"all this technology is making us antisocial"

Joules tweed perfection

Edward Gal and Glocks Toto

Pink Rabbits

I couldn't find quiet I went out in the rain
I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain
Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd
I didn't understand then I don't understand now
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
You were standing in the street cause you were tryin' not to crack up
It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea
I didn't ask for this pain it just came over me
I love a storm, but I don't love lightning
All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
I was standing in the street cause I was trying not to crack
I was solid gold I was in the fight
I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin
I couldn't see you coming so far
I just turn around and there you are
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
I was just getting used to living life without you around
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
You always said I held you way too high off the ground
You didn't see me I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park
You didn't see me I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
[X2]
And everybody was gone
You were standing in the street cause you were trying not to crack up
And Bona Drag is still on
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sun kicks out
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sun kicks out
You said it will be painless
The needle in a doll
You said it will be painless
It wasn't that at all
You said it will be painless
The needle in a doll
You said it will be painless
It wasn't that at all (when the sun kicks out)

You said it will be painless
The needle in a doll (when the sun kicks out)
You said it will be painless
It wasn't that at all

Almond-Blueberry Oatmeal

Almond-Blueberry Oatmeal
Whole grains like oats (the plain, non-processed kind) help prevent artery-clogging atherosclerosis by interfering with cholesterol absorption, says Dr. Agatston. Here, creamy oatmeal is topped by blueberries, which are packed with cholesterol-lowering pectin and disease-fighting antioxidants.

SERVINGS: 1

¼ c steel-cut oats
¼ c fat-free milk
1 c water
1 Tbsp almonds
1/3 c fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tsp ground flaxseed

1. BOIL 1 cup of water over high heat.
2. ADD ¼ cup of steel-cut oats.
3. COOK, stirring, for 25 minutes, until the oatmeal is soft. Reduce heat to low and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.
4. ADD ¼ cup of fat-free milk, a tablespoon of slivered almonds, 1/3 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries, and a teaspoon of ground flaxseed. Mix and serve.

NUTRITION (per serving) 178 cal, 10 g pro, 26 g carb, 5 g fiber, 5.8 g fat, 0.5 g sat fat, 40 mg sodium

Low Fat Frittata with Smoked Salmon and Scallions

Low Fat Frittata with Smoked Salmon and Scallions

Fatty cold-water fish like salmon are rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, as well as selenium, an antioxidant shown to help protect your heart. (See if you should buy wild salmon or farmed with our Health Food Face-Off.) Serve this frittata with some multigrain toast to up the fiber factor.   

SERVINGS: 6

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
6 scallions (whites and 2" of green), trimmed and coarsely chopped
6 egg whites
4 whole eggs
½ tsp dried tarragon or 1½ tsp fresh, minced
¼ c cold water
2 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut into ½" wide pieces
½ c chopped fresh basil, arugula, or spinach (garnish)

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F.
2. HEAT heavy 8" ovenproof sauté pan over medium heat 1 minute. Mist bottom of pan with cooking spray. Add oil and heat 20 seconds.
3. ADD scallions and sauté, stirring periodically with spatula, until soft, about 30 seconds.
4. WHISK egg whites, eggs, tarragon, water, and salt and black pepper to taste in a medium bowl.
5. POUR mixture into pan and lay salmon pieces on top. Cook, stirring periodically, about 2 minutes.
6. TRANSFER to oven and cook until firm, golden, and puffed, about 6 to 8 minutes.
7. REMOVE using spatula, make sure that none of frittata is stuck to pan. Gently slide frittata onto warm serving platter. Garnish with fresh basil, if desired.

NUTRITION (per serving) 96 cal, 10 g pro, 2 g carb, 0.4 g fiber, 5.4 g fat, 1.3 g sat fat, 373 mg sodium

Slimmed-Down Sweet Potato Casserole

Makes 12 servings

3.5 lbs sweet potatoes (about 5 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon (divided)
1 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans

1. Cover potatoes with water, and boil in a large pot until soft when pierced with a fork. Drain, and return to the pot.

2. Preheat oven to 400° F. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. 

3. Mash the sweet potatoes, then add the honey, raisins, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Whip with an electric mixer or an immersion blender until smooth (if you don't have one, you can do this step by hand—it'll just take a little muscle!). Spread the sweet potato mixture in the prepared baking dish.

4. Mix the brown sugar, pecans, and remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a bowl; sprinkle over the potatoes. Bake until hot and beginning to brown around the edges, about 15-20 minutes.

A Lateral Movement Workbook: Shoulder-In with Volker Brommann

By Volker Brommann

Volker Brommann shows you how to make your horse stronger and more supple with shoulder-in, “the mother exercise of all lateral work.”

In shoulder-in, you ride your horse at a constant angle of approximately 30 degrees to the track with a slight but uniform poll-to-tail bend around your inside leg.

He moves away from the direction in which he is bent. Because of the bend and angle, his inside fore passes and crosses in front of his outside fore and his inside hind steps forward under his body, following his outside fore. If you were to stand in front of him, you would see three tracks: inside fore; outside fore and, directly behind it, inside hind; outside hind. You sit slightly more on your inside seat bone (less because you reposition yourself than because your horse lowers his inside hip with each step). You can feel that he’s giving you nice contact on the outside rein—just enough that you can easily give on your inside rein and he doesn’t lose balance, bend or angle.

In Germany we call shoulder-in “The mother exercise of all lateral work.” For the first time in your horse’s training, he not only has to ­accept your outside half-halting aids, bend around your inside aids and stay supple in his poll, he has to travel rhythmically forward with his haunches not aligned with, and following in the track of, his forehand. His inside hind leg accepts more weight and his inside hip lowers, which allows his forehand to lighten. Shoulder-in is a challenge, but once your horse masters it, he’ll be stronger and more supple, and far more likely to find the other lateral movements—travers (haunches-in), renvers (haunches-out) and half-pass—fairly easy.

Shoulder-in Prerequisites

• A mastery of leg-yield. Your horse completely understands and willingly responds to your sideways- and forward-driving aids while staying straight through his body.
• A degree of collection. He moves forward on the bit with an energetic impulsion, his neck somewhat raised and arched, and the whole structure of his haunches (hip, stifle and hocks) well-engaged. His steps are a bit shorter than in working trot, not ­because you are resisting or holding him with your hand, but because your seat and legs are driving him forward into an alternately “restraining” and allowing hand that encourages him to engage and bring his hind legs farther underneath his body. However, if your horse tends to get lazy or stuck, I don’t see any fault in occasionally riding shoulder-in at more of a working trot, as long as he stays balanced and supple and the trot doesn’t get so fast or forward that the movement becomes choppy. In fact, I often purposely ride working trot to get more cadence.
• The ability to do a shoulder-fore. This is all about what we call “relative straightness.” Left to his own devices, your horse will align his outside hind and outside fore against the rail. But because his haunches are wider than his shoulders, that brings his inside hind just a little more into the arena than his inside fore so he’s relatively crooked. When you position his inside shoulder in front of his ­inside hip, he’s straight because his ­inside hind is following in the track of the inside fore.
• Throughness or Dürchlassigkeit. There’s a free and easy flow of energy and aids from back to front and from front to back as a result of his musculature being connected, supple, elastic and unblocked.
• Self-carriage. He is supple in his poll and appears to work almost on his own without relying on you to hold him together. And this is important! If he’s not carrying himself, shoulder-in—all lateral work, for that matter—can actually have a negative effect on his training and development. When you ask him for shoulder-in’s flexion, bend and angle, he’ll just lose his balance and lean on your hands, become resistant or fall out over his outside shoulder. For the best way to check that your horse is in self-carriage, see Photos 1 and 2 at right.
• Balance on an 8- or 10-meter circle. On a light contact, your horse bends evenly from poll to tail ­according to the circular track without any loss of ­tempo or quality of movement.

Get Started
Training Tip: Use the bend and aids on an 8- or 10-meter circle. They are so closely related to the bend and aids in shoulder-in that they comfortably and logically set up your horse to begin the movement and help him restore those qualities if he gets into trouble during the movement.

The 8- or 10-meter circles are so closely related to the bend and aids in shoulder-in that they comfortably and logically set up your horse to begin the movement and help him restore those qualities if he gets into trouble during the movement.

Photo by Tass Jones

Come through the short end of the arena in collected trot and in the corner, circle 8 or 10 meters. (If slowing things down and walking helps you figure out the aids and your horse understand them, by all means walk a few times.)

Anytime you feel your horse slow down or struggle during shoulder-in, slightly relax your inside leg and circle to restore bend, balance and impulsion. At the end of the long side, complete the shoulder-in by again softening your inside bending leg aid and allowing your horse to bring his shoulders back to the rail in front of his haunches. It is good schooling to finish with a circle. It keeps you from cutting the corner and allows you to realign your horse’s body for a correct corner.

Training Tip: Shoulder-in isn’t an end unto itself—it is a gymnasticizing exercise intended to improve your horse’s suppleness and balance. So ask for just a “baby” bend and angle at first and only increase bend, angle and flexion in gradual, doable stages. Asking for too much too soon will just have a negative effect. Your horse will lose his balance or the quality of the trot, fall out over his outside shoulder or try to hold himself up by leaning on your hands.

Once your horse is confidently performing a shoulder-in this way, eliminate the circle but use the same aids to ask for shoulder-in after coming through the corner. When that’s going well, try shoulder-in on the centerline where you don’t have the support of the rail. As long as you ride with mirrors or have a friend who can be eyes on the ground, it is a great check on your aids and your horse’s response to ride shoulder-in left, straighten for several strides, then ride shoulder-in right. See if you can keep his haunches on the centerline and not swinging or falling through your inside or outside aids. Make sure the exercise isn’t hectic, with you flip-flopping three strides here, three strides there and your horse flinging from side-to-side. It must be a very predictable, balanced, smooth change from left flexion, bend and angle, to straight, to right flexion, bend and ­angle. When you can do that and keep your horse’s haunches on the centerline, you can be pretty sure that the two of you have mastered shoulder-in!

Training Tip: If your horse starts to get stuck and dull to your aids, his muscles could be getting tired. Anytime you start to feel that you’re working harder than you should to get results, give his muscles a break. Change direction or do circles or serpentines. And don’t forget that it is always a good idea to take a short walk break.

Instead of continuing on a 10-meter circle, at the exact moment that his outside shoulder leaves the rail, I add an even more active inside leg at the girth, which pushes him forward and sideways down the track. My hips are parallel to his hips, facing straight down the rail where his haunches should go. And my shoulders are parallel to his shoulders, with my torso turned in just enough at the waist that I’m looking on an angle into the arena. Even though my vision is on a diagonal line, I’m checking where I am on the track out of the corner of my left eye.

Photo by Tass Jones

I don’t make the mistake of collapsing—making the inside of my torso shorter and the outside longer—in an effort to go sideways, or I’d actually end up pushing Asterios outward over his left shoulder. Instead, I keep my torso erect. I also check constantly that he’s bent, balanced and carrying himself. Anytime I feel him losing the quality of the gait or pushing me to the outside, I’ll add a stronger half-halt or more inside leg or flexion in the poll. If that doesn’t work, a 10-meter circle should restore suppleness and rhythm. | Photo by Tass Jones

Asterios continues to be very active and forward on a very steady 30-degree, three-track angle with a nice bend, but he’s become a bit low in the poll. To fix this, I add more forward-driving aids with half-halts, and as a result …

Photo by Tass Jones

… he comes back up again. He’s just nicely enough on the outside rein that if I were to release my inside rein, I’m sure he’d maintain this bend and angle. Knowing that, I can start to ask for changes of tempo by going a little forward to a more working trot, then smoothly coming back to a collected trot. This will enhance the suppling, collecting effects of shoulder-in by making his inside hind take even more weight and his inside hip come even lower. | Photo by Tass Jones

Shoulder-in Problem Solving

• Check the photos below for two of the most common problems—too much neck bend and too wide an angle—along with trouble-shooting solutions for each. Other problems you can encounter riding shoulder-in …
• Your horse follows his shoulders and falls in off the rail. If he’s like most horses, he doesn’t like to bend, or the idea is so new to him that he interprets your shoulder-in aids as a request for him to turn. Correct him by riding straight down the quarterline and leg-yielding to the rail. At the moment you arrive, sit a little more on your inside seat bone and use your inside leg at the girth to bend him as if for a shoulder-in. Do shoulder-in for just a few strides down the rail and then straighten him and trot straight ahead. Repeat the exercise a few more times and he should begin to understand that he can do both: bring his shoulders in and leave his haunches on the rail.
• Your horse loses forward energy. ­Return to the more familiar bend of a 20-meter circle and alternate collected trot with a more forward trot so your horse learns to go forward on a curved line. Chances are, he’ll be better able to go forward while staying bent and going sideways in shoulder-in. Or try an exercise that I often teach. It not only ­restores a horse’s forward thinking, it ­increases teamwork and agility. Come through the short side on the right hand, say, and ride slightly forward on a shallow diagonal line from M to A. When you arrive at the quarterline, apply the aids for shoulder-in right and continue down the quarterline until you feel your horse slowing down. Straighten, ride a few strides toward A again, then reapply your aids for shoulder-in.
• Your horse rushes. This is often ­because he doesn’t like to bend or go sideways. First make sure that he’s strong and balanced enough to be doing shoulder-in. If so, ride a 10- or 15-meter circle, using half-halts to control his tempo, and then, with that control, go back into the shoulder-in, but with gentle, careful aids and a slower tempo.

the best protein sources

Google's Quinoa and Kale Salad

Google's Quinoa and Kale Salad
Serves 4

1 bunch kale, washed and de-stemmed
1 cup cooked quinoa
2 avocados, diced
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste

1. Chiffonade the kale by stacking the leaves, rolling them tightly, and then slicing them perpendicularly to the roll to create long, thin strips.2. Mix everything together and enjoy!

Green Gloves- the national

"Green Gloves"





Falling out of touch with all my

Friends are somewhere getting wasted

Hope they're staying glued together

I have arms for them



Take another sip of them

It floats around and takes me over

Like a little drop of ink

In a glass of water



Get inside their clothes with my green gloves

Watch their videos in their chairs

Get inside their beds with my green gloves

Get inside their heads, love their loves



Cinderella through the room

I glide and swan

'Cause I'm the best slow dancer

In the universe



Falling out of touch with all my

Friends are somewhere getting wasted

Hope they're staying glued together

I have arms for them



Get inside their clothes with my green gloves

Watch their videos in their chairs

Get inside their beds with my green gloves

Get inside their heads, love their loves



Now I hardly know them

And I'll take my time

I'll carry them over

And I'll make them mine



Get inside their clothes with my green gloves

Watch their videos in their chairs

Get inside their beds with my green gloves

Get inside their heads, love their loves

ali michael's narcissistic self-description

what the dressage letters mean