#without using my cellular data

[idledearest]

chacking spotify for the 300th time if the npmd soundtrack as been uploaded.. pls team starkid..

[cipheramnesia]

i understand the point of the "darn no cell signal" neotrope for horror movies but based on ppl i know (my dad and myself) now i want a horror movie with the following ppl as victims:

person who refuses to pay more for data they don't use and thus only has so many gigs before their phone is useless without wifi

person who refuses to have a cellular plan and uses a glorified ipod that only functions on wifi

person who always has the latest and greatest cell phone but it's super bugged bc the company went with profit over quality control; whether it fails hilariously or just sets itself on fire immediately depends on what's funnier

person who actually has a decent phone with signal but reacts to Scary Thing by throwing the phone at it

person #1 fits the genre savvy role by coming off as more practically minded, person #2 is probably good with older machinery and/or wilderness survival based on plot needs, person #3 is probably the first victim, person #4 is either a secondary victim or the final survivor

I actually love this because I know all of these people and its 100% realistic.

[seat-safety-switch]

Most of my friends have useful skills of their own. While I pride myself on being a self-reliant generalist, it's good to know there is expert help waiting in the wings if I run into a particularly sticky problem. I am sure that you are in a similar circumstance. It's always good to take a moment to study your situation, understand what resources you have, and treasure your connections.

Which of your buds, pals, hangers-on, flunkies, and general acquaintances would you rely on to, say, demolish a bridge? And more importantly, which of them would keep their mouths shut about it? Those are the folks you need to stay close to over the rest of your life. While it's unlikely that you'll be asked to blow up some perfectly good car infrastructure, the combination of skills and loyalty will come in handy many more times, from lawnmower repair to blowing up a hydroelectric dam.

Without these folks waiting to help, I would no doubt find myself holding back from stupid projects. Fearing failure, I wouldn't be nearly as ambitious. This way, I can exceed my limits, get myself well and truly stuck, and then wail to one of my pals, who will ask me if I remembered to plug the battery in. Of course I haven't, and we'll all have a good chuckle about it at my expense while sitting around a freshly doused campfire, making sure to cover our flashlights, and not use a dense amount of high-speed cellular data, in case the passing patrol drones notice unusual activity on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Go out there, talk to your friends. Collaborate on your interests. Get something started out there today, and make sure that you leave your mark on the world. Because if you just sit on the couch, then the bastards win, and they won't be nearly as weird about it as you will be.

[tickfleato]

something that makes me insanely smug is when an app tries to force me to log in or watch ads and i simply remove its permission to use cellular data and turn off my wifi. can't show me ads without an internet connection bitch.

[crepes-suzette-373]

Lineage Factor and Emotions

This might be super obvious to some people, I'm just writing this down mostly to straighten out my thoughts because it's all over the place.

Something I've been wondering for a while is just how exactly did Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji's "empathy" get removed, and whether or not it's possible to get it back.

This is also important to figure out whether Sanji's worry about him turning "evil" if his modifications fully awakened is warranted or not.

I had already previously explained that the brothers do still have emotions, and only very selective ones are taken out. I imagine if you take out all their emotions, they would've turned into something like the Pacifistas. No expression, no individuality, no personality. Just robot-like behaviour. This is very interesting, because just how exactly do you choose to only take out selective emotions?

Currently there's not enough info to tell, but my working hypothesis is that the emotions wasn't "removed". What happened is that whatever was modified in their lineage factor also includes modification that suppresses certain emotions (fear, empathy/sympathy, who knows what else).

"Emotions" is somehow part of the "data" included in Lineage Factor.

While for the most part Lineage Factor is like DNA in our real world, it also apparently includes "emotions" in One Piece. It's to the point that the Hancock seraphim is still in love with Luffy when the lineage factor is copied into the clones.

It's also implied in the flashbacks showing Sora trying to stop the modifications. Sora was concerned about their "hearts" (emotions/feelings), but the medicine she took was something that tampers with the lineage factor. As a result, not only is Sanji's emotions fully intact, but he doesn't have "powers".

Except that whatever Sora drank didn't actually do anything to the lineage factor. As it turns out, all it did was suppressing the modifications from manifesting/taking effect.

I had previously wondered why they couldn't just re-augment Sanji once they noticed he "failed", but when I re-checked the raw, the text says that the modifications was successfully done (on the "cellular level"/DNA, to use our world's terminology). It's just that the intended modifications did not "manifest"/take effect.

成功したはずでした does not mean "we thought it was successful, but actually it wasn't". It means that even though the "objective" (lineage factor manipulation) was successfully completed, the intended "outcome" (powers + exoskeleton) was not achieved due to other factors.

Sanji's "lineage factor" is already manipulated. They can't do anything to him anymore. It's jut that why/how the medicine Sora took can stop the modifications from manifesting, or how the raid suit can awaken it after so long is still a mystery.

So, if Sanji's mods fully awakens, I imagine that it's true that he will really become merciless like his brothers. All 4 of them went through the same treatment, after all. We saw that happen briefly when Sanji was fighting S-Shark.

Since Reiju has the abilities but her sympathy wasn't blocked, I theorise that it's possible to find the part of the lineage factor that controls emotions, and just "unblock" that one part.

Now that there's Vegapunk around, when they escape Egghead, they might be able to figure this out using Vegapunk's knowledge. The actual operation might not be immediately doable without the labs, but maybe if they find Law he can help? The actual details of lineage factor is mysterious, but if it's strictly physical/biology and not something that requires medicines/chemicals, it's possible that Law's powers can be used.

Alternative possibility is they might need to go to Neo MADS and demand that Judge himself undo it. Like, I think this is very very unlikely (and I don't really want this to happen either), but it might be a plot bridge to, you know, actually ask why he wanted revenge against the other North Blue kings.

Then maybe this will finally reveal the secret of Germa's past, because many things in the series seem to imply that they have or they know something important related to the World Government. Something that the crew will need to learn about or obtain.

Is Ichiji's powers okay?

In my theory posts, I analysed the various instances where Ichiji seems to display indications that he's actually different from Niji and Yonji. He might not have the full range of emotions like Reiju did, but there's something about him that's just different.

I'm somewhat curious if this as of yet unknown "anomaly" means that his powers are screwed up as well. He has exoskeleton, but we don't know for sure what built-in powers does he have.

I have previously mentioned the suggestion that his Sparking Valkyrie lasers might be just the suit. Sensei already confirmed in an SBS that the Germa abilities are half augmented in the body and half the suit:

So, maybe the emotions anomaly does affect Ichiji's powers to that without the Raid Suit he cannot do anything.

A possible hint that this was the case might be the fact that he just sat there not doing anything when at gunpoint in the wedding.

Niji's electricity runs in his body, so even if he uses it, it does him no good here if he can't use his arms and legs to fight. He can't shoot electricity blasts (the thunderclaps you see in the anime when he fights is not canon).

Reiju's poison breath seems to be a suit power, and her built-in ability is only for absorbing in poison. So she can't do anything either.

However, Ichiji could've lasered down the Big Mum pirates with his eyes since his head can still move. Or, even try to laser the candy to break free. We can see in the scene where he shot down Oven that the light blasts of Valkyrie can make holes in people. It might be able to break the candy.

Sure, they're surrounded, and there's the chance of him getting gunned down before he can do much, but the way he talks implies that "he can't do anything".

If the lasers is in the raid suit, then it makes sense that he can't do anything here.

The alternatives to this is either: 1) He wants to die for some reason. 2) The emotion modifications causes all the brothers to just easily give up and not have the will to fight to the bitter end. Like, maybe Ichiji actually has the lasers, he just didn't feel it's worth trying. Or 3) Sanji's flashback of Ichiji's eye lasers is wrong, and Sparking Valkyrie is not actually eye lasers (then what is it?).

All of that are something else entirely, though, so I won't discuss it here.

Eyebrow flip

We know that Sanji's brows flip when his exoskeleton activate, but how do we know for sure that both his brows flip? We only assume it's that way because of Yonji and Niji's.

However, what sensei said in the SBS is that "all the brothers have 66 shaped eyebrows like Yonji, but Sanji's is the opposite" and "his eyebrows did change" when the power of science activated. He didn't say that "Sanji's eyebrows both flip into the 66 shape".

So, what if when the eyebrow flips, it actually looks like this?

I don't think we can definitively say it's not like this, because the manga art has not shown what his full face looks like when his brows flip. Nothing in the series also has ever indicated that this is impossible.

The point of me bringing that up is because sensei also never said the siblings brows can't flip.

There are some panels where you expect you should be able to see the curl in Ichiji's brow under the bangs, but it's not there. However on other panels, it's visibly there.

That first panel is a very dead obvious one. It's too big to be an error, since sensei actually bothered to draw the curl on the other brow that's almost covered by Sanji's fist. If this was a mistake, then sensei must be very sick or otherwise not feeling well that week, if he could miss something in such a glaringly visible place.

If this is not a mistake, then maybe his eyebrow actually can flip too.

This is related to the theory above where I mentioned maybe Ichiji's powers are also imperfect. This is of course just a lot of conjecture, and we need more canon info before I can speculate further.

The same theory has been made about Reiju (i.e her eyebrows either flip too, or facing opposite directions). However, Reiju's modification circumstances are different from the quadruplets, and the Reiju examples I've seen are not as blatantly visible like Ichiji's one here, so I won't speculate on her yet.

Niji and Yonji?

The problem with knowing specifically what is "wrong" with the brothers is the wide semantic domain of even a single kanji. 情 is generally understood to be "interpersonal feelings" like affection or sympathy. But because this is vague, it's very hard to tell what emotions they can or cannot feel.

They can feel "concern", and Niji and Yonji both have obvious unsettled looks at Big Mum's collection. Yonji was even stunned to silence. What's up with that?

Unlike Ichiji, they have not displayed indicators of something funny going on, so for the time being I assume that "concern/care for family members" is not part of the "情" that is missing from them.

As for their reaction towards Big Mum's books of living things... perhaps the intention is to say that Big Mum is a more cruel/horrible person than Germa.

This instance makes me think of a Japanese saying that goes "even the oni of hell would vomit" 地獄の鬼すら反吐吐く所業. It's a saying to describe something so unbelievably despicable. In Buddhism, the oni's duty is to torture the dead for their sins in life for eternity. You can only imagine how bad it has to be that even the cruel and merciless "oni" of hell would be disgusted to the point of vomiting.

Here, if even the "heartless" Vinsmokes are disturbed, then it's just that bad.

[maryellencarter]

Will your walkable cities have guaranteed housing for all? Not just "we housed a thousand homeless people but there are 40,000 more waiting for space and nowhere to build", actual available housing.

Will they have safe parking to sleep in our cars without being harassed, and leave our cars at in the daytime to keep our stuff safe while we walk your walkable city?

Will they have plentiful benches, maybe even sheltered from the elements, and will we be allowed to sleep on them?

Will they have plentiful, safe, clean, well-stocked, 24/7 restrooms? Maybe even climate controlled? And will we be allowed to spend as long as we need to in them? Most homeless people have digestive issues because of our limited food access, if for no other reason.

Will they have free foot care clinics and mobility aids? We're already on our feet all day. It hurts. Many of us had mobility issues before becoming homeless.

Will you have free 24/7 transit for all, or will it be means tested, require residency, or have similar arbitrary limitations? How long will we be allowed to ride? Will there be easily accessible restrooms? Will it have posted maps at every stop, or will we have to use cellular data to find our way around? What measures will you take to prevent it becoming a superspreader system for Covid and other diseases?

(Actually, requiring a cellular or cable company to provide free public wifi as a substitute for part of their tax bill would be an interesting experiment. Or you could just make wifi a public utility. Still put up paper maps for transit though, we don't all have wifi capable devices or the ability to use them. Maybe even with Braille overlays on the plastic or something?)

If you're not allowing vehicles other than transit, what allowances are you making for grocery delivery, prepared food delivery (like Doordash type services), laundry service, diaper service, anything that doesn't require mobility-limited residents to use their steps? What's your plan for "I'm moving in or out of the walkable city and I need a moving truck for my furniture"?

How about "I'm buying groceries for two weeks for six hungry people and I can't carry it all home on the bus"? How about "My plumbing broke and the plumber needs his toolbox full of heavy tools and parts that *he* can't carry on the bus"? Will your buses/trains have luggage compartments, and how will the loading and unloading work with keeping a schedule?

[chaoticxbeast]

Content: After being separated from his brothers following a fight, Donnie finds himself in the hands of TGRI and is confronted with a very difficult choice. Part 1

"Look. I will not hurt you." Cynthia said, her eyes stern as she studied Donatello. "I want to cooperate with you."

"You tortured two of my brothers. You hurt us. Why would I-"

"Yes yes. I get it. I will explain."

She used an app on her phone to reveal a large collection of images on the large screens above their heads. The content had been taken from their social media, from obvious sources like tik-tok and such, as well as from several hacked sources. They all revealed Donatellos creations, both of the type he had worked on for short periods of time, and longer.

Donatellos eyes widened in surprise, before a grave concern fell over his face. She had hacked HIS computer? Without him knowing? One thing was hacking his brothers phones, that could happen, but HIS computer? "How.."

"These works are yours, yes? I like them. Some of these inventions can be quite useful to me. I need a smart, clever engineer like you on my team."

"I..those are just-"

"What? harmless toys? I think not.." She revealed a couple explosions he had made, and then some of his work on Bishop's robot.

Donnie hesitated for a moment. It was true that his inventions sometimes became more dangerous than he had originally meant for them to be, but.

"I'm..just a kid." He said, smiling, with a nervous squint to his eyes.

"True. Actually. According to my data, you just turned 15.

"Wait. You know my age?"

"Not your exact age, that is extremely difficult to find out, but if it is important to you, I can see what I can do. However. Telomeres. you know, telomeres?"

"Yeah? repetitive DNA..?"

"Sequences. Correct. By measuring the length of telomeres, I can estimate how much of your cellular aging has occurred. Also taking into account normal turtle and human growth patterns.."

She swiped the screen of her phone, revealing a sleek, rotating 3D model of a DNA double helix. "This is your DNA." She said dryly.

"You just.. took my DNA? You should ask first you know?" Don said, glancing to her and back to the screen, disturbed with the lack of respect she had for his life, and his rights.

"For your permission?"

"Yeah?" Don said, voice laced with frustration.

"Why? you are my property."

"No I'm not!" Don shot back, angrily. "We never agreed to mutate, and second, if someone did own me, it would’ve been whoever owned me back when I was just a regular turtle, but they don't own me now because I'm my own person!" His words raced out of him, furiously.

"Be quiet." Cynthia barked, feeling her blood boiling.

Don frowned with deep concern with the crazy lady and her wild ideas. And now she had his DNA..who knew what she would do with it.

His glance fell to the locks on his arms, and he wriggles his wrists a little. His arms were firmly secured with metal locks and so was his legs. He couldn't move an inch. Glancing around, he thought about how strange this place was. It didn't even look like a real lab. But it was oddly fitting for Cynthia he thought. Just like her, it felt like this place was taken straight form some kooky sci fi horror movie.

"Back to the point. This is your DNA. Don't you want to know more?"

Don looked at her with a resigned, stubborn and studious look.

There was no way he was giving into cooperation, that was one thing.

Second, he needed to know how his brothers were doing, and if they were here too. All he could remember was being jumped by a group of purple dragons, getting hit in the head, suddenly seeing Superfly there, and then texting Leo for help. And now.. he was here..

Don was curious about his DNA, for sure, but from this person who was obviously mentally deranged? He couldn't trust her telling the truth.

"Look, I have copies of 97% of the world's DNA databases. So, I simply ran a cross-check and found a match. Isn't that interesting? Don't you want to know more?"

Don's mouth pressed into a thin line as he stared up at her. A match.. So someone else in this world shared his DNA. She thought she could bait him with this? That wasn't going to happen. He had spent his entire life wanting to know more about who he was, but he wasn’t about to take a favor from her—not like this.

"Where are my brothers? Are they here?"

"No." She smiled. "Just you."

"I don't want to talk right anymore.." Don said quietly, and looked down at his lap. It was pointless to ask her anything, as he had no reason to trust she was speaking the truth. Besides, he was feeling deep upset and hurt over being treated like an object. All he wanted was to be alone, and think about what to do next.

"We can take a break." Cynthia said, turning the screens off to leave him there. "We will talk again soon."

[gryficowa]

God damn it, I'm going crazy, I'm planning to buy a smartphone (Not too expensive or anything), but all smartphones use cobalt, same with laptops

Not counting that one day I will have to replace the laptop, because replacing anything in it is a disaster, and the service centers usually repaired my laptops mediocrely (In short, they lived shorter than before sending them to the service centers)

I'd rather have a PC, not only is there no Intel (I use notebooks), there's also no Cobalt, but there's no money (even to assemble it myself) and no space

So I'm in a trap, because I'm planning to buy my first smartphone (Yes, I have a 23 kata this year, I didn't need it, but now it would be useful for listening to music, or to be able to send something to communicate something, it's supposed to be an old smartphone, problem in that it only works on wi-fi, and often there is no wi-fi, I need a smartphone with cellular data, MP3 or MP4 is also out of the question, because I don't have it and I would have to play all the songs, and that would be irritating, I know, a trivial problem, but I would like to be able to watch various things and give clicks for Palestine, but that won't work with MP3 and MP4 , and laptops also work on Wi-Fi, so there's a chance that I will be able to access the Internet when I am in a place without Wi-Fi is impossible)

And unfortunately, smartphones and laptops use a battery consisting of Cobalt, and notebooks still use fucking Intel

In addition, it doesn't help the fact that for some reason my notebooks have a shorter lifespan than standard laptops, because they get too hot, which is a nightmare, but I need them because I draw digitally and record gameplay, which doesn't change the fact that this feature of notebooks annoys me, because they are less durable than regular laptops, and they should be better because they are larger, therefore, they are more efficient (Or maybe it's because I live in a fucking block of flats where the apartment is warm, summer is terrible for a notebook, because I like spring and summer, unfortunately, notebooks get hotter, I use a board for cooling, but there are only two USB inputs on the laptop I use, so at the moment, when I draw in digital, I have to connect the cooling board because the notebook gets hot and I have to move it to the side because it's Lenovo and the cooling board has a fan in the fucking middle)

I know, I randomly got angry, but it's frustrating that everything necessary has to have either Cobalt or Intel, i.e. something made on human blood and that kills it

I know they say you can't live ethically in capitalism, but it still kills me because if you want to help, you have to buy a device that consists of an element or a graphics card that was obtained by harming other people

It's not fair that everything that is necessary in these times (like the ability to seek information and help people) is created this way, it all makes no sense when the price is human life that you can save with this technology that was created by taking away many others live, it became a pretext for exploiting people and colonizing, technology was supposed to bring us closer together, not to harm people who want to live

I know, my problems seem trivial, but it's just killing me

[totheidiot]

why i would be the avatar of the following entities

post heavily inspired by the wonderful mutual who is @cult-of-the-eye ❤️ i missed the entities who i couldn't figure out what my connection to would be. the list is in alphabetical order for organisation. a few heavy topics ahead? but i try not to get too detailed with it. post is basically my connection to the fear entities and correlating my life experiences with them.

one. the corruption : i kid you not, if i was actually an avatar, this is who i would be. without a single doubt. let's see, not to going to get too in depth, but my best friend died of dengue a while back ya da ya da ya da after she died, i fell in love with her. disease. love. fucked up stuff. you get it.

two. the desolation : there was a fire they would burn outside my old school, to burn garbage and all of that. after a particularly difficult day at school, i would always walk over there and sit myself near the fire, just stare at it. sometimes i would burn little things like paper when i was feeling very angry. that pit of fire was a friend and i had liked to watch it burn. also self-destructive behaviour.

three. the end : refer to the corruption bits. my best friend's fate would tie into the end for me. also, my most major fear, ever since i knew about the concept of having a fear, was the fear of losing loved ones. so.

four. the extinction : okay, so last year, i believe, a thing happened in my city in bangladesh. for a night, the power of the entire city shut down. no electricity in any household, the generator was shut off, not even cellular data was working. so i am talking, no lights, no internet, not even a way to call by phone. load shedding, we had to use candles. it was a weekday night too, streetlights weren't working properly and there was no way for my father to contact us to tell us that he was safe. my mother thought that the prime minister had left the country for us to suffer. pure chaos. basic technology would not work, ovens and refrigerators needed an electrical connection obv and phones were useless. i was talking about this event and the post with my sister the other day and she suggested to add this to the dark, because no light but i feel like it fits the extinction way better for reasons i cannot formulate.

five. the eye : quiet, perceptive friend who just looks odd. you know the type, that was me. i was obsessed with gathering knowledge, i had a random fun fact for every subject. i prided myself with knowing a little about everything. furthermore, i have got this uncanny ability to just Know people's secrets?? okay suppose, my friend has a secret and she's hiding something from everyone. like it's a totally small thing, she likes someone but she doesn't want anyone to know. chances are, i will know. whether it's by observing their body language or thinking it over or just lucky guess, i will know. and the thing is, i will pretend not to know too. girl decided to tell us about that crush i will act shocked like everyone else, for no reason and then i'll go up to them in private and be like, "hey, i knew it. i guessed it last week."

i don't have anything for the meat related fears (fortunately?)

six. the lonely : *puts on a presentation on why i should be a lonely avatar and goes to the first slide* your boy has Social Anxiety. but in all seriousness, isolation, loneliness, it's all second nature to me. i get bothered when people are with me and even then, it feels like they are not? like people will be talking near me and it would feel like i am not even part of their world like. it's like watching a video of people talking like i am not involved in that, even though they are right next to me. they will try to include me in their conversation maybe, but that's not where i am? how can we exist in the same plane?

seven. the spiral : this is a fun one ! most mutuals probably already know this because i talk about it so so darn often but irl, most people actually call me the idiot ! all of my friends from bangladesh, almost every classmate calls me the idiot, to the point where i actually rarely used to hear me real (albeit dead) name spoken out loud. this kind of ties into the "there is no such thing as a real name" thing. also sometimes, late in the night, i will see and remember things and wake up the next day to find that it never happened ever. once, i was talking to my mother and i mentioned her like going to a hostel because she told me stories of how she attended a hostel in eighth grade and she starred at me. she told me that she had never attended a hostel and i was like, yes?? you did?? you always told me about jt?? and she was genuinely scared.

eight. the vast: talked about this once before but once, i was listening to the magnus archives three in the morning, it was one of the space episodes. got scared and suddenly, i had that urge to look out the window and i saw stars. in a light pollution world, where seeing the moon is uncommon, i see five or six stars. still to this day, do not know if i was imagining things.

that is it for all the spooky happenings that are happening.

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3940

back on the bandwagon i guess.

after talking with christine yesterday, i felt lighter. after writing my long post, i felt better. and then i took that energy and

did nothing with it.

i brought joel to methuen to meet dean to go to boston and i went to concord for craft night. i untangled knots and worked and reworked and re-reworked my woobles kit. my bag of goodies was appreciated for the contents of snackage. we got to stay late because of it.

around 11:30 or so i got back and went to bed, feeling fine about not posting.

today was me staying in bed to avoid the water pump guy and then being unsure of why the washing machine wasn't running so i texted john about it and he fixed the problem and so i did my laundry.

but i was bored. and fucking freezing. and i couldn't focus on my homework. so i left.

i sat in the parking lot of starbucks warming up and chatting with leo. he's been talking to a sweet and fun girl lately and he's literally the happiest i have ever seen him. i have sworn on my own grave to protect this girl. i haven't met her but i would break a man's arm if one so much as looked at her the wrong way.

they officially meet on monday, but they've been talking for a few weeks and are both on board with being in a relationship if their date goes well.

so he's been telling me all about her and giving me book recommendations and we kind of have a book club going on that this girl doesn't know about, or does, depending on what leo's told her. but it's funny and it makes me happy and it's getting me back into reading, so i'm glad for that.

i ended up going to target to get a notebook for my prob and stats class. the professor pre-does notes that were supposed to fill out, but i don't learn that way, so i got a notebook to take the notes my goddamn self. i also got a few other things, like cards and another notebook that was iridescent, and some holiday birds for my sister, but that was that.

and then i went to barnes and noble because i spotted a book at target that leo's not-quite-girlfriend told him about that he told me about. but it was weird edition so i went to the bookstore.

i got four books, a bookmark with an astronaut on it, and a ufo book light. i'm delighted.

i went to goldenrod for dinner and ate too many chicken tendies and then too much ice cream. and i've been back here in the cold apartment without my joel since i got back, doing nothing productive.

tomorrow i'm going to get lunch with kristen and hopefully get my homework done. i'm also contemplating getting a new ipad because mine would need a new battery and a new screen because it, yknow, cracked, right across the middle. it would be nice to restart doing artistic things in addition to using it for notes and having it as a smaller laptop of a laptop because my laptop is fucking enormous lmao.

the struggle is real.

i'm probably going to stop by the apple store tomorrow and then the verizon store to see if i can get one with cellular data. eh. shouldn't be too much money.

which is rich coming from me lmao

[hey-cringelord]

this is going to be a bit of a ramble so please, cellular data, work with me

eijun’s raw emotions here are, in a way, very fascinating to me because it’s not often a sports anime has its characters competing for something the way eijun and furuya compete - not to mention kawakami is also in that competitive pool.

circling back to my post about miyuki as captain, he has a lot on his shoulders in a very short time that tests his abilities to not only direct a team, but be a sturdy figure that his members can fall back on to eventually build themselves back up again. kawakami dealing with the stress of their “one more out” loss, eijun coping with the hit-by-pitch to the head on top of his anxiety with pitching inside cuz of raichi’s homer

after the third yrs retirement, even some of the second yrs struggle filling their shoes. coach kataoka himself acknowledges the holes in their batting lineup and without tanba, there’s no ace and no player in shape to be the ace. that pressure on eijun in particular grouped with the competition from furuya and kawakami and his pitching anxiety has to be mentally, physically, emotionally exhausting

hearing “one more out!”, “it’s expected of the first string”, etc as a player from a small town and smaller team like he is, i wish there was someone better than miyuki (better than tetsuya, even) that he could talk to.

tbh, everyone on the team could use a counselor but i don’t imagine a sports anime ever getting that introspective with characters

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

guess who has the uncontrollable urge to post exerpts from their drafts again!

this is from the loveday/cytherea fic entitled Exaltation of the Beloved Lady

-

Loveday wasn’t squeamish. You couldn’t be, if you were best friends with a prodigy animaphiliac. And besides that, she actually had a fascination with medical science. Cytherea had led her in dissections as children, guiding her hands and showing her where to cut, telling her the names of things. She loved to listen as Cytherea explained her research to her, referencing books of anatomy, pointing out what she was talking about. Loveday could hold an intelligent conversation about flesh magic by the age of eight, despite her complete lack of aptitude. Cytherea had told her, laughing, that it was a tragedy that she wasn’t a necromancer. That they’d really lost something when Loveday was born without aptitude. Loveday thought, privately, that Cytherea’s genius more than made up for it. 

And so it wasn’t squeamishness that made her uncomfortable with Cytherea’s studies. It was just that– Well. 

Cytherea hunched over a microscope, blood matted into the hair at her temples. Her hands were shaking, as they usually were, by that point. Her breathing had been getting gradually more aggressive for the past hour or so—she was recovering from a cold, and there was a dry, labored quality to it. She growled low in her throat, finally breaking concentration, and pushed away from the table. Loveday went to her, reached out, but Cytherea pulled away. “I’m alright,” she said. “I’m okay, but I can’t– it won’t–”

“I take it the samples are still dying?”

“It’s not only that they’re still dying, I could work with this if they were only dying, I could think of something else to do to them, but they’re dying at the same rate and showing signs of new growth.”

“Which is bad.”

“Which is absolutely terrible. I’m beginning to think I’d have better luck creating myself a new body wholesale than halting the decay of this one.”

“Rhea, that sounds to me like the scientific breakthrough of the millennium.”

“Oh, it’s fascinating, I could go down in history just for getting this far, but it’s not good enough.” These last three words were punctuated by Cytherea slamming the heel of her palm against the metal table, causing all the objects on it to jump.

“I need a living subject,” she said, speaking more to herself than to Loveday now, “One who’s healthy. If I could only see how cells respond when they’re not dying faster than they can be created, then maybe I’d have some good data to work with. That’s the problem with cadavers, you know, even the freshest ones produce no thalergy whatsoever, and my only ethical live subject is a dying girl. I don’t make for much of a control group, Lovie, let me tell you.”

“I mean,” said Loveday, “There’s always me.”

Cytherea looked up as if she’d forgotten that Loveday could speak. “What about you?”

“I’m healthy, and I’m still growing. I think. That means I’m producing more thalergy than thanergy, doesn’t it?”

“No.”

“Oh. But I’m still viable as a subject, right? I fit the profile.”

She blinked. “What? No, you produce quite a lot of thalergy, actually, you’re as healthy and vital as anyone your age can be. Exactly what one would hope for. I meant ‘no,’ as in, ‘no, I will not be using you for a live subject.’”

“But why not? I would work.” Loveday hated how petulant she sounded, how young. 

“Because it could be dangerous. New cellular growth occurring independent of your normal cycles of growth and decay—do you know what we usually call that?”

Pause. “Oh.”

“Mm. One cancer patient is enough for me, thank you. I will not have you on my conscience like that, Lovie, I refuse.”

[polwigle]

ok so I've been rotating Pikmin 4 in my brain for the last month or so and I think I've figured out something about the post-game! it's essay time :)

(under read-more for both inherent spoilers and length, bc hoooo boy this got out of hand. no spoilers for anything past the early post-game though!)

So the main reason for the post-game happening in the first place is because Oatchi, who for some reason sprouted a leaf on his tail on the way to Hero's Hideaway, gets sick as soon as the Rescue Corps tries to leave the planet. The same thing happened to Moss when Olimar tried to leave earlier. Seems like everyone who got Leafed™ is stuck on PNF-404 unless they can get de-leafed, for reasons unknown to anyone in-universe.

But I think I figured out what's going on, and it's not some nefarious plot to get the Pikmin a permanent leader. (Not the 'can't leave the planet' thing, anyway. I don't claim to know how Oatchi got Leafed™ in the first place.) In this essay I will attempt to prove that plants can't breathe in space.

Let's start by looking at some canon facts:

Lemma 1: Aliens Can't Breathe on Earth

PNF-404 is clearly Earth, at an unspecified point in the future (though I believe it to be relatively recent, as detailed in my last essay[1]).

PNF-404's atmosphere is rich in oxygen. Assuming the planet's atmosphere hasn't changed substantially from the Earth we know, approximately 21% of the air is oxygen[2].

[Data source linked in image: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html]

Oxygen is known to be poisonous to Hocotatians, as stated numerous times through the series.

While Koppaites technically can breathe some oxygen, PNF-404 has three times as much oxygen in its atmosphere than Koppai does[3], so Koppaites still need spacesuits to survive on PNF-404.

It is unknown how natives of other planets handle oxygen, but Collin describes it as poisonous, so it appears at least Giyans(?) cannot breathe oxygen. (As Koppaites are also distinguishable by their rounded ears, I suspect oxygen may be poisonous to all pointy-eared castaways.)

Leaflings, regardless of their planet of origin and contrary to the Rescue Corps' expectations, can breathe in PNF-404's oxygenated atmosphere just fine without helmets. (There's a tangent here I could write a separate essay on, but that's for later.)

Oatchi does not wear a helmet, and can apparently breathe just fine on PNF-404 even before his spontaneous leafification. (This could also lead into its own essay, but suffice to say, his species' origins are unknown in-universe. He was born on Giya, but presumably did not evolve there.)

So basically, if you are a small alien in this world, unless you are a plant or perhaps a dog, you do not want to be exposed to oxygen. Especially not the high concentrations of oxygen on PNF-404.

With that established, we now need to consider real-world biology for a second. There's one more thing to note that isn't discussed in-universe:

Lemma 2: Plants Can Breathe on Earth

Plants need oxygen to live! Not to "breathe" per se, that's not an accurate word for something that doesn't have lungs, but for "aerobic respiration", which at a cellular level is at least one reason why things with lungs breathe, so, close enough for this context.

Plants make their own oxygen while they're photosynthesizing. But when they don't have the light they need to photosynthesize (at night or in other darkness), they take in oxygen from around them to respire with[2][4][5].

In the context of Pikmin biology, Blue Pikmin in particular are described as "breathing" multiple times, usually in the context of breathing underwater. One log from the US version of Pikmin 3 even has Brittany say they're "extracting oxygen from the water"[6]. The equivalent European localization just says they're breathing, but they do seem to be specifically taking in oxygen in the process.

In summary, though oxygen is lethal to the core cast of castaways, the plant life on PNF-404, Pikmin included, can't live without it!

Thesis: Plants Can't Breathe in Space

We know oxygen is poisonous to both Olimar and most of the Rescue Corps, with the exception of Oatchi. Therefore, they would not want it inside their spaceships! Meaning the air inside the S.S. Shepherd (and S.S. Dolphin) would contain only trace amounts of oxygen, if any at all, during space flight.

Plant life from PNF-404, including Pikmin and adjacent leafy creatures, need oxygen to breathe. They only make their own while photosynthesizing, which requires plenty of light. But space is dark. Most of the light inside the S.S. Shepherd is from distant stars outside and the glowing antennae of helmets. (The cargo hold Moss was in may have been even darker.) That's probably not enough light to photosynthesize…

The leafy space dogs can't leave the planet because every vehicle that tried to take them away from the planet was devoid of oxygen.

He's suffocating!! ;A;

Counterpoint: Can Aliens Breathe in Space?

Of course, one thing doesn't immediately line up with my conclusion… Even while Oatchi is theoretically suffocating aboard the S.S. Shepherd, everyone else is still wearing helmets, implying there's too much oxygen around them to safely remove them.

There's probably still some oxygen in the ship — not enough for Oatchi to breathe, but too much for anyone else to breathe. Filtering air doesn't happen instantaneously! And given the severe state of disrepair the S.S. Shepherd was in at the start of the game, being completely out of power, the air filtration systems would have also been shut down. So oxygenated air from PNF-404 was in the ship when they took off, and was in the process of being filtered out as they flew off.

Oatchi's 'symptoms stabilizing' when the S.S. Shepherd stopped flying away might seem to suggest there's something more specifically binding him to the planet… Or the air filtration process might have paused while the ship is stalled, to conserve precious Sparklium energy.

TL;DR: Leafy space-sickness isn't some nefarious Pikmin plot. Plants just can't breathe in space. It's not a feature, it's a bug.

References:

[1] Continental Drift vs Pikmin Lore (my first tumblr essay): https://polwigle.tumblr.com/post/657518379437064192/polwigle-polwigle-in-light-of-the-release-and [2] Needs of Plants: https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/backgrounders/needs-plants [3] Koppai (cite note 3): https://www.pikminwiki.com/Koppai#cite_note-3 [4] Oxygen For Plants – Can Plants Live Without Oxygen: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/can-plants-live-without-oxygen.htm (also source of atmosphere pie chart image) [5] Do Plants Need Oxygen? What Oxygen is Used For & Why: https://flourishingplants.com/do-plants-need-oxygen/ (also source of How Plants Use Oxygen image) [6] Pikmin 3 Voyage Log (Blue Pikmin): https://www.pikminwiki.com/Pikmin_3_voyage_log#Blue_Pikmin

[aeolids-zenith]

computation in DEFLATE

hey, did you know that the compression format DEFLATE can be used to simulate a cellular automaton, or do multiplication, or, theoretically, anything else you want?

a couple years ago, I had an idea for an esolang: a PNG-style image format that would "happen" to involve enough self-reference to be turing-complete. eventually, struggling to come up with a reason for the program to be split between pixel data and compression, I simplified my goal to just a turing-complete compression format, modeled after DEFLATE, the compression used in PNG (as well as in other common formats)

in thinking about this, though, it occurred to me to wonder: what could be done with DEFLATE itself? the main obvious limitation would be that an individual DEFLATE stream gets decoded in one pass, element-by-element, and then is done; it always halts, and there's limited potential for self-reference

so, in order to make computation more viable, I decided to consider an iterative process of decompression, where one DEFLATE stream is decompressed to produce another, which is decompressed again, etc; this process requires some extra behavior outside the compression format itself, but it's a minimal amount (just a basic loop)

in order for this to work, I needed a DEFLATE stream that would endlessly decompress to DEFLATE streams, so my first step was to create a DEFLATE quine -- a stream that specifically decompresses to itself. (the way I accomplished this was more complicated than necessary -- involving carefully-selected code definitions to create specific bit patterns in an otherwise-empty compressed block -- but it worked)

once I had a quine, I just needed to attach some data to it that was allowed to change. to do this, I created Kwert, a language that compiles to DEFLATE and corresponds closely to how the format works -- it has a self-modifying program consisting of "commands" that can copy sequences of previous commands (corresponding to compressed DEFLATE blocks, which work in part by copying previously-output sections of data), and then skip evaluation of some number of following commands (corresponding to uncompressed DEFLATE blocks, which output some amount of following data as-is)

I was able to create a couple interesting things with Kwert (such as a fibonacci program of sorts), but for a while I struggled to come up with a way to do anything more complex; I had a sense that it might be possible to implement a tag system of some kind -- a computational model that can simulate a turing machine using a queue of symbols, something that's well-suited for a language like Kwert that involves start-to-end modification of the program -- but I couldn't think of a way to use commands as data without them being evaluated and producing an unwanted effect

then, a couple weeks ago, I followed up on an idea I had written down previously: that commands could potentially be transferred as data without side-effects by having it so when they're being used as data, they're positioned such that all they do is copy a no-op command

using this strategy, I was able to design a system in which sections of a Kwert program simulate a string of symbols, which change over time based on preceding symbols. I created a new language, Kmid, based on this concept

Kmid, although more like a cellular automaton than a conventional programming language, is definitely easier to do things with than Kwert, and I was finally able to implement Bitwise Cyclic Tag (a simplified but equally powerful version of tag systems) and confirm that it does successfully compile to DEFLATE, which means, to the best of my knowledge, that iterated inflation is indeed turing-complete!

but DEFLATE's computational ability isn't entirely limited to that theoretical result; there are some at least somewhat interesting things that you can actually see it do (as opposed to everything being theoretically possible but not viable to execute in practice) -- you can see some programs I've written, such as the aforementioned multiplication and rule 110 cellular automaton, on github, some accompanied by instructions and/or links to the CyberChef tool to more conveniently run the DEFLATE versions

[professor-ruckus]

"Is this thing working?!-"

"Blasted host technology, I swear-"

"Ah! Aha!"

"There we are."

[Ahem.]

"Greetings, hosts of this app. Worry not, despite my appearance, this is not a trap."

"I stole found this cellular device, and thought it would give me the perfect opportunity to gain some more data. Consider this, an experiment in beta."

"I figured I could learn more about you hosts and your behavior, without leaving the comfort of my lab. This sounded perfect to me, so I decided I'd give it a stab!"

"Anywho, let us begin this test. I just hope this decision was for the best."

-Riley.

[thenowherejournal]

A Chapter in Jelaine’s Life: Some things About being a Reader

An Interview Article by Francis and Nad (February 2024)

Readers have different approaches to picking up a novel and have varying tastes– and for a bookworm, you could imagine all the stories that had accumulated during their journey in the vast spaces of a library. Each shelf, rows and rows of stories that came from people all over history and realities. For this interview, we found someone who can share their experience with literature. Our resident bookworm for this article is Jelaine Dio.

BACKGROUND

The 25-year-old graduate of Bachelor of Science in Psychology found herself reading stories in her past time during 5th Grade. While the other kids in her class were playing outside during break time, she was exploring her English textbook for the short story collection; that is when the world opened up to her. Now, she reads novels from the likes of Sally Rooney, John Green, Jandy Nelson and Coco Mellors—some of her current favorite authors that she noted. Her current read is The Guest by Emma Cline, previously followed by Jenny Mustard’s Okay Days.

A lot of these books share a similar genre: Contemporary fiction. She stated that it was her favorite genre in fictional literature because she found herself easily visualizing the story if it is closer to real life or based on certain personality traits. 

KEY EXPERIENCES

“Summer Time: A Book A Day”

Only after a few years of falling in love with the short stories, she managed to read over 7 books a week during her summer vacations. Although some readings are motivated by school credits, she still read an impressive amount during that time. She noted that she has read over 200 books since then. As life goes by, people get busy with their time. Even if life gets busy, she always tries to slip in a moment to read. She said “I read my book if I was waiting for something or if there’s a downtime—whether in public or at home. Because I do not have any cellular data on my phone when I leave the house, I always bring my book for times when I must wait.”

We asked her what was the first fiction she had read and she directed us back to her 3rd year of Junior High. She asked her classmate for a recommendation for a book to start reading fiction “She is also a bookwork and reads her book on an iPad. I asked her ‘What ‘s a good fiction to read first?’ and she let me borrow a copy of ‘The Little Prince’”. She noted that before that, she was not reading much then. After picking up the book, that is when she started being a book fanatic again.

On average, outside of summer time when she finishes a book a day, her average reading time then lasts for two to 3 days per novel. Now, she slowed down to finishing a book in a week but if she has work, then she finishes a book in a month. After she finishes a book, she takes a day to take a break and she picks up another book to start. 

I’ll See It Through, Always

When she reads a book, she sees through it, even if it is average “It’s like in the movies, for example. I watch a movie and I find myself enjoying it but when I see some bad reviews, I don’t find it as a waste of time because I enjoyed the work”. She also added how she also thinks about the effort the author took to finish their story. That’s why sometimes when she finds a story in BookTok, a community in TikTok that shares content about literature, she reads it because of how it was marketed. Sometimes, she ends up reading erotic fiction without realizing it because of how the synopsis was advertised. During the interview, she laughingly said that she found that it was her guilty pleasure to read those types of stories

INSIGHTS

Eenie-Meenie-Miney Book!

When entering a bookstore, some people may feel overwhelmed when offered a lot of options. Jelaine is one of these individuals. Because of this, she has devised three ways to choose the next book she will indulge herself in. One is looking at its cover. As ironic as it is for a bibliophile, she does not really follow the famous saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover." When she sees that a book has an aesthetic and eye-catching cover, she will pick it up and read it. Though on some occasions, she will go through the book’s synopsis before buying it. 

Another way is through recommendations in social media’s “BookTok". She follows countless book lovers on Instagram that post their recommendations in their feeds. When she sees these posts, she will buy two to three of those novels and put them on her shelf of books she will later read. Lastly, she picks up and buys the next novel that she will read by browsing the books of the same authors as the previously finished novel she enjoyed. With these three ways, she has fortunately bought novels that she considered a “good book".

"A Good Book"

It is fair to think that a bookworm that has read hundreds of novels would have a grasp of what makes a "good book". In Jelaine’s viewpoint, a novel that has a striking and grand plot is not important, but what is important is the story’s overall flow. She also added that “ A good book is something you can genuinely relate to the character even though that character has a different experience compared to you." Jelaine also mentioned that when she underlined and bookmarked a lot of lines and parts of a book that she is reading, then that novel is exceptional for her.

LESSONS TO SHARE 

A Wider Vocabulary And Getting In Touch To One’s Feelings And Emotions

For almost half of her lifetime, Jelaine has been “sticking her nose" into numerous books in various genres and lengths. With all these consumed fictional works, she has gained extensive knowledge in vocabulary. She quoted, “Due to reading, my word bank is overflowing". As a result, she can understand words in novels that are unusual while also understanding each sentence that she reads quickly.

Reading has also helped her to become more empathetic, since she is able to know and feel what the characters are going through and understand them as the story goes on. Hence, when a person reads, they can be in touch with their emotions and process them in a healthy manner. 

Something for Readers

Jelaine’s go-to book recommendation to whoever asks her is Celeste Ng’s first novel, "Everything I Never Told You". She deemed this as a good recommendation since it has themes that will make a person feel multiple emotions throughout its entirety. As she shares what the book is about, she mentions that it circles around the idea of family dynamics and how grief affects each member. She said, "This novel is heavy and heart-wrenching". Another book recommendation she mentioned was "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" written by Gail Honeyman, which is also a heavily emotional novel.

In addition, she mentioned a quote from one of the books that genuinely made an impact on her. The line was “They teach you growing up that you are only one thing at a time-angry, lonely, content--but he's never found that to be true. He is a dozen things at once. He is lost and scared and grateful, he is sorry and happy and afraid. But he is not alone.” This is from V. E. Schwab’s, "The Invisible Life Of Addie Larue. With these few pieces of line, she feels comforted and loved since it tells the reader that it is good to feel emotion and not to invalidate one’s feelings.

 “When you read, it’s not just printed words on a paper, it is a mixture of the character’s experiences, feelings and views and in turn, you also experience what they have gone through and feel their emotions. With reading, you gain new experiences without physically experiencing them, but through words on a piece of paper." - Jelaine Dio