sarakingdom

I'm making tracking optional this week, because it seems to be slowing me down. That's one more week 1 "getting back on the wagon" thing. (Also, this is super annoying, but apparently the Vulcans looked at A Certain Wizard suspending me for an overly high sleep deficit and were all like which makes A Certain Wizard unbearably smug. Guys, I cannot have fictional characters suspending my challenges.)

Badly done highlights can look stripey. (Sometimes it's deliberate, doing chunky highlights that way.) But I think highlights are pretty important to making a color look natural and not like a dye job or a wig. Undyed hair has a lot of natural color variation, either from sun, age, or the strand itself, and dye can take out all the natural variation in hair colors. (That may be some of what you disliked about earlier light colors - if it's a uniform color, the color cues that hair has grown and aged naturally are gone, and it hints more that something artificial has been done.) I feel like the lighter you go, the more this is true. Lack of color variation on, say, black hair, not really noticeable, because it tends to just be black. But natural blond hair is a huge mess of variation. So I'm wondering if there's a slight uncanny valley effect in why the strawberry blond colors you initially liked started to feel artificial. The lighter hair is, the more color variation you expect to see in it. I don't think it's quite that extreme a difference. Her hair really is lighter than yours, I agree. But it's not lighter than yours because it's all lighter than yours. It's lighter because it's highlighted, especially where it catches the sun. They do a lot to create the perception of a lighter color all over, without making each strand get pushed lighter. (Think of hair like a pointillist painting. You don't need to repaint it all to lighten the color, just add the right points of color to reflect light the right way.) I don't know what the shade you were aiming for is called in German, and there's a bit of variation in what people think the range of colors for the name is, but I suspect here it's called honey colored. Yours may be on the auburn side of honey colored but I think you're very close to it. Their accidental ombre isn't helping that goal, but the top color just needs a bit of looking sun-kissed to get there, IMO. It's close, and I think it's a totally fine base color to get there. Yeah, the accidental ombre is doing a lot there. It's the exact opposite direction of how you'd want that gradient to look, and it's making it all look darker than wanted. (If Mr Harriet's suggestion is coming from anywhere, I think it's a lay person not knowing how to put their finger on why that ombre looks unnatural.)

If the whole thing were the color it is on top, I think it'd look lighter - the darkness at the tips is making it feel much darker. That color seems fine on you, just probably not what you're used to. I wouldn't worry about the copper against your skin. The ombre to darker brown at the tips seems odd to me. (And doesn't seem like you asked for it, because I don't recall you asking for an ombre. Why did they do one?) I don't really understand that gradient. I think if you got the whole thing the same color as the top and asked for some blonde and golden highlights, it'd be close to what you want without pushing all your hair tons of shades lighter, and make the new color feel more natural by making it seem like you've had that shade of hair under the sun for a long time. That'd be the conservative approach, I guess, if you didn't wanna bleach the heck out of it right away. I think highlights are the main difference between the top of yours and the reference pic. She's got a variety of shades in her light brown. It's actually quite dark underneath, almost as dark as your ends, but she has some caramel and golden strands making it look sunnier and lighter than it really is, and also less like a solid color block. (I'm not a hair color expert, because I don't, so get more opinions, but that is mine.)

I believe on the fingernails is the usual way? I am so plain. Oh well, suitable for Vulcans. (Although I'd bet they do a good crackle with some bling color under it.)

It's less than forty years to first contact, we've gotta be ready to leave this rock. I think I have black, brown, and dark navy blue. Maybe I'm in a navy blue mood.

Week 1 Day 3 In deference to Vulcan sensibilities, we will not be celebrating today with an ode to romantic love, but to a nice, logical twenty-year friendship: In deference to human sensibilities, it's a twenty-year friendship where they are occasionally married (god, that utter boredom sends me every time), indulge in a few kinks, go out on the pull together (not always successfully), discuss their bisexual experiences, and occasionally share genuine intimacy. I'm too tired for anything today. The Needs of the One Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Score Control the emotions Metta Mindfulness Hotness upgrade 1 Social bonus 0 Sleep at 12 NA -1 Sleep deficit -4 (24h) -2 (20h) Yoga nidra 1 1 Hydration 1 Sinuses Train the lirpa Walk the desert 1 Weekly Score Some supporting tasks: Mind Hotness Rest Train This Week Read educational book Emulsify skin lotion Inventory wardrobe Undo bedroom plague effects Pick up yoga DVD Today Fill supplement box Undo bedroom plague effects First draft of workout plan

I sort of view it as, like, isolating the mental activity you're supposed to be observing. To observe the mental noise, you've got to drop the actual mental signal to a minimum. Even if it's stuff we don't consciously think about, like balance or navigation or whatever, it's a job the brain is juggling.

This particular costume I'd say had the sleeve cut and basic silhouette of a Middle Eastern thobe, combined with a very Japanese kimono, under-kimono, and obi layering and wrap style. (More formal than a yukata, but less formal than actual formal wear.) Those I would say are your basic "make it Vulcan" building blocks. Wrapping, layering, and pull most of your non-outerwear silhouettes from the Persian Gulf to more informal Japanese clothes, pulling from at least two locations along the route. A lot of hijabi fashion blogs mix Western-acceptable pieces with tunic length or floor length silhouettes. (It's actually a pretty cool street wear style.) Wouldn't be too hard to exchange a regular cardigan for a kimono style cardigan or whatever here and there.

I don't know if that one is using the body per se, because my understanding is that other observation focuses serve just as well, and breath is used mainly because you'll just always have it on you. (Or at least, in any situation where you don't, practicing mindfulness meditation for twenty minutes probably shouldn't be your priority.) But body scan meditations are about connecting to the body and improving the mind's ability to perceive it, and that is, if not quite using the body, at least upgrading its importance in the perception of self in the hopes that you will make better use of that feedback in real life. The meditation I was taught for handling difficult emotions also does that; it involves focusing on part of the body that feels fine. Turning what you're feeling into a set of signals running through the nervous system that include physical signals as well as emotional ones is, first, apparently pretty much true, and, second, useful. So both of those align well with the idea of the body being important in managing the mind. I've yet to have a good explanation of what Buddhist meditation thinks does manage the mind - in essence, what is doing the observation of the mind in mindfulness meditation. But I'm not sure they particularly aim for an explanation beyond "the self is not the mind". Given their track record with moderately sophisticated understandings of modern neuroscience ideas (and even if they're wrong, the understanding from martial arts that sometimes assertions are descriptive allegorical kicks in), I'm willing to give that a pass and take it as basically true without evidence. Maybe it is a simple as "the self is the body". I've never heard that asserted, but possibly that's the implication of the various types of meditation, and the Buddhist ideas of how the mind functions. Actually, it occurs to me that mindfulness meditation does involve using the body to control the mind - but it's not the observation of breath, it's the sitting. It's the stillness of the body cutting down on distractions to the mind (and in Zen, the deliberate stability of the tripod posture). It's shutting down a lot of the conscious and unconscious parallel processing the brain does to control limbs and reactions to change the amount and type of activity in the mind. It's true, if the clothes look expensive (and not too bizarrely impractical), being unusual does not matter as much. And bling is literally distracting on top of being expensive. Ooh, I could do that this month...

Phew, we averted an international incident there. (Good lord, it is Kolinahr. Do I need to go to the desert?) I knooooow! I'm in favor of therapy and stuff, but it's an arena where there's a lot of pseudoscience, and it's really hard to differentiate that from some of the things that there is some decent evidence for, which often sound even crazier. Cultural context does help. Also, they tend to have really expensive looking clothes, which helps. (Lately there's been a very Japanese vibe to the layering, with hints of Korea and China period drama silhouettes on some. So I think the answer is "go Asian".)

I would imagine this is a professional ethics thing, in the same way that physical health doctors are required to treat sexually transmitted diseases from disturbing or illegal behavior, gunshot wounds in criminals, people they loathe, and so on, without letting their feelings compromise the care. Treating the suffering of anyone who's injured without regard to the morality of the injury or the patient is part of the oath they're supposed to live up to. (Not always successfully but...) He's not, as a health care provider with an ethical obligation, supposed to think or feel about it. But it does make for pretty heavy going for the reader, and understandably would not spark joy. I think that's a known issue with that book; I was warned about it by someone who recommended it, not in the specifics but that it was kind of rough going.

This is similar to what I've been seeing. I've come across Peter Levine, although I haven't delved in yet. It basically seems like a rephrasing and extension of things I did know, which is helpful, because otherwise I'd write it off. I need the slow on ramp to touchy feely stuff. I have become aware, over years of casual body scan meditations, that I do hold tons of stress on certain parts of my body that I need to consciously release on order to, for instance, sleep at all. And I've seen some discussion of ADHD just causing a state of hyperarousal in the nervous system before you even get to any ongoing stress of managing it. So whatever the cause, and I'm not sure that's worth deeply analyzing in an analytical therapy setting if there's a strong chance it's simply genetics, I seem to have a fair number of matching symptoms. It makes more sense to address it through the body, if it seems likely that the mind isn't significantly involved in creating it.

I don't notice the benefits of meditation while I'm doing it, so much as I notice the benefits disappearing when I don't. (And definitely not while sitting and doing it, for sure.) I've tried some "just sit", and have decided it's not for me. Distracting thoughts are too devious, too convincing when they say they're not a distraction. And on bad days, they become emotional spirals very quickly. At a minimum, I need a way to keep myself honest. Yeah, I've been looking at somatic exercises lately. I don't quite understand them or their relevance, but I'm reading up. (I have this "that's not for me" reaction, except then I dig into the details, and find it's too close a fit to my observations and more promising solutions, so maybe I need to learn a new framing.) There's a series of videos by a major medical university here that's giving me some confidence, and is on my list to dive into deeper. I mean, it's hard to deny. I'm not saying I imprinted hard on Star Trek 3 and 4 as a kid, but Search for Spock is pure sex appeal. Huh. An interesting take. My plumage is insufficiently displayed, then. When I start rejecting this, I try to remind myself that it's very close to an official aikido teaching that your aikido should be elegant, and elegance is a quality to focus on. That's not about focusing on what's superficial, but an attempt to elicit a complicated feeling for performing the art well. (While I've never heard any teachers promote doing aikido hot and sassy, it certainly wasn't discouraged in the style I started in. There was a reason bars figured prominently in our teaching scenarios.) If only.

Week 1 Day 1 - Motivational Video Monday I've missed this video so much. It is pure hotness. Life goals. (The only thing it lacks is the perceptive and quietly badass scene putting Mr Adventure in the closet.) Last challenge I basically spent sick. Blech. Not fun. I'm better, but still in the process of trading plague protocols for normality. So week 1 is a "make partial progress" week. Points for something, not the perfect thing. The goal is to be better than nothing. The Needs of the One Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Score Control the emotions Metta Mindfulness Hotness upgrade 1 Social bonus 0 Sleep at 12 NA -2 Sleep deficit -4 (24h) Yoga nidra 1 Hydration 1 Sinuses Train the lirpa Walk the desert 1 Weekly Score Some supporting tasks: Mind Hotness Rest Train This Week Read educational book Emulsify skin lotion Inventory wardrobe Undo bedroom plague effects Pick up yoga DVD Today Pick educational book to read Fill supplement box Mix DIY hair leave-in Undo bedroom plague effects First draft of workout plan

Week 1 mini challenge: Ban all long posts. Practice by replying to maximum two people per reply post. The update thing will get easier if you get in the habit of adding more thoughts to the conversation later, rather than formalizing them in one sitting.

Welcome! It may or may not be interesting, just a little reserved space for reference materials that need to be easy to find. I have mixed feelings on it going in, but I'm willing to take it on experimentally. Rest breaks have been one of my most useful practical tools lately, so I can't say I don't have hints on that direction.

Absolutely works. My rest rule is "the eyes must be closed". The brain can be sleeping, meditating, totally entertaining itself on audiobooks or podcasts, or some unholy mixture of all three. But the eyes must be closed for it to be rest. I'd like to hear more about this. I think I missed your start on this while I was sick and hibernating. In exchange, I will suggest yoga nidra, which is the slightly hippie yoga origins of Andrew Huberman's non-sleep deep rest, cuz bros need a sciency acronym for things. It is a delightful mixture of not quite a nap, not quite a meditation, not quite a somatic therapy body scan, but a little of all those things, always guided, and also the only yoga you can do with a blanket and pillow.

Consistency continues confounding coherent challenge conclusions. Good goals, guy, going great. Happy hydration; highly healthy.

Documentation accepted. Claim approved.

(When was the last time you liked a challenge so much you danced in the locker room?)

OFFERINGS FOR THE SNAIL GOD.

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Scoring details Week x Day 1 The Needs of the One Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Score Control the emotions Metta Mindfulness Hotness upgrade Social bonus Sleep at 12 Sleep deficit Yoga nidra Hydration Sinuses Train the lirpa Walk the desert Weekly Score

I tend to do a special Valentines themed February, to be hot and shallow and go to a lot of parties. (Mostly shallow, as I still largely aspire to either of the other two.) Some years it's a Casanunda challenge from Discworld, but I think I'm in Trek mood this year. So I'll do second edition of last year's Vulcan Valentine's challenge. 1. Strength training Dating on Vulcan requires a lot more combat than you might expect. So physical training is important. But what will not do is upsetting the delicate hormonal balance that keeps you from killing half a dozen people with sharpened hockey stick. To keep cortisol down, the goal is minimum effort, but lots of consistency. Low and slow. I'm still into isometrics. I haven't managed enough consistency to really know for sure if they're as efficient as the claims say, but they're Good Enough, and they're the workout I will do, so that's fine. I will count anything. The goal is consistency. But I do want giant muscles eventually, cuz I have people to beat with a lirpa. Also bonus points for my stupid daily walk for my stupid physical and mental health. It's boring, but it's a good daily vitamin of movement. Goal: be strong, do an exercise 2. Rest Dating on Vulcan requires quality sleep. I need to stick to a sensible bedtime. I also need to work hard to keep my chronic sleep deficit down. Under seven hours is the target zone. Under ten hours is pretty decent. Under 17 hours is sort of a yellow alert, not great. Anything over that, I am in red alert. I also need to baby the most annoying sinuses on the planet. I also need to do a yoga nidra meditation to practice sleep during the day. (I need remedial sleep lessons, guys.) Goal: 11pm bedtime. Keep sleep deficit under ten hours. Keep my sinuses happy. One yoga nidra session. 3. Emotional Management I've been reading a lot lately about emotions stored in the body, usually in the form of some kind of tightness or stiffness, and also in the form of different modes of nervous system activation that don't always respond to modern stressors correctly. (Emily Nagoski talks about both of these in some of her Burnout talks, and the yoga nidra-adjacent folks also talk about it, and various ADHD people have been touching on it from a different angle. It's just showing up everywhere I turn.) This is likely me, and probably a more effective approach than trying to out-reason various behaviors and emotions. Meditation has left me with a certain distrust of using the mind to master the mind, because it's just not that smart, and the only thing that's made a really noticeable difference in ADHD symptoms and so on is frequent rest breaks. There are various recommendations, but it's generally low intensity movement and rest aimed at helping stress responses shut off and undoing some of the physical symptoms they leave behind, so the body stops taking cues from them. Both my previous two goals count towards this, in part. But also, it turns out my fave yoga evening cooldowns are probably ideal. Also, there's mindfulness and metta meditation I'd like to get done; metta is definitely on point here, and mindfulness is just helpful in a foundational sort of way. I, uh, also need to remember to actually do the rest breaks I plan to do. If my day is going badly, I'm likely to start skipping them, but if my day is going badly, skipping them is probably the reason why. I have to treat them like a job. Goal: Get emotions out of the body. (By doing something extra that is not covered already, and, like, meditating and stuff.) 4. Vulcan Is a Hot Planet Vulcans play a darned good eyeshadow game. Also, it's easy to forget what sassy clothes horses Vulcan can be. Like, that bling, guys. They out-bling a lot of planets. The traditional Valentine's challenge includes various wardrobe, makeup, skincare, or bachelor pad modifications for increased hotness. (This is not totally shallowness, because I get stuck in utilitarian ruts and stop paying enough attention to that stuff. Caring appropriately for the aesthetics of one's body, clothes, and environment is purely logical, and not frivolity at all. Logic.) Goal: One style or hotness upgrade per day.