#it'll be open source because if i stop developing it

[pumpkinshaders]

so making custom blocks and items and whatnot shouldn't be too hard, but changing the player's model and the UI seems like it'll be more of a challenge. i'm definitely biting off more than i can chew but i'm nothing if not determined.

currently planned (easy): >Moss beds (moss carpet + feathers) >Kill pile (edible food block, remove food with an empty hand, add food by right clicking with raw meat) >Herbs (adding new plants + modifying vanilla minecraft plants to make medicine) >Greencough status effect (permanent like Bad Omen until treated. maybe treatment has a small chance of not working?) >Whitecough status effect (same as Greencough lol but different treatment) >Moonpool (portal to Star Clan dimension. only active on full moons) >Star Clan dimension (likely timed. might just replace the end with it with you waking up back in your bed after you leave. maybe sleeping in a bed near the moonpool?) >Dark Forest dimension (like the nether. but for cats. probably timed + respawn at bed like Star Clan) >More prey mobs like crows, mice, snakes, etc. >Kittypet collars, cat beds, cat toys >Add the unimplemented grey tabby from Bedrock edition

(medium): >Punches with nothing in your hands does more damage >Bite attack (no idea how i'd implement this tbh) >Random generated clan cats (domestic cats are already a thing so the models, textures, and animations are pretty much done for me, all I need to add is the randomizer + names) >Some sort of way to identify clans (probably borrow from banners with colors + symbols lol. Player can make their own & customize + edit their clan banner, random generated clans get banners, etc. maybe call them 'scent markers' lol) >Can't mine things that are too tough (stone, wood, etc) and mining things is much slower (can mine sand, dirt, gravel, leaves, etc) >Can't use pickaxes, axes, swords, shields, etc. >Raw meat restores more hunger points than other food >Only 10 HP (5 hearts) like a regular minecraft cat. (+ no fall damage, + speed boost + creepers and phantoms repelled. not sleeping does not spawn phantoms.) >Hostile mobs no longer hostile to the player (unless attacked) >Patrols (I don't know anything about AI but how hard could it be to get them to travel along a path. i can feel the icecream truck looming above me just typing that) >Simpler territory (clan banners have a radius of n~ blocks and within that radius is their territory

(hard): >Fewer inventory slots (maybe just 3? 5? that being your hotbar) >Change the player's default model to a cat (with textures you can change + customize or randomize) >Allow the player to revert their character to default vanilla player (because i imagine trying to build as a cat with such limitations would suck. thru UI or command) >Rank system >Clan leaders get, essentially, 9 totems of undying. >Villagers can no longer be traded with, but they will randomly give the player 'gifts' (raw meat, milk, etc) >If you accept too many gifts from villagers they'll attempt to tame you >Add Kittypets (tamed cats are automatically kittypets, kittypets can spawn in villages & will follow villagers) >One armor slot (collar. if equipped it acts like curse of binding, cannot be removed. it will break if it takes sufficient damage. clan cats will avoid you like creepers/phantoms if you have a collar(?)) >Seasons (probably just a calendar i don't feel like figuring out how to do that properly. different events are triggered based on the season.) >Events (like the Gathering on full moons) >Can sleep on regular beds, chests, and active furnaces. >Territory (i'm thinking you can open a map and the claimed territory will be visible. as for how this territory is marked out, maybe warriors can. mark? while on patrol? territory markers/banners fade over time (maybe only visible to cats/cat players) and need to be re-marked. if you mark within another clan's territory cats of that clan nearby become hostile to you, you lose reputation with that clan, etc. but this won't happen if the marker is faded, and vice versa) >Reputation system with other clans (+ maybe other cats? might be a lot) >Some sort of interaction system with NPC cats

(???): >Robust config (hopefully ingame. adjust how many inventory slots you want, if you can/can't mine certain blocks, change your rank + clan, etc) >Super secret unobtainable OP item (Scourge's collar) that kills clan leaders instantly >Item that allows you to edit cats' data in creative (age, texture, rank, clan, name, etc) >Quests? >New achievements :D >Rabies maybe? Strength and poison effects? >Witches give gifts + extras but don't try to tame you

currently implemented: >nooooooooone of that <3 >I hate javascript >Everybody pray for me because i deserve it.

[canisalbus]

Hi! A little life update.

At the end of October I wrote that I was deep in a depression spiral and due to unexpected occurrences I had been left with basically no income for several months. I had emptied my savings at that point and was feeling extremely stressed, sick and hopeless.

I just want to thank everyone who reached out and offered support or even looked up my ko-fi info and sent me a donation. It was an unfathomably kind thing to do and helped me tremendously. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was at the end of my tether, I had 1,70€ in my bank account at that moment. I was sleeping four hours per night on average because my insomnia was so out of control, and had more or less stopped eating, after surviving on nothing but porridge, bread, apples and buttered pasta for close to a month. Things were kind of dire. No one has ever showed me that kind of unprompted generosity before, irl or online. Thinking that people I've never even met were willing to support me like that both warms my heart and makes me feel kind of guilty and undeserving. I'm not used to being treated like that. I hope I didn't make you feel pressured to get involved. It did genuinely help me put myself back together though. The next day I went and bought some essential groceries and getting to eat properly was a massive boost in terms of energy and mood. I'm doing a little better now. I finally managed to get the financial situation corrected, but it'll take months before my finances recover and I'll be able to go shopping without feeling paranoid about counting every cent and hating myself if I buy a small treat. I mentioned that my seven years old, well-served laptop is on it's last legs, so the remaining funds are going towards putting together a new PC, hopefully soon. I don't really have any product or extra content to offer you as a thank you for the ko-fi donations I received, but I hope it's at least nice to think that they're directly enabling me to continue making more art in the future.

I'm still struggling with intense anxiety every day, and it has caused me to develope some kind of impostor syndrome that is impacting my online presence negatively at the moment. I look at the things I try to draw and the asks I get, and feel like nothing I create, say or write is good enough or worth people's time and attention. I'm having hard time opening up like I used to, and I miss the interactions I used to have here, they were an immense source of inspiration and motivation to me. But I'm trying to work on that, and hoping that posting stuff will start to feel more natural again eventually. This got a little long, but thanks for reading! I hope life treats you well.

[robotslenderman]

Man enshittification has sent me down a tech rabbit hole and I really appreciate the skills I'm developing and the way they've enriched my life.

Don't like Spotify so I got SpotDL. Fuck paying god knows how much for streaming programs I'm barely using, I'm learning to torrent that shit. I set up a killswitch and a split tunnel and everything. I know people keep saying that you shouldn't pirate books but I got fed up with Amazon letting me buy stuff only to take it back and not let me read it any more without a refund, so if I can't get something from the library or the second hand book fair I absolutely pirate that shit now because FUCK the "you won't own anything and you will be happy" economy, I don't care if you're a struggling independent or a juggernaut I am NEVER letting that happen again. As soon as I can figure out Calibre I'm stripping the DRM from my legal ebook collection so I can hold on to it. Fuck Amazon.

I bought a new ereader because fuck Kindle and I didn't have to get a subscription and FUCK SUBSCRIPTIONS, I have two three subscriptions and one is two bucks a month for iCloud and the other is for YNAB because it saves me more money than it costs (and the last one is my local gym). I bought a handheld PC and installed Apollo and Moonlight and Playnite so I can stream games directly from my desktop PC so I can play them at higher settings, and I want to install Tailscale so I can do it even when I'm not at home, should the internet connection cooperate. But also I still have to learn how to get it to cooperate with PureVPN because I have port forwarding set up there with a killswitch for my torrents, and I don't know if I CAN make them play nice but I'll give it a go. I'm going to learn about wake on LAN so I can try and turn on my computer remotely so I can still access it when I'm away and the inevitable circuit breaker events happen without having to nag my brother into turning on my computer. I want to learn how to dual boot Linux for my next build but no idea if I'll be able to get it to cooperate with Moonlight lmao

Anyway even though my budget app saves me more money than it costs, the Mormons who run it are absolutely squeezing its users so I went. fuck it. new app time. and I found some open source software online that basically runs the same and still requires a subscription but this time instead of fifteen bucks a month it's two bucks a month, and it requires setting up a server on some website I've never heard of but it was easy and I did it, and there's no app I have to use a web browser but it's mostly set up now, I just have to do battle to export my YNAB budget and import it into Actual Budget and then I'm spending less than five bucks a month on subscriptions that aren't the gym.

I feel like I've slowly turned into an anti consumption kind of person without even meaning to. I still buy a lot of things brand new, but I very rarely buy things that I don't actually need in some way. I've started thrifting clothes, I get tech second hand or refurbished. I don't like to waste the bin liners at work so I won't use the bin in the store room at work because if I do the cleaners will empty it even though it'll only have whatever I threw out in there so I always bring my rubbish to the front desk and use that bin instead. I'm learning to cook so I can finally make food nice enough I stop buying fucking lunch. I want to one day buy an apartment on a tram line in Melbourne so that I don't have to use a car, but before I get there I'm using my mother's car until she either wants it back or it dies. One thing that'll bug me about being on my own is that I'd be producing a lot of food waste as groceries are sold in portions meant for households, not single people, so I want to get a chest freezer so I can reduce that as much as I can, but that's years down the line.

I never really set out to become this person I've become but I feel good about it. I'll never be able to opt out of capitalism but I can still reduce how much I participate in it by buying refurbished and second hand, and reducing how much I toss. I found a store yesterday at work that has books out, encouraging people to donate some and take others, and I might go back this week and take some of the books I bought from the second hand book fair that I've read to make some more space. After I read them I pirated my favourites so I'll always have them on my device now anyway, but I don't want to throw them out, I'd rather let someone else have them and then pass them on in their turn.

[hobiebrownismygod]

Heyyyy, friend.

This is kind of a personal request, slightly triggering to some people, but if you're willing (will completely understand if you're not) can you write head cannons for how ever many spider people you want seeing readers self harm scars for the first time?

Don't feel pressured, it's a hard topic to write. Take all the time you need,

Stay safe and I hope you a happy time

I wasn't sure if you wanted romantic or platonic, so I wrote romantic, since I tend to be better at it 😭 I hope you enjoy it! As always, thank you for requesting <3

Hobie Brown ✰

Hobie Brown was absolutely devastated. When he saw you pull up your baggy sleeves nonchalantly, revealing fresher-looking scars on your wrists, he immediately grabbed your hand, looking at it with a shocked expression on your face. He didn't process it at first, refusing to believe that his sweet girl/boy would ever think about hurting themself. The next thing he'd do is pull you into a hug, not even letting you explain yourself before his body completely enveloped yours and he was holding your face with his big, slightly watery eyes. "Why would you do this?" He'd whisper, giant hands covering yours as he ran his fingers over the mostly healed scars. "Promise me you won't do 't again, sunshine." he'd tell you, voice dropping and tone turning serious, something you rarely saw on him. "Don't hurt yourself." And when you'd nod, swearing you'd try to stop, a slight smile would spread across his face. "You know I love you, right?" He'd proceed to not let you out of his sight for the following weeks, just to make sure his darling was staying true to their promises.

Miles Morales (1610) ✰

Miles Morales wouldn't ask you upright. He'd stay silent about it for a few moments, trying to think of a way to talk to you about them without seeming like he was prying. Eventually, he'd coax you into telling him why exactly you'd hurt yourself and when you opened up, he'd nod silently and listen, absorbing all the feelings, all the pain, like the empath he was. He'd be so calm about it, big brown eyes fixated on yours, being the most tender and sympathetic towards you, although he was always like that. He'd make you promise to seek help, no matter how much you hated it. Afterwards, he'd do as much research as he could to find ways to make you feel safer, more loved, reading about it so much he practically became a licensed therapist overnight. When you'd try to brush his advice off, he'd practically shove his sources into your face, saying "Trust me, chocolate is supposed to make you feel better!" and etc, to the point where you had to make him promise to start doing his work, because he'd been focusing more on helping you than on his own classes.

Miles G. Morales (42) ✰

Miles G. Morales would understand. He'd had thoughts of his own at some points, following his dad's death. He help you bandage them up properly, show you how to disinfect them so that you didn't develop sepsis or some horrible infections, before gently kissing your hands and wrists all over, promising you, "it'll feel better soon." He'd make you lay down next to him, rubbing circles into your back and shoulders while you rested your head against his chest, just enjoying each others' presence. After a little while, you'd start opening up about it to him, and he'd kiss you on the forehead in between breaths, making sure his sunflower felt as loved as humanly possible.

Gwen Stacy ✰

Gwen Stacy would respond to seeing them with visible anger. Her voice would raise slightly, turn a little squeaky as she fought to stop herself from getting too emotional, knowing it might scare you. She hated the thought that her favorite person was hurting themselves and she blamed herself for it a little as well. She'd think to herself, maybe if I was a better girlfriend, they wouldn't feel the need hurt themselves. Maybe I wasn't loving enough? Caring enough? She'd overthink it to the point of it turning into a painful topic for the both of you, but once you sat down and had a conversation together, one that she tried to avoid for as long as possible, the night ended with the two of you cuddled together, laughing and crying in each others arms as the emotions simply spread out around you. You'd end up talking about this night for days to come, and it would only strengthen the love and bond between you two. After all, you were her rock, just like she was yours. You needed each other.

Pavitr Prabhakar ✰

Pavitr Prabhakar would be so terrified that he'd accidentally escalate the situation into an even worse one, begging you to let him take you to a hospital, even if the wounds weren't fresh. You'd tell him you were okay and that going to a hospital wasn't necessary but he'd be afraid to the point where he'd simply toss you over his shoulder and make his way towards the door. However, after seeing how much you didn't want anyone to find you, he'd begrudgingly sit you down, holding your hands in his and asking a million questions per minute, asking, "Why would you do this to yourself? Is it because of me? Are you okay? How long have you been doing this for? Does it hurt? Why didn't you tell me before? Have you told anyone-" etc, to the point where you literally have to close his mouth with your hand so you can explain yourself. At the end, he'd simply make you promise to never do it again, going as far as to have you sign a written document (that he scribbled out himself), just so you'd feel really bad if you ever tried to harm yourself again. For the following weeks, he'd keep looking at you weirdly, leaning over and taking your hand randomly to check on the scars and see if they were healing and to check for new ones, just to make sure you were sticking to your promise. "I can't let you hurt yourself, meri jaan-" he'd tell you. "I need you."

Please remember, self-harm is a serious topic and if you know anybody who is self-harming or is potentially considering suicide, or if you yourself are doing these things reach out to professionals and seek help. https://988lifeline.org

Taglist: @lauryn2558 @d0ubl-tr0ubl3 @vileviale @itsparis-07 @niqetine @daydreaming-en-pointe @l0starl @spiderrinn @therealloopylupin2099 @s6onder

[thorne1435]

I have been on feminizing HRT for one year.

I mean, as I write this, the anniversary is about 5 days away, but I'm queuing it for the exact day, so you will be reading this on my anniversary at the earliest.

I feel the need to say something either to inspire other trans women to go get HRT (seriously go to Planned Parenthood they'll just give you hormones, no referrals. it's great. the informed consent model really saved my life), or to document my changes for pseudo-scientific purposes (this isn't a valid scientific source or anything, I just like to be open about it for information's sake). Either way, uh, let's talk about it!

This post isn't going to be strictly not-safe-for-work or anything, but because anatomical topics are often seen as NSFW, I would read this as if it's a smutfic, if I were you.

Obviously the first big change that everyone thinks of is breast development. I'm not gonna lie to you here, it's not like I got D cups, but I started at the age of 19 so it's not going to be phenomenal for me either way. With that knowledge in mind, I'd say I made out pretty well. I don't know exact sizing or anything, but it's noticeable to the point where I actually have to go out of my way to hide them when I am trying to present as a man around people I can't be out to. I can tell you that I was wearing a padded bra to pass better at work when they hadn't grown yet, and I'm at the point now where they are naturally the size that the (relatively dismal) padding had made them. So that's gotta mean something. I still don't have a lot of the vocabulary that a cis woman would have to describe these things yet, so uh...that's all I can do for you, as a description.

The first change that I noticed, though, was actually within the first week or so, which almost makes me think I hallucinated it, but I remember distinctly being shocked that my skin was already way softer and clearer, which is bizarre! I don't actually remember what it felt like before, but obviously I did at the time, and it was rougher, I remember that much. Not the case anymore! It's such a small detail that it can very quickly fade from your memory entirely, and that's kind of inspiring to me, even though I know it won't work that way for everything else, it's just nice that some parts of my boyhood are just gone forever (as long as i stay on the hormones).

The big change that might discourage some women from getting hormones is genital shrinking. And as I understand it there aren't many ways to avoid that, because suppressing testosterone just has that effect on the male body, but based on my early experiences with the reduced sex drive that is also present when you suppress testosterone, ask for Progesterone when you get started, because it helps a lot, especially with some of the more socially-inconvenient aspects of your hormonal change. There are also some T-blockers that supposedly don't have this issue, like for example Bicalutamide, but if you're going to get Bicalutamide, you're going to be on the standard, "years of referral and bureaucracy" tract, so...y'know, don't hold your breath on that one, it'll take you a long time. I'm fine now though. About a month after I added progesterone to my treatment plan I was back to normal sex drive and everything was fine. Of course, what I mean to say is that the shrinkage has stopped because of the return of my sex drive. It doesn't work that way for everybody, and I thought for sure it wouldn't work that way for me, but if you end up being like me, you could probably minimize the collateral by just asking for prog outright instead of waiting like I did.

Smaller change that makes me infinitely less suicidal and demoralized: my body hair has changed colors! That should be enough of a reason for every transfem to go out and get HRT right now, I mean it! It's so relieving. I remember when I was, like, "Officially Trans" (at least at work) but not on HRT, I used to get distracted by how my arms looked, especially when I was sitting in the sunlight and it was obvious, because the darkness of the hair felt so disgustingly masculine to me that it made me think I had no hope of ever passing as feminine to anyone. And obviously that was wrong: I was able to pass as feminine without hiding my arms at least once or twice before HRT (though to be fair I did not try often). But regardless of that, the fact that I don't spiral into anxiety and self-loathing every time I'm in the sunlight without a coat on anymore is probably the best change so far, all things considered. And I grew tits! So that's saying something, I think.

This body-hair change doesn't apply to my beard in quite the same way. I always had a really good beard as a man and a lot of people liked it and thought it looked great (I did not shave often enough I looked terrible, but I did kinda make it work I guess), it was a deep orange-red color which has now brightened out to that vague off-white blonde, pseudo-translucent color that your smaller peach fuzz hairs have. There are a lot of upsides to that, but there are some limitations to the effects. For example, even though I don't have to worry about stubble as much, when I don't shave it's still fairly noticeable if you're looking. The texture also hasn't changed, it's still very coarse. And this is a source of some dysphoria for me personally, because I don't like that I have a beard at all. Nothing to be done about that, of course, and I sort of think that's a "for good" thing? Even if I had the money for hair removal procedures a lot of them only work if you are pale-skinned and dark-haired, just for physical reasons. At least, last I checked. And while I am very pale-skinned I am not dark-haired. And, well...that's fine, it's whatever. It's fine...I'll just shave forever i guess its cool...its...its whatever... no its fine really im fine. its okay. im fine.

its fine.

Another good contender for "best change so far" is the mental and emotional change. I feel feelings now. I haven't done that in a long time. And it's kind of a rough transition to make, actually, because now I'm reacting very emotionally to things and I really haven't figured out how to cope yet. It's like I'm doing everything that I was doing before but now it's not a performance, it's just an actual innate response and honestly, it's really hard to control. I guess I'll have to work that one out over time. But I would take "Emotional" over "Dead inside" any day. I wish I'd done this sooner, for that reason alone.

Fat redistribution is a bit hard to measure because I've never really had much fat in the first place, but my coworkers told me that I was developing a more feminine silhouette, and that was about a month ago, maybe two? So, I guess what I'm saying here is that you should probably get a friend to look you over every month or so if you're really worried about this change, so they can tell you that you've developed child-bearing hips or whatever else you're looking for. This fat redistribution is supposed to apply to your face as well, and that's something that makes you look more feminine when you've been on HRT for a long time, supposedly. I find it really hard to notice, personally, because I always had a really thin face. And since I wore a thick full beard throughout all of my adolescence, I don't actually know what my old facial structure was, that well. I do think it's gotten thinner. But for me personally, I think that's made me look a little worse. Ya win some, ya lose some. Bitches be ugly sometimes, that's fine. beauty is subjective. It probably won't work that way for most anyone else, it's just I always had femboy-face. Too bad about my beard really, I could've tapped into a market there if I weren't so fucking hairy...anyway what were we talking about?

On the subject of hair, something has been happening to me that is not supposed to be happening according to a lot of the research I did before I sought HRT out. I'm noticing that small patches of my beard aren't growing at all, especially on the sides. I've also noticed similar effects on my leg-hair. That is, 100%, not supposed to happen. As I understand it, based on all the information I could find, HRT cannot undo changes. It can cause changes that haven't happened yet, but once something grows in, no matter what it is, it usually can't go away naturally. I'm not complaining. And, transgender HRT is a very sparsely-researched field as of yet, so maybe this is just something we don't know about, or something about my body chemistry in particular, IDK. I'm not a doctor.

Anyway, that's it. That's my little HRT anniversary journal. If I'm still on tumblr on 7/22/24, I guess I'll do this again. But I have no idea where I'll be in a year.

I hope this is insightful for someone. And I hope that when I look back on this, I either cringe or I cry. Because that means I'm growing up still. (see, that line? that's the one i'll cringe at.)

[transienturl]

Mentioned somewhere that I would have considered publishing (taking responsibility for publishing, I guess) XKit Rewritten for iOS Safari if the Apple developer fee was* $100 USD one-time rather than yearly ongoing.

For the record, that's, you know, very much emphasis on the "considered." I am both not an iOS developer (and you do have to scaffold an iOS app to do this, and ideally I wouldn't attach my name and April's name to any piece of code that sucked) and notoriously bad at commitment.

But the financial component matters to me, not necessarily because I/we couldn't pay it or drum up donations** or whatever, but because there being a financial incentive to stop publishing updates for something that can't generate revenue is... bad? And I'd rather never supply something than set the user expectation that it'll be supported long-term by supplying it and then violate that expectation.

(Also XCode is kind of ass and Apple's app store policies are generally annoying.)

*presumably this would be an open-source-only/no-revenue tier, or something

**there may be some problems with this, actually, but that's beside the point

[maria-mga2024mi4014]

Idea 3:- The AI apocalypse (A dystopian techno world)

25/07/2024

This idea is also based on a dream I had. (It was actually a nightmare lol). But this time I won't be explaining the dream as the idea. I will be using the main essence of that dream and add it to a completely different theme

An extract of the dream:-

To keep it short and sweet, in this nightmare, a particular character walked down an abandoned basement of a dimly lit library in search of something. They came across a door towards the left of the basement corridor and decided to open it. Once they opened the door, they found a group of people unconscious and asleep while huddled in a circle. The presence of a black box that had connecting wires injected into the unconscious crowd was at the center of this circle.

The idea :- Taking inspiration from this dream, I would like to work on a 3D animation to showcase my vision of a dystopian techno world dominated by AI. The aesthetic would be similar to 'Ghost in the Shell'. The camera will be showing a 1st person Pov of the environment. It'll start with a cityscape view from a balcony area. Clear remnants of developed AI will be present, but the buildings will have a rusted and tarnished look to it. Then the camera will move forward towards a door and walk like through it. The room inside will look like a dimly lit tech lab where the main sources of light are the computer monitors. As the camera walks further and further into the lab, it'll finally lay eyes on the artifact: AI.

The concept/basis of research :- For this, I would like to do some research on the following topics:

Origins of AI and its influence.

Technology addiction.

Future negatives behind AI's rapid growth.

Concept behind futuristic + sci-fi anime such as 'ghost in the Shell', 'Alita: Battle Angel', and 'Shelter'.

Social media influence on teenage depression.

Reference photos for concept artwork: -

I highly doubt I'll be able to master a semi-realistic art style for the 3D modeling part. But I hope I can practice more and make it work. Even if it has a 2D look it, it'll be fine by me...

Some songs that gave me the inspiration for this idea.

Song 1 - This song was the main inspiration for this idea. If I were to design a playlist to immerse myself in this idea of living in a decaying and corroded futuristic world, this would be the first song on the list. This song also gives me the visuals of teenage depression: where social media standards and such would leave so many teenagers insecure about themselves, causing self-hatred. (To put it simply, this is the vibe I'm going for)

Song 2 - This song gives me visuals of how people may stop relying on each other to communicate and resort to bonding with AI instead. Maybe people in the future would think, "I can customize and fix how a machine does things for me", "The machine can be programmed to satisfy me in these ways", or "Humans break each other physically and emotionally. But a machine won't because it'll have no flaws".

This is what would lead to the AI dystopian techno world I'm visualizing. People will give up their bodies, mind and souls to a machine.

The artifact :- Like I mentioned of a black box connecting to several people in my nightmare, I visualize the artifact as follows:

A computer (Similar to a present-day style) that has 0s and 1s coding running right throughout. The wires from the computer have been injected into several people who are resting in pods around the artifact. (The wires would be injected into their head, or into their hand the same way doctors inject saline)

A glowing Blue ball of energy that looks similar to Jarvis (The AI Iron Man created.) - The design would be a lot smaller and there would be a moving ring orbiting the ball.

[netscapenavigator-official]

I FEEL you so hard. Have had my iphone XR since 2019 and it works ok (battery life is still ok and it doesn’t crash ALL the time) but i can’t wait until it’s practically a brick so i can switch to an android without guilt. The faceID kills me and I’m practically never using it (got a thin scratch in the glass above the selfie camera 2 years ago, so i have to make sure no light is randomly bouncing on the scratch when I unlock my phone, or the halo blocks everything) and it’s like having a babysitter version of a phone. I’m not allowed to use any applications not vetoed by Apple Inc. and almost all features are so much less customisable… sure, and iphone is great in some regards (5S and XR have been surprisingly good models in my experience) but for the past 3 years I’ve felt soo limited by Apple’s philosophy

Well, good news (or bad depending on how long you want to keep that phone), the iPhone XR is most likely next on Apple's chopping block of support. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X were all dropped with the release of iOS 17, last September. If Apple keeps on their linear path, this September, with the release of iOS 18, the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max will all be dropped. Apple usually gives phones two years of security patches after they're dropped, however, so it depends on what you consider a "brick." I, unfortunately, have an iPhone 12-series phone, so I've got at least two more years of updates left, four if I wanna push my goal to the security update deadline.

Also, for the Face ID issue, idk if you've tried this, but try doing a rescan. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, and click "Set Up an Alternate Appearance." I don't know if all iPhones have this. I think they may have added it for the iPhone 12-series and newer, but if you have it, give it a try and see if it helps smooth over Face ID. By teaching it what you look like with the scratch interfering, it may be able to better compensate for it. If you're phone doesn't have that, you could always try tapping "Reset Face ID," too, to force it to re-scan. Although, with damaged glass, I don't know if it'll let you.

The App Store is another point of contention for me, too. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro that's been "obsolete" since 2017, when macOS High Sierra stopped getting updates. I wiped the drive clean and put Linux (Zorin OS) on it, and it's actually been really great. It runs like it's native. The problem, though, is that using Linux has opened my eyes to just how few free & open-source apps support iOS because of Apple's bullshit App Store requirements and $99/year developer fee. A lot of the apps I use on this computer are great, and they support Android, but they don't support iOS. It's a real bummer, and I'm just tired, in general, of not being able to do the things I want with my phone, so unless Apple decides to get really cool, really fast, this will certainly be my last iPhone. (Especially with iOS 18 coming with RCS Message support, almost entirely eliminating the difference between iMessage and Android to iPhone messaging.)

And I'm not trying to shit on Apple too much because Google is worse in plenty of ways. I have plenty of Apple devices from an iPhone, to an M1 iMac, to an Apple TV, etc. Apple makes really good hardware (with the exception of its repairability). Their problem is that they hold themselves back with their own greed. We've seen it with plenty of devices. The Apple Vision Pro is a great example. Apple thought they could use their brand image to make the device successful, but they recently had to cut production in half because demand fell off so steeply. If VisionOS was open and easy to develop for, then I'm sure it could've been a success, but Apple's desire to control everything has gotten in its way. I mean, who wants to develop for a $3,500 headset where you have to pay $99/year for a developer account, and then $400 for an Apple Vision Proprietary Port to USB-C adapter?

The Mac is honestly in the same boat. I saw a YouTube Short of a developer explaining why they dropped Mac Support, and it makes sense. To make an app on each platform you have to:

Windows

Have a PC

Code the app in any application of your preference.

Compile for Windows

Linux

Have the same PC

Code the app in any application of your preference.

Start a Virtual Machine and open the project inside it.

Compile for Linux

macOS

Buy Mac hardware ($600 for the base model Mac mini)

Pay Apple $99/year for a developer account

Code the app in Apple's Xcode

Acquire and add a Code Signature to the app so that macOS doesn't throw a fake error when attempting to open it.

Compile for macOS

If you want to upload your app to the Mac App Store, get Apple's blessing that it follows their guidelines.

Wait at least 24-hours before updates are published so Apple can approve them.

Give Apple a 15-30% cut of any money made from the App.

I used to thing that macOS had shit app support because developers just didn't want to support a niche market, but now I know it's the opposite that is true. Even if Linux has an even smaller market, it's as easy as clicking another button or booting up a free Virtual Machine and then clicking said button. You can use all the same hardware and programs. It's literally free to compile for Linux, and it expands your user base.

Meanwhile, for macOS, you have to spend a minimum of $700 just to make the app. Then, if you're not an A-List developer, you have to give a portion of your proceeds to Apple so you can put your app on their App Store for the exposure. Who the fuck would wanna do that?

Apple's death grip on their products worked for the iPhone and Apple Watch because they were both relatively new products to their respective category, but in a market where technology is starting to plateau, I'm simply no longer interested in supporting this behavior, mostly because I want to be able to use my favorite FOSS on all my devices, not just the non-Apple ones.

[bastionmc]

Bastion Devblog November 2023

This is the montly Bastion Devblog for November 2023. Today I'll be talking about information related to MCWebGUI, MCPyGUI, Bookshelf, and other stuff.

⏰ MCWebGUI Completion Time

MCWebGUI is what we'll use to make most of our applications, like Netherrack, Nylium, the Bastion Launcher, the Quartz Server Dashboard, etc., so it is probably important to get most of our applications done.

It has been in development for a few months now, and after a complete rewrite that is in the works right now, I, the only developer actively working on this, can somewhat confidently say that it looks like it'll be completed in 8-10 months. I know it sounds disappointing, but you're probably missing the absolute scale of it. More on MCWebGUI is coming next month, so look out for new posts that month.

Now moving on to...

🐍 MCPyGUI

As of writing this, MCPyGUI hasn't even started being written on yet. But I haven't explained what it is anywhere publicly yet so I thought it might be nice to know.

MCPyGUI will basically be for small applications with the MCWebGUI style, such as an installer or a simple tool. It will be a wrapper for tkinter, and hopefully be available for Windows and Linux.

The development of MCPyGUI will start once MCWebGUI is completed and development of Netherrack has begun. Like all of our other projects, it's going to be open source so you can use it too!

Unlike MCWebGUI, MCPyGUI applications cannot load anything, at any size, at any time, because the file size would explode if it used MCWebGUI's assets, and it would also be way too laggy to load in like 3 seconds. So it needs to be build in a specific way, with BastionCMD. More will be released about this info soon, so again, keep your eyeholes peeled for new posts about it!

📚 Our Content System, Bookshelf!

Bookshelf also hasn't started development yet, since it will run on MCWebGUI.

It will be a completely modular documentation system, but will also be able to be used for other things. In short, it's an easy-to-use documentation system with the MCWebGUI look, so we can keep our documentation consistent with our applications. (This will also mean we'll be documenting MCWebGUI, in something that's created with MCWebGUI!)

It's pretty simple, more info to be released soon...

🧹 Clearing up some things about Quartz

There was some confusion about what Quartz is, so this section of this month's devblog entirely focuses on what Quartz is.

Quartz Server is a Minecraft Server, coded in C#, with content added through Lua. We are aware that this makes using Java plugins not possible, but through our Lua API it won't be hard to recreate the plugins, now that it is no longer Java.

Quartz Client is a Minecraft Client, that is coded from scratch. It is not using any Java code. It won't use a Java Server. It relies on the Quartz Server. We will include a Mod-loader, that allows people to add their own Lua code, simply by putting their mod file in a folder, simelar to Java modding.

If you feel the need to make Quartz run on a Java server, then we won't stop you, but we'll also not support versions of Quartz that rely on a Java server, so maintanence & support is up to you.

We are aware that Quartz is a huge task, please do not mention this in our Discord server.

[andmaybegayer]

Microsoft does a lot of shitty things but this is normal, and is mostly aimed at companies who rely heavily on formal support and security patches, not individuals. Eventually old versions of software hit an end of life, and you stop backporting security fixes to old versions, this is true for all software, this was done for Windows 7 and Windows XP and Windows 98. If you want to keep using the old one, you can, but you have no guarantee that it'll get patches to solve security issues and it definitely won't comply with data protection legislation. If your company depends on deprecated software, and that software is closed source, your only option is to pay a premium for support from the sellers.

I work in commercial support for open source software and we also do this! We have software that we officially stopped supporting a decade ago, but that we still support for a handful of customers at great expense, because they can't transition to newer software yet. It's a lot of developer time that goes towards like a dozen companies, they have to pay a lot to make it worth it compared to more modern software that spreads the costs over hundreds of customers. There is no supported Linux Kernel 3 unless you pay for it.

As an individual you'll get some nag windows but they probably won't stop you from running it, the same way they don't stop you from running Windows XP even if that's a bad idea. You won't get security updates, if there's an exploitable hole in Windows 10 you won't get a fix, even if Microsoft publishes a fix to their extended support customers.

Install Linux, but maybe stick to kernel 5 or 6.

Want to keep using Windows 10 after 2025?

It'll cost you $61 the first year. Per machine.

And $122 in year two and $244 in year three, doubling every year after that until by 2038 it hits $499,712 bucks.

Just kidding. But not about that first part. Seriously, they really do plan to double the annual fee for the first few years. Yikes.

Assuming you want security updates. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a break from Windows Update doing secret shit to my workstation without asking.

It remains unclear what happens to Windows 10 users who opt out of the Extended Security Updates program. Nag screens? Windows goes into a throttled Limp Home mode?

I doubt they'd brick your machine, but based on Microsoft's recent disdain for its own customers anything is possible.

Honestly, if you avoid clicking on suspicious links and email phishing scams you're pretty safe even if you never update Windows. I've still got perfectly fine XP and Windows 7 machines in my network that have never been compromised by evildoers or malware.

All of this is engineered fear from Microsoft trying to move people off Windows 10.

[sleptwithinthesun]

can you write steve being moody and causing a fight with eddie and eddie gets annoyed only to later realize that steve’s doing it because he’s sick?

ohoho. i really have no clue how to write steve, but i will try my best. enjoy just about 1.0K words of shittily written ANGST bc im TIRED

"I don't even know why we brought you back from the Upside Down."

Steve's words have the same effect as if lighting had struck the car, the consequential thunderclap sounding just a second later and stunning Eddie into silent, a feat unaccomplished by most. Tears prick unbidden at the corners of his eyes and he stares at Steve with nothing less than disbelief written all over his face, plain as day.

He's angry today, for some reason. Eddie doesn't quite know why; Steve didn't tell him earlier and didn't seem inclined to talk about it. Still, Eddie is all-too familiar with the phrase "curiosity killed the cat" and just had to pry a bit too far into the matter, leaving Steve to go on a mini-tirade about how little Eddie contributed to their group or something grossly unwarranted in that vein. (To be honest, he'd stopped listening until now. The words are too close to the things his dad used to say to him, and Eddie really didn't need a reminder of his early childhood, especially not from one of his friends.) It wasn't even that much initially, just Steve working out some pent-up anger and frustration that Eddie could try to shrug off. But this?

Steve's gone too far.

He works his jaw, molars clenching and unclenching, trying to form a response, but comes up empty. Must be something about his supposed best friend telling him that they should have left him for dead in another dimension instead of rescuing him, but there's no time for him to dwell on that right now, not with the rush of emotions flooding through his brain. Instead of trying to parse it all out, Eddie mutters something unintelligible and as soon as Steve stops, he unbuckles and fumbles for the handle to let himself out, dropping on his hands and knees to the asphalt barely four seconds later.

The sound of Steve pulling away barely makes it through the rushing blood and pounding heartbeat in Eddie's ears. God, he knows (and still hopes with every part of his being) that Steve didn't really know what he was saying, didn't mean any of it, was simply lost to his emotions for a second, but.

That hurts.

Eddie already lies awake at night wondering why he's still alive, and having someone he trusted throw that question in his face again does more to unravel him than his own thoughts ever could. His hands are shaking, he realizes, anxiety plucking new rhythms with his heartbeat that reverberate throughout his body and bounce back to the source. Eddie gets it, he swears he does, if only because he tries so hard to. Anger is a demon everyone fights, and yet.

He palms the ground fiercely, ignoring the grit that sticks to his hand. Checking on Steve, while likely not a wise option, is pretty much the only one he has. Going home to the trailer isn't something he's particularly inclined to do at the moment, not when it's just going to continue stirring up all his memories of the Upside Down. Besides, he's closer to Harrington's anyway. It'll be a faster walk.

-

The sky starts darkening only four minutes into his walk. Not that it wasn't already dark; last he checked the time, it was barely past 6:00 in the evening, and he and Steve were in the car together for less than ten. No, it's darkening now as clouds move in, the sky preparing for an unexpected night storm, as is a new development for Hawkins, but not an unwelcome one after the recent dry spells. For Eddie, though, it means he's soaked to the bone by the time he makes it to Steve's house, only dressed in ripped jeans, his vest, and a cropped short-sleeved shirt. His hair is plastered to his face, bangs dripping into his eyes, when he finally raises his fist to knock on the door.

Steve opens it, bundled in one of those luxuriously thick sweaters of his and a pair of sweatpants that seem way too warm for June in Hawkins. His brow creases when he sees Eddie on the doorstep, shivering slightly. "Eddie? Whadt are you—"

"Can I come in?" he interrupts, testing the waters. Steve's caring by nature, so even if he's upset with Eddie, he should still let him inside. Sure enough, the younger moves aside without another word and Eddie murmurs a quiet thanks and he steps in, kicking off his shoes by the door and not daring to move any further than the foyer, dripping wet as he is.

"Sorry aboudt the mess," Steve murmurs, a hint of congestion curling around his words. Still, true to his word, a handful of tissues lay crumpled on the coffee table, and a glass of orange juice stands halfway empty next to it. "I started feeling weird early this afternoon, which, uh, I don't really remember most of..." He laughs sheepishly, a hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck. "I didn't really figure it out until I got home, though. Summer cold, or something like that."

And yeah, he supposes Steve was looking a bit flushed, rosy around the cheeks and nose, but he'd just assumed that was from anger—

The heel of Eddie's hand comes up to strike his forehead before Steve even finishes his explanation. "You were fucking delirious, weren't you? Fuck, I'm an idiot."

Alarm crosses over Steve's face as Eddie hits himself, mom-mode activated. "Hey, whadt?" he asks, stepping closer instinctively.

"When you yelled at me in the car earlier," Eddie says, waving Steve's growing concern off, "which we will deal with when you're no longer hallucinating, Steve."

"I'm not halluc—"

"Close enough, considering what you said," he mutters, and seriously Steve needs to stop thinking about that and showing it on his entie face every time Eddie mentions it. As he said, they'll deal with it later. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Harrington, let's get a read on the fever you're most definitely running."

[luna-rainbow]

meta: implantation for prosthesis

Okay I wrote an entire essay on this and decided no one was going to be interested because it was so technical so I spent hours rewriting it but it turned out to be an essay anyway….

I hope this is helpful for anyone writing fics about Bucky’s time in Hydra cos you really don’t need to think up new torture methods when you consider the medical procedures he had to go through…

The TL;DR version: Bucky's implant doesn't obey the laws of biophysics but neither does Steve's shield; all that matters is they both look cool.

As you can see from this picture, compared to what I referred to in the amputation meta, the amputation level has moved from forearm (transhumeral) to above shoulder (probably forequarter) level.

How was Bucky's arm implanted?

The thing about Bucky's prosthesis and the way it's implanted is we don't have anything close to it in the real world, and there are some practical issues with it.

I dislike anatomy too but we gotta see it to understand, so bear with me.

What's important about this picture? Look at the ball and socket joint. The glenoid cavity i.e. "the socket" is basically a tea plate to the golf “ball” of the humerus - you rock it hard enough and the ball will fall out (e.g. shoulder dislocations). It's held in place by tendons and muscles that are built for mobility rather than durability, which is why rotator cuff tears are so common (and annoyingly debilitating when they do happen). To add to that mobility, the socket is formed by the shoulder blade/scapula, which itself is just a dinner plate sliding across the back of the rib cage, held in place only by a few flaps of muscles. Now look at that flimsy clavicle, then at that tiny point of contact between the clavicle and the sternum - that is the only attachment the shoulder has with the main (axial) skeleton.

What I'm getting at is that the entire human shoulder stays in place by the sheer miracle of opposing tendons and muscles and ligaments. This means at Bucky's level of amputation, all the things that hold the arm onto the body are gone, and just fusing metal components onto what remains is not going to cut it.

But he's still got his pecs, you say. Maybe he's still got his scapula, which means he'll also have his rotator cuffs. Yes, that brings me to the other unrealistic issue about his implant. In real life, we simply don't have the technology to do this - the components we have bond to bone but do not bond to soft tissue, i.e. muscles, fat and skin. Even if you have muscles left you can't attach them in a way that holds the joint on.

Directly attaching metal next to skin, as it appears for Bucky, has its own problems. One of the newest techniques these days is interosseus implants (Source), which inserts a metal shaft into a long bone and attaches the prosthesis at the end. A major drawback is fluid leak and infection because the soft tissue simply does not bond to the metal and form a good seal over/around it, so you essentially have a chronic open wound going all the way through to bone.

In Bucky's case, he doesn't even have any long bones left to even consider this technique. Where are you going to attach an entire arm? The clavicle? The ribs? The flappy scapula? Have you seen how easily these bones snap like legit grannies just have to trip over and they'll crack 8 ribs on the way down.

Of all the ways Bucky was attacked and injured in CACW, this is the one scene that makes me wince every time. That’s what, a 10 meter drop? I know what you’re thinking Bucky - it's gonna look impressive in front of Steve. Well, GOOD F**KING JOB BUCK YOU'VE JUST RIPPED YOUR IMPLANT OUT OF YOUR BONES. On a scale of "freezing yourself in cryo" to "breaking Zemo out of jail" can you STOP being such a self-destructive drama queen for FIVE minutes and—

Okay, but Bucky's arm is canon. Can it theoretically work if we take into account futuristic technology and super soldier serum?

So let's talk about what it needs to achieve: - Very strong attachment to axial skeleton WITHOUT use of muscles/tendons - Full range of motion as a normal human arm - Ability to connect to neural supply (won't go into detail in this post)

Let's pretend the metal-skin interface won't be a major issue because of better skin healing/better materials.

Even with the serum's healing/durability, the implant still needs a stronger attachment than a single clavicle. One (imaginary) possibility is having most of his left ribs and clavicle filled by (not replaced by) implants with attachment sites, to which the metal arm actually attaches. This distributes the loading forces more evenly throughout his thorax. Remember though the weak point is always at connection points, and at high enough impacts something will give, and if it's not his bones it'll be the metal work, and that will still hurt.

That leaves the issue of scapular movements. I just want you to take a moment to appreciate the many directions this bone flap spins in. It’s vital in positioning the shoulder relative to the rib cage, and it’s every anatomy student’s nightmare (or dream, I guess, depending on which end of the spectrum you fall).

Two (imaginary) possibilities: this is built into the prosthesis - ie the scapula is removed and jointed components pull the shoulder across the rib cage - this method means more bone/muscle have to be removed. The second is if they develop technology to attach muscle to metal implant, and I almost don’t want to think about that possibility because the amount of experimentation that would take, the amount of muscle tears and tendon rupture and repeat surgical procedures and pain is just horrific to consider.

CBB reading all that, can you just tell me what it practically means for Bucky?

He would have to: - Undergo multiple revisions to reach his current level of amputation: this could be from unsalvageable implant failures or injuries forcing them to go up higher (amputate more) for attachment points. - Undergo multiple rounds of experimental implant techniques: failures in those early decades are common due to the materials used and the immature techniques. Metal shattering within bone or snapping outside of bone can happen especially at the huge forces he puts the arm through. For perspective, people are advised against running after a hip replacement because that counts as "high impact" ARE YOU LISTENING TO THIS BUCKY. - Complications? Pain, infection (painful), bleeding (painful), nerve damage (painful), fractures (painful), implants breaking (painful), rejection of implant material (painful), reaction to sediments produced by crappy implant material (painful). I don't know if you see a common theme or... - After each surgery there will be a necessary healing time (even for a super soldier) where he will be vulnerable while the bone heals.

All of this suggests - and not to minimise what Isaiah was able to do single-handedly - that the early Winter Soldier was not the sleek machine that Steve fought, and was likely far more prone to injury and damage.

And finally, as a heartfelt thank you for getting this far, someone pointed out that Bucky cradles his metal hand for comfort. That itself suggests that despite the amount of pain that he inevitably endured to get a functioning prosthesis - his life was infinitely worse without it.

[kobithedragon]

U need to stop. Everything u reblog is good and I can't only have u on my feed. Stop.

My posts are from my drafts. If I post any less, I'll have too much in my drafts. I already have over 10,000 drafts. I don't use my feed/dashboard at all, but if you must use it, I suggest the multitab tumblr app as that shows your dashboard posts as a grid, so it's easier to scroll through many posts. You can also create "feed sets" where you have one tab with up to 20 different blogs and that's a separate feed to the people you're following. Alternatively you can unfollow me, and then use multitab Tumblr to browse through only my posts, as you can keep me open in a tab that won't go away after every time you close the app and re open it unless you close it the tab yourself. tumblr has an open api which means anyone can make software to use it. So issues like this really shouldn't bother anyone since there's always "an app for that". Tumblr has a great community of 3rd party developers so I suggest looking through more of the 3rd party software if multitab Tumblr doesn't do everything you need. Also I'm not sure who else you follow but a lot of people seem to reblog in bursts so you'd get a lot of their posts one after another all at once on your feed. This is because they reblog straight instead of queueing. What I do is I draft first, then fill up my queue from my drafts, so posts are spat out at even intervals every few minutes. So, it could be a lot worse, let's say if I was too lazy to draft and queue, and just reblogged all at once whenever I had a tumblr browsing session. Another option would be to just use the algorithmic feed by toggling "best stuff first". This'll show you less of my posts and more of other people's. Since my engagement is somewhat low due to the volume of posts I output, it'll only show you a few posts from the ones I upload, the ones the algorithm considers the "best". Whether they're actually the best is up to you. You say you like everything I post? Well, do what I do and go through all 60,000+ of my posts using multitab tumblr, as that allows you to start scrolling after an interval of posts. Let's say you scrolled through 2371 posts in one session (easy since again it shows posts in a grid and that grid is adjustable) and you suddenly needed to do something else and leave your tumblr session. So you type in something like 2500 or 2400 posts and next day you start scrolling again around from where you left off. It shows you how many posts you've scrolled past already. But yeah since new posts are coming in, you'd need to jump to an interval that has some slack, meaning it allows for a few 100 new posts to push your number up a bit. So if it shows you've scrolled through 2371 posts exactly, you'd technically be more like 2500 posts down the next day since a bunch of new posts got added. Anyway this is how I like to use tumblr, jumping from blog to blog and browsing through all their posts, finding other blogs through the notes, the via, the source, the reblog chains etc for each posts im interested in. It's kinda like archive view but a lot nicer to use. You just seem very desperate here because you like the content I share but you don't like how much of it there is. Well, I don't really want to use tumblr any less because I really love it too. This life is too short for me to not output as many posts as I can in a day. Think about all the posts I'll be missing. Anyway, thanks for the ask, you raised a valid concern which I'm surprised nobody else has ever messaged me about. Have a nice day.

[starstuffduster]

OP's tags: #potentially this means that izuna gets to keep his dick when he joins the harem but tobirama doesnt....

oh NO. all of this sounds absolutely fascinating and also RIPE FOR DRAMA, TRAGEDY AND MANY SHENANIGANS.

I wonder how Tobirama and Izuna would end up getting entangled back? particularly after that incredibly auspicious start...

Although, once I started reading this, I started wondering if Tobirama wouldn't be -- not happy or glad, but maybe a bit relieved, to end up in the cold palace, away from all the scheming and politicking he's clearly not suited for, and having to compete for the favor of people he couldn't care less about pleasing. this Tobirama seems to either not have had the means to develop ways to deal with people to certain standards of excellence, or just didn't bother to.

so maybe he'd be be, honestly, happier just... not having to manipulate his way into favor and/or deal with several very socially able and dangerous people, isolated at the cold palace, and, tbh, I kind of immediately thought...

the cold palace is usually a problem because it's isolated, has no resources, and is sort of... forgotten.

except Tobirama would actually LOVE to be isolated and sort of forgotten while he works on his many inventions and researches, and otherwise writes a hundred theories and arguments and whatnot. he's ALSO a bit of a workaholic, and working on the resourceless cold palace such so that 1. it'll survive autonomously, so he can stop depending on the outside, and 2. he'll be able to acquire the resources he needs for further research and inventions; why, that might just sound like the sort of intensive longterm administrative project he could get lost in for a long time.

so, y'know, after some years, Izuna might meet Tobirama again under the assumption that he's suffering and bitter and in need of the most basics of the basics, and can be bribed with heat sources and clothes and even food --

only to find out that Tobirama would like forbidden books instead. the lastest research papers. glassware. certain seeds...

(on the other hand, the entire state of the cold palace, though an open secret, is now nonetheless a potential point of blackmail.)

au where tobirama and izuna both end up married to the emperor but for very different reasons.

Izuna is married to him because hes such a clever manipulator that his dad decided this was their best shot at improving the uchiha clan's standing in the entirety of Fire. he's not able to bear children but with careful strategic wording and action he can woo the emperor, convince him they're equally besotted with eachother, and ensure that the Uchiha are elevated in status and treated better than any other clan in the country. a change like that can last generations beyond the couple that causes it, and besides, if Izuna gets enough trust he'll probably be allowed to babysit the emperor's the kids (As a "nonthreat" unable to bear his own heirs) and become a beloved sensei type to whoever the future emperor is too....

Tobirama is married to him because Butsuma had six kids and counting and he cannot afford to pay for all of them to get married and have kids, ugh. So he picked a couple of less the fruitful ones and married them off to various other people, somewhat cementing their connection but mostly just ensuring their care is somebody elses problem.

what follows tobirama's induction to the harem is some truly machiavellian scheming on izuna's part to get the man banished to the cold palace...and unfortunately for him the development of his first actual crush.

[fillingthescrapbook]

Kung Fu Hustles with a Filler Episode

It took them two seasons and four episodes… But The CW's Kung Fu finally has a fun episode. And a good one at that! Sure, I still have some gripes on the narrative--but I could shrug it off because the show really embraced its genre here.

So let's list the things that are good:

Number one. The opening scene with the family. That was a great way to deliver exposition without just info-dumping on viewers. An as an added bonus, it really establishes a great relationship between Nicky's family that can be juxtaposed with Henry's own relationship with his dad which also gets brought up in the episode.

Number two. Trimming down unnecessary screen time! I love that the writer of the episode didn't shoehorn in Papa Shen, Zhi-Lan, and the ghost of Pei-Ling in this episode. We got an update as to what Papa Shen is doing in the opening scene, and then the writer trusted the viewers to know that he's doing okay for the rest of the episode. Zhi-Lan got a mention, but we really didn't need to know what she was doing so I'm glad she wasn't forced down our throats.

Number three. They actually utilized Dennis! He was basically eye-candy in season one, so I'm glad they finally realized he can contribute something to Nicky's kung fu hustle too. And plus points for calling back to his sister Chloe's criminal past! That was a very pleasant surprise. I even forgot the fact that Dennis double-parked even though there was clearly an open parking space outside the bakery where Althea's car was stolen.

Number four. Evan is finally being taken out of the District Attorney's Office. It's not like the writers know what the office does in real life anyway. There's better use for Evan as a lawyer for the helpless. It'll bring him more into Nicky's world too.

Number five. Fun villains. Richard Speight, Jr. was a delight in Supernatural (during the first five years; I can't say anything about the other ten years since I stopped watching after Season 5.) and he was also a delight in this episode too. Same goes for Briana Buckmaster. I would love to see them become recurring characters in the show.

Number six. Henry's dad isn't just a source of drama. He's gonna be a source of Drama with a capital D too! Henry's such a blank slate that I'm glad he's finally getting some meat into his narrative bones.

And those are the things I remember that I want to celebrate. But I want to point out things that I think the writers could work on more too:

First: they need to figure out what Ryan's situation is with his residency. He can't keep getting roped into Nicky's shenanigans because that's gonna be unrealistic. Especially with everything that's public knowledge about medical residency. Also, they can close the book on Ryan's potential love story with Sebastian. Ryan's had more chemistry with Ronnie (actor Jag Bal) than he did with Sebastian.

Second: they have to make a decision about Althea's company. Is it something that's going to connect to Nicky's storylines? Or is it something that can happen off-camera? Because Althea's "work" scenes were painful to watch. First: she's only about to develop an app. Why does she have so many employees already? The storyline could've still happened with just two programmers/coders working with her. Also, they could've discussed where Althea was getting her capital. Did Dennis foot her bill? Because the Shens aren't rich. And Althea hadn't had work for a long time because of her wedding. Or did they not want to say because it wouldn't fit the narrative that Dennis doesn't think he's enough for Althea? It still could've worked, in my opinion.

Third: I know I keep saying we need economy of screen time--but Mama Shen's conversation with her own mother feels like it's important enough to be seen on camera. It's about Mia. Who they're setting up to be as important as Nicky. The same goes for Ryan using his doctor credentials to find out who Mia's dad is. Or did they want to avoid that because it wouldn't be feasible in real life?

Fourth: Henry's relationship with his dad was a little all-over-the-place for me. He was so angry at Nicky bringing up the idea of reconnecting with his dad that I was expecting a more… strained relationship when they finally met. But they seemed to be fine until Henry's dad saying marrying young was his biggest mistake. Like… That whole scene was just tonally weird.

And last: While I do love that we didn't get a lot of Juliette Tan this episode (again: economy of scenes; good thing), I do still think we need a more concrete idea of what the Tans are up to. It's not a knock on this episode. It's a knock on how Season 2 was set up in the first three episodes. The villains are just being bad for villainy's sake. I do not feel any stakes in their fight--unlike with Zhi-Lan killing Pei-Ling in the series premiere. Like that was a very concrete scene of why Zhi-Lan and Nicky were going to be enemies. In comparison, Russell and Juliette are just… meh. I really do not care what they do.

But, as I said, even with those gripes, I completely enjoyed watching this episode of Kung Fu. I hope we get more of this moving forward, instead of… everything else we've seen prior to this.

[the-firebird69]

It's a couple problems that are developing here to the bathroom without having a problem then you have to shower it out then it flows out the toilet paper I mean there's a nasty element going on here and I understand they're trying to threaten for stuff but you people have to be realistic we're told you we're not putting up with it we're taking territory we're very powerful and mean and you don't give a crap you just want to mistreat him until he's harmed over and over and Tommy f is a the source yes it's kind of do your job instead of helping him these two people here and Terry cheesman are helping the idiot and they started doing it once they stopped they decide not to pay social security I thought it was a great idea and it didn't work and they haven't changed yet and really the minority morlock are taking over because of it and she the chlorine is the ringleader because they decide not to help him and they're trying to help him and he sees Garth and he can't see anything he's thankful for it and tries to know I didn't say hello but boy is it tough it's everybody against them it is sickening so we're going to come in with these minority workers as foreigners and other and we're going to do it and we're going to flood in the place we can't handle it anymore this place is a dump these people are dumpy he's a crap the waters too high it needs to be dredge that's all I have to do takes 10 minutes out there it's a matter of fact I'm going to put proposal out and broke tobacco in Florida I'm going to grow it for Mac and us we have a cigar light actually there used to be a famous Cuban cigar land here I'm going to try and pick it up it's really really actually famous so we're going to work on it together I don't care if I'm pushing a card and we'll get it to work so Mac is enthused he said he's going to grow for us and our son says so why is that remark of one of white suit before that's what you do in tobacco I think and drink mint juleps and it's true too Ken is done it can get open a farm and have the Indians are coming in make the cigarettes and he's thinking about it they're really not wants tobacco Mac wants tobacco somehow people are starting to save some this place sucks so bad like Okeechobee needs to be drenched and then it'll pressurize but really that's where the aquifer water goes and if you dig it out it's going to wash that place out if you go down the river a little it'll be cleaner not much comes to the River or the harbor they already drove around out there and like one serve it's out completely but it's wasted. I'm going to put in for dredging it and where the army and it says this he said I want to do that so bad I need some horsepower and he said that's great and it's all to Ben Arnold too so they're saying yeah and he has a cigarette brand and cigars and you can roll the cigars in Tampa so it kind of psyched cuz they do it in Miami too and these guys are coming in it's perfect timing although we're behind it's time to get the idea this guy shouldn't have heavy equipment

Thor Freya

You can't grow pot in Florida but you can grow it in Puerto Rico and Haiti but they have their own muck just not as much. It'll cost as much to ship it no and the THC levels are like 90% instead of 50%, and it's kind of worth it it's a drug you can sell in the pill form so I'm going to look at it I think it's like worth a lot of money and he says that I'm not and you should go for it and something around if it's a 50% difference so I get what he's saying maybe that's why you take the cigarette boat out there I got to tell you something else it's time we shut up and tried something maybe not talking

Bja

Oh I see so I'm going to be smart people this is what it's like you can't put it right there it's going to wind up I don't know it just doesn't end up happening okay how much money is it in fish farming and figured out something there's a lot of money area there's a lot of money in fish farming or oysters who like oysters but you put that fertilizer out you're going to wait a couple years this is no there's a way to compost it

Trump

There's a way to compost it and you pulled from the bottom and you put it nearby like 2 miles or 5 miles near shore whatever the regulation is in a wall around it and down the Earth and then you fertilize your fish farm and you rotate it and it grows tons of kelp and algae if anybody's interested I know how to do it or other anyone of ours or other but the cash crop is tobacco all of lake Okeechobee would supply it for one year in Florida or less due to demand and this place to start pilot believe it or not there's a cavern but we don't suggest it cuz it might leak I'm going to cause the same problem we have that was s*** is a it's a lot of s*** it would be like 2 mi high and 5 mi wide but that would be it says why can't you get out there and suck it out and be out in like a half a day and use a ship so they're trying to explain it also said I can't f****** stand this anymore cuz we're stupid so he says what do we have to do I said all you have to do is stockpile the s*** somewhere and he's got a spot we have three four 10 different ways to get it out of there and you can hire these assholes to move it out and they get a bunch of it for whatever they want underground Coke or whatever they just do the stupid farting around sticking their head up their ass freaking blows are so damn slow and asinine telling us everything I don't know what to say but he says eat a whole bunch of them up and say that that's the crew working for him doesn't work that well but so you understand it's frustrating and that was Mac Daddy a couple sentences ago did you get him to drive around out there and who cares it settles in the river and the harbor and packed with the s*** but it's coming out 1409 now it's like two or three inches a night and about a foot built up from that escapade we did the whole thing and drove around there and probably flood

Thor Freya