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thornewoodhospitalblog · 6 years ago

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It can be absolutely daunting to log on and just stare blankly at an empty post. It’s quite a struggle, but have no fear! The Bee Sisters are here! There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and you will come out the other side. Okay, I’ll stop with the cheesy metaphors now. Read on for common causes relating to the loss of muse and how to revive inspiration by falling in love with your character again.

Problem 1: Stressful Personal Life One of the most common factors of lost muse is a stressful personal life. If work or home life has suddenly become unmanageable, it can cause writing to feel like a chore.

Solution: We’ve all been through it and a brief hiatus in this circumstance can actually be pretty useful as they often give you time to take a step back and think about how you want your character to return to the RP. You know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder! Take the time to relax, write a list about what you want to bring to the overall plot of the RP and how your character can facilitate that goal and get hyped up about returning.

Problem 2: Loss of Direction Similarly, it can become very easy to lose all sense of direction with your character and get wrapped up in going with the flow with no big development occurring.

Solution: This is a good time to take a step back, reread your character’s bio and reevaluate your character and their existing connections. Tap back into your initial inspiration for where your character came from and think about what may have gotten lost or has been on hold for too long. What were your original aspirations for your character? How does your character specifically fit into the overarching plot of Thornewood? What does this character bring that advances Thornewood’s story?

For instance, if your character’s bio states they’re a go-getter and strive for achievement but haven’t quite achieved anything since arriving at Thornewood, perhaps it’s time for your character to earn a promotion or be downgraded from the red/yellow floor to the yellow/green floor. We know going backwards isn’t intuitive, but sometimes it’s important to look back in order to go forward. Looking back can provide inspiration for a plot revolving around a new characteristic or a developing skill could result in further character development for a more exciting and adventurous route.

Problem 3: Lack of Connections A big issue with writing in a growing group is that as new writers and characters come in, it can feel as though your character is getting lost in the crowd. It’s absolutely essential you continue to put your character out there to be heard! Solution: Open starters (we have a post all about intriguing open starters, posted here) are the best way to do this! Read the other characters bios and if you see one that your character may gel well with (or, it might even be more exciting if they don’t get along) and you have an idea for a plot (this part is really important!! Come to the table with at least some idea!), message them privately and pitch your ideas! We are extremely lucky to have a wonderful and friendly group of writers here so please don’t be worried or afraid to build those connections!

Problem 4: Undeveloped Character Development Bear with me on this one. You applied with a bio that, at the time, felt strong and you had a lot of muse for but as you got to threading and creating connections and plots, your character still feels…the same. Unmoved. Unchanged by their environment. Don’t stress! It happens, I’ve done it!

Solution: Now its pivotal for you to go back to your character bio and pick out one part that you know you’ve lost or would like to improve upon. Now, journal, self-para, create mood boards, take mun/muse quizzes or personality tests for your character, fill in an IC all about me, create a playlist of songs that relate to your character. Work on them from the ground up. Strip them back and find the parts that make them unique. (I will be adding some character development quizzes to the main if you find these helpful.) But, the aim here is for you to basically rebuild your muse from where it first began but with a refreshed perspective.

Problem 5: It’s Been Awhile There are many reasons why you may have taken a hiatus, and rightfully so, but now you’ve been away for so long that jumping back in sort of feels like a huge leap. The dash has moved, events have unfolded and everyone seems to be in the midst of a big plot.

Solution: Before returning, set up a group chat with the mods and we will fill you in on everything that may have occurred in your absence. In the midst of this conversation, you can absolutely plot with us about how your character should return! We enjoy helping when we can and ensure a smooth transition back into Thornewood. Don’t let yourself suffer in silence! Communication is key!

Problem 6: Striving for Perfection I know first hand how it feels to be in the middle of writing an important plot that you are incredibly proud of and want to be good and entertaining enough that the other writers in the group are interested in reading it, buuuuut there’s a fine line between writing well and wanting to write well that your ambition ends up scaring off your muse. Now, to be clear, we’re not saying don’t try to write the absolute best can! Please, do! Push yourself! However, we’d like to caution you that an unhealthy amount of pressure on yourself will kill muse.

Solution: If you’re staring at your reply and pulling your hair out, hit that little “save draft” button and walk away. I’m serious. Close your laptop, make yourself a drink and take a deep breath, or even move onto another thread you have. I’ll often give myself 45 minutes to an hour and then come back to the original thread. At that point, it’s like a fresh pair of eyes going over what you had before and you’ll suddenly see the mistakes and your second draft will be 100% better.

Problem 7: Insufficient Communication Okay, this one here is a biggie and I need you to know one thing before I start, when we say communication is key, we mean it. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have watched people lose all their muse because they are not communicating honestly and effectively with their RP partners.

Solution: If the plot you created isn’t working anymore, tell them. If they’re all over the place and rarely on, meaning you can’t write with them, discuss it with them. If you feel you’re being disrespected or not listened to, talk to them openly and honestly. (If you’ve done this and are still having issues, please report such a thing to the mods as this is something we can deal with). If god-modding (you didn’t previously approve), meta-knowledge or meta-disrespect has taken place, report it to the mods immediately. This destroys all love for writing and your plots and can make for a tense and hostile environment which is not something tolerated here at Thornewood. Communication with your partners and mods is incredibly important.

Conclusion: If you got this far, wow! Thank you! Gold star for you, if there’s one thing this bee does well, it’s ramble. This guide has come from a very honest place because recently I have been struggling with a loss of muse and through writing this, I’ve used my own tips to bring it back. If you take anything away from this, let it be this:

Hiatuses are a-okay and a lot of the time, necessary. Please don’t lose sight of the fact that this is supposed to be a fun and enjoyable space and lastly, the mods are here to help, guide and support you in anyway we can. We are only a message away.

#writing tips #tips

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gamerszone2019-blog · 6 years ago

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Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Fall Of The Planet Of The Apes

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/ancestors-the-humankind-odyssey-review-fall-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Fall Of The Planet Of The Apes

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey sure isn’t afraid of throwing you into the deep end. My first foray into Panache Digital’s survival game began as a young ape alone in a dark forest, the imagined laughs of hyenas and snarls of tigers echoing in the trees in a confusing cacophony. Before I could finish reading the message detailing my very first objective, a warning popped up and demanded I dodge out of the way–of what, I couldn’t be sure. Not knowing what to do, I couldn’t respond in time, and my ape was left alone, scared, hallucinating, bleeding, and poisoned, my screen a milky display of dark green and shifting shadows. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do or where I should go. I began to wander and, thankfully, about 30 minutes later I found the rest of my clan.

At first, I believed the entire ordeal was simply a poor start. As it turns out, that first journey through the confusion of a dangerous jungle, blindly limping in different directions in hopes of finding someone to help me, is a fairly accurate depiction of what your journey in Ancestors will regularly entail. My time with the game saw me suffer similarly disorienting fates over and over, testing me to figure out what I’d done wrong and then do my best to adapt. Ancestors prides itself on giving you as little information as it can and daring you to rely on your ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive. Though the game fulfills its promise to do the former, it fails to deliver a compelling reason as to why you’d even want to rise up to the challenge of the latter.

You play as a member of an ape clan in 10 million BC Africa, and you try to ensure your lineage continues through to two million BC–the time period archaeologists say our ancestors’ evolution finally transitioned us from ape-like beings into a new, more human species. To survive that long, you need to manage how much you eat, drink, and sleep while also steering clear of predators and taking care of injuries. As your life continues, and you interact with more aspects of the world, you grow smarter and acquire new skills, which you can then pass on to your descendants. Upon death, you take control of another ape within your clan and continue the process, striving to evolve into a brand-new, more human-like species before your entire clan completely dies out.

Every second of real-world time translates into a minute in-game–except during sleep, which speeds this equation up. Your in-game progress produces opportunities for further clan evolution to then jump ahead in time by months, decades, or millennia. If you or one of your clanmates becomes pregnant, for example, giving birth to a baby will cause you to leap forward 15 months. For significantly larger jumps in time, exploring as an adult with a baby on your back will allow you to accrue energy to further improve your neurological network and unlock new abilities, which then allows you to advance a whole generation and move time forward a full 15 years. A jump in generation can be followed by an evolution, which moves you to a new, calculated placement on the timeline that’s dependent on which advancements you make. Adapting your metabolism to new plants doesn’t give you as huge a boost, for instance, as learning to use rocks as tools. Evolutions push you ahead tens of thousands of years, providing the most efficient way of getting from 10 million BC to two million BC.

It’s definitely not easy, though, especially since your clan needs to sustain itself throughout those eight million years in a single lineage. Though your clanmates learn what you do in real time, losing an entire clan means you have to restart from a brand-new lineage and relearn everything you’ve previously discovered. If your clan dies after you’ve adapted to eating fish, for example, you’ll not only need to go through the entire process of reacquainting your diet, but you’ll have to teach your new lineage how to make fishing spears all over again. When it’s a few minutes of knowledge lost, it’s not that big of a deal. But when you’re losing hours of progress, it can be quite disheartening.

Instead of saving your skills and knowledge between runs, Ancestors records your progress by keeping track of how far you travel. Initially, you can only begin a new lineage on a cliff within a jungle. However, you can discover and unlock other starting points in the jungle, and even reach other biomes, such as a lake-filled swamp and arid savanna. Unlocking these new start points provides welcome variety–as each environment contains its own unique ecosystem of creatures and plants as well as its own set of weather-based challenges–but your primates always begin in the same clueless state. Even if you already know what to do, you’ll have to retrace your steps and go through the same motions over again to recreate the same conditions that pushed your ape’s neurological network to evolve to where you were in the game before your clan was wiped out–ideally with more of your clan intact this time so you can go further.

This gameplay loop can be immensely frustrating, and it’s one that gets more drawn-out the more you play. By my fourth lineage, it was taking close to two hours to retrace my steps and redo everything I had already had to relearn a few times already. There’s nothing in the game that allows you to recover from a failure and quickly rebuild what’s been lost, either, which is demoralizing when your downfall is your own fault and downright frustrating when it’s just bad luck. I’ve lost entire clans because of my own hubris, sure, but I’ve also lost a clan because, after going through an evolution, the game randomly spawned my clan next to a tiger’s den and there were no materials nearby to make weapons. I spent the final 15 minutes of that eight-hour run helplessly watching my entire clan be slowly devoured before needing to start over.

I couldn’t go back and try a different approach to escaping the massacre of that unfortunate run because there’s no manual save feature in Ancestors. The game saves automatically when you discover a new location or go to sleep, with each lineage tied to one save file. You can manually back up your save to your PC, but there’s no easy or straightforward in-game solution to help you avoid a punishing death.

What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree.

Having to redo everything you’ve already done also keeps you from discovering new things–which is paramount to surviving and one of the few good parts of Ancestors. With practically zero tutorials, Ancestors forces you to be experimental in order to succeed. There’s joy to be had in bashing different items together to see what happens and then compiling and testing hypotheses. As much as I was frustrated by needing to redo the entire process of creating the aforementioned fishing spear in repeated playthroughs, I felt genuine accomplishment in figuring it out the first time. Most of Ancestors’ puzzles can be solved with logical sense, so the challenge comes in figuring out where to find the materials you think you need. Granted, this being a game, there are occasionally arbitrary hurdles you need to jump through to build certain tools, but you’ll typically only find these associated with more advanced, late-game tasks.

You don’t get to enjoy much of the satisfaction in discovering new things and regularly evolving, though. Predators repeatedly sneak up on you and interrupt your efforts, which typically causes you to drop whatever you were messing with. It’s disheartening to want to explore and forge new tools, only to then have to put your odyssey on hold to limp back to your clan and deal with your injuries–and then be attacked again almost immediately upon heading back out. Yes, the jungle is a dangerous place. But when a tiger leaps out of the reeds to aid a crocodile that’s trying to eat me, it’s a stark reminder of how Ancestors upholds the need to rise to the challenge of survival above the experience of evolution. Historically, it makes sense, as our ape ancestors undoubtedly lived many more years as prey than predator. But in the context of a video game, the constant barrage of spawning enemies gets in the way of the gameplay loop of learning, responding, and evolving–a roadblock that’s only chipped away at and eventually toppled once you acquire the skills and tools so that your entire clan can work together and put up an adequate defense against the creatures that hunt you. Much has to be done to get to that point, though, so contending with larger predators–especially the collection of deadly wildcats that stalk and pounce on you at seemingly every quiet moment–feels unfair early on, especially in areas where there are no trees to escape up into. Dealing with their near-constant attacks or the wounds they inflict can make it discouragingly difficult to actually experiment and evolve.

The closest you come to feeling safe while playing Ancestors is when you’re up in the trees. You spend a lot of time in the branches as a result, but unfortunately there’s no easy way to travel between them. You can climb practically anything in Ancestors provided you have the stamina, so scrambling up into a tree is a quick, painless process. However, with no way to easily course correct yourself–and since trees are rarely positioned in a straight line–you typically only get to enjoy a few seconds of fast-paced, energetic movement before you run out of branch, plummet to earth, and possibly break your legs if you were too high up. And that’s a shame, because it’s actually pretty fun to leap from branch to branch once you’ve got the swing of things. There just aren’t many opportunities to use what you’ve learned once you’ve got the mechanics down. Upon leaving the forest, your chances slim down even more, as the follow-up areas are sparse on the first environment’s signature large trees.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey lingers for far too long on its most toilsome aspects. The game does reward initial experimentation, but then asks you to repeat processes over and over again without any means of securing your legacy. It’s an absolute grind to reach the closest that Ancestors has to an endgame goal–survive for eight million years–and one costly mistake, whether the game’s or your own, can erase everything you’ve accomplished. What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree. But as it stands, investing in Ancestors’ journey demands too much effort for too little reward.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

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valheartandfriendsllc · 5 years ago

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Talk to Animals and Watch the Amazing Results! How Animal Communication Saved the Lives of 49 Fawns

When you take the time to talk to animals and learn to truly listen and communicate, amazing things happen!

Just read this story about how my ability to talk to animals saved the lives of 49 little orphan fawns—but lost one very special little one.

Little Bobby’s story

Working on staff at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation was an extraordinary experience. I got to be up close and personal with all kinds of wildlife—everything from deer, raccoons, and opossums to owls, panthers, and bears, oh my!

One evening I was heading down the path for fawn feeding time, one of my favorite jobs at the center. I was carrying four big buckets filled to the brim with nursing bottles full of creamy rich “mother’s milk”.

There were at least fifty orphaned fawns, some of them injured, in the large enclosure. Our job was to raise them until they were young adults, then release them safely into areas where they could rejoin existing wild deer herds and hopefully live long happy lives.

On this beautiful evening, as I entered the fawns’ pen, they eagerly ran up and crowded all around me as they always did. It always made my heart so glad to see and connect with these beautiful, innocent, playful creatures.

In my career as a professional animal communicator, I talk to animals all the time—everything from the usual cats and dogs and horses to the more exotic foxes and cougars and monkeys and elephants and so many more! I’d seen a lot by that point. If you can imagine fifty precious little fawns leaping and pushing each other and dancing with excitement to get closer to you! It was a wonderful experience.

Many were leaping and bouncing above the crowd, trying to affectionately head-butt me like I was their momma. It was so sweet and delightful.

Laughing, I greeted them, patted their beautiful heads and necks, then shooed them away so I could set up their feeders and they could begin eating their dinner.

Do you have what it takes to talk to animals? Find out here.

Talk to animals to improve their health and well-being

I always used this special time with the fawns to inquire as to their health and well-being.

Sometimes they told me stories about their day, or the newest joke or funny story they’d come up with.

Sometimes they asked me questions or wanted to know what I thought about something that was troubling them. I was always amazed at what complex inner lives these precious creatures had—they weren’t just adorable, they were also intelligent, feeling, kind, and thoughtful.

But on this day, something different and unexpected happened, and it scared me.

Several of the fawns urgently spoke up saying, “Bobby isn’t feeling good! Can you help him please?”

I replied, “Oh no! Yes, of course, I’ll do everything I can to help him. What’s wrong? Where is he?”

I looked around the enclosure as the light slowly faded to dusk, despairing of ever finding the one little fawn in the large crowd who wasn’t “feeling good”. Then, like the story of Moses parting the red sea, the crowd of fawns opened and one little fawn approached me. It was Little Bobby.

The others nosed him as he walked by, in support and a show of caring.

It was so loving and sweet!

When he came up to greet me, I kneeled down and asked him to tell me how he was feeling. I asked him when he started feeling bad, how long he’d been feeling that way, and a myriad of questions to help me determine how best to help him feel better. (Once you’ve learned how to talk to animals in the Beginning Core Foundations Course, it’s time to learn the art of asking the right questions in the right time and way when communicating with animals in The Heart Of the Conversation 7 Step Blueprint for Successful Conversations With Animals Course)

He told me he had a headache, and his nose was snotty and runny. He was achy and had a tummy ache too. And sometimes he felt shivery.

Poor little guy, he was miserable.

I patted him and tried to comfort him, then told him I would go to tell Tim, the director. He would know just what to do.

Can I really talk to animals? Tim’s challenge

I found Tim in the work area and quickly told him the tale. Astonished, he looked at me for a moment with wide eyes—he wasn’t sure he believed I could really talk to animals, but my story was pretty amazing and compelling. And if I was reporting a sick animal, well, he had to look into it.

Challenging me, he asked me to take a can of purple spray dye to mark the ill fawn. I was to go put a mark on his coat so Tim could easily find him in the herd later.

I trudged back to the fawn pen and wondered how I would ever find Bobby again in the dark. The other fawns, as usual, crowded around me and were glad to see me.

I connected with my heart, centered myself, and called for Bobby to come to me, please.

Then I waited…

To my delight, in just a few minutes, here came little Bobby! Trustingly, he walked up and put his head in my hand.

I told him that we were working to find a way to help him feel better, but first, we needed to put a pretty purple mark on his beautiful coat so Tim could find him.

Patiently, Bobby agreed and waited silently while I sprayed the purple dye.

I told the other fawns that Bobby’s purple mark was very special.

Then I explained to Bobby that Tim would be out later to find him and figure out what to do to help him.

And so it was.

When my shift was over, I went home. It was my “weekend” so I got to take a couple of days off work. Every day until I went back to work I prayed for Bobby and communicated with him.

The next workday shift, I looked for him but didn’t find him with the other fawns. When I asked Tim, he said he’d easily found Bobby thanks to the purple mark I’d placed on his coat.

He’d never seen anything like Bobby’s illness in deer before, so he swabbed the inside of his nose and sent the swab to A&M University to be cultured. They were waiting for the results before deciding on a specific course of treatment.

In the meantime, little Bobby was taken to the ill and badly injured fawn pen. I saw him every day and comforted him as best I could, telling him what a brave boy he was.

But sadly, by the time we got the culture back and had a remedy in place, Bobby died.

I grieved his loss, and when I saw the fawns later I told them what had happened. They stood around me, completely silent and respectful. And so we grieved him together, all gathered in a big circle.

The good news was, thanks to the fawns’ willingness to ask me, a human, for help for one of their own, and thanks to Bobby’s courage to seek help and put his life in our hands… and thanks for my ability to talk to animals, he was the only fawn we lost.

The culture came back with a treatment plan and all the other fawns were treated and saved. The fawns, in their intelligence, had known they needed help when they told me what was going on. In talking to me, they had saved themselves.

You too can do good when you talk to animals

In The Heart School of Animal Communication, I teach animal lovers all over the world how to communicate with animals. I can also coach you in the Best Online Animal Talk Coaching & Mastery Club to help you break down your blocks, expand your intuitive abilities, and advance your skills quickly.

Why? I do this so you can really be there when animals need you most.

Learn to speak their language so you can be their hero, their best friend, their confidante, who they come to when they need help

So they can help you by sharing what they know that you don’t yet. In this way, together you can save each other’s lives one day.

The How to Talk to Animals Beginning Core Foundations Course teaches you the basics so you will know how to tune in, connect, send, and receive messages with animals.

I believe every animal caretaker, whether of domestic doggies and kitties and horses, or wild animals like fawns and tigers and bears, must know how to communicate with their charges. This skill will bring their level of care to a new level and will enhance their own experience and learning as well.

In this five-lesson audio course, you’ll learn how to tune in and connect with your heart and mind to intuitively understand what animals are trying to tell you.

If you want to learn at your own pace, in the privacy of your own home and on your own time, this course is for you!

This course changes people’s and animal’s lives every day.

I strongly suggest that if you have not yet started your own epic journey into the wonderful world of animal communication, you begin now.

What if you already have a beginning course?

Then your next step is to discover how to apply your intuitive skills to help heal animals in pain, solve behavior problems, connect and communicate faster, work with groups of animals, prepare for transitions and reconnect in the afterlife.

If you’re ready for the next step on your journey, it’s time to go for the Advanced Animal Talk Mastery Course.

All my courses are fully guaranteed, so there’s no risk.

Much love to you and your furbabies, critters, and fantastical beasties.

Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to help you:

Animal healing: helping an aging dog express her needs. Exploring animal telepathy: How to send a powerful message in 3 easy steps. Where’s the proof? How to know if you can really talk to animals.

The post Talk to Animals and Watch the Amazing Results! How Animal Communication Saved the Lives of 49 Fawns appeared first on Val Heart.

from Val Heart https://valheart.com/talk-to-animals-and-watch-the-amazing-results-how-animal-communication-saved-the-lives-of-49-fawns/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=talk-to-animals-and-watch-the-amazing-results-how-animal-communication-saved-the-lives-of-49-fawns

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violetsgallant · 7 years ago

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What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

What we think is important and critical at that time may not be what ends up being ultimately important to us later on. So it can be good to talk to people who have accumulated some time in the world of addiction recovery, people who have gained that perspective.

I am lucky enough that I have been clean and sober now for over 17 years continuous and I have been working towards improving my life and my recovery during that time. So what I thought was important back then and what I know to be important to me today are definitely two different things.

My life today is defined by what I do, for the most part. I have my routines and I have certain things that I do on a regular basis and these are a big part of what defines my life. Another thing that defines my life today are my relationships and the people that I have that are close to me. My family and my circle of friends and my coworkers are a big part of who I am today.

The job that I am doing is an important part of who I have become. I am lucky enough to have two jobs that involve carrying a message of recovery to people who are trying to turn their life around. This was an evolution of course because when I first got into recovery I started working a job that was not exactly recovery related. Later on I was able to transition to more meaningful work, work that allowed me to directly help struggling addicts or alcoholics.

At one point my sponsor in recovery suggested that I go back to school and pursue more education. I took that suggestion and I went back to college and that has proven to be part of what defines me in my life journey.

So there can be some big and significant decisions that will come to define you: Job, school, family, living situation, and so on. And ultimately you want to be putting in the effort so that you make good decisions when it comes to these major life choices.

If you are just starting out in recovery then you may be overwhelmed at the thought of all of these major life choices. I would urge you to take it very slow, to relax, and to just do the next right thing (as they say in AA meetings often). You do not have to solve all of the world’s problems in a day. If you make it through today without taking a drink or a drug then that is a very healthy start. If you keep maintaining sobriety on a daily basis then you have the foundation for a better life in recovery.

To some extent you are going to be defined by your growth experiences. In other words, if you look at your life and figure out what you need to do in order to improve who you are as a person, and also figure out what it is that you truly want in life. Those two things will hopefully drive your decisions and allow you to become a better version of yourself.

Let me give you some examples. When I first got clean and sober my therapist and my sponsor were helping me to see that I needed to make certain changes. One of the problems that I had was that I was constantly creating all of this drama in my own head, and I was trying to position myself as the victim in various life situations. Why was my brain doing this?

I realized that my brain was setting up excuses so that I would have a reason to drink or take drugs. If I was the victim and if I had been “done wrong” then I had an excuse to relapse. My brain was doing this proactively, in advance, in case it decided that it needed to drink or take drugs.

Now this thought pattern was happening even without my permission. I genuinely wanted to remain clean and sober, and I had made the decision to stop drinking “for good.” But my brain did not seem to realize this, and it just kept right on going with the justification and the rationalization.

So I had to realize this, first of all. I had to notice that it was even happening. Then I had to figure out how to shut it down; how to correct the behavior. My therapist and my sponsor were able to give me suggestions to be able to figure out how to do that. I eventually trained my own mind to stop making excuses to drink or take drugs.

What has defined who I am today in long term recovery is a series of decisions that I made along the way. Those decisions followed this format: Identify the problem, gather information about how to conquer the problem, make a plan to overcome it, execute that plan.

So my therapist, my sponsor, and my peers in AA were able to help me identify the issues and the problems that were potential hang ups for me in early recovery. Then they were able to make suggestions as to how to go about overcome those issues.

So I started to do this one at a time. I would identify my biggest stumbling block, then make a plan to overcome it. Then it was “rinse and repeat”: find the next stumbling block, the next hang up, and figure out what that was so that I could eliminate it.

This worked well for me and it slowly began to transform who I was in early recovery. At some point I realized that I was happy in my life in spite of the fact that I was sober, and this got me really excited. In fact this motivated me to keep doing more and more in terms of personal growth, because I could see that it was working and that it was leading me to a better life.

Today I can identify pretty quickly when there is an opportunity for personal growth. It is typically an area of my life in which I am experiencing some level of discomfort. That is where the opportunity is. Every time that I make a leap forward and grow in my recovery I gain a little bit more freedom.

I can remember when I was in active addiction, I was drinking every day and I had a group of friends and drinking buddies, and I was afraid that if I got sober that I would lose all of those friends and that it would change my personality. And people argued with me and said “yeah, but it will change your personality for the better if you get sober, and you will have new friends in sobriety, and everything will be so much better.”

I did not believe them at the time because I was scared. I lived in fear. I wanted to stay drunk forever and have my little circle of friends and just be who I was at the time, stuck in a cycle of drinking. I did not want to believe that I could change, that I my life would be so different, and that it would be better. I did not want to have to meet a whole new set of friends and go through that scary process.

But eventually I got so miserable in my drinking that I surrendered, went to rehab, and did exactly that–I got a whole new circle of friends, I built a new life for myself in sobriety, and I started challenging myself to identify my fears, my hang ups, my anxiety–and to push through it. This is what has defined my life, and this is what has led to the success, freedom, and happiness that I have today.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

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bobbiejwray · 7 years ago

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What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241842 https://ift.tt/2ONA39c

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alyssamanson5 · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

from https://www.spiritualriver.com/holistic/what-defines-you-in-long-term-addiction-recovery/

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haileyjayden3 · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

from https://www.spiritualriver.com/holistic/what-defines-you-in-long-term-addiction-recovery/

0 notes

alexdmorgan30 · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://ift.tt/2ONA39c

0 notes

pitz182 · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

0 notes

emlydunstan · 7 years ago

Text

What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery

When you are first starting out in early addiction recovery it can be difficult to imagine what your life is going to look like in a few years.

Recovery is scary and it is hard work. It is also wonderful and has an amazing payoff.

Meanwhile, addiction is just sad and boring, and it keeps getting worse.

The price you pay for recovery is that you must face your fears.

Are you ready to take the plunge? Come join us!

The post What Defines You in Long Term Addiction Recovery appeared first on Spiritual River Addiction Help.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8241841 https://www.spiritualriver.com/holistic/what-defines-you-in-long-term-addiction-recovery/

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montalbanotechnology · 7 years ago

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2018 NFL Win Totals and Over/Unders: Breaking down what Las Vegas expects for every team

The 2018 NFL Draft is over which means teams have done their offseason work in preparation for the 2018 season. The dead period is here; we know a lot about these teams (and yet so little), so the next logical step is for Las Vegas to release over/under win totals for every NFL team. And the step after that is for us to take a microscope to those totals and figure out everything we can about each NFL team.

It’s entirely stupid, but guessing which teams will be good and which teams will be bad in May is my favorite thing I do every year. And despite what you might think, I’m OK at it! In fact, if I listened to May me in August, I’d be much better off.

Two years ago I did these by conference (10-5-1 in the AFC, 8-7-1 in the NFC) and last year I did them by division. I was absolutely SCORCHING in the AFC:

My best bets from the AFC, in May, were the Chargers over 7.5 (win) and Jets under 5.5 (win, it would later drop to 3.5 but they would go under the original 5.5, just for the record).

The NFC, once again, wasn’t quite as good, but still over .500.

Lost the Cardinals over best bet. Boy that was bad. I did hit the Bears under 5.5 wins as a best bet though, which brings my four best bets to 3-1 overall. Not too shabby.

All told I went 21-9-2 on over/under picks from May last year. WHEW. Again, it would have been helpful if I remembered these thoughts in August. Whatever. This year we’re getting even more granular. With the Pick Six Podcast going daily — 30-ish minutes of NFL news and notes and analysis every morning by 6 a.m., you should subscribe via: via iTunes | via Stitcher | via TuneIn | via Google Play — and me wanting to fill some space and take some deeper dives on these teams, we’re going to hit a separate post on every single team’s over-under total for the year along with a separate podcast with a guest relating to the team.

This is the landing page for those posts as well as the podcast on each team (although, again, subscribe and you’ll get the podcast sent straight to your app every morning). Bookmark this page and come back over the next month or so as we fill out those teams.

If you have thoughts on what you want to hear for a particular team or just general suggestions and complaints, hit me on Twitter @WillBrinson.

NFC East

Giants Win Total Breakdown | Giants Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 6.5

That is an extremely low win total for a team being universally praised coming out of the draft; it implies the reworked offensive line with Nate Solder and Will Hernandez will not open up tons of holes for Saquon Barkley and that Eli Manning may be, in fact, old and washed.

2017 Result (9.0): Under

And by a lot! The Giants were terrible and completely fell apart in all facets. They benched Eli for Geno Smith late in the season for no real reason. Everyone was fired.

Redskins Win Total Breakdown | Redskins Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 7

The Redskins are a really under-appreciated sleeper to hit the over, because swapping in Alex Smith, even in a new offense, gives them a very high floor.

2017 Result (7.5): Under

Offensive line injuries cratered Washington’s season and they couldn’t hang in the playoff race despite a strong year from Kirk Cousins.

Cowboys Win Total Breakdown | Cowboys Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 8.5

A submerged total with the new offense — now more "Dak Friendly"? — still very much a question mark and the pass catchers looking like a bunch of newbies. It’s a hard team to figure out but the public always leans over here.

2017 Result (9.5): Under

Dallas fought hard to try and make the playoffs, but it was ultimately derailed by a dropoff in offensive line play plus Ezekiel Elliott’s lengthy legal battle and suspension.

Eagles Win Total Breakdown | Eagles Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 10.5

If Carson Wentz comes back healthy for Week 1, 10 wins is the floor, but oddly the juice favors the under here (+120 to the over, which is just a hard number to hit).

2017 Result (8.5): Over

And it wasn’t remotely close. The Eagles blasted that number by Thanksgiving.

NFC South

Buccaneers Win Total Breakdown | Buccaneers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 6.5

Not a lot of faith in the work Jason Licht has done this offseason, which makes them interesting, because of the talent added on the defensive line through free agency and the draft. If Jameis Winston bounces back, this is a playoff contender.

2017 Result (8.5): Under

Winston didn’t take the leap everyone expected and the Bucs were just a bad team on defense for much of the year after an inspiring "Hard Knocks" performance. They did not eat the W often.

Panthers Win Total Breakdown | Panthers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 9

No help on the offensive line for Cam Newton this offseason? No problem, according to Vegas! Carolina is a steady presence in the division, but this might all hinge on how Norv Turner’s offense looks in Year One.

2017 Result (9): Over

Carolina came out swinging and won 11 games to nearly secure the division title, but was swept by the Saints last year including a playoff loss in New Orleans.

Falcons Win Total Breakdown | Falcons Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 9

The NFC South is just a tough division, and there are a cluster of teams up top. If this defense makes a leap next year and Calvin Ridley impacts the offense in his first year, Atlanta could be very dangerous. No Super Bowl hangover talk either.

2017 Result (10): Push

When you consider how everyone was rooting against the Falcons and how they stumbled out of the gate, 2017 was a really nice year for Dan Quinn.

New Orleans Saints

Saints Win Total Breakdown | Saints Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 9.5

New Orleans doubled down in the draft and added Marcus Davenport with a first-round trade up that will cost them a future first. They clearly believe they’re a player away from a Super Bowl run and Vegas doesn’t disagree, although they have a lower total than a lot of the top-shelf contenders in the NFC.

2017 Result (8.5): Over

The defense was magically fixed thanks to Sean Payton and Micky Loomis hitting a grand slam in the draft. Alvin Kamara exploded onto the scene post Adrian Peterson trade and the Saints were one of the most fun teams to watch last year.

NFC North Chicago Bears

Bears Win Total Breakdown | Bears Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total: 6.5

If you listen to the latest episode of the Pick Six Podcast, you know that Nick Kostos and I see the 2018 Chicago Bears as a poor man’s version of the 2017 Los Angeles Rams. TBD if we’re correct but they’ve followed the blueprint this offseason.

2017 Result (5.5): Under

The Mike Glennon signing didn’t go well from the get-go, and Chicago had to make a midseason trade for Dontrelle Inman to get Mitchell Trubisky a No. 1 target. This was one of my best bets last year and it hit.

Lions Win Total Breakdown | Lions Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8

A lot is up in the air for this team, mainly with Matt Patricia joining as the head coach. There’s continuity on the offense and the defense should theoretically be improved so there’s upside. This is a tough neighborhood though.

2017 Result (8): Over

Jim Caldwell got canned after a nine-win season that saw him miss the playoffs. His record in Detroit was surprisingly good.

Packers Win Total Breakdown | Packers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 10

A healthy Aaron Rodgers, even without Jordy Nelson, is probably going to result in at least 10 wins, especially with an improvement in the personnel on defense and an upgrade from Dom Capers to Mike Pettine.

2017 Result (10): Under

Aaron Rodgers wasn’t healthy and the defense wasn’t that good. Disaster season.

Vikings Win Total Breakdown | Vikings Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 10

Adding Kirk Cousins means there are heightened expectations; there should be, especially with Dalvin Cook returning from injury and a nasty defense that isn’t losing anyone. This is a three-year contending team.

2017 Result (8.5): Over

The Vikings were a team I predicted could "steal the division" — they didn’t steal anything. They walked into the NFC North cafeteria and took everyone’s lunch money.

NFC West Arizona Cardinals

Cardinals Win Total Breakdown | Cardinals Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 5.5

There are no expectations this year in a difficult-looking division with the combo of Sam Bradford/Mike Glennon/Josh Rosen behind a bad offensive line. This defense could be sneaky good next year, however.

2017 Result (8): Under

Disaster season for the Cardinals and a nightmare scenario for yours truly, who loved their over and had them winning the Super Bowl. *slinks away like Homer in a bush*

Seahawks Win Total Breakdown | Seahawks Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8

Crazy to see the Seahawks considered the third-best team in the division, but they are very much in transition, are rebooting the Legion of Boom and didn’t bring in much offensive line help on offense. Vegas is scared and confused on this one, as it should be.

2017 Result (10.5): Under

Everything fell apart for Seattle, which missed the playoffs for the first time since 2011 under Pete Carroll and John Schneider. Russell Wilson ran for his life and the defense suffered tons of injuries.

49ers Win Total Breakdown | 49ers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 9

This is obscene and might be completely unreasonable for a team that is probably one year away from being a serious NFC contender. They are the darlings this offseason, though, and have done a nice job adding pieces.

2017 Result (4.5): Over

They would have hit this over just in the games started by Jimmy Garoppolo last year. The 2018 hype might be unreasonable.

Los Angeles Rams

Rams Win Total Breakdown | Rams Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 10

Possibly the NFC favorite after all they’ve done this offseason, bringing in Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, Ndamukong Suh and Brandin Cooks via free agency and trade. They’re slamming the gas while the Super Bowl window is open.

2018 Result (5.5): Over

Smashed this over by a substantial margin, winning 11 games, securing the division and hosting a playoff game. If Seattle is Derek Zoolander, L.A. is Hansel — so damn hot right now.

AFC East New York Jets

Jets Win Total Breakdown | Jets Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 6

The future is here with Sam Darnold drafted, but the expectations are still pretty low for New York. I’ll set the over/under on Darnold starts at 12.5 and take the over (and lean under on the wins).

2017 Result (5.5): Under

I have 5.5 listed as the over/under from May, but it was actually down to 3.5 by the time August rolled around. You could have middled it if you were so inclined, as they won five games, which was impressive given what was on Todd Bowles’ roster.

Dolphins Win Total Breakdown | Dolphins Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 6

The loss of Suh — along with other veterans — and the lack of Ryan Tannehill playing in recent years has Vegas bearish on the Dolphins. This is an Adam Gase blue collar squad though.

2017 Result (7.5): Under

Quietly a disastrous season for Miami: no one really talks about it but they were displaced by a hurricane, had a veteran linebacker go AWOL and had an offensive line coach resign over a scandal involving a video of him doing cocaine posted on social media by a Vegas entertainer he met on Craigslist. Say it out loud.

Bills Win Total Breakdown | Bills Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 6.5

The biggest difference in this year’s team is the floor at quarterback, which now features AJ McCarron and Josh Allen. Totally unknown situation for Buffalo.

2017 Result (6): Over

Really impressive and borderline underrated coaching job by Sean McDermott to win nine games and make the playoffs despite a serious lack of talent on the roster. These guys are grinders.

Patriots Win Total Breakdown | Patriots Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 11

This is kind of value for the Patriots, who have not won fewer than 12 games since 2009. If you want to bet on Tom Brady and Bill Belichick falling apart, be my guest.

2017 Result (12.5): Over

They weren’t perfect, and weren’t even close to it — losing multiple games at home and fighting reports of tensions between Brady and Belichick — and they still won 13 games.

AFC South

Colts Win Total Breakdown | Colts Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 6.5

It all hinges on what Andrew Luck is able to do and no one’s seen Luck throw a regular-sized football in almost two years, which should not lend a ton of confidence. If he starts throwing and looks good this number could spike to eight.

2017 Result (9): Under

Goodness gracious. This number cratered down to the 6.5 range once the season got closer and Luck looked like he might not play. It went under regardless, with the Colts winning four games and looking like dead dogs under Chuck Pagano, who was fired.

Titans Win Total Breakdown | Titans Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8

Slightly lower expectations in Mike Vrabel’s first year as people wonder what the ceiling is for Marcus Mariota. I don’t think we’ve seen his best football yet. Quietly, Jon Robinson has built a defense that could do some damage.

2017 Result (9): Push

Weird season where the Titans were capped by a questionable offense, almost fired their coach, made the playoffs, almost fired their coach again, won a playoff game and then actually fired their coach.

Texans Win Total Breakdown | Texans Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8.5

Entirely predicated on medical recovery — if J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson return from their respective injuries and play 16 games each the Texans will compete for the division title and perhaps more.

2017 Result (8.5): Under

This under looked like a lock out of the gate, then Watson was inserted as starter, began to torch the league and ultimately tore his ACL. It ended up easily hitting as a result.

Jaguars Win Total Breakdown | Jaguars Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 9

This should be a popular over, with the Jaguars returning everyone from last year’s dominant defense and adding pieces to last year’s offense. It’s hard to imagine the Jags being a consistent winner but that might be reality now.

2017 Result (6): Over

A laugher here as Jacksonville FINALLY broke out, winning 10 games and a division title. They were a quarter away from a Super Bowl appearance.

AFC North

Browns Win Total Breakdown | Browns Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 5.5

Already on record as saying I like this over (GULP), but there is certainly a much higher floor with the Browns this year thanks to the additions of Tyrod Taylor and Jarvis Landry. It might hinge on when they decide to play Baker Mayfield, their No. 1 overall pick.

2017 Result (4.5): Under

They didn’t win a single game last year.

Bengals Win Total Breakdown | Bengals Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 7

The Bengals’ biggest problem last year was not having an offensive line to protect Andy Dalton — they went out and addressed that by trading for Cordy Glenn and drafting Billy Price (although the latter is dealing with injury already).

2017 Result (8.5): Under

The year is 2085 and nuclear winter has enveloped the country while zombies and robots roam the planet, trying to snuff out the remaining human life on Earth. Marvin Lewis is still Bengals coach.

Ravens Win Total Breakdown | Ravens Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8

The final year as GM for Ozzie Newsome and perhaps the final year as QB for Joe Flacco. It’s going to be fascinating to see how this team performs, as it was built to win now and win later in the draft. The specter of Lamar Jackson looms if Flacco starts slow.

2017 Result (9): Push

A last-second Andy Dalton TD pass robbed them off a playoff berth — give John Harbaugh credit for a surprising nine-win season. The Ravens don’t have the high-end offensive personnel to win a ton of games but just won’t go away.

Steelers Win Total Breakdown | Steelers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 10.5

The Steelers don’t have any trouble winning a bunch of football games, especially in a watered-down division (albeit one that is better than in recent years). They’re loaded on offense; replacing Ryan Shazier by committee is key, though, because the defense fell off last year.

2017 Result (10.5): Over

An incredible season for most teams was an abject disappointment that involved losing home field in the playoffs at the last second and getting blasted by the Jaguars in the playoffs at Heinz Field.

AFC West

Broncos Win Total Breakdown | Broncos Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 7

John Elway killed the draft and the addition of Bradley Chubb alongside Von Miller is spicy. If they can protect Case Keenum and run the football, this looks like a potential bounce-back team. If not, it could get ugly again on offense.

2017 Result (8.5): Under

See: the second sentence above. The offense was a disaster and the defense couldn’t hold up by itself. Football’s a team game at the end of the day.

Raiders Win Total Breakdown | Raiders Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8

Anyone’s guess here how this thing plays out with Jon Gruden. The offseason has been wild, man. They could win 10 games and they could win two games and nothing would surprise me.

2017 Result (10): Under

A ridiculous total after an over-inflated 12 wins from 2016 that was a layup of an under last year, when they couldn’t win every game at the last second and the offense didn’t replicate its success.

Chiefs Win Total Breakdown | Chiefs Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 8.5

This is a slap in the face to Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, although I understand why — the floor is lower now, even if the ceiling is raised for the offense. The defense lost a lot but the offense could be high octane.

2017 Result (9): Over

I actually had the over on this number last year, and it hit despite a miserable middle of the season, because Reid is a great coach and gave up playcalling. It backfired in the playoffs.

Los Angeles Chargers

Chargers Win Total Breakdown | Chargers Pick Six Podcast Preview

2018 Over/Under Win Total 9

Has Vegas lost its mind? It installed the Chargers as division favorites and has them with the highest win total in the division. Get off my corner VEGAS. There’s a lot to like about this team, though, especially with the Derwin James addition and full-time focus on Hunter Henry.

2017 Result (7.5): Over

A 2017 best bet for me, the Chargers took care of it pretty easily despite acting like idiots in the early going of the season. Nine wins when you give away 2-3 of them in September is impressive.

Source Article

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robertvasquez763 · 8 years ago

Text

The Son and the Heir: Riding Harley-Davidson’s Latest Factory Flat-Tracker, the XG750R

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Much has been made recently of Harley-Davidson’s lack of youth-market penetration. Some millennials claim that the boomer-centric vibe of the company’s heavily accessorized and rather expensive motorcycles does not suit their lightweight, cash-strapped lifestyles. Pundits—as pundits are wont to do—are claiming that the Motor Company is in crisis. Some opine that perhaps it shouldn’t have killed off the Buell sport-bike marque. Others assert that maybe it shouldn’t have merged the Softail and Dyna lines, dispensing with the latter name in the process, just as a group of younger hipsters was beginning to embrace the Dyna.

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Evel doing Evel on his XR750 in 1975, leaping vans in the Wembley Stadium parking lot.

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Others might point out that its newish entry-level machines—the four-valve, overhead-cam, water-cooled 60-degree V-twin Street series motorcycles—are too much of a divergence from the brand’s core competency: large-displacement air-cooled pushrod 45-degree twins with that immediately identifiable potato-potato sound. What better way to build some cred into the relatively new motor than by taking it racing? And what better form of racing is there to showcase it than flat track, a wholly American sport that’s having a bit of a renaissance at the moment? Even better, it’s a sport that the bar and shield has basically owned for the past four decades, thanks to its venerable XR750, undoubtedly one of the great motorcycles of the 20th century.

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There are two components of motorcycling that appeal to most riders. Foremost is the experience of actually being on the machine, moving through space and time. Words have been spilled on this subject, and so far nobody I’ve run across—including riders more thoughtful, introspective, and articulate than myself—has nailed it exactly. No matter how it’s described, there’s always a “Yeah, it’s that, but there’s something else, too.” The bit that’s easier to explain is the connection to myth. For guys like Mark Wahlberg, the impetus is some Hopper/Fonda thing. For a legion of bikers who threw legs over Dynas in the past decade, it’s Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy, although they probably wouldn’t admit it.

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The KR was the XG750R’s great-granddaddy. Here, a pair of them rip down the straight at the 1966 Sacramento Mile.

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For me, it’s the lingering cultural whispers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Kenny Roberts was ruling Europe, Terry Vance was burning up the quarter-mile, and the AMA’s Grand National series, which consisted largely of flat-track events, was still the biggest thing in American motorcycle racing. The blurry echoes of childhood; half-remembered ghosts of photos in Popular Hot Rodding in airport waiting areas; radio spots for the Sacramento Mile. Flipping through my friend Kevin’s dad’s issues of Cycle World on summer afternoons when we’d come in from skateboarding or bombing around on our BMX bikes. It was the end of the benighted AMF era of Harley-Davidson, when the only guys who rode those things were gnarly die-hards. Everybody with any sense had a Honda CB750. The work required to run a Harley in those days made them rare, and their rarity made them unfathomably cool.

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With the American dominance of road racing in the 1980s, paired with the ascendence of motocross and supercross, flat track fell off a cliff. As Michael Lock, CEO of American Flat Track—a successor to the old AMA Grand National Series—says, “The people who were coming to the races were the same people who’d been coming to the races 30 years ago. They were just 30 years older.” And yet, in the past decade, a new generation of MotoGP and superbike riders have rediscovered the sport. GP phenom Marc Marquez’s Superprestigio, sort of an IROC for motorcycle racers, has become one of the must-see events on the two-wheel calendar. Valentino Rossi preaches the sideways gospel. American Flat Track just signed a TV deal with NBC Sports. And, perhaps most telling, Polaris went all in on the Indian Scout FTR750 program, building a flat-tracker from the ground up—including an all-new engine—to challenge Harley’s 40-odd-year dominance of the top class of the sport.

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While Indian was developing the FTR from scratch, Milwaukee decided on the race-what-we-sell approach to competition. The Motor Company finally retired the XR750, a motorcycle introduced for the 1970 racing season and seared into American consciousness as Evel Knievel’s aircraft of choice. Its replacement, which bowed in prototype form during the 2016 season, is the XG750R, carrying a version of the XG750A Street Rod’s Revolution X engine developed by Vance & Hines, the Southern California aftermarket manufacturer and race shop best known for extracting maximum potato from Harley’s large pushrod twins.

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The XG750A Street Rod lends a worked version of its engine to the XG750R.

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In contrast to the roadgoing XG750A, which weighs in at 507 pounds dry, the R model weighs only about 300. Which, for the non-moto-savvy reader, is about 50 pounds heavier than a large-displacement single-cylinder enduro like the stalwart Honda XR650L, and it’s about 100 pounds lighter than a race-replica liter bike. MotoGP bikes, which make about 250 percent more power than trackers, weigh around 350, but GP machines aren’t going sideways on dirt. GP bikes also cost about 2 million bucks apiece. Indian sells its FTR750 to privateers for just $49,900. Trackers are elemental, sturdy, classically American things, a simple hammer and chisel in contrast to the multi-axis CNC machines that populate the MotoGP grid.

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Fire it up, and the XG750R offers up the same heavy-equipment rattle from the top end as its roadgoing relative, a sound not far removed from that of a modern four-valve Moto Guzzi V-twin. In fact, the entire character of the engine is more big-block Goose than it is Harley big twin. But unlike a full-size Guzzi or a Street Rod, the R’s engine revs to 11 grand. I nursed it out onto the hard-packed clay of the little Lodi, California, bullring, unsure of what to expect. The bike was still geared tall for the previous day’s Sacramento Mile, which made throttle inputs a bit more forgiving, a welcome trait since my only previous flat-track experience was on a small Yamaha making around a tenth of the Harley’s power.

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Your author aboard the XG750R in Lodi, California. CCR-related jokes related to his lack of speed are welcome.

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A perfect corner in flat-track racing works something like this: Cane the bike hard down the straightaway, get on the brake as you back out of the throttle, push the motorcycle down into the corner, aiming for a late apex while keeping yourself upright over the contact patch, get the bike turned, pick up throttle as you ease off the brake, lather, rinse, repeat. Cut speed too early, and you’re left having to add gas midcorner, which throws you offline. Trim the velocity too late, and, well, there’s a wall there to catch you.

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In preparation for my ride on the Harley, I’d taken a second stab at American Supercamp early this year. I’d fared better in my return to the flat-track school, finishing the weekend as a solid midpacker. I felt good about my progress, but there was plenty of room left to improve. In my head, I was thinking, “Man, if I don’t have things entirely wired on a one-lung Yammie 125, how damn hairball are things going to be on the big Harley?”

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Turns out, the things you do wrong on a 125 are largely the same things you do wrong on a 750. My worst fear was bombing into a corner, forgetting I was on dirt, and hanging off the inside of the bike, road-race style. I’m a major proponent of using your body weight to corner a motorcycle whenever possible; in fast bends, I’ve invariably got one cheek off the inside of the seat on my 900-pound Harley tourer and my head out in the wind past the screen. Not because I want to look showy, but because the FL’s flexi-flyer frame takes a far more positive set in corners and is less prone to spooky oscillation at speed. In short, my hard-wired instinct is to get off the inside of the motorcycle in corners. Do that on dirt, and it’s a very short trip to the ground. Thankfully, I did not do that. I did, however, continue my yellow-bellied habit of not driving the motorcycle deep enough into the corner.

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This would be a better story if I told you that I got on the thing and dug a rut in the concrete-like surface of Lodi’s short track, hanging the back end of the Harley out all the way around, engine screaming near redline, while singing “Born in the U.S.A.” in the voice of Jay Springsteen. It’d be a more entertaining yarn if I screwed up and launched myself headlong into neighboring Calaveras County. It’d even be an improvement if I got on, immediately scared the living hell out of myself, putzed around the track at 5 mph while feathering the clutch, and handed it off to the nearest person in a black-and-orange T-shirt, echoing Kenny Roberts’s famous statement after winning the Indy Mile on the flat-track version of Yamaha’s all-conquering TZ750 two-stroke four-cylinder: “They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing!”

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The reality of it is that, despite its status as a full-race machine, the XG750R is shockingly friendly. Discretion being the better part of not destroying Harley-Davidson’s factory race bike, I did not push the XG at all. I didn’t, however, ride around terrified that the thing would spit me off at its earliest convenience. In fact, aside from the lack of a front brake and the offset pegs—the right positioned to most easily wedge one’s knee into the tank for leverage, and the left set so the foot makes an easy transition from the ground back to the controls—it felt shockingly like a motorcycle, the kind of thing you’d bomb down to the store on, commute to work on, or ride around a lake at sunset. I fell into the oddball tracker slouch, I got my outside elbow up, I wedged my right knee into the tank, I pushed the bike down, and it simply went around the track. Taken on its own, the XG750R is a wonderful machine, and I want one.

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As a competition motorbike, however, the XG has not fared well against the Indian. At the FTR’s debut race last year in Santa Rosa, California, the Polaris unit announced that they’d just happened to hire that race’s top three finishers: Bryan Smith, Jared Mees, and Brad Baker. As the Indian Wrecking Crew, the trio has been largely unstoppable in 2017. As of this writing, Mees is leading the championship with nine victories, second-place Smith has four, and the winless Baker is hanging in in third, thanks to a season packed with consistent finishes. The only non-Indian wins have come courtesy of Kawasaki riders. Briar Bauman has managed two victories, while fellow Kawi pilot Henry Wiles pulled off a win at Peoria last month. Harley has not won so far this year, and there are only two races left in the season. Think about that for a second. Harley-Davidson, the company that largely carried the sport from the 1970s into the 2010s, has not yet taken a top-rank flat-track race in 2017.

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Since Indian announced the Scout FTR750, moto geeks have been clamoring for a factory street tracker, and the disappointment in some circles was audible when, rather than an FTR-style bike, the brand announced the Scout Bobber, nothing more than a restyled version of its entry-level Scout cruiser. Regardless of the XG’s performance on the track during its inaugural full season, a street version of the XG750R seems like a fantastic way to bring younger folks into the Harley-Davidson fold.

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The hard work has already been done. Just use a production-optimized version of the one-off narrowed engine case covers that Vance & Hines ginned up for the racer, and add lights and a front brake. In the name of cost cutting, a roadgoing XG750R could gain an extra 100 pounds in the process, but it’d still be a 400-pound, 75-hp motorcycle, which can be a plenty entertaining thing. Ask anyone who owns a Yamaha FZ-07. And if you’d like more power, surely Harley’s Screamin’ Eagle performance-parts division would be happy to sell you some.

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The Motor Company is banking on the XG750R to sell Street Rods, which is a little like Chevy using NASCAR to move Camaro ZL1s. There is, to put it bluntly, not a lot of commonality. The engines are somewhat related, they’re both rear-wheel drive, they both wear bow ties, and that’s about it. The Street Rod is not a bad bike, but the FZ-07 is a better one that costs hundreds less. To make another automotive comparison, if the Street Rod is a Mercedes-Benz CLA250, then the Yamaha is a Volkswagen GTI—a more competent all-around machine without the luxury-brand cachet. A toned-down XG750R, on the other hand, could be a bike worth saving the extra coin for, offering the same sort of lifestyle-accessory prestige as Ducati’s Scramblers. It’d be a bike to cast a showroom halo over the other Street models and bring some additional cachet to the Revolution X motor, a good powerplant that’s getting short shrift due to its low position in the line and its break with Milwaukee tradition.

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Hog Calling: The Ford F-series’ Chief Designer on Motorcycles, Pickups, and the Importance of Function

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Escape to Baja: Three Blissed-Out Days Touring Mexico on a Harley-Davidson

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Sidecar Racing at the Isle of Man TT Is Insane (and Insanely Cool)

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Perhaps I’m naïve about all this. Undoubtedly, both Polaris and Harley have run the numbers and feel that, while the race programs are worth sinking dollars into, the real money is in cruisers and tourers from the Scout/Sportster class on up. But it seems to me that an affordable, American-built street tracker with real racing heritage is not only a very usable everyday motorcycle, but the sort of thing younger motorcyclists could get very invested in.

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After all, if you ask a Harley hater if they’ve got any exceptions to their generalized distaste for the brand, they’ll invariably allow one: the XR750. Why not make its heir a cornerstone of a Harley-Davidson retooled for the next generation?

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gamerszone2019-blog · 6 years ago

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Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Devolution Of The Species

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Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Devolution Of The Species

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jesusvasser · 8 years ago

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The Son and the Heir: Riding Harley-Davidson’s Latest Factory Flat-Tracker, the XG750R

Evel doing Evel on his XR750 in 1975, leaping vans in the Wembley Stadium parking lot.

The KR was the XG750R’s great-granddaddy. Here, a pair of them rip down the straight at the 1966 Sacramento Mile.

The XG750A Street Rod lends a worked version of its engine to the XG750R.

Your author aboard the XG750R in Lodi, California. CCR-related jokes related to his lack of speed are welcome.

IFTTT

#IFTTT #Performance Junk WP Feed 4

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violetsgallant · 7 years ago

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