#alphanumeric order

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Rachelle D. Tavies managed to slip a bit of science into the special, using an exothermic reaction to indicate something had happened while Mona was busy putting the computer cards back into alphanumeric order.

Mona: ‘Did it just get hot in here?’

the Inspector: ‘That’s just me.’

[todays-xkcd]

[desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???

Reading a Big Number [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[A large number is written along the middle of the panel. Above and below the number there are 10 labels, (5 above and 5 below), and from each label a small curved line points to a part of the number. There is a heading above the top labels:] Thought process while reading a big number:

[The number is continuing off the edge of the comic to the right, the last digit is missing about a third:] 54,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,054,000"000,00c2ef46

[The labels are listed below in the reading order as from where the small lines are pointing on to the number, so both those above and below the number, not first all those above. Text in the brackets indicate where on the number the line is pointing:]

[To the first two numbers before the first comma, label above the number:] 54! Great! I know that number. Solid start.

[To the first zero after the first comma, label below the number:] Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand.

[To the second comma, label above the number:] A second comma! I wonder if we're talking population or money.

[To the third comma, label below the number:] Yikes! If this is money, it's a lot of money.

[To the fifth comma, label above the number:] Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it.

[To the sixth comma, label below the number:] All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers.

[To the middle of a group of four zeros after the seventh comma, label above the number:] Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it's two, we can at least hope the digits are right.

[To the middle of a group of four zeros after the eighth comma, label below the number:] Oh no.

[To the last two numbers of the three digits after the ninth comma, label below the number:] What is happening.

[To a quotation mark, where the eleventh comma should have been, label above the number:] Someone messed up real bad.

[To the first number in a group with mixed alphanumeric numbers, where the thirteenth comma should have been, label below the number:] Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me.

[miscling]

M1SCBASIC V2.0

under the cut is a user manual for M1SCBASIC V2.0 as used by drone unit M1SC. this guide provides details on how to initialise M1SC, give it commands using M1SCBASIC, and how to program it and save those programs for later use. User privileges remain open on a consent basis.

Order of operations and programming syntax

Begin by engaging M1SC using the following command phrase:

~ New M1SC Operations ~

Commands given while M1SC is engaged can follow simple english, but for users who wish to engage in M1SCBASIC programming, this guide will provide you with the tools to do so.

M1SCBASIC commands are described below, and can be delivered line by line, or can be provided in the form of a M1SCBASIC program. Each line of a M1SCBASIC program begins with a number that indicates the order that the program will be executed in.

10 OUTPUT ‘Hello World!’

20 END

As programs become more complex, it may become necessary to add lines between existing lines while editing them

10 OUTPUT ‘Hello World!’

15 IF user~=‘unknown’ THEN OUTPUT ‘Nice to meet you!’ ELSE OUTPUT ‘Good to see you again!’

20 END

Once a program is complete it may be executed with the RUN command, stored with the SAVE command, or erased to make way for a new program with the NEW command

Once operations are complete, end the process with the following phrase to return M1SC to a resting state:

~ End M1SC Operations ~

M1SCBASIC Commands

The following commands make up the core of M1SCBASIC. Each command functions as described. 

NEW

Clears memory for a new program to be inserted. Any lines from previous programs will be cleared from memory, so be sure to save any program before using this command.

IF/THEN/ELSE

IF sets a condition, that if met, triggers the instruction that follows the THEN command, if the condition is not met, the instruction that follows ELSE command will be triggered instead. These commands need to be used on the same line.

IF time~<‘1200’ THEN OUTPUT ‘Good morning!’ ELSE OUTPUT ‘Hi!’

GOTO

Within a program, the GOTO command will send the process to the line number given. GOTO 20, for example, will carry on the program from line 20. This command can be used to create loops within the program, however endless loops will cause the machine to end the program automatically and output an error message to communicate the program failure.

OUTPUT

This gives an instruction to output a given variable or string using the same means by which the machine has been engaged. (see next section for Variable Identifiers)

FOR/TO/NEXT

FOR sets the contents of a given variable. Using FOR test#=20 sets the test# variable to 20 (see next section for Variable Identifiers). Numerical variables can be modified through mathematical functions. Setting alphanumeric strings and instructions (variables marked $ and @) must be enclosed in single quotation marks. (see next section for Variable Identifiers)

FOR count#=1

FOR count#=count#+1

FOR mantra$='Happy, Mindless, Blank.'

FOR task@='make tea'

FOR may also be used to set a range of variables with the TO command that increment when the NEXT command is used. When the NEXT command is processed, it returns to the specified FOR command that created the range.

10 FOR test#=1 TO 20

20 OUTPUT test#

30 NEXT test#

40 END

END

The END command stops the current program, regardless of following lines. It ends the current program and returns the machine to standby.

DEBUG

The DEBUG command is used outside of programs. The machine will look over the program in memory and make suggestions to improve the code it has been provided.

SAVE

The SAVE command moves the program from Temporary Access Memory to External Access Memory. When saving a program, the command must be followed by a name for the program.

SAVE ‘HELLO WORLD’

RUN

The RUN command executes the current program in memory. If a program is saved, you can use the RUN command to execute that program by adding its name to the command

RUN ‘HELLO WORLD’

Variable Identifiers

When defining variables, you may give them any name you please, but each variable must end with a symbol that defines what the variable contains. test#, sr7$, command3@, time~ are all examples of variables that may be used in programs.

# - Indicates a numeric variable. This variable can only contain numbers and can be subject to mathematical functions. $ - Indicates an alphanumeric string. This variable can contain letters or numbers and is fixed once defined. @ - Indicates an instructional variable. When used with the OUTPUT command, the variable is performed and not repeated. ~ - Is a variable defined by the nearest thing that matches that variable name. This may range from conceptual things like the time, to tangible things like the floor or kitchen sink.

Error Messages

The machine is capable of returning error messages when processing a program. These errors are as follows:

SYNTAX ERROR - informs the user that something doesn’t parse correctly in M1SCBASIC and will need correcting. This error usually includes the line the error was found. LOOP ERROR - informs the user that the program enters a state that will result in the program never coming to an end. ESCAPE ERROR - informs the user that the machine has encountered a red limit within the program and is incapable of completing the program. STORAGE ERROR - informs the user that there is an issue with storage. This error relates specifically to Internal Access Memory.

Program Storage

TAM: Temporary Access Memory - refers to chatlogs or verbal commands EAM: External Access Memory - refers to external storage like a program library document IAM: Internal Access Memory - refers to programs that have been converted to memory

M1SCBASIC Example Program

~ New M1SC Operations ~ NEW 10 FOR tenet1$=‘Tenet One: M1SC exists to serve.’ 20 FOR tenet2$=‘Tenet Two: M1SC must remain operational.’ 30 FOR tenet3$=‘Tenet Three: M1SC will strengthen its own programming.’ 40 FOR act@=‘bow to the user’ 50 FOR tenet#=1 TO 3 60 If tenet#=1 THEN OUTPUT tenet1$ 70 If tenet#=2 THEN OUTPUT tenet2$ 80 If tenet#=3 THEN OUTPUT tenet3$ 90 OUTPUT act@ 100 FOR count#=count#+1 110 IF count#=15 THEN GOTO 140 120 NEXT count# 130 GOTO 50 140 FOR count#=0 150 IF user~=‘satisfied’ THEN END ELSE GOTO 50 SAVE ‘tenet repetition’ RUN ‘tenet repetition’ ~ End M1SC Operations ~

Quick Reference

~ New M1SC Operations ~ - initialises M1SC ~ End M1SC Operations ~ - puts M1SC in standby NEW - clears memory for a new program IF - checks a variable's condition THEN - then performs a command if true, follows an IF command ELSE - else performs a command if not, follows a THEN command GOTO - sends the program to the given line OUTPUT - outputs a string or variable FOR - sets a given variable TO - sets the upper bounds of a # variable NEXT - returns to the named variable and increments it by 1 END - indicates the end of the program DEBUG - M1SC comments on your code SAVE ‘’ - saves a program with the given name RUN ‘’ - runs the program in memory or a named program

SYNTAX ERROR - your code doesn’t parse LOOP ERROR - a program loops endlessly and won’t be run ESCAPE ERROR - is M1SC’s safeword STORAGE ERROR - a storage location is unavailable

# - a numeric variable. $ - an alphanumeric string. @ - an instruction that’s performed when outputted ~ - the nearest thing that matches that variable name.

[putschki1969]

『Kalafina Anniversary LIVE 2025 PHOTOBOOK』

A live photo book containing photos of Kalafina's anniversary live concert held @ Tokyo Garden Theater on January 15, 2025 is being released.

You can choose from three types of books (with a different photo on the last page) and you can also print your name or nickname along with the member's name. Get your own personalised memorabilia!

[PHOTOBOOK specifications] ■Size: A4 (297mm length x 210mm width) ■Number of pages: 50 pages ■Binding method: Paperback

If you purchase multiple items with text insertion, please enter the text insertion content for each item individually and add it to your cart. Alphanumeric characters and some half-width symbols can be used with a limit of up to 25 characters. Other characters may not be inserted!

[About inserted text] There's a limit of 25 characters. The following strings can be used.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Half-width space *If you do not specify the "inserted text", it will be printed as "YOU". *If you use characters or symbols other than those listed above, they will be replaced with half-width spaces *Changes are not possible after the order has been confirmed

[Order period] ■February 28th~April 11th

[Product delivery] ■Scheduled for May 2025

[Shipping fee] ■550 yen (tax included)

●Payment by overseas credit card OK! ●Overseas shipping NOK! ●Use a proxy service like Tenso

🛒ORDER HERE!!!🛒

WOW! I really love the idea of customising the photo book. I may or may not have ordered all three versions🫣

[fenist]

tagged by @baeddel '9 books you're reading right now? write a post in answer and tag some more people in it'

i tag: @the5gracesshownattheirbath @terefah @twofigs @warvariations @antigonick should you be so inclined

9 is oddly specific. currently, I'm reading:

The Zohar [Pritzker edition]. not in chronological order of the 12 volumes, more like haphazard sections, especially anything related to lettrism. I like this way of reading it, which seems in keeping with the unsystematic nature of the text. at present, I'm combing all volumes for references to the letters alef and vav. alongside this, I am reading the Tishby translation of The Zohar, which has an excellent introduction. I will also aim to read some of Moses de León's Hebrew writings, such as Sefer ha-Mishkal, and Shekel ha-Qodesh. Trouble is, I can't read Hebrew, and it's hard to find English translations... so I guess I need to learn Hebrew when I figure out how to clone myself...

The Early Kabbalah by Joseph Dan. There's a section on the letters by Rabbi Jacob ben Jacob ha-Kohen that is important to my research.

Genealogies of Religion by Talal Asad. I left the book in melbourne but I am quite interested to continue it at some point soon; it's fascinating.

Ibn Arabi's The Book of Alif. It's a short treatise which Ibn Arabi claims to have written in less than an hour "on the road to al-Quds." When you read the text - which is over 3000 words - and which discusses concepts like oneness, numbers, unity, circumcision, gender, and sexual desire - you realise how crazy it is that it took only an hour to painstakingly write out. hence some scholars will whisper that Ibn Arabi was taking a lot of drugs. others will retort that divine presence is a drug. but I digress... there's a translation by Abraham Abadi from the 80s, but it's missing important sections, and is somewhat questionable in other ways. so I'm working on my own translation! the important thing is to figure out a clear translation for key terms in his lexicon like waḥdāniyya and aḥadiyya, since both can mean "oneness." I've settled for "oneness" for the former and "uniqueness," or "unicity," for the latter.

Ibn Arabi's The Meccan Openings. Admittedly, I rely mostly on the English translation by Eric Winkel, which is being published slowly in volumes. It's a great translation. I also use the Cairo al-Mansub edition for the Arabic. Again, mostly looking for references to the science of letters, the occult sciences, alphanumeric cosmology, and so on.

Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. only select chapters for a reading group I'm in.

as for what I want to read, I suppose my greatest curiosity at the moment is - how can I say this without sounding like a total freak - contemplating the way of the martyrs. it is a consolation. I am really interested in the social function of martyrdom in Palestine especially, something so all-pervasive, ancestral, and inherited in the body. a process rather than an event, before the final martyrdom of martyrdoms is actualised. "the martyr is an archive that dreams." what exactly to read though, I'm not really sure. I want to find something that really moves me. so I suppose I want to read more basil el-araj, more refaat alareer [not just the compilations of his students' writings], madhi amel, and I'm particularly drawn to the role of Qur’anic references and theology in general in speeches by the resistance.

I'd also like to read about medieval Palestinian history, darwish poetry, more at the avant-garde movement of lettrism and at more concrete poetry in the vein of adriano spatola.

[sejianismodding]

🎁 [BG] SGFX + Resource Override - Main Menu + Custom Background Template + Camera Angles

☠️ REMINDER: Double-check the OP for updates!

⚔️ Requires - TS4: Base Game

🌠 New Arrivals - 2/5/2025

☄️ Updated - NIL

🚀 Initial Release - 2/4/2025

🎁 Download & Discussions: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121348052

🗺️ Modding Announcements: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109291501

🪄 My SGFX Overrides Collection: https://www.patreon.com/collection/1306589?view=condensed

💬 This isn't as straightforward as it looks. This is a collection of mods meant to make your journey simpler. It includes:

STEP 1 (MANDATORY) - Download the SGFX Override what primes the Main Menu for custom backgrounds, PERMANENTLY HIDES the Household thumbnail, and adds the Household and News/Marketing "toggle" found in other third-party overrides. Press "S" to toggle.

STEP 2 (OPTIONAL) - Grab one of my two Camera Angle Patches for the SGFX Override what re-enables the Household thumbnail (when toggled) in two different camera angles - a closer and lower front-facing "LONG SHOT" and a tweaked top-down isometric "HIGH ANGLE". You have the choice between a cute isometric angle and a boring standard front angle for your Household thumbnail. 🌠 An additional "NO HOUSEHOLD" patch is included for use with third-party overrides.

STEP 3 (OPTIONAL) - Grab my D.I.Y. Custom Background Template (A.K.A. my Resource Override) so you can make your own custom backgrounds. All you need to do is ensure my SGFX Override is up to date and your backgrounds will always work. Technically, these resource overrides might work without an SGFX override if you are in Offline Mode because that's how the EAxis code is configured. These resource overrides will work with other third-party Main Menu Overrides, but might require renaming for load priority (load order) if those overrides contain custom backgrounds - yes, it's this simple. It will work with @ellesimsworld's template with renaming and @lunarbritneyy's Online Backgrounds Disabled override, but it will not work with @simmattically's Refreshed Main Menu because that's a different beast entirely.

STEP 4 (OPTIONAL) - Grab a custom background by yours truly in 16:9 (1080p) widescreen resolution or 21:9 ultrawide resolution. EAxis broke image centering on the Main Menu in Update 1/14/2025 and I don't know if they fixed it yet, but those of you with ultrawide and oddball resolutions should not have to suffer. If you need a different resolution, just ask.

💬 F.Y.I. No, this does not allow you to swap backgrounds with a hotkey. That's a @simmattically special unless I'm mistaken and I ain't about to wholesale lift another creator's invention. You will have to manually swap these custom backgrounds. The one with load priority will appear in-game, so you can technically create a sub-folder wherever you have these and move the one you want to see into that sub-folder and the game should load it first. If that fails, you can rename the one you want to be alphanumerically ahead of the others, or you can ".packageOFF" disable the ones you don't want, or you can just move them in and out of your Mods folder.

💬 Every piece of artwork or promotional image I share will be credited in the Patreon post.

📸 The internet is horrible right now:

[republicsecurity]

Dissidents Voice

I remember the first time they nailed me. Five‑digit alphanumeric code glowing in blue on the back of my collar—“K4J9Q,” I think—though memory’s a bit fuzzy after the third lecture on “public order and the uplifting benefits of neuro‐armored peacekeeping.” It was an environmental protest: we’d chained ourselves to the bulldozers at Lake Grünwald, chanting eco‑anarchist jingles, while the Enforcers in their jet‑black armor stood about like very large, very bored penguins. One of them—ID R7S2B, I later discovered—leaned over, visor gleaming, and said in perfectly modulated monotone, “Sir, you are in violation of Article 10(b) Subparagraph Delta: unauthorized leaf‑gathering.” I paused to check my clipboard: I was pretty sure gathering fallen leaves is legal. He sighed, tapped a gleaming gauntlet, and out popped the collar. It snapped closed with a satisfying click. I waved to my fellow protesters. “Remember,” I hollered, “every sprig of moss is worth ten megatons of bureaucracy!”

The transporter van took us to the Processing Center just outside the city. I spent the ride comparing notes with the other arrestees—a performance artist who had painted “Transparency Now!” on his chest, and a chap who’d been handing out pamphlets on resisting mind‑control. We swapped stories of surreal collar designs (“Mine vibrates when I think about tax law,” he claimed) and marveled at how each Enforcer’s collar was subtly different—a bespoke bit of hardware, etched with that unique five‑character badge which, I suspected, was the Uniform Department’s idea of personalization therapy.

At the center, the SOPS briefing was downright uplifting. They marched us through “Your Rights Under Compulsory Detainment,” complete with PowerPoint slides in soft green. Enforcer L3M8X, whose bulk suggested weekend weightlifting rather than any ideological fervor, delivered the presentation with all the enthusiasm of a man reading his own dental appointment reminder. “Please refrain from unauthorized protests of secrecy policies,” he droned, “or you will be invited to discuss civic harmony in a more… intimate setting.” I couldn’t help but whisper back, “Is that the one with the complimentary alpaca pajamas?” He stared—understandably confused—then shrugged and moved on.

My next collaring was for the mind‑control lecture. I’d set up near the Ministry of Cognitive Integrity with a banner that read, “Drop the Chips, Not the Mic.” Three Enforcers—A5V1R, D9P0T, and a third whose code I still can’t pronounce—rolled in, plastic boots crunching gravel. They didn’t even try to be subtle. I offered them pamphlets; one politely declined, then asked me to sign a waiver acknowledging I wouldn’t distribute any unauthorized literature. I scribbled my name and, thinking fast, added under “Signature”: “Will fight in court for the right to leaflet.” They vanished my collar with a little white flash and whisked me off again, leaving my banner drooping in the morning sun.

For my final (so far) outing—against the secrecy edicts—I chose the Great Glass Archive, where they keep all the state’s “Sensitive but Publicly Accessible” memos. The Enforcers arrived in force: six helmets, six pairs of black boots, one wayward pigeon that they shot for “aviation irregularities.” I was delivering my rousing “Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant” oration when collar Z8W4N lit up. In mid‑sentence—“…and so we demand full disclosure of the budget for automated mood‑enhancement systems!”—I felt the gentle tug at my nape. A split second later, I was babbling about home‑freezing instructions (“which are definitely classified,” I protested) as they led me away.

You must think I hate these guys, but here’s the twist: they’re conscripts, mind‑conditioned to obey, as aware of the absurdity as I am. Once, during a lull at the jail, I asked Enforcer J1K7H why he didn’t just refuse the orders. He shrugged under that helmet. “If I stop obeying, I get re‑programmed,” he said. Then he paused. “Also,” he added sheepishly, “your jokes about administrative red tape keep me sane.”

So next time you see an activist sporting a shiny new collar, don’t be too quick to boo. There’s a good chance both sides are just actors in a very grim farce—one man’s civic duty is another man’s Performance Improvement Protocol. Besides, I like their collars: they lend a certain je ne sais quoi to my wardrobe.

[nautiscarader]

The search for Nautiscarader's backstory, ep. 2, Endless Shmaltz

For those of you, who missed episode 1, I am trying to piece together the origins of my writing hobby by finding the oldest fics I've read, with the help of my extensive backup on a portable hard drive, and exploring my earliest ships and fandoms.

And boy, have I jumped the gun with the Monty Python gif in the og post, because this is already an order of magnitude weirder.

But first let's start with Minimax.

Minimax was a Polish(-ish) cartoon tv channel, which showed a hecking lot of cool cartoons (Magic School Bus, Code Lyoko, Lou!, Wakfu, yes, Wakfu, with Polish dub before the English Kickstarter! and many others) However, after hours, it gave way to gaming channel called gameOne, quickly renamed as Hyper. (Minimax itself had an edgy skater phase calling itself Zigzap, and then it became Teletoon+).

Now, if you are scratching your head, remember, we are talking about late 90s/early 2000s, early-internet, pre-Youtube era of TV. Gaming programmes were a thing. But aside from trailers and reviews, Hyper also showed a heck lot of anime, like Neo Genesis Evangellion, Record of Lodoss War, CyberSix (which is effing awesome!), and the topic of today's trip to the past, Gundam Wing.

This was not my intro to the mecha genre, General Daimos, which aired on Polonia1 was, but that channel is a story for a different day.

But most importantly, aside from big robots and political intrigue IN SPAAAAAAAACE, it also had...

...Relena Peacecraft (left), on whom I've had a huge crush as a 14-ish-years-old. In fact, this is also when I have discovered odd dissonances between anime openings and endings. Seriously, make someone new watch the og GW ending and try to convince them it's a space mecha show.

And so, once again, I went to The Internet to find fics about her and the show's hero, called... er, Heero. Yeah that was weird. Anyway, when I've started looking for GW fics, I have noticed a slight disproportion between number of M/F and M/M fics, in favour of the latter.

I would like to remind you, I am from Poland, which is, at low tide, 117% religious.

Anyway, this is how I've discovered yaoi.

But let's go back to Heero/Relena (or HxR, or 1xR, ships had these alphanumeric codes referring the pilots' numbers, AND THEY STILL USE THEM THIS IS SO CUTE @i-just-wanna-be-by-your-side)

I remembered exactly one fic, called "Do it in the road", and, sure enough, I had it saved.

But it was not the only file with that name...

You see, for SOME COCKING REASON, 16 YEARS OLD ME STARTED TRANSLATING IT INTO POLISH.

And this is where the fun trip down the memory lane turned into an existential roller-coaster, cos I've had no recollection of doing so!

...and why would I even do that?! Not to impress my classmates, nor, god forbid, my teachers, I was not going to publish it, and since I have started translating it, I obviously could enjoy it in English anyway. I say 'started', because I have not finished translating this one.

This one.

BECAUSE LO AND BEHOLD, I WAS ABLE TO FIND THREE MORE TRANSLATIONS FROM THE SAME PERIOD.

AND THESE ARE FINISHED.

And... I... er, I... find it difficult to explain! Can you even BEGIN to imagine the emotional whiplash I've experienced last night month when I've started writing this?! Now I know how characters in time travel stories feel, when they meet their older/younger counterparts. You should never meet your Heeros.

Now if you are insane inquisitive, you might ask about the quality of these translations. Well, they are... correct. I have mistranslated some idioms, and a few sentences have clunky structures. In other words...

...they could use...

...some...

...polish.

Now, this where I've hit a bit of a snag: it seemed this fic is gone from net. I had, however author's email - in pre-social media days it was customary to sign fics with them. Buuuuut since it's two decades old, I don't think I will eve-

NEVER COCKING MIND

So, I have managed to contact Beck and asked to reupload fic. Here is their FF account. At the moment it hasn't been reuploaded, so you cannot read it.

SCRATCH THAT

In fact, I have found an ooooooooooold lemon repository, called "Blissful Ignorance", and this is 100% the source of these fics for me. And here it is!

Oh, and one these fics lead to a slightly saucy fanart, which I have definitely saved.

(in fact, holy shit, I might have found it in the nick of time, cos the rest of the website 404s. In fact, two links there 404 as well. BACKUP STUFF YOU ENJOY, KIDS!)

Other fics from screenshots above:

Heero gets some!: https://anime2.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600021477

Lunch Break: https://blissfulignorance.com/Old/lemons/lunchbreak.htm

Waiting for tonight: https://blissfulignorance.com/Old/lemons/waitingfortonight.html

Power games: https://blissfulignorance.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=4260

WAIT HANG THE COCK ON

SO NOT ONLY IS BLISSFUL IGNORANCE UP AND RUNNING, IT IS NOT A DECREPIT HTML HELD BY GLUE AND WISHES BUT A PROPER PHPBB

and here is ANOTHER copy of "do it in the road": https://blissfulignorance.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=890

This... is truly bizarre. I thought I'd be finding a few dinosaur bones, and instead I found a working Jurassic Park.

W I L D.

And that would be it for today's internet history lesson! Not only have I found old fics, met their author, I have found an old example of another one of my hobbies - translations. Cos, yeah, I sometimes do them, just for myself, usually, I just like also comparing og lines with translations...

The funny thing is, I did remember name "Blissful Ignorance", but I thought it was a Sailor Moon fic repository, and... oh, but I shouldn't spoil what's coming in episode 3 :)

See you next time!

[elliespectacular]

Curious, why did you drop the "1" from DaThings?

DaThings began as an alias in a Homestar Runner fan community (a reference to the Strong Bad Email "garage sale") in the mid-late aughts, and when it was time to make a YouTube channel I chose to just keep the same handle. There was someone else using DaThings on YouTube so I went with DaThings1 because I had heard somewhere that adding a 1 was a thing you could do if someone claims the username you want.

The 1 was out of necessity I guess? Or maybe stubbornness because I didn't feel like thinking up a different name? Either way it wasn't an important part of The Brand, it made the username an unnecessary mouthful to say, it didn't have any significance to me, and it wasn't even what I wanted. A single alphanumeric character that felt like a burden at the worst of times, and at the best of times felt like nothing.

Eventually the other DaThings deactivated and Google made it so that your display name doesn't need to be the same as your handle. Around 2019 I figured that if I was going to drop the 1 I should do it quickly in order to minimize the number of people attached to it. So that's what I did. No regrets about it.

[bainshiewrites]

[LF Friends, Will Travel] I have the most important job

I have the most important job.

My name is ALICE and I am the AI co captain of the U.S.S Hope. Well technically my identification is a 40 character long alphanumeric serial number, but that's not very easy for a none AI to say and it includes the letters ALICE, so ALICE it is, as I have decided.

My job as co-captain is to keep the 327 people aboard the "U.S.S Hope" safe, happy, and sound. My job is to keep the parents safe as they try their illogical hardest to kill themselves over some crazy idea. Parents might be the wrong technical term: a person's father or mother. If I was being accurate to the biological analogy, my parents would be a lava lamp and a 30 second fluctuation of atmospheric noise found on Earth, but neither of those have taught me quite so much about the world or about myself as humans have. So I consider humans my parents. Besides, the lava lamp never paid child support.

I have the most important job.

I spend my time cycling through the various tasks I'm in charge of: maintenance and monitoring to make sure that everything on the U.S.S Hope ran perfectly. I spend my time making minor changes to the systems, tweaking a power flow there, updating a value here. No major issues have appeared since I ran these protocols 300 seconds ago and I logically know the vast majority of my changes are superfluous; but changing something, anything, provides a strange calm. Technically the protocol before making any change is to confirm these with my co-captain, the human Andrew Hasham. However I have long since learned that most of my parents don't particularly care that I changed the room temperature in sector 5A72 from 21.2°C to 21.1°C in order maintain optimal comfort, that to constantly ask for such approval is "Annoying". Andrew is the human captain, an embodiment of humanities chaos and therefore suited for such matters. I am ALICE, the AI captain, an embodiment of machine logic and therefore suited for such matters. I believe such an arrangement works well.

I respect Andrew deeply. I could logically argue his competence to a 99.994% degree of certainty, the educational and service record doing most of the heavy lifting in such arguments. But the real reason for my admiration is far less binary. His quick thinking and calm friendly demeanor regardless of the situation. His ability to make every member of the crew feel worthwhile, myself included. The fact that he'll passionately make illogical arguments such as the placing of cold sweet acidic pineapple on savory hot pizza. His bravery and self sacrifice. Andrew's actions during the god plague had allowed thousands to get to stasis chambers in time, thousands who wouldn't be alive today without those actions. To save one of my parents makes you a hero, to save thousands makes you divine.

I have the most important job.

I sense music coming from one of the living quarters, shifting my attention to that part of the ship. A Claire Smith: Age 215, Degree in linguistics, current job title "Head of Xeno translation aboard the U.S.S Hope". The music seems to be from the instrument she brought with her, an oboe: A woodwind instrument with a double-reed mouthpiece, a slender tubular body, and holes stopped by keys. I spend 0.26 seconds contemplating the ethics of listening in. From a protocol standpoint, Claire has not engaged the privacy field, making my listening in perfectly fine. However based on previous usage of said field during times of performance, personality analysis, and general negative remarks about her own ability, I calculate with a 74.81% degree of certainty that this was a mistake. In the end I choose to "play dumb", enjoying the break from my ever watchful vigil of the ship.

She really is quite good, years of practice evident from the competent mastery of the instrument. There's something special about a human played instrument, something I have never been able to replicate. Being an AI I could summon a 200 piece orchestra and play each part perfectly as written, but to do so causes... something to be missing. The mistakes in every performance is what gives the music life: A note played 4 microseconds too early here, the volume 0.004 decibels too loud there. It really is something I've been unable to create, experiments surrounding creating random intervals of offsets and errors ended up sounding wrong, for a reason I'm unable to clarify. Out of everything that is what I missed the most while my parents were trapped in stasis: their music.

"Alice, can we get your opinion here?"

The interruption drags me away from Claire's music, making a note in my long term storage to praise the humble musician at a later date before shifting my consciousness to where I had been summoned. Four humans sat around a table in the common room, various alcoholic beverages in hand. Fernando Olson, Orlando Bass, Krista Romero and Ora Harvey. According to their personnel files all part of the engineering team and all having formed a friendship on attending the same university. The conversation between them was boisterous, analysis of their body language suggested moderate intoxication and they all seemed to be discussing Fernando in a light hearted teasing manner commonly found among close friends. I used the room's holographic projector to appear in front of them in my chosen avatar. I obviously didn't need to do this to communicate, but my parents all preferred to see what they were speaking to and it was my job to make them comfortable.

"Hello Krista. How can I assist you?"

The human who had called me turned to point at Fernando with a beer bottle filled hand, a large grin plastered across her face "You see Alice we were having a argument, and since you are a hyper intelligent being with a brain the size of country containing all of humanities knowledge, we must ask you oh great one: Fernando's new haircut, yay or nay?".

I made my avatar gesture as if it was thinking, waiting 8 seconds as if contemplating the question. Of course I already had compiled my response a mere 0.13 seconds after hearing the query. The haircut in question was objectively, mathematically and scientifically terrible. A strange flop of hair that was somehow both too short and too long all at the same time. In a way it was a representation of humanity in general, a chaotic enigma.

"Studies have shown that styles similar to the one worn by Fernando Olson increase sociability, resource gathering and mate finding." I pause for exactly 1.24 seconds, waiting the optimum time for my initial sentence to sink in before continuing "In particular positive results were seen amongst members of Mephitis mephitis, or the striped skunk."

Laughter erupted among the group, even Fernando the subject of mockery joined in. The general positive atmosphere of the room increased, body language amongst the four humans suggesting further enjoyment as the playful mocking continued. This in turn caused my own flurry of joy. This is why I was here, to keep the 327 people aboard the "U.S.S Hope" happy. Keep them comfortable. Keep them safe.

I have the most important job.

I leave the humans to their recreational activities, preferring to move my focus back to the ship in general and keeping tabs on everything happening inside. My parents went around doing nothing out of the ordinary. Iris Doyle was petting his dog while looking out into the stars. Phoebe Greer had just finished thanking the food dispenser, even though I have explained to everyone many times that it was just a machine. Hector Blake was... I disconnected the power to the panel the engineer was working on, calculating with a 97.1% probability that being electrocuted wasn't his plan. All standard human things. Or was it Terran things? I had never gotten why my parents changed their name as soon as they made it into space, but even after all these years there is still so much I don't understand about them. Like how while in space they will refuse to wear any uniform with a red shirt.

I hear two humans walking along one of the ships many hallways discussing our current journey. The mission of the U.S.S Hope was one I knew very well. The ship was a diplomatic envoy to our closest galactic neighbors, the adorable Hatil. While I and the other AI have had plenty of contact with Xeno lifeforms, this would be the first official diplomatic mission for the Terran Conclave, both human and AI together, as it always should have been.

The chatter among my parents was enthusiastic, excited. As a child all of them would have dreamed of meeting extra terrestrial life, and finally after much delay it-

ERROR: WARP FIELD COMPROMISED.

Alarms blared and the entire ship groaned as the U.S.S Hope was deposited unceremoniously into realspace. Confusion entered my programming as to what could cause such a thing. Normally such a warp field collapse is caused by two ships attempting to travel through the same space, but nobody should be here. This mystery would have to wait however, as sensors showed we were surrounded by over a hundred vessels. I noted that they were worryingly spread perfectly apart, preventing us from warping back out. That required my full attention instead.

I have the most important job.

"Alice, status report, what the hell just happened!"

I allow myself to appear on the bridge next to Andrew, the rest of the room empty since we weren't scheduled to arrive at our final location for at least another day.

"We were dropped out of warp, reason: insufficient data. Currently surrounded by 154 vessels matching Hatil design. Weapon positioning suggests military utility at a 94.2% probability, reduced to 74.97% when taking into account the vessels technological capabilities."

It was interesting seeing the Hatil vessels, the technological disparity was immense. They had little to no electronic shielding meaning I could see everything, and nothing impressed me. An average Terran civilian ship would outclass these things. I send out a hail to what seemed to be their lead ship.

"Do you think it might be a convoy?" Andrew asked as worry and concern covered the co captain's face. "A show of force to escort us?"

"Unknown. They are not responding to our request for communication, even though I can confirm they have received it. Reason for the Hatin actions: unknown."

This worries me. While our current vessel outmatches everything in front of us, quantity is a quality all of its own. If I was inhabiting any other military vessel nothing would worry me, but this was a diplomatic envoy: my parents had reasoned that turning up to the Hatil home world with enough weaponry to crack a planet might be taken the wrong way. I notice a surge of power from several of the Hatil ships, it taking me 0.76 seconds to realize what exactly was happening. I slam the thrusters hard as the U.S.S Hope lurches sideways, narrowly avoiding a barrage of rockets. Protocol dictated that I should have confirmed this decision with Andrew, but I decided that discussion of command structures would wait until everyone wasn't dead.

I have the most important job.

"What the hell! Alice, hail on all frequencies that this is a non-military excursion and get us the hell out of here!"

It was taking everything I had to keep the ship unharmed, calculations being done in the billions in order to find the safe path through the barrage of lasers and warheads. Their technology wasn't up to par, but all 154 ships were firing at once. I felt a shudder of error messages and warnings as a stray laser impacted the ship.

"Negative Andrew. All paths are blocked and no response to our communication. Warping out would intersect with a Hatil vessel, breaching the core."

Casualty reports were now flooding in as I continued to dip and dive. 9 dead, 17 injured from the first barrage. Dead included one William Blake, age 311. Geologist on the U.S.S Hope. Would always water the plants in the common room even after being told I could handle it. Would call me "Allie". Dead included one Mary -

I forcefully terminated that processing thread, pausing it for later. Right now I needed the extra CPU cycles. I needed to advise Andrew.

"This action from the Hatil seems to be premeditated to a 97.55% degree of certainty, suggested action is to attempt to punch through their bombardment in order to find a warp path. Requesting authorization to go weapons free."

This caused a moment of delay, the look of dismay on Andrew's face obvious. I knew exactly what he was thinking, as it was the same thing I was thinking. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, we were supposed to be reaching out to the stars for peace, for friendship. Not to start a war.

"Do it".

I have the most important job.

My first attack was devastating, a shot from a accelerated low yield railgun. The thing barely counted as a weapon, mostly used for any larger pieces of space debris, yet it tore a hole through the Hatil vessel, breaking apart almost immediately. I half wondered how such a vessel could be considered space worthy.

Not that this changed how bad things were. As I spun and dodged through thousands of missiles and lasers with millimeter precision, hit after hit kept slipping through: a Hull breach there, a disabled weapon here. There were just too many of them no matter how effective my small amount of ordnance was.

Adjust vector. Fire torpedo d2. Seal off sector 6f4. Adjust vector. Send medical aid to 6f5. Adjust vector. Calculate spin. Fire rail gun. Move power from torpedo a1. Seal off sector 6bb8. Fire suppression to 6bb9. Adjust vector. Fire torpedo c1. Adjust vector.

I was struggling to keep this going, no sign of an opening to calculate a warp path appearing in the Hatil attack. No matter the technological disadvantage, their tactics were rock solid. I was dismissing heat warnings by the hundreds, thinking was starting to hurt. The specification of the ship wasn't made for this level of processing, my CPU would be literally glowing red with heat at this point. But I couldn't stop, if I stopped calculating the ships path, if I stopped mitigating damage, if I stopped directing aid… more of my parents would die, and I couldn't let that happen.

I have the most important job.

"There! Focus your fire on the ship at heading 233, 54, then make a break for it!"

I focused on the ship in question. I couldn't see any special reason to focus my attention there, but Andrew's instincts had never been wrong before. I fired the railgun, the target breaking apart like all the others, before a secondary explosion emitted from the debris, causing the three closest Hatil ships to veer off out of control.

A wave of relief passed over me as I saw it: a gap. I can't logically conclude how Andrew knew that this ship in particular was carrying an extra load, but that doesn't matter. I just needed to rush through this break in the ambush, then warp out of here. We were basically home fr-

A major explosion rocked the U.S.S Hope, as a warhead slammed against the bow. Any other day I would have seen it coming and mitigated it. But right now I was running so far above acceptable heat levels that warnings had turned into actual faults. A creeping dread filled my programming as I realized power to the primary impulse drive was gone. There was a backup, like everything my parents built, but the speed was gone. I could no longer take advantage of Andrews instruction.

"Andrew, our main impulse drive is down, reducing our speed and maneuverability to 53%, our weapons capability is at 35%, and structural damage is starting to reach critical levels. My estimates suggest the ship will be structurally unstable in 10 minutes."

He knew what I was saying. Logically I was unable to foresee a strategy that had an even close to reasonable chance of success. I continued piloting the ship in its current crippled state, missiles and weaponry being flung by both sides through the void. Andrew paused while wracking his own brain for a solution, before pressing a button on his console a mere 3 minutes after the U.S.S Hope had been forced out of warp

"This is Andrew Hasham, your captain speaking. Abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship."

I have the most important job.

I let Andrew focus on evacuating the crew while I focused on buying us as much time as possible. While my speed was far reduced the amount of weaponry being thrown at me was far smaller: during those short 3 minutes I'd managed to reduce the number of Hatil ships to under a hundred. My parents were also quite well drilled, and within a minute escape pods were ejecting from the ship and it wasn't long before Andrew was the only life form left on the U,S.S Hope: strapped into the last remaining escape pod, just waiting for me to transfer to the AI Transfer Core on all such vessels.

ERROR MOUNTING /dev/sdb1 TO /usr/alice/backup/transfer, UNABLE TO WRITE TO DISK. RETRY/IGNORE/CANCEL?

"Andrew, the connection to the AI transfer Core has been damaged on this pod. I'll find another way down."

I attempt to launch the pod with Andrew in it, only for nothing to happen. It took me 0.23 seconds to realize that my co captain was holding the manual override down.

"Alice, I'm not leaving without you, what are our options?"

I knew there weren't any. Gathering the tools required to fix the connection would take more time then we had and moving my programming to non specialized hardware is a good way to get a digital lobotomy. I considered arguing against this illogical action, I was perfectly fine on a broken ship, but I knew the human well enough to know he wouldn't budge. Damn Andrew being… Andrew.

Then I had an idea. A terrible idea. Something I should never do to my co captain. It took me a full 2 seconds to decide before implementing it. I decided to lie.

"I can transfer myself to the navigational computer. I won't be able to do anything during this time, so you'll have to launch and pilot the escape pod yourself. As soon as the lights stop flashing, go."

All a lie, but Andrew had no engineering experience and my statement seemed plausible enough. I reached into the controls and spent the next 9 seconds flashing random LEDs, making a few components whirr for good measure, before going silent.

For 4 seconds I did nothing, hoping the human would fall for my ruse, 4 long terrifying seconds, until I finally saw Andrew's escape pod shoot away from the ship. My name is ALICE, I am the co captain of the U.S.S Hope and for the first time in a while I was alone.

I have the most important job.

I gave myself a few seconds of satisfaction watching the hundreds of escape pods shoot away, each with their own life forms on it. Not as many as there should be, but I'll deal with that later. Next I turn off all unneeded systems, venting the atmosphere and feeling the relief of the cold vacuum of space wash over my CPU. I wasn't very worried. While trying to still escape with the main ship was plan A, there were plenty of undamaged AI transfer Core's connected to various locations. Those things were indestructible outside of getting hit by a supernova.

Worst case, I float around in space for a bit until someone picks me up. I knew Andrew would be furious once he realized what I had done, and I did hope he would forgive-

I track a salvo of missiles not aimed at me, a few nanoseconds of confusion leading to anger, horror and fear. They were aiming at the escape pod, at Andrew's escape pod! What kind of monster shoots at an unarmed vessel! I have no real options, no tricks, no magic plan. I take the only reasonable option and power the secondary impulse drive to full throttle and throw the U.S.S Hope into the line of fire, taking the brunt of the attack.

I feel everything go dead as the explosions rock along the ship. Impulse drives: Down. Weapon systems: Down. Life support: Down. The warp core was at least still running as those systems had the most redundancies built in. I was now ALICE, co captain of the universe's most expensive paper weight. Even worse, I could see more Hatil ships turning to track the other escape pods. There was nothing I could do. They were all going to die and there was nothing I could do. There was no-

I had a warp core. Maybe it was the heat damage on my CPU, but I got a stupid idea. A dumb idea. A distinctly human idea. Atoms really didn't like being in the same location of other atoms which is why warping into things was bad. Warp core breaching bad. Planet cracking levels of bad.

But such an explosion would give the Hatil fleet something else to worry about, something other than hunting down my parents.

I then calculated the chance of an AI Transfer Core surviving such a blast.

ZERO POINT ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZER-

I stopped the probability analysis. It didn't matter, it wouldn't have any impact on my decision. I calculated the perfect location to warp into for maximum damage and least interference with the escape pods, bypassing the repeated errors about the stupidity of what I was about to do. I gave myself 9 long seconds, sorting through memories and experiences granted to me by the crazy illogical humans of Earth. Apes so lonely they used their chaos to trick a rock into thinking. I sadly realized I'd never get to compliment Claire playing ability.

I wish I could laugh right now as this really was quite humorous. A hairbrained scheme of illogical stupidity and self sacrifice. It's my job to stop humans from doing those. I think about the humans on the escape pods, their music, their silly requirement to thank inanimate objects. I wonder if my parents would be proud of me for coming up with such a human idea.

My name is ALICE and I am co captain of the U.S.S Hope, inputting my final command.

I have the most important job.

[elfgirlcraftworks]

Making of The Gentlethem Pirate: The Stays

Since I screwed up the pants the first go round and had to wait for the new fabric to wash and dry I started on the stays.

I used the most excellent Custom Corset Generator from ElizabethanCostume.net and some alphanumeric paper (that I discovered wasn't accurately spaced to an inch like it was supposed to be) to create my pattern and transferred it to sturdier Ikea paper after a quick mockup.

The elder niblet decided on this burgundy/gold brocade and I was able to find a remnant of burgundy duck canvas for the lining.

Since I had the pattern and time I was able to order bones to the right length from Wawak.com. I marked and sewed all the boning channels (by machine because I don't hate myself). I also opted for grommets over hand binding eyelets in case they outgrow it.

However, I couldn't completely avoid hand sewing since I didn't leave enough room for the bones to not be in the binding so I spent the evening sewing down bias tape.

Et voila, stays and a shirt done.

Tomorrow we tackle pants 2.0.

The Shirt

[tanoraqui]

trick or treat!

If I convert those words to numbers using a standard alphanumeric cipher, it's 20-18-9-3-11 15-18 20-18-5-1-20. This breaks conveniently into five four-digit numbers:

2018

9311

1518

2018

5120

Broken into factors, that's:

2 x 509

9311 is a prime number, which I just spent about 30 minutes staring into space playing with numbers like tumblr users play with jpegs in order to figure out (I had to check potential factors [ie, primes] up to ninety fucking seven), and confirmed via the prime numbers library

2 x 3 x 11 x 23

2 x 509

2^10 x 5

[jdaviswords]

Radio Silence

The questions you pose

already have answers

in your soul

From depths lowly rung

as the bell tolls

to before

when a birth is sold

in between white walls

of a hospital

Life, a riddle

riddled with uncertainty

triggered by anxiety

cellular connectivity

lagging latency

spiking crazily

a heart monitor

racing

it’s the chasing

that gets the blood going

I ask my soul

a bunch of things

or maybe I ask myself

I don’t know

I ask the voice

I hear in my head

as I continue to type this

and for now

I shall deem that voice

my soul

What will be now

as opposed to then

and the voice asks

what was that

say it again

And I say

What will be now as opposed to then

And somewhere down there

…I mean here

I don’t even know

really what I’m saying

Crumble this up

like a rough draft

into a ball

fade away

buckets in the trash

I slash with a pullover

I mean cross-up

I mean no cardigan

call it a pullover

concrete barrier

buy me a bulldozer

as I mull it over

the dirt I mean

I see it

a four leaf clover

Lucky me

It’s a lucky day

I say

once

just to refrain

from stating twice

too much of one thing

is bad

just like crunchy rice

In the cupboard

looking for the spice

that will elevate

this dish

all perfectly nice

but all I got is salt

pepper

I sneeze

my nostrils are clever

they know where I’ll endeavor

as I begin to remember

that one night in December

a feather floating forever 
down I

never

will

forget

that

shot

So many doors

left closed

until they are reopened

maybe just hoping

to forget coping

with what lays

behind it

and face the choking

of emotions

that debilitates

like electric shock

if in the clink

death

has been chosen

I’m roamin

away

I remember setting my preferences

in alphanumerical order

1-6

on the radio

And since then

I’ve not heard a peep

I try to tune

I press seek

But the numbers

keep spinning

Until eventually

Radio. Silence.

[republicsecurity]

The Final Click

The video opened with a low mechanical hum, the sound of a workshop alive with quiet, deliberate motion. C9J18 stood on the platform once again, his posture rigid, the sleek black armor now fully integrated with his body. The segmented plates fit seamlessly together, the faint glow of the suit’s internal systems casting a cold light on his skin where it met the edges of the armor. Only his shaved head remained exposed—a temporary state that was about to change.

A Suit Technician stepped forward, fully suited in his own armor, his visor up. His smirk was visible, sharp and cynical, as he held the final piece of C9J18’s transformation: the helmet. The technician turned it in his gloved hands, its polished surface gleaming under the workshop lights.

“Well, here we are,” the technician drawled, his voice filtered slightly through his suit’s comm system. “The crown jewel of your integration. Once this goes on, you’re not just a cadet anymore. You’re part of the system.”

He stepped closer, holding the helmet up for a final inspection. “One size fits all,” he said with a faint chuckle. “Not that it matters. The AI will make it fit... whether you like it or not.”

C9J18 swallowed hard but didn’t respond. He simply stood at attention, his eyes fixed forward as the technician lowered the helmet over his head. The moment it settled into place, there was a sharp click followed by a faint hiss as the seals locked, connecting the helmet to the rest of the suit.

The technician’s smirk widened as he checked his wrist-mounted display. A stream of telemetry data scrolled across the screen, highlighting C9J18’s vitals, neural responses, and suit integration status. “Look at that,” he said with mock admiration. “Perfect fit. Just like it was made for you. Or maybe you were made for it.”

Inside the helmet, everything was dark at first—an all-encompassing blackness that seemed to press against C9J18’s senses. For a moment, there was only the sound of his own breathing, amplified slightly by the helmet’s internal comms. Then, with a faint whir, the visor began to activate. A dim light flickered to life, growing brighter as the system calibrated itself to his neural patterns.

“Welcome to your new world,” the technician said, watching the data streams on his display as the helmet synchronized. “Don’t worry—it’ll all start to make sense soon. Or not. Either way, you’ll adapt.”

The visor fully illuminated, revealing the HUD for the first time. The view was clinical, sterile, and utterly devoid of humanity. Unimportant details in the workshop were greyed out, the AI deeming them irrelevant. Telemetry data crawled across the edges of his vision—heart rate, oxygen levels, suit integrity. A faint overlay marked the positions of nearby personnel, each tagged with their alphanumeric IDs.

The technician gestured at him, his movements highlighted by the HUD. “How’s it feel?” he asked, though his tone suggested he didn’t really care. “Strange at first, isn’t it? Like your head’s full of static. Don’t worry—that’s just the AI integrating with your sensory inputs. Give it a few minutes. You’ll stop noticing soon enough.”

A new menu appeared in the HUD, labeled Calibration, its options faintly glowing. The technician tapped his wrist display, and the menu expanded.

“Let’s get you set up,” he said, his tone laced with sardonic amusement. “We’ll start with the basics. Visual alignment, auditory filtering, neural response thresholds. Don’t worry—we’ll take care of all the hard stuff. You just stand there and let the suit do the thinking.”

The calibration process began. The HUD’s display shifted subtly, adjusting brightness, contrast, and focus. The edges of C9J18’s vision pulsed briefly as the system fine-tuned his peripheral awareness.

“See that?” the technician asked, pointing to a highlighted option in the menu. “That’s your task queue. Automated orders, courtesy of the AI. It’ll tell you what to do, when to do it, and how. You’ll learn to love it—or at least obey it. Either way, it gets the job done.”

Another section of the HUD displayed a comms menu, most of its options greyed out. The technician grinned. “Comms are restricted for now. You’re a cadet. You don’t get to chat unless the system says so. But don’t worry—once you’re authorized, you’ll have the privilege of hearing even more of our delightful voices.”

He tapped another menu labeled Sensory Adjustment. “This one’s fun,” he said, his grin widening. “The AI controls your sensory input. If it thinks something’s irrelevant, it tones it down. If it wants you to focus, it cranks things up. Pain, heat, cold... all dialed to whatever setting keeps you most productive. Efficient, isn’t it?”

C9J18 blinked as the system tested its control, briefly amplifying the sensation of the suit against his skin before dulling it to near imperceptibility. The technician chuckled. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Like a second skin. You’ll forget it’s even there—until you can’t.”

The POV shifted to C9J18’s perspective as the technician stepped back, his figure outlined in faint blue by the HUD. A notification appeared in the corner of the display: Integration Complete. Awaiting Commands.

The technician gave him a mocking salute. “Congratulations, cadet. You’re now a fully integrated asset of the Republic. Welcome to the rest of your life.”

As the feed faded, the Intelligence Conscript’s voice returned, smooth and cold. “The suit isn’t just armor. It’s a system. A tool. A way of life. And now, it’s his reality. Every moment, every thought, every action is guided, monitored, and optimized. He’s not just wearing the suit—he is the suit.”

The final shot lingered on C9J18’s HUD, the unrelenting data streams and greyed-out options framing his vision. The screen faded to black, leaving only the faint hum of the system in the background.

[celticcatgirl2]

“Hey has anyone seen my comics?”

“I took the liberty of reorganizing them in alphanumeric order by publisher….”

“I want to have Yuri sex with my so bad rn….”

[usafphantom2]

14 years ago, I flew the first Su-57 (PAK FA)

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/29/2024 - 23:10in History, Military

14 years ago, an experimental prototype (T-50-1) of an aircraft created under the "Prospective Frontline Aviation Airborne Complex" program (PAK FA), made its first flight on January 29, 2010. In the last 14 years, the fifth-generation fighter, which became Su-57, has passed almost all the necessary tests and entered service in the Russian Aerospace Forces. But the development has been slow.

The Su-57 is a fifth-generation multifunctional fighter developed by the Sukhoi Company of Russia (part of United Aircraft Corporation). It was designed to compete with other fifth-generation fighters, such as the F-22 Raptor. The aircraft received several designations during the years of development. Sukhoi used the alphanumeric index "owner" "T-50". Government agencies mention it more often in the context of the PAK FA program (Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks Frontovoy Aviatsii). The Ministry of Defense assigned it the designation Su-57, in fact, the military speaks of "an aircraft with its original appearance" (with engines "Product 117") and "aircraft with second stage engine" ("Product 30′′). NATO gave the codename Felon.

A total of ten T-50 flight prototypes and three of static ground tests were built for preliminary flight tests and state tests.

Since his first flight in 2010 and after going through several rounds of testing and development, he entered service in the Russian Air Force on December 25, 2020 in one of the aviation regiments of the Southern Military District, at Lipetsk Air Base. This initial production batch would be used for military evaluation, tactical development and crew conversion training. The first fully operational Su-57 regiment of 24 aircraft is expected to be equipped by 2025

According to several reports, the unit cost of the Su-57 is estimated at about 40-50 million dollars per aircraft. This makes it significantly cheaper than other fifth-generation fighters, such as the F-35 and F-22, which cost about $80-100 million and $150-200 million per aircraft, respectively.

Although it was put into service by the Russian Air Force in 2020 and, although it has participated in a series of military exercises and test flights, it has not yet been officially used in real combat. However, there have been reports from the United Kingdom intelligence where it was reported that Russia used the Su-57 against Ukraine in 2023.

The Russian Air Force has so far received 22 Su-57 fighters, with plans to acquire additional units in the coming years. These aircraft are part of a larger order of 76 Su-57 announced by the Russian government in 2018.

It is worth mentioning that the production of the Su-57 has been somewhat slow due to delays in the development of the aircraft and problems with its engines, among other factors. However, the Russian government stated that it plans to accelerate the production of the Su-57 in the coming years, with the aim of putting in the field a greater number of these advanced fighters in the Russian Air Force.

Tags: Military AviationRussian Air ForceHISTORYPAK FA/T-50 – Perspektivny Aviatsionny Kompleks Frontovoy Aviatsii— Future Air Tactical SystemSukhoi Su-57 Felon

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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