#Used Engine Leads

[mugentakeda]

the successful aftermath of the first ever (improvised) top surgery, invented by master katara of the southern water tribe and performed on fire lord zuko (circa 104 ag)

[dykedvonte]

If Ulysses has a million haters, then I'm one of them. If Ulysses has one hater, then I'm THAT ONE. If Ulysses has no haters, that means I'm dead. If the world is with Ulysses than I’m against the world.

[introspectivememories]

f1blr is soo funny to me bc you go on someone's blog and there will be post after post that reads like "did you see the way his eyes crinkled? the way his lips wrapped around the water bottle? did you see the way max verstappen's tits bounced when he walked back to garage? god my pussy is trembling 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫" and then you exit off and click on the next person you see and their pinned post will be something like "max verstappen is a hideous beast. i pray his engines explode. may god give him p20" where else can you get this experience?

[lucid-fate-if]

Hello istahil. I was wondering if you had any advice on writing characters. I love how fleshed out and we'll developed all your characters are and I was wondering what your process of developing them has been like.

Hey anon! Hope you're having a wonderful day <3

I've written down what exactly helped me and I'm 80% sure it'll help you a lot. I know and have mentioned 3 methods and one might help. Maybe.

Method 1:

I actually saw a post (say about a few months ago) talking about how you should stick to cliche characters and I think that would be perfect advice (I only saw the post after developing my characters so it didn't apply to me but if I didn't, I'd totally go with that) + (I would link the post but I can't seem to find it sorry :( )

Method 2:

Something else I did (one I actually followed) was I'd collect a bunch of characters (from shows/movies/serieses) and pick out what they had in common, realistic things they'd do (like have more than one pet peeve on things) or just habits they had that I liked a lot. So I'd mix and match (but avoiding clashing two different vibes together unless your character had heavy mood swings lol)

If every character is the same at the start (a mirror of yourself most likely) trying basing your characters on other pre-existing characters you love. Or at least some parts of their characteristics or characteristics from various similar characters combined.

" Inspiration from other characters can go a long way in creating a unique character of your own." - random Reddit user I saw

If you want your protagonist/Romance option/side character to be a golden retriever type of a character, think of characters with the same habits and behaviour from other movies and serieses you've watched.

Method 3:

Also I started using character sheets? This is actually pretty useful as you can write out their goals and all of that. I've made a template for the exact one I'm using so that might help? (It's not completed but it's a start!)

Here's the template make sure to copy the file then begin editing it!

[timeisacephalopod]

You know as a horror fan "cultural Christianity" is such a useful term because as an atheist as well as a horror fan and a fan of haunted house stuff if it's done well I very, very quickly noticed how many horror movies are Christian propaganda. So few horror movies involving religion (which is a shocking amount of them btw) pick any religion that's not Christianity to center itself around and when they do that religion is bad and evil, not the cause of evil and the savior from it (because the demons may be Christian, but God and the bible are also the solutions in a way other religions aren't granted. Bonus points if it's an indigenous religion being portrayed as Evil and Bad).

Pretty much any exceptions I can think of to that rule use Judaism and the Holocaust as a backdrop and never in like a normal, the Holocaust is horrible way it's always playing on myths of Nazi Germany's experimentation on the Jewish population. Which I find highly troubling and disturbing, but regardless nothing like being a horror fan to convince you of cultural Christianity because no other genre leans on religion as a plot device so much unless it's straight up a Christian movie for a Christian audience using Christianity as it's main theme and through line.

[pallases]

putting verilog in the blender

[peterbwatsonparker]

my controversial marvel opinion is that mutants and mutates are related, taxonomically.

mostly to rationalize how even in universe some people get in radiation/chemical/whatever accidents and die while others get superpowers.

so the way i see it is that there’s a certain subset of people who possess certain genes that make their DNA more malleable, and able to accept and reorder itself around mutations, which includes both mutants and mutates, with the main difference between the two being that mutates are able to accept changes, but need some sort of outside trigger to set off/activate mutations, while mutants have the x-gene that acts as a sort of internal trigger, allowing for powers to activate without external influences

[starvingtongue]

mini watcher headcanons

Having no concept of gender, The Watcher doesn’t mind what pronouns you give them. It doesn’t concern them to 'have' a gender, as it’s never been something they’ve needed to think about, nor is it something that were ever a necessity with Guardians as a whole.

They don't really need to eat or drink much to survive. Sleep is necessary though, as it helps their body regenerate in much the same way that humans do, but they don’t need much of it to get by. I’m half tempted to say they ‘consume’ Eridium to give themselves more energy instead of food but maybe that's cheating. Considering they're also a bio-mechanical construct, food and water don't quite do as much for them as it would for humans.

They have a fondness for glowing flora or just anything glowing in general tbh. It reminds them of home, so any time they see anything glowing, they do stop and admire it for a couple of seconds. Not that there’s much glowing plant life on Pandora but they take what they can get.

They also have no concept of sexuality. Prior to getting heavily involved with humans, they identify as asexual/aromantic, and even after, still identifies as asexual. Their aromanticism as kind of developed into greyromanticism as a result of interacting with humans. Having never exeperienced sex, love, romance, all of that, they never developed a sense of understanding about what sexuality was until they started observing humans. I'm also very much under the impression that they didn't even begin to understand the concept until they became fully sentient either. Even after experiencing it in some semblance of the word, the asexuality remained and they realised they might be capable of love, but it would on very rare occasions.

The Guardians don't have the same view of sex as humans do, their bodies are bio-mechanical constructs after all, and they don't even need to have sex to procreate. This is something I'm hoping to touch on more in another headcanon, but as Guardian bodies are bio-mechanical in nature, their bodies are engineered, then their wispy souls are implanted when one's available. This is to keep their defenses up, and meant that the Eridians didn't have to worry about long gestation periods, the aging process, training, etc. The Guardians could be created in the 'perfect' body needed for the situation, the next available soul would possess the body, and off they'd go.

[toytulini]

i do love my car it is the perfect car aside from the. imperfections and frequent problems,

[self-made-cages]

So my parents (lovingly) picked me up from the airport but then they apparently had an appointment in the city, so I am currently sitting in the backseat of my mom’s car in a parking lot, working off of my laptop and hotspot, while they are picking out cabinets or something??

[teleconhaikus]

The number of male colleagues I actively avoid is increasing ... AND I WORK FROM HOME. Big yikes to ever going back to working in an office if this is how rude people are when behind a screen.

[kimmkitsuragi]

ughhhh i literally cannot take how my classes start tmrw and i will have to work on a stupid project for another whole semester............ *applies for masters programs while saying this*

[foxaes]

i might need a new car battery ugh

[pallases]

okay guys i have calculated it all out and even if i get a big fat zero on this race i will still earn a b in the class assuming i get 100% on the other remaining three assignments two of which are a given for 100% and the last of which is like. even if we get a 75% on it (which i do not really see happening) i can still scrape by w a b-

[nerdyfangirlingbooks]

I've had a stupid merlin au idea stuck in my head for days now and I know I'll never get around to writing it the way I want it written but I kinda wanna try anyway even though I am 100% of the target audience

[reasonsforhope]

"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.

Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.

“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”

Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.

The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.

These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.

Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.

“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”

At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.

“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.

The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”

And the urban planting continues to this day.

The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...

“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”

Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”

The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...

In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]

There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.

Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.

“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."

-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024