Vcsupertramp - VC Supertramp

Conditioned to be passive consumers, we confuse submission with security, celebrate obedience as virtue, and consent to self-destructive routines of agonizing repression, all because we lack the courage to step outside the prison cells that we affectionately regard as “comfort zones”.

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen, but, if one will, are to be lived.”

— Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

“Lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising counter measures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition. And plays her trump card just after they play theirs. It’s about making sure you surprise them. And they don’t surprise you.”

Miss Sloane (2016) dir. John Madden

Garrett King | @shortstache

I lost my best friend 3 years ago- not lost as in dead but lost as in we only text each other on our birthdays now. Movies and books don't tell you that a friendship dying is like the sinking of a ship, you try to get higher and higher and hold onto the rails and unanswered texts, the captain tries to steer it to safety and salvage pieces of two broken hearts until you're left with memories of what once was. We were friends for a decade and knew each other's diaries by heart, I still remember her phone number and the way she took her coffee. Seeing her in streets is like breathing in a scent you forgot you knew but it immediately takes you back to a summer in '07.

Movies and books also don't tell you that friendships don't just end after one fight or incident, it's like the rusting of a bridge, the slow decay of flesh and bones and secrets. It took weeks, months- until one day I woke up and I realized I hadn't thought of her in a while. And I wrote a poem that day and I titled it 'The dying of a best friend' and I put all my love for her in a tiny box with my half of the matching pendant of a dolphin we had and stored them in a corner of my heart under the heading Grief. Where else can one hide unspent love?

It's been 3 years since I lost my best friend, lost as in I still carry our secrets in a tiny box but we only text each other on our birthdays.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

Edit: here's the visualizer for this piece

A masterpiece.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) dir. Guillermo del Toro

Is it possible for you to share the diet you use?

I’ve committed to a Ketogenic Diet for almost a year now, entailing that I consume 30g or less of carbs per day; this demands my body to reconfigure itself to run primarily on ketones from fat rather than glucose from carbs.

For breakfast I blend a nutritional smoothie comprised of organic carrots, blackberries, almond butter, spinach, kale, sugarless dark chocolate, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and 2 raw pastured eggs: I’ll have an avocado and 5 handfuls of raw nuts on the side comprised of walnuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts that I’ll dip in organic coconut oil with Himalayan salt.

For dinner I’ll prepare 2 organic, hormone and antibiotic free, grass fed beef patties, and 2 more pastured eggs; cooked in coconut/olive oil mix, dressed up with organic mayonnaise and plenty of seasoning. I also drink plenty of water throughout the day, often with lemon, and will take 5000 IU’s of vitamin D throughout the winter months.

Since I’ve begun researching and experimenting with my diet over the course of the past 3 years or so, essentially purging my body of toxins whose presence I was unconsciously maintaining, it’s been akin to waking from a coma and observing the world slowly come into focus.

Until these past few years, I didn’t know it was possible to eat a meal without feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and succumbing to a mysterious lethargy, nor was I aware that many of my symptoms of depression and ADD were simply in relation to the effects that these pollutants were having on my brain chemistry. 

I had also grown accustomed to getting sick at least once or twice each winter, but this June will mark 3 years since I’ve even so much as caught a cold. I can only relate this to having established such a durable immune system via my refined eating habits. I feel more mentally and physically capable than I have ever felt in my entire life, which is an encouraging awareness at 24.