krait | Network

New study finds exercising outdoors is 'superior' to the gym or city: 'Our brain loves nature'

A major finding is that exercise in nature provided far greater mental benefits than urban and indoor environments, with participants reporting much higher levels of joy, calm, satisfaction, and optimism after working out in the outdoors.

On a physiological level, researchers measured that the participants’ heart rates dropped more quickly after a walk in nature. Additionally, heart rate variability, which shows how well the body’s nervous system goes into recovery, was 20-30% higher than the indoor walk.

Participants also reported lower levels of anxiety, irritation, and boredom after exercising in nature. Boredom levels actually increased after walking indoors, the researchers shared.

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Current Mood: busy

nicki

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james

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flemmings

All weekend (cool and jacket weather yesterday, humid and warm today) there's been an autumnal tinge of woodsmoke to the air, either someone illegally burning leaves or the new Texas smokehouse at Christie and Dupont in the former and much-missed Starbucks building. Tempting, except for the lines out the door and down the street Friday. And closed Monday and Tuesday and at 4:30 on the days they're open.

Meanwhile have filled a garbage pail with linden seedlings and got it on the porch against the forecast rain. There's still lots more by the house but those can wait. Saturday I ran across J down the street and her two kids mowing the front yard of the house next door to them, which belonged to an Italian grandpa called Rafi. Rafi died recently aged 96 and quite ready to go; his grandkids have the house now, is why there's been stuff for the taking on the sidewalk these past few weeks. One of these was an ancient (ie about as old as I am) lawnmower which tiny O was using to decimate the weeds, which picked up a stone and flung it 15 ft/ 5 metres in my direction as I was coming up the street. Missed me by a bit but would have made an interesting obituary, as J said. But she also mentioned that she grinds the leaves to mulch and puts it on her own front yard, and I must ask her how. Rati's house is detached, a downtown rarity, and probably in need of renovation if mine is anything to judge by, so not sure if the grandkids will in fact hold on to it. What amazes me more is that J and the kids were on close terms with him, because I always assumed he spoke no more English than Signora does, or my former next door neighbours the Pisanis. Which is why you shouldn't assume.

The gardening only got done thanks to a couple of Black Russians + cream, because back is not happy with me doing anything. I continue with my core-strengthening exercises but not with any noticeable effect.

xandromedovna posting in

fic_rush

We made it! I'm typing this on my phone so excuse any nonsense, or better yet add your own nonsense in the comments! While you're there, be sure to brag about whatever you accomplished this Round! And of course, massive thanks to our Mod Squad:

xandromeodovna, WerebunniesBane

thedarlingone, Rainbow Fairy Godpenguin

lilly_c, Clumsy Rhino

glinda, Supreme Tea Temptress

and of course, our beloved Void, this Round's Champion Usurper

the_siobhan

Still alive. Haven't posted much, because really things haven't changed much in the last month.

The house stuff continues to be a labourious swim upstream against a river of bullshit. Final ~~Boss~~ contractor finished off the stairs and deck and honestly, he was amazing. Since the stairs were the last part of the work that I figured would be needed to comply with code I contacted the city about closing the work permits.

Turns out Original Contractor did not get the city to look at the foundations before closing up the walls. Which is a MANDATORY step. There also apparently needed to be an inspection of the drain that leads to the sump pump. I do remember the contractor talking about getting the engineer to look at the work, so I reached out to him to see if he could provide a report.

Engineer: You have to talk to [Contractor]
Me: [Contractor] hasn't returned any of messages for months. Did you do the inspection or not?
Engineer: I'll reach out to him.

So will I be able to close the work permits? Nobody knows! I'm hoping that the worst-case scenario is they have to knock a hole in the wall and feed a camera down. I have no fucking idea what I'll do if they have to rip up concrete.

Cry, probably.

Meanwhile, got the bathroom painted and managed to rescue most of the fixtures. Figured out that the wall lights are borked and tried to buy replacements without any luck - they have to be really short because of the tiny space they are squeezed into, but apparently wall lights are now something that you can only order online because none of the hardware stores I visited had anything on site. I was really hoping I could take a tape measure to them before handing over any money.

AND I tried to put wall-plates on all the outlets and switches and failed because out of 12 electrical boxes only 4 are set properly in the wall. So I have to pull the rest apart and re-mount them and fill in the gaps on the ones where they just cut a fuckoff big hole that the plate won't cover. How how HOW do you screw up such a basic fucking job?

I am taking next weekend off and I am going to visit friends. And there is a part of me that thinks I should stay here and deal with the electricals bullshit but - I have dedicated every single weekend to this fucking project for longer than I can calculate. I lost my entire summer to dealing with this. I deserve to take ONE weekend off, right?

Current Mood: done

delphi

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nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
囗 parts 3-4
困, sleepy/in trouble/to imprison; 围, to surround; 固, hard/solid; 国, country; 图, drawing; 圆, round
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=31
土 parts 1-4
土, earth; 圣, holy; 在, to exist; 地, earth; 场, place/stage/event; 均, equal/even; 坏, bad/spoiled; 坐, to sit/to ride; 块, lump/money counter; 坚, firm; 垂, to dangle; 型, type
( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=32

语法
接 vs 接到
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/jie1-jie1dao4-answer-receive/
Using 对 and 跟
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/dui4-gen1-prepositions/
"Sorry" and "excuse me": 对不起, 请问, 麻烦你, 劳驾
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/dui4buqi3-qing3wen4-ma2fan-ni3-lao2jia/

词汇
愿望, desire; 志愿, to volunteer/to wish; 志愿者, a volunteer
约, appointment/arrangement; 大约, about; 节约, to save
乐队, band
运输, transport; 命运, fate; 幸运, lucky
杂志, magazine; 复杂, complicated
早已, (since) long ago
( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

玩玩
Qi Yu & Wu Qingfeng, 一念之间一在水中; A-Mei, 连名带姓.

总算凉快了一点，我开心。不过早上起不了床了。大家过得怎么样？

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: full
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Paleontologizing Twitch Stream

squidgestatus

I'm over the moon to let everyone know that this year's annual fundraiser, the Summer Sleepaway Camp fundraiser has brought in $2,923.84. That will definitely get us through the next twelve months of our hosting, legal, and other bills. Thank you everyone who donated! We could not be here without you all!

Over the next few days, the stickers will go out to anyone who donated more than $10. And in the next week, the t-shirts will be printed and sent to people who donated $100 or more.

tozka

Life Updates

Well, that was a longer gap than I meant to do! From my last update to now:

have left my Ann Arbor catsit
flown to California to visit parents and sat in a SoCal heatwave for a week
bought new suitcase, repacked items, swapped out clothes, etc.
flew to new catsit in undisclosed location (in the Western part of the US, anyway)
settled into new catsit for about a week, then
became vaguely ill for a week and
only now picked up laptop and felt energetic using it

I’ll do a more precise (friends-only) catsit update to introduce y’all to the new kitties, but overall I’m really enjoying this new location– though I miss the garden from Ann Arbor! I do have a balcony with a view of the river with an enormous amount of ducks here, though.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Crossposted from Pixietails Club Blog.

kaberett

[... sorry about the template, I hit return in the title field and IT POSTED. details to appear shortly. :-p]

Reading. ( Ann Leckie, Monty Lyman, Ronald Melzack & Patrick D. Wall )

Writing. ... I have actually put some more notes into The Document.

So many lost property e-mails. (And at some point I'm going to need to start replying to them, too.)

Watching. On YouTube: True Facts: Bats, The Science Of The Hunt. NSFW. Definitely... An Experience.

Cooking. ... yeah no I managed to make veg spag bol on Friday but otherwise we've mostly just been feeling faintly sorry for ourselves. Okay, no, that's not quite true, I did also achieve baked potato on Wednesday.

Eating. Misc takeaway from The Field (leftover Sunday night curry for dinner on Tuesday; leftover vegetable fried rice + Szechuan tofu for breakfast on same...). I remain mildly resentful that the Wagamama menu still does not contain any of My Favourites.

Growing. The second attempt at pineapple has NEW LEAVES. The second attempt at lemongrass is maybe Going? And other than that I have no idea because I have spectacularly failed to make it to the plot this week.

Observing. BATS. A variety of excellent dahlias and passion flowers on a Trip To Town (post office, pharmacy).

peppermint_shamrock posting in

fffc

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shallowness

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thisbluespirit

As I mentioned about a month or so ago, I did some AU_gust prompts, starting with flash fic for the prompt Romance, using the UC generator to get a summary for The Winslow Boy. It was a bit of a complicated summary for flash fic, and it's just taken me about, um, seven weeks to straighten this out into being a reasonably more comprehensible bit of AU nonsense than it was at the start. idk why. Anyway, also for

genprompt_bingo & two

allbingo squares (for two different bingo fests of theirs, that is, I'm not cheating).

A Family Affair (1472 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Catherine Winslow, Robert Morton (Winslow Boy)
Additional Tags: AU-gust | August Writing Challenge 2025, Alternate Universe - Regency, Regency, Unconventional Courtship Generator, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Stranded
Summary: Catherine Winslow's day is getting worse by the minute.

snickfic

I have read some books which I had few thoughts or feelings about.

Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato. A varied cast of characters all end up at a haunted castle which won't let them escape. This is dark fantasy with strong but not specifically identifiable fairy tale elements. First person POV with multiple POVs is a struggle, especially when everyone's narrative voice sounds the same. I was disappointed that the naive rich girl whose heart gets broken and then who gets cruelly married off didn't get written with more nuance. IDK. It was fine, I guess.

--

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. A family of siblings in rural Virginia with an ancestral charge to protect a nearby bog has to figure out what to do when the bog, for the first time in family memory, does not produce a woman to marry the eldest son.

I read this because I am always on the lookout for stories about people who are raised or sucked into very skewed perspectives, especially when those perspectives are supported by reality - for example, their very real bog-mother here. And this definitely delivered! That said, this feels more like a work of gothic fiction than anything else. Their terrible disintegrating family home just gets worse as the story goes on, and the ending in particular reminds me very strongly of

spoilers

We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

That said, I am not sure what I am meant to take away for this one. There are definitely themes of ecology and environmentalism, but also this is a family of very real characters with all their various squabbles and relationships. To be honest, when the book was over I was mostly sad about the ending for the two siblings who reminded me so strongly of the spoiler above.

An odd duck.

--

The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice by Margaret Killjoy. The third novella in the Danielle Cain series, in which Danielle and her group of fellow anarchists tell ghost stories around a campfire. I always enjoy Killjoy's vibe, even when it feels like there's not a ton of substance, like here. And I guess others feel the same, because the kickstarter to fund this blew way past all its main goals. Hopefully that means we'll get more Danielle Cain books in the future.

settiai

First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to create for me. These are nothing but guidelines, for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're writing me fic or drawing me art! That's automatically a good reason for me to love you, no matter what. So, please, keep that in mind. Trust me, you can pretty much do no wrong. ♥

( More details under the cut. )

Current Mood: cheerful

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, irises, patio plants, and a few more around the house yard.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I watered the new picnic table, septic garden, telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna seedlings.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

withthekeyisking posting in

fandomcalendar

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oursin

Last week's bread became really, really, dry, so I made a loaf of Shipton Mill Three Malts and Sunflower Organic Brown Flour: very nice.

Friday night supper: the ersatz Thai fried rice with red bell pepper, chorizo and salsiccon salami.

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 strong white/rye flour, turned out very well.

Today's lunch: lemon sole fillets, which I cooked more or less as for the whole soles here - slightly shorter time and lower oven temperature, also sploshed a little wine in; served with La Ratte potatoes roasted in beef dripping, spinach according to recipe in Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, and warm green bean and fennel salad (I included a little chopped red onion as there was one left over from last week as well as the fennel, and added additional tarragon to the dressing).

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