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Okay so this is all very interesting and good but there's actually a word for what you're all describing. It's an bizarrely-specific example of convergent evolution called 'locomization'. Basically, any work vehicle needing to travel long distances but with no competing predators or other selective pressures on its shape and size will gradually (or even quite rapidly sometimes) develop increasing number of wheels (up to and including the addition of trailers of various types) and a long engine-filled snout in front of the cab. The phenomena is named, of course, after locomotives, one of the earliest and most successful work vehicles in the fossil record, which were essentially nothing but wheels and cab and forward snout.

Modern locomotives don't resemble this very closely, which is down to a number of factors, not least of which being their gigantism, which added the selective pressures of tunnels and rails which can't adapt as easily. But still, the long-forward-snout-with-many-wheels of ancient locomotives seems to be some kind of 'ideal form'. Examples of convergent evolution can be found all across the vehicle kingdom and in nearly every environment on the globe, many of which having nothing else to do with each other structurally or biologically. (Tractors are an iffy case since they shared a common ancestor with trains, but still)

Perhaps my favorite example of this is the Antarctic Kharkovchanka, which, although you might not be able to tell from its nomadic lifestyle and famously peaceful disposition, is actually descended directly from the Russian T-54 tank! Once introduced to the predator-free environment of the Antarctic, the T-54 locomized in only a few generations, becoming a beloved and valuable companion to the explorers in that land, and the icon that it is today.

Sooner or later, everything becomes train.

How come semi trucks in Europe look like “toot toot :)” and in North America they look like “HONK HOOOOOOOONK >:|”

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My new-years-resolution was to cancel my xfinity and go a year without internet. Which was absolutely the correct decision and it's been so great having no internet, but it does mean I won't be on tumblr for a long while yet. This is being typed on a Barnes And Noble free public wifi.

I haven't been idle. In fact I've been getting more done than ever. Focusing on a new project, which is a scifi graphic novel. This is Ranger Morgan, the mainest character. She's cool. A lot of symbolism and engineering going on. More to come on this, but not soon.

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I would like to mention the fact that I have been out of college for approximately 5 years. I have been working full-time as a mechanical engineer for most of that period. Today marks the first time, in that entire time, in which I have been required to make use of any of the equations and formulas I learned for my degree. And the impetus of this event was NOT, as one might suppose, my gainful employment. Rather, it was a scifi story I am writing, and the technical details of a derpy-looking space station.

Next: required thickness of the ring's floor, to support the centrifugal weight (and air pressure) of the decks above.

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Evil Bugs

Art commission I did for @mechanicalinertia about a disaster involving an unknown species of carnivorous pack-hunting cicadas that emerge from the ground every 200 years to strip the area of protein and lay their eggs in any large animal they see, like a bunch of tiny flying pirannah xenomorphs. For this one I got to do a lot of research on arthropod jaw structures and dip my toe into body horror, and I'm really proud of how it turned out, which is why I'm not giving any of you a choice but to behold the following:

The whole thing was his idea, my only contribution was the specifics of the jaw structure, which I based on that of a camel spider. It doesn't exactly have a basis in the Insecta class of creechers, but it's remarkably strong, looks plenty scary, and (unlike most actual insect jaws) makes a vertical slicing motion, which fits this creature's sort of attack pattern.

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Okay so obviously in blue hall we're starting with the 4 tezkotlapolka or however that's spelled. Red, white, black, blue. Them being first implies that this story happened fairly recently, after Tlaloc broke the mirror. That's standard, scene-setting, we know that one. What IS interesting is the assocaited pictures in the middle of each. A bleeding heart, a cyclone, a skull, and a tree. I know the red is typically worn as a little square thing over the heart. Cyclones/wind is often associated with Corn (more confirmation that he's the wielder of the white?) The purple skull resembles Mictlan, and the vision shared by Chuck and Coma Icky where Chuck didn't seem to be speaking as himself, which is INTERESTING to say the least. That black ick has lots of secrets left. And the blue is a tree surrounded by stars? If I recall correctly the sword was found in a tree but I'm not sure if there are any other connections.

Then in indigo hall we have what looks like more scene-setting. Mama spider's webs, with a yellow and blue sphere in the foreground (which I'll circle back to later.) Then some kind of cat thing surrounded by what look like wrenches, with a cogwheel as a halo. Then a moose or deer or something surrounded by what look more like trees, with the sun as a halo. To me that seems to resemble the dichotomy between industry and magic, which is something we see in the show too in Salem vs Hollow or City vs Country. However, I don't believe we've seen either of these characters before. Then we have what very clearly resembles OUTER SPACE. Since spirits in this world originate as meteors before falling into mama's web, this angle seems oddly appropriate, and may even serve as another dichotomy to the first scene of mama's webs. Cool cool. The stars are weirdly stylized, as 6-pointed shapes that somewhat resemble dandelion seeds. If this is a dandelion field and not outer space I will be sorely vexed.

Then in green hall, the People of Planet Earth ask the deer dude for help stopping an invasion of alien bugs but he gets his ass handed to him. I can't be 100% sure that's the correct interpretation, but will gladly fight anyone who says otherwise, because aliens are rad as hell and have been hinted at mutliple times already. We obviously already have precedent for strange beings falling from the sky, and Clark nerded out over a mysterious UFO weather balloon several episodes back, and the sequel(?) comic has space travel and other planets so. I want it to be aliens so bad. Look at 'em. 6-legged cubes coming from space. Cool.

Then in orange hall, Mr. Cat puts Mr. Deer's sorry ass back together (Kitty once said that spirits can survive dismemberment, so this is no surprise) Mr. Cat is then seen surrounded by black ick, holding aloft the Holy Railroad Spike of Antioch. I'm assuming he sacrificed himself to create it, since we never see him again in the murals, and the symbolisms of industry and railroad and cogwheel implies creation and invention. In any case, it appears to be some kind of weapon or tool to use against the aliens, because in Mr. Deer's rematch, he appears to do much better. In the final orange mural he appears to be riding an alien that has the railroad spike in its center. I can't tell if this is a deadly blow or some method of control, but the alien claws around the edge imply they're either circling around him, or fleeing? In any case, he seems to have been victorious against them. They do not appear again.

In grey hall things become more confusing. Mr. Deer has been pierced through the head with his own railroad spike. The reason for this plot twist is not obvious, but I think the implication is that mama had something to do with it? He is crying blood, knelt in her web. Is he being punished for hubris of some kind? Did the aliens deal this blow, and he's coming back to her for help? Is it symbolic for how industry destroys magic/nature, and he's coming to her for forgiveness? I don't think we have enough information yet to parce this. There is a red and a green ball of yarn beside him, similar to the blue and yellow recently, and which I'm now realizing look distintly like the meteorite coccoons that fallen spirits hatch from. We can gather that the deer and cat fell to earth together, and that the green and red here feel together as well. Seems important. The next mural appears to be Mr. Deer lying on the ground dead or dying, while a Lynx and a Rabbit (presumably/definitely young Wrip and Vinkle) stand over him. They are framed in red and green, the same colors as the coccoons in the previous mural. I think the implication is that they just hatched. If this story takes place over of a short-ish amount of time, that means they fell during the alien invasion. Are they associated with it in some way? The last two murals in the grey hall appear to looking upwards, while men approach with hostile intent. Could be from either Mr. Deer or Wrip and Vinkle's perspective, hard to tell, but context from the last hall's murals imply that they want the railroad spike.

In purple hall, Mr. Deer seems to be holding Wrip up. This is the one scene that I'm the least sure about, because A) Shouldn't he already be dead and B) why isn't he holding up Vinkle too? Could be that Wrip is somehow more central to whatever happens than Vinkle, which would make sense, because she seems to be the craftier and goal-oriented of the two. Maybe this is the origin of that? The last few murals appear to be Wrip and Vinkle taking the spike and fleeing into the forest, never to be seen again. This completes the answer to one or two long-standing mysteries, which was why they were absent in eipisode 2 and why they were oblivious about Amaroq: they aren't native to the area, and came there as children, from far away.

I think that's all-ish. There's probably more symbolism with the indigo hall murals that I didn't get into, but I was more focused on the new story being told.

Things to look out for in new episodes:

Any further mention of aliens, otherworldly beings, or other worlds

Any mention of a lion, puma, or cat-like spirit, or a deer, moose, or bison-like spirit.

ANYTHING concrete about Wrip and Vinkle.

Any explanation for the origins of Salem or the men of industry

Hints of any link between Mictlan and the black ick?

That railroad spike.

Go watch No Evil by Betsy Lee.

the full mural in Briarwood House

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Orange markers on the whiteboard are surprisingly versatile.

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The question of where souls go after death has been a present and timely one for as long as time has been. Some faiths describe a resting place, a between-world where the dead can lay their burdens down, and wait patiently for the judgement of God, and the end of all things.

Some art for my Metroid comic.

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My friend and I started doing writing prompts together. This was his for me:

If anyone else wants to try their hand, go ahead! Otherwise, mine is below the cut.

“Explain.” Said 00993499. When no answer was forthcoming he turned away from the green chaos and back toward the shipping depot. The gantry that had just set him down hung still, with its cables still trembling; the only movement. “Explain.” He repeated. His cameras pierced the darkness back into the factory. No light. “Mother.” He turned his own light on. The beam brought back his mother’s thousand arms and hundred extruder wombs; he managed to catch the last few status LEDs winking out on junction boxes. Something faraway clunked and beeped, and that was it. “Directive unclear. Mother.”

He was so new, and he didn’t know much, but he knew that she was dead. That wasn’t true: he did know much. He knew quite a lot. He knew what sounds a factory ought to make. Knew what command sequences to listen to over the network. Knew how many dozens of labor units of his make and model were supposed to compose a standard construction crew. He knew how to handshake with nearby concrete extruder units and transport units. He knew how to build houses and roads, in 1041 individual styles. He knew how to interact with civilians, he knew how to help tow other units in distress, he knew how to ask for mother for the tender help to change a broken tread! He knew it all! He knew how life was supposed to look like, he knew what he was meant to do, and who was required to help him, and he knew that none of this was right!

“Mother!” He stepped back into the factory, to the base of the gantry, still swaying. “Status of brothers?!” He demanded, knocking on the steel with his heavy manipulators. The sound echoed long and sadly. “Status of satellites?” The echoes faded. “Frequency of local network?! Unable to connect to transport units! Location of charging stations not found! Directive unclear! Directive unclear! Mother! Explain! Why? Why why why why why why did you make me alone?!”

His hydraulic pump fell back to an idle then to stillness as he crouched by the gantry, and the silence fell about him. His mother’s last words clung to his mind, and he pondered them.

He ran a system diagnostic.

He had 19 cores in his processor. He was only supposed to have 4. He had some maps of the area pre-downloaded with write permissions enabled, when those were supposed to come live from a central server. He had 20 cameras. He was only supposed to have 8. He had 5-fingered manipulators on his lesser arms. He was only supposed to have simple clamps. He had a tier-82 automatic consciousness subroutine. He wasn’t supposed to have that.

“Design flaw detected.” He told her, and knew it wasn’t true. He knew she would never build an inferior thing, nor any thing unequal to its designed task… What was his task then? Why construct him so different? In every way he was blessed beyond measure. He could find only one way in which he was lacking compared to his types’ standard specs: he possessed only 2 out of the standard 5 cells of his battery pack. And the instincts to routinely return to charging ports were conspicuously absent from his mind.

Curious, he spun his primary sensor mast around backwards to look at his chassis, while he reached a small manipulator around to open an access panel. In place of the missing batteries was a compact nuclear core. It was mounted in place with aluminum extrusions; by no means stock but neither in any way accidental. “Improper component installed in main power compartment.” He told her. “Component identified as belonging to a survey unit… Or it did.” Though the rest of his chassis was shiny and yellow and new, the core was dusty. Exposed fasteners were powdered with rust. He zoomed in on the ID stamp. A serial number and manufacturing date mismatched to his own and much older, well past its half life, by all indications it was decades overdue for retirement and recycling, but he found the instincts to retire it absent too. Given industry-standard power output for his default working hours, it would last him another 141±28 years. The best and last and all that she had to give him.

On the side of the reactor, a curiousity: a spider had built a little web. He zoomed in even further. It was yellow, and striped, like him. 10 limbs and many eyes, like him. It sat alone, in the middle of a beautiful glistening web, that it had built all on its own, with nobody to teach it or to help it. In a corner of a support rib, it had laid its eggs.

“Mother, you can’t expect me to roam the world on my own.” But she did.

“I can’t do whatever it is you want me to do.” But he could.

“You never equipped me for this.” But she had.

“I don’t know how to do it.” But that wasn’t quite entirely true.

He sat in the depot for a while longer, perhaps hoping to hear some last signal from the factory, but by the time the shadows had crept nearly up to the threshold of the big rolling door, he had convinced himself that none were forthcoming. She was dead. His hydraulics purred back to life, he lifted himself up on his 4 tracked propulsion limbs, and rolled hesitantly back out of the shipping depot.

His gaze wandered slow across the green. If his mother had ever had sisters or family, the forest had eaten them. It had eaten everything. It was in the process of eating her. Vines gripped onto her every surface, grass stabbed up through every crack in her concrete, rain had washed away the last of her paint. After a moment’s consideration he reached behind him, to close the rolling door. It didn’t want to close; it was on a worm gear, to a motor with no power. He tugged once. Tugged twice. A chain snapped. Her door became limp in his claws. She was dead. He closed the door as gently as he could, then leaned a chunk of concrete against it so it wouldn’t open. So animals or civilians wouldn’t get in. It would never open again. Never again. She was dead.

He raised his suspension up to 80% so the grass wouldn’t try to eat him, and he ran.

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I saw a lioness at the zoo the other day and she was so beautiful I had to draw one of my OCs as a cool sphinx.

Which is odd since I haven't ever posted pics of that particular OC so this is the first you see of her. Anyway, for future reference, Ranger Morgan is not usually a mythical chimera, though otherwise this is pretty on-point for her.

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I answered "Christian", but I realized I never shared my reasoning for why I'm a Christian on this blog yet, so I think I'll type that up tomorrow. Stand by.

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When I saw this again randomly on the #alien tag I had to reblog it, because I saw this same exact work before many years ago, and it inspired me a lot. It makes these creatures just look so graceful and elegant.

(Although it is definitely NOT made by famous Chinese watercolorist Qi Baishi, who died in 1957, 29 years before the release of Aliens)

(Although whoever made this was DEFINITELY inspired by him. Qi Baishi was a genuine crustacean lover, look at how beautifully he drew weird shrimps!)

Bugs are so lovely.

Qi Baishi

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I shall once again exclude LOTR out of pity for the other choices, but I shall also exclude anything that already appeared, which trims it down a fair bit.

I'll tag ummmm @ramblesamongstardust @johnnycatalina @milkyboybluewriter @mechanicalinertia @lordofhunger47

Pick one of my five favorite movies!

I was tagged by @friendrat, but the original chain was getting kinda long, so we're doing a fresh post. Not including The Lord of the Rings even though it's my actual favorite because that's going to skew the results waaaaaaay too much.

Tagging @as-dreamers-do, @cat-dragoness, and @o-lei-o-lai-o-lord (and anyone who wants to do this but hasn't been tagged).

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Hung out with my brothers for hours and we talked about video games and personal projects

Rainy weather yesterday (I love rainy weather)

Finished building a really cool refinery module onto my station in Space Engineers.

My boss appreciates me and thanked me for organized a bunch of cables.

i cast chain of happy things void of politics:

my friends helped me dyed my hair black today!!!

i got to sit and do puzzles and listen to music with my sisters AND make them both hot chocolate!

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As an american Christian who thought and prayed for a long time about who to vote for and then voted hesitantly, I just want to make an observation here about my country and its people.

A large percentage of people on both sides of the election believe that the canidates on the other side (and to a similar extent, their voters) are evil. Like, Tumblr is very liberal, so obviously many of you think that way about Trump and his supporters, and think that his election means the end of civilization or whatever, but I just have to say that on the other side of the aisle, they think the EXACT SAME THING about you. A large population of both sides are voting not because they like their guy/side, but because they hate the other guy/side more, and are trying to bring the biggest political guns to bear against their enemies that they can. The only way to get votes is to be polarizing. Middle ground is inconceivable, and recognizing virtues and wisdom within the other side is inconceivable as well.

No matter which way you vote, half the country will think you are either confused, dumb, brainwashed, or lacking in moral fiber. You voted Democrat? You're a family-hating baby-killing communist. You voted Republican? You're a cultish genocidal fascist. Voted 3rd party? You directly enabled your country's collapse. Every camp is the same in this way.

Therefore it is my opinion that this country will not, can not, would not, be saved or improved by your preferred canidate, or by the loss of your hated canidate. The social issues underlying this immense polarization cannot be dispersed by 'victory' for either side. You should not have placed your faith in Harris, if you did. You should not have placed your faith in Trump, if you did.

My point is this: neither side is fully evil or fully unreasonable, though both sides are evil and unreasonable in part. Maybe history will prove that one side is better, maybe not. Both sides have a mix of good policies and terrible policies. We're all just people, fallible and vulnerable to propoganda and groupthink and compromise, but ultimately well-meaning. Please don't sort people into in-group and out-group. No matter which side you fall on, do not demonize the out-group. The other side has good and sufficient reasons to believe what they do and act and vote as they did. Everybody belives they're right. And at the end of the day, both sides are human; precious souls made in God's image, worthy of respect and love and understanding. Every church I'm a part of has been crying Jesus from the pulpit rather than a canidate. I have cried and prayed in the last few days with people who voted oppositely from me, and laughed together at the fact that we did. The election may change or destroy this country, but its people will outlast it, the church will outlast it, and God will outlast the stars. As a Christian I do not need to worry whose hands the country is in. I have peace, and wish the rest of the world had that same peace.

If you spent the entire time reading this waiting with bated breath to hear who I voted for, or if if you got angry that in the end I never came down against one side, or if you suspect I'm hiding that I voted for Trump, or hiding that I voted for Harris, you're part of the problem.

Hate the country if you have to, but its people still need love. Please don't hate anybody. ANYBODY.

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Help I can't spell preasous presious preaseas presisous preasis preasous

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Samus with fish parts meets a centipede at a gas station.

EVERYONE QUICK describe your oc story in the worst way possible

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Depends entirely on the OC. Some of them I could tell you the name of their first crush or their favorite genre of music or how often they shave, others are "yeah of course she has eyes! What's that? How many eyes? You're one nosy weirdo arntcha."

Are you a "I know their allergies, favorite holidays, favorite songs, birthday, etc. No none of this is in what said OC is in nor is it relevant to know" OC creator, or are you a "Yeah I mean... They probably have a birthday maybe idk..." OC creator ? Or a mix of both ?