#please let me know if you want the unprocessed version!!!!

[turtle-steverogers]

Tbh Mikey the only way I can have 2012 Steve Rogers thoughts is by imagining him telling Bucky these like. Incredibly fucked up or sad stories in the future and still not processing it as trauma. And Bucky is just like listening and then is just like, oh no baby this is a story about you being desperately sad, come here please let me hug you.

Like I have this headcanon that after Avengers Steve stakes his bike on a great American road trip, and he winds up on the California coast, because he and Bucky used to dream about going west together. And then he’s just there, standing alone on the beach, toes inches away from the water, and he can’t make himself go in. He’s maybe afraid of the water, because he doesn’t want to drown again; or maybe afraid of the water because he wants to drown again too much—and he keeps seeing Bucky’s face at 18, smiling and chatty because he just read a book about a hidden underwater city out there, and it’s not real but wouldn’t it be something to swim out there in the other ocean, Stevie? And all of the inside of Steve is screaming, and he can’t make himself move. Eventually he finds himself in a hotel room, no memory of how he got there, and the pain from a full body sunburn is what gives him the focus to shower and then lay on the ceiling, hot and feeling nothing.

Later when Bucky is back he tells a version of this story to Bucky, maybe in the context of a funny story—they went on vacation to the beach, and Steve still got burned as heck, and Bucky is applying aloe to Steve’s lobster back, complaining—“Geez Steve, haven’t you learned by now? I swear, this is the worst burn you’ve ever had”. And Steve is like, “Oh no, this is nothing, I went to the beach out west, you know, like we dreamed about. I didn’t find any hidden cities, just a sunburn so bad I cried about it. And the beach wasn’t even all that great without you there!” And then Bucky’s radar goes off and he teases the story out, little by little, and he reads between the lines enough to understand that actually this story is about trauma for Steve he just hasn’t processed yet. Idk I can only have 2012 Steve thoughts in the context of Steve telling unprocessed trauma stories and Bucky just loving on him so hard and giving him all the hugs and helping him process.

No, because I literally have so many thoughts surrounding the idea of Bucky slowly uncovering the sheer shit Steve went through coming out of the ice. And it's hard to believe, because Steve seems... functional when Bucky comes home, but Bucky learns that it's mostly Steve surviving, not actually living or taking care of himself.

But as time goes on, he uncovers the layers. The grief Steve went through beyond Bucky himself. Grief over the life he lost, the community he lost, the other people he lost, the sense of himself and his ability to somewhat control the public's perception of him that he lost, the home he lost-- hell, the familiarity he lost. The way no one talked to him-- not really. Not how it counted. People mostly talked to Cap, not Steve, and no one touched him either. How Steve would seek out sex and mindless hook-ups to quell some of that loneliness. To be touched with some ounce of intent, even though the more Bucky hears about that, the more unsafe it appears Steve was with his sexual experiences. Rough and not entirely informed. Wary consent and instances of little respect. Intimacy shoved out the window. The way SHIELD bugged him, trailed him, manipulated him. Morphed him into a weapon of their own. Controlling him through perceived freedoms. The way Steve had to live in an uncanny understanding of the world. Of his home. His city out of focus and moved on without him.

How long Steve pushed through on autopilot, thinking it was fine. Things were fine. He's fine. But the more Bucky digs in, the more he finds and there's so much Steve has locked away. Repressed with every ounce of his being. Things Bucky didn't even know before the war-- things about his home life and his father and the way bullies could be more subtle than the punches. The way bullies could have been people who should have known better and found Steve in a vulnerable place.

And it aches. It aches to see Steve so hurt. His good Stevie. So caring. So kind. So desperate to be kind to a world that's rarely been kind to him.

[chibimyumi]

Hey there! hope you're doing well! So I've seen a few takes from people saying that Seb lacks character developement and I wanted to ask your opinion on this? I feel like some people just want him to have some kind of "redemption arc" which sounds weird to me because by now I'd guess people would understand his character and motivations?

Dear Anon,

I am doing great, thank you very much. I hope you too ^^

Sorry for the late reply! It was not for lack of interest because yours is a very interesting question to ask. Indeed, for any other character I would say that for a main character he lacks character development. However, with Sebastian Michaelis specifically I would disagree, because there are multiple factors that dramatically change matters for him. The most important one being Sebas’ age.

Four Years vs Centuries?

Sebas is a supernatural entity that has been around and for centuries if not millennia. We know next to nothing about this demon’s past, but one of the few things we do know is that he has been around and seen quite a lot of the world thanks to his old age.

The older one is, the more fixed their personality is, meaning the less malleable it becomes. Of course nobody is too old to grow or change, but it will ultimately require more time or effort to change such a person.

In our current story Sebas has been around for barely 4 years, which to him must be an equivalent of a few hours in human life. Let’s say you are 20 years old with a certain set of beliefs, principles, personality traits, etc. Now imagine going somewhere you probably have been to before for one hour, and that in that one hour you suddenly change entirely. Not impossible, but quite unlikely.

What must happen before a person would change in such a relative short time must be the occurrence of something either exceptionally shocking, or exceptionally inspiring. In Sebas’ case, at least one did happen, namely the former.

Exceptionally Shocking

As discussed in some detail in this post, the exceptionally shocking did in fact happen to Sebas in his current contract. Canonically Sebas said that he never fought reapers before he fought Grell, and therefore we also know that Undertaker is the second reaper he ever fought seriously. Judging from Sebas’ casual and confident reaction when Grell first invited him for a fight, we know Sebas never had any reason before that time to fear for his life. I mean, look at this confident bitch (Ô_ó)p.

Even after Sebas got really hurt by Grell, he still managed to say something as cocky as: “I have never fought [a reaper] before, so I cannot tell [whether I can beat one]. But if my master tells me to win, I shall.” That is certainly NOT the same Sebas as the one we know now.

After the Campania brawl, we see very clearly how Sebas’ attitude and confidence changed entirely, exactly because for the first time ever he experienced something exceptionally shocking; his life and death was outside his own control. The English translations I have seen are not bad, but they miss a bit of the nuance in the Japanese version. In the Japanese version when Sebas says that even a demon like him cannot withstand a blow from the death scythe, there was some eye-opening realisation in his tone. He learned something new there.

And indeed, most tellingly even at the mere mention of the Undertaker or the prospect of having to run into him again, even Sebas swallows his pride in front of his master, and admits he’d really rather not.

Much later in chapter 85 when they were investigating the mourning lockets, master and servant have a moment of silence thinking about the Undertaker. While to O!Ciel the important memory is Undertaker’s “it is my treasure,” Sebas thinks about the very first thing Undertaker said to him upon deciding to let him live: “I knew you would succeed at protecting the Earl.”

As explained in this post, Sebas has come to project condescension onto Undertaker. Sebas suspects Undertaker is looking down on him, and understandably so because he has no reason to believe otherwise. “I knew you would [...]” is a phrase that reflects control in Undertaker’s hands, and Sebas really hates that. For once Sebas is the prey, and somebody else the predator.

Now here is the character development; Sebas went from over confident and cocky to a demon with PTSD.

(Exceptionally) Inspiring

Though less explicit and game-changing, I would argue that something inspiring also occurred in Sebas’ short time on Earth this time: his master. In this post I compared O!Ciel to a piece of unprocessed raw meat to Sebas, as opposed to other past masters probably being a microwave-meal equivalent. O!Ciel is young and started without power, so to Sebas one he started to see the potential of a fully self-customisable meal, he really started to feel the excitement.

Though, however excited, it would only be a small blip on Sebastian’s radar. In the same post just mentioned, I also discussed how it is very unlikely that eating O!Ciel will change Sebas’ view on humankind because it would need to alter someone’s view shaped through thousands of years.

In this same sense I also argue that though Sebas did change over the course of 4 years in the human world, he wouldn’t change dramatically. His experience in the past four years must be like one grain of sand on a banked scale.

Sebas and Redemption?

My short answer would just be: “Kuroshitsuji ain’t some religiously-laden morale story wherein even a demon must be redeemed,” but that would not be fair (and too short for my M.O.)

It’s an unpopular opinion, but a good character arc or story does not require a redemption arc to work. It just needs to work for any reason. A redemption arc in a character is not like meringue is essential in a macaron. It’s more like chocolate on bread. It can be very nice if it suits well, but please don’t put any chocolate on a salad sandwich please.

For Sebas, I would say that a redemption arc would be the chocolate on a salad sandwich. As discussed above, Sebas is VERY OLD. If he were to be “redeemed” because of 4 years, it’d be like redeeming a lifetime sinner in one hour of repentance. Imagine redeeming Hitler after he saved one puppy or said “I’m really sorry”. Yeah, no.

Besides, this then also begs the question: “does Sebastian need to be redeemed in the first place?” As discussed extensively in this post, most of Sebas’ “evils” are done under someone else’s bidding. And otherwise, because he is not human the way he is “evil” is only because he doesn’t care about human lives; much in the same way most humans don’t care about insects. “AAH a mosquito that might make me itch for a bit! SLAP IT DED!!!” Or if we step on ants while we walk, “oh well, too bad”. That’s Sebas with humans. Do most humans consider humans who eat meat or slap insects “evil that need redemption”? No.

So for Sebas’ or demon standards, he is probably not even that bad. He just wants his food and payment for his hard work.

I hope this had been interesting!

Related posts:

What is Evil in Kuroshitsuji? Philosophy

If humans are insects, then what to Sebas are “humans”?

O!Ciel being a game-changing meal?

PTSD Sebas I

PTSD Sebas II

[monster-creator-12]

How would imagine Baragon in the Monsterverse? And going off by his history in regards to his design shared with some Ultraman kaiju how would you imagine Pagos, Neronga, Magular, and Gabora in the Monsterverse?

Sorry for the delay, been busy with school and life stuff. Warning long post ahead.

Now when it comes to monsterverse I could see Baragon fitting in rather well. She’s already a fairly naturalistic kaiju and the monsterverse could use a lovable scrapper in its monster roster. Biologically Baragon would be a late surviving Therapsid who’s species first appeared during the late Permian and she would be the last of her kind following the Muto plague, escaping death by going deeper into the hollow earth than the rest of her kind. Appearance wise I think Baragon would closely resemble the design she had in gmk with some distinct differences. She would be completely quadrupedal and her forelimbs would have much larger claws, like a moles. Her ears would also be much larger and more armored, able to fold over and cover her eye like she could do during the Showa era. Her nasal horn would also be much larger and extend fully down the snout and forward, think a shark's snout made of hardened keratin covered with cooled magma. Her jaws would be short but robust and armed with large fangs and her eyes would have very large pupils in order to best utilize the limited amount of light in the hollow ear. She would also have large whiskers to help navigate below ground. She would have pangolin like scales covering her body but they would be more raised and square shaped. She could lift these scales and vent out superheated gas from her body as a defense, since she'd only be roughly 150ft tall, much smaller than other titans. She would be a lower tier kaiju, hunting down in the hollow earth for smaller muto’s like juvenile skull crawlers and warbats while supplementing her diet with geothermal energy and radiation. She can store excess geothermal energy in her body and if she can’t escape her attacker she can spew a condensed beam of steam from her mouth at her attacker as a last resort. 

As for the Ultra kaiju I will admit I’m not nearly as well versed in Ultraman lore as I am Godzilla lore so bear with me on these ideas. That being said I do have a few ideas for these four that I think would work well for monsterverse and I think you’ll enjoy. 

Pagos would be dicynodonts, most closely resembling lystrosaurus and would be found in the upper levels of the hollow earth searching for rare minerals and radioactive material, being common prey for larger subterranean titans. Essentially being a lystrosaurus with shovel-like claws, a larger beak and tusks, and four horns on its head, it doesn’t seem like the most defensive kaiju. Despite its unassuming appearance it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. For starters its stony grey skin is imbued with actual stone, due to it being a lithovore, which like rhinoceros hide prevents smaller titans from taking a bite out of it. It is also a fast burrower, able to quickly dig away from attackers while struggling to chew through its hardened hide. Finally if as else fails it can vomit a stream of condensed acid from its stomach which is normally used to digest durable minerals and can melt away at titan hide in seconds. Despite these defenses they are still eating by larger titans and their distant cousin Baragon has taken a liking to eating the 95ft tall dicynodonts since she too needs rare minerals to strengthen her own scales and pagos hide is easier to digest and find than the unprocessed stuff. 

Magular would be pareiasaurs whose kind first appeared during the early Permian. Magular are found mostly under and around Skull Island feeding on buried tubers and radioactive mineral deposits. They’d only grow to about 70ft long at most and their main defense would be their large mineralized spikes and their impressive tusks. Sometimes Magular and Pagos would travel together in the hollow earth since digging Pagos often unearth buried plants and Magular provide an excellent distraction for predators. They are fast breeders and they used to be much more widespread but an increase in subterranean kaiju numbers has led to their decline. They are the inspiration to the french tarasque myth. 

Neronga would be a mollusk, having traits from both cephalopods, chitons, and snails. Its back and tail would be a large jointed shell, with chiton like scales running down the outer edges of the shell. Along the edge of the scales would be a fleshy mantle fin, like the one found on cuttlefish. Its head would be large with a pair of cuttlefish like eyes and sensory tentacles behind said eyes, resembling horns or ears from a distance. The mouth itself would be toothless and wide but would have a massive toothed radula within that would act like its teeth. Instead of tusks it would have a pair of bobbit worm style mandibles at the back of its mouth that would aid in pulling prey down its gullet. Its arms and legs would both be sold and boneless, being two pairs of modified tentacles. The arms would have three large hooked suckers at their tips used for grappling prey while its legs would be pillar-like and end in three blunt clawed suckers resembling hooves arranged in a radial fashion at the bottom. Neronga would be a carnivore first, radiotroph second, preying on smaller mutos and battling larger titans for territory and feeding grounds. Abilities wise its biggest claim to fame is its invisibility caused by a combination of precise chromatophore control and an electromagnetic field that surrounds it allowing the kaiju to bend light. It can produce this electromagnetic field because of a large bioluminescent organ on its head, a pointed cone shaped horn situated between its eyes. It cannot use its invisibility for prolonged periods of time however so it only ever uses it to sneak up on prey or escape enemies. Neronga is one of the oldest titans, its species first appearing back in the Ordovecian and has managed to squeeze out a niche for itself even in the modern age. It is currently a threat to large cities since it will target power plants to feed on their electricity to better prolong its own invisibility, and being a 200ft tall titan, it takes a lot of juice to satisfy it. Recently it has showcased new abilities such as  being able to produce EMP blasts like mutos and lighting strikes from its horn like ghidorah. This is thought to have happened due to the excess amount of electricity now stored in its body. 

Finally Gabora. Admittedly I struggled with this one for a bit until it hit me like a freight train, clam. Gabora is a mollusc like Neronga but unlike Neronga takes more after bivalves than gastropods. Gabora has a soft body encased by a vertical shell, like a clam, but far more elongated. When its shell opens it reveals a large mineralized screw which runs the length of its body, think shin gabora. At the front of the shell is a five petaled structure, forming a drill shape that is there to better allow Gabora to dig through the earth. Openings in Gabora’s shell reveal large clawed paddle-like tentacles, useful for moving on the surface. While digging these limbs retract into the body and the opening seal tight to prevent any dirt or rock from getting into its body. Its drill-like head can open and inside reveals a large blunt beak, used for consuming radioactive minerals. Gabora is blind and has no eyes as it spends most of its time in the deepest recesses of the earth, hardly ever surfacing. During the one time it was spotted, during a battle with Baragon and Neronga, it revealed that it is able to spew forth a radioactive beam of blue fire that resembled a weaker version of Godzilla’s famous breath attack. It retreated back into the ground after its head plates were damaged and the 100ft tall monster hasn’t been seen since. The only reason it seemed to even surface in the first place was due to a specific cry Baragon emitted during its battle against Neronga which has raised more questions than answers amongst Monarch researchers since its only encounter. 

Hopefully you like my take on these kaiju and if you want to know about my ideas for other kaiju in monsterverse please let me know and ask away. Thank you again for the ask and sorry of the delay. 

[chocolate-failure]

Okay... so this is gonna sound a lil like DID but I assure you it isn’t. It’s just the product of a very vivid imagination, depersonalization, and an overwhelming need to compartmentalize my interactions with myself. I think this is an experience that many can relate to if not entirely at least tangentially because we all in some way project versions of ourselves that may or may not be authentic but are augmented in some way to adapt to world around us. As a person who is very much inclined to efficiency, deliberation, and consolidation I have 3 such selves excluding my “self” self, the person who is both at the helm of and in the back seat of this series of experiences and perceptions. The value that these individual selves impart onto my life is difficult to quantify. I find that I toggle between invaluable and absolutely worthless as these people aren’t actually people and just systems of thought informed by different experiences. But lets assume they aren’t. Let’s assume I’ve spent all this time compartmentalizing my experiences as a person so much that I have fractured my sense of self to the point I’ve formed various processes of thinking independent of each other with, not to much lives of their own, but enough perceivable consciousness to influence my thoughts and actions.

I think of myself as creative, able to create, but not particularly imaginative. I always tell people I have no imagination but that’s not true. I am not spirited away on flights of whimsical fancy. I don’t have colorful thoughts but my imagination runs deep, vivid even. I like to think of it as electric beige. Everything is dull at the surface but the compartments have compartments and those have trap doors leading to corridors with more compartments. I joke around about it a lot be it’s true, my proxies have proxies. So it is only fitting that the way that I navigate both my inner and outer worlds would involve people other than myself in some capacity. This isn’t a case of unconscious personality shifts, I am well aware and orchestrate how I act around others it’s more like holding hand of cards where I decide which to use but more often I just converse with myself. It’s pretty much just thinking aloud only I’ve assigned my different ways of thinking with defined individual personalities because I spend so much time in my head.

Angelica

So who are these people? It’s both easy and difficult to describe them because they are very much me but the lines are blurred in some places and stark in others. The oldest is Angelica. Angelica, as one may infer from her name is my first me, the me that was spoon fed to me from childhood. Angelica is a liar but is very necessary to my experience as a person because Angelica is the me that is best equipped to survive in the world and endure pain. And of course Angelica has proxies like Acilgna and Angi but those are less defined and serve little purpose beyond when they were used. I try not to rely on the thinnest branches of the tree as they have a tendency to break but I’ve had the thickest ones break (hell even the trunk) as well so it’s a bit of a crap shoot. Angelica is xSTJ, a perfectionist with a very high sense of duty, work ethic, and inflexibility. She’s the strongest by far, the person I present to strangers or when I’m in an uncomfortable situation. Angelica is very palatable to most and similarly to AJ everyone likes her. But it’s not because of her confidence like it is with AJ it is the lack of confidence, the need to people please and bow to everyone’s will that makes Angelica attractive to others. Angelica’s main preoccupation is safety, how can I exit a situation with the least damage to myself and others.

fin

fin is a me who was nameless for many years but is definitely the first visages of me borne not from being told who I was but figuring it out myself and not liking it. Angi played a major role in the creation of fin with her unrelenting self hate. I grew up very sheltered and very much cut off from a lot of experiences but fin has always been associated with the most painful of experiences. fin is the culmination of all my trauma and has no proxies as fragmenting a manifestation of trauma seems like a very fucking bad idea. So while Angelica endures the trauma fin is the toxic sludge reservoir of unprocessed trauma. It is extremely negative and tends to inform my world view. They are INTJ. He’s quick thinking and decisive. fin is the one of me who doesn’t give a shit because they feel that existence is entirely without purpose. The only thing it values is comfort. So fin will always make decisions that assure her comfort regardless of how it affects the world around me. I don’t use fin lightly. It only comes out when I am in a position of great discomfort be it physical pain or mental. fin as a concept is diametrically opposed to Angelica and her proxies as she dedicates most of her energy to prolonging other’s comfort at the expense of my own. When I have discussions with myself fin is the bluntest and quietest but usually contributes the most valuable and succinct points. fin initiated The Big Shrink which seems counter intuitive as it causes me discomfort in many ways but it is a tool, a means to an end that requires objectivity and patience that neither AJ nor Angelica possess. TBS kind of runs like a background program at all times which I appreciate and try very hard not to employ Angi’s methods of... motivation. fin is business cas’.

AJ

As I grew older I experienced a renaissance of sorts in introspection and identity. For the most part I didn’t give a shit about understanding myself. The inner workings of my mind vis a vis my identity meant little to both fin and Angelica 1. fin didn’t find comfort in knowing who I am because it fears that upon further inspection that I am as empty as I feel 2. Angelica had no use of understanding me because she dislikes me and who I am doesn’t and can’t matter in being the person others want me to be. The conflict between wanting to be the person others find reliable and likable along with my new found need to understand myself bore AJ. They are a manifestation of the integrating fin’s unyielding apathy and Angelica’s perfectionism. This is why I often say I’m confident in my utter lack of confidence because fin’s not giving a fuck combined with Angelica’s penchant for giving all the fucks results in this weird sense of confidence bordering on invincibility. AJ is INTJ but a lot closer to t than a while fin is INTJ-a, which are less likely to indulge in self exploration. AJ is a bit more optimistic than both Angelic and fin. While things are invariably hopeless there is always this dwindling thought that perhaps life does have a purpose but not within the outside world. AJ is ever curious and constantly maintaining their identity which prompts more engagement form both fin and Angelica. AJ is the youngest and most active and kind of evolved from a self named Angel who served as a place holder for me as I began questioning things. Above all AJ values understanding both within themselves and from others, though neither is necessarily afforded to them.

[hydrus]

Version 354

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I had a great week. The first duplicates storage update is done, and I got some neat misc fixes in as well.

false positives and alternates

The first version of the duplicates system did not store 'false positive' and 'alternates' relationships very efficiently. Furthermore, it was not until we really used it in real scenarios that we found the way we wanted to logically apply these states was also not being served well. This changes this week!

So, 'false positive' (up until recently called 'not dupes') and 'alternates' (which are 'these files are related but not duplicates', and sitting in a holding pattern for a future big job that will allow us to process them better) are now managed in a more intelligent storage system. On update, your existing relationships will be auto-converted.

This system uses significantly less space, particularly for large groups of alts like many game cg collections, and applies relationships transitively by its very structure. Alternates are now completely transitive, so if you have a A-alt-B set (meaning one group of duplicate files A has an alternate relationship to another group of duplicate files B) and then apply A-alt-C, the relationship B-alt-C will also apply without you having to do anything. False positive relationships are more tricky, but they are stored significantly more efficiently and also apply on an 'alternates' level, so if you have A-alt-B and add A-fp-M, B-fp-M will be automatically inferred. It may sound odd at first to think that something that is false positive to A could be nothing but false positive to B, but consider: if our M were same/better/worse to B, it would be in B and hence transitively alternate to A, which it cannot be as we already determined it was not related to A.

Mistakenly previously allowable states, such as a false positive relationship within an alternates group, will be corrected on the update. Alternates will take precedence, and any subsequently invalid false positives will be considered mistakes and discarded. If you know there are some problems here, there is unfortunately no easy way at the moment to cancel or undo an alternate or false positive relationship, but once the whole duplicates system is moved over I will be able to write a suite of logically correct and more reliable reset/break/dissolve commands for all the various states in which files can be related with each other. These 'reset/set none' tools never worked well in the old system.

The particularly good news about these changes is it cuts down on filtering time. Many related 'potential' duplicates can be auto-resolved from a single alternate or false positive decision, and if you have set many alts or false positives previously, you will see your pending potentials queue shrink considerably after update, and as you continue to process.

With this more logically consistent design, alternate and false positive counts and results are more sensible and consistent when searched for or opened from the advanced mode thumbnail right-click menu. All the internal operations are cleaner, and I feel much better about working on an alternates workflow in future so we can start setting 'WIP' and 'costume change'-style labels to our alternates and browsing them more conveniently in the media viewer.

The actual remaining duplicate relations, 'potential', 'same quality', and 'this is better', are still running on the old inefficient system. They will be the next to work on. I would like to have 'same quality' and 'this is better' done for 356, after E3.

the rest

The tag blacklists in downloaders' tag import options now apply to the page's tags after tag sibling processing. So, if you banned 'high heels', say, but the site suddenly starts delivering 'high-heel shoes', then as long as that 'high-heel shoes' gets mapped to 'high-heels' in one of your tag services, it should now be correctly filtered. The unprocessed tags are still checked as before, so this is really a double-round of checking to cover more valid ground. If you were finding you were chasing many different synonyms of the tags you do not like, please let me know how this now works for you.

The annoying issue where a handful of thumbnails would sometimes stop fading in during heavy scrolling seems to be fixed! Also, the thumbnail 'waterfall' system is now cleverer about how it schedules thumbnails that need regeneration. You may notice the new file maintenance manager kicking in more often with thumbnail work.

Another long-term annoying issue was the 'pending' menu update-flickering while a lot of tag activity was going on. It would become difficult to interact with. I put some time into this this week, cleaning up a bunch of related code, and I think I figured out a reliable way to make the menus on the main gui stop updating as long as one is open. It won't flicker and should let you start a tags commit even when other things are going on. The other menus (like the 'services' menu, which will update on various service update info) will act the same way. Overall menu-related system stability should be improved for certain Linux users as well.

The new 'fix siblings and parents' button on manage tags is now a menu button that lets you apply siblings and parents from all services or just from the service you are looking at. These commands overrule your 'apply sibs/parents across all services' settings. So, if you ever accidentally applied a local sibling to the PTR or vice versa, please try the specific-service option here.

full list

duplicates important:

duplicates 'false positive' and 'alternates' pairs are now stored in a new more efficient structure that is better suited for larger groups of files

alternate relationships are now implicitly transitive--if A is alternate B and A is alternate C, B is now alternate C

false positive relationships remain correctly non-transitive, but they are now implicitly shared amongst alternates--if A is alternate B and A is false positive with C, B is now false positive with C. and further, if C alt D, then A and B are implicitly fp D as well!

your existing false positive and alternates relationships will be migrated on update. alternates will apply first, so in the case of conflicts due to previous non-excellent filtering workflow, formerly invalid false positives (i.e. false positives between now-transitive alternates) will be discarded. invalid potentials will also be cleared out

attempting to set a 'false positives' or 'alternates' relationship to files that already have a conflicting relation (e.g. setting false positive to two files that already have alternates) now does nothing. in future, this will have graceful failure reporting

the false positive and alternate transitivity clears out potential dupes at a faster rate than previously, speeding up duplicate filter workflow and reducing redundancy on the human end

unfortunately, as potential and better/worse/same pairs have yet to be updated, the system may report that a file has the same alternate as same quality partner. this will be automatically corrected in the coming weeks

when selecting 'view this file's duplicates' from thumbnail right-click, the focus file will now be the first file displayed in the next page

.

duplicates boring details:

setting 'false positive' and 'alternates' status now accounts for the new data storage, and a variety of follow-on assumptions and transitive properties (such as implying other false positive relationships or clearing out potential dupes between two groups of merging alternates) are now dealt with more rigorously (and moreso when I move the true 'duplicate' file relationships over)

fetching file duplicate status counts, file duplicate status hashes, and searching for system:num_dupes now accounts for the new data storage r.e. false positives and alternates

new potential dupes are culled when they conflict with the new transitive alternate and false positive relationships

removed the code that fudges explicit transitive 'false positive' and 'alternate' relationships based on existing same/better/worse pairs when setting new dupe pairs. this temporary gap will be filled back in in the coming weeks (clearing out way more potentials too)

several specific advanced duplicate actions are now cleared out to make way for future streamlining of the filter workflow:

removed the 'duplicate_media_set_false_positive' shortcut, which is an action only appropriate when viewing confirmed potentials through the duplicate filter (or after the ' show random pairs' button)

removed the 'duplicate_media_remove_relationships' shortcut and menu action ('remove x pairs ... from the dupes system'), which will return as multiple more precise and reliable 'dissolve' actions in the coming weeks

removed the 'duplicate_media_reset_to_potential' shortcut and menu action ('send the x pairs ... to be compared in the duplicates filter') as it was always buggy and lead to bloating of the filter queue. it is likely to return as part of the 'dissolve'-style reset commands as above

fixed an issue where hitting 'duplicate_media_set_focused_better' shortcut with no focused thumb would throw an error

started proper unit tests for the duplicates system and filled in the phash search, basic current better/worse, and false positive and alternate components

various incidences of duplicate 'action options' and similar phrasing are now unified to 'metadata merge options'

cleaned up 'unknown/potential' phrasing in duplicate pair code and some related duplicate filter code

cleaned up wording and layout of the thumbnail duplicates menu

.

the rest:

tag blacklists in downloaders' tag import options now apply to the parsed tags both before and after a tag sibling collapse. it uses the combined tag sibling rules, so feedback on how well this works irl would be appreciated

I believe I fixed the annoying issue where a handful of thumbnails would sometimes inexplicitly not fade in after during thumbgrid scrolling (and typically on first thumb load--this problem was aggravated by scroll/thumb-render speed ratio)

when to-be-regenerated thumbnails are taken off the thumbnail waterfall queue due to fast scrolling or page switching, they are now queued up in the new file maintenance system for idle-time work!

the main gui menus will now no longer try to update while they are open! uploading pending tags while lots of new tags are coming in is now much more reliable. let me know if you discover a way to get stuck in this frozen state!

cleaned up some main gui menu regeneration code, reducing the total number of stub objects created and deleted, particularly when the 'pending' menu refreshes its label frequently while uploading many pending tags. should be a bit more stable for some linux flavours

the 'fix siblings and parents' button on manage tags is now a menu button with two options--for fixing according to the 'all services combined' siblings and parents or just for the current panel's service. this overrides the 'apply sibs/parents across all services' options. this will be revisited in future when more complicated sibling application rules are added

the 'hide and anchor mouse' check under 'options->media' is no longer windows-only, if you want to test it, and the previous touchscreen-detecting override (which unhid and unanchored on vigorous movement) is now optional, defaulting to off

greatly reduced typical and max repository pre-processing disk cache time and reworked stop calculations to ensure some work always gets done

fixed an issue with 'show some random dupes' thumbnails not hiding on manual trashing, if that option is set. 'show some random dupes' thumbnail panels will now inherit their file service from the current duplicate search domain

repository processing will now never run for more than an hour at once. this mitigates some edge-case disastrous ui-hanging outcomes and generally gives a chance for hydrus-level jobs like subscriptions and even other programs like defraggers to run even when there is a gigantic backlog of processing to do

added yet another CORS header to improve Client API CORS compatibility, and fixed an overauthentication problem

setting a blank string on the new local booru external port override option will now forego the host:port colon in the resultant external url. a tooltip on the control repeats this

reworded and coloured the pause/play sync button in review services repository panel to be more clear about current paused status

fixed a problem when closing the gui when the popup message manager is already closed by clever OS-specific means

misc code cleanup

updated sqlite on windows to 3.28.0

updated upnpc exe on windows to 2.1

next week

The duplicates work this week took more time than I expected. I still have many small jobs I want to catch up on, so I am shunting my rotating schedule down a week and doing a repeat. I will add some new shortcuts, some new tab commands, and hopefully a clipboard URL watcher and a new way of adding OR search predicates.

[darksideofthemic]

Review: Aston Element for spoken word

The Dark Side of the Mic · Aston Element Review for spoken word

Burning at both ends. The Element kit ships with a custom shockmount and a nifty magnetic pop filter that makes it look distinctly high end if not unconventionally retro. However its capsule is the most interesting part. At 38mm in size, it's so much larger than your typical LDC mic (normally 25mm) which results in a much more significant low end response. The frequency response stays flat to 40Hz and you can certainly hear a significant proximity effect the closer you are to it. But uniquely for a dynamic mic, its high end response is equally impressive extending well beyond 20kHz before dropping off.

Learn to play In real world terms, there so much frequency information there to play with than you will have experienced with other mics. And play you must because in my opinion this is not a ‘live output’ mic, the sound has to be shaped in post. So while it may give your guitar that welcome low end heft out the box, you’ll likely need to low cut for most voices, but you only need to remove what you don’t need. And it think it’s worth pointing out that the extended frequency response in the Element not the same as other 'bassy' mics where some frequencies are just over-boosted. That doesn’t happen here, the response is wider not taller, so when you remove the sub 100Hz frequencies your not really affecting the mid range, it stills feels balanced and full.

Record to EQ In my use of the mic I preferred recording from 3-4 inches which sounds really quite ‘robust’ in your headphones at the time. But applying a fairly shallow low cut filter with a 6dB slope at 175Hz - seemed to transform the sound, it certainly gets rid of the mud and boominess while retaining some of the natural warmth of the low end. The high end is naturally quite smooth and articulate so the EQ’d sound becomes really very balanced with just once critical move. Working over a foot away from the mic just sounds too roomy for my taste, there’s too much background and the voice just seems less present than I’d ideally want. Getting closer at 6 inches does seem to be a fairly 'happy medium' where the low end is not too overwhelming and the sound becomes more focussed; This might be where you want to be if you had to go out on a livestream, for example, and can’t do any post processing. But overall I think if you can get over how 'beefy' it sounds at 3 inches while you’re recording, knowing and trusting that it will all come good in the end, then that’s the way to go.

Like shooting log Coming from a filmmaking background, the Element reminds me of shooting log or flat mode on a cinema camera; it lets you capture as much shadow and highlight detail for the post-production process, knowing that you’re not going to need to use all of it. Just as you would you never show a client log footage, for example, you wouldn’t send them the unprocessed Element audio either - They just wouldn’t understand. For spoken word applications you end up with so much more frequency information in the raw recording than you’ll ever need or want to use. But once you cut that out, it can sound really very special. Clearly this microphone won’t be for everyone, not everyone knows how or wants to EQ their podcast after its recorded (unfortunately). Bass junkies will love it as is, but learning a little bit about EQ will transform the sound to something more refined and genuinely classy. Overall, at the pricepoint of £150/$199, the Element's wider frequency pickup offers greater flexibility on a range of sources over other mics. That’s why it’s different and really worth a look.

YouTube version of the review

Buy me a coffee! While I love testing out microphones, keeping this site up to date takes up a lot of my spare time, so I need bucket loads of coffee! Please consider buying me one if you can :)

[frubeto-writing]

probably the 6824560347th ‘Dorian goes crazy’ fic nobody asked for. written pretty much at the beginning of the series.

read on ao3

He’s being moved. No. Someone is touching him. Lifting his head. Inspecting his bonds. Unsure of their intentions, he starts up audio systems. “-orian?” “He’s not reacting.” “What’s wrong?” “Maybe just conversing energy, he must be running low.” “Can you get these off?” “Working on it.” “What the hell did they do to him?” “Dorian, come on.” He wants to answer, but all that comes out is a distorted sound that probably hurts human ears. Maybe he rushed that. He checks his status and reloads speech protocols. “Jo--hn.” “Hey. You alright?” “Hm.” He takes on visual next. That at least is going smoothly and he’s greeted by the sight of John’s boots as he opens his eyes. “Good, you’re back. Can you move?” “Wait.” He makes sure everything runs stably, then carefully executes the necessary commands. “Rebooting motor control no--ow.” But as soon as it’s online he’s bombarded by alerts. Short-circuits, excess voltages, non-responsive units – He would have to compensate for all of those. He groans. Then scrunches up his face in something akin to pain as his arms instinctively move to shelter his body and that alone is enough to cause another crash. There’s a hand on his shoulder, and someone is talking to him, but he isn’t listening, too busy ensuring nothing else goes down with it. “Dorian?” “Motor control is still offline. Along with 38 of my other syste--ems. I don’t have the power to keep i--it running.” And even though he can’t move his face there’s a smile in his voice when he adds, “You’re gonna have to carry me.”

It starts with an unauthorized access to his memory files. He stops. They’re about to storm a hideout they spent days tracking down and he really doesn’t have time for this. “You okay?” “It’s nothing,” he says. And that’s what he tells himself as he puts the memory back where it came from and initiates a diagnostic scan. John hesitates for a second but trusts Dorians judgment. He motions for him to lead the way in and Dorian nods and takes off. It’s no more than a few corridors later, however, when his memory starts malfunctioning again. He’s back in that room, his sensors showing nothing but the rough outline of the walls, a shockwave traveling through his body, interrupting various systems on its way up. He closes his eyes and internally gives them a kick the same way John will sometimes hit his tech when it’s acting up and, miraculously, it works in both cases. He’s relieved, but he also knows he might have lost more time than acceptable, and when he opens his eyes again, John has moved forward. The lights have dimmed, there’s bits of broken glass on the floor and shots are being fired. “Dorian!” He adjusts the grip on his gun and takes cover. “There’s seven of them, coming from northeast, I’m coordinating with the other teams.” “Why thank you.” Dorian tries to ignore him. Until the fire does down for a moment to give them a momentary chance. He looks up and finds John already in position. “Cover me!” he orders, and before Dorian can object he’s gone. So he gets up, fires in the direction of the attackers, and it’s all going well until he wants to readjust his aim and notices his hand shaking, target acquisition failing subsequently. He sees John move up to their left, grips the gun tighter and tries again, but everything is happening terribly fast and he’s already hesitated too long. John is falling with the next shot and he ducks down once more as his cover comes under fire. He can’t get up. The diagnostic comes up empty and he starts another one. Because there’s a chance that it’s a virus, a short-circuit, a malfunction in his subroutines that’s causing this. That it’s anything but himself. Because he can’t get up. He wants to, to help John like he’s done many times before, because that’s his job, to protect his partner, no matter the threat, but he just can’t. Every biochemical muscle in his body is tense but he can’t get a single one of them to move. So he stays where he is, sitting on the ground, hiding, staring ahead, not making any progress until the noise ends, the immediate danger is past and he relaxes slightly.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed. He’s vaguely aware of movement around him, but he can’t get face or even object recognition to run, so the visual feed remains unprocessed. It’s probably for the best, because he wouldn’t know what to do with the additional data anyway. Something is definitely wrong. And the fact that he can’t even figure out what only alarms him further. He’s never realized until now how much he’s mentally distanced himself from the idea of ‘going crazy’, but of course it’s never left the back of his mind either. What if-? The second scan completes and with the deallocated RAM, another thing comes back to mind. John. He scrambles to his feet and – after some difficulty – makes his way to the exit. There’s lots of people still running around, but he’s only scanning for one face and when he finds the match, it’s in a nearby ambulance. He’s talking to another officer while his right arm is being bandaged, but as soon as he spots him, he shrugs them both off, stalks over to him and uses his good arm to shove him against the wall with an unexpected force. “What the hell was that?!” He can feel the pressure on his chest that seems like it would crush a human ribcage. It feels like John is putting his entire strength into it. Like he doesn’t even care if he hurts him. And he wants to apologize, and explain himself, that he was not in full control, that he would never let this happen under normal circumstances, that there was a minor malfunction and that he should just drop him off at Rudy’s and he’ll be fine by tomorrow morning, but before he can form a coherent sentence, John interrupts him. “You know what? Forget it. I don’t wanna hear it,” he hisses, then pulls him forward by his shirt and bangs him back against the wall fast enough that the vibrations throw him off balance for a moment. Someone is next to him in an instant, helps him up and offers him a ride back to the precinct. But he declines absentmindedly and walks off in a random direction. He needs time to think. And maybe the cold night air will help clear his mind. It doesn’t. There’s no hardware problem to be found, meaning this has to be his programming. And now John is pissed off, so who knows if they will even bother trying to repair him instead of just shutting him down and reusing his parts to make a segway. This has been his last chance, John has finally started to trust him and he goes and gives him one fantastically good reason not to. How could he have been so stupid? He should have gone to Rudy at the first sign of trouble. Now he’s already lost control and he feels like he’s spiraling further away from himself with every step. He turns a corner and barely avoids stumbling over his own feet.

His phone rings and he snatches it from the table before letting himself fall onto the couch. “Kennex.” “Is Dorian with you?” He harrumphs and stretches his leg on the table. His whole body is still aching and the last person he wants to talk to right now is Rudy. “No.” There’s a short pause on the other end, then: “Maybe you should… look for him? I- I heard what happened, and I’m worried. I’m not sure he should be alone right now.” John stays silent. “He deactivated his locator chip, and… well you two do stuff together all the time, I thought maybe you know where he’d go?” Rudy sounds genuinely troubled, so he considers it and does actually come up with a few possibilities. He sighs. “Fine,” he says, “I’ll go.”

When he finds him, he’s sitting on a bench not far from their usual noodle place, knees drawn up, eyes closed, and face looking like an intense multiplayer version of snake. John calls his name and he jumps. When Dorian looks up, John’s face says ‘what is going on’ as clear as any words could. On second thought, maybe there were words. He isn’t sure. “I don’t know,” he answers anyway, and regrets it immediately. “It’s nothing.” He gets up, can’t seem to find his balance, stumbles backwards. “It’s nothing I’m sure I can get this sorted out, I’m fine I-” His side makes contact with a wall, and he’s vaguely grateful. “please just-… please.” John follows him. “Whoah, hey, you need to calm down, close some tabs or something. You’ll blow a fuse.” So he knows. Of course he knows. He has probably been warned this would happen. Everyone has only been waiting for it. He’s a liability, as he’s just proved, and they will be happy to replace him with a trusty MX. The experiment has failed again. And now they send John to come collect him. How sensible. He lets himself slide down to the ground and shelters his head with his hands. “I meant...”John groans as he realizes what is happening. “I meant that literally.” He looks down on the hunched figure before him and shakes his head. He should call Rudy. Let him pick Dorian up himself and see what he can do for him. And return to his couch. Instead he curses his own sense of responsibility and consciously unclenches his jaw as he lets himself fall into a squat in front of his partner. Dorian flinches. And there it is again. This sudden impalpable feeling that something is… off. Because he’s never seen Dorian seriously afraid of something, except- He blinks. “You won’t be decommissioned.” It comes out more confident than he feels, but the lack of reaction is enough to let him know he’s onto something. It makes sense, with everything Dorian told him. About how much he wants to be a cop, and how he’s his only chance. His outburst earlier probably sent a clear message, and he almost regrets being that hard on him, but he did get him shot, and his anger will not fade before the pain does. He takes a deep breath and sits down next to him, trying to remember what Rudy said about the DRNs. ‘Breaking Point’ is what he called it. Said that it was basically a human defect, not a technical one. So he runs his fingers through his hair and resolves to approach this as such. “I’m still angry, I’m not gonna lie. And you fucked up big time. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still prefer you to any of those MX.” Dorian visibly tries to process the new information, but doesn’t seem to have the capacities left to arrive at any conclusions. “I’m malfunctioning,” he finally manages. “What’s wrong?” John presses, and Dorian shakes his head. “I don’t know.” He hears John sigh and there’s a definite pause before he says, “You’re the only one who can get close to knowing what it’s like inside your head. Tell me something you do know.” And Dorian wants to make a joke, knows he normally would, like telling a random useless fact, or that he disapproves of Johns way to make pancakes, but he can’t. So he agrees to let John lead this and searches for the first warning that comes up. “CPU usage is at 98%.” “That explains the lightshow. What’s taking up that much computation time?” It’s a simple question and he makes the query before thinking about whether it’s a good idea to actually answer. “Synthetic soul subroutines.” “Alright,” John says, trying to think of a way to help, “Well can’t you just… end some processes and focus on the essentials?” The response he gets is so close to the standard error sound he has to actively remind himself that he’s not remote diagnosing a stubborn PC. He’s about to make another suggestion when Dorian interrupts him. “My thoughts are… looping. Everything is. Everything usually is, but this is… worse. And I can’t break it and it’s only getting more, and you’re right I can’t keep this up, my core temperatures are already hitting critical levels, systems will start overheating and I can’t stop it, I can’t stop this, I- I don’t understand what’s happening!” “Hey.” John instinctively shuffles closer to him and presses his hand against his back in an effort to ground him. He’s definitely warmer than usual, and he’s also started shivering subtly. This isn’t good. “Focus. Try to focus on me, okay?” He’s slightly out of his depth so he just keeps massaging circles into his back, hoping that he’s helping. And it seems to work, because Dorian leans into him and the shivers subside after a while. He runs his free hand down his face and looks around. There’s not many people still on the street, yet it’s not the most comfortable place to have this conversation. Dorian leaves him little choice however. “I’m going crazy aren’t I.” It’s not voiced like a question, even though it is, really. And John doesn’t know the answer, and says as much. “I don’t know where they draw the line between human crazy and android crazy,” he adds, knowing fully well that a few months ago, he wouldn’t have cared. “What do you mean?” “Well. We all have our breaking points. Maybe this is just a very human reaction to everything that’s happened.” He doesn’t seem convinced. Neither is John, but he doesn’t know how to continue his arguments without more information, so he plays another hunch. “This is about the kidnapping, right?” Dorian lifts his head. “How-” “I’m a detective, remember?” John smiles, then explains, “That one time in the elevator. Interrogation rooms, narrow hallways- I saw you get uncomfortable. I should’ve said something. I’m sorry.” He expects Dorian to object and is ready to explain that it’s as much his job to look after him as it is the other way around, but there’s only silence. He lets it sit for a while, before quietly asking. “Tell me what happened. When we went in.” “Why?” “You can’t solve this on your own, apparently. So you need new input. That’s what we do when we have problems, we talk about it, get a second opinion, another perspective. Maybe we can figure out what’s going on together.” Dorian looks at him for a long moment and John begins to question whether he’s still trying to process the information or just debating what to tell him. Eventually, he answers. “My sensors went offline. Visual, sound,… everything except proximity sensors.” “Okay. Why?” “I ran a diagnostic, no malfunction,” he says while he waits for the appropriate files to load. “...Logs say I shut them down.” There’s confusion in his eyes, but it slowly turns to panic and John knows he needs to get him back to simpler questions. “Why not all?” “What?” “You said almost all sensors went out.” “Yes.” “So why not all?” “I don’t -” He stops himself as he realizes that’s only technically true. “When I was held in that room. Waiting for you. That’s how I… I shut down everything non-essential. I kept proximity online.” “You’re seeing a connection.” “The structure of the buildings is similar.” John looks like that made perfect sense to him, but Dorian still struggles. And the more the thinks about how this could be affecting him this much, the more details of his captivity resurface. “I was-… When I’m shut down I’m practically dead. I’m… gone.” He shakes his head. “I wasn’t, in that room. I was thinking. I was left to my own devices with no external input, that’s worse, I had to keep going, not knowing if-” He stops abruptly, his eyes clenching shut as several systems start to stutter again. “Shit!” “Dorian?” John looks up to see him jumping up and spinning around. At least his colloquialism routine is definitely back online. “Why is this happening?!” He’s running his fingers though his hair and then his face goes blank as he focuses on getting things back to normal. John uses the moment to get up himself and slowly approach him. He’s afraid that the last 15 minutes of sitting in the cold will be in vain if Dorian panics again now. But then he turns around and looks at him pleadingly. “Help me.” He’s still scared, but John seems to at least have regained his trust. So he takes Dorians shoulder carefully with one hand and reaches for his phone with the other. “Okay. Let me call Rudy first.” But he immediately backpedals when he sees Dorian tense up at the mention. “I’ll just let him know you’re with me. He’s been worried. Then we’ll get you somewhere quieter, you do some memory compression or whatever it is you do and we’ll let Rudy check you out tomorrow, alright? He’ll know how to help.” He waits for Dorian to slowly nod his approval before he adds, “Unless you rather want to see him now?” Expectedly, he shakes his head and John nudges him in the direction of the car. “Alright, you can stay at my place if you want to.” “Really?” John rolls his eyes. He’ll probably regret this later. “Really.”

[pauldeckerus]

The ‘half’ rule

We’re nearly out of #TravelTuesday’s for the year! How sad! I wonder what the 2019 #TravelTuesday situation will be. The Tuesdays of the future will probably be shinier and more streamlined, but for now I have one of the last 2018 #TravelTuesdays for you. I’m Dave Williams, and as usual I’m here for you, laying down what I’ve learned on my journey as a travel photographer. I hope you’re picking up what I’m putting down! Let’s go!

So, today is all about halves. The half rule, in particular. This is something that will always stick with me since I heard about it, and something that is up there with the most valuable pieces of retouching advice I have heard and can offer back to you.

Firstly, the disclaimer. Very rarely will you see a photographer’s unprocessed RAW file. You’re about to see one of mine. No judging, please!

    So that’s Iceland. More specifically, if you were wondering, it’s up on the hill above the church in Vik at the southern tip of Iceland, facing east. The image is of course quite flat and unsaturated, among other things, that being the very nature of a RAW file. The retouching process comes next as part of every photographers flow, and it’s this to which the half rule applies. Let’s go to work: –

    Here’s the result of my labour. The image has been processed, the sliders have been slid, and the image coming out the other end has far more dynamic range, far more saturation, far more clarity, etc etc. This aesthetically driven approach is how we all work, shifting the sliders around and judging the image by eye. The thing that happens and that we need to be mindful of is that the difference between the flat looking original versus the saturated looking result is actually quite stark but, albeit quickly, that difference is the result of a relatively gradual process whereby we see all the changes occurring along the way. What we perceive at this moment to be a great image may actually be overdone. and that’s not something we want. The half rule is applied now.

By taking the position of all the sliders to the half way points between the neutral and the resulting positions we of course apply half of the adjustment, however that half is often actually enough to have a great looking image without it being ‘overcooked.’ Take a look: –

    The sliders here compared to the last version are more or less half way, with little tweaks here and there as necessary. It’s better than the original, it’s more natural looking than the second shot, and it’s done! The half rule can make a huge difference in keeping our slider-happy tendencies in check!

    I’d love to know how this works for you, feel free to get in touch on my social media – you’ll fine me everywhere as @capturewithdave

Much love

Dave

The post The ‘half’ rule appeared first on Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider.

from Photography News https://scottkelby.com/the-half-rule/

[healthbolt-blog]

New Post has been published on Health bolt

New Post has been published on http://www.healthbolt.net/cooking/how-to-cook-fresh-okra-healthy/

How To Cook Fresh Okra Healthy

Contents

Healthy cooking pots

Chicken tenders cooking

Acorn squash healthy recipes place

Flesh. sep 27

Oven-crisped kale. healthy cooking classes

To some, gumbo isn’t gumbo without okra. If you have a lot of fresh okra from your summer harvest and want to freeze some for steaming bowls of spicy gumbo during the winter, choose 3- to 4-inch pods to destem—without cutting into the seed pod—and quickly blanch, drain, and freeze whole.

It is a very simple recipe, and very healthy, and I tried it this year with very good … I thought it also quite delicious and a new way to cook okra, one I plan to use often, especially as it is pre…

Healthy Meals Cooked In Microwave Best healthy cooking pots And Pans Healthy Cookware – Guide to Choosing the Safest, Healthiest Cookware Details Written by Heather Nicholds Healthy cookware is a really important part of healthy cooking. If your pots and pans are leeching harmful molecules into your food, it can interfere with your otherwise healthy lifestyle. We’ve spent the past three months researching which items will make the best gifts for anyone and everyone … Lodge 12-Inch … The best cookware to use depends to some extent on what you are cooking. The best all-around healthy cookware in my opinion is castiron cookware. It is safe, has a non-stick surface if seasoned properly, and is relatively affordable. The best cast iron cookware can withstand high temperatures and distributes the heat evenly throughout the pan. Healthy Way To Cook Chicken On Stove Try these 10 Healthy Chicken Recipes in a Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot for juicy shredded chicken with a variety of bold flavors! These freezer friendly Instant Pot or Slow Cooker chicken recipes are great for healthy meal prepping. Healthy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken. We have a daughter that just adores Butter Chicken!! So instead of always going out and paying high restaurant prices I decided to make a Healthy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken at home.. I consider Amber to be a butter chicken aficionado, so when she raved about the dish and said that it was just as good as her favorite restaurants, I knew I had a winner of a … Healthy slow cooker mango chicken is made in the slow cooker or Crock Pot, leaving you time to work, play, or be anywhere except standing in your kitchen over a stove top! It’s low in fat and calories, making it Weight Watcher friendly, too. Please don’t blame me if your family starts begging … How to Cook Chicken Tenders. In this Article: Making Breaded Chicken Tenders making buttermilk chicken tenders cooking Your Chicken Tenders Community Q&A 8 References Chicken tenders are a favorite at restaurants in the USA and around the world. Surprisingly simple to make yet always a giant mess, there are as many different chicken tender recipes as there are chefs. Easy Recipes for Delicious Quick Meals. Spend less time in the kitchen – and eat better too – using my recipes for quick meals using mainly unprocessed foods. Easy To Cook Healthy Meals For College Students Healthy and Easy Meals for College Student or Busy Professionals. If you don’t have time to cook, here are some quick menus ideas. Be sure to check out: Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches […] When the dining hall just won’t do, make one of these easy recipes … found in every college student’s quarters. Kick yours up a notch with this homemade version, which replaces heart-clogging, parti… Cooking With Sesame Oil Healthy According to the Mayo Clinic, the Harvard School of Public Health and, yes, the Canola Council of Canada, canola oil is high … A staple in Asian cooking, sesame oil makes

With the right prepping and cooking methods, okra is a delicious and healthy veggie that deserves some love. How to Cook Okra So It’s Not Slimy and All Flavor – One Green PlanetOne Green Planet

Jute leaf is also known as Egyptian spinach, West African sorrel, okra leaf or (ahem) Jew’s mallow … offering only that it’ …

Jun 09, 2015  · Wash 8 ounces fresh okra with cool, clear tap water. Drain well. Using a sharp paring knife, cut off the stems. Cut each okra pod crosswise into 1/2-inch slices …

Green beans can be substituted for okra … make these holiday cocktail recipes bright From Wolfgang Puck, this classic Itali…

Best Healthy Cooking Pots And Pans Healthy Cookware – Guide to Choosing the Safest, Healthiest Cookware Details Written by Heather Nicholds Healthy cookware is a really important part of healthy cooking. If your pots and pans are leeching harmful molecules into your food, it can interfere with your otherwise healthy lifestyle. We’ve spent the past three months researching which items will make the best gifts for anyone and everyone … Lodge 12-Inch … The best cookware to use depends to some extent on what you are cooking. The best all-around healthy cookware in my opinion is castiron cookware. It is safe, has a non-stick surface if seasoned properly, and is relatively affordable. The best cast iron cookware can withstand high temperatures and distributes the heat evenly throughout the pan. Healthy Way To Cook Chicken On Stove Try these 10 Healthy Chicken Recipes in a Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot for juicy shredded chicken with a variety of bold flavors! These freezer friendly Instant Pot or Slow Cooker chicken recipes are great for healthy meal prepping. Healthy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken. We have a daughter that just adores Butter Chicken!! So instead of always going out and paying high restaurant prices I decided to make a Healthy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken at home.. I consider Amber to be a butter chicken aficionado, so when she raved about the dish and said that it was just as good as her favorite restaurants, I knew I had a winner of a … Healthy slow cooker mango chicken is made in the slow cooker or Crock Pot, leaving you time to work, play, or be anywhere except standing in your kitchen over a stove top! It’s low in fat and calories, making it Weight Watcher friendly, too. Please don’t blame me if your family starts begging … How to Cook Chicken Tenders. In this Article: Making Breaded Chicken Tenders making buttermilk chicken tenders cooking Your Chicken Tenders Community Q&A 8 References Chicken tenders are a favorite at restaurants in the USA and around the world. Surprisingly simple to make yet always a giant mess, there are as many different chicken tender recipes as there are chefs. Easy Recipes for Delicious Quick Meals. Spend less time in the kitchen – and eat better too – using my recipes for quick meals using mainly unprocessed foods. Easy To Cook Healthy Meals For College Students Healthy and Easy Meals for College Student or Busy Professionals. If you don’t have time to cook, here are some quick menus ideas. Be sure to check out: Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches […] When the dining hall just won’t do, make one of these easy recipes … found in every college student’s quarters. 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How to Prepare acorn squash. featured recipe: moroccan Chickpea-Stuffed Acorn Squash. If you have experience preparing butternut squash, you’ll know how to prepare an acorn squash quite easily. Many of the steps are the same. However, with an acorn squash, you can leave the skin on the flesh. sep 27, 2017  · Learn how to cook acorn squash in two ways: Sweet and savory. Both are super easy and make for an fantastic side dish! One of the greatest things about fall is SQUASH. I love it all — spaghetti, acorn, butternut, delicata. Delicata squash is my favorite and I … In Healthy Aperture’s Winter Squash Mac and Cheese with Crispy Sea Salt and Vinegar Kale, you whisk baked squash into the cheese sauce before pouring it atop the noodles and baking the whole thing in the oven. The dish is finished with oven-crisped kale. healthy cooking classes dfw interestingly, the idea of medical students taking and teaching Healthy Cooking Classes Melbourne Ptfe Pfoa Free Nonstick Surface For Healthy Cooking A non-stick surface is a surface engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick cookware is a common application, where the non-stick coating allows food to brown without sticking to the pan. Non-stick is often used to refer to surfaces coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a well-known brand of which is "Teflon." Healthy Way To Cook Chicken On Stove Try these 10 Healthy Chicken Recipes in a Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot for juicy shredded chicken with a variety of bold flavors! These freezer friendly Instant Pot or slow cooker chicken recipes are great for healthy meal prepping. healthy slow cooker butter Chicken. We have a daughter that just adores Butter Chicken!! So instead of always going out and paying high restaurant prices I decided to make a Healthy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken at home.. I consider Amber to be a butter chicken aficionado, so when she raved about the dish and said that it was just as good as her favorite restaurants, I knew I had a winner of a … Healthy slow cooker mango chicken is made in the slow cooker or Crock Pot, leaving you time to work, play, or be anywhere except standing in your kitchen over a stove top! It’s low in fat and calories, making it Weight Watcher friendly, too. Please don’t blame me if your family starts begging … How to Cook Chicken Tenders. In this Article: making breaded chicken Tenders Making Buttermilk Chicken Tenders Cooking Your Chicken Tenders Community Q&A 8 References Chicken tenders are a favorite at restaurants in the USA and around the world. Surprisingly simple to make yet always a giant mess, there are as many different chicken tender recipes as there are chefs. Easy Recipes for Delicious Quick Meals. Spend less time in the kitchen – and eat better too – using my recipes for quick meals using mainly unprocessed foods. Easy To Cook Healthy Meals For College Students Healthy and Easy Meals for College Student or Busy Professionals. If you don’t have time to cook, here are some quick menus ideas. Be sure to check out: Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches […] When the dining hall just won’t do, make one of these easy recipes … found in every college student’s quarters. Kick yours up a notch with this homemade version, which replaces heart-clogging, parti… Cooking With Sesame Oil Healthy According to the Mayo Clinic, the Harvard School of Public Health and, yes, the Canola Council of Canada, canola oil is high … A staple in Asian cooking, sesame oil makes the AHA’s list of heart-healthy cooking oils. A moderate amount of fat is essenti… Be sure to evenly distribute the rub on the chicken. Place the oil in a large cast-iron skillet. Bring the skillet to high he… If you’re looking for a healthy cooking medium, then sesame oil can be a great option. Not only does it work wonders for your internal system, it’s

To avoid the sliminess that turns many people off okra, Indians cook it over high heat in a lot of oil. In this healthy okra recipe, we get similar results with less oil using a nonstick pan. For an authentic taste, use a hot, smoky Indian chili powder, such as reshampatti. Serve with brown basmati rice and yogurt.

… top this Greek-Style Baked Okra with some fresh parsley and garlic. A fast and healthy dish that is still good and fragrant! Cauliflower, okra, mushrooms, and a whole lot of spices are used to mak…

[flexiblynourished-blog]

Whether trying to gain, lose or maintain your weight, calorie counting seems to be the method of choice for many people. If you are considering counting calories, here are some things you need to know.

All calories are not created equal. I didn’t make this phrase up so you’ve likely heard it before. That’s because it couldn’t be truer.

A calorie is, really, just a unit of measurement for the energy in food. There are so many factors which determine not only how food is treated in our bodies but also how much extra energy we are eating.

High Quality Calories

Foods that are natural & minimally processed provide high quality calories. These foods include fruit, veggies, meats, legumes, nuts, seeds & whole grain & cereal products. These foods provide lots of fibre, protein & unsaturated fats.

Calories from these foods are accompanied by lots of other micronutrients that impact how our body works. These foods not only provide energy but they also tell the body what to do with it.

After eating these foods the body responds by releasing hormones, some of which tell your body to burn fat. The fibre contained in fruits, veggies & whole grains & cereal products requires a lot of energy to digest.

These foods are filling & full of nutrients that support a healthy balance in the body.

Low Quality Calories

You may eat the same caloric value in two different foods but the nutrient value can be vastly different so it’s important to pay attention to the quality of the calories you are consuming. Low quality calories can be found in foods that are more often than not full of fat & sugars such as confectionary, chips & takeaway foods. They are also found in white versions (more processed) of grain & cereal products.

These foods not only release the hormones that lead to fat storage, but they aren’t very filling so are much easier to over-consume. Thiscan even be the case in products that have a reputation for being healthy like juices. Juice has all the fibre removed but retains all the sugar. You can drink a lot more apples than you’d eat, thus consuming a lot more sugar.

So how do I know whether counting calories will work for me?

To answer this question you need to know why you are counting calories. Counting calories is only successful in an estimated 4.5% of cases & this is because people either fail to lose weight, or they regain it almost immediately so you need to know why you are doing this.

Are you a comfort eater, are you controlling your intake to the extreme? Ask yourself if it’s just because you can’t control your appetite, or you are obsessed with controlling your appetite. Is it because of something much deeper than just food?

If you think there are psychological reasons for your inability to maintain a healthy weight than you need to take steps to address these issues. If there’s more going on then calorie counting isn’t the answer, it’s just a temporary fix. These issues will keep arising & continue to play havoc on your body. Talk to your healthcare provider & make a plan to treat the cause & get rid of the problem for good! Don’t worry though, I’ll provide some tips for eating well without calorie counting & some useful links in the final section of this post.

How many calories should I aim for?

If counting calories is what you want to do then make sure you are doing it healthily. Don’t get obsessed with it – you don’t need to weigh everything out to the gram/ounce. Near enough really is good enough.

Whether you are aiming to lose or gain weight it’s important to make sure you are eating enough. A lot of people believe that 1200 calories is the magic number. This is unfortunately due to marketing & celebrity diets. Just like most things there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Your requirement will depend on your age, height, current weight & level of physical activity. It may also be affected by any conditions you have. Take the time to figure out a healthy level for you, there are many calculators available online but make sure they are asking for the information above.

Essentially, you want to work out your requirement for maintenance, then minus about 500 calories. Make sure you don’t go under your basal metabolic rate (BMR) though. Your BMR is the energy your body needs to function while at rest (again lots of online calculators). If you eat below this number on a daily basis you’ll slow your metabolism down. I’ve had clients who came to me because they’ve gained weight by consistently eating under their BMR. It’s important too to regularly re-check this as it will change as your weight does.

How can I do this in a healthy, sustainable way?

It’s also very important is to make sure you are eating the right foods. Remember, all calories aren’t created equal. Fill your diet with healthy, whole natural foods.

Studies have shown that there’s no significant difference between most diets regarding weight loss so pick a diet as close as possible to the one you want to keep in the future.

Be it low-fat or The Mediterranean diet, just make sure you are making up the majority of your energy intake with foods as close to their natural state as possible. Go back & read my posts on carbohydrates, protein, & fats to find out how to make healthy choices. When you give your body these types of foods you will eventually stop craving heavily processed foods & crave these ones instead. I’ll dive into cravings in more detail in a future post but, generally speaking, your body craves what it regularly consumes.

Until your body gets used to your new diet, try to give your body what it’s looking for but a healthier version. If you crave something sweet, have a banana instead of a mars bar. If you crave something savoury have a whole grain cracker (check the nutrition panel!) with a slice of low-fat cheese or some air-popped popcorn with a light sprinkle of salt. These are great snacks that aren’t ‘diet food’ but foods you can continue to enjoy once you’ve reached your goal weight.

The best thing about eating healthy minimally or unprocessed foods is that often you can eat more & still lose weight. If you made a homemade burger with lean meat, low-fat cheese & some salad on a wholemeal bun, even if it had the same caloric value as a quarter pounder, you’d find that the homemade version would be much bigger, keep you fuller for longer and help you stay healthy as well!

Don’t forget, you can have your cake & eat it too as long as it’s not a regular occurence. An all or nothing mindset isn’t helpful here. If you have a specific food or drink that sends you not only off the wagon, but setting the wagon on fire & running for the hills screaming hysterically, then don’t eat/drink it. You can however find something that you can enjoy occasionally without throwing away all your hard work. You don’t have to become a hermit, just eat smart & you’ll be fine.

What should I do if I can’t calorie count?

Eat mindfully instead. Your body wants to be a certain weight & will work hard to maintain that weight if you let it. Listen to your body, eat slowly & stop when you’re full. If you over-do it one day don’t keep going the next but don’t refuse to eat either. Your body will naturally compensate so if you pay attention it will tell you how much energy you need to eat.

Again (& I know I’m repeating myself but it’s important) just make sure you are eating mostly minimally or unprocessed foods so you’re getting the nutrients you need with none of the extra calories from saturated fats & sugars & not only will you be healthy, but you’ll feel better too.

If you’d like more information on eating healthy without calorie counting, or just want more information on calories in general check out the following websites

Harvard Health Publishing CDC

National Health Service: understanding calories

I really hope you have found this post helpful & if you have any comments, questions or need clarification please leave a comment or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Would personalised one-on-one consultations with me help you master your diet &/or weight? If the answer is yes then send me an email using the contact form below & we’ll arrange a call or Skype.

Did you find this post useful?

Do you have any questions or anything else to add?

Please leave a comment or send me an email, I’d love to hear from you.

I’d also love to know what you’d like to see in future posts. If you’d like me to write about something in particular, please let me know.

Thankyou so much for joining me for this post.

Happy reading!

Calorie counting: is it a good idea? Whether trying to gain, lose or maintain your weight, calorie counting seems to be the method of choice for many people.

[lauradenno-blog]

When Not Plant Based met Deliciously Ella...

Published on Not Plant Based - a joint effort with Eve Simmons. 

Our latest choice of interviewee may have come as somewhat of a surprise to you lovely lot. She’s been branded the “Queen Of Clean” by several national newspapers; her diet is almost exclusively plant-based and she doesn’t sell cow’s milk in her delis – we found this out as we agreed to meet Ella at the newest branch of her Mae Deli and could only get nut milk to compliment our English Breakfast teas.

Deliciously Ella, aka Ella Mills (neé Woodward) last hit the headlines back in January, following her appearance on BBC1’s Horizon documentary entitled, “Clean Eating – The Dirty Truth”. The so-called “Queen of Clean” (although she herself claims not to advocate the phrase) told Cambridge University scientist, Dr Giles Yeo, of her endeavor to distance herself from the term “clean”, claiming she never intended for her message about natural, unprocessed food to become entwined with food faddism.

It was undoubtedly brave of Ella to show her face on such a show, especially given that she was the only food blogger who had the guts to do so. Yet, despite her pleasantries and condemning of the “clean eating” movement (which was obviously appreciated), most of our questions remained unanswered. During both of our illnesses, we sought guidance in DeliciouslyElla.com – (Laura still has a copy of her book lying around somewhere, highlighted and everything). I’m sure Ella had every intention of simply encouraging Joe public to eat more vegetables, but in doing so, she heightened our food fears and disguised our disordered eating as “trendy” and as being “healthy”. Given that the BBC failed to put this to her, we thought we’d do it instead.

We were nervous. Really nervous. Perched on the end of her cushioned bench and growing accustomed to the scent of pine wood and coconut yoghurt, we anticipated her arrival to be accompanied with a tight-lipped PR person…but our expectations deceived us. Skipping in through the door, with her cocker spaniel Austin leading the way, Ella arrived smiley, chirpy and – most surprisingly – alone.

“So lovely to meet you guys,” she chimed. Hang on a minute, has she even read our website? Does she…does she know who we are? Turns out, yes, she had and was extremely interested in our stories, inviting us to engage in an “open and honest” conversation with the 25-year-old. We began by applauding her on the positive reaction to her appearance on the Horizon documentary, noting how unfortunate it was that not a single other Wellness warrior followed her lead.

“I respect anybody for anything they do and their own decisions,” Ella announced, “and I’m not going to start saying something bad about anybody else.” Annoying.

Something she doesn’t keep quite as schtum about is her defense of the food and health blog she spent five years crafting, eventually resulting in three cookbooks, two Delis (soon to be three) and various product lines. “On everything I write, it says, please do what works for you,” she says, “please do what you want to do. I think from my perspective that’s the best you can do before it gets a little bit policing of people.”  Whilst it may appear to Ella as “policing”, for those who have suffered/are vulnerable to eating disorders, we tried to argue that it’s pretty essential. But according to Ella, readers, “taking things to extremes” isn’t something she can exactly control.

“I don’t think anything should be taken to extremes,” she says, “if someone said to me, should I never do this again? I’d say no! If you come to any talk I do, I’ve always said you’ve got to do what works for you and adapt everything to suit. “Take a baking book, with cake recipes. There’s nothing saying, ‘please don’t eat chocolate cake every single day’. It’s not written in the gym; “ please don’t come for 7 hours a day”. You leave it up to people’s discretion to use it anyway that they want.”

You have to admire Ella’s positivity and blind faith in our mental health capacity, but seeing as more than a million of the Instagram community look to her for food – and health – “inspiration”, is she perhaps being a little naive about her responsibility?  Ella’s ever-popular blog champions a diet free from “refined sugar, wheat and meat”, purely based on the premise that this restriction makes her “feel better” and aided the alleviation of her POTS symptoms. The, ‘this worked for me’ concept that currently plagues the Internet is – if you ask us – an obvious recipe for disordered eating and misinterpretation of ‘information’. Although Ella may not be so transparent about her personal contribution to the problem, she does note the pressure that comes with her overwhelming influence.

“Of course I am aware of it,” she says. When we get into the nitty-gritty of the recent clean eating backlash, it becomes apparent that she’s more than just ‘aware’ and has indeed taken considerable steps to limit any potential damage.  “I’ve gone back and looked at everything and checked that there’s nothing else that I think can been misinterpreted,” she says, “I’m sure there’s something that I missed but yeah, I try really hard to make sure it’s as watertight as it can be because I don’t want anyone to take it out of context or take it to an extreme, but there’s only so much that you can really do.”

As much as it may be painful to agree, she’s right. In a world in which we have constant access to any information imaginable, with very little monitoring and zero checks for factual accuracy, it’s no wonder that the likes of Ella are considered expert sources. With 100 million of us checking in with our Instagram feeds every single day, with average GP waiting times currently around two weeks, of course you’re more likely to heed Ella’s nutritional advice than give your doctor a call. Plus, let’s be honest, Ella’s aesthetic is a darn sight easier on the eyes than the surroundings of your average NHS waiting room.

This is where the heart of the problem lies, according to Ella. The distrust of experts, faith in social media moguls and pretty Instagram stars, she believes, goes far beyond the realm of her little, old blog and is “a much wider issue”. “One of the biggest issues is that we don’t talk about social media because its so new,” she says, “it’s only been five years or so that we’ve really been living life through a lens and I don’t think that anyone talks about that really properly.

“It is thought-out, it’s curated, it’s like a magazine. It’s always things to inspire but if you’re not in the right place then that can make you feel worse. It’s really important that we see it as a set of ideas, as if we open a magazine, not a place where you see a 24/7 insight into real life, because it’s not.”  You’ve got to hand it to her, Ella is making a conscious effort to highlight this discrepancy across all of her social media platforms, with regular posts discussing the “ideas and inspiration” that Instagram can offer, whilst ensuring her audience are aware of the disparity between what they might see on the Internet and what happens in real life. But we couldn’t help feeling that when it comes to health and diet, the stakes are considerably higher and surely call for something a little more credible than a single Instagram post. Has she ever considered enlisting the help of a dietitian, perhaps?

“I do have a dietitian that I work with, but that’s never been what I’ve intended to do. I just wanted to get people excited about fruit and vegetables,” she argues.  “If you go through my Instagram, there will be bowls of pasta and I’ll be like; having bowls of pesto pasta for lunch – yum! Having potato and cauliflower curry with rice – yum. It doesn’t say anything more than that. It’s just an idea of what you could do – it doesn’t say, this is good or this is bad.”

From steaming bowls of tomato pasta, to towering peanut butter cake (yes, cake), there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot more to it than; ‘here’s a picture of this food that I ate’. No nutritional advice, no health claims and definitely no use of the word “superfood”. “I think that the whole wellness thing has become too synonymous with superfoods,” she notes. Whether or not her Instagram feed was always this harmless isn’t clear, but these days it’s solely an inspirational tool.

The topic of social media influence sparks a particular flicker of passion in Ella’s perfectly positioned eyes. With millions watching her every move and morphing from unknown graduate to household name in only a couple of years, it seems that the pressure of presenting the best version of herself to the world, 24 hours a day, has certainly taken its toll.  “We’ve all been there when you go on and think, oh my god, look at that person – I haven’t been to the gym in a while and this person has the best abs, I’m hopeless.” Any by “we”, does she mean, ‘she’? “Yes!” She exclaims, “Who doesn’t?

“I’ll be finishing a cookbook and not be able to do up my jeans and you go online and you’re like; oh my god – look at her abs!”  For the first time during our hour with Ella, she seems less the jammy, annoyingly-beautiful, enemy hidden behind an Instagram filter, and more a young twenty-something, tentatively navigating her way through adult life.  “[The biggest challenge] is learning that I’m out there in the public space,” she tells us, “it’s scary.” Not that she expects peeping toms to spy through her kitchen window – “I don’t think anyone is really that interested”, she chuckles.

The St Andrews graduate doesn’t so much fear for her own safety, but rather the unfavorable opinions held by complete strangers.  “People make judgements on you or have opinions on you,” she says, sternly, “that is why we [herself and husband, Matthew] try to stay out of the public eye, we don’t go to lots of parties or events.” But surely someone who garnered 900,000 hits on her food blog in just nine months should expect that a certain amount of eyes on her every move come part and parcel?

“I really didn’t think anyone was reading it!” she argues. “I started it and like, my mum read it. Then I landed the book deal and that was the first time I was even aware of the audience. It happened really, really quickly.”  On the subject of her mum, Laura made the apparent hiccup of asking of her links to the supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, with a view to discuss the class issue in the industry. For the first time during our encounter, Ella becomes icy and calls my question, “unfriendly”. As I don’t yet have the tenacity of Jeremy Paxman, I wobble, worrying that I’ve upset her beyond repair and she might call off the interview altogether. She suggests I google the link myself. So, I do, and for those interested, Ella is the eldest daughter of Camilla Sainsbury, the supermarket heiress, and Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Shaun Woodward – according to The Mail.

We move on and she sips her peppermint tea (no dairy, remember?), commenting on the challenges she’s faced as a woman in business. We wonder whether this 25-year-old who spent most of her young adulthood struggling to get out of bed (due to POTS syndrome), may, at times, be a little out of her depth. Eve asks her whether, despite the stereotypes, it’s tough to be female in the food industry. She nods profusely. “It’s very male dominated, It’s hard.  I’ve never said anything about weight loss or diet, then suddenly it’s like; oh she looks like this and she looks like that – judging me on how I look. Is that appropriate?”  And that’s when we reached a sort of sisterhood epiphany. Berating Deliciously Ella, or Madeline Shaw or any other “wellness guru” isn’t going to quell their influence upon masses of young minds, desperately searching for unanswerable answers. Ella’s intentions were never more than, “to get people to enjoy fruits and vegetables” and regardless of whether she did in the beginning, these days she’s certainly taking steps to ensure that is her only message.

For every one woman who insights pseudo-scientific rubbish , there are 10 men at the head of powerful tables, re-in forcing the age-old premise that women are the subtotal of what they look like. A message which, arguably, is the reason why we’re so obsessed with diet “rules” in the first place.  “I go to so many meetings where it’s all 50 year old men in suits,” she says, and that, we don’t doubt for a second. “Women in business is a subject I’m really passionate about, actually,” Ella tells us, “It’s quite intimidating to be the only young woman – I went to a talk where this brilliant woman said; you can’t be what you can’t see and I found that really inspiring.”

This particular businesswoman is pretty fortunate, given that her husband co-runs the business and presumably comes in handy when dealing with said “men in suits”. Ella is all too aware of this, however, admitting that she’s often approached differently to her husband.  “I’m realistic,” she says, “the only way I can change it is by actually doing it [being in business] myself.” As we start to wrap up the interview, Ella’s guard softens slightly – even more so when we stop recording. It’s clear that the clean eating backlash has hit the young entrepreneur hard, even if it doesn’t show in her every-growing trajectory of on-the-go snacks.  It’s fair to say that during our time with Ella, she fed us a couple of obligatory, rehearsed responses – “I don’t like the term clean, it’s loaded and complicated”, for example – and didn’t always give us the answers we had hoped for, but she did reveal a side that is often disguised by the bright lights and sepia filters.

“What do you think I should do?” she asks us. We both look at each other a little shocked that the woman who seemed to have it all was turning to us for advice. We suggest including links to the websites of Registered Dietitians or perhaps the addition of a disclaimer at the top of every blog post, encouraging readers to seek professional, medical help for their issues. All of which, Ella is extremely receptive, almost verging on enthusiastic. Such options have been considered by her team in the past, she assures us. Looking us dead straight in the eyes, she reiterates, “of course I am aware of it”. “I am very wary that people need one-on-one advice, so I’m nervous about putting things like that in a public space and talking to thousands of people – is that helpful?  The difficulty is that people don’t have access to dietitians, and they want answers quickly.”

She’s hit the nail on the head there. The real question is, what exactly is it that these people are looking for answers to? And why has Deliciously Ella’s food blog become their rule book? Sure, it’s easy to blame bloggers, “influencers” and Instagram sweethearts for the delivery of such messages, but if we had no questions to ask, they’d have no audience.  It’s a time of tragedy when we seek out a random stranger to tell us what to eat, rather than relying on our own minds and bodies. Call us presumptuous, but that’s got much more to do with how we feel about ourselves than it does the food on our plate – and that’s a problem far more dangerous than Deliciously Ella.

[beat-weightlosstips]

Healing Adrenal Tonic ~ My Version of the “Singing Canary”

Healing Adrenal Tonic ~ My Version of the “Singing Canary”

Have you heard of the Singing Canary?

No?  Well, it’s not a bird&#8211you’ll see what I indicate.

Numerous of you know that I have battled adrenal fatigue for a lot of years. And with our stressed-out and hurried lifestyles, the adrenals of a lot of are on the fritz.

I’m undertaking worlds better now than years in the past, but I still want to do a lot more and carry on to assistance my entire body utilizing diverse implies.  I will be sharing a lot more what I am doing in the potential, but nowadays I want to share something that has been a blessing to me &#8212 an Adrenal Fatigue Tonic, which is my edition of Trim Healthful Mama’s Singing Canary.

I heard about this drink a long time ago, but by no means tried it.  Finally, when I did try out it, I felt that it was exacerbating or creating insomnia. I tried it again and thought that it took place once again.

I don’t give up easily, nevertheless :).  So I ended up reintroducing it into my diet program and the insomnia did not recur.  So some thing else need to have been going on.

I enjoy possessing this as an alternative to water, and genuinely am satisfied being aware of about all of the healthful components that I am putting into my diet program every time I drink it.

This week, in particular, I have had added tension that you can go through about on Instagram.  Let’s just say I’m a tiny &#8220laid up&#8221.  Not enjoyable :(.

The &#8220Singing Canary&#8221

The unique recipe comes from the gals behind Trim Wholesome Mama. It really is an eating prepare that is taking the globe by storm.  I will not adhere to all factors of it, but there is some genuinely sound science behind it and the benefits of this prepare are generally phenomenal in the way of fat loss and an general improvement of health.  If we could all consume healthier, just believe of the affect on so several things&#8230our wellness, our families, our nation&#8230.our planet.

The original Singing Canary was good, but I felt that it necessary some far more &#8220something&#8221 to counter the turmeric taste for me&#8211call me a wimp, which is Ok by me :). So I monkeyed about with some spices and located a combination that performs nicely and adds some added well being benefits to boot.

Plus, the unique recipe called for the addition of lemon vital oil as an optional add-on. I’m not comfortable with internal use of vital oils with out consulting with a practitioner or aromatherapist.   Nonetheless, if you truly do wish to add the lemon essential oil to your drink, and have consulted with someone appropriately, you may.

I consulted with an aromatherapist about this situation and she advisable only making use of 1-2 drops of essential oils a drink of this dimension with the coconut oil amount in the drink. The coconut oil acts as essential oil emulsifier but you even now do require to be cautious with the sum that you use.

I call this drink an Adrenal Fatigue Tonic, but there are so several great things in it for absolutely everyone.

Adrenal Fatigue

A quick note about adrenal fatigue.  Some people say it really is a true situation and others say it isn’t.  You can take this Adrenal Fatigue Test to see if you might have this situation.

Regardless of what you feel about the condition, it truly is a truth that we are above-worked and over-stressed.  We are pushing ourselves to the restrict and our bodies are taxed with too several harmful toxins.

Bottom Line&#8211our bodies require assist.

So whether you feel you have a diagnosable issue or not, do by yourself a favor and help your entire body with this tonic.

Positive aspects of Components in the &#8220Singing Canary&#8221

Water

This is, of course a simple thing we need to be consuming anyhow, but it’s important.  Just please make certain that your water is purified.  I have used loads of water filtration methods more than the many years.  You can see the info in this post on water filtration and see what I am utilizing now.

Lemons

Lemons include vitamin C, citric acid, flavonoids, copper, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, fiber.  They also have potassium&#8211more than apples or grapes.  Potassium is known to be beneficial for your heart.

Lemons also help your entire body stay more alkaline. Read through about lemons and adrenal health in this submit on foods for adrenal fatigue.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a single of the main vitamins hosted by the adrenals.  It’s a huge support for these glands.

Note that I reference sodium ascorbate in my recipe. The explanation for that is that there have been reported considerations regarding the ingestion of ascorbic acid.  Additionally, sodium ascorbate is not acidic so you will not be endangering your tooth enamel with this portion of the drink.  See my DIY Swim Spray for far more information on the difference.

Turmeric

Turmeric has so numerous overall health positive aspects that it truly is hard to know exactly where to start. A single critical way that turmeric aids with adrenal health, nonetheless, is by assisting the body detox.  Toxins are a tension on the body and any time that you can eliminate stressors from the physique, you help your adrenals.

Turmeric reduces histamine amounts which reduce anxiety on the entire body. (supply)

Salt

A genuine unprocessed salt is made up of minerals which are acknowledged to be depleted in those with adrenal concerns.  Salt is also mentioned in this submit on food items for adrenal fatigue.

Ginger

Ginger has anti-inflammatory results that, as mentioned over, will help the adrenals by minimizing the tension load on the entire body.  (supply)

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is recognized for its ability to increase the immune system, detox the body, and a lot more. (source)

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a properly-identified anti-inflammatory.  (source)  There have been many studies on it showing it truly is influences on the entire body such as to reverse stressors and regulating hormones. (source)

Cloves

Cloves have also been shown to be beneficial in mitigating stress on the entire body. (source)  If you like, feel totally free to add much more to this recipe primarily based on this details :)!

Vanilla

Vanilla, even though it is mostly recognized for the wonderful taste that it adds to baked goods, has well being positive aspects of its own, which includes anti-inflammatory properties. (supply)

Protein Powder

Protein is vital for adrenal well being.  In this submit on meals for adrenal fatigue, animal protein is mentioned due to the B nutritional vitamins that it involves. However, protein is critical no matter exactly where it comes from.  If you can tolerate it, you can use whey or egg protein powder in this tonic.

I personally really like Miessence’s vegan protein powder since it truly is allergen-totally free and the amino acids are perfectly balanced in it to mimic the amino acid profile of animal protein.  Just 1 25 gram serving provides practically 2/3 of the everyday Essential Amino Acid requirement for a standard grownup.  It’s expensive but I discover this solution to be superior to anything on the market and anyone can get special discounts just by becoming a buyer.

If employing one more vegan protein powder, I extremely suggest utilizing an organically sourced powder. The cause is that several of the substances in vegan protein powders are crops that several pesticides are employed on.

Coconut Oil

Fats are crucial for adrenal well being.

A lot of men and women (like me) have prevented fats in the hope of losing fat. However, your entire body wants fats for your endocrine system to work well.  So including even just a modest quantity of excess fat to this drink is a plus.

You never want to drink this drink all at when (not that you could) simply because your physique can only soak up so considerably vitamin C at once.

Make this tonic in the morning and sip on it all day extended.

  four. from 1 testimonials

Adrenal Fatigue Tonic ~ My Model of “Singing Canary”

&nbsp

Writer:

Adrienne

Recipe kind: Beverage, DIY Foods

Cuisine: Gluten-Totally free, Dairy-Totally free, Sugar-Cost-free, Grain-Cost-free, Lower-Carb, Vegan, Paleo

Serves: 1 huge serving

Print

&nbsp

Ingredients

-1-2 lemons, peeled

– 1½ cups filtered water, plus a lot more for the jar (see How to Make Your Water Safe)

– ½ to one teaspoon ground turmeric

– one teaspoon MCT oil, or ½ teaspoon additional-virgin coconut oil

– one teaspoon protein powder or collagen

&frac12 tsp vanilla extract (see how to make Alcohol-free Vanilla)

– two generous pinches salt (I use Real Salt)

– &frac12 tsp cinnamon

-1/four tsp ginger powder

-one/four tsp ground nutmeg

-pinch clove

– &frac14 tsp stevia extract (see How to Use Stevia). Use an on prepare sweetener for AIP.

– two,000 mg vitamin C powder (optional. I use this brand but this is a whole food brand I am considering)

– one-2 drops lemon vital oil (optional. Please see notes in post)

– Ice cubes

Guidelines

Peel the rind off the lemon(s) employing a sharp knife. Depart as considerably of the white pith as achievable as it has loads of dietary benefits. I used the complete lemon, minus the seeds, if making use of organic lemons.

Slice every lemon into quarters. Reumove the seeds, and spot the lemon pieces into your blender. Add water and all of the remaining substances in addition to the ice cubes. Mix nicely.

Area the blended mixture into a quart jar. Include ice cubes and more water to fill the jar to the leading. Put a tight lid on the jar and shake just before drinking.

Notes

You may possibly discover that the drink is nevertheless a little also “bitter” due to the turmeric. I recommend commencing with &frac12 tsp of turmeric and rising from there if wanted. Following producing the drink, if you locate it to be as well bitter, you can include more stevia and/or vanilla to taste.

three.4.3177

Get pleasure from the drink and all the well being benefits it affords.

Do you have adrenal fatigue? What have you found that assists?

The post Healing Adrenal Tonic ~ My Edition of the &#8220Singing Canary&#8221 appeared first on Entire New Mom.

Read More Recipes At NaturallyCurvy.com

[hydrus]

Version 367

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a good week getting more of the tag migration working and adding some audio and ratings ui features.

sibling and parent migration

Last week's tag migration dialog now supports sibling and parent migration! Just like with tag mappings, you can copy between any combination of tag services and an external file type called a Hydrus Tag Pair Archive. There are tag filters for the left and right side of the pairs being migrated, so you can easily capture all the character->series parents or unnamespaced->creator siblings, for instance.

I am happy we finally have a way to import and export siblings and parents en masse. This should make it much easier to move tag pairs between local tag services and tag repositories, and, say, for an enterprising user to pull all the tag aliases and implications from a booru and get them into hydrus.

the rest

I fixed the bad 'do you want to do shutdown maintenance, auto-no in 15 seconds' yes/no dialog, which was throwing errors. It was a stupid typo that I accidentally didn't catch in testing. If you turned this dialog off in the options, please do turn it back on now. I apologise for the inconvenience.

Thumbnails now display the 'has audio' label in the top-left! You can also sort by 'has audio'.

Tag filters (as used in 'tag import options' and the new tag migration ui) now have a little 'test' area on their edit panel where you can type a tag and see if it is passes or is blocked by the current filter as is. I hope this clears up some more complicated filter situations.

The advanced OR search now supports wildcard tags, including the 'namespace:*' optimisation.

I added shortcut actions to increment/decrement numerical ratings! If a file has no rating yet, it will either initialise the file on minimum/x stars on an increment call or x/x on a decrement. It will work on multiple thumbnails correctly, incrementing or decrementing each file by one star based on its current rating. Please check it out under file->shortcuts->media, but also please forgive the increasingly cluttered UI in the actual edit shortcut action panel--I will rewrite this to be more compact and dynamic once some other preparatory UI work is done.

To shrink the redesigned thumbnail and media viewer right-click menus even further, they now collapse the multiple info lines at the top (and in some situations there can 5+ of these) to their own submenu. Also, the 'remove' submenu's 'selected' and 'all' choices now have separators to reduce mis-clicks. Some users have reported they would like the menu in a different order (for instance, the 'manage' menus at the top), and I know there is no perfect arrangement to please everyone, so I expect to revisit this in future as I continue to clean the underlying menu code and make options to have it present in whatever order you like.

The client now keeps track of whether it is 'caught up' to its repositories. You can see this status line on services->review services. It is a simple thing, and basically tests whether you are processed up to at least two weeks from the latest update. If you are not caught up, the client will stop you from uploading new pending content with a note explaining why and to please wait for a little more processing. This helps reduce wasted time, bandwidth, and CPU for all involved (since most common booru-pends on an unprocessed client are redundant and will be cleared out anyway once the client is caught up).

PTR is moving to new management

I will no longer be running the PTR on the 16th September. At least one user has offered to keep running it on their own server that has more bandwidth than I can provide, and I will be providing a sanitized version of the PTR db on a Mega account so any other user will also be able to do the same with their own hardware. My PTR will go down on the 16th and the new one should be back by the 18th, for v368. If everything goes ok, v368 will to provide you an option on update to automatically redirect your client to keep using it at the new location if you wish. Please check this post for more details:

https://hydrus.tumblr.com/post/187561442294/the-ptr-will-undergo-a-change-of-management-in-two

full list

tag migration:

added htpa and tag service sources for parents/siblings migration that support filtering for the left and right tag of each pair

added htpa and tag service destinations for parents/siblings migration

added unit tests for all parent/siblings migration scenarios

misc improvements to mappings migration code

reworded some of the tooltip/tag filter message text to more clearly explain how the filter applies to migrations

the tag filter edit panel now has a 'test' area where you can put in an example tag to see if it passes or is blocked by the current filter

.

the rest:

fixed an issue with auto-no-ing yes/no dialogs throwing errors on exit. I am sorry for the inconvenience!

thumbnails now show the 'has audio' string on their thumbnails

'sort by file: has audio' added!

icons drawn on thumbnails are now adjusted to sit inside the border

added increment/decrement numerical ratings actions for media shortcuts! if a file hit by this action has no rating, it will initialise with 0/1 stars or max stars. please forgive the ugly expanding ui in the shortcuts panel here--I'll rewrite this to layout more dynamically in future

client repository services now track whether they are 'caught up' to their repos, which for now means processed up until at least two weeks ago, and will prohibit uploading new content until the client is caught up

repository review services panels will now display the 'caught up' status below the 'processed' progress gauge

repository review services panels will no longer duplicate 'account' status problems in the 'this client's network use' status line--both lines now refer to service/account functionality separately

repositories will now put in 'unknown error' when an empty error reason slips through the 'no requests until x time' reporting process

the new thumbnail and media viewer right-click menus now collapse the selection info lines at the top to just the top line and places all the rest (and in complicated file domain situations, this can be a long list) in a submenu off that line

the new thumbnail 'remove' submenu has separators after 'selected' and 'all' to reduce misclicks

reworded a couple of things in the manage shortcuts panel to be more clear

added wildcard support ('eva*lion') and namespace wildcards (like 'character:*') to the advanced OR text input parsing

fixed a rare issue with the duplicate filter being unable to go back or retreat from an interstitial confirm/forget/cancel dialog when every pair in the current batch cannot be displayed (such as if at least one of the pair has been physically deleted). the filter now catches this situation, informs the user, and closes itself gracefully

added two extremely advanced and dangerous launch parameters for database access testing

couple of misc fixes and cleanup

upcoming heavy work

After discussing it with me, a user has been working for a long time on a conversion for hydrus to a different UI library, Qt. Although I have some fondness for wx (which hydrus is currently on), the stability, feature support, user customisation, and active development for Qt is significantly better. If it is possible to switch over and keep all existing functionality without inconveniencing users, I would like to do it.

His work is now coming together. The Qt build boots and important things like video rendering are ok, but there are still many small bugs to iron out. I have roughly estimated up to four weeks of my time to crash-learn Qt's differences and finish it off, and it looks like mid-October will be the time this happens, about five weeks from now. I will keep working as normal until then, approx v372, and then focus on the wx->Qt conversion exclusively until it is ready. Assuming it all goes well, the next release will be a few weeks later, likely in mid-November. It may need a 'clean' install as previous big changes like the py2->py3 needed, in which case the usual explainers will come with that release post, or it may be just a normal release with some slightly different UI. I will make the usual weekly status report posts so you know how it is going.

next week

With the first version of tag migration done, I am now ready to add multiple local tag services. This will let you have different types of tags (e.g. booru tags vs your personal tags) in different local containers. I will likely add semi-hidden default services that pull all downloader tags, thread watcher tags, and hard drive import filenames, so this data can be 'mined' after the fact using the new migration tech. The db is ready to support this, but most references to the lone current 'local tags' service are hardcoded, so I simply need to rewrite every instance to allow for multiple services and likely add a 'all local tags' as an umbrella service to reference them all. This will take several weeks to finish, so I'll just get started.

Otherwise, next week is a 'medium-size' job week. I would like to add 'file modified' date metadata for files, including searching and sorting, and improve the new file maintenance pipeline to work faster and more intelligently so it can retroactively discover the modified dates for all your files in reasonable time (and do the same on the retroactive 'has audio' queue from that recent work).

Things have been stressful and busy just recently, and it looks like we will have some more fun for another couple of months. I just hope to keep putting out code. Thank you for your continuing support--it really makes a difference.