#case in point i've been thinking about this lately as i've been plunking at the ZM fic

[alteredphoenix]

I don’t know if this says something about me as a writer or the way Zereth Mortis’s storyline feels so patchworked and condensed, but every time I work on the ZM Fic and its side story I’m always forgetting about Thrall and Baine - and when I do remember I have to tell myself not to forget about them. That’s where I start to think if - and by how much - the expansion got truncated to such a degree that 9.2 had to trim the fat just to go from ZM to the Sepulcher just like that (and I always thought while it was unique that the campaign questline had you go in there, grab Anduin, go back out to make the Crown of Wills, and go back into the rest of the Sepulcher, I also think it’s such a haphazard way of doing so instead of approaching it a different way a’la without Anduin physically being there because Zovaal’s not going to stop dicking around with the Machine of Origination while you’re putzing around in Bastion on a quest to make a new Arbiter).

At least Thrall has some sort of reason to stay in the Shadowlands i.e. Draka, but also because his actions indirectly led to Sylvanas becoming Warchief who therefore kicks off everything between Legion and SL. Baine, on the other hand, doesn’t get that, or at least chooses not to seek out his father and talk to him despite there being indications that something was going to/supposed to happen between them after the Tauren Heritage Armor questline. OTOH you can argue that Baine being in Torghast mentally fucked him up so bad that him sitting in Oribos can be considered a realistic reaction to being tortured...but you don’t get to see that because that never left SL alpha, so that just tells me that despite it not being present for the player to see it at least happens off-screen. So while Baine’s reaction and lack of involvement can be forgiven this also made him into a meme the community latched onto and hyped up once he actually got up...but since he doesn’t go out of his way to find and talk to Cairne, that significantly reduces the meaning of his presence in the Shadowlands. Then again, he’s also Anduin’s friend and tries to beseech him to look to the Light while in Bastion, so even if he’s not being proactive he at least has a minor role in being The Heart.

Since the ZM Fic takes a different approach toward the Broken Crown quest by removing Anduin from the equation altogether and not being retrieved until the endgame a’la the Sepulcher raid itself, that means I would have to give Baine a very good reason to go to Bastion and help make the Crown of Wills. Hence since he’s The Heart of the party, he would have to maintain a passive role but doing it this way means he’s not exactly languishing in Haven and makes him somewhat more proactive to the plot despite being a relatively minor character. Although it’s the same with Thrall, but he has more at stake going on because (a) Sylvanas dragged him to the Maw in the first place to humiliate him and Baine, and (b) that’s two Warchiefs in a row that have sent the Horde on a death spiral that he’s had to witness once personally and the other being told to his face (by Saurfang) and having Loyalist assassins get the jump on them. That’s not to say Baine doesn’t deserve his own part to play in SL; after all, he was imprisoned by Sylvanas in the Underhold and almost got to watch Thunder Bluff burn, so by technicality he should have done more to earn the spot of being in the Shadowlands...but while you can argue from an out-of-universe perspective as to why he didn’t (and I’m not going to say ‘he wasn’t allowed to’ because that’s being accusatory to the devs and I don’t have information nor evidence to prove that ‘he wasn’t allowed to’ is true), from an in-game POV Torghast screw with him so badly he couldn’t do more than beyond the bare minimum.

Looking at this post, I do see how SL is so cut and strung together, and I do see good parts in it despite it being so flawed (and, IMO, one of the weaker expacs, next to TBC and WoD). I don’t know if it’s because of the ongoing lawsuits that jettisoned whatever plans the devs might’ve had for SL (e.g. the possibility of a Drust raid and a 9.3 patch) or the result of the community reaction online (which I noticed that whenever reactions do happen, they’re loud, loud enough to the point of inducing several Author’s Saving Throws to curb the heat, which...I’m learning I am not very fond of,  at all, having to tailor a story based off backlash and outrage, which also explains why I don’t stick with popular fanon). As I’ve said, I don’t like making conspiracy theories around things that might have/could have happened but never made it live because it didn’t fit the game’s narrative tone or direction. I would prefer to criticize rather than commit to shit-slinging.

But despite the flaws I do see an upside to writing a fic set in an expac that’s heavily maligned, and while it doesn’t retcon from Legion onwards like most Fix-It Fics prefer the ZM Fic still plays somewhat loosely with 9.2′s approach while still maintaining most of its canonicity. So even if Thrall and Baine (and hell, much less Anduin, he’s barely in this fic to begin with) aren’t at Main Character/Important Supporting Character status that Sylvanas and Jaina do in this fic, I can give them small roles that will at least carry them long enough to make it to the end (and into Dragonflight, although I’m not expecting Thrall to do anything of the sort afterwards, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if Baine isn’t involved with the Wrathion and the black dragons the same way Jaina will be for Kalecgos and the blues and Tyrande with the greens; DF is the story for the dragons, after all).

[taperwolf]

Just got an object that makes a eurorack module I'd built look about 930% better; the build went from the rightmost module in the image on the left to that one on the right.

What it is, is simply a front panel or faceplate for the module. The original was an experiment to see if a makeshift panel made of multiple layers of cardstock could work; the answer is yes, but not very well. It was too flexible, and difficult to properly put the holes in and align the layers well.

The replacement is also an experiment, but an experiment to see if I'm capable of using KiCAD — an open-source schematic and PCB design package — to design a PCB that works as a module's faceplate when built by one of the rapid PCB manufacturing houses. It turns out that I do, in fact, know enough to design a board that both can be manufactured and be what I actually want.

(The module itself is simply an inexpensive board, commonly available from a lot of far east electronics houses, that applies one of 100 audio effects to whatever you put into it; the fellow at the Modular in a Week YouTube channel demonstrated a way to mount it to a Eurorack panel, and I largely followed his design.)

Here's the panel on its own, front and back. I ordered from JLCPCB, a place out of (I think) Shenzhen that I've used before for minor projects; they're the outfit I ordered the passive multiple et al panels from. This order was about $15, shipped via the regular postal service.

(I went through the design process quickly, and late at night, so I hadn't bothered to print a copy of the design out to double-check the placements. Which is why I've spent the last couple of weeks, while waiting for the things to arrive, panicking that I wasted the money on something that wouldn't work. Fortunately, the checking I did beforehand was sufficient, and all the parts fit nicely.)

There's a few drawbacks to making front panels this way. First, there's a limited color palette for your designs. The PCB masking material for the background can only be one of a few colors: green, blue, red, purple, white, or this black. The text and designs on top of that can only be white (or black, on a white board). If you want any other contrast for artwork, you have to do it in exposed metal.

Second, there's a minimum order of five identical boards. This is an advantage if you're making multiples of one module, or building repeated prototypes, but in this case, I have four panels that will be difficult to reuse for other purposes — or at least, they'll look weird.

(The notation on the back of the panels, "This Board is Upside-Down", is something I borrowed from Bob, a friend who used to go to our local makerspace. The other bit on the back is the fab's batch number, so they can track your order easier; by default they plunk it down at some point of their choosing, but you can set up a bit of text for them to replace.)

I think next I need to lay out and have built one of the other modules I've been intending; possibly the carrier board for my little XScope toy oscilloscope. JLCPCB also offer a cheap assembly service, and it's awfully tempting to have them put the tiny surface-mount components on the boards.

[wandabherrera]

Love Me, Want Me, Need Me!

The title should establish the pace for what we're going to talk about, so here we proceed to how about we have a good time!

Narcissism Is it just me, or has our general public become progressively, narcissistic? Up until the previous few years, I truly hadn't heard this word utilized previously. In any case, to get the ball rolling, a portion of its implications are expressed beneath from the online source, Wikipedia:

Narcissism is a term with a wide scope of implications, contingent upon whether it is utilized to depict a focal idea of psychoanalytic hypothesis, a psychological instability, a social or social issue, or basically a character characteristic. Besides in the feeling of essential narcissism or solid confidence, "narcissism" as a rule is utilized to portray some sort of issue in an individual or gathering's associations with self as well as other people. In ordinary discourse, "narcissism" frequently implies swelled affectedness, pretention, vanity, arrogance, or basic self-centeredness. Applied to a gathering of people, it is now and then used to mean elitism or an apathy to the situation of others. In brain research, the term is utilized to portray both typical self esteem and undesirable self-assimilation because of an unsettling influence in the self-appreciation.

Well, OK, that essentially summarizes everything isn't that right? That is to say, take a gander at those terms above, do you realize individuals like this? All things considered, shockingly they appear to spring up wherever you look. Nonetheless, to be reasonable here, we as a whole have a tad of narcissism in each one of us, isn't that right? That is to say, sure, most have shivered at the prospect of having our image in the paper, on the TV, put over the cinema, or our names on paper so anyone might see for themselves. It's simply common to see the value in it when somebody gives us a pat on the back, discloses to us that whatever we're doing is having an effect in the existences of others. Or on the other hand possibly we're only OK with ourselves, knowing who we really are. Indeed, it's just human instinct when something, or somebody causes us to feel much improved. In any case, when self-advancement, pomposity, and love-of-self rule somebody's character, all things considered, there lies the issue.

At the point when somebody is narcissistic, there attributes are so effectively distinguished they should drape a sign on their backs in intense, red letters saying, "Love me, need me, need me!" They stroll with a specific disposition and strut, realizing beyond any doubt that the world ought to consistently be spinning around them. Having said this, permit me to give you a portion of my perceptions from 49 years of living:

Narcissistic individuals not just profoundly love themselves, they consistently need others to feel something tolerating, tolerating nothing less. They should have that feeling or they will in general get exceptionally disturbed like little voices running inside a kindergarten jungle gym - would you be able to say, "Spoiled Hollywood Celebrity, Corrupt Politician, Greedy Corporate CEO, Cocky Sports Figure, or Fame-Obsessed Housewives of Wherever?" They urgently need your endorsement and are nauseated when they don't get it. They should feel like they're focused at the center of attention, reluctant to acknowledge even the smallest flaw or analysis from others. They love the mirror, the camera, their appearance, and their accomplishments regardless of how huge or little. Some are bizarrely noisy and ruling in discussions (both one-on-one and particularly among gatherings). Their conclusions are God-like and gospel, and not open for translation. Heaps of them are bigots, and possibly provide for others less-lucky if there's something in it for them (picture in the paper, and so on) On the off chance that somebody they know gets any sort of awards, consideration, karma, or favorable luck they either twist in a fetal ball or rapidly center their inclinations back around themselves. They essentially can't deal with sitting quiet while others succeed, on any level, and they have outrageous trouble working under an immediate control or authority. They should be the manager in light of the fact that nobody can at any point improve. Some even go as far as lying, and disparaging others trying to take their prosperity and dispirit their character so they seem prevalent. Lawmakers are aces at this, we see it ordinarily all through the wireless transmissions.

In case you're associated with any sort of relationship with a narcissistic individual (marriage, fellowship, business partner, and so on) consider how a plunk down lunch with them would go. Would the discussion be adjusted? At the end of the day, would both of you express thoughts, and remarks about one another, 50/50? Or then again would the words being verbally expressed be 99% about them? The most straightforward approach to advise is to utilize a slack in the discussion to say something, anything, about you or others in your life. Would they draw in, or circle the words toward them once more? Would they rapidly get disturbed, in any event, turning to censuring you to shoot the vibe great adrenaline back somewhere inside their veins? Is it true that they were on their PDAs messaging, in any event, talking, while at the same time looking at their watches in light of the fact that their time is significantly more significant and important than yours, at any rate, in their eyes? Is it safe to say that you were the one looking out for them for lunch, knowing through history that they were in every case late? In any event, during everyday connection, do they invest the energy to really converse with you on the telephone, or is correspondence rigorously restricted to text's and messages? Do they have outrage issues when being addressed, or requested to accomplish something they feel is underneath them? Is it true that they are fixated on looking better (heaps of plastic medical procedure, and so on), advancing their self-conceded excellence at whatever point given the opportunity? Do they persistently experience difficulty associating with others on an individual level, continually putting the fault and deficiency on the contrary party when things go off to some far away place? Is it accurate to say that they are hyper-serious, plunging towards sorrow when they lose at anything? Do they loathe dismissal of any shape, example, or structure? It is safe to say that they are difficult to if it's not too much trouble, regardless of how enthusiastically you attempt?

Getting the image here?

Narcissistic characters are executing our general public's essentials. We see it all the time on TV, the web, and in the work environment with voices yelling back attempting to cause us to feel unimportant and minor. So why have their numbers filled as of late, and where does this sort of conduct come from? Many trust it begins during youth, and the believing is (from perusing loads of brain science) that parental childhood has a huge impact. In the event that a youngster is spoiled, given all that he/she at any point requests, is rarely told "no," is overprotected, shielded, or even mishandled it can prompt a befuddled condition, subsequently, narcissism as a rule follows. A lot of this isn't simply the people shortcoming, yet how they act during adulthood is the manner in which they decide to carry on, once in a while not willing to abandon their juvenile instabilities.

I've had the favorable luck of meeting some effective individuals who positively had resumes which could uphold being a narcissist. Nonetheless, humbleness was their overwhelming characteristic. Regardless of their popularity or fortune, they generally conveyed on a level battleground with myself, as well as other people. They didn't require the recognition, or slap-on-the-back appreciation to traverse the day. Maybe, they let their work and accomplishments communicate everything, making liking them undeniably more simple and willing.

As expressed above, I think at some time, we've all been somewhat liable of being narcissistic in some capacity. In any case, deciding to be modest and unassuming is by a long shot, substantially more alluring.