#how to switch to project management in tech

[olivergisttv]

Project Management: How to Successfully Transition to a Professional Tech Project Manager Role in 2025

In 2025, the line between technical expertise and leadership is thinner than ever. As agile teams, remote collaboration, and fast product cycles become the norm, tech project managers (TPMs) are the glue holding development and business objectives together. Whether you’re a software developer ready for the next step, a QA lead with a knack for organization, or a career switcher from operations or…

[garbinge]

Cowboy and Pony

Tyler Owens x F!Reader

Summary: Tyler comes home with the crew after a chase and after a unpleasant run in with your ex. Word Count 4.5k Warnings: Light angst, mentions of parental death, really bad science and tech explanations for the sake of plot lol, anxiety, talk of trauma/guilt/grief, fear of leaving home, kissing and i guess PG-13 sexual situations (not really but like blink and you miss it type stuff). A/N: I saw Twisters last night and cannot get Tyler Owens out of my brain. Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @kmc1989

You knew Tyler practically your whole life. He was the boy next door, but that quickly turned into your friend next door. Throughout all of his crazy life adventures, bull riding, studying meteorology, chasing storms, you were there. Except while he was trying out a million things, you were doing one. Tinkering with shit. Some people probably would have called you a mechanic, but you hated it. Because you didn’t just stop at cars, you were the person that would dig through the garbage to find trashed parts and build a computer out of it. That’s actually when Tyler talked to you for the first time, he stood back watching you pick through his trash just to get a circuit board from an old computer. You just liked to build stuff, you learned how to solder, how to rewire shit, the whole nine yards. 

Tyler wasn’t just your neighbor growing up, he was a friend. One of the best of ‘em. It’s why when he switched up to tornado chaser and asked you to join his crew there was no hesitation in your decision. You also managed to find a boyfriend, two of them actually, a jerk off one, that only lasted a few months and then the one you currently had, who was in front of your face this entire time. 

You were nose deep into some project as you heard the bark from Pony, the rescued Great Dane who you spent most of your days with. It was a miracle you didn’t hear the loud speakers of the truck you knew pulled into the driveway, but then you realized they had probably been broken off or mangled to the point of repair. 

“He-hey Pony, who's a good girl.” His voice was muffled, he had to have been a few feet out from the barn, which meant he was keeping the truck a good distance away from you on purpose. 

Sliding the barn doors open, your eyes first fell on him. Your number one concern always being him. But when you saw that damn handsome smug face on him, looking up at you with the most apologetic smile as Pony licked his face, your eyes jumped to the truck. They were jumping just as soon as they were closing shut. 

The exoskeleton of welded steel had been crushed on one side, which honestly was the least of your problems. The weather station atop had been missing complete pieces versus just a couple dings and scratches. The roof rack lights were broken and the trailer hitch was bent in an unusable position. But the firework launcher was in perfect condition still, of course. 

“I fixed what I could on site.” You heard the statement through gritted teeth as Tyler stared at you knowingly. 

“Oh. There was more.” You opened your eyes and saw him with an expression that could only be described as yikes as he nodded and stood up, Pony attaching to his side instantly. 

“Yeaaaaa.” He was still gritting his teeth as he walked towards you with open arms, knowing he was going to work his way back into your graces. His arms were around you in seconds, and his lips on yours moments later. Reaching to the top of your head, you removed the soldering headband that was resting on the top of your head like a simple pair of sunglasses although was 5x the size. Tyler instinctively grabbed it from you, and moved his hand right back to your lower back while you let your hands cup his face. “I’m sorry.” It was whispered as he pulled from the kiss to rest his forehead on yours. 

You looked up at him and noticed the smallest scratch on his face and wiped your thumb along it in hopes that it was just dirt but when the mark stayed and you felt the rigidness from the skin starting to heal already, you knew it wasn’t. “You know all that shit I build for you is so this doesn’t happen, right?” 

He let out a laugh, and you felt his body vibrate against yours as he did. “It’s barely the size of a papercut, and I, uh, recall you using your wiring tools to stitch up my head one from bull riding so I’d say it’s not too comparable.” His hands were now reaching up to your face to place a swift kiss on your forehead in an attempt to ease you. 

“I don’t compare, I just find a way to make things better. So now you need to tell me what happened to make this happen.” Your hands had moved against his chest. 

“One of Storm Par’s guys didn’t tie down their gear right and it nicked Tyler.” Lilly was walking right by you both into the barn to drop her drone for its own repairs. 

That made your entire mood change. “I’m sorry, what?” Your head jumping from Lilly to Tyler who was smiling with his mouth open readying an excuse.

“It was one of the new guys, didn’t know his ass from the tornado.” This was him trying to simmer the situation with humor.  

“Yea and when you told him that, that David guy got all up in our pretty boy’s face!” Boone was also entering the barn, following shortly behind Lilly with the drone eyes and controller. 

“I’m sorry, what?” That’s when your body got more tense and Tyler did everything to try and shake it off you. 

David. The jerk off ex-boyfriend. 

“Which ones David?” Dani was calling out from the RV, her hat crooked as she hung from the passenger door handle. It was obvious she was probably busy when the situation occurred. 

“The jerk-off one!” You and Tyler both called out at the same time. It earned him a smile, you could always count on being in sync with him. Surrendering from your tension you raised your arms up again to his neck, just below his jawline. 

“What’d he do?” 

“Ah, you know, storm up in my face.” The irony of his statement wasn’t lost on you, it’s why you rolled your eyes which made him explain further. “You know, just said some stupid shit, Boone’s probably got it on video, probably really drive up our views.” 

You didn’t give a fuck about views or watching the footage right now, you wanted to hear it from him what happened. And he read that off you immediately. “He just got mad. I mouthed off to someone in his crew, he said some shit to me and I just brushed him off.” 

Looking over to Lilly and Boone, you were looking at them for the real answer. “I didn’t realize we were calling, pushing the guy to the ground, brushing him off.” Lilly was smirking as she was looking around at the pieces of the drone that were needing repairs. 

“Let me see the video.” You were pushing off Tyler, who was leaning in trying to get you back in his embrace until he dropped his head in defeat. 

Boone was eager to show you the footage he caught, ditching the drone and coming to your workstation to set up his camera for you to watch. 

“Watch your mouth, Tornado Wrangler. One of my guys is worth all of yours combined.” A typical thing to come from David’s mouth. The MIT degree he held must’ve come with a minor in selfish pretentious douchebag. 

You saw how Tyler’s tongue swiped against his bottom lip inside his mouth as he looked out past David, considering he had a few inches of height on him. “See that’s the difference between me and you, Storm Par, we value things a little differently.” 

It was immediately apparent that Tyler was referring to you. Yes, he valued his team way more than David his, but Tyler knew what he was doing when he said it. David put a lot of things before you when you were dating, and the straw that broke the camel's back was when he didn’t show up to the hospital when you found out your mother was sick. This was before Storm Par and Tornado Wranglers though, this was when David was just working tracking storms in the area for his college internship and Tyler was just starting to get over taming bulls and more into taming twisters. 

When David joined Storm Par, you were already with Tyler for about a year, so it was much to his surprise when he saw you at one of the many motels on the storm trail in Oklahoma not only on top of the red dodge RAM truck fixing something, but also on top of Tyler at the little bonfire gathering in the field adjacent to the motel later that same night. 

But it wouldn’t have mattered if you were together with Tyler or not. The two never got along, when he first met David from when they both started chasing the same storms, there was always something in the air. 

“Yea, we do. Extremely difficult and exhausting emotional baggage weren’t high on my must-haves when I was looking for a girlfriend.” It was the exact words he used when you broke up with him. Correct, you broke up with him, and he hit you with the yea this isn’t working, you’re extremely difficult and the emotional baggage is beginning to exhaust me line. The extremely difficult line was probably in reference to not wanting to build machines for him to use to track the weather, modeling equipment, etc. And the exhausting emotional baggage was the whole your mother being sick thing. He clearly was still using the statement which meant he thought it was effective. And it was. At getting pushed to the ground. 

After the words left his mouth, Tyler’s hands were on David’s collar bones and shoving him with such little effort but enough to get him to stumble to the ground. Tyler smirked, a fully sarcastic look as he shrugged his shoulders and lifted his hands. Very that’s what you get of him. “Told you not to talk about her, Storm Par.” 

“You told me not to say her name.” David was annoyingly dusting off his shirt, knowing that physically he couldn’t take Tyler even on his best day. The secret was, you knew he couldn’t outsmart him even on his worst day either. 

“Hm.” Tyler was taking a couple steps closer now, really towering over him now, blocking any sun from David's vision as he stood tall looking down at him. “Well let’s just add it to the list, huh?” Just as Tyler was about to step away, the smirk on his face went from sarcastic to a full blown smile as he grabbed the ‘not my first tornadeo’ t-shirt that was on Boone’s shoulder and tossed it down to him. “Here, something to change into, you got a little dirt.” He pointed to his own torso when he said it.

That’s when the camera flipped to Boone raising his eyebrows, “you mess with the bull you get the horns!” His fingers raised to his forehead where his pointer and pinky finger were extended in the rocker sign and his teeth gritted to imitate a bull. 

“Classy.” You looked up to see Tyler still in the same spot, at the entrance of the barn leaning against the door frame, arms crossed. “Maybe next time we can get you both knight costumes and we can make it a true fight for my honor.” 

Despite your satire, he knew you weren’t mad. “Next time, huh? That mean you comin’ on the next chase with us?” 

That was the question. It was so much the question, that everyone was looking at you now. Lilly, Boone, Dani, and Dexter. After your mother got really sick, it was hard for you to leave the house, when you needed time for yourself, you’d come to the garage barn and work, that way when she needed you you weren’t too far. When she passed, you were away, on a chase which held enough guilt to basically move you into your barn. The house was merely a place for you to eat, sleep, and shower. And have sex with Tyler, although the barn had seen its fair share of that as well. Now, you had explained it as a habit–preference even, you preferred staying home, it was habitual. But everyone really knew… it was that emotional baggage. 

Even though he was mentioning it now, you knew there was never any pressure to go. You used to go. But ever since you got that call from the nurse’s aid that your mother had passed in her sleep while you were 75 miles away, it was hard to pull yourself from here. 

“Let me bring the truck in here.” Avoidance.

The keys were being dangled from Tyler’s fingers before you could say another word. As you jumped into the driver’s seat of the truck, you looked down to see a note on the odometer with your name on it. 

She got a little more mangled than expected. But can’t wait to tell you about the chase. Give you a little sneak preview, twins, changing wind shear and a surprise. Did what I could on site to fix the ol girl but no one’s as brilliant as you, especially with the vehicle sonar. You probably didn’t notice the vehicle sonar was broken. I’m sorry, did I say that? I don’t think I said that. I love you, I’ll say that too, in hopes that it’s enough for you to forgive the state of the truck, and if not, I brought back barbecue to win your love back. 

T 

These were your favorite; they made you feel included, like you were there. And Tyler knew that. Tucking the note into your jacket pocket, you pulled into the garage barn and got to work. About an hour in was when you were interrupted by the smell of barbecue and Tyler attached to the plate. 

“Winning back my love?” You called out with a smile, your legs extended out on the roof of the truck as you installed the new-old weather station to it. 

He placed the plate next to you, barely needing to reach up to get it that high and jumped into the bed of the truck. “And if not yours then Pony’s.” He was picking a piece of chicken off the plate and tossing it to the Great Dane who was nestled in the corner of the truck bed. “You get my note?” He was standing in the bed now, leaning against the back of the truck cap, his arms crossed on the roof as he watched you work. 

“Of course I did. You gonna tell me about,” You pulled the wrench away and looked in his direction while trying to remember the keywords he gave you from the chase. “Twins, and the shifting shear.” 

“Don’t forget the surprise.” He was picking up the fork from the plate and waving it as he spoke. “Yea, so we caught twins, although they didn’t look like twins, one was thin, small radius, the other was growing, kickin’ up a lot of dirt.” 

“Which one did you follow?” Despite not being much into meteorology, Tyler talked enough about it for you to learn a lot, and even though you hadn’t been on a chase in while, you knew the ins and outs pretty well still. 

“The wrong one.” Now he was pushing the fork in your direction, knowing you wouldn’t stop what you were doing long enough to relax and eat. 

“The shifting shear.” You mhmed in acknowledgement to the word in his letter about the wind change and also as the taste of your favorite Oklahoma barbeque spot filled your taste buds. 

“Yep.” He nodded, “We lost it and Storm Par didn’t.” 

“Before or after your run in with David.” 

“Before.” 

“Then, Tyler Owens, I think you still came out on top.” You said it while still looking at the plate, about to grab more food but the interruption of Tyler’s arms pushing him up on the truck roof, his boot stepping up on the fixed exoskeleton to boost him up so he was on top of you. 

“You’re damn right.” He was leaning his face dangerously close, as if his body atop of yours wasn’t dangerous enough. The slightest touch of his lips met yours and any thought of barbecue and fixing weather stations was out of your brain, in fact any thoughts at all were gone from your head aside from the many thoughts of Tyler caressing you.  “I missed you.” That was until he said that. 

He meant well, and you missed him too, but it just reminded you of not being there. Tyler picked up on your change in mood immediately, his left arm pressed against the metal of the car so he wasn’t as on top of you anymore, his face twisted in concern as his eyebrows raised in a way to ask you what happened but as you thought about how you wanted to explain he got it without you needing to share a word. “Fuck.” Dropping his head and the confused concern, his head fell on your shoulder. “I didn’t mean it that way. Even earlier today, I just–” 

“Miss me. I get it.” Your hand fell on his head, your fingers getting tangled in his blonde locks, your mouth moving to pepper kisses on his head as well. “I missed you too, for the record.” You mumbled it against his head. 

He moved off you and fell next to you, his hand cupping your head as he placed a kiss to your forehead as he moved. “There’s never any pressure. At your own pace.” 

“Says the guy who faces his fears by riding them. If I was anyone else, you’d laugh and scream cowboy obscenities as you walked away from me.” 

That caused Tyler to laugh out loud, his body vibrating against yours as his laughs fell in the crook of your neck. “You’re not scared.” 

“I’m scarred.” Making jokes was the only way you felt comfortable really talking about it. 

“And for the record, you’re you, not anyone else, so yes I treat you differently.” He left a kiss in the crook of your neck as he left it. “And what are cowboy obscenities?” 

You cleared your throat and began hollering typical midwestern slang and finished it off with the Tyler Owens tagline. “Woooohooo, if you feel it chase it!” 

There was his laugh again, buzzing against your body, making you miss him even when he was right damn next to you. 

Things quieted down for a bit and the two of you sat up and finished off the plate of barbeque on the picnic table you turned the roof of the red dodge into. “So, I was thinkin’ you know how you have the buttons in the truck to release the rockets and drill in and all that.” You spoke like you weren’t the one that helped him install all of those gadgets. 

“Mhm.” He smiled thinking the same thing, his arm propped up on his folded leg. 

“Well, Storm Par they have those data trackers, the things they gotta get out of the car and place down around the vortex.” You explained. 

“Think it’s the PAR in Storm Par.” Tyler teased.

“Exactly, Phased Array Radar. And I know we have the drone, which is great but what if we could have both? Footage and data.” Before Tyler could answer you were jumping back down to your work station and moving some things around to pull out a mechanism you had been working on before the group arrived back. 

Tyler was following behind you, not as quickly paced but still intrigued. “Okay so this we could install in your truck and attach it to this.” You were now showing a large panel that had hydraulics on it. “And basically, you press this and the truck bed flap will open and this will move out, dropping whatever you want out, you guys won't have to leave the car.” 

Tyler nodded as he took it all in, impressed, as always. “Pretty sure the handsome fellas at Storm Par use 3 of those bad boy radars though. Don’t think we could get the RV that close to a twister.” 

“I’d build you a data catcher where you’d only need one.” Already having the answer to his question you folded your arms and smirked. You had the mechanism to release it pretty much done, now you just had to build the radar, no biggie. 

“How?” He copied your pose, arms crossed, leaning more on one leg than the other, although his eyebrows were frowned while yours were raised. 

“Because you just have to drop it in the vortex.” Now his eyebrows raised and before he could ask his one more follow up question, you were answering it for him. “And I’m planning on building one that shifts its panel, so even when the twister passes, you can still track it for up to 5 miles. Dorothy reimagined.” You were referring to the hundreds of sensors people would generally have zipped up into a tornado to radio back data. 

“We’d have information on the twister way quicker.” Tyler’s brain was starting to wrap around this idea. 

“It’s not perfect, it’s not going to change much but–”

“It’s a way to get more information faster, that’s pretty big.” He stopped you from doubting the idea. “And keeps us from needing to race against the twister outside the truck. 

“I’m nothing if not concerned for your safety.” You pointed at him with the large switch in your hand while he walked over to start helping you piece some more things together. The two of you fell into a silent groove, working on the idea you had just shared with him, rewiring things and going over different equations to best prepare the data capture radar. As time passed, Tyler looked over at you from across the workstation and spoke up. 

“You know, I get why you can’t come out. I know prolly better than anyone how much your mom meant to you, what seeing her get sick did to you.” 

Shifting your focus from the lamp lit table covered in wires in front of you, you looked up at him. His eyes were staring at you, softly, it was something he seemed to want to share for a while and was just waiting for the right moment. And he was right, Tyler did know. It was the perk of growing up with him as your neighbor, he just knew things because he was there. Not only did he know, but he experienced them with you. He’d come by for dinner, bring you any piece of tech or electronics him or his aunt didn’t use anymore. When you popped your bicycle tire riding home from school, he picked you up in his aunt’s truck even though he didn’t have a license. On those weekend trips you’d so often take with your mom, he’d come by and check in on the barn, on your family pets. When she was sick and 90% of your time was spent making sure she was okay, he was making sure you were okay. And when your mom passed, he was the one who drove you the 75 miles back home in the same red pickup truck when one of the most historical twisters touched down. 

It was memories and thoughts like those that always made you wonder what took you so long to realize you were in love with Tyler Owens. He’d love to tell everyone now that he knew from the moment he saw you picking through trash that he loved you. That when you were rushing down the high school hallway with some contraption you made explaining to him that you made it to help him with the focusing issue he had casually brought up to you was when he realized he could never lose you. This person who knew neither of them had the money for noise cancellation headphones and just decided to make them herself with a playlist of his favorite songs in one night to help him focus? You cared about him. And he could never lose that. Which is why he could never tell you that he was in love with you. He watched you date losers, even went on his own dates too sometimes to see if he could get over the feeling. The only thing comparable was bull riding. Or storm chasing. And with that came you, because as much as you didn’t realize you loved Tyler, you knew you loved being around him. 

“We can start slow if you want to get out, maybe we can go away for the weekend, go to that town you and your mom used to drive out to in Texas, Sun Valley, right?” 

It was honestly the perfect idea. Getting out and doing something that reminded you of your mom. “Yea that’s a good idea.” 

He sensed the hesitancy in your voice though and changed the topic quickly. “Never asked me what the surprise was.” 

“What’s the surprise?” It was spoken in a mockery tone, you knew he’d get around to telling you. 

“Be right back.” He was eagerly standing up from the table and lightly jogging down the driveway into the RV where Dani and Dexter were probably working on making sense of the data they had already captured. 

As Tyler came back into the barn, Pony whined and tilted his head as the scent of what Tyler was carrying entered the barn. He had a young dog in his hands, although the dog was big enough to likely not be a puppy but you could tell from his face, he still had a few more young months ahead. It was a real dog and pony show, literally. 

“Found him in the aftermath rubble, pretty sure his owners didn’t make it because no one claimed him.” The heaviness of his statement hit you as you stepped out and made your way towards both Tyler and the dog.  “Didn’t have a nametag on ‘em.”  

“Cowboy.” You grabbed the dog from Tyler’s hands, giving him his name, and scratched him behind his ears before putting him down on the ground to meet Pony. 

As you looked at both dogs, now curiously sniffing and playing together in your workshop barn, Tyler tossed his arm around your shoulders and kissed your head. “Pony and Cowboy.” He nodded. 

“You bring him home because you don’t think Pony has it in her to protect me all by herself?” 

“Somethin’ like that.” He smirked. “Plus now, you got an excuse to stay home more. You got a puppy to raise.”

[aldryrththerainbowheart]

Chapter 1: Ghost In the Machine

The hum of the fluorescent lights in "Byte Me" IT Solutions was a monotonous drone against the backdrop of Gotham's usual cacophony. Rain lashed against the grimy window, each drop a tiny percussionist drumming out a rhythm of misery. Inside, however, misery was a bit more… organized.

I sighed, wrestling with a particularly stubborn strain of ransomware. "CryptoLocker v. 7.3," the diagnostic screen read. A digital venereal disease, if you asked me. Another day, another infected grandma's laptop filled with pictures of her grandkids and a crippling fear that hackers were going to steal her identity.

"Still at it?" My coworker, Mark, sidled over, clutching a lukewarm mug of something vaguely resembling coffee. Mark was a good guy, perpetually optimistic despite working in one of Gotham's less-than-glamorous neighborhoods. Bless his heart.

"You know it," I replied, jabbing at the keyboard. "Think I've finally managed to corner the bastard. Just gotta… there!" The screen flashed a success message. "One less victim of the digital plague."

Mark nodded, then his eyes drifted to the hulking metal beast in the corner, a Frankensteinian creation of salvaged parts and mismatched wiring. "How's the behemoth coming along?"

I followed his gaze. My pet project. My escape. "Slowly but surely. Got the cooling system optimized today. Almost ready to fire it up."

"Planning anything special with it?" Mark asked, his brow furrowed in curiosity. "You've been collecting scraps for months. It's gotta be more than just a souped-up gaming rig."

I shrugged, a deliberately vague gesture. "You could say I'm planning something… big. Something Byte Me isn't equipped to handle."

Mark chuckled. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure you'll make it sing. You've got a knack for that sort of thing." He wandered off, whistling a jaunty tune that died a slow, agonizing death against the backdrop of the Gotham rain.

He had no idea just how much of a knack.

Mark bid me one final goodbye before pulling out an umbrella and disappearing into the night. No doubt he stops at Nero’s pizzeria before going home to his wife and kids. You watched through the shop window before he disappeared around the corner. Then, you locked the door and reached for the light switch. The fluorescent lights flickered a final, dying gasp before plunging the shop into darkness. I waited a beat, the city's distant sirens a mournful choir. Then, I flipped the hidden switch behind the breaker box, illuminating a small, secluded corner of the shop.

Rain hammered against the grimy windowpanes of my "office," a repurposed storage room tucked away in the forgotten bowels of the shop. The rhythmic drumming was almost hypnotic, a bleak lullaby for a city perpetually on the verge of collapse. I ignored it, fingers flying across the keyboard, the green glow of the monitor painting my face in an unsettling light. Outside, the city's distant sirens formed a mournful choir. Here, the air crackled with a different kind of energy.

"Almost there," I muttered, the words barely audible above the whirring of the ancient server rack humming in the corner. It was a Frankensteinian creation, cobbled together from spare parts and salvaged tech, but it packed enough processing power to crack even the most stubborn encryption algorithms. Laptops with custom OSes, encrypted hard drives, and a tangle of wires snaked across the desk. This was Ghostwire Solutions, my little side hustle. My… outlet.

Tonight's victim, or client – depending on how you looked at it – was a low-level goon. One was a two-bit thug named "Knuckles" Malone; the other, a twitchy character smelling of desperation, Frankie "Fingers" Falcone. Malone's burner phone, or Falcone's data chip containing an encrypted message, was now on the screen in front of me, a jumble of characters that would make most people's eyes glaze over. For me, it was a puzzle. A challenging, if morally questionable, puzzle.

My service, "Ghostwire Solutions," was discreet, to say the least. No flashy neon signs, no online presence, just word-of-mouth referrals whispered in dimly lit back alleys. I was a ghost, a digital shadow flitting through the city's underbelly, connecting people. That's how I liked to justify it anyway. I cracked my knuckles and went to work. My fingers danced across the keyboard, feeding the encrypted text into a series of custom-built algorithms, each designed to exploit a specific vulnerability. Hours melted away, marked only by the rhythmic tapping of keys and the soft hum of the custom-built rig in the corner, its processing power gnawing away at the digital lock.

The encryption finally buckled. A cascade of decrypted data flooded the screen. I scanned through it, a jumbled mess of texts, voicemails, location data, or a simple message detailing a meeting point and time. Mostly dull stuff about late payments and turf wars, the mundane reality of Gotham's criminal element. I extracted the relevant information.

"Alright, Frankie," I muttered to myself, copying the decrypted message onto a clean file. "Just connecting people. That's all I'm doing."

I packaged the data into a neat little file, added a hefty markup to my initial quote, and sent it off via an encrypted channel. Within minutes, the agreed-upon sum, a few hundred cold, hard dollars, landed in my untraceable digital wallet. I saved the file to a new data chip and packaged it up. Another job done. Another night closer to sanity's breaking point.

"Just connecting people," I repeated, the phrase tasting like ash in my mouth. The lie tasted even worse. I knew what I was doing. I was enabling crime. I was greasing the wheels of Gotham's underbelly. But bills had to be paid. It was a convenient lie, a way to sleep at night knowing I was profiting from the chaos. But tonight, it felt particularly hollow. And honestly, did it really matter? Gotham was already drowning in darkness. What was one more drop?

Gotham was a broken city, a machine grinding down its inhabitants. The system was rigged, the rich got richer, and the poor fought over scraps. I wasn't exactly helping to fix things. But I wasn't making it worse, right? I was just a cog in the machine, a necessary evil. I was good at what I did, damn good. I could see patterns where others saw chaos. I could exploit vulnerabilities, both in code and in the systems of power that held Gotham hostage. It was a skill, a talent, and in this city, unique talents were currency. I was efficient and discreet. But every decrypted message, every bypassed firewall, chipped away at something inside me. It hollowed me out, leaving me a ghost in my own life, a wire connecting the darkness.

I leaned back in my creaky chair, the rain still pounding against the window. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and melancholy. Another night, another decryption, another small victory against the futility of existence in Gotham. The flicker of conscience, that annoying little spark that refused to be extinguished, flared again. Was I really making a difference? Or was I just another parasite feeding off the city's decay?

I closed my eyes, trying to silence the questions. Tomorrow, there would be another encryption to crack, another connection to make. And I would be ready, Ghostwire ready to disappear into the digital ether, another ghost in the machine, until the next signal came. As I waited for the morning, for the return of the fluorescent lights and the mundane reality of "Byte Me" IT Solutions, I wondered if one day, the darkness I trafficked in would finally claim me completely. Because in Gotham, survival was a code all its own, and I was fluent in its language. And frankly, some days, that didn't seem like such a bad deal. For now, that was enough.

[bittysfoodbaby]

ok so on top of me being a diet film major at school i'm also on the executive staff of my school's college radio station and that combined with omgcp means it's headcanon time!

you're listening to 91.7 WSMU-FM. don't turn that dial!

lardo started doing radio to keep up the promise to do something technical to her parents after becoming an art major. she chose radio tech ops and programming because it was a chill and easy gig that didn't take too much time out of her day. she ended up being pretty decent at her job and later became known for her cable management skills.

jack first met lardo when he was dating camilla and eventually got involved with the station as a graveyard shift dj to hang out with camilla more as friends (#studentathletethings). lardo often took on the late-night shifts for tech ops, which is just making sure the station doesn't go down in the middle of the night, and noticed that Jack wouldn't use the automated software and do everything manually from spinning tracks to doing his talk breaks live. eventually they became friends over "the old days of radio" and jack referred lardo to becoming the smh team manager.

holster acted as a consultant to the promotions and PR team for one of his finals and observed a morning shift as part of the project. the "bro, we should start a podcast" part of his brain was promptly activated and convinced ransom to do a morning show with him. they mostly talk about college sports and get very heated over college hockey and how much cornell has fallen as a hockey team.

shitty grew up listening to wsmu and used radio as another way to be rebellious against his family. he appreciates the community service and outreach the station does and is ranked the best voice on the station. he hosts a show about local music in samwell and the greater boston area.

bitty joined the promo team after smh found out about his blog and convinced him to join radio after they all realized they did radio together. eventually he became the webmaster of the station's website because he was the only one other than shitty that knew how to use wordpress. his ego grew after he forced hosts to write blog posts during their shifts for the station website and be active on twitter.

chowder used to dj local events in high school and was a pretty decent dj and producer back in the day. when he found out the rest of the team was pretty much doing radio he convinced a radio show about live dj sets boiler room-style.

(side note: farmer finds out about chowder's secret life as a dj through a girl on the volleyball team who's friends with a wsmu sportscaster who knows holster.)

dex found himself working in tech ops after a freak accident involving the station's backup recording software went down. he ended up staying because it's the only non-hockey or non-school thing he had.

nursey was approached to be on the station's student spotlight show for his poetry and found out that the whole team was working on the station. he then romanticized the image of analog radio in his mind and what being a late-night DJ was like. he immediately switched to a mid-day jazz shift the next semester.

i swear i have more but i still have fics i need to write before posting more LMAO

[girlboss-enthusiast]

Please tell us how to get into IT without a degree! I have an interview for a small tech company this week and I’m going in as admin but as things expand I can bootstrap into a better role and I’d really appreciate knowing what skills are likely to be crucial for making that pivot.

Absolutely!! You'd be in a great position to switch to IT, since as an admin, you'd already have some familiarity with the systems and with the workplace in general. Moving between roles is easier in a smaller workplace, too.

So, this is a semi-brief guide to getting an entry-level position, for someone with zero IT experience. That position is almost always going to be help desk. You've probably heard a lot of shit about help desk, but I've always enjoyed it.

So, here we go! How to get into IT for beginners!

The most important thing on your resume will be

✨~🌟Certifications!!🌟~✨

Studying for certs can teach you a lot, especially if you're entirely new to the field. But they're also really important for getting interviews. Lots of jobs will require a cert or degree, and even if you have 5 years of experience doing exactly what the job description is, without one of those the ATS will shunt your resume into a black hole and neither HR or the IT manager will see it.

First, I recommend getting the CompTIA A+. This will teach you the basics of how the parts of a computer work together - hardware, software, how networking works, how operating systems work, troubleshooting skills, etc. If you don't have a specific area of IT you're interested in, this is REQUIRED. Even if you do, I suggest you get this cert just to get your foot in the door.

I recommend the CompTIA certs in general. They'll give you a good baseline and look good on your resume. I only got the A+ and the Network+, so can't speak for the other exams, but they weren't too tough.

If you're more into development or cybersecurity, check out these roadmaps. You'll still benefit from working help desk while pursuing one of those career paths.

The next most important thing is

🔥🔥Customer service & soft skills🔥🔥

Sorry about that.

I was hired for my first ever IT role on the strength of my interview. I definitely wasn't the only candidate with an A+, but I was the only one who knew how to handle customers (aka end-users). Which is, basically, be polite, make the end-user feel listened to, and don't make them feel stupid. It is ASTOUNDING how many IT people can't do that. I've worked with so many IT people who couldn't hide their scorn or impatience when dealing with non-tech-savvy coworkers.

Please note that you don't need to be a social butterfly or even that socially adept. I'm autistic and learned all my social skills by rote (I literally have flowcharts for social interactions), and I was still exceptional by IT standards.

Third thing, which is more for you than for your resume (although it helps):

🎇Do your own projects🎇

This is both the most and least important thing you can do for your IT career. Least important because this will have the smallest impact on your resume. Most important because this will help you learn (and figure out if IT is actually what you want to do).

The certs and interview might get you a job, but when it comes to doing your job well, hands-on experience is absolutely essential. Here are a few ideas for the complete beginner. Resources linked at the bottom.

Start using the command line. This is called Terminal on Mac and Linux. Use it for things as simple as navigating through file directories, opening apps, testing your connection, that kind of thing. The goal is to get used to using the command line, because you will use it professionally.

Build your own PC. This may sound really intimidating, but I swear it's easy! This is going to be cheaper than buying a prebuilt tower or gaming PC, and you'll learn a ton in the bargain.

Repair old PCs. If you don't want to or can't afford to build your own PC, look for cheap computers on Craiglist, secondhand stores, or elsewhere. I know a lot of universities will sell old technology for cheap. Try to buy a few and make a functioning computer out of parts, or just get one so you can feel comfortable working in the guts of a PC.

Learn Powershell or shell scripting. If you're comfortable with the command line already or just want to jump in the deep end, use scripts to automate tasks on your PC. I found this harder to do for myself than for work, because I mostly use my computer for web browsing. However, there are tons of projects out there for you to try!

Play around with a Raspberry Pi. These are mini-computers ranging from $15-$150+ and are great to experiment with. I've made a media server and a Pi hole (network-wide ad blocking) which were both fun and not too tough. If you're into torrenting, try making a seedbox!

Install Linux on your primary computer. I know, I know - I'm one of those people. But seriously, nothing will teach you more quickly than having to compile drivers through the command line so your Bluetooth headphones will work. Warning: this gets really annoying if you just want your computer to work. Dual-booting is advised.

If this sounds intimidating, that's totally normal. It is intimidating! You're going to have to do a ton of troubleshooting and things will almost never work properly on your first few projects. That is part of the fun!

Resources

Resources I've tried and liked are marked with an asterisk*

Professor Messor's Free A+ Training Course*

PC Building Simulator 2 (video game)

How to build a PC (video)

PC Part Picker (website)*

CompTIA A+ courses on Udemy

50 Basic Windows Commands with Examples*

Mac Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet

Powershell in a Month of Lunches (video series)

Getting Started with Linux (tutorial)* Note: this site is my favorite Linux resource, I highly recommend it.

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners

/r/ITCareerQuestions*

Ask A Manager (advice blog on workplace etiquette and more)*

Reddit is helpful for tech questions in general. I have some other resources that involve sailing the seas; feel free to DM me or send an ask I can answer privately.

Tips

DO NOT work at an MSP. That stands for Managed Service Provider, and it's basically an IT department which companies contract to provide tech services. I recommend staying away from them. It's way better to work in an IT department where the end users are your coworkers, not your customers.

DO NOT trust remote entry-level IT jobs. At entry level, part of your job is schlepping around hardware and fixing PCs. A fully-remote position will almost definitely be a call center.

DO write a cover letter. YMMV on this, but every employer I've had has mentioned my cover letter as a reason to hire me.

DO ask your employer to pay for your certs. This applies only to people who either plan to move into IT in the same company, or are already in IT but want more certs.

DO NOT work anywhere without at least one woman in the department. My litmus test is two women, actually, but YMMV. If there is no woman in the department in 2024, and the department is more than 5 people, there is a reason why no women work there.

DO have patience with yourself and keep an open mind! Maybe this is just me, but if I can't do something right the first time, or if I don't love it right away, I get very discouraged. Remember that making mistakes is part of the process, and that IT is a huge field which ranges from UX design to hardware repair. There are tons of directions to go once you've got a little experience!

Disclaimer: this is based on my experience in my area of the US. Things may be different elsewhere, esp. outside of the US.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have more questions!

[kybercrystals94]

Detail Work

Read here on Ao3!

Author’s Note: This elderly story is the second Bad Batch fanfic I ever wrote that I only posted on Archive of Our Own and never on Tumblr (except as a link). I’ve decided I wanna cross-post my older works 🫶 More older (read rougher) fics to come 😅

Rated: G | Words: 1204 | Summary: Omega asks for Tech’s help.

Omega sat with her arms folded on the table, her head pillowed on them comfortably, watching Tech work in companionable silence. The others had gone on a supply run earlier that morning, and Tech was using the quiet as an opportunity to delve into some of his lesser important projects. Currently, this consisted of rewiring the comm in his helmet to allow him the ability to switch between frequencies more smoothly. While GAR regulations had not deeply affected his willingness to alter equipment, it had put a damper on it – especially when Echo joined the batch. He never thought Echo would necessarily “tattle” on him, but there had always been a wary glint in Echo’s eye that made Tech keep his more daring improvements secret from the ARC Trooper.

He had no such qualms now.

“You’re really good at twisting the wires around like that,” Omega said suddenly.

Tech acknowledged her with a hum.

“You’re good at detail work, aren’t you?” Omega asked, although it was not really a question.

“I like to think so,” Tech agreed, not looking up from his work.

“Better than anyone else I’ve ever seen,” Omega continued.

Tech finally spared a glance in Omega’s direction, eyes narrowed. He had a feeling that this line of conversation was going in the direction of – as Wrecker called it – attempting to “butter him up” with the intent of getting something she wanted. After a pause, he said, “Thank you, Omega. I appreciate your confidence in my work.”

Omega didn’t lift her head from her arms but smiled at him shyly.

“My hair is getting pretty long,” Omega said, changing the subject abruptly.

“Hmm, yes,” Tech agreed, tossing another glance in her direction. “I suppose we should consider cutting it soon to be a more manageable length.”

To his surprise, Omega bristled, sitting up straight. “I can manage it this long,” she said coldly. “I’m not complaining about it. Besides, Hunter’s hair is even longer than mine and he manages just fine.”

Confused by Omega’s suddenly heated tone, Tech wondered if he had missed something, replaying the brief conversation in his head to find his mistake. Perhaps he had misunderstood her comment about the length of her hair? He should have responded positively rather than try to correct a perceived problem. Ah.

“I apologize, I did not mean to imply that you could not manage the current length of your hair,” he intoned awkwardly.

Omega’s furrowed face smoothed out, and she smiled again, shrugging off the accidental slight. Tech relaxed, appreciative that he had managed to avoid a crisis of emotions without his more emotionally intelligent brothers present.

“That’s alright,” Omega said brightly.

“I believe,” Tech said carefully, “that you were making a point...about your hair?”

“Yes,” Omega agreed readily, “I think that it is finally long enough to braid!”

Tech considered her hair length with his analytical mind. “I believe you are correct,” he said.

“So,” Omega said, seemingly encouraged by his words, “I was wondering – since you are good with detail work – if you could do it? Braid my hair?”

And there it was. The entire point of the conversation, which had, in reality, never diverted from its original course. Tech had to give the girl credit for catching him completely off guard, especially in the fact that he was struggling with denying her simple and trusting request.

Her eyes stared straight into his, sparkling with hope and determination.

“Ah, yes, well,” Tech stammered, his project now completely forgotten in his hands. “Well,” he tried again, “I am afraid I don’t know how to braid hair.”

“That’s okay,” Omega said smoothly, as if she’d expected as much. She held up a datapad she’d had in her lap. “I found instructions. They are very comprehensive." The last word was stilted, as though she were ensuring she said it correctly.

She really had thought of everything.

Tech gave her a wry smile. “How long have you been planning on enlisting me to braid your hair, Miss Omega?”

Omega grinned, averting her gaze to the pad in her hands. “Maybe since I found out the others were going to be gone on a supply run a few days ago?”

He appreciated that she had planned it around their brothers not being present. While he was certain they would not be unkind about Tech braiding Omega’s hair, he imagined that they would feel obliged to lightheartedly rib him a bit on the subject...as brothers do.

“I suppose I had better start reading these instructions then,” Tech said, taking the datapad from her.

***

The smile that lit up Omega’s face made his heart warm with sentimental emotion. No wonder his brothers were so easy to persuade into her whimsical schemes – her happiness was most contagious and addicting.

After some trial and error, Tech was finally able to sit back and admire his work. While Omega had been correct in assessing that Tech was proficient in what she called “detailed work”, hair was a much more delicate medium than he was accustomed to. Hair seemed to have a mind of its own, going every which way while his fingers clumsily tried to reign it in. Granted, his attempts were undoubtedly better than what any of his brothers might have managed given the same task.

“I believe I have finally finished,” Tech said, giving one of her braids a gentle and playful tug.

They were very short at the ends, but since he had started the braids at her hairline, it made the braids look ornate although the tails barely went past the nape of her neck.

“Oh!” Omega breathed, reaching up, her hands carefully touching her hair, feeling the plaits with her fingers, and tracing them down to the ends. “I’m going to look in the mirror!” She jumped up and ran to the ‘fresher, Tech trailing behind her.

She stood on tip toe to peer into the reflective metal plate attached above the sink. It was hardly reflective anymore, dented and scraped to the point that Omega’s reflection was disfigured and dull. She didn’t voice her disappointment over not being able to see Tech’s hard work, but her shoulders sagged a bit at the realization.

Tech quickly came up with a solution. “What if I take a holopic?” he asked. “Then perhaps you might see it in more detail.”

Omega could barely stand still long enough for him to take a clear pic before she was scrambling to take the datapad out of his hands and examine it. “Wow,” she gasped, her voice soft, “they look even better than I imagined! Thank you so much, Tech!”

“You are most welcome,” Tech responded with a smile, and before he could catch himself or think better of it, he added, “And should you need help again in the future, I would be happy to assist.”

Omega put the datapad down on the table and threw her arms around Tech’s waist, hugging him tight. “I’m so happy that I have a brother like you,” she said, squeezing impossibly tighter.

Tech chuckled and patted the top of her head, careful not to disturb the woven tresses. “And I am most grateful to have a sister like you.”

END

[gasgasdaily]

We've been talking about the hypercars of the late-80s and early 90s just a few days back so today, we'll talk about Jaguar's 90s hypercar, the XJ220.

Pic from left to right, top to bottom in zigzag pattern: Production XJ220 on display -> Prototype XJ220 with the V12 showing -> The prototype's Jaguar V12 engine -> A race-prepped XJ220S

Jaguar all along had been racing in various events and across the late 70s and 80s, they partnered up with different companies, one being Group 44 and the other being Tom Walkinshaw and his company for their racing efforts. Tom Walkinshaw handled their GT side of things whereas Group 44 handled their prototype racecar side of things.

Group 44 and Jaguar would produce the XJR-5 in 1982 for the IMSA GT Championship under the GTP Prototype class till 1985. It won a few races but it wasn't anything special. Jaguar and Group 44 would then switch to the newer XJR-7 in 1985 and the results was also mediocre. 1987 saw Jaguar switched their main racing partnership to Tom Walkinshaw for their upcoming 1988 IMSA GTP efforts and this time, FIA Group C Championship. The car would debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona and won the race outright. However, that was the only time the car won at IMSA. The car did perform better overseas though that it not only won the prestigious 24hrs of Le Mans, it won 6 other races helping both Tom Walkinshaw Racing/TWR and Jaguar clinch the overall champion title for the 1988 season. The difference between the IMSA and the FIA Group C car is that the IMSA car uses the 6L V12 they retained from the XJR-7 whereas the Group C car uses a newer and more powerful 7L V12.

Prior to the XJR-9, Jaguar and TWR had already produced an XJR-8 in 1987 which also won that year's championship for the FIA Group C Championship thus TWR hatched a plan to produce a road car based on these cars. Jim Randle, the then-Jaguar chief of engineering started the project and he decided to base the project as the same concept of the 50s and 60s like the old Jaguar D-Type where you can race the car at Le Mans and also drive it on the streets. However, Jaguar early on didn't really see the project as feasible and didn't give Jim much help thus he had to round up volunteers across the office floors to help him sketch the design of the car and general ideas for the project on their off times thus the team would be nicknamed as "The Saturday Club" consisting of 12 volunteers.

With their tenacious attitude, the team managed to get the job done by designing the car on based on the old Group B rules and he crunched the cost down to the maximum by pulling deals with past suppliers and companies that had worked with Jaguar before. With Jaguar finally seeing that it would work, gave the greenlight. Jim would then design the car to be clad with full aluminium body parts to keep the weight light and also to bring back the sentiments of the old XJ120 and coupled with that concept, he planned to make the new car to be the fastest production vehicle of its time upon launch just like the XJ120 and for that, he planned for the car to do 220mph thus he christened the car as "XJ220". Jim would also decide to slot one of the spare V12 leftover from the XJR-9 racecar in the concept car and descaled the engine from 7L to 6.2L and mated it an AWD drivetrain. However, Jaguar had no idea on how to implement it as they've never built anything AWD before thus they went to the company that helped Jensen with their AWD FF, FD Development ran by Tony Rolt. The concept would even feature rear-wheel steering which was very high tech during that period of time. The concept was completed on 18th October 1988, the very same day it was set to appear at the British International Motor Show and Jaguar rushed the car to be presented to the public. Upon revelation, customers raved about the cars and many would dump blank cheques at the counters to order one, helping Jaguar to decide that it was indeed feasible to produce it and in the end, Jaguar got over 1500 orders at the unveiling and slated the production car to be ready by 1992.

Jaguar would not be able to produce the car themselves but lucky for them, they already had a sub-company with TWR called JaguarSport which they used to build their racecars with and thus, Jaguar would ask TWR to help them in building the car. Production of the car would commence by the middle of 1989 but soon, trouble would hit. Upon testing from loaned Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959, the team soon realized that the XJ220 was longer and heavier than both of them and the V12 engine was way heavier than both the turbocharged V8 and flat-6 that both the Ferrari and Porsche would respectively use. To make matters worse, a recession hit in 1990 which sank the economy and Jaguar was hit by it too. With finances tied to the development of their normal road cars, they can't sink more money into the XJ220 project so alot of things had to be changed to keep cost down. 1st to go was the V12 and they had to find new engine to switch to. Just their luck, TWR had earlier in 1989 purchased the right to build the very same engine that was used in the MG Metro 6R4 for their upcoming racing efforts and with no other option, they decided to put the engine in the car. TWR would bore the engine out to 3.5L and slap two turbos which now makes 542hp to match the power figures of the V12 that they were supposed to use. In return of using the V6, the car's rear was shortened and overall, lighter than the concept car. The 2nd stuff to be dumped was the AWD system to turn it back to the RWD drivetrain that Jaguars were more used to and the final item was the rear-wheel steering as they found it to have not much real need for it and so was the active aero and height adjustable dampers to save production cost and also overall weight.

When the news of the changes were leaked to the public, the mood immediately changed and customers felt cheated that the end product they were getting isn't the same as advertised and with a few of them being broke due to the recession, many would pull out from their purchase. What Jaguar did was even scummier that they changed the car soo much from the concept and didn't tell their customers who had put downpayment for the car, they instead told their customers that the only way they can get a refund was to buy themselves out and obviously, customers were unhappy and sued the company for fraudulent advert and the issue wasn't resolved until 1995. Regardless, Jaguar still made 281 units in total from 1991-1994.

The car would be tested in 1991 by the press and also attempt to follow the XJ120's record for being the fastest production vehicle. For that, Jaguar took it to the Nardo Ring in Italy and brought their racing driver, Martin Brundle together with independent reviewers and witnesses for the Guinness World Records with journalists from Car magazine, Road & Track and Top Gear. The prototype had already done a shakedown session before the production model and the pre-production model did 212mph/341kmh at Fort Stockton, Texas. During the shakedown at Nardo, Jaguar did wanna break the 220mph mark but despite how much Martin Brundle tried, he could only achieve the same speed at the Fort Stockton run but that was with the catalytic converter on. Jaguar would quickly remove it and push the car for another run where it did better with 217mph/349kmh but still not 220mph as intended. Regardless, it was still recorded as the fastest production car ever built for that time till the McLaren F1 came about and took the crown.

However, the journalists that tested the cars gave very conflicting sentiments. All of them would praise how the car has immense power despite the twin-turbo V6 unit and how quick it was to climb up to speed. The all would, unsurprisingly, complained about the length of the car and at certain times feel very unrefined due to the lack of any creature comfort like power steering, ABS and traction control due to Jaguar literally saving pennies to save themselves from sinking. They would also complain about how the V6 felt lumpy at the lower rev ranges and the clutch feeling way too heavy for a road car and driving it in the city was extremely torturous. Time didn't treat the car well either as it didn't hold itself well with age as modern fans who test drove the car again would also like the engine at its highest rev ranges but hated the car at low speeds and also disliked how the reliability, as typical of any British car of its time, wasn't stellar at all and the financial situation of Jaguar and British Leyland in general exacerbated the problems even more.

After close to 3 decades, Jaguar would attempt to reinvent a new hypercar for the 21st century with the C-X75 but with the commercial failures of the XJ220, they cancelled the project before it had a proper workable prototype and for me, that was a massive waste in my opinion.

[writingrapscallion]

Twin Switcheroo

I'm sure this has been done before, but lately I've been imagining an AU where, instead of Grunkle Stan being the one to meet the twins in Gravity Falls, it's Ford.

It all starts years ago, when Stan breaks Ford's perpetual motion machine. Rather than hide what he did, Stan comes clean to Ford and the two manage to fix the machine, leading to them becoming closer. However, Stan still feels a bit betrayed when Ford leaves to go to West Coast Tech.

A few years later, things are much the same as in canon. Ford graduates with honors (as well as three doctorates) and receives a large research grant for a project of his choice. In this universe, McGucket went to West Coast Tech, so he's still friends with Ford. Stan has still become a con artist and is actually in a pretty bad situation, facing potential charges for his illegal activity. However, Stan gets a call from Ford promising to make all his legal problems disappear if he comes to work as Ford's lab assistant in his investigations of a strange town: Gravity Falls.

When Ford realizes the strangeness of Gravity Falls, he decides he needs people he can trust to help him (and he wouldn't mind having some muscle to help him with the more dangerous problems). And so, along with his old friend McGucket, he decides to ask Stan for help since in this universe they're on much better terms.

Stan quickly accepts. It feels almost too good to be true: he and his brother can finally have the adventure that they always wanted. Sure, the cryptids of Gravity Falls are often dangerous and always disturbing, but at least he's with his brother. Unfortunately, much like in canon, thinks start to go wrong.

Ford makes his deal with Bill and creates the portal. McGucket is sucked into it and goes insane, abandoning the project. Stan begins to notice that Ford is becoming more and more erratic and disturbed, and can't understand why his brother doesn't seem to trust him. Things come to a head when Ford tells Stan to leave, and take the journal as far away as possible. Understandably, Stan freaks out.

His relationship with his brother was better than in canon, but Stan still felt abandoned when Ford left for college. With Ford gone, he'd been reduced to a petty grifter, without a home or family. The past few months have been the best of his life: he has a home, plenty of adventure, and, most important of all, his brother besides him. But now Ford wants him to leave.

The two start to fight and, suddenly, the portal switches on! Except in this universe, it's not Ford who's pulled in, but Stan. Ford is devastating, realizing what he's done to his brother, and does everything in his power to try and bring him back, but unfortunately, Ford already hid two of the three journals in places even he isn't able to reach (perhaps he even wiped his memory to prevent Bill somehow forcing him to retrieve them) and without Bill's insight, he has no clue how to reactivate the portal.

Timeskip to the present day. Ford has a reputation as a brilliant but reclusive scientist. His contributions to Physics and other fields of science have allowed him to win multiple Nobel Prizes and many other awards. However, he doesn't seem to care about any of this (he states to Dipper at one point he only publishes his results to ensure a steady supply of grant money).

Ford is kind but distant with his family. He's never met Mabel or Dipper before the start of the series, but he has written to them and sends them presents for their birthdays. Dipper idolizes his uncle, and is a lot more interested in science than in the original series as a result of his aspiratons to be like his Grunkle. His correspondence with his Grunkle is overly formal and often includes stuff like descriptions of science fair projects and requests to work as a lab assistant for his Grunkle (requests that are gently denied). Ford considers Dipper to be a promising young scientist. Meanwhile, Mabel being Mabel sends him stuff like videos of herself sticking gummy worms up her nose. Ford is mildly confused but very fond of his grand-niece.

The series starts when Mabel and Dipper are sent to spend the summer at their Grunke's place. They are both very excited to meet him (Dipper a bit more than Mabel due to his hero worship of Ford). Ford is happy to see them too, and gets along well with the pair when he's with them. However, he spends most of the day in his laboratory, working on unknown experiments, and leaves the kids to play around town. Ford often sends his two lab assistants, Soos and Wendy to look after the pair. Soos and Wendy are much the same as in the actual show— although Ford could probably hire anyone he wants to work in his lab since he's a famous scientist, he doesn't want to involve anyone outside of the town for fear of attracting unwanted attention to his real work.

A few days into his time in Gravity Falls, Dipper discovers the journal hidden near the metal tree. In this universe, the journal's slightly different. Each of Ford's three lab assistant wrote their own journal, marked with their own symbol (it wouldn't be much of a mystery who wrote them if the journal had Ford's six fingers on the cover). The first book, still owned by Ford, has the standard six fingered hand and is written by him. The second one, which has fallen into Gideon's possession, is written by McGucket and has a symbol based on his glasses on the cover. Finally, the journal Dipper finds is marked with the same symbol as Grunkle Stan's fez.

The contents of the Journal are a bit different than the original. Although Stan does write about their supernatural encounters, his style is far more informal than his brother's, often making jokes or mocking comments about the creatures they encounter. Occasionally, Ford takes over to write a section when Stan can't be serious, so the journals a mix of the two of their writing. Stan jokingly refers to his brother as "Mr. Scientist" throughout the Journal, unintentionally concealing the fact that Ford's the main researcher.

A few hours after finding the Journal, Dipper speaks to Ford, suspecting that the old man is Mr. Scientist (although he doesn't mention the Journal, only his knowledge of supernatural occurences in Gravity Falls, so Ford doesn't know he has it). However, Ford feigns disbelief in the supernatural, hoping to prevent his nephew from diving too deep into the secrets of Gravity Falls.

Although Ford's performance successfully convinces Dipper that he's not the Author (AKA Mr. Scientist), Dipper is not deterred in the slightest by his Grunkle's skepticism and instead takes it as a challenge. To prove his credentials as a scientist, he's going to prove his Grunkle wrong, face down the supernatural, and bring back evidence (cue two seasons of Phineas and Ferb style antics where the evidence disappears as soon as he tries to show it to Ford).

[sukrateesoni]

HOW TO SWITCH CAREER TO DIGITAL MARKETING

HOW TO SWITCH CAREER TO DIGITAL MARKETING

In today’s fast-changing world, many people are choosing to switch their careers to digital marketing. Digital marketing is flexible, creative, and full of opportunities. Whether you are from the teaching field, banking or a non-technical background, anyone with interest can build a career in digital marketing. Digital marketing is something that is involved in every business whether it's a small  start-up business or high-tech company. Digital marketing is a key to growing your business online.

Digital marketing is promoting products or services online using the internet. It includes platforms like: 

➤ social media marketing ( instagram , facebook)

➤ content marketing 

➤ email marketing

➤ google ads

➤ influencer marketing

➤affiliate marketing

✅ To start a career as a digital marketer you need to first acquire knowledge through online courses , or by taking admission in institute, workshops that cover key areas such as SEO , content marketing. Platforms like coursera , linkedIn learning and hubspot offer courses that can help you gain these skills. Building a strong portfolio is crucial and very important to start a journey in this field. Networking is another very important step to connect with professionals in the field through linkedIn or digital workshops events to gain insights and opportunities. 

✅Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you switch your career to digital marketing.

🔹Start learning skills:

You don't need a specific degree in digital marketing to start. There are many free and paid online  courses available in the market. Some are:

Youtube - great for learning skills like SEO , content creation and ads

Coursera or udemy - paid courses with certification.

🔹Build A Portfolio :

➤A portfolio is a proof for your work that represents your skills.

Projects or ads you've managed.

➤Your blog or page links.

➤Share screenshots of your followers and traffic

🔹Internship And Freelancing:

Look for internships or workshops online that help you to build your skills and knowledge and to build connections. Some online platform like:

➤internshala

➤ linkedIn

➤fiverr / upwork

🔹Update your resume and linkedIn:

➤ create your fresh resume that highlights-

Add your digital skills

Your certifications

Your personal projects 

Any online certifications

🔹Start applying for a job:

Once you feel you have gained all knowledge of digital marketing. This is the best time to get into the job. Start applying for a entry level job like:

➤Social media manager 

➤ SEO analyst 

➤ content writer 

✦Conclusion

Switching careers might feel scary and excite you at the same time. Just be passionate, you don't need extra skills, you just have to be consistent  because the digital is the future. Believe in your skills. Pursuing a career in  digital marketing is a smart move in today’s digital world. You don’t need a specific degree—just the right skills, practice, and a learning mindset. With free resources, real project work, and a strong portfolio, anyone can build a successful path in this field. Start small, stay consistent, and keep upgrading your skills. Your digital journey can begin today!

[krinsbez]

BT-ify Pulp Heroes: Doc Savage (Worldbuilding/Storybuilding)

So, this one is a bit different.

I started profiling Pulp Heroes and their supporting casts, and asked people to come up with BT-ified versions. Well, initially I asked what Mech they would use, but for many, things got very detailed.

Some of these (notably the ones I discussed in the poll months ago) got beyond this, but there are plenty who didn't. So, what I am going to do is start posting what the folks on the forumboard came up with, and see:

What you think of what was come up.

See if y'all have ideas to refine, enhance, or improve what they came up

Come up with ideas for stuff to do with these BT-ized versions of the characters.

And with all that taken care of, let's start with one of the most important, iconic, and archetypical Pulp Heroes...Doc Savage (and his aides)

(profiles via forumposter Starfox05)

Doc:

Doc Savage was project of the Society to produce the ultimate human - the pinnacle of genetic engineering, mating nature and nurture. A genius in a perfect body, raised from birth with all the knowledge available to humanity. Destined to lead the Society to victory. He's as tall as an Elemental, as quick as a 'Mechwarrior. Unfortunately - for the Society - he was so smart and eager to learn, he did study privately in addition to what his tutors taught him, and soon discovered knowledge they were not meant to teach him - amongst them philosophies and teachings abandoned by the Clans long ago. As he was a scientist through and through - questioning everything and never accepting anything on blind faith. So, he saw through the Society's stated aims, realised how wrong they were, and decided to abandon them to help humanity. Having ditched the Clan way for the same reasons, he gathered a few prisoners/experimental subjects he liberated and guards/tutors he turned as well as his young "cousin", a female version of him sharing most of his genes, stole a dropship and jumpship from the society and all the tech and supplies he could manage, and made his way to the Inner Sphere. He can pilot, repair, modify and construct anything - tank, 'Mech, Aerospacefighter, Battle Armour, dropship or jumpship. If he has to fight, he fights to disable, and he likes to switch and customise his ride, usually an Executioner OmniMech he heavily modified, to the task at hand. Unlike most Clan Warriors, he likes melee combat, often using his 'Mech's mass to wreck lighter enemies without harming the pilot, and often uses experimental weapons and even construction tools in any battle as well as the environment. Even though he and his group are nominally mercenaries (and hid their origin once they reached the Periphery) they often work pro bono, relying on selling new technology and Doc's services as a polymath to finance their excursions, in addition to a Germanium Mine he received from a grateful periphery planet's population whose water filters and fusion generators he restored and improved. He has started to acquire a small fleet of merchants whose jumpships and dropship he repaired for them, and who pay him back by a share of their profits. He and his group live on a special dropship, a former Collossus, that he modified into a flying base and research lab.

Ham:

A former Star Colonel who failed to die in battle or earn a bloodname, [Ham] was an eccentric Diamond Shark, keeping both a pet and an antique blade ready during his career. He was targetted by the society for his skill at logistics and was kidnapped when he was transferred to solahma unit so they could pick his brain for military tactics. He has an old rivalry with [Monk] dating back to a few clashes during trials. He pilots a Lancelot, the last 'Mech assigned to him by his Clan.

Monk:

[Monk], another talented warrior who never got a bloodname (though he tried numerous times), and he switched to the scientist caste when he aged out, and was recruited by the Society after starting an affair with one of their members. He soon fell out with the Society's leadership, though hid his true thoughts, and managed to teach Doc not merely science but also a few other tricks and unarmed fighting.

Johnny:

Another of Doc's original tutors, [Johnny] was responsible for most of his scientific training, after suffering the loss of an eye and having trouble with the implant that replaced. He was not very respected in the Society since he didn't specialise but kept "widening his horizons" as he called it - and since he often paid more attention to history and the past as a former Goliath Scorpion than the Society found tolerable.

Long Tom (admission, the entire reason for this series of projects was cuz of him):

[Long Tom} was a Naga-pilot turned bondsman turned tech, and mostly ended up in the Society's hand because they wanted to find out if his peculiar appearance and excellent health could be useful for their experiments. He went along with the others when Doc broke out and has been working on restoring a Long Tom artillery piece they picked up on a border planet (and modifying it so he doesn't need crew to use it).

Renny:

An Elemental working for the Society and serving as a link to the Dark Caste, Renny committed many crimes for which he is ashamed before he had a change of heart helping Doc. If Doc had not convinced him to atone by helping others, he would have killed himself long ago.

Pat:

Patricia was meant to be Doc's counterpart, and she has the skills, smarts and drive to prove it. What she doesn't have is his experience - she is younger than him and still learning, and sometimes a bit too eager for her own good. She pilots a Gargoyle if she takes the field, sporting a prototype rotary autocannon with six barrels.

And as a bonus, the closest thing Doc has to a nemesis...

John Sunlight:

A survivor of the Society, John managed to escape and determined to lead humanity to salvation whether it wants to be saved or not. Armed with the knowledge of his old organisation he plans to rebuild the Star League in his image, so to speak. He blames Doc for abandoning the Society and for wasting his talents helping others instead of leading them as the genetically superior specimen he should, in John's opinion.

So, what thinkest thou, BT and Pulp Fans of Tumblr?

[mariacallous]

The Trump administration has scrapped its predecessor’s sweeping export controls for advanced artificial intelligence chips, known as the AI diffusion rule.

“To win the AI race, the Biden AI diffusion rule must go,” posted David Sacks, U.S. President Donald Trump’s top AI advisor, on May 8. Sacks continued his criticism at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum a few days later, arguing that the rule “restricted the diffusion or proliferation of American technology all over the world.”

As the administration decides what comes next, it should raise its sights from merely proposing a “simpler” rule to manage the diffusion of AI chips. Instead, it should seize the opportunity to offer an ambitious vision to promote the broader diffusion of U.S. technology.

After all, the world not only wants the United States’ AI chips, but also its AI applications, data centers, cloud services, satellites, and advanced technology offerings generally. But even as Beijing extends its digital offerings in key emerging markets, U.S. foreign policy has failed to adapt for a global technology competition with era-defining stakes. Whether you agree with the Trump administration or not, its disruption is an opportunity to forge a new model of technology statecraft to help the United States win the race to shape strategic digital infrastructure and technology diffusion across the globe.

To start, Washington must finally learn from its failure in the transition to 4G and 5G telecommunications networks, where Beijing’s state-backed model—and the absence of a compelling U.S.-led alternative—enabled Huawei and ZTE to all but corner emerging markets. Huawei now operates in more than 170 countries worldwide and is the top global provider of telecommunications equipment. But if there is broad consensus among U.S. policymakers that Beijing won that global technology transition, there is little agreement about how to win the next.

They have little time to waste. From Brasília to New Delhi, technology has moved to the center of government ambitions to drive growth, improve governance, and modernize security. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto views the digital sector as essential to diversifying the country’s commodity-reliant economy. Kenyan President William Ruto hopes to boost the country’s “Silicon Savannah” by accelerating cloud migration. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made AI central to his “Vision 2030” framework for the kingdom’s modernization. The result is surging global demand not only for AI data centers, but also for cutting-edge digital infrastructure, services, and skilling more broadly.

In the coming years, foreign capitals and corporate boards will make potentially generational decisions about whether to meet this demand by partnering with the United States and its allies or China. These short-term decisions could have generational consequences. Projects to lay a transcontinental submarine cable or build large-scale data centers, for instance, are mapped in decades.

Even virtual cloud and AI services can have long-term stickiness. Imagine the pain of migrating an entire ministry’s data to a new cloud provider, or switching from an AI model that has been fine-tuned with a company’s sensitive data over time. Consider Beijing’s decade-plus struggle to transition its government computers from Windows. First movers reap powerful advantages.

If the stakes are great in the current round of global technology diffusion, so is the United States’ hand. Unlike the transition to 4G and 5G networks, where Western competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia struggled to match Huawei’s and ZTE’s subsidized offerings in emerging markets, the United States enters this technology transition with formidable advantages.

The United States occupies a commanding position in AI, with leadership or leverage over every part of the stack, ranging from chip design, tooling, and fabrication to model training and testing. U.S. companies hold at least a 70 percent share of the global cloud market. In space, Starlink has launched more satellites than all its competitors combined since 2020. Below the waves, three of the top four companies deploying subsea fiberoptic cables—the internet’s backbone—are from the United States or its close allies: SubCom (U.S.), Alcatel (France), and NEC (Japan). China controls the fourth, HMN Technologies (formerly Huawei Marine), which has deployed a mere 7 percent of the world’s submarine cables.

Despite powerful advantages, U.S. success is far from assured. The lesson of the 4G and 5G race is not to mirror China’s state-driven approach or to leave the private sector to fend for itself against Chinese competitors with powerful state backing. Nor is it to rely solely on export controls and other restrictive measures, however necessary those may be. The answer is to make U.S. foreign policy fit the global technology competition.

Washington can start with reforms in three broad areas.

First, unleash the United States’ strategic investment tools. One of Washington’s most promising but underused tools is the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). Created during the first Trump administration, the DFC makes market-driven investments to advance both humanitarian and national security goals, and it has several tools to attract private capital from equity investments to political risk insurance.

As Congress considers DFC reauthorization—its current mandate expires in September—it should raise the existing cap on its lending authority from $60 billion to at least $100 billion and make strategic technologies and digital infrastructure an explicit priority. Congress should also loosen restrictions that can block DFC from supporting digital infrastructure projects that incidentally benefit high-income countries, which has kept it from financing critical subsea cables in the Indo-Pacific that invariably have landing points in Singapore, a major interconnection hub for the region.

The Export-Import Bank (EXIM) also punches below its weight. EXIM helps level the playing firm for U.S. firms competing abroad with a $135 billion lending limit and tools such as direct loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to de-risk purchases of U.S. exports. The United States once led the world in export financing, but China now dominates. In 2022, Chinese export credit agencies provided $11 billion in export support, compared to just $2.7 billion from EXIM.

Under the first Trump administration, EXIM created a new China and Transformational Exports Program (CTEP) to prioritize investments that counter Beijing’s subsidies and support advanced technologies such as AI and semiconductors. EXIM now aims to reserve at least 20 percent of its support for the program.

Despite progress, EXIM remains plagued with issues. To receive CTEP support, at least 51 percent of the exported content must be American-made—far higher than requirements in competitor agencies. Another requirement that EXIM-supported goods travel on U.S.-flagged vessels also hinders participation. Although well-intentioned, EXIM’s mandate to create jobs can deprioritize the export of low-labor digital exports such as AI and cloud services. Compounding the problem, EXIM is also required to limit defaults across its total lending portfolio to less than 2 percent, fueling risk-aversion.

Washington should reform EXIM for the global technology competition by at least doubling the 20 percent allocation for CTEP, relaxing shipping rules, and counting some allied components toward its content requirement. Lawmakers could also loosen the mandate to support U.S. job creation for digital services and double EXIM’s default cap to encourage more risk-taking.

Second, Washington should turbocharge its commercial diplomacy for technology. Between 2016 and 2020, an average of just 900 U.S. personnel from the State and Commerce departments were deployed abroad for commercial diplomacy, and just a fraction focused on technology. Since 2022, the State Department has taken important steps by establishing a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, a special envoy for critical and emerging technologies, and a course on cyberspace and digital policy tradecraft.

Despite this progress, few U.S. diplomats—and even fewer ambassadors—have deep technology expertise, which means that front-line opportunities to secure key technology bids and shape emerging AI or data policies can go unnoticed or suffer from inadequate staff or substance to engage effectively.

As the administration reforms the State Department, it should reinforce the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, which has elevated and streamlined technology diplomacy across the government; expand technology training for foreign service officers; and, more ambitiously, launch a dedicated career track within the diplomatic corps for foreign technology officers.

Two smaller and often overlooked arms of the country’s technology diplomacy are the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). The Commercial Service is a roughly 2,200-person global network of trade specialists that helps U.S. businesses identify and navigate foreign markets. But just 225 of its staff deploy abroad across 80 countries, which means that they constantly struggle to meet demand from U.S. technology companies and foreign partners. The USTDA helps identify and mature commercial opportunities abroad to boost U.S. exports. Digital infrastructure is one of the agency’s four priority sectors, but surging interest has far outpaced current resources.

The Trump administration can turbocharge U.S. commercial diplomacy by consolidating USTDA and the Commercial Service, elevating technology and digital infrastructure as a priority, and allocating more resources and personnel.

Finally, the United States should embrace a newly ambitious vision for technology partnerships. Too often, U.S. and allied firms lose one-off bids to subsidized, politically backed Chinese competitors, even if the firms might prefer to align with the high-tech U.S. ecosystem. Washington should explore how to make such an offer without simply imitating Beijing’s state-led model.

For example, Washington could create opportunities for foreign governments to request strategic technology partnerships that match their specific needs—for example, to accelerate AI adoption in government, expand data center capacity, or improve rural connectivity with low earth orbit satellites.

Washington could lay out clear, broadly consistent criteria as a condition for these partnerships—such as robust IP and cybersecurity protections, divestment from China-linked digital infrastructure, purchase commitments for U.S. goods and services, and even investment in the United States. The Trump administration has begun to model such an approach in its recent deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but it could go even further.

If countries meet these conditions, Washington should commit not only to loosening export controls on advanced AI chips, but also to fast-tracking support from the DFC, EXIM, and USTDA; expanding technology trade missions, talent exchange programs, and research collaboration; and facilitating connections with U.S. technology firms. The United States holds the strongest hand in advanced technology and should drive a hard bargain, but it should also be generous when countries agree.

Washington can also do more to align with technology-leading allies on joint investments in strategic emerging markets. For example, Washington could better coordinate with Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance program to boost Open RAN networks across the Indo-Pacific, tap the European Union’s Global Gateway to connect subsea cables to Africa, and support India’s Digital Public Infrastructure to counter China’s “smart city” offerings.

Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds may raise tricky strategic questions as longer-term partners, but there are other, less controversial players that Washington has yet to fully explore—such as Norway, which has both attractive conditions for AI data centers and the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Washington and its allies may struggle to match Beijing’s subsidies on their own, but they can easily do so together.

As the world rushes into an accelerating competition to deploy strategic technologies and digital infrastructure across the globe, the United States has almost everything it needs to prevail—world-leading companies and products, an unrivaled network of technology-leading allies, and an administration eager for reform. What Washington lacks, however, is a vision to harness these strengths in a new model of technology statecraft to help the United States win.

[monodramatic-cannibal]

Renegade!Gans/Echo

Info post about the au

(If characters seem OOC ((Out Of Character)) it's beacause I'm going off of my own interpretations/headcanons/fandom versions. So please be aware of that)

More info under the cut (Info is subject to change at any time. Info may be added to as well)

-Jobs in the group: managing the radio (trying to get a signal to contact other survivors), rarely helping Sci with projects, electronics management

Weapons of choice: bones (both ones that can be summoned from the ground, and in the air to shoot), gaster blasters, ability to change souls blue to throw them around

-Head canon voice: ???

-One of the more smarter people in the group. Acts as a sudo-leader sometimes.

-Goes by any pronouns but mainly uses He/Him.

-He’s someone in the group who mostly tends to keep to himself, he basically lets no one really know about his life or what he was doing before he ended up where he is. 

-Is smoking quite often, often gets more cigarettes from Dust, since Dust grabs them whenever he goes out.  

-Basically has claimed the Radio room as his own room, like how Error has claimed the storage room as his own. 

-Since he’s in the Radio room he deals with most of the electronics. He’s sort of good with tech, better than most of the others. But tends not to mess with any of it unless asked too. 

-Will often be wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Basically a way of saying to anyone to not bother him, without actually having to say anything. 

-Will put out a cigarette if someone who doesn’t like smoking comes into the Radio room. 

-To add to the point above, he knows tech exposed to smoke can harm them. But doesn’t really care that much, most of the stuff is broken anyway and they just use it as scrap to fix other things or to make completely new things. 

-As much as he doesn’t interact too much with the others he still remains polite to them, and tries to at least get on the others good side, or at least be neutral with them.

-Is a sort of no nonsense type of guy. Wants people to get straight to the point, no fighting just civil conversations, etc. Will call someone out on their bs. Will also tell the truth about things even if it could be considered mean.  

-Will give advice to the others if asked too, it has yet to be seen if it’s good advice or not yet. On the bright side at least it's free advice.  

-Is really just with the group since it’s better for survival. Sure he does sometimes enjoy some interactions with the others, but as someone who’s always stuck to himself mostly it’s the most interactions with anyone he’s had for a while.

-Has always had the holes in his hands and ‘cracks’ in his skull. He’s never know the purpose on why he has these. 

-Doesn’t actually remember that much about his life before he became an adult. He swears he has two separate memories, though he’d never tell anyone about this, not wanting anyone to think his crazy.

-Sometimes he feels his personality shift slightly, e.g. being more chilled out and friendly or leaning towards being more calculated and precise. Normally he stays between those two personalities. But he feels theres times where they seem to be ahead of his normal personality.

-pretty much as long as he remembers he’s felt lost, no memory on who he really is, and no goal. He’s pretty much been coasting through life without much purpose. And doesn’t really intend to find any purpose for himself either, just wants to enjoy the moment. 

-His eye light can switch what eye socket it’s in, though he doesn’t do it often. 

-He’s actually quite an empathetic guy, but he just lacks agency when it comes to showing more emotions towards anyone. He also just tries not to relate to others since he doesn’t really want to deal with other people and relating to them is a way to care about them. 

-Relatively smart guy, just doesn’t care at all about using that intelligence for anything meaningful. The day he gets any sort of agency is the day people should worry.

How they feel about:

Nightmare: They don’t get along too much, but both remain polite with one another. They both can joke around now and then. But he wouldn’t consider Nightmare a friend.

Dream: Has picked up on the fact Dream doesn’t like his smoking so tends to put it out if Dream is around him for any reason. They remain polite, but distant.

Cross: Only ever met Cross twice. Both times only a few words were stated between them. He has no interest in trying to get to know him better.

Blue: Doesn’t mind him, Blue once mentioned to him, that he (Echo) reminds him of his family member. Lets Blue hang out with him, Blue has some interesting stories to talk about anyway, either it be about Blue’s own life or about things happening within the group.

Ink: Both tend to ignore each other, paired on with their very limited interactions. On neutral terms.

Dust: Likes Dust, but doesn’t consider him a friend, just a smoking buddy. Just tends to quietly enjoy his company. But is also partly on guard around him, since he is unsure on how Dust came to be a murderer.

Horror: Basically very few interactions. On neutral terms with him.

Killer: The guy who sometimes tries to prank him. Killer will also once in a while tag along with Dust when Dust comes to smoke with him. Not much to say about Killer.

Error: Appreciates that Error is respectful of his space. He’d be one of the few in the group who he wouldn’t mind actually talking with and possibly being a friend with. But both of them enjoy the quiet so chances are they won’t talk much to each other.

Lust: Get along with each other but aren’t really friends. Lust has patched up his jacket a few times when it’s been ripped. Lust offered to make him a new jacket too since his is so worn down but he refused.

Fell/Edge: A guy he could consider a friend. Knows Fell hangs around to avoid his job, thinks it’s funny since no one tends to come looking for him in the Radio room, since no one expects them to get along. Finds out most of the going ons around the group from Fell. Basically Fell is his only connection into whats happening outside of the jobs the others do.

Geno: Only really sees him in the context of helping Sci out, or them having to work together on a project.

Outer: Doesn’t mind him, thinks he's a quiet soft-spoken guy. Is neutral on his opinion of him.

Sci: Helps out Sci sometimes with projects without having to be asked, mainly does this out of boredom and also wants to read what Sci has researched about Wraiths. But their main interactions tend to happen in the Radio room, trying to get into contact with other survivors.

Reaper/Death: Hasn’t met him. But knows of him.

Fresh: Hasn’t met him, but has seen signs of him around the place, without knowing who is behind these signs.

Chief: Chief is the one who normally gets info back and forth for him, at first he thought Chief tends to be stuck up and a bit of a prick. But after a few more interactions he realized Chief wasn’t that bad.

[theaccountantnews]

Why Your UAE Business Can’t Afford to Skip Proper Accounting

Let’s cut to the chase: if you’re running a business in the UAE, you’re playing in a high-stakes sandbox. Between Dubai’s glittering skyscrapers and Abu Dhabi’s ambitious economic plans, it’s easy to get swept up in the hype. But behind the scenes, there’s a less glamorous truth—messy books or lazy compliance can sink your company faster than a summer heatwave melts an ice cream truck. Here’s the raw, unpolished truth about why accounting isn’t just for nerds in glasses.

1. The Government Isn’t Messing Around

I’ve seen it happen. A friend launched a boutique consulting firm in Dubai, skipped VAT filings for six months to “save time,” and ended up with a AED 20,000 fine. The UAE’s regulators aren’t cruel, but they’re efficient. Miss a tax deadline? Slap on a penalty. Fail an audit? License renewal gets frozen.

The 2023 Corporate Tax is the latest curveball. That 9% rate sounds mild until you realize exemptions are as tricky as parallel parking in Sharjah’s Friday traffic. Free zones like DMCC or JAFZA have their own rulebooks—annual audits, proof of “real” office space, and even how you report expenses. Without someone who speaks “bureaucrat,” you’re gambling with your business’s survival.

2. Taxes Will Eat Your Lunch (If You Let Them)

Remember when the UAE was a tax-free paradise? Those days are over. VAT’s been here since 2018, and Corporate Tax is the new sheriff in town. But here’s the kicker: smart businesses don’t just pay taxes—they manage them.

Take Ahmed, who runs a café in Dubai Marina. His accountant found AED 50,000 in deductible expenses he didn’t know existed—like a percentage of his rent and utility bills. That’s money back in his pocket. Another client, a freelance graphic designer, avoided Corporate Tax entirely by structuring her income under the AED 375,000 threshold.

But this isn’t magic. It’s strategy. And it only works if your books are airtight.

3. Investors and Banks Want Tea

Think of your financial records as your business’s dating profile. Would you swipe right on someone with blurry photos and zero details? Neither will investors.

A buddy of mine spent months wooing a venture capitalist for his tech startup. The VC loved the pitch—until they asked for six months of cash flow statements. His “DIY” Excel sheet looked like a toddler’s art project. The deal died on the spot.

Banks are worse. Walk into ADCB or ENBD without audited financials, and they’ll treat you like a time-waster. Clean books aren’t just about compliance—they’re your credibility.

4. You’re Probably Wasting Money (Seriously)

Here’s a story: A small e-commerce company in Abu Dhabi was bleeding AED 10,000 a month on shipping. The founder blamed “market rates” until his accountant noticed a pattern—90% of orders went to Dubai, but they were using a pricier international courier. Switching to a local provider saved them AED 8,000 monthly.

Your books aren’t just receipts in a drawer. They’re a detective’s notebook. Where’s the cash leaking? Which supplier’s overcharging? Why is inventory collecting dust? You’ll never know unless you look.

5. Outsourcing Isn’t Cheating—It’s Genius

I get it. Hiring an accountant feels like admitting you can’t do it all. But here’s the reality: most UAE founders aren’t CPAs. You’re a visionary, not a tax-code translator.

A client of mine—a British expat running a fitness studio—outsourced her accounting for AED 1,500/month. For that price, she gets VAT filings, payroll, and a quarterly report showing where her studio’s thriving (and where it’s flopping). She’s free to focus on Instagram-worthy gym selfies instead of spreadsheets.

6. Scammers Are Everywhere (Yes, Even Here)

A construction company in Ras Al Khaimah learned this the hard way. Their part-time bookkeeper had been quietly funneling AED 200,000 into a phantom supplier account for two years. They only caught it during a routine audit.

Fraudsters love chaos. If your books are a mess, you’re a target. Regular reconciliations and third-party reviews aren’t paranoia—they’re survival.

The Bottom Line

In the UAE, accounting isn’t about “checking a box.” It’s about keeping your business alive in a market where rules change faster than a sandstorm rolls in. You don’t need to love it—you just need to respect it. Hire a pro, keep your receipts, and sleep easy knowing you’re not one typo away from a fine.

Visit our website to learn how we can assist your business:

The best accounting and bookkeeping services

[misty-moth]

hi, just ignore this if it’s too personal—

Why did you switch from comp sci to sociology? And do you enjoy your studies?

I don’t mind at all! It’s a somewhat long story (because I ramble 😅) so I put a tldr at the bottom 😭

Basically I signed on for a school that specializes in computer science. The gist was it was a sped up process where in 3 years you earn a bachelor’s degree and a guaranteed job. Which is a pretty rad deal. In theory.

I am nooot a fast learner. I think I’m pretty smart, but when it comes to memorizing it takes a hot minute to settle. I knew that going in, so I got tutoring every single day during lunch and after classes. I got to the second semester easily enough, but then I had a coding class with a particular teacher who lives in my mind’s hall of shame 😐

I was excelling at all of my gen ed classes, but if you fail any coding class at any time, you have to wait a year before you can take that class again, and you can’t move onto the next cs course because it’s a progression. So obviously I was trying my damndest to study so that wouldn’t happen. I asked a ton of questions during class, too, no shame if it meant passing.

And riiight at the end of the semester it all finally clicked. We had a project where I realized all of the math was mathing, I knew what programs to call, etc etc. But my teacher still just knew me as asking “too many” questions.

In the fine print of the college acceptance agreement, turns out a college professor there can change your letter grade if they feel like it. So I earned a 70.1% in the class (which is baaarely passing) but he switched it to an F. 🙂

So then I transferred because I wasn’t going to only take gen ed classes for a year on the off chance they pass me the next time (it was also crazy expensive ofc) so I transferred without any clue what I now wanted for a degree…

Funnily enough, what made me choose was a gender studies class I signed up for on a whim. It opened my tiny lil world from everything I learned from my childhood, and I realized I liked people 😅 I branched into sociology because it’s like psychology-in-motion, and figuring out why people do things made the world make more sense.

I don’t work in the field anymore, but I worked in the behavioral science field for a while. I taught a class of three year olds who’d experienced trauma how to cope/socialize, and later at an elementary school I was a med tech/receptionist/multi-office manager of a few behavioral units (they gave me a lot of hats but no raise 🥲) but the The ‘Vid happened and I burned out.

I loved working with kids, truly, but I didn’t make anywhere near enough to live so I had to give it up. The 3 yo job was $11 an hour and the elementary school was $15… for context. Degrees required for both *feels good inc laugh*

Tldr: I think sociology is really interesting, but I also found computer science interesting. I was just better at one of them 😅 I also would have been making a lot of money rn had I succeeded (my friends who graduated there are making six figures kill meee)

[whentherewerebicycles]

I can’t stop thinking about that class I visited a couple days ago and about the basic classroom management issues that the prof leading the class seemed wholly unable to address. the class is a cohort program that has met together for three quarters and in the intro game they played it was clear that they have a moderately positive rapport with each other (they don’t seem super close but they got along and were willing to get into the game). but the second we went back to the tables it was like… the girls all sat together in the front of the room and were super focused/engaged in the activity, and then the boys (plus one girl) clustered in the back of the classroom, immediately got out their laptops even though I asked them to keep them shut, and started just talking through the entire presentation. like at one point I was standing right next to their desks, clearly listening in, and they just ignored me completely and kept loudly discussing a project they were working on for some other class during our class time lol. and the whole time the prof just sat in the back, clearly seeing this happen but seemingly totally unable or unwilling to intervene, which of course just signals to kids that they can do whatever because no one cares.

I’m not like mad about it or anything, more like I’m fascinated by it as a teaching challenge!! I think if this were my program, I would:

use a learning communities model where I put them in mixed-gender learning groups from the outset and keep those groups stable for 3-4 weeks before switching to new groups

build lots of small rapport-building exercises into group activities… like just little things where they’re actively naming and praising each other’s contributions, or exercises that teach them how to actively take responsibility for their fellow group members’ participation (inviting each other in, asking follow-up questions, deliberately connecting back new ideas to something someone brought up in the previous discussion, etc etc). like really commit the time to helping them build relationships with each other! and put the boys in situations where they feel less peer pressure to disengage to look cool and can instead participate fully because their participation is expected and recognized/valued by their group members.

no tech in the classroom period

more meta work where the groups are reflecting aloud on like, what makes class fun and engaging for me? what makes the time fly? what makes it seriously drag? and then developing like… not codes of conduct exactly but more like collective group norms for how they want to be and act

the prof kept downplaying the amount of work required for the homework and emphasizing how easy/low-stakes it was going to be to complete I was like ooh man that is BAD signaling. it presumably means that kids often don’t do the work and you’re trying to talk them into it by lowering standards or emphasizing how easy it is. but all kids hear is, this assignment is totally pointless, my prof doesn’t care about it, why on earth would I invest my limited time and energy in something that’s basically just busy work. you gotta have real, substantive assignments kids have to work reasonably hard to complete (and that they’ll find reasonably rewarding to complete bc the assignment is well-constructed and they can feel they’re doing something worthwhile!). and you have to be CONSISTENTLY clear and direct about why the assignment matters to their learning in the class and to you.

perhaps MOST importantly though… I don’t think this program involves 1:1 mentoring with the prof outside of the class. like they meet with the prof maybe once a quarter outside of class. it’s just not enough time to build relationships!!!! I’ve visited this class twice now and both times the prof sat apart from the students and didn’t really interact with them much. and I feel like her not intervening with the behavioral issues was probably because she’s tried/failed in the past or because she’s afraid she would fail and lose face in front of them and the guest instructor. I just feel like kids will generally (not always! but generally!) give you back the amount of respect and emotional investment you offer to them. and if you don’t really bother to spend the time getting to know them and their personalities you can’t really expect to have any influence over them in classroom management type situations. like when I sat down with the off-task group it was obvious within five minutes who was the popular charismatic kid who maybe felt like the activity was a little too easy for him, who was the kid who seemed to feel a little out of his depth and was acting out/goofing off to cover that up, who was the kid who kinda wanted to be on task but was trying to fit in by following his peers, who was the loner kid who had just attached to this group because he didn’t want to sit with the all-girl table, etc etc. and maybe my assessments were wrong but if I were their teacher I would use that initial info to guide relationship-building and to try to build trust with the kid! like maybe the kid who felt out of his depth needed some 1:1 time with an adult who affirmed his ideas and drew them out a little further so he could make more connections, and eventually as you built trust you could start working with him on some of the underlying feelings causing him to disengage in group settings, and then when you were facilitating in group settings you could make sure to name his good contributions or ask questions that set him up to look thoughtful/smart in front of his peers. or with the charismatic popular kid I feel like you can do SO much with those kids over time to get them to really feel like leaders in the class and to feel a sense of positive responsibility towards the kids who are having a harder time getting engaged. plus if a kid feels like the work is too easy you can really work with them to find ways to make it more challenging and rewarding, which in turn makes them feel like you respect their intelligence/abilities and really care about them getting something meaningful out of the class. instead of it becoming a popularity contest of teacher vs. visibly disengaged popular kid/ringleader you can work to make it more of a team thing, like we’re working together to make this experience a good one for everyone and I trust you to be a partner in that because you have influence over the group and others look to you as a model. idk but you just can’t do any of that work if you are afraid of the kids or are telegraphing to them that you don’t feel up to the challenge of dealing with them or if you just seem checked out!!!!! and this is not to blame the teacher I have no idea what’s going on in this situation or in her own life, but also just like I think often teachers become overwhelmed and think the class or some group of students have turned against them and can’t be brought back, or they feel like they have to ‘manage’ the class but aren’t confident they can do so and so withdraw from the task and try to ignore disruptive behavior, but like… it’s almost never a lost cause!!! but you have to do the relationship building work and you have to be there among the students talking and laughing with them and cajoling when necessary and pressing a little to get more out of them and communicating to them that you are invested instead of doing the isolated sage-on-the-stage thing or hiding out in the back of the room on your laptop. idk!!!

[cheapwebsitebuilder]

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