCIENCE SAYS RUNNING HELPS YOU LIVE LONGER

RON GELLIS, CROSSFIT, 69

Gellis has been active most of his life — he played college soccer, has run 20 marathons and was an avid underwater photographer. Still, when he went to watch his son’s CrossFit workout about nine years ago, he thought his kid was crazy. But he loved the challenge and the community, joined a box and has since competed in the CrossFit Games three times. Gellis, a sports psychologist, also uses CrossFit to help addicts. He started the Integrated Recovery Foundation, which addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges of veterans, first responders and anyone experiencing PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addictive or co-occurring mental health disorders.

His fitness advice: “Honor rest days. Some of the athletes that I see, it’s like they have fallen in love. They approach [fitness] like they’ve met that perfect partner, and they fall head over heels and don’t pace themselves. And then they burn out. Even when you are young, your body still needs to rest.”

LOU SELF, KITEBOARDER, 75

Self has enjoyed many water sports in his life, including sailing on a Hobie Cat and windsurfing. At 58, he decided to try kiteboarding on a trip to South Padre Island, Texas, when the winds weren’t good for windsurfing. “I liked the challenge and the little bit of the unexpected,” Self says. “I’ve ridden in winds from 10–40 miles per hour, and it’s cool being the oldest guy on the water.” Although kiteboarding has taken a backseat to his stand-up comedy, he still takes one tropical trip a year to get out on the water.

His fitness advice: “Develop a lifestyle. I always have been pretty active, not in sports, but in everyday life. I avoid elevators and go up the stairs. I may cut it off at five floors, but otherwise I run up stairs.”

JACINTO BONILLA, CROSSFIT, 77

In 2006, Bonilla read about CrossFit in a magazine. Since he was already doing bodybuilding, he searched online to find someone in New York doing this new workout. He joined some guys in Central Park who opened a box a few months later and has been doing WODs since. “I like that the workouts go from one exercise to the next without rest. Sometimes you feel like you will die, but you keep going and have the best workout and get in phenomenal shape,” he says. He holds the distinction of being the oldest ever to compete at the CrossFit Games three times — when he was 69, 72 and 73.

His fitness advice: “A lot of people are afraid of CrossFit, but if you start with baby steps, you will be fine. Make sure you learn the exercises, learn proper form and have a good coach.”

PAUL TETRICK, CYCLIST, 86

About 30 years ago, Tetrick realized he couldn’t keep running. “I had some bad knees, so I got on a bike,” he says. “I found out that I did it fairly well, so I thought I might as well put some of that to good use.” And indeed he has, winning more than 14 national titles. But he’s more proud of his granddaughter, Alison, who is a professional cyclist for Cylance Pro Cycling. “When she was on her way home from her last year of college, she came through Denver, and there was a bike race the same day I was doing one. She was doing triathlons, and I encouraged her to enter. From that point on, she started riding competitively,” Tetrick says.

His fitness advice: “You need to stay fit so you can do things. If you just sit around, you end up not being able to do what you like to do.”

GEAR UP FOR YOUR NEXT WORKOUT

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The post 7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports appeared first on Under Armour.

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[neilmillerne]

7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports

Today many older adults are like Energizer bunnies — they keep going and going, running marathons in their 80s, teaching yoga in their 90s, competing in the National Senior Games and more. Research shows it’s totally fine — dare we say encouraged.

For example, researchers for the Journal of Physiology concluded that masters athletes have “impressive peak performance capability and physiological function capacity.”. Older basketball players maintain their hand-eye coordination to sink free throws, German researchers reported.

If that’s not enough, title master athletes maintain muscle strength, power and endurance that’s above average for their age and continue to perform well in running and jumping events into old age, according to a study in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity.

There’s also the long list of benefits of staying active, including better memory, the need for fewer prescriptions and being less likely to be admitted to the ER.

Meet seven inspiring 60-plus athletes who prove that you should never let age limit you:

PHILLIP CIANCIOLO, BODYBUILDER, 60

Cianciolo first started lifting weights in middle school to put on weight for football. When the pigskin plan didn’t pan out, he turned to wrestling in high school and then joined a powerlifting team in college. He competed — and won — locally and regionally during those years and after, with his last appearance at the 1981 Mr. America competition. Or so he thought. Cianciolo continued to “live the bodybuilding lifestyle” and decided to compete again this year. “I knew it would help me with my pain, hurt and betrayal I felt [from a recent divorce] and get me clear-headed and goal-oriented. It worked,” he says. In his most recent competition — against guys not even half his age — he placed first in Masters Over 60, second in Masters Over 50 and fourth in the Open.

His fitness advice: “Getting in shape is not a means to an end; it’s a lifestyle that demands good daily habits. You have to make time and get your workout in your daily schedule, letting nothing deter you. Excuses are a cop out!”

JOHN NERGER, CYCLIST, 60

A life-long runner, Nerger “discovered that eventually age starts taking its course on one’s body,” and turned to cycling in 2015 to substitute for, and complement, his running. He’s had the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa — a seven-day, 400-plus-mile ride across the state — on his fitness bucket list since 1979. He finally crossed it off last year, starting the race on his 60th birthday even though he had crashed a week before. “I pressed on and am sure glad I did. It was a super experience, one I hope to repeat in the future,” he says.

His fitness advice: “If you hit a wall, an injury or life change, be prepared to adapt your fitness regimen. You may be an avid runner now, but you may need to adapt later in life as I did to stay active. I see too many who used to be very active and fit do little today because their primary sport or fitness regimen no longer works for them. I’m an example of what the average person can do when making fitness and exercise a priority.”

PAT GALLANT-CHARETTE, MARATHON SWIMMER, 66

At 46, Gallant-Charette considered herself a spectator mom. “The extent of my exercise was going for a walk in the neighborhood with other neighborhood moms,” she says. Then tragedy struck her family: Her brother, 34, died suddenly of a heart attack. He’d won the Peaks to Portland, a 2.4-mile ocean swim in Maine twice, and soon after his passing, Gallant-Charette’s 16-year-old son said he wanted to do the swim as a tribute to his uncle. “I was deeply touched by his words,” she says. “I said to him, ‘That’s so sweet, I wish I could do the same.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You can, if you try.’” So she began training and soon fell in love with swimming. She’s now completed five of the most challenging swims in the world, set a world record and is participating in the Oceans Seven Challenge, which is considered open-water swimming’s Seven Summits.

Her fitness advice: “Twenty years ago I never imagined that I was going to become a marathon swimmer and go on to set a few world records. My young son’s encouraging words, ‘You can, if you try’ inspired me to try something that was unimaginable. I would encourage others to try something new in life because it may bring them down a road they never imagined.”

READ MORE > SCIENCE SAYS RUNNING HELPS YOU LIVE LONGER

RON GELLIS, CROSSFIT, 69

Gellis has been active most of his life — he played college soccer, has run 20 marathons and was an avid underwater photographer. Still, when he went to watch his son’s CrossFit workout about nine years ago, he thought his kid was crazy. But he loved the challenge and the community, joined a box and has since competed in the CrossFit Games three times. Gellis, a sports psychologist, also uses CrossFit to help addicts. He started the Integrated Recovery Foundation, which addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges of veterans, first responders and anyone experiencing PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addictive or co-occurring mental health disorders.

His fitness advice: “Honor rest days. Some of the athletes that I see, it’s like they have fallen in love. They approach [fitness] like they’ve met that perfect partner, and they fall head over heels and don’t pace themselves. And then they burn out. Even when you are young, your body still needs to rest.”

LOU SELF, KITEBOARDER, 75

Self has enjoyed many water sports in his life, including sailing on a Hobie Cat and windsurfing. At 58, he decided to try kiteboarding on a trip to South Padre Island, Texas, when the winds weren’t good for windsurfing. “I liked the challenge and the little bit of the unexpected,” Self says. “I’ve ridden in winds from 10–40 miles per hour, and it’s cool being the oldest guy on the water.” Although kiteboarding has taken a backseat to his stand-up comedy, he still takes one tropical trip a year to get out on the water.

His fitness advice: “Develop a lifestyle. I always have been pretty active, not in sports, but in everyday life. I avoid elevators and go up the stairs. I may cut it off at five floors, but otherwise I run up stairs.”

JACINTO BONILLA, CROSSFIT, 77

In 2006, Bonilla read about CrossFit in a magazine. Since he was already doing bodybuilding, he searched online to find someone in New York doing this new workout. He joined some guys in Central Park who opened a box a few months later and has been doing WODs since. “I like that the workouts go from one exercise to the next without rest. Sometimes you feel like you will die, but you keep going and have the best workout and get in phenomenal shape,” he says. He holds the distinction of being the oldest ever to compete at the CrossFit Games three times — when he was 69, 72 and 73.

His fitness advice: “A lot of people are afraid of CrossFit, but if you start with baby steps, you will be fine. Make sure you learn the exercises, learn proper form and have a good coach.”

PAUL TETRICK, CYCLIST, 86

About 30 years ago, Tetrick realized he couldn’t keep running. “I had some bad knees, so I got on a bike,” he says. “I found out that I did it fairly well, so I thought I might as well put some of that to good use.” And indeed he has, winning more than 14 national titles. But he’s more proud of his granddaughter, Alison, who is a professional cyclist for Cylance Pro Cycling. “When she was on her way home from her last year of college, she came through Denver, and there was a bike race the same day I was doing one. She was doing triathlons, and I encouraged her to enter. From that point on, she started riding competitively,” Tetrick says.

His fitness advice: “You need to stay fit so you can do things. If you just sit around, you end up not being able to do what you like to do.”

GEAR UP FOR YOUR NEXT WORKOUT

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The post 7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports appeared first on Under Armour.

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[joshuabradleyn]

7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports

Today many older adults are like Energizer bunnies — they keep going and going, running marathons in their 80s, teaching yoga in their 90s, competing in the National Senior Games and more. Research shows it’s totally fine — dare we say encouraged.

For example, researchers for the Journal of Physiology concluded that masters athletes have “impressive peak performance capability and physiological function capacity.”. Older basketball players maintain their hand-eye coordination to sink free throws, German researchers reported.

If that’s not enough, title master athletes maintain muscle strength, power and endurance that’s above average for their age and continue to perform well in running and jumping events into old age, according to a study in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity.

There’s also the long list of benefits of staying active, including better memory, the need for fewer prescriptions and being less likely to be admitted to the ER.

Meet seven inspiring 60-plus athletes who prove that you should never let age limit you:

PHILLIP CIANCIOLO, BODYBUILDER, 60

Cianciolo first started lifting weights in middle school to put on weight for football. When the pigskin plan didn’t pan out, he turned to wrestling in high school and then joined a powerlifting team in college. He competed — and won — locally and regionally during those years and after, with his last appearance at the 1981 Mr. America competition. Or so he thought. Cianciolo continued to “live the bodybuilding lifestyle” and decided to compete again this year. “I knew it would help me with my pain, hurt and betrayal I felt [from a recent divorce] and get me clear-headed and goal-oriented. It worked,” he says. In his most recent competition — against guys not even half his age — he placed first in Masters Over 60, second in Masters Over 50 and fourth in the Open.

His fitness advice: “Getting in shape is not a means to an end; it’s a lifestyle that demands good daily habits. You have to make time and get your workout in your daily schedule, letting nothing deter you. Excuses are a cop out!”

JOHN NERGER, CYCLIST, 60

A life-long runner, Nerger “discovered that eventually age starts taking its course on one’s body,” and turned to cycling in 2015 to substitute for, and complement, his running. He’s had the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa — a seven-day, 400-plus-mile ride across the state — on his fitness bucket list since 1979. He finally crossed it off last year, starting the race on his 60th birthday even though he had crashed a week before. “I pressed on and am sure glad I did. It was a super experience, one I hope to repeat in the future,” he says.

His fitness advice: “If you hit a wall, an injury or life change, be prepared to adapt your fitness regimen. You may be an avid runner now, but you may need to adapt later in life as I did to stay active. I see too many who used to be very active and fit do little today because their primary sport or fitness regimen no longer works for them. I’m an example of what the average person can do when making fitness and exercise a priority.”

PAT GALLANT-CHARETTE, MARATHON SWIMMER, 66

At 46, Gallant-Charette considered herself a spectator mom. “The extent of my exercise was going for a walk in the neighborhood with other neighborhood moms,” she says. Then tragedy struck her family: Her brother, 34, died suddenly of a heart attack. He’d won the Peaks to Portland, a 2.4-mile ocean swim in Maine twice, and soon after his passing, Gallant-Charette’s 16-year-old son said he wanted to do the swim as a tribute to his uncle. “I was deeply touched by his words,” she says. “I said to him, ‘That’s so sweet, I wish I could do the same.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You can, if you try.’” So she began training and soon fell in love with swimming. She’s now completed five of the most challenging swims in the world, set a world record and is participating in the Oceans Seven Challenge, which is considered open-water swimming’s Seven Summits.

Her fitness advice: “Twenty years ago I never imagined that I was going to become a marathon swimmer and go on to set a few world records. My young son’s encouraging words, ‘You can, if you try’ inspired me to try something that was unimaginable. I would encourage others to try something new in life because it may bring them down a road they never imagined.”

READ MORE > SCIENCE SAYS RUNNING HELPS YOU LIVE LONGER

RON GELLIS, CROSSFIT, 69

Gellis has been active most of his life — he played college soccer, has run 20 marathons and was an avid underwater photographer. Still, when he went to watch his son’s CrossFit workout about nine years ago, he thought his kid was crazy. But he loved the challenge and the community, joined a box and has since competed in the CrossFit Games three times. Gellis, a sports psychologist, also uses CrossFit to help addicts. He started the Integrated Recovery Foundation, which addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges of veterans, first responders and anyone experiencing PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addictive or co-occurring mental health disorders.

His fitness advice: “Honor rest days. Some of the athletes that I see, it’s like they have fallen in love. They approach [fitness] like they’ve met that perfect partner, and they fall head over heels and don’t pace themselves. And then they burn out. Even when you are young, your body still needs to rest.”

LOU SELF, KITEBOARDER, 75

Self has enjoyed many water sports in his life, including sailing on a Hobie Cat and windsurfing. At 58, he decided to try kiteboarding on a trip to South Padre Island, Texas, when the winds weren’t good for windsurfing. “I liked the challenge and the little bit of the unexpected,” Self says. “I’ve ridden in winds from 10–40 miles per hour, and it’s cool being the oldest guy on the water.” Although kiteboarding has taken a backseat to his stand-up comedy, he still takes one tropical trip a year to get out on the water.

His fitness advice: “Develop a lifestyle. I always have been pretty active, not in sports, but in everyday life. I avoid elevators and go up the stairs. I may cut it off at five floors, but otherwise I run up stairs.”

JACINTO BONILLA, CROSSFIT, 77

In 2006, Bonilla read about CrossFit in a magazine. Since he was already doing bodybuilding, he searched online to find someone in New York doing this new workout. He joined some guys in Central Park who opened a box a few months later and has been doing WODs since. “I like that the workouts go from one exercise to the next without rest. Sometimes you feel like you will die, but you keep going and have the best workout and get in phenomenal shape,” he says. He holds the distinction of being the oldest ever to compete at the CrossFit Games three times — when he was 69, 72 and 73.

His fitness advice: “A lot of people are afraid of CrossFit, but if you start with baby steps, you will be fine. Make sure you learn the exercises, learn proper form and have a good coach.”

PAUL TETRICK, CYCLIST, 86

About 30 years ago, Tetrick realized he couldn’t keep running. “I had some bad knees, so I got on a bike,” he says. “I found out that I did it fairly well, so I thought I might as well put some of that to good use.” And indeed he has, winning more than 14 national titles. But he’s more proud of his granddaughter, Alison, who is a professional cyclist for Cylance Pro Cycling. “When she was on her way home from her last year of college, she came through Denver, and there was a bike race the same day I was doing one. She was doing triathlons, and I encouraged her to enter. From that point on, she started riding competitively,” Tetrick says.

His fitness advice: “You need to stay fit so you can do things. If you just sit around, you end up not being able to do what you like to do.”

GEAR UP FOR YOUR NEXT WORKOUT

> Gym Clothes for Men > Gym Clothes for Women > Gym Clothes for Boys > Gym Clothes for Girls

The post 7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2sYkYXb

[albertcaldwellne]

7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports

Today many older adults are like Energizer bunnies — they keep going and going, running marathons in their 80s, teaching yoga in their 90s, competing in the National Senior Games and more. Research shows it’s totally fine — dare we say encouraged.

For example, researchers for the Journal of Physiology concluded that masters athletes have “impressive peak performance capability and physiological function capacity.”. Older basketball players maintain their hand-eye coordination to sink free throws, German researchers reported.

If that’s not enough, title master athletes maintain muscle strength, power and endurance that’s above average for their age and continue to perform well in running and jumping events into old age, according to a study in the European Review of Aging and Physical Activity.

There’s also the long list of benefits of staying active, including better memory, the need for fewer prescriptions and being less likely to be admitted to the ER.

Meet seven inspiring 60-plus athletes who prove that you should never let age limit you:

PHILLIP CIANCIOLO, BODYBUILDER, 60

Cianciolo first started lifting weights in middle school to put on weight for football. When the pigskin plan didn’t pan out, he turned to wrestling in high school and then joined a powerlifting team in college. He competed — and won — locally and regionally during those years and after, with his last appearance at the 1981 Mr. America competition. Or so he thought. Cianciolo continued to “live the bodybuilding lifestyle” and decided to compete again this year. “I knew it would help me with my pain, hurt and betrayal I felt [from a recent divorce] and get me clear-headed and goal-oriented. It worked,” he says. In his most recent competition — against guys not even half his age — he placed first in Masters Over 60, second in Masters Over 50 and fourth in the Open.

His fitness advice: “Getting in shape is not a means to an end; it’s a lifestyle that demands good daily habits. You have to make time and get your workout in your daily schedule, letting nothing deter you. Excuses are a cop out!”

JOHN NERGER, CYCLIST, 60

A life-long runner, Nerger “discovered that eventually age starts taking its course on one’s body,” and turned to cycling in 2015 to substitute for, and complement, his running. He’s had the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa — a seven-day, 400-plus-mile ride across the state — on his fitness bucket list since 1979. He finally crossed it off last year, starting the race on his 60th birthday even though he had crashed a week before. “I pressed on and am sure glad I did. It was a super experience, one I hope to repeat in the future,” he says.

His fitness advice: “If you hit a wall, an injury or life change, be prepared to adapt your fitness regimen. You may be an avid runner now, but you may need to adapt later in life as I did to stay active. I see too many who used to be very active and fit do little today because their primary sport or fitness regimen no longer works for them. I’m an example of what the average person can do when making fitness and exercise a priority.”

PAT GALLANT-CHARETTE, MARATHON SWIMMER, 66

At 46, Gallant-Charette considered herself a spectator mom. “The extent of my exercise was going for a walk in the neighborhood with other neighborhood moms,” she says. Then tragedy struck her family: Her brother, 34, died suddenly of a heart attack. He’d won the Peaks to Portland, a 2.4-mile ocean swim in Maine twice, and soon after his passing, Gallant-Charette’s 16-year-old son said he wanted to do the swim as a tribute to his uncle. “I was deeply touched by his words,” she says. “I said to him, ‘That’s so sweet, I wish I could do the same.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You can, if you try.’” So she began training and soon fell in love with swimming. She’s now completed five of the most challenging swims in the world, set a world record and is participating in the Oceans Seven Challenge, which is considered open-water swimming’s Seven Summits.

Her fitness advice: “Twenty years ago I never imagined that I was going to become a marathon swimmer and go on to set a few world records. My young son’s encouraging words, ‘You can, if you try’ inspired me to try something that was unimaginable. I would encourage others to try something new in life because it may bring them down a road they never imagined.”

READ MORE > SCIENCE SAYS RUNNING HELPS YOU LIVE LONGER

RON GELLIS, CROSSFIT, 69

Gellis has been active most of his life — he played college soccer, has run 20 marathons and was an avid underwater photographer. Still, when he went to watch his son’s CrossFit workout about nine years ago, he thought his kid was crazy. But he loved the challenge and the community, joined a box and has since competed in the CrossFit Games three times. Gellis, a sports psychologist, also uses CrossFit to help addicts. He started the Integrated Recovery Foundation, which addresses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges of veterans, first responders and anyone experiencing PTSD, traumatic brain injury and addictive or co-occurring mental health disorders.

His fitness advice: “Honor rest days. Some of the athletes that I see, it’s like they have fallen in love. They approach [fitness] like they’ve met that perfect partner, and they fall head over heels and don’t pace themselves. And then they burn out. Even when you are young, your body still needs to rest.”

LOU SELF, KITEBOARDER, 75

Self has enjoyed many water sports in his life, including sailing on a Hobie Cat and windsurfing. At 58, he decided to try kiteboarding on a trip to South Padre Island, Texas, when the winds weren’t good for windsurfing. “I liked the challenge and the little bit of the unexpected,” Self says. “I’ve ridden in winds from 10–40 miles per hour, and it’s cool being the oldest guy on the water.” Although kiteboarding has taken a backseat to his stand-up comedy, he still takes one tropical trip a year to get out on the water.

His fitness advice: “Develop a lifestyle. I always have been pretty active, not in sports, but in everyday life. I avoid elevators and go up the stairs. I may cut it off at five floors, but otherwise I run up stairs.”

JACINTO BONILLA, CROSSFIT, 77

In 2006, Bonilla read about CrossFit in a magazine. Since he was already doing bodybuilding, he searched online to find someone in New York doing this new workout. He joined some guys in Central Park who opened a box a few months later and has been doing WODs since. “I like that the workouts go from one exercise to the next without rest. Sometimes you feel like you will die, but you keep going and have the best workout and get in phenomenal shape,” he says. He holds the distinction of being the oldest ever to compete at the CrossFit Games three times — when he was 69, 72 and 73.

His fitness advice: “A lot of people are afraid of CrossFit, but if you start with baby steps, you will be fine. Make sure you learn the exercises, learn proper form and have a good coach.”

PAUL TETRICK, CYCLIST, 86

About 30 years ago, Tetrick realized he couldn’t keep running. “I had some bad knees, so I got on a bike,” he says. “I found out that I did it fairly well, so I thought I might as well put some of that to good use.” And indeed he has, winning more than 14 national titles. But he’s more proud of his granddaughter, Alison, who is a professional cyclist for Cylance Pro Cycling. “When she was on her way home from her last year of college, she came through Denver, and there was a bike race the same day I was doing one. She was doing triathlons, and I encouraged her to enter. From that point on, she started riding competitively,” Tetrick says.

His fitness advice: “You need to stay fit so you can do things. If you just sit around, you end up not being able to do what you like to do.”

GEAR UP FOR YOUR NEXT WORKOUT

> Gym Clothes for Men > Gym Clothes for Women > Gym Clothes for Boys > Gym Clothes for Girls

The post 7 Active Senior Citizens Who Are Crushing Their Sports appeared first on Under Armour.

http://ift.tt/2sYkYXb