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radramblog · 3 years

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Werewolves are still iffy in EDH

With the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, I’m sure many people myself included were hoping that the set’s Werewolf focus would solve some of the issues with the tribe in Commander. Having been a big fan of the creature type’s mechanics and design in Shadows block, and playing a lot of them in Limited and Standard formats, I was excited to see what MID would bring to the table.

Unfortunately, despite the shiny new commander the deck has, I’m not confident that the many, many issues that make Werewolves awkward in Commander have actually found an answer.

Issue 1: The cardpool

Werewolves are kind of in this awkward place where due to mechanically being tied to Innistrad and its double-faced-card Transform mechanic, there just aren’t very many of them, even though we’ve been to Innistrad 3 times now. As well, of the current 6 Innistrad-based sets, 2 of them (DKA and EMN) are small sets and 1 (AVR) doesn’t actually have any werewolves in them. The number of werewolves, therefore, is not particularly big- at time of writing, 83 cards exist with the word Werewolf or Werewolves, and of those 5 are explicit hate pieces. And one is Victim of Night, a removal spell that happens not to hit them. That leaves 78 cards to work with, outside of Changelings.

Frustratingly, WoTC has done very little to supplement this when visiting other planes. There exist exactly 6 Werewolf-related cards printed outside of Innistrad, with only 4 of those actually being Werewolves. I appreciate the slight bones being thrown in the form of WAR Arlinn, Nightpack Ambusher, and AFR’s own Werewolf Pack leader, but that’s about a card a year, which is not enough to support a tribe like this.

There’s also an issue where most of the Werewolf cards are pretty much just limited fodder. Of the 62 cards with the type Werewolf on them (again not including Changelings), I’d wager maybe 30 of them are playable in Commander, using an extremely loose definition of the word playable and with the understanding that this deck is going to be janky as hell. The tribe really suffers from its flavour-based limits, especially with the lack of non-Innistrad support, even though many of the game’s mechanics could be adapted to flavour of the Werewolf.

The final problem with the cardpool is the weak support cards. Werewolves have a fair few support cards, actually, but the issue is most of them are either not scaled for the format or only apply on one side of a 2-sided card. Many tribes in the middle-ground of card quality can get propped up by a handful of really good support cards- as an example, Treefolk have Timber Protector and Leaf-Crowned Elder, and Myr have Myr Galvaniser, Myr Turbine, and basically every Artifact support card ever to exist. Werewolves are stuck with, outside of one or two spicy new cards, mostly just +1/+1 anthems/counters and a handful of keywords, and also Immerwolf/Geier Reach Bandit (but the latter only half the time).

The result of this is that despite arguably being one of the better supported tribes as far as card numbers, Werewolves seriously pale in comparison to the majority of the field, especially compared to their Innistradi brethren- they look real awkward next to Humans, Zombies, Spirits, and Vampires.

Issue 2: The colours

Werewolves are pretty shoehorned into Gruul as far as the cards go. Both legendary Werewolves and the Werewolf Planeswalker are in the colour combination, as well as the vast majority of the tribe’s members. However, Midnight Hunt has added some other options in all 3 other colours, and there are reasons to run each anyway- mostly to do with, you know, that whole cardpool issue.

Because as good as Tovolar is, this tribe needs a little help from another colour, in my opinion.

White is the most commonly added colour to Werewolf decks, due to getting to play Rule of Law effects to stop your Werewolves from getting flipped back over. If I build Werewolves, it probably will be Naya, just because I already have two Gruul decks, but my issue is the lack of a clear Commander. Samut is clearly the best option, mostly on account of Flash and the deck likely being fairly aggressive, but I have an issue with commanders, particularly Tribal commanders, not accurately representing the deck. But then, what am I supposed to go with? Anara/Bruse Tarl? Gahiji? Rin and Seri kinda work flavourfully, if you squint, but they do nothing for the gameplay of the deck. I probably would have to just get over it and play Samut, and maybe you should too.

Midnight Hunt did also throw some Black Werewolves in, to go with the original 3 from back in the day (the utterly terrible Treacherous Werewolf, Lesser Werewolf, and Greater Werewolf), opening Jund as an option, kind of. My issue with this is that aside from just general good cards, Black doesn’t really add much to the deck’s likely plans, and only one of the new Black Werewolves, Graveyard Tresspasser, is really any good. I suppose this does mean you could run 4-colour with Saskia, but…eh…

This set also added a singular Blue werewolf in Suspicious Stowaway, which is actually kinda okay. And also Blue gets one extra Rule of Law effect in Arcane Laboratory. But I don’t think I’m going to see Temur Werewolves anytime soon. I guess you could run Surrak? Blue does notably also get you a bunch of the better Changelings, on account of their recent Kaldheim iterations being in Green-Blue.

There is always, of course, Morophon. But that fucker’s for cowards. The TL;DR is, that Werewolves’s best commanders don’t give you access to everything the deck needs.

Issue 3: The tribes

This is somewhat of a more minor issue, but one worth bringing up. Many of the Werewolf matters cards are shared with Wolf matters cards, and so it’s likely worth bringing a few of the better Wolves into the mix. Sarulf, if you’re including Black, or one or both Tolsimir-s in White. Wolves are a tribe with many, many more members, especially adding in all the Wolf Token producing cards, though there are still fewer Wolf Matters cards than Werewolf Matters ones. Also, some of the Werewolf Matters cards are Wolves, like Nightpack Ambusher, Silverfur Partisan, and Immerwolf. So there’s probably a fair few worth throwing in.

As well, seeing as the vast majority of Werewolves have Human front faces, some Humans matter cards like Angel of Glory’s Rise or the new Katilda are worth a shout. There are very few of these that work unfortunately, seeing as you are actively trying to have your humans not be humans, but it’s potentially worth the look.

The reason I find this to be an issue is that you can only add in so many subthemes like this before the deck’s real synergies start to get too heavily diluted. Every Wolf you add makes your Werewolves worse, you know?

I dunno maybe this one was less an issue and more just a recommendation. And yes I know most of the non-Human Werewolves are in fact Eldrazi, but as much as I love those cards they’re both mostly bad and there’s not enough of them, so don’t bother putting Eldrazi cards in there. You have to dump a lot of mana to flip them anyway.

Issue 4: The gameplay

Werewolves as a tribe are extremely challenging from a gameplay perspective. You have to be paying close attention every turn, in order to make sure that you know when your Werewolves are transforming- and in a format like Commander, they are probably not spending nearly as much time with the back half as they are the front half.

While I appreciate Midnight Hunt’s design efforts to simplify this with the Daybound mechanic, in Commander this kinda just makes it worse. Daybound means you are having to track this mechanic at all times, even when you or nobody else has a Werewolf on the field, as long as you’ve played one of the new ones beforehand. As well, the older cards (which you will need some of) are completely unlinked to this day/night cycle, even though they technically use the same trigger, which can lead to some confusion- if, for example, Tovolar makes it Night on your Upkeep, playing a Duskwatch Recruiter is still going to leave you with a Duskwatch Recruiter, not a Krallenhorde Howler.

Considering Tovolar is likely the leader for most Werewolf decks going forward, I appreciate the effort to make him work with the Werewolves of the past, and that he tries to mitigate the tribe’s biggest issue. But there are a whole bunch of really finicky interactions that are both difficult to get your head around and difficult to explain to others when you pull them off. For example, if the player before you casts two spells on their turn, it becomes Day as the turn begins, meaning all your MID Werewolves will transform immediately, then Upkeep happens, and any of your non-MID Werewolves flip as well. Then Tovolar triggers, and you can transform as many of your Werewolves as you want- so if you stack the triggers right, then something like, say, Huntmaster of the Fells or Ulrich of the Krallenhorde will get to transform twice in the same step and get both of its “when ~ transforms” effects.

The other half of this is just the mental load on your opponents. You know what all your cards do, but your opponents aren’t going to! And this is a typical thing in EDH, the game requires either a massive knowledge of Magic, an ability to pick up on new cards and interactions quickly, or both, but it gets so much worse when each of your cards has two sides worth of text to read off whenever you play one. And people (particularly those with less-than-perfect threat assessment) are going to typically assume that the more words on your cards the better they are, so you might get targeted just based on that even though half the words aren’t relevant most of the time.

The long and short of Werewolves in EDH is this: They’re still awkward and janky. I think you can actually build a deck, but you could already do that technically, and I think the additions from MID aren’t quite enough to bump the tribe up to Actually Good. They are, though, about the level of Jank that I appreciate, so maybe I’ll still just build them anyway.

There is potential hope, though. Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is an Innistrad Werewolf Set that contains no less than 15 Vampires (one of my biggest issues with the set!), and the next set is Innistrad: Crimson Vow, the Innistrad Vampire Set. Due to the mechanical requirements, I can’t imagine we’re seeing 15 Werewolves in that one, but I’m hoping we do at least get a couple extras. And hey, maybe one of that one’s Commander decks will be Werewolves!

…The previous was written under the assumption that we didn’t know what the VOW Commander Decks were. As it turns out, we have the names. Neither of them are Werewolf themed.

God damn it, maybe next time we come back to Innistrad then. So, see you in 2026.

#ramble #mtg #edh #commander #mtgcommander #mtg edh #mtgmid #werewolves

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en-somniac · 4 years

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Some Words From A Former IB Student

Apparently, despite having graduated high school two years ago, I still follow IB tags on here, and a lot of the posts that have been popping up have been... reminding me of my own experiences. I wanted to write these down as a way to help current IB students or future IB students who feel as isolated, lost and absolutely destroyed as I did for large portions of my experience.

If you aren’t interested in listening to someone ramble about a somewhat uncommon high school speciality program, please skip.

Some background here: I graduated Spring of 2018 with my IB diploma and my Ontario Secondary School Diploma, but I actually started off with international baccalaureate back in grade 7. Yeah, you can start that early. I went to a rather expensive private school and one of their talking points was that they used the IB program all the way through. So they not only ran the diploma program (what most people will experience), but also the primary years program and the middle years program. I did the middle years program and the diploma program. So prior to starting DP, I had already completed a handful of assignments and various works for my MYP program, including the personal project, which is a hell unto itself but at least lets you be creative. And then, in 2016, I started DP, where I took HL Literature, HL Visual Arts, HL History, SL Mathematics, SL Chemistry and SL French. Which is an absolutely bizarre spread, I’ll be honest. I also went into DP with undiagnosed ADHD, undiagnosed and untreated severe anxiety, severe social anxiety, depression and a handful of sensory processing issues that came bundled in with ADHD.

So yeah. I did not start IB off well. I also went into grade 12/year 2 with a predicted 26 points, which is only two points above the minimum. So that was fun.

However, I managed it. I got through IB and I have the diploma to prove it (at least, my dad does. It’s currently back home instead of in my University apartment).

And so.. here are a few things I needed to hear, and I think others need to hear.

1. IB is NOT an accurate reflection of university.

I should know. I’m in third year. Some aspects are very similar - you are expected to manage readings and extra work outside of class and for many humanities subjects, your lecture times may be filled with discussions. You are expected to have a fairly decent course load. Depending on your program, there may be overarching projects or assignments similar to the extended essay. However. IB scoring can give you an incredibly warped perspective on grades. For many IB students, getting a 3 or a 4 can be incredibly stressful. But to put it into perspective - a 3 is a 70-76 percent. A 4 is a 77-83 percent.

To reference my Sensory and Perception Psych course from this term, my university considers a 70-79 to be good work. Meets all requirements and is satisfactory above that. They count it as a B.

IB scoring gives you an absolutely terrible perspective on grades, and this will cause you an insane amount of stress starting university if you aren’t prepared. You need to recalibrate your concept of “good” grades, for your own mental wellbeing.

2. IB requires you to be constantly working. And it isn’t healthy.

I’m a third year student and I work a part time job, typically 10-20 hours a week, on top of currently taking the maximum amount of classes I can per term (5) and I am still doing less work than I was in IB.

Ib may cause you to experience stress when you have free time where you feel like you should be doing something. And this can be absolutely draining for your mental wellbeing, and make your time off be less of a relaxation time and more of a mental hell. You need time off. IB does not teach you that in any way, and so I’m so sorry to say that it is up to you to learn how to enjoy free time.

You need to learn to give yourself a break.

3. It’s... okay if you fail.

Its not the end of the world if you don’t get your diploma. It’s not the end of the world if you do poorly on the exams.

If you can get your high school diploma, you’re doing fantastic. Failing IB will not kill you. It’ll be upsetting, yes, but you’ll get past it. This isn’t something to put all of your wellbeing into.

Please, please, do not put all of your self worth into IB.

It is not worth it.

Talk to your teachers. Talk to your school councilors. Talk to your friends, and parents if they’re willing to listen. Do not be trapped in that headspace where you feel like you have to succeed, or the world will end.

Most university students get in without IB. It is a boost, yes, but you can get in and complete university completely successfully without IB.

It is not worth destroying your wellbeing over.

#former Ib student #IB #international baccalaureate #ari talks

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sonoilbastardo · 6 years

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FULL NAME: Easton Craven

PRONUNCIATION: /EES-tuhn CRAY-ven/ MEANING: Easton | Old English: eastern settlement or eastern town. Craven | Irish: anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Crabháin (‘descendant (or ‘son’) of Crabhán’); English: contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly. REASONING: Stella Craven did not waste her time thinking of a name for a child that isn’t hers, unlike when her own darling baby boy was born, and she gave him the name Everett - which means brave as a wild boar. For her husband’s bastard boy, she refused to grant him a name, and so Gabriel shrugged his shoulders and simply wrote Easton on a piece of paper, feeling his heart sink as he wrote the last name Craven right after. This unfortunate boy will bear his name for as long as he lived, a reminder of his, Gabriel Craven’s, horrible mistake. NICKNAME(S): Edmund, East PREFERRED NAME(S): East BIRTH DATE: 30th March 1992 AGE: 26 ZODIAC: Aries GENDER: Male PRONOUNS: He/Him ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteroromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual NATIONALITY: Italian ETHNICITY: Caucassian CURRENT LOCATION: Verona, Italy LIVING CONDITIONS: Comfortably living alone in a small villa with a terrace, garage, and a fireplace. Considerably smaller than the estate he grew up in, but prefers his own place than to live with his father (he already works with the man, he doesn’t want to live under the same roof as well.) TITLE(S): the shadow, il bastardo

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: Verona, Italy HOMETOWN: Verona, Italy SOCIAL CLASS: Upper-class EDUCATION LEVEL: Bachelor of Business Administration & Master of Business Administration from the University of Milan. FATHER: Gabriel Craven MOTHER: (unknown), Step-Mother: Stella Craven SIBLING(S): Everett Craven ( Half-brother ) BIRTH ORDER: 2nd for his father, unknown for his mother CHILDREN: None. PET(S): None. OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: None. PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: Two official. Both while in university. First one lasted three months, he was cheated on. Second one lasted two years. The woman is from another rich family, but in a much higher league than his, is brilliant and talented, and he felt intimidated by her command of language and intelligence. He broke up with her right before joining the mob. ARREST: Once when he was 22 years old, he crashed his car into a tiny storefront and he was arrested for drunk-driving. Was bailed out by Everett, and the store-owners dropped their lawsuit and were happy to settle. Everett didn’t really give them much of a choice anyways. PRISON TIME?: None.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: Working at his father’s legitimate hotel and wine businesses. He holds a key personnel position (operations manager), and while Stella disapproves of this, Gabriel could not deny that he is capable. SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: The mob, as a Capulet soldier. Thanks to his Captain, Tiberius, most of the work he does are boring, to the point that he’s a “glorified personal assistant”. This jobs pays well regardless, almost at par with his job at his father’s companies. TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME: Fighting. He earns money through underground fights that he participates in, though he has blown some of that money anyway for treatment of injuries he’s suffered from them. CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: No, wants to own his father’s entire company one way or the other, and wants to rank higher up in the mob. PAST JOB(S): None, was accepted into his father’s business right after college, and did not have to work for his tuition since his father paid for it all. SPENDING HABITS: Spends a lot of money on alcohol and cigarettes, likes to dress well and buys new clothes at least once a week, whenever he sees anything that he fancies. Sometimes pends money on good ingredients because he likes to cook Italian food, but often is too lazy to do this and would simply head down to one of the restaurants in hotels his father owns. Spends money on books as well, mostly poetry, and likes to collect first editions. MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: Rare first edition of Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: Physically strong, but does not rely solely on it when he engages in fights. OFFENSE: Usually fights with open hands, which he believes are far more brutal than closed fists, using his body parts: elbows, knees, and others as weapons to deliver forceful strikes. Recently, as well, he has been mastering a new fighting style that allows him to make use of objects around him and allows him to fight in any given situation, a style with which one must also have a clear goal for his opponent: to kill? to maim? DEFENSE: Use of an opponent’s strength against them, which is something he learned as a child when he signed up for Judo as an extra-curricular. He has long since abandoned his formal Judo training for Muay Thai and most recently, Keysi, but this defensive technique could not be lost on him. SPEED: Quick on his feet, trusts his instincts. INTELLIGENCE: Easton has been blessed with a good head in his shoulders, but still somehow not a match for his half-brother’s. He did not graduate with any Latin honors, but did not have any difficulties in college whatsoever. That made it easy for him to deal with graduate school as well. He also enjoys reading, which sometimes surprises people, and he is somewhat a snob, preferring to read the classics and works of long dead poets. For the earlier years of his life he has been considerably sheltered, and only when he decided he did not need to impress his father anymore did he take to the streets of Verona and find Measure by Measure. ACCURACY: With the gun, fairly accurate. He likes to use his hands and fists in fights that let him channel his rage, but he’s had to learn how to shoot a gun for his job, and he can’t say he’s a champion marksman. AGILITY: Quite agile and coordinated, hyper-aware of his body parts and movements. STAMINA: High endurance. TEAMWORK: Considerably good, if he sees some use with teaming up. Most likely not good if forced to work together, and he does not see how he’d gain anything from it, and he would rather work alone in instances like these. Still completely loyal to himself only. TALENTS: Martial arts (from years of training as a child, and then later in underground fights), exceptional memory (helped him throughout college) and helps him keep up with work and the mob. SHORTCOMINGS: At times, lacks the “street-smart” attitude that someone working for a mob should have. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: Italian, English. DRIVE?: Yes. JUMP-START A CAR?: Yes. CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: Yes. RIDE A BICYCLE?: Yes. SWIM?: Yes. PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: Used to. Learned piano to try and impress his father. PLAY CHESS?: Yes. BRAID HAIR?: No. TIE A TIE?: Yes. PICK A LOCK?: Yes. Just because he wanted to learn it.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: Daniel Sharman EYE COLOR: Blue HAIR COLOR: Light brown HAIR TYPE/STYLE: A curly mop of hair GLASSES/CONTACTS?: None. DOMINANT HAND: Right. HEIGHT: 6′2 WEIGHT: 83 kg (183 lbs.) BUILD: Mesomorph EXERCISE HABITS: Jogs every morning before work, goes to the gym to train Muay Thai five to six times a week, goes down to Measure by Measure whenever he feels like it. SKIN TONE: Type II: white, fair TATTOOS: Lines of poetry on his left rib. PEIRCINGS: None. MARKS/SCARS: Birthmark on his lower back, looks like a misshapen heart. Scar on his right bicep, a small slash about two inches in length, from a knife fight with a gang member he was assigned to. NOTABLE FEATURES: That jawline? I mean? USUAL EXPRESSION: Either expressionless or scowling, eyes always intense and glaring. CLOTHING STYLE: Wears expensive suits to work. Wears leather jackets when not at work, along with jeans and boots. JEWELRY: Thin gold necklace always kept underneath clothes, simple columnar pendant. ALLERGIES: None. BODY TEMPERATURE: Normal? DIET: Lots of protein, moderate on carbs and fats, very minimal sweets. PHYSICAL AILMENTS: None.

PSYCHOLOGY

JUNG TYPE: ENTP ENNEAGRAM TYPE: Type 8; Active Controller MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral TEMPERAMENT: Choleric ELEMENT: Fire PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE: Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence APPROXIMATE IQ: 125+ MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: None. SOCIABILITY: Fairly social when he believes it useful for him. EMOTIONAL STABILITY: Fairly stable. Is able to channel rage into “appropriate” avenues like fighting, rarely takes it out on anyone innocent. Is more likely to punch a wall than punch a person. OBSESSION(S): Getting revenge. Taking everything his father denied him. COMPULSION(S): Cursing. Sex and talking about it. PHOBIA(S): None. ADDICTION(S): Smoking. DRUG USE: Minimal. ALCOHOL USE: Occassional. PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: Yes

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: Low, throaty voice, always with a hint of arrogance. A slow drawl. He usually thinks carefully about what he says, and likes to speak in a “romantic” way that uses a variety of words showcasing his command of vocabulary. (Prime example of how he speaks is how Daniel Sharman speaks in Fear the Walking Dead. link ) ACCENT: Italian QUIRKS: Prone to reciting archaic lines of poetry both in Italian and English. HOBBIES: Aside from martial arts, reading poetry and reciting them. HABITS: Smokes to relieve stress. NERVOUS TICKS: Chewing the inside of his cheek, cracking his knuckles. DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: The idea of being able to take everything away from his father and his brother. FEARS: That he dies before he attains his goal. POSITIVE TRAITS: Passionate, driven, independent, assertive, confident. NEGATIVE TRAITS: Self-absorbed, dishonest, materialistic, resentful, secretive, vengeful. SENSE OF HUMOR: Insensitive and crude. DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: All the fucking time. CATCHPHRASE(S): None.

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: Muay Thai. BEVERAGE: Black coffee. BOOK: You Get So Alone Sometimes That It Just Makes Sense by Charles Bukowski COLOR: Black. DESIGNER: Gucci. MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: Maserati Quattroporte MOVIE: V for Vendetta MUSICAL ARTIST: Queen QUOTE/SAYING: “I wanted the whole world or nothing.” SCENERY: Fights at Measure by Measure. SCENT: on himself | Hermès, on women | Yves St. Laurent (something that screams sophistication), in general | old books TELEVISION SHOW: Game of Thrones WEATHER: Autumn VACATION DESTINATION: places Game of Thrones have done filming in, tbh

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: To take control of his father’s empire and take control over Verona. GREATEST FEAR: Dying before he achieves his goal. MOST AT EASE WHEN: Alone and cooking up plans for his rise. LEAST AT EASE WHEN: Around his family or his family’s home. WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: Dying not only having his goals achieved, but dying with nothing left to his name. BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Being recognized as one of the most capable Capulet soldiers and soon after, promoted by his own father. BIGGEST REGRET: Wasting time and energy ever believing he would be fully and lovingly accepted by his father. MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Begging an ex-girlfriend to come back to him even after she cheated. One of the lowest points in his life, ever. BIGGEST SECRET: That he sometimes wake up to dreams of his entire family dead by his hands. TOP PRIORITIES: Himself

#diveronatask #( about. edmund )#dio mio #finally #THIS TOOK A WHILE #{ about. edmund }

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giraffingaround · 6 years

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4,7,20,26,34,36,61,63,66,69,77,83,85,93,97,98 WHOOPS UH OH so many sorry 💜

4. Last song you listened to?War paint - FLETCHER (I was running and it's a banger when you're all tired out, my running playlist is LIT)7. Been cheated on?'anon' you know the answer to this is yes, I'm pretty sure that's just the first time I caught him I wouldn't be surprised if there were other occasions tbh20. found out someone was talking about youI found out one of my primary school friends was talking shit about me behind my back despite us not having talked for 2 years, funnily enough I don't talk to anyone from primary school26. what did you do for your last birthdayGet drunk in someone else's house and play monopoly to loud music and dan chunned after I left, I made it to my 10am quite hungover34. who's getting on your nerves right nowMy parents, I'm just expected to be doing something 24/7 ugh36. favourite colour?Blue skies on a sunny day is the best colour and you can't tell me otherwise 61. i'm about to:GO TO BED 😍63. waiting for:BED TIME and when I'm finally reunited with my gays 💜💜66. career:I don't have a fucking clue69.(nice) shorter or taller?I suspect 'anon' is digging here so I'm gonna say shorter to annoy 'anon'77. have you ever drank hard liquorI have to be ABSOLUTELY SMASHED to do shots that aren't sourz, like the time me and Nan did tequila shots on holiday, I'll drink vodka with a mixer if I wanna get CRUNK83. have you ever turned someone down?Lol yeah I'm too asexual for my own good, my friends brother had a crush on me in year 9 and I turned him down pretty quickI've probably accidentally turned people down bc I didn't realise they liked me, exhibit 1 the person I liked in year 12/13 was definitely flirting with me and I only realised that literally yesterday85. have you ever fallen for a friend?ANON STOP DIGGING93. How would you label yourself?To most people I would just come out as ace because it's fairly straightforward to explain, but if we're getting specific I'd say demisexual is more accurate bc I have experienced the sexual attraction but I can name all the people that it's happened with and it's like 6 people (which is Nan's daily count) I have no clue if I lean more towards guys or girls, I guess I find girls more aesthetically attractive but being with guys is more socially acceptable 97. if you could go back in time how far back would you go?We're forgetting that I'm a female sciencer who would be subject to rampant sexism, I think I'd rather go to the future and see what's going on, but going to the Alexandria library would be pretty wild ngl98. out of everything in the world what do you wish for?Happiness

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ericvick · 4 years

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In Fields Corner, searching plaza steward is viewing a 'renaissance'

Tom Cifrino has fairly a great deal observed it all in his 45-year-very long occupation as the manager of Fields Corner’s buying plaza. Due to the fact 1975, Cifrino has overseen the property for Superior Realty Belief, the family-owned business enterprise that includes holdings in Cambridge, Quincy, the South Shore, and Dorchester’s Adams Village neighborhood.

But the Fields Corner shopping center— with its large parking whole lot together Geneva Avenue— has often been the marquee spot. Tucked in concerning Town Area and the MBTA Red Line station, the browsing plaza houses an array of enterprises, from a McDonald’s restaurant and Bank of The usa ATM to a family-owned Black elegance source house that just opened its doorways future to the mall’s elder statesman of types, Supreme Liquors, which Cifrino’s have confidence in owns and operates.

The latest large-identify addition, even so, is bringing renewed focus to Fields Corner: Concentrate on. It is the second Dorchester site for the retail behemoth, which has been an anchor of the South Bay shopping mall for much more than a decade.

The Fields Corner Goal, which opened its doorways to customers on Oct. 21, is far scaled-down than its huge-box sibling on our northern border. It occupies a 27,000-sq.-foot house, or about 1-quarter of the dimension of the South Bay shop.

When Goal signed on for a ten-calendar year lease in 2019, the company’s spokesperson, Jacqueline DeBuse, explained it was “excited to bring an uncomplicated, convenient buying expertise to additional friends in the better Boston place with this new Target retailer.”

The mini- Goal is component of a nationwide tactic by the chain to track down scaled-down footprint merchants in city marketplaces, like areas in Roslindale, Brookline, and Beacon Hill, which also opened its doorways last week.

The house that Goal now fills has had a rocky time keeping filled. Predecessors, which have incorporated Fallas, HomeGoods, and A.J. Wright, have all long gone belly up. Cifrino and his new tenants, even so, seem bullish on the odds of hitting a bulls-eye with this a single. And the marquee countrywide chain’s debut arrives just months in advance of another key opening that has been more than a year in the making.

The Slawsby family, which operates Preserve-A-Great deal grocery outlets in Roxbury, Roslindale, and Brockton, has been doing work to renovate and re-open up a supermarket in the 20,000-square-foot space closest to the Geneva Avenue facet of the virtually 250,000- sq.-foot shopping mall. It will fill a massive grocery void in the community left when America’s Foodstuff Basket shut final January.

The grocery store was meant to open in May well, but when Covid settled into the location final spring, the renovations had been paused, much too. Now, the Slawbys are arranging to open sometime ahead of Christmas as a PriceRite Market. Along with a totally refurbished keep, the market will make 40 jobs— a lot of of them for neighbors who can wander there from the dense residential aspect streets about Fields Corner and Bowdoin-Geneva.

Tom Cifrino has managed the Fields Corner browsing plaza in very good times— and in downturns— given that 1975. The plaza has never experienced a lengthy vacancy in that time, although there has been a good deal of change-more than in the blend of suppliers. Very last week noticed the opening of a new brand— Target— which is now open in a around 27,000 sq. foot room. Bill Forry image

A internet site pay a visit to past week showed the place absolutely empty, awaiting a closing ground polish and inspections before employees can haul in freezers, shelves, and products. The gut rehab of what was at first an MBTA trolley barn finished up getting a a great deal much larger undertaking than first predicted, according to Jonathan Slawsby, who will work the retailer with his brother Todd and his father, 83-yr-previous Harold Slawsby.

“The exterior partitions and sub-ground are only things definitely left from the original space,” Slawbsy stated. “Tom [Cifrino] has invested a great deal of time and revenue strengthening the plaza above the years. And we made a decision that the neighborhood warrants a nicer actual physical plant than what they had in right here in advance of.”

Significantly of the function that has been completed will not be instantly clear to consumers who frequented the old America’s Food items Basket.

“We changed the complete HVAC and electrical system. We used a month and a half digging up the floors,” claimed Slawsby. “The amount of money of drain do the job we experienced to do was substantial. We experienced to place in 19 new drains.”

The elder Slawsby started out performing at his family’s meat current market in Fields Corner when he was 14 several years-aged.

“He loves the notion of being again in that neighborhood and that’s pushed us to get this carried out,” stated Jonathan. “We could have slice down the time – if we lower corners and then dealt with difficulties down the road. But we system to operate there for the next 30 decades.”

That sort of very long-phrase motivation is new music to the ears of Tom Cifrino, who thinks that the Slawsbys and Target— alongside with his other tenants— are entering this marketplace at an opportune time.

Like the Slawsbys, Cifrino’s lineage in Dorchester runs back a few generations. His grandparents opened their Uphams Corner Sector, the neighborhood’s to start with grocery store, on Columbia Road in 1919. At age 16, Cifrino began doing the job as a “bag boy” at the family’s Supreme Marketplace in Fields Corner that his mothers and fathers ran. His mother grew up in a house upcoming to St. Ambrose Church, just out of check out from the Fields Corner mall.

“We’ve been in this article ever because and we’re not likely anywhere now,” Cifrino explained to the Reporter last 7 days, pointing to hundreds of new plantings that he ordered for the fall year.

“People really don’t recognize that. They think we are some huge conglomerate from someplace out in Chicago that just does not treatment. But we do. And I assume that would make a difference… We’ve been supplied a whole lot of revenue to provide this position and we really don’t want to. We’re going to be right here for the extensive haul.”

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#Corner #Fields #Plaza #renaissance #searching #steward #Viewing

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theliberaltony · 7 years

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Democrats had a really good night on Tuesday, easily claiming the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, flipping control of the Washington state Senate and possibly also the Virginia House of Delegates, passing a ballot measure in Maine that will expand Medicaid in the state, winning a variety of mayoral elections around the country, and gaining control of key county executive seats in suburban New York.

They also got pretty much exactly the results you’d expect when opposing a Republican president with a 38 percent approval rating.

That’s not to downplay Democrats’ accomplishments. Democrats’ results were consistent enough, and their margins were large enough, that Tuesday’s elections had a wave-like feel. That includes how they performed in Virginia, where Ralph Northam won by considerably more than polls projected. When almost all the tossup races go a certain way, and when the party winning those tossup races also accomplishes certain things that were thought to be extreme long shots (such as possibly winning the Virginia House of Delegates), it’s almost certainly a reflection of the national environment.

But we didn’t need Tuesday night to prove that the national environment was good for Democrats; there was plenty of evidence for it already. In no particular order of importance:

President Trump’s approval rating is only 37.6 percent.

Democrats lead by approximately 10 points on the generic Congressional ballot.

Republican incumbents are retiring at a rapid pace; there were two retirements (from New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo and Texas Rep. Ted Poe) on Tuesday alone.

Democrats are recruiting astonishing numbers of candidates for Congress.

Democrats have performed well overall in special elections to the U.S. Congress, relative to the partisanship of those districts; they’ve also performed well in special elections to state legislatures.

The opposition party almost always gains ground at midterm elections. This is one of the most durable empirical rules of American politics.

So while Northam’s 9-point margin of victory was a surprise based on the polls, which had projected him to win by roughly 3 points instead1, it was right in line with what you might expect based on these “fundamental” factors. For instance, a simple model we developed based on the generic ballot and state partisanship forecasted a 9-point win for Democrats in Virginia and a 13-point win in New Jersey, pretty much matching their actual results in each state.

To put it another way, Tuesday’s results shouldn’t have exceeded your expectations for Democrats by all that much because you should have had high expectations already. Midterm elections — and usually also off-year and special elections — almost always go well for the opposition party, and they’re going to go especially well when the president has a sub-40 approval rating.

So, does that mean that Democrats are clear favorites to pick up the House next year? No, not necessarily. I’d say they’re favorites, but not particularly heavy ones. Democrats face one major disadvantage, and have one major source of uncertainty.

The uncertainty is time: there’s still a year to go until the midterms. This could cut either way, of course. The political environment often deteriorates for the president’s party during his second year in office, and one can imagine a variety of factors (from attempting to pass an unpopular tax plan to ongoing bombshells in the Russia investigation) that could further worsen conditions for Republicans. One can also imagine a variety of factors that would help the GOP: Democrats overplaying their hand on impeachment; a rally-around-the-flag effect after a war or terror attack; Trump quitting Twitter. (Okay, probably not that last one.) That Trump is so unpopular so soon in his term makes all of this harder to predict because there aren’t any good precedents for a president with such a poor approval rating so early on.

Democrats also face a big disadvantage in the way their voters are distributed across Congressional districts, as a result of both gerrymandering and geographic self-sorting. Although these calculations can vary based on the incumbency advantage and other factors, my back-of-the-envelope math suggests that Democrats would only be about even-money to claim the House even if they won the popular vote for the House by 7 percentage points next year. The Republican ship is built to take on a lot of water, although it would almost certainly capsize if the Democratic advantage in the House popular vote stretched into the double digits, as it stands now in some Congressional preference polls.

Nonetheless, my sense is that the conventional wisdom has, to this point, somewhat underrated the Democrats’ chances of having a wave election next year. And it’s for some fairly stupid (although understandable) reasons.

One is in the tendency to fight the last war. Journalists and pundits are always chastened by the “lessons” of the most recent election, especially if the outcome was surprising to them. And they usually like to argue that the results represented a realignment or a paradigm shift, rather than — as is more often the case — a fluctuation that came about from a combination of cyclical and circumstantial factors that may not replicate themselves again. So they’re often slow to recognize signs that the political climate is shifting in the opposite direction from the supposed realignment, even when they’re really obvious. (Like, say, a Republican winning a Senate seat in Massachusetts only a year after the Democratic president took office.)

Second, the pundit class has a poor understanding of polling, and how it performed in 2016 — and it’s making 2018 punditry worse. As I wrote in our live blog on Tuesday night:

[It’s] been interesting to see how television pundits adapt to the post-2016 environment. Pretty much everyone on Monday morning’s “Morning Joe” panel predicted that Gillespie would win in Virginia despite Northam’s modest lead in the polls, for instance…

[The] segment was a bit worrisome in that it suggests that political pundits and reporters learned the wrong lessons from 2016. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the polls weren’t that far off last year — they were about as accurate as they’d been in past elections. But they were filtered thru a lens of groupthink that was convinced Trump couldn’t possibly win — and so pundits routinely misinterpreted polls and ignored data showing a competitive race.

It’s healthy to take away the lesson from 2016 that polls are not always right… But that polls aren’t always right doesn’t mean that one’s gut instinct is a better way to forecast elections. On the contrary, the conventional wisdom has usually been much wronger than the polls, so much so that it’s given rise to what I’ve called the First Rule of Polling Errors, which is that polls almost always miss in the opposite direction of what pundits expect. That the “Morning Joe” panel thinks Gillespie will win might be a bullish indicator for Northam, in other words.

If you think numbers like Trump’s 37.6 percent approval rating are “fake news” because polls perpetually underrated Trump before, then the political climate doesn’t look quite as scary for the GOP. However, one needs to be careful about assuming the polling error always runs in the same direction; historically, it’s been just as likely to reverse itself from one election to the next. (For instance, polls lowballed Democrats in 2012 but then did the same to Republicans in 2014.)

Finally, there’s perhaps an unhealthy obsession with the white working-class vote, and its potential to sway the 2018 midterms in favor of Republicans. This could be more of a concern for Democrats in 2020. But the midterm electorate is typically more educated and better off financially than the presidential-year one. Also, most of the pickup opportunities that analysts envision for Democrats are in wealthy or at least middle-class areas. On average, the 61 Republican-held Congressional districts that the Cook Political Report rates as competitive rank in the 65th percentile in educational attainment (as measured by the share of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree) and also the 65th percentile in median household income. Some of them are fairly white, and some aren’t — but almost none are both white and working-class.

Competitive districts are mostly well-off and well-educated

Demographic ranking for the 61 Republican-held Congressional districts that the Cook Political Report rates as competitive

PERCENTILE RANK AMONG ALL 435 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS SEAT▲▼ COOK RATING▲▼ EDUCATION▲▼ INCOME▲▼ NONWHITE▲▼ Georgia 6 Leans Republican 99 92 62 California 45 Leans Republican 97 96 71 New Jersey 11 Leans Republican 96 99 36 Virginia 10 Toss-up 96 100 58 Illinois 6 Leans Republican 95 96 29 New Jersey 7 Leans Republican 95 99 43 Minnesota 3 Leans Republican 94 91 28 Texas 7 Leans Republican 94 80 77 Kansas 3 Leans Republican 93 81 39 Michigan 11 Toss-up 92 88 25 California 48 Toss-up 90 93 66 California 49 Toss-up 88 89 60 Pennsylvania 7 Leans Republican 88 92 18 Texas 32 Leans Republican 88 78 73 Pennsylvania 6 Leans Republican 87 90 19 Illinois 14 Likely Republican 86 94 28 California 39 Leans Republican 85 91 88 Colorado 6 Toss-up 85 85 57 Michigan 8 Leans Republican 82 71 22 Georgia 7 Likely Republican 81 82 76 Nebraska 2 Toss-up 81 66 37 Pennsylvania 8 Leans Republican 81 89 17 Virginia 7 Likely Republican 80 83 50 Minnesota 2 Toss-up 79 88 22 Florida 27 Leans Democratic 78 39 93 Pennsylvania 18 Likely Republican 74 67 2 North Carolina 2 Likely Republican 73 70 51 New York 11 Likely Republican 70 80 61 Virginia 2 Likely Republican 70 72 57 Arizona 2 Toss-up 68 25 58 New York 1 Likely Republican 68 94 33 New Jersey 3 Likely Republican 67 84 33 North Carolina 9 Likely Republican 66 50 60 Ohio 1 Likely Republican 66 49 45 Iowa 3 Leans Republican 64 65 18 Ohio 16 Likely Republican 64 68 3 Kentucky 6 Likely Republican 61 32 21 Montana Likely Republican 59 29 13 Florida 18 Likely Republican 57 47 48 New York 24 Likely Republican 56 51 21 Illinois 13 Likely Republican 55 27 26 Kansas 2 Leans Republican 50 38 19 New York 19 Toss-up 50 57 18 Washington 8 Toss-up 49 65 49 California 50 Likely Republican 47 81 68 Utah 4 Likely Republican 47 76 34 Virginia 5 Likely Republican 46 40 38 California 25 Toss-up 44 84 78 Florida 26 Leans Republican 42 45 95 Iowa 1 Toss-up 42 54 10 North Carolina 13 Likely Republican 41 21 53 New York 22 Leans Republican 37 42 12 New Jersey 2 Toss-up 36 60 52 Pennsylvania 16 Likely Republican 33 52 39 Michigan 7 Likely Republican 31 51 11 Illinois 12 Leans Republican 29 20 31 Maine 2 Leans Republican 24 18 <1 Texas 23 Leans Republican 18 35 91 New Mexico 2 Likely Republican 16 8 83 California 10 Leans Republican 5 58 77 California 21 Likely Republican <1 7 95

Sources: COOK POLITICAL REPORT, AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY

Of course, this logic is somewhat circular: if Democrats aren’t trying to compete for the white working-class vote, outlets like Cook won’t list white working-class districts as being competitive. It’s possible there are some overlooked opportunities, such as in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional district, which Democrats came surprisingly close to winning in a special election earlier this year.

Nonetheless, Democrats have quite a few pathways toward winning the House that rely primarily on middle-class and upper-middle-class suburban districts, plus a few districts with growing nonwhite populations. Many of these are in coastal states or in blue states, including four of them in Virginia, four in New Jersey, four in Illinois, five in New York and eight in California, according to Cook’s list. It might not be advisable for Democrats to only target these sorts of districts; history suggests that parties usually benefit from competing ambitiously in all sorts of districts and seeing where the chips fall. But it’s plausible for them to do so and reclaim the House. Come 2020, though, it will be harder for Democrats to win back the Electoral College without rebounding among the white working-class.

Last thing: while Tuesday’s results may not change the reality of the 2018 outlook all that much, it could change perceptions about it, and that could have some knock-on effects. (Politicians are often like “Morning Joe” panelists in how they think about elections.) Republicans’ retirement issues may get even worse; Democrats’ recruiting may get even better. Republicans might think twice about how they’re proceeding on tax reform — especially given that their current plans could have negative effects on just the sorts of wealthy coastal suburbs where Republicans performed poorly on Tuesday.

And there will be lots of recriminations about the race that Ed Gillespie ran in Virginia, which could change Republicans’ thinking on how they should relate to Trump. Some of this is going to be silly: Gillespie did no worse (and no better) than you’d expect given Trump’s approval rating and Virginia’s blue lean. But if those politicians think Tuesday was a huge game-changing deal, they may begin to act like it and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Nate Silver

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steamberrystudio · 7 years

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If the characters take a personality test based on Myers-Briggs personality types what would the results be?

These can be tricky to do for characters but these were the results I got on a fairly quick one I found. I feel they’re more or less accurate - maybe slightly off on some of the traits but close enough. OwO

Corvin: ENFP-A

90% extroverted

89% intuitive

91% feeling

83% prospecting

56% assertive/44% turbulent

Danny: ESFJ – A

79% extroverted

57% observant/43% intuitive

69% feeling

63% judging

53% assertive/47% turbulent

Elliot: ENFP – T

69% extroverted

76% intuitive

85% feeling

87% prospecting

78% turbulent

Ewan: INFJ – T

100% introverted

60% intuitive

53% feeling/47% feeling

66% judging

79% turbulent

Marc: ISTJ –A

78% introverted

77% observant

91% thinking

99% judging

88% assertive

William: INFJ-T

61% introverted

55% intuitive

78% feeling

84% judging

63% turbulent

#asks #characters

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underabr0kensky · 7 years

Text

BIGGEST GODDAMN SURVEY EVER HOLY SHIT

1- How are you? Content I suppose.

2- Post a picture of yourself. I did yesterday you fuck, go look.

3- Do you ever wish you were someone else? Nah, I’d probably still be messed up as anyone else.

4- What is your entire name? Conner Wade Garcia.

5- How old are you? 24.

6- Age you get mistaken for: I’ve been mistaken for like 19.

7- Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality: Libra, and yeah, the stuff I see is usually fairly accurate.

8- What did you do on your last birthday? Worked, and then slept.

9- What is one thing you would like to accomplish before your next birthday? Uhh...maybe quit drinking?

10- What is your hair color? Dark brown.

11- Have you ever dyed your hair? I had a rat tail when I was like 12 that I dyed blonde.

12- What is your eye color? Hazel, sometimes gray.

13- If you could change your eye color, would you? I’d make them perma-gray.

14- Do you wear contacts/glasses? Yep, I’m fucking blind without my contacts.

15- Your opinion about your body and how confortable you are with it: Meh. It needs work. Fucking pudgy belly.

16- Have you ever considered plastic surgery? What would you alter about your body? Nope.

17- Say 8 facts about your body: That’s a lot, so I’ll say one: I have two scars on my right hand in almost the same place.

18- Do you have any tattoos? Not yet.

19- Do you have any piercings? Nope.

20- Left or right handed? I am a righty, not a subhuman Morlock freak witch person.

21- What’s your sexual orientation? Straight.

22- Do you drink? Yeah, more than I should.

23- Do you smoke? No.

24- Do you have any pets? I wish. I want a kitteh.

25- Where do you work? I don’t right now. I worked at Walmart til like a month ago.

26- Something you are working on right now: Cutting back on my drinking.

27- Do you have any “rules” about food? Nah, but there are some foods I just can’t stand.

28- Where are you from? Tennessee. Ew.

29- What would you say is your best quality? Uhh. I’m good at listening.

30- What do you think you’re really good at? Guitar.

31- What do you think you’re really bad at? Staying sober.

32- What talent do you wish you’d been born with? I’d be happy with not having been born with depression.

33- Are you a bad person? Well I mean I think I kind of suck, but everyone says I’m awesome.

34- Are you nice to everyone? I try to be.

35- Say 3 facts about your personality: I have a temper, I like to listen, and I doubt myself a lot.

36- Has someone ever spread a nasty rumor about you? Yeah lol.

37- What is your ideal bed? Why? A king bed with a curtain around it, because fuck anyone staring at me sleeping. Unless it’s my girlfriend.

38- Did you wake up cranky? Depends on how early I get up.

39- Do you sleep with a stuffed toy? Sometimes.

40- What do you think about the most? My mind is too all over the place for that.

41- Share 2 habits: Drinking and nail-biting.

42- What you want to be when you “get older”? Financially stable bruh.

43- What are your career goals? To not live paycheck to paycheck. And maybe to not hate my job.

44- What is your ideal career? Musician.

45- Is your life anything like it was two years ago? Fucking fuck no.

46- Do you replay things that have happened in your head? Oh yeah, that’s like 98% of my day.

47- Have you ever had an imaginary friend? Yeah, I have.

48- Say 10 facts about your room: I’m not gonna listen ten, but I have a bunch of band/music posters, there’s an electric drum kit in the corner, there are lots of dragon statues, there’s an Arcueid figure (Tsukihime for anyone who gets that), uhh...Borderlands 2 is paused on my TV right now. And there are many guitars.

49- Do you have any phobias? Spiders, needles, and fucking tornadoes.

50- Have you ever been to a psychiatrist/therapist? Yeah, both of them. The therapist stopped practicing which sucked and the psychiatrist was a Godfagging quack.

51- Are you allergic to anything? If so, what? Pollen, rabbits, pork, artificial green apple, cat dandruff, and goldenrod. And amoxicillin.

52- Ever broken any bones? Nope, and I have no idea how.

53- Ever come close to death? Yeah, a couple of times.

54- Things you like and dislike about yourself: Uhh. I like my looks for the most part and my musical talent. Hate pretty much everything else lol.

55- A random fact about yourself: I can curl my tongue. Helps me play the harmonica.

56- What are three things most people don’t know about you? I’ve kissed a guy before, I cry a lot for a guy (or for a person, probably), and I like anime a lot. Specifically stupid slice of life shit and shonen.

57- An unknown fact about your life: Uhh. My stupid fucking taskbar can’t be right clicked. I hate Windows 10.

58- Share something about yourself others might think is weird: I like being choked and slapped in bed.

59- Five weird things that you like: Fried calimari, pineapple on pizza, Wendy’s fries dipped in their chocolate shake (thanks Jess), classical music, and getting drunk outside.

60- Do you have a facebook? If so, would you add the person who sent you this? Yes. And nobody sent me this, I just fill these out as surveys because nobody fucking responds if I just reblog it.

61- Do you have any pictures on your Facebook? Yeah, but they’re not recent. I’m not really active on there anymore.

62- Describe yourself in one word/sentence: Fucked up.

63- A quote you try to live by: “I choose to live rather than just exist” comes the closest, but I’m doing a terrible job of that lol.

64- Leave me a compliment: Uhh. Anyone who reads this, you’re pretty.

Favorites

65- What is your favorite thing to do? Play guitar or listen to music. Or, lately, play Borderlands 2. The DLC is poppin’, yo.

66- What’s your favorite color? Black.

67- What’s your favorite band/singer? Favorite band is Children of Bodom. Favorite singers are James Hetfield, Marc Hudson, Howard Jones, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Anders Fridén, Matt Heafy, Warrel Dane, Amy Lee, probably others I’ve forgotten.

68- What’s your favorite movie? That’s hard. Goodfellas, the Godfather Part I and II, 300, both Avengers movies, Captain America: Civil War, Titanic, Hesher, and Good Will Hunting are some of my favorites.

69- What are your favorite books? The Wheel of Time series, Bag of Bones, the Harry Potter series, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Penpal, Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, A Painted House, Jurassic Park, Black Lightning, shit I have a lot more.

70- What is your favorite quote and why? The above quote, because it represents what I wish I could actually do. But ya know. Money.

71- What is your favorite word? Fuck.

72- What is your least favorite word? Money.

73- What is your favorite type of food? Italian food motherfucker. Specifically lasagna.

74- Your favorite ice cream? Heath bar.

75- What’s your favorite animal? KITTEH.

76- Dogs or cats? KITTEHS.

77- Describe your favourite texture: Uhh. Those really soft silky-feeling blankets.

78- What is your favorite flower? A BLACK ROSE EHHHH SO EDGY. Probably daffodils.

79- What’s your favourite scent? And on the opposite sex? The smell right before or after it rains. And on the opposite sex, whatever perfume they like.

80- What is your favorite season? Spring.

81- What are the top five places you wish you could go before you die? Venice, Berlin, Scotland, Norway, and that weird island with the dragon fruit and flat freaky trees that I’ve forgotten the name of and am too lazy to Google.

82- What are four things you can’t live without and why? Internet, phone, music, and cute animals. Because they keep me from fucking murdering myself.

83- Which mythological creature are you most like? Why? I have no idea but I’m gonna take a quiz right now, brb. Apparently I’m a goddamn unicorn, fuck.

84- What’s your favorite television show? House M.D.

85- Favorite place to shop at? Walmart. Fuck shopping bruh.

86- Say 2 facts about your favorite things: Uhh. One has strings and one lives in Germany.

Family, childhood and places

87- Say 4 facts about your parents: My dad is Spanish, my mom has depression, they divorced when I was like 11, and my dad is a medical professional.

88- Are you more like your mom or your dad? I think I’m like. Exactly equal to both of them. It’s frustrating.

89- Do you have any siblings? An older half brother, two younger step siblings, and two younger half brothers.

90- Say 9 facts about your family: That’s too many facts, die. My family is really big though and my dad’s side can speak Spanish.

91- What’s your relationship like with your family? Meh. Not great with my dad, my mom and I are fine though.

92- Say 7 facts about your childhood: There was a lot of stress and emotional abuse and shit. But it was also a better childhood than most people I think.

93- The best and the worst childhood memories: one of my favorites was when I got a PS1 for my birthday. Worst, I have no idea. Whenever my parents fought, which was a lot.

94- Say 6 facts about your home town: It’s tiny, it’s full of rednecks with fucking F10000 penis substitutes, it has a pretty chill as county fair. I know that’s only 4, fuck off.

95- Are you going out of town soon? Nah, I doubt it.

96- Where would you like to live? If I had to stay in America, California. If I could leave, I dunno, probably Norway or Sweden. Somewhere in Europe definitely.

97- What would your dream house be like? Victorian style please.

98- Where would you go on your dream vacation? Italy. I’d get banned from the country for eating all their food.

99- Where you want to be right now? With my girlfriend, or at a beach somewhere.

100- Top three places to visit: Venice, Berlin, Spain.

Friends

101- Would you ever smile at a stranger? Yeah, I do sometimes.

102- Do you prefer to be friends with girls or boys? Girls. Most of the guys around here act like douches and only ever talk about sports or fucking girls.

103- Who is someone you never tire of? My girlfriend.

104- Do you have someone you can be your complete self around? There are a couple of people.

105- Who is your most loyal friend? Phil.

106- Is there anyone you can tell EVERYTHING to? Mhmm. Three people.

107- If your best friend died, what would you do? Get horrendously drunk for days on end and snap at everyone.

108- A reason you’ve lied to a friend: No idea. Probably because I didn’t want to leave my house or something, lol.

109- Have you ever felt replaced? Yeah, sometimes.

110- Say 5 facts about your bestfriend(s): Too many facts. But he is a drummer and he likes roleplaying games.

Relationships

111- The last person you hugged? Not a fucking clue. Sasha I think.

112- Who was your first kiss with? Girl named Jessica. It was in the garden section at Walmart lol.

113- Do you like kissing in public? I fucking love it.

114- Have you ever kissed someone older than you? Yeah, plenty of times.

115- You have a preference for boys or girls? Girls pls.

116- Is the male or female body closest to perfection? I don’t think anything or anyone is perfect, but I prefer the female body.

117- Do you believe in love at first sight? Nah.

118- Do you believe in soul mates? Maybe. I didn’t used to but now I kinda do.

119- What is your idea of the perfect date? I don’t really care honestly. Just something cute and romantic.

120- Based on past relationships or crushes, describe your perfect boyfriend/girlfriend: I like someone who I can talk to and not get bored of, someone who can keep up with my weird thought processes, and someone who doesn’t mind me being a kinky fuck.

121- What is the first thing you noticed in someone? Eyes or face in general, usually. Unless they’re wearing a crazy outfit or something.

122- Are looks important in a relationship? Yeah. They’re not the most important thing but I have to be attracted to someone.

123- What’s the most superficial characteristic you look for? There’s not really an external characteristic someone needs to have for me to like them, but I love red hair.

124- What’s your opinion on age differences in relationships? No biggie as long as it’s not like a 26 year old dating a 13 year old or something. My ex and I were five years apart.

125- Would you ever date someone off of the Internet? Hahaha. The only two serious relationships I’ve had were on the Internet.

126- Five guys/girls whom you find attractive: The girlfriend, the ex girlfriend, Emma Watson, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis.

127- Do you have a crush on anyone? It’s a bit more than a crush.

128- A description of the girl/boy you like: She’s hot as fuck yo. Hotter than you. :D

129- Say 1 fact about the person your like: She has facial piercings and she always loses :P

130- If the person you like says they like someone else, what would you say? “Can I meet the body I mean person?”

131- When was the last time you told someone you loved them? Whenever I sent the girlfriend the last message lol.

132- Do you think someone has feelings for you? I know she does.

133- Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Probably. Ew.

134- Have you ever cried over a guy/girl? You could say I make a habit of it.

135- Have you ever wanted someone you couldn’t have? Who hasn’t?

136- Anyone you’re giving up on? Nah. Probably should be, but nah.

137- Have you ever liked someone you didn’t expect to? Yup.

138- Have you ever liked someone who your friends hated? Yeah, the girl I dated throughout high school was kind of a cunt to my friends.

139- Have you ever liked one of your best friends? Yup.

140- Has anyone told you they don’t want to ever lose you? Mhmm. Scary thought haha.

141- Is there a boy/girl who you would do absolutely everything for? Yes.

142- Is there someone you will never forget? Absolutely.

143- Say five ways to win your heart: Babble at me in a foreign language, cook me Italian food, introduce me to your cat, leave big ass scratches down my back, or act like a sappy romantic fuck.

144- What turns you on? Slapping, choking, hair pulling, biting, scratching, moaning, hard tongue on tongue kissing, girl on girl. I’m a guy. Eat me.

145- What turns you off? Bitchy people and close-minded bigoted fucks.

146- What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you? Jerk me while you whisper about fucking a girl into my ear and don’t let me cum until you say so. It has been done to me and it was fucking awesome.

147- What’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you? Probably when I found out Jess had started a separate bank account and was funneling parts of her paychecks into it to help me financially when I moved up there. Nice job fucking that one up, Conner.

148- What’s something sweet you’d like someone to do for you? Honestly I don’t care at this point. Just love me lol.

149- Have you ever written a song or poem for someone? Have you had one written for you? Yes, and no actually.

150- What’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for someone? Woke Jess up while she was clearly having a nightmare and held her hand until she calmed down.

151- Are you in love? Yes.

152- Are you in a relationship? Yes.

153- If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what is your favorite thing about him/her? She’s a fucking dork and I love it.

154- Are relationships ever worth it? Yeah, they’re just hard.

155- Is there someone mad because you’re dating/talking to the person you are? I don’t think so.

156- Can you commit to one person? Mhmm.

157- Do you think you can last in a relationship for 6 months and not cheat? Yeah, I’ve done it plenty of times lol.

158- Do you ever want to get married? Yes.

159- Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years? Maybe. Hopefully.

160- Future names of your children: I do not want kids.

161- Do you get jealous easily? Yeah. Not like possessive jealous, but it’s pretty easy to make me jealous.

162- The last time you felt jealous, and why? I have no idea. Probably when my girlfriend hung out with her shit ex lol.

163- What is your definition of cheating? Anything you wouldn’t want your partner finding out about I suppose. I guess anything past hugging/holding hands.

164- Have you ever been cheated on? Yes.

165- Do you forgive betrayal? Eh. I probably would even though I shouldn’t.

166- Have you ever cheated on someone? Not my proudest moment, but yes, I cheated to get back at her for cheating on me. It did not help.

167- Why did your last relationship fail? Because I was an asshole and I fucked it up.

168- Things you want to say to an ex: I am so sorry, it was entirely my fault, you did nothing wrong and I hope you forgive me.

169- A description of the person you dislike the most: Anyone who has dated my girlfriend. :P

170- If your first true love knocked on your door with apology and presents, would you accept? I would have no idea wtf she’s apologizing for, but yeah of course.

171- How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had? Not a clue honestly. A good many, but most of them haven’t been serious.

172- How long was your longest relationship? Almost 5 years.

173- You’ll love me if… You like musicians I guess?

174- Share a relationship story: Lol okay. So when I went to visit Jess, we went out for dinner with her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend. And they all went to a super Christian private college. We were trying to keep our relationship sort of on the DL because the school was very gossip-y and Jess grew up in a town of like 700 people and her parents were ridiculous about her dating, much less dating a dude five years older that she met online. But anyway. We finished eating and we were all shooting the shit, and when we got up to take the dishes over to the little conveyor belt thing Jess and I kinda play-wrestled and I knocked a plate on her arm. And she was like “Look you made a mess on my hand” and without even thinking I said “Yeah, that’s what I do” without troubling to keep my voice down and winked like a dumbass. And she turned redder than a tomato and her roommate got this “OMFG” look on her face and Jess punched the shit out of my shoulder hahaha. Ahh. Good memories.

Music, movies and books

175- How often do you listen to music? Pretty much whenever I’m not watching a movie or playing a game.

176- What kind of music you like? I am a metalhead but I like everything.

177- Do you like to dance? I like to mosh.

178- What was the first concert/show you attended? Killswitch Engage with Parkway Drive, Escape Plan and Every Time I Die.

179- Have you heard a song that reminds you of someone today? Yeah.

180- Share a song that takes you to a certain memory in the past: “Hello” by Adele. Shit was always on the pop station that my ex and I listened to in SD.

181- A song that’s been stuck in your head: “Hoshi no Furumachi” by The Fallen Moon.

182- Put your music player on shuffle and write the first ten songs that play: Oh fuck off, fine. 1. Your Love Kills Me--The Veer Union 2. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby--The Beatles 3. Baptism -strings ver.-: Fate/Stay Night OST 4. Bang Bang--Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj 5. What is Eternal--Trans-Siberian Orchestra 6. Big Girls Don’t Cry--Fergie 7. Space Room--Bruce Faulconer 8. The Gun Show--In This Moment 9. Shit Out of Luck--Foamy the Squirrel 10. Blaze Heatnix--Megaman X6 OST

183- A book you want to read/have recently read: I wanna finish reading Bazaar of Bad Dreams.

184- Describe your dream library: Just fucking packed with horror and fantasy and drama books. And biographies.

185- Last movie you just watched: Uhh...Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings.

186- Do you like watching what type of movies? I love horror.

Situations and crazy things

187- You’re in a tattoo parlor about to get inked. What are you getting done? 7-star Dragon Ball on my shoulder.

189- What’s something you can see yourself going to jail for? Pirating too much shit. :P

190- If you could be any character, from any literary work, who would you choose to be? I wouldn’t. Becoming someone else would be shitty.

191- You’re given $10,000…under one condition:you cannot keep the money for yourself. Who would you give it to? My girlfriend probably. Then she could afford a plane ticket :P

192- If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? Don’t ask me that, I’ll get sad.

193- If you were an element on the Periodic Table, which would you be and why? Polonium. Because it sounds cool.

194- If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be? 2016. It was shit.

195- You’re an Action Movie Hero. What’s your weapon of choice and the line you scream when defeating your arch enemy? Give me a badass sword. And I dunno, probably “I’ve got balls of steel”

196- If you could design an amusement park ride, what would it be like? Some bullshit crazy roller coaster that has a 1 in 10 chance of killing you.

197- What is the first curse word that comes to mind? FUCK.

198- What the last party you went to was… and when the next will be… Fuck parties.

199- Halloween costume idea? I was gonna be a Kroger bag for Halloween when I worked at Walmart.

200- What are you supposed to be doing right now? Nothing. I am ethereal.

201- Currently wanting to see anyone? Yes, always.

202- Why you follow me? I can’t, you’re a survey.

203- If you met me what would you do? Wonder how a survey was walking around.

204- Leave me a ridiculous question: Why are you so interested in me?

205- Leave me a cute message: Fluffy cats.

Opinions and beliefs

206- Is the cup half full or half empty for you right now? There is no cup. I smashed it.

207- Do you believe in fate/destiny? Nah.

208- What you wish for on 11:11? Happiness.

209- Do you consider yourself lucky? What’s your good luck charm? Fuck no lol.

210- Do you believe in aliens or life on other planets? Yeah, there’s no way we’re alone in this fuck huge universe.

211- What is your religion, if any? I am not religious.

212- Would you go against your moral code for money? Depends on which part of the moral code and the amount of money.

213- What’s more important to you:strength of the body or strength of the mind? Gimme dem moosels.

214- How important you think education is? If it’s a good education, very important, but the shit that passes for education in America is less important than deciding what kind of toilet paper to buy.

215- If you were the president, what would you do? Die of the anxiety and stress during my inauguration.

216- If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change? Money wouldn’t have turned everyone into a greedy cunt.

217- Is it the thought that counts? Or is that phrase circumstantial? Eh. Depends on the situation. Somebody with no medical training trying to save somebody who was injured and instead ends up accidentally killing them should have just kept their thoughts to themselves.

218- If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Buy a plane ticket to Berlin.

219- Which movie character do you most identify with and why? Greg House. Because depression and alcoholism suck.

Feelings and Others

220- Are you a procrastinator or do you get things done early? I procrastinate procrastination.

221- Post a photo/draw a picture/write a poem (pick one) of a moment of personal significance: That is not happening, I am lazy.

222- Say 5 things you love unconditionally: The girlfriend, music, food, the Internet, and kittehs.

223- What motivates you in life? My girlfriend. Seriously if I hadn’t found her I’d be a puddle of vaguely human-shaped sadness on the ground.

224- Something that you’re proud of: I can play guitar.

225- Five words/phrases that make you laugh: “Look at this fucking bird making pasta. Just look at it for fuck’s sake”

226- Share the story of something that makes you smile: Watching all of the “Will it [insert food here]?” videos from GoodMythicalMorning with Jess. Fun nights.

227- Something you always think “what if…” about: You probably know the answer lol.

228- What was something you used to enjoy, but was ruined for you? What’s the story behind that? LotR. Because I watched them with Jess and now they just make me sad, stop making me think about this shit.

229- Describe one of the most awkward experiences of your life: When I tried to dance with my crush in like 3rd grade and had no idea wtf I was doing lmao.

230- Something/someone that you miss: THE GIRLFRIEND. WAKE YO ASS UP.

231- Are you over your past? Not entirely.

232- What is your saddest memory? When she broke up with me, what the fuck did I JUST say.

233- One of the hardest moments in your life: Holy fuck you’re doing this on purpose.

234- Is there something that happened in your past that you hate talking about? YEAH. AS A MATTER OF FUCKING FACT THERE IS.

235- What’s something you want to do that you’d be embarrassed to tell other people about? I wanna go to a vocaloid concert.

236- What was your most embarrassing moment? Fuck if I know. I embarrass myself a lot.

237- Share one of your fears/insecurities: I hate my nasty pudgy belly.

238- Something you’re currently worrying about: Getting a fucking job.

239- Have you done something you regret very much? Yes.

240- If you could take something back that you said or did, what would it be? I would take back what an asshole I was.

241- Does anyone hate you? Probably.

#personal #survey #about me #this fucking thing was huge #i did it over the course of like 3 days

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paleorecipecookbook · 7 years

Text

RHR: Why B12 Deficiency Is Significantly Underdiagnosed

In this episode we discuss:

The problem with conventional B12 serum testing

The prevalence of B12 deficiency

Why even omnivores may be deficient

The serious consequences of B12 deficiency going undiagnosed

Lab results: what to look for

Nutrients rich in vitamin B12

Show notes:

B12 Deficiency: A Silent Epidemic with Serious Consequences

What Everyone (Especially Vegetarians) Should Know about B12 Deficiency

Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses by Sally Pacholok and Jeffrey Stuart

[smart_track_player url="http://ift.tt/2rzAnZM" title="RHR: Why B12 Deficiency Is Significantly Underdiagnosed " artist="Chris Kresser" ]

youtube

Chris Kresser: Hey, everybody, Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. This week, we have a question from Kristin. Let's give it a listen. Kristin: Hey, Chris, my name is Kristin. I have a question for you in regards to vitamin B12 and deficiency in it. I was doing some research on vitamin B12 a while back because I have severe anxiety and panic attacks, and I noticed that sometimes people that have symptoms like that have B12 deficiency. But I also came across some articles in regards to our fingernails and how the half moons will be gone if we have vitamin B12 deficiency. I don't know if that's something that is common in functional medicine to look at, is the fingernails, or stuff like that. But that's really been interesting to me lately and I would just really love to know your opinion on that. Thanks. Chris: That's a great question. I often get questions like this related to the fingernails as markers of nutritional deficiency, and there is some limited data on nutritional deficiency showing up in the fingernails. It can be one of the many diagnostic criteria for nutritional deficiencies, but in some cases, the data is stronger than they are in other cases, and I wouldn't use fingernails as the sole way of diagnosing a nutritional deficiency. I would think about it as one sign that could point us toward doing further diagnostic workup for nutritional deficiencies that would include lab testing, blood testing in most cases, sometimes urine testing. But I would never make a definitive diagnosis of a nutritional deficiency just based on the fingernails alone.

Why you should have your vitamin B12 tested—and the right way to test it

Let's talk a little bit more about B12 and diagnosing the B12 deficiency because it's really, really important. B12 deficiency turns out to be much more common than statistics indicate, and it can have really devastating consequences. B12 deficiency has been associated with or can actually cause premature aging or logical disorders that are similar in presentation to MS or even Parkinson's, brain fog, memory problems, cognitive decline; stroke, heart disease, and other vascular problems, primarily due to elevated homocysteine levels—B12 is required to convert homocysteine back into methionine; developmental or learning disabilities in children; impaired immune function, autoimmune disease, and cancer; male and female infertility; and numerous other symptoms because B12 plays a very, very important role in the body. As you can see, when you don't have enough B12, it can affect virtually every system and tissue in the body.

The problem with conventional B12 serum testing

Now, one of the biggest issues with diagnosing B12 deficiency is that the conventional serum B12 test that most doctors use only picks up a small fraction of people who are actually B12 deficient. I mean, that's a big enough problem on its own. I suppose we could say an even bigger problem is that very few doctors even use that conventional serum B12 test. I've had so many patients that I have diagnosed with B12 deficiency in their 40s, 50s, even 60s or older who have never once in their entire life been tested for B12, which is just crazy to me given how important it is, given how easy it is to test for B12 and how cheap that serum B12 test is. That's a big problem. A lot of doctors aren't including serum B12 in their workup. But as I just said, even if they are including it, chances are they're missing a lot of people with B12 deficiency because the serum B12 test measures a total amount of B12 in the blood, but it doesn't rule out functional B12 deficiency. There are more sensitive markers for B12 deficiency that are now available including methylmalonic acid (MMA), which can be measured both in the serum or the urine. And not so much in the US but in Europe and other parts of the world, there's another marker called holotranscobalamin II, or holoTC. That's in fact the most sensitive marker for B12 deficiency. It is capable of detecting B12 deficiency at the earliest stage, stage one. These markers are much more sensitive to B12 deficiency than serum B12, which means they'll go out of range at an earlier stage of B12 deficiency. Then we also have homocysteine, which is a marker of B12 deficiency, although it's not exclusively related to B12. Homocysteine can be high in cases of folate deficiency or even B6 deficiency as well. Homocysteine is more sensitive than serum B12, but it doesn't only reflect B12 deficiency. If you see it high, that tells you that either B12, folate, or B6 is low, and you need to do some additional testing with these other markers to determine whether the cause of the elevated homocysteine is related to B12 or if it's related to folate or B6. Those are the additional markers you can use. Serum B12 is still a useful test and can still detect deficiency in some patients, but those people are people that are in stage three or four of 12 deficiency. There are four stages: One, two, three, and four—and serum B12 doesn't typically go out of range until stage three or four, so you're missing people in stage one or two if that's the only marker that's used. Homocysteine and methylmalonic acid can detect people in stage two deficiency. Holotranscobalamin or holoTC is the only marker, unfortunately, that they can detect people in stage one deficiency. It's a mystery to me why it's not available in the US. It is in a few teaching hospitals—I think Mayo Clinic, maybe Cleveland Clinic and a few other places around the country offer it—but you can't get it drawn at your typical lab. I've been hoping that that will change for years, but unfortunately, it hasn't yet.

The prevalence of B12 deficiency

We talked a little bit about the important roles of B12 and why you should get tested, but I want to mention a little bit more about the prevalence of B12 deficiency because there is an incorrect notion in the medical world that B12 deficiency is rare and it only really affects people on a plant-based diet like vegans and vegetarians. There is even a bigger myth in the vegan and vegetarian world that B12 deficiency is not common in those worlds. The problem is, those ideas are based in using only serum B12 as a marker for B12 deficiency. If you use serum B12 as the only marker for B12 deficiency rather than some of these newer tests, the statistics suggest that only 7 percent of vegetarians are B12 deficient. Interestingly enough, they still show that 52 percent of vegans are deficient. Even using a relatively insensitive marker like serum B12, you still see over 50 percent of vegans deficient in it, 7 percent of vegetarians. But in a more recent study, using the more sensitive markers that I just talked about that are capable of detecting B12 deficiency at an earlier stage, a whopping 83 percent of vegans were B12 deficient and 68 percent of vegetarians were B12 deficient. Now remember, only 7 percent were deficient using serum B12, but 68 percent were deficient using these more accurate and sensitive markers.

Why even omnivores may be deficient

Now in terms of omnivores, only 5 percent were deficient. But I can tell you having worked with patients for a very long time—most of whom are on a Paleo type of diet or a nutrient-dense diet where they're consuming animal products—I see B2 deficiency fairly regularly. One of the reasons for that is that deficiency of a certain nutrient doesn't just come down to how much of that nutrient you're getting from your diet. It comes down to how well you are absorbing that nutrient in the gut and also what the demand for that nutrient is because of certain physiological processes in the body. It also comes down to whether you have genetic polymorphisms that affect your utilization of that nutrient. Let's use folate as an example—well, let’s use B12 as an example since that’s what we're talking about here. There are some polymorphisms that affect B12 metabolism and the use of B12 in the body. MTRR and MTR are both genes that are connected to B12 metabolism. If you have single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs in those genes, MTRR and MTR, that can be measured with a test like 23andMe, those can impact B12 metabolism and they may indicate a greater need for B12 than you would have if you didn't have polymorphisms in those genes. And then there are conditions like SIBO, bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, that have been shown to decrease absorption of B vitamins like B12 in the small intestine because the bacteria in the small intestine can actually utilize B vitamins as well. They'll take them for themselves and you will get less of them. Hypochlorhydria, or low stomach acid, which, as I've written and spoken about elsewhere, I think is a major cause of reflux in people and a very common condition that can also decrease the absorption of B12. Even if someone is consuming enough B12, if they have low stomach acid, they have SIBO or they have genetic polymorphisms that affect their ability to absorb and then utilize B12, then these people can also be deficient even though they're not vegetarian or vegan and so that's really important to understand.

The serious consequences of B12 deficiency going undiagnosed

Another crucial concept to get is that B12 depletion can take years to become clinically evident. I mentioned that there are four stages of B12 deficiency. In stage one and two, there will be no observable ... usually no signs or symptoms of B12 deficiency. In other words, it's not measurable using any other markers. It doesn't start to cause anemia at that level and it's not going to show up in other markers and it may even be completely asymptomatic. In fact, B12 deficiency doesn't cause macrocytic anemia until stage 4, so that's in the very last stage of B12 deficiency. Unfortunately, some of the more serious effects of B12 deficiency such as nerve damage are irreversible. We have this really tricky situation where B12 deficiency is underdiagnosed because it's not being adequately tested for. The symptoms and clinical signs can take years to become evident, but some of the more serious effects of B12 deficiency can actually be irreversible if the B12 deficiency has progressed to an advanced stage and has gone on for long enough. I think it's a major issue. This is why I've written two really detailed articles about the important effects of B12 and the problems with diagnosis and how to accurately diagnose it. We’ll definitely include a link to those articles in the show notes for the show. There are actually books that have been written about B12 deficiency. Sally Pacholok and Jeffrey Stuart have a book, Could It Be B12?: An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses, that covers this topic in great detail and goes into even some of the history and all of the conditions that can be caused by B12 deficiency and more background on what we've been talking about in this podcast.

Lab results: what to look for

I would encourage everybody to, at the very least, have their serum B12 measured. But as I have mentioned, that’s in many cases inadequate to detect stage one and stage two deficiency. Homocysteine is a marker that you shouldn't have any trouble getting your primary care practitioner to order. It's well known. It’s recognized as a marker for cardiovascular disease, and it's pretty cheap. They should at least be familiar with that, and if you request a serum homocysteine, that's probably a good starting place. Remember though, if it comes back high, it doesn't guarantee you a B12 deficiency. It could also be folate or B6, but that might be enough ammunition to then get your clinician to order some of the more advanced tests for detecting B12 deficiency like serum or urine methylmalonic acid. I personally have found that urine methylmalonic acid is superior to serum, possibly because it's more concentrated in urine than in the blood. I've just seen it be more sensitive and more consistent with the other markers of B12 deficiency then than serum methylmalonic acid. If you live in Europe or outside of the United States, you also might be able to get a holotranscobalamin, or a holoTC, which is again, the most sensitive marker for B12 deficiency. If you can't get your doctor to order those tests, you can order some of these tests perhaps through companies like DirectLabs.com, although there is quite a bit of nuance to interpreting these tests. It's really helpful to have somebody who is experienced in interpreting these tests. Another thing I want to say about these labs, if you've been listening to my work for any length of time, you may be aware that the conventional lab ranges that are used for these markers and many other lab markers are often not accurate. Conventional ranges are typically designed to detect frank disease rather than an optimal level, and serum B12 and even homocysteine are no exception. Most labs define B12 deficiency at less than 200 pg/mL, but it is well documented in the scientific literature that many people experience signs and symptoms of B12 deficiency at levels between 200 and 350. In Japan and Europe, I believe the lower end of the range is 400 and up or even 500 and up in either Japan or Europe. I can't recall. And so, if you get the B12 tests back and the level is 300, it's going to be marked as normal, but at that level there's a really good chance that you are in the earlier stages of B12 deficiency, and then if you were to measure homocysteine or MMA, that those would be out of range as well. With homocysteine, the range typically goes up to 13, 14, or even 15 in some labs, but I've seen lots of research suggesting that with B12 or folate deficiency, that can show up on homocysteine levels, start getting higher than eight. Homocysteine level above eight doesn't necessarily reflect B12 deficiency, but it would be cause in my mind for doing further testing. Keep in mind that homocysteine is an inverse marker, which means when it's high, that suggests B12 is low, and both serum and urine methylmalonic acid are also inverse markers, so when they're high, that suggests that B12 is low. Be aware that high serum B12 does not necessarily rule out functional B12 deficiency. This is what I was referring to when I said there's some nuance on how to interpret these markers. In fact, I have come to view a high serum B12 when the patient is not supplementing or not eating really extreme amounts of B12 foods like liver as a potential red flag for active B12 deficiency.

Nutrients rich in vitamin B12

If you do actually have B12 deficiency, then there is much bigger discussion about how to address that. Eating B12-rich foods in my opinion is the best way. If you do eat animal products, B12 is richest in liver, clams, oysters, organ meats, and shellfish—once again, top of the list in terms of the most nutrient-dense foods. If you just ate a serving of liver and a serving of clams, oysters, or mussels each once a week, you would probably be able to meet your needs for B12 for the entire week. Other seafood like fish eggs, octopus, crab, and lobster are good sources for B12. Beef, lamb, even cheese and eggs are good sources of B12 as well, but they pale in comparison to the organ meats and shellfish in terms of the amount of B12 per serving. A common myth amongst vegetarians and vegans is that it's possible to get B12 from plant sources like seaweed, fermented soy, spirulina, brewer’s yeast, etc., but many of those plant foods actually contain B12 analogues called cobamides that block the intake of and increase the need for true B12. My intention here is not to bash vegetarian and vegan diets. As many of you know, I was a macrobiotic vegan myself at one point, but just helping to educate people about how to make wise choices. If you are on a vegetarian or vegan diet, you should be definitely getting your B12 levels measured with the more sensitive markers that I have mentioned, and then if your levels are low, you should be supplementing with B12, which is really quite easy to do. We won't go into a lot of detail on supplementation because I've written about that before, and I will just provide a link to the articles, which have some recommendations there. Okay. Thanks again, Kristen, for sending in your question, and please do continue to send in your questions, everybody, to http://ift.tt/1DErq19. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next time.

Source: http://chriskresser.com May 19, 2017 at 07:44PM

#paleo #recipe #food #delicious #healthy #yum #diet

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flamel110 · 8 years

Note

Do all of them. I dare you.

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

My gf.

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

Yes.

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

My Dad, my sister, and my gf lol.

4. Are you easy to get along with?

I’d like to think that I’m amiable.

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

Yeah totally, but I can take care of myself.

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

Passionate ones.

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

Yup.

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?

My sister and my gf.

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

Nah.

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?

My girlfriend.

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

“I could not for my fucking life find a gif of a toddler getting kicked in the head, so this will have to do.”

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

San Francisco by Scott McKenzie

74 is The New 24 by Giorgio Moroder

The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie

Diane Young by Vampire Weekend

Kids by MGMT

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

I love it.

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

I believe in coincidence and “against all odds”.

15. What good thing happened this summer?

I got closer to my family.

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

Yeah, she was pretty cute.

17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

I think it would be arrogant to dismiss the possibility.

18. Do you still talk to your first crush?

No, not really.

19. Do you like bubble baths?

I prefer water baths, but yeah.

20. Do you like your neighbors?

Sure, I’ve got nothing against em.

21. What are you bad habits?

I procrastinate a lot.

22. Where would you like to travel?

Europe.

23. Do you have trust issues?

I used to, but not really anymore.

24. Favorite part of your daily routine?

When you take that first breath after finishing your last thing to do.

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?

My legs, but not to a fault. I just don’t wear shorts that often.

26. What do you do when you wake up?

Check my phone and scroll through tumblr.

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?

I like my skin color, tbh, but I could use a bit more sun sometimes.

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

My sister, my gf, and my fraternity brothers.

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

Nope.

30. Do you ever want to get married?

Eh, maybe. Why rush?

31. Is your hair long enough for a pony tail?

It once was, but not anymore.

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?

Eh, there are a few attractive celebrities, but I really don’t care that much.

33. Spell your name with your chin.

rdsichwsrd

34. Do you play sports? What sports?

I do parkour sometimes.

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

TV. Podcasts are cool.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

Yeah.

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

I try to think through a common interest among the group and propose it in the form of a question in order to stimulate conversation among the group.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

I don’t idolize people.

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?

Amazon

40. What do you want to do after high school?

I’m doing it.

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

No. Always perform accurate and reliable risk analysis.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

Could be anything, but I’m probably tired. I’m usually tired.

43. Do you smile at strangers?

Yeah, even if it’s an awkward smile.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?

SPAAAACCE.

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

My desire to conquer the world.

46. What are you paranoid about?

The fucking world.

47. Have you ever been high?

have YOU ever been high??

48. Have you ever been drunk?

lol yeh

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?

I almost tripped up some stairs today.

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?

Black

51. Ever wished you were someone else?

I did, so I became someone else.

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

I want better eyes.

53. Favourite makeup brand?

Don’t typically wear it.

54. Favourite store?

Amazon

55. Favourite blog?

lol mine. It’s got all my favorite stuff on it.

56. Favourite colour?

Sky blue and forest green.

57. Favourite food?

Had some good stirf fry last week. I’m not picky and enjoy most things.

58. Last thing you ate?

Some chicken helper I made the other night.

59. First thing you ate this morning?

Bread.

60. Ever won a competition? For what?

A few. Some mental, some physical.

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

Got ISS for punching a kid once.

62. Been arrested? For what?

Nah, but I have had my share of police encounters.

63. Ever been in love?

Maybe. Love is strange.

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?

It was after Military Ball my junior year of high school, it was a peck on the lips, and it really wasn’t that memorable tbh.

65. Are you hungry right now?

Yes for always.

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?

Sometimes lol.

67. Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook but still gross.

68. Twitter or Tumblr?

Tumblr

69. Are you watching tv right now?

Nah.

70. Names of your bestfriends?

Nick, Brett, Aaron, Joslyn, Nolen, Bread, Josie, Evan, and Bryan, in no particular order.

71. Craving something? What?

I dunno I’m just hungry.

72. What colour are your towels?

Black

72. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Four

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

Nah

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

Half a dozen to a dozen or so.

75. Favourite animal?

Snakes maybe?

76. What colour is your underwear?

White, rn.

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chocolate.

78. Favourite ice cream flavour?

Mint Chocolate Chip.

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

Black

80. What colour pants?

Black?

81. Favourite tv show?

Right now? AHS Coven.

82. Favourite movie?

Midnight in Paris

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

Mean Girls

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?

21 Jump Street

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

I dunno lol

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?

“I’m H2O intolerant... *ACHOO*”

87. First person you talked to today?

My gf.

88. Last person you talked to today?

My friend Brett.

89. Name a person you hate?

No.

90. Name a person you love?

My sister.

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

Nazis

92. In a fight with someone?

Nazis, always.

93. How many sweatpants do you have?

2 or 3

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?

3 or 4

95. Last movie you watched?

Animal House

96. Favourite actress?

Kathy Bates

97. Favourite actor?

Jeremy Dooley in Uno: The Movie

98. Do you tan a lot?

Nope.

99. Have any pets?

Nope.

100. How are you feeling?

Tired and hungry.

101. Do you type fast?

Relatively.

102. Do you regret anything from your past?

Sure, but why fret.

103. Can you spell well?

Fairly well.

104. Do you miss anyone from your past?

Yeah, certain peeps.

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?

Yup.

106. Ever broken someone’s heart?

I believe so.

107. Have you ever been on a horse?

Yeah.

108. What should you be doing?

Reading and writing up journal entries for TechCom.

109. Is something irritating you right now?

I’m hungry.

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?

Yeah, and boy howdy did I learn that it’s not cool to idolize and obsess over people because it’s super creepy and dehumanizing.

111. Do you have trust issues?

I used to, but not anymore. Didn’t I answer this already???

112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?

Probably a brother.

113. What was your childhood nickname?

lol Dick Wizard

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?

Oh yeah. And then some.

115. Do you play the Wii?

I used to a bit.

116. Are you listening to music right now?

Nope.

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?

Eh, it’s alright.

118. Do you like Chinese food?

Oh yeah.

119. Favourite book?

Right now it’s The Gunslinger by Stephen King

120. Are you afraid of the dark?

Nah.

121. Are you mean?

No, I don’t think so. I just don’t give a damn sometimes.

122. Is cheating ever okay?

I don’t believe so.

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?

lol no.

124. Do you believe in love at first sight?

No. Attraction or infatuation, maybe. But love, even platonic love, takes understanding.

125. Do you believe in true love?

No.

126. Are you currently bored?

A little.

127. What makes you happy?

Video games.

128. Would you change your name?

If I had to protect myself.

129. What your zodiac sign?

Gemini

130. Do you like subway?

Lol yeah.

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

Well, I mean, she’s already my girlfriend so...

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

My girlfriend I think. Didn’t this one already come up too??

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

Wisdom’s a gift, but you’d trade it for youth. Age is an honor, it’s still not the truth.

134. Can you count to one million?

It’d take a while but yeah.

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?

Meh, can’t think of one.

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?

Fucking closed you heathens.

137. How tall are you?

5′9′‘

138. Curly or Straight hair?

No preference.

139. Brunette or Blonde?

No preference.

140. Summer or Winter?

Winter.

141. Night or Day?

Night.

142. Favourite month?

October.

143. Are you a vegetarian?

Nope.

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?

Milk.

145. Tea or Coffee?

Tea.

146. Was today a good day?

Yeah sure.

147. Mars or Snickers?

Snickers

148. What’s your favourite quote?

“God favors drunks, small children, and the cataclysmically stoned...” -Stephen King, It

149. Do you believe in ghosts?

Sure, why not?

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

“Eddie Dean - who did not know Roland sometimes thought of him as ka-mai, ka’s fool - heard all of it and heard none of it; saw all of it and saw none of it.”

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paradox-oflife · 4 years

Text

massive q and a post part 3 ignore this pls

1. If you could learn any language fluently what would it be? Um maybe latin because it sounds cool but for practical purposes probably spanish lol

2. What historical Figure would you love to see in 21st centuary life? Jesus, not because I’m Christian but I’m curious to see what he would say

3. As a kid were you ever frighted of a monster under the bed or in the cupboard? No because my bed didn’t have space underneath

4. Do you like clowns? nope

5. Do you prefer BBC or ITV? Okay, this is clearly British but I’d go with BBC

6. Have you ever been surfing? Once. It didn’t go that well lol

7. Have you ever been snowboarding? Yeah, it’s pretty fun actually!

8. Who was better, the Beatles or Elvis Presley? uuuh the Beatles

9. Whats your favourite type of foreign food? By foreign I’m assuming non-American/British. But anything from Taiwan (except for pig’s blood ew) is soul food for me :)

10. Which Foreign country do you dislike the most? I... don’t know. North Korea I guess? But when it comes to most countries, it’s the government that makes it bad.

11. Do you like your music loud or easy listening? (What does this mean??) Depends on the mood

12. Whats your favourite animated or cartoon program? Adventure time :D

13. Do you sing in the shower? Errr, no.

14. Are you a clean or messy person? I try my best to be clean but it always ends up messy.

15. Whats your prefered playing piece in monopoly? I usually go with the cat :3

16. Can or Do you still play twister? God I haven’t played since 5th grade.

17. Can you play chess? Yeah, not really good at it though.

18. Do you know the dance steps to an annoying cheesey pop song? Haha no because I suck at dancing

19. Do you prefer straight or bendy straws? Bendy

20. Have you ever entered a talent contest? And did you win? No .-. I’m not the type to do that lol

21. Do you like poetry? Yeah. I’d say so.

22. Are you a sore loser? Nah, I’m pretty chill when it comes to that type of thing

23. Which would you choose? Jelly or Ice Cream? Ice Cream > Jelly

24. Whats your favourite type of Pie? New Zealand’s steak and cheese

25. Whats your most used phrase? Hm. Maybe “yeah nah”

26. Whats your most used word? Not sure. I talk a lot.

27. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life? Someone Asian of course, someone who has studied me well enough and understands me

28. What would your dream job be? Okay, I’m gonna be real. I wanted to be a vet but lowkey I’m too colorblind for it lol. I’m planning to study in Physical Therapy

29. Which song do you hate the most? I mainly just listen to the same albums nowadays but I guess i don’t really vibe with a lot of pop songs.

30. How long does it take you to get ready? Depends how tired I am. If I get pretty good sleep it takes maybe 10 minutes at most.

31. What do you think the greatest invention has been? The printing press.

32. Whats your favourite feature on the opposite sex? Uuuh i dont really know. Forearms are nice i guess

33. Whats your least favourite feature on the opposite sex? Sometimes they’re just really oblivious to really obvious things

34. Who's your favourite Comedian? I don’t even listen to comedians really but Chelsea Peretti is pretty funny.

35. What's your favourite board game? Probably Monopoly. There’s no greater feeling than seeing the life drain from your friends’ eyes as you collect $5000 from them

36. Do you have any lucky items, objects or traditions? When I’m having a bad day I like to just read through my yearbooks and look at all the compliments people wrote.

37. Do you have any superstitions? Not really.

38. Whats your favourite Movie quote? I have a lot. But maybe Manners Maketh Man.

39. Who would win in a fight? Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer? Chuck Norris.

40. Do you have much of an ego? I wish. I want to be more confident

41. Do you wear sunglasses indoors to look cool or stylish? No. Nothing against it though.

42. Are you a hat person? Nah

43. Whats your favourite supermarket chain? Costco

44. Whats your favourite fastfood chain? Smashburger or Inn n Out

45. Whats your first thought upon waking up? “Lord help me.”

46. What animal would you most like to have as a pet? I love dogs. And cats.

47. Whats your favourite type of tree? Pine trees always remind me of home.

48. If you could bankrupt one person or company who would it be? Uuuh as much as I want to bankrupt someone like Jeff Bezos that’d be bad because a lot of people rely on Amazon

49. If you could steal one thing without consequence what would it be? I honestly don’t know.

50. Who's your favourite celeb with the same first name or surname as you? I don’t know much celebrities with the same name as me.

51. If evil-doers invaded your country would you rush to the battlelines to defend the motherland or hide in a box? Um hide in a box I’m so tiny. Like I know a bit of martial arts but like??? I’m literally 5′1″ and i’m only 115 pounds. Someone could bench me easily.

52. Whats your favourite flower? I like lillies

53. Do you believe in ghosts? Im really mixed about it. I believe demons exist though

54. Do you believe in the loch ness monster? Nay

55. Do you believe in Aliens? Eeeeh kind of but when i think about aliens i think about microorganisms.

56. Do you believe the Governments hide technology and information from the public? Yes 100%

56. Which is your favourite pokemon? Growlithe uwu

57. What horror fiction character scares you the most? Pennywise. No thanks.

58. Can you do 10 revolutions of a hula hoop? Yeah

59. Do you think Great Britain should have a National Day? n/a 60.Do you think Great Britain should be part of a United Europe?n/a 61. Would you want the Euro or keep the British Pound?n/a

62. Were you part of the Brownies/Cubs/Scouts/Guides etc? Nah

63. Have you ever invented a fairly unique meal or drink? No I’m not that good at cooking lol

64. Do you have any secret family recipes? My family only knows how to cook asian food and well, asian food is very freestyle

65. Do you have any family secrets? :o uuuuuh well, it wouldn’t be a secret if I said it right?

66. Are you good at keeping secrets? Yeah! You can count on me.

67. Have you ever been up in a hot air balloon? Nopenopenopenope

68. Whats your favourite Sci-fi film/program etc? ugghhhh i have so much. I like the Martian tho?

69. When playing checkers or chess do you prefer to be black or white? Black

70. Which is better, a Pastie or Sausage Roll? Sausage roll

71. Do you prefer shopping on the high street or online? Irl, I’m pretty impatient man

72. Would you ever want to learn to fly? Like, fly an airplane? Or fly as in levitate. Cause if levitate, then YES

73. Do you often read your horoscope? Nah, as accurate as they can be sometimes, I don’t really believe in astrology

74. Have you ever had a proper Tarot reading? Eeeee no. Personal opinion, tarot cards are hella sketchy. I don’t mess with that stuff.

75. Whats your favourite brand of newspaper? Honestly at this point I’ve given up on the news. I just read stuff off of reddit sometimes.

76. Have you ever milked a cow? No

77. Have you ever used the phrase "back in my time" to someone younger than you? HAHAH one time. I realized my friend’s younger brother had never seen an iPod before and I was so baffled he didn’t even know what it was.

78. Do you love or hate rollercoasters? Love them

79. Which was the greatest Empire? Maybe Macedonian. I want to say the Romans, but god, they had a lot of problems.

80. Whats your favorite word? Catharsis.

81. Whats your favourite sportsware brand? Adidas or Nike I guess

82. Do you buy any weekly/monthly magazines? Nah

83. Who's your favourite Superhero? uuuuh Thor

84. Who's your favourite Villain/Baddie? Doofensmirtz. He wasn’t even bad lmao. He thinks he’s a Chaotic Evil when in reality he’s a Chaotic Good.

85. What was the last Album you purchased? I don’t purchase a lot of music tbh bc I broke, but the last album I listened to was Hot Fuss.

86. What was the last DVD you purchased? A Daria DVD I found at Walmart for five dollars.

87. What was the last piece of clothing you purchased? Some jeans.

88. When pulling crackers does everyone get one each regardless or whoever gets the big ends keeps all the prizes? I’m assuming this is some British tradition so idk

89. Do you ever make your own greetings cards? Not really.

90. Do you have a swiss army knife? I used to then I lost it.

91.At what age did you twig onto the fact Santa wasnt real? My parents never did the whole Santa thing so I always knew it was false

92. Whats your favourite fruit? Watermelon

93. Have you ever done something really unbelivable, only to have no one around to see it? Um YEAH. I was 10th grade and I was in the Martial Arts club, which was a version of Aikido. I tripped on these stairs one time going down, then I did this glorious shoulder roll and got right up. No one saw but I was so proud of myself.

94. Do you buy from charity shops? Occasionally, if I can find some.

95. Have you ever sold your services? No

96. Have you ever raised money for charity? Yeah, it was for a school club tho

97. Have you ever won a giant sized cuddly toy from a fair? Yes uwu

98. Is the glass half full or half empty? It’s half full

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jbpiggin · 5 years

Text

Holy Mountain

One of the many curious features of the Tabula Peutingeriana is a depiction of Monte Tifata, a holy mountain in Campania, Italy. Tifata is a strong point, a ridge 600 metres high with steep slopes. From the top you get a view both ways along the Via Appia, and also to Vesuvius to the south and the River Volturno below (Corryx, Wikipedia, 2016).

The Tabula depicts Tifata Mons with two notable temples and a sacred spring:

From left to right (west to east) these places are the Baths of Sulla, a Temple of Diana (Diana Tifatina) and a Temple of Jove (Iovis Tifatinus). The whole drawing seems to be fairly accurate, as it is now accepted that the temple to Diana was at the western foot of the mountain and its stone is probably incorporated within the walls of the splendid Benedictine basilica of Sant'Angelo in Formis.

Stefania Quilici Gigli hypothesizes that the Baths of Sulla were close by. Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC) had won a victory at Caio Norbano near here on his 83 BC March on Rome. The Roman historian Velleius states that Sulla made a foundation of land and waters here to celebrate this, reading thus in the Shipley translation:

It was while Sulla was ascending Mount Tifata that he had encountered Gaius Norbanus. After his victory over him he paid a vow of gratitude to Diana, to whom that region is sacred, and consecrated to the goddess the waters renowned for their salubrity and water to heal, as well as all the lands in the vicinity. The record of this pleasing act of piety is witnessed to this day by an inscription on the door of the temple, and a bronze tablet within the edifice.

This does not explicitly say there were baths, but Stefania Quilici Gigli thinks nearby land-marker inscriptions of a later period refer to this land use and both custom and the Tabula would indicate the “waters” were utilized as baths. The purpose of bathing would have been healing rather than play.

The temple of Jove is thought to have been at the summit, near today’s illuminated cross, the Croce del Tifata:

A hiking trail to this is shown on an Italian trails site, Sentieri dei Colli Tifatini. Knowing all this, the illustrations in the Tabula are most interesting. The two pictures of temples are of a type, but with different fronts. One (Diana) shows a rose window in the front, the other (Jove) shows a high doorway, and I realize after seeing a picture of Sant'Angelo that this probably represents an arch added at the front:

The third image shows an expansive building of two storeys with a tower and a similar arched entrance at left. The usual Tabula icon for a baths lacks such a tower, so perhaps the extra element is a distinctive feature of the Tifata site. As I note above, I am sceptical of the view that baths denote recreation on the Tabula. I think the primary connotation of such buildings was as ritual sites, and thus the focus would be on the holy waters.

via Blogger http://bit.ly/2PpxEOZ

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thermoplasticroadmarking · 5 years

Text

The Augar Review: half a solution to half of the problem

The Augar Review is expected to recommend a cut in tuition fees. But instead of focusing on who pays for higher education, we should start by asking what higher education is for, argues Eric Lybeck, Leverhulme early career fellow at the Manchester Institute of Education

University leaders are waiting with bated breath for the conclusions of a report headed by Philip Augar, commissioned by the government to review post-compulsory education in the UK. If initial predictions play out, the higher education sector (HE) will be looking at a cut to student fees from £9,250 to £7,500.

Universities are rightly worried that a 19% drop in the unit of resource would effectively amount to a cut in funding for the sector, which will presumably be expected to do more with less. But in our hand-wringing about the precise amount of income universities can expect, we have lost sight of the bigger picture: no matter what solutions the Augar Review recommends, these will be half-measures addressing symptoms of a much bigger problem. Whether we drop fees by £1,000 or £9,000, we must face the central crisis eating at the core of our higher education system: namely, the evacuation of the public value and purpose of education, knowledge and expertise.

A last-ditch effort to capture the youth vote

Indeed, a more accurate, but less catchy title for this blog would be that Augar will provide less than half of a solution to less than half of the problem. This stems from the basis upon which the problem was articulated. For the premise of reducing fees is a last-ditch effort by a Conservative Party fearful of the rising popularity of Labour amongst youth voters, who are fond of the latter’s pitch to abolish fees altogether. In both instances, however, we are looking at a giveaway to a special interest group, rather than a reconsideration of what universities or education is for. And, I mean this as no slight, since so much of politics these days consists of appeals to voters’ immediate self-interest, and more often than not, it’s not young people, but rather property-owning elders in whose interest the bulk of public policy is written.

In practice, the Conservatives’ plan won’t help them win back young people when over 83% of their party’s voters are over 45. It’s possible a fee cut might appeal to students’ parents, but the present loan system isn’t currently a financial burden to parents. Any number of other policies – such as tackling inflation, or reducing council tax – could arguably cater better for their (parents’) needs.

We might then turn to the second ostensive reason for Augar’s review, namely the imbalance within tertiary education between higher education and further education (FE). Indeed, there has been a dramatic fall in funding for the latter since HE fees were introduced, but that is largely due to cuts in public expenditure in both sectors. Only in one sector (HE) has that funding been replaced by a system of fees and loans. This put all of the incentives for students pursuing tertiary education to go into HE rather than FE, and, undoubtedly, there is some need to redress this imbalance when it is by no means clear that every young person should obtain credentials in university level courses rather than through college or apprenticeship training.

Students are reacting to a disincentive

But, recall here that we are actually speaking of a disincentive introduced by withdrawal of public funding, which students and families react to rationally by not enrolling, rather than an incentive structure of consumers making preferential choices as the fantasists in government and think-tanks imagine. The same logic applies to the precipitous decline in adult and part-time higher education, where the problem is not insufficient demand, but an artificial lack of supply produced by the unthought-through fee/loan set-up that presumes an 18-22 year old homo economicus enrolling on a homogenized, mass produced degree course. Is it any wonder our universities increasingly offer the same set of courses for the same types of students?

Dropping the fee tariff by a quarter or more does nothing to change this literally stupefying dynamic tending towards higher education as a mass-market commodity for the largest common denominator. Yet in spite of every attempt by government and institutional marketing to script them as consumers, students ultimately want what they have wanted since the dawn of universities in the middle ages: an education.

The government’s decision to commission Augar is a failure to understand the patterns of identification at work in higher education. They try to appeal to young people as voters and want them to identify with their party and the state as the one who has given them a break. Similarly, university managements, who have catered to and, at times, encouraged this consumer-model of higher education provision, expect students to identify with them as providers giving them the products they want (though not at low prices, as would occur if higher education was or could be a market).

In fact, other than with their peers, students seem to identify most with their lecturers, as became evident during the course of the strikes last year over our USS pensions. Taking the university managers by surprise, a large number of students blamed employers, rather than employees (academics) for the fiscal problem at hand, and trusted us when we argued (rightly) that there was no deficit in our pension and that the effective pay cut was being imposed unfairly.

The shady tricks of government accounting

Indeed, young people, despite their relative lack of experience with the full range of political problems facing the world today, share with other parts of the public the recognition that the powers-that-be do not listen properly. Why should anyone trust the political parties that willingly imposed a dramatic cut in direct grant funding to universities in order to produce a fiscal illusion that transferred the appearance of liability from the Treasury budget to individual student debt accounts? That is just shady tricks, and is typical of the governments’ policies in general. Which policy will appeal more to young people who see this plain as day: a slight reduction in debt for those lucky enough not to have enrolled between 2012 and 2020? Or, any policy which fairly pays for the higher education of the next generation by taxing the past, present and future winners of the knowledge economy?

For there is more at stake in the mechanisms through which we fund higher and further education than the questions of ‘who pays?’ and ‘how much?’ The difference is whether higher learning is understood to be of intrinsic public value, which the present system distorts by imagining universities exist to deliver products to individualised student-consumers.

Certainly, university leaders are right to worry about what any cut to current fees will do to institutional finances, particularly if this is not replaced by direct grant – but, as the recent spate of threats of university closures demonstrates – these are the anxieties of individual institutions worried about their own fate on a competitive market, rather than concerns for the fate of higher education in general, which has been suffering during an otherwise golden era for the handful of institutions that thrive in the current funding environment. If we had a clear sense of the public value of higher learning, to include education of 18-22 year olds, but also a range of other functions – adult and part-time education, public lectures, to say nothing of research and culture for its own sake – we could organise the whole set-up differently.

Augar is at best a half measure

This is precisely what Augar does not do and why it will be a half-measure at best, even on its own terms. For it does not provide a position from which we can reimagine and reconstruct a system of higher learning in this country which determines the best, most efficient, fairest and highest quality means of educating the entire public, from HE to FE to everyone who does not or has not enrolled in tertiary education.

The task now for those of us working and studying in higher education institutions is to ask: how do we reconstruct the public value of education, in general? How do we articulate a set of activities, practices and interactions with ourselves and the public beyond university walls that resonates with and engages the widest set of communities and stakeholders? Only then should we turn to the question of how we as a society pay for those activities.

In tolerating the existing fee system, wringing our hands in fear of the pending cuts, we have allowed the secondary question of where the money comes from to upend the very purpose and function of higher learning all together. Any university that allows such a debasement of what George Eliot called our ‘moral currency’ is hardly worthy of its name.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239600 http://cdbu.org.uk/the-augar-review-half-a-solution-to-half-of-the-problem/ via IFTTT

#marking specialists #marking contractors #playground markings #play area surface designs

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