#(the reason why it’s hard is cause of both sensory issues plus the fact that i have a hard time registering hunger. so i don’t notice i’m

[starrclownshazbinblog]

can we get more general angst :3 i breathe off angst

When I was writing that post I was thinking that no one would even like that post because why would you wanna know sad facts about my rewrite.

It's one of my top liked posts.

Ya'll really like sad stuff huh. Good thing I'm a artist!!

TRIGGERWARNING: GENERAL DISGUSTING TOPICS. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Henroin did everything he could to help Angel when his wife died. Angel, Molly, and Arackniss's mother also died in child birth because she was a POC. Angel cried over his shoulder multiple times. He didn't shame him, he just helped his baby.

Husk's father was extremely abusive to himself, his mother, and half brother.

Considering Vox is Jewish and lived during World War II he never got to be as out there as he wanted too. Yes he had his own small TV show but if he wasn't Jewish, he would have more funding.

Most people didn't like Velvette's fashion brand when she was alive. Velvette is a chubby girl, no one liked the chubby fashion designer's clothes for plus sized people. (This was me just venting at this point.)

Madame Pentious struggled alot as a human woman. She is a undiagnosed Autistic person. This caused issues in her life because she didn't know how to fix the internal problems she has. She was also around alot of things that triggered her sensory issues.

The smudgy dark lines that run down Mimzy's face us runny makeup. Mimzy was crying pretty hard when her manager chocked her up. Hell decided to remind her she died crying.

Valerie's limbs can break off VERY easily considering she's a porcelain doll. If this happens when she's alone or outside she can't do much about it because she can't speak. This causes her to panic. At one point this happened and Valerie tried to scream for help. 2 hours later Angel found her exhausted on the ground from screaming and crying. It wasn't pretty.

Considering Nifty has undiagnosed ADHD, she runs around alot and can forget things easily. This lead to other school girls calling her stupid for being so clumsy and forgetful. They told her no man would want her. This only strived her obsession to getting married and being wanted.

Valerie was bullied pretty heavily in school. For a matter of reasons, being Salvadoran, being lesbian (no one knew yet, they were just assuming, having a accent, being incredibly skinny. School was hell, so was home. The dance studio was her only safe place.

Angel used to struggle really bad with English. He's not from America and his family only spoke Italian so he didn't learn English when he was a child. He had to adapt pretty quickly so his family would fit in. Angel still gets upset if he messes up a English word.

Both Angel and his wife Carmilla are queer. Angel is gay and Carmilla is a lesbian. They were friends so they decided to get married so they can fake being straight. They didn't want to be kicked out of the mob or worse, murdered. They then had their daughter Isabella because of social pressure. They didn't want Isabella but they worked through it together. Isabella never got to meet Carmilla.

All three of the Spider Siblings died from suicide. Angel went first, then Molly, then Arackniss. They couldn't stand being away from each other.

Lucifer has the ability to take the magic out if Charlie. If this is too happen then Charlie falls lifeless, like if you cut a puppets strings. This happened once when Charlie and Lucifer got into a bad fight about her hotel. Lilith demanded he bring her back to life. He did very quickly, it was just a mistake. Charlie still hasn't forgotten it.

People rioted when Alastor's radio broadcasts began to take off on air. They weren't comfortable with a black man having unapologetic and truthful radio show.

Cherrie is obsessed with being strong enough to defend herself because she used to get the shit beaten out of her.

I could list more but I wanna be silly 😋

Asks are open, art is here, feel free to follow, reblog, ask questions, and things along those lines.

- ⭐️StarClown⭐️

[cobble-stone]

hey outta curiosity what’re y’all’s favorite healthy-ish but low effort to make foods. i’ve been tryna eat better but it’s kinda hard due to the ‘tism

[thepurebredking]

Q & A w/@DhestroyLegacy

Brian: I was pacing in my room, everything was too fucking much. Way too fucking much for me to process. I was knocked out and dragged back to who the hell knew where. The woman flipped shit the moment she saw me, she did NOT look happy. Nor was I to find out she was...his lover? I didn’t know. The term was so...foreign to me. I debated on growling, screaming, something. I haven’t tried the door yet, I didn’t want to. I didn’t know what was on the other side. For all I knew, it could have been my death. Strangely, that wasn’t what scared me. No, what scared me to find her, or someone else not happy to see that I existed. Inhaling I walked over to the door and turned it and opened the door slightly to see the guy who knocked me out. I was about to growl but then stopped myself. He nodded in greeting, “Wrath would like to see you in his office.” My fingers clenched, I wasn’t stupid. A hot head, sure, stupid, no. He walked ahead of me, like if he didn’t care if I was going to follow him or not. We both knew I’d follow him though, so I did. My head hung down low.

Wrath: It had been about an hour since Marissa had erupted through my door. She was pissed that I hadn’t told her about Brian before she ran into him at the Audience House. I tried to explain that I did everything I could to keep her from running into him before I had a chance to tell her about him, but all she kept getting hung up on was the fact that V and I had known for over a week and hadn’t told her sooner. But, we couldn’t have. We weren’t sure. We just had this kid that looked pretty similar and a hunch. We needed proof. So we waited until we had it. Then we needed to talk to the kid to find out where his interests lay. Did he just want answers, or did he want more than that? There was no reason to give any of this information to anyone, if Brian was just looking for answers, and once he had them, he was just going to go on with his life. Yes, we would have told Marissa about him. But, we all know, there is a distinctive line between their world and ours, and if Brian decides to choose his own, that would be it.

Marissa had stormed out about half an hour ago and left me to my own thoughts on the matter. I wasn’t sure how this was all going to go over, but aside from Marissa, most everyone else in the manse was looking forward to getting to know Brian better.

There was an abrupt knock on my door and I heard Micah on the other side. “Sire. He is awake and ready to see you.”

“Come on in.” I called out.

Brian: The door opened and I slipped inside. My nerves were shot. How the fuck did I get myself mixed into these damn situations. I didn’t bother to look up and see where we were going, there was no point to. I was too busy stuck in my own head, but when I looked up and heard the other’s voice. I automatically stiffened my spine, and took a seat in front of him. I didn’t know what this was about, I did exactly as he had requested. I stayed put at the other place. I didn’t know what to really say, except…”I’m sorry.”

Wrath: Michah led Brian into my office and I thanked him before releasing him of his duties. “Thank you, Michah. Please go find V and let him know that Brian is here.”

Michah promptly left and I turned to the kid in front of me. I could sense his discomfort as he slid into the chair. “There is no need for sorry.” I wasn’t even sure what he was apologizing for. “I imagine you have some questions.” Where to begin? “So, we’ve told you a little about your great-grandsire. Cop was a great male. He was much loved by our family. As I have told you, he was a distant relative of mine own, as well as Manny’s, who you can meet in a bit. We have made everyone at the manse aware that you are here. They are all looking forward to meeting you. However, I figured it might be a little overwhelming to be onslaughted by the whole of the manse at once, plus there are a few things we still have not explained that you will want to know beforehand.”

...and now to drop the hammer… “We are not like any of the people you have met in your life, so far. We are in fact a completely different species, one the world knows nothing about. Well, at least nothing that is completely accurate. I know that is hard to hear and believe. But, I promise you we are not a danger to you.” I paused, unsure of how to break the final piece, ‘Vampire.’ I was waiting to see how he was going to respond to what I had already said, when I heard the door open back up and smelled the scent of Turkish tobacco waft in. Ah, V. Maybe he could help me get past this little hump.

“So, where we at? What have you told him, so far?”

Brian:  I sat down, crossing my arms against my chest. It wasn’t meant to be offensive, it’s a cop pose for me as I heard everything that was told. Some of it was a repeat, I didn’t think he needed to worry about my sensory overload. What I was worried about though, was the fact that everyone that I’ve met, the other woman, these two, and the servants have told me that I looked like him. Were they going to be able to handle seeing me? Me being around as a reminder?  I rubbed at my hands before leaning over and scrubbing my face as he told me a little bit more about what they were. “The other one informed me of...some things. She didn’t say exactly what you ya’ll were...but she did tell me that my grandsire? Died a few years ago.” I pointed out. Bitterness rang in my tone about that, but I ignored that piece of information, for now. Soon the smell of turkish tobacco filled my nose and I turned to see the other gruff male. Cocking my head to the side, I studied him. There was something...calming about this guy. I looked back at Wrath, a grin spreading my face but I dropped it. Now was not the time to pull stupid humor out of my ass to only have me killed. “You say you’re different from the legends, myths, yadda yadda yadda, how?”

Wrath:

There was a shift in Brian’s scent as V walked in the door. I might have missed it through all the Turkish tobacco that blew in, but my senses were more keen than that. It was as if I could feel his whole body ease into his seat. This was good information to know, a nugget I would tuck away in case it was necessary, at a later time. This was not something new that I did. I could scent people’s emotions most of the time. The slightest deviations in their smell could tell me if someone was lying, afraid, angry, excited… the list went on. As I noticed particular changes in people’s emotions, I would make mental notes of them, if I could tell what the root cause was. It was useful to know what set people’s emotions off.

This may actually be useful now, as I break the information of what we were to Brian. “We are vampires, Brian. Not in the sense of the word you are used to, though. Most importantly for you to know is, we don’t feed off humans. We actually feed off each other, willingly. And, we do not kill your kind. We actually try to keep to ourselves and leave your kind to themselves. Some of the ways we are the same to the myths are, we do drink blood, but as I said, we drink of our own kind, and it is of our own free will. You won’t find us out during the day.” I decided to skim over this part. No need for him to know our weaknesses, right now. So, I moved on quickly, without saying much more about that. “We do have… fangs, I guess would be the word you would use. Things we don’t do... again, kill people, or feed on their blood.”

“And, We don’t turn into bats.” V tossed out. This was a long standing issue for him

I nodded and continued, “We are also not deathly allergic to garlic and religious artifacts. There is obviously a lot more to our world, but those are some of the basics, as far as myths and legends are concerned.” Should he choose to stay in our world, there would be a lot more to discuss with him, but this was a good start.

Brian: I watched their postures, their attitudes. I wasn’t no lazy detective. They were easy to read, well, about this anyway. As if it seemed that it was important to me to know they were telling the truth. I glossed over the word for a moment, it was unconscious thing to do, as he listed the difference between the mythical vampire traits, but there were similarities. Feeding, blood, and allergic to sun. I couldn’t help the snort that escaped me when the other guy mentioned that they didn’t turn into bats. I wiped my mouth to hide the grin that threatened to spread. Vampires. I honestly didn’t know whether to accept it, or to call them all insane, however it made sense when I put the pieces together. “You’re the king vampire then.” I stated, not question. “That’s why it was so damn hard to see you the first day until someone recognized my name because of Butch.” The pieces were beginning to fall into place, but a few things didn’t make sense. “You claim you don’t bite people, but you said great grandfather was one of you, and he died only a few years back…how was he turned?”

Wrath: Sitting just the slightest bit straighter, I nodded in response to the question about me being the King. I had been for almost a century now, and even though there were many moments over the years where I wish I never set my ass on this throne, I was proud of what I had accomplished as the race’s King.

“Your great grandsire was a half-breed. He was only half-vampire. Most vampires go through a transition around the age of twenty-five, in which they inherit all their vampire qualities. Some half-breeds will go through it, while others will not. Thankfully, your great-grandsire did not transition. He would not have had anyone in his life to help him through it at the time and he would have died. However, once he learned of his heritage, and met Marissa, he chose to be pushed through his transition. The only reason this was possible was due to his bloodline, my bloodline. I am the only living vampire with pure blood. The fact that he had my bloodlines in his veins was what got him through his transition.

“You see, when he met Marissa, he had met his mate. It’s not easy to explain to a human what that means. The closest word I could use is imprinting. When a vampire meets their mate, it is written in blood. There is no walking away from your mate. So, he asked us to help him transition and become one of us, so he could live with her as long as she would. Unfortunately, his fate was not as he wished and he passed unto the Fade a few years ago, during battle.” I felt as if I were rambling, but there was so much he didn’t know.

Brian: I nibbled on my lower lip as I took in the information that was given to me. Pieces fitting together, things being dished out by each question. What did I want to ask next? Did I want to ask what happened to him? Or did I want to ask if there was a possibility of him changing me? Did I want to do that? I shook my head to relieve some of these questions that built up in my head, but it wasn’t helping. Vishous cleared his throat, “You can ask, but remember, you may not like the answers you’re given.” My head snapped up, and I watched his diamond eyes carefully. Did he see what was going on in my head? He shrugged. “You’re not exactly trying to hide what you’re thinking by your facial features either kid.” I scowled at him. “Aren’t you just a peach.” I growled. He grinned. I looked back at Wrath, “What was the battle you guys were fighting?” I asked.

Wrath: I couldn’t imagine what this kid was going through, right now. First, finding out that his great-grandsire had not died upon his disappearance like they were led to believe, and second, finding out about the existence of vampires. To say that both were hard pills to swallow was probably the understatement of the century, and between the time it was taking Brian to respond and the back and forth between V and him, I could tell he wasn’t sure what to tackle first. I was about to open my mouth to help him out, when he finally came up with a question. Although, it wasn’t any of the questions I would have expected. I expected questions about the process to transition Butch, more questions about his great-gransire, what kind of male was he, what kind of life did he live, was he happy, did he ever think about the family he left behind (even though Butch never knew about Brian’s father, he did leave behind family). Instead, this kid wanted to know about the battle. It’s interesting how shock can register in the brain.

“As vampires, we have an enemy. They are called the Lessening Society. It’s kind of a long story to get into about who they are and how they connect to us, but let’s just say that our creator and their creator are opposite entities, yet siblings. It makes us sound like pawns in their own private game, and trust me, sometimes it feels like we are. But, the Lessening Society is our crux to bear. Our fight with them is as old as time.”

Brian: So like every other fantasy novel there was a balance here as well. I was trying to sort this shit out in my head. So far? Bupkis. I got bupkis. Meaning not a Goddamn thing. I rubbed my temples and breathed softly. "I don't know why I'm asking this, but I am going to ask anyway…" I wanted to know about Butch but at the same time...I wanted to know more about their world. It was fascinating and I guess I could understand why Butch left the human world. It didn't stop the simmering anger though. "Know what, never mind." I waved it off before looking at Wrath, sitting back and cross my leg over the other. My fingers steepled under my chin as it rested on my index fingers. “Would you mind if I asked how the battle of balance is going?”

Wrath: I was curious to know what Brian wasn’t saying. He obviously wanted to know something of importance to him. But, if he really wanted to know, he’d ask it in his own time. I was not going to beat the question out of him.

“Well, it could be going better… a lot better. Over the past half a century the Lessening Society got somewhat of an upgrade and now they are more difficult to kill than they ever have been. Which, in turn has made it easier for their numbers to climb. Back, almost a hundred years ago, we were so close to wiping them out. But, things changed.” Thinking about the abduction of Lyric and what that meant for their race was difficult. If it weren’t for that one event we might have ended up wiping out the entire race of lessers. “Now, we are fighting for our race around every corner and we’ve lost too many to count, including your great-grandsire. Although, we continue to train new males for the fight and we will not stop until every one of those baby-powerded fuckers are sent back to their maker!” I don’t know how I knew it, but I was sure that one day we would wipe their race out of existence. It was just a matter of finding the right weapon.

“So, with all that you know so far, I have a question for you. Are you just looking for answers to your questions about your great-grandsire, or are you looking to go down the rabbit hole we discussed and learn more about where you come from? Learn about your heritage? Decide which side of the line you want to live on? Because, this is one line you can’t straddle. You either live in your human world, or you live in our world. There are too many risks to allow anyone to live in both. I am willing to give you four days in our world to decide. After those four days, you will have to choose. Or, we could answer all your questions about your great-grandsire now, and drive you home. What will it be?”

Brian: Cocking my head to the side, I studied as he talked. The confidence grew. He said this was my heritage, was it? Honestly, I didn’t have to even think about it. I wanted in. I didn’t know why this world pulled me into the depth of the issues, but it did. I looked at the male behind Wrath, as if he’d give me an answer, but his face was as stoic as a statue. ‘Asshole…’ I thought, and he smirked. Alright, guessing he could read minds. I ran my fingers through my short hair. “How would I be able to help? I’m human…” I told him. “I have no medical training, well...not the one you’d need. I’m easy pickings…”

Wrath: I had a feeling this decision was going to be an easy one for this kid. He was thirsty, and not just for knowledge about Butch, but also for knowledge about our world. I picked up the phone and dialed for the doggen.

Fred picked up on the first ring. “Yes, sire?” He was always ready to server.

“Fred, please make up one of the spare rooms for our guest. He will be staying for a few days.” I pulled the phone away from my ear to address the kid again. “Is there anything you need at your place? We can send Fred to go get it for you, and don’t worry, he is completely trustworthy.”

Brian: I noticed he didn’t quite answer my question, but that was alright. When he made that request, it was all the answer that I needed. Something within me, settled deep in my chest. /Home/. When he directed his own question toward me, I nodded. “My clothes, and for them to hand in my resignation. Something’s telling me I won’t be going back…” Whether it was because I joined their fight, which was an extreme possibility, or I’d eat a bullet. Personally, I was already eager to start the battle.

Wrath: Nodding at the kid, I brought my attention back to the phone. “Fred, I also need you to send someone to Brian’s home to pick up some clothes.” I hung up the phone and raised my head back to Brian, “You can put in your resignation, after you’ve had a chance to mull everything over.”

Turning to V, I continued, “V, can you get him set up in his new room?”

“Sure thing, boss.” came V’s retort.

“Oh, and one more thing, kid…” I heard him stop at the door. “Don’t worry about what you can contribute if you stay. We’ll figure that out later. Everyone has a purpose. You have one, too.”

#QandA #BDBRP #ISRPG

[daresplaining]

not sure if you have been asked this before but how would you rate the daredevil runs from miller to soule, and why?

    It has taken literally a thousand years to answer this, and I apologize– it’s just a huge question, even skipping all of the pre-Frank Miller runs (thank you for that, by the way– maybe I’ll rank them in a separate post, because I love a lot of the pre-Miller stuff!). Every reread brings with it new insight, and so my preferences are ever-evolving. That said, here’s how I would rank the main Daredevil runs from Miller onward (I’m not including annuals, mini-series, or novels, and I’m skipping the really tiny one-or-two-issue runs for the sake of brevity):

1. Mark Waid Daredevil volumes 3 and 4 are, for me, a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes Daredevil great. It’s all there! Smirking, swashbuckly Matt pulling off badass feats to save the day? Check! Dark, emotionally turbulent Matt trying to cope as the world falls apart around him? Check! An excellent supporting cast? Check! Fantastic hypersensory moments? Check! Great stories? Stunning art? Stilt-Man? Check! Everyone needs to read this run. It’s pretty much perfect.

2. Brian Michael Bendis I’ve learned that my Daredevil preferences tend to lean light(er…), but dang, Bendis writes a heck of a noir comic. He balances intense crime drama with striking character moments, changes the status quo over and over again (in a good way), and gives Matt some of the best zingers he’s ever had. (Seriously. Bendis’s Matt is really funny.) He also gave us Milla Donovan and Angela Del Toro, and for that I am eternally grateful. And whooo, that Alex Maleev/Matt Hollingsworth art… This is a classic, enduring run for a very good reason.  

3. Karl Kesel/Joe Kelly Okay, I’m cheating here. These are two separate runs. But they happened back-to-back, had the exact same tone, and were great for all of the same reasons, so I usually squash them together. If Karl Kesel and Joe Kelly have a problem with this, they can take it up with me (preferably in person– I have a lot of comics for them to sign.) These runs are fun. The Daredevil pendulum swings from light to dark and back again, and these guys landed on the upswing, after Matt had reconnected with his quippy, swashbuckly past. They feel old-fashioned, nostalgic in the best possible way, not afraid to be a little silly while still delivering solid, character-rooted stories. And it helps that the cast of characters is top-notch. Karen is around, trying to re-start her life while juggling humorous relationship issues with Matt. Foggy’s family drama is on full-force as Rosalind Sharpe and Candace come to town. Misty Knight stops by, as does Natasha Romanov. Kathy Malpher, one of my favorite minor DD characters ever, has lots of panel time. Deuce the Devil Dog is there. And it all ends with the breathtaking DD #375, which has got to be one of my top five favorite issues of all time. If you haven’t read these runs yet, go do that and thank me later.  

4. Frank Miller Darkness is only effective when interspersed with some light, and lightness is only effective when injected with some darkness, and Frank Miller (pre-”Born Again”) hit that perfect balance. It’s noir. It’s deep. It’s intense. It’s also some of the funniest Daredevil material ever written. Please go back and read “Guts”, or “Hunters”, or the Power Man and Iron Fist crossover. Let me say it louder, because I feel like I’m alone here: I love Frank Miller’s Daredevil because it is FREAKING HILARIOUS! And it goes without saying that “Born Again” is also stunning– definitely one of my favorite DD stories. And he gave us Stick and the peerless Elektra Natchios (three different versions of her, in fact) and the world has never been the same.

5. Denny O’Neil Denny O’Neil had the misfortune of getting sandwiched between Frank Miller’s two runs, and I feel like that’s the reason he doesn’t get the attention he deserves for some truly fantastic comics. Uh… weird comics, in a lot of cases, but heck, I like well-done weirdness. O’Neil added an international angle to the comic. He sent Matt to Japan and Italy (and even- gasp- New Jersey) and brought in Glori O’Breen, a great character even with her slightly over-the-top accent. He reconnected Matt with Natasha Romanov for a few beautiful one-shot team-ups. He killed off Heather Glenn in a horrible way, but did it with such grace and style that it didn’t feel entirely gratuitous. And he’s responsible for “The Price”– one of my favorite stand-alone issues. Plus, the fact that he was working with David Mazzucchelli didn’t hurt either.  

6. Ann Nocenti Superhero comics– superhero comics writing in particular– has been a white male-dominated profession for far too long, and there are far too few women who have written Daredevil. I hate to start a discussion of Nocenti’s run with “Look! A woman!” but it’s worth pointing out because look at this list. Seriously. (And for anyone unfamiliar with the pre-Miller runs, I assure you, it’s more of the same.) Ann Nocenti’s run is fantastic for the ways it really digs into the heart of the material. She took the post-“Born Again” landscape and ran with it. This was the period that tied Matt to Hell’s Kitchen, and Nocenti made that plot point stick by showing us the fabric of the neighborhood, bringing in characters like the Fat Boys, placing Matt and Karen within the community with the founding of Karen’s free clinic, and turning the Hell’s Kitchen of the Marvel universe into a living, breathing place. In contrast, she also took Matt out of the city, and in doing so, wrote some of my favorite Daredevil stories. She wasn’t afraid to address pressing social issues. She wasn’t afraid to tell stories that were just plain weird. And her run is utterly unique and complex as a result.

7. Ed Brubaker/D.G. Chichester Yeah, okay, this is really cheating. These are two completely different runs, but they are nevertheless tied because of the same factor: I adore some parts, and dislike other parts. “The Devil in Cell Block D” (the first arc of Brubaker’s run) is phenomenal. I re-read it a lot. So is “Last Rites” (by Chichester). Chichester wrote two of my favorite stand-alone issues: “34 Hours” (vol. 1 #304) and “Just One Good Story” (vol. 1 #380). Brubaker gifted us with the awesomeness that is Maki Matsumoto (A.K.A. Lady Bullseye), and Master Izo! Chichester gave us D.A. Kathy Malpher, one of my favorite DD characters ever (bring her back, Marvel! Where did she go?)! Also, his hypersensory writing is visceral verging on gross– which, for me, is ideal. However, Brubaker’s run went downhill a bit after the first arc. I mentioned the light/dark balance in regards to Frank Miller’s run, and Brubaker went all dark. (I consider it the darkest DD run yet.) It’s great storytelling, but not my style. And while I love his shorter arcs, Chichester’s longer work– “Fall From Grace” and “Tree of Knowledge” in particular– don’t do it for me. I find them overly convoluted and lacking substance. Also, while Scott McDaniel draws my favorite rendition of the radar sense, he’s my least favorite DD artist. D.G. Chichester + Lee Weeks 4ever.

8. David Mack I like “Vision Quest” a lot more than “Parts of a Hole”, though that’s somewhat due to the artist switch partway through the latter. “Parts of a Hole” did an excellent job of introducing Maya Lopez, and has a lot of great moments, but “Vision Quest” is practically a piece of fine art. It’s stunning, both narratively and visually. I consider it more of an Echo comic than a DD comic, but it still belongs on this list.  

9. Charles Soule I haven’t had a chance to reread this run in its entirety, since it just ended, and I really need to do so because I’m having a hard time figuring out my feelings on it. There are aspects of Soule’s characterization of Matt that I disagree with. The sensory writing varied in quality, and we clearly have different perceptions of the radar sense. There was a distinct shortage of female characters– and, in fact, of side characters in general. And the mind wipe was a huge misstep, since it erased so many of Matt’s long-held friendships. In a comic that has traditionally drawn much of its power from its strong supporting casts and Matt’s dynamics with them, that decision has caused serious lasting damage. However, there’s also a lot I loved. Sam Chung, though (I feel) underused, is a great character in his own right, and he also provided the chance for us to see Matt in a long-term mentorship role– something I’ve wanted for a while now. Muse was a fascinating and terrifying antagonist. And Soule’s perspective as an actual lawyer added extra zip to many of his stories, whether it was putting Matt in the mayor’s office (finally!) or sending him to the Supreme Court in what may be my favorite law-centered DD story ever. But the real reason Soule’s name is this far up this list is because of the “Double Vision” arc (or, as I call it, “Mike Murdock Must Die 2.0″) which is sheer brilliance, and to my mind, one of the greatest Daredevil stories ever told.

10. Bob Gale “Playing to the Camera” does not get nearly as much credit as it deserves for being a genuinely hilarious superhero law-based comedy of errors, and a bright spot amid the angst-fest that is Daredevil volume 2. My major complaints are that it’s too short and I dislike the art.

11. Andy Diggle I don’t dislike “Shadowland”. I don’t love it, but it’s a cool story concept that suffered– as events often do– from storytelling spread too thin, across too many characters, in too short a timespan. (Though I need to know if he came up with the “Matt Murdock dared evil… and lost” tagline, because if so, that wordplay would rocket him right to the top of this list.) I prefer the lead-up to “Shadowland” to the event itself. But I love DD: Reborn (yes, I said I wasn’t going to cover mini-series, but it’s essentially part of the main comic because it bridges the gap between two volumes. I say it counts). I’ve always enjoyed stories that take Matt out of NYC, and Reborn is a fun adventure story that gets back to basics and serves as a great bookend for volume 2.  

12. Scott Lobdell I like “Flying Blind”. It’s quirky and unusual (which I appreciate), and Matt is written very well. I just don’t love it. It’s one of those arcs that slides right to the back of the memory and only returns to the forefront when you’re reflecting on the first time Matt ever saw Foggy, or wondering if Matt’s bad French in Brubaker’s run is left over from his SHIELD-implanted fluency. It’s a neat idea, but could have been executed in a more engaging, lasting way.

13. Gregory Wright This short run went right out of my head the instant I finished it the first time, and upon rereading it has remained fairly unmemorable. The art is hit-and-miss, and the story– while perfectly fine– isn’t anything exciting or innovative. There are some great hypersensory moments, it’s worth reading, but I don’t have much to say about it beyond that.

14. Alan Smithee “Alan Smithee” is a pseudonym used in the entertainment industry by writers who don’t want to be associated with a certain project. The commentary on manwithoutfear.com states that this run was actually written by Chichester, who used the pen name as a way of protesting his abrupt firing from the comic. I treat it as a separate run, since that’s clearly what he wanted. I always tend to group the Wright and Smithee runs together in my mind because they take place one after the other, are both very short (only 5 issues each), and are very similar in both tone and quality. I like the art in Smithee’s run more, and the writing is solid. However, the whole thing is colored for me by the horrific and unnecessary death of Glorianna O’Breen, a character I love. I’m perfectly fine with characters dying if their deaths are well-written and impactful (heck, I’ll be honest– I love a good death), but Glori’s demise just seems gratuitous, and is therefore not appealing to me.

15. J.M. DeMatteis This run is super weird, but not in an interesting way. It leans toward the religious, which is not my thing, and it relies on the dead sex worker storyline from Man Without Fear, which is really not my thing and should have stayed out of the main continuity. It’s good to read, because it’s a major shift in Matt’s life and sets up the fabulous Kesel/Kelly runs, but… eh. That said, Matt battling his different identities in a graveyard while getting heckled by Stick, and yellow suit DD running around creating mayhem, are 100% my things… so credit where’s it’s due.  

16. Kevin Smith You may have noticed that “Guardian Devil”, the first arc of Daredevil volume 2, the run that rescued the series after its cancellation and brought Matt Murdock to the forefront of the Marvel street-level universe once more…! …is rarely ever mentioned on this blog. That’s because I really don’t like it. At all. I’m grateful to Smith for bringing readers back to DD, but would be happy if he never wrote these characters again. His run is poorly paced, out-of-character, and covers themes/topics/etc. that I personally don’t enjoy. I forced myself through it because I’m a Daredevil completist, but I haven’t read it again. I probably will someday, just to make sure I remember all of the key plot points, but… not yet.  

[mllemusketeer]

Jazz and Groceries

Continuing the self-insert-verse! Because we all need some cheerful escapism right now. 

Or, the one in which Autobot over-protectiveness meets its match, and Jazz is embarassed in a parking lot.

There’s something about ordering at the butcher’s counter at a grocery store that makes you feel like a Real Adult, and plus, my local grocery store often has better prices at the butcher’s counter. Which is great, because one of my few sins is the amount I spend on food.

“Anything else?”

“A pound of the double-smoked bacon, please.” The guy behind the counter and I shared the grin of the unapologetic bacon lover.

“Great stuff.”

“God yes.” Okay, the double-smoked bacon wasn’t that economical but it was good. There’s no point in being unhealthy if you don’t really enjoy it.

Bee-deep.

I accepted the brown paper packages I’d ordered, gave the guy another grin and polite farewell, and went to look at the veggies. Again. I was making up my mind about the bok-choi, which were expensive, but the cheap ones were another 20 minutes of driving away, at the international market.

Bee-deep. I frowned down at my phone and pulled it out. Text from Jazz. How much longer u going to b in there?

I grinned at the texts, their mash-up of complete sentences and text speech typical of a Cybertronian texting. They tried text speech, couldn’t quite get the hang of it.

Bee-deep.

Seriously.

Bee-deep.

I am SO BORED.

“Serves you right,” I muttered to the phone. You see, Jazz had been getting over-protective lately. All the ‘bots had. There had been the annual report of causes of morbidity and mortality in the US last week, and unfortunately, I’d been the conduit through which it’d gotten to the ‘bots. Hey, I’m taking classes in policy on top of my ethics coursework. It’s all in a day’s work for me.

And had totally panicked Jazz and co. Because right there, right at the top of causes of accidental death? And near the top of overall causes of death?

Motor vehicle related incidents.

See, we all know, intellectually, that getting behind the wheel is the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis. Hell, it’s one of the most dangerous things we do, period. We just sort of accept it, that yeah, sure, there’s a chance we could get ourselves killed or injured every time we go to the store, and then we ignore it, because going to the store needs to happen with the minimum of gibbering terror.

Which is why it took me until I was 21 to get my license, but that’s tangential to the whole issue.

So Jazz got ahold of my iPad, open to said report, and, because ‘head of special ops’ translates to ‘incurable fucking snoop’ in personal relationships, read it, and then he chirped it to Optimus, and Optimus, who goes around vacuuming up interesting information about humans like my dog sucks up spilled shredded cheese from the kitchen floor, hadn’t quite run across that tidbit yet, and freaked. In a very gentle and stately manner, of course, because he’s still Optimus Prime. But he freaked.

The reasoning went thus: the humans are risking themselves daily driving to work. It is probably the riskiest thing they do every day.

This includes the human researchers. Actually, it especially means the researchers, who are crossing town on a daily or weekly basis to get to the base.

And to go to the grocery store. And things like that.

Cybertronians are far better drivers than humans. It’s more like walking to them. Besides, they can always transform and save the human, right? Or just dodge.

So for all the ‘bots with human friends, Optimus suggested that they try to minimize our driving time.

Which why my name was mud on base just now. It’s all very well and good for Sam, because Bumblebee is his first and only car, and they have something worked out with driving, but for Captain Lennox suddenly dealing with a very protective Ironhide? Hoo boy. And of course it’s my fault, because I was the twit who left my tablet lying around where an incurable fucking snoop can find it.

Because of course the jerk’s figured out how to get past the fingerprint scanner. No boundaries.

So I was pissed too. Not only because of the lack of personal boundaries, not only because Jazz was trying to babysit me, but because I too had a car I’d brought with me to grad school, and I preferred to drive myself, thanks. Meant I didn’t have to wait to go shopping. There’s also just the simple fact of, yeah, I love my research, I love the ‘bots, but I want a life outside of that, too. Oh, and also, I’d like to be able to go to a party without coordinating with Jazz. Ya know, little unreasonable things like that.

Oh, and I liked my car. His name was Blur, which for some reason made Jazz laugh hysterically when I told him, and he was a Honda Fit, a nice little car that resembled nothing more than a fat, happy, blue tadpole. He could haul like a pickup truck if I needed to, and I’d gone camping in him repeatedly, and he got 40 mpg. Jazz was wonderful, but he had nowhere to put the fucking groceries. Let alone camping supplies. Or the dog crate.

Jazz had looked up the safety specs on Blur when he’d first realized I drove that thing. Blur’s tadpole-ness was not, Jazz felt, an endearing quality. Especially when the info on the 2013 Honda Fit came back, saying it scored top points in collisions from all directions save the front, which it tanked on. Probably because the snub-nosed design meant that in a front-end collision, the driver would receive a lapful of engine.

“Okay,” I’d said, “then I won’t run into anything with the front of the car.”

Jazz had made a gesture like a human tearing their hair, both hands on his sensory horns, and gone, “Arrrgh!”

Honestly, it wasn’t the best retort, I’ll admit that. But it lost me the argument. Jazz was taking me grocery shopping. Blur sat sadly in the driveway, and got sat on by the neighborhood cats.

But I had one final volley in my arsenal.

You see, grocery shopping is fun. I get to putter around and think about eating tasty things. I get to stare at all sorts of tasty things, and decide what I’ll get and what I’ll do with them, and it’s just plain nice.

Translation: I can and will spend an hour per grocery store, if I think I can get away with it.

Which brings us back to the bok-choi and my angrily bee-deeping cell phone.

I pondered the bok-choi, then decided to go to the international market. Now it was apple time. This store had an entire stand dedicated to apples, some of which I could only find in the farmers market back home. I decided to rub it in a little more. I pulled out the phone and took a picture, then texted it to Jazz. Look at all the apples, I said. Deciding on one variety this week’s going to be hard! Pink Lady is one of my favorite, but there’s definitely a new variety here I haven’t heard of…

You are EVIL, the response read.

Hey, I’m not even at TJ’s yet, I sent. We’ll hit that next.

ARRGH.

I snickered, and went back to the apples.

Bee-deep.

I looked at the phone, expecting more robot bitchery, and instead saw, Do not come out the front of the store.

“The fuck?” I said aloud, and then I heard it.

The crash.

The distinctive sound of a large robot fist hitting a large robot face. Or other body part. A sort of clanging thump. And then a screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech of metal on asphalt.

“Oh,” I said. Well, so much for the shopping. Apparently I was evacuating a grocery store today, if the manager didn’t get their act together right quick.

A tumultuous half hour later, involving a lot of speaking calmly in a loud voice and directing people out the back of the store and to a safe distance, and free groceries, I sat in the parking lot next to Jazz, who was picking bits of metal out of his fists and looking sheepish.

“Well,” he said.

“Well,” I said.

“I didn’t realize Barricade was around. He’s using some sort of cloaking technology we’re unfamiliar with,” said Jazz, looking, if possible, even more sheepish. “It wasn’t planned. I think he picked up my signature and took the opportunity.”

I looked around the parking lot. Jazz and Barricade had been hurling shopping carts for a bit there. There was one in a tree, looking oddly festive, surrounded by bright yellow palo verde blossoms. “I see,” I said.

“Clean up should be here soon.” Jazz stood, and winced as he did. Barricade had scratched his leg pretty good, though he assured me it was fine. Ratchet was on his way anyhow, because he couldn’t trust any of the Autobots to accurately report damage, slaggit. “Um.”

Pause.

“Maybe,” said Jazz, in the distinct tones of someone conceding a point they really, really didn’t want to concede, “maybe you are safer doing the shopping in that little blue death trap.”

I grinned. That was about as good as I was going to get.

[torreygazette]

On Providence

I keenly remember, during my first year of seminary, writing a card for a woman whose husband had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. At that time, I don’t think we knew that it was a glioblastoma (an always deadly cancer), but he was due for surgery and we wanted to write some words of encouragement. Some friends gathered a card and we wrote about providence from the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q27. What do you understand by the Providence of God?

A. Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

Q28. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?

A. We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature will separate us from his love. For all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

As a word, “providence” can sound like the sort of platitude that people don’t want to hear in times of suffering. I have lost track of how many times I’ve heard people object to statements like “God has a purpose in it” or “everything happens for a reason.” But the doctrine of Providence is much more than a mere platitude. It isn’t a slogan to be repeated casually.

Indeed, Providence is a doctrine that is as precious as it is tricky. It raises hard questions about suffering—evils both natural and moral—or even the smaller difficulties in life. The exact nature of its relationship to these questions (and their answers) is beyond my present scope. Instead, I would like to explain why this doctrine is so precious and how I came to learn it intellectually and personally.

When I began my journey into Reformed theology, I was almost entirely self-taught. I would procrastinate on my school reading assignments by reading theological articles online. There were so many unfamiliar ideas and terms. I just read and read. As often happens when one begins to study Reformed theology, I started with the doctrine of Election but Providence goes hand in hand with it. As a result, it was one of the earliest doctrines that I learned.

My study of Reformed theology began in a time of great personal upheaval. I had just transferred to university from my community college. In addition, my family decided that we needed to leave our church due to changes concerning the conduct of worship and church life in general. (We went from a fairly normal evangelical setting to one where the singing had more in common with a performance, plus it was very, very loud.)

We ended up at a tiny Calvinistic Baptist church as it received an influx of new members from another local church—one experiencing conflict over subjects like predestination. The pastor of the conflicted church was a graduate of a Calvinistic seminary and when tension arose he was kicked out and a few families left with him. The church we all joined, incidentally, was experiencing its own trials of trusting God’s providence. The church's pastor (and only elder) was newly diagnosed with cancer. When we joined the church, he often wasn’t able to attend. After a few months, though, he went into remission and was able to return to the pulpit. When he was able to resume teaching and preaching, we started a Bible study covering all the basics of Calvinism—especially the sovereignty of God and how Scripture was structured by God’s covenants with his people.

This was the first time I had been in a church situation where theology was actually taught to people as something important to know. It was just assumed that everyone needed to know these things. Additionally, everyone wanted to know these things. It was a genuinely exciting time, and I thrived in it.

Thinking back, it’s not surprising to me that I ended up falling in love with the doctrine of Providence. I leaned hard on it for years. It was comforting to know that all was as it should be with every step taken being the ones I ought to have taken and nothing done thwarting God’s will. This would really hit home, though, some years later when my husband and I started trying to have children.

Providence Personalized

I lost my first pregnancy in February of 2014. It was a traumatic experience that included being diagnosed with a rare form of ectopic pregnancy. It was quite an emotional roller coaster that had begun with the doctor suspecting the more traditional tubal ectopic earlier in the pregnancy. Going from the diagnosis of a suspected ectopic pregnancy to a threatened miscarriage to a different form of ectopic pregnancy in the space of two months took an incredible toll on my mental health. (Few will—or want to—warn you just how terrifying pregnancy can be.)

In the aftermath, I developed panic attacks. My anxiety and sensory issues reached new heights. In October, I sought out a clinical psychologist who diagnosed me with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). 

Two years later, I became pregnant again. This pregnancy was uniquely challenging as I developed and struggled with a debilitating loss of executive function. Executive function is the term used to describe the cognitive processes involved in things like time management, completing tasks (even basic ones), etc. Executive function issues are common in autistic individuals, as well as in those with ADHD. It was easy for people to laugh off my issues as “pregnancy brain,” but for me, it was extreme enough that I wasn’t able to complete tasks I had done a hundred or thousand times before.

Sadly, that pregnancy also ended in a miscarriage. (It’s weird, very weird, to describe the simultaneous relief and grief that you experience when you have a normal miscarriage after a traumatic loss. It’s a dizzying blend of emotions.)

After that pregnancy, my executive function issues persisted. They were not as severe as they were when I was pregnant, but definitely still present. Eventually, I was diagnosed with ADHD just months later. It was really helpful to understand why I struggled with so many things that others did not. Once again, the diagnosis explained little things about my life that had always mystified me. (Things like why my brain feels itchy when I’m bored by something, why I can’t remember enough to retrace my steps when something is lost, etc.)

To this point, very little of my adult life had gone according to plan. But there’s a real possibility that any postpartum depression or anxiety without a diagnosis of my multiple conditions would have been crippling, or worse.

“We can be patient in adversity”

Finally, in 2018, I had my first successful pregnancy. I still struggled with my executive functioning, but this time I knew why and I knew how to work with it. The relief in knowing why things were the way they were was huge. My husband and I had a plan in place which made it easier to cope. Still, it was a challenging pregnancy.

I felt poor the entire time. My nausea got progressively worse. I ended up failing my glucose tolerance test at the beginning of week twenty-seven. The necessity for an endocrinologist referral to manage gestational diabetes was very disheartening—I had dreaded this possibility my entire pregnancy and had done what I could to mitigate the risks.

As week twenty-seven progressed, I waited (read: dreaded) for the endocrinologist’s office to call about an appointment while feeling increasingly poor. Then I got the phone call. I couldn’t come in on the initially offered day, so the nurse poked around. She asked if I could come in that afternoon, and I said yes.

I was in no state to drive at that time—too tired, too much pain in my hands. I called my husband at work and asked him to come home and drive me. At the doctor’s office, they took my blood pressure: 168/98. Though a high reading, I’m prone to white coat syndrome and I was pretty stressed about the whole gestational diabetes business. Wishing to not overreact, they took my blood pressure four times, hoping for better numbers, before sending me to my OB’s office.

“Don’t stop anywhere,” they said.

Despite this caution, I still wasn’t concerned. I sent texts to my mom, apprising her of the situation. I told her not to worry. I was sure they would just send me home with some blood pressure meds. But once I got in to see the on-call OB, he took my blood pressure (still high) and said pretty much the last thing I had expected, “You have preeclampsia with severe features.”

For those unaware, preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal deaths—the high blood pressure causes strokes, and your liver and kidneys can be damaged. It can also turn into full-blown eclampsia (the mother experiencing seizures). So I was sent directly to labor and delivery, hooked up to magnesium (in order to prevent the aforementioned seizures), and an ambulance was summoned. With no NICU available at my local hospital and no knowledge of when the baby would come, I needed to be sent to another hospital.

(There’s an escalating protocol when you have preeclampsia. They give you blood pressure medication intravenously and then measure your blood pressure. If it’s still high, they give you more. Eventually, if you don’t respond, they deliver the baby. When you’re as early in pregnancy as I was, the goal is to keep you pregnant for as long as possible without endangering the life of the mother.)

The ambulance came. At the new hospital, they repeated their attempts to bring down my blood pressure while the hospital’s OB gave me a pep talk. She didn’t want to deliver a twenty-seven-week-old baby so could I please respond to the drugs? Finally, my blood pressure did come down. There was rejoicing. Two days later I stopped responding to the medicines and my baby was delivered via c-section at twenty-eight weeks, two days.

“We can be … thankful in prosperity”

It was incredibly difficult to go through at the time. Gestational diabetes stressed me out horribly—my ADHD was in full force and needing to think about the details of food just sounded exhausting and impossible. In the end, though, there’s a strong possibility that the diagnosis saved me from a stroke—or worse.

In the days between my admission to the hospital and finally delivering my baby (who is currently a very healthy almost-toddler), I was struck by how very providential everything was. So many things worked out perfectly such that the disease was caught before either I or my baby suffered serious consequences. My experience brought me to reflect on Romans 8:28:

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

God used a diagnosis I had done my best to avoid and a doctor working on an unusual afternoon for earthly blessings: my baby and I lived! And so He taught me to be “thankful in prosperity.” However, it is also true that the context for Romans 8:28 makes clear that it isn’t simply a platitude to comfort people about earthly prosperity. The Lord has taught me to “be patient in adversity.” In the Lord’s providence, “good” refers to God’s plan of sanctifying a person. “Good” is not a guarantee of easy.

The last couple of years have been hard in so many different ways, and yet looking back I can see how it has been used for my sanctification. My faith has been strengthened by trials. My prayer life has improved through the saints praying for me and for my baby as well as the opportunity to return the act for the saints. All this calls to mind the command in James 1 to be thankful for trials because they strengthen your faith (James 1:2-4). How could that be so if God were not completely sovereign over our trials?

So here I sit, over a year later, incredibly thankful for the very trial that I had done my best to avoid. Life didn’t work out the way I planned, but since it didn’t, I’m far better equipped now to survive motherhood by relying on God’s providence. Sometimes I am tempted to mourn how thoroughly things didn’t go the way I wanted. But then I look at my baby and recall the deep, abiding truth that nothing has happened by chance. Everything has been and will continue to be in accordance with God’s fatherly hand.

“We can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature will separate us from his love”

These are just the events that I can trace out without supernatural revelation. I’m sure there are many more ways in which this is true—honestly, even in her short life, my baby has been through her own set of health misadventures, a few of which have made the truth of Providence known in their own right.

The way these trials have worked out not only to my earthly benefit but also for my sanctification has only driven home the comfort that comes from resting for the future in this precious doctrine. The knowledge that God’s providence is the determining factor of reality—even when the circumstances are terrifying or full of grief—is a light in the darkness (Psalm 23:4).

“For all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved”

Photo by Drew Mills

[bestcbdoilshop]

Homemade Carp Bait Recipes And Secrets Of Salts To Improve All Your Fishing Baits!

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Why do carp like salt? How and why does using salt, and substances rich in mineral salts improve your catches? I have fished in rivers where the saline conditions mean that bass, flounder as well as carp and eels all thrive to the surprise of many anglers. There is far more to carp and their needs, their reactions and feeding responses to salts in all forms of baits (including boilies and pastes!) Here are many expert answers plus exciting suggestions that will make you think and catch you more fish!

Salts are highly attractive to carp; they are highly ionic, so attract water. For example one example of this property is when you leave salt in air and it cakes. This entire point is extremely significant to optimised bait function!

Most people think of common table salt as salt, but there are many forms and combinations that we can exploit to catch more fish! (Note that chlorine for example is highly reactive; think hard about this point because making baits reactive is highly beneficial to your results!) Sodium and chloride ions are required by all known life in minimal qualities, so instinctively carp are drawn to salty substances.

Technically I'm not sure you term them feeding triggers, as much as they are incitants and bait enhancers in many ways, but they are a powerful signal when in solution in water; inducing much further investigation by fish that's for sure! For example, a fishmeal and marine spod mix is certainly boosted by additional salts and salty substances (compared to adding none.) In my experience fish tend to feed in a more measured more leisurely prolonged mode with added salts, in contrast to certain other additives which can lead to a frenzy of short-lived extremely hard feeding. Of course both approaches can be utilized, and combined together.

Throw lumps of rock salt in the water and carp are sure to investigate. Remember that natural river and lake waters are composed of dissolved minerals, including salts. Some of these essential minerals are even absorbed directly into fish via their skin. Minerals range from pure elements to simple salts etc, and carp respond to endless forms of them for many wide ranging reasons, not merely connected with essential nutritional requirements

Notice the different taste of table salt compared to sea salt or rock salt. I am certainly not suggesting our taste, smell or perceptions of palatability and depth and richness of profile etc is identical to carp (different brain and nervous wiring and conjunctions etc but you'll notice quite a significant difference! Rock and sea salt is far richer due to the range of minerals and traces etc it contains; and is far more palatable to carp and far more potent as an enhancer in baits! It's another reason I avoid using refined table salt, although if I have nothing else I use it in ground baits for instance, but it means the bait will be under-optimised!

Most rock salt products are derived from dry deposits of ancient seas that dried up, but the funny thing is that the underlying bedrock of lakes, even clay lining lakes that hold the water, are mineral rich and influence the potential of life and growth rates of particular carp waters. I find Rainbow Lake in France fascinating not merely for the range of carp strains stocked and their phenomenal growth rates, but wonder if the carbon naturally in the underlying lake bed is a significant factor too, combined with the silicate (mineral), sandy nature of the lake bed; I'm sure it all connects.

In a funny kind of way it is ironic that the calcium and phosphate that fish absorb through their skin in solution in water, (and consume in their foods) has ended up in their water due to ancient animals biomineralising (producing minerals biologically,) to produce hard structures. For example chitin in shells of mollusks and crustaceans for instance; which when they die then form phosphate and carbonate salts of calcium, deposits laid down under ancient sea beds over eons, so forming carbonate base rock like chalk and limestone rocks beneath or surrounding lakes and rivers etc.

Eventually these minerals are transferred into lake water by natural processes over time, and then they become part of fish. For example the vital collagen connective tissues and bones etc! Everything is connected; fish and humans really are what we eat! (And of course ultimately, ancient teleost fish of which modern carp are part are our long-lost ancestors so we share many common processes and features that we can exploit, that we can relate to our own food to use within our fishing baits, to make catching carp easier!)

On a different note, dissolved minerals, salts in solution (in water) mean that carp are swimming within an electricity-conducting electrolyte. This is very significant indeed because for one thing, the power of many bait substances can be enhanced by exploiting natural carp sensitivities to minerals and mineral salts, either in supplemental forms or as intrinsic parts of natural foods.

We well know that carp are seriously stimulated by pre-digested or hydrolysed ingredients and additives in dry or liquid forms of many kinds containing many salts forms in the chemical reactions involved. It is my belief that because carp are so sensitive to subtle electrical fields, that this is all part of the impacts of baits that can further be manipulated and exploited, and use of salts can obviously a part of this approach to make baits far more easily detected. It might be suggested that you can make your baits more of a noticeable highly subtle electrical energy battery. Personally I am certain that carp detect fields around the area of baits which are far from limited to merely conventional electric or electromagnetic energies.

Carp certainly are just as sensitive and curious to differences in within the water that they detect as to instinctively responding to any arbitrary nutritional signals. For example, a localized change in salinity might well be good cause for investigation, besides the presence of any particular concentrated substance issuing forth from your baits. Of course, fish meal and other marine based baits, predigested additive-rich baits for example can be rich in salts and be significantly salty, intrinsically enhancing and improving bait performance. However, these things can be boosted in many ways using salts and salty substances and their special reactions with a range of bait substances.

I think the reaction between salts and for example alcohol flavours, organic acids, and other things like citric acid, or acetic acid in vinegar (the fermentation of ethanol is used to produce vinegar), and many various other examples, are all highly important reactions within baits and in solution in regards to salts. I'm sure such things are very significant in terms of us being able to on purpose create heightened impacts at carp receptor sites in sensory zones, such as the skin, throat, barbels, lips, palatial area inside the mouth etc that make carp even more enthusiastic for our fishing baits!

Certain saturated carboxylic acids are certainly some of the secret components in more than just a few highly successful commercial bait company products. Anyway you can get an idea here of the fact that experimenting with salts, salty substances and flavours for instance can really pay off big-time in enhancing your catch results!

Do not forget that any boilie base mix can be adapted for use as the base for a specialised ground bait mix, a spod or stick mix, or even used to impart properties and additional stimulation when preparing hemp and sweetcorn and tiger nuts and luncheon meat etc. I am always looking for more information about salts, even in dog and cat food in soft and hard foods.

The presence of additional salt added in the manufacture of Marmite is intriguing as are the salts in yeasts in many formats and formats, including within the classic carp bait additive Phillips Yeast Mixture. Phillips Yeast Mixtures and also very many liquid tonics and so on and other powder or crystalline substances used to improve pet bird, dog and cat health can be exceptionally rich in stimulatory mineral salts etc and for years I have done loads of research on this whole area of bait substances for inclusion in my ebooks.

Salt-rich additives and ingredients are incredibly potent for catching carp and work synergistically (in combination) with other material you have within your baits, from the carbohydrate and protein ingredients in your baits, to liquid foods, flavours and even other enhancers and sweeteners. Thinking about it, for what purposes are salty things like Belachan, yeast extract and soy sauce used for when added to other foods? Enhancing and enriching the sensory impacts and duration of impacts of foods; salty substances are extremely well proven to improve palatability. Carp baits and human foods can be improved by the use of salty substances and salt-related reactions of many kinds.

Include squid extract containing bile salts for example, fermented shrimp powder, other fermented products including miso and soy sauce, other fermented protein-rich materials such as Belachan, yeast extract, seaweeds like kelp products in powder, granules and liquid complexes. This enhancer does not upset insulin release unlike MSG which is harmful in many ways including internal bleeding on a cellular level in the brain.

Many people feel ill after consuming MSG, and indeed it is the reason for the so called Chinese restaurant syndrome. Yet such is the degree of MSG-producing company cover ups about its true impacts, that few anglers know it is harmful. While chatting with Frank Warwick recently about enhancers etc even he did not appear to realise this at that point in time. Pure MSG is vastly different to naturally-occurring glutamate that carp and humans naturally consume with no harmful side effects!

There has over the years been a gigantic effort by MSG manufacturers including Anjinomoto to not only sell the idea of the fifth taste but to get people to accept MSG and even promote it as a good thing! The result is that now as people are becoming more aware that MSG is a harmful substance food manufacturers are not putting MSG on the ingredients list and use other words and misleading and vague terms including glutamate, or vegetable extract, yeast extract Many alternative taste enhancers are available that do not harm carp! I might add that sea weeds and tomato puree are rich in umami taste components.

The tastes you can exploit in your baits include sweet, sour, bitter and salty as well as savouryness (or umami.) Very many carp baits are bitter yet successful; lots of more acidic concentrated flavours make baits taste bitter. Personally speaking I have had great success with many new unique homemade bait recipes that to me have tasted really bitter, or surprisingly sour.

I used to have the group mentality that appears to promote sweeter or perhaps more salty or savoury tastes of baits I make, but no matter what the taste of a bait is to me (and whether I personally like it or not,) it does not stop fish repeatedly enthusiastically consuming baits I may or may not like!

Carp consume forms of algae as it such an incredibly rich digestible a basic food for survival. But if you have ever taken different forms of algae as a health supplement you will know it is not exactly pleasant to humans and I find it unpalatable and avoid trying to taste it at all!

The fact is that carp nerves are wired up differently to humans; their receptor proteins and receptor site adaptations, degrees of sensitivities and nerve connections with their brains from skin, gut wall, fin face, lateral line etc all differ in very many respects to humans! For an angler to state that carp do not like bitter baits is not especially helpful as this is a confusion of many things on many levels. Even the question of the actual degree of taste of a bait as a whole tasted in the mouth in human alkaline solution, compared to carp tasting bait in solution in neutral or acidic water makes things less clear!

Carp are very sensitive to salinity (salt or mineral salt) changes in solution in the water surrounding them. This is incredibly powerful advantage because like humans, fish need to maintain a certain equilibrium of liquid pressures within their body cells to stay alive and function healthily - note the famous feeding trigger betaine (there are various forms,) is vitally intrinsic in this role too! (You may have heard about isotonic baits...) Being sensitive to salts allows fish such as carp to discern many opportunities and threats in the water. For one thing, although carp can survive in brackish water their sensitivity alerts them to moving into water that is too salty for their bodies to handle. That's one reason why carp are not roaming the seas!

Note that natural calcium chloride is the predominant component of familiar table salt, is essential to carp, but and this is really important, you will do better by supplying carp with fine or coarse sea or rock salt instead, as this supplies a potently stimulating wealth of vital minerals and traces which will turn carp on and raise the nutritional value and attraction of your baits.

I personally highly recommend using coarse crunchy kelp, and fine seaweed powder, plus coarse and fine sea salt for example, together. With salts you only need minimal amounts to make a difference, and use of salts is not strictly limited to adding salt to boilie, stick or other mixes and of course endless carp baits can be enhanced using many sources of salts. Crushed Himalayan rock salt has very highly significant unique properties but there are far more sources of potent salts than just this and sea and other rock salts.

Do not ignore the fact that salts are involved in digestion; this is a very important aspect of baits I know most anglers have yet to really understand and harness within baits. I do not consider that adding salts to baits is the optimum way to exploit salts and in fact having salts being deliberately actively created within baits dynamically through various processes is far more potent, but these are secrets I do not give away for free! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!

By Tim Richardson.

[ad_2] Source by Tim F. Richardson

Source Here: Homemade Carp Bait Recipes And Secrets Of Salts To Improve All Your Fishing Baits!

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Homemade Carp Bait Recipes And Secrets Of Salts To Improve All Your Fishing Baits!

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Why do carp like salt? How and why does using salt, and substances rich in mineral salts improve your catches? I have fished in rivers where the saline conditions mean that bass, flounder as well as carp and eels all thrive to the surprise of many anglers. There is far more to carp and their needs, their reactions and feeding responses to salts in all forms of baits (including boilies and pastes!) Here are many expert answers plus exciting suggestions that will make you think and catch you more fish!

Salts are highly attractive to carp; they are highly ionic, so attract water. For example one example of this property is when you leave salt in air and it cakes. This entire point is extremely significant to optimised bait function!

Most people think of common table salt as salt, but there are many forms and combinations that we can exploit to catch more fish! (Note that chlorine for example is highly reactive; think hard about this point because making baits reactive is highly beneficial to your results!) Sodium and chloride ions are required by all known life in minimal qualities, so instinctively carp are drawn to salty substances.

Technically I'm not sure you term them feeding triggers, as much as they are incitants and bait enhancers in many ways, but they are a powerful signal when in solution in water; inducing much further investigation by fish that's for sure! For example, a fishmeal and marine spod mix is certainly boosted by additional salts and salty substances (compared to adding none.) In my experience fish tend to feed in a more measured more leisurely prolonged mode with added salts, in contrast to certain other additives which can lead to a frenzy of short-lived extremely hard feeding. Of course both approaches can be utilized, and combined together.

Throw lumps of rock salt in the water and carp are sure to investigate. Remember that natural river and lake waters are composed of dissolved minerals, including salts. Some of these essential minerals are even absorbed directly into fish via their skin. Minerals range from pure elements to simple salts etc, and carp respond to endless forms of them for many wide ranging reasons, not merely connected with essential nutritional requirements

Notice the different taste of table salt compared to sea salt or rock salt. I am certainly not suggesting our taste, smell or perceptions of palatability and depth and richness of profile etc is identical to carp (different brain and nervous wiring and conjunctions etc but you'll notice quite a significant difference! Rock and sea salt is far richer due to the range of minerals and traces etc it contains; and is far more palatable to carp and far more potent as an enhancer in baits! It's another reason I avoid using refined table salt, although if I have nothing else I use it in ground baits for instance, but it means the bait will be under-optimised!

Most rock salt products are derived from dry deposits of ancient seas that dried up, but the funny thing is that the underlying bedrock of lakes, even clay lining lakes that hold the water, are mineral rich and influence the potential of life and growth rates of particular carp waters. I find Rainbow Lake in France fascinating not merely for the range of carp strains stocked and their phenomenal growth rates, but wonder if the carbon naturally in the underlying lake bed is a significant factor too, combined with the silicate (mineral), sandy nature of the lake bed; I'm sure it all connects.

In a funny kind of way it is ironic that the calcium and phosphate that fish absorb through their skin in solution in water, (and consume in their foods) has ended up in their water due to ancient animals biomineralising (producing minerals biologically,) to produce hard structures. For example chitin in shells of mollusks and crustaceans for instance; which when they die then form phosphate and carbonate salts of calcium, deposits laid down under ancient sea beds over eons, so forming carbonate base rock like chalk and limestone rocks beneath or surrounding lakes and rivers etc.

Eventually these minerals are transferred into lake water by natural processes over time, and then they become part of fish. For example the vital collagen connective tissues and bones etc! Everything is connected; fish and humans really are what we eat! (And of course ultimately, ancient teleost fish of which modern carp are part are our long-lost ancestors so we share many common processes and features that we can exploit, that we can relate to our own food to use within our fishing baits, to make catching carp easier!)

On a different note, dissolved minerals, salts in solution (in water) mean that carp are swimming within an electricity-conducting electrolyte. This is very significant indeed because for one thing, the power of many bait substances can be enhanced by exploiting natural carp sensitivities to minerals and mineral salts, either in supplemental forms or as intrinsic parts of natural foods.

We well know that carp are seriously stimulated by pre-digested or hydrolysed ingredients and additives in dry or liquid forms of many kinds containing many salts forms in the chemical reactions involved. It is my belief that because carp are so sensitive to subtle electrical fields, that this is all part of the impacts of baits that can further be manipulated and exploited, and use of salts can obviously a part of this approach to make baits far more easily detected. It might be suggested that you can make your baits more of a noticeable highly subtle electrical energy battery. Personally I am certain that carp detect fields around the area of baits which are far from limited to merely conventional electric or electromagnetic energies.

Carp certainly are just as sensitive and curious to differences in within the water that they detect as to instinctively responding to any arbitrary nutritional signals. For example, a localized change in salinity might well be good cause for investigation, besides the presence of any particular concentrated substance issuing forth from your baits. Of course, fish meal and other marine based baits, predigested additive-rich baits for example can be rich in salts and be significantly salty, intrinsically enhancing and improving bait performance. However, these things can be boosted in many ways using salts and salty substances and their special reactions with a range of bait substances.

I think the reaction between salts and for example alcohol flavours, organic acids, and other things like citric acid, or acetic acid in vinegar (the fermentation of ethanol is used to produce vinegar), and many various other examples, are all highly important reactions within baits and in solution in regards to salts. I'm sure such things are very significant in terms of us being able to on purpose create heightened impacts at carp receptor sites in sensory zones, such as the skin, throat, barbels, lips, palatial area inside the mouth etc that make carp even more enthusiastic for our fishing baits!

Certain saturated carboxylic acids are certainly some of the secret components in more than just a few highly successful commercial bait company products. Anyway you can get an idea here of the fact that experimenting with salts, salty substances and flavours for instance can really pay off big-time in enhancing your catch results!

Do not forget that any boilie base mix can be adapted for use as the base for a specialised ground bait mix, a spod or stick mix, or even used to impart properties and additional stimulation when preparing hemp and sweetcorn and tiger nuts and luncheon meat etc. I am always looking for more information about salts, even in dog and cat food in soft and hard foods.

The presence of additional salt added in the manufacture of Marmite is intriguing as are the salts in yeasts in many formats and formats, including within the classic carp bait additive Phillips Yeast Mixture. Phillips Yeast Mixtures and also very many liquid tonics and so on and other powder or crystalline substances used to improve pet bird, dog and cat health can be exceptionally rich in stimulatory mineral salts etc and for years I have done loads of research on this whole area of bait substances for inclusion in my ebooks.

Salt-rich additives and ingredients are incredibly potent for catching carp and work synergistically (in combination) with other material you have within your baits, from the carbohydrate and protein ingredients in your baits, to liquid foods, flavours and even other enhancers and sweeteners. Thinking about it, for what purposes are salty things like Belachan, yeast extract and soy sauce used for when added to other foods? Enhancing and enriching the sensory impacts and duration of impacts of foods; salty substances are extremely well proven to improve palatability. Carp baits and human foods can be improved by the use of salty substances and salt-related reactions of many kinds.

Include squid extract containing bile salts for example, fermented shrimp powder, other fermented products including miso and soy sauce, other fermented protein-rich materials such as Belachan, yeast extract, seaweeds like kelp products in powder, granules and liquid complexes. This enhancer does not upset insulin release unlike MSG which is harmful in many ways including internal bleeding on a cellular level in the brain.

Many people feel ill after consuming MSG, and indeed it is the reason for the so called Chinese restaurant syndrome. Yet such is the degree of MSG-producing company cover ups about its true impacts, that few anglers know it is harmful. While chatting with Frank Warwick recently about enhancers etc even he did not appear to realise this at that point in time. Pure MSG is vastly different to naturally-occurring glutamate that carp and humans naturally consume with no harmful side effects!

There has over the years been a gigantic effort by MSG manufacturers including Anjinomoto to not only sell the idea of the fifth taste but to get people to accept MSG and even promote it as a good thing! The result is that now as people are becoming more aware that MSG is a harmful substance food manufacturers are not putting MSG on the ingredients list and use other words and misleading and vague terms including glutamate, or vegetable extract, yeast extract Many alternative taste enhancers are available that do not harm carp! I might add that sea weeds and tomato puree are rich in umami taste components.

The tastes you can exploit in your baits include sweet, sour, bitter and salty as well as savouryness (or umami.) Very many carp baits are bitter yet successful; lots of more acidic concentrated flavours make baits taste bitter. Personally speaking I have had great success with many new unique homemade bait recipes that to me have tasted really bitter, or surprisingly sour.

I used to have the group mentality that appears to promote sweeter or perhaps more salty or savoury tastes of baits I make, but no matter what the taste of a bait is to me (and whether I personally like it or not,) it does not stop fish repeatedly enthusiastically consuming baits I may or may not like!

Carp consume forms of algae as it such an incredibly rich digestible a basic food for survival. But if you have ever taken different forms of algae as a health supplement you will know it is not exactly pleasant to humans and I find it unpalatable and avoid trying to taste it at all!

The fact is that carp nerves are wired up differently to humans; their receptor proteins and receptor site adaptations, degrees of sensitivities and nerve connections with their brains from skin, gut wall, fin face, lateral line etc all differ in very many respects to humans! For an angler to state that carp do not like bitter baits is not especially helpful as this is a confusion of many things on many levels. Even the question of the actual degree of taste of a bait as a whole tasted in the mouth in human alkaline solution, compared to carp tasting bait in solution in neutral or acidic water makes things less clear!

Carp are very sensitive to salinity (salt or mineral salt) changes in solution in the water surrounding them. This is incredibly powerful advantage because like humans, fish need to maintain a certain equilibrium of liquid pressures within their body cells to stay alive and function healthily - note the famous feeding trigger betaine (there are various forms,) is vitally intrinsic in this role too! (You may have heard about isotonic baits...) Being sensitive to salts allows fish such as carp to discern many opportunities and threats in the water. For one thing, although carp can survive in brackish water their sensitivity alerts them to moving into water that is too salty for their bodies to handle. That's one reason why carp are not roaming the seas!

Note that natural calcium chloride is the predominant component of familiar table salt, is essential to carp, but and this is really important, you will do better by supplying carp with fine or coarse sea or rock salt instead, as this supplies a potently stimulating wealth of vital minerals and traces which will turn carp on and raise the nutritional value and attraction of your baits.

I personally highly recommend using coarse crunchy kelp, and fine seaweed powder, plus coarse and fine sea salt for example, together. With salts you only need minimal amounts to make a difference, and use of salts is not strictly limited to adding salt to boilie, stick or other mixes and of course endless carp baits can be enhanced using many sources of salts. Crushed Himalayan rock salt has very highly significant unique properties but there are far more sources of potent salts than just this and sea and other rock salts.

Do not ignore the fact that salts are involved in digestion; this is a very important aspect of baits I know most anglers have yet to really understand and harness within baits. I do not consider that adding salts to baits is the optimum way to exploit salts and in fact having salts being deliberately actively created within baits dynamically through various processes is far more potent, but these are secrets I do not give away for free! Revealed in my unique readymade bait and homemade bait carp and catfish bait secrets ebooks is far more powerful information look up my unique website (Baitbigfish) and see my biography below for details of my ebooks deals right now!

By Tim Richardson.

[ad_2] Source by Tim F. Richardson

Originally Published Here: Homemade Carp Bait Recipes And Secrets Of Salts To Improve All Your Fishing Baits!