#even sell wired earbuds anymore + i always get the ones with the hooks on them

[woodnrust]

I was given some money for getting straight A's on my report card so I decided to treat myself and went book thrifting online and got myself Frankenstein, Notes from Underground, and Crime and Punishment :3

[candysams]

Entr’acte: Haruki

This is a chapter from my ongoing fic, Practice Room 1021. All chapters can be read as standalone and I’m really proud of this one! Overall the fic is Aki/Uge focused, but this chapter is Aki & Haru.

Chapter Rating: G

Chapter Summary: Akihiko thinks Nakayama from lecture is... interesting, to say the least.

*****

On the first day of class, Akihiko ended up sitting next to a man named Nakayama Haruki.

It was completely by chance that he’d mindlessly chosen a seat and wound up next to such a pretty face. Judging by the expression on Nakayama’s face when they first spoke to each other, he hadn’t been expecting to sit next to Akihiko either—he had a reputation, and it was rather unsavory. They had passed each other on campus a couple times, but this was their first official meeting. Akihiko could only hope that rumors trickled slowly from the music undergrads to Nakayama’s circle of film postgrads.

If Nakayama knew about the whispers surrounding Akihiko, he didn’t bother to mention them. Instead, they filled the spaces between their professor’s ramblings with blissfully mundane subjects like smoking, papers, and music. Akihiko loved when they talked about music.

Nakayama hadn’t dedicated his school years to music, but it was clear he held an easily stoked passion for the subject, hidden by his outward love for film. He had been playing the bass for nearly as long as Akihiko had been playing the violin and could read all four music clefs. He had a wealth of experience performing on stage with various bands, and the way he described the rush of a live show gave Akihiko goosebumps. Nakayama may not sell out a concert hall, but his confidence and passion intimidated Akihiko.

He wanted to steal some of that fiery passion, even if it was only enough to light a candle. He longed for the day he could pursue music simply because he loved it, without others pulling him in like a fish on a hook. He dreamed of the heat of the stage lights, sweat sticking his shirt to his back as he poured his soul out with every hit to his drums. He wished he got a dreamy look in his eyes whenever he thought about music, the same look Nakayama boasted when he shared a new bass line he had composed.

It was the same music Akihiko had always loved, just in a different package. Akihiko would chase it to the ends of the earth if it brought him a shred of happiness.

Akihiko had been blind before meeting Nakayama. There was a plethora of music and passion and opportunity hidden just past the scroll of his violin, but he had been ignorant to it until his classmate offered to share his earbuds. Akihiko wanted his music to be free, just like Nakayama’s.

Somehow, Akihiko had a bad habit of wanting things he couldn’t have or couldn’t keep.

Nakayama had asked about Akihiko’s snare once, but nothing had come from that conversation just yet. Akihiko wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to come from the sideways glances Nakayama snuck of him and his instrument during class, but he didn’t bother to ask Nakayama. Still, he brought his snare every week, hoping it would trigger a further reaction from his classmate.

It was nothing more than wishful thinking. Nakayama’s last band had disbanded before the semester started, but there was no way he didn’t have other options to explore. Akihiko had listened to a recording of him improvising and it was clear he was talented, even more than some of his fellow music majors. There was a chance Nakayama just wanted to focus on film for the time being, or maybe he was playing support for a couple groups, or maybe he just didn’t want someone like Akihiko to taint something so special to him.

Akihiko didn’t blame him, but he continued to bring his snare to class. Just in case.

He had almost completely dozed off when he felt an elbow nudging him awake. Nakayama was staring at the board at the front of their room as if he hadn’t done anything, dutifully copying down the details of their next assignment. Akihiko straightened up, copying down the due date as his classmates started to file out of the room. He tried not to sleep during class, since the risks of him being caught chewing in his sleep by Nakayama were far too high, but a long night in someone else’s bed had left him completely drained.

“Smoke break? Nakayama offered, holding up a fresh box of cigarettes. Unlike Akihiko, he looked too wired, like someone had spilled a container of sugar in his morning coffee. “You look like you need it.”

Akihiko scoffed. If he hadn’t been so tired, he would have mentioned that Nakayama spent the entire class period fidgeting in his chair, tapping his foot at varying speeds like a metronome gone haywire. His constant movement and leg-shaking had made it a little harder for Akihiko to doze off during class until the very end, when he finally took a breather and stopped fidgeting long enough for Akihiko to close his eyes.

They meandered to the rooftop, where a couple other students were milling about and smoking their own cigarettes. It was windy, but not windy enough to put out the light of a cigarette. Nakayama lit his first, then passed his lighter as if Akihiko didn’t have his own.

Nakayama was just like that. He offered his lighter—and cigarettes—without asking. His notes were detailed and color-coded with impeccable handwriting. He once showed off pictures of his bass with the same amount of excitement and wistful longing that someone would devote to a beloved pet or newborn child. If a joke was funny enough, he laughed so hard his face turned bright red and he started to hiccup. Even in the nastiest of breezes, his honey-blond hair looked soft and tangle-free, framing the pale skin of his face.

If he couldn’t have a purpose and he couldn’t have his best friend, perhaps he could have this?

He wanted this. He wanted Nakayama Haruki in whatever capacity he was allowed, even if it was just for the occasionally smoke break after class.

“Stop staring at me like that.” Nakayama snatched his lighter back, a raging blush coating his cheeks. Akihiko hadn’t realized he had been staring long enough to be noticed, but it didn’t matter. Nothing would come of this anyway.

He pressed his cigarette to his lips, directing his attention to the smoke he exhaled drifting away with the breeze. If he timed his breaths right, the smoke mingled with Nakayama’s before dissipating.

“You’re acting weird.” Nakayama said.

“So are you.” Akihiko replied. Nakayama squawked, his face turning pink, as if he hadn’t expected Akihiko to notice. It was hard not too; Akihiko’s ear had been pressed to the table, amplifying Nakayama’s excessive pen-tapping.

“Can I say something crazy?” Nakayama asked, squeezing his cigarette between his fingers until it gave in the middle.

“Go ahead.”

“I want to start a new band!” Nakayama exclaimed, loud enough to garner stares from a couple students passing by on the sidewalk below them. Akihiko didn’t doubt that he’d see more curious eyes if he turned around to look at the other roof occupants. It sounded like a bad love confession, an expulsion from his heart because his chest couldn’t bear the weight of it anymore. Akihiko guessed that everything he said came so honestly from his heart, with varying degrees of excitement and anxiousness. Nakayama didn’t seem like one to hide himself from the world.

“I think you should do it.” Akihiko wasn’t sure what he was expected to say, but reassurance was probably close. For someone of Nakayama’s caliber to feel like this confession was ‘something crazy’ meant he probably just needed the confidence to go through with it. The rest would click into place once he got the ball rolling.

Nakayama spun around to face him, so suddenly that Akihiko nearly dropped his cigarette. His eyes were wide and honest and… desperate?

“I want you in my band!” A finger poked his sternum, so unapologetically bold that Akihiko wondered if Nakayama was actually home sick and had sent his more confident twin brother to class in his place.

“Me?” Akihiko was so stunned that he couldn’t get out more than a word in protest.

“You’re a drummer, right? I’m a bassist.” Nakayama took a step closer, eyes sparkling with hope and determination. Akihiko wasn’t sure how he’d be leaving the rooftop if he dared to say no. “I met a guitarist last week who might consider leaving his current band if we got together. I’m sure we could convince him, together.”

Akihiko found that he really, really didn’t want to say no.

“Even if he doesn’t join us, we can still make music!” Nakayama continued. “We can try composing together and work on finding a different guitarist! Then we could play at lives and—”

Akihiko had to stop him. Nakayama wanted too much, his hopes were too high. Akihiko didn’t know how to hope without it biting him in the ass later, and he didn’t want to crush Nakayama’s spirits or hurt him later. Regardless, he had already made up his mind.

This could be fun.

“I’m in.” He grinned, bringing his cigarette back up to his lips to disguise anything that might give away his excitement. It didn’t matter, given the way Nakayama’s face lit up at his words. He was starry-eyed enough for the both of them.

“Really?” Nakayama pumped his fist in the air, too excited to notice his cigarette falling onto the concrete under their feet. Akihiko stamped it out, amused. “Yes! This is going to be great; I promise! This kid’s incredible, I think you’ll really like him.”

Akihiko laughed. “You talk too much, Nakayama.” He pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it, passing it to Nakayama to make up for his loss.

Despite his cool tone, he couldn’t help but feel just as excited as the bassist.

“Haruki.” Nakayama giddily accepted the offering, although he simply let it rest in between his fingers. “Call me Haruki.”

“You talk too much, Haruki.”

[takemetotheriotofthestars]

Looking Like the Part (Phantom Traveler S1, Ep4, Pt2)

Supernatural Season 1, Episode 4, Part 2 Warnings: None Words: 2,041

Masterlist

You were at a Psychiatric Hospital, the brother’s walked in front of you with Max between them. He walked with a cane as he looked at the two brothers before glancing over his shoulder to look at you. “I don't understand.” He said with confusion. “I already spoke with Homeland Security.” “Right.” Dean said, nodding a bit. “Some new information has come up. So if you could just answer a couple questions…” “Did you notice anything unusual?” You ask, stepping forward. “Before the plane went down.” “Like what?” He narrows his eyes. “Strange lights, weird noises, maybe, voices.” Dean says. “No, nothing.” Max replied, you sighed and squeezed your eyes shut for a moment before snapping them open. “You checked yourself in here, correct?” You say, Max nods. “May I ask why?” He pressed his lips together. “I was a little stressed. I survived a plane crash.” “Yeah, right. And that's was scared you? That’s what you’re afraid of?” You say. “I...I don't want to talk about this anymore.” He says, beginning to walk away. “Mr. Jaffey” You say, stopping him with your tone. “I think you might have saw something up there in the plane. We need to know what you saw.” He turned around and bit his lip before shaking his head. “No. No, I was...delusional. Seeing things.” “He was seeing things.” Dean scoffs. “It's okay. Then just tell us what you thought you saw, please.” Sam says, Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “There was...this—man. And, uh, he had these...eyes—these, uh...black eyes. And I saw him—or I thought I saw him…” He shook his head a little, you raise an eyebrow. “He opened the emergency exit. But that's...that's impossible, right?” He looks between the three of you frantically. “I mean, I looked it up. There's something like two tons of pressure on that door.” “This man, uh, did he seem to appear and disappear rapidly? It would look something like a mirage?” Sam asked, Max looked at him like he was the crazy one. “What are you, nuts?” Max said, You and Sam tilted your head to the side “He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me.” *** “So here we are. George Phelps, seat 20C.” Sam said as Dean parked the car in front of a house. You leaned forward and looked at the one story house through the windshield. It looked peaceful, flowers were growing the in yard and the neighborhood looked friendly. “Hmm. Man, I don't care how strong you are.” Dean said as the three of you exited the car. “Even yoked up on PCP or something, no way you can open up an emergency door during a flight.” “Not if you’re human.” You say as you approached the door. “Maybe George was something else. Some kind of creature, maybe, in human form.” “Does that look like a creature's lair to you?” Dean asked, he gestured to the house. It looked normal. *** Dean, Sam, and you sat on the couch across from Mrs. Phelps. Sam was observing a photograph that he held as you quietly sipped some tea the lady offered you. Dean leaned forward as Sam asked a question. “This is your late husband?” He showed the picture to Mrs. Phelps, she nods. “Yes, that was my George.” She said, you swallowed the liquid and set your cup down on the coffee table. “Dentist?” You ask “You said he was one.” “Mm-hm. He was headed to a convention in Denver. Do you know that he was petrified to fly? For him to go like that…” She sniffles and grabs a tissue from the box next to her. “How long were you married?” Sam asked as she blew her nose into the tissue. “Thirteen years.” She said. “Did you notice anything weird during your marriage?” You ask “Anything strange, unusual?” Mrs. Phelps glances down at her lap in thought while she swallowed and looked back up at each of you. “Well...uh, he had acid reflux, if that's what you mean.” She said, for a moment you had hope that you were going to get something, but now it’s gone. *** You exit Mrs. Phelps house after thanking her for her time and showing yourself to the door with the brothers behind you. You walked towards the Impala as Sam spoke. “I mean it goes without saying. It just doesn't make any sense.” “A middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified.” Dean says “What we need to do is get inside that NTSB warehouse to check out the wreckage.” You say as Dean unlocks the Impala. “But to do that...we’re going to need to look the part.” *** You didn’t like heels, You didn’t like dresses, you just don’t like feeling girly in general. So when you entered a store a couple of building over from where Sam and Dean went, you had anxiety at the choices of dresses and shoes they had. As a child growing up in hunting, you didn’t have many opportunities to feel like a girl, especially with the weapons John taught you how to use. You grew up with two boys and a father figure, there was no mother in the picture. No women to teach you how to sit properly or do your hair in a french braid. Dean did teach you how to do your hair eventually though, well, it was more of like he made out with a girl and he watched her do your hair. You were ten at the time. Your eyes scanned the dresses and skirts on the racks and the shoes on the shelves. “Do you need help?” A blond haired girl with bright green eyes smiled at you as she wore the stores uniform of bright colors. You swallowed as you glanced back at the variety of clothing. “I do actually.” You nod and lick your dry lips. “I’m a little overwhelmed with the choices.” God this feels like you’re back at the age of twelve and trying to find a bra with Dean and some random girl he was hooking up with at the time. John was always too busy to hang out with you and the brothers. “Don’t be!” The clerk said as she lead you over to the dresses. “Are you a dress person or skirt?” You looked at the colorful dresses that were made for dates and spring despite it being November. Your eyes trailed to the skirts, they were longer than most of the dresses and you could probably get a blouse to match. A skirt might make you feel more comfortable than a dress. It was closer to jeans. “Skirt.” You say as you walked over to the skirts, the clerk followed you. “Professional, casual, what’s your poison?” She asked, some of the skirts were mid thigh, others were down to your ankles. “Professional.” You say, you put on a smile to make the story you're selling more believable. “Job interview today.” She lead you to a knee length section. “Where at?” She smiled at you as she shuffled through a couple of racks. Answer quickly and casually Y/n, you can do this. You’re basically a professional liar in this job. “Police department.” You said, “I’m aiming for a secretary job.” *** You were wearing a nude colored pencil skirt with a white long sleeve button down shirt and black two inch heels as you walked out of the store with you normal clothes in a bag and down the sidewalk, back to the car. Sam and Dean walked out of the clothing store as you arrived at the car. “Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers.” Dean said with a grin as he approached you with his brother next to him. “No, you don't. You look more like a...seventh-grader at his first dance.” Sam said, Dean looked down at his outfit before sighing. “I hate this thing.” He said, you shook your head as you laughed a bit. You reached up and adjusted Sam’s tie and collar. “You look fine, both of you.” You reassured with a smile, Dean looked you up and down as a smile spread across his face. “Hey” You snap your fingers and pointed at your eyes as Dean’s head snapped up and looked at you. “My eyes are up here, dork.” He swallows and unlocks the car, entering it. *** After showing your ID to a bodyguard and entered the warehouse, you were walking among the wrecking with the Winchesters. You watched Dean as he took out a device and put earbuds into his ears. “What is that?” Sam asked, pointed at the small rectangle box in Dean’s hands. “It's an EMF meter. Reads electromagnetic frequencies.” You say as Dean walks closer to the wreckage. “Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted-up walkman?” Sam says, you scoff and cross your arms. “'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade.” Dean jumps into the conversation and grins at his brother. “With the help of y/n.” “Yeah, I can see that.” Sam says, the grin disappeared off of Dean’s face as he ran the EMF meter over a piece of wreckage. “Check out the emergency door handle.” Dean said, you walk over to him with Sam besides you. Yellow dust was on the door, you reached out and scratched it. “What is this?” You say, looking at the yellow dust on your hand. “One way to find out.” Sam says as he takes out a rag from his pocket and scrapes some onto the fabric before putting it in his bag. Dean looks at Sam and you at the sound of footsteps coming towards you from the hall you came through. “Time to go.” You say as you head in the opposite direction, you and the boys peek around a corner before walking out casually. Moments afterwards, an alarm blares, red lights flash from the alarms on the ceiling as you and the brothers ran towards a wired fence. Dean quickly takes off his suit jacket and throws it onto the barbed wire on top of the fence. You gulp at you look at the wires and the heels you were wearing. “I got you.” Sam says, he links his fingers together as a step. “Thanks Sam.” You say, using his shoulder for balance as you step onto his hand and he helps you climb onto the fence. Once you reached the top, you jumped with Sam and Dean following behind. Your ankles stung as you stumbled, damn heels. Dean held his jacket in his hand as he grinned. “Well, these monkey suits do come in handy.” He says, you roll your eyes and followed the boys as they ran away from the warehouse. *** Jerry was looking into a microscope at the yellow dust that Sam collected from the emergency door. You leaned against a desk in his office as you and the Winchester’s waited for the results. “Huh. This stuff is covered in sulfur.” Jerry said, looking away from the microscope. You raised your eyebrow. “Positive?” You ask, Jerry gestured to the scope. “Take a look for yourself.” He said before a loud banging noise came from downstairs. “If you fellows will excuse me, I have an idiot to fire.” Jerry mumbled with a reassuring smile as he exited the office. Dean walked over to the scope and looked into it. “Hmm. You know, there's not too many things that leave behind a sulfuric residue.” Dean said, you nod. “Demonic possession?” You and Sam asked in sync, Dean took a moment to respond. “It would explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch.” He replied. “If the guy was possessed, it's possible.” You say, tilting your head to the side in thought. “This goes way beyond floating over a bed or barfing pea soup. I mean it's one thing to possess a person, but to use them to take down an entire airplane?” Dean shook his head a little. “You ever heard of something like this before?” Sam asked, you shook your head. “Never.”

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[ditlyuk]

5 Things The £1,049 iPhone 11 Pro Can’t Do — But A £225 Android Can | Ditly

6 years ago I said that in around 5 years laptops and desktop computers will be a niche market due to smartphone capability advancing at a phenomenal rate. I said that we will get to a point where we will just purchase a phone, dock it to a screen and keyboard and that will also be our PC. Oh, how I was wrong. Over the past 5 years, we have seen smartphones advance at a snail’s pace, and frustratingly one of the slowest of them all has been Apple.

With the release of the new £1,049 iPhone 11 Pro, it’s even more prominent how far behind Apple is when a £225 Xiaomi Mi 9T has more capability and features. Here are the top 5 things the £1,049 iPhone 11 Pro can’t do but the £225 Mi 9T Pro can.

USB Type C Port

The USB type C port has become the well known standard charge and sync port across a multitude of devices, from laptops, phones, smart devices and peripherals. It’s strong, powerful and intelligent. Its physical design is robust, it can not be easily damaged or bent and as long as you buy a decent cable it shouldn’t fall apart. Its data transfer rates are incredible, with the addition of the thunderbolt standard it is capable of data transfer rates up to 40GB per second. It also has built-in intelligence meaning you can plug your laptop charger into your phone and it won’t blow up, not only will it not blow up, it will actually charge your phone just fine. This interchangeability and no need to worry about the right charger for the right device is the modern way of tech.

Apple, however, has decided to stick with the out-dated lightning connector for the iPhone 11. It’s a weak connector, can not reach anywhere near the data speeds of USB-C with thunderbolt and is also licensed and controlled 100% by Apple. This is a big one. Because the lightning connector is licensed by Apple, if any 3rd party company wants to manufacture cables or devices using lightening they must pay a costly licence fee to Apple. This is the reason why the choice of wired lightning headphones is very limited. USB-C, on the other hand, is an open standard that any company can manufacture cables and devices for.

Notch-less

The wide notch was being replaced by teardrop front-facing cameras on phones as far back as this time last year with the Vivo V11. The £225 Xiaomi Mi 9T has completely ditched the idea of a front-facing camera eating into the screen and have instead placed the camera on a pop-up mechanism at the top. This creates a stunning, full-body and nearly bezel-free display. Plus, you also get an ambient light on the pop-up camera so you can add a little splash of coloured light to your selfies — nice touch.

Apple, on the other hand, has just re-used the exact same form factor as the previous iPhone 10 with a huge notch at the top of the display which basically renders the two strips that extend up the sides as pointless. Apps still don’t fit within the notch very well and from one of the richest companies on earth, we expected more innovation.

Under screen fingerprint scanner

The iPhone 11 wouldn’t need such a big notch for FaceID if it reinstated FingerprintID right under the screen. That’s right, the £225 Xiaomi Mi 9T has an under-screen fingerprint scanner, meaning you just tap the screen in the middle and you’ve unlocked your phone. It’s fast, works when you’re lying down, wearing a big hat or even sunglasses. Surely, when a phone has a price tag of £1,499 it should be able to include a seemingly simple feature which exists on a £225 phone?

2 ‘Physical’ SIM cards

The ability to have 2 physical SIM cards in an iPhone is something I have wanted from way back when Apple was releasing the iPhone 4. But it never came. And it never came the year after, or the year after that. So I have given up. With the iPhone 10, they did launch the ability to have a virtual SIM card alongside the physical but that option isn’t always supported, it’s often complicated to set up and isn’t as interchangeable as literally popping a SIM card out and adding another.

Having the ability to run Dual SIM card in a phone has multiple benefits for many people. The obvious benefit is the work / personal split. Many people carry two phones, one for work and one for personal. Although it may sound fairly flashy at first, if you’ve ever had to do this you’ll know that it’s actually quite an inconvenience. Being able to have both your work number and personal in one phone with the addition of clever software to allow you to disable one or the other at any point would be super helpful to millions of people. The £225 Xiaomi Mi 9T knows that and that’s why it offers a dual micro-SIM card tray, so you can do just that. Plus, because it’s Android you can configure a multitude of options to allow you to cleverly alternate between to two SIMs using either stock software or third-party apps.

Headphone jack

Yep, it’s still on this list. The classic 3.5mm headphone jack. It was removed back in 2016 from the iPhone 7 but it is still causing waves of anger even now. At first, I wrote about how I thought it wasn’t much of an issue and I actually sided with Apple on the basis that consumers demanded more technology to be crammed into a smaller form factor, so something had to give. However, I was wrong. The removal of the headphone jack has frustrated me ever since for one core reason. Lightening. Unless you pay Apple’s, ridiculous £9 for a tiny lightning to headphone jack connector, it is almost impossible to get a decent connector or a decent set of headphones with a lightning cord. This means I’m forced to either use Apple’s out of the box wired lightning headphones or pay up for some wireless Bluetooth headphones. None of which I want to do as I really enjoyed using my relatively in-expensive Sony earbuds which provided a great quality of sound.

To also, counteract my own argument about there not being enough space to fit it in anymore, the £225 Xiaomi Mi 9T seems to be able to do it just fine, and it still has 4 cameras, a pop-up mechanism and motor, a huge screen, huge battery, 6GB of RAM and everything else that goes into a phone — so why can’t Apple do it? They can, they just don’t want to because they can make more money selling £199 AirPods.

Maybe it’s not all bad?

Okay, so I can’t just bash Apple and be pro-Android all day and be an avid user of all of Apple’s products, that’s fairly hypocritical of me. I still like Apple’s products, they’re engineered to a high standard and I trust that they will work reliably with free software updates for many years to come. I also still believe the “it just works” phrase still stands. Apple’s hardware to software integration is still silky smooth across all of their devices and that is keeping me hooked on my iPhone 8 and 7 year only Mac Book Pro for the time being.

However, the above rant all comes from someone who’s been a long term Apple fan but is frustrated at the rate of development combined with the increasingly high premium I have to pay to continue using Apple products. If Apple wants to charge £1,049 for its baseline iPhone 11 Pro, then that’s fine — but it should absolutely smash sub £300 Android phones out of the park with all of their features, and more, wrapped in Apple’s finely-tuned engineering elegance. But it doesn’t, and that’s disappointing.

Originally published at https://ditly.uk on September 11, 2019.