#with hx being like. the most literal case of it

[riwrite]

while i have mu qing on the brain actually. the way that his followers see him as kind and generous and the first time xie lian hears this hes like 'i wouldnt use either of those words to describe him lmao' but. he is. he always has been. i distinctly remember my prevailing thoughts during mq-heavy scenes when i was reading for the first time were along the lines of 'oh my god he cares so much.' it's just that no one sees it. sure, he doesn't exactly make it easy and i'm not absolving him of fault for acting like an asshole, but funnily enough, only his worshipers see the closest to the real him that they can from where they stand ( something something, this ties into him being picky about the way they portray him in statues and paintings ) but like. the recurring theme of he is not who you think he is. he is not who xie lian thinks he is, he is not who feng xin thinks he is, he is not who jun wu thinks he is. hes just so!!! character ever to me tbh

[danhoemei]

Which do you think is more tragic, Yi City arc or BeefLeaf arc?

You really walked up to me and punched me in the face without any warning bro lmao I appreciate

I've given it some thought and ultimately I'd say yi city, mostly because of the scope of anguish and people affected.

[mdzs and tgcf spoilers]

If we were to include everything that lead to beefleaf's arc, i.e. shi wudu swapping he xuan's and shi qingxuan's fates, the people who suffered are he xuan with his closest family and the shi brothers at the end. For he xuan and his family their whole lives were destroyed and filled with misery until their death, after which he xuan continued his existence as calamity focused on revenge (he did make a few friends and his calamity life seemed not that bad tho). For shi brothers they lived quite a cushy life until they were captured and tortured physically - but mostly mentally - by he xuan. And we've seen karma knocking on the villain’s (shi wudu’s in this case) door, so what is it that makes this arc especially tragic? Well, it's beefleaf. If he xuan left sqx out of it and only took revenge on shi wudu then this arc would be pretty typical and probably many people would feel satisfaction. But sqx couldn’t stay out of it, it was his brother after all, so he xuan felt betrayed and basically said “well then, you asked for it”. So because sqx was so greatly tormented along his brother, even more so dare I say, this whole situation feels not so easy to swallow. After all, sqx didn't ask for his fate to be swapped, he didn't even know anything about this and was crushed and willing to repay the debt when he learnt about it. Moreover, the relationship between him and hx was really good, so the revenge on him felt even more like a heart-wrenching punch in the gut. Ultimately though, all of this tragedy is contained in these few people and their personal grudges or harm inflicted on one another.

In yi city's case, however, that's so much more vast. Xue yang manipulates xiao xingchen to kill tens of innocent lives, and even his soulmate. He drives him into such torment that xxc shreds his own soul into pieces to never be reborn again. Shi wudu died with a smile on his face, yelling that no matter that it ends now, they had a great life. Xxc had a good and promising life until xy started breaking it apart bit by bit, firstly by killing song lan's entire clan and blinding him just to spite xxc, after which xxc gave up his own sight and ran away to wander alone instead of pursuing his happy goal of creating a clan with song lan. They had good moments during three years of living in yi city, but it was still a charade leaving a trail of corpses, and forcing a-qing to be constantly on alert. Then xxc died, a-qing was brutally killed as well, song lan continued to be a puppet in xy's hands for many more years, and xy just lost it completely. After beefleaf's arc ended sqx pulled himself impressively up and things seemed to slowly move towards getting better, mostly thanks to him being the sweetheart he is, because he could’ve pursued revenge on he xuan and continued the vicious circle but no, he chose better. After yi city arc ended, however, the whole damn city became dead and haunted, a-qing's soul was destroyed by xy (who died without any fulfillment), and we were left with a sliver of hope that maybe her and xxc's souls will mend after a long time, during which song lan will wander the world as a living corpse pretty much alone. How tragic is that, on literally any possible angle.

Yeah, as much as I love beefleaf and weep at their arc, yi city still haunts me to this day and is probably my most painful arc in all of mxtx's works xd

[evilsanlang]

thoughts on objectification as a theme in tgcf? like, bwx objectifying xl and trying to mold him into a mirror image of himself, hc attempting to objectify himself so he can be whoever xl wants him to be, hx objectifying sqx into a pawn in his revenge plan

I feel like a lot of people have indirectly touched on that while discussing those characters, so as not to repeat those points too much let's talk about how this objectification exists within an overarching theme in tgcf: the whole 'to ascend is human, to descend is also human' thing. as guoshi says in book 2, whether you become a god or a ghost, you're still nonetheless human - something that xie lian and hua cheng most notably struggle to come to terms with after the physical horrors they went through.

hua cheng first, since we don't get a lot of insight into his thoughts: he very clearly resents his once-human body, which he saw as weak and limiting due to his helplessness before the plight of a god; he regards the physical aspects of being human, our fragility and ability to feel pain, with obvious contempt, because those things caused him great distress while he was alive. from this perspective you can see why he treats himself as a tool: only after he shed his mortal body, only after being torn apart and welded together was he able to turn around. I think it's safe to say he treats his body as a tool as a way to compensate for his helplessness when he was mortal.

xie lian is very obvious about this too - ever since that night in the temple he's treated his body as a mere vessel to get him through, something that's to be crushed and pierced should the opportunity arise. separating himself from his physical body was his way of conserving his sanity throughout those 800 years. for both of them this objectification was a coping mechanism that took them far, but that they no longer need in the present story, and through each other they recognize this fact.

in xie lian's case this separation of body and mind is even more stark considering he's a cultivator through and through, and the importance of the human body in taoism is tremendous. you can't cultivate the mind without cultivating the body. and yet, despite maintaining his cultivation path for 800 years, trauma gets in the way of this lifelong habit. this is something that struck me today while thinking about this topic: it's ironic to think that, while upholding his ascetic lifestyle, xie lian wasn't benefiting all that much from it in terms of body and mind wellness; threading outside his vows, on the other hand, allowed him to experience things that reminded him that he is his body, which is much more beneficial in the end.

this is a part of their dynamic that falls under the 'to ascend and to descend' theme: they're god and ghost and they can withstand unimaginable violence, yes, but they're still human, not tools, and they should treat themselves as such.

(I tried to mull over the black water arc under this lens and couldn't come up with anything substantial, sorry! their situation is very different from the rest. even if he xuan went in with the intent to use shi qingxuan as a pawn, actually getting to know and spend time with shi qingxuan cracked his resolve considerably. he xuan is a grieving man after all, not an evil one; even though shi qingxuan was supposed to be a tool in his plan, I don't believe that's all he saw shi qingxuan as.)

when it comes to jun wu it feels like he always saw the people around him as objects, or at least he did since the wuyong disaster. he sacrificed his three friends because he did not allow them the right to be their own people once they broke apart from him. he crushed the previous dynasty and used their ashes as bricks, all to make a statement only he would hear for a long time. he tore xie lian apart literally and figuratively just to tell himself his struggle wasn't for naught.

I think the bottom line here is: it's incredibly easy to see the human body as an object when you've been on your own for a long time. it's easy to shrug off or even embrace hurt when there's no one to worry over you, and it's easy to see others as objects when you treat your hurt as the only one that matters. the way we care for an object and the way we care for a person are very different; a tool will not ask nor be asked are you alright? are you hurt? in this vein, to care and to be cared for is to remind ourselves that we are human.

[kangenwaterfatehpur]

Kangen Healing Water Brief History of Kangen Water Here’s a brief background of this incredible water and how electrolyzed water machines became an incredible tool of preventative medicine and health at home. Initially developed for agricultural purposes and adapted by open mined doctors, it has slowly developed to be a medicinal device in Japan in 1965. More than three decades of clinical studies has shown that the electrolyzed water enhances healing power of the human body as well as being eco friendly. In by the mid 90’s, Kangen water and its benefits were started to be recognized in the public and the technological advance enabled various companies in Japan to develop smaller in home units. In 1998, Dr. Shirahata of Kyushu University had discovered the connection between electrolyzed water and holy water, often called in many parts of the world as “Miracle water.”  Such water exists in Tolacote Mexico, Nordenou Germany, and Hitatenryo Japan. This water is known for its tremendous healing power and has shown that it works against just about any diseases. For Decades, Hundreds of people take pilgrimage to these sites everyday. Dr. Shirahata has found that all these waters have a Common property; tremendous anti oxidant power. He soon came up with a theory that “Active Hydrogen” is the reason behind such incredible healing abilities. Many scientific studies on this water have been resumed, bled by the Functional Water Foundation in Japan since 1995; the full potential of electrolyzed water has not been confirmed yet. Recently, in the U.S. experimental studies on the water unit are being conducted at U.C.L.A. Seton Medical Center, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Georgia University, University of Texas, as well as other scientific institutions. Clinical Uses of Kangen Water in Hospital Treatment In Japan, there are now hundreds of hospitals and clinics that use Kangen Water as a part of their medical practices. The following list illustrates some of the most common usage scenarios with different illness cases. 1.) Various types of Cancer This will be the eventual poster boy figure for the recent Kangen Water phenomenon. The water seems to work very effectively, whatever, type and stage that cancer might be at. A few years ago, there was a public project organized be a veteran nurse who helped develop ALL of 30 terminal patients she took on recovered from their death beds, all within months, simply giving them Kangen water to drink. The amount of water the patents had to drink was between 4-10 liters a day. The types of cancer varied from breast, bladder, lung, liver, stomach, intestinal, prostate, to even leukemia. All patients had been diagnosed as terminal from their previous doctors. 2) Rapid Reduction in Blood Sugar Level in Diabetes Patents. It has been observed that about 80% of diabetes patients who started intake of Kangen water showed lower blood sugar level levels with in two weeks. 3) Rapid Healing of Gangrene of the lower limbs, due to diabetes In Kobe Japan, at the Kyowa hospital, two diabetic patients diagnosed with their lower limbs with gangrene who had not shown signs of recovery despite of pharmaceutical treatment, had their limbs saved within a month of surgery after they were given Kangen water to drink and soaking their limbs in strong oxidized water. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 4) Rapid Improvement in Patents with Hepatitis and Cirrhosis A representative case was that of a 60 year old male patient where improvement was noted in his hepatitis and cirrhosis one month after starting intake of Kangen water. Thereafter, all treatments, including medications, IV’s and diet were discontinued after six months of Kangen water as a sole treatment, his liver function had returned to normal. Rapid Healing of Stomach and Duodenal Ulcers A 40 year old patient had endured repeated attacks of duodenal ulcers over the last 12 years. After an incident of attack, she started to drink Kangen water (1-2 liters a day). Within a week, improvement was noted. An inspection with gastric cameras showed no remaining ulceration. The result surprised the hospital director, who personally attended the testing, as well as the patient herself. There are a great number of cases in which there has been no recurrences of ulceration as long as sufficient Kangen water intake was continued. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 6) Rapid Improvement in High and Low Blood Pressure Levels Studies of patients whom all had high blood pressure for many years, Doctors, find that they could control it with simply drinking sufficient amounts of Kangen water with relief of pharmaceuticals use within months. 7) Improvements in Asthma, skin rashes, A-topic Dermatitis and Nasal Allergies.   A female patent suffered from A-topic dermatitis from shortly after birth until the age of 26. She had tried fasting, vegetarian diet and a variety of other treatments. All treatments were unsuccessful.  Her dermatologist even refused to continue seeing her. A suggested therapy by a fellow colleague of the former doctor, she began drinking Kangen water and applied strong oxidized water externally, the condition was approximately 80% resolved. 8) Improved Kidney Function Instances of dramatic improvement have been observed in cases of chronic nephritis and impaired kidney functions with Kangen water. A bright outlook There is a long history of clinical testing, (over 30 years) Kangen water and the Ionizer water machines have been increasingly popular only in recent years, thanks to the media publicity since the discovery made by Dr. Shirahata of Kyushu University in 1998 when he discovered the connection between electrolyzed water and the Holy Waters that exist around the world. Since then, hundreds of hospitals across Japan started experimenting with Kangen water as well as, Super Acidic water as part of their medical practices for all kinds of cases and diseases. Coupled with its impeccable track record of Kangen water treatment, it began getting huge attention from the public in Japan, fueled by a series of documentary programs as well as countless numbers of testimonials from former patients appearing in many books and talk shows. As far as the market penetration goes some interesting numbers are indicating that it is indeed reaching the tipping point in Japan; Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 Over 400,000 families have purchased such units over last few years It is also believed to be reaching at 5% market penetration in some urban areas, on a household installation basis as of 2004. However, the acknowledgement of this water and its benefits among the general public is much higher and is growing. The political battle is easy to guess. Doctors and the pharmaceutical industry want to protect their own interests. The Japanese government wants to slow down the hype and decides that the Kangen water industry cannot advertise or speak publicly of its merits, using “cure” language, until the science of this water is 100% proven. This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? With all this confusion the Japanese government bans claims on a grander scale, they have admitted to certain health benefits of Kangen water, and just have recently upgraded the water Ionizer models status, from being a health appliance to a medical device. If you put this in a global perspective, the water technology is practically non existent outside Japan. This means there is very little information available in English, not to mention the actual products we can buy here in the United States. Even worse, there are some people who are trying to sell cheaper Ionized Alkaline water machines as if they were the same or similar level as with the Kangen water machines, only cheaper. Cheaper for what? Something has been officially declared to have medical benefits by doctors and scientists. Enagic has put things in prospective; this water technology is just too good to be missed and to be fooled around with. For further information about Enagic Inc., please visit the corporate site for a virtual seminar which is extremely informative at: www.enagic.com Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440 REFERANCES: Electrolyzed (reduced) water scavenges active oxygen species (free radicals) and protects DNA from oxidative damage. BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS. 1997 May 8; 234 (1): 269-74 Institute of cellular Regulation Technology, Graduate School of Genetic Resources Technology, Kyushu University, Fukuoka Japan, Institute of Cellular Regulation Technology Graduate School of Genetic Resources Technology: researchers Shirahata S, Kabayama S, Nakano M, Miura T, Kusumoto K, Gotoh M, Hayashi H, Otsubo K, Morisawa S, Katakura Y. Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-81, Japan, Water Institute, Nisshin Building 9F, 2-5-10 Shinjuku, Tokko 160, Japan; and **Nihon Trim Co. Ltd., Meiji Seimei Jusou Building 6F, 1-2-13 Shinkitatno, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka 532, Japan Received March 21. 1997 Understanding Electrolyzed Water By Hidemitsu Hayashi, M.D., Heart Surgeon and Director of the Water Institute of Japan Research: Active Oxygen species or free radicals are considered to cause extensive oxidatative damage to biological macro-molecules, which brings about a variety of diseases as well as aging. The ideal scavenger for active oxygen should be “active hydrogen”. Active Hydrogen can be produced in reduced water near the cathode during electrolysis of water. Reduced water exhibits high pH, low oxygen (DO), extremely high dissolved molecular hydrogen (DH), and extremely negative redox potential (RP) values. Strongly electrolyzed-reduced water, as well as ascorbic acid, (+) catechin and tannic acid, completely scavenged 0.-2 produced by the hypnoxanthine-xanthine oxidase (HX-XOD) system in sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). The super oxide dismutase (SOD) like activity of reduced water is stable at 4 degrees C for over a month and was not lost even after neutralization, repeated freezing and melting, deflating and sonication vigorous mixing, boiling repeated filtration, or closed autoclaving, but was lost by opened in the presence of tungsten trioxide which efficiently absorbs active atomic hydrogen (active hydrogen). Although SOD accumulated H2O2 when added to the HX-XOD system, reduced water as well as catalase and ascorbic acid could directly scavenge H2O2. Reduced water (electrolyzed water) suppresses single-strand breakage of DNA by active oxygen species produced by the Cu (II) catalyzed oxidation of ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner, suggesting that reduced water can scavenge not only O2 and H2O2, but also 1O2 and OH. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION+ Characteristics of electrolyzed-reduced water. The principle of electrolysis was founded by Michael Faraday (1791-1867). In this process, reduction occurs at the cathode (+) and oxidation at the anode (-). Dissociation of H2O produces H- and OH- ions. At the cathode, H+ ions gain electrons to change into active atomic hydrogen (H-) Active atomic hydrogen exhibits high reducing potential. It is then changed to hydrogen molecules (H2) which are chemically inert at room temperature. At the anode, OH- ions lose electrons to form OH, which results in the production of O2, and H2O. Cathodic alkaline water (reduced water) is abundant in DH, whereas anodic acidic water (oxidized water) is abundant in DO. The relationships of RP with pH, DO, and DH in reduced water were shown in FIG. 1. Marked changes in these values occur in water after electrolysis. It should be noted that the DH value is higher in reduced water than in the original water by two orders of magnitude. Call For Demo And Testing : Satish Shukla 7505774440

[diyanah10]

thoughts,

suddenly remember those days where i would sit infront of the computers at work and try to rack my brain - “How do I tell someone that this is their best?” “How do I tell the family members that the functional decline is part of the curve?” “What more can I give?” Palliative cases. I would get very bothered by them, because i’ve never enjoyed speaking to families. I never knew how to approach the topic without being overly straightforward or apathetic - even though i empathise a lot. Mel Heng was my RO, she was the person that threw the question back at me when I asked something. similar to meltan but somehow different.

One of the days after my MC/AL, she came to me and said “Do you think Mr Heng will improve functionally? Did you think about his past medical hx - doesn’t he have cancer?” Truly, i didn’t realise that. I knew it was a past medical hx but it didn’t occur to me that his functional drop was due to the cancer. i thought of things very simply - “He went for chemo, they didn’t really talk about it. He must have gotten better, it was prostate cancer after all. He had a fall, he was very unlucky to have broke his rib.” I thought it was normal ageing. then mel asked me “Didn’t you think his fall was very sudden? He was just switching off the lights.” At that moment, I really had a sudden realisation. “Ya. it’s very off”. Went home and read up about cancer trajectories, then I told mel the next day “So i can’t do much?” and she told me “You can ask him what he wants”

You know, it’s easy in school when they say that. it is what it is, it’s discussing goals. but when you’re standing at the end of the bed and you look at this man - all he wants is to walk like he used to. and he has nasal prongs on him, he has barely eaten, he’s breathless and chesty. I went to see him the same day mel asked me to discuss goals with him. I came back to her very defeated I would say, because i literally asked him “Mr Heng, what would you like to achieve with my sessions?” and when he said to walk like he used to - i was very resigned. i didn’t know how else to continue the conversation.

I remember sitting next to mel - feeling very paiseh and I asked her “How? I’ve never done this before. I don’t know how to tell someone that they can’t be as good as they used to.” then she laughed. she told me not to say that to anyone. then she said “What about you give him scenarios, and explain to him that even for him to get how he used to, it will take a long time. Ask him is he okay to compromise? Ask him if he only has a few months left, what is the most important thing to him.”

I spent 15-20mins with him the next day. His wife wasn’t at the session. He told me he just wanted to get around on his own - he didn’t want to feel like his independence was taken away if he went back home. I asked him if he was open with the OT exploring with him wheelchair (motorised?). I told him that having a wheelchair doesn’t mean he can’t walk, it’s just another way to get further. I told him he could still walk 10-20metres, but on less good days - at least he could still get around. He nodded, then he smiled and told me he used to play chinese chess. So I had a bet with him, i’d learn how to play chinese chess over the weekend. and he just laughed (i bet he didn’t expect me to). i did learn how to play over the weekend, i played with him once - he told me i sucked. he got another round of pneumonia and eventually passed...

mel heng taught me a lot about functional/life trajectories. she taught me to understand and work about it appropriately. she taught me to prepare families for it. and she would always ask me “how did that go?” the next casual and very melheng reply “see, it wasn’t that bad!”

and yet, this lady still looks out for me at work - past geri. “Mel, take me back to geripls. i cannot anymore. I cannot see anymore CP cases, I hate it.” this was me a few days before getting quarantined. i’m back in the clean team - and i know melheng played a big part of getting us out. she also checked up on me during QO - one of the people i never expected to drop me a text. i mean, i told her i was on QO because she is STILL my RO. but she rly didn’t have to follow up.

i have learned so much from this lady. you’re amazing. you will never see this. but i hope when my future self reads this, i will be reminded who nurtured me in my pall and geri care. the person who threw her newbie into a respi and private ward and said “can one.” the person who then said sorry and gave her newbie 3 towers to run around with. you’ve made me believe in myself, made me trust myself - “school teach you for what? NO NEED PRECEPT. DIYANAH WILL SEE THE ORTHO CASE.” i miss all of mel’s roll calls T^T 

“So..today....you all will die but you will survive.”

“HAHAHAHA, OKAY WE HAVE ROLLED OVER 16 CASES. WE WILL SURVIVE.”

“Diyanah, isit you too short?” “Good morning to you too mel.” @ 830am

i miss geri, i miss my favourite team lead ):