#anyway back to our regular meme programming | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

katrinawritesthings · 3 years

Text

Jonghyun / Taemin; bridging parallels ; nc17

jonghyun and taemin live in the apartments across from each other and jonghyun has been watching taemin climb out of his window and sneak out of the house several times a week for years ever since they were both in high school

for summer of shinee 2021 : )

Him and Taemin text still. Not often, and when they do, it's never really a full conversation. Mostly just memes shared at 2 in the morning, small talk, happy birthdays. Look at that dog texted fervently at 7 p.m. On a Thursday dragging one of them at light speed to their window to obey. Taemin makes his way into one of Jonghyun's articles again, this time a little spotlight of his work as a choreographer for an entire show.

Jonghyun has known Taemin since they were kids. Apartment neighbors, kind of. Jonghyun is 408, Taemin is 718. The way the apartments are set up, Jonghyun can sit at his bedroom window, look outside, and see Taemin's bedroom window across the way and one floor down. They go to elementary school together, then middle school, and then high school. They have one or two classes together over the years. None of that really matters because they never really talk.

What was the homework texted here, our mutual friend both invited us to the same party there, look at that dog shouted into the space between their windows at 7 p.m. On a Thursday one time in 8th grade. Whatever.

Even when Taemin starts sneaking out at night, the summer after sophomore year, 15 years old, it doesn't magically make them have a speaking relationship. All it does is distract Jonghyun as he's sitting at his window sill, scented candle lit, summer reading program report under his hands. Distracts him and makes him drop his pencil four floors into the bushes that line the building.

He doesn't watch it long enough to see it hit the ground. He's far too interested in watching whatever the fuck Taemin thinks he's doing. He's clambering out of his window, his third-story window, nothing but a concrete drop below him, and then he's actually climbing up, up the wall, up the building, up three floors until he's hauling himself up onto the roof.

When Taemin makes it up there, he rolls out of view over the ledge, but then his head pops back over. He looks all the way down, and even from far away, Jonghyun can see the huge smile spread over his face. His hands slap excitedly on the ledge before he stands up, turns, and disappears again as he jogs away, the high kick of his ankle behind him as he stumbles a step the last thing that Jonghyun sees of him.

Until he sees him sneaking out again the next night.

It doesn't become a nightly thing, but it is still regular enough that, every night when he's at his window sill with a candle and some writing, he’ll glance up at any movement he sees across the way just in case. It doesn't stop when school starts back up again, either. Sometimes Jonghyun will watch Taemin clamber out of his window, up the building, and disappear on the roof one night and then watch him sleeping on the bus the next morning, wondering how many hours he actually got. Sometimes he'll be up late enough to watch Taemin sneak back in, a descent three floors down from the roof that stops Jonghyun's heart every time.

School goes on. Jonghyun takes storytelling electives; music, ceramics, creative writing, art. He reads comic books, watches anime, looks up walkthroughs of video games that he can't play himself. He gets detention one time for being late and a kid sitting next to him offers him some weed, which he tries but doesn't really like, but that kid helps him through some spontaneous crying a few weeks later so they become pretty close and he winds up being the designated driver to a bunch of stoners. His dad moves out, his sister moves out, his sister moves back in. He picks up a part-time job at a music store during his senior year to help with the bills.

He sees Taemin around every now and again. They have ceramics together, for one. Taemin sits at another table with his own group of friends, but he smiles and says hey to Jonghyun when they wind up in the glazing room together. He comes into Jonghyun's job sometimes, looking over new album releases and buying everything a particular band puts out.

Jonghyun sees Taemin dancing during school pep rallies, assemblies, during rehearsals and the big night for a talent show they're both in where Jonghyun almost cries on stage because he's so nervous to be playing one of his own self written songs in front of people. He cries backstage instead and they still don't talk, but Taemin offers him a quick hug as they pass, hand rubbing over his back, and then he's gone before Jonghyun even really realized he was there in the first place. Later that night, Taemin sneaks out and then back in again within an hour.

And that night is also the first night that Taemin notices Jonghyun watching him. It’s just as he’s putting his hands on his windowsill to hoist himself up that he hesitates and, for a reason that Jonghyun can't come up with, looks directly across the way at Jonghyun.

He jumps when he sees Jonghyun, like he's startled; Jonghyun waves, a little confused, a little amused. Taemin looks down, covering what has to be an embarrassed smile with his hand.then Taemin looks up, waves back, and clambers out of his window and up the wall like usual. After he reaches the top, he peeks his head over the edge for the first time since that first night. Jonghyun leans just a little bit out of his window to smile and wave again. Even with all of the distance between them, Jonghyun can see the flash of his smile as Taemin taps two fingers to his temple and flicks them off in a salute.

From that night on, everytime that Taemin sneaks out, they wave at each other.

They graduate; Jonghyun with okay grades and Taemin with probably the same. Jonghyun doesn't go to college or anything. He upgrades his job at the music store to full time and does some freelance work online writing articles about art events and festivals in the area while he tries to work on his own stories in his free time. Taemin doesn't leave town either, because he still climbs out of his window and disappears over the roof on a regular basis. It's not until Taemin comes into the music store one time to buy a new CD and Jonghyun recognizes the logo on his hoodie as belonging to the local dance theater that he figures out what Taemin has been up to lately.

And it's not until they happen to both wind up in the little corner store down the street from their apartment complex at the same time that they have their first real conversation.

Jonghyun is there because he wanted snacks and his sister wanted snacks and he lost the rock paper scissors to decide who would go out and get some. Taemin is apparently there to buy some booze because he's standing in front of all of the refrigerators and contemplating the selection when Jonghyun opens one next to him to grab a couple bottles of soda.

"Oh, sorry," Taemin says, glancing at him and stepping a little bit away, and then, brighter, "oh, hey Jonghyun."

"Hey," Jonghyun says back, pleasantly surprised to recognize him. "Party?" he asks, nodding at all of the liquor. Taemin shakes his head, tells Jonghyun that he's just looking for something fun and fruity to enjoy by himself in his room sometimes. For self-care, he says. Jonghyun tells him he gets that and taps the glass in front of one of his favorite fruity boozy drinks in recommendation. Taemin shrugs and takes his word, opening the refrigerator and pulling out the bottle without even really looking at the label or anything on it. Then, after a moment's hesitation, asks, "how old are you again?"

"20," Jonghyun tells him, smiling a little sheepishly. "Maybe I ask my sister to buy me alcohol. Don't tell anyone."

And Taemin's response to that is a snort, a broad grin, and a hand slipping into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. "As long as you don't tell anyone about this," he says as he pulls out his ID card from its clear plastic flap, slots it in with all his other cards, pulls out a different ID card, and puts that in the flap.

The blunt casualness of that whole exchange surprises a laugh out of Jonghyun, one that sounds loud in the quiet little store. He doesn't try to stifle it; has never really tried to stifle his laughter. Still chuckling, he offers up his pinky to Taemin to promise. Taemin looks at him, looks at his pinky, covers his mouth and nose with the back of his hand for a moment, then links their pinkies together.

Taemin buys his alcohol and leaves the store before Jonghyun finishes picking up all of his snacks, but he sees Taemin ahead on the sidewalk on the way back and jogs to catch up with him.

"Don't go climbing out of your window after you drink any of that," he says, worried halfway through the sentence that maybe he's overstepping but finishing anyway. Taemin does that thing again, where he looks down and rubs his nose, and is the first one to offer up his pinky this time.

Taemin picks up a fashion for denim-on-denim, leather, spikes. Dark clothes, baggy hoodies, lots of rings. Beanies, worn-out shoes. Jonghyun attaches himself to big comfy sweaters, turtlenecks, bracelets cinching over the sleeves. Ripped jeans, snapbacks, boots. Taemin lets his hair grow out until it fans out around his face, soft and wavy, then cuts it short into a choppy bowl cut and a crisp undercut. Jonghyun tries out an undercut too, finds he likes it, experiments with dying his hair every couple of months. Taemin has some new piercings–shark bites, cheek studs, spikes through his ears. Jonghyun has some new tattoos–words on his arms, permanent bracelets around his wrists, planets on his side, a starscape on his back.

Jonghyun starts teaching guitar lessons at the music store to kids on the weekends. His mom gets promoted at her job. They stop struggling as much, settle into something almost resembling financial security. He keeps freelancing and in one of his articles he writes about a culture show the dance theater is putting on. In the picture that runs with the article, Taemin is standing on the end, smiling with his arm around a fellow dancer, doing a victory sign for the camera.

There's a queer club down the street from the music store that Jonghyun goes to sometimes. He makes new friends, has a couple of casual hookups, has a cute girlfriend for a while but things don't really work out. It's fine between them after. Taemin almost has a cute date friend one time, but that doesn't work out either. Jonghyun knows this because he watches the whole thing happen from his window sill.

He's there, writing notebook under his hands, scented candle next to his elbow, just like every night, and Taemin is suddenly there on the roof. Except, for once, he's not alone. Someone else is with him. A little taller, thick dark hair spilling out of a pulled up hoodie, and that's about all Jonghyun can see of them. The pair of them sit down on the ledge, feet dangling over nothing, close enough that their shoulders almost brush every so often.

Jonghyun doesn't mean to snoop, or eavesdrop, or anything. Taemin's love life is his own business. It's interesting, yeah, to watch them stargazing and talking together, but Jonghyun really is only glancing up at them every couple of minutes to distract his brain a little bit so he can focus on his writing without getting distracted a lot by something else. And it just so happens, that during one of those glances, Taemin tries to make his move.

It's not much of a move; a purposeful bump of their shoulders, a rub of his nose with the back of his hand, something said to make them look at him directly. More quiet words, a leaning in–not all the way, but enough to be clear–a tilt of his head like he's asking a question, and then.

And then. The other person leaning back, shaking their head, covering their mouth with both hands. Quickly they reach for Taemin's hand, holding it tight as they speak earnestly, as Taemin nods up and down and tugs his hair at the back of his head where they can't see.

They sit together for a little while longer after that, but a barely perceptible distance apart now, enough space that they don't accidentally bump shoulders anymore. Then the other person stands up, starts to walk away. Taemin turns and takes their hand, carefully, asks them something that they nod in agreement to. Taemin drops their hand, flops his own hands into his lap. The other person walks away, and then a minute later, Taemin falls back, sprawls himself out over the roof until all Jonghyun can see are his legs still dangling. They kick in the air for a few seconds before flopping limply back down in defeat.

Jonghyun looks back to his writing with a shake of his head. Poor baby.

He doesn't see Taemin sneak out for a couple of weeks after that. Then, another night, another candle, another page of writing, he glances up and finds Taemin sitting at his window, arms crossed on the windowsill, face nestled in his elbow, cheek smushed up as he pouts out at nothing. Jonghyun can't help it; he smiles at the image.

"Hey sorry about your heartbreak dude" is what he texts to Taemin once he finds his number buried in all of his contacts, an entry probably put in during high school for some project that neither of them remember. And then he just watches, waits, until Taemin leans away from his window. A moment later, Taemin returns, and this time he's holding his phone and looking up at Jonghyun. Jonghyun waves with an apologetic little shrug.

"Damn you saw that??? " Taemin texts back. Jonghyun replies that he did indeed see it and offers more condolences. Taemin's sigh is audible to Jonghyun even from so far away, but he replies anyway. They talk about nothing, really; Taemin asks what Jonghyun is always writing about and Jonghyun tells him. His book that he's been working on for a while. The one where he wanted to write a love story but wound up accidentally writing a breakup scene in the first chapter and then just went with it. Taemin seems to take some comfort in hearing about a failed romance.

The night after that, Taemin climbs out of his window again.

Jonghyun's manager gets fired for tax evasion or some bullshit and suddenly he finds himself as the manager instead. Not because he's super qualified for the job, but because he's worked there for the longest, almost 11 years, and the rest of the employees are mostly part-time high school kids. All of a sudden he has all of these duties and responsibilities that he doesn't know what to do with, on top of dealing with the mess that his old boss left him with. The first thing he does is give himself and all of the employees a raise, which at first gets him a serious reprimand from upper management of the store chain, but he doesn't give a shit and the next month he gets praised for reducing customer service complaints and boosting product sales.

One night Taemin comes into the music store to buy a new album from his favorite band a couple weeks later than Jonghyun was expecting him to. Usually he shows up on day one; when Jonghyun mentions that to him, he rubs his nose with the back of his hand and shrugs, mumbling something about a giveaway online and shipping problems. Jonghyun chuckles at that, mentions that the cardboard stand that they have in the store to promote the album is free for him to take, if he wants it. He's the manager. He can do that now.

Taemin's eyes widen behind his bangs, his teeth flash in a huge smile. He thanks Jonghyun emphatically, grabs the stand, and walks out with it, holding it in front of him as he goes and biting his lip.

Jonghyun finds himself thinking about that later in bed. Taemin’s teeth biting into his bottom lip. Digging into soft, plush pink. He looked different today. Something about his face, his nose. A nose job, Jonghyun guesses, something to change the tip of his nose from a cute soft hook to a cute round end. He dropped his shark bite piercings at some point and replaced them with studs. two silver squares on each side of his bottom lip, matching the ones that dimple his cheeks, the sets that outline the tips of his eyebrows. Matching the ones lined up below his collar bones. Jonghyun could see those in the dip of his v-neck.

The piercings won't leave his mind as he tries to fall asleep. Heavy silver, bold, striking, a statement of toughness outlining his delicate features. Jonghyun wonders how they feel, if he ran his fingers over them would they be cold or would they have absorbed Taemin’s body heat. He makes the mistake of wondering if Taemin has matching studs on his hips and realizes with a start that he's running his fingers over his own lips, imagining how it would feel if he were to drag his mouth over them.

Face hot, lips tingling, Jonghyun rolls over in bed and tries to think of anything else.

It works. For a little bit. Until the next day when he waves at Taemin as he heads out for the night. Then he's thinking about them again. Then he's thinking about what kind of noises Taemin would make if Jonghyun kissed his piercings. About how much deeper, huskier Taemin's voice sounded in the store. It had to have been that deep the last time they talked, the last time Taemin came in to buy an album, but–if it was, Jonghyun doesn't remember noticing or caring as much as he does now.

This new realization has him trying with all his heart to think about himself, what it means that he's gone his whole life without knowing that he had a thing for piercings, what it means if it's not the piercings and it's just Taemin, what it means if he suddenly starts lusting over the boy next door.

This lasts for about two more days until he gets tired of it and decides to just do something about it.

So the next time he catches Taemin about to climb out of his window a little bit after midnight, he waves frantically to get his attention. Taemin stops, looks at him, smiles, waves back. Jonghyun beckons towards him, trying to communicate that he wants him to come over without shouting. Taemin points at himself then over up at Jonghyun, tilting his head; Jonghyun nods eagerly, beckoning again. Without a moment of hesitation this time, Taemin nods and holds up one finger.

He climbs up his building, and then instead of disappearing away from Jonghyun, he walks along the edge. Jonghyun leans a little bit out of his window to watch him all the way down to where the parallel lines of their apartment buildings turn into a U for him to cross, until he gets too close to Jonghyun's side to see anymore. Then, a minute later, there's a crunch of shoe against brick outside his window. He moves his tealight candle out of the way and Taemin slips into his room feet first.

"Hey," he says. "What's up? Can I smell?"

A finger with chipped black nail polish touches next to Jonghyun's tiny candle. He has studs on the backs of his wrists too. Jonghyun lets him smell with a warning to be careful not to spill it, and then tries to figure out a way to say what he wants to say tactfully. He didn't think this part through. It's not really his style to come up with detailed plans, just to try things out and see if they work. Finally, after a bunch of starts and stops, half asked questions, an exasperated sigh, he just says, "do you want to make out?"

And in the silence after the question, in the dim light of his desk lamp, Taemin's tongue wets his lips.

"Sure," he says.

Nice.

Sure turns into Taemin in Jonghyun's lap, turns into Jonghyun gliding his thumb over the studs under Taemin's lip, turns into Taemin cupping his face and pressing their mouths together. Kissing turns into Jonghyun's hands sliding up under his shirt, turns into Taemin groaning the hottest noise Jonghyun has ever heard into his mouth, turns into him standing with his sweater half way over his head frantically whispering to Taemin that his bed is too squeaky and his family is trying to sleep.

He takes Taemin to the floor, sits on his hips and grinds down while Taemin fumbles with his own belt buckle, hands bumping Jonghyun's cock through his pajama pants. Jonghyun hadn't meant for this to happen, wasn't planning on fucking Taemin, but he doesn't want to stop.Taemin doesn't either, says god no when Jonghyun asks and that's enough of a reason to Jonghyun to keep going. He's pushing Taemin's shirt up while Taemin is trying to reach up onto his bed for a pillow, and it's rushed and it's messy, but Jonghyun discovers that Taemin not only has studs along the V of his but also one over his belly button, bars through his nipples, and, best of all, when he pulls Taemin's pants down, four of us small silver balls like an X around the head of his cock.

Lube from his desk, three fingers deep into his own ass, thumb tracing over every piercing on Taemin's hips, so hard it hurts, almost delirious with want, Jonghyun barely hears Taemin when he says, "I've always thought you were cute."

The piercings in his collar bones glint in the light, his skin glistens with summer sweat, the sharp angle of his jawline, the shadow of his adam's apple bobbing in his throat, the raw edge on his voice as he says, "I've always liked you, ever since we were kids, I've always–I don't know when it turned into a crush, but I–god that feels so good. Oh my fucking god." Halfway down Taemin's cock, Taemin grabs Jonghyun's hips and pulls him down all the way, knocks the breath from his lungs. "Jonghyun," he says, "more."

Jonghyun gives him more until he can't anymore, until his thighs are burning and his arms are trembling. Taemin removes the effort for him by turning them around until he's on his back. Taemin fucks him like that, tries to kiss him more but quickly gives up and buries his face in Jonghyun's neck instead. With "you're perfect, you're perfect, you're so fucking perfect, " breathed under his ear, Jonghyun hooks his leg around Taemin's back, pulls him in harder, faster, whispers his own pleads back, begs Taemin to bite him, bite his neck.

Taemin bites him, hard, and that's how he comes, body frozen underneath him until he goes all the way limp, only barely registering in some faraway part of his brain Taemin's choked breaths and the warmth pooling inside of him. He's weak, hazy, loopy, giggling, and Taemin's gentle hands are on him again, picking him up, putting him on his knees, and Jonghyun is glad to obey, glad to do whatever the fuck when he's this blissed-out.

Quiet curses as hands smooth over his back, the softest "oh, wow," whispered as fingers trace his constellations, and then the deepest groan as Taemin's tongue touches his skin. Jonghyun's eyes fly open, his voice rises three octaves, he slaps both hands over his mouth to stifle the noises he's making, noises he’s never made before in his life. The moment that he realizes that Taemin has a tongue stud is the moment that everything goes white, and then the next moment, everything goes dark.

The next morning he wakes up alone, in his bed, pajama pants back on, candle burned all the way down to nothing, window closed. He's not angry, or hurt, but he is a little grumpy all day long until he walks up to the entrance of the apartment complex after work and Taemin is sitting on one of the big potted plants outside the door.

He stands up when Jonghyun gets close to him, presses a large jar candle of the scent from last night into his hands, and, blinking a mile a minute, blurts out, "hey, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for last night when I told you I was in love with you and then fucked you and then panicked and left," to which Jonghyun, baffled, wracking his memory, replies, "did you tell me you're in love with me?"

Which kicks Taemin's blinking into overdrive, starts up a long, stammering babble that Jonghyun can confidently say he understands about 20% of. After a minute he realizes that Taemin isn't going to stop, so he interrupts him by asking, "Taemin, do you want to go on a date?"

A few days later, they share a mountain of fries on an outside table at some burger joint. Taemin, embarrassed, reading notes from his phone, admits that he's had a crush on Jonghyun for what feels like forever but was always too shy and infatuated to make a move. Jonghyun, embarrassed, scratching the back of his head, admits that he just got suddenly horny for the piercings one day and was a little too impulsive in making his move. Both of them, laughing, agree that it would probably be nice to work towards a middle ground together.

And it is.

#jonghyun #taemin #jongtae #fluff #nc17 #oneshot #this is equal parts dbsk love line and also Justin McElroy talking about geocaching #and also me making myself blush thinking about Taemin with all of those piercings #I started a sequel but I'm never going to get around to finishing it lamo but that's what Taemin is doing whenever he sneaks out he's #geocaching #sometimes he's doing cool skater boy stuff and the drugs but mostly it's geocaching #accidentally gave myself a new writing style with this one #Slow Burn but it's fast forwarded and also from the POV of the one that isn't in love the entire time #i don't remember what i was trying to do #I was trying to get past the childhood stuff quickly but then I kind of just carried that throughout the entire thing #and i really like it #ydw

9 notes · View notes

purplesurveys · 4 years

Text

745

Do you support freedom of speech? Of course, as long as that freedom is not used to advocate homophobia, racism, or sexism, or any form of oppression towards marginalized groups.

Are you ever told you are too opinionated? Yeah. My family loooves to use this word as their main adjective for me as I’ve always been the most vocal, unapologetic and rather radical one in my stances. All my relatives are more conservative and traditional so when it comes to like talking to their peers about me, my being opinionated is always the main thing they take pride in, as in “Robyn isn’t afraid to say her thoughts” or “Robyn has always been very honest” lmao.

There’ll be times I will have an opinion that vastly clashes from theirs, usually politics, and they’ll do something I’ve always found hilarious in that they’ll talk about me behind my back to my mom and tell my mom to monitor my posts more. So ok, I guess it’s nice to have a niece who’s unafraid to speak her mind but when it’s different from how they think, they’ll do whatever it takes to silence me haha.

Do you hold grudges for long? I hold grudges for life.

What's in your garden/backyard? We don’t really have a garden. We just have a couple of large trees and several potted plants to decorate the front of the house but that’s it. For the backyard, I dunno the name for this particular type of flooring but ours is basically composed of stones embedded onto the ground so it’s not very child-friendly. We do have a portion with more plants there and a basketball hoop for my dad to play/exercise with every morning.

Do you own a purple pillow? I don’t think so. My sister probably does as she loves pillows and stuffed toys and loves collecting either.

Do you have a brown blanket? I don’t.

Do you think diamonds, stars or hearts are prettier? I don’t really like any of these as designs.

Is Pink attractive on a man? This conversation died a long time ago lol. Anything can be attractive on anyone as long as they’re comfortable with it lol.

Do you watch political shows? We don’t have those here as politics here are mostly emotionally-charged and regular debates won’t work, coupled with the fact that we have a number of politicians who are merely celebrities or athletes and will be absolutely useless on such shows. News programs are enough politics for us.

When was the last time you visited the bathroom? I dropped off my dog at the shower five minutes ago as my mom had plans to give him a bath.

Do you like flying? When was the last time you were on a plane? Yepppp I really like riding planes. For me it’s always been the biggest indicator that I’m travelling and it gets me all excited. The last time was March last year when we went to Bicol for a short vacation.

Have you ever overflown a bath? No.

Do you appreciate brutal honesty? I know it’s always best to hear it but sometimes it’ll still sting.

Do you know what Runes are? No, I’ve never heard of it.

Do you play any Fantasy/Roleslaying Games? What? No. Fantasy is my least favorite genre of anything.

Do you like salami? Not really. Processed meats have never really sat well with me. < Oh my goodness same. I never liked how they taste or feel like. If someone ordered a pepperoni pizza I’ll always have to put some extra effort to remove the pepperoni on mine, usually to the horror of my friends lmao.

When was the last time you ate meat? We had binagoongan for dinner an hour ago and that mainly consists of pork.

What was the last hot drink you drank? I heated water to make coffee but I usually leave it untouched for half an hour or so for it to cool down, as I hate drinking hot coffee in the summer.

Have your parents met your boyfriend/exes? They have met my girlfriend, but not as my girlfriend.

How about your boyfriend’s parents? Met them? Yes, I’ve met my girlfriend’s parents. They’re a delight, and they’ve been very nice to me from the very beginning.

Do you feel uncomfortable easily? Not really. There are just particular scenarios I don’t like being in, like if I’m running late or if I’m in a class with a prof notorious for screaming at or embarrassing their students.

Is there a girls/boys name you can't stand? Why? Name all you dislike: I don’t actively hate any names but I do have a predisposition to chuckle when I hear names like Karen, Becky, Susan, and Chad because they’re now memes on the Internet hahahaha.

Do you know how to say I love you in at least 4 languages? Sure. I know how to say it in Spanish, English, Filipino, Korean, and French.

What age will you be when you times your current age by two? 44.

Do you find the sound of a cats purr relaxing? It’s cute but I don’t find it relaxing for the most part. I just get the sensation of being scratched or hissed at because cats don’t seem to like me.

Are you in a simple or complex mood? Right now it’s a bit complex. There’s a lot of things going on in my head right now and only surveys can calm me down for the meantime.

Do you know your Mum's first pets name? I’m not sure if it was their first but my mom occasionally talks about their family dog Collar.

Do you like car racing? No, but I have a number of friends who do. JM in particular is super passionate about it and has a lot of F1 stories to tell, and even though I don’t understand most of it or don’t recognize most of the people he talks about, it’s always nice to have someone spill their interests onto you so I listen anyway. :) He once gave each of us a piece of tire that he got from the racetracks when he watched the Singapore Grand Prix last year, it was adorable.

Do you fall asleep with the TV/radio on? I put Netflix on. I used to put YouTube on but its autoplay will go on until I wake up and is a huge battery drainer. Netflix will only play a couple of episodes and stops the show completely when you fail to respond haha.

What is your closest uncle/aunt called? My mom’s cousins. They’re all several years younger than her so they’re a lot hipper than my mom, were actually cool in their youth lmao, and are more understanding and accepting and open-minded about current issues. They’re the first relatives (that aren’t my sister or closest cousin) I came out to, and I appreciate them keeping the secret to this day.

Do you wear underwear to bed? Yep.

Who hugs you the most often? It’s a tie between Gab and Laurice.

Who was the last person you led astray? Uhhhh this sounds awful lol. I’d hate to have this kind of impact on someone.

Who was the last person who led you astray? No one’s done this to me as far as I know.

Would you ever want to be famous? If so, for what? Sure but I wouldn’t exert so much effort just to be famous, like joining a million auditions or contests. It’d be nice if, say, I just had a vlog and it was one of the lucky ones to hit the jackpot and end up having a decent following. I’ve always liked journaling my life and I feel like vlogging is the only method I haven’t dabbled with yet.

Is your phone a pay as go/talk or contract? It’s prepaid, which sounds like pay-as-go anyway. I put in a certain amount of money on my sim card to use for call and text, not the other way around.

What colour is your bedroom carpet? I don’t have one in my room cause my dog would much likely pee on it.

Do you get angry, depressed or nervous more? Nervous.

What is something obvious about you that everyone notices? Probably my teeth, and that my front ones aren’t straight.

Would you ever get a heart tattoo or your back? No.

Do you like Sapphires? The gemstones? Not really. They’re fine, but I wouldn’t go looking for them.

Do you own a torch? I don’t.

Marshmellow - Yum or Yuck? Yuck, in any way they’re incorporated into food. I really dislike the chewy texture and I find them too sweet as well.

What fruit can't you stand? All of them, but the ones I’ve tasted and particularly hated are mango and pineapple.

Is there any smell that turns you on? What? Not really. My girlfriend’s scent sometimes would, but it wouldn’t turn me on every single time I have a whiff of it lmao.

Do you wear more white or black? Black, but I’ve tried to lessen it recently because I feel like I wore black throughout college. I’m glad I at least got to experiment with yellow, olive green, maroon, pink, etc before they cut off the school year.

What age are most your friends? They were mostly born within the years 1997 through 1999.

Do you know anyone autistic? No, not personally.

How about someone bi-polar? Yes.

Are you judgmental? I definitely try not to be, but I’m sure I am. I try to at least check myself when I have judgmental thoughts. < This. I can also be unapologetically judgmental but this is reserved for people who have behaved shittily in public, like if a white person yells at and/or mocks an Asian person on public transport, or if a Karen-type mistreats fast food workers.

What was the last thing you borrowed from someone? My sister’s eyeglasses cleaner.

I give you a kitty - what do you name it? Cinnamon was the first name that came to mind.

Why do you think your enemies don't like you? I don’t have any enemies.

What about you do you think your friends dislike? I get super cranky about other people sometimes and complain excessively about them if they’re not doing their job right.

What do you consider private to you? I’m not private about anything as long as someone asks but I will be most reserved if I have to talk about my depression from Grade 6. Partly because I’ve forgotten a lot of it, partly because it’s simply not worth it to go retracing the bits that I do remember.

#survey #surveys

3 notes · View notes

a-dinosaur-a-day · 6 years

Text

A Dinosaur A Day, Tumblr, and the Future

Things are Changing on ADAD

This blog is coming up on its 5 year anniversary, which naturally means I want to change everything about it. I’m kidding, of course, but we are going to have some big changes in the new year (2019). First, let me go over the purpose of this blog:

ADAD has Four Primary Goals:

To be an encyclopedia that covers every. Single. Dinosaur. In current scientific thought, we classify animals based on their ancestry (so, common descent). Dinosaurs are defined by the first two animals ever dug up as fossils and called dinosaurs - Iguanodon and Megalosaurus. This means that Dinosaurs are the most recent common ancestor of Iguanodon and Megalosaurus (the last ancestor they had in common) (also of Diplodocus but let’s not get into that today), and all that ancestor’s descendants.

If you want to picture it a different way: your grandparents are the most recent common ancestor of you and your cousin. Now, you both also have your great-grandparents as ancestors, but they aren’t your most recent common ancestor. Furthermore, when you have kids, they’ll still be a part of that family group, even though they’re a new generation.

This group includes birds, because birds evolved from dinosaurs (the evidence is substantial). This means that birds are dinosaurs, and I have to cover every bird.

This is actually a novel goal - most dinosaur encyclopedias only cover the dinosaurs as we classically defined them, or all dinosaurs that lived in the Mesozoic (which includes some birdy dinosaurs since birds evolved in the Mesozoic, the “age of reptiles”). And most bird encyclopedias don’t cover extinct ones to any extensive degree. And there certainly isn’t an encyclopedia that covers both (apart from, well, regular encyclopedias). So, one of the main goals of ADAD is to cover birds as well as non-avian (not-bird) dinosaurs (and their closest relatives).

To be an encyclopedia that is accessible for all readers. So many scientific blogs and other resources use fairly complicated language and bad formatting. I try to make my articles with the simplest language possible, while still making it interesting and fun for all readers of all levels. Still, this is a place where we have to grow, especially since the head author (Meig) and all the other members of the ADAD team have their own accessibility issues to grapple with. This encyclopedia also allows scientific knowledge to reach groups that are typically disenfranchised by traditional education (such as those with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, women, and people of color). We have actually conducted statistical studies on this and the results are promising! We are making a difference, though we have a lot of room to grow.

To bring fun to scientific education. Memes, silly posts, silly competitions, jokes, rants, all of these are fair game on ADAD, because meme culture makes learning fun, at least, and it keeps things interesting. Plus, taking things seriously is against my programming.

FLUFF. Recent discoveries have indicated that many dinosaurs had feathers or almost-feather covering on some or most of their bodies - especially the closer you get to birds on the dinosaur family tree. However, paleoart (art of prehistoric life) is slow on the uptake when it comes to new discovery, and people still tend to lean on the scaly side for dinosaurs - even to the point of being wrong. As such, a major purpose of this blog is to lean on the feathery side instead! Sometimes this means being accurate where others are not, and sometimes this means representing dinosaurs in ways that are implausible. We never, however, represent dinosaurs more fluffy than is possible, so none of these reconstructions are inaccurate. We just fill a void in how dinosaurs are represented, to help bring balance to the images of dinosaurs on the internet.

Tumblr was the correct platform for this blog to exist on, primarily due to happenstance (how I got the url in the first place was sheer dumb luck), but also due to the ability of the platform to bring dinosaurs to people who don’t usually have access to science, in combination with fun memes and jokes as is typical on the site. It also allowed for some leeway for the earliest days of the blog when it came to images - I credited every piece of art I used, but I didn’t have to ask for permission in most cases, allowing me to have images for articles where otherwise I wouldn’t have had anything to accompany the text.

So, this leaves ADAD with some current problems:

There are about two years’ worth of entries that need updated art, made by the people I pay, that I have permission to use, that are also as fluffy as the blog requires. Unfortunately, the artists do not have time to update these entries, because there is very little being brought in from the Patreon and already scheduled entries every day.

Leaving New Users Behind. Because I go by order of evolutionary relationship, I have finished non-avian dinosaurs, so anyone new following is literally in the middle of Bird Hell. I could do throwbacks, of course, but it’s not quite the same, and I can’t throw back to those posts that don’t have art (so everything from the first two years of ADAD; I’ve only had the Patreon for three years. Oh my Gd. Three years. What is time.)

New Discoveries. Because of the complete and utter inflexibility of the current schedule (evolutionary order + weird special weeks = I can’t shift the schedule around easily), we haven’t covered newly discovered dinosaurs in a shameful amount of time. And that sucks! Because they’re super cool!

Stagnation. Going in taxonomic order means that yeah, we get a bunch of cool dinosaurs that are all related in a row, but also every, single, crappy, dinosaur, from, that, group, that, isn’t, different, from, the, previous, one, at, all. And this is boring - for me to write, for the artists to draw, and for you guys to read.

The sheer multitude of birds. This kind of ties in to 2 and 4, but for every non-avian dinosaur there are 2.26 times as many birds (in terms of genus. It’s actually even more than that, but, I’m not doing it by species, so). This is insane. This is literally insane. But I’m not backing down on goal one, so…

Tumblr is Terrible. Over a year ago, it made it so that posts with external links (such as those for my patreon and ko-fi, you know, funds I need to live; as well as my sources for my information) don’t show up in search results. This means that the blog has stagnated in terms of follower growth. This is bad enough, but now the website is probably going to go kaput because of all this NSFW crap going on, so if anything we’ll be losing readers.

So what is our solution?

ADAD is starting over in the new year, and with a different organization system.

This might seem crazy - there are 12 years worth of dinosaurs total - but there are a lot of reasons to do this.

This will allow us to bring variety to the blog

This will allow new users to see non-avian dinosaurs

This will allow us to update old entries in terms of written content and the art

This will allow us to finally do new dinosaurs

I will start over on Tumblr, and start completely on Wordpress, so if Tumblr implodes I still have the blog somewhere else, and I can start to grow the community more elsewhere in addition to Tumblr. I WILL stay on Tumblr as long as it exists, but this gives me an exit strategy if it implodes.

The wordpress blog will be ADAD sans memes, but it will bring in a new audience, more recognition, and hopefully more Patreon money, so the blog can grow further! Also, restarting will allow me to change the format of the posts, which will make them more accessible and hopefully show up in the Tumblr search results.

I’m not bitter, you’re bitter.

So, on January 1, 2019, we’re starting again!

What’s the new organization system?

Random, with themes for each day of the week.

This gives us flexibility in the schedule - to break up monotony, help us maintain our workload easier, and add in new taxa to the schedule. It also allows for us to regulate it so that there are a healthy mix of birds and not-birds every week.

What are the daily themes?

Mesozoic Monday - Dinosaurs from the Mesozoic

Terrestrial Tuesday - Dinosaurs that mainly make their living on the ground

Water Wednesday - Dinosaurs that mainly make their living in the water or near water

Theropod Thursday - Theropods: meat eating dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, also birds of prey

Flying Friday - Dinosaurs that can fly!

Songbird Saturday & Sunday - Passerines, which by species make up half of dinosaur diversity

This will give us a very nice mixture of nonavian and avian dinosaurs every week, as well as interesting diversity and differences between each one. This will help us to mix up living and extinct animals, long and short entries, things we can just copy over from ADAD’s first run and things we have to write from scratch. There can even be theme weeks! And requests can come back! Random doesn’t just mean random number generator, it also means we can change things to our fancy if we want or need to.

So, we hope all of these changes will solve many of the problems that ADAD faces. We have read your responses to the survey, and we hear you - we think this solution will solve everyone’s complaints and help us go forward into the future in a better way.

If you have concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us via FanMail (yup, it still exists) or an ask. We recognize this means ADAD will go on for many more years - but let’s be real, because of new discoveries, that was going to happen anyway.

Thank you all for your understanding! We’re really excited about this change, and we hope you all will enjoy it!

#announcement #palaeoblr #a-dinosaur-a-day #dinosaurs #birds #birblr #a dinosaur a day #long post #bold text #italic text #all caps #accessibility #blog goals #feathered dinosaurs #PLEASE REBLOG!

438 notes · View notes

good-and-safe · 6 years

Text

*meryl as julia childs voice* HELLOOOOOOO

is that the right thing that i’m thinking of? idk. anyway,

i’ve been sort of... off the grid lately, so i thought i’d give a quick update and see how y’all’re doin

what’s up w me:

still sober! today is day 290. i still want to drink Every Single Day but some days are easier than others. in fact, some days, i don’t think about alcohol at all!

about a month ago, my grandpa died v suddenly and my whole family is still recovering from the shock. it’s weird to be expected to go about life as usual when there’s a giant tear in the fabric of our reality.

i haven’t written practically A N Y T H I N G in months and it’s haunting me. every day, i make a plan to write. i make notes and pick a time and when that time comes i just... Can’t get any words out. i miss fanfic and i miss my OCs somebody help me!!!!!!

i’m str8 killin it at work. like, truly, i feel like a boss ass bitch and truly feel competent and successful at work for the first time. my new position has given me the opportunity to utilize my education and experience and intelligence on a daily basis and wow i’m working toward actual change in my field and becoming a voice people turn to

i got into the forensic psych program of my god damn dreams!!! i found out last week and i’m elated. go after your dreams, y’all.

an update i feel is of note is that i don’t hate myself nearly as much as i used to.

!!!!! neat !!!!! it’s important for me to recognize that i’m privileged to have regular access to quality behavioral health services and the ability to afford the many prescriptions i need in order to function. i see my therapist, at this point, on a bi-weekly basis and we’re working through a lot of my trauma and untangling false beliefs and i owe a lot to that privilege. outside of that, though, were some things i did, i guess, of my own volition (meaning without specific guidance from my therapist/drawing from my own education in psychology) that have had a significant impact on my self-image and confidence:

chopped my god damn hair off. idk, something just switched in me with my long hair gone.

tried the “fake it ‘til u make it” thing. it’s so stupid, but i just started acting like i love myself. i started acting like i’m brimming with confidence. i’ve been acting my whole life, right, so why not use it for good? but now, rather than projecting the facade of being ~okay~, i started projecting the image that i was self-confident. i started dressing the way i always wanted to but never thought i could pull off. i started walking with my shoulders back and my head up. i started acting like i’m the shit. lo and behold, i started.... feeling.... like i’m........ kind of.... the shit. don’t get me wrong, i still battle that cruel inner monologue of self-loathing and shame and, but it’s getting a little easier to turn down that monologue’s volume or recognize, even on bad days, that the voice telling me i’m The Worst Person Alive™ is not my voice and not a voice that cares about me.

got organized. physically, emotionally, spatially, etc. in every way i can, i’ve been organizing my whole ass life. i’m probably overdoing it, which can obviously edge over into unhealthy territory, but in learning about my ADHD, i’ve come to understand the many ways that i need rigid structure, tangible goals, a healthy routine, etc in order to feel anchored in time and space. it’s everything from overhauling my bedroom (which, for the last four years was a shame-cave filled with a literal sea of empty liquor bottles and old clothes and garbage) to creating work plans for specific areas of my life to using apps that remind me to do the things i need to do etc etc etc. it all helps.

got sober. choosing sobriety almost ten months ago is the kindest thing i’ve ever done for myself.

gave myself permission to be imperfect. i have very high, very unrealistic standards set for myself, and that sets me up to feel like a failure at every single turn. (please see: my entire life.) but i’ve been making a concerted effort to remind myself that, on any given day, all i can do is my best. all i can do is try and so long as i try, then i’m succeeding. my actual process is more detailed than i care to type out rn but it’s self-administered CBT, basically.

i’m sharing these with the hope that if you’re struggling, you’ll find comfort and maybe a strategy or two in my words. if it helps any, please know that i believe in u. if there’s any way i can help, please feel free to message me. outside of my own personal experience, i am a professional and can point you in the right direction, at the v least.

but!

what’s up with y’all? how’s life? what are you watching and reading these days? what meme(s) should i be aware of rn? do you love theo crain as much as i do? are you enjoying autumn? what time is it where you are?

#anyway #mental health #substance use disorder #recovery #sobriety #long post #overshare #substance use #sober #personal #a lot of feelings

15 notes · View notes

the-legend-orpheus · 6 years

Text

Orchestra Shenanigans: Summer Edition 8/9/18

Forgot to write this one yesterday oops

So we had our orchestra meet and greet today. Here's how it went down:

Seniors had a little meeting with the orchestra directors

Directors first introduced our two student teachers for the year

Noice

Then director went over expectations for seniors, reminding us to help make the juniors feel welcome

He also reminded us to live in the moment; since this will all be our last year in high school, we should enjoy it while we can and try not to let the stress get to us as much

Then the directors had their own meeting with the juniors. Us senior got kicked out so the directors can have some one-on-one dicussion

Then the directors let us back in and allowed us to socialize. My awkward self tried my best to make some new junior friends, but I was also able to reconnect with many familiar faces

Then after that, we had games. It was fun, and sometimes stressful, but the important thing was that we had fun...and I did not die.

...

Oh, you thought that was it?

Well, we also had something today

Orchestra Shenanigans: Summer Edition 8/10/18

So first, we had our first rehearsal of the school year. Our first concert of the year is called the Potluck Dinner. I'll talk more about it once we actually have it, but music wise, it's pop tunes. The pieces we'll be playing this year will be:

An ABBA medley featuring the songs "Mamma Mia," "I Have a Dream," and "Dancing Queen." (According to my director, we're playing this because our theatre program's musical this year is Mamma Mia!)

Evermore from Beauty and the Beast

Highlights from The Greatest Showman, featuring "The Greatest Show," "A Million Dreams," "Tightrope," "This is Me," and "Never Enough"

Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses

During the rehearsal, my poor stand partner was developing a viola hickey. I have yet to have a viola hickey, but we'll see if it happens.

After our rehearsal, we began to claim orchesta lockers. My orchestra director advised for the short people to try and not get a top locker, to which I responded out loud with "You underestimate me," which caused the cello section to laugh and the orchestra directors to give me a look of approval.

When it came to actually getting lockers, I decided to pick a lower locker; it would have been a power move, but I didn't want to deal with that all year.

After all that, we had a picnic at a nearby park. Someone was playing music that I haven't heard since elementary school, so that was kind of nostalgic. Also, the playlist featured "Dancing Queen" by ABBA which was great.

At the picnic, there was a giant Connect 4 and a giant Jenga. I played giant Jenga with some friends and it was very stressful and involved a lot of screaming (mostly on my part). At least I didn't lose and die.

Now I understand why people say I'm too nice anyway

There was also a water balloon relay race. Basically, partners had to run with a huge water balloon under our shirts, and if the water balloon pops, the partner who dropped the water balloon had to start over. The winner get to pie our orchestra presidents and vice presidents. Oh, and a bunch of people threw water balloons at us while we were running so oof.

I initially didn't want to participate, but two of my friends gave me puppy eyes and I was legally unable to reject them.

Now I understand why people call me too nice anyway

My partner and I didn't win either of the races, partly because the balloon popped on me during the second race. Both races were won by the same pair, so they could pie the pres and vice pres twice. That said, one of the winners gave up both of their chances to pie and the other one gave away one of their chances. My partner and I decided to take two of the chances while someone else took the other one.

It was quite amusing to see the president and their vice president with their faces full of whipped cream. It was funny because some of the graduated seniors came to visit, including the former president and vice president. So the current pres and vice pres also decided to smother the former pres and vice pres with whipped cream; they were really goo sports about it.

We then threw the rest of the water balloons at some friends and two of the orchestra directors (the other two declined an invitation to be soaked, with our assistant orchestra director threatening us if we did).

After that, we all decided to go play on the playground like full grown adults. While I was on the seesaw, one of my friends put ice down my back. Fortunately, there was some ice on the chair of the seesaw, and with another friend who also had ice, I had my revenge. Both events were captured on camera, which will apparently be featured on the slideshow of the end of year banquet. Oof.

Finally, I leave you with an amazing quote that was said by my friend who was got a viola hickey:

"Who needs rock hard abs when you can have stone cold flabs."

What a high quality meme.

Well, school will start again on Monday, so my regular Orchestra Shenanigans will start up again. It's going to be my last year of high school orchestra and therefore my last year of Orchestra Shenanigans. That said, I will be majoring in music, so Orchestra Shenanigans will probably become Music Major Shenanigans.

Will wait and see. This is going to be a great year.

#orchestra #orchestra shenanigans

3 notes · View notes

orbemnews · 4 years

Link

Advanced Cancers Are Emerging, Doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop in Screenings Yvette Lowery usually gets her annual mammogram around March. But last year, just as the pandemic was gaining a foothold and medical facilities were shutting down, the center where she goes canceled her appointment. No one could tell her when to reschedule. “They just said keep calling back, keep calling back,” said Ms. Lowery, 59, who lives in Rock Hill, S.C. In August, Ms. Lowery felt a lump under her arm but still couldn’t get an appointment until October. Eventually, she received a diagnosis of Stage 2 breast cancer, started chemotherapy in November and had a double mastectomy this month. “I’ve been seeing a lot of patients at an advanced stage,” said Dr. Kashyap B. Patel, one of Ms. Lowery’s doctors and the chief executive of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates. If her cancer had been detected last May or June, it would have probably been caught before it had spread, Dr. Patel said. Months of lockdowns and waves of surging Covid cases throughout last year shuttered clinics and testing labs, or reduced hours at other places, resulting in steep declines in the number of screenings, including for breast and colorectal cancers, experts have said. Numerous studies showed that the number of patients screened or given a diagnosis of cancer fell during the early months of the pandemic. By mid-June, the rate of screenings for breast, colon and cervical cancers were still 29 percent to 36 percent lower than their prepandemic levels, according to an analysis of data by the Epic Health Research Network. Hundreds of thousands fewer screenings were performed last year than in 2019, according to the network data. “We still haven’t caught up,” said Dr. Chris Mast, vice president of clinical informatics for Epic, which develops electronic health records for hospitals and clinics. Another analysis of Medicare data suggested that as Covid cases spiked during certain periods in 2020, cancer screenings fell. The analysis — conducted by Avalere Health, a consulting firm, for Community Oncology Alliance, which represents independent cancer specialists — found that testing levels in November were about 25 percent lower than in 2019. The number of biopsies, used to diagnose cancer, decreased by about one-third. While it is too early to assess the full impact of the delays in screenings, many cancer specialists say they are concerned that patients are coming in with more severe disease. “There’s no question in practice that we are seeing patients with more advanced breast cancer and colorectal cancer,” said Dr. Lucio N. Gordan, the president of the Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, one of the nation’s largest independent oncology groups. He is working on a study to see if, over all, these missed screenings resulted in more patients with later-stage cancers. And even though the numbers of mammograms and colonoscopies have rebounded in recent months, many people with cancer remain undiagnosed, doctors are reporting. Some patients, like Ms. Lowery, could not easily get an appointment once clinics reopened because of pent-up demand. Others skipped regular testing or ignored worrisome symptoms because they were afraid of getting infected or after losing their jobs, they couldn’t afford the cost of a test. Updated March 17, 2021, 10:30 a.m. ET “The fear of Covid was more tangible than the fear of missing a screen that detected cancer,” said Dr. Patrick I. Borgen, the chair of surgery at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn who also leads its breast center. His hospital treated such large numbers of coronavirus patients early on that “we’re now associated as the Covid hospital,” he said, and healthy people stayed away to avoid contagion. Even patients at high risk because of their genetic makeup or because they previously had cancer have missed critical screenings. Dr. Ritu Salani, the director of gynecologic oncology at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center said one woman, who was at risk for colon cancer, had a negative test in 2019 but didn’t go for her usual screening last year because of the pandemic. When she went to see her doctor, she had advanced cancer. “It’s just a devastating story,” Dr. Salani said. “Screening tests are really designed when patients aren’t feeling bad.” Ryan Bellamy felt no hurry last spring to reschedule a canceled colonoscopy, even though the presence of blood in his stool had prompted him to look up symptoms. “I really didn’t want to go to the hospital,” Mr. Bellamy said. He decided it was unlikely he had cancer. “They’re not following up with me so I’m OK with Googling,” he told himself. A resident of Palm Coast, Fla., Mr. Bellamy said that after his symptoms worsened, his wife insisted that he go for testing in December, and he had a colonoscopy in late January. With a new diagnosis of Stage 3 rectal cancer, Mr. Bellamy, 38, is undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Colon screening remained significantly lower in 2020, declining about 15 percent from 2019 levels, according to the Epic network data, although overall screenings were down 6 percent. The analysis looked at screenings for more than 600 hospitals in 41 states. Lung cancer patients have also delayed seeking appropriate care, said Dr. Michael J. Liptay, chairman of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. One patient had imaging that showed a spot on his lung, and he was supposed to follow up, just as the pandemic hit. “Additional work-up and care was deferred,” Dr. Liptay said. By the time the patient was fully evaluated, the cancer had increased in size. “It wasn’t a good thing to wait 10 months,” Dr. Liptay said, although he was uncertain whether earlier treatment would have changed the patient’s prognosis. Just as previous economic recessions led people to forgo medical care, the downturn in the economy during the pandemic has also discouraged many people from seeking help or treatment. “We know cancers are out there,” said Dr. Barbara L. McAneny, the chief executive of New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants. Many of her patients are staying away, even if they have insurance, because they cannot afford the deductibles or co-payments. “We’re seeing that, particularly with our poorer folks who are living on the edge anyway, living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. Some patients ignored their symptoms as long as they could. Last March, Sandy Prieto, a school librarian who lived in Fowler, Calif., had stomach pain. But she refused to go to the doctor because she didn’t want to get Covid. After having a telehealth visit with her primary care doctor, she tried over-the-counter medications, but they didn’t help with the pain and nausea. She continued to decline. “It got to the point where we didn’t have a choice,” said her husband, Eric, who had repeatedly urged her to go to the doctor. Jaundiced and in severe discomfort, she went to the emergency room at the end of May and was given a diagnosis of Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. She died in September. “If it wasn’t for Covid and we could have gotten her some place earlier, she would still be with us today,” said her sister, Carolann Meme, who had tried to persuade Ms. Prieto to go to an academic medical center where she might have gotten into a clinical trial. When patients like Ms. Prieto are not seen in person but treated virtually, doctors may easily miss important symptoms or recommend medication rather than tell them to come in, said Dr. Ravi D. Rao, the oncologist who treated Ms. Prieto. Patients may downplay how sick they feel or neglect to mention the pain in their hip, he said. “In my mind, telemedicine and cancer don’t travel together,” Dr. Rao said. While he also made use of telemedicine during the height of the pandemic, he says he worked to keep his offices open. Other doctors defended the use of virtual visits as a critical tool when office visits were too hazardous for most patients and staff. “We were grateful to have a robust telemedicine effort when people simply couldn’t come into the center,” said Dr. Borgen of Maimonides. But he acknowledged that patients were frequently reluctant to discuss their symptoms during a telehealth session, especially a mother whose young children could be listening to what they were saying. “It’s not private,” he noted. Some health networks say they took aggressive steps to try to counteract the effects of the pandemic. During the initial stay-at-home order last year, Kaiser Permanente, the large California-based managed care outfit, spotted a declining number of breast cancer screenings and diagnoses in the northern part of the state. “Doctors immediately got together” to begin contacting patients, said Dr. Tatjana Kolevska, medical director for the Kaiser Permanente National Cancer Excellence Program. Kaiser also relies on its electronic health records to make appointments for women who are overdue for their mammograms when they book an appointment with their primary care doctor or even want to get a prescription for new glasses. While Dr. Kolevska says she is waiting to see data for the system as a whole, she has been encouraged by the number of patients in her practice who are now up to date with their mammograms. “All of those things put in place have helped tremendously,” she said. Source link Orbem News #advanced #cancers #Citing #Doctors #Drop #Emerging #Pandemic #screenings #warn

0 notes

howtowriteashortessay179 · 4 years

Video

youtube

cheap essay writing

About me

Essay Writer & Essay Writing Service

Essay Writer & Essay Writing Service Be the primary one to learn about all of the EssayPro updates, giveaways, and seasonal reductions for college kids. We believe in affordable charges, and most essays are in the CA$14 per page range , so there are by no means any surprises. This essay was an enormous deal this semester and I completely forgot about it till it was too late. Safe to say that a company needs to be legitimate to function for such a considerable time period. Anyways, our clients' evaluations are one of the best testament. We've earned trust of 1000's of scholars because working with us they really feel safe about their assignments and personal information. On Instagram, we share the freshest scholar memes every day! And that’s not all; you'll be able to order any paper by simply sending a DM. We follow strict anti-plagiarism policy and write every thing from scratch. Before sending it to you, we scan your paper for originality utilizing licensed software to make sure its one hundred% originality and proper quotation. You won’t miss your deadline as all essays are submitted by the specified due date. Team is ready to address any concern or query you have about the providers. When you call us up and say I need help with my essay again, we’ll calculate the pages you could have ordered so far and provide you with a taste of our delicious loyalty program. If you're as loyal to our essay service as we're to you, we’ll grant you with lifelong reductions that go as much as 15%. You can use these on every future order you make on this site. With their proficient writing expertise, they can work on any task and ship it to you before you even expect it. We always affirm earlier than taking an order and we by no means set free shoppers undergo with their essays by making false statements or guarantees. I was so nervous and contacted $4 just 4 days before of my submission with 5000 words of assignments. I am so grateful they did in solely 3 days and likewise give time for revision. I was actually nervous earlier than ordering my first essay to $4, however now that is my third time as a result of they did a splendid job. We do not acquire or retailer any payment data and the order form is protected using SSL 256-bit encryption. We even have an expert editor that ensures every project is completed to the highest requirements. Because we specialize our staff, and because they produce good high quality work the primary time, we have lower prices and may pass on decrease costs to our shoppers. It is an easy truth – students have excessive prices and low earnings. Even when college students work full time, they typically still end their diploma with hundreds of dollars of debt. You can request a particular writer in your order, such as one you could have already labored with, or you'll be able to rent considered one of our prime performers as an additional function. If you aren't happy with the ultimate paper, you don’t pay for it, plain and simple. Keep in thoughts that ordering forward will get you a lot better rates at our essay service. But even if you don’t, we have some superb offers that will scale back your prices regularly and in the long run. We respect our customers privacy and that's the reason We a hundred% assure your information’s confidentiality. We revive our process yearly and put ears on our clients’ queries and suggestion. The keep our customers information at safe place and offer our regular prospects with unexpected reductions. Because we aim to build a $4 society the place students get care and motivation. Let us care for the details while you care for your essays. We have already been on the market for greater than 10 years.

0 notes

the-urban-alchemist · 5 years

Photo

starting each week as i meme to go on innit… • a few of my friends and colleagues have been reciting the following to me; • “you’re only two pay checks away from being homeless you know?”… • enough people have said it to make me wonder whether this is something y’all out there have been thinking more and more about recently?… • we all think about money… and where it’s coming from… and those of us without a regular monthly income even more so… • is this about the balance between what we love doing for a living and the reality of the instability and unreliability of the work that we’re in?… • or is there also a sense of feeling a little lost in the direction they’re heading in?… professionally that is… • some of us know exactly what we want to achieve in our careers and how we’re going to get there… others are happy to sit in the lane they’ve found and stay in it… as it’s steady… consistent… • reliable… • for those of y’all out there that are still exploring… still trying to figure out which direction is the best for you… • keep at it… • it’s okay to feel a little lost… it’s okay to explore different avenues… if nothing else you pick up a new skill/experience along the way… • but if you’re really stuck… and just need a sounding board to bounce off… i’ll casually stroll over to wherever you are and we can stumble through some ideas together… • so to all of you grinders out there stomping the ground on the daily… • i doff my hat… • 🐻🎩 • anyways… • back to our regular scheduled programming… • sayfe x • #workinprogress (at The urban Alchemist Detective Agency) https://www.instagram.com/p/B70mCYkllKS/?igshid=1q8ugmy1id3cs

#workinprogress

0 notes

oceangl1tter · 5 years

Text

i didn’t proofread this

i don’t know how to say it it’s hard to explain can you pull up google translate://

It's weird seeing the things you learn manifest themselves into real life. It's like wow, they actually have application in my life rather than being trapped as beginner theoretics learned in isolation. Earlier this morning I hear my cousin and dad yelling at eachother. It's not exactly yelling. Maybe the type of yelling you do as you're trying to explain a baking recipe while someone is using a very loud whisking machine in a very cramped kitchen. Very frustrating. I turn the music up a bit higher and pay no mind to what I would consider a regular morning, and subsequent, afternoon, or night.

My cousin asks me to come look at his screen. It's a pdf of a neural network broken down into "formulas" with purple and red arrows pointing at different sections along with sparse Chinese characters doing the bare minimum in explanatory work. The file is titled AITrader. AITrader brands itself as an "autonomous trading system" that takes in data input and makes financial crypto-decisions based on that data. Cryptocurrency, I understand as digital $$$, from a previous time of sitting in a conversation between two economics majors talking about exchange rates and whatnot. The output would be trading profits. From the first page of Google, I understand it as a trading bot.

During winter break, I talk to J about the stocktrading he always likes to put on his Snapchat story. It seems like devastating work. You stare at this app on your phone that makes squiggly lines up and down based on whether you're gaining money or losing money. The winning strategy seems to be selling when the price is high or waiting out the lows in hopes that it'll shoot up in prices again. Why not automate that system? Even without a predictive system, if you can program something that tracks the price of the specific stock and sells automatically once it detects the market slightly dropping, you would (theoretically) never lose but you wouldn't gain big either—sort of a median range. I don't think I know enough about stocktrading to make this sweeping proposition but it seems a lot better than manually checking the app every few hours and selling on your own but maybe people like that control of their financial actions and its profits (maaaaybe). We both share an interest in machine learning and he talks about the ML startups in Berkeley and the resources they have there. I notice he loses focus as I rattle off a little more than I should about something I'm only theoretically interested in.

My cousin then asks me how I would calculate a line—a straight line. I'm not sure how calculating a straight line would be able to transfer to creating a deep learning machine but I tell him the Emexplusb shindig. Apparently they had been arguing over my dad's very insistent stance. This is what I understand from my 5th grade knowledge of Cantonese, years of watching my father tap away at an excel sheet, and my small tiny chip of PHI10 2x speeding lecture videos:

A neural network works very much like the neural network in our brain. I'm not much of a biology/neuroscience nut but it mimics much of the neuron firing process including: excitatory/inhibitory signals, those signals that determine whether the cell has reached a threshold, the threshold for an action potential to fire pchoooo through the axon to um I'm assuming release a bunch of neurotransmitters, and those neurotransmitters then consisting of either excitatory/inhibitory signals to repeat the process. There hasn't been any other physical manifestation of a neural network besides our brain but "theoretically" you could make one as long as you have these three ingredients: nodes, weights, and layers (connections between the nodes). What we have so far are simulations of a neural network as a program. This program is no exception to the all-or-nothing credo as the nodes act as the neurons and the weights as activation levels (what it takes to reach a threshold) that either fire or don't/ advance to another node or don't. Advancement to the final layer leads to output—the desired goal.

Basic neural networks, the diagrams we glimpsed at in class, are feed-forward. This means that what happens in one layer does not affect the previous layers. This is where things get interesting but before that, I forgot to include what a neural network actually does. So far, the structure of the neural network discussed (feed forward—advancing forward through a layer and its nodes) handles input and creates output. The programmer has a target output and if the neural net is successful, it should output with 100% accuracy.

Neural networks are generally used to detect objects in a picture—very much like the Captchas we do, painstakingly, to prove we aren't robots. Funnily enough, the data that's collected from the Captchas we do to prove WE aren't robots is the same data used to make robots more like humans. An example I'm making up is detection of a raccoon in a picture. What the programmer does is feed their neural nets a training set of inputs—in my case, it would be pictures upon pictures of raccoons in their natural habitat. To mix up the batch, the programmer would also include pictures of celebrities with smudged makeup after an emotional breakdown in front of TMZ. Both categories have some resemblances to eachother but aren't completely indistinguishable. On the back of these pictures, we metaphorically label them "raccoon" and "human'. The target output is for the neural net to detect when the picture consists of a raccoon or when it does not(imagine that meme with the man holding his hand up asking "is this a butterfly", but replace butterfly with raccoon).

This training set is then used to train the neural net the correct inputs and output—improving their accuracy. It's like training wheels for small kids that want to bike their little tooshes away. The programmer feeds the photos in. Because we know the desired output (and we can use our eyes to see when it's an animal or a human), the programmer can manually go in and change the WEIGHTS of the neural net every time it makes a mistake in its detection. The programmer would then run another trial from the beginning.

Once the net is able to reach 100% accuracy (in that its able to get to the desired outputs from the answer sheet we fed it, it then moves onto another training set and even more trials. This has implications for so many fields. A relevant one would be detection systems for tumors in x-ray scans, facial recognition systems, security systems, e.t.c. Finally, the goal is for the neural net to get to the right outputs with a completely new set of data it has not seen before. What I'm assuming is behind AITrader is that we give the neural net inputs we don't know the outputs to but the machine is able to figure it out.

I could go on about neural networks and case studies that have been done but back to where things get interesting and how I'm going to wrap up this convoluted explanation of neural nets with even more convoluted explanations of neural nets. What is super fascinating about these machines no matter how boring they were when I read (aka skimmed) about them in the assigned readings is that there is this thing called the backpropagation method—neural networks that are NOT feed forward and layers CAN affect layers before it.

The backpropagation method is almost like a blanket-all formula. It has no specific task and has been used in various applications doing vastly different things. Like our brains, the neural net is adaptive so over time it begins to notice patterns and similarities in the photos that contain a raccoon rather than a distressed celebrity. A neural net continues to improve its accuracy by self-changing its weights/activation levels and "firing" when correct. What is infinitely scary is that how these machines come to make these self-changing decisions becomes increasingly unknown to the programmer. The programmer feeds input they do not know the output to. How the machine gets to the outputs and how those outputs become correct (aka they're predictive) are out of the programmer's realm of expertise. That is truly fucking scary and cool. The implications for this are even more far-reaching, which I will save for another day. Did any of that make sense? I probably simplified a lot of complex things beyond effective simplification--aka to the point of being incorrect, but from what little I learned in lecture and read, it is still pretty darn cool.

My dad has sheets upon sheets of numbers highlighted and labeled in different colors. Apparently he has a formula for "artificial intelligence". The argument between them this morning had to do with their differing ways of approaching this program they are supposedly brainstorming and making. My dad does not know how to program. He does not know how the computer will track each cell of his excel sheet when really every input/output could just be labeled x^1, x^2 e.t.c. They could also make matrices but that's the extent of my ECS32A knowledge. Anyway, I'm not sure how they're going to go about doing this without even knowing the formula to a straight line. My cousin asks me several questions. If I know log, e, f(x)' and other diagrams I've seen in a math textbook. I’m wondering if it's really worth switching over to the B.A. If I stay in the B.S. track I'll know at least that I have a background to what I say and I won't feel like what I tell him are shots in the dark. Like I want to be a part of this!! It's sort of interesting to see the boring things taught in class apply to something that could become so powerful.

Or maybe all of this is just illusive.

It's strange to see how these paths intersect. My (now faded/squashed) career interests in AI came before I knew my dad's aspirations in detail. I read a single page about the Actual Contents of neural nets and my brain twisted itself into a German pretzel. There's actually no way I would be able to grind through all that math without wanting to tear my eyeballs out. I just want to design programs that can detect whether a picture contains raccoons or celebrities with smudged makeup--gosh is that so hard?

My sister tells him that my cousin seems to care for my dad a lot even though he has to listen to my dad drone on for hours. Like when we go out to eat he'll ask if my dad will be okay or if he needs food when we really just leave him to his own devices. She says my dad acts sort of like a father figure to him. In my head I think: it could've been me.

#mystuff

0 notes

cloudtgfreewritingblog · 4 years

Text

I Don’t Want Quotes to Determine What I Want

Hah, I’m back for the third night in a row! I’m on a blogging streak! But anyways, I was originally sitting on my tumblr homefeed for about an hour, not knowing what I wanted to blog about. Lacking inspiration, I started going through the trending blogs. Some about the protests, some about that John Boyega actor from Star Wars, some are random funny memes, and then there were some quotes here and there.

Quotes have been blogged, shared, tweeted, posted on all sorts of social media platforms throughout the years. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of seeing them. I might’ve been more active a few years ago, but the types of quotes haven’t really changed based on what I am seeing. You got the inspirational/motivational quotes from movies or books or successful people, then there’s the quotes that invoke critical thinking or promote ideological thoughts...

Speaking of that last one, quotes that promote ideological thoughts rub me the wrong way. Ideological thoughts are ideas that establish facts without being based by evidence. In other words, they are assertions. If people start quoting assertions and they get shared by many people... Can you imagine the implications? The more visible you are on a platform, the easier it is to promote assertions. Imagine ten years from now, the future president of the United States says “We are all aliens”.

Naturally, this would be shared by at least thousands of people, and all sorts of mainstream media outlets would be all over that phrase. This would be bad because people would get confused due to the lack of context. Does the president mean that we actually came from outer space? Or perhaps this is referring to the fact that the country was established by people emigrating from other countries? Or perhaps at that time ten years from now, the laws have changed to the point that no one is actually a legal citizen. Or... maybe it’s another crazy president talking.

Look, I don’t like the idea of people casually exchanging assertions with each other. In the long-run, I’m worried that we will start getting confused as to what is true and what isn’t. I personally believe that we’ve gone down that path for a long time, and the existence of social media will definitely make it worse. Just think about when you were a toddler or a really young kid and you got introduced to the existence of Santa Claus. I don’t know about others, but my family would always promote the idea that Santa will be coming... Even YEARS after everyone in the family knows that Santa isn’t real. Just... Stop. Please. You are only going to confuse others.

However, what I really want to get into... and now you’ll understand why I chose this topic... are those quotes about promoting the perfect relationships. Oh I know about these. Many years ago, my girlfriend (at the time) had shown and shared a bunch of these quotes with me. At the time, I adored the ideas that these quotes represented. Doing a quick search online for quotes, a good example of a quote that would’ve rung true with me is:

“When someone likes you... They’ll text you a lot, stay up every night with you, compliment you, and always have time for you.”

-www.all-bestquotes.com

This was entirely true for many months of that relationship. The two of us would normally spend several nights a week doing exactly that. It’s for that reason that I just got hooked on the quotes. Whenever I saw those quotes, I was always thinking about how I could make things romantically better. Sharing videos, spending time with her... I invested time into the relationship... Well in the end it didn’t matter.

Getting back to the point - I didn’t really understand what these quotes were actually doing. It’s the same thing with those promoted assertions - the more we start reading about what a perfect relationship is like, the more our brains start programming ourselves to think that “this is what a perfect relationship is like - always together, always in love, things will always work out no matter what”....

Well okay obviously we all have different ideas about what a perfect or ideal relationship is like, but that’s not my point. My point is, “perfect relationship” quotes assert that perfect relationships are like this. Keep in mind, you have to remember that quotes never come from nowhere. People who are quoted come from a variety of paths of life. They could be real people, they could be fictional characters. Their personalities and experiences will definitely influence their opinions regarding perfect relationships.

Honestly, there’s a part of me thinking that people will be so obsessed with so many standards that they get from these quotes, that it will dramatically ruin the market of potential partners that they can choose from.

But hey, it’s not like quotes can’t make me dream of the best significant other. Just read this one:

“Any woman can spend a mans money, ride in his car, order off the menu. But only a real woman can help a man achieve his goals in life, support him when he’s broke, push him to be successful, shower him with positive energy, compliment him on a regular basis and never kick him while he’s down.” -quotesgram.com

Why does this appeal to me? Because I don’t just want a girlfriend/wife in name only. I want someone who I can spend my free time with. Someone who will be my life-long friend. Someone who I can share my thoughts and feelings with and never fear that I will be rejected by her. I want someone who can be my partner. Someone who will work with me to achieve goals in life. I want someone who can support me, while I in turn support her. As equals. And if we need to spend, then make smart spending decisions.

Make no mistake - I have no interest in making huge spending decisions. Sure I’ll eventually have to make the occasional decision like purchasing a house... But by no means do I ever want to live in a big mansion. I might imagine wanting a Victorian-style home because of how unique the architecture is, but in today’s world there is no way that will ever be a part of my plans... now or ever.

I think I’m side-tracking too much... Digressing back to the topic...

I’m not going to let quotes try to assert what I want in my life. I know what I want. I know because I am a lonely person. However, I am not interested in getting a big social-life. I just need that one person. And I hope that person who just wants that one person other will find me. Or the other way around.

If I were to advise people about all the quotes online, don’t just accept any quotes as facts. The same goes for “news” articles or speeches of politicians. The only things you should really consider as facts are things that you directly observe with your own senses. Anything else are things that COULD BE TRUE but also COULD NOT BE TRUE.

Eh whatever. I don’t feel like typing any further. Guess I’ll end it here. Peace!

0 notes

shanannigansthebibliophile · 7 years

Text

“Remember, remember, the 5th of November”

Happy Friday guys! And a happy birthday to Mr. Shanannigans, which is why I picked “V for Vendetta” this weeks as it’s one of his favourites!

Woo hoo! Fall is finally here! And by that, I mean the abnormally hot weather we were experiencing is gone, with blustery autumn (NORMAL) weather taking its place. ABOUT TIME!!! It was so weird too. It literally went from 40°C to 18°C and breezy, all in one day.

Yesterday and today is all about the birthday boy. Yesterday we had a cozy fam jam and spoiled him rotten. Tonight is his party/ birthday dinner with friends and we’re really looking forward to it. I get to talk to grown-ups tonight! Unless you are home with tiny human(s) all day/ everyday, you may not get why that would be so exciting. Trust me, it’s cause to wear lipstick and everything! (Happy dance)

Reads & Reels had a great week! The Fender blog tour kicked off without a hitch and is doing great! Remember to enter the giveaway if you haven’t already. It’s a fantastic book and the author is giving away a print copy, digital books and even an audio book!

I read and reviewed a sweet romance with a touch of suspense called Roadside, by an author in our community. Angie Dokos? You may know her as the sweetest lady ever! Her blog is almost entirely made up of other bloggers and authors work. She’s awesome and has been sharing my stuff for ages. I call her my “Fair Blogmother” She happens to be a fine writer with a few books under her belt as well.

Hmm, what else? oh I watched the second season of Scream Queens which was awesome! I know what you’re thinking… How can she watch such over-the-top, campy crap? But that’s exactly why I love it! The show is ridiculous and it knows it lol.

Anyway, it has been a busy and fruitful week and I’m looking forward to the weekend. Which come to think of, will be crazy busy too. Ah, no rest for the wicked.

Monday I start a hardcore pilates program in addition to regular sessions where I’m tortured by a chiropractor. Turns out my foot injury isn’t really an injury at all, but a symptom of something bigger. Something I must aggressively treat if I don’t want to become a hump-backed, doddering crone (so many things about pregnancy that I’m still learning). Don’t worry I’m fine, just have my work cut out for me. Bonus? The director of the pilates studio has promised me a “rockin’ hot bod” in time for my wedding. Yay!

So, busy, busy times ahead but I have rambled on enough. Let’s get to it!

This Week: V for Vendetta (2005)

Most of these posters are fan-made and are pretty spectacular in my opinion.

Awesome right? I really like “N” but I’m going to have to go with “O” today.

The Winner: “O”

Which one would you pick?

Have a great weekend guys!

Movie Poster Showdown: V for Vendetta (2005) #Meme #WeeklyRecap #Friday #Movies #JustforFun "Remember, remember, the 5th of November" Happy Friday guys! And a happy birthday to Mr. Shanannigans, which is why I picked "V for Vendetta" this weeks as it's one of his favourites!

#Book Blog #Bookworm #Cinephile #Feature #Friday Fun #Just For Fun #Meme #Movie Blog #Movie Buffs #Movie Poster Showdown #Movies #Reads & Reels #Weekly Recap

0 notes

nuttyhologramgoatee-blog · 7 years

Text

The 2 Real Reasons CrossFit WonТt Work Anymore

Anybody who remembers the Сgood olТ daysТ (prebok), understands things i mean when i state it СwonТt work anymore.Т Those that have existed for long enough have watched the flood of newcomers, rapidly diluting the pool of quality, and giving CrossFit a bad name.

I know, cry, cryЕ

The issue using the Сcream will rise for the topТ philosophy is it only works if the consumer recognizes the cream. Although the consumer canТtЕ for the reason that consumer is usually a regular individual who has no freakinТ idea whether theyТre checking out a thick, delicious, cold layer of cream or perhaps a half-full protein shaker that sat beneath your car seat to get a week last summer. Choose wisely.

УWe have the best coaches. The best programming! An amazing community! A clean facility! Great equipment!Ф

Yeah, thatТs what everyoneТs website says, and everybody saying it is equivalent to no-one saying it.

No gym plasters УWe have a filthy gym plus a disgusting bathroom, with terrible coaches and a number of people no-one likes!!Ф on the homepage.

The buyer might go to a few gyms, looking around if theyТre motivated to that particular degree, doing their research. So how is it really deciding?

Many times they just go to the cheapest gym across the street to try out СCrossFit,Т run by an unaffiliated bootcamp trainer who just obtained a brand-spankin-new set of TRX bands. УWeТre doing circuit training today guys!Ф (insert annoying trainer voice).

Or even worse, they check out an affiliated gym thatТs having a groupon-special, gets thrown to the wolves, and so on day 1 is told to work a 400m backwards, through traffic, holding a 45# plate overhead. Eaten alive. (BTW to Rx the run you need to have eyes closed #getsome).

Nearly everyone I speak to nowadays has read about CrossFit; I havenТt met anyone without having an opinion.

What is your opinion is the very first thing they say for me? You already knowЕ

УCrossFit is simply too dangerousФ

How did they are offered to this sort of conclusion? Maybe off their own experience, or from someone they understand, or possibly a meme they saw, or a story they once read somewhere. The source doesnТt matter! Around IТd prefer to argue their opinion (fact in their mind), I canТt. TheyТre set. So IТm stuck with seeking to convince themЕ УBut weТre different! I SWEAR!Ф IТve learned never to waste my breath anymore.

Recently I began BJJ up again after a few years off, and inevitably I become asked what I do for the livingЕ

Oh IТm a coach, I own a gymФ

Like a CrossFit gym?Ф

Yeah, we have an affiliation, but perform things a little bit differently than most.Т

Oh cool, yeah, anyway, CrossFit is too dangerous in my opinion, my brother-in-law made it happen for awhile but were required to stop as he was always injured. HeТs doing Orange Theory now. Have you ever heard of heartrate training? ItТs revolutionary.Ф

*groan*

Everyone thinks they may have learned what СCrossFitТ is all about.

They donТt. By any means.

However they THINK they generally do. And thatТs the situation.

Consider it. Once you forcefully punch someone inside the mouth, itТs difficult to make friends with them again. Once someone explodes their shoulder doing something dumb, itТs challenging to convince them to try it again. TheyТre traumatized. I would be too. In reality, I wasЕ I ruptured my achilles in the year 2011 during the openЕ I used to be emotionally scarred for some time. Think of it weakness, call it whatever, having said that i didnТt perform a box jump for two years.

There are several gyms that things right. Really. Maybe you visit one, or coach at one. Or OWN one. But theyТre becoming more uncommon. And a number of the good ones are closing down or changing their names.

DonТt trust me? The amount of gyms can you think of who have rebranded, or changed names? Why they have done that? IТve asked many of them and it comes down to public perception. This isnТt even addressing the gyms which can be being offered or closing down. I personally know a few burnt out owners that have ditched it all.

The problem with public perception is the good gyms are being lumped together with the negative gyms (majority).

Most gyms have no clue how you can do programming. Most donТt have clue about energy systems or their intelligent utilization in program design. They are doing not use programming templates. They actually do not adequately progress their athletes (or offer a Method Of PROGRESSION). They actually do not focus on proper, smart safety rules (letting everyone kip their asses off on day 1). They actually do not build fundamental muscular balance in their clients. Their list goes on.

What does everything mean? This means those gyms are simply just being irresponsible, and giving everybody else a poor name.

ThatТs Reason 1: The dilution of great training/coaches/gyms with bad ones who have not really turned Сprofessional.Т That dilution then changes public perception, by polluting your mind from the Сregular person,Т who then has conversations with me in jiujitsu class about their injured brother-in-law.

To Reason 2: The legitimate concern of Overtraining and Injury within the fitness community.

Most of the time, stupidity plays a primary role in. And when I say Сstupidity,Т I am talking about basic human nature, or rather, ego.

I consider myself an effective coach, and several times IТve scaled someone down, or told them to Сshut it downТ for the day, turned my back for 3 seconds and suddenly theyТve turned into the hunch back of notre dame across a 400lb deadlift wrenching that sucker track of a jerking, twisting motion.

УCall an ambulance.Ф

The ego, and the urge to get better, is really a strong force. Sometimes overwhelmingly strong. Was that CrossFitТs fault? Will it be the fault from the car that the drunk driver got behind the wheel and slammed into an oncoming car? Of course not, but itТs simpler to blame, isnТt it? IТve seen the ego manifest in myself yet others countless times. Usually overtraining and injury donТt happen overnight. ItТs a progression.

It is something similar to this:

1) Oh, this fitness thing is cool, IТm annihalated each day!Е I think IТll upgrade to unlimited are available 6 times a week in order to be really lean for summer!

2) Man, my shoulder continues to be bugging me lately and I havenТt been sleeping perfectly. Plus IТm really irritable at all times.

3) Jeez, regardless how much I workout I recently canТt do away with this layer of fat around my belly button. IТm gonna start doing Fran 3x every week to up my intensity.

4) My shoulder continues to be bothering us a lot, now my hip is hurting too! I wake up so stiff and canТt even sit crosslegged on the floor anymore. IТm only 28 years of age, wtf!

5) Hey Coach, I simply tore my Уinsert tendon/ligament/muscle,Ф IТm gonna have to take a while off, surgical treatment is scheduled for next week.

Most fitness enthusiasts train excessive.

Let me be a little more specific, the majority of them have no idea that killing themselves everyday is not really the ideal strategy to make progress and have more fit.

Obvious right? But, youТd be surprised how so many people are dependent on the adrenaline dump of your truly max lactic endurance effort.

This relies on the gymТs responsibility to teach the buyer, and effectively balance training load. Coaches need so as to clearly explain the point and reasoning behind every piece from the program. When they canТt, chances are they donТt understand what theyТre doing, and so they shouldnТt be responsible for the physical fitness 100 people.

Primum non nocere.

The situation of injury relies on inadequate attention on recovery and muscular balance (and stupidity naturally, like once i ruptured my achilles after weeks of ignoring symptoms. УItТll be fiiiineeeФ). This is an section of contention, and several coaches feel that a focus on recovery and balance is secondary. But without a gym-wide center on them (culture), men and women will get injured, because people are people.

I assist clients each day. For hours on end. Everyone seems to be incredibly tight, around. They sit at a desk throughout the day. They donТt yet know very well what itТs want to be truly In Your Body. Connected. They just use themselves as a method of brain-transportation. They sit for 7 hours, just like should they just got off a non-stop flight from Maine to California, and most gyms will spend 5-10 mins on mobility (if theyТre lucky) without any time at all on foundational balance work.

What exactly is 5-10-20 minutes gonna do? Nothing, not much of a damn thing. TheyТre stiff, tight, filled with tension, and come in from sitting all dayЕ right into a max effort workout theyТve been nervous about since their 4-eggs, bacon, and bulletproof-coffee-breakfast. Physiologically, all this becomes life and death. This can be a problem on a muscular and hormonal level. So many people are highly, and chronically, stressed. Loading them down and forcing that adaptation, expressing everything force through locked-down muscles and joints, is rather foolish.

Fran again today guys. LetТs go! CRUSH IT! CRUSSHHH ITTT!

Oh, what have we created? And the way should we correct it?

The answers are pretty straight forward:

Educate and balance, and make certain that itТs all Built In this software. ThatТs our responsibility. Because only a tiny part of men and women do anything by themselves. And simply a small part of a fraction is going to do anything good by themselves, unless theyТre taught to get it done, after which provided an environment where it occurs automatically.

At Level Method Gym weТve put extensive concentrate on all of these things. We look at the WHOLE person, from start to finish, our class is constructed to provide BALANCE. It offers extensive flexibility/mobility protocols, breathing protocols, individualized gymnastic resistance training progressions (in most classes), the revolutionary Level Means for progressing and managing group athletes, and purposeful (and published) energy system based training templates, plus 90% of the members know (both conceptually as well as in practice) what energy systems are and the way THEY FEEL.

ItТs time and energy to face the tunes. CrossFit wonТt work anymore, because itТs will no longer just what it was. ItТs now something different because, eventually, perception is reality.

Adjust as required, folks.

0 notes

igsy-blog · 8 years

Text

Ask Meme

I was tagged by @thegreatorangedragon. Thank you!

Nicknames: "Igsy” - actually was my first nickname! To be more accurate, Igsy-Wigsy. IGS are my initials, and when my dad read to me when I was very little, he liked to insert my name in books. For instance, it would be - The 500 Hats of Igsy-Wigsy. [The full nickname was Igsy-wigsy-ketigsy-menigsy. I inherited my dad’s weird sense of humor. No one has called me that in a long time, so it’s fun for me to be called that now, via social media.]

My more common nickname is Mae, though only my husband really uses it, anymore. I was given it independently by two different people. One was my dad’s much older half-sister, my racist southern aunt (whose funeral was at an African American funeral home in Oakland, CA - but that’s a long story). She attached it to my name in a heavy southern drawl: IIIIIIIda-Maaaaaeee. Later, when I was working (via a high school program) in a computer room in a very small company in Galt, my supervisor started calling me Mae because the other female working there (the overnight computer operator) was Alicia-Mae. So it was Ida-Mae and Alicia-Mae. Kinda sexist, looking back on it. I had just started dating my husband at the time, and he liked it (and I never really liked my actual name), and he’ll still address me as “Mae” when he has cause to write to me.

Height: 5′2″. BARELY.

Time Right Now: 9:00AM

Last Thing You Googled: Brainwashing techniques.

Favorite Musical Artist: All time?? Ah. Depeche Mode, I guess. But Foo Fighters/Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Go-Gos, The Thompson Twins and Pet Shop Boys are up there. I won’t turn off a Beatles song. And what the hell - Weird Al. I DO buy a lot of contemporary music, but as I get older, I don’t really follow artists, just download songs I like.

Last Movie I Watched: Hell or High Water.

Last TV Show I Watched: The opening monologue and first two sketches of SNL.

What I’m Wearing Right Now: Shorts and a tank top. It’s finally sunny in Cali!!!

When I Created This Blog: I don’t know! I created it a while ago, when I was going to try to cure severe writers’ block through blogging, but I ended up going to bloggr and didn’t write very much anyway. Started using it for the reTHG.

The Kind of Stuff I Post: Re-post mostly, right now. Hunger Games, Poldark and, right now, politics. I should do better about posting (links to) my writing here, but I’m not great at self-promotion.

Why Did I Choose My URL: Creative dry spell.

Gender: Female

Hogwarts House: When I re-sorted recently at Pottermore, I was placed in Slytherin (!). I don’t know how I feel about that one. Snape is one of my all-time favorite characters, so that’s something, I guess. Although - to be honest, since I was a semi-goth, introverted, sneering-at-the-popular kids type in high school, maybe that fits. But I would have guessed Ravenclaw.

Pokemon Team: LOL (flashes back to falling asleep at the Pokemon 2000 movie)

Favourite Colour: Dark blue, with purple a close second.

Average Hours of Sleep: 5-6.

Lucky Number: 16

Favourite Character: This is impossible (see also: favorite books, below). It’s always the most recent thing, right? - so Peeta, but ... with distance it might still be Sam Gamgee (<3), Dwight Enys, Caroline Penvenen, Harriet Vane, F’Nor, Eugene Wrayburn, Ron Weasely. I love sidekicks.

Dream Job: Script writer or film editor. I wish I was a better actor. I love to act, but I’m not very good.

Number of Blankets I Sleep With: One.

Relationship Status: Married

Pets: Three cats. I’m married to a cat person and they worship him as their own idol god. We had to put down our two old dogs over the last couple of years and have not “replaced” them yet, but currently preparing to.

Last Song You Listened To: “Take Me to Church” - Hozier

Favorite TV Show: Friends

First Fandom: I don’t recall if it was Friends or LOTR. I was TORn, not TORc, back in the day, following the movies as they were being filmed. Friends would have been right around that same time, 1999-2000.

Hobbies: Writing, reading, cycling (before my knee went bad)

Favourite Book(s): IMPOSSIBLE. So, I was the kid who would go to friends’ houses and spend the weekend reading all their books. I would read AND enjoy practically everything. Then I was an English Major and stopped reading for fun for a long time! Taking The Hunger Games as a given - and with the caveat that it is too recent for me to say it will remain in my regular rotation, though it’s hard to imagine otherwise - the books I revisit on a regular basis are: Our Mutual Friend (a glorious mess), The Pickwick Papers, LOTR, the Poldark novels (though 1-4 are the best, and 3-4 are my favorites among those), the Iliad, Silas Marner, Ulysees, the Pern novels, the Peter Wimsey mysteries, and Harry Potter. Oh - and The Entropy Effect, a Star Trek novel by the great Vonda McIntrye (whose novelizations of Star Trek 2 and 3 are also so far superior to the actual movies) - I wish they’d make a movie based on that book.

Random Tag! - @raven-mcbain-monkeymouse, @tulletante @mythandmystic @sophieemccrory, @greetingsfromthenorthernsea, @youareformeall, @poppyc33, @iamsherloocked, @pronetoobsess, @bandathebillie, @juuhmellark2 @jus-lil-ol-me, @norbertsmom, @infinitegraces @kimbaleena2002, @gentlemama @b-boop5, @lorie1213, @geekymoviemom, @w00-ly, @mtk4fun

6 notes · View notes