I see a lot of posts talking about how you’re not behind in life. And it’s true and a really great message. I’m not disagreeing.
I just want to take a moment to talk to those that feel behind because they’ve lost so many years to trauma, mental illness or any number of circumstances. It’s okay to grieve for the time you’ve lost.
It’s really valid that you feel it isn’t fair that you dealt with the obstacles you did. Because it isn’t fair. And while it’s important to not get hung up on that, it’s okay to feel it and grieve what you lost.
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I totally get the changes, and honestly, I don't see why everyone is so butthurt about it. I really hope it has a second season, cause I want to see Toph.
I'm just really baffled at some of these people being so unprofessional about this adaptation, like DiscussingFilm on Twitter...it's like, what do you know, dumbass? It does have the spirit of Avatar. It's its own thing, yet it has the spirit of Avatar.
Like...what did you expect?
No one was complaining about the One Piece live-action and only saying how good it was. So...what's the deal here? Is it some of these brain-dead so-called 'fans' saying that it doesn't have Byrke's approval? Like, get over yourself.
Sometimes I can't stand the Avatar fandom...
But really, I hope this gets a second season. I want to see how they handle Toph.
Netflix, PLEASE, greenlit this bad boy! I want to see more! :O
But yeah, I enjoyed it. It had great moments and the changes made sense, and the characters were amazing as usual.
It's not perfect, but I sincerely think it was a pretty good adaptation of a beloved cartoon...definitely better than that live-action Avatar movie that shall not be named. XP
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You’ll often feel like you’re a pendulum swinging from one extreme to another. You go hard, you’re reading Atomic Habits, you’re eating the organic veggies for lunch AND dinner, the apartment is immaculate, you look and feel great…until…until quite literally the opposite. Washing your hair becomes a chore, you’re in a mood with the dog and your organised healthy eating has now become something you have to do, and in turn tastes like crappy vegetables with no soul or life. Why has self love become such an uphill effort?
This is because you’ve focused on the doing. The joy of self love has been missing, yes you can meditate for 40 days. Yes, you can go for runs throughout the week, but where is your joy? When is your inner child getting play? As important as the reading, the pilates classes, the podcasts are. You need joy. And this is why you rebel. You want to scroll on your phone instead of reading that book, you want to make something quick because you’re not in the mood to cook the Ottelenghi recipe or make the seed cycling crackers. Because adulting 247 is not fun. You need variety, play, laughter. When did life become so serious? Understand that you need a break from cooking, a takeout once a week is a healthy balance. Watching a movie during the week is not a sin, and it doesn’t need to be on Gaia. The self development books are great, but so is fiction and a little fantasy. Disciplined mornings are life changing, but so is sleeping in on Sunday, and having no set regiment. Balance is key, and not having balance is the reason why self love is starting to feel like a chore. So take some time to reflect on your ‘level up regiment’ and throw some balance in to the mix, adding some play, and a sprinkle of laughter. What you’ll start to see is that the swinging pendulum finds some middle ground and self love is really in the sweet spot called balance.
I'm not sure how successful I will be in remembering all of it, but I'll try. These have all been game-changers for me, in a variety of ways. If teen me had had access to all of these, I would have been a vastly happier person.
This one is long, so I'll put in a cut.
-outlet timers. Not having to go around and manually turn off lamps at bedtime? Amazing. I bought these but you can and should get some that have a grounded outlet with three prongs so you can attach good extension cords to them.
-famotidine. aka Pepcid, it's the safest option I currently know of for managing acid reflux. I get nauseated when I get acid reflux, so this is a necessity for me.
-T-Gel shampoo. The only one that keeps my husband's insane dandruff under control. Coal tar shampoos smell peculiar, but are totally worth it if they work. For my hair, I like anti-dandruff conditioner--I apply it to my scalp and my other conditioners to the length of my hair. After bleaching my hair, I use Olaplex 3 to prevent more severe damage; the difference is very noticeable.
-white vinegar for a laundry rinse. I get horrendous contact dermatitis and adding this in the "fabric softener" cup in my washer keeps things from making my skin burn.
-on a similar note, all Oxy laundry booster. Doesn't make my skin burn but does make stains and smells noticeably better than detergent alone.
-Aquaphor. If you have eczema, nothing helps like Aquaphor, unless it's hydrocortisone ointment (the same white petrolatum base as Aquaphor but with hydrocortisone) or a prescribed steroid.
-Bissell Stomp 'N' Go pads. I have stomped. The stain goes.
-Prune puree. A packet a day keeps the chronic constipation at bay. Less volume to consume than prune juice and, in my opinion, slightly more palatable.
-Chinotto is a bitters-based beverage that I discovered by accident really helps my chronic nausea. I've tried other brands, and San Pellegrino is definitely my favorite. Tastes weird at first, but when heavy-duty ginger ale doesn't ease it, Chinotto can. And when that doesn't work, I have Zofran (ondansetron) my doctor prescribed me for the nausea I get with migraines, and that's an effective anti-nausea agent for more than just migraines.
-"You Just Need to Lose Weight (And 19 Others Myths About Fat People)" by Aubrey Gordon.
-rolling laundry cart. Doesn't have to be this one but if you CAN roll your laundry to and fro from the machines, do it.
-"Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men" by Lundy Bancroft. If you Google, you can usually find a free pdf floating around.
-"The Vagina Bible," by Dr. Jen Gunter.
-satin scrunchies. Wet Brush. Terry cloth lined shower cap. AOA terry cloth hair turban (way, way better than similar ones from drugstore).
-stretchy work pants.
-bra liners. For large-chested people who tend to get sweaty underboob, this is a life-saver.
-Goo Gone.
-Dr. Scholls medicated foot powder and the Earth Therapeutics tea tree oil foot spray. The foot powder works for super long days and the spray for lighter days.
-Reflective heat pad. I use this on my car seat in the winter and I am so happy for that every single chilly morning. I've repurchased it... once or twice? now.
-Retin-A. I used to use Differin, which is adapalene, the most potent retinoid available over the counter, but the switch to prescription-only Retin-A has been very noticeable. Decreased wrinkles, clearer skin. More inclined to flake and burn but it's worth it for me.
-Red LED therapy. Near-infrared stimulates collagen production in the skin. The only other thing that really does that is retinoids. I bought the Omnilux mask, which is certainly high-end, but HotandFlashy (a YouTube content creator) did a great comparison of different masks available by specs and this was the best at the time. The difference is noticeable within days. I've tried other, lower-powered masks, but what made me make the jump to high-end was that I got the Dennis Gross red LED eye mask for crows' feet off eBay and I was like "holy shit, this is better." And Omnilux is better still. It makes sense, since they were the OG of the models that have been in dermatology clinics for a couple of decades now.
-AOA foundation has been at least as good at my TooFaced foundation, and it's like 1-2 bucks instead of 40. There are light, medium, and deep shades, each on different pages; I'm linking to light because that's what I use. The lightest shade works for me, and I'm basically translucent.
-AOA VitaGlow tinted moisturizer is absolutely my go-to for lighter coverage days.
-AOA PawPaw blending sponges. Best out there and also the cheapest.
-(do not buy any of the AOA eyeshadows. Total waste of time, zero pigment. I've tried repeatedly and they're just garbage. The highlights are generally fine though.)
-Direct acid foot peels. The calluses come off. Just don't do it when you have ANY open wound on the feet, because it's acid and will sting like hell.
-blendercleanser solid cleanser for blending sponges and brushes. Actually a) gets them clean and b) rinses out.
-PureWine wine wands. I let these puppies sit for three minutes in a glass and suddenly I can drink red wine without migraines or hangovers. Fucking miraculous.
-Dustbuster. Holy shit it's amazing for ADHD peeps. Small thing bugging you? Can't get yourself to bust out the "real" vacuum? USE THIS.
-Crocs. Don't @ me. I wear a black pair around the house and for garden chores and they make my feet happy. Salonpas patches and/or BenGay for a topical when you're sore--topicals are great pain relief.
-Vibrating neck pillow. Don't need it right now? Wait until your next head cold. Vibration clears sinuses.
-PooPourri. I love not having to smell poop. This, and similar products, work pretty well by trapping scent particles in the oil layer instead of letting them evaporate into the air.
-Electric snow thrower. I can't manage a large, heavy snow blower and I don't want to deal with a gas engine. This little guy helped me clear my large driveway in 3-4 hours instead of 12.
-The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan.
-Handheld home IPL for hair removal. I ordered this exact one and I like it. You can get these on eBay or Amazon for cheaper sometimes; just make sure you PROTECT YOUR EYES during flashes. Targets pigment in the hair bulb so lighter skin and darker hair work better, and deeper skin tones may burn.
-Lanolin chapstick. Makes all other chapsticks I've used look like garbage.
-Steam eye masks. ShopMissA sells these and you can find them on a lot sites; shouldn't cost more than about a dollar per mask. I ended up buying an electric eye mask because I wanted to treat my dry eye and that just felt more environmentally responsible, but I love falling asleep with these on and I can't do that with my plug-in mask.
I think this is where I'll leave it--I've gone back quite a ways in my shopping history across multiple sites and thought about my daily routines--but if any of these problems torture you, these are my suggestions.
Somehow made this whole thing without including the inspiration for it: Waterpik has made a toothbrush with a Waterpik in the middle so I can floss while brushing my teeth. Unbelievable. Game changer. Get one.
Also, for hair styling, the hot air brushes???? Fucking nuts. I can make my hair look like it’s on purpose in a quarter of the time it used to take me.
How to re-programme your subconscious mind…(tried and tested)
When the retreats don’t seem to have a lasting effect, you’ve done therapy, prayed, been to see healers, meditated… but for the life of you, stilllll have wounds so deep that they might appear to be resolved but the moment you meet someone who is wow you suddenly feel unworthy. Maybe not even suddenly, but your relationship wounds are running deep. Relationships trigger you. You end up feeling the same 90% of the time. Unlovable, unwanted, and rejected. The key to remember is that it started with you. With the mind, with your thinking. At whatever point in your childhood (or even later) you took on the belief that you're not worthy, your needs were not met. You took on behaviours that play out still to this day. Maybe it was hiding yourself, maybe it was lashing out? Whatever it is, the same way it started with you, with your thinking, with your processing of events. Is the same way you heal your self. Here are some steps:
1] Forgiveness. Forgiveness is going to free you from your past. Write a list of all the people and situations that caused you pain from your earliest memory to this very day. Whatever pains are etched in your mind, write them down. Once your list is collated, start going through each scenario, sending love and forgiveness to yourself and whoever was involved. Imagine yourself as a loving carer healing the parts of you that were vulnerable, hurt and not safe. Visualise giving yourself love in each scenario. Creating peace. Once you’ve been through a scenario and feel truly at peace with the situation scribble it out and once you are completely done with the papers you can burn them and set yourself free. (this process can take weeks / months depending how long your list is but it's not to be rushed).
2] Whatever is still lingering, use your journal to clear this out. For example, if I asked you right now if the man of your dreams was to appear.. would you feel worthy? Right now as your are? It might not be a man, it might be a job, a salary. Whatever it is, start challenging your old beliefs. You might not feel pretty enough, you might not feel like you are deserving… whatever it is start questioning old ideas you have about yourself. Challenge them..
3] This is the most important step… Once you’ve done the above. You’ll start to see some themes, maybe in your forgiveness list you realised your voice didn’t matter as a child, and that you were silenced, and that you hid yourself as a way to feel safe…whatever you uncover.
3.1 - You are going to write a script, in simple terms - something a child would understand and make sense of and you’re going to write out new beliefs to re-programme your mind. Example ‘I am willing to forgive those who hurt me, I am willing to forgive myself for the hurt I went through, I am no longer hiding myself from the world, I am choosing to be seen , to be celebrated, I am allowing my voice to be heard, my true voice, I matter’ - you want to cover all basis. Every old belief about not being enough, you need to re-write.
3.2 - Record yourself on your phone in a very slow peaceful loving tone reading your script.
3.3 - You need to listen to this recording every single night for at least 1-4 weeks. (It’s usually 21 days, but I did a recording for 1 week on feeling safe and I felt truly healed as if it was a miracle). I was able to LOOP the recording using Mac...I sent the voice recording from my iPhone to my MacBook using airdrop and then opened the sound file in iTunes and pressed repeat. This allowed a short recording to loop all night as I slept. It’s really important to play this on a loop as you want to IMPRESS your subconscious mind with the new beliefs. It’s your own voice, its your own re-wiring.
I hope this helps! The deeper healing work is crucial if you really want to remove those old wounds that seem to be stuck and not budging!
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Sakura Haruno is one of my favorite characters from the Naruto series, and like many Sakura fans, I have my criticisms of how she is written. However, I also recognize that much of the hate directed at her is based on misunderstandings/misrepresentations of the canon text.
In this post I will re-examine a moment from the Chunin Exams arc in Naruto: The Dosu squad vs Team 7 (and allies). Many claim that Sakura was outshone in this battle by Rock Lee and Team 10 and looked pathetic in comparison to the other Leaf genin. However, upon closer inspection, an interesting fact emerges: Sakura inflicted more damage upon the Dosu squad than Rock Lee and Team 10 combined. She was the first to draw blood from the enemy, and she did it by using basic Academy-level ninjutsu and a simple yet effective strategy. Narrative-wise, this was a big moment for Sakura, and the details back it up.
Before the Battle
Sakura is quick-witted, and early in the Land of Waves arc, she was more quick-witted than Naruto. This is demonstrated here: when the Demon Brothers attacked Tazuna, both Sakura and Sasuke jumped into action while Naruto froze in fear.
Another example of Sakura’s quick thinking in this arc is when, in the next chapter, Zabuza appears. He throws his sword in an arc, making it spin like a helicopter blade, and the Leaf shinobi and Tazuna must get down on the ground to avoid getting decapitated. You can clearly see that Sakura had to push Naruto down (in the background, Sasuke pushes Tazuna out of the way). Sakura literally saved Naruto’s life in this moment.
Later, during the Chunin Exams arc, Sakura’s quick thinking once again saves Naruto’s life. After Orochimaru knocks Naruto unconscious, he starts falling from a height that would have killed or at least seriously injured him. Sakura somehow pins Naruto to a nearby tree trunk by throwing a kunai with perfect precision and force.
These are small moments, but they demonstrate that Sakura has real talent as a shinobi and has protected her teammates in the past. However, like Naruto and Sasuke, she had to reach her limits to surpass them. Naruto is the first on their team to learn the meaning of courage, during the Land of Waves arc. Then, in his fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, Sasuke must overcome his fear of death, which had literally paralyzed him. Finally, it was Sakura’s turn to discover her inner strength and resolve to fight even in a hopeless situation.
Another thing I’d like people to recognize is that Sakura is not the only member of Team 7 to be outmatched by the enemies they had to face. Remember, Team 7 wasn’t supposed to be on that mission in the Land of Waves arc, it was above their pay grade and their skill level. Although Naruto and Sasuke got the spotlight, they were still no real match against Haku – they only survived that battle because Haku was too compassionate to kill them (although it's likely that the Kyuubi would have saved Naruto from a lethal attack). Plus, Sasuke’s Sharingan was a great aid to him, and Naruto could only break out of the Crystal Ice Mirrors jutsu with the power of the Kyuubi. Sakura, who lacks a kekkei genkai and a tailed beast, was an ordinary genin, so it makes sense that she couldn’t do that much.
That said, I think there could have been a way for Sakura to contribute more during that arc, but that’s a topic for another time.
Furthermore, during the Forest of Death, both Sasuke and Naruto got taken out by Orochimaru, because Orochimaru is a literal Sannin. And then, there’s the Sound Ninja…
The Sound Ninja
The Dosu Squad is strong, let’s be clear about that. And they were not normal participants in the exams. They were assassins targeting Sasuke. Once again, Sakura is put in a situation that she had no reasonable way to expect or prepare for. But she still rose to the occasion, despite being completely exhausted due to a whole night of no sleep and no food or water.
First, let’s compare her to Rock Lee. Now, I love Rock Lee, and in fairness to him, it’s stated by Tenten that if he hadn’t been distracted by protecting Sakura, he could have beaten the Dosu Squad. However, it’s also a fact that despite using advanced taijutsu moves – which Dosu acknowledged were quite lethal – Lee couldn’t really injure the Sound Ninja. Instead, they were able to block or neutralize all his attacks, then knocked him out flat.
Here, Lee makes a dynamic entrance, landing a hit on all three members of the Dosu Squad, but you can see that all they got was some bruises:
Then he uses the Primary Lotus against Dosu, but thanks to Zaku, Dosu takes little to no damage:
So, despite Lee’s best efforts and the fact that he was using specialized taijutsu, the Dosu Squad emerged from that fight relatively unscathed.
Now, Lee was outnumbered. Surely a three-on-three battle would have been more even, right? Well, that didn’t work out for Team 10.
Choji couldn’t hit Zaku, who was able to just jump out of harm’s way. Shikamaru could only temporarily paralyze Dosu. And although Ino possessed Kin’s body, it was Zaku who made Kin bleed when he attacked her.
So, neither Rock Lee nor Team 10 could really injure any of the Dosu Squad. But Sakura? She stabbed Zaku. She made him bleed. And she targeted his arms because she was smart enough to realize that they were his most dangerous weapons. Again, just by using basic ninjutsu and simple tactics, Sakura inflicted more damage on Zaku than Rock Lee and Team 10 combined.
Character Growth
People often mock Sakura for cutting her hair as if it was no big deal. But the reality is that it was a big deal, hence why the manga emphasizes it so much. Sakura’s vanity was literally holding her back, as represented when Kin grabbed her hair to immobilize her. Kin even openly states that vanity is Sakura’s weakness, she cares too much about her looks and doesn’t push herself hard enough. Then, as Sakura takes a beating from Zaku, Ino remembers how Sakura used to be so insecure in her appearance and put effort into making herself prettier. Sakura allowing her face to be battered shows that she no longer cares about her looks. Literally, Zaku strikes Sakura in her forehead, which was the part of her that she was most insecure about.
Later, Ino even states that they all would have been dead if it weren’t for both Sakura and Sasuke.
Conclusion
Sakura’s actions in the Forest of Death should not be downplayed. Although her skill set was not as impressive as that of her teammates or the rest of her peers, her intelligence and resolve showed that she could stand her ground even against formidable opponents like the Dosu Squad. Indeed, I think that Sakura’s peers during this encounter are held back by their specialized skills, relying on their special abilities instead of creative tactics. This battle demonstrates that it’s not the tool that determines the outcome, but the ninja that uses it.
So I actually found the original article (you can get the whole thing for free online on the American Economic Association: it's the Journal of Economic Perspectives vol. 36, no. 1, Winter 2022). It's coauthored by Melissa Kearney – whose whole thing is researching income inequality and poverty and explaining why social programs are a good thing – and Phillip Levine, who does this work with her a lot.
Now, bearing in mind that I am not an economist and do not understand the math involved at all, this is my understanding of the study:
Birth rates fell a shit-ton in 2007, which everyone expected, but never bounced back (as they had in previous recessions), and in fact kept going down.
This is across demographic groups, though some groups (like Hispanic women) had greater drops in birth rate than others.
This is associated with education rates but in a really interesting way: women with no high school degree at all and women with a full college degree had bigger drops in birth rate than women who graduated high school but either didn't go to college or dropped out of college. Like, it's not an Idiocracy/eugenics-style "only very educated people are having fewer kids while the poorly-educated peasants are breeding like rabbits" scenario.
Mathematically, the drops don't correlate with obvious external factors, like a sudden change in economic policy or a consistent decades-long downturn in employment rates.
They also rule out rising costs of housing and education and whatnot, because, again, it's dropping across demographics.
It's better correlated to age cohort: people born around the same time are hitting adulthood around the same time and having fewer and fewer kids. Not that people are marrying and having kids later (though that is happening), but that their whole age group are having fewer and fewer kids.
To be clear: this is basically saying that I, a person born in 1993, am more likely to have kids than someone born in 2003 but less likely than someone born in 1983, regardless of how old I am. Like, it's not "when everyone born in 1993 hits 30, they'll start having kids, even though 80s kids got married at 20," it's "people born in 1993 are just not having as many kids as people born in 1983, period."
They attribute this to some kind of cultural shift around parenting (the resources it requires contrasted with the desire to work or have leisure time), but I think it doesn't go into the psychology of it enough, particularly how younger and younger people have experienced more and more world-ending trauma. Like,
"nothing is real atoms never touch each other youve never touched anything in your life" ok. well when i pet my dog he is soft and when he licks my hand it is wet and that is far more real to me than whatevers going on at an atomic level
nuclei don't touch, but the nucleus is not the core of reality. reality is made of electrons dancing. reality is made of bonds.
you pet your dog and the atoms that are you brush up against the atoms that are him, and the electrons that are you press into the electrons that are him, and both of them change their movement.
electrons of course are not really particles and do not really move.
you pet your dog and the electron-orbitals of your skin overlap with the electron-orbitals of his fur, and both are changed by the contact. you are not made of little motes floating alone in a void. you are a single unfathomable chord formed of a trillion vibrations, and so is he. and the note you play is changing at every moment by what you touch and how you breathe, and so is his. and atoms do not really have edges, and to touch is to interact, and when you put your hand on your dog the universe does not know that you are separate. the song expands to hold you both.
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Found this reddit post. This kinda makes me feel better. And it’s something I think about sometimes because I always feel like regardless of how hard I work on something I don’t get anywhere.
Nice summary. If you’re curious, the anon here is referring to studies over the last decade that have pointed to major impacts on pattern separation with depression, and how depression can have major impacts on nonsynaptic plasticity.
[Q: Do you guys ever feel like depression just reveals what reality is?
A: Nope, sorry. There is a scientific reason for why you feel empty and why you feel so sure of your conclusions. Depression sets you up neurologically for confirmation bias and stagnation. If you’ve been depressed for more than a few months, your brain is physically disabled. Depression damages the hippocampus, the part of your brain that forms new neurons and interweaves tehm as you make new memories, new connections, new knowledge, new habits, new emotions, new perspectives, new motivations and inspirations.
Healthy brains grow new neurons as we learn. Neural growth slows way down if you’re depressed, to the point where new neurons can’t keep up with learning, and most new info and experiences won’t stick. When a depressed brain interacts with the world, it can no longer incorporate new experiences to adjust old thought cycles or modify old knowledge concepts with new information. Experiences should rearrange and teach your brain, but that happens less and less when your brain is depressed. Instead experiences roll right off you without affecting anything. You become stagnated, and thoughts seem to confirm your biases instead of contradicting them.
The rest of your brain is not fully accessing your emotional center. You thank that makes the world flat and meaningless. It really means your emotional center (amygdala) has stopped contributing emotions to your brain and world view like it normally would.
You’re not enlightened. Your brain is broken. That’s harsh, but it’s important. The damage is 100% reversible. Stuff like exercise, medication, and meditation grows back the damage and returns your neural growth to a normal rate after a few months.]
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