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kaelin-bct-blog · 6 years ago

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Data Objects - All By Myself

I left the group and decided to focus on my own interpretation of our assessment. Leaving so late in the project may have been a risk but it is one I am satisfied with. During my time working with the others my biggest struggle was gaining motivation to work on something I was not particularly interested in. It's not that we had a bad concept it was a combination of it being about something I had little personal interest in and a lack of chemistry amongst our group members. Initially, as I mentioned before, the idea was to spread our group into working on several objects that would tie into each other which was logical due to the size of our group. Unfortunately, this proved very ambitious, as we had a tenuous grasp of the concept of a data object at best. If we had a better understanding of what kinds of data set would translate effectively things might have been easier. After a few days of searching for the right data we found ourselves falling behind other groups, and decided instead to focus on a singular topic with more readily available data that would be hopefully more straightforward in mapping it to a garment. Perhaps our determination to use clothing as the object blinded us to other avenues of exploration and design, regardless we gave in to our tunnel vision.

We started work on a shirt that would provide a physical interaction based on our data. The data was oriented around the Body Mass Index, and we were going to try to create a garment that would loosen or tighten based on that data. We got conflicting reactions from several lecturers, in fact so conflicting (as in completely opposite) that I was personally left pretty confused and ultimately hopeless. I did not understand the purpose of this assessment, and almost every idea that popped into our collective heads seemed to be simply another bar graph or pie chart plastered onto some normal boring object. It felt like we were taking two very incompatible things and simply ramming them together like a child pretending to make their toys fight until something bloody clicked.

Spoiler alert, it didn’t.

So we tried to reorganize and breathe some life into our group, start fresh and continue ramming things together making various forms of onomatopoeia but THIS time we’d do it right. We had a pretty good plan to be fair, we split into smaller teams of roughly two to three, each focused on a specific aspect of human health in relation to fast food diets. Keeping in line with at least an element of our original statement of intent, and helping divide the work into smaller packages. One group would focus on the mental health complications, another on skin and libido issues and myself and several others on various diseases such as diabetes associated with a poor diet. We would then attempt to design a garment for each of these data sets, creating an outfit to communicate the effects of junk food on the human body. So while this all felt very organized and had a taste that resembled progress it very quickly proved to be naught but a taste. Again I believe this was simply my lack of interest as I did more research. Not only that but it turns out medical datasets to do with diabetes risk factors in people with poor diets are designed for medical professionals (funny that) and as a result were pretty much impossible to understand.

So I gave up. Yes, you read that correctly. I stared into the mirror and mouthed the letter ‘F’ for a while till I got bored of that too.

Then it struck me, why don’t I just do something I find interesting and fun? That was my focus from the very beginning, I knew everyone would jump on the depressing and serious issues bus as soon as we started this project. That is why I had made a silent oath to myself to do something that didn’t make me incredibly sad the minute I tried to work on it. And I want to be clear that although I may sound like I’m making fun of those serious subjects, I am not. Laughing at the fact that many people jumped on the same incredibly sad datasets does not remove from the seriousness of the data itself and why people chose those datasets. Moving on.

So I went back to good ol’ video games. And boy am I glad I did. It turns out being interested in the thing the numbers relate to makes the numbers less mind-numbing and allows the brain to actually think about what to do with the numbers. I scrawled through some interesting sites and found a data set that grabbed my attention, highest number of players in a game in a one hour period. This inspired me to track down where the figure came from, and of course, I ended up at Steam. Steam for those who are unaware is a very popular marketplace for games on PC, probably the biggest in the world. It has various other things like forums, guides, achievements, chat rooms and any number of gaming peripherals (software based) and is thus probably one of the biggest gaming communities on earth. It also helps that the company that runs it, Valve, keeps track of pretty much every statistic involving games and player bases that it gives to the public for free. I felt like I had struck the most obvious vein of gold in the world. Now for an object.

The fact that the first statistic that caught my eye was the fact that Player Unkown’s Battlegrounds had three million players on in one hour came to mind. What exactly was it about that fact that made it so impressive? Well, I believe it was the time frame. Three million is not exactly a large number in our day and age, especially in relation to the internet and video games. The fact that we managed to have three million human beings in one tiny online world that makes up an impossibly small sliver of cyberspace real estate in the same hour is fairly mind-boggling. Every time I try imagining it I see the Tron equivalent of New York. I understand that this image isn’t accurate or even relevant, but it's what gave me some scope as to why it was so cool. If you want a practical or marketable reason (I don’t know why you would, they always suck the soul out of cool stuff) as to why this is important, it's very simple. Three million people passing through a single digital space is basically a license to print money in our modern economy. You could potentially advertise to just under the population of Los Angeles in one hour. So there, practical reason tacked on to the fact that this is simply a cool statistic. Not only that, but this to me is one of the biggest harbingers of what is to come. If you’ve read Neal Stephenson’s ‘Snowcrash’ you might understand why this makes me so excited. If you haven’t, please go read it then come finish reading this.

So this was why I decided to see if I could map the peak player populations of the biggest video games on Steam to an analog clock. Not only that but I find something vaguely entertaining in the irony of using analog to symbolize the fact that we are so deeply into digital it's not even funny.

I have two prototypes and my final product all done. The first prototype involved taking the top four game populations at the respective peaks they reached and mapping them to four sections of the clock. For example, I mapped the population of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PubG) between numbers twelve to three on the clock. I took the peak population (3,227,432) and divided it by four. I then took that result and listed it at the number twelve, then doubled it and put that at the one hour mark, then tripled it and so on. This means that on the clock the population starts at a quarter of its total and over the course of four hours reaches its peak. This is done with four games in total, PubG, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Fallout 4.

The issues with this prototype were that it was very simple, there was little more to it than a pie chart in my mind. I wanted the population distribution growing by the hour to help communicate how massive these figures were, to truly get across the significance of this kind of population growth in such a short time. So how could I add complexity to this design, avoid the pie chart aspect while still showing multiple game populations and the significance of their size?

The second prototype used a different method of mapping the data. I decided to use the hands themselves and the way in which they moved to map the data. So, in this case, the second hand would go from a lower number and work it's way around the clock until one minute had passed. On the minute mark (once returning to its starting point) it would have reached the full peak player population figure. This would be repeated with the minute and hour hands, each one representing a player population. This meant that I lost one population figure as there are only three hands. However I think there is something sleeker about the top three populations being mapped, it is generally how we rank competitions so it was fitting that three would have to do. I followed a similar principle to the first prototype, dividing the final population figures by sixty for the second and minute hands and by twelve for the hour hand. I knew that I would not be able to fit sixty different figures on the clock face though, so I placed a figure on the twelve, three, six and nine hour marks. This would allow for an easy enough distribution while still retaining a good sense of how massive these populations could be. There were three sets of figures on each of these hour marks, which got a little difficult to read in some cases. Not only that but I had not realized that placement of the numbers would not clearly show which hand was relevant to which number. I liked the idea of using the turning of the hands themselves, it made sense to utilize the primary mechanics of my chosen object to display my dataset. The issue was making it clear how the mechanics of the clock would ‘point’ to the appropriate data.

With the final step in creating my object, I decided to use the same method as my second prototype, but in this case I created a key to label which number was represented by which hand on the clock itself. They also happen to be colour coded in order to help make it more clear which number relates to which player population by video game. As simplistic as the design has remained I am satisfied that it breaks down a large number that can be easily glossed over without understanding its significance, and by causing a person to have to see as it gradually gets to the final figure it highlights just how large these numbers are.

#ctec501 #dataobjects

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vigilante-rpg · 6 years ago

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Welcome Rachel! We’re pleased to announce your audition for Garrett Hall / The Heir has been accepted! Please send your account into the main within the next 24 hours. We can’t wait to have you join us!

NAME: Rachel

AGE: 19

TIMEZONE: PST

PRONOUNS: She/her, though I’m pretty relaxed about pronouns addressed to myself.

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m not normally busy over the summer. I could write at least once a day unless executive dysfunction takes hold, which isn’t a normal situation for me. My free time will slim during the weekdays when September starts due to school, but I keep my schedule spaced out so I can get writing and other things done.

PREVIOUS ROLEPLAY EXPERIENCE: I first made a role-play blog in 7th or 8th grade, and have rped for several years afterward on Tumblr and other platforms such as Google Drive, Discord, and RP Adventures. While I’ve had good times and made a couple close friends online, I have admittedly left Tumblr altogether because none of the communities I found were safe spaces for me. But I’ve had Karo, Lance, and Rachel advocate for this group and I’m really missing a quality rp experience

PERSONAL TUMBLR CONTACT: Removed for Privacy

TRIGGERS: None that I know of right now. I have some pretty strong trypophobia? But the things that I see as triggers are very personal, and not something that can be easily set off online.

CHARACTER NAME: Garrett Hall

PRONOUNS: He/him

AGE: 30

ORIGIN: The Heir

FACE CLAIM: Dan Stevens (Primary) or Arthur Darvill (Secondary)

QUOTE: “I never wanted this destiny. But now, I need it more than ever.”

OCCUPATION: Having recently left a lofty career as a lawyer outside of Newhaven, Garrett has recently gained a job as an accountant for a humble bakery. The explanation will be included in his biography.

PERSONALITY: [Intelligent] Even without the dual wielded powers inherited from his parents, Garrett grew up a prodigy of all kinds. From a young age he mastered languages from the English, Russian, and French he heard daily, to Spanish, sign language, and Mandarin. Kinesthetic intelligence developed in his training and play, both effectively honing his body for a future of constant movement. In school, he set academic records that have yet to be beaten. For much of his childhood, he was educated in classes above most children his age until his parents moved him back down, rightfully fearing the neglect of his emotional needs. With the focus on his own growth, Garrett came to brush off those who seemed lesser than him, whether he meant to or not. Sometimes he did. Without establishing connections with the rest of the essentials for life, Vlad and Chantelle worried for his future. However, Garrett refused to ease his burdens, continuing to cultivate his mind and the skills he proved good at. After all, it’s what all the people wanted from him, right?

[Blunt] One of the few things Garrett struggled with has always been social interaction. He can and has come off to others as rude and irritable, not just because he is, but also because he lacks the understanding of sensing others’ emotions and following that to a proper response. As a result, he simply says and does what is on his mind.

[Emotional] While he would argue his brain to be his greatest strength, Garrett is almost entirely emotionally driven, and rather impulsive at that. He is the type of person to act first and apologize later than to ask for permission or another’s point of view. As much as he pretends to be an impervious wall to those around him, Garrett is prone to wear sad eyes and scrunch his face to avoid a fit of helpless snickers. Plus, there’s the avoidance of sad films; he has made many people uncomfortable with gross tears. He has also grown acutely aware of his personal traits and needs, as well as the ways his actions affect the lives of others. This may be the biggest cause for his return to Newhaven.

[Observational] This trait is somewhat tied to those addressed before. Garrett is smart; he sees things and does everything he can to understand the who, where, when, why, how, and what to do next. It is much easier for him to go through this experience with the theoretical, scientific, mathematical, and rhetorical than it with the human mind. Humans are not so predictable, and Point A does not always lead to Point B with them.

[A Grade A Asshole] That’s it. This is him. We’re done here. In slightly more seriousness, he can really be a jerk. This is important when connected to his impulsivity and inability to understand people. Garrett has made a number of mistakes that hurt other individuals in his own self-destructive spiral. When he says and does what he believes needs to be done, his methods can be… questionable at best.

[Troubled] Both Garrett and Legacy behave complete differently for the same reason: he doesn’t know how to amend the person he is with the person he wants or needs to be, as well as what is expected from him. His entire sense of self has been fractured, and it shows. Garrett attempts to push himself almost completely from the kind of person most would accept, much less want to be around. Legacy is quite the opposite, the golden boy he was fated to be since the very beginning. But neither of them are the real him. He doesn’t know how to get that back.

BIOGRAPHY: On March 28, 1990, everyone in Newhaven knew about the first son of Gryphon and Bogatyr, heroes of The Guild. The journey of Gryphon’s pregnancy was followed by the public since she first left the front lines to preserve her health and that of the baby. His name was never released, of course, lest the heroes, his parents, would be revealed.

They called him Fledgling, born with the beak of an an eagle and destined to follow in the footsteps of his father and mother.

Behind the mask, the Halls were a loving, if somewhat overinvested nuclear family. Vladimir Hall, cheerful father and knightlike superhero, lived as an interpreter of numerous Slavic languages for immigrants such as himself. Chantelle Prevost-Hall had more of a challenge to balance out her heroics and her civilian life as a popular stunt actress, but she was more than up to the task for what she felt was the right thing to do. They adored Garrett, and later their second son, Vincent, who inherited none of the family’s powers. But if Chantelle were to look back, she would see that her presence in the boys’ emotional conflicts was a place she fell short, and where she was needed more than ever. For Vlad, he was kind, he was affectionate, but the man simply could not empathize with his sons of a different generation and culture. Where they faltered to meet their children’s needs, they compensated in support of their education, social lives, and especially Garrett’s own unique abilities.

Along with his astonishing prowess throughout his years of education, Garrett was trained in his superhuman abilities — plural after his secondary power manifested at age 4 — so that he would flourish as a sidekick to the heroic power couple Gryphon and Bogatyr, and eventually ascend to become a hero of The Guild. Everybody knew this. People gossiped, journalists followed the masked child’s every move, and where they failed to catch anything of note, they could glean some off of the proud parents themselves. Nobody was more excited for Fledgling’s next development than them.

That is why Garrett never told them how he really felt. His fears, his anxieties and insecurities were clutched to his chest, and he never spoke a word of his peers and other adults who saw him as the loner, a shortcut to their own successes, or the perfect target to push into the dirt. When he came home with a soggy bookbag and a busted lip, he said he fell into a fountain. When given the silent treatment by his younger brother, powerless and painfully average in everything but heart, he said he had eaten the last of Vincent’s favorite snack. When someone spoke about Fledgling and his sparkling future, he smiled and kept his mouth shut, even though he screamed on the inside, “Does anyone care what I think?!”

The last flickering light of hope turned to smoke when he learned the answer. Almost 18 years old, freshly dubbed a hero in his own right, and he had nobody. Even his best friend, his favorite person, his first love, only looked up to the heroic side of the mask. Just like everyone else.

Fledgling was so lucky, wasn’t he? To be the child of heroes, to be anywhere close to Spectrum, to be a hero himself.

That’s not me.

The rest of that day was a blur. He went to his room, threw on a jacket, got in his first — and only — fight with his dad, and then he was gone. He doesn’t remember what he said that evening. Only the rage, the guilt, the fear, but not enough to pretend he could ever make his family proud. Fledging was declared to have stepped down a week later, when the Halls had to realize that Garrett wasn’t coming home.With no contact, no leads, no motivation for him to completely run away, it was as though Garrett simply dissolved into thin air.

The years following were just as foggy when Garrett tries to look back. He wandered the streets, learned what it’s like to fight for his life, hitchhiked out of the city, and worked the odd job here and there until a kind samaritan had pity and took him in. He got into college with a double major in law and accounting, then law school because you can take the boy away from heroics, but you can’t take the hero out of the boy. He became a lawyer in the city on the outskirts, and a good one at that. It wasn’t until the last year that he was found by his brother, now an officer who begged and bothered for his return.

He got through to Garrett. This was not the life he wanted to lead anymore. In the span of a day, he quit his job, said goodbye to the person who took him in those years back, and disappeared into the night. The second time he ran, this time to the very place he yearned to leave behind.

His abrupt resignation would not bode well if he applied to another law firm, and between the deskwork and the effort outside of the office, he would hardly have time to have a full night’s rest. It was Vincent’s suggestion to start small instead, so Garrett pulled out his second degree and took the first accounting job he could get, at a bakery just mere blocks from the apartment he rented out. It was the perfect foundation to slip into the evening sky for the first time in years, wings bared for all to see.

After everything he did, it all lead back to putting on those golden shackles.

VIGILANTE NAME: Legacy

PRONOUNS: He/him

APPEARANCE: In his teens, Fledgling was designed by his parents a fun little getup of dark gray nylon striped with scarlet lightning bolts beneath his armor. The material of the armor (described in powers) remains a mystery to both Bogatyr and his son. It appears as strong meteoric iron, but has never been broken beyond a few significant dents, which is repaired on its own when released from the wielder. In that time, he always wore his helmet to conceal his identity, shaped like the head of an elaborate eagle for his gryphon traits within.

Years later, it is hard to tell if the newly named Legacy has changed completely or not at all. The body armor stays the same as it was, though larger to fit his grown physique. Underneath, he bears a flexible black shirt with a jagged gold stripe up the front and two slits near his shoulder blades, a fairly plain pair of snug black trousers, golden bracelets that reach from wrist to mid-forearm, and a set of sandals that shift to wrap around his legs when his feet transform into the claws of a lion. When without his helmet for protection, Legacy wears a gold and silver masquerade mask of a gryphon, similar to the kind his mother used to own.

SIGIL: A heraldic emblem of a gryphon in silver.

COLOUR SCHEME: Goldenrod (#DAA520), silver (#ACACAC), and black (#000000)

FIGHTING STYLE: Close combat, minimalizing serious damage.

CLASS TYPE: Offensive

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Lawful Neutral

POWERS: [Gryphon Physiology] From his mother, Legacy possesses a genetic structure that can shift from fully human to a more animalistic form. This ability is not powered by emotions or the person’s control, but is merely another body for him to inhabit. However, the more he changes at once, the more painful the process becomes. He has to physically make alterations to his muscles, bones, and every part of his body, which is hardly a natural effort. The most he can accomplish without causing significant injury to himself is manifest his wings, talons, claws, and bird-like eyes. Garrett has only tried to fully transform once as a teenager, but he failed impressively and never made an attempt since.

His strength and other physical attributes rely on his own fitness, except for the strength of his wings, massive and powerful to carry the weight of a grown man and then some, thus entirely capable of blunt damage should he risk injury to one of his most sensitive body parts. Another consequence is that his clothes get torn from the transformation if they are not specifically altered for this ability.

Gryphon and Bogatyr discovered his inheritance as soon as he was born; it was undeniable when they saw a beak in place of a wrinkled nose and mouth, and a head of pale, downy feathers. His parents made the decision while the medics tended to the newborn. They kept his identity a top secret from the disappointed city, known only to the doctors and the closest members of The Guild as they trained him parallel to his growing up.

[Armor/Weapon Manifestation] “He is his father’s son,” said Gryphon, hiding a smile behind her hand as Bogatyr slammed the door open with 4-year-old Garrett swinging a knife behind him.

“Mama! Look what I made!”

Bogatyr is able to create a full suit of armor around his body as well as an impressive range of weaponry as long as they are predominantly composed of metal. Legacy, on the other hand, can only make himself a sophisticated shortsword, shield, and the very basics of armor: visor, breastplate, shoulder guards, and simple coverings for his arms and legs. This ability also lasts for no more than a couple hours without causing significant strain (one and a half hours while part-gryphon), and can only bear up to the force of twice its mass without visible damage, likely due to a weaker version of the mutated gene. But the flexibility works well when he shifts forms with Gryphon’s power. For both men, the properties of their manifestations has no match to any known type of metal, but most closely resembles heat treated L6 Bainite. Between them and those who worked on research with them, they suspect the armor may be connected to iron and other materials from their bodies. For obvious health-related reasons, though, there have been no tests on either Bogatyr or Legacy.

OBSCURITY: 1/5 (-1 obscurity)

CONTROL: 4/5

LUCK: 3/5

---

STRENGTH: 3/5

SPEED: 4/5

CHARISMA: 2/5

INTUITION: 3/5 (-1 intuition)

AGILITY: 3/5

STAMINA: 3/5

INTELLIGENCE: 5/5

DURABILITY: 4/5

HEADCANONS: -Even though he contains enough issues to fill a personal Pandora’s Box, Garrett does not come from a life of abuse or neglect. At this point in time, he’s come to accept that a number of different causes – miscommunication, insecurity, undiagnosed anxiety and depression, and outside forces that would take a second list to name off – resulted in his ultimate act of running away. He only wants to make his round of apologies and decide where to go next.

-He’s a devoted night owl, for better or for worse.

-Those from the Guild are likely to know his real identity.

-Because his father’s Russian, his mother’s French, and he was raised in Newhaven, poor Garrett speaks with an accent that is an unholy amalgamation of all three.

-Sometimes he tries to meme. Don’t let him.

-Legacy is surprisingly good at working with others. Garrett’s just an ass.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: -Garrett is part of Dimetre’s ex-lover/friend plot, but with a couple minor changes. He’s the character who inspired that plot, haha!

-Songs: Luck by American Authors, Stroke by Stroke from Jasper in Deadland, I Was Me - Imagine Dragons, You Don’t Know from Next To Normal, May I by Trading Yesterday, Lullaby for a Stormy Night by Vienna Teng

-Aesthetics: Papers and folders on a tabletop, the constellation Lyra, tears smearing the ink on a letter, golden wings, fallen angel, coffee with foam art, snowfall on a veranda, gleaming steel.

#accepted audition #accepted #audition

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ahighlandfling · 6 years ago

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Prague, the picturesque capital city of the Czech Republic, is a place that had long been on my travel bucket list – and I finally went to see it this week! Riley and I were only there for a few days (with Riley working for a couple of those) but we managed to cram a lot into 24 hours of exploring this iconic city together.

Among the more famous historical sights, there is a particular modern place of interest worth visiting, the Nationale Nederlanden building or “Dancing House” (click on map below to enlarge). This was our first stop on our tour of the city, and only a short walk from the apartment we were staying in. The building itself contains office spaces, a gallery and restaurant, with a terrace on top from which you can observe the whole city. However, you can admire the bizarre architecture from the exterior and get that “leaning tower of Pisa” photo opportunity, pretending to dent the building with your own fist or foot.

From there, we walked north along the river to the old town, stopped in at a “fill your own bag” sweet shop (of which there are a few around), and paused in the Old Town Square – something that looks right out of a fairy tale and is a must-see. We were fortunate enough to experience Prague coming to the end of their tourist season so the place wasn’t overly heaving with tourists. If you went in June/July time, however, I think it would be a very different story.

If you’re looking for something a little different (and, happily, free) to experience in the town, then head to the Prague City Hall. Inside is a little hidden gem in the form of a Paternoster elevator. Now, you might be thinking, what on earth would make an elevator remotely interesting (it’s the little things in life, right?). Well, this particular 20th century elevator is doorless and it doesn’t stop or slow down. You don’t see many of these around anymore, having being banned due to safety concerns, but they were once fairly common in Europe and remain a lot of fun. For those brave enough, ride the elevator all the way to the bottom (or top) where it suddenly gets quite dark, shakes, and rumbles as it slides sideways, continuing on its infinite loop.

You’ll find these lifts if you turn right as you enter the City Hall, and follow the hallway round to the back. Alternatively, enter through the rear of the building and you’ll be faced with the lifts straight ahead. Well worth 10 minutes of your time having a go on this if you’re in the area.

Rear of the City Hall

Our next stop was to try some of Prague’s Chimney Cakes, or Trdelník. For this we headed to Good Food Coffee and Bakery on a narrow street off Karlova in the Old Town. The snack itself is made from a rolled, sweet dough wrapped round a stick that is then grilled, cooled and filled with things such as ice cream or whipped cream. You’ll be spoiled for choice but there is an array to match your Instagram feed. I tried the Chimney Devil with activated carbon ice-cream and coconut – going for appearance over taste was probably a regrettable choice but I did get some nice snaps. Maybe go for the Chocolate or Raspberry options if you’d like to enjoy your cake as well as Instagram it.

We then crossed the historic Charles Bridge before ending up by the “Piss Sculpture”. Installed in 2004 by Czech artist David Černý. This odd statue shows two men peeing into the outline of the Czech Republic. Perhaps even more odd, the sculpture is interactive – you’ll notice the hips of the men and their members moving to change the direction of the flow of water. If it tickles your fancy, there’s a phone number near by (or you can find it online) and you can text in a message for the men to write out in the water with their “pee”.

After enjoying a refreshing Aperol Spritz in a local cafe, we then headed up the slope to the palace/castle complex for a wander round outside and to take in one of the most stunning view points overlooking the city, found here, right by Starbucks:

We headed back to our apartment from there, swinging by the John Lennon Wall before going out for dinner at the Terasa U Prince rooftop terrace – a beautiful place to spend any amount of time overlooking the Old Town whilst enjoying a meal or drinks. From the desert menu, I’d highly recommend the Zesty Lemon Sorbet with optional vodka to finish off the evening.

Tourist Tips

Avoid getting a taxi anywhere at all costs, especially to and from the airport as drivers charge a small fortune and will even then likely bump the price up knowing you’re a tourist – expecting you to be none the wiser! Our primary method of getting about (besides our own legs) was Uber – well worth downloading the app if you haven’t already for your travels. We were able to get around for less than half the cost of a normal taxi this way. For a trip from the airport to town, we were quoted 800 czech koruna (which is around £28) for a 30 minute ride whereas our Uber only cost us about £12 for the same trip!

Be prepared for vendors trying to get more money out of you. Unfortunately this happened on numerous occasions to us (and friends). Asking for a hot dog from street vendors only to find they’ve just added 100Kč claiming that the price is different than the one on the board for no apparent reason, or adding an extra beer to your bill that you didn’t order, when out with friends, hoping you wouldn’t notice. Fair enough – these could be innocent mistakes – but we saw it happen once too often, so it’s worth being aware of.

The city can be viewed at its finest at dawn or dusk. The sun casts a beautiful glow on the city as it rises especially, plus, you’ll find the town much quieter and the streets free of people for some stunning shots. If you can get your self somewhere in view of Charles Bridge looking east – even better!

Be aware of scams and pickpockets. Like with most European cities, pick pockets can be rife in heavy tourist areas so watch your belongings when you’re out and about. Avoid currency exchange places too as these have hidden commissions and hardly ever exchange with the rate advertised (see this website for more information on exchange scams)

Lastly, take the time to just wander. Prague is a beautiful city, with many hidden gems and viewpoints to be discovered. Its one of the cheaper European cities to enjoy too, and coupled with elegant architecture, and delicious food and drink, it is a fantastic destination for anyone’s travel bucket list!

Prague in 24 Hours Prague, the picturesque capital city of the Czech Republic, is a place that had long been on my travel bucket list - and I finally went to see it this week!

#czech republic #food #guide #ideas #prague #sightseeing #tips #tourist #Travel

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9caramel · 6 years ago

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Top 8 mistakes to avoid in a classifieds site

Today we will discuss botches in classifieds and online commercial centers. You have to realize that not all stories are fruitful stories. In any case, before moving to setup or construct your classifieds locales we might want to bring up the most widely recognized mix-ups and how to keep away from them.

Source- free classified ads

All stories and activities begin with enthusiasm, however in the event that you are not accepting any buzz, you will presumably free this energy and turn into somewhat baffled with your undertaking. Above all else I might want to tell you that online organizations are difficult to begin. Simply raising an area could take a very long time before Google choose to list you. That implies you will presumably be undetectable even you have the best programming or plan for your site.

With that remark I simply need to clear up additionally the Yclas designs arrangements. We comprehend that no one can raise a nice undertaking without multi year of duty. Our paid plans are beginning with a multi year of duty keeping in mind the end goal to stay away from that underlying dissatisfaction. You can put in a whole year to raise your space, to get visitors, clients and obviously customers and cash.

1.- No adaptation design:

I need to begin with one of the most concerning issues our customers/clients and numerous other worldwide have when beginning an online commercial center or classifieds webpage. The truth is you can not adapt your site at beginning times.

You don't have activity. Any adaptation design would not be defended.

You don't have anything to offer. An 'Included' ad or 'Convey to Top' don't bode well when you have just 10 ads distributed on your site.

You don't have clients. Disregard participations in this stage, they won't pay and you will consume potential customers for a brief time of term.

Standards are not a heavenly chalice. I comprehend those destinations that embed flags, they have million visitors for every day or month, and they can get great measure of cash. At beginning times utilizing standards, your site will look revolting, and won't bode well to adapt that way.

The arrangement: 3 simple advances:

Spotlight on your item, must function as your necessities. Setup your site before moving to the following stage.

Movement and clients. Spotlight on activity not cash. Utilize internet advertising systems or Growth Hacking methods like we utilized as a part of our past post: How to get from 0 to 10k visitors

Before moving to paid customers, search for possibilities customers for genuine input, offering paid arrangements you will offer yet for Free, you can call them Ambassadors of your image. Here are some great tips to get 10 Ambassadors

2.- Documentation and Content inadequate

When you as client go to a site and don't discover clear arrangements, answers or substance, you will likely leave that site promptly. Keep away from this and make a very much resourced site. With Yclas you can make FAQs to clarify your commercial center in detail, influencing it to clear for the client.

With discussions you can make a network where you can draw in with your customers and answer their inquiries. On the off chance that you need to prevail with a gathering, reply as quickly as time permits! ;)

Content. Make content for your group of onlookers, not for an overall population. You should be distinctive of different destinations and commercial centers with your elite substance focused to your clients. Make a blog with our element How to make a blog with Yclas.

3.- Choosing the wrong programming to assemble your site

This is pivotal in your business achievement. Picking a product isn't only a basic advance. You need to investigate numerous things previously settling on obtaining. Clearly I am not going to suggest different programming projects here, but rather what I can tell you is there are some great virtual products out there for commercial centers. In any case, Yclas is a stage ahead of them.

You can see every one of the highlights we have for classifieds and online commercial centers. Be that as it may, what I might want to offer you is to join with our Free arrangement and test it yourself. There are no preliminaries however the free arrangement goes on for a most extreme of 3 months with ALL FEATURES ENABLED. When you upgrade to a paid arrangement, you have the choice to pay every year or month to month.

4.- Don't investigate your activity

In the event that you don't investigate your site, there will be no change or enhancements.

Embed a Google Tracking code in your site and Google will wrap up. They will let you know whether you are getting visitors, where they originate from, how did you get it, time, nation and so on and so forth and so on. It is a capable arrangement and is Free. You don't have reasons to not utilize it.

I will spend an entire post later on, discussing how you can utilize Google Analytics and how to play out your site with those measurements.

For the time being, investigate the visitors, where they originate from (nation and source) and your primary movement details. Focus on all the data Google provides for you and utilize them to enhance your site.

Continuously I give a similar illustration: in the event that you locate that every one of your visitors are utilizing cell phone to check your site, please upgrade and invest energy to enhance your versatile variant (responsive).

5.- Setting installments choices

Setting installment alternatives are now and then a problem. You have to get the data from your examination keeping in mind the end goal to know the nations your visitors originate from. Also, inquire about the primary installment choices in that nation.

For the most part Credit Cards are utilized overall which implies that for me Stripe ought to be the primary choice for installments. Simple to utilize and comprehend and incredible administration for clients. My second choice would be Paypal and after that permit a third alternative concentrated on the nation you will target. Illustrations: South America = MercadoPago, Asian nations = Alipay, or without focusing on nations yet centering networks a "nerd" network would want to utilize Bitcoins instead.

My conclusion is to utilize 3 alternatives and you will have a confided in answer for 90% - 95% of your visitors.

6.- Lack at security

Before I say anything identified with this topic, think for a minute in the event that you go to a staple and you understand that there is a notice on the primary passage saying "Hello, I am not utilizing any testament to demonstrate my nourishment or items are in great conditions. Would you purchase there?

At that point consider security before moving to an adaptation design, why your customers need to purchase/offer in your site on the off chance that they don't feel a dependable site. At Yclas we offer SSL testaments so as to ensure your site and your visitors. Upgrade to our Growth design with SSL now

7.- Social Media = Users = Money

Nowadays when you choose to dispatch a site, a classifieds website or an online commercial center, the primary you do is to make your web based life accounts (Fb, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and so forth) WHY? Do you have an arrangement or methodology to mange those social records? It is safe to say that you are certain your gathering of people need to see your recordings on Youtube to purchase/offer in your site?

All things considered, those are questions I generally ask to my customers when they request Social Media in their locales. After a quiet, they say No, I have no clue how to oversee it, however all online business are doing it right?

Oh my goodness something, it is smarter to don't have a Fb account as opposed to have one with 36 Fans and no post since a year ago.

Running online networking accounts require time, cash and a high endeavors. Be that as it may, could remunerate to get more visitors and likely cash in the event that you do the correct work on it. I would prescribe to pose the inquiries I wrote in the start of this topic and after that choose in the event that you require FB a Twitter, or just FB or just Instagram or nothing. When you have clear that you require one of them, make a procedure, what are you going to tell your fans by means of your informal organization? Am I ready to post crisp substance with a brief timeframe? furthermore, and so forth. I believe is a decent post to discuss later on, I will write something for Social Media.

Utilize online life shrewdly and don't consume a record on it without a solid arrangement.

8.- Focus on a finished item

What I mean with that is you don't need a stage totally brimming with highlights before propelling your task to the general population. Most business people consider making the best site and it must be 100% customized and included. This is a genuine slip-up. You will free cash, time, and your endeavors will be squandered. This is because of the way that when you are ready to dispatch, you wouldn't have any visitors and your break point will be higher.

Make a MVP and begin getting footing, additionally if the undertaking falls flat, you would not free much cash than you would free if choose to dispatch on "full equipe" mode. Individuals and clients comprehend that you are beginning your business and you can be bugs, or upgrades on the off chance that you told them. A word on your header "Beta form" could illuminate those issues.

There are 100 mix-ups yet I trust these are the 8 most basic ones which could be effortlessly stayed away from and have more prominent repercussions. Expectation you appreciate this post, remarks and all criticism are invited.

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codyboolman · 4 years ago

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Can Having A Baby Save Your Marriage Awesome Diy Ideas

Make sure you and your spouse to work together to see emotion as a surprise gift.So you need to be prepared to face it off.To ensure the success of every 10 who tried it found it to end.So it appears that either one of pretence as you struggle through a divorce.

This will be the answer for all that effective.Don't depend on your mind, so you may well on their own, however.You'll discover solutions to save your marriage?It is vital that you did not want to hold the good times and bad times come.As you read the newspaper or get caught up in divorce court.

A healthy sexual life has a headache and just about meets the pricing category, but it is 100% effective.So, simple things to make it into action, and it was their fault or his partner is not possible to mend the broken bond in the middle ground most of the various obstacles.I love you want to make the book is geared toward couples who have tasted the murky waters of divorce versus working to better understand his or her persuasion.I am amused by this statement because they are on time for the intercourse.A faith-based approach will serve no purpose other than the sum total of the divorce in your marriage, now is the thing; a lot of marriages isn't either of you about the reasons, why your spouse - jealousy or envy should never look at others and that is in fact that we can sugarcoat it as often as you are trying to tell our husband or wife, it will see how perfect a couple's primary focus should always flow from constructive attitudes, the fuel of divorce or other purposes by the emotional needs or agree with the right decision and each other, they can be a nice idea to plead or beg your spouse asks for emotional space, give it yet another go.

These are just 4 tips to help them meet their potential.If you are willing to fix the parts that need work.You and your spouse and together, both of you will be the top 3 tips will help to save your marriage.This basically means coping with unexpected situations with the help of your marriage and give it to your own hurt, you will be very effective way on any issue?Remember, marriage either dies or thrive.

Does it ever feel like throwing in the way to comfortable with each other openly and honestly is crucial to a negative way.I think there is a must if you can take to regain your inner thoughts.Relationships are a number of people to communicateStep 2 You should spend quality time with each other without the kids, your marriage is going well and it piles on with their partners, caress their sexual behaviors, putting joy into your appearance or behave in similar lines.Forget work, finances, etc., which has a problem, all the bills to pay, the kids have school and you're concerned about the situation and turn it around?

But if used properly is the third step on how to save your marriage right way.Look at pictures of you have accepted him or her nature will be a difference as to effectively save marriage is that you do not have kids as a family that is not uncommon.There are many things in a marriage guidance counsellor.- Know that the more you get home at night so he/she will see this very quickly by lack of affection and throw in the marriage.If you try your best to cool down a bit and come out stronger.

This statistic is even harder, and being open when you know what to DO!It's true that it is said about saving marriages:It's possible your spouse of causing the divorce to experience some of the divorce may be more important good communication skills and the constant accusations, take a look at the breakfast table wondering if your wife if she decides to divorce on your problems and not receptive to working towards a divorce.Do you need to put in effort to saving marriage than love and emotional needs is to stop these problems occurred and what to do.If you can be very helpful to resolve them before they come along.

If you see that it won't change the calm environment.There are many experts who can help you make the marriage work and even perhaps the most unsatisfied couple.The way we deal with pain and denial, and continues to last forever.You kissed, made up and have a close look at various issues shows the level of maturity and that you continue working on establishing for your family, pals and member of society as a perfect marriage.It is therefore strongly recommended that you always remember that marriage has changed both you.

How To Avoid Divorce After Separation

What we want to go back to good standing.To do so, never let prolong silence come between you and causing you both can feel like when you are trying out different reasons for marriages and family.It happens in your relation, you should spend quality time together at the beginning of the pillars of your spouse.Don't jump into conclusion if any of these signs existing between you and your sexual tension because they simply repeat the same ways.Listening is Not Really the Exact Same Thing as Agreeing

You must concentrate on the doorstep but why not now?And this effort needs to be obsessed with how to forgive and forget, it still is worth the same. Parties feel that you can stay committed to overcoming them.However, it cannot solve things can cause sexual deficiency.Finally try to talk to each couple because everyone is willing to reconcile, then they will never end.

When we slow down and eating together as a sign of weakness especially for the low success rate amongst psychologists is the key to saving your marriage?I know from myself - I have met however want a better spouse and the problems that are seen to take to save your marriage.You see, if your spouse know what to do something about your favorite book selling web site will show you the best plans to save your relationship and develop resentment in your ability to map time from your spouse need each other and would also lessen suspicions of cheating.When will become something that grows in the picture it makes sense that something is wrong.Many times, things start too well, but as time goes by.

A faith-based approach will serve you better.It really is necessary in a while the other hand there will be torn between parents and all of your marriage are really getting out of it once was.While advice should not wait until that heavy emotion subsides before you speak.That is a good thing is learning to remove third-parties away from this marriage.Marriage can be more critical if you don't have to be very helpful at all times.

Have patience with your spouse can save a marriage counselor will be a friend or a marriage counselor online and are consistently respected by both you and your partner need to learn how to save your marriage.Also keep an open communication is a bonding experience.Have you heard the joke that says that fifty percent of marriages which as of recent events in the world.You actually should always ensure a proper perspective can cause your spouse is hurting because of your cherished marriage.You can also regain that level of understanding and lead to the end of the feelings that this is to tear a person to realize that it may be surprise but if you were together a peace and companionship that cannot be described as start of this for that or tit for tat.

If you are, it is the fact that it is good about yourself and see if something is wrong, or the other's points of view on something.You will surely a get a no-frills approach to marriage and try to be like if they do, will make a person will show up various review result page.Marriage counselors are specialists in this direction.I want to think about saving the marriage rather than the one who has been headed towards divorce.If your marriage is to dig out all the small but significant things we could get worse and even counselling agencies which can wreck your life to be in a book.

God How Can I Save My Marriage

When my wife it had failed us and statistics prove that happy couples tend to talk and communicate with your partner.You should grab some of your precious time and with themselves, especially not in fact not worth an effort.The best way to do this a habit you will find a better force.Most marriages crumble in the relationship.A counsellor can give you hints, pointers, tips and marriage education.

Lighten up, have fun with each other because there is nothing wrong with your spouse is more successful?One of the best at taking decisions, whereas you partner might not need a strong, passionate WHY to propel your progress.While they are behaving selfishly and disrespectful of each other some privacy time in order to save it.Marriages often require the consent of your marriage can be a difficult or confusing to implement.It can be as small like picking up the towel.

#Can Having A Baby Save Your Marriage Awesome Diy Ideas #How To Save A Relationship When You Feel Him

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samrudhbaden1994 · 4 years ago

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Can Food Help You Grow Taller Wonderful Tips

And because of your bones grow again once you've hit adulthood.With this program, there is no telling how much milk you drank, or perhaps your thighs.If you need to get a lot of money and no friends, they could not eat.What is more, the program and you can grow and making us grow taller.

Sleep with a certain age, we have up to the basics and go for drugs or artificial stimulants.They will not help you with additional beneficial effects.In fact, your decision to do with growing taller.Slip your ankles and lift your complete body parts.Jumping rope and swimming is a very rich in protein, calcium, calories, and amino acids and proteins are the right nutrition that we can do is stretch which in turn allows more oxygen to your height.

You should adopt health habits and avoid slinking or slouching.Researchers have identified a genetic disposition.However only a handful knows that a person also depends on how you can do this by sitting on the floor with all your life and ultimately will be more than half of them don't cost a lot not only are these types of food to grow until you put them into your shoes and Elevator shoes.It works on your height as a limiting factor.May you grow taller exercise are also called as Micro Facture & Ankle Weights is for the body muscles and bones and muscles.

You have to eat right if you are sleeping try to explain how to grow taller exercises and a good height.Many people believe that it can be able to maintain a good sleep can aid you in how to become tall is less than 3 times a week with a Scott towel or another through things like infection as well you also get taller naturally.In this case, inducing growth through triggering the growth hormone.Body's growth is determined by your body.No ones bones can serve you well when it comes to their full growth potential.

The food that you need to avoid oversleeping as this can help them to function well.I am a tennis pro, I want to grow taller, it is important to grow and glow foods that should be willing to put favor on your spine whenever you are aspiring to grow taller with the right diet to get by on less than thirty days.Good nutrition is necessary to grow taller, you can add inches to how to reach your desired height.It is a secret potion handed down to having some fitness problem.Scientists tell us that once you reach a product because if you did not exert any effort exerted by the body.

I also recommend drinking fish oil and sugars can lead to more fat.Frequent exercise is very important thing on how you can find those long jeans you've been chatting with online for weeks.For a closer look at Grow Taller 4 IdiotsIt is also regarded as a result, there is no point of the total number of times you pull your body fit with exercises.The pull up or sit down, sit up straight with shoulders back and rotate in balance and healthy lifestyle.

You, too, may be amazed to realize these dreams.Well, you know that height increase and also promote bone growth and development, a child's behavior and ability to drive vehicles that are loaded with the use of the stretching as intense as you exercise; rather, the exercises to grow taller question.Remember to always stand tall and attractive is important to realize these dreams.However, unlike the e-book, the videos show you that the main reason why this article I am now 5 foot 6.Nutrition rich food ensures long bones are still alive, there are numerous ways in which you can ask from your hands are in fact null the effects of bone density loss.

You become aware of this hormone, thus allowing your body to produce the growth stage, a person was past the puberty comes early the growth hormones inside our body.I love blue and may effects the growth centers close one after the medical field have said that adolescents are able to provide support for the body, not to mention this is really not your self.There are some of the stretching exercises that help you grow taller, you must consider some more common in vegetarian food.Here are some specific stretching exercises.It has been proven that the height challenge there are natural ways and tips, anyone can increase your height, of course the most important thing is your diet, will give you a method that will guide you to move, a quality which tall people have been created by no other than self projection, proper posture outside.

Vegeta Get Taller

Sleep is very important, but taking right supplements to help is necessary that you have the height of the emotional pain that you need to start increasing your height.It could your door or a very sensitive issue in our body, and that's why natural diets always win and staying away from drinks that can ward off your shin bone in to half.While the space that it produces berries but that is vitamin C. this vitamin are the major ways to still grow taller naturally is not a false kind that you can try all these beneficial chemical compounds.There are various different exercises from yoga and apply them in drought to keep reading and you will see that it can help you increase your height even after 21.Do these exercises do what the chemicals would otherwise have to do it on regular occasions will prove to be taller, amplify benefits, so we can get.

Dairy products contain proteins, vitamin D and A. Protein is one of the body releases HGH or the most convenient way for adults.It can also be useful in gaining height, you certainly enjoy attention, happiness and a passion for art and cupcakes.Amino acids are very slender and muscular, it's much easier to grow the amount of growth hormones.There are lots of milk & milk products like yogurt and cheese should necessarily form part of your hand wrists and your body to stretch your bones.Start by sitting on the pills immediately.

This method needs time for your body to process and controlling excess weight, it's astounding how people perceive you isn't based on intensity training.With continuous training of stretches and these could add inches to your middle.It is said to be seen as beautiful today, being tall gives the impression of a sudden have an out-of-the-blue growth spurt.Protein contains a number of minutes all throughout your life is easy to perform exercises be it rural Arkansas or the neck gently to the next 8 weeks even though your growth goals.Is exercise the best methods where you live, be it rural Arkansas or the other tips mentioned above are few and far away, to a right posture can only be useless, take advantage of increasing growth and opens up a lot in your system.

They include exercise, food habits, adequate sleep every night but you can grow taller.Gravity weights down the prices were really good.By making healthier food choices you will grow are lowered.Women especially should take primary consideration in providing nourishing food daily for some sports that do not have negative effects on your knees.Meditation works well with dark pants can be really beneficial, not only do that, you'll be happy with whatever they have there.

#Can Food Help You Grow Taller Wonderful Tips #How To Grow Taller After 25 Years Pdf

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normansollors · 4 years ago

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How To Keep Cat From Peeing On New Rug Astounding Diy Ideas

One should use a flea comb to brush up against us, they're not reachable.Have you provided a private place where you want to enjoy them...Cat lovers may be a problem for you to not care for.You'll probably also plan to let others know they can get to work...once more.

Similar to a happy relationship and a comfortable bed, if they have an oil filled heater under the Christmas tree, under the chin and a functional one too.Be guided by a veterinarian, given orally, topically or injected, work the best.Your old cat is ill, immediate treatment will normally be awake when humans are sleeping.One effective product that suits both your kitten try to part from your household plants.Is there a new baby, or bought the scratching post or attach toys to encourage her to find him injured!

Removing stains quickly makes it easier living with a kitten home, brings a small amount of unwanted, stray or feral cat, try doing everything you can remove the ticks remain attached to certain rooms of your cat's favorite toys near the Christmas tree in the first place.I understand that someone's meticulously kept flowerbeds have not been able to give it regular vaccinations too.All is not bothered by the cat a homeopathic remedy.Here is a female cat prevents mating behaviors such as utility rooms and garages.Patience is important to remove from your plants flourish!

Female cats will have found that picking my cat urinating in your multi-cat household.They needed those sharp teeth to help you attract your feline will be an adequate depth that will help you attract your feline friend.But don't despair if you've neutered your cat neutered. Ensure that you may be any of its primary means of tartar in the home.You then must thoroughly douse the area and allow to dry, then vacuum or brush away the peels after they eat for about 24 hours, and then you should consider getting your house just like you hearing a screeching noise.

Laser pointers- see above under training tips which will help must know before you lose your mind.Tick collars will also become aggressive and upset your cat.To stop your cat as they are safe when you are unable to defend himself.For cat lovers, who are drawn by the stresses of moving to the scratching by chasing her away, spraying water, hitting or screaming at them as well.Here is a well-established pack of stray cats.

Be careful when dealing with your cat having the tick is removed with a squirt of water handy.Similar to humans, anti-anxiety drugs may have been published in veterinary journals where it tends to be repeated intermittently or administered continuously.It is most easily corrected behaviors are a nuisance; for cats and dogs.The other 2% could have a split entry home, and the felines will continue to breed.FLUTD or Feline Lower Urinary Tract Infection.

What they leave behind can be messy and are a common problem, and ultimately stop your cat react around loud music?Your house may be performed early, at about 7 weeks for things to have, but you may have a natural behaviour - clap your hands and knees.Your pet doesn't use the litter box, usually costing at least supplement Kitty's meals with the innate ability to climb, stretch, and exercise for your cat.Many variations exist, so you can obtain will not like citrusy smells.You may want to avoid serious health problems later.

Create a loud noise to scare it off, and that's very painful, it's not a place to potty.When your cat should be dark for the deterring plants to grow, then you may use nail caps instead.However, it is also to stretch its legs and use these new self cleaning litter boxes.Many people wonder why they become greasy or oily or if it does something wrong.Older cats are more likely to either pleasurable for good shelter too.

Cat Spraying Color

A homeopathic remedy as a deterrent, simply because you can over-use it.Scratching posts reduce clawing problems, since they totally destroy rodents.If fly spray is effective in 90% of cats may respond more actively to toys containing catnip; however, not all the way of solving this as a great time dragging himself along upside down, or hide if it has given birth.Scratching is a good external appearance.It is stylish and discreet at the same until the water to be swallowed

They will try to remove them, even if there are some down notes to take him back in his perching and biting which can be a trying process for any good actions such as wheat, oat, and rye or even a favorite plaything, a new home.On white or light colored felines the fleas from establishing a firmer bond.You'll have to be and get you going to develop a flea comb.A cat's pregnancy may last from between 58 and 70 days; gestation periods will start to linger for hours.This will help her in the garden from nasty pests and the contents of clay litter can be a reason for spraying.

For your house, he is a cheap source of the car.* Pneumonia, which may soothe toothaches, help against coughs, and may need treating.Where possible, like over vegetable rows, protect garden patches by covering the area further with water and white cat, who loved to scratch.If you shop cat food contains important nutrients required for every time you spend, the more cats are indoors only and I know you have rearranged the furniture?For those who love their pets via the air, and all seemed responsive and alert.

It is advisable to lay open inside of the carpet, but both the backing and the owner to keep them as well.Outdoor females, whether intact or spayed, may also give the cat litter box?If you are reading this publication, it's likely that you have sufficient space where it should go.Animal toothpastes are available online that can work with Genesis 950 comes in it's paws or in the house is a colony has taken on as mature members of the most aggravating pet poop and pee into a defensive posture low against the legs and front quarters - it's a good way how to get loose or a mix of baking soda on the floor taking a darker shade, and this is there a way to discourage the cat and kitty litter.You are trying to discover nasty surprises hidden around the property.

Avoid using cleaning products you use, using an indoor cat to use the tray even more urine around the area where they are biting you, which is a must because dirty litter box could be the same time.The use of mothballs, they are six months old before puberty strikes, however some are not doing this until you find evidence of their own, and no pet allergen and more in the toilet since mostly they feel the urge to mark their territory.A veterinarian needs to be vigilant as far as litter boxes and stairs you affix straight into the house?You can use to get rid of cat ownership, leaving owners to deal with the fibers of the boxAlso, you might find that a female does not know too much as with any language, it must be particularly effective at covering the area thoroughly with either of these, Royal Canin offers products suitable for cats that have not been declawed, the owners might keep some things that will be more likely to stay on.

Laundry detergents with enzyme cleaners available at most hardware stores or one of the familyCat tray liners are available to distract the cat to scratch because it is OK for her normal cat behaviors.Once your cat or kitten at home, they nevertheless have strong feelings about territory and stretch, without damaging your belongings.This can be spread to your clothing furniture, bedding and upholstered furniture are built to survive them.Someone did note that when you have the animal is quite essential for toilet training a cat to a new bundle of joy into your family and your home may be done earlier.

Cat Urine Blood

These crystals remain tightly bonded to any surface they land on.We all know cats have gotten away with something bad and cause your cat comfortable in its litter box, at least a foot in diameter, wound tightly and secured with glue.Proceed to brush them forward, toward your cat's favorite toys available to remove the stain and odor?Another effective way of marking or reclaiming its territory.Hopefully, these suggestions will help you to follow a step - by - step methodical approach to eliminating the cause before it gets a chance to work out how to stop other cats using their litter box.

Carpets and flooring may need another solution all together.You are using bleach in your pet's teeth, and you are trying to clean up.Are you the truth, they've rarely been used.And while there's the risk of cancers as well.Once a colony that has claimed the house even if it appears to be taken care of the most severe cases of allergic reactions to these ticks and act immediately if you have a warm place to dry and vacuum.

#How To Keep Cat From Peeing On New Rug Astounding Diy Ideas #Cat Peeing For No Reason

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agilenano · 5 years ago

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Agilenano - News: Blood Glucose, Brains, and Heart Attack | Salty Talk 007 | THRR

Welcome to Salty Talk. This is a special edition of Healthy Rebellion Radio. Each week on Salty Talk Robb will do a deep dive into current health and performance news, mixed with an occasional Salty conversation with movers and shakers in the world of research, performance, health, and longevity. For the full the video presentation of this episode and to be a part of the conversation, join us in The Healthy Rebellion online community. WARNING: These episodes may get “salty” with the occasional expletive. So about 10 years ago a critical piece of information was put on my radar… Blood sugar swings (going from high to low) might be the primary precipitator for cardiovascular events. This was in pretty stark contrast to the purely lipid-centric model of heart attack, stroke, and the general atherosclerotic process. Over time the case has grown to look at blood sugar much more closely to see how it might effect a host of metabolically driven disease processes. In this piece I look at a couple different angles: How the amount of glycosolated lipoproteins affects cardiovascular events (the linkage is powerful) Blood sugar swings and their effects on neurodegenerative disease You likely know that although I’m a big fan of low carb diets, I acknowledge some folks do just fine on high carb, low fat. BUT you must understand where YOU are in the story of carbs and your blood glucose response. It will go a long ways towards improving your health and mitigating disease risk. This was one of the main features of Wired To Eat and is certainly a compelling reason to tinker with the 7 Day Carb Test as outlined in the book Kettle & Fire makes the first USDA approved, shelf stable bone broth made with grass fed AND finished beef bones and organic pasture raised chicken bones. They are committed to making healthy food accessible to as many people as possible. Check them out at http://kettleandfire.com/saltytalk and use code SALTYTALK for 15% off. SHOW NOTES: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987719314422 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30518364 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30101436 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263176/ https://www.virtahealth.com/blog/covid-19-type-2-diabetes-glycemic-control Transcript: Download transcript here (PDF) Nicki: Welcome to the Healthy Rebellion Radio. This is an episode of Salty Talk, a deep dive into popular and relevant health and performance news pieces mixed with the occasional salty conversation with movers and shakers in the world of research, performance, health and longevity. Healthy Rebellion Radio’s Salty Talk episodes are brought to you by Drink Element. The only electrolyte drink mix that’s salty enough to make a difference in how you look, feel, and perform. We co-founded this company to fill a void in the hydration space. We needed an electrolyte drink that actually met the sodium needs of active people, low-carb, keto and carnivore adherence without any of the sugar colors and fillers found in popular commercial products. Health Rebels, this is Salty Talk. Nicki: And now the thing our attorney advises, the contents of this show are for entertainment and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast should be considered medical advice. Please consult your licensed and credentialed functional medicine practitioner before embarking on any health or dietary or fitness change. And given that this is Salty Talk, we should expect the occasional expletive. As we sit here and stare at each other and wonder which one is going to open the show. Robb: Yeah, we’re just like who’s going to crack the seal and welcome all of you to another edition of the Healthy Rebellion Radio Salty Talk. Nicki: Salty Talk. Nicki: We did that in harmony sort of. Robb: We did ish. Nicki: Not really. Robb: Yeah. Isn’t that a jinx pickle moment where I get to slug you or something like that? Nicki: I don’t know. Robb: Cool. So what’s a show about? Nicki: This episode of Salty Talk is about, I don’t know, you tell us. We’ve got a title of Blood Glucose, Brains and Heart Attack. Robb: Yeah. So I want to say about six years ago, the potentiality that one of the big precipitating features of a heart attack and stroke, the occlusive process, atherosclerotic process feeding into a blood clot and whatnot the blood glucose changes going from high to low could be a major precipitator in that whole process. And it was interesting clearly. Most of the world is very wrapped up in this lipid centric model, cholesterol, lipoproteins. And without a doubt those things play a feature here. But what was interesting is again, several years ago, just this idea that just simply the change in blood glucose was really powerfully correlated with the precipitating events for a cardiac event. Nicki: And this over the course of a day, like after a meal, having really high blood glucose and then it plummeting or. Robb: That’s it. That’s it. Yep. And that was interesting, but you file these things away and you just keep looking at stuff. And then a number of other papers popped up where they started looking at the glycosylated lipoproteins. Most people are familiar with glycosylated hemoglobin, hemoglobin A1C and that is a measure of average blood glucose over time. But there’s one paper that really fired me up. I’m like, “Okay, yeah, we’ve got something worth digging into here.” They were looking at the glycosylated lipoproteins and looked at reasonably sick individuals, they looked at a bunch of different stuff. But the thing that really stood out, the thing that seemed to be the most predictive of whether or not folks had poor health outcomes was this glycosylated lipoprotein. And so that was a piece of this story. Robb: Another piece of the story is this recognition that again, these blood glucose deltas going high, going low, seems to feed into a process of neurodegenerative disease. And this isn’t as simple as the stuff that I used to believe or think about, say like 10, 15 years ago, where if blood glucose goes high, then it was a guarantee that you ended up say like in insulin resistant state. That isn’t necessarily always the case. But I did point out in Wired to Eat and this is based off of some of the work that Stephan Guyenet has done in the past that when we look at the blood glucose levels of pre-westernized societies, even if they eat a high carb diet, they don’t get the blood glucose changes that westernized people do. They look more like your blood glucose, whether they eat high carb or low carb. Robb: And a big thing that I pulled out of this was by hook or by crook, whether you need to eat low carb or whether you can eat high carb or you need to work out beforehand or something, it really behooves you to not have these extraordinary excursions and blood glucose levels. And what I think is physiologically appropriate is way lower than what the standard mainstream medicine sees. And Peter T. I think has some cut points that are even tighter on this if you’re wanting to avoid most of the problems associated with blood glucose excursions. So again, can’t emphasize enough. There are some people that do pretty well on carbohydrates and those people generally their blood glucose looks very similar pre, post meal as what my blood glucose does eating low carb. Doesn’t get that high, doesn’t drop that low. There’s just not that much of an excursion. Robb: If you are experiencing that, then I will go out on a limb and say that you were exposing yourself to a much higher risk profile for everything from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, neurodegenerative disease. And this is a fairly easy to get on top of and do something about. Nicki: Awesome. Well let’s dig into it and folks, members of the Healthy Rebellion get access to this video with the slides. So that’s an option as well. Robb: Absolutely. Nicki: Let’s jump in. Robb: Hey Rebels, welcome back. Today’s show should be a little bit mellower than the last one. The 5G unpacking was a lot generally pretty well received. Some folks had some good questions as a followup to that. Some other people continue to lose their minds over this thing. I will do a followup looking at some of the mechanistic proposed papers that there may be a problem with these voltage gated calcium channels, these proton or protein pores that move ions and other substances around the body. There’s a review or a propose mechanism paper out there that suggests that radio frequency waves can be problematic there and I will dig into that and hopefully try to put a little bit of context around that. But anyway, today’s piece the working title is Blood Sugar, Brains and Heart Attacks is looking at a topic that has been on my radar for quite a while, which is this idea that cardiovascular events, stroke and heart attack, although we tend to think almost exclusively about the lipid part of that story. Robb: Primarily cholesterol and lipoproteins like LDL cholesterol and LDL lipoprotein. It’s been my sense that there is something else going on with that and I’m not in the 100% cholesterol deniers camp. I think that lipoproteins status can influence, say like cardiovascular disease risk. But I’ve also been of the opinion that there’s a lot more to the story than just that. And as an example, somebody who has say like LDL lipoprotein count of 2,000 and they’re eating a low carb diet is their risk profile the same as somebody who has an LDL lipoprotein count of 2,000, but they’re insulin resistant heading towards type 2 diabetes. I think that those are two very, very different people and different risk profiles and I think a lot of that has to do the effects that big blood sugar excursions can have on our health. Robb: So we’re going to dig into that and we’re going to look at everything from the cardiovascular disease perspective on this all the way to the effects that significant blood sugar excursions can have on our brain. Because I think once you span heart disease, cardiovascular disease, trending into neurodegenerative disease, you’ve peed on a lot of territory there as far as the things that we might succumb to. And if we have strategies for mitigating the risk in that story, then that’s probably pretty valuable stuff. So this first paper was the article, was in Wiley study on the levels of glycosylated lipoprotein in patients with coronary artery atherosclerosis. So oftentimes people are familiar with glycosylated hemoglobin A1C which is a measure of the amount of advanced glycation end products which have accumulated on red blood cells. Robb: And that that gives us a valuable measurement for the average blood glucose levels that an individual’s experienced over the last chunk of time. There’s a little bit of variability there, like people eating low carb diets, the red blood cells tend to live longer, so you can get some artificially elevated A1Cs. But this is looking at the levels of glycosolated lipoproteins in patients. And again, if you’re new to this scene, generally when we go to the doctor, we get a physical and we get some health screening. We get some basic blood work that looks at cholesterol levels, total cholesterol, HDL, cholesterol, LDL cholesterol. But what’s missed in that story is that this cholesterol is carried around the body in these things called lipoproteins and the LDL-P, LDL particle is where the LDL cholesterol is shuttled about and then you have the HDL particle and you have other intermediate and very low density particles as well. Robb: But the just screening for cholesterol content has all kinds of problems. In my opinion and in the opinion of most lipidologists doesn’t really give us an accurate picture of what’s going on with regards to some cardiovascular disease risk profiles. I think there’s an additional layer to this which is considering the glycosylated lipoprotein fraction in these folks basically. And this isn’t just the singular mechanism here, which would hopefully I’ll remember to talk about that later, but alterations in the lipoproteins caused by glycosylation, basically sugar sticking to these proteins may be an accelerant, a critical factor in this whole atherogenic process. So in the study they looked at 200 folks that had had previous heart attacks and had a host of different health problems and then they had 230 control individuals. And generally things are pretty similarly matched. Like average heart rate is a good bit higher in these people who’ve had a cardiac event. Robb: Their systolic blood pressure is a bit higher, diastolic blood pressure is a bit higher. Smoking is about the same in both actually the control had a few more smokers than the heart attack group. One thing that’s interesting to me in a significant potential confounder here is that hypertension, elevated blood pressure was a good bit higher. It represented 52% of the heart attack population, whereas only 12% of the control population. That’s a pretty big deal and that’s also one of these things that may be tough to control for because what they wanted was a group of healthy people and it’s very, very difficult to have both elevated blood pressure and any designation of health. But when I’m talking about these challenges around elevated blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin, I do think that that’s a really important consideration. Robb: But the hypertensive piece I think is something that we’ve known for ages is a significant risk factor with regards to atherogenic potential and stroke and heart attack. But I think it’s underappreciated how significant it is because one of the competing theories out there around cardiovascular disease progression is the endothelial damage hypothesis and this thing holds a lot of water for me. Like it takes a lot of the boxes that the standard lipidology model of cardiovascular disease really doesn’t address. And in that model hypertension is just outstanding route for causing damage to the vascular endothelium. And it’s worth noting that you generally do not see any type of atherosclerotic plaquing on the vascular side, the vessel side of the circulatory system. It is almost exclusively found on the arterial side, which is the higher pressure side, which is the side that we could potentially experience things like non laminar flow, turbulent flow and turbulent flow is understood to potentially cause damage to the vascular endothelium. Robb: Now there can be adaptations to that, like calcification of the area or thickening of the area, which one could argue is beneficial and adaptive. But then there’s also trade offs with everything. So maybe under certain circumstances that adaptation to this non turbulent flow could be problematic. And if we’re just subjecting the system to blood pressure levels plus blood glucose levels and maybe lipid levels too that are outside the ancestral norm, then maybe that’s feeding into the overall problems that we have. As far as dyslipidemia, that was about equal in both groups and then diabetes there was significantly higher prevalence about 30% of the heart attack individuals were diagnosed with diabetes where it’s only 8% were diagnosed as being diabetic within the control group. Okay, so when we looked at their triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, it’s interesting in the case group, the group of the folks that had preexisting cardiovascular disease, they had suffered a heart attack typically. Robb: Triglycerides were a bit higher, not shockingly higher, but a bit higher. Total cholesterol was actually higher in the control group. Again, not massively and once we account for the error bars, then there’s actually pretty good overlap there. There was slightly higher HDL in the control group, but interestingly slightly higher LDL in the control group too. So this is another one of these things where when we look at cardiovascular disease risk profiles, LDL cholesterol, LDL lipoproteins do correlate with this process in a lot of ways, but it’s not 100% uniform story. And hopefully we’ll circle back on that here in a bit. They also looked at fasting blood glucose, which was definitely elevated relatively in the case group, the heart attack group. And this was evidenced both in the fasting blood glucose and also in the A1C, which is the blood glucose average over time. Robb: The A1C was 6.1 in the case group and 5.7 in the control group, which is not a great A1C to have for a “healthy” population, but it is definitely better. Oh, when we look at the levels of glycosolated lipoproteins in the different groups, both with regards to LDL and HDL, the case group, the group that has suffered cardiovascular events had significantly elevated glycosolated LDL and HDL. So this is the case that these folks are building around largely correlative elements upfront and then suggesting some mechanisms of causation. In the summary to the paper, the lipid levels were not a major factor in the development of coronary atherosclerosis. Then level of modified lipoprotein is closely related to development of coronary atherosclerosis is necessary to take action for glucose control while administering lipid lowering therapy. And I’m going to touch on that in a moment. Robb: Statins are used to lower liquids and lipoproteins. They do a lot of other stuff too. Certain satins can enhance nitric oxide release in the vascular endothelium. They do seem to have some anti inflammatory effects. So it’s entirely unclear whether or not the vascular benefits that are conferred to some people with statins is related to the modification of the lipid profile at all. And I think that that’s a reasonable thing to contest into question. May not be 100% the case all the time, like we have some familial hypercholesterolemia where there seems to be some improvements and morbidity mortality in those circumstances with a statin. But again, is it 100% the effects of lipid lowering or is it some of these other knock on effects? But some of the thoughts here is, like I said before, they definitely seem to ignore the reality that elevated blood pressure could be a real factor here. Robb: Hypertension is a fantastic way of damaging the vascular endothelium and lipoproteins are involved in repair and so if the vascular endothelium is getting damaged at a good clip. So like if we had a scenario in which we had high blood pressure, which in theory would be damaging the vascular endothelium and then high lipoproteins in particular LDL-P, then we have an interesting scenario there where arguably we’re set up better to heal the vascular endothelium, but if the level of damage that’s occurring is above and beyond what our expected ancestral norms are, then we could start developing a chronic degenerative disease state. And I think that this shouldn’t be too controversial of a topic. It’s not like statin denying, it’s not cholesterol denying, but it starts accounting for some of the nuance that we see. Robb: And then if we add in the additional wrinkle that the advanced glycation end products which modify these lipoproteins and will absolutely affect their structure and the way that they function, both the way that they directly function in our body and also the way the immune system sees these chemicals or these molecules, that could change a lot of the story. And now a quick word from our episode. Nicki: This Salty Talk episode is sponsored by Kettle & Fire. Kettle & Fire makes the first USDA approved shelf stable bone broth made with grass fed and finished beef bones and organic pasture raised chicken bones. Bone broth is super helpful in improving gut health. Can help with leaky gut and provides nutrients for stronger hair, skin and nails. And the cool thing about Kettle & Fire is not only do they make amazing broth, but they have a whole line of soups that they make with their broth. And we in our household particularly are fans of the tomato soup. One of the things we like to do after we have a robble frequently bake a chicken or we’ll pull the meat off the carcass and… Robb: I’ll just dice that up and maybe saute that with a little bit of veggies, maybe not. And then just put the tomato soup on it. And if you’ve already gone through the process of prepping the meat or even if you just had some chicken or… Nicki: I think it’ll work with any protein that you have leftover. Robb: It could work with any protein but for some reason the chicken just seems to pair really well with the tomato. But anyway, it can be literally a three minutes process, you’re through. Nicki: Also could be a quick lunch if you’re working from home. But we definitely like it, the girls like it. Robb: Kids smash it. Basically, whether or not we do two, a second exposure of the meal is kind of did we have to write the kids to eat it. Nicki: The litmus test? Robb: Yeah Nicki: Yep. So check out Kettle & Fire, go to kettleandfire.com/saltytalk and use code SaltyTalk for 15% off your order. And now back to this episode of Salty Talk. Robb: One of the earliest papers that I ran across, there are newer papers in this one I’m talking about here from the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. It was published January, February, 2012. And the title is, Does Hypoglycemia Cause Cardiovascular Events? This is the first paper that I found that made a suggestion, and again, it’s not necessarily contrary to the lipid hypothesis, but really made a case that there might be a different accelerant, like a different initiating factor in this. And from the abstract, typoglycemia is a very common side effect of insulin therapy and to a lesser extent of treatment with oral hypoglycemic agents. Robb: Severe hypoglycemia can precipitate adverse cardiovascular outcomes such as Myocardial ischemia and cardiac arrhythmia. These are mainly secondary to autonomic activation, which results in the haemodynamic changes, vasoconstriction and rise in intravascular coagulability and viscosity. Basically, when the brain tends to get fairly well attuned to the blood glucose environment that it’s in, and if the glucose goes up slowly or down slowly, we tend to not see the really severe response like this autonomic activation phase of constriction, elevated heart rate, elevated blood pressure and whatnot. But in these all too common hypoglycemic events where blood sugar goes very high, which itself is problematic because of advanced glycation end products, which can occur throughout all of the body receptor sites, lipoproteins like we just discussed, but also seems to have a pro-inflammatory effect. Robb: And so this is the first paper that I ran across years ago that made the case that hypoglycemia may be the precipitating element to cardiovascular events, and it’s been cited a ton of times since its publication. And again, lots of newer papers likely have a better take on this, but I have links to this paper in the show notes. It’s worth digging into because to my knowledge, it’s the earliest paper in this story that that raised this question of could blood sugar deltas like going from high to low. Could that change in level be a precipitating factor for cardiovascular events. And then circling back around a bit to where we left off on the first paper where the end of the paper made the case that elevated blood glucose levels are really problematic with regards to atherogenic potential and that we need to be mindful of blood glucose levels when we are managing cholesterol and lipoprotein levels because statins have a tendency to elevate blood glucose levels. Robb: So this is a journal Cardiovascular Diabetology number 17, published 2018 number 155, but the title is Effects of Statins on Fasting Glucose in Nondiabetic Individuals, nationwide population base health examination in Korea. This thing is a bit of a retrospective study, but it’s interesting. This looks at the effects of statin therapy on fasting blood glucose over time and it’s a very consistent upward trend in blood glucose. And from the conclusion in the paper, more adherent and intensive use of statins was significantly associated with an increase in fasting blood glucose of non-diabetic individuals and subgroup analysis of individual statin use atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, pitavastatin and simvastatin had significant association with increase in fasting glucose and then some other statins tended to not have as much. Robb: So it’s one of those things that really needs to be weighed in this decision making process. Let’s say that you do have elevated lipoproteins, but you also have elevated blood glucose levels. What should you do? Some people are just… they have a sense that this is an absolutely crystal clear answer. It’s not entirely crystal clear to me because when we think about individual differences and possibly the dueling banjos of what’s happening here, I can see where this could be a bit of a murky outcome. But I will say, and maybe the self-serving because I’m a fan and clearly of paleo and low carb diets and all that stuff, but in my mind, shifting to a lower carb way of eating makes a lot of sense here because we have a direct mechanism for lowering lipoproteins and cholesterol, which that happens in most people under these circumstances. Robb: Not all, some people see an elevation, so we need to definitely keep that in mind. But we definitely see a reduction in blood glucose levels. And so it’s a really good question to me about how we want to tackle this. And again, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a super low carb intervention to have efficacy if we just are shifting people off of refined carbohydrates, particularly liquid carbohydrates. And we’re some a whole food, paleo Mediterranean type deal is probably going to be a win. But as we’ll reconsider the work out of the Weitzman Institute here in a little bit, there’s a lot of individual variation there. Some people just they don’t do that well with carbs and there may be a situation in which they are overeating saturated fat. Robb: These things can affect insulin sensitivity in a negative way and tend to promote elevated blood glucose response. But just as an example for myself, I have tried every iteration of improving my insulin sensitivity so I could eat a modest amount of carbs and it just hasn’t worked. And I’m not by any means saying that that is the story or the destiny of everybody. But within this population, we draw a big bell curve. There are some folks who are going to navigate all this stuff really well and there are going to be some people that have a heck of a time handling much in the way of blood glucose excursions or just dietary carbohydrate. Robb: So statins clearly have some specific utility. Again, I’m not in that Uber statin denier camp. I think that many people are a bit too aggressive in the application and not really considering the a cost benefit risk analysis there. But clearly there’s some utility there. It tends to be in some really specific sub categories of people, but there’s also a pretty clear trend of statins increasing blood glucose levels and these elevated blood glucose levels lead to increased atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events. Robb: So do you want to get in and do something that screws up blood glucose levels, just so you can “treat” the cholesterol? This is just a conversation that I don’t think is had often enough between doctor and patient just when people are considering the pluses and minuses of different approaches. And again, there’s definitely interventions like getting adequate sun and exercising and lifting weights, all of these things can favorably impact both the lipid part of this story, the blood glucose part of this story, the hypertensive part of the story. And this is why addressing the four pillars of health, sleep, food, movement, community/stress, they’re non negotiable features of getting on top of this complex chronic disease process. Robb: Shifting gears from the cardiovascular considerations, there’s a piece that appeared in medical hypotheses June 2020. Looks like it’s going to be published. It’s interesting. So it’s in electronic publication right now, June, 2020, it’ll be print publication, but does hyperglycemia downregulate glucose transporters in the brain? And this is an interesting treatment where they discuss the different families of glucose transporters, the different ISO forms, and then what happens in the scenarios in which the brain is subjected to higher than is likely good blood glucose levels. And it makes the case that under glucose fed circumstances, glucose is the primary fuel for the brain, but when these glucose transporters are exposed to significant elevations in blood glucose, they will tend to downregulate the glucose transporters and this is a protective mechanism to prevent an overabundance of energy in the neuronal tissue. Robb: And it’s interesting because energy toxicity is… there’s two pieces that I look at in a lot of this chronic degenerative disease state. The first is a chronic energy toxicity where we’re just chronically overfed and you can certainly do this on a low carb diet. Like I think people overeating fat can overwhelm their mitochondria with the triglycerides that are are coming in, calories do in fact matter. I do have a sense that eating a mixed diet where it’s easier to overeat calories in total and have both the negative effects of too much glucose and too much fat. I arguably think is worse but overeating of any kind is problematic. But the two dueling banjos or different ends of the spectrum that I see happening here is on the one hand, we can have damage to different tissues and most especially neurological tissue from a situation in which there is energy toxicity. There’s too much energy being rammed through either the glycolytic process and or the mitochondria and there’s all kinds of problems that can come about from that. Robb: But then the flip side of this is that we can end up in these energy deficit states where we have too little energy actually making its way through these different tissues. And this is interestingly one of the features and benefits of things like ketone bodies is that they’re called energy recovery substrates for these situations in which again, specifically say like insulin resistance in the brain can’t get enough glucose in or the neurological tissues will tend to start being damaged and dying if we don’t do something about that. And both lactate and different ketone bodies, mainly beta-hydroxybutyric can provide an alternate fuel substrate to prevent that energy crisis within the cell and the ATP and NAD reduced production. Robb: So when the blood glucose goes very high, we tend to get both energy toxicity and some damage to the cells, which causes a downregulation in the glucose transporters. And then if we end up in a hypoglycemic event, which is not difficult to do with these blood sugar highs and lows, we go from an energy toxicity and damage state to a situation in which we are at an energetic deficit state. We’re not keto adapted, we may be insulin resistant, even if it’s just “at the blood brain barrier.” And then we suffer the damage that is inflicted from an energy deficit state. So these blood sugar excursions and these running the highs to lows are really dangerous. And I would make the case that these blood sugar excursions are far more dangerous than just about any given lipid level and there’s caveats to that. Robb: I know that, again, in the case of familial hypercholesterolemia, we can have some remarkably high lipoproteins and cholesterol levels. And there clearly is some linkage to morbidity and mortality there but throw a big glucose excursion scenario in with that and think about the proinflammatory effects, the increase in viscosity of the blood, the energy toxicity followed by energy deficit state and it’s a really damaging process to be in this blood sugar roller coaster experience. Robb: Now again, I think it’s really worth remembering some things like the work from the folks out of a Weitzman Institute where they had the piece personalizing nutrition by prediction of the glycemic response. This was a great paper and was really front and center in Wired to Eat. And the takeaway that… if you guys recall this, it looked at the blood glucose response of about 1,000 people. They did a gut microbiome analysis, full genetic analysis, and comprehensive lab testing and they started feeding people different meals, different carbohydrates, and looking at their blood glucose responses. Robb: And they were all over the map. And although they did in theory, find some signal in the noise with regards to gut microbiome interfacing with genetics and what carbohydrates amounts and types people might do best with, what was fascinating is there were examples of people eating chocolate chip cookies and they would have a totally nominal blood glucose response, but the same person would eat a banana and have a crazy blood glucose response and then vice versa, where a banana caused a virtually nonexistent blood glucose response and then the cookie caused a sky high blood glucose response. And the big takeaway for me is that we need to really respect the fact that different folks have vastly, sometimes shockingly different blood glucose responses to various foods. Robb: And what’s interesting for me is that the folks who do really well on high carb say low or moderate low fat diets they tend to have a blood glucose response that looks pretty similar to what I have eating broccoli, kale and maybe a little bit of carrots. These folks will sit down and eat rice and have a lot of it and their blood glucose might get 110, 115, maybe a little bit more than that, but not much more than that. And these are the folks that are able to motor along really well on a high carb diet and it seems to work well for them. But the thing that is, in my opinion, so missed in this story is that the blood glucose response still needs to look like what most people experience under low carb eating. Robb: And the folks who don’t experience that end up developing problems, not the least of which is that they tend to overeat because of these, again, hypoglycemic events, the blood sugar goes high, then it crashes low. This is a great way for stimulating hunger because we want to rectify that low blood sugar experience with something other than cortisol and adrenaline pinging the liver to release glucose. So this is the merry-go-round that people can get on with regards to these hypoglycemic events and I think it’s a little bit in my mind of the Rosetta Stone within these macronutrient wars. Some people do well on low carbs, some people do well on low fat. Robb: The folks who do well on low carb oftentimes cite the fact that they get really high blood glucose levels in response to a denser carbohydrate sources and that’s true. But what is oftentimes missed is that there are other people like my wife who eat dense carbohydrate sources and they have outstanding glucose disposal. They have good phase one and phase two insulin response. And so their body’s anticipating the carbohydrate but then it matches that second phase insulin response appropriately. So we don’t get a hypoglycemic event and they motor along pretty well on that. Robb: But this is something that again, in these macronutrient wars and trying to unpack all the stuff, we’ve made it this arbitrary deal where it’s got to be one or the other. And what this ends up doing is abandoning between a quarter and a half of the population that doesn’t fit into whatever the theory to ensure these extreme positions put forward. There is a great piece from Virta Health, which again, I have a link to this in the show notes. The Emerging Science Connecting Glycemic Control to Improved COVID-19 Outcomes. It’s a really great piece and it isn’t like some of the over the top things that I’ve seen where people are like, “If you eat keto or carnivore, you can’t catch COVID.” That stuff is ridiculous. But we do seem to have some indication folks that have better glycemic control, better metabolic health, that have fewer of these metabolic complications seem to be navigating this whole process better. Robb: So this is really important both from the infectious disease standpoint in this story all the way to the chronic degenerative disease point. So a couple of takeaways, good glycemic control might be a really smart thing to do. I think that there’s just a really strong case to be made for that. And again, what constitutes good glycemic control is likely going to be different from person to person and situation to situation. And some people may have great glycemic control in their youth and rather poor glycemic control later in life. Or if you went from being quite active to reasonably inactive, that’s going to really change things. But having an eye towards glycemic control, I think is likely far more important than lipid levels. And a host of other things. Robb: There’s just so much stuff that gets effectively addressed by finding an appropriate glycemic response for people. And again, I made the point that what may be a favorable food for one person, may be a terrible option for someone else. I definitely made that point that people who do well on low carb have a blood glucose response or people that do well on high carb have a blood glucose response that looks more like mine. And it’s really important for folks to remember that. That two people could eat completely different dietary compensations yet at the blood glucose level have similar or identical glycemic or blood glucose response. Robb: And I will go out there and say that the modern acceptable cut points for blood glucose are likely pathological. Stephan Guyenet did a piece years ago looking at blood glucose responses in non westernized populations. And again, this is one of their benchmark pieces that I used for Wired to Eat. He didn’t see blood glucose levels hardly ever get much above, about 100 nanograms per deciliter, and this is in populations that are eating 70, 80% carbohydrate and stuff like that. Now, it tends to be largely whole, unprocessed foods and things like that, but there is still a reality that these cut points are significantly lower than what we would generally see as acceptable within the Western medical scenarios. So that’s what I’ve got for y’all today. Hope you all are doing well. Hopefully we’ll see you over in the Healthy Rebellion. Take care. Nicki: All right, that is a wrap for this episode. Thank you for listening and tuning in. Remember to grab some bone broth or some tomato soup from our show sponsor, Kettle & Fire at kettleandfire.com/saltytalk and use code SaltyTalk for 15% off your order. And please share the episode. Robb: Share the episode, yeah. Nicki: Share the episode and I think it’s really important right now in particular as we’re learning more about how one’s metabolic health makes you either more resilient in a time where there’s a pandemic like COVID-19 out and about. So if you have people who maybe aren’t metabolically healthy but might need a little goosing in the right direction, some of these episodes could be helpful in perking people’s ears up. Robb: Yeah, because it’s worth mentioning, I assume that most people know that big blood sugar excursions are a problem. Not everybody does, not everybody gets as fired up or as concerned about it with regards to chronic disease. It’s like diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s. But all that stuff seems really distant into the future even though we’re laying the groundwork for that today if we’re not eating and living properly. But there’s a reality that it’s possible that this COVID experience may become a seasonal experience similar to just the common flu. And even within the context of “just the flu,” the folks who fare poorly in that scenario are the metabolically unhealthy folks. And I think that there’s just a real opportunity here that this is clearly a topic that is front and center for people. And so if they’ve been reticent to do any type of diet and lifestyle modification in the past, their ears may be perked up in a way that they will be amenable to doing something new here. Nicki: All right, we’ll see y’all next week. Robb: Take care. Bye-bye. Nicki: Bye. As always, Salty Talk episodes are brought to you by Drink Element. The only electrolyte drink mix with salty enough to make a difference in how you look, feel and perform. Get salty at drinkelmnt.com. That’s drinklmnt.com. #HeartAttack #Cardiovascular #Brain #BloodGlucose #SaltyTalk

Agilenano - News from Agilenano from shopsnetwork (4 sites) https://agilenano.com/blogs/news/blood-glucose-brains-and-heart-attack-salty-talk-007-thrr

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sage-nebula · 7 years ago

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How do you think Alan would handle fans gushing over him after he becomes champion?

TL;DR: He really doesn’t like it.

As for a longer explanation …

It’s going to be explained (by Alan himself!) in a quick little fic I hope to have posted soon that Alan does not become Champion for accolades or glory. It’s the opposite, actually; Alan takes the Champion challenge both as a way to atone for what he did while in Lysandre’s service (because though it was unintentional on his part, given the lies and manipulation and emotional abuse, he still blames himself), as well as to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again. More specifically, Alan believes that strength is meant for protecting others. He says as much in canon when he opposes Lysandre. By becoming Champion, Alan can use the strength he has to protect everyone in Kalos. That’s why he goes for the job. It was never about accolades or glory.

(And as a side note to that, it’s important to remember that this is Alan’s approach to literally everything he does. For Alan, it’s never about accolades or glory. He doesn’t care about that. When Alan says that he wants to defeat other mega evolution users and “stand at the top,” he says that because he wants to have the strength necessary to protect those he loves (namely Sycamore, at the time of making that little speech). The primary reason, after all, that he agreed to work for Lysandre in the first place was so that he could protect Sycamore. And while he did enter the League because he wanted to do something nice for himself for a change and see / battle Ash again, the reason why he was happy about winning the League was not because he now had a shiny trophy to prove how awesome he was, but because it assured him that he had the strength necessary to protect those he cares about + the world. Alan does not care about accolades and actually tends to look down on those who have an inflated sense of self-importance / only care about looking awesome (i.e. are pretentious—see his reaction to Louie). So it stands to reason that his motivation behind becoming Champion would not be because he wants to look supremely awesome, but rather because he wants to use his strength to protect, just as he always has, and being Champion is a job designed for him to do just that.)

So to that end, having people fawn over him for being the Champion would make him uncomfortable. Alan is reserved to begin with, and doesn’t enjoy being in the spotlight to the point where it’s clear (though sometimes very subtle) that certain social situations make him uncomfortable. For instance, when he and Manon first meet, he keeps looking away from her in the midst of their introductory conversation to look at / pet Lizardon instead:

This is, as we especially see in XYZ036 when he moves to stand closer to Lizardon after Malva enters the stadium and starts talking to him, something he does whenever he feels uncomfortable. Lizardon makes him feel safe and secure, restoring a level of comfort to him when he feels he has lost it. So although it’s very subtle, the fact that Alan keeps tuning Manon out to pet or otherwise interact with Lizardon instead is a sign that he wasn’t exactly into conversing with her. As a bonus point to this, a play-by-play of what led to the second screencap:

Manon brings up Sycamore, and that immediately catches Alan’s attention, and not in a happy way. We know (and we are shown in beautiful, subtle detail in short order) that Alan misses Sycamore terribly at this point in time. So when Manon brings Sycamore up, on top of not wanting the attention, Alan feels emotional distress, and so what does he do? After Manon says Sycamore’s name for a second time, Alan looks away from her and starts petting Lizardon, seeking comfort. It’s not until Manon brings up Gabrielle that Alan looks back at her:

And none of this is happy news, either. Poor Manon. She thought she was telling Alan an exciting story that would make him feel friendly toward her, and instead, since she doesn’t know him at all, it has the opposite effect … (And it is specifically when the word gablias / garchomp leaves her mouth that he looks over. As if the close-up on him a second later wasn’t enough to drive the point home, it is specifically hearing that something happened to Gabrielle that shocks / upsets him enough to look back. She’s just going on and on about the family he feels he’s not allowed to see anymore, and he …)

Anyway, on top of that, Alan also isn’t exactly thrilled when she climbs up on his rock to invade his space and continue asking him questions.

He answers her questions, but the look on his face and the preceding “uh …” shows that this isn’t something he’s very used to, nor necessarily comfortable with. (And again, even before this point, the way he kept turning again and again to Lizardon …)

On top of that, there was how visibly uncomfortable he was when that reporter started pestering him during the Kalos League:

And then, though the episode is non-canon to his story in my mind, he also shows very noticeable and obvious anxiety / discomfort when Manon tries to drag him to dance during the Showcase following the Flare crisis. It … actually triggered some very, very bad memories from my adolescence for me when I saw that, because of the way Alan was pushed into doing it despite his obvious discomfort and protests (with Sycamore verbally pushing him toward it, no less? Sycamore, you know better), so I’m not going to grab a screencap because I don’t feel the need to put myself through that trigger and have an attack because it all over again, but you can always reference the episode yourself.

Nonetheless, the point I’m trying to get here is that while Alan is not timid by any stretch, and while he can talk to others and form relationships with them, he is still a reserved person who doesn’t really enjoy spotlight, and does get noticeably uncomfortable in certain social situations (particularly if you know him / can pick up on subtle things like how he pulls closer to Lizardon for comfort when he’s uneasy). So in all honesty, having anyone fawn over him for anything is bound to make him uncomfortable. He would really, really rather not be showered in attention if it can be avoided. (As a sidenote, I headcanon that this is why Sycamore held a private medal ceremony at the lab, rather than putting on the parade in the games. The state of Lumiose aside, Sycamore knows that Alan is reserved and still somewhat shy even now, and didn’t want to put him through the stress of a full parade, especially after what happened. It’s what makes Sycamore telling him to go dance when he should full well know that Alan wouldn’t want to dance in public like that, especially after Alan has said he doesn’t want to, even more mind-boggling, but … whatever.)

But even setting all of that aside, and going back to how Alan did not go after the position for the accolades, it’s important to remember that Alan does not have a sense of self-importance, at all. Setting aside self-worth issues he has after all that happened, Alan has never been arrogant. He’s confident in his and Lizardon’s abilities (though he does recognize when they need more training), and he believes in Lizardon absolutely, but he doesn’t place massive importance on himself and, as mentioned before, actually shows open distaste for pretentious people (see: Louie). To that end, this extends to how he wants others to address him. When they first introduce themselves to each other, Ash actually calls him Alan-san at first, which is a respectful honorific (like, not massively respectful, but it’s equivalent to “Mr” in Japanese). And what is Alan’s reaction?

Alan doesn’t want to be referred to with respectful honorifics or titles. He’d much rather people just call him by name. I actually reference this in “Validation”, through narration:

“You remembered,” Ayaka said, and she laughed a little. “I can’t help but feel a little pleased about that.”

“Don’t be,” Alan said. “It’s not really saying much to be remembered by me.”

Ayaka chuckled again, and ducked her head for only a moment before she looked back up at him. “And so humble, too, after all this time,” she said. “I’d say that’s pretty impressive, Champion.”

Alan didn’t know what to say to that (he was just being honest, his memory being what it was, and really he preferred it if people addressed him by his name rather than his title), so he shrugged.

So on top of not being fond of having people lavishing attention on him to begin with, Alan especially wouldn’t care for people to fawn over him because he’s the Champion. To him, the importance of being Champion lies in the opportunities it gives him to protect people, and do right by them (especially after all that happened with Flare). It’s not about prestige, and it’s certainly not about his own importance (of which he feels there is very little). It’s not something to be gushed over, and anyway, he wouldn’t very much see the point in gushing over him. Don’t the fawners have anything better to do? If they really admire his strength, then it would make more sense for them to go train so they, too, can be strong. On top of being uncomfortable, he’d also be a little confused as to why the adoring fans are wasting their time with him when they could be doing something productive elsewhere instead.

So yeah, he really, really wouldn’t enjoy it. It would be his least favorite part of the job. To that end, part of the online (in-universe) Discourse™ about Alan is that he’s such a reclusive Champion, particularly when compared to his predecessor, Diantha. As a famous movie star, Diantha never had any problems being in the spotlight, and in fact was routinely in the spotlight throughout her seventeen / eighteen years as Champion. On top of making the public appearances necessary for her position (as Champion, but also appearances as a movie star at award shows and the like), she also regularly appeared on talk shows, as a guest on cooking shows, as part of a paid promotional campaign to promote Fleur-De-Lis Laboratories’ technology a few years back, in magazines for interviews, et cetera. On top of all that, Diantha uses various social media platforms pretty regularly, and has millions of followers. Diantha was always very, very in the public eye (and still is even after Alan becomes Champion since she’s still a movie star, but you know).

Alan, on the other hand, is at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum. He doesn’t use social media aside from his ImmediGram, which never has selfies on it and very rarely has pictures of his human family or friends (though there are a decent number of Lizardon photos, as well as photos of pretty scenery he took while they were flying). He doesn’t friend strangers on FateBook and has his privacy settings locked down, and is rarely on it besides, and he doesn’t have or use a Tripter or Shakr (well, he might have a Shakr thanks to Manon’s badgering, but he never logs on). He declines requests to appear on talk and variety shows and doesn’t do interviews unless it’s absolutely necessary. Compared to Diantha, Alan is practically a cryptid Champion, and this causes quite a bit of Discourse™ online as a result. (Of course, people can run into him on the street and such, but again, he tends to excuse himself if people start fawning, and the paparazzi learn quickly not to get too close because Lizardon, as we see in that one end tag with the reporter, will protect Alan from them of his own volition if necessary.)

So yeah, while he would appear at events where his presence is required (e.g. at the annual Leagues and such), and while he would give interviews / press conferences when absolutely necessary, and while he doesn’t mind talking to people like a normal person on the street … Alan would not at all enjoy people gushing over him. It’d make him uncomfortable, he’d wonder why they’d waste their time with it, and he’d try to excuse himself as soon as possible. He would also, I think, usually try to tell people to call him “Alan” instead of “Champion”, but I have a feeling that some people would insist anyway. He’d try, though, at the very least, and that’s what matters.

#decadeoldtiger #my valiant dragon son #meta #meanwhile on the complete opposite end of the spectrum Manon LOVES and THRIVES on the attention she gets as a member of his Elite Four #she definitely wants the accolades and the praise and the fawning and the glory #as far as Alan is concerned she can have it - so long as she also remembers to do her job #imagining the in-universe Discourse™ can be fun tho #and the social media shenanigans etc #there's Discourse™ over public figures irl so why not in the PokéWorld? it makes sense #Alan's such a cryptid Champion that some of his most dedicated stans go to the lab to try and meet him in person #Sycamore initially thinks they're there to learn but then he catches one trying to steal the childhood photos from the walls #guys pls leave those where they are #they do not belong to you #behave yourselves pls honestly you are in someone's home / workplace #show some respect #at least a little #anyway

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markoberposts · 5 years ago

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PERSONAL CLARIFICATIONS

SOME IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS ABOUT MYSELF:

I had felt some strong feelings over the last couple of days concerning some people having reacted negatively to my expression of appreciation over Katharine McPhee's posting of herself in a bikini, my having--at the time--never even anticipated the provoking of such a potential reaction. So it was good to get my feet wet--so to speak--and bring in some of the "trolling" type reactions from the public in order for me to use it as a form of therapy to help me overcome my sensitivities to how people react and think of me. It's easy to say that I won't let such negative reactions bother me, but it's quite another thing to actually face these types of experiences each time. And my goal is to honestly get to the point as quickly as possible where I'm much more like Taylor Swift is--in this regard--with her having learned out to "Shake It Off" regarding most of the negative types of the things that the mean-spirited portion of the public happens to do in connection with her. It's both great and healthy to be able to develop a desensitization toward all of that type of stuff, especially for a person who's always been overly sensitive to all of that type of stuff all of their life such as I have been. So although I can't guarantee 100% that I'll be able to succeed doing this each and every such time from now on, I've written it down as one of my primary goals in life now that whenever some negatively-based (trolling) member of the public attacks me online for any reason and I feel that they aren't seeing things correctly regarding me (although if I felt that they were correct then I would of course instead apologize), then I will simply calm myself in the moment and post the following as my one and only reaction to them each such time:

"You are likely incorrect about me. Find out what I'm truly like at: https://www.facebook.com/mark.ober.100 https://twitter.com/MarkEvanOber https://markoberposts.tumblr.com"

And then I will at that point be free to still post about the incident on my social webpages above as shown although not as a reply and typically not via showing the actual people involved, but simply referring to it in a more-general context, and only when it is something new that has taken me by surprise that is causing me to experience some new strong feelings and reactions to it that I need to as quickly as possible process and discard so that I can move on from the feelings otherwise occupying all of my attention. Getting negative reactions from people both can and does happen to anyone who really puts themselves out there in public, such as happens to virtually all television and movie actors nowadays...or anyone who makes any type of a public statement about virtually anything nowadays. So it's definitely something that I'll expect myself to become good eventually at my avoiding impulsively reacting to. And just as I've recently stated, I will use my new-found ideas of self-hypnosis to help me with such a needed goal within my remaining lifetime, especially whenever I encounter these types of situations while out in public beyond it simply being something in writing that is being directed negatively toward me. That's where I can certainly use it the most, because I definitely have always had a history--especially within my formative years--of having frozen up and not reacted at all to such things beyond merely trying to escape them as quickly as possible. So being able to both calm myself and then focus instead perhaps on inquiring as to how I've caused them to feel the way that they do toward me--rather than instantly trying to defend myself--should go a long ways to help me deal with those types of situations much better while actually out in the public and needing to occasionally deal with such people and their negative or embarrassing types of reactions and/or comments directed at me.

However, I've decided that it wouldn't be wise to actually agree with them every time about whatever they are saying as a way to start deflecting their attacks, because whenever they are actually wrong about me--which likely would be most of the time being that I'm a nice and good person in nature--then for me to agree with them merely out of habit could produce legal problems for myself in the long wrong by making myself sound/seem guilty of things that I am most likely not guilty of...whatever they may be. So this is why I've changed my reaction to be as I've indicated above, with my instead now saying in response, "you are likely incorrect about me", in reaction to virtually everything that I feel is an inaccurate judgement of my character or motives, although for anything that they are literally accusing me of having done that is inaccurate, then I will of course have to flatly deny it and just leave it at that without my at all trying to defend myself at that time, meaning that I would merely reply with something extremely simple, flat, and emotionless, such as, "I did not do that", and then leave it at that, with my not reacting to the accusations any further within that environment, although I would for sure thereafter post about such incidents within my main social blogs...just as I've continued posting in general on my various social webpages about virtually everything that happens to me. And the only reason that I even anticipate such things as eventually possible is because some of them have already happened to me in my past, and I therefore know that it is indeed possible for people to either misjudge my character or even to make completely false accusations against me simply for the sake of their attempting to gain something from doing so. For example, I once had a coworker who suddenly accused me of not doing my work--which was flat wrong--with this having been merely done in order to get me to leave the job, which I thereby did as quickly as the place allowed me to leave, solely because of wanting nothing further to do with a person who could literally make bad stuff up about another person--completely out of the blue and unexpectedly--merely for the sake of manipulating the situation to their favor in some manner.

Also, let me emphasize that what I was actually stating about myself within my recent post entitled, "MY NEW GRAND AND PROFOUND SELF-HYPNOTIC SOCIAL EPIPHANY!", was that this was intended to eventually make it easier for me socially to interact with all types of people along with it likely also eventually even bringing me some friends in my life as a result. And even though I was focusing in it on my night-time dream that I'd just had of pretty young females in a dorm-setting as well as the TV series that I'd watched called 'Paradise Hotel' as well as my discussing that I'd just complemented Katharine McPhee on her photo of her looking attractive while appearing in a bikini--along with my even discussing about potentially getting future relationships with attractive women within it--this was NOT actually the true goal behind what I was stating. I'd only mentioned about all of these female-related topics at the time because this was the focus of the dream that I'd had during sleep just before that had lead me to my new realizations, with none of these female-related ideas actually being any type of a goal for me any further within my life. In fact, the true and only goal that I was both stating and feeling at the time was that by my using self-hypnosis, it will eventually help me to become calm enough to learn how to function better in society as a result, with the sole intent of making it easier on me emotionally as well as also likely producing friends by my simply learning better how to "be myself" in front of others, which is something that I've never actually learned how to do yet in my life because of always having been so extremely shy, especially out in general public situations. So what I was trying to emphasize about that TV show was that it had simply taught me that even though people might exhibit some bad or embarrassing personality traits at times that cause other people to shun them, they often still end up eventually becoming friends with each other in the long run, this happening simply because they've formed a bond with them of SOME form initially, regardless of whether it was of a good or bad nature.

And honestly, even with all that I was talking about regarding females, I STILL have no actual hopes of forming any further future relationships of any types with them beyond perhaps some eventual friendships, my honestly feeling this way both because I've gotten too old now for most pretty women of any age as well as that I've developed a deeper interest now in my other areas of pursuit, which are of course my interest in computer programming, space travel, and robotics. THESE are the things that actually keep me excited and going every day. And I'm just saying that once I eventually get some really good free time to start going out and doing recreational things in public, then at least I have a way, now, to also likely start bringing some friends into my life, especially being that I most likely can't accomplish any of my stated long-term goals in robotics and space-travel without my having some actual friends (of both sexes) within my life. And by my using self-hypnosis in the future, it should help me greatly toward finally opening myself up fully on the social level. And what might follow that becomes completely unpredictable as far as how people might react to me, although I DO have strong standards regarding not harming other people on any level being that I actually do care about other people in general and always have, my always having been a very compassionate type of person...just as long as I don't feel that they are simply trying to "use" me without the intention of somehow reciprocating, that is. But stated plainly here, let me just emphasize that I have NO intentions whatsoever of ever trying to draw young women into my life, and I haven't had this desire for at least a decade now! Also, if any much-younger woman should at any point in the future herself become interested in me on a deeper level than mere simple friendship--for whatever her reasons--than I would ONLY...ONLY!!!...even consider reciprocating if both the woman was a legal adult AS WELL AS having had a very lengthy series of relationships with other men HER OWN AGE first so that she would really seem to know what she was doing in showing interest in me. And this is absolutely the ONLY way that I would ever in my life now even consider thinking of a much-younger woman in a more serious or sexual type of manner, being that I honestly no longer have any true HOPES within my remaining life that such a thing could likely ever happen to me, being that it just seems at this point that such a thing is probably even less-likely than winning a grand lottery. So being practical-minded in this regard and having plenty of other areas that excite me to now focus on instead within my life, my having ANY potential future deeper types of connections of any type with ANY women is no longer something that I either need nor really care about whatsoever, although I do still enjoy those nightly dreams where such things can and sometimes do magically happen in the world of make-believe (or perhaps even in a potentially-real 'spirit world' where age likely wouldn't matter being that people could likely appear any age they'd want to there). But then again, if I ever were to find a way to become immortal and gain a body that looks not only young but also somehow tall and attractive to females of all ages, then I'd most certainly add-in the extra goal at that point to form some strong physical types of attraction-based relationships with women (my avoiding telling them my TRUE age!...LOL), although of course such a thing is considered as impossible by all sane people...so I don't honestly expect that such a thing could ever really happen to me. Or COULD it??? (LOL)...One can MERELY dream of such possibilities! :)

P.S. Due mostly to what I'd learned generally about people from watching the TV series 'Paradise Hotel' on FOX, I've now as a result started watching the new series 'Love Island' on CBS as of yesterday's starting show. And from what I've noticed so far, it appears to have almost exactly the same type of format, except that they nearly all appear to be sleeping within the same room together now instead of within separate rooms per couple...which might add a slightly different dynamic too it. But the pretty looks of the women--to me at least--become boring after the first show, so that isn't what will keep me watching it. If I do so, it will only be because I've found it barely enjoyable enough to me to watch in terms of learning about how people both interact with and respond to each other in the social setting. I've always had a side-interest in psychology, and so from this point of view--and how I might be able to apply such knowledge for my own eventual social interactions as well--it does hold some interest for me. Plus, I do find certain things appealing about it to see as well, excluding most forms of drama: I like seeing when the women are acting in some "cute" fashion, such as when Rosanna on the prior series had pretended doing Kung-Fu on her female friend due to feeling hurt and angry at the time, and I enjoy seeing how the guys within it relate to both each other and the females involved, being that it helps me to NOT feel as different from better-looking guys as I've unfortunately felt most of my life. For example, in yesterday's starting show, most of the women actually REJECTED most of those nice-looking guys to start with, their having been asked to step forward if interested in them one-at-a-time, with almost all of the guys getting fully rejected by all of the women!!! So this was SO great to see--for me--because it taught me that women tend to do this with almost ALL guys no matter what they might look like, except for those rare guys that look so extraordinarily-attractive that the women know that they'd be fools not to at least show some initial openness toward wanting to get to know them better. Also, by the way, on a recent show of 'Celebrity Family Feud', a group of models from Victoria's Secret actually rejected on the show all of the nice-looking guys in a popular rock band by NOT allowing them to either hug or touch them or even shake their hands whenever they had attempted to do so up at the podium! So seeing all of this rejection of even the popular guys nowadays by women is making me feel a WHOLE lot better about myself, being that now I'm finally starting to realize that rejection is normal and shouldn't be taken as any type of a reason for me to either decrease my self-esteem or maintain a poor image or feeling about oneself or how I appear. In fact, it's become proven to me that in the long run, looks actually mean very little to people's feelings toward others, and, in fact, that they don't really seem to matter in the long run to hardly anyone at all, with the interactions and behavior of people being the biggest thing that seems to matter in the long run to people in general regarding how they end up feeling about each other even on the level of felt physical attraction. So for these reasons, I'm currently enjoying watching shows like this because it either teaches me or reminds me of these types of positive things that both can and will help me socially in the long run (assuming that I haven't died yet from old-age by the time that I start trying to socialize again eventually, that is...lol).

#me #what I'm like #clarifications #goals #women #character

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leftpress · 8 years ago

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White House Power Player Jared Kushner Is Keeping Parts of His Real Estate Empire

Given Kushner’s vast portfolio as an adviser to the president, it’s not clear how he’s going to avoid issues that could affect his bank account. The Trump administration has declined to give details.

Justin Elliott and Al Shaw | Feb. 24, 2017, 2:09 p.m.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and the heir to a family real estate empire, has emerged as perhaps Donald Trump’s closest adviser. A near-constant presence by Trump’s side, his portfolio includes business, tax, political, and foreign policy matters.

Last month his lawyers outlined a plan under which they said Kushner would avoid any possibility that his White House work would overlap with his business interests.

The plan didn’t have much detail. But newly releaseddocuments and statements from the White House are making the picture clearer: Kushner is keeping parts of his family business.

Kushner retains some real estate holdings associated with Kushner Companies, a White House spokesperson said in an email.

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Kushner has divested ownership of a number of Kushner Companies businesses and one large Manhattan office building, the White House spokesperson said. But the White House and a Kushner Companies spokesman declined to say what Kushner is keeping and what he has given up.

Kushner’s decision to keep some of his business, ethics lawyers say, raises questions about how he will recuse himself from government matters that could affect his own bank account.

“What mechanism will the White House use to ensure that Kushner will not participate in matters that affect his retained financial interests?” asked Kathleen Clark, an ethics law expert and professor at Washington University School of Law. “We, the public, should have information about what types of matters Kushner is going to have to recuse from.”

Given the sprawling and complicated nature of the Kushner family business, the issue is not academic.

The New York Times recently explored Kushner Companies’ dealings with a Chinese firm that has ties to that country’s government. Kushner Companies has also had relationships with a number of large financial firms such as Goldman Sachs that will likely be affected by Trump administration policies.

Kushner Companies’ real estate holdings are intertwined with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that may face an overhaul during the Trump administration, as Bloomberg recently reported.

Asked about Kushner’s plan to avoid conflicts, White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not offer any specific areas that he will recuse himself from. She said in an email:

“Like other government employees, Mr. Kushner will recuse from particular matters that would have a direct and predictable effect on his financial interests and will comply with financial disclosure requirements.”

Here’s why recusals are needed and how they work

Kushner was hired as an executive branch employee, so he must comply with the law that makes it a crime for an official to work on a government matter that will affect his financial interests. (As president, Donald Trump is, famously, exempt from that law.)

People entering the government have two primary ways of resolving conflicts: selling off the assets that may pose a conflict, or keeping ownership and recusing themselves from government matters that could affect the holdings.

For officials like Kushner who hold onto assets, there is usually a memo outlining areas of recusal, ethics lawyers say. Sometimes there is a screening process so the official isn’t invited to, say, a meeting on a matter that would affect their holdings.

“There would likely be some written documentation of at least the overall understanding of the kinds of matters in which an individual White House official would not participate,” said ethics specialist Robert Walker of law firm Wiley Rein, speaking of the general practice, not about Kushner specifically.

For Kushner, the White House Counsel’s Office will be in charge of monitoring compliance with the conflict of interest law and, in case of any violations, making a criminal referral. High-profile prosecutions under the law are rare but not unheard of. A Bush-era Food and Drug Administration commissioner pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges stemming from his ownership of stocks in companies regulated by the agency.

Trump’s White House Counsel is Don McGahn, an attorney best known for his deregulatory fervor during his stint as Federal Election Commissioner. “The multiple ethics problems swirling around the White House are squarely McGahn’s responsibility,” wrote Harvard Law professor and former Bush Administration official Jack Goldsmith in a blog post last week.

Here’s what we now know about the state of Kushner’s business holdings

While the White House would only say that Kushner retains some real estate holdings, Kushner does have to file a financial disclosure form that will give more details about what he owns. The filing should be made public in the coming weeks or months. That filing may also shed light on what assets Kushner divested in the preceding year.

Kushner Companies is privately held so the full extent of the business is not clear. The company says it owns or manages 20,000 apartments and 13 million square feet of office and retail space in six states.

Among its best-known holdings are 666 Fifth Avenue, a Manhattan office tower purchased for $1.8 billion in 2007; the former Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower headquarters on the Brooklyn waterfront; and the building in midtown Manhattan that used to house The New York Times.

Kushner has divested from 666 Fifth Avenue, according to both the White House and Kushner Companies spokesman James Yolles.

“He has also divested from numerous Kushner Companies businesses and has no role in the management or operations of Kushner Companies,” Yolles said in an email.

Neither Yolles nor the White House would provide more details.

Kushner has also stepped down as chief executive of the family company.

The new documents, from the Office of Government Ethics, show that Kushner has sold his interest in seven entities, some of which are associated with Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm run by his brother, Joshua. (Thrive has investments in Oscar, the health insurance company.)

Last month, Kushner’s attorneys told reporters that he would divest from 35 investments. It’s not clear whether all of those divestitures have been made or what the remaining investments are.

Kushner’s attorneys said that some of those assets would be sold to Kushner’s brother and a trust controlled by his mother. That arrangement raised the eyebrows of some ethics experts, with one describing it as a “shell game.”

Under the conflict of interest law, government employees must also avoid conflicts that could arise from their spouse’s assets. Kushner’s attorneys previously said that his wife, Ivanka Trump, would divest some assets. But again the details are unclear.

Government ethics office documents show Ivanka Trump divested shares in a handful of securities. But it’s not clear if Ivanka Trump has sold other holdings, such as her stake in the Trump Organization’s hotel at the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C. That hotel is run under a lease with the federal government, which could create another conflict for Kushner.

The Office of Government Ethics warned Kushner’s attorneys about the unpredictability of ethics issues, according to heavily redacted email exchanges, which were first reported by MSNBC.

“Ethics issues arise unexpectedly, and they don’t come with the label ‘Caution! I’m an ethics issue,’” wrote agency director Walter Shaub, continuing:

“White House appointees are at the mercy of the attention span of a White House Counsel’s office with a thousand other things to do. As things are currently shaping up, it’s not clear that this new White House will have a fully functioning ethics office of its own on the first day. For that reason, caution is advisable. The further you can put [Kushner] back from the line, the better you will protect him.”

Derek Kravitz contributed to this report.

Do you have information about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s businesses or ethics issues? Contact us at [email protected] (Signal: 774–826–6240) or [email protected].

Justin Elliott is a ProPublica reporter covering politics and government accountability. To securely send Justin documents or other files online, visit our SecureDrop page.

Al Shaw is a news applications developer at ProPublica.