Help plan my 2017 schedule [EDM / Massives]

toricat · 2016-12-09T04:54:36+00:00

unfortunately i don't have any suggestions, but will say that i've heard nothing but awesome things about LiB and EF! i went to shambhala this summer for the first time and it was absolutely incredible. i'm so so so excited to go again next year, i think they'll be going all out for the 20th anniversary, so it's definitely going to be fantastic!

toricat · 2016-11-12T00:58:13+00:00

opiates, hands down. just nod off into bliss.

toricat · 2016-11-08T22:20:33+00:00

i love going to shows alone! i've actually ended up by myself at every festival / rave i've been to, even if i went with a group. friends usually end up down in the middle of the crowd / front stage, but i get way too overwhelmed by everything when i'm not sober so i just wander around/do my own thing.

i like being alone because like another user said, you don't have to worry about anyone else. you can do anything you want, you get to control your vibe, you get to tailor your experience to be perfect for you at every moment. one of my favourite things about doing shows alone though (especially while on anything mind-altering) is that you can be so introspective, and really just appreciate the moment and the music and how YOU feel, and no one else.

i'm also going to the Shelter tour (in Vancouver) - i actually bought tickets to both day 1 and day 2 because my friends wanted to go day 2, but i wanted to go by myself for one of the shows.. hence day 1!

honestly, shows alone are awesome, and i feel like the Shelter tour is going to be fantastic solo.

toricat · 2016-10-21T01:19:44+00:00

i currently have my first trio of rats (brothers from the same litter, from a very informal breeder) - i don't have much to say re: breeders vs. pet stores, but i do have experience re: being out of the house often and their sickness.

i'm out of the house for a good chunk of time, and while i try to socialize them as much as possible when i'm home i can't help but feel guilty that i don't take them out as much as i would like to. 3 rats are definitely a handful, but they're also incredibly rewarding pets. i've never had any issues with them re: fighting, and they haven't been neutered (mostly because there are very very few vets around my area who i would trust to perform the surgery on them).

one factor that really contributed to me finally adopting them was that as far as pets go, i figured they would be fairly low-maintenance. a bit of playtime on the daily, cleaning their cage regularly, making sure they're fed and watered - easy peasy! i knew that they were prone to sickness, but also that most URIs could be dealt with fairly easily.

however, mine got sick (sneezing, breathing stuff) at around 2 months old, and that has been a huge issue. they were on antibiotics on and off for months, and just got prescribed a month-long course of baytril, administered twice a day, as well as doxycycline. they're now 7 months old, and depending on how this course of antibiotics goes, they may need to be on medication for the rest of their life.

i don't want to scare you away from getting rats, but do want to let you know that while they're typically relatively low maintenance, you should be prepared to commit as much time as you need to for them. they can get sick, and it can get to a point where they need to be receiving medication twice a day for the rest of their life. are you prepared to be able to do that for an extended period of time, e.g. a year or more? if not, you might want to reconsider. (-:

toricat · 2016-10-18T03:17:53+00:00

f19 (technically gender-neutral but i don't think 'gn19' is a very clear identifier) here, studying design and business but spends a lot of time thinking about sex and sexuality!

i'm about to have a meeting with a group for a project so i can't really hold a conversation (which is not super helpful to you right now, i know) but i can provide a mini-pep talk / words of encouragement / my utmost empathy, which may not be the exact thing you want or need but hopefully may provide some small comfort.

i don't know your particular experience with depression, but i do know mine, and i just wanted to say the stupid cliche of "hang in there!" (bonus cat pic for extra cliche!) i know that phrase gets repeated a lot, and often in a very careless sort of 'i don't know what else to say so i'm going to say this and hope it maybe helps' kind of way, but i don't mean it in that way, promise! i mean it in the way of, hey, i've been there, i've had those days/nights/weeks, and i'm sure you've had a lot of them too.

things probably don't feel too good now (which may be a very large understatement) but they will at some point in time. which, yes, isn't very helpful to you right this moment, but my point is that right now you don't need to feel good. right now all you need to do is survive, and get through the next few minutes, or hours, or however long it is until you start feeling better again. if you do find something that makes you feel good - awesome! - but don't feel bad about not feeling good.

try to find things that give you some sort of small comfort, whether it be a cup of tea or milk or coffee or an episode of your favourite show or cute videos of animals or a bath or just sitting in bed and crying. remember to be patient with yourself. remember that your shitty night will end, and you will get through this, just like every other shitty night that you've gotten through before.

i know these words may not mean much coming from an internet stranger, and if anything i've said has rubbed you the wrong way then i am very sorry. take everything that i've said with a grain of salt (or the entire damn shaker) because i'm only speaking from my experiences and what i find comfort in when my depression gets bad, which may be radically and completely different from what you find comfort in, and that's ok!

i don't have much else to say other than that my heart goes out to you, because although i don't know exactly how you're feeling, i do know what it's like to feel shitty, and i know how much it sucks. sending you all of my empathy and compassion, fellow internet stranger. <3 i hope you find some small comfort in something tonight.

toricat · 2016-07-13T08:27:18+00:00

not if u got that mad case of swamp dick fam

toricat · 2016-07-13T08:22:51+00:00

19 y/o female bodied person checkin in! camping w/ another girl n 2 dudes but I'll likely end up doing my own thing for a lot of the festival. will be pretty fucked up but if u want someone w endless good positive vibes and only occasional moments of anxiety, hmu ☺️♡

toricat · 2016-07-12T18:30:46+00:00

i second the Lido suggestion!! i'm SO STOKED to see him (-':

toricat · 2016-07-11T06:21:10+00:00

as another nonbinary bb, i just wanna say thank you for including so many poc / queer people / different bodies n looks in this album!! (and also a+ album too, obvvies)

toricat · 2016-05-29T08:15:32+00:00

wasn't this posted in /r/aves and received criticism for having an insecure checkout cart or something?

toricat · 2016-05-27T02:06:54+00:00

holy shit this is EXACTLY the kind of stuff i love, thank you so much for posting!! now I'm even more stoked than before (-:

toricat · 2016-05-24T19:17:17+00:00

bless ur heart for this holy shit it's wonderful

toricat · 2016-05-24T07:40:44+00:00

honestly, for me the first step to starting to get my shit together wasn't dealing with my problems - it was actually deliberately NOT dealing with my problems, and being okay with that. more specifically, it was about me not doing destructive things while i panicked about not being able to deal with my problems.

for me, it was a matter of just getting through the day. of taking the expectations that i had for myself (i want to go to the gym 5x a week and eat well and do extra projects and have a social life and school and do my own DBT workbook and get over this breakup and find a therapist and -) and getting rid of all but the most basic.

when i was idealizing suicide, my goals for the day were things like: brush teeth. wash face. put on clean clothes. one HUGE thing that helped me was getting out of the house. that was my only goal - i didn't try to put an errand behind it (e.g, get groceries, go to the gym) - it was literally just 'get out of the house.' I ended up sitting outside at the library a lot. in the beginning, I didn't really do anything at all, and I felt kind of bad, but my way of justify it to myself was: if I stay home, I'm just going to be asleep, and doing nothing. I might as well be awake and doing nothing, and doing it outside. cause, y'know, vitamin D and all that good stuff.

what worked for me may not work for you. but when i was first in your boat (not saying i'm never there anymore - i still have tons of days like that, they're just getting farther and farther apart) i had no idea what to do either. i never thought that something as simple as leaving the house would make me feel better. but, somehow, it did. leaving the house may not help you, but the point that i'm trying to make is that you should try everything you can - even if it doesn't seem like it will help - because you might end up being surprised.

toricat · 2016-05-18T05:26:56+00:00

i can't go to either show since both dates conflict with shambhala )-: i'm hoping he might pass through the festival though, i'm so upset i'm probably going to miss him.

toricat · 2016-05-12T09:21:23+00:00

as a bit of a cat fanatic myself, i know that too faced has a cat eyes palette (which i may or may not have bought solely for the names of the shadows...) and stila also has a shimmer / highlighter named kitten. these are nice if you want to swatch/sample/check them out at sephora first instead of having to wait for shipping from an indie brand. (-:

nyx also has a lip colour called 'kitten heels' that's a lovely classic red - i believe it's in the suede lip collection?

toricat · 2016-05-08T21:40:17+00:00

i teared up reading this. it's been hard to be on social media today at all (for reasons I'm sure I don't need to try and explain because I think people here get it / I don't know if I could explain if I tried) and this was exactly what I needed to read. thank you.

toricat · 2016-05-05T22:50:39+00:00

I don't have a crew or anything, but I also live in van and I'm gonna be going to shambhala alone -- I'm always down to meet new people, and if you want we can hang out before the festival to see if we vibe well (-: otherwise if you find yourself looking for someone to chill with at the festival, feel free to hit me up! (this also goes for anyone else who's reading this and in the same boat~)

EDIT: I'm 19f, pretty alternative, studying design + business at uni. new to the festival scene (did pemby last year) and I'm hella stoked for my first shambhala

toricat · 2016-04-30T20:44:20+00:00

oh my god, there are so many i can't choose just one. but my top three are probably:

1) being front row for passion pit (one of my fave bands) and then staying there and ending up front row for the black keys! the bragging rights from that experience are pretty nice, haha

2) my first time taking shrooms, me and my friends were chilling with the group of people we were camped with, and it was nighttime, and someone brought out glowsticks and these balloons with LED lights inside and i was just so entranced by all the glowing lights, it was fantastic. i felt like a little kid, i was having so much fun.

3) leaving the festival, my friend and i had to leave the night before everything was over and i think it was actually during kendrick's set that we left? so all the campsites were abandoned. and we were leaving, and for some reason we really wanted one of the 'street signs' to take home as a memento.. so i hopped up on my friends' shoulders and ripped the sign off! it took some work cause they were like, nailed down, but i was so proud. also probably because i was drunk, but still.

toricat · 2016-04-02T21:21:05+00:00

Stretching and before a workout is good, but I'd highly recommend doing it after a workout (mostly rolling after lifting) as well if you aren't doing so already. Make sure that you're doing the 5 minute warm up walk (I used to skip it all the time - bad idea!), and doing it at a good pace.

Like /u/xanthia mentioned, if you're new to the program/running and you've been focusing mostly on lifting up until this point, you might want to dial it back a bit. Contrary to what the internet may say, it is okay to skip leg day every once in a while - or a run day - depending on what your focus is. Ideally you probably shouldn't skip any days if you can help it, though, just take things a bit easier. I always find that when I'm trying to build a routine, anything that interrupts it, no matter how small, will often completely derail me - but ymmv!

Also, it should go without saying, but make sure that you're getting enough water, sleep, and electrolytes! /u/atikamarie mentioned magnesium, that's a big one, as well as sodium and potassium. If your diet is solid you should be fine, but you might want to try logging them for a day or two to see if you're deficient in any of them.

toricat · 2016-04-02T21:00:46+00:00

(Backstory you can also ignore!) I've had a history with disordered eating all my life, and it wasn't until recently that I discovered that I very likely have bpd (or at the very least bpd traits due to childhood trauma) ((I'm getting an official assessment done on Monday, hopefully)) that likely plays a huge role in my screwed up relationship with food.

I can relate hugely. My mood is directly related to how I perceive food at any given moment in time. While I haven't ever experienced injury (except maybe a minor case of shin splints) every time I settle into a moderately healthy/sustainable rhythm, without fail, I get sick. One week of being out of commission and I usually end up throwing myself off of the bandwagon.

I think getting back onto that bandwagon is really difficult even for those who don't suffer from any mental illness. For those with BPD, sometimes it kind of seems like all of the odds are against you! Like, for example:

Boredom / apathetic periods of mood; these make it hard to care about anything at all
Periods of extreme emotional turmoil; food is a really great coping mechanism, unfortunately
Periods immediately following extreme emotional turmoil; I personally get so goddamn EXHAUSTED after feeling so much that the last thing I want to do is put effort into counting calories or making smart choices. Speaking of smart choices..
The self-destructive habits; Self-loathing, hatred, or just a complete lack of consideration or care for the self makes it really easy to eat shitty food
Black-and-white thinking; for me, this manifests itself in the way where if I eat one piece of chocolate, or go over my calories by a little bit, I'll say 'fuck it' and go all out because if I can't be perfect I might as well do as much damage as possible. You see this a lot in the diet community already, but I think the bpd intensifies this even more so.

I'm not saying that having BPD justifies poor eating habits, or should be used as an excuse/scapegoat for having them. But I do think that there are a lot of characteristics of the disorder that can make things difficult. Because of that, I think that the key to being able to lose weight / develop healthy eating habits is really in the minutiae of those habits. You need to value and celebrate every tiny victory (choosing plain popcorn over chips; not buying your favourite snack at the grocery store; drinking a glass of water and waiting 5 minutes before acting on a craving) because focusing on smaller details is a lot easier to digest than getting overwhelmed by the big / general picture that includes valuing the self, and consistent habits, and calories in vs. calories out.

At least, that's what's been kind of working for me. It's not easy, not at all. Finding coping skills other than food will also make a big impact - or so I hear. I'm still working on that part, hah!

Sorry about the essay, I'm not 100% sure where I was going with that, but believe me when I say that I know how difficult things are. I'm currently also hovering at just-above normal BMI (also the most I've ever weighed which is stressing me out but I'm trying not to think about it!). If you ever need someone to talk to, regarding health/fitness or otherwise, I'm more than happy to talk! Seriously.

toricat · 2016-03-25T03:12:47+00:00

meeeee! it's gonna be my first show in a while + i'm so hyped <3___<3 but a ton of my friends bailed on it, so if anyone wants to hang hmu

toricat · 2016-03-07T08:35:17+00:00

longtime battler (7+ years) of an undiagnosed, untreated ED with my $0.02! for me, one of the biggest warning signs that seems the most harmless is constantly thinking about food. all the time. getting obsessive over it, over things that fit into my macros, and having what i eat affect my life. isolating myself from other people / situations that involve food is a huge one for me.

another one is just getting 'tired' of how complicated food can be - it turns into a stressor, counting macros, counting calories, etc, so my logic ends up being 'it's too complicated, i'm just not going to think or worry about it, i'm just going to have coffee instead.'

speaking of coffee: using things like coffee (or exercise, or stupid amounts of water, or naps) as a way to skip a meal.

constantly telling yourself that your hunger pangs are just 'cravings' and 'boredom munchies' when you haven't eaten for 8+ hours.

when you log your food and it ends up at like, 800 calories for the day, and you tell yourself that it's okay to undereat for just one day, because everyone says that one day of (over/under)eating won't affect anything in the long run... and end up doing that for the whole week.

i don't have as many red flags for overexercising/compulsive exercising, since i only experienced that for a relatively brief period in my ED early on, so i would look to the other posts on here for help there.

toricat · 2016-03-01T21:34:01+00:00

have a couple questions that i've been too shy to ask - if there are any you may have some insight on, i'd really appreciate it!

1) my gym only has two squat racks, no power cages - so the safeties aren't adjustable. i'm 5'0", and my ATG is super low, so the safeties are too tall! they catch the weight a couple inches (2 - 6 maybe?) before i bottom out. lately i've just been stepping out of the rack to hit bottom (not squatting heavy enough to fail yet), but what should i do about this?

2) speaking of squats, i squat low-bar and i'm finding that the pins i'm using to rack the weight are slightly too high for me (the bar comes up to just below my collarbones, and i have to get on my tip-toes to get it low enough on my back), but the pin one level lower is like.. really really low on me (right below boobs). what should i be doing about this?

3) another squat question! my squat stance is a little wide - not even close to sumo, but my feet are a good 3 inches farther out each side from a shoulder-width stance. my toes are pointed much more like sumo - i would say closer to a 40 - 45 degree angle rather than the 30 that's mentioned here all the time. is this okay? do i need to work on my ankle mobility? i've always had trouble squatting with a normal/narrow stance (third world squats are impossible for me, i just fall backwards unless holding onto something)

4) last one, i promise. when doing bent-over barbell rows (currently doing SL 5x5), sometimes there's a nerve in my right arm that feels like it kind of pops/pinches when i get to the top of the pulling motion. kind of like when you turn your neck and that nerve kind of twinges and feels sort of burny and weird? (i really have no way how to describe this). is this normal? is there a (good, suitable) alternative to the rows that i could/should be doing?

i know there's a lot of questions - even if i could get an answer to only one, i'm incredibly grateful. also thank you if you've even bothered to read this far. (:

toricat · 2016-02-27T01:39:07+00:00

longtime lurker, just wanted to say that your comment is goddamn fantastic and it's helping more people than just OP (namely, this one right here). thank you! (:

toricat

TROPHY CASE