#leafies dc stuff

[mapled-penitentiary]

friend gave me some advice to draw screenshots of comic book guys to draw them easier and. yeah they absolutely locked in

((rb's are appreciated ! <3))

[avengerscompound]

Mixology - The First of Many

Mixology - A Captain America Fanfic

Series Masterlist Previous //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Steve Rogers x Reader

Word Count:  3399

Series Warnings:  Angst, Character death, Breaking up and making up, past trauma, pregnancy, talk of abortion, smut (vaginal sex, fingering, other things)

Synopsis:   Steve Rogers comes into your bar and after a night of flirting you take him home.  When he leaves the next day you never expect to see him again.

A/N:  This fic was written pre-Infinity War.  So while it follows canon for a while, it then veers off wildly at the end.

The First of Many

The subway is unusually crowded for the middle of a Tuesday.  People are busking and every now and again someone walks up the length of the train asking for money.  You keep change in your pocket.  Usually a small wad of crumpled up ones that you received as tips to give them so that no one is held up for too long while you search your wallet.  Every time you hand over some money Steve’s smiles at you and touches you.  It’s like he can’t quite believe you exist.

When you get to the stop Steve wants you to follow him out and he takes your hand.  “Do you always give people money?”  He asks.

“Until I run out.”  You answer.

“But you said you aren’t saving anything here?”

“Yeah, but I have a roof over my head and food.”  You shrug.

You both walk up and out into the cool New York City air.  He leads you in the direction of Central Park.  You both weave through the hawkers out the front.  Steve offers to take you on a carriage ride but you refuse, saying you don’t really like animal tourism.

As you get further in and away from the chaos of the entrance you appreciate the leafy cool of the park.  It’s quiet and feels almost clean compared to the noise and filth of Manhattan.  It’s much cooler in the park than it was in the street and you move a little closer to Steve.  He puts an arm around you.  

“You’re really warm.”  You say, leaning into him.

“Fast metabolism.”  He replies.  

“From the …”

“Yep.”  

You drop it.  He didn’t want you to see him as Captain America.  You would do your best to keep them separate.

“So what’s your plan, Steve?”   You ask.  “Where are we headed?”

“I thought we could grab some lunch.”  He answers.  

“We already passed all the good food vendors.  They have cabbage rolls and steamed dumplings out the front.”  You say.

He smiles at you and you lean up and kiss him on the cheek.  He stops and turns to face you.   He glances around nervously for a moment and then brings his lips to yours.  As your lips part and you trace your tongue over the corner of his mouth you think maybe, just maybe you’d be happy only ever kissing Steve Rogers.  That he might be end game for you.  The thought scares you, especially considering how little you actually know him.  But if this is it.  This is your person.  You might actually be happy with that.  You might actually be happy.

You’d always sworn you’d never tie your happiness to another person though.  You’ve been happy traveling.  Or you’d lied to yourself that not being miserable was the same as being happy.

He pulls away and looks down at you.  “What are you thinking?”

“Just, I don’t know Steve.  I’ve never had a boyfriend who didn’t just use me and make me feel like shit.”  You say.

“Is that who I am?  Your boyfriend?”  He asks.

You look at the ground.  “Do you want to be?  I mean, that’s the direction you’re leading this right?  I don’t mean you have to decide that right now.”  

“I’d love to be your boyfriend,”  Steve says. “I’ve never gone steady with anyone.”

His word choice makes your heart hurt.  “I’m just really scared about fucking this up.” You say.

Steve rubs your arms.  “Everyone is always scared of that.  All the time.  Don’t run, don’t crash a plane into the arctic circle.  Those are our start points.”

“Answer the phone.”  You add.

“Answer the phone.”  He agrees.

He kisses you just briefly and you both start walking again.

“I got in trouble for letting you sleep over the other week,”  Steve says.

You laugh.  “Oh really?”

“The building belongs to Tony Stark.  Did you know that?”  He asks.

You nod your head.

“He said it was reckless letting a stranger into the building and then leaving them unsupervised.”  He explains.

You laugh.  “Tony Stark said that?  As in the guy who slept his way through an entire year’s worth of penthouse covers?”

Steve laughs.  “Don’t believe everything you read.”

“So he didn’t sleep his way through an entire year’s worth of penthouse covers?”

“No, he did.”  He says with a laugh  “I think he might have been mad he didn’t get to meet you and interrogate you about your intentions.”

“Oh.  So he’s your dad?”  You ask.  

Steve rolls his eyes.  “There’s some kind of parental issues there.  That’s for sure.”

You snort laugh and cover your face mortified.  He nudges you.   “He had you investigated.” He says.

You stop walking suddenly.  “He what?”  

“He said he was worried you were a spy.  That it was too unlikely that we’d meet up in both DC and New York like we did.”  He says.

You look down at yourself and then back up at Steve.  “He thought I was a spy?  Me?  I was wearing a Pikachu onesie for most of the day.”  

Steve laughs.  “Spies come in all shapes and sizes.”

“You believed him!”  You yelp.

He runs his hand through his hair.  “No.  I just - I could see his concern.  It was strange.”

You start walking again and he takes your hand in his.  “Do you still think I might be a spy?”

“No.”  He says.  “I just wanted you to know, that I now know - things - about you that maybe you might not have wanted me to find out.”

“Oh.”  Your mind races, going through the life you’ve led.  All the things you’ve done.  All the things you’ve been through.  What parts of it he could now know without you telling him.  You slip your hand from his and cross your arms over your chest.

“None of that stuff bothers me.  I mean, none of the stuff you’ve done.  It bothers me that you were admitted to hospital so many times as a child and no one investigated your parents.”  He says.  

“Please don’t.”  You say.  

“What can I do to fix this?”  He asks.

You shake your head.   “There’s nothing to fix.”

You both walk silently for a few minutes.   A couple of times it looks like Steve goes to say something but then doesn’t.

“I’m not mad.  Or at least, I get it.  I just - that part of my life.  I’ve tried to get so far away from it.  I don’t care that you know, but aren’t you supposed to learn about things like that about people gradually under their own terms?”  You say.

“Our relationship so far hasn’t really gone in the typical direction.  Maybe you and I have different rules?”  

You shrug.  “I’m hungry.”

“Good because we’re here.”

“No. No, Steve!  We’re not eating here.”  You say.  The two of you have made your way to Tavern on the Green.  You were expecting to just walk past it.  It’s a beautiful old building, but the prices are ludicrous.

“You don’t like it?”  He asks looking a little crestfallen.

“I don’t know if I like it.  I’ve never been.”  You say.  “It’s too expensive.”

“This was built when I was about 16 I think.  When people around me all started dating.  I always imagined this would be the place you’d take that special girl.  I couldn’t have afforded it even if I had one.  But girls never looked twice at me anyway.  I remember thinking that ‘not in a million years would I have a girl or the money to afford this place’.  It was like a dream I tortured myself with.  Turns out, it didn’t take a million years.  Just one hundred.  Now I have the money.  Do I have the girl?”  He holds out his hand and you take it.

“You have to book.  I’m not dressed for it.”  You complain as you walk down the covered path to the door.  

“You look beautiful and let’s see how far my name can get me.”

Turns out pretty far.  They greeted him at the door excitedly and sat you in the middle of the room so everyone could see that Captain America had chosen to dine there.  You feel awkward.  You don’t belong here.  You wouldn’t feel like you belonged here if you were the one behind the bar.

You order a risotto and Steve orders steak.  You talk him into getting a cocktail.  You order a Queens and he orders a Brooklyn.  

As you eat you relax.  The conversation is light.  Steve tells you about the things he used to get up to as a kid.  What led him to be accepted in the Army.  More about his friend Bucky.  You tell him about your time in Amsterdam.  About the first time you drank absinthe.  It’s nice.  It feels like how dates look in movies.

“As fancy as this place is, all I can think is that a giant dog thing is about to attack Rick Moranis up against those windows.”  You say.

He looks at you confused.  

“You haven’t seen Ghostbusters yet?”  You ask.

He pulls out a notebook from his pocket and scribbles something down.

“What are you doing?”

“Just putting it on the list of things to catch up on.”  He says.  

“Oh shit.  Sorry, Steve.  It must suck getting these reminders that you don’t belong here.”  You say.  “Uhh… why don’t we just go watch it now?”

“No one would be playing it.”  He says.  

You laugh.  “It’s New York, someone will be playing it.  But I meant, we go watch it at home.  My place, your place, whatever.  We get popcorn and a blanket and we watch it snuggled up together.”

Steve smiles.  His eyes crease at the corners.  “I’d really like that.”

You catch the subway to Avengers Tower.  The elevator ride up is once again crowded and Steve suddenly shifts back into Captain America mode.  He straightens up and he holds his head higher.  You take his hand in yours and kiss the tip of his fingers.  He looks down at you and the smile returns.  Steve remembers he’s not here for work.

As you enter the communal living area you see the guy who he’d first come into the bar with all those months ago.  

“Cap!  There you are…”  He notices you and grins. “Oh hey, it’s hot pussy.  You’re not dead after all.  You owe me $20, Cap.”

“Hey, Sam. What’s up?”  Steve says.  It makes you a little sad that this guy who Steve obviously considers a close friend calls him Cap.  Not even his friends see him how he wants.  Or maybe he feels the need to hide from them.  He hadn’t intended on keeping you around originally. Maybe he’s scared to let people get close to Steve in case he loses them again.

“It’s about our friend.”  Sam answers.

Steve turns to you.  “This is about work.  I’ll get the popcorn.  Can you maybe wait for me in my room?  If you just start talking to JARVIS he’ll help you find the movie and put it on.”

“Of course.”  You lean up and kiss him.  “Not too much work.”  

“No, this is just important to me.”  He says.  “To Steve.”  He adds.

You nod and head to his bedroom.  With the help of JARVIS, you find Ghostbusters and have it set up ready to play for when Steve’s ready.  You take off your shoes and socks and then decide you might take it a little further and pull your shorts off too.  You then climb into his bed, pulling the blankets up to your chin.  

Steve doesn’t take too long and come in with a bowl of hot popcorn.  The smell fills the room and makes your mouth water.  

“Sorry about that.  Sam’s helping me find Bucky.”  Steve says.  He hands you the popcorn and takes off his shoes.

“Take off your pants.”  You say.

He looks at you and raises an eyebrow.  “We aren’t done with the date yet.”  He says.

“No pants is comfortable not necessarily sexy.”  You say.

“Did you take your pants off?”

You lift the blanket up and show him your panties.  He smirks and starts taking off his trousers.  

“If you’ve got a lead on your friend and you want to follow it, you don’t have to stay here with me.”  You say as he climbs into the bed.  

Steve’s face fell.  “No, nothing.  Sam was just back from following a lead.  It was cold.”

“If your friend doesn’t want to be found, maybe you should let him not be found.”  You say.

Steve shakes his head.  “He’s not himself.  He needs help.”

“Have you heard of him being violent or committing crimes or whatever?”  You ask.

“No, he’s been silent.”

“Maybe he’s okay, and just dealing with what’s wrong with him.  Maybe he just needs time.  Trust me, as a girl who hasn’t wanted to be found for quite a while, sometimes you gotta just let people stay lost.”  

The look that passes over Steve’s features is pure pain.  His brow knits, and he closes his eyes, rubbing his nose with his thumb and index finger.  “Maybe I’m being selfish again.  Maybe you’re right.  But I need him.”  

“What happened last time you were selfish because you needed him?”  You say, knowing this is going to hurt but also knowing he has to hear it.

He takes a large shuddering breath.  “I know.”

He turns the movie on and you snuggle down into the crook of his arm.  Halfway through the film, you start running your hand up and down the inside of his leg.  He kisses you on the top of the head.  

“I forgot how much smoking there is in this movie.”  You say.

Steve laughs.  “It is startling compared to a lot of the more modern movies.”

“Did you smoke?”  You ask.

“No.  Asthma.  I mean they had asthma cigarettes back then.  But regular ones, no.  I was a really, really sick kid. I know it’s hard to picture.  I was much, much smaller than I was pre-serum.”  Steve explains.  “I tried it once and it nearly sent me to hospital.  Bucky was freaking out.  You know when you think ‘if I don’t tell an adult about this, someone’s going to die but if I do tell an adult about this I’m going to die’.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve been there.”  You say.

“What about you?”  He asks.

“Smoke?  Not cigarettes.”  You say.

“Yeah, I never did that either, and now there’s no point.  Doesn’t affect me.”

As you talk your hand skims closer and closer to his cock. Your knuckles graze over it and you realize he’s hard.  Not just semi-hard, but rock hard.  

“Whatcha thinking about there, Steve?”  You ask, dancing your fingers over his length.

He looks at you obviously embarrassed.

“Don’t be embarrassed about this.”  You say.  You press your hand against his cock, outlining it against his boxers.  You run your hand upwards over his shaft.  “I’m thinking about how when we first had sex, you let me guide your cock into me.  You were so thoughtful and caring.  You knew I was intimidated, but you didn’t make a big deal about it.  You just let me take control.  It felt amazing.  No one has ever made me feel like that before.  Or since.”

Steve shudders as you talk.  When you stop you start kissing his throat, waiting for him to find his voice.  “I was thinking about your mouth.  How much I’d like it if you were to do that again.”

“I can do that again.”  You say.  “You want me to do it now?  While you watch the movie?”  Your hand is still stroking up and down his length.

His breath hitches and he pulls you into a kiss.  It’s frantic like he’s lost control and he’s trying to find it again in the kiss.  He pulls abruptly and you gasp.  Taking in a sudden lungful of air.  You weren’t even aware of how completely out of breath you were.

“Yes.  Please.  While we watch the movie.”  He says.

You scoot down so you're crouched between his legs.  The blanket is covering most of you, just your head is uncovered.  “Steve,”  You say, pulling his cock free.  “I know you do the one night stand things as a way to balance out the way you feel about moving on.  So I know I’m not your first.  Whoever you’ve been with before me, I’d like to go personally thank, because those women have helped you become a pretty fucking fantastic lover.  I also know that there probably isn’t many of them and that maybe you still don’t … I don’t know the word to use - own - your sexuality.  Do you know what I mean?”

Steve takes a deep breath in and nods his head as he releases it.  “That I’m still 1940′s sensibilities, scrawny wimp shy about it.”  He says.

You laugh and run your tongue up his considerable length.  “I have however been with a lot of men.  You are aware of that right?”

He nods.  “I assumed so. It doesn’t bother me.”

You swirl your tongue over the head of his cock.  “I’ve tried a lot of things.  Most of the things I’ve tried I’ve enjoyed to some level or another.  Depending on my partner.  Some people don’t even make kissing fun, to be honest.  That’s not you though.  So if you want to try something.  If you have thoughts that you think can’t possibly be okay to have.  Don’t be shy to bring them up.  Maybe I’ll say no, more likely I’ll say yes.  They won’t make me scared of you.  Sex doesn’t scare me.  Love scares me.”

You take the head of his cock into your mouth and suck on it, moving your tongue over the top. You start moving your head down, opening wide to fit him, straightening your throat so as to avoid gagging too soon.  When he’s as far as you think you can comfortably take him you pull back.  You use your tongue to massage under his shaft and you stroke the base of his cock with your hands.  You start to bob your head up and down, sucking and licking as you do.  Occasionally you’ll pull off completely each time sucking hard on the head.  You then flatten your tongue and run it from the base to the tip.  Or you plant open mouth kisses up his length.

You drop your head lower on occasion, lapping up from his perineum to his balls while you stroke his cock with your hands.  He responds strongly to this so you start to tease his asshole with your fingers.  Circling them around it and pushing down without actually entering him.  He groans and his hips buck.  

You move your mouth back to his cock, but you keep your fingers on his ass.  His breath is coming in shallow and he is making soft mewling sounds.  You move faster taking his cock as deep as you can.  To the point that you gag a little before pulling back.  You push your finger on his asshole, there is resistance and he groans loudly as your finger slowly eases inside of him.

You start moving your finger in and out, tickling his prostate as you work your mouth on his dick.  

“Oh god.” He pants then groans loudly.  “I’m gonna… I’m gonna…”

He comes with a grunt.  Spilling into your mouth.  You drink him down.  Lapping your tongue over his cock, making sure you get every last drop.

You pull away from him.  His eyes are glazed over a little and he looks dazed.  You kiss him on the brow and jump out of bed dashing to the bathroom.  You wash your hands and have a drink of water before returning to Steve.  He pulls back the comforter and opens his arms wide.  You climb back into bed with him, snuggling against his chest.

He leans down and kisses you.  It was clear he was going for a quick peck, but you alter it.  Make it deeper.  You push your tongue into his mouth and he yields to you.  The next half an hour or so is spent making out and dry humping like a couple of teenagers.  All thoughts of Zuul and the stay puft marshmallow man pushed completely aside.

// NEXT

[betareaderwanted]

Evieleafy

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100, The lord of the rings/The hobbit, Star wars, Good Omens, Harry Potter, The legend of Zelda, The witcher, All for the game, The raven boys, Anything Marvel/DC, lots of other fandoms, just ask

Rating: Any

No: A/B/O dynamics, rape/non-con, incest

Additional info: Native English speaker, will beta in French and Irish, will beta original works. “Will beta for basically any fandom as long as i'm familiar with the premise. I'm fine with beta'ing for original works , especially any lgbtq+ works.”

How to contact: @evie-leafy or email evieleafy@gmail.com

@awildbloggerhasappeared

Fandom: Thomas Sanders/Sanders Sides, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Marvel, Doctor Who

Rating: Any

No: child abuse, rape/non-con

Additional info: Native English speaker, will beta original works

How to contact: Therealfairfolk@gmail.com

@eruditeslytherin

Fandom: Harry Potter

Rating: Any

No: A/B/O dynamics, incest, child/adult relationships

Additional info: Native English speaker. “I have not watched the Fantastic Beasts movies so I can't help with the plot but I can help with spelling, grammar and punctuation.”

How to contact: @eruditeslytherin

@cosmonnuri

Fandom: K-pop groups: BTS, TWICE, Loona, Red Velvet, Day6, or cross-overs that include any of these.

Rating: Any

No: A/B/O dynamics, child abuse, incest

Additional info: not Native English speaker, will beta in Lithuanian, will beta original works. “ Willing to give advice on characterisation, storyline, world-building, overall flow of the story. (as i'm not a native english speaker i cannot guarantee perfect grammar corrections)”

How to contact: tumblr: cosmonnuri.tumblr.com, email: cosmonnuri@gmail.com

Frnk

Fandom: Harry potter, Miraculous Ladybug, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Brooklyn 99, Marvel, How to Train Your Dragon, Sex Education, Gravity Falls

Rating: Any

No: A/B/O dynamics, rape/non-con, incest

Additional info: Native English speaker, will beta original works. “I prefer stories that have a plot. I don't really want to beta something that is ONLY smut.”

How to contact: @frnks-stuff

@generalsleepy

Fandom: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (show), Hogan's Heroes, The Rat Patrol, Saw, The Phantom of the Opera (most versions), Dracula, Starsky & Hutch, Saw, Dead by Daylight, Mystery Science Theater 3000, willing to beta for other fandoms

Rating: Any

No: will be selective about RPF

Additional info: Native English speaker

How to contact:  general-sleepy.tumblr.com

Star

Fandom: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson (Original Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus), The Dragon Prince, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Hetalia, Good Omens, BBC's Merlin

Rating: Any

No: incest, gore, child abuse, rape/non-con, horror

Additional info: Native English speaker, will beta original works. “I can do SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar), plot, (if working on a fic for a certain fandom) I could help with canon consistency, depending on the fandom.”

How to contact:  atrickoflights@gmail.com

Caitlin (himynameis-groot)

Fandom: Marvel, Harry Potter, Musicals (Dear Evan Hansen, Beetlejuice, Heathers, Waitress, etc.) Sherlock, Dan and Phil, Umbrella Academy (& more just ask)

Rating: up to T

No: A/B/O dynamics, incest

Additional info: Native English speaker. Hasn’t been a beta before.

How to contact: @himynameis-groot

Esgalnen

Fandom: Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, Wild Wild West, The Persuaders, Scarecrow & Mrs King

Rating: Any

No: incest, child abuse

Additional info: Native English speaker, will beta original works. “ I offer my services as a beta reader to give back a little.  I think I’d be your perfect beta if you’re looking for that second pair of eyes. Your piece if finished, it’s as good as you can get it, but you just want someone to read it and make sure it’s as perfect as it can be. On the flipside of that, if you’re stuck somewhere or not happy with something and can’t figure out what or why, I can help with that, too.”

How to contact:  karahughes21@aol.com

[duhragonball]

Describing Stuff

I’ve had this rattling around in my brain for a while, and I’ve got the day off and I’m trying to get used to this ergonomic keyboard I bought, so I figure I’ll write about this for a while.

Recently, I’ve been seeing more examples of really terrible writing where a male author describes a female character, and they seem to go out of their way to make it awkward and creepy and weird.   I don’t really feel like quoting any excerpts here, but you can find all sorts of examples on Twitter @men_write_women .

I feel like the common thread with all the ones I’ve seen is this compulsion to describe a woman in exhausting detail.  It always seems to boil down to how sexy the woman is, and why exactly she’s sexy, or what flaws she has that disqualify her from being sexy.   It’s sexist, because the emphasis is on the character as a sex fantasy for the author, and presumably the reader.   If the character has any other purpose in the story, it’s going to be undermined by a 500-word treatise on what her boobs look like.  It also insults and dismisses a sizable portion of the audience that, you know, may not be that into boobs.  

Writing is about setting priorities.  People talk about unlimited creative freedom and building entire universes at the point of their humble quills, and that’s horseshit.   Writing is all about deciding which parts of your daydream to keep and which to leave out.  You can’t capture every tiny detail of a character, or and object, or a scene.   Even if you could, it would take too long to document it all, and the reality is that the reader’s not going to parse that much information anyway.   So you have to decide which parts are important and which ones aren’t.    And if you blow 1,000 words trying to explain why breasts are cool, you’re sending a message to the reader about what your priorities are.    The message is: “I’m horny right now, and my libido is more important to me than this character or your enjoyment of the story.”   I don’t think that’s the message authors want to send.  

There’s also probably some ego bound up in this.   Every excerpt I see on @men_write_women seems to be completely unaware of any of the others.  It’s like each writer has deluded himself into thinking he’s the first person to try to describe sexy ladies in print.  That, or they think it’s been done before, but never quite right.  I sense such an enthusiasm whenever I read these things, like the author is going to pull out all the stops and come up with this literary salute to badonkadonk.  And it always ends up looking absurd, because they overthink it.    How can they not overthink it?   They're trying to come up with an extra-special description of something people see all the time.   I’m pretty sure that’s how the word “badonkadonk” was invented, because no existing words were sufficient.   

I’m going to talk about professional wrestling here in a minute, but first, let’s class the joint up by looking at the poem “Trees” by Alfred Joyce Kilmer.

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

It’s that last line that made me think of the poem just now, because Kilmer recognized that he could never hope to recreate the beauty of a tree in mere words.  At best, he could only string together a few lines to remind people of how nice trees look, which is an achievement in itself, but it’s never going to be as good as the real thing.   If poems about trees can be beautiful, then how much more beautiful a poem is the tree itself?

But look at all the stuff he leaves out.   He doesn’t mention the trunk at all, or the rough texture of the bark, or the way the leaves turn color in the fall.   That’s because Kilmer wasn’t writing a monograph about the appearance of a tree for space aliens who’ve never seen one.     He was making the assumption that his readers were already familiar with trees and referencing imagery they might have seen before.

I think the same trick can be applied to women (or any humans for that matter), since readers can be trusted to know what they look like.    I also think it’s safe to assume that the inherent beauty of humans is comparable to that of trees, so a quick, simple description can be plenty.  

That’s kind of my approach to this sort of thing.   I’ve always struggled with describing things in stories, mainly because I would see these lengthy, detailed descriptions in books, and I thought I was supposed to imitate that and couldn’t really pull it off.  But eventually I realized that I didn’t need to, and maybe I’m better off if I don’t even try.   One of the stories that clinched this for me was “Gold” by Isaac Asimov.   The main character is contracted to make a movie adaptation out of a book, which happens to resemble another Asimov story, The Gods Themselves.   The problem is that the aliens in the book are sparingly described, so the guy has no idea where to begin.   Through the author character, Asimov defends his own writing style, opting to keep things fairly abstract, and relying on the reader to fill in the gaps. 

I could relate to this, because when I read Les Miserables in high school,  I couldn’t get past Jean Valjean’s name, because it reminded me of Jean Paul-Valley, the DC Comics character who filled in as Batman while Bruce Wayne was injured in 1993-1994.   Try as I might, I could not shake the image of Valjean trudging through the novel in an armored Batman costume.    So eventually I stopped trying, and ran with it.   I have no idea what Valjean was supposed to have looked like.   Victor Hugo might have described him, but I only ever imagined a young man with long blond hair and glasses.    Wearing an armored Batman costume.  

I’m not sure exactly when I put it all together, but eventually I realized that it’s all theater of the mind, and ultimately the reader is going to imagine whatever the reader wants, regardless of what you put on the page.  If you say this guy wore blue and the reader likes red better, they’ll just start imagining it’s red.   They may know factually that it’s blue, but you can’t stop them from making that switch.    Now, knowing that, doesn’t it seem a bit futile to describe exactly what shade of blue it is?    You can pontificate about the profundity of the color blue, and how the guy’s shirt was the color of the ocean on a blustery afternoon off the shore of Maine, but your reader is like “Nah, mate, I like red better”, then you’re probably wasting words.

I’m not saying it’s pointless to specify details.  If a reader was completely unwilling to cooperate with your story, then they’re probably not reading it in the first place.   But I think writers need to make peace with the fact that readers are looking for cues and stage directions for their imaginations, not immutable details.   That’s why it’s so important to prioritize.   Take the most important details and get them out there up front, when the reader is most receptive to them.   Boob size is not important.    If boob size is one of the top three details for your character, then you either haven’t finished creating the character, or you probably don’t actually have any use for the character.

Just to demonstrate what I mean, I’m going to try to write a description of AEW referee Aubrey Edwards, as if she were a fictional character in a story.   I wasn’t sure what to use for an example, but I watched All Out Saturday and she officiated the main event, so I decided to go with her.     That’s her on the left, but I probably didn’t need to tell you that, since I think we all know how to spot a referee.

Now, first and foremost, if I were writing a story about a wrestling match, I probably wouldn’t bother mentioning the referee much at all.   Their whole role in these events is to be as inconspicuous as possible.   They just enforce the rules; it’s the wrestlers who are supposed to be the main attraction.   I’d probably just keep it simple.  

“The referee was a woman, but Dirk Hardcastle paid little mind to her.   His main concern lay in the competitors, and which of them, if either was his archnemesis, Tad Plowshare, in disguise.”    

Or I might not even go that far, and just use “she/her” pronouns whenever the referee is mentioned.  I want the reader to think about where Tad Plowshare is, not the referee.

Of course, if the big twist is that the ref is important, then I have to go into a little more detail, because now she’s in the spotlight. 

“It couldn’t be.   Dirk knew it had to be true from the way she looked directly at him and smiled deviously.   He would recognize that sinister grin on a thousand different faces.    But he had already ruled out the officials and production staff as suspects.   He had been so certain of this that he had ignored the referee completely, but she was definitely the one.   And now that it was too late, Tad Plowshare dropped the act entirely.  She pulled off the tie that held her brunette ponytail in place, and removed the black nitrile gloves from her hands.    Only moments ago, her expressions and movements had been those of a consummate professional, focused entirely upon adjudicating the match.   Her bright red lipstick had been the only sign that she had any sort of personal life outside of her work.    Now, as she laughed in triumph, the red on her lips only reminded Hardcastle of the blood of thousands of innocents, which would soon be spilled as a consequence of his failure.”

Maybe I’m laying this on too thick, but the core things I’m trying to convey about Edwards are her no-nonsense attitude, the way she wears her hair in a ponytail, and the red lipstick she wears, which seems to contradict her serious demeanor.   I wouldn’t even bother describing her referee uniform, because everyone has a general idea of what those look like.      The other night, I found it kind of odd how the stripes on AEW’s refs look wider than what I’m used to seeing, but a lot of wrestling refs don’t even wear stripes at all, so it really doesn’t matter a lot.   I’d probably only bring it up if there was a need to mention variations in uniform.    Like if she was officiating water polo instead.

What I don’t need to spend a lot of time on is her figure.  I don’t see much point in talking about how fat or thin she is unless I plan to have her crawl through a ventilation shaft, and then I could just confine it to “She fit”.   And that doesn’t tell you anything because you don’t know how big the ductwork is.  

Physical attractiveness is something I try to shy away from, because I figure that’s a subjective thing, and I don’t see much point in trying to cram my own standards down anyone’s throat.   I don’t think it does much good to just declare that such-and-such character is attractive; it’s better to have another character do it instead, and that way it says something about both characters. This one finds the other one to be hot.   If I want examples of what they find so hot in the other character, I’ll try to keep it vague.    “Well, Dirk Hardcastle has a cute chin.   What’s cute about it?  Who knows?   Who cares?   The character who’s admiring his chin, that’s who.   But why should it need to be explained in greater depth than that.  

The handy thing about this approach is that it leaves large swaths of Dirk’s body open to interpretation.    He could look like a troll doll and still have a “cute chin”.  He could have chest hair or not, be chubby or skinny, and so forth.   So if you want to join in the notion that he’s attractive, you can rule in your own type, whatever that is.    

I don’t know if that’s making any sense, but that’s how I try to approach it.   When I read these long things about knife-like boobs or gentle slopes of buttcracks or whatever, it annoys me because it feels like whoever wrote that was losing a game they never should have bothered trying to play.   All they needed to do was have the character who’s looking at this woman be like “Wow, this is the hottest lady I’ve ever seen” or something like that, describe whatever sexy dress she’s got on (briefly), and you’re done.     And only do that when you need to.   Dirk Hardcastle doesn’t have time to size up all the ladies, not while that bastard Tad Plowshare’s running loose.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

numbers divisible by 2 or 3 but not both

sick you Know it was a continual challenge to remember what tf this entails!

2. Favorite thing to wear to sleep?

oh keepin it comfy. like, naked sleeping is fine. shorts n shirts that are light…..socks i GUESS if it’s cold, i hate winter

3. What song really gets you going?

i have no go-to Anythings. i was just listening to vimh and oh boy that frenetic outro…..it Has the energy

4. Where do you usually eat your meals?

im feral. bed. 

8. Soft or hard tacos?

Hard

9. Worst way to break up a fight?

you start physically attacking both parties

10. Best thing to say in an elevator of strangers?

nothing!!! elevators are for collective tense silence

14. Socks or bare feet around the house?

in an ideal world i can be barefooted as much as possible…

15. Favorite board game?

aggravation…..so little strategy, it’s beautiful

16. Do you sleep with the fan on or off?

off unless it’s Real hot…i do appreciate some white noise though

20. Last thing you cried about?

well i got teared up about stagedorks again, and will roland

21. At what age did you first have alcohol?

idk it was prior to 21 though that i first consumed spirits

22. Relationship status?

solo production i call it!!

26. Gum or breath mints?

gum

27. Favorite shoes?

i like sandals where you’re pretty strapped in there

28. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

this l’anxiety is a pain

32. Most embarrassing thing your parents have caught you doing?

idk, singing? enjoying things?? at any given time i was just probably reading or something, very uninteresting. for example i could never be grounded b/c i was just always at home probably reading.

33. Last time you had an orgasm?

i’ve never come (lmao) close….primary anorgasmia club, aka god’s prank!!

34. Celebrity crush(es)?

anytime i like a celebrity well enough it’s like well let’s file this one away as a celeb crush, that’s the usual order of things…. shoutout to all the times i get misty-eyed abt william roland like oh god…..beautiful content…

38. What color do you wear the most?

uh i guess white but that’s just like, coincidence. usually i go for blue! yet probably look best in green! lol

39. Favorite season?

summer! b/c i hate winter

40. Umbrella or rain coat?

umbrella

44. Are you a competitive person?

i kinda can be, but i basically never want to be so i just choose to not be competitive lmfao

45. Least favorite color?

uhh i guess if it’s like rainbow rules, either red or yellow. just kinda can be a bit much yknow

46. First pet you’ve ever owned?

well as soon as i was born i think there was already two cats around. oh also a border collie

50. Talk about something you’re passionate about.

i’m the hater….i’m just thinking of things i can go on off the cuff Hater Rants for like 23 min about. everything i’m passionate about i’ve already been not shutting up about so like

51. What are some of your hobbies?

thinking about drawing. i’m doing that right now

52. Caffeine? If so, what kind?

i’ve never had caffeine Work for me

56. Something that ruins your appetite?

ooh it’s hard. i’m pretty much good re: anything. something put me off for a moment a few weeks ago and that’s so remarkable i took mental note of it and forgot it.

57. Favorite labels about you?

wow labels…..all the gay ones are pretty great. and the trans ones

58. Are you a religious person?

no

62. Have you ever told someone you loved them first?

probably?? but i don’t really know

63. Have you ever had sex on the first date?

i’ve never had the first date, so no

64. Heroes or villains?

uhh heroes…they tend to be better…..

68. Least favorite vegetable?

i like corn on the cob but not like, creamed corn or just when it’s not on the cob as much. once i had like, steamed lettuce or spinach or something leafy and later on my mom said this never happened and i was like oh it happened. i remember. b/c the texture is a nightmare

69. How many plates can you eat at a buffet?

oh probs a solid three at any given time. or more

70. Favorite dessert?

ice cream

74. What’s one interesting thing about your culture?

it’s really a stretch to think i have any culture that’s actually a culture uh……how about regional linguistics in that i’m from the east coast / near dc but my parents lived in the midwest for ages so there’s just fun lil things like when you take a store/restaurant name and add __’s to the end and other stuff where i don’t realize it’s apparently a midwestern thing even though i’m not from the midwest

75. What’s one annoying thing about your culture?

christmas

76. What job would you be terrible at?

anything involving surgery. i Don’t have steady hands. all these people around? you have to talk to them?? also, you have to pay attention??? no thanks. also, i don’t know how to do it

80. Has your opinion changed on something recently?

not that i can think of

81. Do you always order the same thing at a restaurant or order something different each time?

if it’s a place i frequent enough yeah i like to find the thing i Like and then just order it always

82. What’s something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

don’t get me started! lol!

86. What’s one amazing thing you did that nobody was around to see?

well the first time i parallel parked i had never even like, practiced it before, just read The Theory, and i was alone in a minivan on an incline but i did it anyways

87. If you could change your height, would you?

nah

88. What’s something you would rate 10/10?

the way winston says “Q is for ‘quantitative,’ baby” as well as the fact that he says it

92. What’s something you would get arrested for?

not gonna tell on myself like that……

93. What’s your spirit animal?

i couldn’t have one

94. What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you?

probably like never dying in a car crash. oh also eventually having legal ownership of a car

98. Thoughts on the oxford comma?

it only ever clarifies things so i’m pro-

99. What do you hope never changes?

the world having not ended…our existence ykno

[ramajmedia]

DC Makes [SPOILER] The Most Important Woman in History

Warning: SPOILERS for Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1

Remember this day comic book fans, since the DC Universe will never be the same now that Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium has officially begun. But forget the title heroes... it's the unlikely woman at the center of the story who is changing history, finally pulling DC's distant future worlds into one continuous timeline. Promising a brighter tomorrow--for even the grimmest visions of Earth's destiny.

Officially, the two-part Millennium story is setting the stage for Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook's reboot of the Legion in a new ongoing series. But they aren't starting that relaunch by simply leaping forward to the 31st century. Instead, they're following a single immortal woman as she literally walks through the 1,000 years in between. Through the future of Batman Beyond. The science fiction adventures of DC's Planeteers. Even the post-apocalypse of Kamandi, the last boy on Earth.

RELATED: Batwoman Beyond is Taking Over For Batman in DC's Future

Millennium #2 may end with the woman meeting the Legion of Super-Heroes face to face, but the first issue has already changed the history of the DC Universe forever. And made the most unlikely hero--or some might say villain--arguably the most pivotal figure in the big picture of DC Comics mythology. Now, who's ready to meet her?

The fact that the identity of the leading lady is an unknown might seem strange in hindsight. After all, there are only so many immortals living in the DC Universe. But that's where Bendis brought in his twist, with the official synopsis for Millennium revealing the woman in question never actually had the chance to realize she was never aging. In case readers missed it, take a look at the plot summary before diving into the rest of the Millennium reveal:

The series focuses on a most unlikely tour guide to the 31st century, a familiar face to DC fans who finds herself suddenly immortal. As she learns to cope with her newfound immortality and the reason she was chosen for this quest, her 1,000-year odyssey will connect all of DC’s future timelines for the very first time. Along the way she encounters a host of DC heroes from the future, as drawn by some of comics’ most popular artists.

The early artwork revealed only that the woman was a redhead, with a possible preference for the color green--but the differences in art styles made identifying her impossible. As the immortal redhead killed criminals in Neo-Gotham, took in a superhero museum guarded by Booster Gold (before he traveled back in time), and crossed paths with Kamandi in the wasteland, she gave up nothing but brooding. Until now. DC's preview showed the mystery woman meeting with an older, President Supergirl in the near future... but the first image of who this villain used to be finally confirms her true, unlikely identity.

The above image from the first issue finally ends the mystery, showing the drifting immortal back in her glory days, doing battle with Superman in an unmistakable green bodysuit--decorated with a signature leafy green, and thorned belt. Fans of the classic split-personality villain(s) Rose & Thorn need no further evidence, but Bendis returning the somewhat obscure villain/victim to his modern Superman comics leaves no doubt. And for those who may remember that immortality or advanced healing was never part of Rose or Thor's story, Bendis explains the decision in the official in-comic interview released ahead of Millennium:

We definitely wanted to do some kind of special event that leads up to (Legion of Super-Heroes #1). Then I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a character that could literally take us from today, and walk us up to the Legion's front door a thousand years from now? We started doing research and looking for characters that were already immortal, or had some kind of slow aging process. Then we thought, maybe there was someone who didn't know this was part of their powers? Who would that be? Should it be a hero? Or a villain? Is there a character that's kind of both? Who would walk us through?

That's when we focused on [REDACTED], who is a character I really, really like, who had been through a lot of mysterious, weird stuff in the DC Universe. We're going to have her walk us through every single future in the DC Universe, and connect them all together. It tells us the story of all the DC futures, and it also tells us how the icons survived, and what they changed into, and why they're so important to the Legion, and how the Legion will now reflect that back to us.

The woman seems to have been revealed, but the story still has plenty of secrets to offer up. Not least of which is the role that Superman's son will play in the Legion now that they've come to recruit him. It's a glorious day for fans of Rose and Thorn, but if readers are unfamiliar with the new immortal observer of the DC timeline, they can head to their latest comic book shop to get in on this massive shift. Check out the full solicitation details and plot synopsis below:

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: MILLENNIUM #1 (2019)

Release date: September 4th, 2019

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Art by: Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Andrea Sorrentino, Andre Araujo, Others

Cover by: Ryan Sook

Brought to you by some of comics' greatest talents, this epic story spans the course of 1,000 years and, for the very first time, connects all of DC's future timelines! Starring the unlikeliest of DC heroes as she learns to cope with newfound immortality and roams through the disparate societies of Batman Beyond, Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow, wrestling with her own inner demons and desperately trying to find her purpose in an ever-changing world. Do not miss this truly unique take on tomorrow's DC Universe, all leading up to a special launch on the millennium!

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 begins the mystery when it hits comic book stores and participating digital retailers on September 4th, 2019. Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2 completes the event October 2nd, and the full series launching with Legion of Super-Heroes #1 coming on November 6th.

MORE: Young Justice Teases The Legion of Super-Heroes For Season 4

source https://screenrant.com/dc-legion-superheroes-spoilers-rose-thorn-millennium/

[allaboutfoodgwu]

The Whey to Become a Hero

As fate would have it, I returned to Whole Foods on a protein-oriented mission once more. Quick refresher, the Whole Foods I visited is the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods on the campus of George Washington University, known for its many registers and lack of cashiers.

At around 8:00pm on a Tuesday night, honestly, the place is poppin’. People move around quickly, maybe trying to grab stuff for dinner or breakfast tomorrow morning. The produce department is so picked over, there are entire shelves exposed with only the rejects-- the veggies and fruits most wilted and small-- are left behind. 

Actually, good thing it was! The sparse banana, um... wall?... attracted my eye to a large protein display! Which led to another great discovery of another protein display which led to ANOTHER discovery of a wall of hanging bagged protein powders, specifically labeled “smoothie mix”. The prices were no different from the ones on the wall; however, it is clear they are trying to upsell the protein mixes as smoothie additives since they are by teh fruits and leafy greens.

Once more in the back of the store, by the supplements, vitamins and beauty section, the protein powder still occupies an entire wall. It appears they have gotten in a few new products in. There are large bags of protein, instead of just tubs. There is a clearer distinction between the powders mroe oriented for nutrition, than those which appear to be marketed more towards people seeking a sports nutrition. 

The sports/workout-oriented powders closer mimic labels to the more conventional protein powders with black tubs and less natural blues and greens. The natural and plant-based protein powders all have plants, leaves and other ‘natural’ motifs (which I see on labels of most natural brands). 

One new addition I did find particularly interesting was the protein powder marketed for “kidz”. Unlike the others, it had fun little cartoons of people with sunglasses. The flavor was”extreme chocolate,” wit instructions on the front saying “One scoop. Superhero.” I dunno what all the other labels are doing wrong, but this one really sold me... Until I turned it over and saw that sugar was the second ingredient. If you have a picky eater, I can understand reaching for a protein supplement that also boasts probiotics and greens, though. 

In comparison (kidz nutrition label compared to adults in upper photo), a peanut-butter flavored protein powder for adults was sweetened with stevia. This makes me wonder if there’s a nutritional difference that we should be concerned about? But also, maybe drinking protein which has been abstracted should also raise some concerns? 

Standing by the powders, I did see one younger woman buy a bag of chocolate protein powder smoothie mix from the wall. An older, maybe middle-aged man was standing in front of the powder for a long time but he eventually left, no protein in hand. I did not not witness anyone purchase protein powder from the produce area.

Alright friends, this is where I leave you. DO with the knowledge of protein powders in DC, what you will. I have trust and faith in the growing community surrounding grams and gains. It is up to you to do the heavy lifting from here, on your own. 

[dreddymd]

8 Foods That Boost Your Immune System

If you’re looking for an immune system boost, the right vitamins and minerals can help. Although diet gets little attention in conventional media when it comes to supporting the immune system, it is one of the most powerful methods for keeping colds and other illnesses at bay. Nutrition isn’t the only means of immune system support but it is one of the oldest and most reliable natural approaches.

The 8 Best Foods for Your Immune System

The majority of your immune cells reside in your intestines, so doesn’t it make sense to consume healthy foods for keeping your immune system top notch? Here are 8 foods you can eat right now to boost your immune system.

1. Bell Peppers

Reach for all the bell peppers you want because they can actually have twice as much vitamin C as citrus fruits. In addition, bell peppers are a great source of beta-carotene, which not only helps maintain healthy skin and eyes but studies suggest they could also provide an immune system boost. [1] [2]

2. Citrus

Citrus fruits are packed with vitamin C. Believed to increase the production of white blood cells, C is essential for fighting off infections. Since your body doesn’t produce or store this vitamin, load up on citrus to help keep your immune system up and running. Supplementation with the vitamin may be helpful, but it’s always best to receive the vitamin from its natural source.

3. Ginger

Ginger is thought to work much like vitamin C in that it can even stop a cold before it starts. That said, it’s also a great food to reach for after you’re sick. Ginger can have a little heat due to the gingerol, a cousin of sorts to capsaicin—the stuff that makes chili peppers hot. It’s the “kick” of the gingerol that can even act as a strong soothing agent. [3]

4. Turmeric

You can find this spice in many curries; it’s bright yellow in color, and a little bitter in taste, but it can definitely be pretty amazing for your health. While it’s already been used for its soothing capabilities for arthritis (among other things), a recent study suggests high concentrations of curcumin—what gives turmeric its color—could also reduce fever. [4] [5]

5. Spinach

With vitamin C, beta-carotene, and plenty of antioxidants, spinach is a perfect vegetable for your immune system. If you want to get the most out of it though, cook it as little as possible, or even keep it raw. But don’t stop at spinach; a study suggests that other leafy green vegetables are good choices as well. [6]

6. Broccoli

Like spinach, broccoli is another great vegetable choice packed with antioxidants and vitamins. With vitamins A, C, and E, broccoli could easily be one of the healthiest vegetables you can put on your table. Just like with spinach, cook it as little as possible to retain its nutrients.

7. Yogurt

If you like yogurt, make sure you’re getting the full health benefit by eating the kind with live cultures. Recent research suggests these cultures may strengthen your immune system. [7] Yogurt can also be a great source of vitamin D, which can also help boost the immune system. [8]

8. Almonds

When your immune system needs a boost, vitamin E sometimes loses the spotlight to vitamin C, but both are crucial for a healthy immune system. Vitamin E is fat-soluble, which means fat is needed in order for it to be absorbed properly. You can get almost all of your daily allowance of this vitamin by reaching for a half-cup of almonds. How easy is that?

What food would you reach for if your immune system needed a boost? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

by Dr. Edward Group DC, NP, DACBN, DCBCN, DABFM

Source: 8 Foods That Boost Your Immune System

References (8)

Hughes, D. A. Effects of carotenoids on human immune function. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 58 (3).

Chew, B. P. & Park, J. S. Carotenoid Action on the Immune Response. The Journal of Nutrition. 134 (1).

Grzanna, R. et al. Ginger—An Herbal Medicinal Product with Broad Anti-Inflammatory Actions. Journal of Medicinal Food. 8 (2).

Jagetia G. C, & Aggarwal B. B. “Spicing up” of the immune system by curcumin. Journal of Clinical Immunology. 27 (1).

Sultana, G. N. et al. Analgesic principle from Curcuma amada. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 163.

Li, Y. et al. Exogenous Stimuli Maintain Intraepithelial Lymphocytes via Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Activation. Cell. 147 (3).

Meydani, S. N. & Ha W. Immunologic effects of yogurt. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 71 (4).

Aranow, C. Vitamin D and the Immune System. Vitamin D and the Immune System.

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[mapled-penitentiary]

[kansascityhappenings]

Bob Ross’ paintings finally being recognized in an exhibition

“Happy little clouds,” “happy little trees,” “happy little leaves.” The late American painter and beloved TV host Bob Ross had a unique and blissful way of teaching art.

Ross’ how-to painting show, “The Joy of Painting,” was first broadcast on public television in 1983 and ended in 1994. Over the course of the show’s 403 episodes, Ross completed over 1,000 painting, all of them landscapes.

Now, more than two decades after his death in 1995, his work is finally being exhibited — outside his own gallery — in a solo show.

“Happy Accidents: An Exhibit of Original Bob Ross Paintings” features 24 works from the long-running series, at the Franklin Park Arts Center in Purcellville, Virginia, about 50 miles from Washington, DC.

The exhibit is small and free of charge — probably like he would have wanted it — and its title is a homage to Bob Ross’ most famous catchphrase and painting mantra: “We don’t make mistakes here, we have happy accidents.”

An internet celebrity

Ross’ popularity has soared in recent years, as reruns from “The Joy of Painting” continue to air in syndication in the United States.

In 2015, live streaming platform Twitch hosted a nine-day marathon of the show, renewing his fame among younger viewers. All episodes are also available on YouTube, where the most-watched one, from 1993, has garnered 21 million views.

There’s no big secret to this enduring popularity: It’s just hard to stop watching a Bob Ross show. Try it. His soothing voice and enchanting delivery seems to transcend the act of painting. Bob Ross, Inc. estimates that just about 3% of TV viewers were actually painting along.

“I talk to only one person when I’m filming, and I’m really crazy about that person. It’s a one-on-one situation — and I think people realize that, and they feel that they know me and I feel that I know them,” Bob Ross is quoted as saying in a 2011 PBS documentary about his life.

The leafy landscapes he painted, often dominated by trees and mountains suggestive of Alaska, where he spent years as an Air Force sergeant, might feel repetitive, but seeing them come to life from just a few broad smudges of color makes for an irresistible journey. The traditional technique Ross used, known as “wet on wet,” allowed him to paint quickly under the principle of thinner paint sticking to thicker paint, so that he could finish an entire artwork in each episode.

“Let your imagination take you to worlds that only exist in your mind. No bad stuff here. That’s why we have happy little trees. Everything’s happy here,” he said in a episode.

His signature outfit — a button-down or chambray shirt neatly tucked into blue jeans — was perhaps at odds with his slightly unkempt beard and gigantic perm. Yet the perm — a cost saving measure to avoid haircuts — cemented his persona to the point that even once he grew to despise it, he could no longer get rid of it. It had become the logo of his own company.

Three identical paintings

Ross made three nearly identical paintings for each episode: One before taping the show, as a reference, one during the half-hour show, in real time, and one after the show, which he spent up to two hours on, to be photographed for the instructional books that he put out with each season of the show. He recorded four seasons a year, and was taping season 32 when he could no longer continue due to illness. He died in 1995 from lymphoma, aged 52.

Almost all of the paintings he produced are still owned by Bob Ross Inc, the company he founded with his business partner, Annette Kowalski. She’s the one who “discovered” Bob Ross, while attending one of his painting classes in Clearwater, Florida, in 1981. Today, the company is run by Annette’s daughter, Joan, and still sells painting supplies, books and other Bob Ross-themed paraphernalia.

“We have over a thousand paintings,” said Joan Kowalski in a phone interview. “We don’t have them all because Bob was very generous and donated some to friends and people that would come to visit him in the studio.”

“We get quite a lot inquiries from charities and lots of inquiries from people who would like to purchase them. But we don’t donate paintings now — normally we’ll send paint kits or canvases instead — and we don’t sell them at all,” said Kowalski.

Kowalski did make one exception, however, for the Smithsonian Institution, which acquired some of Ross’ paintings and tools a few months back. “We knew that Bob had always sort of imagined, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if my paintings were in the Smithsonian? That way people would want to learn to paint!’ When he died, we decided to try, but nothing ever came of our efforts. My assistant then found out there is a place on the Smithsonian website where you can apply for a show. And she heard back from them and they were quite interested. That’s how we got in.”

The Smithsonian has not yet exhibited the items — although Kowalski is hopeful it will — but the exchange planted the seed for an exhibition of Ross’ artworks. The curator of the exhibit at the Franklin Park Arts Center, Elizabeth Bracey, is a friend of Kowalski and the venue is just 30 miles from the Bob Ross, Inc. offices.

“It came to be as a very happy accident. Elizabeth asked me to exhibit some of Bob’s paintings in the facility that she works at and, to be honest with you, we’ve never really been asked before, which is a little bit crazy. It was not really strategically planned, it was just sort of a handshake agreement, but then the word got out and now they are just being inundated with requests for tickets. I love that story, because it’s just sort of how everything seems to happen with Bob Ross — small things become wonderful and significant,” said Kowalski.

Future shows

Bob Ross didn’t have high expectations for his paintings outside of his TV show. “I’m trying to teach a form of art that anybody can do, it’s not traditional art, it’s not fine art, and I don’t try to tell anybody it is,” he said in an episode of the Phil Donahue Show in 1994.

Curator Elizabeth Bracey agrees: “Bob Ross was not about promoting himself as an artist,” she said in a phone interview. “He was about promoting himself as a teacher. He wanted to teach other people to paint. It was just never a priority to have an exhibit.”

“But art’s purpose is to evoke emotion and reaction. And there’s a very emotional reaction that people have when you see the paintings in person. Most of the pieces were created in 30 minutes or less and it’s amazing to see the beauty and the wonder that he was able to create with this very fast and simple technique,” she added.

Nevertheless, tickets for the exhibition, which are free, are almost all gone, but Kowalski said further exhibits are already planned for next year in various locations across the US and Canada – mostly small venues in small towns – as well as Belgium and the Netherlands.

She believes Ross would be thrilled about his popularity in the internet era. And that yes, he was really like his TV persona. “He was the same on television as he was in person. He was absolutely exactly the same. That was Bob Ross.”

“Happy Accidents: An Exhibit of Original Bob Ross Paintings” is on at the Franklin Park Arts Center from Sept. 10 to Oct. 15, 2019.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/09/10/bob-ross-paintings-finally-being-recognized-in-an-exhibition/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/09/10/bob-ross-paintings-finally-being-recognized-in-an-exhibition/

[plxyboi-blog]

The Pescetarian Helped NeNe Leakes Lose Weight, But Will It Work For You?

New Post has been published on https://healthy4lives.com/the-pescetarian-helped-nene-leakes-lose-weight-but-will-it-work-for-you/

The Pescetarian Helped NeNe Leakes Lose Weight, But Will It Work For You?

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The only way NeNe Leakes would at any time shrink herself is if her waistline is included! And that is exactly what is going on. In circumstance you have not recognized, the Actual Housewives of Atlanta diva has missing a great deal of late lately, and it’s due to the fact she has taken her diet program and health substantially far more significantly in the wake of husband Gregg’s most cancers disaster. Leakes reveals that she has adopted a pescetarian diet program as a way to clear up her health and lately missing twelve lbs. 

“I’m not carrying out anything nuts like carrying out the elliptical or driving the bicycle or functioning. I started getting a pescatarian and he was plant-centered, so I started there. It did support me and I felt distinct,” she instructed Hollywood Lifestyle, incorporating that her objective is to drop a complete twenty pounds in the upcoming couple months.

Obviously, it’s doing work for her.

“I missing a pair of pounds. I’m not a significant eater. But what I started to do, was just have compact portions. I come to feel like I consume about four situations a working day – four, sometimes five – just nibbling on stuff, and I come to feel definitely content.”

  So what exactly is a pescetarian diet program? Most importantly, will it support you lose individuals unwelcome pounds?

1st, the pescetarian diet program is somebody who consumes a mostly plant-centered diet program (vegetarian) but also eats fish and seafood, and if they want, dairy and eggs. Translation: That implies goodbye to burgers, steak or Popeye’s rooster sandwiches and good day to leafy greens, low-sugar fruits like strawberries and blueberries and salmon. 

“Weight reduction and weight administration in general in this working day and age can be tough, primarily if you are taking in what we expression commercial non-organic and natural ‘feed-lot’ meats that are typically identified in the ordinary grocery retail store. This meat frequently consists of hormones and antibiotics which both equally maximize the inflammatory reaction in the system as perfectly as can add to the breakdown of the lining of our gastrointestinal tracts, which in change can result in far more issues with swelling, Njeri Jarvis, a registered dietitian, and certified nutritionist, stated to HelloBeautiful.

“Over time this can result in nutrient deficiencies that alongside with swelling can add to hormonal imbalances producing it far more challenging to manage or drop weight,” incorporating, “So, when you get rid of this meat from the equation by taking in fish as your primary protein source, specially individuals that are chilly water and wild-caught and specially if you are also taking in huge quantities of veggies, It can be a weight reduction and full system video game-changer.”

Njeri Jarvis runs Bear Nutrition and Herbs in Washington DC. Her diet practice handles a variety of health issues like system composition, most cancers, autoimmune diseases, endocrine and kidney imbalances, most cancers, foods-sensitivity, and so forth. We acquired a great deal of gems from her about why a pescatarian life style may perhaps be an best solution for Black women, and how individuals of us who are intrigued can include it into our existence.

For starters, fish are a fantastic source of protein, omega three fatty acids, vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Iron, Zinc and Selenium. Jarvis stated that Zinc and Selenium are key minerals essential for the system to create and benefit from our body’s most important detoxifier, glutathione peroxidase. Zinc also performs a part in mobile growth, wound therapeutic, the breakdown of carbs, and far more. The mixture of the nutrition detailed higher than is crucial for retaining healthy thyroid purpose as perfectly.

“For Black women, in distinct, transitioning to a pescatarian life style also implies acquiring larger quantities of fat-soluble nutritional vitamins [Vitamin A, E, D and K]. Foodstuff-centered vitamin D is critical as is acquiring doses of solar centered vitamin D,” says Jarvis.

“Individuals dwelling in the northern latitudes of the earth have a tendency to have lessen vitamin D amounts, primarily if their skin is darker. This puts Black women at risk for low amounts of vitamin D.”

Scientists at the College of California San Diego University of Drugs advise larger amounts of vitamin D are connected with decreasing risk of breast most cancers. This is crucial as Black women were lately categorised as a significant-risk team for breast most cancers. We know that people who carry extra weight are at larger risk for acquiring significant blood pressure, significant blood sugar, style two diabetic issues, and so forth. In other phrases, getting aware of what and how you consume is crucial. Supplied that Black women disproportionately suffer from all 3 of individuals chronic illnesses, this is surely a way of taking in we really should contemplate adopting.

But there are some things you really should seem out for too. Metallic pollutants in maritime fish are a global concern. Virtually all fish may perhaps comprise some mercury, but the Fda has issued a warning for expecting women, women looking at getting to be expecting, nursing mothers and young small children to keep away from certain fish like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish. 

Opt for low mercury fish like canned mild tuna, salmon, pollock, shrimp, sardines and catfish, and preserve it to about eight-twelve ounces for every week. Most importantly, how you prepare it issues too! Salmon doesn’t signify anything if you the only you cook it in a deep fryer. So opt for grilling, pan-searing on the skillet, baking in foil or even an air fryer, which doesn’t rely on unhealthy oils for that crispy texture you may perhaps crave. 

“Planning is key to transitioning.  1st, on your upcoming run to the grocery retail store, strategy and dedicate to shopping for only maritime protein. Stocking your freezer with fantastic high quality plain frozen fish and frozen shrimp is an straightforward and very affordable way to have healthy fish on hand for any spouse and children meal,” Jarvis indicates.

“Keeping sardines, muscle mass, oysters canned in olive oil or water is an additional very affordable staple that can be packed in a to-go bag alongside with a significant salad for a healthy mid-working day lunch at work or at university. Making tuna salad or planning salmon cakes is an additional very affordable and straightforward way to have a delicious meal that matches the bill.”

You can also faucet dependable women in your daily life to be accountability buddies. You can plan exercise sessions collectively, or even brief walks, chat every single other off the ledge when you’re not conference ambitions or craving one thing counterproductive, share recipes, and frequently be a assist technique doing work towards results. If you acquired it like that, it also doesn’t damage to seek advice from with a nutritionist. Njeri Jarvis can be achieved by using her website, which was hyperlinked higher than, as perfectly as on social media, but you can also look at with your most important treatment medical professional for have confidence in nutritionists. Last but not least, read through up far more on the pescatarian diet program in this article and in this article.

BEAUTIES: Are you a pescetarian? How have you benefited from the life style? Are you pondering about getting to be a pescetarian? How did you make the changeover? We want to hear your views! 

Associated News:

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Oprah Receives Actual About Weight Reduction: ‘I Can’t Settle for Myself If I’m More than 200 LBS’

Wanna Reduce Weight Like Missy Elliott? Cut These Two Points Out Of Your Diet regime

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[crystaldorval]

Step-by-step Fundamental Factors In Iso Xp Whey Protein

Standards For Central Factors Of Whey Protein New Zealand Canada

There are different edits of this movie, and we frankly can't keep them straight. But the sight of a powerless Clark getting beat up in a diner made Superman as sympathetic as he's ever been. Has the standard origin movie problem of "too much story, not enough time." And the standard DC Extended Universe problem of "We gotta have a nonsensical CGI battle at the end." But despite those caveats it's an enormous delight, and a big step forward for the DCEU. One of the best of the franchise because it's really just a political thriller. The Penguin emerges from the sewer and runs for mayor of Gotham! It's great stuff, especially as we continue to watch the rise of Trump in our world. A happy balance of serious and ridiculous, manages to find exactly the right tone for this weird religious fantasy and a cast led by Keanu Reeves . They all seem to get it. This is the gold standard of Superman movies, and was the best superhero movie bar none for many, many years. John Williams' score soars, and so does the believable and compelling romance between Superman and Lois Lane. The film convincingly blended camp (in the form of Gene Hackman 's wonderful Lex Luthor), an epic origin story that actually felt epic, and funny lines.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.thewrap.com/shazam-zachary-levi-shirtless/

Learning About Your Physical Fitness Options

Many people want to become fit, but they think it is too hard to achieve. That is why you must remember that proper education about getting healthy and in shape is the key to getting fit. Use this article to help you figure out what it takes to start getting fit today. Do you think that you are too busy to stay fit? Split your workout by dividing it into two separate sessions. Do not increase the time you workout, but try to break it into a half. If you cut your work out into half, do the first session early in the day and the second half in the evening. If you break your work out into 3 sessions, do the middle session near lunch time. If you would rather not visit your fitness center twice in a single day, you could do one workout at the gym and then do another workout outdoors. Be creative when developing an exercise routine. Joining a gym is not the only way to get exercise; there are different ways that you can be active. You have to stay motivated and the best way to do that is by finding activities you enjoy. To keep your knees protected, you need to start to work on strengthening your thighs. Torn ligaments behind the kneecap are a common injury obtained from sports and other physical activities. Make sure to exercise your quads as well as your hamstrings to prevent this from happening to you. Leg curls and extensions are great for this. When doing any workout, you should make sure to exhale after every repetition of the given weight. That will help your body to maximize energy usage and lets you breathe in more air when you exhale; that will give you a lot more energy overall. You can build stronger legs by doing wall sits. You should begin with a wall space that is wide enough for your body to fit and that allows you to safely do the move. Then, position yourself facing away from the wall, with your feet about eighteen inches away from the wall. Slowly bend at the knees until your back is resting against the wall. Keeping this position, slowly move your body down the wall until you are mimicking a sitting position. You should not, however, actually be resting on the ground. Hold this position for as long as you possibly can. Crunches aren't going to give you a six pack, no matter how many you do. Although abdominal exercises, such as crunches, help to strength the ab muscles, they do not burn the fat on your stomach. If you desire to have washboard abs, you need to improve your diet and also take part in cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. The information in the preceding article should have given you a new direction in your fitness quest. There is always more information you can learn on the subject; be sure to apply what you learn so you really do achieve the goals you have set for yourself. If you use all the information that you've learned, success will surely follow.

Some Plain Talking On Central Criteria In Canada

They climbed out of the gully to get back into the sky. A front gunner, Sutherland watched as another plane, filled with his colleagues, exploded. To this day, Sutherland tries not think about what happened 75 years ago. He rarely tells his story. But he had to remember this week. His local legion in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., held a celebration to honour Sutherland. Fred Sutherland stayed friends with his crewmates, even visiting England after the war. (Dave Gilson/CBC) A renowned painter, Dan Llywelyn Hall, has made a portrait of Sutherland, which was unveiled Thursday and will be donated to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alta. "A couple nights, I haven't slept for this business going on here," Sutherland said. Fred Sutherland, 95, won't forget his bomber crewmen, nearly half of whom didn't make it home. 0:43 Sutherland now lives in Rocky Mountain House, far south from his hometown of Peace River, Alta. His daughter, friends and neighbours gathered to watch the unveiling. "I was pleasantly surprised," he said.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canada-alberta-dambuster-honoured-by-portrait-1.4628299

How To Find The Perfect Vitamins For Your Needs

When you understand your body's needs, you can take good care of it. Many people are interested in health, but they lack the vitamins their bodies need. They simply don't understand where to begin with this sort of program. The following article will give you the understanding you need. In order for the vitamins to be used appropriately, they must be synthesized. As a result, you have to understand the ways in which vitamins and minerals interact. An example is Whey Protein how iron has difficulty being absorbed with calcium present. Try not to have two forms of nutrients that react poorly with one another. Calcium can maintain and build stronger bones. Sufficient quantities of vitamin D are necessary in order for your body to absorb calcium. You can get vitamin D through food, of course, as well as supplements or just spending time in the sun. Each of these things is a good way to make sure your body will absorb calcium. Take supplements with food. Vitamins like A, E and K are ones that are best absorbed with food. These particular vitamins need fat in order to work well. Foods like popcorn, bananas, dairy, green beans, and asparagus all contain vitamin B2 and riboflavin. If you don't get enough, you may have scaly skin and cracked lips. Also, riboflavin can help you in your fight against cancer long-term. Sometimes, we just can't schedule in a good meal. Consuming vitamins and minerals that are healthy will make you feel a lot better. Vitamin A is great for reducing wrinkles and red spots. However, if you take too much of it it can be very bad for you. A great way to get vitamin A would be through squash, carrots, and dark leafy greens. It's never been more important to receive the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and nutrients. Most of the foods that are for sale today at your local market are processed types, lacking many of the important nutrients needed for healthy living. A simple multivitamin can do a lot to boost your nutrition. If you take children's vitamins as an adult, you need to take more of them. You need more vitamins than kids, of course. Look into how many would be best since too many could cause health problems. Your first step in starting with vitamins and minerals is to see your family practitioner to find out if you have any nutrient deficiencies. It is the first step in determining which supplements you might need more urgently. Be careful when you take supplements. With vitamins and minerals, you can overdose. Overdosing on certain nutrients can be extremely dangerous. Symptoms of an overdose vary, depending on which vitamin you have taken. However, the consequence is not a good one and can even kill you. Your body is very important to you, and that is why you should find out everything it needs. Knowledge about vitamins is key to giving your body what it requires. Use these tips and any others you read. By doing so, you will be closer to achieving optimal health.

[raystart]

Knocking Down your Creative Blocks

This is a story about the day I quit writing.

It was 1989. I was 32. For the previous nine months, I’d been researching and reporting the biggest story of my early career. That the assignment had been handed to me on a platter by my editor at Rolling Stone was only the beginning of the pressure.

The central figure was a man named John Holmes. Perhaps the most iconic star of the early days of porn, Holmes had recently died, the first known AIDS casualty in X-rated films.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Holmes performed in nearly three thousand adult films. Besides his astounding natural endowment, he is best remembered for headlining the first series of adult movies that attempted a plot line and character development. Playing a hard-boiled detective named Johnny Wadd, Holmes was a polyester-wearing smoothie with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. He wasn’t threatening. He chewed gum and overacted. He took a lounge singer’s approach to sex: deliberately gentle, ostentatiously artful.  You didn’t know whether to laugh or stare.

As home video players became ubiquitous, Holmes became more famous, breaching the mainstream, commanding larger and larger fees. But with the rise came the inevitable fall—a copious addiction to freebase cocaine, which robbed him of his money, his dignity, and his ability to muster a serviceable erection.

Eventually, Holmes fell in with a club owner and drug dealer named Eddie Nash, and also with a gang of small time criminals who were later dubbed the Wonderland Gang—after the location of their puke-green stucco rental house on Wonderland Avenue, in the leafy environs just north of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, in Laurel Canyon. Desperate for money and drugs, the gang decided to rob Nash.

After the robbery, one of Nash’s henchmen ran into Holmes in a convenience store. He noticed Holmes wearing his boss’ stolen ring. And shortly thereafter, four of the members of the Wonderland gang were found bludgeoned to death with blunt objects. The crime scene was brutal. The press would dub it the “Four on the Floor Murders.”

***

I spent six weeks in Los Angeles working the story. There was no internet at the time. Reporting was still a craft that required shoe leather and a way with people—you had to look them in the eye. I interviewed nearly 100 sources. I went from house to house knocking on doors. I found court files buried in a repository four stories underground. I visited a half-dozen porn shoots and spoke to a dozen or more porn stars and directors (I know, rough job). I consorted with convicted felons. Most were behind bars. They were constantly calling collect.

My biggest “gets” were Holmes’ first wife, a former UCLA nurse, and another woman who became his mistress when she was only fifteen.

My biggest shock had been answering the knock at my hotel room door and discovering that the two women were now best friends.

We sat at the cheap dinette table in my rent-by-the-week motel suite. For nearly twelve hours they poured out their tale. The room was a haze of cigarette smoke. I remember boiling more water, making more tea. And I remember changing the microcassette tapes, one after the other, trying not to make too big a deal of the process lest I break the spell. Their story—funny and intimate and tragic—would later become the basis for the movie Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Kate Bosworth. The larger piece would become Boogie Nights. (Alas, I didn’t own the rights to any life stories. I played no part in the making the movies.)

***

In time, my office looked like it had been hit by a blizzard of 20-pound bond. There were piles of paper on every flat surface, and on the floor around me, all of them tagged with colorful Post-it Notes, some of the piles reaching several feet in height—a miniature cityscape at my feet: Transcribed interviews, notes, court documents and legal transcripts of testimony and deposition hearings, newspaper clippings, non-fiction books and research papers on the subjects of AIDS and the Reagan Administration’s war on pornography (a period during which porn consumption by the public rose exponentially, I would learn). Not to mention my collection of  VHS films—black plastic rectangles, clad in colorful cardboard slip covers, stacked in rickety piles like so many skyscrapers populating my urban jungle of research materials.

Finally, I was done reporting and was ready to write. I sat down I sat in my expensive ergonomic office chair, at my father’s old desk in the bay window on the third floor of a townhouse just off the Washington DC’s notorious 14th Street Strip. One mile from the White House, the trade in prostitutes and crack cocaine was brisk 24/7. The newspaper liked to call it “an outdoor bazaar.”

Inside, on my computer screen, things were not so lively. Even though I knew where I wanted to start the story—with the Wonderland gang planning the heist—I couldn’t start. There was just too much information. Too many moving parts. Too many notes. Too many proper nouns.

I started the first sentence again and again. And again. And again.

Deep in Laurel Canyon… Deep in Laurel Canyon…  something.

By the second day, I was becoming more and more agitated. More desperate. And then depressed. And then really depressed. Holy shit, I thought, I’m Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  

Deep in Laurel Canyon… Deep in Laurel Canyon…  something.

Finally I wrote this: They gave me a story about a guy with  a 14-inch penis. How did I fuck this up?

I imagined myself dead in my fancy Aeron chair, my carcass desiccated and covered with cobwebs, rats chewing through the cityscape of pulp and plastic that occupied my hundred-year-old wood plank floor.

Finally, by late afternoon on the third day, I’d had enough. I said it out loud to myself and anyone else within earshot, though there was no one else:

“I quit.”

Writing was too fucking hard. And it wasn’t worth it. I’d worked for nine months on this fucker. I was due to collect $2,250 for this story. I had borrowed money to renovate my house, but was spending it on the mortgage and food and electricity. All for a chance at what…getting my name in Rolling Stone?  

Maybe I need to find a new line of work, I suggested to myself. Maybe I’ll go back to law school—I wasn’t too old for a change: Plenty of people switched jobs in their early thirties, did they not?

I shut the door behind me on my way out of that room.

***

I took off walking.

Dusk was gathering and the earlybird hookers were just hitting the streets for the evening rush of homebound commuters. There was the usual tang of want, need and expectation swirling in the air, along with the smells of car exhaust and fireplace woodsmoke.  

It was the media who’d labeled this area the 14th Street Strip; the pimps and hoes called it the “Track.” The flashier women were posted up beneath the street lamps along 14th Street NW, which was lined with storefronts, laundromats, auto shops, Chinese carryouts, and a number of liquor stores. One block over, 13th Street served as the back stretch. Darker and more residential, lined with overhanging trees, it was the provenance of welfare mothers, drug dealers and thieves. The johns from Virginia approached from the south, from the north came the men from Maryland. They circled round and round.

As I walked thought this usual evening tableau, I felt my mind begin to clear, and I kept moving at a swift pace. Soon, I left the strip altogether and reached the National Mall, hung a right, and walked on the grass toward the Lincoln Memorial. Climbing the steps, I paid my usual respects to Honest Abe, then turned around and grabbed a seat.

Spread before me was the familiar landscape—the Reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, the great dome of the Capitol, as thrilling as ever in the gathering loam, the lights beginning to twinkle.

And suddenly it hit me.

 Deep in Laurel Canyon, the Wonderland Gang was planning its last heist.

***

I learned that day that writer’s block had nothing to do with writing.

No matter how many sources I consult, how much information I collect, how many e-stacks of paper I build, or search windows I open,  my story is not going to be found in my notes.

And neither is it lurking somewhere in the shadows of my blank screen. (If only we could rub with a quarter and have our work revealed?)

Don’t expect your best stuff to suddenly appear by magic. You can noodle the germ of an idea into something concrete—you can fiddle and try things and edit and throw stuff up against the wall until somehow the fairy dust of your creative gift is released by the gods and floats down over all.

But before any of that can happen, you need to figure out what you’re trying to say.

For me that usually happens outside my office. Walking up a hill or chopping vegetables or taking a shower. Driving places. Staring out the window.

And yes, the people who are close me take notice of the times I’m not really there, the many times I’m not really there, the days or evenings when I’m walking around distracted or I forget that I had plans.  But hell, I’m an artist. I’m making something beautiful in my head. I’m not supposed to be a norm. Maybe that’s why there aren’t a lot of people in my life day to day? No matter. It suits me to be lost in my thoughts. Because that means the next time I’m at my keyboard, I’m going to take a crack at making something sing.

No matter what your genre, it’s probably the same. When you sit down to create something out of nothing, it’s best to have an idea of where you’re going: What, exactly, are you trying to create? Can you see it in your mind’s eye? Can you hear it playing like a song? Flickering like a movie? Can you smell and taste and feel?

Only then can you make it real.

[balancegym]

Trainer Spotlight : Jermaine Ennis

We’re so proud of Balance trainer Jermaine Ennis, who was recently listed among the top three personal trainers in Washington, DC in the Washington City Paper Readers Poll. Learn more about Jermaine, and email info@balancegym.com to find out more about training with him!

Name: Jermaine Ennis

Occupation: Personal Trainer

Hometown: Washington DC

How long have you been a personal trainer? How long have you been at Balance?

I've been in the sport and health industry since 2001 but did not fully take on the role of a "personal trainer" until 2004. I've been training for 13 years and training with Balance Gym for 8 years.

Tell us about yourself, your background, and your fitness background?

My fitness background actually began with my brother's Hulk Hogan Workout Set. I really thought those 5-10 lbs sand-filled weights were going to have me "jacked." I've always been amazed by the human body, spending summer vacations reading through the medical journals that came along with the encyclopedias my father had purchased for our home library. I would have to say those journals placed me on track to either aiming to become a doctor or working in a sport setting. Luckily, I was able to take advantage of a vocational opportunity while in high school within Wheaton Athletic Club, set up by a great mentor.

Tell us about your training style. What are your favorite kinds of workouts? 

My training style varies based upon the client. One style does not fit all. There's always a different approach to meet the wants & needs of the client. My favorite kinds of workouts are those in which my clients believe I've just invented it right on the spot. It humors me, however it lets me know that they are being challenged and I'm capable of planning a full workout within a small square of a busy gym with two dumbbells or no equipment.

What is your favorite easy, healthy meal (to cook at home or to grab on the go)?

My favorite easy meal would include an easily prepared protein, brown rice, and a dark green leafy vegetable. I save the fancy stuff for company or Sundays.

What are some of your gym must-haves? 

A must-have would be an energy booster (green tea or pre-workout mix) prior to my workouts and one of my many Spotify playlist. Something powerful, loud and inspiring. It provides me with the intensity and focus to push through the heaviest of lifts.

How do you fit working out into your busy schedule? How do you suggest others fit working out into their lives?

On my busiest days, I attempt to fit in my workouts within a 30-45 minute block in between clients. I try not to kill time slowly getting dressed into fancy gear. It's a workout, not a fashion show.  I think what happens to most people is a lack of preparation. They don't have a plan or plan around one thing. Often times, too much of their workout time is trying to figure out what to do rather than actually doing it.

What advice do you have for someone who is new to working out?

Start out with something that makes you comfortable. Try not to jump into activities based on popularity or classes that are high intensity; they could lead to a negative association with working out. Try not to look at working out as a chore, create a mindset that associates working out as positive. There is nothing wrong with asking for help or running through a small stint with a quality trainer.

Share a fun fact that people might not know about you!

I'm an autodidact. I spend my nights trying to learn and increase my depth of knowledge on various topics and skills. I also enjoy putting together model cars and taking part pop culture trivia.

#BalanceLife is: grit,strength and laughter.

[wayneooverton]

Oxygen and Scuba Diving: Science Made Simple

Most divers strive for good air consumption, but do we really understand what makes us more or less efficient underwater? Here we’ll give you some insight into the science behind oxygen and scuba diving, and will provide some simple suggestions on how you can tailor your diving and your lifestyle to make you more efficient underwater. Oxygen is a common gas and one we may take for granted. But it holds the key to metabolic efficiency.

Oxygen and scuba diving

As divers, we generally know the wider applications of oxygen. It constitutes 21 percent of air, but we can change the concentration in our tank for nitrox or trimix diving. In cases of suspected DCS, we administer 100 percent oxygen. We also use it in recompression chambers to help patients off-gas nitrogen bubbles. It can be toxic at pressures greater than 1.6 ATA or with chronic exposure, particularly affecting the eye, nerves and lungs.

In fact, this ordinary gas makes an extraordinary journey into our body. It comes from nuclear reactions during explosions of stars. Our planet is absolutely full of the stuff and most life on earth is completely dependent on it. Plants harness the sun’s energy to make oxygen in a process called photosynthesis. Our bodies are intricately designed to extract it from air and take it to our cells, where it is used to create energy. When we exhale, we blow out the metabolic waste products (carbon monoxide and water) and the plants reuse our waste to recreate oxygen.

Roadblocks to good air consumption

Diving poses a few obstacles when it comes to this process.

Resistance to flow in our airways increases as we breathe through long hoses and also with depth as the gases compress. Oxygen is denser than nitrogen, so those diving on nitrox may suffer more from this. Helium, on the other hand, is less dense and so is used to overcome this problem. It is eminently more expensive, however, so mainly tec and commercial divers use it. Help reduce this resistance by using appropriate-length hoses and making sure air is flowing smoothly through your regulator.

With a standard scuba kit, diving in a head-up position will make it harder to breathe. This is because the lungs are lower than the mouth, which means they’re experience higher pressure. This reduces the diver’s ability to take a full inspiration or full exhalation. This is one of many reasons why good trim is important.

The filter in the lungs, which oxygen passes through, is under strain as the water pressure redistributes peripheral blood into the chest. Although we can’t change this when we dive, we can help protect our lungs by not smoking, a habit that hardens and destroys this fine filter.

An iron-based molecule called hemoglobin carries oxygen. Iron deficiencies reduce your body’s capacity to carry oxygen. Eating iron-rich foods such as leafy greens, lentils and chickpeas will help keep these levels steady. In addition, avoid smoking since it saturates hemoglobin with carbon monoxide, meaning there is less space left for it to carry oxygen. It takes around 24 hours to blow off the carbon monoxide you inhale in just one cigarette.

The physical rigors of diving mean we need higher levels of oxygen to meet the demands of our tissues. Keeping fit is an obvious solution. The World Health Organization recommends 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week, plus two weight sessions. Exercise will not only improve your cardiovascular health and therefore your diving efficiency, but will also improve your general well being and keep you more relaxed underwater.

The energy we use to keep warm while underwater increases our oxygen requirement, so make sure to wear adequate exposure protection. There’s no trophy for wearing a shorty on a winter day.

In short, oxygen has an exquisitely complex role in our body and on our planet. Since we are not naturally designed to breathe oxygen at depth, diving makes its journey from the stars to our cells even more arduous. Although there are several unavoidable obstacles, we can take charge of these and many other dive- and lifestyle factors to help oxygen along the way.

By guest author Suzanne Gaskell

The post Oxygen and Scuba Diving: Science Made Simple appeared first on Scuba Diver Life.

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[mapled-penitentiary]

is this normal?