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[derbydevil]

wendigo

remmick x indigenous!f!reader

content: violence, blood, 'n sex

wc: 1.8k

(skoden = let's go, then) (for my non native readers 🖤)

crossposted from my ao3 cuz i'm proud of dis 🥹

Life on your measly reservation home was humble. Wake, tend to the animals, eat, sleep, then repeat. And, on a good night, narrowly escape the feral dogs on your property to visit the casino in town with your friends.

You gaze into the mirror before you as you finish tying off the otter wraps framing your face, lashes fluttering at yourself as you imagine your reflection to be some hot snatch, a smooth talking coyote of a man - you hope, you'd be able to meet tonight. God knows you need it. You break away from your own gaze and sigh as you hear heavy knocking on your rickety wooden door. "I'm comin'!" You shout, sitting up from your vanity and grabbing your deerskin clutch. You hastily crack your front door to be met with your friend on your porch in her own get-up. "Skoden. Took 'ya long enough." You roll your eyes and step out, heading towards your automobile with her hot on your trail. You turn the ignition and the car steadily rolls down the gravel road leading to town - your friend humming a tune she'd heard at the train station.

You come to a rolling stop as you pull into the casino lot. To the average passing eye, it doesn't look like a casino; and maybe that's the point. "C'mon." Your friend impatiently barks, glancing at you counting money from your clutch. "Shut it. We wan'a have a good night, don't we?" You huff, waving the cash in her face. You walk ahead of her and hear from behind her voice thank someone for opening the door. You hadn't seen anyone else pull in the lot after you, but you spared no glance to the stranger behind you. She catches up to you, grabbing your shoulder to point to the dingiest, darkest corner of the casino - the bar. "Eh, some drinks first?" She suggests, already dragging you over. You scoff, "Right, s'we can blow every game later?" You argue, but still follow her lead. She immediately settles at the bar, already finding conversation with a man beside her. You signal the tender over, but not before the man on your right gets his attention. "I'll have, ah, a whiskey. And one for the miss." He gestures to you. You raise an eyebrow. You take in his appearance; white skin, dark hair, some scruff, round face. "Not from here, I take it?" You glance at him. He gives you a toothy smile. "Nah.. How'd'ya know?" You hum as the tender sits a whiskey in front of you. "This here's Indian country. How'd ya know I favor whiskey?" You take a quaff of your drink.

"Lucky guess." He rumbles. "Fitting 'fer a missus like you." You gaze at him, assessing him completely as you take another sip—a deeper sip—this time. "I'm flattered." You cross your legs and for a moment, his eyes flit to your thighs. He licks his lips, and looks at you with a lopsided smile. "Y'know, miss, if I didn't know any better, I'd think ye'd be deerwoman." You break into a cackle and reach out to squeeze his bicep. "Hah! What does white man know 'bout deerwoman?" You playfully sneer at him, clearly now tipsy. He shakes his head with a smile on his face. "Now.." he grins, baring crooked, yet charming teeth. "You'se just so doe-eyed." You flutter your eyelashes at his remark. "Oh, my.." You huff, leaning forward. His grin turns into an offputting dopey smile, and you notice drool creeping out of the side of his mouth. Endearing, slightly offputting. You ghost over his lips, just barely touching him, then pull away with a mischievous look. He snaps his eyes from your collarbone to your eyes with a pathetic look. "Say, white man.. What's yer name anyways?" You drawl, adjusting your legs to ride up your slip dress the tiniest bit. He gathers himself, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth. "Ah, It's Remmick, miss." You smile, tucking a wrapped section of hair behind your ear. "Remmick..." You sigh thoughtfully. He looks at you expectedly, and you become enraptured in his eyes, almost faintly glowing. You falter for a second, breath hitching as your gut screams at you to leave with your friend - not to associate with this man. Your fogged brain forgets all about your friend, you want to snag someone tonight.

"Say, how'sbout I take you to my dig?" You suggest, rising from your seat. "Your home? My, a miss shouldn' have'ta be the one ta' take a man home." He stands, hand reaching to rest on your lower back. "Should be the other way 'round." You reach behind and playfully peel his hand away, peeking over your shoulder at him. "S'not like you've got a place 'round here. Don'tcha, white man?" You begin walking with purpose, hips lightly swaying to impress him. He follows on your tail. "Hah, th'aint my name." ... "Right... Remmick..." you grin, opening the door into the night. Your flats crunch the gravel from under you and you reach out to your automobile's handle. Remmicks hand dwarfs yours and he leans over you to open it himself. "Allow me," he smiles, and you slide into the driver's seat. He hops over the passenger door, spreading his legs out in the seat beside you as your turn the ignition and pull out of the casino. His hand finds a place on your thigh as you quietly roll down the road to the reservation, Remmick whistling a song. You hastily interrupt him, "Whistlin' at night? It's not good, y'know?" You chuckle at him.

"How'sbout I sing then?"

Coyotes yip in the ambience of the night as Remmick's song comes to an end and you pull into your gravel driveway, suspiciously, no rez dogs in sight. You have a lingering feeling you're forgetting something important, but you have everything. Your clutch, a hot snag... what else... You open your door and loosen the straps to your slip as you turn around, noticing his lingering on your porch. You tilt your head as a silent question. "Ah, just tryin' ta' be polite." Your face softens. "Come on in." You gesture, and he comes in, each step creaking under your old porch. He kicks your door closed with his foot and begins slipping his suspenders off of his shoulders. You make quick work of your slip dress and strip to nothing, turning to slink to your bedroom. He follows suit. You lay on your bed, bare, as he unbuttons his shirt, revealing his soft chest. He hovers over you as your hand smooths over his chest. He leans into your touch, and dips down to nip at your ear. "Ah, Remmick." You sigh, trailing your hand down to his crotch. Your hand catches his zipper and you reach deeper as his nipping redirects to sloppily kissing all over your mouth. You pull him out of his pants, he's big, and you're sure he doesn't even know it. "Mighty cute pecker you've got there." You tease, licking into his mouth. He moans in return, your soft hand stroking him delicately as he humps into your hand. "Shit, doe, can smell 'ya.. So excited from helping me out, ha?" He pulls away from your touch.

He falls to his knees and pulls you closer to the edge of the bed, legs falling over the side. A big hand grips your thigh as his head dips down to spit directly on your cunt. You flinch, completely caught off guard, but spread further out for him. His other hand reaches up to lightly push down on your lower stomach as he presses rough kisses against your cunt, tracing his tongue around your clit, to then dip into your hole. "Fuuuck! Remmick!" You wail, his face pressing deeper, nose bumping your clit as he eats you whole. Your knuckles are white beside you, clutching for life onto your patterned sheets, otter wraps falling loose from your squirming. He hums against you in acknowledgment, moving up to pay attention to your clit while applying steady pressure to your lower stomach. "I'm, ah, I'm coming!" You whimper, legs shaking as he presses his tongue to make hard circles against that spot. You gush all over his face, babbling nonsense - some sounds resembling his name and pleads to God. He relishes in your afterglow as you pant, wiping perspiration from his brow and he gets up.

Your hair splays along your pillow like a glowing halo, your appearance almost angelic. Remmick leans over you to grasp your face, devouring your mouth once more. You press upwards to deepen the kiss, cradling his face, feeling his scruff. He moans into your mouth, drool spills out of your mouths and you pull away with a string still connecting. Spit continues to pour from his mouth, your tongue catching it shamelessly. He sits on his hackles, grabbing your legs to rest around his hips. He takes his cock in hand and presses it into you, slowly, tantalizingly. You mewl. His puffy tip slightly stretches you already, but you endure, his length filling you as he groans and shakes with every passing second, saliva still running from his mouth as he is clearly not being subtle about his thirst. Finally, his base meets you, and he fully sheathes himself inside of you. You both moan out. "Mm'fuck baby. You're perfect." He grits, his sweaty palms readjust for a firmer grip on your hips, he braces to begin a steady, hard pace. Your hands reach to thread behind his neck, Remmick's pace turning into pounding as he becomes obsessed with your body - your soul - he whimpers out your name, which you weren't even sure you gave him, and he hammers harder, deeper, head craning to rest into your neck as his thumb traces circles on your hip.

"Oh, God, Remmick," You cry, hands moving to claw at his clothed back. His face buries deeper into your neck, and you feel him open his mouth, though you pay little attention to it. You feel a sharp pain in your collar as he thrusts into you harder, almost offsetting the pain in your neck. The pain worsens, but you're nearing orgasm already, and he is too, his hips sloppily chasing after both yours and his release, his thumbnails now pressing into your skin. You try to moan out, but its futile, you silently spasm around his cock as he groans and growls into your burning neck, releasing inside of your cunt. Your collar is throbbing and dripping with sweat as he now pulls away from your neck, only to find your neck wasn't dripping with sweat.

His mouth and teeth are stained red, your neck trickling out as your labored pants from sweet release turn into shallow breaths, blood staining your sheets and pillow. He pulls out of you slowly, semen dripping from your struggling body as you try to piece together words. "You... Weh.. Wendigo..?" You rasp, holding a shaking hand to your gaping wound. He grins with his stained teeth and shakes his head. "Nah, baby. Ain't no Wendigo.." He drawls, his voice now sounding distorted as your vision fades.

" 'Ma vampyre. "

[seat-safety-switch]

At the local lake, this is around the time of year when they do the fish stocking. It's artificial, but it happens to the real lakes, too. Right now, the water is finally thawed out just enough that the park supervisor can roll up a big ol' truck full of fish and dump them into the water. They'll live happy, contented lives in the lake, unless they bite a hook, are abducted by clever seagulls, or someone finds the drain plug at the bottom again like they did back in August of '88 and lets all the water out.

Because the park is really cheap, the community association was looking for someone to pick up the truck, fill it with fish, and drive it to the lake. Since I had no real job at the moment, and needed something to check off the "community service" section of my parole documents, I decided to volunteer. Long-time readers may recall that I also have a small amount of affection for the operation of internal-combustion automobiles, which is a bonus.

Everything went great at the pickup. It turns out that my buddy Halvin was working in the town motor pool and made sure to give me the oldest, shittiest GMC Kodiak in the lot because it would make me more comfortable. What a guy. I was so overjoyed that I didn't even tell him it was me who backed over his mailbox last Christmas. Why ruin the moment?

After some hot twin-stick action to get across town, I was at the fish hatchery. You might not be familiar with one of these things, if you live a boring life. Me, I'm here at least once a year, mostly because their dumpster always has a lot of only-slightly-expired silicone sealants thrown away in it. It was here that I encountered my primary obstacle in completing Mission: Fish Flow.

As for what happened next, the exact details are still being worked out by my attorney. In my defence, however, I have been authorized to state that having over one thousand fish in the back of your 1970s cargo truck should qualify you for the car-pool lane, even if you do ram a state trooper, who – by the way – was riding in the car all by himself, the fucking hypocrite.

[catenary-chad]

Why Greaseball is a Really Great train villain: a looong post (4.8k words) on all the historical train context behind replica Greaseball 

For all my issues with the other main engines, I think (replica) Greaseball is FANTASTIC. He just works on so many fundamental levels and gets so much better/worse with historical context.  If we make him an EMD E9 locomotive (a common headcanon) things get even more interesting, and there’s even a convenient irl engine to base him on! 

Note: if you’re into real US trains this info probably won’t be as new to you as my Nez Cassé post, since E and F units are so well preserved and documented in English.      A lot of the topics I go on are pretty widely discussed in US railfan circles and not terribly obscure.  Also this is just about replica, Elvis-style Greaseball vs Wembleyball… her being more modern and European changes a lot and I would take a very different approach.

Also CW for non-graphic discussion of abuse in the very last section. I have a separate warning before it comes up so you can leave before then.  

DIESEL TRACTION IN THE US

First of all, to clear up a common misconception: 99% of all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric.  The diesel engine is used to generate electricity to power electric motors to turn the wheels.  This is why dual-mode engines that can switch between drawing third rail/overhead wire electricity and making their own with a diesel engine are so common.  Besides the power source, they work similarly, so it’s not hard to incorporate.  This is NOT how hybrid cars work, though diesel-electric setups have been used on very heavy trucks for purposes like mining.  Diesel-mechanical is more in line with how automobiles work but is basically unheard of outside of very small switchers in the US (mostly in museums now) and 50s-era shunters and that one weird Fell diesel in the UK. The technical reasons of why isn’t really important here, but has to do with the difficult of making an appropriate gearbox for road locomotives and appealing qualities of electric motors for train use (high starting torque). 

Internal combustion-based locomotives are actually much more recent than pure electric ones.  Electric engines achieved practical use around the 1890s and were well-established in urban and mountainous areas by the 20s-30s…. which is when diesel boxcab switchers first started production in substantial numbers and lightweight diesel trainsets like the Zephyrs, M10000, and Flying Hamburger started to pop up.  The earliest diesels were either slow (switchers) or fast but very weak (lightweight trainsets and railbusses). There were major tech limits to maximum horsepower in diesel locomotives until the second half of the 20th century, which is why several of them were often needed to replace one steam or electric engine, and why you had some weird turbine designs in the 50s-70s as an alternative. 

Early diesel locomotives in the US actually had a lot in common with their early implementation in the UK.  They’re often perceived differently because Thomas the Tank Engine had so many characters based on unsuccessful early British diesel models, while most of the failed earlier US diesels are obscure compared to the successful and widespread ones (that often have the strongest museum presence). There were some notably good early switcher models (some still being used today) that were among the first to replace steam engines because it was one of the tasks that they had the biggest advantage over them in, and limited size wasn’t an issue.  Road diesel implementation was messy and due to the early state of the technology, some railroads like the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strategy more akin to early British Rail in that they planned to just slowly phase out steam as they electrified.  Higher wages and stronger unions were also a factor in both countries dieselizing, due to the vastly lower labor needed for diesel locomotives vs steam and generally safer, more pleasant working conditions on them.  There was also a need to shed a reputation for being outdated to draw in customers again with both.  There was also a desperate early demand for diesel power that led to a lot of questionable builders and designs being picked up early on and later dumped for being nonstandard.  

The main difference is that dieselization’s serious pursuit in the US started around the Great Depression and really picked up in the late 30s, almost two decades before the Modernization Plan of 1955.  So it was a far more mature and well-established technology by the 50s and Greaseball is very much based on this dominant position vs the messy early experiments of the Thomas diesels.  

Greaseball’s helmet heavily resembles the fronts of the E and F unit carbody locomotives made by EMD from the 30s-50s.  I’ll go into those specific models later, but the manufacturer alone is really interesting and has a lot of great symbolism that works with Greaseball. 

Earlier diesel manufacturers included steam builders like Alco and Baldwin, outside companies getting into the diesel locomotive market like Fairbanks-Morse, and EMD, which started as an independent company but quickly became part of General Motors.  One of the major advantages EMD would acquire is mass-production in assembly lines, the way cars were made, as opposed to building one engine at a time like steam shops did.  So Greaseball has some quiet ties to the auto industry (and boy did GM hurt trains in other avenues).  They also used common parts between models, making them relatively easy to repair and rebuild.  You had all kind of mods and changes done to their engines over the decades, which is a fun tie-in to the bodybuilder AND greaser aspect of Greaseball.  I’ll go into how I think he’d specifically be modified/rebuilt later though.  

Another major factor of EMD is… they often weren’t the best in a lot of ways and very much an example of “survival of the good enough”.  Until very recently they all used relatively dirty and inefficient two-stroke engines and other manufacturers often had stronger or technically superior competing models… but it was the ease of working on them and relative reliability vs their competitors that contributed to their success and helped make EMD the dominant manufacturer.  

Bonus fun fact: EMD (and later General Electric) had a lot of success in the export model market due to their early reliability, especially vs British diesel engines.  One of the funnier instances being several colonial African railways holding onto steam into the 70s because they were forced to buy crappy British diesel engines otherwise, and promptly dieselizing as soon as they could buy American ones.  EMD made huge inroads into the British freight market with the Class 59 and 66 (the latter also used in continental Europe).  These came too late to have had any affect on the development of the show early on, but it’s an interesting instance of American encroachment that could be thematically relevant.  The sheer ubiquity of EMD diesels worldwide makes Greaseball weirdly relevant in a lot of countries if you basis swap him a little.  I haven’t figured out quite how I’d approach Girlball but I’d definitely make her one of these export models since it fits.  

Anyways, back to the general history timeline because it’s important for the other reason EMD was so successful.  By the late 30s, diesel switchers were widespread and road models were starting to come out in limited numbers.  Widespread dieselization would have happened nearly a decade earlier if not for World War II.  When the US entered the war, copper, oil, and diesel engines became critical to the war effort.  Coal was not and steam engines don’t use much copper, so the existing steam manufacturers were forced into building them.  EMD’s FT series had proven itself prewar and the company was among the few to be able to develop their locomotive lines during the war.  This gave the company a huge advantage post-war and their E and F units dominated the road locomotive market afterwards (switchers remained more competitive since they had more development before and during the war). 

 If you’re European and know little about American trains, you may wonder when things started getting electrified after that.  They didn’t.  Outside of one stretch of the Northeast Corridor, a recent project by Caltrain, and some isolated freight lines… the US didn’t electrify anything after WWII, and if anything de-electrified much that had existed.  The oil crises of the 70s almost led to something, but the subsequent drop in prices in the 80s made that dry up too.  Leading to the modern day status of having only 1% electrified rail mileage.  The rest is all diesel domain.  They were never a stopgap here.  Due to railroads remaining private businesses post-WWII and facing almost unwinnable economic and political conditions vs roads and air travel, the cost of electrification was out of the question and the much smaller up front cost of diesel engines made them take permanent hold over most of the country post-steam.  To this day, railroads avoid paying up front for things vs just paying more in yearly maintenance for diesel locomotives, and the price of fuel has never gotten high enough to incentivize electrification.  There’s also a whole carrot vs stick situation with state governments raising emissions standards without providing assistance to electrify that leads to a crappy state of limbo that just gives automobiles even more of an unfair advantage, but that’s another tangent that’s not relevant enough to go into.  

This is all a long way to say that Greaseball as the conservative, oppressive establishment is spot-on to the status of diesel traction in the US.  It really can’t be overstated how dominant and inescapable it is.  It’s kind of hilarious hearing people from the UK or Europe talk about how gross and stinky and backwards they are and how much more disliked they are there.  This is why the Greaseball vs Electra feud is so appealing to me- the US is one of the few places where they would be considered remotely competitive and where that matchup is politically relevant.  There’s this compelling thread of Greaseball being a “pragmatic compromise” that’s held on so long it’s become status quo, but would be viewed as a regressive relic elsewhere in the world, akin to how the US’s economic politics are seen in much of the rest of the world.  Greaseball is the majority who very much has capitalism and inertia on his side, Electra is the more qualified but long-sidelined minority who wishes things were even a little more like Europe economically and politically.  They’re so rural vs urban, right vs left wing coded it hurts. Diesel power mainly thrives where frequencies are low and distances are long and rail is a private business that often can’t afford to electrify.  Urban trains are almost exclusively electric due to their inherent frequency and pollution requirements, and are almost synonymous with being state-owned. 

Him being particularly nasty to steam engines also checks out, he’s the era of diesel locomotive that often directly replaced them and I’ve seen claims EMD did deceptive things if not outright cheated on tests vs steam engines.  At the very least they had fairly aggressive marketing.  There’s a reason why I object to the idea that Electra would cheat against a steam engine (even in the early days electric ones trounced them so thoroughly it routinely exceeded railroads’ expectations), but think Greaseball doing it makes sense.  Him playing dirty against Electra also makes sense because they’d have similar top speeds (and that’s being very conservative with Electra’s abilities and keeping them a relatively old model) but Electra benefits far more from a clean setting and would be relatively vulnerable to attack. There’s been decades of cultural downplaying of the advantages of electric vs diesel trains due to the latter’s sheer dominance in the US too. Further tying into the political aspect, electric trains are one of those things whose status only goes up the more you actually learn about them… and it really knocks combustion engines down several pegs, paralleling how right wing politicians in the US tend to be actively anti-education because they quietly rely on voters being low-information and uneducated about how negative the effects of their policies often are.  

Greaseball as a macho jock is also reflective of the perceived strength of diesel vs electric engines.  Because the US is infamous for its large heavy freight trains that are almost entirely diesel-hauled (besides a single power plant out west), electric freight is an almost alien concept and people associate electric traction with high speed trains, subways, maybe lighter, faster European freight trains at most.  People often act like they’re weak because of this.  This is patently untrue, just look at IORE or the Virginian Railway.  Also see my earlier discussion of how weak diesel engines were early on.  Electric locomotives still have vastly higher horsepower per single unit and the only reason there aren’t ones as strong as diesel engines in the US is lack of demand.  It wouldn’t be that hard to build one for that niche.  But diesel has strong associations with being the “strong and manly” blue-collar option because of its use by every large freight railroad and almost every shortline for all the tough, gritty jobs, unlike those darn city slicker commuter trains. Let’s just conveniently forget that the Milwaukee Road existed and that mines are full of weird little battery-powered “lokies”.  People will even crow about the Big Boy all day and rarely acknowledge the multiple electric engine models of that era with comparable abilities.  

EMD E and F UNITS

Finally, we can discuss Greaseball’s more specific basis.  Greaseball’s helmet doesn’t have a single explicit one like Electra’s, but its styling is very typical of 30s-50s era carbody diesel locomotives, specifically the “bulldog nose” E and F-Units.  These models were and still remain some of the most popular toy and model diesel engines, and are some of the most recognizable American trains in general.  Which they totally deserve, they came in a lot of fun colors and were VERY widely used from the 30s to early 80s irl and were still used in limited numbers for decades after that and are extremely common in museums today.  It’s probably harder to find a railroad museum in the US that doesn’t have one.  They are probably THE symbol of diesel trains in the US, especially circa the 50s.  Even highway signs for train stations resemble them.  

Carbody locomotives like these made the streamlined body a structural element of the engine to save weight and required indoor walkways for maintenance access vs being able to open external panels.  Alco and Baldwin also made far less successful carbody locomotives as competitors but they looked very different. Funny enough, a number of electric locomotives of the era also were built this way, but with cabs at both ends, some of them looking a LOT like Greaseball’s helmet.  

The E-units were EMD’s first line of road diesel locomotives, mainly designed for passenger service.  Since the 30s there were several different models of the line, the first few being built in smaller numbers, and the later ones being much more widely produced post-WWII.   They were relatively long and large for a diesel engine of the time, with atypical A1A -A1A (powered/unpowered/powered x2) wheel arrangements and two seperate prime movers (the actual diesel engine) to produce more horsepower due to the limited abilities of individual engines.  While successful compared to their competitors (which were… generally a mess) there’s a sense that they were designed for a time that would never come.  

They were very much optimized for being smooth at speed for passenger use and while not useless for freight service, weren’t ideal for it due to their limited strength and not having all powered wheels for traction.  Which was a terrible market to be in with the massive decline in passenger rail post-WWII.  The E-units still generally had long and successful lives, but were never as successful as their younger, smaller sibling, the F-unit.

F-units visually resemble shorter E-units, but with single prime movers and Bo-Bo wheel arrangements (four powered axles).  By modern standards they’re small and not terribly powerful, but for their time they were solid and VERY successful in freight service, and often took the place of E-units in passenger service since they worked for that too, and were more versatile overall.  There are a bunch of F-units running in museums because they look good and are easy to find parts for due to the sheer quantity produced (also some, but far fewer E-units). You could totally make Greaseball an F-unit and it would fit with how there’s been some infamously short Greaseball actors.  

There’s a lot of fun commonalities between both models that are relevant to Greaseball.  Both were explicitly designed to be used in multi-engine sets due to their limited individual strength, which perfectly fits Greaseball having his Gang follow him around.  Working in packs that large is a VERY midcentury diesel thing.  Both had the massive drawback of having no rear visibility and basically no ability to go backwards for switching.  That was one of the main traits that led to this style of engine falling out of favor, roadswitchers that actually had rear visibility were more versatile than having separate road and switch engines.  In a race going backwards, Rusty would clean his clock even if he was SUPER crappy and could only go walking pace, because Greaseball would be flying totally blind and crash.  It’s also a hassle to perform maintenance and get inside that body style and the noses were reportedly harder to manufacture.  

As a cursed side note, ATSF solved these problems with their old F-units by roadswitcherfying them into CF-7s.  Hey, they were old and past their prime but still useful and worked GREAT as ugly utilitarian roadswitchers and ran for decades afterwards.  There’s several of these things running in museums.  I’ve actually worked on one and I approve of roadswitcherfication because they really are way less of a pain to maintain this way.  

Speaking of rebuilds, the highest horsepower Greaseball would have as an E-unit would as-built is only 2,400 if he was an E9, but because early EMDs got modified so much and routinely re-engined, we can play around with this.  It fits the character and the Railways Series routinely did this kind of thing.  We’ll suppose Greaseball was re-engined or otherwise modified to get up to 2,700 horsepower… but then there’s the reported issue that the unpowered axles might make him too slippery to actually apply full force, so we’ll get a bit more out there and say he got more substantially rebuilt into a Co-Co (six powered axle) arrangement.  Now you have something that would be vaguely comparable with one of Amtrak’s dysfunctional SDP40F diesels of the late 70s-early 80s, if still a bit weaker but probably more physically stable.  It’s hard to avoid that Greaseball is kind of statistically wimpy no matter how you slice it.  They’d need to tweak the numbers in the song a little, but again, swapping out engines in early EMDs was super common and suits him so it’s not too much of a stretch to bump him to 3700 or something.  You still have issue that he’s not large by UP standards specifically (they are INFAMOUS for large single-unit engines) but he’d still be fairly large vs more typical passenger diesels of the time.  

Anyways, another VERY fun fact about E and F units is that they were regularly used on corporate trains after most of them were withdrawn from regular mainline service in the 70s-80s.  People often complain that Greaseball is barely relevant circa the 80s, which isn’t really true since a lot of E and F units were used on commuter lines for years afterward (if often in cab car form, which are terrifying in any talking train verse).  But there’s another huge loophole that gives a perfect excuse for his existence well into the modern day.  Union Pacific itself used a set of three E9s on their corporate specials until 2019!  They only got pulled due to wheel issues… got no lovers if you got no wheels I guess.  But now you have a perfect excuse for why Greaseball is a 50s-era engine with UP colors pulling passenger trains well after the railroad axed those services in the early 70s.  He’s a corporate pawn!  He’s one of the faces of their company, chauffeuring executives around. Which leads into another fascinating topic with him.

UNION PACIFIC, FREIGHT RAILROADS, AND PASSENGER RAIL

All of the modern big Class I railroads in the US suck in similar ways, but Union Pacific has a stronger identity and seems to have the largest cultural presence abroad, making it the most visible and appealing of them to the public.  It tends to be THE American railroad to many, which goes well with Greaseball’s basis being THE American diesel engine.  Yes, they do have some cool heritage fleet stuff and really cool heritage unit paint jobs, but you’ll never see me depict them in a terribly positive way (if at all) because they’re a PR campaign like the Budweiser Clydesdales for an infamously awful company.  Make no mistake, this is a company that’s been voted “worst place to work” on multiple occasions (and its cohorts aren’t much better).  That’s the ironic thing about Electra being made a crappy boss, Amtrak is notably much better to its workers (and steam engines are the most competitive where labor is cheapest and least organized).  The main thing is unreasonable on-call hours, lack of sick leave, vacation, and break days in general, and working conditions.  Look into the blocked 2022 railroad strike for more on this.  Greaseball could be SO nasty to the freight to reflect this if you made him a symbol of railroad leadership.  You’d have any railroaders in the audience booing him if they did this in the US, it’s a very relevant political issue.  Ironically, things weren’t nearly as bad labor-wise in the 80s, ALW just really bet on the right horse in terms of railroads to align a train villain with.  But there’s a more prominant and existing aspect of canon that also fits the crappy things UP and other class Is do.

Passenger rail has never been as profitable as freight in the US. To give a modern ballpark estimate, I’ve heard $30,000 revenue on a fully loaded longer passenger train vs $500,000 revenue on a train of oil tankers.  And that’s not even including the higher maintenance standards that passenger rail requires, which adds millions to its cost and makes it almost impossible for it to turn a profit.  There is a reason why almost all countries with widespread passenger rail today have nationalized rail systems and even US passenger service is all government-run outside Brightline and museums.  

This situation was particularly bad in the 50s-60s before Amtrak took over passenger service.  Passenger trains absolutely bled money overall, and many of them were required to keep running even at massive losses per government regulation because they were an essential service.  This contributed to the financial ruin of many railroads, and most of them dropped passenger service or sold it to the government as soon as it was offered.  UP in particular was more financially stable, but also happily got rid of their passenger trains when offered.

Since then, the giant merged Class I railroads have become almost exclusively freight-oriented and hostile towards Amtrak-run passenger services.  They’re almost all terrible, but UP is one of the more visible offenders, holding up commuter services in Chicago, and contributing to the massive delays in long-distance western trains.  “Coach sexism” in the form of widespread hostility towards passenger rail by the likes of UP is one of the few canon social metaphors that WORKS.  The other engines would not be that way considering the systems they’re aligned with, but Greaseball could be made so, so much worse.    

There is a weird element of “I hate my wife” boomer humor when people describe passenger trains.  There’s “keeping freight trains in line” schedule-wise due to their time sensitivity.  There’s being seen as needlessly spendy for PR reasons (often true in the older days) paralleling “my wife wastes money on stupid things”.  There’s being seen as more delicate and refined due to needing better track conditions and gentler handling because you know, humans have standards that grain hoppers and sand don’t.  There’s the way that passenger rail isn’t as profitable as freight and basically requires government subsidies… not unakin to caring jobs and “women’s work” in general vs blue collar industrial jobs (Caveat: passenger rail employees were almost all male until Amtrak).  In short, yeah the freight railroads’ treatment of passenger trains in the US does have parallels to sexism, if slightly different from how canon does it. Abruptly dumping them in the 70s also fits Greaseball ditching Dinah mid-show. 

Even if you go the comparatively mild route of mirroring modern railroads, you still have him treating the coaches as second class vs freight (despite them being legally prioritized).  This is a major issue and why Amtrak has so many delays on long distance trains.  To summarize a complicated issue: due to the relatively unique economics of railroads, they are incentivized to run fewer, longer, irregular freight trains that have become so large they don’t fit in sidings and can’t physically let prioritized passenger trains through.  They then get delayed for hours, especially if the freight train breaks down (bonus: freight trains have a staff of two, engineer and conductor.  The conductor may have to walk up to THREE MILES to check out a possible defect on a car, delaying even more).  The Class Is have a broadly hostile relationship with Amtrak in general for various reasons related to insurance and minimal investment in track maintenance, and it even affects non-Amtrak passenger services like steam excursions.  UP has its personal steam fleet for publicity reasons,  but all of the Class Is are various shades of hostile to running steam excursions with passengers now due to those same reasons.  Even UP barely sells public tickets for theirs.  

Bonus: the reason Mexico has basically no passenger rail now is due to the nationalized railroads being taken over by companies heavily aligned with US freight railroads and with many similar attitudes towards passenger service.  They ditched virtually all of it en masse when they took over. Turbo works perfectly as just Greaseball but in Mexico because the same thing happened there… only a few years before the Mexican Stex production happened.  Electra might be an even more pathetic and unthreatening character there though, because the single, long-delayed electrified mainline built by NdeM was ripped out after only a few years of service by the  private freight railroads.  

WARNING: Leave now if you do not want to read about how abusive Greaseball could be made based to US railroads’ treatment of passenger trains pre-70s.  It’s not graphic, but it is blunt and dark.  I put this at the end for a reason, there is nothing beyond this last section.  

Basically, canon even at its worst arguably undersells how awful Greaseball could be to Dinah and the coaches if you make them symbols of UP and other major railroads vs passenger service pre-Amtrak.  They could be even MORE toxic.  You have a situation now where he outright hates her and wants her gone for above reasons, but is forced to stay in the relationship due to outside requirements and is fundamentally built for that kind of setup as an E-unit.  Railroads forced to keep passenger services usually didn’t have mandated quality standards for them.  They just had to have something.  This led to pathetically short trains (one or two cars), understaffing, and poor maintenance because they just had to have SOME passenger train on that line.  Track conditions reached terrible standards in the 70s on railroads that were near bankruptcy and delaying maintenance.  I absolute do not blame canon for not going this dark in a kids show, but basically there is no limit to how miserable Greaseball could make her life, short of actually killing her. I can’t understate how much she symbolizes something he’d want to rid himself of at any cost but can’t and will take that out on.  It’s BLEAK.  I don’t think I’d even write them this dark myself.

Well… now you see why I do not redeem and revise Greaseball the way I do Electra.  While the latter is wrongly demonized in an impressive number of ways, Greaseball is awful for all the right ones, to extents deeper than the creators probably ever imagined.  He is so versatile and nearly timeless in his awfulness.  If Greaseball were portrayed as remotely good I’d be ripping him to greater shreds than I do Rusty, but he’s great as a hateable bad guy who’s entertaining and globally recognizable even by much of the general public.  Despite all this, I’m fine with him just being a cartoon bully because it’s more palatable and not wrong.  But you could also make him so much nastier than even the workshop if you wanted to go darker.  

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Z Lealia, 2025 (2005), by Nissan Kyoto Automobile Technical College. Created by students in the Auto Maintenance and Customisation Department, a "sports station wagon for family journeys" based on a M35 Stagea (pictured below). The front of the car has been redesigned to mimic the latest RZ34 Fairlady Z. At the rear, sections of a Nissan LEAF have been used. The Z Lealia’s body colour, ‘Ikazuchi Yellow’, matches that of the Fairlady Z.

[im-not-a-ghost]

💌Someone wants to reach out!

Trigger warning : this reading mentions the passing of beings and other sensitive subjects. It is way heavier than I intended and I want to make sure that you know what you get yourself into. If you are underage, refrain from reading this post. If you know that you are sensitive to such subjects, refrain from reading as well, as a security measure.

As this is going to be a very detailed reading, I only put two options to choose from. To help you identify if you picked the right group, I will use some letters to try to get keywords as confirmation signs. In this reading, we are first going to try to identify who is trying to reach out to you. Then, we will find out what they wish to say to you. At the end of your reading, you will get a short advice from your guides. For this PAC I will be using letters, the White Numen tarot and the Threads of fate oracle, as well as some self made tissue box messages.

Group 1

Note from reader : As I was doing the last adjustments of your reading, I looked up at the sky through my window and looked at the clouds. That might be something the person we're talking about used to do a lot. In the shape of the clouds I saw many N and a few A. Those might be significant initials.

Letters : M F T I U A S N E M R S C V U Keywords : Mass, rain, Insta, star, rats, Cain, museum, amuse, Muse, cinema, mics, revue (French for magazine), fame, Reita, Sumire, saint, Cirus, Marcus, Mars, trains, Venus, arts, man, versus, Mantis, fumer (French for smoking), fast, cars, music, rants, Francis, frantic, France, matsuri (Japanese for festival), mister fun, musc, sister, fan, Ventura, Messi, faint, vain, veins, Traum (German for dream), stairs, Uranus, Saturn, Vermin, races, fire, Aries, Uranium, Taurus

Who is trying to reach out?

Creative soul | Unusual talent | Singer | Heterochromia | Earth angel | 5th house personal creativity I SERVE | 2 of pentacles, 7 of cups, page of swords, The Void, The Weaver, The Revolutionary

Okay I know this is going to sound crazy but I picked up on Moonbin. I can't explain why as I didn't know him very well. But I thought of him as soon as I wrote that channeled message you are gonna read in the next section. Aside from that, I can definitely tell that whoever is trying to reach out to you has passed on. This person was full of life and ideas, there were many things they wanted to say and do but they didn't get the chance to give life to all their dreams. They were young. Very young. This person wanted to fight the darkness and be a ray of hope in a world of doom. They had great ambitions and though they were battling their own demons, they truly believed in good and wanted to be good. They believed that they could weave their destiny as they wanted and that they could change the world if they tried real hard. They wanted to leave a positive impact around them. Heal the world. I'm also picking up on Michael Jackson energy. Maybe you or this person was a Michael Jackson fan. They may have been misunderstood by people around them when they were living. Maybe they were made fun of as a child because of their peculiar personality and talents. Maybe this person saw or did things that people didn't believe in or were afraid of. They were the first in their family to be like that. Maybe they were the first to be queer or the first that had a special talent that was deemed out of the ordinary. Could have been an artistic talent but also something related to the unseen. Maybe they could sense ghosts or they had downloads about specific events. They could have been the first to break from the family patterns and traditions. Like maybe in this person's family people were carpenters or automobile constructors from father to son and they chose to be an artist instead. I'm drawn to the snake on the Weaver card. Maybe snakes were important to this person. Like it is a symbol that represents them or this could be their chinese zodiac sign. Years of the snake are 1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 or 2013 and the next one will be 2025. But more than zodiac, I feel like they related to snakes in the sense that these animals are often feared and viewed as negative when they are neither good nor bad. They hold the potential for both and will only be "bad" if you threaten them. The reason I got drawn to the snake is because I know of an artist that passed on whose clothing brand logo was a snake. If any of you are familiar with The GazettE, I'm talking about Reita and his brand SNAKEDLOWS. Especially the one with the Ouroboros that was used in 2022. If you don't resonate with any of these artists, this could have been a family member, whether you knew them during their lifetime or not.

What they want to say to you :

"Dear love, I cannot stress enough how much I love you. You lit up my life in so many ways. I can never thank you enough for the support and love you have given me over the years. I owe so much to you. I was able to live a good life because of you. Please allow me to return the favor by being your n° 1 fan from now on <3 Fighting!"

Complementary info - The wildling, take risk, the pillar, connect to heart, The Void, 7 of pentacles, 7 of swords, page of cups rx, 3 of wands rx, King of pentacles

They are trapped in a state of limbo and they want to connect with you to be free. But they also want to help you set yourself free from patterns and obligations that you don't resonate with anymore. You are lying to yourself about the state you are in. You keep working and working without taking into account how you feel. Your life has become more of a routine and less of an adventure. You closed your heart to favor your mind. It's like you no longer marvel at life and try to run from your truth. They want to connect with you because they don't want you to do the same mistakes as them and ignore the signs that you are not okay. They want to help you ground yourself into an environment and a state of being that is healthy. Behind the Void hides Get curious. Behind the king of pentacles hides the knight of cups. They want you to be curious about love again. To open your heart again. To fight for your happiness because they don't want you to know the same fate as them. It's like they're saying "there are things I wish I knew sooner because if I'd known them maybe I wouldn't have had as hard of a time as I did". "If I'd known, I'd have told people how I felt. Maybe I would have been saved from my own sorrow. I don't want you to drown in your feelings like I did". There's a theme of mental health issues, suicidal tendencies and/or abuse from close circle like family members, friends. It's like this person in their life time chose to prioritize their job and the well being of others to the detriment of their own health and emotional security. They withheld information, pretended that they were fine when they were not. They hid behind their success and their career and most likely worked themselves until it was too much for them to handle.

Advice from your guides - 3 of swords, the world, The Pillar, Ask Body

Don't isolate yourself and remain in your anger or sadness. Speak up to somebody, reach out, open your heart to the world. There are other people who share your pain and doubts, who will be able to relate to what you go through and help you on your journey. Strengthen your body but also pay attention to the signs it is sending you. If you feel unusual pain, pay attention to it. Your third eye is opening. You are becoming more sensitive to spirit and other's emotions. So make sure you build strong enough walls to protect yourself from spiritual attacks. Ask your guides for help if you feel like you can't rely on anyone. Spend time in contemplation and prayer. The spirit of the cheetah is here to remind you that it's important to save your energy and only spend it for what matters. You need to find your center back instead of dispersing your energy in many projects at a time. "It is not unusual for the Cheetah Spirit Animal to come as a guide and support for people who have intense feelings. If you are empathetic, Cheetah reminds you it’s okay and healthy to cry. It releases all the excess input bumping around in your aura while cleansing and decreasing stress. Pause for a moment. Cry and then give yourself something wonderful afterward." You are asked to slow down and take time to let your emotions be expressed instead of repressing them. [Source : what is my spiritanimal]

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Group 2

Letters : D R A A E T U E E O O Q A U E Keywords : tour, route, area, Qatar, road, dare, tear, deer, dear, rate, root, tora (Japanese for tiger), rat, door, eau (French for water)

Who is trying to reach out?

Cancer I FEEL July 20 to August 10 | Model | Heterochromia | Healer | Musician | Dorky/quirky | 7th house Awareness of others I CONNECT | 10 th house Outerworld I ACHIEVE | 8 of pentacles, 6 of cups, King of swords, Self love, The Void, The Seeker rx

I get two possibilities for this group. Some of you could have a passed on ancestor / parent trying to contact you. For others, this person is living but you are not in contact with them at the moment. In both cases, I get this feeling of communication being blocked. It's as if you refuse to be in contact with them or you delay the moments when you are in contact with them. No matter the situation, you are taking refuge in your work as a way to avoid them. This person could be a soulmate and/or someone from your childhood. I get the feeling of a dynamic between someone that is quite old and someone that is quite young. Like a clash of generations. This is just one example between many but think of a parent and their child or a mentor and their protégé. This person could have had a higher status than yours. Aside from the careers mentioned by the tissue box messages I also sense law enforcement, military, politics. Positions of authority in general. It's like you've created a bubble around you and you stay in that bubble. No matter how hard this person is trying to reach out, their attempts are cut short by the distance between you. It's like you voluntarily keep them at bay. I feel a lot of sadness and worry coming from them. It feels like they're afraid that they can't help you. They can sense that something is troubling you and they wish to help you in any way they can but you refuse their help. They feel lonely and left out. It saddens them to see that you don't seem to trust them as much as you used to. They understand and recognize your need for space and independance, your passion and goals, your personal legend. But they also wish that you would let them be a part of it, let them in into your world and give them the opportunity to contribute to it even just a little. More than anything they want to reconnect with you and go back to lighter and innocent moments, where you share memories and try to build a future together. This doesn't have to be a romantic thing. Actually I feel more of a parental vibe than a romantic one. But of course it's going to vary depending on people so for some it could be a romantic partner that is/was very protective of you and kind of acted as a parental figure.

What they want to say to you :

"My child, you need not to cry. Our fate isn't one to worry about. I cry for all of you who are here on Earth, who do not know the taste of true love. I cry for my brothers and sisters who still have to fight the same battles, though I've fought them before. I wish I could heal the world. I wish I could heal you too. <3"

Complementary info - Underworld, Seeker rx, Paradox, The Revolutionary, knight of pentacles, 3 of pentacles, knight of pentacles, Judgement

They wish that instead of giving a lot of attention to others you would allow yourself to receive help and attention from them. That you would stop keeping them at bay and let them show you a new perspective, a different way of doing things. That you would let them pave the way a little more for you and shed light onto other paths, other skills, other people that could be helpful. They want to find a common ground with you and create something stable, fruitful. They want to team up with you in order to restore balance in your life. If some of you are facing legal matters or have been wronged, they want to help you get retribution. They wish you wouldn't be so hard on yourself and stop fighting your battles alone. It's like they're saying "it doesn't have to be just you against the whole world, you don't even have to fight if you don't want to ; if you truly want it, let me stand by your side". For a lot of you this concerns your career or your studies. They wish that you would share your load with them. They wish that you would come to them for advice instead of trying to save them the worry because they're going to worry anyway so they might as well worry with you. They wish that you wouldn't be so harsh on them and judge them so harshly. You underestimate this person's ability to understand you. They wish to say "I've been there to and I know how you feel". They want to let you know that you are not alone, they fully support you in your decisions and choices. They're ready to fight for and with you. All they need is your command. They're saying "tell me what you need and I'll be getting it for you, tell me your fears and I'll send them away". Just one word from you and they will serve justice. There's also a theme about prayer, similarily to group 1. I heard "God is mighty and if you ask you shall receive". I know religion is a touchy subject so I don't want to force beliefs on anyone but if that is something you resonate with then they encourage you to keep going and turn to God for help.

Advice from your guides - Death, Versatility rx, page of cups, 4 of swords

They want you to take rest and do things that you enjoy. You may want to get your health checked. Put an end to connections and habits that are detrimental to you.

[6-30am]

George Russell's name in gold, on the wall of the Mercedes-Benz museum, history of motorsport section

Perhaps older Formula 1 fans knew this was a thing, but this was a surprise to me. I went to the Mercedes-Benz museum for the automobile history and knew they had the silver arrows on display, but I didn't know how much, if at all, they acknowledge the current team. When you enter this giant circular room, the first thing you see are the names of every race driver that has competed for Mercedes, in gold foil, revealing themselves gradually as the dim lights hit at just the right angle. I gasped at the beauty and smiled so widely at seeing my guy up there. Forever part of Mercedes history, no matter what tomorrow brings.

[honey-dont]

types of freight cars

made a whole post to help ppl design stex ocs as the resident freight enthusiast :) while this isn't every freight car in existence, it's definitely a good chunk of them!

FLATCARS

The most basic type of freight car. They’re…well…flat! Designed for carrying bulky loads.

Autorack: Transport automobiles. Can have single, double, or triple levels.

Boom/Idler: Placed in front of a breakdown crane to protect the boom or in front of/behind oversized loads to protect the overhang.

Bulkhead: Have walls (bulkheads) on the end. Used to transport pipe, poles, slabs, and lumber. Prone to derailing when traveling empty and put speed restrictions on the freight train.

Centerbeam: Carry lumber. Another type is the opera (round) window style. Have to be loaded/unloaded evenly to avoid the car tipping over.

Depressed Center: Used to carry extremely heavy loads such as generators. Have a lowered (depressed) middle section.

Intermodal/Well: Carry semi-truck trailers and containers. Have a lowered bottom (well).

Skeleton/Spine: Very narrow car used to transport lumber. Has stakes on the sides. Spine cars do not have stakes and are often used for intermodal transport.

GONDOLAS

Open-topped cars that generally transport loose goods. Can also be covered. Differ from hoppers in that they have flat bottoms and have to be manually unloaded or put through a rotary dumper.

Bathtub: Transport coal. Have rounded bottoms for extra space.

Coil: Carry coils of metal. Can be open or have specialized covers to protect the cargo. Typically considered a subtype of gondola, but can also be a subtype of flatcar as well.

Side-dump: Cars tip sideways to dump loads. Often carry ballast or rocks for railbeds.

HOPPERS

Evolved from gondolas but differ in that they have sloped bottoms and discharge doors. Can be covered or uncovered, and have between two to five chutes. Open cars transport bulk goods such as coal, while covered ones carry food items.

Ore Jenny: A small, specialized hopper designed to carry large loads of iron ore from mines.

BOXCAR

Enclosed cars with side or end doors. Used for bulk commodities and for goods that need to be protected from the weather.

Stock: Used to transport livestock such as cattle, horses, sheep, and poultry. Have ventilated sides for airflow. A variant used to carry fish was attached to passenger trains and was more luxurious.

Refrigerator: Insulated and cooled cars used to transport frozen goods.

TANKERS

Used to transport liquids or gases. Can be specialized to carry hazardous materials.

Milk: Specialized tank car variant (as opposed to the boxcar variant) that carries milk. Attached to passenger trains to prevent spoilage.

Pickle: There's pickles in there! The vats were filled with vinegar.

Torpedo: Carry molten iron. Designed to withstand very high temperatures.

Whale Belly: Large tank car with a lowered midsection for additional carrying capacity.

SCHNABEL

These cars are a type all of their own. Used to transport extremely large loads by pinching it between the arms of the car.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Summary

Summary - a shortened version of any piece of writing in which you express in your own words and as briefly as possible the most essential information of that original piece of writing.

Your purpose in writing a summary is to “sum up” the original writing by including only the most relevant points the author makes.

You are writing an objective description of another’s writing and should not include your own personal opinions of that writing (unless your instructor specifically asks for your commentary and your opinion).

Strategies for Writing a Summary

Reading, Rereading, Highlighting, and Skimming

Read the material you plan to summarize carefully.

On a second reading, you might highlight the main ideas (literally, with a highlighter pen), make notes in the margin, or outline the writing you plan to summarize.

Before you begin to write your summary, skim over the material, noting the key ideas once more.

Finding and Using the Main Points

Assess the author’s main point and approach to writing – analysis, argument, exploration, definition, and narrative – and compose a sentence that includes who the author is and what he has written as well as his purpose in writing.

Notice how the author has organized his writing, particularly the use of paragraphing, transitions, restatements for emphasis, and other stylistic devices.

Write one or two sentences that briefly paraphrase the author’s primary support for each section or division of the original text.

Once you have written a sentence for each main idea, you have, in essence, written topic sentences for your summary.

Final Draft

Use the topic sentences you have written to organize your summary, which should be presented in the same chronological order as the original text.

Use transitions in order to make your summary cohesive and logical. Because your summary is intended to be short, you may combine sentences when you can avoid repeating information and to avoid choppiness in your writing.

When you have finished your summary, review with the following question in mind: Would someone reading your summary have a clear and accurate idea of what the original writer has written?

Example

Article: “Anatomy of a First Aid Kit”

A well-stocked first aid kit is a handy thing to have. To be prepared for emergencies, keep a first aid kit in your home and in your automobile. Carry a first aid kit with you or know where you can find one when you are hiking, biking, camping, or boating. Find out the location of first aid kits where you work. First aid kits come in many shapes and sizes. A, You can buy one from a drug store, or your local Red Cross chapter might sell them. B, You can make your own first aid kit. C, Some kits are designed for specific activities, such as hiking, camping or boating. Whether you buy a first aid kit or put one together, make sure it has all the items you may need. Include any personal items, such as medications and emergency phone numbers, or other items your physician may suggest. Check the kit regularly. Make sure the flashlight batteries work. Check expiration dates and replace any used or out-of-date contents.

SAMPLE SUMMARY

In their article “Anatomy of a First Aid Kit,” the American Red Cross advises people to have first aid kits on hand at home, when traveling, or at the work place. First aid kits can be purchased or assembled by individuals for specific activities such as outdoor recreation. The main consideration is to have everything necessary in a first aid kit, such as medications, phone numbers and other essential items. Finally, first aid kits should be kept up-to-date so that everything needed is ready for use in case of an emergency.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[greatlobbyis123]

Best Sources for Tech News | Great Lobbyist

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[cazzyf1]

After posting the newspaper clip of the painting Mike Hawthorn sent Sheila Van Damm, I decided to look into her history, and I found lots of interesting information.

Shelia was born to Vivian Van Damm, who was a prominent British theatre impresario from 1932 until 1960, managing the Windmill Theatre in London's Great Windmill Street. A key feature of the theatre was the 'Windmill girls' who, to get around the loophole of nudity in entertainment at the time, remained completely still while nude as 'nude statues could not be banned on moral ground'.

Shelia's father enjoyed automobiles and taught Shelia how to drive from a very young age. She joined the 'Woman's Auxiliary Air Force Driver' during the Second World War. While part of this force, she entered her first rally with her sister to promote the Windmill Theatre, which remained open despite the blitz in London. 'Windmill Girl' was written on the side of their car and they finished 3rd in the ladies section of the MCC-Daily Express car rally. The Rootes team was impressed by Shelia Van Damm and offered her a seat with them for the next season. Her sister Nora never took to rallying, this being her only outing, but their mother also started rallying in the 50s.

Shelia Van Damm also learnt to fly an aeroplane at her father's encouragement and took part in aerobatics contents but she wasn't passionate about it.

From there Shelia Van Damm took part in more and more rally's improving her racing. She also encountered other famous drivers who she would team up with and would give her advice, such as Stirling Moss, Peter Collins & Mike Hawthorn. She even had a photograph of her and Stirling Moss in her office at the theatre.

Shelia van Damm, Leslie Johnson, and Stirling Moss won the Team Prize in the 1954 Monte Carlo Rally driving Sunbeam-Talbot 90 Mk. IIs. Shelia van Damm was in Rootes' Team Prize-winning team again in 1955 and 1956.

Shelia's main love however was the theatre and she choose to retire from racing in the late 50's to take over her dad's position managing the Theater and the Windmill girls.

Have her retirement she also became the president of the Doghouse Club for motorracing Wives and Ladies.

As for her personal life, Sheila Van Damm was in a polyamorous Lesbian relationship with Journalist and broadcaster Nancy Spain & editor Joan Werner Laurie. I believe they had even adopted two children. Their lives together were described as 'joyous and nurturing at times, it also caused untold pain and chaos, especially to their children.' Sadly both Nancy Spain and Joan Werner Laurie died in a plane crash leaving Shelia van Damm heartbroken.

Shelia's dad passed away in 1960 and though she tried her best to keep the Theater running, eventually it shut in 1964. Shelia Van Damm briefly toured Australia with her show 'The Windmill Revue' but eventually she retired to a little cottage with her sister and lived the rest of her life out of public eye, and sadly passed away of cancer in 1987.

[shippingmyworld]

Youtuber!Timmy and Youtuber!Jimmy AU

Follow up to my Youtuber!Danny Phantom AU from this post cus I can't stop thinking about this AU.

Timmy runs a channel named Fairly Odd Creatures where he makes full-blown mockumentaries about all kinds of mythical creatures/cryptids. Once every 2-3 months he will post a video that's about 60 minutes long and the production value that goes into them is absolutely mind-blowing. People are constantly flooding his inbox, demanding to know what his secret is. There are all-out wars in the comment section of his videos (or whatever social media platform his videos are being discussed on) debating on how in the world the footage is pulled off. Nobody can agree on if it's super-advanced cgi or the best blend of makeup and props the internet has ever seen.

Timmy's secret of course is just the fact that Cosmo and Wanda will simply poof into existence whatever creature Timmy needs for his video. Then he just has to follow it around for a few hours with his camcorder and then edit the footage together.

The funniest part of his videos (and probably the reason that they're so popular) is that nothing in them is even remotely in line with what has already been popularized. For example: "Chupacabra's? Yeah, it turns out they don't drink the blood of livestock. They eat metal. Specifically, automobile metal. Don't believe me? Well I lost this Chupacabra in downtown Dimmsdale for a few hours and it ate half of this totally random car before I found it again. Here's a clip of it taking a chomp out of the tire like it's a donut." (The car belonged to Mr. Crocker and it wasn't an accident).

Each and every video Timmy uploads is guaranteed to hit number one on trending for a few hours, and then hover in the top 20 for a few days. This gives Timmy a bit of an ego, especially since whenever he posts a new one everyone at school is talking about it the next day. He tells himself that he can't reveal his identity because then he's have to explain how he's pulling everything off (his voice is disguised with a magical voice modulator that makes him sound like a dramatic narrator) and thus risk exposing Cosmo and Wanda. However, the second that Trixie off-handedly mentions she watches them he spills the beans. Thankfully for his fairies, nobody believes him.

Jimmy's channel is called Brain Blast in which he posts about his projects and the science behind them. While he does have a small and dedicated subscriber base, most of the comments on his videos are from months or years after he's uploaded them in the first place of people thanking him for posting such great study aids.

Part of the reason why he has a smaller subscriber base is because he doesn't edit his content. They're all done with a single take, which only is extremely impressive to anyone that notices. He writes the script, preps his slideshow and props, and then hits record. Even though he does plenty of "Fun Science" videos ("Alternative Travel Methods feat. Bubble Travel", "How to Launch Your Toaster into Orbit", "Make Your Own Rust in a Can", etc.) the low production and sound quality for everything gives off the same energy as those channels run by a middle-aged man recording stuff about their niche interest on their phones.

Sheen and Carl appear in most of his videos as his assistants (or lab rats depending on the context). They're pretty great helpers, despite the fact that Sheen always goes off script and Carl gets so camera shy that he forgets his lines. Jimmy has to cut in a lot with "That's an excellent question!" to get them back on track. Libby and even Cindy will make occasional appearances. In fact, most of his popular uploads come from videos that his friends requested: "How Real is the Science in Ultralord?", "Surprising Biology of Lamas!", and "The Science Behind Enjoying Music." are counted among his most popular uploads.

Cindy once tried to get her own channel up and running and was pretty popular for a while, but after a few months she decided that even part-time content creator wasn't something she wanted to invest her time into. Instead, she'll just muscle her way into Jimmy's videos on occasion. More than once she has basically hijacked Jimmy's script halfway through to talk about famous women related to whatever topic Jimmy is covering.

Jimmy can't really bring himself to interrupt Cindy's hijacking's, because whiles she's right about the contributions these famous women have made, they're not super relevant to the hyper-specific topic/experiment he's currently covering (he will just shoot a second video when he's alone and upload it to make sure all his points got covered). Eventually though, he'll get so annoyed with Cindy barging into his lab whenever she finds out he's planning to film (Sheen spills the beans to Libby all the time and she reports to Cindy) that Jimmy will begin to start most of his videos will a few quick facts that he thinks Cindy will like so she'll leave him alone.

When the Youtube algorithm starts recommending Jimmy some of Timmy's mockumentary's, Jimmy will start posting follow-up videos to Timmy's in order to debunk Fairly Odd Creatures. This in turn starts to push Brain Blast up in popularity due to association. Then a portion of Timmy's fanbase gets latched onto Jimmy. They start taking stills from Jimmy's videos to use as reaction images (because Jimmy gets very upset and frustrated with just how wrong everything in Timmy's videos are).

As to not expose himself on his channel, Timmy creates a second channel in which he uploads videos in exactly the same style as Jimmy's. He discredits this "Science" thing that Jimmy is apparently basing all his arguments on and jokes about how Jimmy sounds like a witch. The second channel isn't very popular until Jimmy posts a "In Response to..." video addressing Timmy's second channel directly. This inadvertently brings Timmy's second channel a flash rise in popularity and sparks a whole chain of video uploads between the two of them. There's a solid month of them uploading daily and basically yelling at each other about why people should unsubscribe from the other person.

Timmy throws himself heavily into the second channel (so much so that he almost forget to film content for Fairly Odd Creatures once), adopting a conspiracy theory persona that believes the earth is flat and that the moon is just a government projection. He invites his totally real alien friend Mark Chang onto the channel all the time to talk about Yugopotamia and help discredit Jimmy ("Like yeah man, I totally saw your radical disc-looking planet and had to fly down and check it out.").

And because people are normal on the internet, there's a whole sub-genre of fans that have started to ship Jimmy and Timmy's YouTube channels. 'Enemies-to-lovers' is the most popular trope for them, and there's even a whole subreddit dedicated to the ship that gets fanart and fanfics posted to it on a regular basis. Timmy is very aware of this group of fans and will occasionally sneak in an off-handed remark about Jimmy just to fuel them because he thinks it will piss off Jimmy even more. In fact, there's a whole slew of small channels that clip and compile 'JimTim Evidence' to fuel their theory that Jimmy and Timmy are secretly dating.

Little does Timmy know, there's actually a clip out there of him saying, "Jimmy may not be able to use his oversized head to deduce simple facts, but that least he can pick out glasses that make his eyes look pretty." Jimmy has watched that clip at least a thousand times on loop because he's low-key attracted to Timmy but refuses to admit it. It's part of the reason as to why he gets so worked up about Timmy's responses to him, because how can someone he's attracted to be just so wrong about everything???

[seat-safety-switch]

Today, everyone who uses the highway has agreed that we will go exactly 92 km/h. It's a little bit slick in spots because it rained and froze last night, but that short section on the bridge doesn't outweigh the vocal group that routinely sleeps in late and needs to get to work faster than 80.

This method works a lot better than the old one, where everyone just went whatever speed they wanted. Sure, there was a "speed limit," but nobody recognized the law as being valid. To limit speed is to limit essential freedom, believed a whole bunch of speeders like myself. Ten, twenty, eighty over the limit: this is the stuff that the human spirit is made of. In the end, though, we too realized that the only thing that was truly valid was the opinion of our fellow citizens.

Originally, the negotiation was a little clunky. Not everyone subscribed to the peer pressure, not until it reached a critical mass of people. Organizing eventually got the goods, though, as it always does. It's hard to speed when all four lanes are going the agreed-upon speed in perfect synchronicity, and it's really intimidating to go slower than traffic when hundreds of thousands of tons of automobiles behind you are waiting for you to find the narrow pedal and rejoin civil society.

Sure, I miss speeding. I really do, but I don't miss having to go zero to fifteen for a couple hours a week because someone had a big spin-out on the bridge, or had to make a lane change at the last minute while thinking about Matlock and missing their exit. Now, I get to work every time, reliably, in a boring fashion. They might as well have built a train, and saved themselves all this money on mandatory speed-sensing bomb collars.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1977 Cadillac Seville

Betty White's Seamist-green 1977 Cadillac Seville owned and driven for 25 years by Betty is on display in the AACA museum in Hershey, PA. It was a surprise gift from her husband Allen Ludden. She nicknamed the car "Parakeet."

It was a surprise gift, too, as she would say in interviews years later: Ludden had returned home from a job and, as customary, he didn’t want Betty to wait for him at the airport. So, he drove home, but not in a taxi: he arrived in this Seamist Green 1977 Cadillac Seville he had picked up for her. The special kind of pastel green had been chosen with her in mind, since she loved pastels. The combination of the green and the white vinyl top and the white leather interior turned it into an instant attention-magnet.

The Seville was factory loaded and rear-wheel drive, but it also featured a few extra touches, like a small dash plaque that reads “Betty.” The actress would later add an AT&T phone inside, so she could always be reached for business. It is still inside the car.

Betty loved Parakeet, though she didn’t drive it too much. In 2002, she donated it with 18,000 miles (29,000 km) on the odometer, to an animal charity. It then ended up with a Houston collector who donated it to the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum (AACA Museum) in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It’s been there all this time, either on display or offered for special tours in the storage section.

[th3-0bjectivist]

My visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (Charlotte, NC - JUN 29 2024)

Every year for a few years now, I try to do an Independence Day post where I walk around a few cemeteries and snap some cool photos. But this is an election year, and I'm concerned that I'm going to have to soft-block some political zealot high on their own farts that will leave intellectual gems in the comments like 'Drumpf IZ Hitler!' or 'down with left-cucks in 24!'. So instead, I'm going to share some pictures that I took at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, and you can leave all the unrelated jabbering political frivolity that you'd like in the comments section.

For the record, I'm not into NASCAR at all. I haven't watched a full single race in my lifetime, and I tend to associate it with rednecks driving in circles. Which, to my chagrin, I was dead wrong in my interpretation on. Well, except for the redneck part. There's a hell of a lot more to these beautiful cars than I thought. My visit to this specialized museum was a delicate mix of history, art and science lessons!

The first thing I learned is that although these cars look fully assembled from the outside, they have nearly all the standard parts taken out (the radio, the average driver wheel, the headlights, etc.) and the bodies are composed of a flat sheet of durable metal. These days the car panels, which are composite materials like plastic coated with fibreglass, are then painted over to make a colorful, and often very corporate piece of art that is ready to drive at breakneck speeds. This all makes the modified car as light and agile as possible on the speedway.

In the U.S. south, where I reside these days, stock car racing's roots took hold from prohibition. Stock car racing wasn't just about competition; it was about taking your very fast car and running moonshine and illegally imported booze to different regions around Appalachia. Getting away from highway patrol meant stripping your car of excessive weight and parts, allowing for maximum maneuverability around hairpin turns and extreme acceleration up and down steep hills… all while a 1000-pound barrel of booze was strapped down in the back seat.

This is a picture I snapped inside the Hall of Honor, and that man is Richard 'the King' Petty. As a non-NASCAR fan, his face is the face I most associate with NASCAR, as his signature moustache, glasses and hat stand out to me as a truly memorable and iconic driver. But it’s not just the driver that participates. In NASCAR, your team is composed of a chief, who spots opportunities from television monitors and signals the driver through radio to execute specific moves to win the race, all while managing the rest of the team.

The pit crew consists of mechanics, a jackman (runs around the car with a heavy jack to raise the automobile during a maintenance pit stop), a cut-off valve attendant for refuelling, and a driver attendant who helps the driver get in and out of the car. It doesn't just take an individual driver, but a full team to assist the driver in winning the race. Drivers have suffered concussions, bone fractures, severe burns, whiplash, traumatic bodily injuries and death. Talk about bleeding for your craft!

And now for some art! Pictured above is a full-scale clay model of a Next Gen Ford Mustang. These days, clay models of racing cars are developed from digital designs and used to capture approvals from companies to lay down a final design for a race-worthy automobile. Once you pack a V-8 engine into one of these babies and recreate it out of a steel tube frame, you've got a vehicle that can reach speeds above 200 miles per hour.

Here's my pops, Dave, who I took to this museum as a birthday present. He's a NASCAR freak, and this little excursion to the Hall of Fame actually made him cry for a beat as he recalled decades worth of memories of racers, historic moments, and images of historic back-to-back victories for drivers and their teams.

Every car has the potential to be a race car. It just takes some weight-loss surgery or a good initial design, some driver safety features, and a colorful skin to make the whole thing faster, more agile, and more appealing to the eye. I have to say I never expected to absorb so much from the NASCAR HoF. I was grateful for my visit and wanted to share a portion of what I learned to Tumblr as a fun little sidebar.

I hope you enjoyed this post. And rest assured, you will never see another NASCAR post on my page ever again… y'know, unless it’s a meme or something!

Happy 4th,

th3-0bjectivist (Luke)

[ADDENDUM (07/05/2024): Tumblr ryanthedemiboy pointed out to me in the comments that the third paragraph in this post probably needed some modifications regarding the actual description of the panels, which I originally and ignorantly described as an ‘outer metal hull’. While this might have been the case with older NASCAR vehicles, in modern times the panels are at best ‘metal-skinned’, if that, and manufactured from carbon fibre. Also, older NASCAR vehicles were painted and repainted, but ever since the early 2000’s these vehicles are simply wrapped in a vinyl skin. Thank you for your insight ryanthedemiboy, I will ‘stay in my lane’ so to speak in the future and give these topics, that are alien to me, the research they deserve before I post!]

[kimberly40]

The Snake Doctor from McDowell County, North Carolina - (from the Asheville Citizen Times, 1926) *He was my ancestor.

Women and rattlesnakes do not ruffle the composure of Samuel F. Crisson, a 75 year old hermit, philosopher and "snake doctor" who lives in the Hollifield section (around Turkey Cove) of McDowell County, but, he declares that "readin' some of the stuff they print in newspapers these days makes me so nervous I can't do nothin”.

Mr. Crisson lives in a crude cabin built of logs in a little cove on Armstrong Creek in the heart of a wild and rugged mountain region of unexcelled natural beauty. The State Highway Department is solving the problem of distance in the Western North Carolina Mountains. Good roads and automobiles are now making neighbors of people everywhere.

State Highway No. 19, a smooth trail of yellow gravel and white sand, passes within a few yards of Mr. Crisson's cabin. Lately, many visitors to the mountains passing along this highway have stopped to have a talk with the hermit philosopher.

"I'm fer rood and roads," says Mr. Crisson. “Yes, sir, I reckon I was about the fust one in these parts to have a sign up for a good road to come up here."

The road leads onward past the little cabin through a scenic wonderland of rarest beauty in a mountain wilderness where McDowell, Yancey and Mitchell counties join.

Here in the solitudes of this matchless region Mr. Crisson lives happily in his primitive hut. His only companion is a house cat. Since the days before the Revolution Mr. Crisson's people have lived in the Hollifield section. At one time they owned a large section of the mountain land near the hermit's cabin where Wildacres Retreat is now being developed.

Mr. Crisson tells an interesting story about an old fort near his home which was built by the early settlers to defend themselves against Indian attacks. "I've always been told that my great uncle's first wife was scalped by the Injuns near that place," says Mr. Crisson.

The other day a party of Asheville people going through the section stopped to talk with the hermit. As the car stopped near his home he walked toward the road and extended a hearty welcome.

"Light," he said. "Git out and come in." The philosopher, attired in a rusty looking Prince Albert coat and wearing a straw hat, ushered the visitors into his rude dwelling with almost kingly grace and with the cordial hospitality for which the mountain people are famous.

An enormous fireplace built of rough boulders, was in one end of the room. In another was the hermit's bed, a rude affair made of rough boards. And in another was a heavy box made of boards.

"That thar's the snake box," said the hermit with a twinkle in his eye. "But you needn't be a-feared of it. Tain't noth' in in thar now. I hain't been able to catch no snakes here lately. I got an order now from a feller down in Raleigh fer a snake hide. He wants to make him a belt. The snakes air a-stirrin' too. I jes' hain't been able to git none somehow."

Catching snakes, selling their skins and selling the oil he fries from rattlesnake meat is a regular business with the hermit. He says that he has caught more than 100 rattlesnakes in addition to many other kinds of reptiles. He slips up on viscous rattlers, slips a string around their necks and brings them home, he says, where he keeps them, alive in the "snake box" until he has use for them.

"No, I ain't a-feared of'em," he says. "A snake hain't a-goin' to hurt you unless he sees you're a-feard of him. But let him see you're a-feared of him, then look out!"

Mr. Crisson made his last visit to Asheville 47 years ago. "You wouldn't know the place now," one of the visitors told him. "You should see how things have changed."

"Wal, I dunno," said the mountain sage, shaking his head, "I dunno. I reckon hit's changed a right smart, but I don't know as I'll be goin' up that away soon. Sometimes I go over to Marion. I was in Hickory about 45 years ago. I hear how things are right smart changed 'round that way too."

Mr. Crisson often makes a little money besides the profits accruing from the snakes he catches by gathering herbs in the mountains. Some of these herbs he sells to medicine concerns in distant cities and others he compounds into remedies which are given for all sorts of ailments.

He knows the rugged mountains from the valleys to the lofty summits. Through this mountain wilderness the aged mountaineer roams, gathering herbs and wildflowers and catching the deadly snakes that lie hidden among the rocks and fallen leaves. Crystal streams plunge into rocky beds fringed with delicate ferns and soft mosses. Rugged rock cliffs tower high over peaceful valleys carpeted with deepest green grass and foliage. From the mountain tops a panoramic picture no artist could paint unfolds in thrilling grandeur. The broad and peaceful valleys rise, stretching away against the distant horizon and fading out in shadows of blue, purple and turquoise. Here in the solitude of this matchless region the hermit lives happily, far from the noise and strife of the cities.

Not long ago a party of visitors stopped at the hermit's cabin and he consented to pose for a picture. He had his picture made while shaking hands with Mrs. G.G. Reiniger, wife of Lt. Colonel G.G. Reiniger, both of whom are spending the summer in Asheville.

Colonel Reiniger recently resigned his post from the diplomatic service. Mrs. Reiniger received wide publicity a few years ago when the late de Lyon Nichols, of Newport and Washington, pronounced her the most beautiful woman in Washington.

"You ain't hard to look at," the snake doctor said to Mrs. Reiniger when the two faced the photographer together.

Later, when the incident was recalled, the hermit declared women and rattlesnakes had little effect on his nervous system, but crowds and newspapers completely upset his equilibrium, he says.

*Pictured- The Snake Man and his cabin in McDowell County, N.C.

**The Snake Man was one of my ancestors.

(By S.D. Jones, May 1926 in the Asheville Citizen Times)