#Best-PC-Monitoring-Software

[mobistealth]

Best Computer Monitoring Software | Mobistealth

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For More Information Visit Our Website: https://www.mobistealth.com/pc-monitoring-software

[virtosolar]

Understanding CAD Computer Requirements: Essential Guide for Optimal Performance

If you’re diving into the world of Computer-Aided Design (CAD), ensuring that your system is properly equipped to handle the demands of software like AutoCAD is crucial. Whether you are an architect, engineer, or designer, having the right hardware and software configuration will not only improve your workflow but also guarantee smoother performance and better results. In this blog, we’ll walk through the key computer requirements for running AutoCAD and other CAD software smoothly.

Why Understanding CAD Computer Requirements Matters

Running CAD software efficiently requires more than just having a standard computer. CAD applications, especially AutoCAD, are resource-intensive and demand high computing power. Without a suitable setup, you might experience lagging, crashes, or long rendering times that could affect productivity. Understanding these requirements ensures that your system is up to the task and can handle the software’s robust functionalities without compromising performance.

Key CAD Computer Requirements for Optimal Performance

1. Processor (CPU): The Brain of Your CAD System

The processor is the heart of your CAD system. CAD software requires a multi-core processor to handle complex calculations and data. AutoCAD, for example, performs better on processors that can handle multiple tasks at once.

Recommended: A multi-core processor, ideally with 4 or more cores, such as Intel i7/i9 or AMD Ryzen 7/9.

Minimum: Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 (6th generation or newer).

Choosing a higher-end processor will significantly enhance your CAD experience, especially when working with complex designs or large files.

2. Graphics Card (GPU): Visuals and Rendering Performance

The graphics card is crucial for rendering 3D models and visualizing designs in AutoCAD. A powerful GPU will ensure smooth navigation, rendering, and model manipulation in both 2D and 3D spaces.

Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce RTX Quadro series or AMD Radeon Pro series.

Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce GTX or AMD Radeon RX series.

For demanding 3D modeling tasks, consider upgrading to a workstation-grade GPU like the NVIDIA Quadro series, which is optimized for professional CAD workflows.

3. Memory (RAM): Smooth Multitasking

When working with large files or running multiple applications, ample RAM is necessary to avoid system slowdowns or crashes. CAD software requires significant memory to store large drawings, 3D models, and complex calculations.

Recommended: 16GB or more of RAM.

Minimum: 8GB of RAM.

For more intensive CAD tasks or multitasking (like running AutoCAD with other software), investing in 32GB or more of RAM is ideal.

4. Storage: Quick Access to Large Files

CAD designs often involve large files that need fast access and ample storage space. A slow hard drive can create bottlenecks when loading files or saving work, hindering your productivity. Opting for an SSD (Solid-State Drive) will significantly improve file loading times and overall system responsiveness.

Recommended: 512GB or higher SSD for storage.

Minimum: 256GB SSD or a 1TB HDD (though SSD is always recommended).

For the best performance, SSDs should be used for the operating system and primary software installation, while larger HDDs can be used for archival purposes.

5. Display: Crisp and Accurate Visualization

A high-resolution display is essential for accurately visualizing detailed designs and models. AutoCAD users often work with intricate 2D and 3D elements, making a large, high-resolution monitor an essential component of the setup.

Recommended: A 24” or larger screen with 1920x1080 resolution (Full HD) or higher, ideally with IPS technology for better color accuracy.

Minimum: 21” screen with 1920x1080 resolution.

For better productivity, you may even consider a dual monitor setup to increase workspace and improve multitasking efficiency.

6. Operating System: AutoCAD Compatibility

The operating system you use can impact the compatibility and performance of your CAD software. AutoCAD supports both Windows and macOS, but Windows remains the dominant platform for CAD applications due to better driver support and compatibility.

Recommended: Windows 10 64-bit (or newer), or macOS Mojave 10.14 or later.

Minimum: Windows 8.1 (64-bit) or macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later.

For those using Windows, make sure to keep your OS updated to take advantage of the latest performance and security enhancements.

7. Internet Connection: Cloud Integration and Updates

While not a direct hardware requirement, a reliable internet connection is important for downloading software updates, using cloud-based storage, and collaborating on projects. AutoCAD’s cloud integration features, such as AutoCAD Web and AutoCAD Mobile, rely on internet connectivity for seamless operation.

Recommended: Stable broadband connection with speeds of at least 10 Mbps.

Minimum: Basic internet connection for updates and cloud features.

Additional Tips for Optimizing Your CAD System

Ensure Regular Software Updates: Keeping your AutoCAD software and drivers up to date ensures compatibility and optimizes performance.

Consider External Storage for Backup: Large CAD files can quickly fill up your system’s storage, so having an external drive or cloud storage option for backup and archiving is a good idea.

Use CAD-Specific Peripherals: A high-quality mouse and keyboard designed for CAD work can enhance precision and reduce strain during long working hours.

Conclusion

Setting up a system to run AutoCAD and other CAD software efficiently isn’t just about meeting the bare minimum requirements — it’s about ensuring that your system can handle complex design tasks without compromising on speed or performance. By investing in a high-performance processor, powerful graphics card, sufficient RAM, and an SSD for fast storage, you’ll experience smoother, more efficient CAD workflows.

To learn more about AutoCAD system requirements, be sure to check out Virto Solar’s AutoCAD System Requirements page. This guide will help you make the right decisions for your setup, ensuring that your CAD design work is always at its best.

Are you ready to upgrade your system for seamless CAD experiences? Make sure your system is optimized for success with the right components, and get started on your next project with confidence!

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 2: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar brings us the TRS-80! 🎄💾🗓️

Released in 1977, the TRS-80 (also lovingly called the "Trash-80") was a popular personal computer by Radio Shack and Tandy Corporation. Designed for affordability and approachability, it was one of the first mass-market computers, bringing computers into homes, schools, and small businesses.

Powered by a Zilog Z80 processor running at 1.77 MHz, the TRS-80 Model I came with 4KB of RAM (expandable to 16KB) and an 8KB ROM, preloaded with the Microsoft BASIC programming language. Its black-and-white display supported a resolution of 64x16 characters. It used external cassette tapes for storage, which offered a low-cost solution before floppy drives became more available.

The TRS-80's also had an ecosystem. Radio Shack offered complete setups, monitors, printers, and software - making it easy for beginners. The machine became a favorite for hobbyists and programmers, popularizing early text-based adventure games, educational software, and business applications.

Eventually overtaken by the IBM PC and Apple systems, the TRS-80's legacy lives on!

I had some so-so photos, but these from the Smithsonian are the best I've seen, along with their section on their site -

Have TRS-80 memories, or retro computing memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #retrocomputing #firstcomputer #electronics see you back here tomorrow!

[bigwishes]

Class Selection

Levi was a young software engineer freshly graduated from university and set up in a nice job at one of the best tech companies in Sydney. Whilst Levi loved his job his real passion was in gaming and he'd been waiting 6 months for a new MMO to drop. He'd heard it allowed him to link his character from his PC to the real world and engage in community events from his phone whilst he was out.

Levi sat down at his PC watching the linking app install on his phone, he got a quick notifications about Beta functions but he just brushed it off ignoring the message entirely knowing most games like this release in a public beta version for at least a few months.

He was too excited to start playing ShiftOnline. Levi opened up the launcher on his PC and linked it to his phone. He saw a blank character sheet on his phone along with empty social and quest functions. It looked interesting but he had to make a character before he could explore how the real life raid functions worked.

Levi clicked on create character and was prompted with a handful of selections and character presets.

MAGE: a hot toned black man teleported onto the screen in a flash of lightning. Seemed interesting for maybe his second playthrough but Levi found DPS classes a bit boring.

GUARDIAN: A slim man wielding yellow magic stepped onto the screen but Levi clicked off before the character could even finish his intro animation, healers were boring as fuck, he loved being front and centre in games and skipped past the rest of the options to the tank classes.

Scrolling through the tank classes they all seemed fairly generic and boring. Levi was almost ready to go back to the mage character when he clicked on the final class to take a look.

COLOSSUS: A giant black man leaped down from the top of the screen slamming into the ground giving the illusion of the entire monitor shaking from the impact. The character than stood up expanding his shoulders back, roaring slamming his fists together.

Levi smiled with excitement, this was exactly what he was looking for, not just a tank to take hits during a raid but a Juggernaut who could deal just as much damage as he could take, a real Colossus.

He clicked on the character and went through to customisation. He spent an hour designing his character to be exactly how he wanted, he looked at the first few stages of the levelling plan for the class before pressing create.

LEVEL 1 COMMANDING AURA: release a potent aura and gaining the attention of everything in a radius

LEVEL 2 COLOSSAL DEFENSES: when under threat increase size and strength by almost double LEVEL 3 METEOR SLAM: whilst moving above walking speed gain increasing momentum up to 500%, slamming into a target or object will release the energy in a burst of damage

LEVEL 4 HOME ADVANTAGE: your commanding aura will shift the environment it touches leaving it to effect living things as if you were there.

Levi liked what he was seeing from the first few levels and didn't feel like he had to keep reading all the way to level 50 so he clicked create and began linking his character to his phone. Soon the large man he had just spent an hour creating appeared on the app on his phone.

Is this the character you'd like to engage in real world events? YES/NO

Levi pressed yes and suddenly felt a small zap of electricity from his phone. He reactively dropped his phone and rubbed his hand from where he had just been shocked. Looking at the small mark he watched his hand suddenly double in size. His toned body started expanding. He felt his tight tank top struggling to cope as his body started expanding, he quickly took it off and started recording what was happening to himself in the mirror.

His toned body and muscled started to inflate with size as he slowly transitioned from ripped to jacked. Notifications swamped the top of his screen as people on the Social function of the gaming app posted videos of themselves transforming, for most it were minor physical changes but for those who picked tank classes they were turning into giant beasts.

It was almost like a trend for people to post their before and after transformations on the app, but when Levi checked other social media apps there were no videos infact it there were no posts about the game at all, it was almost like the game got cancelled.

Levi gritted his teeth as his body continued to expand. He stood up investigating his new thick frame.

"god damn what the fuck happened"

Levi checked the app and saw a progress bar labelled "Real World Transfer" was only half way complete. He looked at the size of the character on his phone compared to how he looked now, if he was really going to become that big he had no idea how the hell he was going to fit in clothes anymore, or his car for that matter.

Guess the character starting gear just large baggy pants and no other kind of armour.

He looked to see on the app if anyone else had chosen the same class and if their transformation was complete. He was on the tank player social page and not many people had chosen a tank class and he couldn't see anyone who had picked the Colossus.

A notification appeared at the top of his screen.

LEVEL 1 ABILITIES AVALIBLE - Passive: Commanding Aura

Sweat started to appear across his body and he could smell a potent stench radiating off his body. Levi scratched his armpit and quickly found his hand slick with sweat.

Once again he felt his body expanding and he flexed in the mirror looking as his body slowly transformed to be like his colossal character.

Levi looked and admired the new giant bodybuilder form standing in front of himself. He flexed his huge arms and uploaded his transformation video to the social part of the app. He tried to upload it to his other social media app however the video wouldn't attach and looking closer at his social media apps all the photos of him had been changed to his new massive form.

Soon the novelty wore off as he caught a whiff of the stench radiating off his body, this commanding aura was definitely something he was going to have to figure out before going into work tomorrow but for now he was going to enjoy the activity offered in game, and maybe he'd enjoy himself a little bit later too.

Levi sat down in his gaming chair hearing it strain under his new weight. His expanded lats rubbed against the arm rests barely squeezing through and soon Levi felt his underwear coated in sweat and stick to his huge muscled ass.

-------

Levi squeezed himself out of his small car, feeling the dress shirt he ordered online cling to his huge muscled frame. He didn't know how everyone was going to react to how he had magically changed over the weekend but he still had to make money to pay for his gaming habit.

Levi walked through the lobby and stepped into an elevator. A slight ding range as he pressed to his floor number and the doors reopened to the lobby. A small middle aged man in a business suit stepped in front of the elevator.

"I dont know why they hell you're in the elevator Levi, you know you surpass the weight limit"

Levi rubbed the back of his head, so people recognised him but didn't notice the changes. Like he had always been like this. Levi stepped out embarrassed.

"Guess I'll take the stairs"

"maybe lay off the roids kid" The older man said, shaming Levi for his size.

Levi opened the door to the emergency stair well and began his 30 floor hike. He hasn't even started walking and could already feel the sweat start to stain under his armpits. The 3 cans of deodorant he had coated himself in this morning was already starting to be worthless and Levi hadn't even made it up 3 steps yet.

At floor 5 Levi stopped taking a break to catch his breath. He had read some guide last night about the Colossus class having terrible stamina to balance out Meteor Slam but he didn't think it would impact him much in the real world but he continued his hike.

Arriving at floor 30 he stood in front of the door to his office floor gasping for air. The terrible stamina combined with how much effort it took to move his body was making him start to doubt his class choice. Levi raised one arm to lean on the door way but lifting it an inch too high he hear a ripping noise. Looking down he saw the stitching over his armpit was torn and what looked like steam flowed from his shirt. Levi pushed open the door hoping no one would notice his wardrobe malfunction but as he opened the door he noticed how bad his stench must be. As the door swung open a cloud of steam flowed out into the office and a wet sweaty handprint was left behind from where he pushed it open.

Walking across the office everyone was staring at him, complaining about the stench radiating from his body. Levi sat down in his office chair accidentally breaking one of the arm rests as he did and started to get to work. He heard his phone ping and saw a notification from the game app.

LEVEL 2 ABILITIES AVALIBLE: -passive: Colossal Defences.

It wasn't long before his boss was at his desk.

"Levi this is the 3rd time I'm talking to you about your...work place hygiene"

This was the first Levi had ever heard about it

"eeerrr, sorry sir. I ummm"

"save it Levi, I'm going to have to ask you to go home, you'll have to do remote work from now on, nobody in the office can stand your, hmmm how do I put this delicately, your aura but I need to warn you, if your work output drops we'll have to let you go"

Levi grew nervous, he loved his job and really didn't want to lose it. His heart started beating in his chest. He heard the office chair groan under him. Looking down at his thighs he saw his pants grow tighter and the stitching on his inner thigh started to let go.

"everything okay Levi?"

"eerrrr yep, all good, Ill just head home email me my work bye"

Levi quickly stood up, grabbed his bag and began waddling quickly walking to the door. Hearing his pants and shirt start to tear more with each step. Right as he closed the door to the stair well he felt the back of his shirt completely tear apart. His pants split to shreds as he suddenly doubled in size.

He checked the app to see what was happening and saw his ability Colossal Defence had become active. He tried to take some deep breaths to calm down but realised anyone could walk in at any moment and they might not notice how he changed over the weekend but this was temporary and it'd be difficult to explain how he doubled in size in two seconds. He began his decent down the stairs, slowly waddling as he couldn't see his feet past his huge pecs. Luckily by the time he got to his car he had shrank back down to "normal size" sitting in her car he got a notification from the game app again.

MILESTONE COMPLETE: DUNGEON CRAWLER - Explore real world dungeons

LEVEL 3 - Ability: Meteor Slam

-------

Levi finally arrived him, he didn't bother taking his clothes off normally, he just tore off what wet shreds remained clinging to him and chucked them to the floor hearing a loud wet slop as drenched fabric landed on the ground. He sniffed his pits turning away grossed out at the stench and headed to his bathroom for a shower. Right before opening the door he tripped over his own massive foot. As he fell forward he felt his body accelerate and he suddenly found his massive body crashing straight through his bathroom door. As his huge form collided with the door it was obliterated and smashed into pieces.

"aw fuck...welp guess that's meteor slam...." Levi put his hands on the back of his head and let out a deep sigh. He was done, it was the Colossus class was fun in the game but the real lift effects were too much he was going to change his class. He tried to do it through the app but there was no option, he went to his PC putting off his shower a bit longer to get himself back to some kind of normal. Opening the game he was met with a message.

PC GAME OPTIONS DOWN FOR MAITENCE AND PATCHING PLEASE CHEC BACK IN A FEW HOURS.

Levi rolled his eyes, it was the first thing he'd do tomorrow when the game was back online. For now he was going to bed, today was a bust he'd try for a better day tomorrow.

------

Levi woke up feeling his bed completely drenched in sweat, the smell of body odour lingering in the air. He picked up his massive frame and went straight to his PC to change his character. Openeing the game is was met with a notification.

PATCH NOTES: Dear players we are glad you are all enjoying the adventures of ShiftOnline we have been collecting player data and made some adjustments to class stats and abilities for better balance.

Levi skimmed through the other class changes to his

Colossus Changes: Colossus is the least popular class in the game with under 100 players however that doesn't mean the class isn't strong so we are making some changes to rebalance the skills and redirect some power, this changes will be reflective [to see definition of reflective please see our website]

NERFS Colossus players have gained major increased strength and we want to keep that, so to better keep their balance we are nerfing their intelligence stats by -80

BUFFS Commanding Aura is great and grabbing attention both in and out of the game world but its a bit on the weaker side of other tanks agro abilities so we are doubling its range

Colossal Defences is a good abilities but players dislike its randomness, it will now auto trigger when a player is threated like before but players can also toggle the ability on when they aren't threatened

Levi started to feel strange, like popping candy was going off in his head. He felt a bit dizzy. He clicked the link to the definition of reflective changes.

"reflective changes mean they will happen in game and IRL"

Levi remembered the intelligence nerf and quickly when back to the game to make a new character. He picked a basic mage character and sped through the customisation feeling the sensation in his head get worse. Right as he went to press accept he stopped and sat back in his chair. He lifted on arm flexing looking at his huge bicep.

"huhuhuh, so big, me stay biig forEVER"

Levi clicked deny on the character change settings

He stood up moving his hulking frame to the bathroom to admire his huge form in the mirror. As he stood in front of the mirror he flexed feeling a strange sensation, as he activated his Colossal Defences ability without realising. He watched his body slowly grow and double in size.

"huhuhuh"

Levi laughed with drool falling down the side of his lip and onto his chest. He felt himself get hard and waddled to his bedroom to have some fun with himself but he found his shoulders colliding with the door frame. Levi stopped and frowned. He knew had fit through the door but couldn't work out how. He continued to walk back and fourth his shoulders colliding with the doorframe over and over. Too stupid to realise he'd have to shrink back down to normal size to fit through the door again.

About an hour later Levi realised he could turn sideways and fit through the door. His phone pinged again but he didn't bother to check.

LEVEL 4: -Passive: Home Advantage

As Levi waddled through his house his thick stench wafted along with him clinging to his wall and furniture. He carpets became strained with sweaty footprints. His wall paper started to peel and crumble from the about of sweat in the air. His house slowly shifted around him from the clean kept house of a software engineer to an unkept mess that looked like it was home to a caveman.

Levi sat down on his and reached down to his dick to relieve himself but he couldn't reach. The sound of his muscles and skin groaning and rubbing against each other filled the room as the giant man desperately tried to grab hold of his own manhood. Again not able to figure how he'd have to go back to his 'normal' size so he could reach.

The giant colossus spent hours trying to figure out why he couldn't reach his own dick even though he desperately wanted to. Eventually he simply fell asleep on his sweaty stained, stinking mattress. His loud snooze rumbling through his house.

Levi probably thought picking Colossus as his starting class was a bad idea.

Luckily he couldn't think anymore.

[mariacallous]

On ThursdaY, Reuters published a photo depicting then-United States national security adviser Mike Waltz checking his phone during a cabinet meeting held by President Trump in the White House. If you enlarge the portion of the image that captures Waltz’s screen, it seems to show him using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But if you look more closely, a notification on the screen refers to the app as “TM SGNL.” During a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, then, Waltz was apparently using an Israeli-made app called TeleMessage Signal to message with people who appear to be top US officials, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard.

After senior Trump administration cabinet members used vanishing Signal messages to coordinate March military strikes in Yemen—and accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the group chat—the “SignalGate” scandal highlighted concerning breaches of traditional government “operational security” protocol as well as compliance issues with federal records-retention laws. At the center of the debacle was Waltz, who was ousted by Trump as US national security adviser on Thursday. Waltz created the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat and was the member who added top Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. "I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News in late March. "We've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened," he added at the time.

SignalGate had nothing to do with Signal. The app was functioning normally and was simply being used at an inappropriate time for an incredibly sensitive discussion that should have been carried out on special-purpose, hardened federal devices and software platforms. If you're going to flout the protocols, though, Signal is (relatively speaking) a good place to do it, because the app is designed so only the senders and receivers of messages in a group chat can read them. And the app is built to collect as little information as possible about its users and their associates. This means that if US government officials were chatting on the app, spies or malicious hackers could only access their communications by directly compromising participants' devices—a challenge that is potentially surmountable but at least limits possible access points. Using an app like TeleMessage Signal, though, presumably in an attempt to comply with data retention requirements, opens up numerous other paths for adversaries to access messages.

"I don't even know where to start with this," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. “It's mind-blowing that the federal government is using Israeli tech to route extremely sensitive data for archival purposes. You just know that someone is grabbing a copy of that data. Even if TeleMessage isn't willingly giving it up, they have just become one of the biggest nation-state targets out there.”

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 by former Israel Defense Forces technologists and run out of the country until it was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. The service creates duplicates of communication apps that are outfitted with a “mobile archiver” tool to record and store messages sent through the app.

“Capture, archive and monitor mobile communication: SMS, MMS, Voice Calls, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram & Signal,” TeleMessage says on its website. For Signal it adds, “Record and capture Signal calls, texts, multimedia and files on corporate-issued and employee BYOD phones.” (BYOD stands for bring your own device.) In other words, there are TeleMessage versions of Signal for essentially any mainstream consumer device. The company says that using TeleMessage Signal, users can “Maintain all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption,” adding that the app provides “End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive.” The existence of “the corporate archive,” though, undermines the privacy and security of the end-to-end encryption scheme.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP. TeleMessage and Smarsh did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their products are used by the US federal government and in what capacity.

"As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly tells WIRED. She did not answer questions about whether the White House approves of federal officials using TeleMessage Signal—which is a different app from Signal—or whether other officials aside from Waltz have used the app or currently use it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency does not create policy around federal technology use but does release public guidance. When asked about Waltz’s apparent use of TeleMessage Signal, CISA simply referred WIRED to its best-practices guide for mobile communications. The document specifically advises, “When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.”

It is not clear when Waltz started using TeleMessage Signal and whether he was already using it during SignalGate or started using it afterward in response to criticisms that turning on Signal's disappearing messages feature is in conflict with federal data-retention laws.

“I have no doubt the leadership of the US national security apparatus ran this software through a full information-assurance process to ensure there was no information leakage to foreign nations,” says Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matt Green. “Because if they didn’t, we are screwed.”

[cuprohastes]

GIMP

Ironically the most replies I ever had on Imgur.

OK look here's the skinny on why I don't like GIMP: A long discussion with screenshots

To start with, there's two classes of users:

A: People who never use art apps, don't make art, and maybe tweak a couple of photos for colour balance every couple of years: They love GIMP. They hardly use it or never use it but it's FREE and OPEN SOURCE and they heard Adobe was BAD SOMEHOW because they CHARGE MONEY. They love GIMP. They will die on that hill. GIMP is the best. One day they may even use it.

B: People who are enthusiasts and professionals who actually want to make something and have graphics tablets, strong opinions on CMYK and whether Kyle Webster is over-rated or not. And they don't use GIMP because they tried it and it doesn't do the job.

To go for a comic analogy It's like bystanders telling EMTs their technique is wrong because they saw this Spongebob episode where he used bandaid.

Anyway: Who the hell amI? I feel like I should establish some Bona Fides: not just some random shouty dude. I started out with MS Paint in 1989, then Deluxe Paint Enhanced for PC. I started doing Desktop Publishing with CorelDraw and some non WYSIWYG layout engines. Spent a miserable few years with Quark, moved on to Photoshop... 3 I think. Jettisoned that after it got too bloated (It has a 3D print system inside it!!) In amongst I've tried GIMP, Krita, Clip Studio (Now and back when it was Manga Studio and really didn't want you to use colour), ProCreate, Adobe Fresco, ArtRage, Kai's powertools, 3D Studio (Back before it was Max), Maya, Blender, Inkscape, Serif Studios, Art Studio Pro... I was a graphic designer for several companies, self employed, and worked for Anthrocon doing colour on their badges for around 15 years, as well as creating designs for thier printed work and occasionally keycards, and t-shirts, and designs for badges when they didn't have any art from a GoH. To put it simply I'm not an Adobe Fanboy screeching about people using non-Adobe software. I've seen people who wanted to move to digital give up after buying hundreds of dollars of hardware because they got told GIMP was TEH GOODEST. Anyway...

But every time someone wants to get into art to paint the picture they have inside them, or do some fanart or mess with graphics design, group A crawl out from their bog of incompetence and demand that people use GIMP. Not just suggest it, but actively shout down group B, the people who have experience.

Because Group A would rather push their dogma that paid software is always the wrong solution, than accept that GIMP's frankly shit.

It's just hit version 3.0 after only 30 years. Go team.

Points to note: If you need support for GIMP, the answer is always "Runs OK for me LOL" or "I don't use it but all your problems are because you used Photoshop once." or the good old "Switch to Linux."

In the interest of fairness I'm going to install this new amazing version of GIMP and see if it's any better.

Infamously, the software is so awful that almost all images on Google that you find are pictures of people re-creating the GIMP Logo in GIMP to prove that it is on a par with MS Paint. And it's not a good logo.

First boot:

OK so it opens up a giant panel that tells me I installed GIMP. Presumably a warning. You can't access the actual app unless you've first navigated the splash screen. The app assumes your'e still on an 800x600 monitor. Nice. I suspect the splash screen was supposed to laod over the top of GIMP because... uh... ANYWAY.

Select create Select Make a new image Select a size... hit OK and voila.

Just as a note: Other apps do this in a single panel, or just open the app and let you hit File > new > Select size and bit depth & colour space... which GIMP also skipped.

OK so I'm using a mouse. so let's do a test line then find and turn on the stroke smoothing. Wow!

... This is worthless! Looks like the smoothing amount doens't do anyting, you have to tweak the other option on a scale of 0 to 1000.

For those of you playing at home: That makes no sense, because everything else is 0-100.

Also brave choice to make sure that when you pull up the settings they replace the brush palette... on the opposite side of the screen, and give you no way to switch back.

The setting which are incidentally locked, making them... double worthless.

Fun trivia! If you mis click at the bottom of the brush palette, on the left, it just deletes your tool preset! Genius. Sticking a button for a process you'd almost never do, next to the Undo/redo icons. Chef's kiss. Perfect UI design.

I hear they're making a car. The 'explode fuel tank' button is next to the switch that turns the headlights on. You may ask why they have an 'explode fuel tank' button. Yes. You may ask.

Now having created a text label, I somehow am not allowed to draw outside the text label. This is not normal.

There is no Unselect option at all in the selection menu. Escape does't do it. Hitting option/alt pops up a messages saying there's no selection to remove:

... despite there being a selection to remove.

GIMP's infamously mazelike right click menu that copies the taskbar menu is still around:

Why have one set of menus when you can have two of every menu?

Not pictured: The giant tooltip that pops up and covers the thing you're trying to click on. Seriously, I couldn't get a screenshot of it.

Back to drawing...

Apparently the solution is to create a new layer. One text object is still text, the other randomly rasterised itself and locked the selections to it's own boundary box. That is sub-optional or "entirely stupid, who wrote this garbage?" if you're being formal.

These guys. That's who.

Still got a maze of options including 'Y not use PYTHON to make a pic‽"

At this point I notice that the vibrant red I pick in the colour picker is showing as desaturated orange in the screenshots. Which is weird because it's supposed to be 8 bit sRGB, aka the basics. But somehow this has been fucked up - GIMP: "Colour accuracy? But Why?"

Let's try an export. a mere four or five clicks later...

... where the hell is it? Let me try that again...

OK. Uh. Great. A third visibly different shade of red to the one I drew with.

At this point, I'm done. I could learn to use the tools easily. I could dig through the manual and look for whatever ass backward UI decision lets you resolve it's inherent flaws like rasterising text at random...

... but if I tell it to use 100% red and it insists on using some buggy kludged system that outputs it to a different shade, then why bother? Nothing you do will come out looking the way you intended.

Meanwhile Clip Studio's over here doing 100% of everything you need for amateur or enthusiast or even pro level art (I created one of Anthrocon's T-shirts in Clip Studio), and it'll run on a tablet and let you draw on $400 of hardware or a desktop and a graphics tablet.

And if by some goddamn chance you got all the way through this, send me a boop in the notes!

[art-res]

Hello! ^^ Any tips to match the color on pc/laptop to the color on the phone?

Hi there!

I know there are color calibration tools that are useful for this!

this website includes physical tools that you can buy and software recommendations.

Best of luck!

[kichona-s]

You might have talked about this before, but what tool (device, programs, etc.) do you use for your art? I'm thinking about getting an iPad, but like...I've never really done digital, also never owned an apple product...I feel like an alien :D

i think i've answered something vaguely similar before, but fuck it new year new answer (entire thing below the cut because its long):

For most of my work now (since around Jun '24 onwards) I use the XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 with Clip Studio Paint Pro (perpetual license), total should set you back around USD560~ish. Key note is that this needs to be plugged into your laptop/pc, so if you have a shit computer this may not be the best option for you

Pros:

CSP is very full-featured, so pretty much anything you need it to do, it can do

Huge fuckin screen (16 inches) so you can have all your layer/brush menus out like a madman

Way more bang for your buck in terms of screen real estate/performance if you already have a good laptop/pc

Can work as a second monitor when you're not drawing

Cons:

Unportable

If you've never used any digital drawing tool ever, CSP is.. quite a bit to take in (dont let that scare you though, you can customize what menus you want to see etc to ur perference)

Needs to be plugged in otherwise its useless

No touch inputs (either use the controller they give u, a tourbox, or keyboard shortcuts)

If you dont need such a big screen though, theres definitely cheaper display tablets available (xp-pen artist pro 13 gen2, xp-pen artist line, huion kamvas line) -- thankfully we live in an era where Wacom's competitors are good and sometimes even better than it, so you can stretch your dollar a lot

For pre-Jun '24 I used a 2020 11inch iPad Pro with Procreate on it, which should set u back the cost of the ipad + USD13 + apple pencil -- note I still use this if I'm travelling (i drew the first mini norris on this while in japan!)

Pros:

Crazy portable - I used to bring my iPad to draw at malls with my friend (i also drew nsfw and a kid almost saw it so uh,, dont be like me)

Procreate is very stripped down in terms of drawing software so its really easy to learn the basics

You have all you need in 1 device (no need for another laptop/pc)

TOUCH INPUTS are SO useful when u first start when u need to rotate the canvas

Cons:

If you already have a laptop/pc this is gonna be more expensive

Procreate gets limiting over time - i used it from mid-2020 to early-2024 before i got sick and tired and swapped over

Apple pencil ergonomics is ass

Small screen unless u wanna splurge for the 12.9inch ipad

A fun third option if you wanna try testing the digital art waters without committing is a pen tablet (wacom intuos, xp pen deco, huion inspiroy), but those don't have screens so you need to look at ur laptop/monitor while drawing, and the hand-eye coordination may have a bit of a learning curve

Theres also free drawing softwares on both iOS and PC (autodesk sketchbook/ibis paint/krita) if you wanna fuck around on those first

But back to your main point - apple product software is generally a good experience (to me), and if you're mostly drawing on it you will learn the procreate interface more anyway so its not as important. The key between iPad VS Other Options is mostly portability & software (CSP on iPad is a subscription that I refuse to pay). And overall if you're not certain that you wanna stick to digital, get something that would be easy to sell off second handed in your country, so you dont lose your entire investment if you end up hating digital art lol

Good luck with your decision and if you have more questions, really feel free to ask -- i have a lot of fun doing product recommendation/comparison posts

[themainspoon]

Just thinking about it, The Steam Deck just runs off of Linux, and is essentially just a PC in a case designed for portable gaming, a case that also includes a touchscreen and gyro controls.

Because it is a PC, plugging it into a second monitor and getting that monitor to display something different should be trivial. It is also possible to install basically whatever you want on it because, again, it is a PC.

Also, because the outside screws are visible and the Steam Deck is designed to be upgradeable, making modifications, like switching the buttons on the device to the Nintendo layout (which is already something possible in software with a toggle in settings) shouldn't be too difficult.

My thinking is that with the ability to use two monitors, the presence of features like touchscreen and gyro, and the freedom to modify hardware and install software. What Steam may have accidentally created is some of the best possible hardware for Wii U emulation.

While I don't know enough about the PSVita to say anything definitive on this, I do also feel that while perhaps not quite as well suited, the Steam Deck could also be good for PS Vita emulation, especially considering the weirdness of PS Vita controls.

[wigilham]

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[jayextee]

Quake (1997, SEGA Saturn)

So y'all know I love me some Quake, yeah? Bet you're all absolutely unaliving to know what I think of the SEGA Saturn version, right?

Right so, this was my first Quake. This is where the love affair started. Guess it's a 5/5, then. Joking aside, when this dropped I was not the big DOOM freak I am now. I wasn't even all that into FPS games, having really only played PS1 DOOM, Alien Trilogy, and Exhumed on Saturn. That was it, really; some early-ass disinterested Wolfenstein 3D during lunch breaks at work experience notwithstanding.

I mention this because the frame of reference here is; WASD and mouse wasn't the standard control scheme yet. Nor was the twinstick equivalent for console. So we've got forward/backward and turning on the d-pad, strafe on the shoulder buttons, looking is done with a whole-ass button and up/down. Slow. And, according to some walking intellectual-vacuums, "literally unplayable".

Except it's not. It's different, that's all.

So. Way back when, a bigass deal was made of Trenton McReznorface from the band Ten Inch Tacks doing the soundtrack for Quake. It's an ambient, unsettling, weird horror soundtrack and evokes a terrifying atmosphere. It's absolutely as tonally far-removed from a Quake Done Quick speedrun as you can get, but for crawling along with slightly-stodgy controls as you squint to see what's in the middle distance at such a low resolution, it's fine. And that's the Saturn Quake experience, really. I sound like I'm insulting it, but no.

My first experience of Quake was that of a horror FPS, much like DOOM 3 attempted to be, and many of my non-circlestrafing friends playing the PlayStation version of DOOM considered that to be. It just seemed to be the 'in' thing, slow-paced first-person shooters designed to scare the everliving shit out of you. And for consoles bereft of those twitchy 'kbm' controls, that's precisely what they were.

And so, Saturn Quake has a low resolution and not the smoothest frame rate. But it's good for what it is, y'know?

I kinda wanna spell it out another way as well. A personal computer (heh, even back in the '90s we called 'em "PCs", I just didn't want to bundle a bunch of caps together at the start of a sentence) that could run Quake in 1997 would probably set a person back the better part of a thousand quid, if not exactly that when factoring in a half-decent monitor and speaker setup; something console owners already 'had' in the form of the TV they'd connect their machine to. Consoles, however, couple of hundred. They weren't quite as powerful (you'd think? But platform games pretty much always sucked on PC for some reason, a few notable but rare exceptions aside).

And yet, this game for powerful PCs was here running on the "shit, can't do 3D" underdog games machine of the era. HOW? DO WE NEED TO BURN THE DEVS AS WITCHES?

Right here was a marvellous tech demo for the Saturn. It wasn't 1:1, not least because instead of id Tech it used Lobotomy Software's proprietary 'SlaveDriver' (so named for being the engine of PowerSlave, the US name for Exhumed) engine. But, seriously, nobody thought this would even work. And, if someone tried to do it, it would not be expected to be even half as good as these final results. SEGA Saturn Magazine UK said "it had no right" being as good as it was. They were correct.

Okay so it's the best tech demo ever in 1997 and is the equivalent of running the latest games in 2025 on a literal potato. Was it that good?

Despite my praise, nah. It was good, don't get me wrong here, but there are certain quibbles that taint the experience. Autoaim, needed for the standard control scheme with 'look' button (because there is a more-modern, kinda, scheme hidden in the game for peeps with the NiGHTS controller...) often aims more at enemies' feets than their bodies, meaning many of my precious nails from the nailgun end up spent in the floor or the ledge that a given target is stood upon.

At close range with the shotguns, sometimes it would appear that my shots were flat-out going through enemies. Not ideal.

I say 'taint', but it's not complete ruination. It's a good game, if you can stomach a slightly-low framerate and resolution, and are willing to take it at a snail's pace. But hey, enjoy the horror of it all, yeah? 3.5/5

[mobistealth]

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[genericpuff]

hello! i don't know anything about digital art or tablets but it's something i'd like to try out. i was wondering if you know of any affordable tablets that you don't have to hook up to a computer?

So the fortunate thing is that tablets have gotten a LOT cheaper especially with other companies like Huion and XP-Pen stepping up to offer competitive prices compared to Wacom, which is notoriously expensive.

That said, the unfortunate thing is that the cheapest tablets on the market are the ones that you have to hook up to a PC (these are typically desk tablets, i.e. the ones that you basically use as a computer mouse because there are no screens built in to them).

There are PC tablets where they're all in one PC's that offer tablet screens (I used to use a Cintiq Companion 2 which was exactly that) but they're INCREDIBLY expensive and honestly, not much better than just getting an entry level PC and screen tablet / monitor + desk tablet. It's definitely not something you'd want to get if you haven't tried out digital art before either, because there's a risk in that in and of itself - you haven't done it before, so you're not guaranteed to stick with it. And I say that because digital art in and of itself is a medium, there's a learning curve to it even if you already have foundational knowledge in traditional art (though that foundational knowledge will help a lot) and it's not as easy or simple as just pressing some buttons and making art appear. So the last thing you're gonna want to do is spend a whole bunch of money on a drawing tablet / digital art software if you wind up not liking it in the long run.

So I would say your best option for trying out digital art without losing out on a whole lot of money if you wind up not enjoying it (and if you want something that doesn't require hooking up to a PC) would be a Samsung tablet or iPad - and I say that because if you DON'T end up creating digital art in the long term, you'll still have a handy portable PC that you can use for other things. You can get iPads and Samsung tablets at used prices through pawn shops, local marketplaces, etc. or if you have strong rep with your phone company, you might be able to snag a deal next time you renew your phone plan (I would recommend checking around back-to-school season or Christmas/Black Friday/etc. as that's when phone companies offer crazy deals where you can get tablets and accessories basically for free LMAO)

Just make sure you do your research on what tablets offer what in terms of pen and software compatibility, some tablets don't work with pens, others only work with specific kinds of pens, etc. For iPads, you'll typically want something that will ideally work with the Apple Pencil 2, as that's the newest model of the Apple Pencil (and it has that fun way of charging where you can just stick the pen to the side of the tablet and it magnetizes/charges from your iPad's battery).

I can't really give advice on the Samsung tablets as I've never used them, so do your research for that one, there are loads of videos online that talk about all the different models and benefits. Just note that if you want to use Procreate specifically, you'll need an iPad as it's an iOS-only app. Clip Studio and Adobe products , on the other hand, are offered on virtually all mobile devices and software!

I hope that helps! Good luck!! <3

[partition78]

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[not7wu]

Chapter Nine:  Building Bridges

Recap: Hobi had shown up with breakfast and proceeded to interfere with you. Jungkook took you on a picnic and you remembered how you became friends forever. You snuck away to grab a USB drive from Jihoon and Jungkook caught you. You were worried Jungkook would interrogate and tattle on you, but he only had one thing to say to you. Don't give up on your family.

The USB drive sits ominously in the middle of your bed.  You almost expect it to start glowing and whispering in the tongue of Mordor like the One Ring.  Thirty-two gigabytes of information just staring you in the face and you have to figure out how to access it.  

You had expected the ride back with Jungkook would be tense, but he held your hand the entire time and shifted the conversation to discuss company preparations for an employee appreciation event the artists and higher ups are planning soon.  He required no participation from you in the conversation, giving your hand the occasional squeeze of comfort as he let you organize your emotions.

Jungkook hadn’t interrogated you about Jihoon, so you don’t know what Jungkook thinks of Jihoon or his relation to you, but you trust that he won’t breathe a word to the members.  You never imagined that the love Jungkook has for you is such that he’d keep a secret like this, and you vow to do your best to reciprocate his love and trust.  He might not be able to be the ally you want, but his tacit support is like a lighthouse in the distance giving you hope that you may eventually reach steady ground.

And now you’re sitting in your apartment brainstorming.  The disposable phone you bought earlier in the day is small enough that it can be explained away as some generic purchase of electronics, and you’re now glad that when you offered your black card to Jihoon, he had turned it down.  He said he wanted to research some private investigators and then he would present you with a breakdown of their fees, costs, and retainer.  He didn’t feel right just outright taking money from you.  Now knowing that BTS are the POAs of your finances, you’re relieved that you didn’t give in to their encouragement of you swiping the black card willy nilly.  How closely are they monitoring your finances?  Would they monitor every single won?  Do they have an alert for certain types of purchases?  Or are they only notified if you spend a certain amount in one go?

Now that you think about it, you’re not sure how closely BTS monitor you in general.  At Hannam the Hill, they’re mostly always with you except when you’re in your apartment.  You’re pretty sure you don’t have guards.  Otherwise they’d have reported your lunch with Jihoon…unless that’s why Hobi was fishing this morning.  At least if you do have guards, no one has introduced you to them.  Or maybe they’re plainclothes and hidden even from you, spying.  It would make sense for you to have guards with Kim Chohee allegedly still out there, but you bristle at the thought of having additional ‘jailors’ even if it’s for your own safety.

You’re also not sure what kind of tracking software is on your work computer.  You know the in-office chats and emails are monitored and that times are logged of computer activity, but maybe BTS would go so far as to mirror your screen and surveil every click and word typed.  Is that paranoid of you to think so?  

Just to be safe, using the work computer is out and you don’t think the members would let you go to a PC bang by yourself.  You could try sneaking into one during lunch, but you don’t know if you’re being discreetly guarded and depending on how much information is on the drive, it could take multiple trips to sift through it all.  

Maybe you can sneak onto the computer of one of the members when they aren’t looking.  Jin’s gaming computer comes to mind, and you don’t think you’d have to try all that hard to get his password.  A bitter taste fills your throat at the idea of tricking him into giving you the password though.  All you’d have to say is you wanna try gaming or you wanna listen to music as you sleep and he’d so readily give it to you.  You scrub your face.  The contents of the drive are important.  Should you really be so worried about deceiving him when that’s all the members have been doing to you?  

You sigh.  Maybe you could ask Jihoon to borrow his laptop if he owns one.  That wouldn’t require you to lie.  Or you could buy a laptop of your own.  You’re gonna have to start making regular random cash withdrawals with your card to accumulate enough to give to Jihoon when he finally picks an investigator, so maybe you can also withdraw enough to buy a laptop of your own.  But you don’t know how long that will take.  

Frustrated, you groan and fall back onto your pillow.  There’s probably an obvious solution that you’re completely missing because you’re just in too deep to look at this objectively.  You need sleep and more time to think of better options.  

In the meantime, you have to figure out where to hide the drive.  

Your first idea is to hide it on your person at all times…but you worry that it’ll fall out of your pocket, or that you’ll accidentally forget about it only for it to end up in the laundry.  You grab the drive and stalk around your apartment to look for a hiding spot.  

You could mix it in with your makeup, tape it behind one of the cupboards, or stick it underneath your mattress.  As you’re staring at your fridge though, you spot the note from your cleaning ajumma, Lee Hye.  Another person to contend with.  She comes by every Wednesday to clean and you’re not sure how thorough she is.  A thought occurs to you that she might be someone paid by the members to keep an eye on you.  You thud your head against the fridge.  Ugh, your brain wants to explode and you kinda wanna cry.

You plop yourself down on your couch and start dramatically singing, “All by myself; don’t wanna be, all by myself, anymore!”  You almost fling the drive when you whip your arms back dramatically in the throes of your ballad.  That could have been disastrous.  You tuck it into your bra and rub your hand where it impacted the wall behind you.  Petulantly, you smack the wall for hurting you, rattling the frames hanging on it.  

Huh.  There’s a shock of yellow behind one of the frames on the wall and you immediately know what it is.  

Since the first couple of nights here in Seoul, you haven’t seen any sticky notes around the members’ condo and you don’t know why they stopped putting them up.  Granted, you’ve been sleeping here in the apartment, so you don’t know why the thought hadn’t occurred to you that there would be notes here too, especially if the threat of a memory reset is real.  You lift the frame.

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

You begin taking all the frames down, increasing in frenzy.  

“Are you sure?”

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“You have to be sure; it’ll hurt.”

“Are you sure?”

“Really sure?”

“You have to be sure you really want to know.”

“It’s gonna hurt you.”

“You’re gonna hurt them.”

“You have to be sure.”

You’re staring at the crazy spattering of yellow paper on your living room wall and a laugh bubbles out of you.  You laugh and giggle and you feel like you’re being torn out of your skin, like you can’t contain this delayed shock and fear.  And maybe it isn’t so much delayed as simply a realization that this has been a consistent state you’ve been in and you’ve just been practicing, what was it Jungkook called it?  Apathy for survival?  You’ve felt plenty of emotions in the past couple of weeks, but it seems you’ve suppressed more than you thought.  And so you laugh.  You giggle.  You cry.  You’re losing it in the face of what seems to be one big conspiracy.  

The tears and hiccups eventually stop.  Strangely enough, you feel like a weight has been lifted off your chest as something else settles in.

Acceptance.  

You are in Seoul, Korea.  You are involved in the lives of seven men.  You are alone, but alive.  

That last point is kind of liberating.  You’re alive.  You suddenly imagine yourself just walking out of your apartment to meander down the street and just…keep going.  Not looking back and just seeing where your steps take you.  You could leave and wander around the continents.  Leave behind the confusion and the doubts.  Leave the boys.  Find another vibrant city, a quiet place in the country, or a tucked corner in a forest or mountain side to live in.  

You entertain the idea for a solid minute, but…

Something is anchoring you here.  A gravitational pull.  Something that you need before you can just pick up and go and it’s something closely tied to the boys.  Something closely tied to Jin.  And you want it so much that you could die.  You’re not even sure what ‘it’ even is.  

If the sticky notes are to be believed, whatever ‘it’ is will hurt.  It’ll hurt everyone. 

Crazy enough, there’s a small part of you that sees that the boys may have a valid point.  Maybe your search for the truth is reckless.  Would this count as self-harm?  Knowing it’ll hurt, but doing it anyway?  It’s like a scab that you can’t resist picking at, even as it stings and aches, until blood seeps anew.  Or like getting stabbed and impaled and your brain logically knows you should leave the knife in, but everything else in you is screaming at you to pull it out even if you exsanguinate.  

You are incapable of doing nothing even as the matrix of this world tries to lull you into blindly living out a fantasy.  You can’t ignore the glitch.  The deja vu.  The one frayed thread with its siren call to pull, pull, pull until everything unravels.  

So maybe you’re not sure.  And maybe you’re not ready.  

But you have to know.  

There is one frame you haven’t touched.  It’s a tabletop frame on the side table.  It’s the only one of its kind in your entire apartment.  You pick it up and park yourself on the floor, tracing the faces.  

Jimin’s smiling face takes up the bottom left corner of the photo in an attempt to include himself in a group selfie, the brightness of the flash whitewashing his normally honey toned skin.  He has a facemask on, but his scrunched closed eyes are unmistakably smiling in contrast to the idol smolder of the top half of his cardboard cutout face.  Tae and Jungkook, also facemasked, have crazed eyes as they theatrically and maniacally curb stomp and choke slam their cardboard cutouts, an employee in a red vest mid-yell rushing in to stop them.  And in the midst of all this havoc, you and Jin are in front of a movie theater, the bright bulbs of the marquee painting you both in warm yellows, raw whites, and inky reds.  Your arms are around his waist and he’s putting a pair of glasses on your face, both with mouths wide in a laughter you can almost hear the distant echoes of.   

“I love you too, Jin.  But I dropped my glasses back there.  Let’s grab em before someone stomps on them.”

It isn’t a revelation.  More like an ‘Oh.  That’s right.’ feeling.  Something so ingrained in you that it has become a habit, like when you’re at an ATM and you forget your pin because you were trying too hard to remember, jamming in all these combinations of birthdays and dates of significance until you realize you had it right the first time, but you had accidentally hit one wrong number or the computer hadn’t registered one of the buttons you pushed.  

Jin loves you.

You barely register that you’re not alone in this room anymore.  You should probably be concerned that someone just walked right in and you didn’t even know until just this moment, but your fight or flight reflexes have always been skewed.  Tae and Jimin are reorganizing the pile of frames and placing them back on the walls.  They’re very specific about which photo goes where and you can’t decipher the formula of significance as every photo goes back to exactly where they were before.  The spaces where photos were missing from before are purposely skipped over.  When Tae and Jimin finish, they sit beside you on the floor and gaze upon the fruits of their labor.  

“You know where each of the photos belong,” you state.  

Jimin hums.  “You said it made you feel less lonely when we were on tour.  They’re important to you, so they’re important to us.”

Tae gestures to the scatter of frames to the left.  “Those first few photos are yours.  A lot of you and me, and me and you, cuz’ duh, I’m awesome.  I’m your most favorite person.  Well okay so I’ve been demoted to like third most favorite, but still awesome, and then some photos with everyone else.  And the rest—” he encompasses the entire collection in a wide armed sweep.  “—the rest are gifts from us and Jieun-noona for your birthdays and christmas.”  

“But we stopped getting them for you after…” Jimin says, hesitating.

After you lost your memory.  Yeah.  If they gifted you now with photos you don’t remember being in, it would be unpleasantly trippy.  You count five empty spots.  That’s two birthdays and two christmases and something extra?  Glancing down at the frame in your hand, you begin to have some inkling.  

“So, I’m missing Jin’s gifts,” you say.

Jimin looks to Tae for help, but Tae is already nonchalantly confirming, “Yup.  Those two spots and the other two spots are his.  That veeeeery conspicuous super obvious empty spot in the center though has never had a photo.”

Jimin’s face twitches, conflicted with all this information giving, but still informs you, “You said you’d put one up there after you got better.”

Studying the wall again, what was once an arbitrary collage of mismatched frames slowly comes into focus as a spiral leading to the prominently empty center.  

“Do you know what photo I wanted to put up?”

“Specifically?  Indubitably?  Unquestionably?  Nope.  But I have a good idea what it might be.”

You accept the answer even though you are disappointed.  Jimin leans in to hug you.

“If it's what we think it might be,” Jimin says into your ear. “I don't think it would give you all the answers you think it would.”

You’re stubborn though.  You wonder if there had been notes under those photos before they were taken away.  You wonder what clues you have been deprived of.

“Did Jin take those gifts down?”

“You took them down,” Jimin says carefully.

“I did?” You wanna smack yourself in the face.  You have no idea what would motivate a past version of you to hide them.  “Do you know where I put them?”

“Yup!”

You wait for Tae to elaborate, but he doesn’t and now you wanna smack him.  Not violently.  Just, ugh!  

“So can I see them?”

“Well you almost saw them tonight—”

“Tae!”

“—but then your plans got rearranged.”

“Tae.”

“Jiminie, we talked about this.”

Jimin sighs, but he resigns himself to Tae just doing what he wants.  He kisses your temple and squeezes you.  “Sorry.”

His apology is said in a small voice, like he’s offering you an olive branch even though your entire world is flooded.  And even if it’s not much, it’s a sign of peace and things that grow, so you squeeze him back hoping he understands your feelings through osmosis.

“So, Areum-unnie has the photos.”

“Yup!”

“I gave them to her?”

“Well, more like you took them with you when you stayed with her,” Jimin explains.  “When we were on the Love Yourself Tour, you stayed with her, Jung-hyung, and Byeol.”

That…actually makes sense.  Tae had already told you about how they had to leave you behind when you were first injured.  Where else would you have gone?  Jieun couldn’t go to work and watch you all on her own.  Although, you feel a little bad that Areum and Jungie had to watch you while they had a baby to take care of as well.  

Well, if Hobi’s mission really is to keep you in the dark, then it would make sense why he absolutely refused to let you go visit them.  You’re still confused though why Hobi doesn’t want you remembering things.  Wouldn’t it help everyone if you got better as soon as possible?  Whatever his reasons, you know he’d be furious if he found these notes on your wall.  

“Are you gonna take the sticky notes down?” you ask, warily.

Tae shakes his head.  “Nope.  Rule of thumb is whoever put them up usually takes them down, but none of us put them up there.”

“How do you know?”

Jimin still has his arms around you, but he shrugs.  “Namjoon-hyung created set layouts and protocols for where we put the collection of notes you gave us.  We’ve never seen these before.”

“We would definitely remember these,” Tae says.  “It’s giving Emily Dickinson.  I dig it.”

“What?  Emily Dickinson?  What are you talking about?” You’re baffled.  Tae never ceases to surprise you with the weird turns his mind takes you.

Tae gathers himself up with an expression saying he’s about to school you as he recites, “I see thee better in the Dark.  I do not need a Light.  The Love of Thee—a Prism be—Excelling Violet.”  

He bows to Jimin’s enthusiastic clapping, and you…you feel yourself thaw and even give some claps of your own.  Tae is like a magician.  You don’t know what he’s going to pull out of his hat.  He’ll make you question everything about yourself and the world, but he’ll make you believe in magic and that everything will be alright.  

“See!  Violet!  Borahae!  I bet Dickinson would be Army.”

“No, she wouldn’t,” Jimin argues.

“You’re just bitter cuz’ she’d probably be an Agust D stan.”

“Hell no.  If she was Army, she’d be a Jhope stan.  His music and vibes are misleading from the lyrics.”

“Are you gonna tell the oppas?” you can’t help interjecting, worried.

Jimin gently pries your fingers off the frame you’re holding and puts it on the ground in front of you.  You hadn’t even realized how tightly you were gripping it.  There are red indents on your palm that he rubs.

Hands occupied, you can’t dodge Tae when he boops your nose.  He laughs when you scrunch it in protest.

“We won’t tell the hyungs,” Tae promises.

“We won’t,” Jimin chimes to reassure you.  

Still, you have some doubts as to their purpose here which feels too coincidental, especially after the breakfast you had this morning.  “Did Hobi-oppa tell you to come check up on me?”

Jimin pulls you up to stand and steadies you.  “No.  Jungkookie said you might need cuddles.”

That…both surprises you and doesn’t surprise you.  Of course, Jungkookie would do that.  You feel yourself melt, feeling better now that you know why they’re here.  That is until Tae hauls you over his shoulder and makes his way towards your room, complaining, “I’m hungry!”

“But we just passed the kitchen, you weirdo!  Put me down!”

“I’m hungry for cuddles!”

He tosses you unceremoniously onto the bed, and before you can recover from the whiplash, you feel two bodies crushing you.  

“Get off Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” you protest, giggling.

“Tae’s Tweedle Dum!  I’m Dee!” Jimin announces.

“Jiminie’s dumb—”  

You manage to elbow Tae off you and extract yourself from Jimin, escaping to the bathroom.  There’s no way you’re going to bed with a full face of makeup on.  Plus, the USB drive is digging into your boob and you can’t sleep with it anywhere near you with Tae and Jimin pressed to your sides.  You temporarily place it beneath a stack of towels in the bathroom closet and work quickly to get ready for bed.  They’re still arguing by the time you return, Tae on the ground begging Jimin to let him up.  He tries to hug your legs as you pass by, but you manage to side step him and climb onto the bed where Jimin gathers you into his arms.  

“Truly?  Must you cast me aside to the depths of hell without feather to fly?  Without even the torture of hope for salvation?”

You scoff, pointing at him self-righteously.  “Now look who’s the monster under the bed.”

Tae’s lament transforms to outrage, affronted as Jimin dies of giggles.  “What?!  Statute of Limitations!  Double jeopardy!  You can’t punish me when you’ve already punished me!  I already said sorry years ago!  Years, Y/N!  Years!”

“If a tree falls in a forest, and I wasn’t around to hear it while peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?” you reason with a straight face as Jimin keels over, falling off the bed.

Tae’s eyes widen in shock and then he’s laughing too.  “Touche.  Can’t argue with that.”

Jimin can barely breathe, but he manages to choke out, “How does that even make sense?”

“It makes perfect sense, Jiminie.  It’s genius.”

You nod your head sagely and don’t even attempt to dodge them when they tackle you back.  It’s a mess of limbs and blankets and pillows and hair, but eventually you all find a comfortable position, you laying on Jimin’s chest and Tae managing to encompass both of you in his arms and legs.  All is quiet as labored breathing and heartbeats slow, but you don’t feel like sleeping yet.   Jimin captures your hand and you peer up at him.  

“Can’t sleep?” he asks.  

“Not really.”

“How about a dramatic reading from yours truly?”  Tae offers.

“Please no more Emily Dickinson,” Jimin begs.  You snicker as Tae pouts, but pat his shoulder in commiseration.  

You actually have something in mind, but you have no idea if Tae and Jimin will allow it, despite how accommodating they’ve been tonight.  The Rules haven’t been broken, but have been well and truly bent and twisted.  You’re not sure when you’ll get another opportunity like this though.  The worst thing they can do is say no, so you figure it doesn’t hurt to ask.  

“Jin told me a story the other night.  About his first love.”  You can’t see Jimin’s face, tucked in as you are, but you feel him tense.  Tae on the other hand smiles softly and runs his hand up and down your back.  “Could you maybe tell me about her story?  Jimin?”

You feel him jerk in surprise.  “Me?  You don’t want Tae to tell you the story?”

Thinking back to what you overheard the other night, you have a little more clarity now.  Even though the members are determinedly united, there’s a division as to how they want to handle you.  Jimin seemed more on your side, and it seems like Tae and Jimin have decided to go rogue.  You don’t know how far he's willing to go, but you want to give Jimin a chance.    

“Yeah, I’d love to hear your version.  Plus, Tae is still on probation for telling tall tales to Jungkookie.”

You feel Jimin squeeze you tighter to his side and Tae’s eyes crinkle in amusement and understanding.  He interlaces his hand with yours and you feel Jimin play with your hair.  Content, you close your eyes and lean into their comforting touch.  You’ve asked and now you wait or fall asleep.

When Jimin starts telling the story though, it isn’t at all how you imagined he’d tell it.  There’s an edge of malicious compliance, not towards you, but the Rules.  His sweet voice is soft and airy as it weaves an incandescent tale.  It feels like all the world holds its breath to make room for his bedtime story.

“She was the girl at the end of the universe.  She was never taught how to dream, but learned how to tie her shoes on her own.  She was never taught how to build a fire, but she learned how to withstand the cold.  She was never taught how to run, but she learned how to take one step forward at a time.  She was never taught how to fight, but she learned how to carve out a home where she stood.  She built a house and strangely, it didn’t have a door.  It wasn’t on purpose.  She never had a visitor before, so it didn’t occur to her that she should put one in.  Until one day a green boy climbed through her window.  

“This boy was strange and scary and something new.  He was a boy who spoke a different language than her filled with hands that held and arms that squeezed and smiles that came easily.  Slowly, she learned his language, but still, she kept the window open waiting for the day he would go home.  She didn’t know though that the boy was actually teaching her how to make a door until she found herself outside.  

“The sky was filled with so many stars.  The boy pointed to his star.  He said he had started building a bridge to her corner of the universe, but got impatient and jumped into her window.  She saw his bridge made of green vines that bloomed and twirled and she knew what she wanted to do.  She built a bridge of moonlight from her side until it met his in the middle.  With this template, she was able to build bridges to other stars who met her half way.  It was sad when some bridges crumbled, but she was encouraged when others held strong.  Still, she and the boy visited every day until he had to travel further than she’d ever been before to reach a dream of songs.

“There was nothing to worry about though because she started to build a bridge to his new star and he was already working on his end to reach her.  This time he had help though.  Six more boys with red bricks, black asphalt, blue stone, yellow timber, violet iron, and pink gems.  As time went by, the bridge began to branch off in different stages of completion through no one’s fault.  That’s just how life is.  Life throws curveballs and sometimes gives you unexpected things.  

“And this girl started finding many unexpected things.  She found fuschia gifts flown to her on paper planes.  Bubblegum stories that floated and bobbed to her.  Blushing songs that sang her to sleep.  She found a cherry blossom love that fell like snow, creating a flower path to a pink boy.  

“The pink boy also found unexpected things.  He found all his shoes tied with neat bows.  A warmth no fire could hold a candle to.  Footprints that led down sheltered paths when the currents around him threatened to bowl him over.  He found a girl at the end of the universe with a love carefully crafted with her own bare hands.  They built a new home together on their bridge, and with their carefully crafted cherry blossom love, they created a new star.  

“But they forgot that life throws curveballs.  The girl woke up one day to find her door broken and her window boarded up, trapped in her old home.  She didn’t remember how she ended up there, but it was dark and she thought she heard muffled voices outside.  She peeked slivers of pink, green, red, black, blue, yellow, and violet through the boards and the space beneath her door.  The boys could not dare to destroy this sanctuary she built, so they sit and wait.  They sit and wait and hope she hears their dream of songs and remembers how to make a door.”

You float down from the microcosmos, as you register the hand still carding your hair and the other hand holding yours.  Silent tears are streaming down your cheeks and you stutter on an inhale like it's your very first breath drawn.  When you open your eyes, Tae smiles and lightly taps your chin.  

“I’m trying,” you whisper, voice hoarse with your tears.

“We know,” Jimin says kindly.

Tae squeezes you both.  “Just do what you have to do.”

“Even if it hurts?”

“Even if it hurts.”

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[skywavelinux]

Skywave Linux v5 is Now on Debian Sid!

Enjoy shortwave radio and overseas broadcasts, no matter where you are. Skywave Linux brings the signals to you. Broadcasting, amateur radio, maritime, and military signals are available at your fingertips.

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