#female software engineers

[sweetswesf]

A Long Overdue Update...And This One's a Juicy One...Pt. 2

Continued from Pt. 1

Tumblr did me DIRTY and deleted everything I wrote for my part 2. Talking about I CRASHED the editor. *EYEROLL!!!*

I'm angryyyyyyyy I had so much there...Sigh...I'm already pretty stressed...This has happened before...let's start again...

I woke up to an email. Got let go. Company was sad they had to make the decision to lay off 13% of the workforce. I was angry, sad. Stayed in bed for hours and didn't work out, but did get up to do some self care, eat (real meals...a lot!), and wash the dishes. I took a nap, woke up, and realized I was laid off and just felt so low. I also kept telling myself, "I hope I don't stay this way forever. The road ahead is not clear and I have no clue how these next few months will go. I can see how people turn to vices or spiral out of control. I will be okay, but for many, bad situations like this are extremely hard to recover from. I can't imagine anything worse. I can't judge anyone either." Homelessness did cross my mind as an irrational fear, but I could see how something like that could happen for many without opportunity. Please just trying to get it right. Thank God I have support around me, but a lot of people don't. I've always known that but empathized a bit more that day. One bad day leading to a pattern of bad habits. I felt sick.

I was one of two Black software engineers, to my knowledge, that got let go, and one of two engineers on my team that got let go. The other engineers in both situations were on leave. It hurt. It felt like a rug was ripped out from underneath me. This was the only tech company I have worked at, the company I have been at for over the past 6 years, and joined when I was 22 (I'm now 29). I was overwhelmed. So much so, I ate the remaining pack of red vines on my nightstand for breakfast.

I caught myself comparing myself and even secretly hoped I wasn't the only one in my apprenticeship cohort that was let go. It was true though. I hope my force to be positive and protect my ego during this time doesn't make me miss out on my lesson. Maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe I just wasn't ready. Maybe my next spot will be better.

Back in high school I was so sad I didn't get into UCLA, but USC was where I belonged the whole time. Back when I was about to start my bootcamp, I was mad my manager did not let me take a sabbatical and was mad when I found out he was let go literally MONTHS after I decided to leave. But had I not gone by that time, who's to say I would have made the transition because the pandemic came the next year and trying to make a transition at that time would have been SO MUCH HARDER. I could still be in FINANCE! YIKES!

···

GIF by zemenipearls

A lot of people came to my help though. I thought of everything I should do. Moving back home was not an option: no one has a room for me and I haven't heard from my parents or grandfather in so long. My grandmother, although shady when she calls, has been the only one with well wishes when she does. Ehh. I felt like my life was very hard. I thought of moving away but everything would be just as expensive as staying with moving costs and such and the time suck it would be and I kind of need to keep as many things as I can control stagnant so I can focus. I thought of taking some time off but to do what? Mope & watch YouTube? Not smart to take a big financial trip, and traveling ANYWHERE is a big financial trip at this point with rent this high and no promise of income after mid-January 2023. Maybe it'll serve as motivation TO go somewhere WHEN I get hired. I made schedule and figured this was probably for my best. I didn't think I'd be one and thought back to all the warnings a paranoid colleague of mine had about us potentially being on the chopping block. We both were. Layoffs like these are not always due to performance, but I can't help but feel that that was a part of my story too. Maybe I just was not ready. I had been working a LOT but finally getting to a place where I was catching my rhythm and told myself to just stay focused.

This post was longer and had more passion and detail but Tumblr has me HOT. Maybe it was not meant to be posted. I thought of getting a sugar daddy for a hot second. I thought of pursuing acting, being a rap tour manager, taking my app to a start up accelerator. Listen to the advice of haters who prompted me with, "Are you going to do something completely different?" BITCH YOU WISH!!! I know I just expressed my thoughts of probably doing something else, but coming from one of the haters, it felt like hate. She been a confirmed hater for a while. My internship ended around the time when people got laid off in 2020, so she thought I was one until I came back. When I came back, her post in the channel was, "How are people being able to come back so quickly?" People weren't getting hired back, she didn't know the logistics of my internship, so it looked like I was let go and hired back. I called her out publicly in the same channel. She's attempted at friendship pretty poorly since then. She suggested we even hang out when she NEVER has offered but has had many opportunities to in the past. "You should write down what you REALLY want to do," came from an old lady in my network. Girl bye. I'm on this mission and I'm going to get it.

But I did have thoughts. Maybe this was a sign that I need to do something else. But I told myself, "No, that's the devil." I like how this is challenging me. Who it's forcing me to become. I feel like it is in line with what I believe God's purpose for my life is and that's to heal and help heal. Build generational wealth. Be a lender, not a borrower. Help others. Work hard but live comfortably. I had improved. It's been challenging. It's forced me to think about my health more and has drawn me close to him. But I'll keep listening and hope that a bit of pride isn't wrapped up in my decision to keep going along this path too. Sometimes I feel like there is SOO much for me to learn and will I thrive elsewhere and not just be SURVIVING which I feel like I have been doing my whole career? Do I love it? No, but I am learning a lot, and it's allowed me to have multiple investments and streams of income...kinda, on that last point lol. I now only have 1 stream and that stream is pennies, but I'll get another stream back.soon..

The next day, a friend reached out who was also laid off but not at my company and recommended me for a role. He said helping people helps him get out of his funk. That was sweet of him. I am reminded that his cousin sexually assaulted me on his couch two Summers ago, but he didn't know about it, it wasn't his fault, and I wasn't going to remind him.

It encouraged me though. I updated my resume, scheduled some calls with some recruiters, put a weekly check-in meeting on the calendar with some folks who were also laid off, and put my name on the list recruiting circulates to help laid off folks find placements sooner. This could have been worse! I could have been fired solo. That would have been even more embarrassing. But if I want to get to a place of TRULY not caring what people think, I have to shake the ego off. I even scheduled a meeting with an old teammate who's at the company that's on the top of my list of places I want to be. I didn't know that she had left and I didn't know she was there. We've had a FEW encounters in the past. She wanted to help when I was an apprentice. We had a weird encounter then, and I think it was partially due to my ego. Kinda regretting that now. I don't know if she peeped game. We've been cordial since. She also used to be on my team when I started with my most recent team. We haven't gotten close, but maybe all these run ins where just a set up for this next big step. It's also a reminder that, you never know when you'll need someone on your side, and burn bridges if you must, yes, but do so strategically. Not everyone has to know how you TRULY feel. I'm trying to take my own advice and remain humble. Learn from my past mistakes. Whatever will be will be...I'm hoping it's in God's plans and that what I'm hoping to come true will and that it's the best thing for me in God's eyes. Here are the things I want to master and my proposed schedule plan:

Going to focus on algoexpert, interview cake, codewars, and leetcode.

So in addition to these learning goals, I'm going to stay on my health goals and get down to my desired weight. I'll take some time off before my next role starts. I can't imagine I'll take some time off before then. This is all that's on my mind. I'll get some time to focus on the things I wanted to learn but just didn't have time to at work. I was out of balance and hopefully this allows me to get back on track. If I have to dip into savings, so be it. Thank God I have them. I can't eat out as much or buy as much, but I don't need much these days anyway. I feel like I'm pretty good on what I have. Not too dazzled by the restaurant options in SF. I've tried a lot and can wait a little while. At least I can mope and not take care of myself on the days it is really hard instead of having to be a person in front of a spouse or children or have to find a job before I get kicked out of the country because it's against my visa like others who are not citizens like me. Can't travel as much, but I will again soon. This won't be forever. It just pushes those goals out a bit to achieve some others that God wants me to focus on. And it'll bring me even closer to him. Focusing on the blessings. Trying to at least. It will be a rollercoaster, but it will make me better. Part of the fear is that I have tried to master these concepts before but also get fatigued. And maybe that's because I've consistently had the promise of a job where that wouldn't be tested...but it is now. So I will have to become a different person to elevate. Maybe spend less time on these social media sites. Eat better. Stay hydrated. I'm already so tired but I have no choice but to do it. Failure or giving up is not an option here.

Also, RIP Takeoff. This week was ROUGH! This year has been rough. But tomorrow is a new day...Although my life has genuinely felt rough, I have accomplished a lot, am much more independent, am much more confident, have been in my apartment solo now for a year, and I'm still here and of pretty good health.

I hope to keep this thing updated more often on this journey in hopes that it is helpful to you. I hope to do it weekly. I hope you'll tune in, read, comment, share. I'll leave you with some videos that encouraged me (even though I don't really love Dave Chappelle):

Y'all be blessed!

[alteregobonito]

- female engineer?

Entonces, después de cinco días sin acceso a internet y de haber leído en ese tiempo las historias de ali hazelwood, bueno es un poco lógico mi motivo por hacer este bloc... o es blog?

Como sea, ya tiene alrededor de nueve años que no me asomo por aquí, así que es un poco confuso la interfaz, trataré de no enfocarme en la apariencia de este blog demasiado. Por supuesto que es importante, pero es aun mas importante mi motivación y mis ganas de querer llenar este espacio con información y conocimientos relevantes y de paso poder compartirlo con quien sea que se encuentra allá afuera en estos momentos.

Se trata de un espacio seguro en donde solo estaré mezclando mis gustos literarios con mi fascinación de la tecnología y una que otra pizca de gusto musical por allá.

Y es que, si soy completamente honesta no me creo una gran admiradora de la tecnología, no conscientemente al menos. Me refiero a que siempre me ha llamado la atención y es por eso que incluso estudié una ingeniería por eso, y quizás solo quizás, este es uno de los pasos necesarios que ocupo para poder llegar a ese punto en mi... o tal vez todo terminé en una semana

Si estas leyendo esto, por cualquier motivo, vamos a confirmarlo.

[uniquejobs]

High Demand Jobs | Dassault Systèmes Off Campus Drive 2023

Introduction High Demand Jobs : Dassault Systèmes has Published notification for the vacancy of Apprentice The educational qualification required to apply for this is Post-graduation/graduation in Mechanical, Thermal, Computer engineering Interested and eligible candidates can apply for Dassault Systèmes. There is enough time to apply for any job. Read Dassault Systèmes Off Campus Drive 2023…

[nasa]

LaRue Burbank, mathematician and computer, is just one of the many women who were instrumental to NASA missions.

4 Little Known Women Who Made Huge Contributions to NASA

Women have always played a significant role at NASA and its predecessor NACA, although for much of the agency’s history, they received neither the praise nor recognition that their contributions deserved. To celebrate Women’s History Month – and properly highlight some of the little-known women-led accomplishments of NASA’s early history – our archivists gathered the stories of four women whose work was critical to NASA’s success and paved the way for future generations.

LaRue Burbank: One of the Women Who Helped Land a Man on the Moon

LaRue Burbank was a trailblazing mathematician at NASA. Hired in 1954 at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center), she, like many other young women at NACA, the predecessor to NASA, had a bachelor's degree in mathematics. But unlike most, she also had a physics degree. For the next four years, she worked as a "human computer," conducting complex data analyses for engineers using calculators, slide rules, and other instruments. After NASA's founding, she continued this vital work for Project Mercury.

In 1962, she transferred to the newly established Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center) in Houston, becoming one of the few female professionals and managers there.  Her expertise in electronics engineering led her to develop critical display systems used by flight controllers in Mission Control to monitor spacecraft during missions. Her work on the Apollo missions was vital to achieving President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.

Eilene Galloway: How NASA became… NASA

Eilene Galloway wasn't a NASA employee, but she played a huge role in its very creation. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Senator Richard Russell Jr. called on Galloway, an expert on the Atomic Energy Act, to write a report on the U.S. response to the space race. Initially, legislators aimed to essentially re-write the Atomic Energy Act to handle the U.S. space goals. However, Galloway argued that the existing military framework wouldn't suffice – a new agency was needed to oversee both military and civilian aspects of space exploration. This included not just defense, but also meteorology, communications, and international cooperation.

Her work on the National Aeronautics and Space Act ensured NASA had the power to accomplish all these goals, without limitations from the Department of Defense or restrictions on international agreements. Galloway is even to thank for the name "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", as initially NASA was to be called “National Aeronautics and Space Agency” which was deemed to not carry enough weight and status for the wide-ranging role that NASA was to fill.

Barbara Scott: The “Star Trek Nerd” Who Led Our Understanding of the Stars

A self-described "Star Trek nerd," Barbara Scott's passion for space wasn't steered toward engineering by her guidance counselor. But that didn't stop her!  Fueled by her love of math and computer science, she landed at Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1977.  One of the first women working on flight software, Barbara's coding skills became instrumental on missions like the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Thermal Canister Experiment on the Space Shuttle's STS-3.  For the final decade of her impressive career, Scott managed the flight software for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, a testament to her dedication to space exploration.

Dr. Claire Parkinson: An Early Pioneer in Climate Science Whose Work is Still Saving Lives

Dr. Claire Parkinson's love of math blossomed into a passion for climate science. Inspired by the Moon landing, and the fight for civil rights, she pursued a graduate degree in climatology.  In 1978, her talents landed her at Goddard, where she continued her research on sea ice modeling. But Parkinson's impact goes beyond theory.  She began analyzing satellite data, leading to a groundbreaking discovery: a decline in Arctic sea ice coverage between 1973 and 1987. This critical finding caught the attention of Senator Al Gore, highlighting the urgency of climate change.

Parkinson's leadership extended beyond research.  As Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite, she championed making its data freely available. This real-time information has benefitted countless projects, from wildfire management to weather forecasting, even aiding in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkinson's dedication to understanding sea ice patterns and the impact of climate change continues to be a valuable resource for our planet.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space! 

[manic-pixie-dick-girl]

Fun fact: there is a difference between "coding" and "programming", and even "software engineering". And if someone starts talking about "coding" or "coders" you can assume they don't know what you're talking about.

Tldr "coding" is the physical act of writing code and it's only one tiny part of making computer software. It's the easy bit, tbh.

[ms-hells-bells]

you know that tunnel girl on tiktok digging dangerous tunnels under the house, against everyone's warnings, suffering legal action, and disrupting and endangering the neighbours?

not a girl. TIM lmaoooo. using extreme tiktok filters to appear more female. not only that, but there is evidence (obviously can't 100% as soon after stuff was found, he mass deleted it, so i'll be a bit vague with these claims) he is race faking too.

also, he would defend himself by saying he's 'an engineer' but it turned out his linkedin said....SOFTWARE engineer. but! it gets better. people dug further and found that he's not even a software engineer, he has a degree in business and finance and is just some middle manager in an IT company with no engineer or programming of any kind in his job title.

now this seems less like mental illness and more like male audacity.

[rroseselavyyy]

serpentskirt - myg

pairing: stalker!yoongi x female reader

warnings: smut, stalking, yoongi watches reader from her camera ahsagsahs

Min Yoongi never believed love at first sight. He considered himself mature enough to believe princess fairytales.

However, he believed love at first sound.

He was trying to work on his project while sipping his favorite coffee. He heard someone sweetly singing and like someone put him into a trance, his eyes followed where the voice was coming. That was the moment when he immediately fell in love with you like a lightning struck him.

You were humming a song, reminding him a siren calling out for him. You were as if in a world of your own with your glasses made you look even cuter as you were trying to read a book. Yoongi liked the fact that you were oblivious to the world around you. Even his eyes filled with sincere adoration. He was confident that you were the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Let alone someone else, even his eyes didn't deserve to locked with yours, he thought.

Nevertheless, you raised your head from your book and catched him looking at you. His breathing accelerated as if he could die at that moment, as you were questioning him with your doe eyes. Not wanting to give you the impression that he was a creep, Yoongi managed to take his eyes off of your beautiful eyes after what it seemed like eternity.

You didn't find him creepy, on the contrary, you gave him a friendly smile then returned to reading your book.

It was quite a harmless image, yet your eyes succeeded to haunt him in his dreams. He even wondered if you were the same nymph adorning his dreams where you lied on his silk sheets, anticipating for his next move with an innocent yet passionate look in your eyes.

At first, he tried so hard to respect you. Not wanting to invade your personal space, he watched you from afar. He was sure that once your pretty lips met with his, you would feel the connection. You would understand that you were meant to be. However, there was no need to rush things with you. You were the princess of his dreams. You were his muse, the girl he wrote songs about. He didn't want you to be freaked out by realizing how infatuated he was with you. You were his and he could take all his time to make this right.

But that didn't mean he couldn't reward himself with minor exceptions for his patience which could turn a man into crazy.

Not to mention his primal urge to rip your pretty little skirts failing to cover your thighs.

These minor exceptions included hacking your notebook when you asked him to restore the document you desperately needed for writing your essay. He didn't know why you came to him first, however, as a software engineering major, he would damned himself for not fixing your problem.

One night when he was watching you from your notebook’s camera as usual, you stood up from your lying posture then settled your notebook on your bed in a cautious way in order not to make sound. Yoongi immediately understood he was going to witness something he was not supposed to see when his eyes followed what you were up to, but that didn’t make him feel uncomfortable anyway.

You locked your door in the most silent way possible, then once you made yourself convinced that you were alone in the dark of your bedroom you made your way to your bed.

Little did you know was that you already had a guardian angel watching and protecting you from a distance as close to a breath lingering on back of your neck. He was more than willing to take your offerings as an appreciation for him watching you over for so long.

He didn’t know how he managed to open his zipper and got his cock out of his pants when you got rid of your shirt and bra respectively. He could’ve died right there when you lied on your bed with exposing your panties to his hungry gaze.

It was agonizing for him not being able to touch you when you looked like a goddess just meant for his eyes to see. Your delicate fingers found their ways into your panties and Yoongi couldn’t help but stroke himself as if he wanted to savour the pleasure. You were lying on your bed like a painting made by a renaissance artist. He always thought that even Botticelli’s Venus couldn’t match a level of beauty of yours.

There were erotic sounds coming out of your laptop when you were trying to pleasure yourself with scrunched up eyes. It seemed as if the more you got closer to your orgasm, the more you become oblivious to the environment around you. Yoongi desperately tried to keep up with your pace when the angle of your camera made it seem like he was the one pleasuring you.

“Yoongi-“

Yoongi couldn’t help but ruin his pants with his arousal when his name unexpectedly spilled out of your lips as a mewl. “Oh my god.” He whispered to himself as he was trying to regulate his breathing. His hooded eyes lingered on you when you were reaching your high.

“I love you.”

Words came out of your lips ever so subtly when relaxation hit you after your intense orgasm. However, Yoongi managed to catch them right on time. His heart swelled with joy when he realized that his love for you was not one-sided as he thought he was.

He was already planning to confess his love for you. Then marry you. Maybe have a child with you someday.

Notwithstanding, he also had a sick pleasure in becoming your hero that you never knew. Watching over you was one of the things he loved most.

Yet since you put on a exclusive show for him, he decided that he had to reward you somehow.

Starting by taking you out for a date.

[mephistopheles]

thing is, the original star trek correctly predicted a lot of the technology we have today. cell phones, which probably exist because of star trek. automatic doors. synthesised female-voiced computers that you can ask questions to, and they'll collate information to give you a response. digital styluses. touch screen tablets. search engines. speech-to-text dictation software. skype. one episode, 'the ultimate computer,' even features a decision-making AI so advanced that certain people argue it can successfully replace a human. but star trek also predicted that by the time we had these technologies, we'd be better than we are. we'd be kinder, peaceful, a "united earth." i dont know, man. i dont know

[roosterforme]

Is It Working For You? | Rooster x Reader

My first Top Gun fic, please be kind!

Check out my Masterlist

Summary: Rooster has had his eye on you all week at work, and now you're at the Hard Deck looking too good to be true.

Warnings: some swears, adult banter

Length: 2700

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

Part 2 is now available as well! Thank you @mak-32 for all of the banners for this fic!

"Rooster! You're up, man!" 

Bradley quickly shifted his gaze away from where you sat laughing at the bar with two of your friends. He had seen the three of you around base ever since he had been called back to Top Gun about a week ago. You and the other two lieutenants who had been working as the lead engineers on the upcoming attack on the uranium enrichment plant seemed to be letting loose on this Saturday night. 

He was already used to seeing you take charge of the software interfaces and answer Mav's questions during preflight briefings, but seeing you drinking at the Hard Deck felt strangely intimate. 

"Come on, Rooster! You're holding everyone up," Payback whined as he handed over the darts. 

Bradley wasn't even sure why anyone agreed to play darts here at all, as it was just a revolving door of everyone taking turns losing to Hangman. 

"Calm down, Payback. Hangman will have us all smoked within the hour anyway," Bradley retorted back. 

Jake aimed his annoyingly cocky grin toward the other aviators as he toasted his beer in the air toward Bradley. "Glad you're finally able to acknowledge who is the superior man here, Rooster."

Bradley rolled his eyes and aggressively threw a dart. Twenty-five points, not bad. "I'm only acknowledging that the reason you are terrible at everything else in life is because you've spent so much time perfecting your damn dart game. But if you want to take that as a compliment, be my guest." The Dagger squad erupted into laughter around the dartboard. 

Phoenix and Bob tried to reel in their giggles as Hangman shot them a scathing look, but Natasha, being the good friend she was, simply said, "He has a point, Bagman."

Bradley winked at Phoenix, and then threw his second and third darts in quick succession. "I need another beer," he said as Hangman got ready to take his turn. 

Bradley hoped nobody would notice that he had walked all the way around the bar to flag down Penny for a beer. He wanted to be closer to where you were perched on your barstool, legs crossed and conversing with your coworkers. Your skirt was kind of short, definitely a departure from your khaki Naval officer uniform. Your hair was down and kind of messy, definitely a departure from the tight buns that you sported during work hours. God, you looked sexy, and the best part was, it didn't seem like you were even trying to. 

"Get you another one?" Penny called to Bradley, pulling him away from his thoughts. 

"Please," Bradley replied with a grin to his favorite bartender.

As Bradley set his empty bottle down on the bar, you turned slightly to your left, brushing your hair over your shoulder. He froze as your eyes met his from a few feet away. A look of recognition passed over your face, and a smile curled along your lips as you placed him as one of the aviators you'd been working with in Top Gun's Dagger squadron. You lifted your fingers into a casual wave in his direction. 

Hi, you mouthed with another soft smile before turning away from him once again. Bradley felt like someone had punched him in the gut. 

"It was just a wave and a smile, get it together," he muttered as Penny returned with two identical beer bottles. She set one down in front of Bradley and one down in front of you.

Bradley's mind went a little blank as he watched you pick up your bottle and take a sip. You liked the same beer that he did, how hot was that? He watched your throat as you swallowed. He thought about pressing his lips against your neck.

"Oh no, not you too?" Phoenix asked, effectively tearing Bradley's mind away from thoughts of running his cold bottle of beer along your neck and licking the condensation off your skin. 

"Huh?" he grunted, finally turning toward Phoenix. 

Phoenix just laughed at him and shook her head. "You're into her, too? I mean, I get it, she's very pretty and extremely smart. But if this is just going to become another thing for you and Bagman to get competitive over, I'm going to scream."

"What are you talking about?" Bradley asked, but he could feel his throat getting a little tight around the words. The idea of Hangman being interested in you made his skin crawl, and he felt his fingers tighten around his beer bottle.

"Bagman asked Lieutenant Y/L/N out yesterday. I overheard him do it," she replied casually.

Bradley's lips pressed into a thin line underneath his mustache. "You're not serious," he growled after a couple seconds. He couldn't help glancing over his shoulder to where you sat, head tilted back in laughter. 

Phoenix suddenly gave you a sympathetic look. "Oh my goodness! You actually really like Lieutenant Y/L/N. That's interesting. Been awhile since I've seen you this interested in anyone. Usually it's just a local for the night."

Bradley glared at her and stole another glance at your gorgeous face. "Damn, I can't believe I fucked this up before I even did anything. But I guess that seems on brand for me," he said with a self deprecating shake of his head. Fucking Jake making a fucking move on you after only a couple days.

"She told him no," Phoenix informed him with a smirk. Bradley's heart pounded a little faster as his friend continued. "He asked her if she wanted to go out with him sometime, and then she looked him up and down and flat out told him she was not interested. It was the funniest thing I've seen in awhile!" 

"Why didn't you lead off with that information!" Bradley sputtered. "I've been sweating over her all week long."

"Because I didn't even know you liked her until right now! You could have told me! I ate lunch in the cafeteria with her and some other officers the other day. She's very nice and funny and single," Phoenix said with a bright smile.

"Yeah, I know you sat with her! I was three tables away practically drooling on my lunch, trying to think of something to say to her," Bradley muttered before finishing his beer. "I don't even know that she's my type, being an officer and all. Plus, smart girls are intimidating." 

"Well, go talk to her now. Buy her a drink. Tell her you love her," Phoenix said as she pushed Bradley through the crowd of people currently trying to get drinks at the bar. 

"I can't say that! Quick, help me think of something normal to say!" But it was too late. With one final shove, Phoenix managed to push Bradley's large frame directly into the back of your barstool. 

"Hey, watch it!" you yelled as some of your beer sloshed onto your bare knees. Since the Hard Deck was a Naval officer hangout, it didn't usually get too rowdy, but some of the guys here could be a bit aggressive at times.

As you spun your stool around to glare at whoever slammed into your seat, you came eye to chest with that cute aviator from Top Gun. The one you had noticed on the very first day of the mission. As your eyes travelled up, you saw that his sunglasses were hanging from his Hawaiian shirt, and his cheeks were flushed in embarrassment as he looked at the beer dripping down your legs.

"I-I... I'm so sorry!" he finally managed to say. "My friend is a clumsy menace who apparently can't walk correctly," he told you with a wince as he gestured toward Phoenix who was running away cackling. 

It was funny, because you had enjoyed talking to her at lunchtime on Wednesday, and she hadn't seemed all that clumsy at the time. 

You decided to let him off the hook and smiled up at him as you grabbed a napkin and wiped your legs dry. "It's not a problem. I just wanted to make sure I sounded really tough in case some guys were starting a fight behind me or something. You're Rooster, right?"

Bradley froze on the spot, flustered that you actually remembered his call sign. Not many non-aviators cared about using them. "Yeah. I'm Rooster. Or Bradley. Or Lieutenant Bradshaw," he blurted out. Why did he suddenly seem to have no control over this conversation?

You cocked your head up at him and pursed your pretty lips. "You want me to call you Lieutenant Bradshaw right now? While we're at the Hard Deck?"

"No! Um, you don't have to, obviously." God, he sounded like a moron. "Let me get you another drink," he managed to say while raising two fingers toward Penny. She nodded, acknowledging the drink order, as she looked between you both with a slight smile. 

Bradley took a deep breath and said, "Please, just call me Bradley. Or Rooster. I'm not picky.

"And you can just call me Y/N. I don't have a fun call sign," you said with a laugh. 

Bradley already knew your first name, but he felt a little giddy that you had given him permission to actually use it. "Okay, Y/N."

You smiled brightly up at Bradley just as one of your coworkers placed her hand on your shoulder. You turned toward the now vacant barstools where your good friends from work had just been sitting. "Hey, we're going to go. It's getting late," Lieutenant Wilson said with a wink as she turned to leave.

"See you both later," Lieutenant Harvey added before he turned toward the exit as well. 

You just nodded toward them before turning your attention back to Bradley. It was nearly midnight, but you really had no desire to leave now that he was sliding into the newly vacant seat next to you. As your beers arrived, you took a minute to check him out. He was tall. Like really tall. And his muscular arms and tan skin were hard to look away from. His curly hair was practically begging you to run your fingers through it. And there were some scars on his face and neck that your hands were aching to touch. Maybe you'd had too much to drink? You should have left with your friends. 

"It's cool if I sit for awhile?" Bradley asked you as he slid one of the identical beers in front of you with a hopeful smile.

"Of course," you replied, certain he had noticed you checking him out. "And thanks for the beer. You didn't have to."

Bradley just shrugged as he took a drink. "It was my fault you ended up wearing your last one. And I'm just happy you have good taste in drinks."

You grinned into your beer bottle as you took a sip. Then you noticed Phoenix pop up directly across the room from where you and Bradley sat. She was giving you both an appraising look as Bradley narrowed his eyes at her before turning his stool toward you and completely ignoring her. Phoenix eventually made her way back toward the pool table where all of the aviators seemed to congregate. Well, everyone except for Rooster who now had his large body mere inches from yours. 

The bar was still packed, and it felt like everyone was pushing the two of you closer and closer together. The music from the jukebox blended with all of the conversation, muffling everything into a pleasant hum as you looked up at Bradley. His brown eyes snapped up from gazing at your body to meet yours.

"You look really pretty," he told you. "I mean, you look nice all the time, even in head to toe khaki." Bradley's helpful brain quickly reminded him just how good your ass looked in your uniform pants. 

You laughed, "Wow, what a compliment. The Navy really does not discriminate when it comes to making everyone wear the same horrible khaki color." You carefully reach out your left hand and run it along the fabric of Bradley's colorful Hawaiian button down. "What's with the shirt?"

Bradley tracked your hand with his eyes as it brushed against his shirt fabric. Surely he was dreaming. There was no way this was actually happening to him. He was alone with you in a tiny mythical bubble inside the Hard Deck, and you were touching his clothing. You. The officer who he'd been gleefully staring at all week any time you were in the meeting rooms with him. And now he knew how sweet you smelled and what your laugh sounded like. 

"What, you don't like my shirt?" he asked you teasingly, feeling a little bolder as your wandering fingers grazed his arm. 

"I didn't say that. It's just not a look many guys can pull off," you replied with a quirk of your lips. 

"Oof, that's harsh. So is it working for me or not?" Bradley asked you as he leaned in a little closer. 

Your heart was pounding in your ears as you tugged lightly on his shirt collar. "Yeah, it's working for you." Had you actually said that out loud, to Bradley? You really needed to pay your tab and leave before you said anything else. 

Bradley's eyes went a little wider before narrowing and locking with yours again. He licked his lips before asking, "But more importantly, is it working for you?"

Your jaw dropped open as you gaped at him for a few seconds before you snapped your mouth shut. You had to force your gaze away from him as you managed to say, "It's not not working for me." 

"I'll take that as a good sign," he whispered with a chuckle. 

You could tell your face was bright red. Bradley Bradshaw was clearly a shameless flirt. He probably did this with every single girl. But you were still eating it up. You couldn't even help yourself. You literally had butterflies, something Hangman hadn't given you, even when he'd touched the small of your back and asked you out.

Meeting Bradley's eyes again, you asked, "And what's with your mustache, Rooster?" 

He grinned at you as he set his empty beer bottle on the bar. "Is that working for you too, Y/N?" 

"Surprisingly, yes. It is working for me," you managed to say as Bradley's leg rubbed against your bare knees. 

"I like the sound of that," he said, his voice getting raspier. Then he added with a slightly bashful smile, "Everything, every single thing, about you is working for me, too."

You were certain your body was going to melt right off the stool and onto the floor. The look Bradley was giving you was enough to make you combust. Sure, you'd thought he was very cute when you met him last week, but now he was making you feel scalding hot. This banter felt like foreplay, and you had not planned on a night like this. 

A loud roar of cheers came from near the pool tables, slightly breaking the tension around the two of you. "Well Rooster, on that note, I'm going to head out before I say anything I might regret." You desperately wanted to grab him by his shirt collar and yank him outside. And the only problem with that was the fact that you actually kind of liked him, and you still had to work with him for the next few weeks. 

As you left some cash on the bar to cover your tab, Bradley stood and reached out for your hand. You let him walk you to the door, and he lightly held your hand the whole way there. "Thanks," you murmured as you dared to meet his eyes. "I'll see you on Monday."

"I can't wait for Monday morning," he said with a huge grin as he released your hand and briefly let his fingers run along your wrist as you turned to leave. With one last smile over your shoulder, you vanished through the door. 

"That looked very, very promising," Phoenix said as she had somehow materialized next to Bradley. 

"I am a goner," he muttered as he ran his hand along the fabric of his shirt where your fingers had been. 

---------------------------

Should I continue this?

Here is Part 2!

[yourdailyqueer]

Melanie Anne Phillips

Gender: Transgender woman

Sexuality: N/A

DOB: Born 1956  

Ethnicity: White - American

Occupation: Writer, software engineer, director, editor, screenwriter, producer

Note: Set up the first transgender community support site, produced VHS voice training tapes that focus on resonance rather than pitch, and became one of the most cited advisors on how to develop a female voice. 

[sweetswesf]

A Long Overdue Update...And This One's a Juicy One...Pt. 1

Soooo...seems like I've unfortunately and unexpectedly neglected this blog...again! I'm so sorry y'all. I was trying my best to manage things...Soooo where can I start?...

So since I haven't updated you all since April, let's start from back then. Back in April, I was trying my hardest to keep my job...Summer Check-In Performance Reviews happened and I didn't get promoted. My manager did say "maybe in the Winter" so I just tried to continue to stay focused.

I tried to do some interview prep to have a backup and got calls from a lot of good places, but I just was not prepared to pass interviews. Slowly but surely though, I got into a rhythm. My birthday came around in the Summer and I caught COVID for the first time. I had to go to the ER. They gave me an IV, Tylenol, potassium, and later a $200 bill. I keep Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Pedialyte in the house now. That freaked me out.

Because it was my birthday, my family who had stopped talking to me popped up again to wish me happy birthday. It was okay for a while, but we fell out again eventually. It was quite frustrating.

I lost QUITE A FEW close "friends" who exposed the negative things about them I didn't want to believe. I had speculations they didn't see me as a friend in the way that I did them. I wish them all well...

I went to a wedding and just felt so bloated, big, and uncomfortable, that, when I returned home went back to taking my exercise and diet more seriously, tracking calories, weighing food, meal prepping. I even started juicing. Days became harder and my schedule more strict.

Work didn't get any easier either, but I did reach a level of independence that I was hoping the move from New York back to the Bay would help me achieve. I even was contacted by a reputable music site to do a partnership on my personal app that I built in bootcamp. I teamed up with an old genius colleague to get my site where it needed to be and started collecting ad revenue! Now, it's pennies, but it's a start! I achieved getting another stream of income! A friend from New York came out to visit and interviewed me about the Bay Area and I had come to just accepting the fact that San Francisco was probably going to be my home for a while while I was on this focused mission of achieving whatever goals I had...

Soon, I became (and this editor does not recognize this word, I know it's southern slang, but I can't think of another word that better fits here! hopefully you catch my drift) ASHUING for a promotion! My manager, my mentors, my skip level, all were talking about it...

This was also around the time at my company where they announced that you could only be at your level for 3 years, or get fired. Around this time also, they pushed Winter promos out from Winter to Spring! They even instituted a hiring freeze for Q4. People who were interviewing for roles were kicked out of the funnel and hiring stopped. Work did not let up and we were all just tired. This all made me a bit upset, but I tried not to focus on just doing a good job. I even told myself, "Just get through this year. It's almost up. Get the promo packet together, get promoted, then pick the interview prep stuff back up after the promo." I was plotting on what I would do to celebrate and FINALLY achieve the promotion that I thought and hoped I was going to get YEARS ago...

A colleague on the team I did my internship soon started messaging me, but every time he would, it would only be about his fears of being let go. He never really did wellness checks, he just would ping me to talk gossip, ask for advice for how to make team transfers, or share his fears about being fired and I didn't like it. I hate when people don't take me seriously. I'm not your gossip buddy or trauma bucket. I gave him genuine advice every time though and just kept telling him to stay focused and do what he was supposed to do...

Then my mentor mentioned there would probably be more layoffs in the new year and it made me think back to the conversations my fearful colleague I previously mentioned had...then it became my concern and I wondered what if...

I told myself, "Well, at least it'd come with a severance...I'm trying to leave this place anyway, and hopefully I can take that time to do a proper software engineering interview prep since I've never been able to do that before. Finish the React tutorial I've long wanted to do..."

Halloween weekend came. I was supposed to get my promo packet together, but I had just did a new product launch at work and was WHOOPED! I had tons of chores to do PLUS, I LOVE Halloween and got invited to a costume party I KNEW I didn't want to miss. I also knew that we were going to have the whole week of Thanksgiving off and I didn't plan to go home for any of the holidays this year so I had planned to do it then, especially since the performance review cycle wasn't going to be until February or March of 2023.

Continued in Part 2...

[wangxianficrecs]

Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach by Khashana

Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach

by Khashana

T, 8k, Wangxian

Part of Wei Wuxian's Birthday Gift Exchange Oct 2022

Summary: “I am not looking for a husband,” says Lan Zhan. “I am a lesbian.” “I’m not a good match for anyone looking for a husband anyway,” says Wei Wuxian, yanking hard at a loose sleeve thread. “I’m, uh. A woman. Transgender.” In which Lan Zhan and Wei Ying enter into a marriage of convenience, try on dresses, watch Star Trek, and accidentally fall in love. Kay's comments: This story was so incredibly sweet and I enjoyed it a lot! There was a bit of angst that hit at the end, but got resolved very quickly. Apart from that, it's mostly so much yearning and pining and Wangxian falling in love in a marriage of convenience and gender euphoria and I love that for them. Excerpt: “So…” says Wei Wuxian finally. “Do you have any questions I can answer?” Lan Zhan considers the question. She already knows Wei Wuxian has a good career as a software engineer, high social status as the ward of the Jiangs, and no real health issues, courtesy of Uncle. “What do you enjoy doing as a hobby?” she asks. Wei Wuxian looks taken aback. “I play the flute,” she says eventually. “And I read a lot. Nonfiction mostly. I like learning new things.” Lan Zhan nods. “I enjoy poetry and romance novels,” she offers. “Not that this isn’t a worthwhile train of thought,” says Wei Wuxian, “but before I forget: what I actually meant was, do you have any questions about…” She makes a vague gesture at all of herself. “The trans thing?” Oh. Lan Zhan thinks about it.

pov lan wangji, modern setting, modern no powers, lesbian lan wangji/wei wuxian, trans female wei wuxian, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, married lan wangji/wei wuxian, strangers to lovers, wifes to lovers, developing relationship, pining, mutual pining, gender euphoria, light angst, angst with a happy ending, domestic bliss, domestic fluff, moving in together

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[undiscovered-horizon]

[2K Followers 'Clue' Special]

Imagine Dream and Desire having a competition over who can make you part of their kingdom. - Part 2

[Part 1]

1100 words left.

You're about to read through the 'method' part of the article, when someone sits across from you. A rosy, sweet and spicy aroma hits your nostrils. Surprised and slightly annoyed at the disturbance, you look up.

It's strange. They're strange but not in the wrong way. Blond hair, red suit, heavy jewellery - they look out of place in a small cafe filled with university students drinking vegan chai lattes while swearing at engineering software. The stranger smiles and you doubt you’ve ever seen a more show-stopping person. There’s something unordinary about their features: they’re neither male nor female and yet both of them at the same time; the person across from you has the potential to be whatever you want to be.

"Do I know you?" you ask in a meek voice. Something about attractive people makes others lose their general certainty; their glamour is imposing.

"Most unfortunately, no," the stranger answers in a honeyed, alluring voice.

"Then, uhm, can I help you with something?" You’re nervous, although you’re not exactly sure why. Is it excitement? Fear? A strange, yet delicious concoction of these two?

"Yes, there is something you could help me with, dear.” The stranger leans towards you. “See, I'm not entirely sure I understand why someone like you sits alone in a dull place like this. Don't you think you deserve more, better?"

The suggestion flusters you. Unaware, you nervously rub your hands together. Feeling your cheeks flush, you can’t help but lower your gaze, which glazes over your laptop’s screen.

Then, another thing catches your attention. Your hands are nowhere near the keyboard and yet a sentence is being typed under your work-in-progress essay:

Is this truly what you’re dreaming of?

But then you blink and the message disappears, forever making you unsure whether you did see it. Perhaps it was only your imagination?

You look back up at your conversationalist. Suddenly, you have a gnawing sensation that something about them has changed as though their charm, a magical spell of glamour, has somehow dissipated in the recent seconds. They’re still unimaginably beautiful but not as alluring and charming as you had previously thought.

"Maybe we can get out of here?” they ask.  “I'll buy you a drink and you'll tell me what you desire."

A second ago you would have agreed immediately but now… Now there’s a sense of scepticism inside you like a voice in the back of your head making you question your judgment.

"Actually, I'm a little busy today but tomorrow's alright."

1100 words left. Dream - 1, Desire - 0

______

Tagging interested people: @emarich7 @snowsatsu

[cyrsed]

Nick Walker on neuroessentialism in neuroqueer heresies: notes on the neurodiversity paradigm, autistic empowerment, and postnormal possibilities

Those who view neurodiversity through a neuroessentialist lens have an unfortunate tendency to compare and contrast neurotypicality with innate forms of neurodivergence like autism in a way that implicitly assumes autism and neurotypicality to be equally innate and equally intrinsic to a person's being. In the less well-informed discourses on neurodiversity that unfold on social media, for instance, one too often sees people speaking of "the neurotypical brain," as if neurotypicality were a biological destiny that unfolded inevitably from being born with a specific kind of brain. On a strictly neurobiological level, there's not actually such a thing as a "normal brain" or a "neurotypical brain," any more than there's such a thing as a "male brain," a "heterosexual brain," or an "American brain." Neurotypical people aren't people who all share one distinct type of human brain, they're people whose compliance with prevailing cultural standards of neuronormative performance gains them the privileges that come with being considered "normal" within the dominant culture. Neurotypicality is more a social phenomenon than a biological one. [...] some people have more innate capacity than others to adapt to the demands of neuronormative performance. But having that capacity isn't the same as being innately neurotypical. If we begin from the premise that neurotypicality is performative in the same sense that heteronormative gender roles are performative, then a newborn infant can't be legitimately considered neurotypical for the same reason a newborn infant can't be legitimately considered a straight cisgender female or a straight cisgender male: newborn infants are obviously not engaged in enacting acquired habits of performance. Infants are adorable messy little bundles of possibility, and which possibilities become realized and embodied over time depends to a large extent on the nature of the actions that a given individual learns to perform. If the innate predispositions of a given infant are fundamentally incompatible with the demands of neuronormative performance, such that a life of comfortably and convincingly performing neuronormativity isn't within that infant's scope of future possibilities, then we can legitimately say that the infant is neurodivergent-i.e., it has already diverged from the path of neuronormativity, right at the outset. The reverse, however, doesn't hold true. If the innate predispositions of a given infant are compatible with the demands of neuronormative performance, such that neurotypicality is within that infant's scope of future possibilities, that's not the same as the infant actually being neurotypical yet or being biologically destined for neurotypicality. To say that an infant is innately and "naturally" neurotypical just because it's capable of acclimating to a life of neuronormative performance makes no more sense than saying that the infant is innately and "naturally" a software engineer just because it would be possible to someday teach it to design software. In other words, it's possible to be born neurodivergent but it's not possible to be born neurotypical.

[praxcrown5]

Cars Headcanon: Vehicle Growth and Development

*note: this Headcanon is for civilian-class vehicles, only. The process is slightly different for carrier and combat class vehicles...as is the siring process.*

Following the events of the Factory Wars (1819-1864, Cycle 9), most newborn, sapient vehicles are manufactured in factories. The long and the short of things is that vehicles actually do "grow up," after they are manufactured, and have distinct phases of development between infancy and adulthood.

*I used Doc as an example...because it gave me an excuse to draw him as an adorable babeh.*

A vehicle wanting to procreate must go through the siring process with a partner of the opposite gender (see my post on reproduction). Recently, some factories (Chrysler, Jeep, Chevrolet, Stellantis, and Mazda) have allowed people to petition them directly if they are unable to create a flame due to injury, manufacturing defect and/or sexual orientation.

Once a flame is sired, the female carrier will begin receiving internal notifications with instructions on what factory they'll need to report to. If she can't get to the factory right away, she can maintain the flame for three weeks by doubling her food intake. After this time, the energy is reabsorbed, and she'll have to go through the siring process if she wants to try again.

No one outside of a factory knows how a newborn is actually manufactured. In conversations with an angel at the Hudson Motor Car Factory, Doc's mother and grandfather learn that there are at least two processes involved beyond the initial "harvesting" (the operation that extracts the flame from the female's body): "grafting" and "nurturing." The time between harvesting and being introduced to the family is, on average, three and a half days…though it can take as long as seven if the flame splits, resulting in twins.

A newborn is always the same make as their factory of origin, and the type of vehicle created is dependent on the vehicles involved in the siring process. If both parents are one type of vehicle (a car, for example), the child will be that type of vehicle. If the parents are two, different types of vehicle (a car and a plane, for example), the resulting child has a 50% chance of being one or the other. Gender is random. Twins are always the same gender and model.

When newly manufactured, a vehicle begins life with a simple, two-cycle engine and are capable of self-locomotion. The moment a child emerges from the factory, they memorize their parents UV patterns, and the sound of their parent's voices on the way home initiates their natal learning software. By the end of their first day, the newborn can speak in complete sentences and will spend every waking moment asking questions and generally absorbing as much information as their budding minds can handle. This period of hyper information gathering, known as the Infant Period, lasts until the child's third birthday…and the dreaded First Appetency Phase.

In preparation for their most intense growth spurt, the child develops an insatiable appetite for metal, especially objects made of iron, copper and lead. And…much to the horror of those around them, they're not picky about where the metal comes from. Non-sapient machines, road markers, pipes, unattended parts, steel bridge supports, power poles, tools, cooking utensils…really anything that the child can stuff into their crop whole or tear apart with their incredibly strong teeth is fair game. It's not uncommon for children, during the height of the phase, to attempt to eat their parents and/or siblings. They do not attend school during this phase for obvious safety reasons.

The excess metals are stored within the child's body, melding with existing metals in the frame, engine, and mechanical components. The infant eventually becomes so dense and heavy that they can't move; eleven hours later the spurt begins. The child's body metals "slacken," taking on a texture similar to the metals around and inside the mouth. Stored metals from the Appetency Phase are re-mobilized, and the child's body begins to slowly grow. It's a painful period fraught with danger, and many parents don't leave their children unattended for even a minute.

Manufacturing defects (misshapen wheels, bent frames, UV blindness, etc) manifest during this growth spurt. Many can be corrected, especially with modern technology…but some cannot.

After two weeks, the growth spurt runs its course and the infant vehicle matures into an adolescent. They are now about half the size of an adult with a four cycle engine. Adolescents are much more mobile than infants, and this is the age when they really began to interact with the world around them. They are still insanely curious and learning rapidly, and this is when most parents start teaching them a trade…or at the very least the life skills that they'll need to survive on their own.

Almost immediately after their seventh birthday, the adolescent enters their Second Appetency Phase…though by this point, they tend to have enough self-control that they're not eating their family out of literal house and home. This time around, they crave rarer metals, like titanium, palladium, and magnesium, and they're taking in almost triple the amount of food as an adult. The slackening phase of this spurt is more dangerous than the first due to the fact that the child's engine is powerful enough to allow mobility, despite the increase in weight. Most families opt to keep their children confined to the house until the spurt runs its course, as even a minor fender-bender during this time can be lethal.

After two weeks, the adolescent matures into a young-adult. They are now about 75% the size of an adult, with a significantly more powerful engine and a greater capacity for strategic problem-solving, deductive reasoning, and information processing. They are strong enough to work and participate in competitive sports, though there is mounting evidence that overtaxing the body and engine too much during this phase can cause developmental issues during their 11th year growth spurt.

Upon reaching their eleventh birthday, a vehicle experiences their Third, and final, Appetency Phase. While they still need extra metal in their diet (copper and aluminum, especially) they find themselves craving organic materials like peat, kerogen, coal and, oddly enough, crab meat. The final growth spurt takes three weeks…but once a vehicle's body metals harden, they are considered an adult, socially and legally. They can drink, get married, live independent of their parents, own property, run for public office, and work full-time somewhere other than a family-owned business.

Probably the most important physical change is the development of reproductive hardware. The ability to hook up with another vehicle for pleasure usually drives the first two or three years of adulthood as a vehicle figures out, not only out how their own hardware works, but what preferences they have in terms of sexuality, foreplay, and hook up configurations. Because there's an extra step involved in actually siring a child, accidental children aren't really a thing, and most vehicles (in the modern era) don't even think about parenthood until their late twenties/early thirties.

Now, that's not to say there aren't risks involved with casual hookups. Vehicles are immune to most of the organic viruses left over from the Great Dying and The Return, but they can be susceptible to digital viruses…and the easiest way for a virus to transfer between vehicles is during physical intimacy. Outbreaks can occur suddenly and spread rapidly, devastating populations…and even disrupting the factories, themselves. Cycle 8, for example, was rocked by a powerful, almost sapient, computer virus…and the resultant hardware crashes wiped out 60% of all bio-mechanical life on the planet, necessitating a full recall.

In 1900 (Cycle 9), the global, average life expectancy of a vehicle was 32 years. By 2017 this had more than doubled to 65 years. Advances in bio-mechanics, public health, automation, safety standards, and a more robust biosphere have led to decreases in mortality, for all age groups, in much of the world. Part obsolescence, usually caused by political infighting between factories, is the major limiting factor to longevity, though the advent of 3D printing is helping to counteract it.