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#also: no longer a spoiler free blog so if you are not already filtering the aib tag (like i did while watching) you are now are your own!
astarlightmonbebe · 2 years
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done with aib s2 btw. hit up my messages and inbox if you want to dissect it together.
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Blog PSA: Upcoming Spoiler Warnings
TL;DR: Since the release of the first 3 chapters of A Soul of Ash and Blood, the release of the blurb for A Fire in the Flesh, as well as all of the teasers from the JLAnders Facebook group that have been released and circulating around social media, I feel this is the best time to remind everyone that this is the time to be cautious around spoilers. So get your filtered tags ready and beware (see further down for the tags I will be using)!
WARNING: LONG POST ALERT!!
As far as this blog specifically goes, I will do my level best here to avoid any potential spoilers for the upcoming books, particularly ASOAAB since we are so close. Once ASOAAB is released, I will try my hardest to prevent any unintentional slip-ups. I will do the same thing with AFITF once we get nearer to the release date and send out a reminder then also.
I do not currently plan on stopping, pausing, or otherwise altering the schedule for daily posting on this blog. I will try to stop posting anything even slightly related to ASOAAB from release day to around mid-August, so you will likely see a lot more Fire and Flesh series related posts during that time. Expect the reverse with AFITF.
However, since it is well known that this upcoming book will heavily feature scenes from From Blood and Ash from Cas' perspective, there is a chance of having some crossover between now and mid-August or that some quotes already posted may have unintentional spoilers. Please be aware of this! This has also never been a spoiler free blog. If it's been out for longer than a month, chances are there are spoilers here somewhere.
Anything between release day and mid-August that might even remotely qualify for a spoiler warning will be tagged with #asoaab spoilers and #a soul of ash and blood spoilers for your filtering pleasure. You may also want to consider unfollowing or temporarily blocking this blog for the time being and I'll catch up with you on the other side!
I only put this too long warning out because this blog did cause some inadvertent offense around the release of A Light in the Flame in late 2022. This is when some silly quotes I did earlier in 2022 were accused by anons over the course of a few months of being "alitf spoilers" months after they were originally posted (in early 2022) when ALITF was finally released and people found my older pre-release posts for the first time. I never would have made this public and thought this had all died down, but it has since started again.
Please know from the bottom of my heart that spoiling someone's fun is NEVER my intention, coincidences are sometimes real, and I am only one human, not some faceless, soulless Tumblr goblin. If there are problems, questions, or concerns, I am always open to listen. However, please don't curse at or "flame" at me. I won't respond publicly but I will cry and it will ruin my day. I truly try my best and I just want to make sure this time that there is no confusion for those who may already be here.
With all of that said, you will probably hear from me once more closer to release day with yet another, much more concise reminder and I hope everyone has a great ASOAAB release!! Happy reading everyone!
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chanelsebbie · 4 years
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𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗗𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗲? | 𝗽.𝗽.
➵warnings: Substance use, language, Endgame spoilers, angst. 
➵masterlist
➵summary: Peter just wants to know why you hate him. 
➵a/n: Hee hee, I’m still trying to break in my new blog so feel free to send in requests and follow or reblog :)  ((THIS IS A STARK!READER FIC))
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You never really liked Peter Parker. 
But you didn’t hate him. You couldn’t. Everyone on the Avengers team tolerated him, and some even liked him. And he was talented at what he did. But you still couldn’t bring yourself to like him. 
After the events of Thanos, you were finally brought back, and so was Peter. And Tony was happier than ever to get you home, and in his arms again. You went in and kicked ass. And the good guys won. 
But at the cost of your father’s life. 
Now that he was gone, everyone is asking who the next Ironman would be. You would think people would have been gunning on you, his own daughter, but instead, everybody looked to the boy no older than yourself. 
And jealousy raged through you, feeling put off to the side, along with trying to grieve and mourn your fathers death, all while trying to keep the world at peace. And with the Captain in retirement, along with Natasha gone, that left the team struggling to stay together. Some of the strongest members were gone, and Thor was still trying to lose that weight. 
So it all fell down to you. And sadly, also Peter. You were struggling to finish your studies in high school, as was Peter, the both of you attending the same school. While Peter had all sorts of friends, you preferred to be alone, and get through school, so you could take on more missions and important callings. 
Just like today. But today was going to be slightly different. 
“Come on, y/n, it’s just one party! It won’t kill you,” he protested as you walked into the common area of the Avengers headquarters. 
“Yes it will,” you grunted, plopping down on the couch and telling F.R.I.D.A.Y. to turn the TV on.”
“No- F.R.I.D.A.Y., turn the TV off- It’s a big party and I know you’ll have fun! Flash is throwing it but I know you can still enjoy it,”
That made you not want to go even more. Flash was arrogant, snooty, and always took your detesting glares as playing hard to get. All you knew is that he didn’t like the word ‘no’, which set up multiple red flags for you. 
“No. I said no.” you huffed, taking the remote this time and turning the TV back on, flipping through the channels was Peter let out a defeated sigh, sitting right next to you, pulling out his phone. 
But secretly, Peter didn’t want to leave the living room. And even if he was on his phone, he just wanted to be near you. 
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
“Come ooonnn, y/n, please??” Peter begged over the phone, pleading with you as he tried to get you to come to the stupid party that he was already at. 
The loud music could be heard in the background, along with some masculine cheering, which you were sure was the captain of the football team. 
“Peter, no, I’m already in bed,” lie “and I’m in the middle of a book. I’ll see you when you get back to the compound,” you tried to negotiate with a clip to your voice, and the truth was you were at the compound, sitting on the couch in a pair of fuzzy socks and you really didn’t wanna get up. 
“Fine. Yeah. Fine, have fun at home, square.” he dramatically replied, obviously also not a fan of the word no.
You hated when he did that, when he tried to guilt trip you, because no matter how cheesy it was, he almost always succeeded in making you feel like shit. 
“Good night, Peter,”
And with that, you hung up. 
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
You found yourself dozing off to the sound of the movie playing on the screen, the large blanket covering you making you never want to leave for the rest of your life. 
But your blissful state was halted by the sound of your phone ringing, making your eyes shoot open and lazily grabbing your cellular device and mindlessly pressing the answer button without looking at the contact name before letting out a groggy “Hello?”
“Y/n!!! Heeeyyyyy,” Peter’s loopy voice sounded off, and if you weren’t full awake already, you certainly were now. 
“Peter??” you scolded, “Are you...?”
“Having the time of my life?? Abbssolutelyyy!!” 
“Shhhhh, just-” you pinched the bridge of your nose, trying not to panic, “Where are you?”
“At the party you were too scared to come to,” he chastised, making you let out a silent sigh in annoyance. 
“Just stay there, okay, I’m coming,” you finally spoke, flipping the blanket off of yourself and getting up with get some real clothes on.
“I like it when you say you’re comi-”
And with that, you hung up the phone. 
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
If there was one thing that your father had good taste in, it was his automobiles. He had many he took pride in. Especially the red ones. And if anything, the memory of your father might keep you sane. 
You punched in the address for Flash’s house, and even brought a pair of your father’s glasses, the only two E.D.I.T.Hs left. Ever. 
The drive there was speedy, and when you pulled into the driveway, your stomach dropped. A flood of teenagers crowded the house, and that was just the outside. You couldn’t imagine trying to find Peter in that mess. 
“E.D.I.T.H., find Peter for me, will you?” you spoke to your glasses. 
“Of course,” the voice responded, pausing a moment before continuing, “He’s in the living room. His alcohol levels are high.”
You groaned. You should’ve known, you shouldn’t have let him go out on his own to a party with Flash, that prick has alcohol up the ying-yang thanks to daddy’s money, shit-
Standing up out of the car, you slam the door, glasses still on, “E.D.I.T.H., show me Parker’s vitals, please,” you continued to storm towards the front door and making your way in. 
“His heartbeat is quick and his blood pressure is high, and as I said before, his alcohol levels are irrate.”
“Peter??” you called out, watching as his head popped up like a weasel’s, eyes bright as he recognized you. 
“[y/n]!!” He gasped, running over to you before wrapping his arms around you, “You came! I knew you would!”
“Yeah,” you pulled him off of you, “I came to get you. You’re drunk, Parker, we’re going home.”
“Aww, come on,” he pushed before hanging on you. 
“Peter. No. Come on, let’s go,” you pushed him off again, obviously more annoyed than before. You hated the way people were starting to look at you. 
“[y/n]! Please, don’t push me away again! Just let loose and have fun,”
Your anger brewed. And this was supposed to be the next Ironman. 
“Peter.” you scolded in the most dominant voice you could muster, making a few people around the two of you look their way, “We. Are going. Home.”
Without another word, you grabbed his hand and dragged him out, Peter protesting like a toddler, trying to pull back, but he was so drunk, he seemed weak, and unable to truly fight back. 
You reached the car, opening the door for him as he sat down, folding his arms and glaring at you as you got into the car, starting it and pulling out of the driveway and back to Queens, where hopefully you could get Peter out of trouble. 
A few good 3 minutes passed, (it felt longer thanks to Peter’s glare), and you finally spoke up. 
“Are you done staring at me like a child?” you breathed like a disappointed parent. Which was worse, acting like a mother or a child?
“I’m waiting for an apology. When I sober up, the guyyss are never going to leave alone about what you did to be back there.” he grumbled, obviously going to hold his grudge. 
“I don’t have to apologize for anything,” you gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, trying to suppress your thoughts that made you quick to anger. 
“Like hell-”
“I wasn’t the one breaking the law and underage drinking,” you growled back.
“I can’t wait till I sober up so I can show you what for. That was mortifying. You’re embarrassing.”
Out of everything you’ve been called, embarrassing was never something you were dubbed. 
Peter paused and held his breath, realizing he was blowing it with you, “Wait, [y/n], I’m sorry, I’m just-”
“It’s fine,” you dismissed, trying to keep tears from welling up in your eyes. 
“No, it can’t be, because I read somewhere that if a woman says she’s fine, she’s really not actually fine, and-”
“Peter! Just shut up, please!!” you scolded, trying not to sob, just wanting this night to go away. 
Soon after you hit a red light, and Peter just stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched, trying to think of something to say. Something to do. Anything at all to try and fix it. But thanks to the alcohol limiting the filter between his brain and his mouth, the next thing that came out of his mouth was:
“Why do you hate me?”
Your world seemed to stop for a second as you tried to compose yourself. This was the last thing you wanted him to think, no matter how vulnerable he made you feel. 
“I don’t hate you, Peter...,”
“Then what is it? Why do you push me away? Can you see that I like you? Like really really like you?”
You swallowed hard at his words. You closed your eyes and swallowed, “Peter, I don’t know what to tell you-”
“Then tell me something, please, anything-”
“I love you, Peter-” your outburst made him wince as he tried to focus and piece together your words in his drunken state, “I love you, Peter. And whenever I look at you... I see him, and I just...,” you took a deep breath to prevent the tears welling in your eyes, making you seem weak in your opinion, “I’m supposed to be the next Ironman, but the press says differently. I’m jealous of you Peter,” you shook in embarrassment as you pressed down on the gas, your cloudy vision making you swerve to stay on the road so you didn’t crash a priceless car. 
“You love me?”
“Y-yeah, I mean, I guess, I wouldn’t...,” you paused, “You aren’t going to remember this in the morning anyway,”
“No. I’m not gonna forget this. Not even if I tried,” he laughed humorlessly, leaning back in his seat. 
“Well... I guess the cat’s out of the bag,” you thought out loud, wanting to take your rant and stuff it back down your throat. 
You didn’t mean for him to find out. Not like this at least. 
◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆
When you two got back to the compound, he gipped onto you like a kid, clinging to you and refusing to let go. At this point there was a mutual understanding between the two of you. That both of you had feelings, but it wouldn’t be discussed until the morning. 
The elevator ride made Peter look sick, the alcohol finally starting to catch up to him, and right as the doors opened, he ran inside, finding the closest bathroom. 
That poor toilet. 
You caught up to him and sat next to a sickly Peter, rubbing his back as he let everything out. He held you the best he could, not wanting you to leave his side. 
You brushed the hair away from his forehead as he leaned over the side of the toilet, groaning in discomfort as he continued to cling to you like you would slip away. After a few more times of the repeated pattern of ejecting bile, he turned to you.
“I’m tired,” he mumbled like a child. 
“Come on, Spidey, let’s get you to bed,” you gave a small smile, picking him up as you dragged him out of the bathroom and into a guest bedroom, getting him an extra shirt and sweatpants from the closet before turning around while he got changed. 
But a wrapping of arms around your waist told you he was done. You waddled him over to the bedside before sitting him down and getting him off your back. He was like a damn koala. 
You finally laid him down, pulling the covers over him snuggly, not failing to notice the longing stare coming from Peter. You gave a smile, and he smiled back. It made your heart flutter in spite of yourself. 
You shook yourself out of it, the only thing on your mind now was getting to sleep, trying to forget the conversation that was supposed to be had the next morning. 
“Goodnight, Peter.” you began to walk away, but before you could get too far away from the bed, you felt someone grab your hand. 
“Please stay,” he begged, unspilled tears in his eyes, the fear of you leaving his side the greatest concern on his mind. 
You paused. You were about to go to sleep with Peter Parker, and yet your hesitation was the only thing that was stopping you from what you had wished you had been doing for as long as you had known the boy. 
Despite the voice screaming in the back of your head to put the wall back up and your foot down, say no, and leave, your body opposed, slipping under the covers with the sniffling teenager. 
He immediately smiled and embraced you, and you knew that you would have to get used to the physical contact. He was behind you, his arms around your waist, his breath gently fanning over the nape of your neck. 
You covered the both of you up, Peter sighing. And as much as you hated to admit it, he looked adorable. 
“Parker, if you barf in my hair, you aren’t gonna wake up with eyebrows,” you were half-joking, half-serious. 
“Will do.” he laughed sluggishly, sniffling before you finally felt his breaths steady and slow, passed out with you in his arms. 
You never really liked Peter Parker. 
You loved him.
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silenthillmutual · 4 years
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daniil dankovsky is autistic and here’s why:
because i’m autistic and i said so
i kid, obviously. what sort of autistic person would i be if i wasn’t read to back up my silly little claim with an overly long post of evidence a total of three people will read? (hi ned hi jordan hi raven :))
i’m aware that this is cringey because adults aren’t supposed to have autism or interests or talk about either of those things, but this is my blog and you are free to block me if the cringe is too much for you.
these are some things i picked out from the DSMV’s diagnostic criteria, found on the CDC website:
deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect
abnormal social approach
abnormalities in eye contact and body language
defecits in […] understand[ing] relationships
difficults adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts
repetitive motor movements or speech
rigid thinking patterns
highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus
hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input
there’s also some misc. stuff not in the diagnostic criteria (though it may be in the adir or gars-3) i thought was worth noting.
important note from the diagnostic criteria: “symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning”. i’d say that in his case, they do.
spoilers for pathologic classic, pathologic 2, and the marble nest
deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
in bachelor route of classic, daniil
seems completely oblivious to eva making advances toward him, to the point where she complains to him that he’s ignoring her in favor of asking questions about simon.
seems surprised when people mention maria being in love with him, despite outright asking her a couple of times if she’s flirting with him.
not to mention the fact that he asks her that at all.
his inability or resistence to making connections with others is typically considered one of his character flaws. although it is not outright stated in the dsmv criteria, one trait of autism and other neurodivergencies is “having extremely high or extremely low empathy” - and daniil, despite being a doctor, lacks empathy. which is not to say he doesn’t care at all. i think that he does, but is terrible at showing it.
for example, this scene from marble nest:
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Sticky: You must feel terrible… right? That’s fine. I forgive you. You just got confused… Adults always do. Daniil: Oh yes, adults are always occupied with the most asinine nonsense. Like feeling anxious that a bunch of urchins keep roaming the streets, putting themselves in mortal danger!
daniil clearly cares about sticky’s wellbeing (and the wellbeing of the kids looking after him, though he’s not cognizant that he’s in a coma), but his way of showing it is… kind of by being a jerk. all of which bleeds into the next item on the list
reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect
he has no problem sharing his interests, but in both pathologic classic & pathologic 2, daniil speaks with a flat affect - which is to say that he lacks intonation. the words we read him saying may be dramatic or come across as passionate, but the actual voice reading his lines is very monotone, which may contribute to being read as lacking emotion.
and in pathologic 2, he has a voiceline lamenting not telling “her” (eva?) how he felt
in marble nest, he’s teased by the tragedians for being “heartless”:
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Tragedian: Maybe. Possibly. But it’s useless to explain to a heartless man. …Take heart, Excellency! If you ever find it, that is. And then come back to us… Even though it all sounds like a rather implausible turn of events.
abnormal social approach
daniil has a tendency to say things that are tactless, odd, or just socially inappropriate. i probably don’t need to point out too many examples, as i think it’s fairly obvious - these are the things people love to pick at when it comes to him, but i do have a few in mind. like, for example, from haruspex route in classic:
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Haruspex: What of the antibodies essential for making a serum? Bachelor: I don’t know for sure yet, I’ll send you a report in a few hours. Don’t go about cutting people’s hearts out for your panacea until then. It’s a… controversial solution, you know… Haruspex: What?! Do you even hear yourself? Bachelor: Sorry! I meant no offence… it was just a momentary lapse of… well, you know. Haruspex: None taken.
until artemy points out, daniil doesn’t seem to be aware he just said something rude. even with therapy, picking up on social cues doesn’t come naturally to people with autism, so we tend to say things that come across as rude or strange to others without realizing we’ve put them off. we tend to lack a “filter” that tells us when things are or are not appropriate to say. even when we may recognize it, the rules may not make any sense to us. for example, it makes very little sense that allistics favor politeness over honesty.
i think the glaringly obvious abnormal social approach in pathologic 2 is him threatening to hold artemy at gunpoint to get in the house, which is just overkill, but my personal favorite comes on day 7, when he’s complaining about the orders aglaya has given him. artemy stops him to say he doesn’t understand what daniil wants from him, to which daniil replies:
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From you? Oh, nothing. I was just sharing.
to daniil, they were just having a normal conversation. but some part of this - his tone or his words or maybe even his body language - didn’t give artemy the impression that this was supposed to be a regular conversation. (we could, in fact, attribute the same idea to artemy here; why didn’t artemy pick up that this was a normal conversation? the reason i count it towards daniil is because artemy doesn’t seem to have this problem with anybody else. for the record: i don’t think artemy is neurotypical either.)
abnormalities in eye contact and body language
it’s hard to get proof of this in video games, but i will say i think it’s very funny that in pathologic 2 daniil’s idle animations are “pacing”, “sitting like he desperately wants to start bouncing his knees but is stopping himself from doing it”, and “standing unnaturally still” - but there you go. i don’t know anything about making gifs, or i’d gif this one specific talk menu idle he does where he holds eye contact for about three seconds, looks away uncomfortably, and then looks back out of the corner of his eyes.
deficits in […] understand[ing] relationships
mostly examples from his route in classic:
when the army arrives, he can claim to block that aglaya, whom he’s known for two days, is his best friend
he seems baffled by the fact that everone is smitten with maria and working with her, and seems equally baffled by the idea that she’s smitten with him
despite eva implying on day two that she is in a relationship with andrey, is completely blindsided by the revelation on day 6, asking him, “How in the world is she ‘your woman’?”
i’d also like to use his sign-off on his letter to artemy, day 2 of the haruspex route - he signs it as “Your friend (hopefully)”. i know i’m not the only autistic person who used to ask people if we were friends or not. pro tip, if you’ve never done this: don’t. it really weirds people out.
difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts
the fact that he stands out is blatantly obvious even in pathologic 2 and in the haruspex route of classic. people will comment on him being an outsider and mention that they don’t trust him. but you can watch it happen in real time in his route, because he never fully acclimates to the town. he says something about this to aglaya on day 7:
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Bachelor: Was there any particularly notable backstory? I’m deadly tired of all these people. They’re inhuman. They tell the future, believe in walking zombies, and die in all manners of painfully abnormal ways. Inquisitor: Your line of t hinking is obviously falacious - and I was implying something rather mundane. I promise you, no one can really tell the future around here: and neither are deaths inspired by third parties uncommon. Mysterious phenomenons do occur here sometimes… but hardly more often than anywhere else.
actually, there’s an example of him saying something similar to artemy on day 5 in pathologic 2:
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Damn this town… I feel I’m trapped in a nightmare. The absurdity of it all… There’s no one to talk to. Everyone’s so volatile. They all seem to want to help, but… their help is worse than hostility.
some of this can be explained by the town’s strangeness, but keep in mind that the first instance happens after he’s been there and involved in the ongoing for an entire week, and the second at nearly a week in. clearly he’s struggling to adjust to the changes.
it’s also worth noting that his reason for fleeing the town in the nocturnal ending?
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I have no place here anymore.
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This town is no longer mine. No longer human. No longer rational. It doesn’t… accept the likes of me anymore.
repetitive motor movements or speech
it’s harder to see the motor movements in classic, but remember how i pointed out earlier that he paces? pacing is a form of stimming. murky, who is canonically autistic, can also be found pacing as one of her idle animations. having stock phrases for characters to speak when you come near them already ticks off the box on “repetitive speech”, but that by itself doesn’t really cover what they’re talking about - echolalia.
but you know what this does fit with? “‘quoting’ things(communication is HARD! sometimes we need to take shortcuts and use someone else’s words)“
i’ll get to the more obvious example in a minute - i want to point out something that happens very early in pathologic 2 first. you know how you first meet him and artemy accuses daniil of trying to guilt-trip him by asking if it’s true that isidor would still be alive if artemy had come sooner? keep in mind that he spoke to rubin first. and this is what rubin says, when you get a chance to talk to him:
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Yesterday, I was told you had killed your father.
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That’s not far from the truth, Burakh.
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You betrayed him. You left when he needed you most. He cried out for your help, but you didn’t care. He was in peril, and you were too busy elsewhere, He believed, truly believed, that your arrival would put an end to his troubles. And, as always, he was right.
i’m not saying this was necessarily the game’s intent, but it’s entirely possible daniil is parroting back to artemy exactly what rubin said to him.
now, for what you’re probably expecting in this section: the latin. people love to refer to his use of latin as “random”, so let’s clear that up:
it is not latin daniil has made up. with the exception of latin that is mispelled in the game’s texts, all of them are proverbs or otherwise common sayings. you can find most of them on the wikipedia list of latin phrases, or through a 3-second google search.
he’s a doctor. him having taken latin isn’t anymore strange than a lawyer taking latin. in fact, if you pay attention, artemy also took latin; this is implied when artemy tells him he’s always sucked at it.
his uses of latin actually aren’t random at all. what he says fits the situation, and sometimes is used in place of him having to come up with something to say on his own.
prime example:
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Forget it, Burakh. I have a splitting headache. If you have no urgent business, then we’ll talk later. Later, later… Qui non proficit, deficit.
qui non proficit, deficit - he who does not advance, loses ground. in other words, “i’m sorry, but i really do need to keep working.” one of his voice lines.
as for why he doesn’t translate the latin: it probably wouldn’t even occur to him to. these are not obscure sayings. the utopians all have a certain degree of education - what would he need to translate them for?
this bleeds into something that isn’t really mentioned, but that i’ve found i have a lot of trouble with in everyday life. autistic people have a tendency to either overexplain (and then have everyone get mad at you because they feel you’re being condescending) or underexplain (and have everyone get mad at you because you haven’t explained anything). the latin would be a case where it feels like a justified underexplanation. you’ll notice that when it comes to anything scientific, he tends to do the reverse, and overexplain. this also happens in classic, whether artemy has asked him to clarify or not.
rigid thinking patterns
the thing i had marked for this was simply his strict adherence to western medical practices and refusal to acknowledge the supernatural, even when it seems obvious - he has a conversation in his route in classic with yulia about this, and that is in fact how he manages to get to her: by asking saburov if there are any other logical skeptics in town. it should be noted they seem to be breaking with this in pathologic 2, where one of his voicelines is “I’m no positivist. There are things in this world beyond our mundane perception.” i have no idea where they’re planning on going with that.
there’s also a quote floating somewhere around twitter about him having been raised by a military man, and militaries tend to enforce very rigid routines. you could say the same thing of block - who (in classic at least) i also have my suspicions about.
highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus
special interests. the one that should obviously come to mind is thanatology, though i would argue latin if not classics in general is a special interest of his as well - in addition to his usage of latin, he also references pericles in the marble nest and was probably refering to the roman occupation of haruspicy in addition to augurs in the same text. he also makes references to shakespeare more than once in both marble nest and pathologic 2.
hyper- or hyperoreactivity to sensory input
i don’t have much written down for this one but there seem to be several places in classic especially where he asks npcs to stop shouting at him. we don’t really have the privilege to know their volume or how they’re interacting with him, but i think it’s also worth noting that he’s the only one of the healers who wears gloves. in pathologic 2 he’s the only named character i can think of who wears them at all. his thing in the lucid dream about the brain being “a border”? gloves are his border, as is his jacket, which may be worn to cut down on sensory issues.
he will also sometimes seem to “overreact” to the situation at hand - such as in classic, when some dogheads mispeak and say that daniil is going to “sterilize” them, and instead of understanding that they must have mispoken, freaks out over the idea that they think they’re going to be… well… sterilized. or in haruspex route, when his reaction to the inquisitor arriving is to threaten suicide.
miscellaneous
he never goes anywhere without that carpet bag. we don’t see it in pathologic 2, but we do hear about it and he doesn’t let it go for a second in classic - not even in the cutscenes where he’s using the microscope. his bag could be a comfort item.
“getting very attached to things like inanimate objects” could work for the bag - but you know what it actually fits the bill much more obviously? the polyhedron. in the haruspex route he recognizes that it’s a lost cause, but he’s still too attached to it to let it go.
in classic at least, daniil is absolutely terrible at lying. most autistic people either are not good at lying, or feel uncomfortable or anxious with having to lie. when he’s asked by yulia and the kids in the polyhedron to lie to block (for different reasons) he’s clearly uncomfortable with the idea that it’ll work. and when it actually comes time to come up with a way to lie to block about why he needs five rifles, your options are to either buckle and tell him the truth, or simply say that you need them for “self-defense”. block believes that you’re not lying to him, but daniil can’t come up with any embeleshments to explain why he needs what he’s asking for.
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Commander: Are you hiding something from me? Bachelor: No.
he comes across as naive to other characters. in classic, capella has a voiceline saying, “The Bachelor is not smart. Intelligent, yes… but not smart.” in Pathologic 2, Daniil complains that Aglaya takes him for “a useless dreamer”. he’s also easily used by the Kains to fulfill their endgame in classic.
my final, and absolute favorite: he takes things way too literally. autistic people (and adhd people, from my understanding) have a hard time differentiating jokes and sarcasm. so my favorite moment in marble nest is a case of him taking that earlier advice - to “take heart” literally, by bringing the tragedians a literal human heart:
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Tragedian: Oh… Excellency. What a sordid sight! Sorry for underestimating you. You definitely do have… how shall I put it… a creative touch. But this is pure madness. You can’t take things so literally! Daniil: You wanted me to come back to you with an open heart. Well, here I am. …It looked too fitting to be a coincidence.
your mind map, after this, updates to say “I misunderstood the tragedians.”
conclusion
people don’t stop being autistic with age and i think he’s a good example of what it’s like to be in your late 20s and be autistic. i’m sure i missed things as i haven’t finished haruspex route of classic yet and there may just be some other things he does or says that i missed! if anyone has anything to add they think fits i would love to know, thank you for your time :)
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hcs-on-the-loose · 5 years
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Rules!
DISCLAIMERS
- For the NSFW requests, all characters I'll be writing for will be aged up to be at the very least 18 (as pedophilia or anything of the sort that involves children is way out of the things I'm willing to write for). If you are still unsettled with the idea of these fictional characters being in R+18 situations despite being aged up, I'll be putting up an #aged-up tag for you to block! (Ex: a Tanjiro NSFW post will have the said tag as he is canonically underage; he is aged up for the post's purposes)
- This blog isn’t spoiler-free and not anime-only friendly, so look through it at your own risk! (This also means I’m wholly caught up with the manga; do what you will with that information)
GEN INFO 
- No abuse, rape/non-con, pedophilia, extreme fetishes like snuff, scat/piss play, necrophilia, bestiality, etc. Tbh, anything along the vein of this stuff and I’ll have to reject that request. Also consent is sexy; if any dub-con requests edge too much (unconsciousness, blackout drunkenness, etc), I’ll be treating it as non-con. 
- For the canon/reader stuff, I’ll be making the reader gender-ambiguous unless specified within your request!
- I’ll always be updating the status of when my requests will be open in the bio-- to avoid cluttering my inbox (I’ll be limiting to around 30 asks), I’ll be deleting requests that come if the status is set to closed so take note! 
- I deal mainly in headcanons, though I can definitely write drabbles and scenarios. They’ll just be seen in lesser frequency. 
- Violence/blood/fight fight fighty stuff will be treated as canon-typical (see below for Fandoms-- second fandom has oodles of violence ngl) but will still be tagged!
HEADCANONS
- Will limit to around 5 characters per request, though the more characters are put up, the less content there will be for each in a single post. 
- Will also take worldbuilding headcanons! This doesn’t get enough attention imo, so let ‘em at me!
SCENARIOS/DRABBLES
- Hoo boy, these will definitely take a lot longer than the headcanons to write so I’ll do my best to update them at least once or twice a week!
- Limited to one character per request!
- Vague requests will take much longer to write up for, but if you’re hella specific and detailed (at least more than something like “drabble of Himejima’s in-bed habits with S/O”) then you’ll definitely be pushed up the writing queue. 
- Worldbuilding scenarios/drabbles? Please.
REGARDING ORDER OF REQUESTS BEING WRITTEN FOR
- Just a reminder that I won’t always be glued to the blog 24/7 and that I can’t exactly write super solid content for every request I get in the inbox, even if it fits within the rules I’ve laid down, so just putting it out here now that I’ll be writing in no particular order since I’m fueled mainly by muse and inspiration. 
- I’m choosing which requests to write for and which to delete, though a request not being written for for a long time usually means that I either have no idea how to write a certain request and I’m not going to churn out half-baked content for it (only good solid stuff for you guys!) or I’m uncomfortable with writing it (or you’ve broken a rule/s), and will thus be deleted to make room for other requests. 
- Sometimes, I’ll be putting out reasons for why I can’t do a certain request (like poly relationships or nb headcanons; I’d love to write for them but I have no idea how to) so please bear with me. I’m doing my best to fulfill all of your requests and to feed the fandom! 
FANDOMS
- Main is definitely Kimetsu no Yaiba; but I’ve put down that I’m also a fan of Bloodborne (if the blog aesthetic didn’t clue you in already) so I’m also accepting Bloodborne content, though it won’t be my main priority! It’ll be tagged appropriately, don’t worry. You’re also welcome to filter out for the two!
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nomattertheoceans · 6 years
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I made you a promise - chapter 16
Before I let you read on, a few important announcements.
I will be leaving tumblr from Sunday 21st, until I’ve read Kingdom of Ash. Because I’ve already put my spoiler tags up, and still I started to see things about the book (I don’t know how these people got their hands on the book, but how about using some tags, people? I’m so angry about it, I don’t want to dwell on it and ruin your day too….)
Knowing myself and how I read, I’ll probably start reading it on Friday 26th, and will hopefully have finished it on Sunday or something.
Once I come back to tumblr, this blog will definitely not be spoiler free!!! I will be using these tags on every koa post I share: “koa spoilers”, “koa spoiler”, “kingdom of ash spoiler” and “kingdom of ash spoilers” That way, if you want to avoid any spoilers, just filter at least one of these tags and you’ll be safe in my blog.
Regarding the fic: this might be my last update in a while. In November, I won’t be updating it at all, because I’ll spend the month of November  developing my original story, and I can’t focus on my story if I keep thinking about my fics. So I’ll try to get a chapter out between the moment when I’ll finish Kingdom of Ash, and the beginning of November, but nothing certain. In any case, whether it be this chapter or the next one, I promise I won’t leave you guys on a big cliffhanger hahahaha (I’m really not that cruel ^^), and I also promise that I am in no way abandoning this fic, and will be back in December! I just need some time for my other project :)
Anyway, that’s it I guess. Thank you so so much to everyone who reads, likes, comments,... I love it all!!
@highladyofherondale @amazinginglyawesomeperson @illyrianbeauty
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Feyre sat down at her small desk after lunch, a smile lingering on her face. She’d just eaten with Rhys, and at some point during the meal, he’d casually referred to her as his girlfriend, before realizing what he’d said and looking at her with dread in his eyes. She hadn’t been able to stop her laugh at the sight of him freaking out, a warm feeling spreading in her heart at the idea that he considered her his girlfriend, that it had come as naturally to him as it had to her. Still smiling, she opened her inbox to check emails, somewhat mindlessly reading through them, thinking - and blushing - about something Rhys had whispered in her ear before leaving her at the door. Something about making his girlfriend moan when he…
There was an email from New York. From John, the author she’d met with the week before. And the email was titled: “John Helvar - Illustrated edition - Trip to NYC?” She opened it frantically and read what he’d written to her:
Email sent on: Tuesday, October 30th at 1:04 p.m.
Feyre,
How are you?
I’m writing to you as a follow up of our meeting in Velaris last week. I was charmed by all of the ideas you presented to me, and showed them to my publisher on Friday. She also liked them, and would like to meet you and discuss them further before making a final decision. We’re both available at the beginning of next week, and would like for you to come to New York for a few days. It would be a trip from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning, allowing us two full days to work. The publishing house would pay for your plane tickets and your hotel.
Let me know before Thursday if you’re available, to book everything for you.
Looking forward to seeing you soon in New York,
John.
She wasn’t sure she was breathing. He wanted her to come to New York. To meet his publisher. To craft a contract. Which meant he wanted to work with her, he wanted her to create every single one of the illustrations for his books. An entire collection, with about 100 to 150 pages per book. After meeting her twice, he trusted her enough to agree to working with her for the next few months, the next few years. She felt her heart racing in her chest, her breathing became jagged and her hands were shaking.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go to New York and meet with these people when she had to drag herself out of bed every morning, when she found every drawing she made harder than the last. Not when she’d been unable to pick up a paintbrush for months, her only drawings being those requested for work. She’d felt sort of confident during the meetings with him, but it hadn’t been serious. For all that she wanted and needed this job, she hadn’t considered the possibility that he might actually choose her. Her vision blurred and she realized she was crying. The realization woke her up and she tried to force her body to calm down. Nothing was decided yet, she thought, clenching at her desk to keep herself grounded, he simply wanted her to meet the rest of the team that was working on the project. Maybe he didn’t even want to work only with her, maybe she would be part of a bigger team of illustrators and her work wouldn’t even be noticed.
But it didn't work, she was still panicking, tears still rolled down on her cheeks. Without thinking, she picked up her phone and dialed.
***
The day was beautiful. Granted, it was raining, and he was freezing, and he had about a zillion paperwork to finish before he could go home tonight. But how could this day not be beautiful, when he’d just had lunch with his wonderful girlfriend - it was official now - and she was coming to his place to spend the night. He’d have to buy some stuff for her if she started to sleep at his house more regularly, like a toothbrush, some of her shampoo, maybe some stuff for her period if she wanted, a hairbrush,...
He was driven away from his mental shopping list by the vibrations of his phone in his pocket. Smiling at the name on the screen, he answered:
“Hey you, miss me already?”
“Oh Gods Rhys, I’m freaking out.” Her voice was stranded, and her breathing frantic.
“What’s going on? Are you ok?”
“I am. It’s just…. I received an email from the guy I met with the other week. He wants me to go to New York next week to meet his publishing team.”
“Feyre, that’s great!” He wasn’t really an expert in the publishing world, but the author wanting her to meet with his publisher was bound to be a good sign.
“I… Yeah I guess it is.” But her voice was flat, and he started wondering what was in this email that got her so freaked out.
“Darling, what’s going on? You don’t sound pleased.”
“No, I am.” A pause. “I am. See you tonight at your place?”
“Y - yes, sure. Are you sure you’re okay?”
But she had already hung up before his question was over.
***
She refused to approach the subject of New York for the entire evening, cleverly avoiding talking about it, and bluntly staring at him when he tried to bring it up. So they ate in near silence, Rhys trying and failing to make her open up to him, and then keeping quiet, hoping she might feel better if he left her alone. They washed the dishes, turned off the lights and got up to his bedroom. He was fishing out a clean pair of underpants to sleep in when he caught a glimpse of her in the mirror, seated on his bed, her hand tucked between her thighs, crying silently. He turned around and hurried to her, kneeling down in front of her.
“Feyre, what’s going on?”
She avoided his eyes, and was clenching her hands together, tears rolling down her cheeks silently. Still without looking at him, she said: “Are you… Are you mad at me?”
“What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?”
“Well… I don’t know. Because I didn’t want to talk about New York, and you might think I want to hide something from you, and be mad.” Her voice had grown quieter as she talked, and she looked so sad, Rhys decided then and there that if he ever met her ex-boyfriend, he wouldn’t mind punching him in the face once or twice.
“Feyre, please, look at me.” And he was pleading her, pleading because he wanted her to look into his eyes and understand that he would never react like that, with her or anyone else. She met his eyes but she was still sobbing silently, her beautiful face stained by tears, and her eyes red. “Feyre, you don’t have to tell me everything. Ever. If you don’t want to tell me about something, it’s absolutely fine, and normal.” He rested his hands on her thighs gently. “I simply stopped talking about it because I thought I was annoying you, and I thought you’d feel better if I left it alone. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make it worse.”
He stopped talking and let her cry, not wanting to make her feel like she had to stop before she felt better. She cried for a while longer, and then she managed to calm down enough to take in deep breaths. He got up from his knees, sat down beside her and gently took her head between his hand. He brushed away her tears with his thumbs, and slowly, so that she’d understand what he was doing and stop him if she wanted to, he hugged her. She gripped his jumper and he tightened his grip on her back, pulling her even closer to him.
“I don’t think I’m going to go to New York,” her voice was a mere whisper, as if she was indeed telling him a secret, but she was steady.
“Can I ask you why?” He kept his voice equally low.
“I don’t think it’s going to be worth it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not good enough to do this job, Rhys. And even if I was, even if the people I’d met with liked my work… I would never be able to deliver.”
“Why would you think that? You’ve been doing this job for years.”
“But this is different. It’s… It’s such a big commitment. If I do agree to work with them, I’ll probably be involved in this project for years. It’s seven books to illustrate. It would take so long, and I can’t guarantee them that I’ll be able to manage it.”
He gently forced her to move away from him so that he could look her in the eyes when he answered:
“Feyre, this is your job, and from what you’ve shown me, you’re pretty good at it. I have no doubt that if you start working with them, you’ll deliver every single piece of art they need. And every single one of them will be beautiful.”
She gave him a sad smile, and it broke his heart a little, because he could see that she didn’t believe him, that she simply smiled because she thought he was only trying to reassure her. Gods, he wanted to help her so much it hurt, he could feel his heart break at the sight of her being so sad. He couldn’t stand to know that she didn’t believe in herself, when he himself believed in her more than he could express. And it seemed that there was nothing he could say or do that would change her feeling of being worthless.
“Feyre, why do you think you can’t manage?”
“Because… My job, it’s not serious. Working with your hobby, that’s not something serious, that’s not something you can do for your entire life. Drawing and painting, I never learned properly, I was never trained. And untrained skills are useless in the professional world, I wouldn’t be able to hold my own in such a big project.”
And then he knew. He knew why she was feeling so unconfident. And he was boiling with rage at the idea. But he needed to be sure:
“Did he tell you that? Did he call your talents useless and tell you that you couldn’t work with them?” Her silence was answer enough, and he wanted to cry. “Shit Feyre. You are so talented. What you’re able to create, what comes to life under your touch, it’s a gift. And it’s beautiful. Maybe you weren’t trained, but I have absolutely no doubt that you’ll be able to meet any challenge that comes your way. You’re strong, and you’re stubborn enough not to let anyone tell you otherwise.” She chuckled slightly at that, sniffing after her tears, “Feyre, I think you should go to New York, because you might regret it if you don’t. And I’m sure you won’t regret going. Worse thing happens, you don’t like it, you tell them that you don’t want to work with them, and you come back home. Free trip to New York!”
She actually laughed at his sloppy attempt at a joke, and wiped her eyes to get rid of the last tears lingering in them. His chest tightened, and he resisted the urge to take her in his arms again, allowing her space to breathe. When she looked at him once more, there was still sadness in her eyes, but it was coated with a joyful brightness that reflected in her smile. She advanced and kissed him fully, her lips wet and salty, and he kissed her back, hugging her against him.
***
She arrived at her desk the next morning rested and smiling softly. What had happened the night before had been… amazing. Rhysand had been amazing. She’d had one of her most awful days in a long time, and still he had found the right words, given her the exact amount of reassuring and affection and space to sort it out. He’d given her space, had allowed her to cry for as long as she’d needed it, not commenting on it, not asking for her to calm down. And she had felt so much better afterwards. She couldn’t exactly say that she was confident about her abilities to work on the project, but at least she was ready to try. She opened her computer and typed an answer:
RE: John Helvar - Illustrated edition - Trip to NYC?
Draft written on: Wednesday, October 31st at 9:12 a.m.
Hello John,
Thank you for your email. I am thrilled that you liked my ideas for your book, and would love to come to New York next week to discuss it further with you and your associates. I am available on the dates you gave me, so feel free to book those days for our meeting. Please find enclosed a copy of my personal information for any booking you might have to make regarding this trip.
Looking forward to seeing you again,
Greetings from Velaris.
Feyre.
Looking at her screen, she exhaled loudly and clicked send, afraid she might lose her nerves if she waited any longer.
She was going to New York.
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jeffrapham · 6 years
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21 Effective Low Effort & High Return SEO Techniques for 2019
Ranking high takes both time and effort. But there are some SEO techniques out there that are easy to implement and will definitely bring some results. The best part? You can probably do everything yourself.
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Spoiler alert, though: many of them include basics. During the years we have observed something rather shocking. Many clients that I’ve picked up had paid big time for search engine optimization services in the past. To my surprise, however, basic things like keywords in titles were missing.
Now before you start, you can always perform an audit. It’s not actually something easy to do, depending on the size of your website, but it will help you prioritize your actions in order to save time. Depending on each individual situation, different actions in the list below might not be useful or might not apply to your case. 
1. Optimize Your Titles and Headings
As mentioned in the introduction, I was often surprised to see that although some of my clients had paid big money for SEO services in the past, basic optimization things like keyword research and title optimization were not performed.
These being said, make sure your pages are targeting the proper keywords. The title tag has the most weight in search engine optimization, so make sure your keyword is there. The closer the most important keyword is to the beginning, the better. After that, you need to add the proper keywords to your Headings as well. The H1 is the most important heading so it should be the first thing on a page. In many cases, it’s the same as the title, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.
If you have a PPC campaign running, you can inspire yourself from those titles. Many people think that PPC titles are unfit for SEO, but the truth is that the PPC titles are focused on conversion, which will benefit SEO greatly.
Same thing goes for the meta descriptions. Optimize the meta descriptions to convince people to click your link. Make sure you have your keywords there as well, otherwise the chances of it showing up are much lower.
Once you get a hold of it, you can start targeting multiple keywords with one page. Although this article doesn’t really target multiple keywords, we could say that this title is optimized for “effective seo techniques”, “seo techniques” and “seo techniques 2019”.
This is a great thing, because you can focus on writing bigger pieces of content instead of many smaller ones. Google loves longer content.
2. Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation
Navigation is the most important structure element on your entire website. Why? Well, because it’s the first thing linking to your ‘other’ pages and it’s usually at the very top of the page, giving those links a lot of weight.
You can see, for example, that pages optimized for some of our most important keywords are linked to right from the navigation menu. These links are found on every page on the website, making those pages look very important in Google’s eyes.
That’s actually one of the reasons the Homepage has such high authority on all sites. It’s because, usually, the logo on every page links to it.
3. Add Breadcrumbs to Your Pages
Adding breadcrumbs can be very beneficial to your website, especially if it’s an eCommerce one. This is due to the fact that they create structure within your site.
Most, if not all online stores, link their products from their category pages. This means that the category pages send some equity to the product pages, making them stronger. Not a bad thing, overall.
However, I’m pretty sure though that you want your category pages to rank high, because those are the ones optimized for the keywords with the most search volume. With Breadcrumbs, you will consolidate the strength of your Category pages by linking to them with all your subcategories and related products.
If you’re using a CMS, things are pretty easy. Most templates already come with breadcrumbs, so make sure you check the template’s settings first. If not, you can search the web for “Your CMS Platform” + “breadcrumbs plugin/extension/module”. I’m sure there’s something out there for you.
On a custom platform you might not be able to do it yourself without coding knowledge. However, a programmer should be able to do it pretty quick, so it won’t be a big expense.
4. Implement Tracking on Your Site
Tracking is extremely important. If you don’t track your rankings and traffic, you can’t spot the issues with your website.
What pages do the users leave quickly? You know you can improve those first, especially if the search volume for them is high!
Also, if you don’t monitor your organic search traffic you can’t know if you’re making any progress and, worse, you won’t know if the search engines penalized you or your rankings have dropped.
You can use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor your organic search traffic and issues with your pages. They’re fairly easy to install as long as you have access to your server. You might even be able to install them via a plugin for your CMS. I recommend using Google Tag Manager to implement all tracking codes. They will be easier to manage afterwards.
If you want to go to the next level, you can try things like HotJar, which creates a heatmap of where your users click most on a page. However, that’s a lot harder to understand and improve correctly, so an experienced person is required.
5. Install an SSL Certificate
SSL has become a ranking factor since 2014. If you’re wondering why, the answer is pretty simple. Because of security. Cybercrime has been on the rise constantly and more and more people share more and more sensitive data on the web.
Installing an SSL should be pretty easy. Most of the time, your hosting provider can help you. However, there is a simpler solution which is also free: CloudFlare. You simply have to change your domain’s nameservers to point out to CloudFlare and then CloudFlare will act as a filter, blocking spam and bad IPs from reaching your server.
Read more on https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/20208/effective-seo-techniques/
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pauldeckerus · 6 years
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Shooting the New Kodak Ektachrome 100 in the City at Night
Last week, after much anticipation, I received back my first rolls of the new Kodak Ektachrome 100, exposed in Chicago over the Christmas holiday (thanks to Denver Digital Imaging Center). After all the hype and fanfare surrounding Kodak releasing a new chrome film this far into the alleged afterlife of film, I was excited to see the results. Spoiler alert: the wait was worth it.
You’re going to love the new Ektachrome 100, as I did when I saw the first frames come on screen.
Jewelers Building, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 25 sec. @f8 = +0.7EV
Color is what I’d consider to be fairly natural, with a definite warm bias – especially when contrasted to my (expired) rolls of the older Ektachrome 100G, which the new Ektachrome was reportedly based on. Grain is super fine – for all practical purposes, if you want to process the photograph so it’s grain free it doesn’t take much.
It’s a very sharp, contrasty, and punchy film but not like Velvia, or the more vivid, Ektachrome 100VS. The new Ektachrome is just right. Remembering you can always punch contrast up in Photoshop – it’s nice to have a more ‘normal’ baseline starting point.
Reciprocity Failure: honestly, I didn’t do a whole lot of math here – I just bracketed. Here’s a link to Kodak Alaris data sheet for Ektachrome 100. If the frame metered at 10 seconds, I bracketed three shots. Typically the longer exposure was better – but it’s not an exact science. Exposure times and +/-EV is listed for each image. You can see the F6’s meter – once again – did an excellent job resolving the scene. Always manual, always mirror-up with cable release.
Upper Wacker and Chicago River, Chicago, Illinois (2018).Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @f8, = +0.8EV
When I bought my F6 I’d already been familiar with the advantages of L-brackets, having them mounted on most of my other contemporary cameras (they’re not available for my older Nikons and consequently I find I don’t use them as much for this type of shooting). At first what I liked was the additional element of protection for the camera – against bumps and shocks, setting it down on a wet surface, etc. So outfitting the F6 with an L-bracket straight away was a natural thing to do. At the time I didn’t think, “now that I have an L-bracket I’ll shoot a lot more verticals.” But that is in fact what has happened.
Shooting verticals with an L-bracket is a snap. You simply mount the camera upright and shoot. Simple. And with a ball head and spirit level, it’s a snap getting the frame perfectly level too. There’s no contorting the stem of the mounting platform into the groove, and wondering if it’s really vertical because that’s as far as it will go.
TRUMP Tower, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @ f8, = +0.3EV
Another thing that just occurred to me… I’ve been trying to figure out Instagram (show of hands… anyone else?) and realized something important – at least in regard to viewing social media on your smartphone. Verticals are good again – better than horizontals. For the same reason people shoot video vertically (which drives me nuts) – when you look at social media on your smartphone there’s a pretty good chance you’re holding your phone upright – instead of on its side. When you look at images on your computer screen you’re most likely looking at them horizontally. But in social media, on your phone – it’s almost always vertical. This makes vertical photographs ‘in’ again.
These images were made with the famed Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AI-S manual focus lens, shot from the Penthouse of the Wyndham Grand Chicago River Hotel. Late one night I headed up the elevator to the Penthouse hoping there wasn’t any kind of event scheduled for the large, wide open room with windows all around and stunning views of the city.
With the room found empty, the next challenge was trying to compose shots that didn’t include the few, random interior lights that I couldn’t find switches to turn off. At first, I was composing frames that minimized reflected distractions, but it was getting in the way. Putting on my MacGyver hat, I scoured the room for a solution and spotted a black table cloth. I found that by standing on a chair behind the camera and holding up this black table cloth the reflections in the windows were eliminated – the glass reflecting only black – which of course worked for the subject matter surrounded by night sky.
Marina City Towers, Chicago at Christmas
Make sure when you use any non-CPU lens with the F6 you set the profile up in camera. There will be a blog post about this in the near future. There was minor barrel distortion/pincushioning with these frames, but (very) minor and easily corrected using Photoshop’s Lens Correction filter and dialing in manual settings in the 2-4 realm. So not much at all.
If you’re looking at possibly shooting some of Kodak Alaris’ new Ektachrome, you’ll be pleased. It’s a great film and I’m super excited to have fresh film stock now available. Thank you Kodak Alaris.
And if you’re going to shoot in a city at night and reflections are a problem – pack a big, black table cloth in your tripod bag next to your cable release. You’ll be glad you did. And don’t worry too much about reciprocity failure unless you’re getting really crazy long exposures (longer than 2 minutes). Just use a good meter and bracket if in doubt. And get an L-bracket for your camera to make shooting verticals easier. Your social media followers will like you for it.
If you’re a chrome film shooter wondering who to send your film to, look no further than Denver Digital Imaging Center. They’re friendly, reliable, fast and do great work. And finally, if you’re an F6 shooter, learn Custom Setting B5: Extended Shutter Speeds. It opens up new avenues shooting in dimly lit, long exposure situations.
About the author: John Crane is a (mostly) film photographer based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of his work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.
from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/02/06/shooting-the-new-kodak-ektachrome-100-in-the-city-at-night/
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sailorrrvenus · 6 years
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Shooting the New Kodak Ektachrome 100 in the City at Night
Last week, after much anticipation, I received back my first rolls of the new Kodak Ektachrome 100, exposed in Chicago over the Christmas holiday (thanks to Denver Digital Imaging Center). After all the hype and fanfare surrounding Kodak releasing a new chrome film this far into the alleged afterlife of film, I was excited to see the results. Spoiler alert: the wait was worth it.
You’re going to love the new Ektachrome 100, as I did when I saw the first frames come on screen.
Jewelers Building, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 25 sec. @f8 = +0.7EV
Color is what I’d consider to be fairly natural, with a definite warm bias – especially when contrasted to my (expired) rolls of the older Ektachrome 100G, which the new Ektachrome was reportedly based on. Grain is super fine – for all practical purposes, if you want to process the photograph so it’s grain free it doesn’t take much.
It’s a very sharp, contrasty, and punchy film but not like Velvia, or the more vivid, Ektachrome 100VS. The new Ektachrome is just right. Remembering you can always punch contrast up in Photoshop – it’s nice to have a more ‘normal’ baseline starting point.
Reciprocity Failure: honestly, I didn’t do a whole lot of math here – I just bracketed. Here’s a link to Kodak Alaris data sheet for Ektachrome 100. If the frame metered at 10 seconds, I bracketed three shots. Typically the longer exposure was better – but it’s not an exact science. Exposure times and +/-EV is listed for each image. You can see the F6’s meter – once again – did an excellent job resolving the scene. Always manual, always mirror-up with cable release.
Upper Wacker and Chicago River, Chicago, Illinois (2018).Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @f8, = +0.8EV
When I bought my F6 I’d already been familiar with the advantages of L-brackets, having them mounted on most of my other contemporary cameras (they’re not available for my older Nikons and consequently I find I don’t use them as much for this type of shooting). At first what I liked was the additional element of protection for the camera – against bumps and shocks, setting it down on a wet surface, etc. So outfitting the F6 with an L-bracket straight away was a natural thing to do. At the time I didn’t think, “now that I have an L-bracket I’ll shoot a lot more verticals.” But that is in fact what has happened.
Shooting verticals with an L-bracket is a snap. You simply mount the camera upright and shoot. Simple. And with a ball head and spirit level, it’s a snap getting the frame perfectly level too. There’s no contorting the stem of the mounting platform into the groove, and wondering if it’s really vertical because that’s as far as it will go.
TRUMP Tower, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @ f8, = +0.3EV
Another thing that just occurred to me… I’ve been trying to figure out Instagram (show of hands… anyone else?) and realized something important – at least in regard to viewing social media on your smartphone. Verticals are good again – better than horizontals. For the same reason people shoot video vertically (which drives me nuts) – when you look at social media on your smartphone there’s a pretty good chance you’re holding your phone upright – instead of on its side. When you look at images on your computer screen you’re most likely looking at them horizontally. But in social media, on your phone – it’s almost always vertical. This makes vertical photographs ‘in’ again.
These images were made with the famed Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AI-S manual focus lens, shot from the Penthouse of the Wyndham Grand Chicago River Hotel. Late one night I headed up the elevator to the Penthouse hoping there wasn’t any kind of event scheduled for the large, wide open room with windows all around and stunning views of the city.
With the room found empty, the next challenge was trying to compose shots that didn’t include the few, random interior lights that I couldn’t find switches to turn off. At first, I was composing frames that minimized reflected distractions, but it was getting in the way. Putting on my MacGyver hat, I scoured the room for a solution and spotted a black table cloth. I found that by standing on a chair behind the camera and holding up this black table cloth the reflections in the windows were eliminated – the glass reflecting only black – which of course worked for the subject matter surrounded by night sky.
Marina City Towers, Chicago at Christmas
Make sure when you use any non-CPU lens with the F6 you set the profile up in camera. There will be a blog post about this in the near future. There was minor barrel distortion/pincushioning with these frames, but (very) minor and easily corrected using Photoshop’s Lens Correction filter and dialing in manual settings in the 2-4 realm. So not much at all.
If you’re looking at possibly shooting some of Kodak Alaris’ new Ektachrome, you’ll be pleased. It’s a great film and I’m super excited to have fresh film stock now available. Thank you Kodak Alaris.
And if you’re going to shoot in a city at night and reflections are a problem – pack a big, black table cloth in your tripod bag next to your cable release. You’ll be glad you did. And don’t worry too much about reciprocity failure unless you’re getting really crazy long exposures (longer than 2 minutes). Just use a good meter and bracket if in doubt. And get an L-bracket for your camera to make shooting verticals easier. Your social media followers will like you for it.
If you’re a chrome film shooter wondering who to send your film to, look no further than Denver Digital Imaging Center. They’re friendly, reliable, fast and do great work. And finally, if you’re an F6 shooter, learn Custom Setting B5: Extended Shutter Speeds. It opens up new avenues shooting in dimly lit, long exposure situations.
About the author: John Crane is a (mostly) film photographer based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of his work on his website and Instagram. This article was also published here.
source https://petapixel.com/2019/02/06/shooting-the-new-kodak-ektachrome-100-in-the-city-at-night/
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bestnewsmag-blog · 7 years
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New Post has been published on Bestnewsmag
New Post has been published on https://bestnewsmag.com/wordpress-table-plugins-the-complete-guide/
WordPress Table Plugins: The Complete Guide
Ables are the suitable manner to display data on a website in a based, consumer-pleasant manner. With such a lot of distinct forms of WordPress table plugins to pick out from, it’s difficult to recognize which one to use.
That is the remaining guide to WordPress desk plugins. You’ll find out the distinct approaches wherein tables can advantage your website, and the forms of plugins to be had to fulfill the desires of the one. This guide will even offer advice on deciding on a suitable plugin, with an interactive quiz to endorse one which fits your needs. Sooner or later, you will be brought to ten of the quality WordPress table plugins, with smooth setup commands to get you commenced.
After you’ve finished analyzing, you’ll realize which table plugin you have to use on your website, and the way to get commenced and set it up.
Why use Tables in WordPress? A table is a superb way to display established information on a WordPress website. In case you suppose creatively, you’ll be surprised at what number of necessities may be met the usage of tables. As an instance:
Tables offer a useful layout for information this is too complicated to display as a list. You may use tables to create a group of workers listing or member directory. A table can be used to make any kind of WordPress directory, consisting of a product directory, a body of workers listing, or an enterprise listings database. Pricing tables are 19e3b638485e90744b4ca28bb56e58cc manner to visually gift programs and prices. A few WordPress desk plugins also create grid-fashion layouts for popular plugins along with WooCommerce, clean Digital Downloads, and The Activities Calendar. This could be simpler for developers than being pressured to create custom templates. Many WordPress developers code their own tables the use of HTML. But, this isn’t always normally encouraged because You could shop time and create extra sophisticated tables using a WordPress table plugin. HTML tables also are a nightmare for customers to edit themselves! The pleasant table plugins are mobile-pleasant and pre-styled so that you can without difficulty create tremendous tables for any purpose.
forms of WordPress table Plugin There are, in trendy, 3 forms of WordPress table plugins: static table plugins, dynamic desk plugins, and pricing desk plugins.
Static desk Plugins This is the most commonplace type of table plugin. They show static information in a structured tabular format with a couple of rows and columns.
Relying on the plugin, the desk can be interactive, with responsive design, seek, type, and filters. Those could still be described as ‘static’ due to the fact the statistics is introduced without delay to the table and no longer used (or drawn from) some place else on your website.
Dynamic desk Plugins This is a new era of table plugins which commenced emerging, for the maximum component, in the ultimate 12 months. In place of displaying static records, These plugins automatically generate immediate tables containing content that already exists some other place on your website online.
As an instance, a dynamic WordPress table plugin would possibly create a table listing all the posts from a blog. It would create a product desk listing all of your pre-existing WooCommerce products (or another e-trade plugin). Dynamic tables are also a splendid device for creating a WordPress document library. You would possibly wish to create an immediate table listing all your pages, which you can use as a desk of contents on your internet site. Or possibly You may wish to routinely generate a list of upcoming Activities, or a directory of a workforce or nearby businesses.
The difference among static and dynamic tables is that with the previous, the statistics are simplest saved in a single area. With dynamic tables, the information already exists some other place. Which means You may use the desk to summarize facts, and traffic can click on an object inside the desk to research extra. For example, they may need to click on via to study the total textual content of a weblog article or buy a product on some other web page. This wouldn’t be as effortlessly possible with a static desk plugin.
Pricing table Plugins Pricing tables are the third category of WordPress table plugin. While These additionally show static records, they’re one-of-a-kind to the first class due to the fact they have got a particular motive. They’re totally designed to exhibit the pricing for a service or product.
10 great WordPress desk Plugins TablePress – Static desk Plugin TablePress
TablePress is through some distance the main static WordPress desk plugin. It has been around for years and the free model is used on over half of a million websites.
With TablePress, You could add facts for your tables manually or import from CSV/Excel.
The free version is absolutely exact and has the maximum of the capabilities you’re likely to want. The brilliant exception is responsiveness, that’s a paid extension. That is a reasonably big shortcoming, as maximum new websites are created to be responsive, so it’s well worth considering.
Paid extensions are also to be had for added capability (such as filter out options).
how to use TablePress within the WordPress admin, visit Plugins > add New and set up and activate the loose “TablePress” plugin. deploy any paid extensions if needed. Create a desk thru the TablePress phase of the admin and insert it right into a web page or post using the shortcode: [table id=]. Use the documentation for distinctive instructions. WpDataTables – Static desk Plugin wpDataTables is a nicely installed WordPress table plugin with over 9,000 users. It works in a similar way to TablePress, however, you pay a one-off charge for all the capabilities, alternatively of buying each upload on in my view. This could work out to be less expensive, or to be more high-priced, Depending on your requirements.
The plugin has A few neat functions which include a front stop table editor, which could prevent time.
how to Use wpDataTables purchase the plugin and installation and prompt the plugin via Plugins > upload New in WordPress. go to the wpDataTables segment and comply with the onscreen instructions to create tables in WordPress. Use the documentation to make greater advanced tables. facts Tables Generator – Static table Plugin information Tables Generator
statistics Tables Generator via Subsystem is a unfastened WordPress table plugin with over 20,000 customers. It has all of the features which you get from the top rate desk plugins, plus several styling alternatives to create professional-searching tables. For a free desk plugin, it’s very astounding.
a way to use data Tables Generator inside the WordPress admin, go to Plugins > add New and install and set off the free “records Tables Generator” plugin. To to the statistics Tables Generator phase and click on to feature a brand new table. There are full commands on the plugin webpage.
A Beginner’s Guide to 4×4 Suspension Lift Kits
There are numerous reasons why humans might personalize their Cars with suspension lift kits, in addition to quite a piece to understand before you get began. In case you’re a pro veteran who has conquered the most vicious terrains and is aware of your car better than your personal mom, there in all likelihood isn’t a good deal which will study here. On the other hand, If you’re simply getting started out and want to get yourself up to speed with the fundamentals, the study on.
Why have to I elevate my journey?
Satisfied you asked. Equipping Cars with a suspension to carry kits includes a whole lot extra than shopping for the sexiest searching truck carry kit after which dropping your trip off on the nearby mechanic. Really, chances are excellent that if this is all you intend to do, lifting your journey might not be right for you in the first vicinity. Installing truck suspension raise kids requires a few hard paintings, a piece of technical savvy and steady renovation and interest on your car’s additives.
The primary determination you need to make whilst considering suspension lift kits is what you want to do with it. There are essentially foremost functions for Installing truck elevate kits: style or function. Although the two are truly interrelated, it’s nonetheless essential to do not forget which motive you most wish to pursue, because it will assist you in making the best changes on your vehicle.
Let’s face it: Reworking a vehicle into a style assertion has been Plugins a famous interest ever since the arrival of WordPress tailfins and flame decals. As much as we all would possibly chuckle at a hybrid hatchback sitting on 18″ wheels, Guide
WordPress
or the own family sedan with a wing that resembles the Seattle Space Needle greater than a spoiler, we additionally discover our very own Vehicles having fuzzy cube placing from the reflect, or a bobbling hula dancer statuette at the dash. As some distance as fashion is involved, including truck elevate kits makes more of an influence than anything else you may do to your ride. Heads flip right away on the site of a lifted rig with big tires that seem like sprouting fangs and an exhaust gadget that scares stray puppies into hiding.
In terms of including suspension elevate kits to make a style declaration, searching good is the smooth component. Sometimes it is smooth to miss well-known, everyday overall performance within the midst of decking out a trip. Because of this, deciding on the proper suspension elevate kit with interest to comfort, reliability, sturdiness, safety, and no longer to say rate, should accept just as a good deal attention as the ones precious inches you want to feature.
performance:
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envirotravel · 7 years
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Kicking the Can: How I Broke My Addiction to Diet Coke
For about a full decade of my life, I was a full fledged Diet Coke addict.
It was a part of who I was — I cracked open a can first thing in the morning, friends sent me Buzzfeed articles about things only Diet Coke addicts could understand, I had a little Diet Coke keychain and a Diet Coke mousepad, and my family I would send each other level red, full blown SOS texts when the fridge was running low. I was drinking 2-3 cans a day, plus fountain (my preferred delivery of choice) whenever I could get my hands on it, and I really had no true interest in stopping.
And then, suddenly, I did.
On March 1st of 2016 I started a one month Diet Coke free month while in Thailand, and on April 1st I decided what the heck — I extended another two weeks until I flew through the USA. After six weeks, the spell was broken, and I no longer feel powerless over the pull of the silver can.
So why cut the cord? I admit, of the many reasons people kick Diet Coke habits, I did so for pretty superficial reasons. I was trying desperately to lose ten pounds that had creeped on slowly, and I’d been reading a lot about the connection between diet sodas and weight gain and was curious to see if I’d magically become a size zero again. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t.) But the connection between diet sodas and out-of-whack metabolisms and insulin production were hard to ignore, and the more I learned the more convinced I became that a trial period without it was something I needed to try.
But also, it was at times a very inconvenient addiction and I hated feeling so beholden to a particular can of fizz. When I woke up in the morning, it was the first thing I drank, and I was cranky and irritable when I couldn’t source it — which was fairly often, considering I often travel to remote areas, and Diet Coke is still rare in many corners of the world.
At the time, I searched pretty desperately for first-hand accounts those who were also trying to kick a soda habit, and came up surprisingly empty. So, my fizzy drink loving friends, here is mine.
My uncle — who once ran a Coca Cola museum! It runs in the fam!
How I Did It
I never intended to cut Diet Coke out of my life entirely. Drinking Diet Coke was so much a part of both my daily routine and my identity I don’t think I ever could have started had that been my intention. Yet after years of trying to casually “cut back,” I knew I had to do something drastic if I ever wanted to make it a reality.
Today, I am no longer addicted to Diet Coke and that is all thanks to an initial six week cleanse that I did in which I did not consume a single sip (more about my current consumption later.) In fact, it started as just a month long challenge which I extended for two weeks based on how good I felt! That cleanse was completely necessary to sever my dependence to the stuff and allow me to start living with a normal, non-crazy person’s relationship with soda after it ended. I should probably note that Diet Coke was the only soda I ever really drank — I think Coca Cola tastes repulsive and outside of the rare diet root beer or craft soda on some sort of special occasion (hello, artisanal sodas at a county fair!), so Diet Coke and I had a pretty monogamous relationship.
Everyone warned me about the withdrawal symptoms I’d have. Aside from a few terrible headaches the first few days, I actually didn’t find the physical side-effects to be too dramatic. I attribute the ease with which this cleanse went to my research ahead of time, the replacements I used, and where I did it.
I did a ton of research
Once I decided to do the cleanse, it was actually pretty easy in practice. And that decision was inspired by research I did as part of my DIY Health Retreat.
Watching documentaries like Fed Up and reading books like What Are You Hungry For? made the transition really easy. I was also recommended the documentary Sweet Misery, which I plan to watch on the plane back to the US to strengthen my resolve for another addiction-free summer. Also, I’m not going to lie, I read several interviews with skinny people — LOL — who said that they never drink diet sodas, and message board accounts from those who dropped pounds doing so. In the spirit of full disclosure I also read a ton of comments and message board posts from those who quit and never lost a pound, but everyone who did so seemed to feel it had a positive impact on their life.
Those books and movies really spoke to the specific reasons I was personally looking to cut back — vanity, duh. They dove into how aspartame disrupts the body’s metabolism and craving systems and lead to unintentional weight gain, despite being zero calories.
Now look, it’s not like until last year I was walking around thinking Diet Coke was this super healthy product that I was treating my body like a temple by consuming. Not in the slightest — I knew Diet Coke was bad for me and I literally did not care, at least not enough to make me change. Thankfully, in this case, my desperation to lose a few pounds led me down an unlikely path that has had a holistic and positive effect on my life.
I told my friends
So strong was my resolve that the only serious cravings I had in those first six weeks were the two times I was tragically hungover. And because I had already told my friends what I was doing and they knew how important it was to me, they stopped me from giving in, reminding me how proud I’d feel when I hit the four — and then six — week mark.
I replaced it with something else
One of my primary concerns going into this cleanse was that Diet Coke made up the vast majority of my beverage consumption. Like literally, what the heck was I going to drink? Well, I now drink tea like it’s going out of style, as well as one or two carbonated waters per day and a TON more straight up tap water than I’ve ever drank in my life. Let’s get into each of those:
Tea
I have never been a tea drinker and so I did a bunch of research to find out which teas had caffeine — which I wanted — and which I would actually like. I absolutely loathe black tea (sorry, Brits) but found green tea sort of tolerable, so I started out my putting one green tea bag into a mug with another herbal flavor that I enjoyed more, like lemongrass. For the first week or two of my cleanse, I sweetened my tea with local honey, though I quickly phased that out and I now drink my tea straight up, no sweetener.
A year later, I am a complete and total tea fiend and start every day with a mug of green tea rather than a Diet Coke, and usually go for an herbal tea over ice in the afternoon. I love trying new flavors — this brand from Hawaii is a recent obsession. Still no black tea though — which yes, makes trips to the UK a challenge.
Water
I have struggled my entire life to drink water. My cleanse kick started a new habit in which I drink more than ever. I generally try to drink a full 17 oz. bottle between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and whenever I work out. Combined with my carbonated water at meals and my morning and afternoon tea, I now easily exceed the recommended 64 oz. per day without too much trouble.
My recommendation? Get a fun, easy-to-drink stainless steel bottle that you love and will want to take everywhere, and have a jug or filter in your fridge so you have easy access to cold, ready-to-go tap water anytime. If you live somewhere with great water you can literally just use a nice pitcher, if you live somewhere where drinking tap water isn’t advisable — like I do — I highly recommend this Clearly Filtered Pitcher.
Carbonated Water
Or seltzer, or if you’re here in Thailand, soda water. To this day I can’t stand to drink straight up tap water with meals, it just doesn’t feel right. Seltzer is literally just regular water infused with air, and is just as safe and hydrating to drink as regular water (though studies do show it can be slightly more filling, and does have some extremely mild effect on dental health.)
So I now have unflavored seltzer with pretty much every single lunch and dinner. When I’m in the US, I sometimes I have fun with the naturally flavored ones. I drink so much of the stuff I’m thinking of getting a seltzer machine like my mom has at home, and bringing it with me back to Thailand.
I did it somewhere away from the USA
I know this probably isn’t exactly replicable for most people, but it was a huge factor towards my success. Doing the Diet Coke cleanse in Thailand, where I’m not a fan of the local formula, made it so much easier than had I tried it stateside. If you can find some way — any way! — to shake up your routine, I think that will make all the difference in helping you to snap out of deeply ingrained habits.
While you may not want to mar a trip or vacation with withdrawal symptoms, starting a few days before you leave and your enthusiasm is still strong might be the perfect way to distract yourself just as your willpower might be wearing off. (And ya know, now that I added this, it’s totally relevant fodder for a travel blog! Nailed it!)
Make a calendar
I actually didn’t do this, but if I started to struggle or stumble I would have bought or printed out a calendar, and marked off each day I made it without Diet Coke. I always find tracking and visual aids to be incredibly effective in helping me meet goals and stay strong through a challenge.
What I Learned
I have always considered myself to have an insane sweet tooth and ravenously consumed candy, desserts and all kinds of sugary goodness on a near-daily bases. Very quickly after giving up Diet Coke, those cravings have all but disappeared. I still loved my sweet treats but I noticed that I didn’t HAVE to have them, and so throughout the course of my cleanse they were more of an actual occasional treat instead of a daily obsession. I even noticed my cravings for/consumption of things like bread and pasta subsided.
I was somewhat disorienting to realize that this thing I thought was just a core part of who I was was actually induced by a chemical I’ve been consuming daily for the last decade and a half. Some researchers believe artificial sweeteners like the aspartame in Diet Coke actually fuel the brain’s desire for the real thing, and after six weeks, I agreed with them.
Today, recognizing that my cravings are at least partially a result of choices I’ve made has actually been incredibly empowering. When I’m perusing 711 for snacks before a late night work session, I can no longer grab a bag of M&M’s with the excuse that, “Well I’m just a sweet-tooth having, sugar-loving fiend and there’s nothing I can do to change it!” Instead I think, “Well, I’m craving candy right now because I made the choice to have Diet Coke with my lunch. I can choose to go for it, or I can choose to have a banana instead.” It actually feels really good.
No, I didn’t drop a dress size. But I did find a new awareness of what was fueling my cravings. And as someone who considers herself to have like, zero willpower, it was kind of cool to set such a lofty goal and not just meet but exceed it.
One Year Later
Like I said earlier, I never intended to give up Diet Coke entirely — and I didn’t. Some warned that after six weeks I wouldn’t be able to stand a sip of the stuff, and I can assure you that did not happen. But I do feel like I have a normal, non-psycho person’s relationship with Diet Coke now, and that is a beautiful thing.
For the most part, I probably average about a can a week. When I’m extremely stressed and sleep deprived, I definitely fall back into a can a day. But that has only happened a couple times and within a few days I actually now see it as a big red flag I’m waving at myself — whoa girl, pull in the reigns on your life. Something isn’t right.
I split my year between Thailand and the US, and I admit that it’s much easier to go without here in Thailand, where I never even really liked the local formula but drank it out of pure dependence. In the US, I still love the taste of the stuff, especially the fountain version, and so it is much harder to avoid — especially because when I’m stateside I bounce between staying with various family members who are all still hardcore hooked. What I tried experimenting with last summer was not allowing myself cans at home, and instead only treating myself to fountain Diet Cokes when I was out and about running errands. Therefore it felt more like a special treat that I savored every second of, and less like something I was mindlessly downing out of habit. If I’m staying in a house where I have any input over what’s in the fridge, I keep it Diet Coke-free to avoid the temptation.
While there are definitely certain locations that tempt me to spiral out of control again (hello, my mom and dad’s houses!), overall I feel incredibly free from my old aluminum shackles. It kind of grosses me out now to think that in the past I would drink Diet Coke out of a bottle, or even, heaven forbid, the occasional fountain Diet Pepsi at a restaurant — thing I literally don’t even like — just because I felt like I was powerless not to.
It feel so good to go to a four day festival where there’s no Diet version of Coke and not loose my shit. It feels so nice to stay at a resort that stocks Pepsi (gross) and not freak the flip out. It feels very freeing to no longer wake up in the morning, bug out that the fridge is empty, and disrupt my day by sprinting to the closest minimart to stock up before my dang day can start.
While breaking my Diet Coke addiction didn’t make me the size zero supermodel I had hoped — just kidding, there are no catwalks in the future of this 5’2″-er — it was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. It made me feel empowered, it removed a frequent hassle from my life, and it was a major game-changer in the healthier lifestyle I am always trying to cultivate.
Are you a current or reformed diet soda addict? Tell all in the comments!
Please note I know there are a lot of different opinions out there about food and addiction and if you happen to disagree with what I write here, please know it isn’t meant to offend you — I’m just sharing my own personal experiences and thoughts, and I respect that other people’s will be different! Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments.
Want to learn more about the science behind Diet Coke addiction? This article is a good place to start. 
Kicking the Can: How I Broke My Addiction to Diet Coke posted first on http://ift.tt/2k2mjrD
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