#too many tannins etc etc

[mag200]

watched stoker (2013). really funny that uncle charlies singular show of restraint is waiting until the day india turns eighteen. hes like i can excuse grooming, incest, making nicole kidman sad, fratricide, and several more murders but i draw the line at dating a minor. respect i guess.

[rabbitindisguise]

I feel like most of the time when you pop up on my dash it's with a new creechur of some sort. Are you into zoology? Are you into nature photography? Are you just a big fan of funny little guys? I'm curious now.

Might be niche, but it's animal husbandry actually! I like learning about the diets, enclosure requirements, daily care, etc of different animals. It's often domesticated animals but also just any animal- lots of animals are kept in zoos for educational purposes after being rescued and rehabilitated for example all have specialized requirements to thrive. The complex needs every one of them has is fascinating, but also how we came to find that out ^^ many things are super difficult to get too even if we know what they are too. Like, there's a species of frog that needs a specific amount of tannins in the water, so the community of people who keep them communicate a lot about vendors and techniques to manage it

I have a huge appreciation for the work of nature photographers and zookeepers too for sure though (plus botanists, and my friends irl who study birds by conducting research). The animal world is complex and trying to artificially recreate it in an enclosed space is super difficult and covers so many disciplines it's hard to keep track of. I'm of the opinion that there's no creachure too strange to make someone somewhere happy to care for and that's beautiful \o/

so I guess to answer your question directly: I'm a huge fan of people's passion for keeping little guys happy and the little guys themselves

[thegrandstoreofficial]

Top 5 Wines You Must Try

Red, white or sparkling? Dry, semi-dry or sweet? Choosing wines can be baffling at times when you have so many wines online that are available to you to choose from. If you want to shop wines online to keep a wine collection at home, host a party or just taste a few samples, here’s a list of 5 popular wines that we at The Grand Store recommend you to try:

1. Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is on top of our list as the world’s most sought-after wine. While its origins are in the Burgundy region of France, it is grown now in many parts of the world. Most of the Pinot Noir wines are light to medium-bodied, dry and red, but they can be made into a lovely rosé, white or sparkling wine too. Pinot noir has perhaps the deepest complex character of any grape wine. Wine connoisseurs love to keep exploring its gorgeous colour, captivating body and fresh acidity along with complex aromas and taste. It can be paired with a large variety of food. No wonder, the soft and silky Pinot Noir is the first choice of a lot of people for a romantic date.

Our picks:

Creation Pinot Noir 2021/22

De Grendel Op Die Berg Pinot Noir

2. Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon, originating from Bordeaux, France is a hybrid of the white Sauvignon Blanc grape and red Cabernet Franc grape and is also known as Sauvignon Rouge, Petit-Bouchet or Petit-Cabernet. Cabernet Sauvignon wines range from deep red to almost black colour, are full-bodied and have an astringent nature that helps the wine age well. Generally, it is dry, has medium to high acidity, tannins, good acidity and tastes of bell peppers, tobacco, black cherries, dark plums with hints of herbs and wood. Cabernet Sauvignon wines age very well and improve over time as they age getting more complex and elegant for 10 - 20 years and sometimes even for 50 years or more. It pairs beautifully with hearty food flavours such as steak, fillet mignon or mushroom risotto.

Our picks:

Boekenhoutskloof Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Alto Cabernet Sauvignon 2017/18

3. Chardonnay

Chardonnay is one of the most popular white wine varieties and has also originated in Burgundy, France. Since it is relatively easier to grow, it is now found in several places globally. Depending on the ripeness of the grapes used, Chardonnay’s flavours can range from fresh citrusy or green apples to ripe peaches and pineapple. If it is oak-aged such as those made in mostly warm wine regions, Chardonnay could also develop hints of vanilla, creamy butter and coconut. If not oak-aged such as those made in mostly cool climate wine regions, it is usually lean, dry and has hints of mineral taste. Chardonnay has moderate acidity and is best paired with light, creamy, lightly spiced foods. Avoid Chardonnay with acidic foods such as tomatoes, as it could give a more sour taste to the wine.

Our picks:

Steenberg 1682 Brut Chardonnay

Siwela Brut Chardonnay 2019

4. Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah wine is also known as Shiraz wine. It is said to have originated from the Rhône Valley, France. It is usually a full-bodied dark-coloured wine with medium to high acidity, high tannins and a bold palate of blackberry, blueberry, plums, smoke, black pepper and earthy flavours. Syrah also has strong aromas of blackberry and oak along with slight hints of ripened fruit. As Syrah is full of bold complex flavours and has a strong aroma, it is best suited with bold, robust dishes like barbequed game meats, roast lamb, braised short ribs etc. It is preferable to serve Syrah in a Bordeaux wine glass at slightly less than room temperature and decant it before serving to experience the full range of flavours and aromas.

Our picks:

Bellingham, the Bernard Series Basket Press Syrah

Ashton Winery Shiraz 2019

5. Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc was originally grown somewhere in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux, both located in France and it is well-known for its characteristic light body, green herbaceous flavour and lively acidity. It is usually very dry, but some winemakers give it a sweet taste by adding residual sugar. The aromas typically range from gooseberry, grass, bell peppers, asparagus, peach or passion fruit. Sometimes, Sauvignon Blanc is oak-aged to get a lusher, rounded mouthfeel and creamy texture. It is very refreshing to drink and best served chilled. Sauvignon Blanc pairs well with light and herb-seasoned dishes like garden salads, Thai cuisine, sushi, brie or camembert cheese etc.

Our picks:

Constantia Glen Sauvignon Blanc 2021/22

Bosman Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Sauvignon Blanc 2021

There can be some variations in all these different types of wines according to the region, climate, soil in which the grapes were grown in and also their processing techniques. Try out a few wines and see which ones you like the best. Click here to buy www.grandstore.co.za

[whenwilll1beperfect]

How To Enjoy Tea (And Why You Should Try To)

Okay first of all why: it fills you up. Holy fuck does the warmth fill you up. I haven't wanted to eat solid food since I started drinking tea again. Also good for you in general, especially green tea for your metabolism, and it tastes better than plain water (even ice water).

Now for how. This is long but I swear it's worth it if you have no idea where to start with tea.

Variety packs are your best friend when you are first trying out tea, especially if you don't know people who drink tea that can let you try out some of their flavors. Celestial seasonings is my favorite tea brand, and they have a lot of variety packs, but so do other brands. Think about what flavors you like to eat or drink. I like fruit a lot so of course I got their fruit variety pack. Pick out what sounds most appealing to you first, but even if you don't like it, DON'T GIVE UP, try other flavors. I promise you, you will find at least one tea that you like, even if it isn't in that variety pack. Also I try to avoid teas that say "stress relief" but mention nothing about the flavor. I don't usually believe that it will relieve my stress while I'm standing in the grocery store having done no research on whether that tea will in fact relieve my stress or not, and because of their crappy marketing I now also have no idea what it will taste like. Pick out a tea that at least attempts to tell you what it tastes like.

The first time you brew a cup of tea, follow the directions on the package to the best of your ability. You can play with amount of water, temperature, steeping time, etc. later, but it's important to taste the tea when it's made exactly how you're supposed to make it so that you know whether you like it or not. You might not have a tea kettle that gets it to an exact temp, that's okay, usually it mentions boiling or almost boiling or something like that along with the ideal temperature, so even if you don't know exactly what temp the water is you can try to go off of that. Also think about whether you would like it better it if the taste was stronger, you can always add another tea bag or reduce the amount of water next time. It's not always better to steep it for longer, tea bags release tannins which make it taste a little more bitter if it's in for too long. Depending on how the tea is made it might have more or less tannins, so just be careful. At the same time, too many times to count I have thrown one tea bag in a 24oz travel mug and left it in there until I was done with the tea. It depends on the tea and on your taste buds, but I've never had a problem with it, I just want you to be careful and not blame the tea if it's too bitter but you steeped it for an hour.

STEVIA. I love putting stevia in my tea. Stevia will not break your fast, it's super sweet, it's more potent than sugar, it's awesome. I think it enhances the flavor of the tea, but even if it doesn't enhance the flavor for you, it will make it sweeter. BUT the first time you try a certain tea, try it without any extras first, you might not need sweeteners for this tea.

Remember that you might not like certain kinds of tea plain (I hate plain green tea), but a lot of companies combine other flavors with it. Again, celestial seasonings for the win. Candy cane lane is green tea but it tastes more minty and I don't even like mint that much but I think it's really good. Boom. Tazo green ginger tea? Didn't think I would like it but damn it's actually good. Both green teas that actually taste good. Another reason I like celestial seasonings is because candy cane lane is a holiday flavor but I can buy it at the same price at the end of August as in December, and on amazon no less.

Here are my favorite teas:

Celestial seasonings raspberry zinger, white chocolate peppermint, candy cane lane, vitamin c shine (with some stevia thrown in there it literally tastes like heated up fruit juice it's so good). Yogi detox tea (don't know that I believe that it helps detox anything but it's a yummy spicy tea).

Don't get too hung up on which teas will be healthiest for you, obviously if you find a green tea or an oolong tea that you like, go for it, but tea in general is incredibly healthy. Plus, I'm guessing if you’re on edblr you don't care too much about your health, just increasing your metabolism or suppressing your appetite. Not all teas will increase your metabolism but warm liquid will certainly curb your appetite.

Please lmk if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them or tell you that I have no idea lol.

[scalestails]

I wanted to write a little PSA for aquarium keepers. I get so many customers freaking out because their tank has algae, snails, or brown water from driftwood. I want to tell you why you actually don't need to get rid of any of these things, and why sometimes they're a good thing!

Let's start with algae. Algae is natural and shows up in most tanks at some point in time. It's all over wild waters and is a vital part of the ecosystem. We see it as a pest, but that reputation is undeserved. IF algae takes over, THEN it is a problem. That doesn't mean nuke your tank, throw out your plants or (I see people do this) rip everything out and start completely over!! Not only is this way more stressful and even harmful to your fish and plants, you will likely get algae again!

Algae works much like plants do. It oxygenates your water and absorbs nitrogen (toxic fish waste). However, if there is TOO much waste or light the algae can take control of your tank and choke out your plants. It can also take over slower growing plants, even if there is not an excess of anything.

So my advice is this: do not try and completely destroy algae. In reasonable amounts and a well maintained aquarium it will benefit the tank overall. Remember, it is normal to have algae!!

Second: snails. These are another tank inhabitant that get a bad reputation. Like algae if they completely take over a tank they can be a problem, causing pollution. But snails (YES even "pest" snails) are a benefit to your tank. They keep algae under control, they eat dead leaves and debris, and they sometimes provide food for fish. Bladder, pond, and trumpet snails are all considered "pests" because they reproduce quickly and have a reputation for eating plants. The reality is they will seldom actually eat live plants (they will only do so if starving or no other food is available) and prefer to graze on algae all day. If their population becomes too high and you ACTUALLY notice a spike in waste (instead of assuming there is because you see hundreds of snails) then you can manage their population easily with the introduction of certain fish or by removing the excess.

And finally brown water. This is from a release of tannins into your water from driftwood. It's funny to me because people freak out over brown water while others are paying to add products to their tank to GIVE them brown water!!

Tannin stained water is almost universally beneficial to fish. With the exception of rift lake cichlids and a few others, tannins will be much appreciated.

Tanins help acidify your water. Most fish come from more acidic waters in the wild and their bodies are evolved to work best under those conditions. So giving them that lower pH helps keep them healthy.

It also darkens your water, which is so so beneficial. Most fish don't come from clear water. They come from water rich in tannins which makes it dark. When we keep them in clear water with bright lights for growing plants we are doing them a disservice. Darker water helps put them at ease and brings them out more.

Tannins also have mild antimicrobial properties (or strong antimicrobial properties, depending on how much tannin is in the water) which also helps keep fish from getting sick.

So in conclusion, let your tank be how it will be. Constant fussing, adjustments, additives, etc. are all unnecessary. Just don't stress over things you shouldn't stress over! Keep your water filtered, clean and oxygenated. Don't obercrowd or overfeed your tank and you'll be fine.

[rfaromance]

Remembering the marshmallow Saeran comparisons, how would all of the RFA + V, Saeran and Rika have their tea/coffee and are they a biscuit dunker?

Would how they have their drinks match up to their personalities too? Like with Yoosung, his could have a ton of milk or something to have the flavour nice and mellow

Ray is a tea man to me! He could have loads of sugar for sweetness? Actually Yoosung could too

Suit Saeran could have the blackest of black coffee, dark 'like my soul' XDDD

What do you think? :D

About the dunking biscuits, I'd love to know if the RFA like it because I personally hate it! XDD

I hate getting my biscuits soggy and weird :( T_T hahaha

Hello! Excellent question for the Marshmallow Boy and gang.

First of all, I don't think Zen would drink tea or coffee until Jaehee starts getting into coffee. Before that, it's all water or beer. But Jaehee manages to make him a smooth brew for a simple latte. Zen isn't into very sweet things, so milk and coffee is all for him. If you could get him to eat some sort of sweet with it, maybe a biscotti. He'd bite it raw and probably hurt his teeth. Help.

Jaehee is for sure a coffee girl! She is always trying all sorts of different creations, sometimes changing the beans she uses or the amount of milk she adds, or using grinds vs. grinding the beans herself, etc. I'd say her favorite is probably a lighter roast (think Starbucks blonde) because it has more caffeine, and she's always tired. She likes vanilla or hazelnut. She isn't usually one to have anything on the side, but if she did get a little scone or something, she wouldn't dip it because it would alter the flavor of the coffee.

Yoosung tried black coffee once, to be like a manly adult. Never again. Now he loves making latte art at the coffee club! But after his caffeine scare with Saeyoung, he's more likely to go for a tea, or perhaps a mocha with a nice balance of coffee and cocoa. Either way, it will have a lot of milk. He definitely makes little cookies or biscuits or scones to dip in his drink; he loves baking, after all! He probably experiments with different flavors and textures to figure out what fits each drink the best! Right now his favorite combination is a chai latte and a cinnamon scone, if only because of the autumn weather!

Jumin would unironically drink black coffee. He drinks red wine, so I'm assuming he doesn't taste tannins (the molecules that make coffee and wine taste bitter) and thus would have no problem appreciating black coffee. He might add a splash of milk for flavor, but it would probably be a non-dairy milk. If you give him a biscuit, he's going to dunk it in. You can't stop him. He likes that the liquid softens the texture of the baked treat so it isn't as crunchy.

Saeyoung doesn't drink coffee or tea--just Dr. Pepper! He has an aversion to any sort of drink that people can develop a dependence on. But you could probably talk him into a milk tea, if only because he likes slurping up the boba with the big straw. Honey boba, of course. Probably an almond or vanilla guy for the milk tea, but I wouldn't put any weird flavors past him.

V is a tea drinker. Please, give him something soothing. He is always stressed, whether from the weight of his thoughts or the many secrets he keeps hidden deep inside. I could see him being a fan of chamomile with a splash of lemon and sugar. I think he sometimes dips a treat in his tea, depending on his mood and the flavors. An orange or cranberry biscuit is going in. A chocolate one isn't.

Ray is 100% a tea guy. Full of milk and cream and sugar and honey. He's probably adding vanilla extract, too. He needs something sweet and basic (meaning MILKY, referring to pH, not to pumpkin spice latte girls like me) to counteract all of the elixir that burns his mouth, esophagus, and stomach. He's actually worked it down to somewhat of a science to figure out the best concentrations and mixtures depending on whether he needs comfort, energy, or a kickstart to his brain. But he isn't dipping his cookies in there; that'd ruin his perfect measurements!

Suit Saeran would try black coffee but it would burn his insides instantly. Please, dear, drink something your body can handle. You're not any less powerful if you really like strawberry milk.

GE loves strawberry milk, actually. He's getting strawberry milk tea with his brother. They're bonding. He also likes floral teas and flavors like earl grey, with a lot of cream and sweetness. Also a white chocolate mocha kind of guy.

Rika is a Pumpkin Spice Latte girlie actually. She doesn't care what people think. She likes the flavor, but specifically when it's iced. She has the aura of someone who'd drink only mature drinks, like a simple Americano or a flat white, but she wants the cinnamon lattes and the caramel macchiatos. Please, let her have something fun for once. Let her get a cake pop and a sugar cookie latte from Starbucks. Let her smile and indulge her inner child. Maybe also recommend she tries some black tea, though, because she needs to sit down and be calm for once in her life.

[redstaratmorning]

Headcanons and Musings of Pirate-y And Plunderous Proportions: Astarion Says What

Synopsis: Random musings and ramblings regarding and spawning from the differences between how Astarion says just one word, depending on your choices—“What?” This got very long and touches not only on Astarion’s difference in presentation in aforementioned moment, but also some discussion-thoughts to chuck onto the dashboard regarding some other elements of Astarion’s content thus far in Early Access, and some thoughts to add onto others’ speculations and wonderings (I did not save sources so pardon the lack of proper citation, oops. We’re going informal here anyway.) Spoilers for Chapter 1 BG3 scenes, plot, etc, under the cut in case someone hasn’t filtered out the tags. Trigger warning/content warning: some discussion of heavy topics is mentioned and explored, including starvation, abuse/torture, and trauma. Other topics of note for summarization include speculation on Astarion’s largely unknown as-of-early-access background and a touch of his possible pre-vampire morality leanings, possible mental state/trauma reaction in a couple of scenes, and vague speculation on Larian’s gameplan for Astarion’s arc ending. Gather thy party and venture forward, for here be dragons and lots o’ text, matey! [/stereotypical pirate accent]

“What?” Just that one word, between the goblin party and the tiefling party. If Larian keeps the body language and tone presentation more or less where it’s at now in Early Access, they are worlds apart and delightfully up for interpretation of just what’s going on in our favorite vampire spawn’s head. This won’t be an in-depth post about all the tonal and body language differences, just picking out a few due to personal constraints (ie too broke to buy this game currently.) Edit: And also a lot of other thoughts and ramblings tacked on, lol. On the one hand we have him at the goblin party, where he seems much more superficially comfortable there, knows what’s going on and knows what to expect—it feels like he’s done this kind of scene a hundred times before. The comfort of familiarity. Did Cazador throw “parties”, much like how he “invited” Astarion to dine with him? I wouldn’t be surprised if he mingled at regular dinner parties either before his turning, or perhaps after when he’s ordered to hunt for Cazador’s evening repast. I doubt the goblin party has anything as potentially horrific as what Cazador would have lined up on the nightly basis, which is why Astarion isn’t aggro’d: he’s in a position of power at this party after all, not a powerless one. A conquering hero, as he describes the MC. A Precarious position, as it turns out.

Circling back to that one word though, the way he says “what” in that scene after he propositions the MC and the MC picks the “Maybe. If you say please” line feels like Astarion’s response could be interpreted as pretty abrupt. On guard, perhaps, squaring up, offended, even perhaps lowkey challenging/hostile. Expressing social displeasure and possibly staring down the MC mayhaps? Could be, especially if Astarion’s body language remains as it is rigged now in-scene with that step forward, his shoulders shifting, the lack of a smile, that assessing glare, all combined with that flat tone of voice. The animation could just be temporary and subject to change, but if it does end up as more or less the final version of that moment’s depiction, it’s pretty interesting as a shift. I’d read it as potentially “not actually truly comfortable in this situation, just familiar and numb to it all”, especially when combined with some of his other earlier potential lines at the goblin party, such as the following: Astarion: So, what are we drinking to? Other than a pile of corpses. MC: That’s not funny. Astarion: Oh don’t be so sour - It’s a party. You did what you had to. Don’t be ashamed that you did it well. MC: I wish things had turned out differently. Astarion: And I wish I was drinking out of the skulls of everyone who’s ever wronged me. Life is tough. Although that’s not to say we can’t have a little fun. This supports the whole “has been through his personal hell and has adapted to survive it albeit not unscathed” story Larian seems to be going for with him quite nicely in the little tells and details. A sort of “take what joy you can even amidst the dark situation surrounding us” trauma-induced adaptation, coupled together with actual enjoyment on his part for killing. It’d be easy to say Astarion is moreso in his element at the goblin party, and to a degree he is—it’s one he is well practiced with in his current mindset. Compare now how he acts at the tiefling party—we can all agree he’s not having a good time, our friendly neighborhood vampire sulking in particular over the fact that “there’s a worm in [his] brain, [he’s] surrounded by idiots, and all [he] has to drink is wine that tastes like vinegar.” But the delightful thing is he’s complaining so vividly about it. The wine likely is worse at the tiefling party, seeing as they’re refugees, and the goblins had previously captured a duke whom they likely stole loot from and under orders from Minthara et al stored said goods elsewhere for a later date (likely some of said goods were consumed at the party if it happened. Edit: Shadowheart’s drunk dialogue at the goblin party mentions the goblin’s wine there being good, poor dear. Fascinating hints at her story and character in that scene though.) This is assuming Astarion is drinking wine at the goblin party, of course. He may very well be drinking something red and full-bodied there, just not made from grapes. But even in his complaints and presentation, he seems arguably more relaxed and less on guard compared to his demeanor at the goblin party. Let’s be honest, he doesn’t view goblins as equals or stimulating company judging by his various voice lines expressing his disdain, distrust and overall low opinion of them as vermin among other things. The fact that he’s willing to call the tiefling refugees idiots while in earshot of them? Definitely doesn’t respect them as a group—though he has a less negatively opined line regarding them earlier on if the caged goblin (Sazza) is killed,—which is not surprising given that MC and company at the time of the party just saved them from certain death. Astarion’s reaction however also reads as potentially at ease enough to say what he’s thinking. He’s not going to get murdered for saying so, and there aren’t any punishing power games at play with the refugees and do-gooders he’s found himself surrounded by. There aren’t any hedonistic shenanigans going on and the drinks are terrible, so it’s not an entertaining party for him, but one could make an argument that Astarion might actually be feeling more secure or at least less threatened-as-is/was-his-accepted-ongoing-norm there. Which might mean he’s feeling quite out of place, or even just not...entirely engaged with what’s going on around him and even within him as far as emotional states go. Would he casually pull the same stunt at the goblin party? If you’re a bastard to him, yes, but that’s not in the same emotional vein as his dialogue during the tiefling party at all. Loyalty from the goblins is fickle, the goblins worship the Absolute and those that are chosen by the Absolute—so long as said Chosen remain powerful enough to subjugate them and is in favor. Astarion knows this kind of power structure well: ruling by fear and power. With the tieflings? It’s not superiors-and-subordinates, it’s just...people. People celebrating surviving an event that could’ve very well and most likely would’ve ended in their deaths. Will he get to celebrate like that one day? That could very well be a painful and bleak thing to consider, and not something he wants to contemplate as of yet, based on his dialogue lines that demonstrate his fear of Cazador. How’s he supposed to get lost in the fun and revelry if the wine doesn’t even taste good to him? I don’t know wines, but I’m guessing from what little I do know and what I’ve read of flavor descriptors for wines hyped as good, it might actually be bad wine based on the adjective “sharp” when mixed with the rest of the description if the MC takes a sip. Sharp seems to suggest too many tannins, or maybe improper storage so the wine actually did turn to taste a bit more like vinegar, or maybe not enough sugar in the grapes used, perhaps? To be fair, I do believe there’s a non-conversation line somewhere of Astarion’s regarding solid food tasting terrible to him, but I can’t verify that so a pinch of salt there. Still, if his taste buds are aligned with regular living mortal ones for wine at least, RIP Astarion, he’s stuck with a terrible drink for the foreseeable night. Unless, of course, you know. ;D Compared to the tieflings, the goblins as a whole? As a group they’re a scraped together army of pillagers hungry for destruction and spoils. They don’t have ANY loyalty to you—in addition to being willing to betray you via murder immediately despite working with them when Sazza first brings you back to meet Minthara, there’s also when Minthara potentially opts to try to kill you post-goblin-party. If you persuade her not to, Minthara does mention “do not return to the goblin camp, as far as they were concerned you were destined to die tonight.” This is not a group to get chummy with, obviously. Doesn’t say good things about the Absolute’s followers in general, either, or the Absolute depending on if Minthara’s being honest about the Absolute intending that the MC dies after razing the grove. Minthara could just be lying to serve her own ends and is out to destroy any rivals for the Absolute’s favor, after all, I can’t verify that from dialogue exploration at present. So it’s not surprising that this is not a group Astarion is going to let his guard down around I’m sure, or around an MC that sided with the goblins, because fortunes can shift like the wind in a scene like that, and I think his utter lack of surprise at Minthara trying to kill you all (whether or not the MC had a romp with her) is potentially spawned because he recognizes this fact. He’s been here before, in another time, another place, with different faces, but he’s seen this play before. And the MC is just another face for the same old role of a player in this rat race for power when they side with the goblins, aren’t they? The difference this time though is: will they succeed and make it to the top? Is Astarion betting on the winning horse, or not? Far less reason and far more motivation to not be emotionally invested in anyone or anything around him because it’s survival of the fittest, and the most ruthless will be the ones who win—the MC just reinforced that perspective for Astarion, in slaughtering the tieflings. But Astarion isn’t fully corrupted yet, despite however much Cazador has twisted and tormented him so. Isn’t it fascinating, that the MC, one of the first people Astarion can actually interact with relatively freely without Cazador’s puppeteering influence hanging over him quite so acutely, is someone who might very well and very likely will have a huge impact on how Astarion develops and sees the world? For better or for worse, the MC will shape all the companions’ futures and perspectives it seems, depending on their choices. On a meta note, isn’t that thrillingly fascinating and engaging work by Larian Studios? Bravo, honestly. Continuing, for Astarion this could very well just feel like a better but complimentary and thematically continuous segment of the nightmare that is his existence under Cazador as it goes on: he’s a vampire now, and the world is only ever a power struggle between the strong and the weak, and he knows better than to ever be weak again. Kindness and virtue belonged to Before. Before he died, before he turned, before he was taken. Those are things in stories and fairy tales now, that belong to other people, other places and times, other lives—things that belong to the living, not the undead. Sentimentality, more universally-accepted morality, all of those Good™-aligned or softer feelings can feel like they have no place in his world now, on this darker path. But he knows what they are, not just in theory I think, but also perhaps knowing from memory and experience, however distant and faint. The way he speaks on many occasions has subtext that could very well suggest he wasn’t without a better side through implication and emotion. Which is not to say I think he was a shining paragon of virtue before he died—guessing based off of the dev team’s writing of him so far, I’m expecting nuanced and complex but ultimately very human (or elf if you’re being fantasy-based technical) morality with both merits and flaws, for polarizing opinions in the fandom. That being said, I’m holding off judgment on what kind of person he was before he was turned for now despite reading about pre-early-access, preliminary ideas the dev team had for his background. The reason I’m waiting to see what the dev team puts into the game for his backstory of Before, is because some of his datamined lines could be taken in a couple of different ways, and some of his emotional responses as is currently don’t track as truly Machiavellian or I’d say malevolent in nature for manipulation or otherwise. Granted, not all Evil™ acts stem from intentions to be malevolent. Sometimes people do evil both in-game and in life without really intending to, or recognizing that they do, nor seeing the harm they have caused or will cause (I’m looking at you, Mayrina.) Manipulative yes, but so far it’s looked like it’s for defensive purposes in a world that is out to hurt or kill him if given any opportunity whatsoever. Personally I actually wouldn’t even say he’s been really manipulative at all, but your mileage may vary. He lies because he’s afraid you’re going to murder him for being a vampire, and because he doesn’t want to reveal the cause of two centuries’ worth of trauma to someone he just met and likely can’t predict if they’re emotionally safe for him to interact with. Note: “emotionally safe” does not necessarily denote being sympathetic here, so much as “will their response cause me pain in some fashion?” from Astarion’s point of view, which does not necessarily require the MC to be mean to him though obviously that wouldn’t help. We touch upon why sympathy can hurt later on in this essay. And why would he expect sympathy in the other instance, regarding revealing that he’s a vampire? How often would we not murder strange vampires we just met in DND-worlds? Is that not a common response and practice in Faerun for the most part? They’re on the list of acceptable prey for a monster hunter to be kidnapped and taken to who knows what fate (probably nothing good we’re sure), and who would come rescue them? In all actuality: No one. If he wasn’t a companion he’d easily just be one more random encounter to kill—as he and all the companions are in the right circumstances, *cough cough* like when sacrificing anyone to Boooal *cough.* Astarion’s had little cracked moments where he seems to be showing genuine vulnerability, and I’d say he likely displays real genuine emotion plenty of times, just not all the time. While the vulnerable moments could be a ploy, were he the type to actually be fully acting, I’m disinclined to bet that he’d act in the way he does during those moments if he planned them out or even improvised. It could be a mix of both, where it’s both true but also an act of manipulation. Were it the last option, that would require more exploration of his character in various situations to determine imo. I still doubt that though. I think he’s a little too raw and real in his pain, anger, and aggression to say he’s being malevolently manipulative at the end of the day, at least thus far in chapter one. The MC’s choices may change and influence that, on the Evil™ route. I’ve been following some of the fantastic dash discussions on Astarion’s reaction to when the MC tries to comfort him (because of course I have, I’m here for BG3 content and Astarion content especially, aren’t we all here for the same party in his tag? Also hello fellow Astarion stans! :D I hope everyone’s having a good day), and if some of these datamined lines from Pjenn’s blog post are actually implemented and kept as canonical [link], specifically the ones Astarion says regarding heroes, I do think it ties in very strongly with some of what other folks have said regarding his recoiling reaction. Copy-pasted the potential dialogue lines of interest below: Astarion: Heroes. |said with disgust| Astarion: Heroes had two centuries to save me from my torture, but not one came knocking. Astarion: The strong had two centuries to pluck me from torture, but no one came. No, it was the mind flayers that rescued me. Astarion: I spent centuries as the victim of a corrupt man. It was the mind flayers that plucked me away from that. I very much enjoyed all the takes on Astarion’s potential motivations in his response, and I do want to chuck another idea into the fray that supports the vein of ideas that have him being truly afraid and then angry at the MC in that scene, with the speculation including those possible hero lines above as influence. Specifically, I’d like to bring in an outside comparison to part of Molly Grue’s reaction to seeing the Unicorn from The Last Unicorn animated movie for the first time, transcribed below: The Unicorn: I’m here now. Molly: [Bitter laugh] Oh? And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent, young maidens you always come to? How dare you. How DARE you come to me now, when I am this. [begins to cry, heartbroken] Consider Astarion being shown kindness when he is now away from Cazador, not fully free or safe yet but not currently actively fully suffering Cazador’s torment all up close and personal. Consider that only on that very night before he was snatched up by the mindflayers, which might’ve been anywhere from only a day to a handful of days before this conversation about his nightmare, he was going out to falsely smile and lure some innocent—(“No innocents. You have my word.”)—or perhaps not so innocent, beautiful soul back to Cazador’s mansion to very likely die or be turned. How often must he do so? Is it every night he is ordered to go out and condemn someone else to that unfortunate fate? Do you think Cazador killed them cleanly? Quickly? Why would he, instead of agonizingly grinding out any last traces of sympathy his spawn might have through the guilt that they are the ones who “choose” who suffers and likely dies at Cazador’s hands that night? To give the illusion of choice is one abuse/torture tactic that can be used to break a soul that we see often in games: choose who suffers or dies. Cazador is unquestionably a personality who enjoys the psychological aspect of tormenting his victims, as evidenced by giving Astarion the “choice” to be either flayed or to “dine” on a rotting, dead rat, as well as other mentions of how he puts thought into torturing those around him. Astarion is still so fresh from his torment,—torment that is still technically on-going with the very real threats of resuming once more—he is emotionally bleeding enough arterial blood at the seams to fill a sea. His actions, words, and emotions so often metaphorically smell of blood, and not because he’s a vampire and the traditional role of a vampire being a predator among humanoids ironically enough, but because being a vampire spawn means Cazador. And Cazador means horror. Astarion has survived, yes, and it’s been hell. He’s still in hell, because he isn’t free yet. Not truly. It’s a desperate gasp of air, this taste of freedom, to dream that he could be free of Cazador. Imagine his feelings when he’s now in something like freedom, a reminder of what could be, what his life might’ve and likely was like once upon a time, an uncertain here-and-now where he has the possibility—just a possibility, and an unlikely one at that for most ordinary or less-than-ordinary people, not a certainty—of being free, and he’s just admitted to the horror that is Cazador. Admitted in this moment how much Cazador frightens him, how much just the thought of Cazador frightens him, how much the possibility he might be sent back to his master and having his previous tormented existence resumed truly frightens him. And the MC reaches out in sympathy. In acknowledgement that what Astarion has been through is horrifying. To look at this horror and say it is pain, and terror, and awful, that it isn’t normal. It isn’t something to ignore. It isn’t something to pretend is just everyday same old, same old, to numb and take off the edge as much as one can. That Astarion’s pain and fear aren’t to be sought out for entertainment or at best to be willfully neglected in an act of malice. That stark moment of contrast, like night and day, could bring the pain of two hundred years crashing down inside his head, all compressed into one moment. Feelings he tried so hard to survive through, ignore perhaps, suppress: fear, helplessness, loneliness, misery, anger, sorrow, hatred, pain, anxiety, distress, need. Memories, of so many instances that hurt in that moment and then continued to hurt for so long afterwards. How much must it hurt him, wound him, to lift his head for air and have a perspective outside of his suffering that is sympathetic...but knowing that nobody came to save him.  That perhaps, no one ever will, if he loses this so-called freedom and is dragged back under. That those that care, cannot help you. And that those that can help, do not care.  Why would anyone help him at this point after all? He’s a vampire spawn. A classically defined monster in the eyes of society, and he knows it. (”I’m not some monster!” / ”At best, I was sure you’d say no. More likely you’d ram a stake through my ribs.”) He must have been truly desperate in his starvation to chance anyone finding out he’s a vampire in the party. Not surprising, he can’t rest at the end of the day like the other companions can. He has to expend extra energy at that point to find food discreetly after fighting all day, and subpar food at that. (”Animal blood tastes like muck.” verification needed, it’s a conversational line in some branch of the morning-after he asks to bite the MC the first time) He’s not eating breakfast, snacks or lunch during the day, and he isn’t guaranteed to find food while hunting in the woods. Game might be scarce, he can be wounded or exhausted after a long day of fighting, and he wasn’t starting out in the peak of health to begin with either. He is a vampire spawn yes and apparently can take down large game such as boars to drain them, but that is a rough existence to condemn anyone to mechanically speaking. He knows what he’s risking, regardless of his int stat. But he takes that risk anyway. The character who is so survival driven, risking a very high likelihood of expulsion at best or death as the much-more-likely worst outcome of this attempt? His bite isn’t painless, and pain can wake a person up readily enough if they aren’t a deep sleeper, and how deep a sleeper are most people when in an uncertain and unfamiliar wilderness, potentially while hungry and cold, with the fretting fear of a agonizing death looming over their head? Even accounting for a lack of mental clarity from hunger and exhaustion and other factors, I find it deeply unlikely that Astarion is unaware of how big a risk he’s taking with the odds are stacked against him, rogue class or not. And even if he’s just thrown out of the group? He’s alone. Vulnerable. A target to be hunted by a much bigger, meaner predator. One that won’t kill him quickly, we can guess. His odds are much lower, on his own. Specifically his odds of not being dragged back to Cazador...assuming the MC doesn’t just turn him over to Gandrel. How terrifying is it to imagine that your suffering will never end, to be told it will never end, and then you are reminded of what it is like to not suffer for a time. To have felt the painful hope that maybe there is a possibility that you could escape an existence of torment...but knowing you very well might not? It is desperately bleak. It is no great leap of the imagination to hear Astarion saying—(or more likely thinking because this would be terribly vulnerable...but he might say something when pushed because he’s so full of sharp edges and bleeding insides still)—something similar to Molly Grue’s line in his own fashion, is it? Astarion: “[Bitterly laughing, mockingly so. As he speaks his tone breaks, an edge of raw, desperate hysteria slipping through, attached to centuries of pain turned to anger] And where were you two hundred years ago? A hundred years ago? Where were you when I still desperately thought in the deepest parts of my heart that someone might come? When I still had hope?  Astarion: [his voice turns low and venomous, raising in volume and accusation before finishing with a break on the final word “this”, a tonal admittance of how distraught and self-aware he is of what he’s had to do, of what he’s had to become to survive] How dare you. How DARE you say this to me now, when I am this.”  (the above lines are entirely fictional and are not from any in-game, data-mined, or otherwise official source or content) He’s been made to do so many terrible things, even just based off of the few lines we have heard in early access he’s been through so much horror. An hour of torture, a day, a month is so incredibly long. It can have such lasting impact on a person—PTSD, as we know it in this day and age. A year? Five years, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred? An elf he may be, but from a human perspective...he’s been tortured for lifetimes. Even as an elf, two hundred years is a long time. More than long enough to seriously alter how someone’s brain works—people are both amazingly resilient, but also so incredibly fragile. Cazador has had all this time to play with Astarion’s brain, honestly I find it impressive Astarion has any sense of self left after all this time. That he’s still driven to survive, that he still feels anything at all. (”It doesn’t look broken. But then again, none of us do.”)  It doesn’t surprise me that he’s intensely bitter when encountering the “paladins” of Tyr—(ie Anders and company if you know who I mean—and was that a Dragon Age 2 reference? If not that is an amazing coincidence with the whole Anders-Justice-Vengeance-Demon thing there)—if the MC asks something to the tune of “Don’t you wish someone had helped you when you needed it?” Oh. Oh that had to be a painful question for him. Astarion had his basic needs denied and abused, to ask if he wished that someone had helped him when he needed that and more, and no one came? Why was he denied but the paladins get help? Why does he have to be the hero when no one came for him, when no one very well might come for him when he might still very well be in dire straits in the near future?  I can see the possible desire to inspire sympathy intended in the question from the MC, but it can be so utterly without sympathy to ask that in some contexts, and in Astarion’s case it is. He was being abused and controlled without any way out—Anders and his cohorts opted into the deal with Zariel for personal reasons, not as far as I know under threat of imminent death, and they are relatively capable of fulfilling their end of the bargain barring their current injuries at the time. They certainly have more freedom of choice than Astarion and other vampire spawn ever did, and they were not being tortured right then and there. Warlocks, referring to Anders and co., might even have the option to get out of deals, a la Wyll’s personal questline hook thus far. Astarion can’t get out of his servitude from Cazador. Cazador holds all the cards, makes all the decisions, has all of the power. To compare Astarion’s situation to his face with that of the “paladins”? I’m surprised he wasn’t spitting fury, honestly. They still have normal elements to their day to day life, despite their devil’s deal. They are not being tormented on the daily—yet. They are not in hell—yet. They can get out. They have the possibility. A possibility Astarion didn’t—until now. And isn’t that the most fucked up thing, that it wasn’t a force of Good™ that saved him, but an even bigger monster than Cazador himself? He was saved—by mindflayers, intending some fate that was likely worse for him than before. Even when the Absolute’s hand begins to be revealed in all this, he is still a pawn among monstrous masters. What heroes there are in the world, won’t come for him. They never did before, and they didn’t now. Heroes are for other people, for realities aside from his own. They are for other people, living Other lives. Not his life. Forces of Good™ swooping in to save the day, to correct the wrongs of the world and to make things Right™ just isn’t his normal. Not anymore, if ever it was. His normal was warped by Cazador a long time ago. Is it a stretch of the imagination that if Cazador twisted “dinner” to be a choice between consuming a rotting, putrid rat corpse or being flayed on a nightly basis, turning “poetry” into the memory of a “sonnet” carved into Astarion’s back with a razor over the course of an entire night full of Astarion’s own pained screams? Is it hard to imagine that Cazador also took pleasure in turning other ordinary situations one might encounter in normal life into nightmare versions as well for Astarion and his other spawn? One illithid mind-power option shows Cazador controlling Astarion by holding his chin, though without any further context. Cazador wouldn’t have had to do more than that to invoke terror, after a certain point in time. It seems highly unlikely the gesture wasn’t followed up with more pain, though. Perhaps in that moment when he speaks of his nightmare in the first conversation and the MC reaches out to him in sympathy...Astarion was reminded of something. Multiple somethings, multiple moments, when Cazador reached out to him oh so casually, and it ended in pain and terror. The way the camera is framed as of the current time in early access, the way he flinches away crying “No!” so quiet and low, his eyes wide and staring just so, how he goes so far as to pull back almost entirely out of frame and the camera slowly pans to follow him? Perhaps that is just a stand-in scene, but as it is, even now, it emphasizes that he is I would argue genuinely afraid, and reflexively responding in what is likely his first opportunity to freely respond to his traumatically induced fear. The first opportunity where he wasn’t supernaturally compelled to do exactly as Cazador ordered him to, the first opportunity where he was likely not going to be tormented further for expressing his fear, for having his main tormentor laugh and delight in his distress. The first instance where he for a split second let his guard down, and didn’t expect to be hurt—until the MC reached for him, echoing possible memories of what happened last time someone (Cazador) did that. It’s not Cazador reaching for him. But...it is not Cazador. He doesn’t have to worry about Cazador hurting him right that second, but...will the MC hurt him, like Cazador did? Will they make it look like they’re going to help him, that he can trust them, and then betray him? (”How can you be so cruel?” / “It [Raphael playing games] reminds me of Cazador, taunting his slaves with hope when he knew the game was rigged.”) But they scared him. They scared him, and perhaps for a moment he was back there, in another time and place, where he knows, where he remembers, vividly, perhaps even recently, what normally would have happened to him. And how dare they make him feel that. (“I can do without reliving that particular night, thank you.” [Nightmare about Cazador dialogue, a separate scene if you miss the insight check from the first post-nightmare camp discussion I believe.]) He’s so raw and upset, both aggressive and defensive when he speaks about his nightmares in quite a few of his lines, asking and waiting to explain just why his nightmares are truly so terrifying, especially in the second-nightmare conversation. The way he speaks there, and in other scenes, makes me very disinclined to interpret him as actively intending evil in general so much as having been shaped to be ruthless through a centuries-long trial by fire that he isn’t free and clear of yet. Based off of how he reacts on more than one occasion, I’m personally inclined to take a leaf from Wyll’s book and say I do think he has more than just potential to be good. “Good™” being relative of course to his situation and undead-life—Astarion has GREAT potential as a character to explore not only what it means to be Evil™ aligned, but also what people on the meta perceive as evil, as well as what prejudices we may carry from that labeling.  He is I think very much an excellent walking morality test and ironically a mirror for the player’s character. What kind of person is the MC, in how they treat and interact with him. He is a complicated and morally-entangled character, and it is so very easy to only read him in the here and now within the stark, daylight context of societal’s average norms without looking at the very real, very recent nightmarish Twilight Zone reality he’s lived in that echoes through his words and story thus far. It’s a marvelous bit of echoing reality and real life here by Larian, truth be told: how do you tell people about your life, when it’s been a ceaseless, unending nightmare? With smiles, witticisms, and the occasional polished lie that bleeds out pain, for some folks anyway, including Astarion. He says he’s having more fun at the goblin party, but at the tiefling party? That’s probably the first time he’s been at a normal party where he hasn’t had to obey and fear Cazador’s orders and inevitable torment during or afterwards. That’s the first time in his entire undead existence when he’s been in a social situation like this without being afraid, hurt, or manipulated. It’s not a fun party on its own by his standards, but it is a safe party for him. In a way though, safety can be boring. A luxury, yes, but in this case? For him, boring. And boring...might very well be irritating, in an anxiety-turned-irritation fashion, because he’s not being tormented right this very moment. He should be finding something to enjoy, because in his normal everyday routine? In the day to day that he would expect, that his subconscious expects out of habit? Opportunity for any form of enjoyment must be rare indeed, twisted and tainted by Cazador’s ever looming shadow over every minute of Astarion’s vampiric existence so far. It could be anxiety-inducing, to not seek pleasure or some form of happiness or comfort while there is opportunity for it, in what one perceives as a respite from constant, on-going suffering. (”Why do you insist on exhuming the past?” - when you ask about his past in camp, after you know he’s a vampire. An unpleasant reminder of an unpleasant past, why would he want to dwell on it? He has enough pain to last him multiple lifetimes. Literally.) From the deep, deep depths of prolonged suffering, it can potentially take a great deal more intensity of sensation to feel anything at all, let alone something approaching happiness. (”For the first time in two hundred years, I felt happy.” [presumed Astarion-origin line after drinking from a sleeping companion] / “I feel strong. I feel...happy!” [after MC succeeds in persuading Astarion to stop drinking from their neck after giving him permission to do so.]) This isn’t even taking into consideration how vampirism might have impacted Astarion’s psychology on a metabolic/biochemical level, so to speak. Where Larian goes with that is still to be determined, though my money’s on they give him more a murderous edge and natural inclination—not unlike a Beast-lite version of bloodlust from Vampire: The Masquerade— but still keep his core traits very much human rather than supernaturally-alien/2D-cut-out-monstrous. (Or elvhen, if we’re being fantasy-world-linguistically technical here again.) Touching on the matter of monstrous behavior though...It is a powerfully understated moment of casual cruelty that Larian allows the MC to decide once and once only, if Astarion may also drink from people or only animals. It’s so fitting I don’t believe it to be coincidence that he was a magistrate in his backstory—isn’t the MC passing a judgement too on him, a sentence to change his life for the foreseeable future, possibly forever without realizing or perhaps not caring about the full extent of their actions? And one cannot forget Wyll’s comment about the rat diet. Oh, can you not hear the resonating parallel real life pain from how those ignorant of another’s hurts might unintentionally mock the person and hurt them so? How some might apply their own morality from their own life experiences, without looking at the full extent of the consequences of their actions? A life and perspective that more likely has never been tested under the lash and upon the rack of some of life’s worst possible realities? Even if Wyll and the MC don’t mean to be, it is so very, very cruel. It is beautifully painful, Abdirak and the goddess Loviatar would be proud. (”My mind is finally clear. I feel strong. I feel...happy!”) To be denied not just better food, but the ability to think clearly, to feel well, the actuality of being happy as a norm? It is so very hollow an existence to feel so constantly weak of both body and mind, and oh isn’t it just the richest thing, that an MC might echo Cazador’s choice and power over Astarion thusly? It’s enough to make one laugh an Evil Laugh™ of appreciation at just how unthinkingly, horribly cruel a person can potentially be while playing a Good™ character. This is actually a level of genius on Larian’s part that I wonder how many in the audience will actually look at and appreciate the subtle horror of. The horror that we do this too, in real life, sometimes without ever knowing the seemingly small, far-reaching ripples of harm an unthinking phrase or comment can do when we don’t take another’s reality into consideration—that we don’t know what it is we don’t know. It is a fine piece of storytelling, to offer up a story with so many facets to reflect upon. It’s so beautifully crafted that Astarion speaks and dresses like a noble, that he can so easily be perceived as a person of privilege at first glance should one merely look at some of his surface behaviors and inclinations—remnant trappings of his distant past most likely, from once upon a time. It’s a delightful reveal and subversion that he, I think we can safely say, isn’t that. Perhaps he was, once, but he isn’t at this point in his life, not anymore. Appearances are deceiving, and doesn’t that just tie so nicely right into some of Astarion’s potential themes and behaviors? The lies that crack open as truth and pain come bleeding out from underneath? I do wonder how many of Larian’s audience have known hunger—and not known when the next meal will happen, what it might be, if it will have strings attached? The kind of hunger that follows you everywhere, that roots down into your bones and hollows out a home there forever more? It changes how a person sees things, how they act, how they think, even when they’re removed from being hungry all the time. One doesn’t need to be skin and bones to feel like one is starving constantly,—(I very much enjoy that headcanon just to clarify, I’m not intending to throw shade in any of this or future rambling)—to be kept on a hollow diet of empty calories that are enough to keep your heart pumping, but your body struggles because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs in the amounts it needs? To feel your mind fog over with exhaustion and blanketed despair, a primal and low level desperation whittled down into a tired and numb, anxious background static from adrenal fatigue? Miscellaneous aches, pains and problems that seem unrelated but in reality, if only you knew, were because your body can’t function the way it should ideally, because you don’t have what you truly need? A very real problem in real life, for far too many people. And oh, the beautiful, casual, so very human monstrousness Larian lets us exercise here, knowing or unknowing. It is such a powerful, understated cluster of ideas. And I think Larian knew—someone on the dev team did their homework on both traditional starvation but also what one might call masked-starvation as no doubt other tumblr folks have also speculated, just based off of what we’ve seen and because of that Happy buff Astarion gets when he uses his Vampiric Bite ability in combat. It fits right into his whole theme of “what makes a monster and what makes a man?” (Sing the bells of Notre Dame~♪) But not necessarily asking that question only of him. Rather, asking it also of the MC. This fits into the game’s whole theme with the tadpoles, the choice of using the power and turning into “Something More Beautiful” as Minthara put it, of taking the darker path, it all fits so very well. I just want to applaud this because it’s not a major story-beat moment. It’s a companion-side-quest moment. It’s going to be for the most part seen as a combat-game-mechanic and head-canon defining moment, deciding if Astarion may feed on people or not. I doubt we’d see Larian actually changing Astarion’s demeanor much in how he delivers lines with a “allowed to drink people blood” code flag, as cool as that might be. It very well could factor into later outcomes but for voice acting I doubt they’ll make an entire second/third/etc set of each line spawning from that one seemingly small choice. It makes me very hopeful that Larian can handle such weighty themes so deftly thus far—we’ll have to wait and see if they can stick the landing once the game is finished, but boy oh boy their nuance and delivery so far is strong as steel and sharp as a double-edged sword right out of the gate. The studio is in a fantastic position to explore and to challenge people’s thoughts and ideas regarding character builds like Astarion’s imo, depending on how the dev team chooses to play it out. Seeing some of Gale and Shadowheart’s dialogue trees from the goblin party, I have high hopes that the dev team will allow a great deal of exploration and flexibility all across the moral spectrums, not only allowing us the option to drag the more seen-as-good-aligned characters down paths of moral corruption,—(note: I’m including Shadowheart in more neutral-ish territory for now but the fact that she seems to feel emotionally ill—guilty, one could say—at the goblin party and is busy trying to get drunk to drown that feeling out suggests to me she Definitely does have a more good-aligned moral compass to a nuanced degree)—but also the chance to drag more seen-as-evil-aligned characters along the path to more traditionally good endings and persuade them to see the benefits of playing nice with others per more classic Good™ societal rules (subjectively speaking ofc.) But Larian is also in a very precarious place too—speaking strictly of just the one character as the focus of this essay, Astarion resonates very easily through that very real fear, pain, anger, bitterness and so many other emotions as a result of what he has survived, is still surviving through, and struggling against: trauma. How bitter indeed would it be should a character—that people with very deep, real pain can relate to—not get at least the option for a well-crafted, hopeful and merciful epilogue? Oh the sympathetic pain that Larian could reap could be pain of the very worst kind, if they condemn him to only death and darkness with bleak endings that lack nuance and care. I’ve seen some posts where people worry about Astarion not potentially having a good ending, with possible unspoken implications that he might be railroaded into betraying the MC. I’d like to say that I think a lot of his subtext, even looking at the instances where he lies and the datamined details of the voice-acting-directions, would run counter to railroading him to only ever betraying the MC. I think straight betrayal is going to run as mostly antithetical to his core themes in a way. He might betray your MC—but it will likely be because the MC betrayed him first in a myriad of small ways, or in a big way. Approval-rating-system based choices are a very real possibility too, separately or as a part of the equation naturally, in addition to your major in-game choices. That would also include the scenario of betrayal through using the tadpole powers enough to be mind-controlled into having no will of his own, much like the other characters, including the MC. I do think we have plenty of good, solid reason to be very hopeful that he will have a possible good continuation—not ending. A continuation where he manages to free himself from Cazador with the help of his companions or perhaps dare he even say friends, manages to begin the process of healing the immediate pains of his trauma and learning how to truly live with all that he’s been through and all that he’s done, to have the possibility of not only living but living both happily and well for the most part? Who knows what else Larian Studios might have in the works for him and the other companions, as well as the MC and the story of Baldur’s Gate 3. But good outcomes for all seems like it very likely could happen, for all of the companions. His wiki page’s summary tagline hook in particular offers up that implied promise from the developers to the audience, I would say, “Astarion prowled the night as a vampire spawn for centuries, serving a sadistic master until he was snatched away. Now he can walk in the light, but can he leave his wicked past behind?” What that promise is, varies from creator to creator. In this case, based on the wording, I would say that potentially implies a satisfyingly well-crafted and engaging story wherein we find out and determine if the answer to that question is yes or no, and in a DND-based RPG full of choices that have an impact on the people and world around you? In a game genre that has a history of multiple, varied endings for your companions based on how you play? That checks out. Larian so far has been handling things admirably well in my opinion, and I’m willing to invest emotionally in this story they’re telling with the trust that they will deliver a good continuation and conclusion. But on the off-chance that somehow Astarion’s endings all turn out painful and tragic on the meta for the fanbase, that the associated intentional or unintentional messages wound and grieve those who recognize and resonate most strongly with the pains he has felt? On that off-chance, in that instance where we are left bereft and disappointed because of what happened to him or any of the companions or the story itself should somehow things go awry, then it would be your right to ask Larian the very same question Astarion asked you once: How can you be so cruel?

[winefmblog]

WINE AND CHOCOLATE PAIRING

Wine and chocolate are quite similar to each other, which is part of the reason why they pair so well together. However, it can be difficult to find the perfect pairing.

Polyphenols come from plant-based foods and are full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and other health benefits. Flavonoids are the most prominent polyphenol in chocolate, while tannin is the polyphenol in wine—both of these compounds are what lead to the bitter taste in these items.

Tannin is also one of the things that can make wine taste dry—the grape skins in red wine are not only bitter but astringent. What all of this scientific talk means is that the drier the wine and the more bitter the chocolate, the less happy your taste buds will be. Too much bitter (too many polyphenols) makes for bad chocolate and wine pairing. That said, the time it takes to find the right pairing makes the mouthwatering sensation of a perfect pairing even more satisfying.

What-to-Know When Pairing Chocolate & Wine

As mentioned above, one of the most important things to remember about wine and chocolate pairing is to not double up on polyphenols. If you pair your favorite piece of dark chocolate with a big glass of a dry cabernet sauvignon, your taste buds will not be dancing with joy. Here are a few things you need to know about pairing the two delicacies.

Stay Sweet

One of the simpler ways to go about wine and chocolate pairing is staying sweet across the board. Since wine and chocolate are similar and intense in their own right, one needs to bow to the other in some way. At first, let the wine be the sweeter of the two. Port, Madeira, Sherry, or even Banyuls (a wine made from Grenache grapes in southern France) are all great “sweeter” options that will mesh well with most chocolate.

Match Intensity

A more complicated part of the chocolate and wine pairing process is the idea of matching intensities. This initiative will work in your favor if you’re not the biggest fan of sweet wines. Essentially, matching intensities means you pair light with light and strong with full. An example of this is pairing a nice milk chocolate truffle with a light-bodied wine such as a Pinot Noir or a Merlot.

When it comes to dark chocolate that contains quite a bit of cacao, pair that with a full-bodied wine such as Zinfandel or a Syrah. If you don’t mind a more bitter taste, you could try to pair a Cabernet Sauvignon with a dark chocolate treat. After all, tastes vary—what is cringy to one may be euphoric for another.

Think of Ingredients

If your chocolate has additional yummy ingredients such as nuts, toffee, caramel, fruit, etc., you’ll want to match those ingredients with the different notes in the wine. If you’re eating a nice nut-filled piece of milk chocolate, pair it with a nutty Sherry or a Tawny Port. If you have some scrumptious chocolate covered strawberries, these pair deliciously with a sweet sparkling red such as a Lambrusco or a Brachetto D’Acqui. Most wine bottles have a description outlining the different notes you’ll find within the wine; look this over to ensure that you pair it with the right chocolate.

Taste on a Spectrum

Similar to a formal wine tasting, you’ll want to taste from either light to dark chocolate, or light-bodied to full-bodied. Starting with white chocolate and a light-bodied wine will keep you from over-working your palate. White chocolate is going to be less nuanced than a bitter dark chocolate, so this way you won’t miss out on sweet subtleties.

Wine Recommendations for White Chocolate

Although technically not “true chocolate” since there is no cacao, the delicacy and sweetness of this type of chocolate pairs well with light-bodied wines and dry reds.

Rosé Port

Moscato D’Asti

Ice Wine (This is a type of dessert wine made in cold climates. Left to freeze on the vines, you can find these grapes in late-harvest Rieslings and Vidal Blanc)

Sauternes

Chardonnay

Wine Recommendations for Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate should be comprised of a half cacao, half cream blend. Milk chocolate is going to be one of the easiest to pair with wine because of this balance.

Brachetto D’Acqui

Pinot Noir

Merlot

Syrah or Sirah

Muscat

Wine Recommendations for Dark Chocolate

When there is a high cacao content in the chocolate, your wine should be fuller-bodied. The robust aromas and intense flavors of these full-bodied wines will complement the bitter taste of the chocolate.

Zinfandel

Tawny Port

Sherry

Banyuls

Chianti

No matter what chocolate you choose—white, milk, or dark—there is a myriad of wine choices to choose from to make your taste buds tingle. It may take a few tries, but once you achieve the perfect mesh, you’ll have created a match made in heaven.

Source: https://www.kj.com/blog/wine-chocolate-pairing-tasting-party

[theelliottsmiths]

The real problem here is that you put pepper in your tea what the shit

Oh so about that yeah the only tea I actually like (as opposed to force myself to drink, I started drinking tea at 16 because baby me didn't realise that someone saying let's get a cup of tea at this cafe doesn't mean you have to get tea specifically. Didn't like it. Too dry, bad tannins, yuck) is chai tea. The English version that's just spices and tea not like actual chai, were just culture thieves. But yes chai, many delicious spices, yum.

Asda had the most delicious one, own brand, with black pepper as well as all the cloves, cinnamon etc, but they one day without warning changed the recipe and pretended it was for posh people. It tasted like dishwater. I tried a few brands and some were okay but they were all missing the pepper.

I'm a fancy bastard and buy mixed peppercorns (green, pink/red, white, black, something else). Crush em a little and put them in before you add the water. Delicious. Spicy. Slightly too burny if you're a fool and add too many. This was my downfall.

I'm not bothering with straining so avoiding ingesting all the bits of peppercorn is a fun little game.

I have not been succinct a single day in my life.

Fun fact: I have to be pretty careful drinking tea because caffeine makes me sleepy. Just neurodivergent things.

[anabantoid]

Altering pH, what's it for, how do you do it?

We've heard it a lot before, "I don't need a certain pH, I just need a stable pH" and we've never questioned it. And why should we? What is pH, the measured scale of acidic to alkaline, and how does it effect the lives of our fish in the aquaria and outside of it? 

First let's start off with what it is. As mentioned above, pH is a scale with which you measure the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid, your soil, even some parts of your body, and more. Here's a good chart.

Here’s the short and sweet version:

You can’t just dunk in a bunch of pH down to lower your pH, or you’ll cause the pH to drop, then rise back up, and kill your fish.

You have to determine your kH and pH from the tap

High kH will prevent your pH from being lowered because of its high buffering capabilities, low kH will make your pH swing wildly because of its lack of buffering capabilities

Play around with altering your water in an unstocked tank to get a feel for the procedure and how much remineralizer to use or chemical buffers to use without harming your fish.

RO/DI will give you water with 0 kH and 0 gH. Use Salty Shrimp gH/kH+ to remineralize. A kH value between 4-6 will allow you to safely alter your pH without it swinging. You need to add gH because it contains essential minerals fish and plants need to live.

Use botanicals, such a leaves (refer to the charts!) or seed pods, to release tannins and lower the pH OR you can use an active aquasoil (refer to the paragraph above for the pros and cons and further explanation).

You can also use chemical buffers like acid buffer from Seachem that will soften your water (lower kH) and allow for your pH to be adjusted, or you can use neutral regulator the same was as it brings your pH to 7 and softens the water.

Stock accordingly, check your kH, gH and pH often to make sure it’s all correct and stable.

Have fun!

Here’s the long and meaty version:

In the wild, there's multiple factors that lead to waters being more acidic, more neutral and more alkaline. In Amazonian rivers, as well as peat bogs in Indonesia, the concentration of decaying organic matter like leaf litter and wood releases tannins.

Tannins are an organic compound found in plants, and in some trees the tannins help prevent predation from insects, as well as operating as an antimicrobial and antifungal. When the parts of the plant fall into the water, the tannins are leached out and released into the water, which alters the water's chemistry by making it more acidic, and over time, softer. This is what gives peat swamps and the Amazon their rich, dark colored waters, and makes them soft and acidic. Another friend that helps out with this is humic acid, molecules present in plants that help them receive nutrients. Blackwater is filled with tannic and humic acids because of the decaying plant matter!

In reverse, the minerals in bodies of water will alter its chemistry. Karstic lakes are bodies of water carved into dolomite, limestone or gypsum, which are all rich in hard water causing minerals like calcium carbonates, and those minerals in turn can make the water very hard and alkaline.

We all agree that Rift Lake cichlids and saltwater fish need a certain water chemistry, they've evolved to live and flourish only in those water conditions, and taking them out long term can be detrimental to their health and cause illness and shorten their lifespans. Fish that evolved to be acidophiles evolved a specific way for a reason, and a few generations in captivity doesn't change that. In fact many breeders don't breed in hard water, but soften their water using RO/DI for these acid loving fish, and raise them in these conditions. This is why when you bring home cardinal tetras, you see a massive die off because you're taking fish kept in neutral to below neutral waters and adding them to a tank that had your tap with a pH of 8 and it shocks them and kills them.

Okay, great, you're thinking, you told me a bunch of stuff but haven't told me how to change my pH.

In order to to adjust your pH, you need to know your kH (carbonate hardness). It's the carbonate hardness that determines your pH in MOST situations (Sulawesi need not apply, the waters there are soft but the pH is alkaline!).

My friend @justnoodlefishthings can explain it way better than me: "Carbonate hardness, or kH, is the measure of calcium carbonate in the water. Calcium carbonate will dissociate into calcium and carbonate ions in water. The carbonate ions are unstable and unhappy and thus will readily suck up all available hydrogen ions in the water. The more hydrogen ions you have in water, the more acidic it is and vice versa for basicity. So, if you have a high kH, then there are not a lot of H+’s floating around to make the water any more acidic than what it already is. This prevents the pH from swinging wildly in any direction."

What this means is that it's crucial to know your kH in order to adjust your pH. You can't just add tannins and go "well that should do it!", otherwise you'll get alkaline tea water.

This is the range you're looking for when altering: 4-6 kH. The higher you get, the harder it is to lower your pH, and the lower you get, the more your pH will swing randomly without the buffering capabilities of your kH. That means your pH can swing to bother very acidic levels, like a peat swamp, or very alkaline levels, like a Sulawesi lake, despite having no kH.

Alright, so then how do I actually do it?

After testing your tap and determining your starting pH and kH, and you know you wanna keep specialized acidophiles, you realize you gotta do something. Your kH is reading at 8 and your pH is reading at 7.8, both of these things are the opposite of what you need. How can you fix this?

The safest is way is by getting RO/DI water from your LFS, or investing in a system of your own. They're not expensive compared to other tank equipment, roughly $60 can get you a nice RO Buddy off of Amazon. Your LFS prices may vary, but my advice is to get about ten gallons of RO from your LFS (it'll usually be $10-$15) and you can always try out altering the tank before getting any stock and seeing how you feel about this. You need to remineralize the RO/DI water, Salty Shrimp gH/kH+ is what I recommend so that you can have some kH for its buffering and stabilizing properties, and you need to add gH back into your tank. gH, calcium, magnesium and other minerals, are vital to fish and plants and all bodies of water contain varying amounts. 

Remember, you want your pH low, but stable, so aim for that 4-5 kH sweet spot. You can play around and get used to mixing the water and finding out your ratios before worrying about if you'll harm your stock if you do this with an empty tank. 

Adding botanicals to your water once it’s at that sweet spot will bring and keep your pH down. Botanicals would be any organic matter that releases tannins and humic acid; leaf litter, seed pods, coconot coir, etc. Here’s a fun chart that shows the different leaves you can use (and you can collect yourself) as well as the tannin outputs.

And this is how those leaves can effect your water.

(From here, also a good article expanding on botanicals and how to collect them yourself)

You can also peruse the catalog of Tannin Aquatics to get some fun things, but be aware that seed pods do eventually rot and you’ll want to periodically pull them out if you notice it being a bit too funky. A slight sulfur smell is okay, that’s the organic material breaking down, but if it smells like rancid farts you’ll want to cycle it out with a new pod.

Another, more expensive route, is to use an aquasoil with your RO/DI water. Aquasoils are things like ADA Amazonia, UNS, Fluval, etc. They’re clay-based, high CEC (cation exchange capacity) which means they’re excellent for your planted tanks. They absorb nutrients from your water and hold onto it so that your plants can use it continuously. It’s also an active soil, it will buffer your pH to around 6 and keep it there without needing to use an additive to raise your kH, but you will need to raise you gH, which would be your calcium and magnesium and other minerals that are vital to fish and plant health. There’s downsides beside the cost; they leech a lot of ammonia when you add them, and can take a month to subside, though this aids in starting a cycle. They will break down over time and turn into mud, and you can’t disturb the soil or have digging fish otherwise they’ll generate massive mud clouds. They also eventually need to be replaced every two years or so, and if you’re like me you don’t like the idea of needing to break down a tank every two years. This is, however, a good option if you’re okay with the above downsides.

You can also use chemical buffers to do all of this work, acid buffer will break down your kH and create co2, and allow for your pH to drop, neutral regulator will soften your water the same way but keep your pH, well, at a neutral 7. I’ve used acid buffer successfully, you just need to follow the directions on the bottle, but you can also experiment with this the same way you would with the RO/DI water.

Remember this, though, below a pH of 5, most bacteria that aid in the nitrogen cycle are unable to live because of the highly acidic conditions. In these extremely low pH environments, they’re peat bogs typically, and peat bogs have one important kind of plant that makes it a peat bog; the sphagnum moss. The sphagnum acts as the beneficial bacteria in this situation, as it takes in the ammonia and nitrogen the bacteria typically would, and uses it up, eliminating it from the water. This is how low pH peat bogs and swamps “cycle” themselves! And why leaving the sphagnum moss alone in these places is important, because they’re the very livelihood of the swamps and bogs. You can always obtain sustainably grown sphagnum moss if you’re looking to replicate a peat bog of your own and allow it to float on the surface in a mat of other mosses, leaves and organic matter, just like you’d see in a real bog.

[j4nn4s]

rules:

always repost the rules

answer the questions given to you by the one who tagged you!

give 11 questions

tag 11 people

i was tagged by @isakvdhflorenzi, ty miss lorena <3 1. Is the social media presence of the characters important to how you view the quality of the remake/show?

hm well skam nl is my favorite and their social media game is trash LMAOOO so generally No but i do feel like remakes who DO have such a good presence kind of elevate the show and i think it’s pretty heartwarmin to see some remakes go sm farther than skam with social media and puttin out educational and IN CHARA resources like skames does this so well and i feel like in that way, the team is really really spreadin skam’s spirit via these resources (like joana’s billion bpd awareness ig accounts and lucas rubio’s yt channel)

2. Least favourite clip of the show? Why?

tbh there are definitely some duds but probably one of the clips with sana gettin herself into a hole in s4 just bc some were hard to watch cus cringey or yikes .... idk i cant think of others LMAO

3. Which character did you feel the most connected to and why?

ijeoiqjiwoij even tho even is my all time fave skam chara, i have to say isak for all of these reasons 

4. Your least favourite part of every season?

season 1 - tbh even though i really enjoyed this season, it does take a while for it to build up like i rmr at first not being that interested until ep6 maybe ?? which is hard when you’re trying to get your friends to watch but they have to wait until ep6 before shit starts RLLY buildin up and gettin wild

season 2 - hm ig noora chasin after william ??

season 3 - bro NOTHINGGG call me a purist but its such a refined masterpiece like the pacing is good the characterization is so good ugh i deadass cant think of anythin

season 4 - i always felt a little ??? w noora being sana’s bff ig bc from s1-s3 it didn’t Feel like they were that close like even in noora’s pov, sana wasn’t really a part of it that much ?? like eva was more of noora’s bff ?? so i feel like it would have made more sense if maybe sana spoke more with chris or vilde bc sana and vilde eventually seemed to get closer esp with kosegruppa and chris has always been by sana’s side ?? idk that always confused me

5. What is your opinion on the cast’s participation on social media? Do you prefer it when the cast aren’t that involved like the Skam cast, or do you like a lot of content like the Fr cast do?

tbh i don’t care much abt the casts LMAOOO if anythin it kind of brings more harm as seen with the harassment axel and maxence get and also can bring more controversy like with irene (which honestly is p sad considerin how much i love skames bc now i feel super :/ watchin it like she shouldve just had private accts at this point)

6. Favourite song you found from Skam or the remakes?

OMFGGG love this question .... def doorman by slowthai and mura masa bc its one of my fave songs now and i got it from skam nl <3 ugh taste

7. If you could decide which characters from Skam got a season, who would you choose?

OOOHHH ugh torn bc i like isak’s pov but also i want even’s so might have to forfeit isak season for even season ....... hm so probs vilde, sana, even, noora (maybe not w william tho) and honestly maybe jonas too ??

8. Are there any moments that you liked in the show that everyone else seems to hate?

IJXDWQOIJJ yes .... remakes-wise, people hate skam nl s2’s last half but i enjoyed it for the most part ... i think the pacing was off for the last ep but personally, clip 50 made up for it and is p god tier imo ..... and also don’t think the first half of ep10 is enough to discredit the entire season bc i rlly loved seeing liv’s pov and have sm fave moments from the season 

but skam wise, omg might get a lil controversial w this one IM SORRY !!! im bein honest and its Just my opinion ok 

personally s2 got me more invested than s1 and i don’t think its a super bad season like i didnt really say many problems wrong with it until i got on tumblr wiejioqjoiqjq i was sort of interested in the questions that the noora/william dynamic brought up which is, as expressed in william’s war speech to noora, that nothing is ever black/white which i feel was a huge message and feeds into the ‘you never know what ppl are going through’ theme of the season ... like i like the idea of someone like noora, who can have a black/white mentality (as seen in the first clip of s2 when she tells vilde that they can’t have the tannin company as their sponsor bc they objectify women or smth but misses the context and what it could mean for the bus monetarily bc shes caught up in bein ‘woke’) having to break out of that and see more than one side ... and i think remakes like skam austin expanded on this idea well like when zoya was like ‘must be so nice being right all the time’ which i Do feel like is an important for youth to know today .... bc i think its so easy to get caught up in the idea of being so objectively right and morally superior that people lose sight of the more nuanced characteristics to life ... (omg long ramble BUT)

also LMAOOOOO this one might be more controversial as it pertains to bench scene s4 ok oops again doNT GOTTA AGREE !! ........ but i feel like the scene had a lot of good intentions ... i was def kind of cringing a bit tho bc i understand the subject’s sensitivity and how these topics are hard to talk about but i genuinely feel like they both made Some points and should listen to each other .... like as Hard and as maybe ‘unwoke’ it is to admit, unfortunately you sort of do have to answer the tough questions bc that way we learn from each other .... and i perfectly understand why some ppl wouldn’t want to do this and i certainly am tired abt havin to answer shit abt my sexuality or stupid male questions abt women but if u dont answer them, people do go lookin for answers still and the internet is such a shitty place that its pretty easy (esp with youtube’s algorithm) to lead you to ignorant ppl and perhaps radicalization .... questions help us to better understand our community and sometimes they can have good intentions too but we have to ask and answer them or else people will make up answers (which ive literally seen and its honestly worse to see fake as shit and UNINFORMED answers bc ppl did not want to ask you or ppl of ur identity, esp when they’re already startin from a place of hate .... but i rather have ppl ask me patronizing questions than have them spread false info bc that can do much more harm in the long run) however i DO think that isak should also consider sana’s side and i sort of wish we saw him conceding more bc they both have smth to learn from one another, like sana shouldn’t just be learnin from isak, isak needs to learn from sana too

PHEW SORRY QWIOJQWIO girl i just got opinions on some things this is when my desc rlly comes in handy .... oqjdwqioj

9. What did you learn from the show?

omg honestly too much to write here tbh ..... but if it says anythin im (very slowly) in the works of a three part skam essay about basically how skam teaches us to be better humans and how to better treat the people we care about diowjqioj essentially the three biggest themes of the show: you never know what someone is going through so always be kind, always communicate with your friends, and no person is ever alone and i feel like these are definitely rlly good messages to live by (also livet er nå BITCH !!!)

10. What is your favourite headcanon about your favourite characters?

omg tbh i could not tell u at all how the skam charas are doing except i hope even is okay thats all im thinkin of ok .... OIWXIOJX omg remakes wise tho ..... honestly im so bad at this girl IDK !!!!! LMAO i have to really think i have a bit of vdh and dutch even but thats bc we know like Zero abt them so its easier oijwiojqio idk liv and noah bein cute as shit ..... OH WAIT personally i feel like janna got a bunch of pansexual energy so my BIGGG hc is that she’s pan also bc she’s one of my all time fave charas and my fkn url so itd be dope if she was pan ok boom

11. What is your opinion on fanfiction in the fandom?

tbh i don’t read skam fanfiction but i don’t mind reading some from the remakes (tho still its rare) ... eiojeioqw i just don’t trust anyone but julie to write skam charas bc i think that’s how precious the show is to me LMAO like idk everything ive seen of skam fanfiction and ficlets and one shots, i could never get into bc the tone is just so out of character or there will be lines that just take me out of the fic bc im like this !!!! is not !!! how the chara acts !!!! so yeah idk not rlly a fan bc of my purist ass but i dont mind others reading it

Questions:

1. Favorite quote of the show?

2. Which country would you like to see have the next remake? Do you have any headcanons?

3. Which season would you rewrite and how would you rewrite it?

4. What clips do you personally like or don’t mind, but others hate?

5. Which songs do you think SKAM or the remakes should have included? For which moments?

6. Who would you give SKAM season five to and what topics and themes would it cover?

7. What moment spoke to you or touched you from SKAM the most?

8. How did you find SKAM? How did you feel about it right after watching?

9. Have you shared SKAM with any friends in real life? What did they think of it?

10. Of the remakes, which characters are your favorite of their SKAM counterparts? (Ex. who is the best Vilde remake? Eva? etc.)

11. How do you feel about the SKAM (and remakes) tumblr fandom?

I tag: @smileykeijser @whatadaze @queenofpurgatoryx @itlukey @skamyeets @shaykeijser @megeliz01 @isakcijser @wackpainterkid @axelauriantblot @kar-d-momme

(omg ik some of yall have been tagged so just ignore if u dont want to do it ok im srry it was in the RULES!)

[sense-sans-sensibility]

11, 14, 35 :)

Hoo boy!

11. What are some sensory things you can’t stand - noise, taste, etc?

MEAT. I like meat a lot but I am HELLA picky. Gristle, tendon, bone, solid fat... basically anything that isn’t either lean or well marbled muscle will usually make me wanna hurl and I will lose my appetite. I AM learning that I can handle stuff better if its actually cooked properly. Also if meat isn’t fresh enough and has picked up environmental smells and tastes I cant eat it. (Freezer burn, fridge taste) Fat tends to absorb this first so I usually hate eating eating it for texture AND taste reasons. Also not so big on poultry skin. I used to really like crispy skin but I’ve had it cooked badly too many times and it became an unfavorite :(

Tannins and other super-taster problems - Anything with tannins is gonna basically burn my tongue with bitter though I like medium-strength tea and coffee with milk (milk attaches to the tannins, much like it does capsaicin.) I had to train myself to like these... lol I dont know why I did it though. Also not-perfectly-ripe-tomatoes and Cilantro taste like not-edible chemicals. Bell peppers I’m not a fan of. Green tastes blech. Yellow-Red are ok but it overpowers anything it’s cooked in and I get tired of the taste after a couple of bites unless its paired with other strong flavors.

Leftovers.... which I feel bad about, but leftovers tend to get fridge/microwave-flavor. I can’t reheat most meats. I dont order anything that cant be reheated in an oven or on the stove, unless, again, the flavor is strong enough not to be affected much. Also stuff that’s badly fried can taste super awful. I pick up garbage flavor/smell. 

Strong Floral fragrances, any kind of artificial smelling fragrance and cigarette smoke that I cant escape will trigger fairly immediate anxiety and shut/meltdown. 

Auditory Nopes are fairly run-of-the-mill too. Screeking, consistent repetitive sounds, TWO PEOPLE TALKING AT THE SAME TIME REALLY GETS ME IRRATIONALLY ANGRY.

And since this is going long... I have a lot of touch things, surely but the first that comes to mind is cheaply made synthetic fabrics. Cheaply made fabrics period, I guess. Which sucks. Its not like I can afford super nice stuff, lol. I don’t have a lot of clothes.

14. What are your favorite stims?

Hmm... Stretching... I really really love stretching. even 15 years after my dancing life I’ve maintained a weirdly high level of flexibility because of this.

Balancing is good too. Dancing. Stretching my fingers into weird shapes slowly is a visual and feeling stim. :3 A lot of my stims are based on body movements. I was probably told not to fidget with things. 

35. Is anyone else in your family autistic?

I’m pretty sure my astrophysicist uncle is autistic! Though I’ve never talked to him about it.  My dad definitely has ADHD... He commiserated with me a lot with my ADHD struggles, but he tended to deny my Autism type struggles.

[fishblr-blog]

New Aquarium Checklist

Today I’m going to be explaining the things you need and why you need them when you want to get into the hobby! This is a very long post so get ready for lots of words!

Money

Before you do anything, the first thing you need to make sure you have enough of is money. You can get an aquarium fully set up for as little or as much money as you are willing to spend, but that doesn’t mean your set up will be successful or more importantly, good for the fish. Spending money on the right supplies will save you from spending the money on something cheap that will stop working and cost you, even more, having to replace it or ideally, update with something less likely to fail you.

Expect to pay at least 100$ for a small aquarium, after buying all you need to set things up and stock the tank. If that’s too rich for your blood, I’d suggest a nano tank and a marimo ball. Betta fish should never be in nano tanks. The smallest you should keep them in is 2.5 gallons, 5 is vastly better.

A Place for the Aquarium to Live

For nano aquariums, it should be easy enough to locate a spot to place them and they’re light enough that you don’t have to worry about them destroying whatever you’ve placed it on.

However the larger the aquarium, the harder to find a spot for it and the harder it is to find something that can support its weight. A 20-gallon tank (which is considered small in the hobby) can weigh up to and over 200 pounds once you add in the water, substrate, fish, and decorations. Things only get heavier from here on out.

Once you hit 10 gallons I suggest getting specially made aquarium stands, which can cost you as much as the tank! You can sometimes get them as a packaged deal for a great price. I suggest checking Facebook, Craigslist, Letgo and other kinds of services for used aquarium stands, often, people are trying to sell the tank along with it too, be wary of used aquariums though as you can’t know what has been put in them. The risk of dangerous chemicals being used on them isn’t worth the money saved on getting a used one unless you trust the previous owner.

Do NOT just assume whatever surface you are putting a 10+ gallon aquarium on will support its weight. Trying to clean up the mess of a broken aquarium is an absolute nightmare. Not just for all the debris but chances are your fish won't survive the experience, even if you’re standing there when it happens.

Time

Aquariums aren’t something you can just set and forget, even if you’re doing a nano aquarium that just has a marimo ball, it will still require your time. Aquariums usually require weekly water changes (about 25%+ of the water), monthly filter maintenance, daily feeding, gravel vacuuming, etc. When you’ve got the aquarium set up it’s really not that much work, but you can’t just neglect it, or your fish will die.

Also, take into consideration the lifespan of the fish. Some fish can live for years... even decades. Make certain you’re on board with this before getting a longer-lived species, if you want to see how you take to the hobby start with a shorter-lived species, such as livebearers (Guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies).

Aquarium

This one seems obvious, no aquarium, not fish! But it’s not as easy as you might think. There are 3 kinds of materials used for aquariums, plastic, glass, and acrylic, each with their benefits and drawbacks (or in the case of plastic, mostly negatives). For those new to the aquarium hobby, I suggest glass aquariums. Acrylic is both very expensive and not as easy to come by (the big box stores rarely have these at all). I’ll go into more detail in another post about the choices and which is best depending on your commitment and desires.

Filter

No filter? No aquarium. You can not do a setup without a filter, even in my plant only tank I still have a nano filter. The only thing you can get away with not having a filter is a marimo nano tank, even then you need to agitate the water often to move the moss ball around.

Filters are tied at the top for one of the most important things you need to keep livestock. It isn’t something you should cut corners on and it’s always better to over filter than under filter (with consideration to water flow... you don’t want to put a fast-moving current in a small betta tank).

There are a variety of filters you can use, sponge, internal, canister, HOB (hang on the back), etc. Each one has its uses depending on your set up. Do your research into the kind of filter you’ll need based on the size of your aquarium, as that’s the most important thing to consider. I’ll be writing an in-depth post about the different kinds of filters and the setups they work for.

Heater

Growing up I never once heard about an aquarium heater but they are a vital part of keeping your fish healthy and happy. Freshwater fish are almost exclusively tropical and require water that is warmer than the typical house’s ambient temperature. Depending on the area you live in and the seasons the fluctuation in water temperature can straight up kill fish. Even here in Phoenix, Arizona the change in daytime temp to nighttime temp can be drastic, especially if the tank is near a window. This is non-negotiable, if you have livestock in your tank, you have to have a heater.

Substrate

While you can have a bare-floor tank (quarantine tanks usually work best with bare tanks) there are a variety of reasons why you should have substrate. The biggest one is they are great at housing beneficial bacteria! If you do a bare-floor aquarium and do a big water change and change the filter at the same time you’ve basically just killed all your beneficial bacteria. Why do you need bacteria? It helps break down bad chemicals, without them, your ammonia levels will spike and kill your fish. You’ll notice that’s a common theme of this list, when we bring dogs and cats into our home our environment is already tailored to their basic needs, but with fish, you need to create an entire ecosystem for them to live in.

There are different kinds of substrates, sand, gravel of different sizes and substrate designed specifically for plants. If you want to do a live plant aquarium you’ll need to spring for a lot pricer special substrate, but it’ll help keep your plants happy and healthy. This kind of substrate is also great for shrimp! I’ll make a substrate post to explain the different kinds and the benefits of them!

Live Bacteria/Starter Bacteria

When you first set up a tank you need to cycle it. Dumping water in a tank, even if you have everything else set up fine, even if you dechlorinate water... without beneficial bacteria your tank isn’t ready for fish yet. Some (not good sources) say you only need to cycle for ‘24 hours’ this is a complete NO. You should cycle for at least a week, and to do that you’ll be adding a liquid starter bacteria to your tank daily (smaller tanks it’s usually just one cap of the stuff). You’ll also want to get a large bottle of it (Unless you have a nano tank) as you’ll be using it even after your tank is cycled and set up. 

Water Test Kit

This one is ‘technically’ optional. Many places will offer free water checks (Petco and Petsmart offer them for free, local aquarium specialty stores will usually do the first one free then a small fee for each subsequent test). You could just take advantage of these free water checks but I suggest if you’re really interested in taking the best care of your fish you should get a water test kit and test the water regularly. You can also get test strips! They are not as accurate as the test kits are so shouldn’t be the only thing you are relying on. In my experience, Petsmart uses the test strips and local stores use the kits, the local stores can also give you better advice for what the water test results mean and how to adjust your parameters.

Decorations

Another ‘technically optional’. While you could keep a tank naked save for the bare essentials (filter, heater, tank, hood, and light)... that... isn’t what I would call an ideal set up. Decorations not only are visually appealing to use they are important to your fish as well! Many fish are shy and prefer to have hiding spots, they can grow bored without an environment to navigate. Territorial fish need something to demarcate their territory or they’ll become very stressed and aggressive.

Fish don’t really care about what color the decorations are or if they’re plastic, so don’t feel the pressure to get the really pricey decorations. While live plants have a lot of benefits they require their own focus and parameters and can get really complicated. Just make sure your decorations are fish safe. Never add wood to your tank without boiling and soaking it, fresh wood is never something you should put in your tank, even wood sold specifically for aquariums needs to be soaked to leech the tannins out. Tannins will turn your water brown/amber and make it murky which can work for a brackish aquarium but will likely not be appealing to a freshwater set up. Wood can also change the PH of your water. Like I said, plastic decorations don’t require any extra work other than a quick rinse off before adding them to the tank (never use soaps!), the natural materials take extra effort and thought.

Fish

This is so far down the list because you need to focus so much on everything above long before you get the fish. The most important thing to consider is the fish you want. A lot of fish sold at pets stores can grow to truly monstrous sizes (I have seen juvenile Silver Arowana sold at Petsmart! They grow to 3 feet long, sometimes more!) so you can’t just walk into the store and buy whatever strikes your fancy. The majority of the fish for sale are juveniles and the true sizes of them are rarely accurately listed, (the Silver Arowana sign at Petsmart claimed they only got 12 inches long) if they’re listed at all.

First consider the size of the tank you’re comfortable buying, as stated above getting a small setup (10-20 gallon tank) you’re looking at about 100$, if not more just for the base setup (My 20-gallon setup cost about 200$ because I use live plants and natural materials, it could have been half as much if I had taken it in another direction). Once you’ve picked out a tank size only then can you consider the kinds of fish you can put in it. The smaller the tank, the fewer the fish you can add to it and the smaller the fish must be. So turn your eyes away from the bigger fish unless you’re willing to invest in a tank that will fit them at their adult sizes. It’s about 1 inch of fish per gallon, and any other livestock you add count as well. Shrimp would be about .5 gallon per shrimp (as they have a lower load), snails also could towards the bio-load of the tank which is why getting an infestation can be dangerous for your tank.

Fish Food

Another obvious one but this is more complicated than you think! There is a lot of cheap and poorly made fish food available on the market. I don’t suggest ever buying it from the grocery store unless its an emergency and you plan on replacing it with something better very very soon. Different fish have different requirements, some are strictly carnivores, others omnivores, some herbivores. Feeding them the wrong thing can lead to starvation, malnutrition, constipation and general failure to thrive.

Always read the ingredient list, some foods contain copper sulfate which is a very dangerous chemical to any invertebrates (snails/shrimp). I once lost a beloved rabbit snail because I failed to read the full ingredient list of the algae wafers I got for the tank. It can also be toxic to fish in high doses. I’d suggest just avoiding any foods that list copper sulfate at all to be on the safe side.

Hood/Lid

You can go without a hood or a lid... however, there are very good reasons to make sure you have a good tank cover. Water evaporates and you’ll have to add water between water changes, which is tedious and can mess with the parameters of your water. Higher on the list of importance is the fact that some fish are jumpers. They will leap right out of the water! Betta fish are well known for this, the Silver Arowana I mentioned above is so notorious for this that even very experienced keepers have lost full grown ones to a hard leap, even with a secured lid.

If you have pets (cats especially) you may end up finding them pawing at the water, falling in or just trying to catch the fish. I say: better safe than sorry!

If you’re willing to keep on top of the water levels, have no pets that can get into the tank, a rimless acrylic tank without a lid does look amazing.

Lights

This is another one that can be as complicated or easy as you want it to be. If you have a very well lit area for the tank you could potentially get away without a dedicated light. You could even just have a hanging pendant light that is bright enough to illuminate the tank and that’s fine!

It gets more complicated if you want to do a planted tank, as I said in decorations, live plants require extra work and this is one of those things that will add to their time and cost. Live plants require a specific spectrum to grow properly. Some can survive with basic lights but if you want to really get a planted tank going you need to get full spectrum lights and full spectrum LED lights can be very expensive (for my 20 gallons I was looking at 60+ dollars).

LED lights take less energy to run, which is great in the long run and they last a very long time. Fluorescent bulbs are cheaper and readily available (hardware stores may even have the size you need!) but will need to be changed more often and it’s vital that you don’t let any of the moisture hits them.

And that’s all the things you need to consider when buying an aquarium and setting it up! There are other things you’ll need but aren’t as vital as what’s listed above. A small tank you could just use a soft toothbrush to clean algae off and you could just siphon the water out with a cup for water changes. Bigger tanks though will require gravel vacs and dedicated algae scrubbers (you could use a soft sponge like the ones sold at the grocery store but don’t use the scrubbing side!).

Here is a link to a PDF you can print out to check off what you have and still need!

[gosugarbalance-blog]

Herbs for Sugar Balance

Sugar balance has a profound effect on your overall health, including your cardiovascular system, mood, brain function, immune health, body weight, cancer risk and, of course, diabetes risk. The most important forces that influence blood sugar levels are what you eat and how you move. In ancient times, you would not have had to pay much attention to such trivialities because humans generally ate smaller portions of whole foods and constantly moved their bodies in order to work and survive. Technological advances have made life easier and food tastier, to the detriment of our health, unfortunately. While some people are more susceptible to the harmful effects of excess sugar (and movement deficiency), the modern lifestyle is not good for any of us.

Addressing the Epidemic

sugar balance reviews, insulin and metabolism imbalances put you on a dangerous road to travel. It becomes impossible for your body to function optimally, and your risk of premature death increases dramatically. Unfortunately, most of America has already begun the journey. According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 50 percent of adults and 75 percent of older adults have diabetes or prediabetes. The incidence in children has also increased alarmingly. The sooner you can detect and address blood sugar problems, the better you will be. Even if you and your family do not experience overt blood sugar problems, diet, lifestyle and tonic herbs for sugar can help you stay healthy. And if you or a loved one have already developed type 2 diabetes, feel calm knowing that it is always possible to return to life to recover better health and vitality.

What is a Hypoglycemic Herb?

A hypoglycemic herb, a remedy or a food is one that lowers blood sugar levels, ideally bringing blood sugar to a healthy range. The different remedies work in several ways: improving the insulin sensitivity of the cells, improving the production of insulin, decreasing the glycemic effect of food, improving the function of the beta cells that produce insulin, altering the way your body absorbs, stores and releases sugar, etc. .

These remedies are usually taken with meals to help prevent blood sugar spikes and shocks, therefore, keeping blood sugar in a healthier general range. This can benefit both types of diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity and high cholesterol in particular. Most remedies also offer antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which indirectly improve blood sugar levels while decreasing the collateral damage of chronic hyperglycemia (high blood sugar level).

Blueberry Benefits

(Vaccinium spp) is a complete package plant for diabetes. It is amazing how berries and leaves balance blood sugar and reduce the side effects of diabetes. For the most specific hypoglycemic effect, drink the tea leaf. Popular herbalists have long used cranberry leaf tea to lower blood sugar and fight urinary tract infections (compared to their relatives, it is a little stronger than blueberry and blueberry fruits and softer than the ursi grape leaves). New preliminary studies on Vaccinium spp. The leaves support your ability to reduce cholesterol and blood sugar, protect your body from sugar-related damage and possibly act like insulin and help regenerate damaged beta cells. They can be used, with care, in cases of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as well as in insulin resistance.

Additional benefits: Low glycemic berries can be enjoyed fresh, frozen, in juice or as a daily supplement. Although they reduce and modulate blood sugar (a little), they stand out especially in supporting other areas of the body negatively affected by diabetes and blood sugar imbalance. They are full of antioxidants and deep blue-purple pigments that strengthen capillaries and blood vessels, discourage urinary tract infections, improve circulation, improve beta cell proliferation, fight oxidative damage and improve eye health, cardiovascular well-being and brain function. Most research revolves around the European blueberry (V. myrtillus); However, our local blueberries offer similar benefits.

Preparation: Eat the berries (the most wild and frozen are more potent) or prepare tea with the leaves of wild or minimally cultivated plants. Dried leaves may be more difficult to find in commerce. The standard doses of herb (1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon of dried herb per 8 ounces of water, 1–3 times per day; 1 large amount of fresh herb per 8 ounces of water, 1–3 times per day) are applied to the tea leaf; Start on the low side to measure your personal response. Eat one or two large bags of frozen blueberries weekly, or ½ cup a day.

Precautions and considerations: Berries are incredibly safe and can be enjoyed as food. The leaves are generally safe; However, they contain tannins that can irritate the kidneys if used in high or long-term doses. Younger leaves have fewer tannins; However, studies suggest that late summer leaves may have a deeper anti-diabetes effect. When harvesting the leaves, bite a few first: the leaves with a cranberry spike are a better medicine, and the level of bitterness and astringency indicates the content of tannins.

Similar herbs: Cranberry fruit, a close relative, shares many of the same benefits.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

As with any herbal therapy, these hypoglycemic remedies should be introduced into your routine slowly, to evaluate your body's response. While these remedies reduce blood sugar, which is generally good, they can cause hypoglycemia (a blood sugar level that is too low), which can be dangerous and even fatal. Take these remedies with meals, not on an empty stomach (when your blood sugar level is likely to be low). If you have diabetes, take medication or are pregnant, work with your healthcare professional to determine the best way to incorporate these herbs into your routine.

[swetlana-singhai]

How To Care Your Black Hair With Natural Tips 

You have heard that sometimes your grandparents advise you to keep your hair black and long. In today's generation, you will see black hair in very rare cases. Nothing is more beautiful than black, long, and thick hair. Some women and men love to highlight their hair in many different colors. 

But if you remember, in previous times, some men and women had black, long, and thick hair. But is it possible in today's generation? The previous time was different. We can't make our hair long, black and thick because there are products that are not natural and have many side effects. 

Don't worry! It's possible to make your hair long, thick and dark black. Self Love will tell you some natural home remedies to make your hair long and dark black. Today, I will also tell you how to care for your black hair with natural tips. In my previous article, you will also get natural tips to grow your hair faster. 

What are the best black hair care tips?

Let's learn below how to care for your black hair naturally. Many home remedies can help you make your hair long, black, and thick, but the most important is to care for your black hair. So let's continue with some tips:

Honey Pack helps you

Honey is rich in antioxidants which is beneficial for your hair. A honey pack is the best choice for your hair. It contains minerals and vitamins. It also helps you to improve your health and scalp. If you want to lighten your hair and also make your hair shiny. 

Honey is not only best for a diet plan but also good for your skin and hair. A weak scalp is the biggest reason for your hair loss. It is also the biggest reason for your dull and dry hair. If you want to make your hair shiny and smooth, use a honey pack. You can easily make honey packs for hair at home. 

Olive oil, coconut oil, Egg, Banana, Avocado, yogurt, aloe vera gel, oatmeal, apple cider vinegar, potato, etc., are the best choices for you. These are the best black hair care tips. Apply this mask on your hair just for 20-30 minutes on your scalp. It will show results in only a few days. Try to use it 2-3 times a week. 

Amla Is Beneficial

Amla is rich in Vitamin C and tannins. If you want to stop hair loss, then Amla is the best choice. It also prevents dandruff and itchiness from your scalp instantly. As you have seen, some ayurvedic products like shampoo and conditioner use Amla in their manufacturing ingredients. 

Amla is the best choice for your diet plan and your black hair. The Amla pack is best for your black hair. You can easily make an Amla pack for your hair. Add 8-10 pieces of tulsi leaves in it and apply them on your hair for 1 hour. It shows the best results. 

If you are thinking about why my hair will not be black without caring, the biggest reason is lack of nutrition. Amla is always good for your health and can also make your skin glow. You can add amla with Henna, almond oil, brigandi oil, reetha, shikakai powder, etc. Amla is beneficial for your black hair. 

Mulethi pack will help you

Mulethi is also known as licorice powder. If you are thinking about the best choice for your hair, then mulethi is the best option. It prevents hair loss and makes your hair black and thick. It also helps you with hair growth. It makes your roots strong and also nourishes your scalp. Poor hair care, unhealthy diet, stress, and hygiene weaken your roots and scalp. 

Mulethi packs work on your hair like magic. It not only helps you to make your hair black, but it also helps you to solve your hair problems. If you ask any specialists which is the best natural pack for your hair, they usually recommend using Mulethi, reetha, and shikakai. Trust me, only one use of mulethi powder removes dandruff and dryness from your scalp. 

Mulethi is rich in vitamin B, protein, flavonoids, complex, etc. How do you make a pack of it? It's too simple to add mulethi powder with milk and apply it to your hair for 30-45 minutes. It's too good and the best choice for your black hair. You can purchase it online or by market. You should purchase mulethi and make powder at home with the help of a grinder. 

Hibiscus Flower works like magic

Hibiscus Flower works like magic if you are searching for the perfect home remedy for your hair. We all know hibiscus flowers are popular all over the world. You can easily find it in parks, gardens, homes, or other balconies. Hibiscus Flower is rich in vitamins A, B, and C. 

It is the best remedy for strengthening your hair roots. It can also moisturize your dry scalp. The hibiscus flower is the best choice if your scalp has itchiness and dryness. You can easily make a hair pack of hibiscus flowers using coconut oil, olive oil, Aloe vera gel, onion, egg yolk, yogurt, and curry leaves. 

Hibiscus flowers can give you deep natural conditioning. You can apply a fresh paste of hibiscus flower for 30-40 minutes on your hair. A healthy scalp is necessary for black hair and long hair. If you want to care for your black hair, then it's important to give some time to your hair. Hibiscus Flower can easily remove dullness from hair scalp.

Conclusion

These are the best tips for taking care of your black hair naturally. Self Love is here to solve all your skin and hair issues. I will tell you the best natural homemade remedies for your hair and skin. We all want black and long hair, so why are we using chemical products for our hair? 

Homemade products are natural, and it helps us to make our hair thick. Trust me! Once you start using Self Love remedies, you no longer need to use expensive chemical products. I recommend you use only natural products. If you have any queries regarding these natural tips, kindly comment below!👇

[aijimmc]

Hey you

Yeah, you

You look like you want some tips on external health. What's that? You didn't ask? We'll get over it and read this.

Disclaimer: I ain't no dermatologist, but I got this info from sites like Well + Good, who call upon actual dermatologists for their info. So some of my science may be wrong (sorry!) but the advice still stands.

Healthy body = healthy skin = nice skin

If you have bad internal organ flushing (your liver sucks, your kidney is acting up, you have intolerance to milk, etc.), then it's gonna show up on your skin. Basically, if it inflames your inside, then your outside will also be inflamed.

So let's say you keep eating Cheetos because they're tasty and you're hungry. Good for you! Eat them! The problem is that eventually, your liver has to cycle your Cheeto Blood outta the system. That means that once you eat Cheetos, they're in your bloodstream, meaning that eventually the preservatives in the Cheetos are going to show up on your face (and elsewhere) via acne.

"Well, how do I avoid this?" you ask. Just eat everything in regulation. Don't eat 7+ single-serving bags of Cheetos, and you'll be just fine! Also, exercise (as many as 15-30 jumping jacks every day) helps flush out your organs naturally, lessening acne. Drink lots of water (8 cups/1.90 L a day), which also flushes the organs. And sleeping 8-10 hours every night helps your body to perform these functions efficiently and correctly, therefore helping blood flow (and all that other good sleep jazz).

Anti-inflammatory agents like ginger, tumeric, and antioxidants like raspberries, oranges, tea, and coffee, reduce swelling and clean the liver, therefore lessening acne.

❌3+ cups of tea or coffee a day (too many tannins give you liver diseases, too much caffeine gives your heart problems, etc.)

✅1-2 cups of coffee or tea clear you out.

Now, to the quick tips:

Change your pillow case every week for hygiene and to prevent acne on your cheeks.

Clean your face with lukewarm water. Too hot or cold water dries out your skin. Both make your skin crack when in contact with your skin for too long.

Clean your face twice a day: no more than three, no less than one. Too little "natural oils" activates your glands and makes them think they need to produce more oil BECAUSE you've been cleaning it all off.

Massage your scalp! Use the tips (not your nails) of your fingers and rub gently on your scalp to active your hairs' oil glands and aid dandruff prevention.

Try not to use too many products on your hair. It is super hard for some, yeah, but if your hair becomes dependent on those products, it'll stop knowing how to take care of itself.

Take quicker showers/take colder showers. Not Finland-freezing, nor 2-minute showers-- hot showers damage the scalp, hair, and skin (see #2). After taking a hot shower, shower with cold water for a minute or until your hair isn't warm to the touch (on the bottom-most layer of your hair)

Use lotions ASAP after a rinse of your skin! Moisture from the water is still in your skin after a shower. Lotion LOCKS moisture in, so if there isn't any moisture to lock in, then the lotion isn't as effective.

Dont. I repeat, DONT. CUT. YOUR CUTICLES. when they get dry, put petroleum jelly or lotion on them so that they don't hurt. Cutting cuticles makes nails grow crooked.

Dont put too much tension on your scalp. Hypertension (the feeling you get when your hair has been in a tight ponytail for too long) is stress on your scalp, and it makes your hair fall out when done too much.

Always read the instructions on your exfoliaters. As a general rule, try not to exfoliate more than three times a week. (See #3)

Rub petroleum jelly on your fingernails and scalp. It's a cheaper version of nail oil: both contain vitamins essential for strong nails

Make sure you eat your carrots and tomatoes 👁️ you need vitamin e and c to properly distribute fats to your cells. Vitamin e is vitamin C's bestie, and they need each other to work properly. A lack of these vitamins can make your skin dry (and more (⁠･⁠o⁠･⁠;⁠)!)

Exfoliate before bed. Since your body restores itself during sleep, your skin will be more efficiently exfoliated upon waking.

When tweezing hairs, put your finger under the hair. This protects the fat layer under your top layer of skin which holds your hair, therefore preventing swollen bumps when you finish tweezing.

Have dermatillomania (habitual, unconscious, and/or obsessive skin-picking disorder, chiefly caused by stress)? Use hand-held mirrors; use candles or dimmer lights in places with mirrors; de-stress yourself; cover mirrors entirely; use fidget toys to give your hands something to do to prevent habitual skin-picking.

It is shown that hydrogen peroxide on wounds can damage the skin around the wound (does more damage than it heals). Instead of hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds, use an anti-bacterial gel (or gentle soap) and bandage. Acne is swolleness under the skin, and should be treated akin to a wound. Simply clean your face if you wanna prevent acne.

Don't lick your lips. Your saliva is an acid/contains enzymes that dry your skin. Chapstick protects the skin, but doesn't heal it. Use petroleum jelly or other moistures like honey, aloe vera, and coconut oil.

Straightening or blow-drying your hair damages it with heat (see #2). Avoid doing so too often.

The sun! Got! UV rays! To protect skin, use sunscreen or wear longer clothing. You can mix it in with your moisturizer, or buy moisturizers and/or make-up with sunscreen in it! Cover your hair with a hat, bandana, etc. to block UV rays.

Are the soft spots of your nails blue? Eat some more! Do your nails have little white spots? Eat more calcium! Is your skin super dry? Remember to drink water and eat enough fats (both unsaturated and saturated are needed for healthy skin!)

Comb your hair with 100 strokes. This distributes the oils in your scalp to the ends of your hair, preventing frizzing.

Clean your comb at least once a week, preferably every day. Too many consentrated oils gives good ol' acne

Don't wash your hair every day (see #3), but if you have to, do it between 11:00 am-5 pm/17:00. More oil is produced during this time slot, preventing dryness

Have glasses? Clean them daily with water and a towel. Gross glasses make your face prone to oil concentration, leading to... You guessed it, acne.

Make sure you aren't rubbing your skin too hard when washing your face. When using a washcloth or sponge, gently rub so not to break pimples.

Don't pull your skin. Displacement of skin can "age you".

Learn your body's "season". Choosing the right colours for make-up and clothing will make you look better!

Yes, sulphates damage the skin because it is SUPER HARSH. A sulphate-free shampoo does wonders for your skin, I mean it

Be careful when you scratch your skin. Rubbing your skin too much makes it swollen and thick. Be gentle when using your nails to itch the itch

Your hairline should be in the range of where your face-wash washes. An oily hairline gives ya da leetle red bumps

There is such thing as "light" lotion! Light lotion isn't as "heavy" and clogs your pores less. If your skin is greasy like mine is, then I suggest investing in some.

Widening your pores through picking gives you scars and makes them twice as susceptible to getting clogged with dirt and the like :1. That's why you arent supposed to pick at them in any way!

Hangnails are a result of iron deficiency. Eat the protein

Emergency moisturizers

I don't suggest using these a lot simply because they can leave a weird face feeling but if you don't care then do it!

-Tea. I suggest black or green, though green can make you... Green. Brew some tea, wait for it to cool to lukewarm temperatures, and use the extractions on your face. You can press the tea bag on your skin too.

-Coconut oil

-petroleum jelly. This doesn't work immediately and takes a lot of rubbing to sink in but it works!

-aloe vera. This is a really good anti-inflammatory one; really sticky tho. Good for sunburns and terribly dry skin.

🍚🥚🥢 e g g

Don't be afraid of looking "ugly", ok? Ugliness is a social construct and is highly subjective. You're gonna get blackheads and acne, whatever. Anybody who makes you feel bad for being HUMAN needs to get their priorities in check, and you can't listen to them! Self-care is for all ages, sexes, that shit! Be healthy, look healthy-- it's important. Use that nail polish and get that face mask, do it you sexy individual (please use nail polish in well-ventilated areas to prevent headaches)!

Thanks for reading my whole TED talk