#thanks strong nuclear force monkey

[ohfuckohfuckthelavalampbroke]

Everyone say thank you to the strong nuclear force monkey that holds the very laws of physics together

[littlesliceofmarvel]

manipulating a god | chpt. seven

Synopsis: Trying to break the information out of Loki during the attack of 2012 wasn’t exactly the easiest task, but it was a challenge you were willing to take head on. So, what happened when a master manipulator tried to get information from the God of Mischief?

Series warnings: swearing, mentions of violence, blood, gore

Pairings: Stark!Reader x Loki

A/N: so!!! i am sorry this is late once again but holy crap. i binge watched all the marvel films and am now flowing with ideas!! hope you enjoy the next part of this series! :)

series masterlist

———————

“He — what?”

Tony’s face contorted into confusion as he processed what you told him. He placed down the piece of technology he had been working on and put all of his attention on you, eyebrows furrowed and lips curved down into a slight frown.

“I’m telling you, he’s going to get to Banner,” you repeated angrily, grabbing a swivel chair and sitting down harshly. You were honestly surprised the chair hadn’t slid out from under you with the intensity that you had sat down with.

Tony shook his head, “Why would he go after Banner?”

Shrugging, not really having an answer for him, you tried your best to find a decent reason, “Maybe because Banner can break him out? I don’t know. Maybe because if Banner were to Hulk-out, all of our safety would be compromised.”

You could tell by the look Tony was giving you that he didn’t fully believe you were going down the right path with your assumption. Honestly, you had been a little doubtful about yourself at first. But it somehow made sense.

If Banner turned into the Hulk, he’d cause a distraction. A disaster. Thousands of feet up in the air, where Loki could easily plan an escape if he was somehow in contact with his ‘flying monkeys’ hidden somewhere down below.

If Hulk got to Loki and set him free, you’d honestly have no way to track him. And you’d been in a deep pile of shit.

“Look, it’s not a lot to go off of, I know that,” you sighed, standing up and kicking the chair away, “But can you just keep an eye out on him? Make sure he’s just... not stressed? That’s the last thing we need.”

Tony seemed to think over your words for a good while before he nodded his head and pursed his lips, “I’ll keep an eye on Banner.”

Relief flooding over your body, you pulled him in for a quick hug, “Thank you.”

But before you could pull away and leave the room, he narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at you, “How are you handling this whole Loki thing? Is he getting in your head?”

Had he?

Loki wasn’t the easiest person to deal with, this was no secret. But you had never found yourself feeling unsafe or invaded while in his presence.

“No, actually,” you replied truthfully, finding no reason to lie, “He’s actually been fine. Throws tantrums, yes, and he acts like a toddler at times, but no. Not in my head.”

Tony narrowed his eyes, looking you up and down, “If you say so.”

Pursing your lips and nodding, you walked out of the room. Yes, you had a strong feeling that Loki was going to use the Hulk. It only made sense. But why did it seem like Tony wasn’t believing you?

Was Loki getting into your head? Making you believe things you couldn’t possibly prove? Was it possible he was just trying to get you to believe the Hulk theory while he was actually planning another escape?

You shook your head, attempting to clear your thoughts as you stepped into the main control room, the large windows and bright skies up ahead captivating your attention as you sat down on another swivel chair, leaning your elbows on the table and resting your head in your hands.

“Penny for your thoughts?” a voice from next to you caused you to spin around, facing a solemn Steve Rogers.

“That’s an old expression, Captain,” you smirked, turning back towards the windows as he chuckled.

“Thought I’d bring a bit of tradition to the team.”

You turned back to face him, an amused smile on your face, “I think the fact that you’re nearly a hundred years old is traditional enough.”

He tossed his head back, laughter bubbling and his eyes crinkled, “Decent point.”

You turned away from him and stared at your hands, which were now leaving little smudges on Fury’s spotless glass table. You tried wiping at the smudges with your sleeve, only making it worse.

“But really, though,” Steve interrupted your lame cleaning attempt, “What’s wrong?”

Sighing, you faced him once more, “I have a hunch about something but I might be wrong.”

He nodded, “What’s the hunch?”

You shrugged, pursing your lips and scrunching your nose, deciding for change the topic, “Did you ever find out more about—” you lowered your voice, “—Fury using the sceptre for secret weapons?”

Steve seemed a little taken aback by your change in topic but decided against pressing it, “I believe so. I’m going to go check out my own personal hunch shortly.”

“Ah,” you nodded, “So Tony was right once again.” Why Fury would need to use such a powerful gamma radiated intergalactic weapon was behind you. Fury didn’t know you guys were onto him, though, so until you guys could prove it, it was probably best to stay out of his way.

Silence filled the space and you tried to focus on what was going on around you — the intercom voices, the computers beeping, the clouds whizzing by, the smell of sanitizer and metal.

Despite how heavy and intense everything felt, you somehow still questioned whether you were in a dream or not. Things just seemed so surreal in that moment.

“Y/N,” a smooth voice from behind you caused you to spin around on the chair, eyebrows raised as you faced a tense Tony. As you came back to your senses, you realized Steve was gone from next to you. Probably off to investigate his own hunch.

“Yep?”

“We need to talk,” he motioned his head in the direction he came from, so you stood up and followed him down the hallway. His walk was quick, his body tense — you knew something was up. It was rare Tony was this quiet.

As the two of you walked into the lab, you nodded a hello to Bruce sitting in the corner and followed Tony to a computer.

“What’s this?” you asked, looking over to him. Before he could answer, Fury marched into the room, clear anger and frustration laced into his features and his boots rather loud against the metallic floor.

“What are you doing, Stark?” his voice boomed.

Tony shrugged, “Kind of wondering the same thing about you.”

You looked back and forth between the two, leaning back onto the desk behind you to avoid friendly fire. Tony had a way of getting under people’s skin, but it was always with good intention. Fury just had a short fuse.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract,” Fury demanded, staring your brother down.

“We are,” Bruce piped up, “the model’s locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll get the location within half a mile.” He pointed to a screen on the opposite side of the room, Fury turning around on the spot to check it.

“What’s going on?” you leaned in to Tony, keeping your voice low.

He ignored you, “Yeah, then you get your cube back. No muss, no fuss.” he peered over at the screen in front of him and furrowed his eyebrows, “What is Phase 2?”

You hadn’t noticed Steve walk into the room, which is why you almost jumped when he slammed a large gun down on the table, “Phase 2 is Shield used the cube to make weapons.”

“Holy shit,” you gaped, looking away from the gun and eyeing Fury before turning back to Steve, rather impressed, “Nice hunch, Cap.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we’re—,”

“I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony piped up, turning his screen around, showing off the diagram of a powerful nuclear weapon, “What were you lying?”

Your eyes were wide as you stared down Fury. You had a nasty feeling he might have been hiding something, but the blow of realization felt powerful. You had trusted him.

He, however, didn’t seem fazed by the accusations being thrown his way.

Natasha and Thor walked into the room as Steve spoke up, “I was wrong, Director. The world hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Did you two know about this?” Bruce asked the newcomers.

You sat up at the sound of his voice, your arms crossed, “Wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Banner? I have a feeling—,”

Bruce chuckled humourlessly, “I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed.” He shot a look in Natasha’s direction before facing you again, his body language showing that he was fed up, “I’d like to know why Shield is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

“That’s something all of us would like to know, actually,” you raised an eyebrow and stood your ground. The room felt tense, still, and angry. You had a looming feeling something was going to go wrong — but when didn’t you, really?

“Because of him,” Fury sighed, pointing his finger to Thor.

“Me?” he asked, baffled, pointing a finger to himself and narrowing his eyes.

“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Fury walked over to him, unfazed by the accusations being thrown at him, “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”

You sighed, tossing your head back. Even though you wanted to be mad at Fury for hiding his plan, you thought it made sense. There was no way you humans could fight back against the forces that came from outer space.

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor defender, uncrossing his arms.

“Tell that to Loki,” you muttered under your breath, Tony turning to face you with a stern look. Luckily no one except him had heard the comment.

Fury nodded, “But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched — that can’t be controlled.”

“Like you try and control the cube?” you asked, placing your hands on your hips.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it. And his allies,” Thor’s voice was laced with anger as he stepped towards Fury, “It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

A shiver went down your spine at his words. You couldn’t fathom how bad things could get if other planets, other species, found out about the weapons that Shield could possess with the Tesseract.

“You forced our hand,” Fury sighed again, “We had to come up with something.”

“A nuclear deterrent,” Tony spoke up, “Because that always calms everything right down.”

You wanted to speak up and mention that using nuclear weapons was how the two of you made your money, but Fury beat you to it.

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?”

“Hol’ up,” you waved your hands, disbelief on your face, “How is this now about us? We had nothing to do with Fury’s plan. Yes, we used to make weapons, but don’t drag us into this. This is a whole different ballpark.”

Thor scoffed, “I thought humans were more evolved than this.”

“I’m sorry — did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?” Fury asked rhetorically, voice laced with sarcasm.

You could barely understand another word as the crowd around you burst into argument, Fury squabbling with Thor and Natasha, Tony and Steve going at each other’s throats, and Bruce standing by with his arms crossed.

“I was serious,” you turned to him, “You should think about leaving. It’s not safe for you.”

He rolled his eyes, turning to bite back at something Natasha said, her eyes filled with rage.

You couldn’t even understand what anyone was saying; the words all became jumbled and mushed together. All you could think about was the fact that the team was falling apart and that would only make you guys weaker.

“Tony,” you sighed, placing your hand on his shoulder, “Can we all just chill the fuck out?”

“You speak of control, yet you court chaos,” Thor spoke, silencing the rest of the group.

“I mean, what are we? A team?” Bruce took the attention of the room, “No, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re... we’re a time bomb.”

“Hey, what did I do?” you raised your arms defensively, eyes narrowed at the doctor. You were the one trying to worm your way through Loki’s mind.

“You need to step away,” Fury turned around, glaring at Bruce. Finally, someone was on your side.

Tony scoffed and uncrossed his arms, “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?”

“You know damn well why — back off,” Steve quipped back. You had never seen the super soldier look so vexed. Not that you’ve know him long, but nonetheless.

Tony stared him down, “I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Okay, boys,” you placed your hands on each of their shoulders, preparing to pry them apart from each other, “Let’s just—,”

Steve brushed you off forcefully, “Yeah, big man in a suit of armour. Take that off and what are you?”

Without missing a beat, Tony replied, “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

You nodded your head, impressed by how quickly he had quipped back.

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you,” Steve said lowly, getting closer to Tony by the second, “I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself.”

“Hey,” you placed your hand on Steve’s chest, “Don’t talk to him like that.”

“You’re wrong,” Tony glared him down, “I fight for her too.”

Steve chuckled dryly, “Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

Previously unbothered by Steve, you couldn’t help the bubbling anger.

“A hero? Like you?” Tony furrowed his eyebrows, “You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”

Steve’s lips curved upwards, “Put on the suit. Let’s go a few rounds.”

You threw your head back with a groan, “Oh, come on. You guys are behaving like children.”

“I have to agree with the better Stark,” Thor said, pointing his finger at you, causing you to shoot a quick smile his way as he laughed, “You people are so petty. And tiny.”

Bruce scoffed, rolling his eyes and turning back to the desk, “Yeah, this is a team.”

“Agent Romanoff,” Fury’s voice overtook the room once more, “Would you escort Dr Banner back to his—,”

“Where?” Bruce crossed his arms, “You rented my room.”

You let out another sigh, raising your hand and pinching the spot between your eyebrows in frustration. This was not going well in the slightest.

“The cell was just in case—,”

“—in case you needed to kill me,” Bruce interrupted Fury again, “But you can’t. I know. I tried.”

You dropped your hand, staring at the doctor with wide eyes and your mouth slightly agape, “Oh, Bruce...”

Silence filled the room at his statement. Which was both good and bad, really. The arguing finally stopped, but Bruce’s temper seemed to be seething through, his hands balled into fists at his sides and the veins on his neck growing. If he didn’t calm down soon, this wouldn’t end well.

“I got low,” Bruce continued, “I didn’t see an end. So I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out.”

As worried as you were in the moment, you couldn’t help but feel for him. You couldn’t imagine how difficult his life must have been. Transforming at random, needing to control your emotions in order to avoid causing irreversible damage.

“So I moved on,” he continued softly, slowly walking backwards, “I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk.”

As if unaware he was even doing it, Bruce picked up the sceptre from behind him and gripped it tightly in his hand, his eyes locked on Natasha, “You wanna know much secret, agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?”

You took a step back, Tony and Steve doing the same, their eyes also locked on Bruce’s sceptre-wielding hand.

Fury placed one hand on his gun as Steve spoke up, “Dr Banner, put down the sceptre.”

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[aphrodit3sluvlygard3n]

quotes from this sapiens commentary that made me think

- In the past 1000 years, humans have evolved to take over the world and are on the verge of overcoming natural selection and becoming gods. Yet, we still seem unhappy in many ways and we are unsure of what we want. Is there anything more dangerous that dissatisfied and irresponsible gods who don’t know what they want?

- The author believes it is unlikely Homo sapiens will survive for another 1,000 years.

- Human kind was very much in the middle of the food chain until 400,000 years ago and didn't leap to the top of the food chain until 100,000 years ago.

- Perhaps this is why Homo sapiens wiped out the Neanderthals: “They were too familiar to ignore, but too different to tolerate.”

- Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, humans have been living in a dual reality: the physical reality and the imagined reality.

- Because Homo sapiens shared myths were not genetically based, they could adapt and change their behavior as soon as they adapted their new belief. They didn't have to wait millions of years for a genetic change.

- As far as we know, the humans of 30,000 years ago had the same physical, emotional, and intellectual capabilities that we have today.

- The human collective today knows far more overall than the whole population of 15,000 years ago. However, at the individual level we are much more specialized today. Ancient foragers were the most knowledgable and skillful people in history.

- Our lack of knowledge about prehistoric religions and beliefs is one of the biggest holes in our understanding of human history.

- Social hierarchies, inequality, and so on are human inventions.

- When it comes to gender inequality: biology enables, culture forbids. The idea of “unnatural” behaviors is actually a result of Christian theology, not biology. If it is possible biologically, then it is natural. From a scientific perspective, two men having sex is natural. Traveling at the speed of light is not natural.

- All human cultures are filled with inconsistencies. For example, America currently values individual freedom and equality. But these two ideals don't always play nicely. It is part of the human experience to reconcile them. These inconsistencies aren't necessarily bad. They force us to think critically. Consistency is the playground of dull minds.

- In general, empires do not fall because of uprisings. They almost always succumb to outside invasion or splits from within the empower class.

- Most of what we firmly believe is part of “our culture” was actually forced upon us by other empires who conquered our ancestors.

- Despite the obvious negatives of empires taking over a culture, there are many benefits too. Art, music, governance, and more are the result of empires forming. Often, they blended new together with the conquered people to create a new culture.

- It seems obvious that we are moving fast toward a singe global empire. Global markets, global warming, and commonly accepted concepts like human rights make it clear we all need one collective entity, not man states and countries.

- Over the last 200 years, science has increasingly revealed that human behavior is determined by hormones, genes, and neurological synapses. If this is true, then for how much longer will we ignore that biology does not agree with the concept of free will?

- It is an inevitable rule of history that what seems obvious in hindsight is impossible to predict beforehand.

- Scientists generally agree that no theory is 100 percent correct. Thus, the real test of knowledge is not truth, but utility. Science gives us power. The more useful that power, the better the science.

- The military arms race drives science forward in rapid fashion. The truth is war prompts many scientific discoveries.

- In the past, the best minds of the day worked on finding ways to give meaning to death. Today, our best minds work on preventing death through biological, hormonal, and genetic means. Science does not take death as an inevitability.

- Why did Europeans discover and conquer the Americas? Why not the Chinese or those from India or the Middle East who possessed just as much knowledge and technology as the Europeans? The European ideology to explore the world was the primary difference.

- It is not enough to consider science in a vacuum. Economic and capitalistic interests, for example, determine what we research and what to do with the research findings.

- Adam Smith's brilliant insight about capitalism in The Wealth of Nations was that increasing private profits is the basis for increasing collective wealth and prosperity. In other words, by becoming richer you benefit everyone, not just yourself. Both parties get a bigger slice of pie. (Note: this only works if profits get reinvested, not hoarded.) For capitalism to work, profits must be reinvested in new production.

- Modern capitalism has exploded the growth of humankind thanks to the creation of credit, which allows you to borrow money now because we collectively trust that the future will be better than the present. All credit is based on the idea that science and technology will advance. Scientists ultimately foot the bill of capitalism.

- Until the industrial revolution, human behavior was largely dictated by solar energy and plant growth. Day and night. Summer and winter. Everything was determined by man power and animal power, which were determined by food, which is determined by photosynthesis.

- “This is the basic lesson of evolutionary psychology: a need shaped in the wild continues to be felt subjectively even if it is no longer really necessary for survival and reproduction.”

- Harlow's infant monkey studies from the 1950s (and a variety of followup studies) have shown that animals have strong psychological needs as well as purgative physical needs. Note to self: never disregard your psychological needs.

- Most people don't realize just how peaceful of the times are we live in. In recent years, more people die from suicide each year than from war and violent crime. The same can said for car accidents. Live a safe community, drive as little as possible, and love yourself. Violent local crime, car accidents, and suicide are some of the biggest killers of humans.

- War is at an all time low because the costs of war have increased because of nuclear weapons, the benefits of war have decreased because physical resources drive less of the economy and international trade is more lucrative than conquest, and the tightening of international connections because a worldwide culture is less likely to battle itself.

- Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

- If happiness is based on pleasurable feelings, then increasing our happiness is a matter of increases biochemical release. If happiness is based on meaning, then increasing our happiness is a matter of deluding ourselves about the meaning of our lives.

- One uncommonly cited benefit of religion: belief in the afterlife gives meaning to your life in the present.

- Buddhism has studied happiness for over 2,000 years. Interestingly, Buddhism shares many viewpoints on happiness with science. Most notably, that happiness results from processes within the body and not from the outside world. The Buddhist philosophy of happiness centers around the idea that you are not the events that happen to you, but you are also not the feelings you have. You are not your feelings. They are just feelings. Thus, if you understand this, you can release the needs to keep chasing the need to feel happy or to not feel angry or to not feel sad. In other words, you have to understand yourself.

- Genetic engineering is allowing humans to break the laws of natural selection.

- The next stage of human history will not only involve biological and technological changes, but also changes in human consciousness and identity. Changes that are this fundamental will call the very term “human” into question. Many people think the question we should ask to guide our scientific pursuits is, “What do we want to become?” However, because we seem to be on the path to genetically engineering and programming nearly every facets of our wants, desires, and consciousness, the real question we should ask is, “What do we want to want?”

[rpmemesyo]

Spyro 3 sentence starters

“We managed to capture the eggs, your highness.”

“Maybe you will amount to something after all.”

“Go guard the tunnels. Stop anyone from coming through!”

“Where are the eggs?”

“You’re our only chance.”

“You won’t like me when I’m angry.”

“I just found one of those portal thingamajigs that leads to a different world!”

“I saw something shiny in that cave over there. Let’s go check it out!”

“Let me catch my breath and I’ll kick that other guy’s butt.”

“Thanks for the help, but I think I would have worn him down in a minute.”

“Have you seen any of our giant chickens?”

“I’m sorry, that was the ugliest chicken I’ve ever seen.”

“I found this gladiator training arena and it makes a pretty cool skate park!”

“Your kind-hearted nature might be your downfall someday.”

“I hope you appreciate this favor I’m doing in letting you out.”

“No hard feelings, eh?”

“Dragons used to rule this entire world, you know.”

“The weird thing is, after they left all the magic in the world just sorta went with them.”

“They say this world used to have magic coming out the wazoo! Flying ships, singing forests, wishing stones, you name it!”

“Let’s play a joke! Take this egg and smash it on __’s house, ok?”

“Look out, it’s the scaaary sorceress!”

“Come back when you’ve finished witch school!”

“Is it just me, or is __ kinda cute when they’re angry?”

“I’m late for a dinner party at the Tiki Lodge.”

“If I can’t find where they’ve hidden their heads, they won’t let me join the Tiki Lodge.”

“Take this egg as a sign of your honorary membership in the lodge.”

“My friends borrowed the rhynocs’ submarine. Then they took it for a joyride, and then they smashed it into a big pile of rocks.”

“The rhynocs have built a fortress on our beach and we’re going to blow it to smithereens!”

“Wow! I can’t believe I survived that blast!”

“__ has challenged us to a naval battle. Our speed boat versus his nuclear shark submarine.”

“I’ll never see a rainbow again.”

“Our sun has gone out. We can make a new one with our lava fusion cauldron and three sun seeds.”

“Why haven’t you disposed of that infernal dragon!?”

“I’ve tried to scare him off, but he’s just not afraid of anything!”

“Why have I been training you all these years!?”

“Use some magic!”

“Kill him?”

“This wussy green toad will be no match for the two of us!”

“You’ve managed to survive longer than I expected.”

“The rumors of our extinction were slightly exaggerated. We just wanted a little peace and quiet.”

“Without your leadership we didn’t put up an effective resistance.”

“I’ve captured the enemy rations. They won’t march far on an empty stomach.”

“There is no yeti here, and there never was! He was just a myth. As far as you know.”

“Why’d you have to scare her off?”

“I haven’t been able to hit a dang thing all morning.”

“Behind this door is the single greatest show on earth!”

“Oh I sure wish I had a partner. Someone courageous and strong and handsome and… purple… who breathes fire.”

“That’s ok, it didn’t hurt as much as it looked.”

“The world breathlessly awaits my brilliant four-dimensional masterpiece.”

“Well there’s no shame in losing to the master… At least not much shame.”

“Oh no, he’s started his bone dance again!”

“You’re not gonna believe this, but there are sheep saucers and space cows all over this place!”

“He swore to destroy whoever lights the tea lamps. Better you than me.”

“I’m off to kick butt.”

“No more Haiku… please!”

“I’m sure you would succeed if you were to try again.”

“You bumbling, idiotic, worthless fool!”

“__ is planning a trap for you, and if she catches you… believe me, you don’t want to know what she’s going to do.”

“The first rejuvenating breath of freedom!”

“It’d be really cool if you smashed that boulder.”

“Some bear sold us a laser defense system.”

“__ and I were having a snowman building competition when the sorceress brought them to life with a spell.”

“That dumb yeti took my ball!”

“As you probably know, Frozen Altars is the birthplace of the great sport of cat hockey.”

“Dere be more ghosts in dis here shipyard den I kin shake me pick at!”

“They said you’re slower than a Molten Crater fire slug. I stuck up for you, though! I told them I’ve seen some pretty fast fire slugs.”

“You schooled ‘em like a bunch of dizzy, one-toed sand gnorcs!”

“Did you bring any chips?”

“If we don’t stop them right away, they’ll force __ to marry __!”

“According to legends, there’s a golden goose at the top of this here mountain.”

“She’s just a friend, you understand… it’s a strictly platonic relationship.”

“Won’t that kill them?”

“I don’t have to kill them, it just stops them from wriggling so much.”

“You’re terrible! I can’t believe I ever listened to you!”

“This might be our last stand, __.”

“It’s a life-size space monkey action figure, complete with a fully operational laser!”

“You’ve always had a weakness for helping silly little creatures, haven’t you, __?”

“You ever see a bear dance?”

“Huzzah! Yippee! Whoohoo!”

“Take it from me, __, never spend a week in a cage!”

“Mr. Laser Blaster and I have a whole lot of work to do!”

“The machine room is overrun with birds.”

“I’m not sure if this is a bird egg or dragon egg. What do you think?”

“Would you like to see a magic trick?”

“Did you know I happen to be a very talented amateur magician?”

“They need a good bonk on the head to calm them down.”

“You know, sometimes you just long for the simple, old-fashioned pleasures of yesteryear.”

“I spend all day pressing switches and shoving boxes around, and you just waltz in here expecting to claim the treasure!”

“I’ve been training my new pet manta ray to carry the latest technology super-high-impact underwater missile launchers!”

“Try not to get hit with the exploding ammo, ok?”

“Let’s just hope you’re made of tougher stuff than the last guy.”

“__ seems to have disappeared again so I should go make sure he’s not in more trouble. You haven’t seen him, have you?”

“How many times have I told you not to tease that moose?”

“It was __’s idea!”

“Another noble warrior falls victim to the plague of love.”

“You’ve come this far, __. I know you can beat her!”

[bojastrology-blog]

Underrated animes I think the signs would love

I love every one of these animes tbh

Aries: Kekkai Sensen - 12 Episodes (2nd season of same length coming out Oct 2017)

Supersonic monkeys, vampires, talking fishmen, and all sorts of different supernatural monsters living alongside humans—this has been part of daily life in Hellsalem's Lot, formerly known as New York City, for some time now. When a gateway between Earth and the Beyond opened three years ago, New Yorkers and creatures from the other dimension alike were trapped in an impenetrable bubble and were forced to live together. Libra is a secret organization composed of eccentrics and superhumans, tasked with keeping order in the city and making sure that chaos doesn't spread to the rest of the world. Pursuing photography as a hobby, Leonardo Watch is living a normal life with his parents and sister. But when he obtains the "All-seeing Eyes of the Gods" at the expense of his sister's eyesight, he goes to Hellsalem's Lot in order to help her by finding answers about the mysterious powers he received. He soon runs into Libra, and when Leo unexpectedly joins their ranks, he gets more than what he bargained for. Kekkai Sensen follows Leo's misadventures in the strangest place on Earth with his equally strange comrades—as the ordinary boy unwittingly sees his life take a turn for the extraordinary.

Taurus: Mushishi - 46 Episodes (2 seasons)

"Mushi": the most basic forms of life in the world. They exist without any goals or purposes aside from simply "being." They are beyond the shackles of the words "good" and "evil." Mushi can exist in countless forms and are capable of mimicking things from the natural world such as plants, diseases, and even phenomena like rainbows. This is, however, just a vague definition of these entities that inhabit the vibrant world of Mushishi, as to even call them a form of life would be an oversimplification. Detailed information on Mushi is scarce because the majority of humans are unaware of their existence. So what are Mushi and why do they exist? This is the question that a "Mushishi," Ginko, ponders constantly. Mushishi are those who research Mushi in hopes of understanding their place in the world's hierarchy of life. Ginko chases rumors of occurrences that could be tied to Mushi, all for the sake of finding an answer. It could, after all, lead to the meaning of life itself.

Gemini: Psychic Detective Yakumo - 11 Episodes

Haruka Ozawa's sophomore year is getting seriously scary. One of her friends is possessed, another has committed suicide and Haruka could be the next one to flunk the still-breathing test. Her only way out of this potentially lethal dead end? Yakumo Saito, an enigmatic student born with a mysterious red eye that allows him to see and communicate with the dead. But the deceased don't always desist and some killers are more than ready to kill again to keep dead men from telling any more tales. That doesn't stop Haruka's knack for digging up buried secrets, and there's even more evidence of bodies being exhumed by both Yakumo's police contact and an investigative journalist with a newly made corpse in her closet! Can this pair of anything but normal paranormal detectives solve the ultimate dead case files or will they end up in cold storage themselves? 

Cancer: Is this a Zombie? - 22 Total Episodes (2 Seasons)

Not every zombie is the monstrous, brain-eating type. One night while walking home from the convenience store, regular high school boy Ayumu Aikawa is killed by a serial killer, and is just as suddenly brought back to life by a necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. One small caveat: he's now a zombie. Things get even weirder for him when he accidentally steals a magical girl's uniform, and thus her powers! Haruna, the ex-magical girl, orders him to fight evil creatures known as Megalo in her place until they can figure out a way to get her powers back to her.

Leo: Parasyte - 24 Episodes

All of a sudden, they arrived: parasitic aliens that descended upon Earth and quickly infiltrated humanity by burrowing into the brains of vulnerable targets. These insatiable beings acquire full control of their host and are able to morph into a variety of forms in order to feed on unsuspecting prey. Sixteen-year-old high school student Shinichi Izumi falls victim to one of these parasites, but it fails to take over his brain, ending up in his right hand instead. Unable to relocate, the parasite, now named Migi, has no choice but to rely on Shinichi in order to stay alive. Thus, the pair is forced into an uneasy coexistence and must defend themselves from hostile parasites that hope to eradicate this new threat to their species.

Virgo: Terror in Resonance - 11 Episodes

Painted in red, the word "VON" is all that is left behind after a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility in Japan. The government is shattered by their inability to act, and the police are left frantically searching for ways to crack down the perpetrators. The public are clueless—until, six months later, a strange video makes its way onto the internet. In it, two teenage boys who identify themselves only as "Sphinx" directly challenge the police, threatening to cause destruction and mayhem across Tokyo. Unable to stop the mass panic quickly spreading through the city and desperate for any leads in their investigation, the police struggle to act effectively against these terrorists, with Detective Kenjirou Shibazaki caught in the middle of it all. Zankyou no Terror tells the story of Nine and Twelve, the two boys behind the masked figures of Sphinx. They should not exist, yet they stand strong in a world of deception and secrets while they make the city fall around them, all in the hopes of burying their own tragic truth.

Libra: No Game No Life - 12 Episodes

No Game No Life is a surreal comedy that follows Sora and Shiro, shut-in NEET siblings and the online gamer duo behind the legendary username "Kuuhaku." They view the real world as just another lousy game; however, a strange e-mail challenging them to a chess match changes everything—the brother and sister are plunged into an otherworldly realm where they meet Tet, the God of Games. The mysterious god welcomes Sora and Shiro to Disboard, a world where all forms of conflict—from petty squabbles to the fate of whole countries—are settled not through war, but by way of high-stake games. This system works thanks to a fundamental rule wherein each party must wager something they deem to be of equal value to the other party's wager. In this strange land where the very idea of humanity is reduced to child’s play, the indifferent genius gamer duo of Sora and Shiro have finally found a real reason to keep playing games: to unite the sixteen races of Disboard, defeat Tet, and become the gods of this new, gaming-is-everything world.

Scorpio: Rurouni Kenshin - 95 Episodes 

In the final years of the Bakumatsu era lived a legendary assassin known as Hitokiri Battousai. Feared as a merciless killer, he was unmatched throughout the country, but mysteriously disappeared at the peak of the Japanese Revolution. It has been ten peaceful years since then, but the very mention of Battousai still strikes terror into the hearts of war veterans. Unbeknownst to them, Battousai has abandoned his bloodstained lifestyle in an effort to repent for his sins, now living as Kenshin Himura, a wandering swordsman with a cheerful attitude and a strong will. Vowing never to kill again, Kenshin dedicates himself to protecting the weak. One day, he stumbles across Kaoru Kamiya at her kendo dojo, which is being threatened by an impostor claiming to be Battousai. After receiving help from Kenshin, Kaoru allows him to stay at the dojo, and so the former assassin temporarily ceases his travels. Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan tells the story of Kenshin as he strives to save those in need of saving. However, as enemies from both past and present begin to emerge, will the reformed killer be able to uphold his new ideals?

+ 3 of the most badass live action movie adaptations

Sagittarius: Nurarihyon no Mago - 48 Total Episodes (2 Seasons)

Rikuo Nura doesn't want anything to do with evil youkai, and just wants a normal life. Too bad he's a quarter youkai, and Nurarihyon, his grandfather, is insistent that he takes over as head of the Nura Clan. He's able to keep his supernatural secret life hidden from his classmates, as he can only transform into a youkai at night, for six hours at a time. Unfortunately for him, various youkai factions are out to target both his youkai and human friends, and like it or not, he needs to embrace his youkai side. Life is not easy when you're Nurarihyon's grandson

Capricorn: Hamatora - 24 Total Episodes (2 Seasons)

The ability to create miracles is not just a supernatural phenomenon; it is a gift which manifests in a limited number of human beings. "Minimum," or small miracles, are special powers that only selected people called "Minimum Holders" possess. The detective agency Yokohama Troubleshooting, or Hamatora for short, is composed of the "Minimum Holder PI Duo," Nice and Murasaki. Their office is a lone table at Cafe Nowhere, where the pair and their coworkers await new clients. Suddenly, the jobs that they begin to receive seem to have strange connections to the serial killer whom their friend Art, a police officer, is searching for. The murder victims share a single similarity: they are all Minimum Holders. Nice and Murasaki, as holders themselves, are drawn to the case—but what exactly is the link between Nice and the one who orchestrates it all?

Aquarius: Trigun - 26 Episodes

Vash the Stampede is the man with a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head. The reason: he's a merciless villain who lays waste to all those that oppose him and flattens entire cities for fun, garnering him the title "The Humanoid Typhoon." He leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever he goes, and anyone can count themselves dead if they so much as make eye contact—or so the rumors say. In actuality, Vash is a huge softie who claims to have never taken a life and avoids violence at all costs. With his crazy doughnut obsession and buffoonish attitude in tow, Vash traverses the wasteland of the planet Gunsmoke, all the while followed by two insurance agents, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who attempt to minimize his impact on the public. But soon, their misadventures evolve into life-or-death situations as a group of legendary assassins are summoned to bring about suffering to the trio. Vash's agonizing past will be unraveled and his morality and principles pushed to the breaking point.

Pisces: Gangsta. - 12 Episodes

Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo, known in the city of Ergastalum as the "Handymen," are mercenaries for hire who take on jobs no one else can handle. Contracted by powerful mob syndicates and police alike, the Handymen have to be ready and willing for anything. After completing the order of killing a local pimp, the Handymen add Alex Benedetto—a prostitute also designated for elimination—to their ranks to protect her from forces that want her gone from the decrepit hellhole of a city she has come to call home. However, this criminal’s paradise is undergoing a profound period of change that threatens to corrode the delicate balance of power. Ergastalum was once a safe haven for "Twilights," super-human beings born as the result of a special drug but are now being hunted down by a fierce underground organization. This new threat is rising up to challenge everything the city stands for, and the Handymen will not be able to avoid this coming war.

[faithfulnews]

The production of carbon from lighter elements is fine-tuned to an amazing degree

Fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force and the fine structure constant

If there is one thing that science fiction is good for, it’s for popularizing the phrase “carbon-based life”. Everyone has heard that carbon is essential for life. But do you know why carbon is so important? And did you know that the reaction that produced the carbon in our universe is actually fine-tuned, and therefore evidence for a Creator and Designer of the universe?

Hugh Ross has a new article up in Salvo magazine, which I found thanks to a post at Uncommon Descent.

Now he starts off with a discussion of how the mass density of the universe needed to be fine-tuned in order to produce elements heavier than hydrogen from the (only) hydrogen that was present at the creation event. I’ve talked about that reaction previously, but I won’t repeat that here. Nucleosynthesis is one of the most important chemical reactions in science, and something every Christian should know and understand well enough to explain it.

You can’t make complex embodied intelligent creatures such as ourselves out of only hydrogen and helium, but you can’t make a life permitting universe without some hydrogen and helium. For one thing, you can’t have liquid water without some hydrogen.

But the element carbon is the center hub of all of the molecules inside of us that allow for the storage and processing of information necessary for life.  And it turns out that the reaction that creates carbon from elements lighter than carbon is fine-tuned to an amazing degree.

Excerpt:

But cosmic mass density is not the only thing that must have been exquisitely fine-tuned for the universe to contain any carbon. The nuclear resonance (or energy) levels for helium, beryllium, carbon, and oxygen also had to be exquisitely fine-tuned for carbon to exist. Here’s how that happens.

Stars fuse carbon and oxygen from helium through a series of reactions known as the triple-alpha process, in which three helium nuclei are combined to make one carbon nucleus. In the first step in this process, two helium nuclei (with 2 protons each) fuse together to make beryllium (which has 4 protons). Next, a helium nucleus fuses with a beryllium nucleus to make carbon (which has 6 protons). Then, some carbon nuclei fuse with helium nuclei to make oxygen (which has 8 protons).

The only reason that the triple-alpha process produces any carbon or oxygen at all is because in the first step, the ground state energy level (i.e., the state of an atom when all of its electrons are at their lowest energy levels) of the beryllium-8 nucleus (containing 4 protons and 4 neutrons) almost exactly equals the ground state energy level of two helium-4 nuclei (2 protons and 2 neutrons each). In the second step, the ground state energy level of a beryllium-8 nucleus plus a helium-4 nucleus almost exactly equals the energy level of an excited state of a carbon-12 nucleus (6 protons and 6 neutrons). In the third step, the ground state energy level of a carbon-12 nucleus at 7.65 million electron volts is just slightly larger than the ground state energy level of an oxygen-16 nucleus (8 protons and 8 neutrons) at 7.12 million electron volts.1

If it were not for the near equivalences or resonances of the nuclear energy levels of two helium nuclei relative to a beryllium nucleus, and of a beryllium nucleus plus a helium nucleus relative to a carbon nucleus, the universe would contain very little or no carbon and very little or no elements heavier than carbon. Life would be impossible.

Furthermore, unless the difference in the nuclear energy levels between a carbon nucleus and an oxygen nucleus were precisely 0.53 million electron volts, the universe would contain either a lot of carbon and no oxygen or a lot of oxygen and no carbon. Either way, physical life would be impossible in the universe.

In the early 1950s, astronomer Fred Hoyle and physicist Willy Fowler were the first to understand how critical the relative nuclear energy levels of helium, beryllium, carbon, and oxygen were for making life possible in the universe. Commenting on the highly fine-tuned nature of these nuclear energy levels, Hoyle wrote in an article he published in Engineering & Science,

A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion beyond question.2

The article continues to explain that there is an additional problem of carbon fine-tuning related to habitability.

The carbon formation problem is one of the best examples of fine-tuning, and as you can see, it’s even admitted by atheists. It’s not the easiest one to explain (because resonance levels are not familiar in every day life), but it’s worth knowing about all three of the fine-tuning topics in the post.

Keep in mind that the more science has made progress, the more fine-tuning problems we have discovered. The trend is very bad if you are a naturalist. But very good if you are a theist. Evidence matters, and scientific evidence is the best kind of evidence.

Go to the article

[dwestfieldblog]

SPIRITUAL EMERGENCIES

Its been a hard nights day and I've been working like a God...Centring my chi by  (                      ) in conjunction with a little (                    ) on Sundays but don't try this at home unless you have some. Under the influence but not persuaded, with no choice other than to follow my free will. 350 songs recorded in Prague (about a third of them are good enough) over a very long weekend and now ready to go again...Last month I heard my own voice in a dream saying 'Death is my second home',  so perhaps another temporary close-down is coming. Hope that paragraph was pretentious enough. If not...meditating on 'The First law of thermodynamics...No energy in the universe is created and none is destroyed'. So all is well...

The recent magnificent Wargames with Russia and China...300 thousand men, (that's a lot) many fields of tanks and nautical miles filled with battleships, necessary because of (according to a joint statement from the protagonists) 'dangerous times' and 'unstable situations'. Reminds me of Bill Hicks quoting George Bush the older (the CIA president) saying 'The world is a dangerous place'...'yeah, thanks to YOU, quit arming the world!'. But this time around, these unstable situations are being more egged on and supported by Russia, gleefully supported as always by all those those make weapons. Trump is not the 'human' being to slow this down. Nature abhors a vacuum and she is rushing now to fill various empty heart/mind and soulless actions made by various leaders with processes of an irreversible...well... nature...Only '12 years' left now to avert climate change disaster...your newborns this year might very well inherit a desert. Well, if it was good enough for the Israelites...

Climate change debates witter on by men in suits flown in at great carbon footprint expense to sit around expensive South American wood tables and agree that time itself is running out. While those that disagree with them only do so because of well paying vested interests in the industries which drain, burn, drill and destroy. Human beings are like gangsters holed up and surrounded by the law, determined to take the hostages and cops with them when they go in a blaze of glory, just so they don't die alone. Reliance on coal continues, the need for oil because of ... 'lifestyle choices'...(ego)... back to RAW again...

'As soon as they find out how to put a meter between us and the sun, only then will we have clean energy.'  

There is a very special circle of Hell reserved for the Barons of black gold, where they burn alive forever, lit by oil. And another circle for those mapping the human genome and copyrighting it so they can make billions from various medicines and procedures, holding the masses to ransom. Peace will occur either when it is more profitable than arms dealing or when there is absolute silence of death on the human side. How many people do you know who are neither whore nor pimp? Or both.

The purpose of existence is (NB. seems to me in my current long running reality tunnel to be) evolution...and as with self programming artificial intelligence, there is a type of instinctive logic which suggests that as any chain is as strong as its' weakest link...and the mass of humanity appears to be working against evolving, then nature will just erase us and get on with creating her own new thang without the apes. Quite right too. The universe is (seems to be) 'non simultaneously apprehended events and interacting processing' but until I pick the free crop of magic mushrooms in the mystic forest this late October month, I will just take RAW's cosmic trigger words for it. (The lousy alchemist cook says make sure they are washed and/or dried right. Vomiting mould covered nipple tops before any hallucinogenic gets into the blood proper is very little fun. Learning, or not from experience in the face of common sense is always a hoot. Ask my liver. ) Anyway...let's be Sirius...

'News'...Nick Clegg is to take over the Facebook worries. (Head of Global Policy and Communications in Silicon Valley) Nick Clegg. This shows JUST how much Zuckerberg gives a damn eh? Useless/Hopeless. For those who don't know or remember, some years ago Clegg was the leader of the Liberal Party in Britain who swore he would never allow an increase in University fees if he were ever Prime Minister. After the election 'win' of David Cameron and the Conservatives, (only made possible with the Liberals siding with them) it took about two weeks before he was forced to go back on his word and toe the line of his bigger coalition partner. (Can't have an easily affordable education, that would be dangerous) A weak and easily breakable man. Expect Facebook to go on paying even less tax, abusing your private information and allowing Russia et al free rein to influence the populace.  

Nice to see the half a million march against Brexit in London. Will accomplish nothing but good that some people woke up before the face of this bullshit a few days later... 'Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks.....a eagle mewing her mighty youth'...Geoffrey Cox QC, the Attorney General invoking Milton at the Tory conference.  Winston Churchill defined success as the 'ability to move from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm'. So, well done and three cheers boys..good luck with making Britain Great again. I would truly love to be proved wrong...but...

'In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran,  cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice...and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance, a vendetta...held not as a votive in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose.' ...V for Vendetta via Hugo Weaving in an Anonymous Guy Fawkes mask. My other favourite quote from that film is.....

'And thus I clothe my naked villainy with odd old ends stolen forth from holy writ and seem a saint when most I play the devil.'  Richard III by the real Shakespeare, which covers just about every politician and religious leader, bar a very very precious few. God may be great but he's not as fat as Buddha. And anyway, belief narrows reality tunnels. Which for some people, makes them feel stronger...

In October, Alternative fur (that's fur with an umlaut over the 'u', not the sexy animal hair which is so nice to stroke or be stroked by but I digress. Arf.) Germany... suggested quite firmly that middle school children report to them if any of their teachers said bad things about the new patriotic Nazi swine. Nothing dubious there, no harking back to cruel and better days of the old 'thousand year' Reich and denouncing intellectuals and subversives at all. A month before that, because of hearing shouting, I looked out of my own window one afternoon to see a six foot six skinhead, in army clothes and big black leather boots on a balcony opposite, drunk and rousingly crying out about Deutschland for five minutes in German to his mates in the kitchen behind him as he clasped a beer can. Perhaps he was only joking. Unlikely the grandmother living alone and above his flat thought so. And as for the massive shaven headed Slovak steroid monsters with tattoos on their necks who shout at each other in conversation even when both are sitting two feet away, their biggest insult to their tiny two old kids is to angrily shout 'Little gypsy!' at them when they do something wrong. All together now;Hail Victory! Fnord.

A bad death of a murdered journalist in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey... followed by a lovely picture in the papers of smiling Crown Prince Bin Salman with Jared Kusher (a walking cypher of wrong cleanliness and evil married to Trump's daughter) No wonder it is yet another bastard thing for Trump to hope the connections all vanish from..as he gently damns the killing of a critic of the very royal prince while tweeting endless vitriol against the third estate in the USA. And Donald's glorious tit for tat bollocks about the old nuclear bilateral agreement with Russia... 'Well THEY started it, so we will react...ad infinitum'. Back to the happy days of being able to wipe out the planet seventy times over and rational cold war paranoia...at some point a computer will finally analyse all probable outcomes for the last time and find the one way in which a nuclear war could be won with minimal death on the home side. The computer it will say 'Go for it alpha monkeys'.  

'How long o lord, how long?  How low do you have to stoop in this country to be president?' Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972. (About Nixon, but ever more relevant by the day.)

Of course the masochistic paranoia of leaders will continue to find new and further devious outlets, displays and new laws...all the usual countries (IE all of them) behaving as if they can get away with murder forever. Forever, these days, is most likely shorter than a generation, unless there is already a dynasty of cruelty in place, where the buck/baton/cattle prod is passed down as an heirloom of death. Communication never gets to the top because underlings are scared to tell their bosses the truth in case the sweethearts are offended and kill them. (Meow and woof.)

*'The machine is running the engineers' Lenin on his deathbed. Communism, huh?

China's 'voluntary' organ donor scheme. Harvested from enemies of the state...70,000 annual operations...Got the money? Need a new liver? Sort you out in a fortnight, NO waiting list. Not suspicious at all, unless you are a doctor from another country looking into the massive amount of operations and the far smaller published donor lists. Hopefully, those rich enough to afford the instant new transplants will be better, peaceful people when they have their new tee total vegetarian Falun Gong organs in place. Whereas those with less to spend will have to make do with their internal workings run by other very involuntary donations made by dissidents who dared the high insult of comparing the 'president for life' to Winnie the Pooh.  

Primum non nocere, you bastards. The Hippocratic Oath replaced by a hypocritical medical ideology of murder for profit. The state does not help the healthcare 'system' much, if at all, so the military hospitals with easy access to prisoners can get to work stealing what is needed from living bodies. Those arrested who do not give their names and places of birth for fear of involving their families are simple to vanish. They ceased to exist the moment they were caught. Download the report, written by two Canadians, one a former Crown prosecutor and the other a Human Rights Lawyer and make up your own mind as to the veracity. 'The Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth', the land which brought the world Taoism and Confucianism...  

www.organharvestinvestigation.net

Take the time and read the report. Then ask yourself, if your children, parents or close friends needed a transplant to save their life (and you could afford a fast Chinese military hospital operation) would you truly care where the organ came from as long as it was healthy? If it was only for you, would you still take it, knowing where it had been stolen from or would you allow your own destiny to be? Desperation is one sure-fire test of the perception of morality.

*Ever notice all those t shirts, sweat shirts and bags with those certain cool slogans on? 'Happy to be an individual', 'My style is my choice', 'My freedom is my world', 'The end justifies the means'. Etc. Take a very cold and realistic guess as to where they are made and by whom and under what conditions. That's right. 

I appear to live (temporarily) in a world where a printed sign on the inside of a toilet door needs to say in two languages 'First unlock the door then turn handle'. That's right kids/adults, you have to be able to open a door before you open it. Almost Zen wisdom but hardly rocket science or brain surgery. Stuff you learn at about the age of  three. I have lost count (triple figures now) of how many customers in a certain shop I have seen standing next to a big, clearly printed sign on the counter to 'ring for service', watching them get ever more impatient as those who are working hard behind the scenes remain deaf and blind to their existence. And signs on the front door, inside and outside also in two languages, asking customers to please close the door.  A third of them never do, even in heavy winter. The evil within me takes a savage glee at the depth of stupidity of these shameless idiots. The pathetic being within rejoices that he is not quite as dumb as these retarded bipeds and the fake existentialist feels a sweeping wave of sheer galactic horror. But...

Back to the litany once again and forever...quality over quantity. I have optimism for the few. They/you WILL make it. You will create it and become it. As long as you understand how to open a f...ing door, you are halfway there.

'Whoever can scare people enough (produce bio-survival anxiety) can sell them quickly on any verbal map which seems to give them relief. i.e. cure the anxiety. By frightening people with Hell and then offering them Salvation, the most ignorant or crooked individuals can 'sell' a whole system of thought that cannot bear two minutes of rational analysis. Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising.

And once the child/adult is afraid enough, they will follow the substitute parent/s, kept pliant and submissive by further shocks administered to their truly nervous system with the promise of support or threat of punishment. Shame forever without mercy on those outside the mainstream of politics and organised religion who maintain such deeply manipulative systems in the pretence of setting the tender initiates 'free'. You should be a positive alternative, not more of the same poison.

'You gave your life to be the person you are now. Was it worth it?'           Richard Bach.Running from Saftey.

Onwards and inwards, sidestepping the unnecessary. You are your thoughts,'Reality' is personal, subjective and shaped by Will, the Love you come from and the Love you create. Happy everything/Sol Invictus to you and survive the long winter. Hibernate if needed, stay warm, learning and free...

[gotmudonyou]

OCR World Championships 2018 Report

When I heard that this years OCR World Championships would be held on home soil I had conflicting emotions. On the one hand it was great that I wouldn't have to shell out a lot of money to fly abroad again but on the other hand I was worried that it wouldn't have the magic that the event village in Canada had. I guess not having jet-lag would also be a plus.

Lets rewind to last year though. In Canada I had lost my band on the 3K and kept it for the 15k and team races. Analysing my performance it was clear that my obstacle game had to improve. Why had I lost my band at the rig in the 3k? Inexperience in a major race and specifically on rigs was clearly a big factor. But my mental game was clearly at fault as well. When running at full pelt on a short and fast course I was blowing too hard to be focussed coming into a technical obstacle. I also knew that although I had kept my band on the 15k I could have pushed harder during the race (although had I pushed harder would my obstacle game have suffered and maybe not kept my band?).

In the lead up to Canada I was on about 30-35kms of running a week. I wanted to up that so I signed up for a Marathon in April. This turned out to be a really bad idea. Reaching around 30kms in a training run I suddenly had knee pain that stopped me in my tracks. Diagnosis? Patella Tendonitis. Severely reduced mileage, strengthening exercises and a complete deconstruction and re-build of my running form. The reduced mileage was bad enough but the new way of running was tiring and made me long for the days I would just run without thinking whether I was overstriding or lifting my knees high enough.

Finally at the point of getting on top of the Patella Tendonitis I was looking forward to getting back to training hard. My body had other ideas. It saw my Patella Tendonitis and raised me ITB pain. I won’t bore you with my months of recovery but suffice to say it was not fun. My physio warned me against increasing mileage too fast as ITB issues are prone to coming back. So coming into the World Championships I had run a maximum of 11kms in one go since April. Not the best prep. 

Thankfully I had also signed up to a training programme held at the PT Barn. The Road to Worlds training programme was run by 3 fantastic coaches who each brought a differing skill set to the coaching. The course focussed on every aspect of OCR training that a racer needs to be successful in OCR. This included specific obstacle technique, skills and strength analysis, race preparation and race strategy. It taught me how to asses a race down to the finest detail. It also helped me to identify mental traps that had hampered my racing in the past. So whilst my race endurance was nowhere near where I had wanted it to be, my obstacle strength and performance as well as my mental game were better than ever. On the advice of the coaches I had also added an OCR Specific workout to my weekly regime, my hope was that this specific training would partially offset my lack of mileage. I have to admit I got some funny looks from the neighbours running out of my garden every 10 mins and doing a lap of the area with a sandbag on my shoulders! So...back to this year’s race....

This year’s race was held on the permanent site of the award winning Nuclear Races. The course was billed as packing in 100 obstacles over 15kms. 

Ok so it wasn't really 100 obstacles. 6 of them were a continuous wreckbag  carry and many obstacles listed were logs, trenches or streams. In any case, this was going to be very different from last year’s race which was up and down a ski slope with not much mud and no water obstacles. This race was going to be pretty flat with lots of mud and a fair amount of water including a full submersion.

3km Short Course

Due to my lack of mileage in training all year I knew that there was no way I would be able to keep up a decent pace for the 15km course so decided the 3km was many target race. The plan was to go all out and I said to myself if I didn’t cross the line exhausted then I hadn’t gone hard enough. I’d ‘pre-rigged’ the course the day before so I knew all the obstacles and had decided on my techniques through the rigs. I’d decided which attachments to use and which to miss out. This is something that the Road to Worlds course stressed. Just because an attachment (such as a ball, nunchuck or rope) is there it doesnt mean you have to use it. I saw so many racers out there using small and tricky attachments on a rig just because they thought they should.

Stood on the start line they had replaced Coach Pain with the MC from the UK Spartan series, Spartan Phil. Ok so he’d replaced his spartan helmet with a cap so I guess he was just regular Phil. As much as I’d loved  Coach Pain’s rousing start line speeches it was probably wise to use a more UK friendly style for this race.

The MC counted down..3....2...1....GO!! As it was a short course the pack went off at a fast pace. We were straight into some ditches which immediately got my heart rate through the roof. Next it was a crawl under barbed wire and then into a Wreckbag (sandbag) carry and then a crawl with the sandbag. This was a crazy way to start a race and didn’t allow you to settle into any kind of pace. I was thankful that I’d done a decent warm up so I felt able to push on. Then it was straight into 3 rigs back to back. First up was the platinum rig. Having done my prep I knew that I wanted to miss out a few attachments which made it a simple rig of rings and monkey bars. My heart rate was high which might have made me rush things in the past, but not now. I flew through but with barely 30 seconds of running I was at the next rig. This rig, named Varjagen Saga had been brought over by Strong Viking, a European race series. It consisted of 3 parts each with various things to hang and swing from. Through my prep I knew the technique to use for each section and flew through to hit the bell.

Varjagen Saga

With hardly any time to regain my breath I was hit with another grip strength sapping rig. The Force 5 Rig was something I’d never seen before in person. However having watched videos of the North American Championships I had a feel for how to approach the rig. All of the attachments swung from front to back, which made it easier to reach the next attachment. This rig was also housed by part of the huge event tent (it was massive!) which was cool and meant there were loads of spectators cheering on the racers. Surprisingly I got through it first time.

After a couple of jumping type obstacles I approach the Ninja Rings. This was a traverse where you had to get to the other side using plastic rings that you held in your hands and moved from bar to bar. I’d been practicing this on my home rig for months so I was ready and flew across.

After this followed some squats under bars whilst carrying a log, a quarter pipe and another hanging obstacle called Trapeze. I then arrived at a new obstacle called Skitch. The aim was to traverse to the end of a hanging bar using hooks that you held in each hand. The tricky part was that you had to lift both hooks across a chain attached to the middle of the bar. This was a difficult obstacle and many struggled (even some pros). As part of my training I had some hooks fabricated for me and I mocked up a version and practiced at home. This paid off as I nailed it first time.

Skitch

Now I just had 3 obstacles to go! First up was a bomb carry, which was exactly what you think is. A metal bomb that you had to carry in your arms but not on your shoulders. The bomb had a moving weight inside so if you carried it at an angle all the weight shifted to one side. This obstacle in itself was fine but it tired your arms and grip out enough to make the penultimate obstacle that much harder.

The penultimate obstacle was the wonderfully named Skull Valley. I’d conquered this obstacle in Canada so was confident I could do so again. Thankfully I had just enough grip left to get through.

Skull Valley

The final obstacle was a giant slip wall to get over. Thankfully the ropes were a little lower than in Canada so this was no problem (it got tougher on subsequent days due to the mud).

Crossing the line in 65th place out of 202 in my age group I was in the top 32%. I was happy with my obstacle performance and effort. Band kept, but this was just race 1 of 3.....

15km Standard Course

The 15km race was going to be a different beast. As I said, I hadn’t run more than 11kms since April so a tough 15kms Obstacle race was going to be a test of my fitness. The race set off at a less frantic pace and after the ditches we were treated to a nice long Wreckbag carry through the forest. The carry involved ducking under and going over beams. Being short means ducking under beams was nice and easy but going over them not so much!

Wreckbag Carry

After another carry and some other minor obstacles I hit the Nuclear monkey bars, thankfully just the short section. After this came possibly the worst part, around 5 sets of cargo nets to crawl under. I hated these, they were quite tight and you had to crawl on your hands and knees. I’m pretty sure this was responsible for the scrape on my knee.

About 5kms in and after a zip line we got into some proper mud. I mean the kind of mud you have to crawl through. Thankfully I then got completely soaked by the deathslide which cleaned the mud off. Whilst obstacles such as zip lines and deathslides are fun I’m not sure they have a place in a World Championship race. Saying that many racers I ran past told me they loved the zip line. So what do I know.

I was looking forward to the low rig having trained specifically for this type of obstacle. So I was a bit disappointed to find it was simply two bars with a ring in between. Boring! Oh well. Shortly after this came Stairway to Heaven, an A frame with horizontal planks which you had to climb and ascend on the inside with only your arms. This was only the third time I’d ever attempted this obstacle. The first time was Canada last year and the second at a Road to Worlds training session. It was at this point that I caught up with my wife Jo who had set off in the wave before me. After a quick hug and checking how she was getting on I quickly ascended and descended the stairway without much thought (I think you can overthink this one easily). I found out later that Jo managed to get to the top of Stairway but was unable to make the transition. This was the furthest she had ever got on this obstacle so she was really happy with her progress.

The race used a lot of the permanent obstacles on the Nuclear site but added a number of World Championships specific obstacles as well as obstacles from other races. After a section of Nuclear obstacles I was back in the event village and the gauntlet of rigs. The Platinum rig had been changed up from the previous day and was marginally more complex. Yet again though there were attachments that I had no intention of touching. It now started with 2 rings followed by a T-bar. There was no way of skipping the T-bar so I decided to grab it with a couple of fingers either side and effectively treat it as a ring. A rope, some monkey bars and a couple of rings and I was through. I sailed through Varjagen Saga again and was actually starting to enjoy the flow of this obstacle. It was then on to the Force 5 rig. Although I’d smashed this obstacle the day before I was getting tired. I wasn’t focussed and therefore fell off the middle wheel and had to go back to the retry lane. I knew my grip was still ok so decided to take 5 minutes and regain my focus. I took the time to clean the mud off my hands and managed to fly through. Phew!

Weaver & Force 5 Rig

After this it was back into the forest and a rope traverse over water. Now I hadn’t seen a rope traverse in a race since the UK Championships back in 2016. For some reason I had a feeling we’d see one so I’d been down to Mad Mike’s, my local training centre, to practice. Theres also no better impetus to hold on than the threat of dropping into cold water. So hold on I did.

With around 4kms left I could feel my lack of mileage in training starting to tell. I was slowing and could feel my legs tiring. I took in another gel and pushed on.

Bomb Carry

Nailing Skitch and battling through the bomb carry I was faced with Skull Valley for the second time in 2 days. Having had no problem with this on the 3K I was surprised to feel my grip failing before the second set of skulls. As I reached for the first skull my hand slipped. For a moment I felt doubt creeping in. I’d trained my grip endurance and to feel weakness was disheartening. But I reckoned that I just needed a quick rest to let me recover. When I slipped off I also ripped some skin off my hand. This was bad news as I now had a red raw section of skin where I would need to hold the skulls. Arse. But wait...ripped hands were always going to be potential risk at such an obstacle heavy course. If only I had put something in my pocket for such an eventuality. As my coach Scotty PT says, ‘fail to prepare and prepare to fail’. I’d prepared for every other element so of course I was ready! I’d thankfully packed some WOD & Done hand protectors. These are sticky strips that go over your fingers and protect your palms. I carefully applied the strip to my right hand and took some deep breaths. Arriving at Skull Valley I’d met Team UK honorary captain Stuart Neail and he was having to retry as well. We were both taking our time and ensuring we were recovered enough before taking a second go. This was an obstacle that most racers could probably complete when fresh but after 15kms and 100 (ish) obstacles it suddenly felt a lot harder. Seeing Stuart get through I knew it was my time. It was now or never. I flew through the first set of skulls and onto the swinging monkey bars. The tricky bit is the transition from the monkey bars back up to the second set of skulls. Thankfully I nailed that and as soon as I started swinging I could feel that the rest had the desired effect as my grip felt solid yet again. I was so happy to hit that bell!

The final obstacle was again the slip wall. This time things were made a bit harder by mud caking the wall and ropes. Scrambling over the top and running over the finish line I was thrilled to have kept my band again. I definitely had to work for it towards the end of the race.

Team Race

I ran the team race with 2 fellow Road 2 Worlds members, Leanne and Claire. Like last year the team event was divided into 3 sections, Speed, Strength and Technical. However this year the sections were much more even in the length of the sections plus there were some team obstacles that we had to complete together. I was on technical again although I was feeling pretty beat up by now as the 15k had taken it out of me. Before the race I realised I wasn’t at all focussed so a I was hoping a coffee and a caffeine gel would wake me up.

I didn’t really do much of a warm up as I was standing around for nearly an hour waiting for my team mates to complete their legs. Finally I saw Leanne coming up the hill and after completing her last carry she handed over to me and I was straight into the Platinum rig. My arms being tired from 2 days of racing I made sure to go two handed on rings when possible and make sure I landed each hand where it needed to be. I could hear coach Tony Leary shouting ‘make it safe Fabian, make it safe!’. It was then straight into Varjagen Saga and again I sailed through this obstacle.

It was then on to the Force 5 rig. I lost concentration at the last moment and doing an Appleton (sorry James) I missed the bell by millimetres. Back to the retry lane for me. Fatigue was definitely the main reason that I missed the bell but I think I let the initial failure the day before get in my head a bit. After a few minutes of recovery and some encouragement from another Road to Worlds member Jonathan I had a second attempt and nailed it.

It was then on to the Dragon’s back, Ninja Rings and Weaver. The final obstacle of my technical leg was Skitch. Noticing that my WOD & Done hand protectors weren’t that grippy against metal I tore most of them off to ensure I had the best grip. My grip was fine thankfully and I hit the bell and ran down to tag my team mates for the final section of the race. I have to say that by this point my arms were burning!

The final section included 3 team obstacles. The first was transporting 2 atlas stones on a metal gurney. Leanne and Claire carried the gurney whilst I steadied the stones and ensured they didn’t fall off.

Next was a rope climb over a metal A frame. We all had to go over the same rope but could help each other. Claire wasn’t keen on this at being afraid of heights. Leanne waited at the top in case she needed help but Claire was amazing, faced her fears and conquered the obstacle.

It was then on to the final Slip Wall. This time there were no ropes! We had a plan which was to form a human ladder. I went at the bottom, Leanne climbed on my shoulders and Claire then climbed up both of us to the top. Claire then helped pull Leanne up. Leanne then hung down whilst I ran up and grabbed her leg to reach the rope. We were over! Crossing the finish line with your team is an awesome feeling and we were all buzzing after the race.

So 3 races and 3 bands kept. That’s one more than last year so I guess that’s progress. I had hoped to be a bit more competitive this year but that wasn’t to be. I was really happy with my performance on the 3k and I reckon if I can get back to the kind of mileage I was at last year coupled with the functional OCR workouts I’ve been doing this year I can get a lot quicker. My obstacle game is streets ahead of where it was last year as is my grip endurance. So speed and running endurance is my focus now.

So as I said I was concerned that having the Championships in the UK it wouldn’t match the heights of Canada. I really shouldn’t have worried. The race village was great and from a spectator point of view there were a lot of obstalces to view. I thought the course was well designed and challenging. Yes there was more mud than some competitors were comfortable with but this was a good representation of what UK OCR is about. We were also ridiculously lucky with the weather. It was around 16ºC for the first 2 days and by the Sunday I was lying around in a t-shirt with a high of 20ºC! Madness for October. A week later it dropped to 5ºC so we were very lucky. Also had it rained instead of hanging around spectators would have had to huddle under the tent or go back to their hotels. But it didn’t rain, so it was glorious.

Special mention needs to go to Tom Nash, Stuart Neail and the many others who have worked to make Team UK a unified team. Having the team kitted out in Team UK racing tops, jackets and shorts was a wonderful sight and made it easy to support our fellow countrymen on the course. I have to say that the support for Team UK out on the course was amazing. Not only that but the support I received from fellow Road to Worlds members was incredible. Hardly 10 mins would go by without hearing a ‘Go Team UK’ or ‘Go on Fabian!’ It was wonderful and nearly made me a bit emotional at one point. No crying for me this year though. Just lots of smiles. What a weekend! 🇬🇧

Oh I also took loads of photos over the weekend, feel free to check them out here!