#Burnout Science and Solutions

[valtoybob]

Burnout-Proof Leadership: Transforming Stress into Sustainable Success

In today’s fast-paced world, where the pressure to achieve often comes at the expense of our well-being, mastering the art of burnout-proof leadership has never been more critical. In this episode, Victoria Mensch shares how to explore how leaders can thrive amidst constant change.

In today’s fast-paced world, where the pressure to achieve often comes at the expense of our well-being, mastering the art of burnout-proof leadership has never been more critical. On the latest episode of Mirror Talk: Soulful Conversations, we had the privilege of welcoming Victoria Mensch—a visionary leader, psychologist, and the dynamic CEO of the Silicon Valley Executive Academy—to explore…

[theambitiouswoman]

How to get rid of intrusive thoughts—Backed by brain science

Unwanted memories, thoughts you just can’t turn off, thoughts you didn’t ask for are all intrusive thoughts. If you deal with anxiety, OCD, PTSD and even mental burnout, you’ve probably experienced them. But the solution isn’t always about willpower

Your brain runs on chemicals and one of the most important for calm thinking is GABA, which is your brain’s main calming neurotransmitter. It basically tells your mind when to stop firing, settle down and let go of thoughts that aren’t helpful

When GABA levels are low, it becomes much harder to block out intrusive thoughts. Even if your prefrontal cortex is trying its best to stay focused, low GABA can cause your memory system (the hippocampus) to keep looping the same thoughts. It's not that your rational brain is broken it’s that without enough GABA, it doesn’t have the support it needs to do its job

So if you find that you can’t willpower your way out of spiraling thoughts, the issue might be chemistry. And when your GABA levels are balanced, your brain can finally do what it’s designed to do which is filter, release and move on

Natural ways to get rid of intrusive thoughts by boosting GABA levels:

Supplements:

L Theanine– Calms brain, improves focus and boosts GABA

Magnesium Glycinate/Threonate– Helps GABA work better and eases anxiety

Vitamin B6– Needed to create GABA from glutamate

Taurine– A GABA like amino acid that helps quiet your mind

PharmaGABA– A natural form of GABA shown to reduce stress in some people

Ashwagandha– Reduces cortisol and helps regulate GABA

Foods:

Ripe bananas

Spinach, broccoli, kale

Almonds & walnuts

Yogurt, kimchi, miso

Oats, sweet potatoes, quinoa

Training your brain to let go:

10–20 minutes of meditating a day can raise GABA naturally. Box breathing also helps

Cold showers activate parasympathetic nervous system and GABA production

Exercise (even going on walks) boosts GABA and rewires your brain away from rumination.

Grounding reduces overactivity in the part of your brain that loops and obsesses

7–9 hours of quality sleep

Reducing caffeine and alcohol (both mess with GABA)

Taking breaks from constant stimulation and scrolling

Journaling your thoughts

DO NOT:

Do not suppress your emotions. The more you push the thought away the stronger it gets because it is essentially your main focus still. Science shows that when you label your thoughts and feelings they have less control over you. Do not attach any meaning to the thoughts or judge yourself for them instead tell yourself something like " ok well I had this thought and its bad and definitely not something I want, so I will not be doing that" and continue on

Every time you respond to an intrusive thought with calm instead of panic, you’re strengthening your prefrontal cortex (rational thinking, decision making and emotional regulation). Instead of shaming yourself for what your mind throws at you, you’re choosing understanding over judgment, which is what healing really looks

This is not medical advice :)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Psychology

concepts to help with your story/poem

All-or-nothing Thinking - In cognitive psychotherapy, a common thought distortion in which the individual irrationally evaluates everything as either wonderful or terrible, with no middle ground or “gray area”

Burnout - A state of exhaustion that relates to engaging continually in emotionally demanding work

Congruence - In humanistic psychotherapy, consistency between the real self and the ideal self; the source of mental health

Dodo Bird Verdict - A nickname for the common research finding that different forms of psychotherapy are roughly equally effective; derived from the line in Alice in Wonderland, “Everybody has won and all must have prizes”

Exception Questions - In solution-focused family therapy, a technique whereby therapists ask families to recall situations when the problem was absent or less severe

Fluid Intelligence - The ability to reason when faced with novel problems

Introspection - The process of looking inside the mind for evidence of mental processes or therapeutic change, rejected by behaviorists for its lack of objectivity

Microaggressions - Comments or actions made in a crosscultural context that convey prejudicial, negative, or stereotypical beliefs and may suggest dominance or superiority of one group over another

Negative Punishment - A form of punishment in which the individual “loses something good”

Negative Reinforcement - A form of reinforcement in which the individual “loses something bad”

Neurosis - Along with psychosis, one of the two broad categories of mental illness used in Europe in the 1800s; refers to disorders such as anxiety and depression in which the individual maintains an intact grasp on reality

Overpathologizing - Viewing as abnormal that which is actually normal; can be reduced by increasing cultural competence

Positive Punishment - A form of punishment in which the individual “gets something bad”

Positive Reinforcement - A form of reinforcement in which the individual “gets something good”

Social Support - Relationships with others who can provide support in a time of crisis and who can share in good fortune as well

Source: Clinical Psychology: Science, Practice, and Diversity (5th Edition) by Andrew M. Pomerantz

More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[studentbyday]

oops! i did it again. lessons from this school year...

Hey, you remember that post I made about my winter term priorities? HAHAHAHAHahaha ha ha. That plan totally went to shit, but it's all part of the journey, right? 😅 (Tbh, it's quite difficult to make a conscious effort to change yourself when the default response to being and feeling busy is to go on autopilot -> all the unconscious habits, even if unhealthy, take control, and bc it's unconscious, you don't realize it until it gets quite bad! anyway! no more! my future plans make it so this will be impossible to do while still retaining some sense of sanity. so to prep, we're gonna slowly implement little changes so hopefully it's not so overwhelming that i give up)

🧘🏻‍♀️ comparing mindsets in fall and winter term

Fall term was not that bad bc I had 2 STEM subjects I really really loved and was interested in (biochem and mol bio 💕), and despite their difficulty, that love and interest and the feeling that "I am in the right field for me" kept me positive. There were times I thought I would feel burnout symptoms if I wasn't careful, but I really think that positivity protected me from the worst of it.

Winter term, however...I had one favorite subject: moral philosophy, which led to me wistfully dreaming about an AU in which I double majored in philosophy and piano performance, lol. After the highs of biochem and mol bio and the natural ease with which the bits of info flowed together in those subjects, I did not enjoy pharmacology or the 2nd half of psyc as much -> loss of interest -> negativity and feeling like I'm in the wrong field bc how dare I not like pharmacology (or psychology) as much as the other life science-y subjects when it's really so important for us to survive and thrive! 😅 I mean, there were times I could get that spark from pharmacology or psyc, but it wasn't often enough or intense enough to keep me consistently inspired throughout the semester. The feeling of "maybe I don't have what it takes and I'm in the wrong field" was compounded by the re-realization that there's sm to know of bioinformatics and I struggle to know any of it! Persevering is important, but it's harder to persevere with a negative mindset.

😤 what went wrong this school year and what i learned from it

I still struggle with perfectionism (and bc of it, procrastination). While it might not be as bad as it was in high school, I still spent too long on assignments that weren't worth much and during finals season, was so scared of getting less than 90% just to keep up my A+ streak. Like, I'm pretty sure no one who cares to know your GPA cares about whether you have an A+ streak or not. I have too high a threshold for what is a "disappointing" grade. I also struggle with deep regret about how I haven't mastered everything they throw at us in each course... definitely an unrealistic expectation, especially as the proportion of new info to absorb increases with each course. I did what I could using what I knew to do, so it is what it is. I may find ways to make improvements and learn more, but I won't beat myself up for not having known to do those things in the past.

Did not use effective study methods. Since first year, my problem has been keeping up with the readings and my solution has been to just use typed outline notes. It worked for the first few years when it was mostly review from previous courses with a few new concepts in between. But as I progress through my degree, the proportion of completely new info is increasing. This notetaking method won't work anymore bc it just causes cognitive overload, especially during exam season (when I've mostly forgotten the details of everything that isn't smth I've already known for years). E.g. for pharmacology, I got so bogged down by the details of all the drug classes that I didn't see the big picture and so didn't organize the info according to it. This made it hard to see patterns and better chunk the info. I was so stressed during finals season bc of this (and the sheer amount of notes that I had to read for psyc 😭). What makes it feel like even more of a problem is that the cognitive overload problem from my notetaking method has been a thing for all other uni courses thus far, it's just that pharmacology was the first time I needed to create a stronger connecting thread between the otherwise disparate pieces of info (drug classes). In all other courses, that thread was part of the nature of the topic being studied so I eventually understood it as I kept going and mentally re-organized it in my brain...but even then it was hodge-podge and so my depth of mastery was and is so flimsy, and every semester I leave feeling drained and like I wasted the opportunity to maximize my learning. (How dramatic I get about this is also probably tied to my perfectionism, but I still think it would greatly benefit future me to change my notetaking style.)

🎓 advice for future me

Look at the academic calendar, specifically the faculty course descriptions. Look at how many hours they say you should expect to spend on each activity in the course. Try to use those learning hours as a guide for your schedule so that you don't spend too long on an item that isn't worth much. If there isn't such a breakdown, assume one based on whatever they give you or other courses and adjust from there.

Be a more efficient reader by skimming the text first so you can map the flow of info in a way that best creates ease of understanding/synthesis/memory (e.g. via an outline, tree diagram, flowchart, mind map, or simple drawings - and noticing when a list/outline will NOT be helpful bc it'll just be too overwhelming and not easy to compare/contrast info and see patterns). I knowww you've survived thus far without doing it this way and done well, BUT with this many courses, the increasing complexity of each subject, and the overload of info in each, you WILL need to do this to make quicker work of the readings, save you sooo much stress during exam seasons, and improve how much you learn while in school which is the real goal you've wanted to achieve all this time. Don't repeat the mistake you made in pharmacology. And it really doesn't have to be aesthetic and you definitely should NOT get caught up with it if you really wanna learn. You could just use one color for everything and a highlighter and just basic shapes/lines - that alone can be way more effective than boring paragraphs/lists or a colorful, overly complex diagram that'll just distract you from the main point.

Create a realistic daily routine (wake-up and sleep times, start and end times for schoolwork) and be strict about following it. Set your non-negotiables for personal goals to keep up with alongside your schoolwork bc academics aren't everything. Remember how you regretted not devoting more time to extra-curriculars and other skills in high school which would've rounded you out as a person. You can try theming the parts of the day so that you don't have to think about what task you should do first after study breaks and keep up the momentum (e.g. mornings for readings and notes, afternoons for active recall/homework). Then you can live the rest of the day after school as structured or unstructured as you wish. If this strategy doesn't work for you, you don't have to use it.

Take advantage of interleaving so you don't get bored. Whether by following the theming strategy or just switching subjects every hour, idc if you aren't done yet, you better switch bc the second consecutive hour of the same thing is never as effective as the first.

[seedtoself]

The Most Common Wellness Mistakes People Make (And How to Fix Them)

Introduction

In today’s health-conscious world, more people than ever are making wellness a priority. But despite their best efforts, many still feel tired, stressed, or stuck in a cycle of low energy and chronic health issues.

Why? Because small but common wellness mistakes often go unnoticed—and they can undo all your hard work.

From skipping meals to misusing supplements and following outdated fitness advice, these missteps are more common than you think. But here’s the good news: with a few mindful shifts, you can fix them and unlock vibrant energy, better focus, and long-term health.

In this article, we’ll reveal the top 10 wellness mistakes people make and share practical, science-backed solutions to help you thrive.

1. Skipping Breakfast or Choosing the Wrong One

The Mistake:

Skipping breakfast or grabbing a sugary snack sets you up for blood sugar crashes, cravings, and poor concentration.

The Fix:

Choose a high-protein breakfast with healthy fats (like eggs, Greek yogurt, or avocado toast).

Avoid processed carbs and sugary cereals.

If you're practicing intermittent fasting, make sure your first meal is balanced and nutrient-dense.

Science Backs It Up: A high-protein breakfast helps reduce hunger later in the day and supports better blood sugar control (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

2. Relying on Supplements Instead of Real Food

The Mistake:

Overusing supplements and powders while neglecting colorful, whole foods full of nutrients.

The Fix:

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables daily.

Use supplements only to fill specific gaps (e.g., Vitamin D, iron).

Prioritize gut-friendly foods like yogurt, kefir, and kimchi.

Why It Matters: Whole foods offer fiber, antioxidants, and synergy that supplements can’t replicate (Journal of the American College of Nutrition).

3. Chronic Dehydration (Confusing Thirst for Hunger)

The Mistake:

Not drinking enough water throughout the day leads to fatigue, irritability, and even false hunger signals.

The Fix:

Drink at least half your body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water daily.

Start your morning with warm lemon water to support digestion.

Flavor your water naturally with fruit or herbs to make it more enjoyable.

Study Shows: Even mild dehydration negatively affects mood and cognitive function (British Journal of Nutrition).

4. Poor Sleep Habits But Expecting High Energy

The Mistake:

Cutting sleep short and relying on caffeine instead—while ignoring the importance of rest for recovery and hormone balance.

The Fix:

Go to bed and wake up at consistent times.

Avoid screens for an hour before bed.

Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet.

👉 Fun Fact: Just one night of poor sleep can increase cravings and slow metabolism (Sleep Journal).

5. Sticking to the Same Workout Routine

The Mistake:

Repeating the same exercises week after week leads to physical plateaus and mental burnout.

The Fix:

Mix up your routine with strength, cardio, and flexibility training.

Increase weights or reps over time to avoid plateaus.

Add in short, high-intensity workouts (HIIT) to boost metabolism.

Research Says: Switching up your workouts every 6–8 weeks keeps your body adapting and improving (Journal of Sports Sciences).

6. Neglecting Stress Management

The Mistake:

Eating clean and working out, but not managing stress—which silently affects hormones, mood, and even weight.

The Fix:

Practice mindfulness, deep breathing, or meditation daily.

Use natural adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola to support stress response.

Prioritize joy—spend time in nature, read, or listen to calming music.

Reality Check: Chronic stress spikes cortisol and contributes to belly fat (Psychoneuroendocrinology).

7. Falling for Extreme Diets or Fads

The Mistake:

Jumping from keto to juice cleanses to low-fat diets without considering long-term sustainability.

The Fix:

Focus on balanced, whole-food meals with protein, fiber, and good fats.

Avoid cutting entire food groups unless medically necessary.

Choose a style of eating that works for your lifestyle, not just quick weight loss.

Truth Bomb: Fad diets often lead to yo-yo weight gain and a slower metabolism over time (Obesity Journal).

8. Sitting All Day (Even If You Exercise)

The Mistake:

Getting in a workout but then spending the rest of the day sitting—which still increases your risk for chronic disease.

The Fix:

Set a timer to stand up every 30–60 minutes.

Try a standing desk or take walking breaks.

Add daily mobility stretches to counteract stiffness.

Did You Know? Prolonged sitting is now considered as risky as smoking when it comes to health outcomes (Annals of Internal Medicine).

9. Ignoring Gut Health

The Mistake:

Overlooking digestive issues like bloating, constipation, or food sensitivities—which are signs your gut needs attention.

The Fix:

Eat probiotic-rich foods like sauerkraut, kefir, and miso.

Get at least 30g of fiber per day from fruits, veggies, and seeds.

Cut back on sugar and ultra-processed snacks.

Research Confirms: A healthy gut improves immunity, mood, and even mental clarity (Cell Journal).

10. Comparing Yourself to Others

The Mistake:

Constantly comparing your journey to influencers or fit friends, leading to frustration and self-doubt.

The Fix:

Focus on your own progress, not someone else’s highlight reel.

Celebrate non-scale victories like better sleep, more energy, and fewer cravings.

Limit social media and follow accounts that uplift and inspire you.

Psychology Insight: Social comparison increases anxiety and lowers self-esteem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).

Final Thoughts: Small Changes, Big Impact

Wellness isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being aware, consistent, and kind to yourself.

By avoiding these common mistakes and making simple, intentional changes, you’ll notice big improvements in your mood, energy, digestion, sleep, and overall well-being.

Start with just one or two fixes (like adding more fiber or setting a consistent bedtime) and build from there. Small steps lead to lasting change—and your healthiest, happiest self is just around the corner.

Visit Seed to Self for natural healing tips.

[dbriley]

Digital Burnout: Your Brain is Not a 24/7 Drive-Thru

INTRODUCTION:

Remember when "burnout" meant doing sick donuts in a parking lot? Now it's your brain doing donuts while you stare at your phone from 5PM to 11 PM. Welcome to the digital burnout, the modern equivalent of trying to run a marathon while juggling chainsaws and responding to Facebook messages.

Signs You're Digitally Burnt (Besides Your Smoking Keyboard)

Look, if your eye twitch has its own Instagram following, we need to talk. Here's what digital burnout actually looks like:

Your phone separation anxiety rivals a teenager's fear of missing a TikTok trend

Your thumb has developed abs from endless scrolling

You've memorized every pixel of your LinkedIn homepage

Your coffee maker gets more rest than you do

The Science breakdown (Don't Worry, We'll Keep It Spicier Than Your Ex's Instagram Stories)

Your brain on digital overload is like a hamster who had a Redbull. Chaotic, messy, and heading nowhere fast. Here's the deal:

Your anxiety is partying harder than college freshmen

Your attention span now matches a goldfish with ADHD

Your sleep cycle is more disturbed than a good horror movie 

7 Ways to Stop the Digital Dumpster Fire

Digital Boundaries That Don't Suck:

Treat work emails like that clingy ex – set strict visiting hours

Your phone isn't a conjoined twin – surgical separation is allowed

Create a notification system that doesn't feel like a hostage situation

The 90/20 Method (Because Your Brain Isn't Netflix – It Needs Breaks). Work like you're being chased by deadlines for 90 minutes. Take 20-minute breaks where screens are as forbidden as pineapple on pizza

Implementation Plan (Or: How to Actually Do This Stuff Without Having a Existential Crisis)

Week 1: Reality Check

Count your notification pings (if you reach 1000 before lunch, seek help)

Track your screen time like you track your ex's new relationship status

Document when your eye twitch turns into a flutter

Week 2-3: The Intervention

Delete apps like you're cleaning out your Ex’s belongings

Set boundaries firmer than your grandmother's opinions

Create device-free zones (yes, the bathroom counts)

When It All Goes Wrong (Because It Will)

Look, you'll fail. Like that time you promised to start meal prep or learn Spanish on Rosetta Stone. Here's what actually happens:

The Client Emergency

Everyone's definition of "emergency" is different. Your client's 11 PM "URGENT!" email about font choices isn't actually urgent

Solution: Auto-reply and simply let your snark cannon handle it (don’t do that, you still haven’t paid of school loans yet)

The FOMO Spiral

Your brain: "But what if someone posted something IMPORTANT?"

Reality: It's probably just another gym selfie or coffee art

Solution: Remind yourself that social media is just everyone's highlight reel on steroids (top heavy and disgruntled about everything)

Measuring Success (Without Spreadsheets Because We're Not Monsters)

You're winning if:

Your eye twitch downgrades from "possessed" to "mildly concerning"

You can watch an entire movie without checking your phone

Your plants are alive because you actually notice them now

Your pets remember what you look like

The Real Talk Section

Let's be honest – you're probably reading this on your phone while ignoring three other tasks. The irony isn't lost on us. But here's the truth bomb: digital burnout isn't just about screen time. It's about reclaiming your brain from the technological equivalent of a toddler hopped up on pixie sticks.

Your Action Plan (Because We Can't Leave You Hanging Like a Netflix Series)

Right Now:

Put your phone down (after reading this, obviously)

Take a deep breath (oxygen is still free, unlike app subscriptions)

Look at something further than 6 inches from your face

Today:

Pick ONE thing from this guide

Actually do it (revolutionary, we know)

Don't immediately post about doing it

This Week:

Set up auto-replies snarkier than this article (Again, not recommended if you want to keep your job)

Remember what your hobbies were BC (Before Connectivity)

Conclusion:

Your brain deserves better than being a 24/7 digital carnival. Start small, fail forward, and remember: every time you ignore a notification, an IT angel gets its wings.

Final Call to Action:

Download a Digital Detox Tracker. Or don't. We're not your mom.

[virtualpersonchopshop]

Zoracel Users Are Raving – Here’s Why

“More focus, more energy, less stress. Zoracel changed my day-to-day life.” 💬 Join the wellness movement that’s making waves. Real ingredients. Real results. 🚀 Get started here → zoracal.com

Related reads 

. Unlocking the Power of Zoracel: Your Path to Natural Wellness

. Why Zoracel Is the New Name in Natural Energy

. Unlock the Power of Zoracel: Your Natural Ally for Blood Sugar & Weight Balance

. The Science Behind Zoracel: How It Works at the Cellular Level

. Tired of Burnout? Zoracel Might Be Your Game-Changer

. Zoracel and the Fight Against Insulin Resistance: A Natural Solution That Works

[nutridom]

Optimize Your Prime: How NMN Helps Entrepreneurs and CEOs Stay Young and Focused

In high-performance environments, success is no longer defined solely by intelligence, opportunity, or capital. Today’s entrepreneurs and executives are competing in a game of longevity both physical and cognitive. The real competitive edge lies not just in better strategy, but in better biology.

As the pace of business accelerates, mental fatigue, declining focus, and energy fluctuations have become common complaints among professionals at the top. The challenge is not a lack of ambition, but rather the body’s decreasing ability to keep up with the demands of leadership. This is where cellular optimization enters the conversation specifically through a molecule called NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide).

Understanding the Core Issue: NAD⁺ Decline

Nicotinamide Mononucleotide is a precursor to NAD⁺ (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide), a critical coenzyme found in all living cells. NAD⁺ is involved in over 500 biological processes, including cellular energy production, DNA repair, and gene expression related to aging.

However, NAD⁺ levels decline significantly with age. Research suggests that by the time individuals reach their 40s or 50s, their NAD⁺ levels may be reduced by more than 50% compared to their younger years. This decline can manifest as decreased stamina, slower recovery, mental fatigue, and a diminished ability to manage stress, key liabilities for anyone in a leadership role.

The Executive Reality: Chronic Cognitive and Physical Demands

Entrepreneurs and CEOs face a unique blend of cognitive strain, decision density, and physical stress. Long meetings, international travel, poor sleep, and the constant requirement for rapid, high-stakes thinking all compound over time.

These demands result in:

Mental fog and reduced focus

Decreased physical energy throughout the day

Poor sleep quality and slower recovery

Increased susceptibility to stress and burnout

Early signs of biological aging

Traditional solutions like caffeine, nootropics, or adaptogens offer temporary relief but do not address the root cause: cellular energy depletion and systemic NAD⁺ decline.

NMN: A Science-Driven Solution for High Performers

NMN has gained widespread attention in scientific and professional communities for its ability to elevate NAD⁺ levels and restore cellular function. Unlike most generic supplements, NMN targets the foundational systems that impact energy, resilience, and cognitive sharpness.

Key benefits of NMN supplementation include:

1. Enhanced Cognitive Function

Increased NAD⁺ supports mitochondrial function within neurons, leading to improved mental clarity, memory retention, and executive function especially under sustained workload and pressure.

2. Sustained Physical Energy

By boosting NAD⁺, NMN helps optimize ATP (cellular energy) production, reducing mid-day fatigue and improving workout recovery and overall physical stamina.

3. Longevity and Cellular Repair

NMN activates sirtuins, a class of proteins that regulate aging, DNA repair, and inflammatory responses. This is critical for entrepreneurs who seek to extend not just lifespan, but healthspan, the years lived in optimal condition.

4. Metabolic Efficiency and Resilience

NMN has been shown to support healthy glucose metabolism, cardiovascular function, and sleep regulation, factors that indirectly enhance productivity and stress resilience.

Introducing Nutridom NMN 500mg: Professional-Grade Support for High Achievers

Nutridom NMN 500mg is a high-purity, research-grade NMN supplement manufactured in Canada to meet the needs of demanding professionals. It is designed for individuals who require consistent, measurable improvements in cognitive clarity, energy output, and long-term wellness.

Product highlights:

500mg of pure NMN per capsule

Third-party tested for potency and purity

Free from artificial additives, soy, gluten, and GMOs

Manufactured in GMP-certified Canadian facilities

Whether you are leading a company, managing multiple ventures, or navigating global markets, Nutridom NMN 500mg provides targeted, biologically relevant support to help you operate at peak capacity.

Conclusion: Staying Ahead Requires More Than Hustle

In an environment where burnout is the norm and performance is non-negotiable, taking care of your cellular foundation is not a luxury, it is a leadership imperative. NMN is not a quick fix. It is a scientifically supported, long-term investment in your mental edge, physical energy, and personal longevity.

To remain resilient in the face of complexity, uncertainty, and growth, high-performing professionals must now look inward toward biology, not just behavior.

[yumiyue07]

Hate That I Want You

｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★

Part 1 |

｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★

The morning hit like a backhanded compliment, all cold light and lingering ache.

You reached the lab while Astraris was still yawning awake, its sky bruised purple at the edges, breath frosting white in the air. You shoved your hands into your coat pockets and ducked inside the building. The first lecture wasn’t for another two hours. Perfect.

You went through your mental to-do-list:

Time to:

Clean contaminated data (again)

Prep Professor Han’s temperamental cell cultures

Go through a stack of lab notes

Pretend you hadn’t replayed yesterday’s confrontation 47 times

You took the elevator to the fifth floor. The elevator mirrors showed the truth your pride wouldn’t voice: messy bun, no makeup, oversized sweatshirt slipping like a surrender flag. You stuck out your tongue at your reflection. RLU’s elite might dress for Vogue, but you? You dressed for war. Comfy clothes, a tired expression, and a stubborn glint in your eye. You were in university, not on a runway.

As the elevator dinged open, your sneakers squeaked against sterilized tiles. You walked past locked cabinets and sterile lab benches, heading toward your corner office. Your desk was an organized disaster: Notes stacked like a leaning Tower of Pisa, highlighters scattered like confetti, a single chipped mug (“World’s Okayest Scientist”) half-full of yesterday’s tea.

You sipped your freshly brewed tea and skimmed through the latest lab instructions. It would be best to start in the lab and save the paperwork for later.

The white coat settled over your shoulders like a second skin. Fluorescent lights buzzed to life, painting the sterile world in sharp relief. Your favorite time, when it felt like you were the only one in the world who gave a damn about science. The hiss of the laminar flow hood and the scent of ethanol surrounded you.

Well… almost.

Because five minutes in, the lab door opened with a soft click.

You didn't glance up. Kept labeling tubes like your life depended on it.

You felt his presence before you saw him, that unnatural stillness, the way the air itself seemed to part for his arrogance.

“Wrong building, pretty boy.” Your pipette didn’t waver.

H/N’s chuckle rolled through the lab, low enough to vibrate in your bones. “Morning to you, too, sunshine.”

Focus. Concentrate.

You gritted your teeth and kept pipetting. The solution needed exact measurement, and you’d be damned if you messed it up just because a six-foot plague in designer black had entered your orbit.

“Let me guess,” you said flatly. “Got bored of staring at your own reflection?”

“No,” he said, stepping closer. You could feel him behind you, lingering. His shadow swallowed yours on the lab bench. “Came for the centrifuge. Didn’t realize the attitude incubator was set to maximum.”

You whirled around, putting the pipette down before crossing your arms. “You don’t even work in this lab.”

“Not yet.” He leaned against the lab bench, all lazy grace. “But Professor Han said I could shadow this week, something about learning the biochemical angles for our project. I figured I’d start early.” His smirk widened. “Aren’t you thrilled?”

You stared at him in horror. “You’re shadowing my shift?” This couldn’t be true. Why on earth were all people conspiring against you???

“Mm.” He plucked a vial from your rack, spinning it between pale fingers. “Her exact words were…”

“I don’t care what her exact words were!”

Of course she did. Professor Han always adored him, charmed by his sharp tongue, sharper grades, and too-perfect smile. Meanwhile, you were the background player, the one keeping everything afloat behind the scenes. The one who came early, stayed late, and crumbled quietly in the library bathroom stalls when the burnout hit.

You shoved your goggles higher on your head and turned back to your bench.

“You touch anything, I’ll kill you.”

“Noted.” He leaned against the counter like it was a bar in a vampire film, arms folded, gaze heavy. “Nice form, by the way. You always pipette like your life depends on it?”

You didn’t respond, exhaling sharply.

But he didn’t stop watching. Didn’t leave. Just watched.

Like you were a particularly fascinating specimen under glass. Like he could see the exact moment your pulse jumped when his sleeve brushed the ethanol bottle. Like he knew…

How your traitorous skin prickled under his attention.

You gripped the pipette tighter. “Don’t you have a reflection to admire somewhere?”

His laugh was dark, poisoned honey. “Not as interesting as you, apparently.”

~~~

The lecture hall buzzed with the restless energy of students settling into their seats, their murmured conversations and shuffling backpacks creating a low hum that should have been comforting. Yet as you slumped into your usual spot near the center aisle, the weight of the morning pressed against your temples like a vice. Two hours in the lab with H/N’s relentless presence had drained you more thoroughly than any all-nighter, and the bitter dregs of your neglected tea only emphasized the exhaustion clinging to your bones.

His abrupt departure lingered in your mind like an unfinished equation. The way his shoulders had stiffened mid-sentence, the almost imperceptible flare of his nostrils before he’d vanished without so much as a mocking farewell. It wasn’t like him to retreat without provocation, and the inconsistency gnawed at you even as you tried to focus on arranging your notes with deliberate precision.

The scrape of a chair leg against linoleum cut through your thoughts, the sound too close, too deliberate. You didn’t need to turn to know who had claimed the seat diagonally behind you. The air itself seemed to shift, carrying with it the faintest trace of bergamot and something deeper, something that reminded you of old libraries and storm-chilled winds. H/N had always carried that scent, a contradiction of crisp modernity and something unnervingly timeless.

Professor Kwon’s voice droned from the front of the room, his lecture on synaptic pathways fading into background noise as you became acutely aware of the weight settling against the back of your chair. Not enough to jostle you, just enough to register his presence like a shadow at the edge of your vision.

Then came the silence.

Not the comfortable kind, but the heavy, expectant quiet that coiled between you like a live wire. You could feel it, the unwavering focus of his gaze tracing the line of your neck, lingering at the spot where your pulse fluttered beneath your skin. It was absurd, the way your body betrayed you, the way your fingers tightened around your pen as if it were a lifeline.

You lasted three minutes before the compulsion became unbearable.

Turning your head just enough to glance over your shoulder, you found him already watching you, his textbook lying forgotten on the desk as he reclined in his seat with the lazy confidence of a predator who’d expected this reaction all along. The overhead lights caught the silver undertones in his irises, turning them almost luminous against the muted tones of the lecture hall, and for a heartbeat, you could have sworn they flickered with something far older than his youthful looks.

“Problem?” His lips shaped the word without sound, the curve of his smirk telegraphing amusement at your inability to ignore him.

Your jaw clenched. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” you muttered, low enough that the rustle of notebooks around you masked the exchange.

He tilted his head, the movement slow, deliberate, as if savoring the way your breath hitched when he leaned forward just enough to let his whisper brush against your ear. “Watching you is the better option.”

The lights above you flickered, once, twice, and when they steadied, his attention had returned to his notes as though the entire interaction had been a figment of your imagination. But the weight of his gaze still burned against your skin long after Professor Kwon moved on to the next slide.

~~~

The bell above the door chimed as you slipped into The Velvet Ecplise, its signature scent of vanilla bean and roasted arabica wrapping around you like an old embrace. You’d barely had time to scarf down a sandwich between classes, but here, in this sanctuary of gilded mirrors and marble countertops, exhaustion wasn’t permitted—only perfection.

The manager, Ms. Laurent, arched a penciled brow as you clocked in. “Three minuteslate, ma chérie.” Her French accent curled around the reprimand, sharp as her stiletto heels.

“Tram delay,” you lied smoothly, already shrugging into your uniform, a tailored black dress that clung just right, the VE monogram gleaming at your collarbone. You slipped behind the bar, smoothing your hair and touching up your makeup with muscle memory. There was no room for sloppiness here. You still couldn’t believe you’d gotten this job.

In Astraris’ most infamous café, where minor celebrities held court in the back booths and business moguls tipped in crisp hundreds, you weren’t just pouring coffee. You were part of a spectacle. And here, blending in wasn’t an option.

The afternoon rush bled into a lull. You were polishing the espresso machine’s brass trim when the bell above the door chimed again. Sunlight fractured through the crystal panels, casting geometric patterns in gold across the marble floor.

“What’s good here?”

The voice was warm. Unfamiliar.

You turned and found a young man looking at you. Tall, well-dressed, his wind-tousled chestnut hair falling into his eyes in a way that looked suspiciously effortless. His features were softer than H/N’s, his presence less electric, more grounded. His gaze met yours for a moment.

And he smiled. His amber eyes crinkling at the corners with a smile that didn’t feel rehearsed.

A real smile. Not smirk, not tease. Just… kind.

He leaned against the counter with easy confidence.

“Depends,” you said, slipping into the script you used for charming tourists. “Are you a purist or an adventurer?”

He laughed, bright, clear, and completely at odds with the lazy jazz humming through the café. “Let’s live dangerously.”

You nodded and turned toward the machine, already reaching for the ingredients to make your personal favorite: a cinnamon-cardamom latte, spiced just enough to feel like a secret.

As the milk hissed and frothed, you caught his gaze lingering on you. Not with the icy calculation of H/N’s eyes, not with that unreadable tension coiled just beneath the surface, but with something else. Something lighter. Open curiosity.

You pretended not to notice, but your hands moved a little faster.

“You go to Lunaris, don’t you?” he asked.

The question caught you off guard. Most customers only saw the dress, the practiced smile. Never beyond it.

“Guilty.”

“Molecular medicine?”

Your brows lifted. “How’d you guess?”

He tapped his own book: Neuroscience and Emotion. “Call it educated intuition.”

You glanced at the cover. “Light reading?”

“Stress relief.” He smiled again. “I’m Eiden.”

“Y/N,” you said, blushing slightly.

“Ah, nice to meet you, Y/N,” His fingers brushed yours as he took the cup from your hand, and the contact sparked a jolt of something unfamiliar, nothing like the cold static H/N always left in his wake.

“So you’re the brains and the beauty.”

You rolled your eyes, but your cheeks betrayed you.

“Flattery won’t get you free refills.”

“Worth a shot.” He winked, dropping a bill into the tip jar, a fifty, you realized with a blink. Maybe I’ll see you around campus.”

The bell above the door chimed again as he slipped out, sunlight catching in his tousled hair.

You stared after him, the ghost of his touch still tingling across your skin, and for just a moment, your thoughts weren't filled with grey eyes, velvet smirks, or the ache of tension you couldn’t explain.

By the time your shift ended at 9 p.m., your legs felt like jelly and your thoughts like cotton, soft, frayed, and barely holding together. The glow of The Velvet Ecplise’s crystal chandeliers faded behind you as you stepped out into the cold night, the air biting through your coat like it had a personal grudge.

Your breath curled in pale clouds as you walked home, the streetlamps casting long shadows across the quiet sidewalks. One hand clutched your phone, eyes flicking over tomorrow’s schedule.

Two classes. Lab hours. Work. You groaned.

It was going to be another nonstop day, your body already dreading the early alarm, your brain begging for silence.

When you finally reached your apartment, one of the older, quieter buildings near the edge of campus, you barely made it to your bed. Clothes traded for pajamas. Makeup wiped. Lights off. No scrolling, no playlists, just you and the silence pressing in around you.

Sleep came fast, but not sweet. It wrapped you in a fog, blank and unfeeling. Restful, maybe, but not restful enough.

Still, even in sleep, his voice found you, like a fingerprint burned into the back of your mind.

“Your heart’s racing.”

You’d tell him to go to hell. Again. Probably twice. Maybe throw a mug at him next time. You had enough of those at work. And yet… the echo of his smirk lingered behind your eyelids longer than you’d admit.

What you didn’t see, what you couldn’t have known, was that you hadn’t walked home alone.

Across the street, half-shrouded in the branches of a tree, someone stood under the broken glow of a flickering lamp. Still. Watchful. Eyes trained not on your face, but on the back of your neck as you disappeared into the building.

They didn’t move for a long time.

Then, slowly, they turned, melting into the dark like a shadow never meant to be seen.

~~~

Elsewhere…

H/N stood alone on the rooftop of the dorms, jacket open to the wind, eyes fixed on the jagged outline of Astraris below. The city lights blinked like distant stars, beautiful, hollow things. Too far away to feel.

His fingers curled around the cold iron railing.

He’d been human once. A long, long time ago.

Back when he still believed in second chances. Back when blood wasn’t the only thing that tethered him to the world.

Now, most days passed in greyscale. The hunger, the noise, the ache of immortality, he’d learned to live with all of it.

But her.

The girl in the lab. She burned. Too loud in his senses. Too defiant. Too alive.

She was fire wrapped in tired eyes and bruised ambition. And she looked at him like she knew, even if she didn’t know what.

Too bright. Too dangerous.

And yet…

His jaw clenched. His knuckles whitened on the railing.

And yet, he found himself listening for her heartbeat even now.

He didn’t understand it. Didn’t want to understand it.

But somehow, she’d slipped through the cracks in his armor. And he couldn’t stop the pull.

He couldn’t stay away.

To be continued....

｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★

♡ Author’s note A new mysterious figure steps into the story… But who is he, and what does he want? Stay tuned to find out…

Love, YumiYue 🌙

｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆｡･:*:･ﾟ’★

Please like, share, and follow! ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡

Tag list: @reallysparklychaos

Follow me on: 📸 Instagram /🎵 TikTok: @yumiyue07 📝 Wattpad: @LunaVerse_YumiYue

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fan fiction inspired by ENHYPEN’s song “Bad Desire”. All characters and events are fictional and are not intended to represent real people or events.

© 2025 LunaVerse - YumiYue07. All rights reserved. Please do not repost or reproduce this story without permission. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

[mem1490]

رAD THIS BOOK TO GET NEW WAY TO BE NEW ONE

"The Do Nothing Method: The Science-Backed Art of Achieving More by Doing Less"

In a world obsessed with hustle culture, **"The Do Nothing Method"** flips the script on productivity. Backed by neuroscience, historical examples, and corporate case studies, this book proves that **strategic inaction**—purposeful stillness—is the key to creativity, focus, and sustainable success. 

### **The Science of Strategic Inaction** 

Your brain doesn’t stop working when you do. Neuroscientists call this the **Default Mode Network (DMN)**—a mental state activated during rest that fuels creativity, problem-solving, and emotional balance (*Neuron Journal*). Suppressing it with constant busyness leads to burnout and shallow thinking. 

**Historical Proof:** 

- Einstein’s theory of relativity emerged from "thought experiments" during violin breaks. 

- Newton discovered gravity while sitting under an apple tree. 

- Archimedes shouted "Eureka!" in his bath, not a lab. 

**Key Insight:** Forcing solutions backfires. Breakthroughs happen when you **stop pushing** and let your mind work in the background. 

[jesikaraul]

Why Your Brain Deserves More Attention Than Your Mental Health

Core Premise

The book argues that society’s narrow focus on mental health (thoughts, emotions, behaviors) overlooks the physical brain driving them. Just as a car’s performance depends on its engine—not just the driver’s skills—your mental well-being is rooted in biological brain health.

Key Themes

The Brain-Mental Health Distinction

Mental health: Psychological/emotional state (e.g., anxiety, depression).

Brain health: The organ’s biological condition (blood flow, inflammation, neuroplasticity).

Analogy: Mental health is like software; brain health is the hardware it runs on.

Why the Difference Matters

Many "mental health" struggles (brain fog, mood swings, fatigue) stem from undiagnosed physical brain issues:

Nutrient deficiencies (B12, Omega-3s)

Chronic inflammation

Poor sleep or oxygen flow

Gut microbiome imbalances

Example: A 2022 Nature study linked 40% of depression cases to measurable brain inflammation.

The Limits of "Mental Health Only" Care

Therapy and medication often fail when underlying brain biology is ignored.

Case studies show improvements when combining:

Traditional mental health care (therapy, mindfulness)

Brain health fixes (sleep optimization, targeted nutrition, vascular health).

Actionable Brain Care Framework The book outlines 5 Pillars of Brain Health:

Fuel: Nutrition for neuron repair (e.g., Mediterranean diet, key supplements).

Flow: Exercise and blood circulation to boost oxygen/nutrient delivery.

Rest: Sleep’s role in "neural housekeeping" and memory consolidation.

Challenge: Novelty and learning to strengthen neuroplasticity.

Connection: Social bonds that reduce inflammation and stress.

Science Highlights

Neurogenesis: The brain can grow new cells (contrary to old myths).

The Gut-Brain Axis: 90% of serotonin is made in the gut—not the brain.

Vascular Health: Poor circulation starves neurons, accelerating cognitive decline.

Inflammation-Depression Link: CRP (an inflammation marker) predicts depression risk.

Target Audience

People frustrated by incomplete mental health solutions.

Wellness enthusiasts who want evidence-based brain optimization.

Professionals battling burnout/brain fog (entrepreneurs, creatives, knowledge workers).

Caregivers or aging adults focused on cognitive longevity.

Unique Angles

Myth-Busting: Challenges "it’s all in your head" stigma with hard biology.

Practical Over Preachy: Focuses on small, sustainable upgrades vs. extreme biohacking.

Holistic Integration: Bridges gaps between neuroscience, nutrition, and psychology.

Why This Message Matters Now

Mental health crises are rising, yet root causes are often physical.

Brain health is preventable medicine: Alzheimer’s, dementia, and mood disorders begin decades before symptoms.

Empowerment: Readers learn to advocate for overlooked tests (e.g., micronutrient panels, sleep studies).

Comparable Titles

The End of Mental Illness (Dr. Daniel Amen) – Brain scans meet psychiatry.

Brain Energy (Dr. Christopher Palmer) – Metabolic theory of mental health.

Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker) – Sleep’s role in brain function.

Difference: This book is less clinical, more focused on actionable self-care for non-scientists.

Talking Points for Promotion

"Your brain is the only organ we expect to function perfectly while mistreating it."

"Therapy won’t fix a B12 deficiency. Meditation can’t undo sleep apnea."

"Mental health starts with brain health—here’s how to upgrade both."

Would you like additional details on any section (e.g., studies to cite, chapter outlines)?

now quotes

Here are 15 powerful quotes from "Why Your Brain Deserves More Attention Than Your Mental Health" that capture its core message:

Hard-Hitting Truths

"Your brain is the only organ we expect to function perfectly while chronically mistreating it."

"Therapy can’t fix a vitamin deficiency. Meditation won’t undo sleep apnea. Mindfulness can’t regrow neurons starved of oxygen."

"We’ve medicalized mental health while ignoring the medical organ that creates it."

Science-Driven Insights

"90% of your serotonin isn’t made in your brain—it’s manufactured in your gut by bacteria you’re probably starving."

"Alzheimer’s doesn’t start at 65. It starts in the 40-year-old brain you’re neglecting today."

"Chronic inflammation isn’t just bad for your joints—it’s frying your neurons like an electrical short circuit."

Empowerment & Action

"Brain health is the ultimate act of self-respect: you’re either building your cognitive future or bankrupting it."

"You wouldn’t put diesel fuel in a Ferrari. Why are you feeding your brain junk food and expecting peak performance?"

"Sleep isn’t lazy. It’s when your brain does its most sophisticated engineering work."

Provocative Challenges

"If your brain were a car, you’ve been ignoring the ‘check engine’ light for years—then wondering why it won’t drive smoothly."

"We spend more time researching smartphones than the organ that lets us use them."

"Your brain doesn’t care about your excuses. It responds to oxygen, nutrients, and movement—whether you ‘feel like it’ or not."

Big-Picture Perspective

"Mental health isn’t separate from physical health—it’s the output of a three-pound biological supercomputer."

"You aren’t ‘aging’—you’re accumulating the consequences of how you’ve treated your brain."

"Optimizing your brain isn’t vanity. It’s the foundation of every dream, relationship, and memory you’ll ever have."

How to Use These:

Social media teasers (Pair with brain health facts)

Chapter openers

Email newsletter hooks

Talking points for podcasts/interviews

Need a specific type of quote (humorous, scientific, rallying cry)? Let me know!

New chat

[scrumptioustigerfun]

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[flaskoflethe]

While on leave at the moment, we're not that far from returning to work. Given that we work in data science and development, and that part of what pushed our burnout was the literal abominations we were being asked to make using llm's, it seems prudent for us to start getting back into the swing of things technically. What better way to do this than starting to look through what's easily available about DeepSeek? It's, unfortunately, exactly what you'd expect.

We're not joking. The literal first sentence of the paper from the company explicitly states that recent LLM progression has been closing the gap toward AGI, which is utterly, categorically, epistemically untrue. We don't, scientifically, have a sufficient understanding of consciousness to be able to create an artifical mind. Anyone claiming otherwise has the burden of proof; while we remain open to reviewing any evidence supporting such claims, to date literally nothing has been remotely close to applicable much less sufficient. So we're off to a very, very bad start. Which is a real shame, because the benefits and improvements made to LLM design they claim in their abstract are impressive! A better model design, with a well curated dataset, is the correct way to get improvements in model performance! Their reductions in hardware hours for training are impressive, and we're looking forward to analyzing their methods - a smooth training process, with no rollbacks or irrecoverable decreases in model performance over the course of training are good signs. Bold claims, to be clear, but that's what we're here to evaluate. And the insistence that LLM's are bringing AGI closer to existence mean we have sufficient bias from the team that we cannot assume good faith on behalf of the team. While we assume many, or even most, of the actual researchers and technologists are aware of the underlying realities and limitations of modern "AI" in general and LLM's in particular, the coloring done by the literal first sentence is seriously harmful to their purpose.

While we'd love to continue our analysis, to be honest it doesn't support it? Looking at their code it's an, admittedly very sophisticated, neural network. It doesn't remotely pose a revolution in design, the major advances they cite are all integrating other earlier improvements. While their results are impressive, they are another step in the long path of constructing marginal improvements on an understood mechanism. Most of the introduction is laying out their claims for DeepSeek-v3. We haven't followed the developments with reduced precision training, nor the more exact hardware mapped implementations they reference closely enough to offer much insight into their claims; they are reasonable enough on face, but mainly relate to managing the memory and performance loads for efficient training. These are good, genuinely exciting things to be seeing - we'll be following up manu of their citations for further reading, and digesting the rest of their paper and code.

But this is, in no way shape or form, a bubble ender or a sudden surge forward in progress. These are predictable results, ones that scientists have been pursuing and working towards quietly. While fascinating, DSv3 isn't special because it is a revolution; it simply shows the methodology used by the commercial models, sinking hundreds of billions of dollars a year and commiting multiple ongoing atrocities to fuel the illusion of growth, isn't the best solution. It will not understand, it CAN not. It can not create, it can not know. And people who treat it as anything except the admittedly improved tool it is, are still techbros pushing us with endless glee towards their goal of devaluing labor.

[theangrycomet-art]

Mabel "MD" Astronomanov

Dierdre Mabel Astronomanov, daughter of Dr. Mandark Astronomanovand and sole heir to Mandark Industries

Due to a lab accident when she was 12- were most of her upper body was severally burned- she has android prosthetics, most notably her arms, eyes, and face. Yet she is a rather cheerful girl who'd rather be working on her personal projects instead of her homework and work assigned by her father.

Despite their father's rivalries, Mabel and Zelda (and her brothers) have little quarrel with on another outside of "Why is my dad so obsessed with beating/wastes so much of his time with your dad?"

Height Ref

COMMISSIONS OPEN

Notes:

Abilities:

Supergenius intellect (however beginning to suffer gifted kid burnout)

Gifted Singer: though the lab accident has eft her voice grittier, she still can sing very well

Enhanced Agility/Reach: with her arms she is able to launch herself/vault large distances

Enhanced eyesight: with her eyes she can zoom in and record whatever she sees. Additionally, she has a flashlight setting she can turn on whenever

Weakness: Charging, her prosthesis take a lot of power and need to be charged every evening on the dot or their batteries will die early, leaving her blind/ unable to use her arms

Personality

optimistic

competitive

cheerful

stubborn

prideful

Quirks

She would rather try to fix a problem the same 6 ways she knows how than try and come up with a new solution

tends to stretch her limbs alot- her arms can extend up to 70 meters (she measured it once when she was really bored

tends to hum as she works

Likes

hover-boarding

gymnastics (though she's not allowed to compete competitively with her prosthesis)

upgrading her arms

working on her personal projects (her battle bot, her hoverboard line, her keytar)

helping others on their inventions

singing

inventing for fun

magic (both mystic and sleight of hand)

science (formerly)

star trek

key lime pie

Dislikes

when her prosthesis' run out of charge

studying/homework

being one-upped

snobs

her father's obsession with Dexter and DeeDee (she does NOT get it)

being ignored

inventing for Mandark Industries

science

[ajcgames]

A little output

I spent my lunch programming rather than eating, which is very typical of me when I get deeply involved in a project. I must make sure I don't fall into that obsession trap again, which has caused many burnouts in the past! 😅

My current task was to get the new generation machine to spit items out onto a connected belt. This was mostly straightforward, though it was a little tricky getting my head around supporting rotation.

Ultimately it came down to making things simple. Machines can either have an input or an output, or both. Since the side with which the machine accepts either inputs and outputs is defined at the prefab level (i.e. it's fixed based on what I set the model to), I just had to write some code to shift those input/output 'sides' depending on which of the 4 possible directions the model was placed in.

As far as handling exactly where the machine should look for an input / output belt, I kinda cheated a bit on this one.

The reason this was a little more complex is because machines can have a footprint of more than just 1x1, they can be 2x2 as well. A 2x2 machine will have a inputs / outputs on specific grid positions around its outside perimeter. How do I allow for this whilst enabling rotation of the placed object?

This. This is my cheat.

The little blob in the above image is an object that represents which grid position I want the machine to look for a belt (specifically an output belt). Because this blob is a child object of the machine, when the machine rotates - so the blob does too. At runtime, when I configure the machine, I can simply read the real-world position of the blob to get its grid coordinates. Neat!

It's easier to see top-down here:

The machine lives at grid position [6,4] and the blob lives inside the machine object at position [1,0]. Translated to absolute world position the blob lives at [7,4] - exactly where I need to be checking for belts!

I'm sure there are much better ways of doing this, but this was a pretty straightforward solution that only requires a tiny amount of preprocessing when the object is first placed, after which no additional calculation is needed.

With the positioning and belt-lookup code added, it was just a case of writing up a short Machine class, from which I derived a special 'InputMachine' class that only spits out items of a specific type.

The result you can see below!

Where is this all leading?

I suppose it's a good a time as any to review my future plans for these developments. What good are little prototypes without some larger goal in mind?

In one of my earliest posts I details the kind of game I'm hoping to make. Mechanically it's not super complicated, but it required figuring out some of the technical stuff I've been showing in recent posts - namely conveyor belts and moving items around.

I'm hoping to create a game that fits in the automation / factory genre. You'll be playing the role of someone setting up an automated factory that has been deposited and unpacked on a remote asteroid. You place down drills (inputs) that dig and spit out raw materials into your factory, and you move these around and process them in various machines in the name of science!

As I said this isn't the most complex of concepts. From a programming complexity point of view some of the legwork has already done (problem solving belts, specifically). There are areas that still need consideration, but looking over what's left to come I'm quietly confident it falls within my skill set to execute.

A cut down the middle

I expect anybody familiar with game development is aware of the term 'vertical slice'. It refers to the practice of developing a small segment of a product, but to a very polished state that could be considered represetative of its final form.

You see this a lot in game development. Particularly at conferences and exhibitions where publishers want to whip up excitement about games that could be years away from release. But there should be some delineation between a vertical slice for a trailer, and a playable vertical slice. I'm aiming for the latter.

In order to decide how to put something like that together, I need a broader understanding of the scope of the game. A vertical slice should demonstrate all the key concepts in the game, but leaving room to expand those ideas later without changing the core experience too much. It doesn't have to look like the final game either, though I would like to put some effort in there where possible.

I'll probably end this post here for now, but I'll probably detail out the main efforts I'm likely to be aiming for in order to reach this vertical slice. I will, of course, continue posting updates when I can with more details about the game's development.

And if you read this far and found some small measure of interest in here, thanks for your time and have yourself a great day! 😊

[comparativetarot]

4 of Science. Art by Ed Buryn, from The William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination.

Repose This is Blake's image of Urizen "brooding, shut in the deep" of the sea of time and space — the world of materialism. "In dark secresy" he hides his fantasies in "surgeing sulphureous fluid." Sulphur signifies vital heat and is associated with reason and the male principle; in other words, he suppresses his burning thoughts. An inscription on the print declares, "I labour upwards into futurity." In his mind, he believes he is going somewhere, but his slack knees and beard show he is drifting and relaxing despite himself. His outstretched arms mimic divinity, but his palms are down-turned — he is a mock god in exile from his element of air, recuperating from the exertion of his endless tyranny of dispassionate logic and reason. 'Repose' literally means to put back, to restore, and in this card the mind puts itself back into its elemental container; immersion in the water of the body prevents sulphurous mental burnout. This card is about taking time-out from life's daily struggle, and letting yourself be swept along without struggling against the current. Rest from mental activity is required here, perhaps through getting lost in the healing flow of meditation, or a spa, or other mode of relaxation. This is only a temporary retreat — a need to let go of concerns. This kind of mental truce allows ideas to settle and consolidate themselves into a natural harmonization of elements. After such a release from tension and anxiety, you may find that the solution will simply float to the surface. In the creative process, this is when you let go of previous restrictions, letting bafflement take over. When you relax and let go, taking time off from work, new insights will surface. KEYWORDS: REPOSE • REST FROM MENTAL ACTIVITY • RECOVERY OF SELF • RETREAT INTO ANOTHER ELEMENT • SELF-ABSORBED SOLITUDE OR SECLUSION • TRUCE • MENTAL CONSOLIDATION • HARMONIZATION OF IDEAS • BROODING THOUGHTS • FORCED WITHDRAWAL • DISCONNECTED SELF-OPINION •