I'm Sorry That Was Mean

Executive dysfunction comes from a lack of available dopamine. Common advice is wrong. You need to provide your own dopamine before you can start. Otherwise you're trying to run your car on empty.

"But what if I still don't do it" well you already weren't getting it done anyway. Now you have a little treat. Try again later.

You deserve kindness and care even when you aren't being productive.

I usually suggest this technique as a "Reverse Pomodoro." In the original Pomodoro, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes (the times vary, but that's the essential ratio). People with executive dysfunction often find this insurmountable, and they get even more frustrated, and then the task seems even more difficult. So instead, flip those times.

FIRST, spend 25 minutes doing something energizing and engaging that you like to do. Not scrolling social media passively, not watching tv, not napping. Try something like colouring, doing yoga, running/walking around the block, talking about your favourite tv show with someone in real time, playing with the dog or cat, making and eating a lovely sandwich, hula hooping, something active. Having a little treat absolutely falls in this category!

(on the subject of little treats: refusing yourself food until you do work is for fucking Puritans and you can be kinder to yourself)

Then, after 25 minutes (or however long it takes to eat the sandwich or finish the yoga routine, it doesn't have to be exact), spend 5 minutes writing (or doing whatever you're struggling to start). Most people can coax themselves into doing something they find difficult for five minutes, if they have already filled up the joy/energy/engagement bucket. You can put a timer on for the 5 minutes if you want, or if you find that annoying, just work for as long as you like.

The other key is: don't push yourself to keep going when you're frustrated or tired—that will just reinforce the negative belief that you already have, which tells you that this task is painful to do, and needs to be avoided. If you've commonly had to force yourself to do this kind of task, that's likely part of why you think of it as painful and have trouble starting it now. Also, you should just, at a basic level, try not to put yourself in pain for the sake of productivity. So just do it till the good feelings run out. Then start hula hooping or colouring again for another 25 minutes. When the tank's refilled, try another 5 minutes of work, if you can. Adjust times to taste.

From "The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!" in Journey into Mystery #112, January 1965. Jack Kirby pencils, Chic Stone inks, Stan Goldberg (?) colors, Sam Rosen letters.

For our Core Lies meme (Bruce has already had an entry)

Devil Hulk (The Immortal Hulk)

So, there are two eras for Devil Hulk.

The Jenkins era in the early 2000s (and the Ultimate Devastation video game) and Ewing's Immortal Hulk.

For the most part I will talk about the Ewing version.

So, full disclosure to our Tumblr audience, Turq and I discussed this on Discord and the "I take that personal" catchphrase that appears on the above image.

Turq said that the first time it was used was after Shadow Base captured the system and did invasive tests on Devil. As he intentionally takes a life, murders with willful intent (as opposed to a consequence of a Hulk's rampage) is claimed to be because the victim in question hurt Banner and when you hurt Banner, he takes it real personal.

Now... we should probably note that Hulk taking life, accidentally or otherwise, is a contentious thing unto itself. It's brought up within Immortal and Devil casually accepts Amadeus Cho's theory that the system calculate potential damage to steer any active Hulk from killing people. It's convenient for protecting Bruce and so he doesn't dispute it.

Devil's motivation in Jenkin's run is to force Bruce into the mindscape where he could live in a happy fantasy, free from the horrors of reality. In Ewing's run it is to "destroy the status quo" because the world as it is under capitalism is something that hurts Bruce and he wants to lash out at anything that hurts Bruce.

Now... the hard thing to note is that Devil is outwardly dishonest. I think Devil is just doing whatever he can to protect the whole system after their successful assisted suicide in Civil War 2. Devil woke up because Bruce killed himself. He was beyond despair and Devil is doing anything he can to repair them all.

It's clear by the end that his plan was always to pass the reigns of protection on to Joe.

I think that Devil internalizes a lot of the building blocks that make him what he is and he embodies them to push the system forward but never envisioned a future with him in it.

Not to post The Page again but...

I believe Devil's core lie is that he is built off of the building blocks of Brian Banner. Bruce cannot imagine love with pain, he fears the anger that exists within him.

He knows that he can never be the father that Bruce needs. He can't protect him forever. He's just doing what he can because the system needs him.

I believe he's internalized some of that.

That he is the monster Bruce sees him as, so he acts it. That Bruce is afraid of him, so he keeps him at arms reach.

My belief is a sad one. "Bruce will be better off without me."

He's just there until Joe can take his place.

For an alter who was released from imprisonment because the system committed suicide, Devil has no attachment to living for himself.

I think that Devil actually has a lot of personal drive and impulse of his own. But he supresses it or rationalizes it to be about helping Bruce. Because he keeps telling himself that he has to go away when they're safe. That "safe" is a world that doesn't have him in it.

Which is kind of sad.

...speaking of Joe. I have another ask in my box...

---

For other core lie asks:

quotes from the 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail film. feel free to switch around pronouns, diction, and the like to make them more suitable for your muse.

❝ Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. ❞

❝ Stop. Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see. ❞

❝ What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? ❞

❝ What makes you think she's a witch? ❞

❝ 'Tis but a scratch! ❞

❝ I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! ❞

❝ Oh, stop bitching and let’s go have tea. ❞

❝ Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale! ❞

❝ You stay in the room and make sure he doesn’t leave. ❞

❝ You’re not going to do a song while I’m here. ❞

❝ What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior! ❞

❝ Guards, make sure the prince doesn't leave this room until I come and get him.❞

❝ Look, it's my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can. ❞

❝ We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril. ❞

❝ It's just a flesh wound. ❞

❝ Are you suggesting coconuts migrate? ❞

❝ In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right? ❞

❝ Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?❞

❝ Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed! ❞

❝ Well, that's no ordinary rabbit. ❞

❝ Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer! ❞

❝ We are now no longer the Knights who say Ni. ❞

❝ It's only a model! ❞

❝ Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail. ❞

❝ Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he will be very keen. Uh, he's already got one, you see. ❞

❝ On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place. ❞

❝ Bring out yer dead. ❞

❝ I'm not dead. I'm getting better. ❞

❝ You're not fooling anyone, you know. Isn't there anything you could do? ❞

❝ Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. ❞

❝ You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest… WITH… A HERRING! ❞

❝ Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. ❞

❝ What manner of man are you that can summon up fire without flint or tinder?❞

❝ I seek the bravest and the finest knights in the land who will join me in my court at Camelot. ❞

❝ You have proved yourself worthy. Will you join me? ❞

❝ I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight. But I must cross this bridge. ❞

❝ Now, stand aside, worthy adversary! ❞

❝ Is there someone else up there we can talk to? ❞

❝ No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time! ❞

❝ Follow. But! Follow only if ye be men of valor! For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel, that no man yet has fought with it… and lived! BONES of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair! So! Brave knights! If you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth… ❞

❝ Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to carve 'Aaaauuuggghhhh'. He'd just say it. ❞

❝ I seek the Grail! I have seen it, here in this castle! ❞

❝ Get on with it! ❞

❝ Please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who. ❞

Penny Rose: Babbles in Baby

All of tumblr collectively at my husband:

Husband: you don’t even have to understand taxes yet! I can explain them but you’ve got several years before that’s relevant!

Penny Rose: wide eyes, staring at her father, almost intrigued

THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND

Husband: Now Penny there is a lot of misinformation out there in the world and I hate to tell you this but the moon is in fact not made of cheese. That is a conspiracy theory pushed by Big Dairy.

1) Did you participate in baby talk to make up for your husband's deficit, or did you also opt to speak to the Deals Warlock like a very tiny adult from babyhood?

Something funny that has happened is that while she formally calls me Mama when she's answering me in passing she does call me "My Darling Love" and I don't know for sure but I think it's because I call her and her father "my loves" and her father calls me and her "darlings" and she's created a mash up 😂

Penny Rose is now 5 years old and she

1. Starts talking the moment she opens her eyes to the moment she passes out at night

2. Asks, and I am not exaggerating I counted, an average of 892 questions a day

3. Does not accept "I don't know" as an answer to said questions, will usually have a follow up question as to why you don't know OR a suggestion on how we can find out together

Never went anywhere …. I mean look at the way she’s looking at him

Yeah, another out of character post. Sorry, y'all. But it's still Bruce related!