I Caught Her Human Parents Defiling My Forest. They Threw Their Baby At My Feet As They Ran Away. Instead

small habits to adopt

wake up early

drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up

meditate or concentrate on your breathing for at least 2 mins

visualize your goals for the day and for the future

make your bed 

do calf raises or squats while brushing your teeth

floss

dry brush

take a cold shower (or end a hot shower with cold water right after for about 3 mins)

put on lotion while your skin is still damp

cleanse, tone, and moisturize your face

apply sunscreen

drink a glass of water before and after every meal

listen to a podcast/ted talk instead of music while walking or driving

park far away from where you’re going

stand up straight

look at people in the eye when talking to them

look straight ahead when walking, not at the ground

smile at strangers

stop complaining (it’s bad for your health)

bring cash instead of credit card

track your expenses

turn off notifications on your phone when doing work

resist the urge to go on your phone and observe your surroundings more

set a timer for 5 mins when scrolling through social media and stop when the time is up

learn at least 5 new vocab words from your target language every day

exercise while watching shows/videos

read at least 10 pages every day

do tasks that can be done in 2 mins right away

drink tea

prepare workout gear the night before

jot down tasks for the next day before sleeping

write down quotes/lyrics that strike a chord

spend 30 mins on a hobby

journal and write down things you are grateful for

aim for 7-8 hours of sleep

President Obama appreciation post

Is it possible for you to share the diet you use?

I’ve committed to a Ketogenic Diet for almost a year now, entailing that I consume 30g or less of carbs per day; this demands my body to reconfigure itself to run primarily on ketones from fat rather than glucose from carbs.

For breakfast I blend a nutritional smoothie comprised of organic carrots, blackberries, almond butter, spinach, kale, sugarless dark chocolate, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and 2 raw pastured eggs: I’ll have an avocado and 5 handfuls of raw nuts on the side comprised of walnuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts that I’ll dip in organic coconut oil with Himalayan salt.

For dinner I’ll prepare 2 organic, hormone and antibiotic free, grass fed beef patties, and 2 more pastured eggs; cooked in coconut/olive oil mix, dressed up with organic mayonnaise and plenty of seasoning. I also drink plenty of water throughout the day, often with lemon, and will take 5000 IU’s of vitamin D throughout the winter months.

Since I’ve begun researching and experimenting with my diet over the course of the past 3 years or so, essentially purging my body of toxins whose presence I was unconsciously maintaining, it’s been akin to waking from a coma and observing the world slowly come into focus.

Until these past few years, I didn’t know it was possible to eat a meal without feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and succumbing to a mysterious lethargy, nor was I aware that many of my symptoms of depression and ADD were simply in relation to the effects that these pollutants were having on my brain chemistry. 

I had also grown accustomed to getting sick at least once or twice each winter, but this June will mark 3 years since I’ve even so much as caught a cold. I can only relate this to having established such a durable immune system via my refined eating habits. I feel more mentally and physically capable than I have ever felt in my entire life, which is an encouraging awareness at 24.

The Social Network (2010) dir. David Fincher

Lord of the Rings was published in the fifties, and largely written in the forties. Tolkien’s opinions on society and morality and technology are at some points genuinely more conservative than what I’m comfortable with. And yet, the more I think about it, the more sure I am that Tolkien actually deconstructs most of the clichéd fantasy tropes he supposedly originates. Some examples.

The long-lost heir is not the hero, he’s a side character who deliberately uses himself as a decoy.

The real hero actually fails in his quest, his goodness and determination and willpower utterly fail in the face of evil, and the world is saved by a series seemingly unrelated good deeds.

The central conflict is not between destroying the world and preserving it. An age of the world will come to an end, and many great and beautiful things will perish, whether the heroes win or lose. The past may have been glorious, but preserving it is impossible, and returning to it is impossible, time has passed and the world has moved on. The king returns, but the elves are gone and magic fades from the very substance of Middle Earth. The goal is not to preserve the status quo, the goal is the chance to rebuild something on the ruins.

Killing the main villain seems to instantly solve the problem, eradicate all enemies and fix the world, except it doesn’t, not wholly, since the scouring of the Shire still has to happen.

Also, the hero gets no real reward, and what he gets, he cannot really enjoy. He is hurt by his ordeal, and never fully recovers.

There is a team of heroes, a classic adventuring party, except the Fellowship is together for less one sixth of the series. The Fellowship is intact from the Council of Elrond to Gandalf’s death, four chapters. The remaining eight are together until Boromir’s death, an additional six chapters. This is nothing compared to LOTR’s length of sixty-one chapters, if I count correctly.

Tolkien is not classic high fantasy. If you actually think about it, there is very little magic. The hobbits’ stealth is not magical, most elven wonders are not unambigously magical, wizards are extremely rare, and even Gandalf hardly uses magic if you compare him to the average DnD wizard. Most magic is indistinguishable from craft, there is no clear difference between a magic armor and a very good armor, between magic bread and very good bread, between magical healing and competent first-aid plus a few kind words.

TLDR: Stop praising recent fantasy for deconstructing Tolkien if they’re “deconstructing” something Tolkien has never actually constructed.

Háifoss, Iceland Didier Cortini

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

— Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places

Having a vision for what you want is not enough! ….“Vision without execution is hallucination” Thomas Edison

Isle of Skye, Scotland