The strongest time traveler

AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They’ve warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic’s AI training now threatens to “financially ruin” the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

A lot of the time when people give advice intended to relieve anxiety, they suggest doing “relaxing” things like drawing, painting, knitting, taking a bubble bath, coloring in one of those zen coloring books, or watching glitter settle to the bottom of a jar.

This advice is always well-intentioned, and I’m not here to diss people who either give it or who benefit from it. But it has never, ever done shit for me, and this is because it goes about resolving anxiety in the completely wrong way.  

THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO when suffering from anxiety is to do a “relaxing” thing that just enables your mind to dwell and obsess more on the thing that’s bothering you. You need to ESCAPE from the dwelling and the obsession in order to experience relief.

You can drive to a quiet farm, drive to the beach, drive to a park, or anywhere else, but as someone who has tried it all many, many times, trust me–it’s a waste of gas. You will just end up still sad and stressed, only with sand on your butt. You can’t physically escape your sadness. Your sadness is inside of you. To escape, you need to give your brain something to play with for a while until you can approach the issue with a healthier frame of mind. 

People who have anxiety do not need more time to contemplate, because we will use it to contemplate how much we suck.

In fact, you could say that’s what anxiety is–hyper-contemplating. When we let our minds run free, they run straight into the thorn bushes. Our minds are already running, and they need to be controlled. They need to be given something to do, or they’ll destroy everything, just like an overactive husky dog ripping up all the furniture. 

Therefore, I present to you: 

THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO WHEN ANXIOUS

–Go on a walk

–Watch a sunset, watch fish in an aquarium, watch glitter, etc.

–Go anywhere where the main activity is sitting and watching

–Draw, color, do anything that occupies the hands and not the mind

–Do yoga, jog, go fishing, or anything that lets you mentally drift 

–Do literally ANYTHING that gives you great amounts of mental space to obsess and dwell on things.

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO WHEN ANXIOUS:

–Do a crossword puzzle, Sudoku, or any other mind teaser game. Crosswords are the best.

–Write something. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. Write the Top 10 Best Restaurants in My City. Rank celebrities according to Best Smile. Write some dumb Legolas fanfiction and rip it up when you’re done. It’s not for publication, it’s a relief exercise that only you will see. 

–Read something, watch TV, or watch a movie–as long as it’s engrossing. Don’t watch anything which you can run as background noise (like, off the top of my head, Say Yes to The Dress.) As weird as it seems, American Horror Story actually helps me a lot, because it sucks me in. 

–Masturbate. Yes, I’m serious. Your mind has to concentrate on the mini-movie it’s running. It can’t run Sexy Titillating Things and All The Things That are Bothering Me at the same time. (…I hope. If it can, then…ignore this one.) 

–Do math problems—literally, google “algebra problems worksheet” and solve them. If you haven’t done math since 7th grade this will really help you. I don’t mean with math, I mean with the anxiety. 

–Play a game or a sport with someone that requires great mental concentration. Working with 5 people to get a ball over a net is a challenge which will require your brain to turn off the Sadness Channel. 

–Play a video game, as long as it’s not something like candy crush or Tetris that’s mindless. 

THINGS YOU SHOULD DO DURING PANIC ATTACKS ESPECIALLY:

–List the capitals of all the U.S. states

–List the capitals of all the European countries

–List all the shapes you can see. Or all the colors. 

–List all the blonde celebrities you can think of.

–Pull up a random block of text and count all the As in it, or Es or whatever.  

Now obviously, I am not a doctor. I am just an anxious person who has tried almost everything to help myself.  I’ve finally realized that the stuff people recommend never works because this is a disorder that thrives on free time and free mental space. When I do the stuff I listed above, I can breathe again. And I hope it helps someone here too. 

Even with the thirty or so people in this shot (the full cast in this scene is close to the roster size of Brawl, actually), this is only a handful of the full roster (even without DLC considered). Additionally, everyone is tense and in "final boss fight mode".

Mario and Bowser are both missing family members, Kirby and Dedede are present but Meta Knight isn't, and the only franchises with more than one character that has everyone present are the Donkey Kong and Kid Icarus franchises. It's readily apparent who's in it simply because it's what needs to happen and/or it's the right thing to do, and who's in it because it became personal based on facial expression alone. The newcomers who didn't go through SSE have no plan of action.

Mario and Bowser are there, but Peach isn’t

Marth is there, but Chrom and Lucina (his descendants) are not

Villager is there but Isabelle isn’t

Palutena controls both Pit and Dark Pit’s power of flight while everyone escapes. Normally, Viridi is the one to control Dark Pit’s flight in Smash (as evidenced by the color his wings glow and his guidance conversation)

Not an omission but snake is standing next to sonic on the cliff when canonically snake hates sonic

Even with the thirty or so people in this shot (the full cast in this scene is close to the roster size of Brawl, actually), this is only a handful of the full roster (even without DLC considered). Additionally, everyone is tense and in "final boss fight mode".

Mario and Bowser are both missing family members, Kirby and Dedede are present but Meta Knight isn't, and the only franchises with more than one character that has everyone present are the Donkey Kong and Kid Icarus franchises. It's readily apparent who's in it simply because it's what needs to happen and/or it's the right thing to do, and who's in it because it became personal based on facial expression alone. The newcomers who didn't go through SSE have no plan of action.

Mario and Bowser are there, but Peach isn’t

Marth is there, but Chrom and Lucina (his descendants) are not

Villager is there but Isabelle isn’t

Palutena controls both Pit and Dark Pit’s power of flight while everyone escapes. Normally, Viridi is the one to control Dark Pit’s flight in Smash (as evidenced by the color his wings glow and his guidance conversation)

Not an omission but snake is standing next to sonic on the cliff when canonically snake hates sonic

“Hey man, go around the corner”

“Naw it’s cool”

“It’s really not. (The owner) will ban you if he sees you doing this in front of his bar like an idiot”

“He won’t see me”

“Yeah but I see you. And I’m asking you to go around the corner so you’re not right in front of the fucking bar”

“It’s just weed. Are you scared of weed?”

“Listen you stupid hippie I use drugs that would blow your burnout mind. I don’t give a shit about weed. But do not fucking involve me, do not involve the bar. Just take seven steps to the corner and smoke your heart out”

“Naw man it’s cool”

Reblog To Cast 🔄

Reblog To Cast 🔄