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Motivated

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Motivation is an odd little thing. We all need it, having built our society around it. In it’s basest form, it’s driven by hunger or need for shelter, and yet it can be directed in incredibly complex ways to achieve projects and remarkable magnitude. Some people find motivation in ego, others in fear, and others still in both. Yet, despite our need for motivation, it is fleeting, disappearing sporadically for brief moments or long periods of time. Stress, anxiety and depression can suck motivation away, but so can contentment or complacency.

Now, it’s been beaten to death that sticking to a schedule can help combat the lack of motivation to work on projects by making the task a typical part of your day-to-day. Also, plenty of people have discussed the importance of exercise, sleep and diet to help relieve some of the things that may caused a lack of motivation, like depression and anxiety. However, what people don’t realize is that sometimes it extends beyond these things. What happens if the tips and advice no longer work? What happens if we are not depressed, but still can’t get near our art? What if we sit to write and the words just don’t come even though we’ve perfected our sleep cycle? What happens when projects or chores or work goes unfinished because despite feeling focused we just simply can’t?
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A Quick Disney World Guide, Pt. 2

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Part One, for those who missed it.

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Animal Kingdom
The Laid Back One

Best Ride: Expedition Everest. Wonderfully themed, delightful and entertaining queue. Theme persists throughout ride while delivering an enjoyable roller coaster experience.

Best Show: Tough, because this park has some pretty stellar shows, but I gotta go with UP! A Great Bird Adventure. Because birds are awesome.

Best Snack Spot: Creature Comforts is right up front and is a great place to grab some pastries and Starbucks coffee on your way in or your way out. The Africa section of the park has the widest variety of snack options if your group is like mine and everybody wants something different. Head to that area for pastries, coffee, ice cream, panini, a sweets shop and even fresh fruit.
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A Quick Disney World Guide, Pt. 1

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As we approach the end of the summer, we get ever closer to the time of the year when my friends and I start hitting the Walt Disney World parks. We absolutely LOVE going to the parks, especially in the fall when everything cools down and the summer crowds have dissipated (though summer crowds have apparently been down lately, so if you don’t mind the heat, might be a great time to go). It’s magical being able to roam free in cool fall evening and just enjoy the heck out of every inch of a park. I cannot wait to go back.

I’ve gone to the Disney World Resort an absolute TON over the years, and I’ll often have people ask me which park is my favorite, a question to which I generally don’t have an answer. I find myself going to Epcot considerably more but that’s typically just because we’re taking part in one of its many festivals. I think each park really has its own perks and appeal. They definitely all still feel like a theme park, but between different aesthetics, food offerings, entertainment options and general layout, they honestly each stand apart from one another, satisfying different goals that a group may have.

Below I’m going to lay out my guide to the Fab Four of Disney World: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. I won’t be discussing the water parks, since I have not actually been (just not a fan of water parks, tbh), and I won’t be including Disney Springs, though I absolutely love the Springs and you should totally go.
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Above

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Lately, I’ve been looking up.

That’s not a metaphor, I’ve just honestly been trying to look up more.

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I spend a lot of time looking down, even if just slightly. I’ve seen plenty of ground and floor. Watched my feet kick things around. Seen dust collected at the corners of rooms, stains on carpets. Observed bugs dancing across lines of asphalt.

It’s when I’m not immediately focused on something. If I’m waiting somewhere or walking. When I’m talking on the phone or bopping around to different projects at work. Whatever it is, my eyes tend to be either straight forward or down. A 90 degree field of vision  encompassing mostly floor. Maybe not 90 degrees, per se, because walking around looking straight down would be odd, but you get my point.

Recently, I’ve been changing that. If I’m idle, I’ve been trying to raise my head, look at what’s above me. I’ve especially been enjoying this when walking around outside, even just to go get the mail or through my parking lot at work. Trees I’ve seen every single day are suddenly a lot more majestic. I’ve been able to notice details about buildings that I otherwise wouldn’t, subtle flaws or hard to reach imperfections. I’ve watched birds zipping to and fro. I’ve observed weather building or dissipating at different times of day. Seen the light dance across the sky in different colors throughout the day.

All in all, looking up more just makes the world feel larger. When you set your gaze on a downward path, your line of site has a definitive end. You build a definable space where your mind and reality can exist, a bubble constrained by the presence of the ground and the edges of your vision. Only things in that bubble exist for you: a limited world of your  creation, made larger or smaller by a simple tilt of the head, but always confined. Directing things upward opens up the world immensely. A vast band of vision stretches out, encompassing so much more color and light. It seems like such a simple change, but it just adds so much more depth to the world, so much more life. Suddenly your world is rich and full of possibility. It’s vibrant and dynamic. All with a simple change of perspective.

Maybe it is a metaphor.

~C

Waves

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I absolutely love the ocean. For some reason, my entire life, I have loved the ocean. The sounds, the smell, the cool water, all of it soothes me. In times of severe stress I find myself YEARNING for it, imagining it. I sometimes listen to ocean sounds while I read or write just for how it calms me. I’ve just always felt this connection, a strong pull to the shores of the world, where this endless blue abyss meets land.

What’s bizarre is that the ocean absolutely terrifies me. I will never be caught too far from land, and the idea of some sort of ocean voyage, cruise ship or otherwise, is completely out of the question. Rogue waves, horrible undersea beasts, the endless stretch on uninhabitable blue death. My single greatest fear is the idea of treading water in the middle of the ocean. Something about being stranded in a place where any number of things can take my life and I would be very much unaware of its approach, and even if I saw it coming, I could do very little to prevent my doom, since humans are horribly ill-equipped to handle water on our own. Seriously, fuck the ocean, man…
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Witness to Fitness

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For the longest time, I’ve had trouble working exercise regularly into my schedule. I may get back into working out regularly for a few weeks, but then eventually I find myself again skipping out for various reasons: a rough work week, a busy weekend, not feeling well, etc. I haven’t honestly consistently worked out for a few years now, when I used to occasionally run races, and even then it was struggle.

The thing that hinders it the most is that I just can’t seem to log fitness time as a priority. I often find myself thinking how my time could be better spent doing productive things like writing or even just getting things done around the house. I know the concept of not considering exercise a productive activity is a little ridiculous, but it’s just where I’ve always been. Aside from the obvious health benefits, I’ve never been able to see fitness time as productive. I’ve tried plenty of times in the past, but I’m always met by a sub-conscious lump of arguments: Things like “well, I’m not trying to lose weight” or “I have a very active job” or “I get out of the house a lot and stay active.” When I try to get out of there and change my perspective, I’ve only ever been able to counter the arguments with “well, it’s good for me” which, while true, is just a fairly weak argument when I’ve developed such a strong mental block. I needed an argument that helped play fitness directly into the things I saw as productive, so that I could separate deliberate exercise from casual activity and work activity.
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Practicing the Pundamentals

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Hi there. My name is Chris and I am here to talk to you about Pun Abuse.

Did you know one in every five people struggle with Pun Abuse? This epidemic is taking over our society. It is turning friend against friend, tearing apart families, and ruining lives. Only through awareness and a willingness to talk about it can we begin to recover. In the end, we need to do what we can to make sure Pun Abusers seek the proper help.

So, how do you spot a Pun Abuser? Well, has anyone in your life ever ruined a conversation by dropping in a horrible pun instead of actually continuing the discussion? The sort of pun that isn’t even overly specific to the topic of discussion, just a random word in your previous statement that they decided was punworthy. The conversation at this point typically feels entirely derailed, the focus now being the pun itself, whether funny or not, and the topic is lost to the wind. Maybe someone you know has CSI: Miami or “Badumtiss” drum gifs cued up at the drop of a hat. Does anyone close to you ever go long periods of time without any actual conversation aside from interjecting puns after other people speak? Are they often found buying joke books? Is their favorite movie “Airplane!” or “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2?” If you answered “yes” to any of these, then you may know a Pun Abuser. If you find that these things apply directly to you, then stop giggling at “punworthy” and find some help.
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Destiny Requires Careful Planning

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Avengers: Infinity War is an absolutely beautiful testament to the potential of the Superhero medium. As a film, it successfully avoided many of the dangerous pit falls that Superhero films tend to fall into, such as confused pacing between too many characters or an underwhelming villain (the latter of which this movie was definitely FAR from). However, I wanted to talk about probably my favorite thing about this movie, which is something that I think is getting overlooked, or at least I haven’t seen much discussion on it.

SPOILERS for Infinity War ahead.

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A Familiar Face

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The other day I was watching a random horror movie I found on Hulu. It was called “Digging Up the Marrow” and was overall quite good: had a solid premise, some great creature effects and a good bit of humor. It was an enjoyable movie and I definitely recommend it.

As my wife and I are watching this movie, a few minutes in a character comes on screen that draws from us a cheer, a ritual we’ve fallen into every time we see this particular actor.

“Leland!” Continue reading →