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ltwilliammowett · 4 months

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The anti seasick ship SS Bessemer Saloon Steamship

The SS Bessemer Saloon Steamship- SS Bessemer for short - was an experimental Victorian passenger side wheel steamer designed to counteract seasickness and operated between Dover and Calais. Her inventor was Sir Henry Bessemer.

Bessemer Saloon Steamer, 1874

In 1868, Bessemer, who suffered from severe seasickness, developed the idea of a ship whose passenger cabin - the saloon - was to be suspended on a gimbal and mechanically held horizontally, thus levelling out the swell and sparing the occupants from the ship's movements. Sounded too good to be true, but more on that later. He patented this ingenious idea in December 1869 and after successful trials with a model in which the levelling was carried out by hydraulics controlled by a helmsman observing a spirit level, Bessemer founded a limited company, the Bessemer Saloon Steamboat Company Limited, which was to operate steamships between England and France. Capital of 250,000 pounds was used to finance the construction of a ship, the SS Bessemer, whose chief designer was the naval architect Edward James Reed.

SS Bessemer, by Henry Spernon Tozer 1874

And so she was built by Earle's Shipbuilding in Hull. She bore the shipyard number 197 and was launched on 24 September 1874. As already mentioned, she was a paddle steamer with four buckets (two buckets each on port and starboard, one forward and one aft). She had a length of 106.68 m (350 feet), a width on deck of 12.19 m (40 feet), an outside width over the bucket boxes of 19.81 m (65 feet), a draught of 2.26 m (7 feet 5 inches) and a gross register tonnage of 1974 tonnes. What also characterised her was that she was completely identical fore and aft, she had two bridges and two wheels, which simply made her faster and more manoeuvrable in both directions. Her maximum speed was about 17.4 knots.

The inner saloon was a room 70 feet long (21 metres) and 30 feet wide (9.1 metres), with a ceiling 6.1 metres above the floor, Moroccan-covered seats, partitions and spiral columns of carved oak and gilded panels with hand-painted murals. The press liked to call it the floating clubhouse. However, the swinging saloon was only intended for first class passengers. The second class, on the other hand, did not enjoy this and had to make do with cabins on the sides of the hull.

Harper's Weekly Interior Pages showing the newly building ultra Luxury Bessemer Channel Steam-Ship, 1874

The disaster begins

On 21 October 1874, the Bessemer had her first misfortune. She had just arrived in Hull to be fitted out when she was driven ashore in a storm. She was refloated and found to be undamaged, which was not entirely true, as would later become apparent.

In March 1875, the ship sailed on a private trial voyage from Dover to Calais. During this voyage she is said to have steered well and even had a top speed of 18 knots. Her swinging saloon is also said to have worked excellently. However, things didn't go so smoothly because on arrival in Calais, a paddle wheel was damaged when she crashed into the pier because it didn't react to the rudder at slow speed.

The first and only public voyage took place on 8 May 1875, with the ship sailing with her revolving cabin locked (some observers suggested this was due to the ship's severe instability, but Bessemer attributed this to lack of time to repair the previous damage). The ship was operated by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. After two attempts to enter the harbour, it again crashed into the Calais pier, this time destroying part of it. Calais billed the company £2800 for the damage.

The Bessemer Saloon-Ship running foul of Calais Pier. Illustrated London News, 1875

Due to the poor performance, investors lost confidence and the company was dissolved in 1876. On 29 December 1876, the Bessemer ran aground on Burcom Sand in the Humber upstream of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, after the removal of the swivelling saloon and other extensive alterations. She was refloated and taken to Hull. The Board of Trade's investigation into the grounding found that the captain was at fault. His certificate was suspended for three months.After removal, the designer Reed had the saloon cabin taken to his home, Hextable House, Swanley, where it was used as a billiard room. When the house was later converted into a women's college, Swanley Horticultural College, the saloon was used as a lecture theatre, but was destroyed by a direct hit when the college was bombed during the Second World War.

The Saloon as a lecutre theatre

The ship was then docked in Dover until it was sold for scrapping in 1879.

The Theory of the Top. Volume IV, by Felix Klein, Arnold Sommerfeld, London, 2010

The Nautical Magazine for 1874

Sir Henry Bessemer, F.R.S.: An Autobiography, 1905

The Gale, The Times. No.��28140. London. 23 October 1874. col E, p. 8.

London, Chatham & Dover Railway Company

#naval history #ss bessemer #anti seasick ship #1870s #age of steam #sidewheel steamer

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theaskywalker · 5 months

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I Wanna Be Yours

Aemond x Fem!Velaryon!Reader x Jacaerys

Disclaimer: Angst, Betrayal, Death

❥ You were the only daughter of Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor Velaryon.

❥ Like the rest of your siblings, you lacked the traditional silver-gold hair and violet eyes that were a norm for members of House Targaryen.

❥ In order to consolidate her children's Targaryen heritage, Rhaenyra placed a dragon egg on its of their cradles.

❥ Unlike your brothers though, your egg never hatched.

❥ Watching your brothers bond with their dragons made you bitter and envious at times.

❥ Your mother tried to comfort you as best as she could.

❥ And although words couldn't ease the sadness in your heart you were thankful nonetheless.

❥ Your uncle Aegon made fun of you for being dragonless.

❥ Aemond came to your defense and the two of you quickly became best friends.

❥ He was more serious then Aegon and you liked that about him.

❥ Not to mention his more academic pursuits.

❥ You spent a lot of time together in the library reading and practicing your High Valyrian.

❥ Being without a dragon made you all too keen to possess one.

❥ So, during a visit to Dragonstone with your family you ventured alone into the caves underneath the mountain.

❥ As you walked through the narrow corridors you reached a small opening and came face to face with Vermithor himself.

❥ The dragon watched you with curious eyes at first and then snarled when you took steps toward him.

❥ You took a sharp breath and started singing a High Valyrian song that your mother taught you.

❥ He stared at you intently as you approached him and petted him gently on the head.

❥ With the dragon making no hostile movements, you carefully climbed on his back and ordered him to fly.

❥ He obliged and soon you found yourself soaring above Dragonstone and enjoying how the morning breeze felt on your skin.

❥ After what seemed like hours the two of you landed on the castle's courtyard, where Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor were about to send a search party looking for you.

❥ Seeing you atop the Bronze Fury made everyone gasp and you couldn't stop a proud smirk from reaching your lips.

❥ Aemond was beyond happy for you.

❥ You didn't want him to feel bad about not having a dragon yet so you took him for long rides on Vermithor.

❥ And when he claimed Vhagar instead of feeling angry at him for stealing your aunt's dragon you were proud.

❥ Ironic wasn't it, that the two dragonless kids got to cliam the largest dragons alive.

❥ Aemond losing his eye to your brother Luke made your relationship strained.

❥ You loved your brother dearly and he did act on self defense.

❥ Yet Aemond payed a heavy price.

❥ Your mother relocated the family to Dragonstone and you saw little of Aemond.

❥ You sent him countless letters and none of them was answered.

❥ You were desperate for news from him and decided to go to Kings Landing to see him.

❥ Under the pretense of visiting your grandfather you reached Kings Landing on Vermithor and eventually found Aemond in the library.

❥ He was polite yet cold towards you and it was unbearable.

❥ You asked him to put what happened behind and start a new.

❥ He declined at first, saying that his mother wouldn't allow him to be friends with any of Rhaenyra's children after the incident.

❥ But as you insisted on rekindling your friendship he gave in and promised to write to you and never allow anyone to mess with the relationship the two of you had.

❥ Aemond, true to his word, sent you numerous letters detailing his daily life as well as news from court.

❥ Whenever a new letter arrived it brightened your day.

❥ The same applied to your letters which made Aemond's life in Kings Landing more bearable.

❥ Not content with only receiving letters, Aemond proposed flying together on a weekly basis.

❥ It worked perfectly as Dragonstone and Kings Landing were close.

❥ Vhagar and Vermithor took a liking to each other that reflected your relationship with Aemond.

❥ When Aemond realised he loved you, well after both of you had reached your teenage years, he knew he had to act on it.

❥ Maybe that was the way of mending the rift between the Blacks and the Greens.

❥ You were also in love with him and when he confessed his feelings you couldn't stop kissing him.

❥ Savoring the little moments of holding him in your arms.

❥ You agreed that for the time being the relationship would be in secret.

❥ Aemond planned on asking King Viserys for your hand, as he knew that Viserys would agree to the match.

❥ Everything changed, however, when Vaemond Velaryon claimed the seat of Driftmark as rightful heir and accused you and your brothers of bastardy in front of the court.

❥ Your grandmother, Princess Rhaenys stepped forward to defend you and announced that your brother Lucerys had been engaged to your cousin Rhaena and your brother Jacaerys to yourself.

❥ You couldn't breathe...How could this happen?

❥ Why didn't your mother tell you about it?

❥ Aemond kept looking at you in shock that switched to anger when it landed on Jacaerys.

❥ Since King Viserys gave his blessing it was impossible to change the verdict.

❥ Jacaerys, despite his initial surprise, opted to act like a true knight to you.

❥ Taking long walks with you.

❥ Filling your wine cup at dinner.

❥ Leaving daintily kisses on your knuckles and lips.

❥ Complimenting you on your beauty and High Valyrian skill.

❥ He even got close with Vermithor as he knew how much you cared for your dragon.

❥ You loved your brother but not in the way a wife was required to love her husband.

❥ Aemond and you continued seeing each other secretly, as neither of you wanted to end the relationship.

❥ During the dinner hosted by King Viserys for his family members, toasts were made in good health and friendship.

❥ Aegon's comment on your upcoming marital disappointment and suggestion of sharing his bed made both Jacaerys and Aemond furious.

❥ Helaena saved the agitated situation by making a toast to you and Rhaena, describing how marriage was like.

❥ Once Jacaerys heard how neglected his aunt was, he immediately asked her to dance.

❥ Aemond seeing the opportunity made you the same offer.

❥ You agreed of course.

❥ Aemond spinned you around and it wasn't long before your laughter filled the room.

❥ He couldn't stop looking at you adoringly.

❥ Holding you close and making you smile was all he wished for.

❥ King Viserys watched in delight as his children and grandchildren bonded.

❥ The family dinner ended in a positive light and it was made easier for you to visit Kings Landing regularly.

❥ Aemond wanted to elope with you but you couldn't betray Jacaerys and Rhaenyra like this.

❥ And thus you had to be content with the little stolen moments Aemond and you shared.

❥ When King Viserys died and Aegon was crowned in his place against the already established succession, chaos erupted.

❥ Rhaenyra decided to send Jacaerys, Lucerys and yourself as envoys to the North, Storms End and Eyrie.

❥ Aemond was also sent to Stoms End to secure the Baratheon support through marriage to one of Lord Borros' daughters.

❥ Once Lucerys arrived and saw Aemond he tried to remain calm and collected.

❥ But Aemond wouldn't have it.

❥ Upset about his lost eye and you being betrothed to someone else, he lost all control.

❥ Chasing Luke atop Vhagar he thrilled in frightening the little boy.

❥ He didn't mean to harm him though...

❥ Daemon told the gruesome news to Rhaenyra and she proceeded to send ravens to Winterfell and the Eyrie, telling you and Jacaerys about it.

❥ You were devastated.

❥ You couldn't forgive Aemond for killing your brother despite the love you felt for him.

❥ And Aemond knew.

❥ He knew that the nickname he just earned came with the heaviest of prices.

❥ The love of his life...

❥ And so with Prince Lucerys' death, the war of ravens and envoys and marriage pacts came to an end and the war of fire and blood began in earnest.

Masterlist

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mychlapci · 2 months

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Love the idea that Pharma is roommates with party ambulance Ratchet but Ratchet literally never even considers letting Pharma hit it ever. They're buddies. Roommates. Yknow. Like it's not even an option for him.

And Pharma is so pathetic about it. Every time he comes back and sees yet another random mech leave their room, he acts like nothing is wrong and then the moment Ratchet leaves for the day he's just screaming and crying and slamming his fist on his desk.

He keeps trying to Hint at things yknow. It's not like he's not trying. At first it's subtle posing on his berth whenever Ratchet returns from classes. Then it becomes slightly more obvious posing. Maybe he lays across his desk a few times.

At some point he pretends to have been self servicing whilst Ratchet was gone and acts all flustered and apologetic as he snaps his panels shut when Ratchet opens the door. Look he even bites his lip and licks his slick covered fingers and leaves his legs spread despite having closed his panels like what else could he have done there. It's clearly not a Pharma problem that Ratchet's reaction is to be like "PRIMUS. PHARMA." and cover his optics. It's not like Ratchet doesn't see this all the time. With all his """partners""" he has. This should be a regular sight for him.

The best part is I think other bots do think Pharma is hot. Like they look at him and proposition him a lot but either they don't even register to Pharma at all or he snaps at them for being disgusting. He snarled at the last mech who touched his wing and sneered and nearly bit the fingers off the last mech to grab his aft.

I bet he complains about it to Ratchet too. They sit on their berths across from each other as Pharma bitches about other mechs who try to come at him and Ratchet just chuckles along. Pharma thinks he makes it obvious he's not even remotely interested in anyone else because he's so hopelessly smitten by Ratchet. Ratchet thinks Pharma is just uninterested in general lmao

Pharma's been fucking himself over hardcore... Ratchet thinks he's just not that into dating. With all the mecha he turns down on a weekly basis? Pharma's clearly not a playboy. Ratchet has no reason to think so. And, if Pharma was interested in him, he would have directly told him that he wants to sleep with Ratchet, like all the other mechs do, right.

Although, it wouldn't be a good idea for them to couple up, I think... Pharma would want Ratchet all to himself and the party ambulance has no brakes baby. The falling out that would follow would probably make the living situation very shitty for them.

For now, Pharma just has to pine... I guess, instead of a playboy, he's a bit of a romantic.

#valveplug #texty

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toku-fangirl-2015 · 6 months

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Time once again for my bullet journal setup! I decided to step out of my comfort zone once again, this time by attempting a fancy font.

I wanted to do something geeky specifically for this month, because we’re going to our first post-pandemic convention during the last weekend in April. My husband suggested Star Trek, so I decided I had to do the Star Trek font. This was especially challenging for me because my normal handwriting can best be described as “legible” on a good day. I think it came out pretty well, but I did sketch it out, and then outlined in fineliner, and then colored it in. I had an example of the whole alphabet as a reference, which helped a lot.

For the Vulcan salute, I just traced around my hand. It helps that (A) I can do the salute with either hand and (B) I’m left-handed.

Since the lettering takes so much time (and space..no pun intended) I kept the rest of the decorative elements pretty minimal. I added a Starfleet insignia with the science logo for Spock.

I was toying with the idea of doing an all black-and-white setup, but aft I finished the title page I decided it needed some color. I went with red, gold, and blue for engineering, command, and science.

These next two spreads are my monthly trackers. The first page is where I write down fun or exciting things from my day. I usually call it my daily highlights, but I had to go with “Captain’s Log” for this month to fit the theme. I also added Kirk’s command insignia. I did look up if there’s an “official” way to calculate Starfleet dates, but the answer was either “no” or “it’s complicated,” so I just went with a year-dot-month format.

I’m doing Dutch doors for my weekly spreads—I trimmed off the edges of the pages so I’ll be able to see the “to do” and “C2E2” columns no matter what week I’m looking at.

You can kind of see the edge of the Dutch door better in this shot.

#bullet journal #star trek tos #star trek #bujoblr

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mollybecameanengineer · 1 year

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And How Does That Make You Feel?

Summary: Mulder and Scully do couples therapy with Karen Kosseff

word count: 2166 | General | MSR | @today-in-fic

Read on AO3 or check out the beginning below the break

This is part of an episodic series called A Second Chance. All the episodes are collected, in order, using AO3’s series feature. The concept of the series is to rewrite seasons 8 and 9. It deals with Mulder’s return from the dead, the birth of William, and Mulder and Scully trying to juggle family life with impending doom.

If you don’t want to read the whole thing, but want to read this story, here is what you need to know…

Previously on A Second Chance: After returning from the dead, Mulder and Scully moved in together and are planning to raise their baby. In their last case (see: Incubo) they have recently been confronted by their worst nightmares. (She: Mulder goes missing. Him: Scully’s baby isn’t human.) This experience left them both troubled.

When Dr. Karen Kosseff saw the appointment on her calendar, she wasn’t surprised. She’d seen Fox Mulder and Dana Scully separately, a number of times. She pulled both of their files, wanting to go over her notes from their previous sessions.

1994. The first session. When one's partner goes missing or is killed, it’s mandatory to attend a minimum of three counseling sessions. Fox had come to her to fulfill the requirement. His partner had been missing for two months. He didn’t believe she was dead. He was using all his free time to search for her.

In her notes, Karen noted that he had a possibly unhealthy attachment to his partner. If nothing else, he blamed himself for everything that happened – rather than Duane Barry, the man who had abducted her.

“You and your partner, you were close?” Karen asked.

Fox bit his lip. “No more so than anyone is with their partner.”

She scribbled down that they may have been in a romantic relationship and were hiding it. This would explain his guilt, and why he was having such trouble letting go.

“You know that everything you say in here is confidential. I’m only bound to report if you are planning to harm yourself or others.”

Fox laughed. It wasn’t a kind sound. “We weren’t fucking, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

Karen noted that he was defensive that she had presumed. “I’m sorry. I just–”

“Can we move on?” Fox wasn’t looking at her, but at his hands, which were folded in his lap.

Karen wrote down that Fox was likely in love with his partner, though it may have been unrequited. “Yes,” she said, “let’s move on.”

That was the only time Fox had come to her office. She’d seen Dana on many more occasions. And after their first session, she knew Fox’s feelings weren’t unrequited, only unconsummated.

Shuffling through her notes, Karen came upon her most recent sessions with Dana. After Fox went missing, Dana had done her three sessions, and much like Fox, seven years prior, was refusing to give up. She was sure she’d find him, just as he’d found her.

Karen would find it romantic if it weren’t so delusional.

A few months after the end of her mandatory sessions, Dana appeared again in her office.

“He’s dead.”

That’s how the session began. Dana told Karen how they found his body. His funeral was a week ago. The tears that Dana hadn’t shed in those first sessions flooded her eyes now. “I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

Karen handed her a box of tissues. “How does it make you feel? Now that he’s gone, rather than missing?”

Dana laughed. It was a terrible sound. “Sad. Really fucking sad. I had hope. Now…” She shook her head, dismissing something she was about to say.

“Tell me, Dana.”

She let out a sob. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. We were together, Mulder and I.”

If the moment weren’t so serious, Karen would have cheered. One of them was finally honest with her. “That’s a very hard thing, Dana. You lost not only your partner, but also your significant other.”

Dana nodded. “And… I’m pregnant. But I never got to tell him.”

Dana had come weekly after that. Karen worked with her through her grief. Tried to help her see a future, where she had her child and was happy. They’d made good progress, then one day she got an email from Dana, canceling her remaining appointments. The email had been brief, only communicating that Fox was alive.

Karen didn’t understand how it could be, but she also didn’t understand a lot of what Fox and Dana told her. She’d wished that Dana hadn’t quit therapy as soon as Fox was back. She’d done the same thing after her cancer went into remission. And while these were both happy times, the trauma of the sad ones can linger. Karen saw PTSD in Scully, and could only assume Mulder suffered similarly.

So, on that May morning when she opened her schedule to see that she had a joint appointment with Fox and Dana, Karen was happy. Not for herself, but for them.

Continue on AO3

#x files fanfic #msr

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hyrule-kingdom-updates · 2 years

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Cozy wooden chairs are currently bare of customers during this time of day—when afternoon soon crumples into dusk.

Hello. The person typing these words is called Quill. Please allow me to indulge in the sin of pride for a moment. Above is my favourite line from last night’s chapter of HKU. I would like to quickly analysis/demonstrate why for two reasons. 1) It would relate to weekly assignments for my writing class in which my professor does not know that my submissions of self reflection are actually just renamed works of disgusting, childish, fanfiction about Zelda characters, for I am also a sinner in sloth. 2) I want to.

The following analysis has a pretentious rating of 16.8:

My current venture in Ao3 has one goal: to experiment and write with voice. Perspective. Narration. I have a bit of an obsession with unreliable narrators, irresponsible personalities. Put simply: I love lying.

I’ve sort of grown accustomed to my experiment with the blog--html, colors, asks, tags, codes. I can’t say I’m satisfied, but I can say I’m happy. I did it because I was bored of Ao3, but now time passed and the pattern switches.

Of course, I am still going to continue the original tumblr blog style updates as we are so very close to my favourite part of the story, and if I had to wait another 2 years to get the Ao3 chapters up to speed before I can share the ending, I might frankly kill myself. That Masterlist takes a good 30 seconds to load for me on my Lenovo Legion 5 Nvidia Geforce RTX 32gb AMD Ryzen 5000 series 7 and iphone 5. I shiver at the thought of doing all the work again, and then twice over.

Anyhow: Voice. It’s the constant, the bread and butter of HKU. Long have I dabbled between the realms of writing with intricate, sentimental description, and writing like a loser pissboy. Even now, the certain voice that I concoct for “Quill,” is not how I talk in real life. Of course this choice of style is forced in order to attempt to exude an aura of mystery and intelligence, but it’s not something I truly say “on da casual.” In fact, I’d say this voice of Quill is how I normally think. In real life I talk something more similar to Asivus Hartell. I look at the world of Breath of the Wild, and think to myself how it is a world of splendor and grief, a testament to the act of creation and growth despite life’s repeated tragedies, despite life’s repeated deaths. I think it is a masterpiece that sits in a corner of my soul forever. Outloud, I say: noice. And now you know why I am forever stuck in insatiable madness.

Therefore, I not only write and read sentences in my head, but I like to say them outloud, as is the case for:

Cozy wooden chairs are currently bare of customers during this time of day—when afternoon soon crumples into dusk.

It is very important to me that a sentence feels nice to say. In middle school, I was bored by Shakespeare, but now I understand his obsession with rhythm, syllables, and meter. Don’t you think this is a nice/noice sentence? Perhaps it seems a bit forced at times, particularly in the middle of it, but I like the slight disruption it gives.

There is a heartbeat present in the natural emphasis of the words: CO-zy, WOOD-en, CHAIRS-are. I try to highlight it further with the alliteration: cozy, chairs, currently, customers.

The meter is not perfect, “currently” shakes up the rhythm by an odd number of syllables so it forces a sort hiccup or inverse in the pattern. And “during this time of day” loses the alliteration of “c” that I’ve set up, trailing off the momentum. The reason? I just like the way it sounds, I like the way it transitions.

When AFT-er-NOON soon CRUM-ples IN-to DUSK. A perfect iambic pentameter. My bestie. My beloved, even. It’s a description that I like, even without the meter, but is further enjoyable(at least in my opinion) when juxtaposed with the different weird meter/alliteration in the chairs part of the sentence. It’s two different types of word-feel(there’s probably a word for that) that merge together through the shared interest in the time of day.

It’s also a sentence that I think has decent voice. It’s not something Siv would say, or Zelda or Link. It’s very flowery, passionate or pretentious depending on who you ask, perfect for something like Arcadius or ???(depending on who you ask). I never care about meter when writing for Siv, I pretty much just talk out loud about the topic ‘til it sounds good and then I write it down and edit.

This? I write out the single, favourite sentence first, and then I make a scene as an excuse to use it.

As thank you for reading this, here is another of said “excuse sentences” as I’ll call them. I am finishing up editing its accompanied scene in an update coming sooner than you think.

And they had a long, constructive dialogue much like that between a jellyfish and a ghost—bereft in true transparency.

#out of character #or..is it?#c;

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shembl · 2 years

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Moby Dick FNP Chapter 22 - Merry Christmas!

Posting this here our of order compared to the other stuff for a couple of reasons. The first reason is it’s Christmas, so merry that, for all who celebrate or observe, and the second reason is that Whale Weekly has absolutely blasted past our pace and I think we should probably stick with the zeitgeist a bit I think.

We’ll still be pasting chapter by chapter, but here’s a little christmas treat; the sight of me desperately clinging to the discourse in an attempt to piggyback off Whale Weekly’s popularity.

We have more chapters in the bank which I’ll get around to posting soon, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas and please enjoy this slightly reworded, list-bulleted version of Chapter 22 of Moby Dick, now for Normal People

🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳

Chapter 22: Merry Christmas

There were a few last things to be done on the ship before we got going, mostly this was Charity, that nice lady from earlier, she was dropping off various gifts and nice things for the crew, including a nightcap (the hat type, not a drink) for this guy called Stubbs who was the second mate and also her brother in law, and also a spare bible for the steward, who’s name and familial links I am hazy on.

Then, Peleg and Bildad came out and stood all official-like.

Peleg turned to the chief mate and said “Now, Mr. Starbuck, are you sure everything is right? Captain Ahab is all ready—just spoke to him—nothing more to be got from shore, eh? Well, call all hands, then. Muster ’em aft here—blast ’em!”

“No need of profane words, however great the hurry, Peleg,” said Bildad, “but away with thee, friend Starbuck, and do our bidding.” I don’t know why, but Bildad always seemed to phrase things in the most ominous way possible.

Talking like a pair of big important order-givers weren’t they? At least for people who weren’t actually going out to sea with us! Don’t get me wrong, they probably know their stuff, but really shouldn’t Ahab have been the one up here shouting at everyone? Then I thought about it and remembered that his leg was bad, and that even if that wasn’t case, some captains just like to get drunk in their cabin, I’ve seen plenty of that in my time on boats, so really it was all okay. I relaxed a little. Not for long though, because just then Peleg started yelling at everyone.

“Aft here, ye sons of bachelors,” he cried, as the sailors lingered at the main-mast. Everyone over there started running around, wild-eyed.

“Strike the tent there!”—was the next order. I’d thought it was odd that there was a tent on deck to start with, so I suppose that taking it down was like a ritualistic re-boatening of the vessel, because tents don’t go to sea.

“Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!—jump!”—was the next command, and the crew did all these things.

The ship was getting under way, and anyone who knows ships knows that under way means it’s time for singing. Now, Bildad was never much of a party man in my experience, and he showed that at this time by singing some sort of boring religious song and tutting at the sailors who were en-masse, raucously roaring the hit shanty of the time “The Girls of Booble Alley.”

I found myself somewhat comforted by this bizarre scene, there was us on a ship made of bones, with heads full of dark prophecy and a crew singing rude songs, but somehow this pious little paragon of virtue called Bildad, maybe we weren’t all totally damned, if someone like that could put up with us, could have a stake in all this, then surely God wouldn’t fuck us all up, would he?

By now I had stopped moving the capstan and told Queequeg to do the same, I can’t really think and do manual labour at the same time and I had quite some pondering to do.

My leg almost exploded with some outside blunt force trauma slamming into them. I looked around and saw Peleg’s own leg dragging back across the deck towards him. He was swearing at everyone and especially at me. That was my first kick of the voyage.

“Is that the way they heave in the marchant service?” he roared. “Spring, thou sheep-head; spring, and break thy backbone! Why don’t ye spring, I say, all of ye—spring! Quohog! spring, thou chap with the red whiskers; spring there, Scotch-cap; spring, thou green pants. Spring, I say, all of ye, and spring your eyes out!” And so saying, he moved along the windlass, here and there using his leg very freely, meanwhile.

“Captain Peleg must have been drinking something to-day. Methinks!” I quipped hilariously as my leg went completely numb.

Finally the anchor was up, so were the sails, and the ship was moving. It was almost enough to make you forget that today was Christmas, nobody had gotten me a present, but instead of a little to open, the world itself lay open before me, truly the greatest present of all. And in that world there were whales waiting for me to hack up!

It wasn’t exactly a white christmas, no snow or anything like that, but it was bloody cold and bloody wet and you know what that means, weather fans, that means it was icy!

Massive icicles were forming on all the ropes and bones about the place, hanging down like big cold daggers ready to take your eyes if you look the wrong way, for a seasoned sailor like me, it was just business as usual. Business on Christmas Day.

The winds howled and the sea splashed at us but all the time, right on the front of the ship, steering us through was weird old Bildad, singing a merry, optimistic and religious tune, cutting right through all the weather-related atmos.

“Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,

Stand dressed in living green.

So to the Jews old Canaan stood,

While Jordan rolled between.”

I wasn’t fully sure what he was actually talking about, but that’s art for you isn’t it, it’s not about the content, it’s about how it you feel, and I was taking some time out from all that backbreaking labour to have a stand around and a feel. Losing myself to the music I felt optimistic, I felt like it wouldn’t be long before I was off running and rolling around in verdant fields with a happy sky and loads of lovely food within easy reach, I let myself go there in my mind, away from this damp and cold body that imprisons it, away from the ship made of bones and the guy who kept yelling at me and kicking me. For just a moment I was free. I was optimistic.

Eventually it was time for Bildad and Peleg to leave. They’d gotten us out of the port, so it was time for them to head back to land. Their little sailboat pulled up and they got ready to go. Peleg seemed alright but there was something odd about old Bildad. He clearly didn’t want to leave, it wasn’t just a boat, here is a list of things it also was to him;

-A ship set for a very long and perilous voyage

-A ship with thousands of his dollars invested in it

-A ship with an old (almost as old as he) buddy in it (the captain) who was set to revisit all the all the terrors of the pitiless jaw

-A ship with everything important in his life contained in it

To express this anguish, poor old Bildad lingered long and;

-Paced the deck with anxious strides

- Ran down into the cabin to say goodbye a few more times

- Came back on deck and looked windward, at the wide and endless waters

- He looked towards land

- He looked aloft

- He looked left

- He looked right

- He looked everywhere

- He looked nowhere

- He wrapped a rope around its pin

- He wrapped his own hand around Peleg’s

- He held up a lantern so that his face could be seen, and he wasn’t crying.

- He and Peleg stared at each other for a bit

- He said “Nevertheless old friend Peleg, I can stand it. yes. I can.”

Peleg took it all a little bit more sensibly, like a philosopher, a philosopher who isn’t afraid to cry.

And with that, Peleg offered a few words of support to his old pal “Captain Bildad—come, old shipmate, we must go.” he whispered before going full yelling-mode at the rest of the ship; “Back the main-yard there! Boat ahoy! Stand by to come close alongside, now! Careful, careful!—come, Bildad, boy—say your last. Luck to ye, Starbuck—luck to ye, Mr. Stubb—luck to ye, Mr. Flask—good-bye and good luck to ye all—and this day three years I’ll have a hot supper smoking for ye in old Nantucket. Hurrah and away!”

“God bless ye, and have ye in His holy keeping, men,” murmured old Bildad, almost incoherently. “I hope ye’ll have fine weather now, so that Captain Ahab may soon be moving among ye—a pleasant sun is all he needs, and ye’ll have plenty of them in the tropic voyage ye go. Be careful in the hunt, ye mates. Don’t stave the boats needlessly, ye harpooneers; good white cedar plank is raised full three per cent. within the year. Don’t forget your prayers, either. Mr. Starbuck, mind that cooper don’t waste the spare staves. Oh! the sail-needles are in the green locker! Don’t whale it too much a’ Lord’s days, men; but don’t miss a fair chance either, that’s rejecting Heaven’s good gifts. Have an eye to the molasses tierce, Mr. Stubb; it was a little leaky, I thought. If ye touch at the islands, Mr. Flask, beware of fornication. Good-bye, good-bye! Don’t keep that cheese too long down in the hold, Mr. Starbuck; it’ll spoil. Be careful with the butter—twenty cents the pound it was, and mind ye, if—”

“Come, come, Captain Bildad; stop palavering,—away!” and with that, Peleg hurried him over the side, and both dropped into the boat.

Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave three heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.

#moby dick #whale weekly #ishmael #bildad #peleg #herman melville #moby dick for normal people #christmas #holidays #ships #lists #merry christmas

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garavigujarat02 · 6 months

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#breaking news #international news #news #pakistan news #pakistan weekly #pakistan #world news #Nice to see the confidence of young India #says coach Rahul Dravid

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uberlyftdrivers · 9 months

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DoorDash Dasher Earnings, Floor Meets Ceiling

Rideshare (& Delivery) Rodeo Roundtable (December 7th, 2023) THE BEST WEEKLY GIG NEWS DISCUSSION

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#Ride-sharing

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fan-burns · 9 months

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Robots 2

Chapter 13: Rodney’s POV (TW for Hunger pains and hints at starvation)

I hadn't even gotten out of bed when I heard my phone ring. I knew what it was. It was the same bi-weekly call that I always hated. I picked up the phone, knowing exactly who was on the other end.

“Hello, Sir…I take it my exam is ready?”

“Vhy yes it is!”

Doctor Veyizmir.

“I’m very pleased with your results.” He went on. “You passed zee Citizenship test vith a flawless score, meaning that you are zee perfect model citizen. I hope you maintain zat score for your future test next…vhenever it pops up next, and for the countless others to come. As for your physical exam, well…I zink you already know what I have to say.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I know…I’m a modded freak and I can’t fix it.”

It was true. Hidden by my gloves are these…things. I still have no idea what they do, but I know they do something! Whenever we tried to remove them, the tools either broke or flew into the walls! They have to be some sort of weapon, or a torture device! Who knows what that freak used me for!

Maybe it was a way to spite me in case he did get his aft kicked out of the big chair, because now I’m stuck with this creep fiddling with my hands every other week. Maybe Bigweld does have an ounce of mercy, considering that he put these things in my hands and not anywhere else.

The Doctor tried his best to sound soothing, but it only made things worse. “Yes, yes. Ve’re vell aware of zat. But It isn’t zee end of zee vorld…yet. So long as you obey my orders, you’ll be allowed to live and make a living out of yourself, just like all zee other cattle in zee herd. You’ve been very good so far, vhat with covering zose zings vith gloves, but until vee can figure out how to turn zem off you have to continue seeing me every other veek. If you miss an appointment, I’ll have Zee Guard summoned to your shop to force you dovn here. You vouldn’t vant that for yourself, do you?”

“Of course not, sir. It’s bad for business and myself.”

“Good, good boy. See, if everyone vas like you, ve’d have the vhole vorld under control by now. You listen, and you obey. You follow your shepherd vell, and so in turn you're rewarded vell.”

Again with the creepy animal references. Did this guy have his circuits shorted out by a dog or something?

“I do have some other news zough.” He exclaimed. “About your…enhancements. I zink I figured out vhat they were used for, and it’s quite fascinating. Vould you like to know, or-”

“No. No I don’t.”

If I want to know what these were used for, what I was used for, then I want to hear it from the bot who made them, not from him.

“Oh, you’re good at this. zat was a test, and you passed zat as well! Truth be told, I have no idea vhat they do yet. I’m still trying to figure out zeir purpose!”

…Or I could just be lucky as hell and guess that this is one of his signature surprise quizzes.

“You see, zee more you know about your Modifications, zee more likely you are to succumb to zeir influence, and in turn you succumb to Bigweld’s influence. By saying no, you’ve proven your loyalties yet again! I’ll be sure to reward zis behavior…how does some extra oil in your care package sound?”

In order to control the prices and the lack of fuel, Ratchet decided to supply stores and shops himself. To keep it fair, he stores the fuel himself. If you don’t pass your Citizenship test, become an Outmode or a Modded, you’re denied access to fuel until otherwise stated. Dr. V is known for throwing in extra fuel for his patients if he feels they deceived a treat. The more cooperative you are, the more fuel you’ll get from him.

“I’d appreciate that, sir. I could always use extra.”

A lightbulb must’ve gone off in his head, as I heard him gasp over the phone. “Oh zat’s right, you’ve got a Petrol based engine! Oh, you poor zing, you must be starving!”

Really? What was your first guess? I swear he gets a kick out of stuff like this. “Yeah…I’ve been holding off on some of my rations lately. I was running on fumes all day yesterday.”

“Oh, aren’t you a trooper? You’re vell on your way to being zee model citizen at this rate! You don’t bother vith vorthless friends or social gatherings unless Ratchet’s involved in zem, you put vork before yourself, and you fulfill your purpose to perfection! you might as vell be the face of the city!”

Reluctantly, I replied. “I’m honored that you think of me like that, sir, but I still want a full tank.”

“Doesn’t everyone? You vant my advice? Keep doing what you're doing now. No friends, no full tank, no Mods, and most importantly of all, no questions.”

No questions. None. That’s the way Ratchet wants it. “Understood sir.”

“Good boy…I’ll be seeing you next Vednesday at six o’clock, first zing in the morning. Enjoy your new freedom, Copperplate.”

“Praises go to Ratchet.”

Click!

Man, I hate that creep. I fell backwards onto my bed. I still had a few minutes before I opened, so I think I’ll just lay here for a bit.

Bored with nothing else to do, I looked around the room. I had to get it repainted into the city’s colors, just like everything else in the city. Dark red walls, gray floors, and some lighter grays for accents. Was it depressing? Maybe…but Ratchet wanted everything like this, so it must be good for us somehow.

The room was simple enough. A bed, with some dressers next to it and a window above the bed. Of course, due to the other building next to mine, the window was about as useless as an Outmode. At least I can get some air in here.

A desk was shoved in a corner, with some junk and clutter on it. Beside that were the boxes of products that I had ordered a few days ago. The computer I used to take said test sat on top of it, standing guard of the radio beside it. Opposite of it was the dresser where I’d store my other personal upgrades, if I had any. It’s completely empty save for a box that I keep extra gloves in, just in case the pair I’m wearing gets damaged while I’m fixing something. Beside it were the stairs that led down to the shop, and to the other side of the closet was yet another poster. This one, however, was a constant reminder of who ruined my life by modifying me. Bigweld.

The poster was red, with Bigweld’s cursed insignia in the center of it. I even customized it with a set of darts lodged into it. While most of them were off target, three of them hit their mark…I was never really good at darts.

Public enemy number one! You know what he did! A special announcement from Ratchet Industries.

I know damn well what he did to me, I have the scars on my hands and the creepy meetings to prove it. Already tired of looking at him, I rolled over on my side to face the poster on the wall closest to me. It was a poster of a cartoon Ratchet with shades on him in front of a dark green background. A bunch of money was raining from the sky, with light green rays announcing its arrival.

It’s a hussle sweetie! Get a major in business at the newly renovated Ratchet University!

I sighed as I rolled onto my back again. I’d been thinking about applying there, but I was having second thoughts about it. I barely had the money to buy fuel for myself…I use most of it for the shop. Your business was your life here, it’s your purpose. I may be number one on the block, but anyone hardly comes to this district…They’re too busy elsewhere. If I was better at running a business, I’d be more successful and more fulfilled in life. Better business, more money.

It’s what Ratchet is always talking about. It’s what everyone is talking about. That’s how important it is to us, and to me! You can’t even imagine a life without a purpose! It keeps us away from doing dumb things like drugs or getting roped into Bigweld’s evil schemes!

“Work keeps you sane, so you must work! This is the way of our savior Ratchet!”

I could practically hear that crazy preacher outside the shop already. I got lucky yesterday, that guy didn’t even show up once! He was probably busy with-

“Your Citizenship test proves his love for us, so let us embrace him!”

Yeah, what he said. See, that guy is smart, he…wait a fucking minute.

“Open your shops! Open your hearts for the Lord who has saved us from the tyrant snake! Failure to do so is to fall into the jaws of the serpent!”

FUCK. FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK-

I bolted out of bed and fell down the stairs, landing face first to the ground. I keep forgetting how fast I am with these legs, oh my Cog!

Am I going to die just because my doors were locked?!

Scrabbling up and frantically grabbing the keys from the counter I tried to unlock the door. I nearly slammed into it as I tried to insert the key into the hole. My hands couldn’t stop shaking, and my arms felt as though they were made of air, making me drop the keys more times than I’d like to admit. If I don't get this door open, I’m screwed!

I finally had a firm grasp on the keys, and I placed them in the keyhole. “C’mon you little…WHY DON’T YOU WORK?!”

After scrambling for what felt like hours, I finally heard the small click of the door being unlocked. I felt my body loosen up and I let the relief wash over me. Without a moment to lose, I got the door unlocked just in time for those lunatics to get here. I leaned my head against the glass as I tried to calm myself down. Going from 0 to 60 in a minute tends to take a lot out of you, especially if you're low on fuel.

On the sidewalks was The Congregation, the robots who take thanking the city’s hero to a whole other level. You see, there are five different districts to Ratchet city to keep it organized. Each district is dependent on how much money it makes. The Center District, aka Ratchet Industries, is where the most amount of money is made and is the smallest of the five because of that. The Outmoded District, for obvious reasons, doesn't make any money, and it’s just a place to house bots until they do. You get the idea.

What does this have to do with The Congregation? Well, each district is required to have The Congregation march around to ensure that Bigweld can’t spread his influence and to keep the peace. Only problem with this is that whenever they do come around, they have about as much power as Ratchet, and they’re allowed to do whatever they want. They can close or force your business open, they can call The Guard on you, and to make matters worse, they can even pull you into court and have you Outmoded. You don’t want to be the poor soul who gets on their bad sides.

They were all awful, but I especially hated their so-called leader. There was only one robot in charge of the whole thing…and his name was Crank Cassey. Out of all of them, he was the worst. He’s in charge of both The Congregation and the churches in all of the districts, making him as loyal to Ratchet as you can get. He’s spoiled for it too, as he gets the most bonuses out of anyone in the city. When it comes to loyalty, he puts me in second place…and I hate being second.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much fuel he has stored at his place. He’s probably got it all. Petrol, Diesel, Ethanol, hell he probably even has some High Grade shoved in a corner somewhere on a shelf…just wasting away when it could be used out here…when I need it more than him! When I’m just as loyal as him, if not, even more so! The Doctor even said it himself, I am the model citizen here! Not him! Why should he get everything?! He gets everything while I’m here doing…doing…Wait, what was I doing again?

I shook my head to try to bring my focus back. I must’ve hit my head pretty hard from the fall. I should probably sit down for a bit and-

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Nevermind, I guess I’m not allowed to relax today.

I must have been standing at the door this entire time, because I’ve only just noticed Crank ponding on the glass door. He had his black Congregation vest on as per usual, then again I’ve never seen him without it. He held a small book, aka The Ratchet Bible as I like to call it. Around his neck was a silver medal with Ratchet’s logo on it, the symbol of power letting everyone know he was in charge. I hated that medal. It was just water to the wires at this rate. He has oil, he has power, and he has a respected purpose. What doesn’t he have? A wife?…Actually that last bit might be true, now that I’m thinking about it.

He pounded the glass again, “Hey! Why isn’t your shop open?! Did you sleep in again, Copperplate?!”

I opened the door for him to enter. It was so simple, but at the same time it was so satisfying. “Of course not! Not after last time. I was in the process of opening when your splendid valor caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting The Congregation to be here until tomorrow.”

I stepped to the sign and flipped it around, proving my point. “See? All is well!”

Mic drop, crowd cheering, in your face Crank shaft, suck it!

He looked at me with a scowl on his face as he wheeled himself in. “I would certainly hope so, Copperplate. I would hope so.”

He brought the book to his other hand, opening it to a page. He cleared his throat and began to recite whatever scribbles he wrote down. “According to City Law, each and every loyal citizen is to have their place of business visited by The Congregation three times a month. On behalf of Ratchet Industries, and on the behalf of Ratchet himself, we are here to ensure your loyalties as per the usual…”

Here we go again, same old same old. I mean, if this is how life is supposed to be, then so be it. If Ratchet wants this to happen all the time, then who am I to argue with him? I mean I can’t just argue with the guy about this! As much as I would love to knock this guy down a few thousand pegs, I’m not going to become an outmode just to do it!

“…So, in honor of him and of his crew, we set out on our hallowed quest. Our quest to find any and all of Bigweld’s henchmen, and to finally cut the head of the serpent that dares to wrap itself around this glorious and sacred place!”

Oh, he’s still going? Ok…go off I guess.

“So, dear Copperplate, how have you kept Ratchet inside of yourself?”

And now for the fun part...listing off everything you’ve done since the last visit. I replied as I always do. “Well, I’ve been serving my purpose. Not much else to do around here.”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, well, you are in The General Goods District, known only for being second only to The Outmoded. You don’t exactly live in the Luxury District. What else have you done?”

“I’ve completed my Citizenship Test.” I explained, pretending to ignore the insult for both our sakes.

“Great!” He exclaimed, “That’s the greatest thing a citizen can do as of now! What else did you do?”

“I’ve been helping out Jack with his shop after it was ransacked,” I recalled, “And in return he helps me out with mine.”

“That was a week ago, wasn’t it?” he noted, “How bad was the damage?”

“Bad. Bare shelves bad. They took just about anything valuable. To make things worse, no one knows how they got in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, The Guard couldn’t find any sign of forced entry anywhere. Windows weren’t damaged, the door was fine, and nothing was damaged. Super bizarre. It’s got the whole district on high alert.”

“Very interesting Copperplate…” He said in an intrigued tone. “Is that everything you can think of?”

“Everything that I’ve deemed relevant.”

Crank shifted his vest and adjusted his medal. “Fair enough! I’ll have to leave here shortly, but before I do, we have to recite your pledge.”

He held out his book, and turned it to the page with The Five Commands. “Just place your hand on this book, and recite your pledge as you always do.”

I did as told, just like I do every other time he’s here, and I began.

“For the sake of this city, and everyone in it, I have committed myself to Ratchet and the rebuilding of his great empire. As a part of this rebuilding, our great leader Phineas T Ratchet has established a bond with us, a bond so great not even death itself can break. With this bond, the tyrant serpent was bound, banished and now sleeps underground, waiting for a chance at conquest that shall never happen. He sleeps in vain, as the bonds that hold us shall hold him down. Try as his legion of slaves may, the chains will never bend nor ever break so long as the true king stands.”

“To establish this bond even further, our gracious lord has offered us his Commands. These Commands shelter us from the ruins of the world, and with them that very same world shall be rebuilt anew.”

“The First Command is to never stray from the savior’s gaze. The world outside of the city is in ruin, as the serpent had ordered it to be as such when he was in control of the world. To disobey is to condemn oneself to horrors beyond this land.”

“The Second Command is to never stray from our savior’s command. What he says is law, and as there is no other law, there shall be no disobedience. To disobey is to condemn oneself to the torment of choice.”

“The Third Command is to respect The Congregation’s command. They are the extension’s of our savior’s command, and are therefore his will as well as his force. To disobey the order is to sentence oneself to death or downgrade.”

“The Fourth Command is to respect The Guard’s command. They are our protectors, and are the extension of our savior’s love, and are therefore his mercy as well as his malevolence. To disobey the order is to sentence oneself to death or downgrade.”

“The Fifth Command is to dedicate oneself to their purpose and bond with our savior. One's purpose is an extension of one’s life, and are therefore one and the same. One’s bond with him is an extension of one’s love, and are therefore one and the same. To deviate from one’s life is to betray yourself and your savior.

“With these commands, we are being led to the promised future free of the serpent for eternity. With these commands, we are united as one. With these commands, I give my vow.”

“I, Rodney Copperplate, solemnly swear that as a loyal citizen of Ratchet City, I refuse to ever serve Bigweld for as long as I live. I cast away my fabricated life and embrace my true self, for it is true and rightfully just. I swear to uphold the Five Commands until my demise. I will cheer when the world is reclaimed, and weep when the serpent stirs in his sleep.”

“With my life, I pledge myself to the city, and in turn pledge myself to Ratchet, for eternity.”

Crank finished the final line, “Enjoy your new freedom, Copperplate.”

“Praises go to Ratchet.”

He closed the book once I removed my hand. “Well done! Not many can recite it word for word, did you study?”

“I mean…kind of? I have a poster of it like everyone else, and we do this so frequently, so it’s just natural to me.”

For once, he actually laughed! It was a small chuckle, but it was still a laugh in my book! “You’d be surprised and disappointed about how many get it wrong. We may have our differences, but between you and me, you’re by far the greatest example of a Ratchet City citizen yet!”

Keeping up with my signature “Customer Service Face”, I shook his hand. “Thank you, sir. I hope our district was up to code and pleasurable for you and your comrades!”

He gave a hearty laugh at that, as if I suggested something ridiculous. “Oh please, you’re right next door to the Outmodes! This place is lucky that it hasn’t been taken by them yet! It’s a disgrace to live here!”

“I…suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

I felt a scowl form on my face. Normally, I’d never drop kick anyone smaller than me, but right now that action was very tempting. Especially considering he lives next to our district.

He elbowed my legs and went on, “Oh don’t be like that Copperplate! I’m only trying to keep it lively here! Your district may try my patience, but I’m no Bigweld. I don’t spill fuel over small things!”

Fuel…That’s a funny word for you to use, sir. Considering both of our circumstances.

He fiddled with his vest one last time before he looked up at me. “Well, I must be off now. I don’t want to keep the other Districts waiting for too long. Keep up the good work, Copperplate! Praises go to Ratchet!”

He left my shop to join the others, and I waved back, “Praises go to Ratchet!”

Once The Congregation was out of sight, I slammed the door shut. Finally, he was gone…I can drop the act now.

As he sped away to lead the others, I felt myself become weak. I held myself against the wall, afraid that I was going to fall over at any moment. I shouldn’t have skipped refueling myself yesterday. I haven’t even had my first customer yet and I’m already on fumes.

Carefully, I made my way to the counter, and knelt down to the mini fridge in the hidden shelf. Opening it, there were only a handful of oil cans left. Like I said, I burn through fuel a lot faster than anyone else that I know. It’s because of those damned mods, I’m sure of it. No normal robot should be consuming this much fuel in such a short time frame!

I hate drinking more than three cans per day, but I can’t keep doing this to myself. I grabbed two of the several that were in there and began to drink. I haven’t even finished the first can before I felt myself getting stronger. The strength was small, like a tiny rush of pure energy had suddenly entered my body. I finally felt like I could do something, but I had to restrain myself. Only two cans. No more than that.

As I finished the first can I looked at the second one on the counter. I didn’t even hesitate to grab it, and it was gone within seconds. That brilliant rush of power came to me again, but I quickly pushed it down. Forcing my hand, I kept myself from reaching for more, and I shut the fridge with my foot. I had to restrain myself…it’s what Ratchet wants, so therefore it’s what I want as well. There’s no debating that.

I’ll be rewarded for this…I know I will. I just have to keep going.

#robots 2005 #robots 2

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salonsoftwarebenny · 10 months

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Recurring Appointments: Bi-weekly Beauty Revival

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“The Essence of Repetition: Unveiling the Significance of Recurring Appointments”

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MioSalon offers automated reminders, eliminating the need for manual calls or messages. It enables spas to schedule multiple appointments in advance, ensuring efficient management.

Example: Lisa receives automated reminders for her monthly facial, reducing the chance of missed appointments. For instance, if she has an appointment on Monday at 12 pm the Miosalon can automatically send the reminder on Saturday at 12pm, Sunday at 12 pm, and Monday at 9 am.

Minimizing No-Shows: Preventing Missed Appointments with MioSalon Automated Reminders

Last-minute cancellations and no-shows can positively impact business revenue and save time and resources.

MioSalon sent automated reminders via email and SMS, prompt clients to confirm or reschedule appointments in advance.

This initiates a fair cancellation policy, reducing revenue loss and ensuring maximum appointment availability.

Example: John receives a friendly reminder from MioSalon a day before his haircut appointment. He confirms his attendance, preventing a potential no-show and allowing the salon to manage its schedule and provide timely services efficiently.

Customized Bliss: Personalized Recurring Appointments

MioSalon empowers salons to personalize services based on clients’ preferences, moods, and availability.

Customers can choose specific treatments, therapists, or variations in their recurring appointments.

This personal touch enhances the overall experience, making clients feel valued and pampered.

Illustration: Emma, a client using MioSalon, customizes her recurring appointments with specific treatments, therapists, and availability. Each session is tailored to her needs and preferences, ensuring a personalized and enjoyable spa experience.

To set up a recurring appointment in MioSalon, you can use the following steps:

1. Click the Appointment menu from the left navigation bar.

2. Click Add New dropdown menu in the top left corner. You can also click anywhere on the calendar to pick a time slot for creating a new appointment.

3. In the New Booking screen, click the drop-down Recurring/Does not Recur. or Repeat/Does not Repeat.

4. Enter the frequency and visit time end duration.

5. Click Save after adding services, staff, and other details.

Conclusion

Recurring appointments offer a multitude of benefits for both customers and salons. They provide the opportunity for multiple sessions, reduce no-shows, enhance client engagement, boost customer satisfaction, and strengthen the success of the spa business. With MioSalon intuitive features, the journey to beauty and wellness becomes a delightful and stress-free experience. Embrace the power of recurring appointments and unlock a world of beauty revival!

#salon #hair salon #salon software #salon marketing

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megashadowdragon · 1 year

Video

youtube

Howard Zinn, Hollywood, & the Fairy Tale of American Evil: The Architects of WokeThe Architects of Woke series takes aim at far-left post-modernist and Marxist thinkers and activists responsible for the spread of identity politics from college campuses to society at large.

The fifth episode, “Howard Zinn, Hollywood, & the Fairy Tale of American Evil”, covers the influence of the late Howard Zinn. Zinn was a historian and far-left political activist best known for authoring A People's History of the United States, one of the most influential history books in both secondary and higher education. A member of the Communist Party USA at the time when Stalin was enslaving half of Europe, Zinn ignored that colonialism as he focused A People's History of the United States on the supposed horrors in American history from Columbus onward. Zinn's narrative painted a false and simplistic caricature of America's origins that has spread throughout Hollywood and our culture...

To learn more about Howard Zinn, check out the following links: A People's History of the United States -

www . harpercollins . com/products/a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states-howard-zinn?variant=32132799004706

Zinn's Website - https://www . howardzinn . org/

Zinn Education Project - www . zinnedproject . org/ Howard Zinn's "The Problem is Civil Disobedience" (Read by Matt Damon and Others) - historyisaweapon . com/defcon1/zinnproblemobedience . html

InfluenceWatch Entry - www . influencewatch . org/person/howard-zinn/

Right-Wing Criticism of Zinn: Debunking Howard Zinn - www . regnery . com/9781621577737/debunking-howard-zinn/

The Washington Examiner on Zinn's Communism -

www . washingtonexaminer . com/weekly-standard/aside-from-that-he-was-also-a-red

The Wall Street Journal's "Reclaiming History From Howard Zinn" -

www . wsj . com/articles/reclaiming-history-from-howard-zinn-11558126202

Left-Wing Criticism of Zinn: The New Republic's "Agit-Prof" - newrepublic . com/article/112574/howard-zinns-influential-mutilations-american-history

Dissent Magazine Expose - www . dissentmagazine . org/article/howard-zinns-history-lessons

American Federation of Teachers Criticism: www . aft . org/sites/default/files/Wineburg . pdf

Left-Wing Defense of Zinn:

Zinnophobia - www . amazon . com/Zinnophobia-History-Education-Politics-Scholarship/dp/178535678X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9781785356797&linkCode=qs&qid=1576772373&s=books&sr=1-1

The Architects of Woke is hosted and directed by filmmaker Rob Montz. Montz is the co-founder and CEO of Good Kid Productions. His online documentary work has attracted millions of views and coverage in major outlets, including The Economist, USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Adam Carolla Podcast. His 2017 documentary “Silence U. PT 2: What Has Yale Become?,” published on We the Internet TV, won the 2018 Reason Video Prize.

my words I saw this on a advertisement it interested me so I am putting it on my blog to watch it later ( and see how people react)

some youtube comments I saw

youtube comments

This seems to oversimplify and brush over Zinn's focus in APH. The genocides he speaks of are not fairytale. One could counter that his perspective is narrow, choosing some details for others, and focusing on the atrocities that the US has been responsible for rather than the achievements that it has made. But those atrocities still happened, and they cannot be denied. As Americans, who value individual freedom and development, we need to acknowledge that genocide and enslavement completely crush these values, and it is our duty to assure they never again occur in this country.

Zinn is completely discredited. He attributes quotes about enslaving people to Columbus, that were actually said by the natives. columbus is quoting what a native said, and Zinn tells you that those were Columbus' words. Ask yourself, why would Zinn would do that? Did you know his political ideology was Marxist? He wanted to "tear down" the existing American system and part of the plan to do so, was laid out in the "45 goals of communism for America". One of those goals was to "discredit America's Founding" and "discredit America's culture". It was ALL Soviet and Frankfurt School propaganda. It was literally planned. But I'm guessing you didn't know they had an actual plan to do just what Zinn did. You were deliberately misled...to advance a Marxist political agenda.

Furthermore, Zinn lies about the Native populations and paints them as peaceful and noble, living in harmony with the earth. LIE. They seized lands, butchered rival tribes, enslaved others, and went about raping and pillaging. And let's not forget about the human sacrifice where they captured and cut the hearts out of live human beings. In fact, the peaceful tribes aligned with the Europeans because some of these tribes were so brutal.

#watch later #anti communist #anti communism #howard zinn

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hobbyspacer · 2 years

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Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Mar.5.2022

Here is the latest episode in NASA's Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station: https://youtu.be/m3x_XD6WVwk ** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Flight Day 2 Highlights - NASA Video NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev docked to the zenith port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station March 3 following a launch the day before on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Following docking, the quartet opened the hatch and floated onboard the orbital outpost before providing welcoming remarks as their mission aboard the space station began. The four crew members will conduct a long-duration science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars. https://youtu.be/vh3oTS7zoRQ ** Expedition 68 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Talks with Media Before Station Departure - March 1, 2023 - NASA Video Aboard the International Space Station NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina answered questions and gave remarks about their mission during a news conference March 1. The Crew-5 astronauts have been aboard the space station since October and will return to Earth via a parachute assisted splashdown this month. The four crew members have been living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars. https://youtu.be/-FfTKo6DTaU ** Expedition 68 Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 International Space Station Docking - February 26, 2023 - NASA Video An uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station on Feb. 25 after launching atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 23. Soyuz MS-23 launched to replace the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio launched on last September that incurred a coolant loop leak in December. https://youtu.be/SnwxwfH_934 ** Aurora timelapse - European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Minerva”. This timelapse was recorded looking aft (out from the rear) of the Space Station, showing the aurora shimmering away beyond the horizon. https://youtube.com/shorts/N3yBEzRPLC4?feature=share ** China recruits six more astronauts for 'space missions in 2023' - VideoFromSpace China has recruited 6 astronauts for missions to the Tiangong space station in 2023. See Chinese astronauts conduct underwater training for spacewalks and more here. https://youtu.be/j_zs_cfNol4 ** China Succeeds in Lighting Fire for First Time in Space - CCTV Video News Agency China has successfully lit a fire for the first time in a combustion test on board its orbiting space station, marking a new milestone that lights the way for studying how fire behaves in microgravity. The very first ball of flame was ignited on Feb. 16 aboard Mengtian, one of the two lab modules that make up the basic T-shaped structure of the space station along with the core module, with camera footage capturing the stunning and rarely-seen image in an environment where gravity loses its grip on materials of all forms. https://youtu.be/1GDBHDVbzF8 ** Shenzhou-15 Astronauts Complete Their Second Spacewalk - CCTV Video News Agency The Shenzhou-15 astronaut trio on board the orbiting Chinese Tiangong space station have concluded their second spacewalk after completing half of their six-month journey in orbit, according to the China Manned Space Agency. https://youtu.be/T-NI7HPrzUU ** China Space Station: Expansion Plan Discussed | Leonard David - Feb.25.2023 According to Zhou, CMS has outlined the future mode of station expansion. “We could develop it to a six-module configuration with a total weight of about 180 tons,” he said. Furthermore, the chief designer said that the designed life of the station is ten years, but could be expanded to 15, 20 or even 30 years. “This is a big challenge, not just expansion, but technology upgrades as well,” Zhou said. In the foreseeable future, Zhou said, “we will send the Chinese to step on the Moon. We will explore how human beings can use the resources on the Moon and how to live on the moon for a long period and get ready for manned deep space exploration,” he said. ** ISS Live video stream - IBM/ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment Currently, live views from the ISS are streaming from an external camera mounted on the ISS module called Node 2. Node 2 is located on the forward part of the ISS. The camera is looking forward at an angle so that the International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA2) is visible. If the Node 2 camera is not available due to operational considerations for a longer period of time, a continuous loop of recorded HDEV imagery will be displayed. The loop will have “Previously Recorded” on the image to distinguish it from the live stream from the Node 2 camera. After HDEV stopped sending any data on July 18, 2019, it was declared, on August 22, 2019, to have reached its end of life. Thank You to all who shared in experiencing and using the HDEV views of Earth from the ISS to make HDEV so much more than a Technology Demonstration Payload! ====

=== Amazon Ads === LEGO Ideas International Space Station Building Kit, Adult Set for Display, Makes a Great Birthday Present (864 Pieces) ==== Outpost in Orbit: A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station Read the full article

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mad-max-123 · 2 years

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yatescountyhistorycenter · 2 years

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When unidentified photos become identified

By Jonathan Monfiletto

Over the summer, we received a donation of photographs and other items from The Chronicle-Express – the now-defunct and sadly missed Chronicle-Express, that is, a weekly newspaper whose history dates back almost as long as Yates County’s existence [Edit: Shortly after this article was originally written, it was announced, much to the surprise and delight of the Yates County community, it was announced The Chronicle-Express would continue under new ownership.] – including several photos with little or no identifying information. We decided to post these unidentified photos on our social media outlets (Facebook and Instagram) and see if any of our wonderful and passionate followers could fill us in.

The results were amazing and nearly perfect – as of this writing, only one of the two dozen photos posted received no comments indicating its identification – and fun. Really fun. Truly fun. Along with receiving identifying comments for almost every single of these photos, it was fun – for someone who neither grew up in Yates County nor was alive at the time many of these photos were taken (most of them appeared in The Chronicle-Express during the early to mid 1980s – to read people’s comments on social media as they shared their knowledge and memories of the people and places depicted and the respective people’s and places’ marks on their personal stories and on Yates County history.

Perhaps the most fun of these photos for me depicts a young man in a U.S. Navy uniform, whose last name is Schroeder according to the name tag on his uniform, standing it what appears to be a submarine. Other than these details, and a date stamp of September 11, 1986 on the back, we knew nothing about this photo before we posted it on social media. Before long, we knew the man’s name is Tom Schroeder, and at the time he was a senior chief petty officer aboard a submarine. He is the son of Leland and Mary Schroeder, and he has a brother named Herb whom he may look like.

Then, the day after we posted the photo, I received a call from a woman expressing interest in this particular photo. The phone call started out something like this:

“I’m calling about the photo of Tom Schroeder.”

“OK, and how do you know Tom?”

“Well, I’ve been married to him for 41 years!”

“Oh!”

Yes, the caller was Tom’s wife, Roberta Tozier, and they currently reside in North Carolina, where they moved from the Saratoga area, where Tom had retired from the Navy as a master chief petty officer. Tom was a local Penn Yan boy, and the two met while Roberta attended Keuka College. They had been married for five years at the time this photo was taken. As an interesting tidbit, she told me the photo places Tom in the forward of the submarine, but he actually worked in the aft.

Upon her request, I sent her the scanned photo along with a digital copy in which the photo appeared – in an article in the September 11, 1986 edition of The Chronicle-Express with the headline, “PY man gets immersed in his work on Pintado.” I decided to read this article for myself, to learn more about the man and the story behind the photo. Interestingly enough, with Roberta’s positioning of Tom in the photo, the caption reads: “Navy Machinist’s Mate Tom Schroeder checks equipment onboard the USS Pintado.”

Back in 1986, Tom was a 35-year-old machinist’s mate and submariner in the Navy aboard the USS Pintado, a nuclear attack submarine. As the article describes: “This type of submarine was designed for a special mission – to seek out and destroy enemy ships and submarines.” And Tom was the senior enlisted nuclear power adviser, “responsible,” in his own words, “for coordinating departmental watch bills and overseeing the training of the engineering department.”

According to the article, through the work of Tom and his team of sailors, the 4,800-ton Pintado could cruise underwater for extended periods of time without surfacing and could generate enough electricity to support a small city. Tom had served in the Navy for 15 years by that point, having graduated from Penn Yan Academy in 1969 and enlisted in the Navy two years later. After his basic training post and other duty assignments, Tom reported to the Pintado in 1981.

In the article, Tom acknowledged he joined the Navy because of the Vietnam War still happening when he graduated high school. Having lost his college deferment and knowing he would likely be drafted, Tom visited recruiters from the different services before deciding on the Navy – “the one (branch) who could offer me the most education.”

And, the Navy had provided Tom with the ability to live and work in several different countries and localities – Spain, Brazil, Hong Kong, and even the North Pole, to name a few. And all because of an unidentified photo that became identified, the Navy provided us with the ability to tell Tom’s story.

#history #historyblog #yatescounty #pennyan #usnavy #usspintado #submarine #nuclearsubmarine #tomschroeder #pennyanacademy

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