#math is alien code

[skraglekat1]

Made this sometime last year(my math teacher thought it was funny👍)

[retrocgads]

UK 1982

[astrolook]

2️⃣Planetary Conjunction Observations - Mercury Edition2️⃣

Note: These are all my personal observations and patterns I've noticed over the years. Take what resonates with you more and leave the rest. Lemme know in the comments if it hits home!

Sun - Mercury conjunction natives speak boldly and hold their head high. They are well-mannered and won't tolerate anyone disrespectfully treating them. Can get support from father or uncle. Will be close to their sibling if they have any. A tight conjunction can point to identical twin siblings in some cases. Can become famous for their personality.

Moon - Mercury conjunction natives are flirty and know how to seduce their partner. These natives are conventionally pretty. If they have a sibling, they might not get along well with them or may have conflicts in their relationship. Can be good at science or fond of knowing about the universe. Some with this placement can become a scientific researcher. They can understand complex formulas or could be in search of finding the truth about aliens, the paranormal, death, or what lies beyond this 3D plane. Sometimes, they can get obsessed with certain thoughts and can be seen as weirdo. They can be hilarious to talk to. In some cases, it can point to neurological issues or mental health issues if afflicted.

Venus - Mercury conjunction natives are attractive, sweet, and are experts in dealing with finances. For men, they can become friends with women more than men, and for women, they can become friends with men more than their own kind. Has a natural ability in fashion designing, singing, dancing, or drama. Would be blessed with abundance and creativity. If it's in the 5th house, it can indicate giving birth to twins.

Mars - Mercury conjunction natives are straightforward and fast thinkers. Talk first, think later. In some cases, can have a raspy voice or issues regarding their speech if afflicted. Can be quite aggressive in nature and can be quick to react. In some cases, might face issues regarding their education or could even drop out, or could have been homeschooled or studied part-time. Can have issues with their sibling if they have any. Good placement to pursue medicine, architecture, the manufacturing industry, athletics, etc.

Jupiter-Mercury conjunction natives are educated and possess worldly knowledge. Jack of all trades. Can become friends with people "in the know," or they can be self-made. Has natural ability in filmmaking, photography, or culinary arts. Potential to win a lottery. Rags to riches. Would live a comfortable life after 25. Can speak more than one language. Spouse can be of a different nationality. Can be involved in animal rescues, planting trees, or in some form of volunteering for the underprivileged. Can be a collector of some kind.

Saturn-Mercury conjunction natives are reserved and can have a dry or dark humor sense. They are good at standing up for others rather than standing up for themselves. Can face a lot of maltreatment or discrimination at work or in society but would win over them later in life. Can become a motivational speaker or can write an autobiography. Can have conflicts with their father or male authorities.

North node - Mercury conjunction natives can speak to the dead or can sense things beyond our realm. Can experience psychic visions or have the ability to predict their future. Lucid dreamers. Good placement to pursue a career in astrology, tarot, UFO researcher, paranormal investigator, crime investigator, detective, researcher, etc. Good at following a path that the majority won't. Can be good at writing, coding, or math. Can have little to no friends.

South node - Mercury conjunction natives can change their career or their major at university. Can have a degree in a certain field of study but can work in a completely different profession. Can be blunt and can come off as rude or aloof. Can have some psychological issues in some cases. Could have been betrayed by their best friend or partner. Trust issues level 99. Good placement to pursue a career in horticulture, gardening, and electronic engineering. Might not get along with their relatives. Can get in panic mode in 0.3 seconds.

✨🔍Wanna dive deeper into your chart's layers? 🌙💬 Check out my pinned post for pricing and more info 💫💸

[ghostlynightpanda]

Hi! Can I request Chishiya x fem!reader who is like Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds? So she also has eidetic memory and high IQ etc. Sorry if something is unclear, my English is very bad, so I use a translator😔🙏🏻

Calculations of Trust

A/N: I’ve never watched Criminal Minds, but I still tried my best to write someone based on what I read about Spencer Reid online. I hope this fits his character the way you wanted!

Synopsis: Stranded in the deadly Borderlands, a brilliant and emotionally analytical woman teams up with the enigmatic strategist Chishiya, blending cold logic and empathy to outwit brutal games—forming a powerful alliance that could be their key to survival, and maybe something deeper beyond.

warnings/content: Chishiya x fem!reader, fluff, canon-typical blood and violence, 2.561 words

Part 2

The sky looked the same.

That was your first thought when arriving in this bizarre world. You weren't sure why that thought struck you first—why your brain zeroed in on cloud patterns and the familiar texture of summer heat against your skin. But when everything else felt wrong, your mind clung to something right. The skyline stretched over Tokyo, unchanged. But the silence—that was alien. Not a car, not a voice. Just the ghost of the city, paused mid-breath.

You took in your surroundings.

No people. No traffic. Just… nothing. You stood in the middle of a crosswalk, frozen, surrounded by still life. Abandoned phones buzzed with notifications that no one would answer.

Your mind kicked into gear. Eidetic memory activated.

Five minutes ago, you were running toward the subway, trying to catch the train after working a little later than usual.

You turned a corner. There was a flash—like fireworks.

And then— You were here.

In the middle of Tokyo. A city that once buzzed with life.

But now? Silence.

You weren't alone for long. A nearby explosion—a concussive boom of noise—jerked you into motion. You ran. Found others. Confused, shaken. They were like you: wrong time, wrong place, no memory of how this world replaced your own.

And then came the games.

Your hands shook. You were honest enough to admit that.

The first game was brute strength, speed, raw terror. Spades.

But even in fear, your brain remained loyal. You noticed the pattern in the balance plates before the man next to you slipped and got impaled. You memorized the tilt sensitivity after watching one test run. You counted the milliseconds between the trap triggers.

You didn't win because you were the fastest. You won because you didn't panic.

Now it was numbers.

The rules seemed random at first—red lights flashing in sequence, pressurized plates, a 3x3 grid.

But you saw it. The Fibonacci intervals in the flashes. The relationship between the pressure sensors and the golden ratio. It was coded math, and everyone was guessing.

You weren't.

You survived. Again.

One pair of eyes watched you the entire game, not with fear, or respect, but calculation. You didn't notice him yet but he noticed you.

The third game looked innocent—like a corporate team-building exercise on steroids.

Eight players. One tower. Ten floors. One room on each level. Each room held a puzzle that advanced you or eliminated you. No hints. Just "Solve or Die."

This was your domain.

The others bickered, shouting over each other as they failed on Floor Three's rotating sequence riddle.

You didn't shout. You stared.

"Wait," you said calmly, interrupting a panic spiral. "The door mechanism—look at the marks. Someone's already tried the wrong sequences. There's a pattern in the wrong answers."

They blinked.

You knelt, running your fingers across the scratch marks, whispering numbers under your breath.

"Floor Three's answer is 13. Fibonacci again. They're using mathematical sequences tied to human cognitive bias. Floor Four will use base-12 logic. Let me lead."

Some hesitated. Others followed.

You cleared the rest of the tower in under 20 minutes.

Every. Floor.

No casualties.

When the exit door slid open and everyone rushed into the light, cheering, you hung back. Breathing in. Processing.

And that's when you noticed him.

White hoodie. Platinum-blond hair. Lean frame. Calm.

He leaned against the wall near the game's edge like he'd never been concerned at all. His eyes didn't match the grin on his face—because the grin was casual, but the eyes were surgical.

"You weren't just solving," he said. His voice was light. Quiet. "You were analyzing the game designers themselves."

You stared at him, guarded.

He smiled wider. "Most people panic. You... profile."

You narrowed your eyes. "And you were watching."

"Observation is underrated," he said. "But then again, so is intellect."

He stepped forward, hands in his pockets.

"I'm Chishiya. And I think you're wasted out here, playing games for peasants."

"…Excuse me?"

"There's a place. A stronghold. The Beach. We collect cards. Build power. I think you'll be a good asset."

Your stomach twisted at the word asset. But part of you knew: intelligence attracts opportunists. Still—something in his tone wasn't exploitative. More like… strategic alliance.

You considered him. He didn't seem like a follower. And you weren't one either.

But the look in his eyes? He saw the way your brain worked. And you saw his. And that made him the first person in this world who felt even remotely familiar.

"…Fine," you said. "But I'm not just muscle for your puzzle-hunt."

He gave a slight nod. "Of course not. You're far more interesting than that."

The Beach wasn't a sanctuary. It was a masquerade.

Everyone wore the same smile, drank from the same bottles, and pretended they weren't all one bad game away from bleeding out on concrete. You watched them from the railing above the pool deck, arms crossed, mind whirring.

You'd been here three days. Already mapped the layout, memorized exit points, analyzed the card collection gaps, and mentally categorized the power players by behavioral patterns. Hatter: Delusional narcissist. Aguni: latent trauma, soldier instinct. Niragi: dangerous—impulse-driven, no empathy. Kuina: calculating, adaptable.

And Chishiya?

Uncrackable.

He didn't talk to people. He examined them. You weren't excluded. In fact, he seemed particularly interested in you.

You kept your distance. Avoided the parties. Watched the Beach from the outside while living inside it. You preferred it that way.

But that didn't stop him.

He found you again.

On the rooftop at dusk. You were alone, mentally replaying a hearts game you hadn't played — just in case. Trying to guess how the designer might think. Preparing.

"I don't like wasting potential," came his voice behind you.

You didn't turn. "Then I assume this conversation has a purpose."

"I want to know how you think."

You turned now, facing him. "Why?"

"Because you don't react. Not the way most people do. You solve the problem and walk away." He tilted his head. "But then… you save people. Like our team in the Tower Logic game."

You met his gaze, cool and unreadable. "You observed all that the whole time?"

His smile curled. "Observation is underrated."

You didn't smile back. "So is empathy."

He said nothing, but his expression faltered—just barely.

The next game came.

Six players. Clubs game. Team strategy. You, Chishiya, Kuina, and three others you didn't recognize.

The arena was a circular facility—ten rooms branching off a central hub, each room holding part of a code that had to be assembled and entered into a control panel to stop a detonation countdown. Cooperation required. Pressure high.

You immediately stepped into role.

First: layout. Second: player observation. Third: behavior prediction. You mentally assigned roles within minutes, logging where each player went, how fast they moved, what patterns they repeated.

You whispered to Kuina at one point, directing her to Room 6. "The clues are mirrored. He's looking in the wrong spot. You'll find the second half of the cipher in the vent."

She blinked. "How the hell did you—"

You didn't answer. No time. You moved.

By the twelve-minute mark, you had memorized all four ciphers, identified the red herring rooms, and were correcting the errors of the weakest players—quietly, efficiently.

People began looking at you with something between awe and unease.

Everyone… except Chishiya.

He watched you with narrowed eyes, arms folded, expression unreadable. You couldn't tell if he was analyzing your method, or your motives.

The six of you survived. The bomb didn't go off.

You stayed behind in the lobby, alone again, scribbling numbers into the dust with your finger—reworking a hypothetical failure scenario.

Chishiya stepped into your periphery. "You had the solution at the halfway point."

You didn't look up. "Yes."

"But you kept feeding it to the others. Slowly. Piece by piece."

You finally looked at him. "Would you have rather I let them die?"

His eyes narrowed slightly. "If efficiency is the goal, why not just input the code yourself and let the weak ones be removed?"

You studied him for a long second.

"Why save people?" he asked, voice light but sharp. "You're smart enough not to care."

You tilted your head.

"Emotion isn't weakness," you said calmly. "It's data, too. Empathy helps you predict behavior. Understand intent. If you ignore it, you're only seeing half the variables."

He stared at you.

You stared back.

Two brilliant minds. Opposing algorithms.

But for the first time, there was something like respect between you. Something mutual, if unspoken.

He turned to leave. "You're interesting," he said over his shoulder. "That's rare."

You didn't respond. Not out loud, anyway. But your next move was already forming.

And somehow, you knew: so was his.

The announcement still hung in the air.

Another high-ranked hearts game.

You felt the chill thread down your spine — not from fear, but from certainty.

This wasn't logic. Not just logic. It was trust. Emotion. Manipulation. A game designed to tear alliances apart.

Your eyes flicked across the room. Eight players total. Circular arena. One glowing pedestal in the center, one screen above it.

Game Name: "Trust Fall."

Objective: One player is the traitor. Only the traitor knows they are the traitor. Everyone else must identify them correctly within 30 minutes. If the majority guesses wrong, all non-traitors die. If the traitor is correctly identified, they die. If no decision is made in time, everyone dies.

Timer: 30:00.

You exhaled slowly.

Someone muttered behind you, already accusing someone else.

You didn't flinch.

You weren't afraid.

Because Chishiya was here.

And he wasn't talking, either.

It turned ugly fast.

One girl started crying. A man began shouting at another, pointing fingers. Everyone was looking for tells — shifting eyes, nervous hands.

But the traitor? Might not be nervous at all.

You stayed still, listening. Absorbing.

So did he.

At one point, your eyes met across the room. Not a word. Just a nod — the barest flicker of recognition that said: You're watching the same patterns I am.

You moved closer. Quietly. Avoiding attention.

"They're emotionally reactive," you whispered to Chishiya when you were close enough. "We need a baseline of behavior before paranoia infects it all."

"Already too late," he murmured back. "They're spiraling."

"We isolate. Compare responses. Narrow it down by contradiction."

He nodded once. "Together, then."

It was brutal, in its design. Every ten minutes, you were allowed to interrogate one person as a group. It was chaos.

So you and Chishiya ran it like a silent operation.

You led the questioning. Calm. Cool. Clinical. You asked for timelines, movement patterns, memory details.

He watched them. Every microexpression. Every inconsistency.

"I saw her move toward the pedestal earlier," one player said.

"She said she didn't," Chishiya countered softly, almost amused. "But you did."

The woman froze.

Bit by bit, the lies unraveled.

But the closer you got, the more the others turned on you.

"You two think you're better than us," someone spat. "You act like you already know everything."

You stepped forward. "No. We just don't let fear do our thinking for us."

But they didn't want calm.

They wanted blood.

Twenty Seconds Left

Only two options remained: the woman, or the man next to her.

The others were screaming at each other.

You and Chishiya stood shoulder to shoulder.

"It's her," you said softly. "She slipped up. Three minutes ago, she said the clue was in the screen prompt. But that was only visible after the first vote. She couldn't have known that... unless she was the traitor."

He paused. Nodded slowly.

"Agreed."

"But we'll need at least one more vote to swing the majority."

Chishiya looked at you. A rare flicker of uncertainty passed through his expression. "What if we're wrong?"

You didn't hesitate.

"We're not."

He smiled. Just a little. Then turned to the others.

"You're all too busy panicking," he said, his voice cutting through the noise. "You missed the only actual tell."

Then he pointed at the woman.

The votes followed.

She screamed. Denied it. Begged.

The screen flashed red.

TRAITOR IDENTIFIED. GAME CLEAR.

The door to the arena hissed shut behind the others. Silence returned. Heavy. Absolute.

You didn't move. Neither did he.

The digital clock on the wall blinked back zeroes. You watched it for a moment, eyes unfocused, as if the weight of the aftermath had only now begun to register. Not fear — just the gravity of the choices you made.

Chishiya stood to your left, arms still crossed, but there was no smugness, no satisfaction in his posture. Just that same unreadable calm. Like the sea before a storm.

"You hate relying on people," he said, voice quiet in the echoing space.

You tilted your head toward him. "So do you."

A small breath escaped him. Not a laugh, exactly — more like the exhale of someone surprised by how unsurprising something feels.

"But we didn't lose," he said.

"No," you agreed, stepping slowly into the center of the room. "We didn't."

Your eyes trailed the lines in the floor, where earlier you'd stood with half the group ready to turn on you. People break fast in games like this. You understood why. But it still left a taste in your mouth you couldn't quite name.

He followed, hands slipping into the pockets of his hoodie.

"We won easily," he added after a pause, as though testing the shape of that truth.

You stopped, turning to face him fully now. "Not easily. Efficiently."

He gave a soft shrug. "With everyone else flailing in panic, I'd call it easy."

You raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying we make a good team?"

Chishiya didn't answer immediately. He looked at you, and this time the gaze lingered — not with calculation, but something deeper. Curiosity. Understanding. The faintest trace of something warmer.

"Better than good," he said. "Strategically, you're the only one I can work with who doesn't slow me down."

Your lips curled slightly. "High praise. Coming from you."

He gave you a glance, dry but not unkind. "Don't let it go to your head."

You turned your attention to the dim hallway ahead, the path back to the Beach. The false security. The chaos waiting in the next game.

"You want to keep working together," you said, more a conclusion than a question.

"Yes," he answered. No hesitation. "Until we get out of this world."

You were silent for a moment. Then, you asked — quieter — "And after?"

Chishiya looked at you. Really looked at you.

And for once, his answer wasn't immediate. His eyes searched yours, as if weighing something unspoken. You wondered what he saw: a mirror of his own isolation, or something that cracked through the cold logic you both wrapped yourselves in like armor.

"Maybe," he said finally. Simple. Honest.

Not a promise. But possibility.

You let the silence stretch between you again — not uncomfortable, just full.

Then, finally, you turned toward the exit. He walked beside you, footsteps syncing in a rhythm neither of you acknowledged but somehow matched anyway.

Two minds. Sharp. Calculating. Unrelenting.

But now—aligned.

And beneath all that logic, beneath the masks of detachment you both wore so well, something else had started to take root.

Not trust, exactly.

But the beginning of it.

And perhaps, someday, more.

Masterlist

[visenyaism]

man the "women just have a different way of thinking" shit that people love to say is actually super feminist is so annoying. i wish people would just accept that i write code like any other guy does. there isnt a special "female perspective" i bring to our team. i want to stop people talking about how i think so intuitively and how my thought process is so different from every man, im just bad at explaining myself and not a native english speaker. its all so alienating and demeaning.

The argument that men and women (or boys and girls) have different ways of thinking annoys me to NO end because we already know that people having different fixed learning styles let ALONE having different ways of problem-solving or experiencing the world based on either sex or gender is pretty much just pseudoscience.

We know that academia and the research foundation that ed psych is based on is misogynistic we know the school system is built on sexist institutions. That does not mean we pendulum swing so hard we end up back in the 19th century to say that women just have different math brains to defend “girl math” jokes. It shouldn’t have to even be said but. Women can do anything men do. There is no substantial biological or cognitive difference in their capabilities. Be suspicious of anyone who tries to convince you otherwise.

[jamesmcalover]

imagine halfdan and stem gf

like she's doing homework or something and he tries to be supportive and help but sees the exercises and dies inside

numbers & nonsense

Hálfdán Helgi Matthíasson (Væb) x Reader

Warnings: maths, physics

a/n: very short one bc i was busy today sorry xx also, i was pretty bad at maths & physics in school so forgive me if anything's wrong😔

478 words - not proofread

The room was quiet except for the soft scratching of your pen across the page. You were sprawled across the table, deep in the middle of some impossibly dense physics homework, your brow furrowed in concentration. Hálfdán was perched nearby, watching you with an almost reverent curiosity, like you were an alien life form that had somehow decided to study him instead.

“Sæta,” he said softly, leaning over your shoulder. “You’ve been at this for hours. Don’t you want to take a break?”

You shook your head without even looking up. “I can’t,” you mumbled. “If I stop now, I’ll lose my momentum.”

Hálfdán made a small, sympathetic noise, shifting a little closer so he could peek at what you were working on. “Can I help at all?” he asked, his voice hopeful. “Or at least keep you company?”

You paused, your pen hovering above the page. “You can try,” you said, your lips twitching at the challenge. “But fair warning, it’s a bit of a mess.”

He nodded solemnly and leaned in. You watched him as his eyes scanned the equations, his eyebrows drawing together almost immediately. A second later, he let out a small, strangled laugh. “What… what even is this?” he asked, tapping the page with a finger. “I see numbers and squiggles and… I’m pretty sure this one’s a cat, somehow?”

You burst out laughing, shaking your head. “It’s not that bad,” you said, though you had to admit the page did look like a secret code to anyone who wasn’t knee-deep in STEM work.

Hálfdán squinted at the lines of variables and integrals. “Okay, but this–” he pointed at an integral sign that stretched half the page “This just killed me. It’s so… long. And curvy. Why is it curvy?”

You reached out and patted his hand gently. “It’s calculus,” you said, as if that explained everything.

“Calculus,” he repeated, his tone somewhere between awe and horror. “I thought I was good at math, but this… this is another world. I’ll cheer from the sidelines.”

You leaned over and kissed his cheek, your own laughter fading into a fond smile. “That’s all I need,” you said. “Just someone to keep me from losing my mind.”

He grinned back at you, eyes bright. “You’ve got it,” he said, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll make sure you get snacks and water and moral support. And I’ll try not to faint every time I look at those math monsters.”

“Deal,” you said, your heart full as you turned back to the page. And true to his word, he stayed there with you, humming little melodies under his breath, every so often making a face at your notes and saying, “Still can’t believe you understand this,” with so much admiration that it made the whole mountain of homework feel just a little less impossible.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺

a/n: re-reading this i kinda made him too stupid i think😭

[i-like-blue-eyed-robots]

Wheatley has ADHD

It’s a common enough occurrence that it probably deserves its own trope — aliens, robots and any other nonhuman character almost always end up with autistic traits. It’s because writers take a nonhuman character and go ‘well, how do I make this character register as nonhuman, but still human enough that audiences will like them?’ And the answer is making them neurodivergent. I’m not personally inclined to say that this is a good or a bad thing, though I can see how it might be taken that way.

However, some authors like myself do it intentionally, to demonstrate how neurodivergent people can end up ostracized.

Some examples of common traits that are autistic-coded and writers give to nonhuman characters are as follows:

-difficulty understanding metaphor, sarcasm or exaggeration

-overly blunt in communication

-unawareness of others emotions/incorrect reaction to said emotions

-difficulty realizing their own emotions

-need for a strict schedule in order to be happy

Of course, there’s more out there, but I’ve seen these pop up quite a lot.

However, the Portal series’ fantastic writing team did not follow these stereotypes with their robots, and that’s what I would like to cover today.

I would go over GLaDOS in relation to this idea, like she clearly understands sarcasm, but she doesn’t quite fit for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who’s played through Portal 2. I’m here to talk about Wheatley, the other main robot we get to know in Portal 2.

Wheatley is not autistic coded. He has no problem speaking to strangers or making eye contact. He enjoys sarcasm almost as much as GLaDOs, and so on and so forth.

However, Wheatley is most definitely neurodivergent-coded, and it’s fascinating because for once, maybe for the only time ever in popular media that I’ve ever noticed, a robot is adhd-coded instead of being autistic-coded.

What do I mean by that? First of all, if you haven’t finished Portal 2 go do it now. It’s relatively cheap on Steam and it’s amazing. Moving on — it all stems from what we’re told Wheatley is, during the betrayal scene with GLaDOS. Now to preface this, GLaDOS is a liar. You can take most of what she says with a grain of salt. But, what she says is all we have officially to go off of.

To add further context to this line, the personality cores or “Aperture Science Personality Constructs” (the line of robots that Wheatley is a part of) were specifically built in order to be plugged into GLaDOS’ systems to slow her down and to keep her from killing everyone in Aperture. In the first Portal game, Chell, the player character, incinerates the four ‘successful’ cores that supposedly were the last ones needed to stop GLaDOS. However, given that the character has to travel through an empty facility to do so, it’s clear that they weren’t nearly as successful as the engineers had thought. Later, as core after core was built and none of them worked to stop GLaDOS, Aperture was needing robot maintenance of some kind since all of their human faculty were being killed, fired due to financial ruin, and/or quitting, and so the personality constructs were repurposed to try and keep the facility from falling apart.

Aside from GlaDOS and Wheatley, we don’t see any “non-corrupted” cores. And even both of them are corrupted, with GLaDOS being 80% corrupted and Wheatley assumedly 25%, after doing some quick math of the boss fight. This would normally affect my ability for confident analysis, but luckily in this case I don’t need them to prove that good ol Wheatley is adhd-coded.

Because right from the get-go, “generating an endless stream of terrible ideas” sounds pretty damn adhd to me, as someone who has both inattentive and hyperactive adhd myself. Now, that’s not to say every idea a person with adhd has is a bad one. That’s not even the case with Wheatley, despite it being what we’re told, because again, GLaDOS is an unreliable narrator. It’s Wheatley’s ideas that keep her from killing Chell with turrets or neurotoxin. He’s the one who gets Chell to dismantle those systems. Those are clearly not bad ideas.

But what about other adhd traits? Having an endless stream of ideas isn’t even on a symptom list of being adhd, it’s usually just a side effect of everything else going on. Well, Wheatley has plenty of them.

Hyperactive-type adhd symptoms include but are not limited to;

-fidgeting

-excessive physical movement

-excessive talking

-impulsive behavior

-restlessness/impatience

Oh but how can a robot ball fidget or have excessive physical movement, you may ask. Well. This is the most expressive ball I have ever seen in my life. Wheatley is constantly moving, shifting panels, popping his eye out, spinning in his casing and so forth. The excessive talking one is easy, my younger brother (also an adhd yapper, who has no room to talk) was trying to throw Wheatley over the railing into the bottomless pit beneath Aperture “because he was yapping” too much. This is unusual for a robot character (outside of the Portal series) whereas they tend to speak when spoken to. Wheatley is generally impulsive, but this is especially noticeable when he’s hooked up to the facility in the GLaDOS chassis. After PotatOS calls him a moron, he proceeds to punch her and Chell into the abyss below without thinking about it, reacting out of anger until he realizes they’re about to drop, right before they do. Interestingly, that sort of impulsive rage reaction is more often seen in monster characters, like perhaps a werewolf situation. It sort of adds to the framing that now Wheatley is in control of the facility, he has become something monstrous. Now, judging his patience level accurately is difficult, given that in the beginning he’s in a high-stress, deadly situation and later, when he’s in the chassis, he’s being affected by symptoms of drug withdrawal. However, he is impatient, such as when he’s playing the recorded sound of knocking on a door at the beginning. Granted, he’ll go on ‘knocking’ forever because it’s necessary for the story, but he speaks up every couple of minutes asking if you/Chell are going to open the door already. Again, this is unique for a robot character, as they tend to wait on a player or another character’s actions before responding to it, rather than initiating.

Impressively, these are not all the symptoms Wheatley demonstrates. There is another form of adhd, known as Inattentive-type adhd. The symptoms can include the following;

-Short attention span

-Overlooking details

-Careless mistakes

-Inability to stick to tedious tasks

-Difficulty organizing tasks

-Constantly changing tasks

-Difficulty listening to and carrying out instructions

For having a short attention span, this is again, difficult to determine for Wheatley in a normal setting. In the beginning he’s mostly able to focus, but he’s in a life-or-death scenario. However, he does ramble on about things that have no relevance to what he and the player character are doing, such as when he’s telling the player character about the many jobs he’s had around Aperture and been subsequently released from. He definitely has issues overlooking details, such as when he and Chell are supposed to be dismantling the neurotoxin facilities. While he’s busy ‘hacking’ a computer that may or may not even regulate the facility in the first place, Chell dismantles the generator and he doesn’t even realize she’s doing it at first, because he’s distracted listing off the hardware of the computer. As for careless mistakes, again, this could be simply the situation he’s in, but he definitely makes them. Like when he’s transporting the relaxation chamber in the first chapter, he runs into an unbelievable amount of other relaxation chambers, tearing Chell’s apart. Or even when he’s supposed to be guiding her around Aperture but he dips into wrong corners and has to recorrect. He most visibly has difficulty with tedious tasks when he’s in the chassis, as the facility is literally falling apart because he didn’t bother reading the manual or taking care of the massive amount of upkeep the facility requires. But again, he’s suffering symptoms of drug withdrawal as well that could be affecting his ability to do that. However, given his descriptions of his job loss, mentioned above, we can gather that this is likely an issue he had before ever being a part of the core transfer. This also is in line with difficulty organizing tasks. As for constantly changing tasks, again, he has somewhat better focus in the beginning because if he doesn’t he’ll die, and later he’s exceptionally distracted by a need to test. But even when he should be consumed with the need to test, and he does watch Chell for most of it, he does stop watching randomly at times to do… Who knows what. When it should be the only thing he can focus on. As for difficulty listening to and carrying out instructions, again, the facility falls apart and Wheatley kept being fired for similar, if not the same reasons.

So. That covers basic symptoms and how Wheatley fits pretty much all of them. But, a lesser known side effect of adhd is that it can easily lead to the development of other neurodivergent disorders such as anxiety and depression. Adhd is also linked to something known as emotional dysregulation. Wheatley clearly exhibits signs of anxiety. He’s terrified of dying, and says as much at several points. Not only is he especially scared of dying, but he’s scared of judgment, too. He’s constantly trying to seem more important or smarter than he is, and even though Chell is a silent protagonist, when he takes over the facility before being affected by the testing withdrawals, he assumes she’s been secretly plotting against him the entire time. Depression is more difficult to spot in Wheatley, as he’s not lethargic, but, again, a high-stakes situation can allow a person to mask their symptoms for a brief period out of self-preservation.

However, I do want to point out he clearly displays emotional dysregulation, and not in the way one might expect from a robot character. Wheatley is exceptionally sensitive to criticism. When GLaDOS begins her spiel about him being an intelligence dampening sphere, he moves as far away he can from her, turning his back so he doesn’t have to look at her. He even goes so far as to say “Not listening!” while she’s saying it. Then when she calls him a moron, he reacts violently, in a way he hadn’t so far in the game before that moment. He smashes her through the glass of the elevator and then, when she proceeds to call him a moron again, is when he smashes PotatOS and Chell into the pit. However, he doesn’t even need to even be actively insulted to react to perceived insults as just as much of a threat to his psyche. As mentioned earlier, despite Chell being a silent protagonist, and in some ways because Chell is a silent protagonist, Wheatley assumes that she’s been plotting against him from the start. Her perceived attacks against him are most especially notable during the boss fight. He points out that she’s always quiet, assuming that she’s “silently judging” him. He points out that she didn’t catch him when he fell off of his management rail in the beginning, and that she didn’t warn him that she was the one who killed GLaDOS.

All in all, Wheatley is a beautifully three-dimensional character, not in spite of being a robot, but rather, in some ways, because of it.

[brandoscomet]

relationship headcanons for future!steven x reader? :]

Of courseee!! Thank you for requesting <3

————————————

Future! Steven X Reader Headcanons!

— He’s very sweet and attentive. He notices any slight shift in your mood and does his best to fix it any way he can.

— He’s big on physical touch and words of affirmation. His self-esteem isn’t the lowest on the planet, but he could definitely use some positive attention. Praises, long hugs, and naps together are definitely in order.

— Even though he won’t ask for it, he craves comfort. He’s so stressed about everything that he’ll come home and seek you out after a long day. He doesn’t want to bug you by asking, so he’ll probably just stand awkwardly nearby and wait for you to finish up whatever you’re doing. When you inevitably take the hint he’s trying to drop, he’s so relieved. He’s a simple guy—just take him to the couch or the bed and scratch his scalp with your nails in silence or softly tell him about your day. He totally melts and is asleep in minutes.

— He likes simple dates, like picnics or movie nights or painting together. He prefers to do things at your house (or the Crystal Gems’ HQ)

— He’s a good boyfriend, but he works himself to the bone (as we saw in SUF) and sometimes he needs a little help keeping himself together. Giving him gentle reminders to take care of himself, reminding him to give himself breaks from time to time, and being his shoulder to cry on are unavoidable. He just needs some support.

— When he ends up in a bad state, trying to talk him down, having him do breathing exercises, or just gently holding him usually do the trick.

— He is SO CHEESY. He’ll shoot you awkward pickup lines and make corny jokes CONSTANTLY.

— He’s also really into “cheesy” pet names. He calls you all the basics— babe/baby, sweetheart, honey, anything he can think of. He absolutely melts if you use them on him, too.

— Really loves just talking with you. He makes time to sit down and have long conversations with you every day no matter what. Your presence is so comforting to him and he loves hearing what you have to say.

— Arguments are rare, but they happen occasionally. He freaks out and gets really worried when they do happen, but he makes a huge effort to talk things out and mend everything between you two.

— He makes it a point to introduce you to his family (if you count Greg and the Crystal Gems as one) and make sure you all get along. Of course, you do, and it makes him over-the-moon happy. He’s so grateful that you embrace the fact that he’s literally half-alien rather than judging him for it. You end up spending a lot of time with the Gems (and Greg) naturally and they absolutely adore you.

— He’ll bring you along to Little Homeworld to help him teach if you want to. He’s relieved to have some weight off of his shoulders and he’s so down to have someone to teach the LH Gems things he might not know. Plus, he gets to spend more time with you. It’s a win all around.

— Eventually, he shows you around actual Homeworld and introduces you to Spinel and The Diamonds, which you can only really describe as his three giant aunts. It goes really well, though, and you two visit together frequently.

— Even though it becomes a regular thing, he can’t handle kissing at all. He gets SO FLUSTERED and has no idea what to do. He just kind of stands there lovestruck for a minute.

— He sings to you all the time. He’ll play the guitar and improvise a song on the spot just for you.

— You two take long walks on the beach regularly. It’s just something nice you two have turned into a sort of routine.

— He likes it if you teach him how your hobbies work. Teach him how to sew, or paint, or code, or write, or work out properly, or sculpt, or do hard math, or whatever else you like to do. He’ll start bringing you supplies for things if they’re something that requires them and he’ll do research on them too. If you’re interested, so is he.

————————————

[bytewire]

Let’s talk about Architect math!

Considering that Precursors don’t have hands like we do, how do they format their math? Our current 10-decimal system is based on our ten fingers, so I wonder what the math of the Architects looks like, considering they don't have hands like we do. (Though AL-AN does note the usefulness of the opposable thumb.)

Architects have mechanical arms—two of which have hands with three fingers—but we know that they were originally a fully biological species before inventing their synthetic vessels. As stated in the databank entry AL-AN provides on the Architect storage media, their vessels resemble their pre-civilized forms. They had to have had a math system before inventing their synthetic vessels.

So… what would their math look like?

Precursors may use a base four system in which they only use 0, 1, 2, and 3 based on the digits of their claws on their organic arms. (Assuming they had similar claws on their pre-civilized bodies.)

I mean, humans have used base 4 selectively. It’s not entirely unheard of or out of the realm of possibility. Quaternary numeral systems are found in select languages throughout history and even have some modern code applications.

I’m leaning towards pre-civilization Precursors having a base four system, whereas current Precursors opt to use a binary system instead.

Obviously, as their species exists in its current form a binary system would be much more efficient. Existing as data means that a binary system would compute a lot smoother; especially as a network.

They could even use something else entirely different to what we commonly think of as math. We know Architect senses do not work in the same way humans do.

…or maybe I’m just a nerd overthinking alien math systems

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

The Apocalypse Element

‘Twenty of the greatest powers in space time’ → there are actually a good number of temporal powers, interesting, given we really only see three other than the time lords in later audios

‘Since when did gallifrey seek the approval of other time traveling races’ → the non isolation is pretty new

Seems that cia doesn’t typically do this type of thing → based on the doctor’s comments about vansell working more in the shadows, and it must be something important for him to be accompanying the president

They brought back an old president to serve in the role temporarily while romana is gone → is this just something that you can do, like make an old president step up, or was he asked/did he volunteer

Time lords at the conference to see who has the power to remove a planet from time

‘The monan hosts ship, the most powerful vessel here’ → their time ships have more power than the time lords

‘That technology in the daleks hands’ ‘it should have been gallifreys’ → of course they’re more worried about the time lords not getting the technology than the time lords getting it

There are other methods of time travel used by the other temporal powers (monans use gravity wells), but they all seem to be using to vortex as a medium for travel

oh romana

Vansell and the doctor using mental contact to communicate information → seems like a more accurate and faster way to do it than just talking to each other

‘You’re wearing the wrong body’ → this is taking place in the doctor’s future

Romana is still president, but the other guy is also called lord president → you get to keep the title?

‘Gallifrey sleeps, it’s the middle of the night’ → i wonder how long their nights are given the whole two suns things

‘The situation may afford certain opportunities’ → in reference to the monans asking for sanctuary, not willing to help others unless it can do something for them, they may no longer be as isolationist, but they are still only doing things in their interests

‘But gallifrey can not be seen to interfere, not in matters of war’ → interesting how the noninterference holds up even when they are now interacting with other temporal powers, also ‘can not be seen’ → they can interfere, it’s just that no one can know they are doing it

Vansell trying to get the monan time vessel → cia wants to use the technology for themselves, extremely predictable

Vansell seems to only care about the monans dying because it means he will no longer have access to their technology

‘I will not have gallifrey overrun with aliens’ → even though the president seems more sympathetic, he still clearly doesn’t want them there, still holds very time lord views

Doors are resistant to weapon damage

Doors opened by retina scan

‘One of my old presidential codes’ → presidents are given multiple code for things i guess, also wonder if they specifically have different uses and the doctor just can’t remember which one is for which thing or they can be used somewhat interchangeably, also the fact that he expects it to work despite the fact that he is no longer president → they just keep working even after you retire

‘My presidential override’ ‘telepathic imprimatur’ → codes part of the time lord themself? (something like regeneration, it’s given to you when you become president?)

The way they talk about the tardis here → ‘synaptic equations’ ‘don’t resist me’ ‘work with her’ → living technology that is also made of math (i really do love the living technology aspect of time lord stuff)

‘The tardis cradles’ → idk what i have to say about that, the wording just seemed noteworthy

‘And no one can leave gallifrey’ → so since the daleks are locked in this one room with the tardises you can’t leave, do they seriously keep all of their tardises in one place, seems like a security issue

‘To all levels’ → they’ve got multiple levels (look i know this isn’t like groundbreaking lore or something, but hey info on the layout of the citadel is info on the layout of the citadel)

There are residential areas within the capitol → interesting given how it seems there’s a difference between the citadel and capitol (though could be a case of only some writers have it be this way) and how when romana later loses the presidency she is no longer permitted to be in the capitol, are the residential areas for people who work in the capitol, like politicians, guards, cia, and such, or are they just treating the capitol and citadel as the same here (or, given that the thing with romana is from a later audio, that bit of lore hadn’t been thought of yet, and therefore doesn’t actually apply) (that’s not gonna stop me from pointing it out though)

‘You and the all the cia acting on your own agenda’ → typical cia behavior (seems vansell made the mistake of doing it in front of the president though because he just got yelled at about it)

‘Mere fools, greedy children who would surrender splendid isolation for quick advantage’ → i know this is how the president thinks the daleks see them, but also this is kind of just true

‘The daleks have left us alone for millenia’ → can’t tell if he means that they’ve just never bothered with the time lords before, or if it’s been millenia since they have

‘Advances that you craved for gallifrey’ → implication that the breaking of their isolation was the cia’s doing, honestly this makes enough sense, their whole thing is intervention, if gallifrey is no longer completely isolationist it just makes their jobs easier

And romana passed out, someone get her to a fucking doctor or something (an actual qualified doctor, not the Doctor)

‘These were ceremonial guards, expecting the arrival of a monan dignitary’ → guards sent there specifically for ceremony, but those are the only guards mentioned, so i’m guessing they don’t have guards normally guarding the tardis cradles (trust in their security technology to guard it for them?), also interesting how they’re all dead dead, dalek weapons have ability to inhibit regeneration? (that or the damage from them is just too severe for regeneration to be possible?)

Romana trying to ally with the daleks as part of her plan count 1 (yes, yes, i know it’s a trick, but you know, it counts), good to know she has one plan that isn’t just ‘i’m going to kill myself’

They just never checked that their doors couldn’t also be opened by dead retinas → i think the doctor describes this best ‘complacency, the middle name of most time lords’

‘We don’t have armies on permanent standby’ → no military at this point in their history

‘Vansell, i imagine you have some small power invested in you by the more conventional powers of gallifrey’ → cia doesn’t actually have that much power in the way that the president or castellan does it seems, though they probably do have a great deal of power outside of the everyday life aspect of time lord society

‘The president has his own console in the council chamber with access to our entire defense network’

‘Which is why the cia have full override’ → they don’t really have the power to order people around, but they sure can control pretty much everything else, can’t they

‘Think about the current population of this planet, thousands of privileged gallifreyans currently enjoying full security access around the capitol’ → i am once again asking just how many time lords there are

‘The whole planet will be out of bounds to its own population’ → so are all the locks controlled by the same system or is vansell exaggerating/only considering the capitol the planet

‘The high council chamber of congress’ → just putting this here because they said a place name

‘These may be extraordinary times, but humans have no place’ → i wonder what restrictions are put on leela in terms of where she can and can not go on gallifrey, given that this implies that humans aren’t allowed in certain places

‘Gallifreyans and daleks alike’ → idk if they’re using gallifreyans and time lords interchangeably here, but could be interesting if all technology on gallifrey is based off of retinal scans

‘Tardises won’t work’ → tardises also rely on retinal scans then?

The president keeps calling evelyn ‘the earth woman’ → i wonder how humans are commonly referred to on gallifrey (if they are referred to often at all), we’ve seen that they have different names depending on the species talking, so maybe some time lords call them other things

‘None of this seems real, that the daleks could destroy my world’ → it’s really interesting to me just how pervasive the idea of some sort of time war involving gallifrey was even before the new who time war, like you have the war in heaven with the edas and the daleks wanting to destroy gallifrey here

And romana has once again passed out

Romana and the other president clearly seem to know each other, i wonder if he was picked specifically to serve in her place because of a previous relationship that they had, or maybe he was just in the right seat in government

Need the sash and rod of rassilon to manipulate the eye of harmony

‘The vault of the eye of harmony’

‘The atmosphere here, you can feel the power can’t you’ → something something time lords themselves are somewhat technological, so they can feel the power of their technology

‘The sacred heart of the time lords’ → description of the eye of harmony

‘That’s all it is when you strip away all the mystical mumbo jumbo, a phenomenal power source’ → something something advanced technology being magic, even the time lords who have the knowledge to comprehend it still treat it kind of like it’s magic

‘Be true to our heritage, remain emotionless observers’

‘Let’s take your own galaxy, the milky way’ → now is the doctor saying it this way because gallifrey isn’t in the milky way (something which has been established, at least i think so by this point, to be untrue), or just using that phrasing to make it more relatable to eveyln

‘Only primitives depend on robots’ → time lords both suck and have a fascinating view of the universe, why are robots not advanced enough, is the end goal to be so advanced that neither you nor a robot need lift a hand for something to happen?

The way they’re talking about the eye of harmony makes me think it looks like the one from the movie

‘I can feel it, even with the sash defusing its energies’

They’ve got some sort of announcement system

‘If any trace of your eye scan is still lingering in the security matrices, who knows what effect you could have on the old girl’ → now what does he mean by this

‘We’ll never be defenseless again’ → romana going to build up gallifreyan military?

[noitsbecky127]

rebecca watches ds9: the jem’hadar

this is a season finale so obv I’m gonna liveblog it

what is jake doing. is this homework.

science project!

I feel like he’s asked to learn to pilot a runabout many times before

jake my beloved

father-son trip to the gamma quadrant! wonder how this’ll blow up in their faces

i love when sisko contemplates the baseball

jadzia why do you have beef with this random captain. seems like more than just him being “a little arrogant”

is it her beef or curzon’s beef

father-son trip…plus nog!

“major kira’s the one that doesn’t like me” quark you will be shocked to find an unlimited number of people can dislike you

i love when odo makes Odo Noises

poor morn has no one to talk to now

father-son trip…plus nog…and quark!

quark is not proper supervision

this is gonna go horrendously wrong, can’t wait to see how

nice planet!

quark do not ruin the nice planet

he’s going to great lengths to butter sisko up. i would just take the L and move on

mmm jambalaya

awww they’re talking about jennifer 😭

quark how the fuck did you catch on fire

do ferengi not know stop drop and roll

to be fair sisko has met very few ferengi

oh here we are, time for things to start going horrendously wrong

did the alien lady just use telekinesis or what

oh. hello there. gonna take a wild guess and say you guys are the jem’hadar.

“this has not been a good day” THAT’S PUTTING IT REAL FUCKIN LIGHTLY QUARK

time for the boys to do a rescue mission

quark leave the alien lady alone

I don’t think the jem’hadar care if they have anything to do with anyone. they don’t strike me as especially picky in their prisoner selection

“until help gets here” who is gonna come help?

well ig if they’re late coming back the others will investigate

who knows if they’d even live that long though

that’s quite the security barrier

my intrusive thoughts would be going crazy in that situation

her name is eris!

again with the dominion! are we finally gonna learn what their deal is?

I feel like getting that collar off is easier said than done

the boys found the jem’hadar!

they should probably not get closer

i think they should leave quark with the jem’hadar

they are a very large species

not the tulaberry wine again 💀

I would also like to meet the founders

has the dominion been spying in the alpha quadrant

bro is a klingon fanboy

a klingaboo

of course there’s an authorization code

jake you don’t know how to fly a runabout anyway

ok nog’s cowardice is grating on me

oh jake’s gonna try and hack into this thing

oh god oh fuck the jem’hadar found ds9

“detained for questioning” and yet no one has questioned him yet!

oh we’re COOKED cooked

oh god new bajor is gone isn’t it

well i’ll be damned, sisko’s making progress on the collar!

quark now is really not the time to be airing your grievances

oh ffs quark, history is less important than what’s happening now, and right now humans have gotten better and ferengi are still dicks

I have no idea what Jake is trying to do here

is nog wearing nail polish or do ferengi have blue nails

nog I don’t think that was a good hunch

wait, why did they want to disengage the autopilot if they wanted the computer to get them back? the math ain’t mathing

well, time for them to try and fly the runabout. i’m sure this will go great

the ds9 gang isn’t gonna let you save their space dad without them

jadzia’s beef with keogh seems pretty one-sided

odo: only i’m allowed to arrest quark

he’d get bored without quark around

hopefully this goes better than the last time julian and kira were piloting a runabout

jake and nog are going to crash this fucking runabout

I love how they hear o’brien’s voice and immediately are just FLOODED with relief

miles is here to fix everything

yay eris!

time for a space fight I think

I think they’re outmatched in this fight

still not as bad as the last time julian and kira were piloting a runabout

looks like maybe quark successfully buttered up sisko after all!

how are they going to resolve this in three minutes

so much for the odyssey

guess the dominion doesn’t care if you retreat

what is it now quark

wait what

oh shit

oh my god and she’s here now

who tf transported her out???

well. guess i sort of know what the dominion is now. not really though lmao

if i was in the 90s and i had to wait months for another episode after that i’d go insane

[skraglekat1]

School doodles, who needs to graduate anyways?

[cleapallea]

𓆩ᥫ᭡𓆪ASTRO OBSERVATION JOURNEY 𓆩ᥫ᭡𓆪 with explanations and example!!!

Masterlist

Engineering Course indicators

Are you good at Math and science? Wow, maybe you should continue or take an engineering course/s!

Take note of this

╰┈➤ primary planet/s:

📍Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus📍

╰┈➤Engineering line presented by each Zodiac signs:

Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius

People born under these signs have shared qualities such as easy access to knowledge and technical education. Technical education is required in the engineering course. 

🌙Mercury ruled the intellectual capacity, power, mathematics, science, and cognitive skills. Thus, A symbol for Math and Science. And because of that Mercury associated with Education, Engineering and careers.🌙

╰┈➤ primary house:

1st, 4th, 5th, 9th and 10th

╰┈➤ !RULES! SOUTH CODE (SHOULD BE FALL IN)

This is primary signs only.

Aries, Cancer, Leo, Gemini, and Taurus. Want to know why? For Gemini, they get easily bored. For fire signs, they get easily burned out or mad.

∆FAMOUS FIGURE ∆

Nikola Tesla- I love him, because he also an Intj like me. Contributed in humanity and science too.

📍His chart ruler is Mercury in Gemini and Pieces in Neptune. This makes him known for his unique approach in mathematics. While also a little bit clumsy.

📍His Mercury square in Jupiter (cancer) this makes him fully focused and investigates sacred things like pyramids. Engineers require "me" time. In contrast, he's bad at managing money, and feel alienated when he talk with people.

📍His Mars also in Libra, For some Mars related to power driven, energy and ambition which requires to continue studying engineering. Even though, many people benefit for his work he remained in constant with his self. Plus, he easily quit things like his job, inventions and dreams (after the quarrel and accident) Also Mars in Libra makes him hides his "real emotions" towards people —particularly being upset to Edison.

—𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗔 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲—

[triptychcryptid]

DD Pines boys and languages

I think they would all learn languages pretty easily, but they'd have varied interests and some would be easier to each one.

Ford: Romantic languages would be his jam. Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. Also German and Japanese. He'd be fluent in all of them except the latter two. Following most Ford VS Spanish headcannons, he'd learn Castellano because it's more proper, and also generally what they teach in books/school. He also knows a fair amount of Codes and ciphers, but hadn't kept up on them since he doesn't really have a need. He knows Bill's cipher very well though and incorporates it into his church writings.

Stan: Really good at the harder languages. They just come naturally to him. Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Gaelic, Navajo and a bunch of alien languages that he actually picked up REALLY easily. Ford would have struggled with these. He also knows quite a bit of different ciphers because they're EVERYWHERE. He knows Bill's Cipher, plus PigPen, Atbash, Vigenere and Caesar. He kept up with Morse code and ALSO speaks spanish, but his is hodgepodge of dialects because of the different places he's been. No one can place his accent. There's Mexican, Chilean, and Cuban Spanish in there. Most spanish speakers have a hard time understanding him unless he's swearing. XD

Shermie: Really good at math and coding languages as well as asian languages, given where a lot of his coworkers are from. Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Telugu, Mandarin and Thai. He also knows alot of German, though he's not fluent. Also very good with Ciphers and Runes.

@localcanadiancreature62

[max1461]

To be honest, I have to say anecdotally that the culture I have observed in tech spaces my whole life is quite off-putting to me in a bunch of ways, many of which I think could be fairly described as "authoritarianism". As an early teen I was really into computers, and variously wanted to grow up to be a game dev or a penetration tester, but the culture of all the tech spaces that I encountered really put me off. I gravitated to math in part, I think, for reasons similar to those that initially drew me to computers, but it had a culture that I felt much more at home in. There were many reasons I gravitated to math, but this was one of them.

I felt alienated by the relentless prescriptivism of tech culture. Everything had to be an ought-question, a question of "should" or "must". In math there are no ought-question, or barely any—only is-questions. I like that. I'm a curious person and I think the world is beautiful. But tech spaces always felt to me like they were full of people who did not see beauty in all the phenomena of the world, but who wanted instead to see everything that was not to their liking eliminated. Whether it was arguments over linux distros or programming languages or whatever, it always felt to me like the ideas of personal preference and live-and-let-live were simply foreign to a lot of tech people.

I don't know why this is. Maybe it's selective effects—the kind of people who love to optimize code love to "optimize" everything. But maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe I just interacted with the wrong people. I don't know.

There is a set of tweets going around saying, in so many words, "STEM people are authoritarians". Well, I'm a STEM person and I'm not an authoritarian, so I admit that I feel a little offended by that. But I think there is a version of the claim "STEM people are authoritarians" that I feel like I have personal experience with. Certain spaces within STEM do feel characterized by, as I said, a kind of relentless prescriptivism, a war of all against all to make everybody do things Exactly How I Do Them. And it's tiring and deeply off-putting to me. And yeah, I do see people apply this mentality politics, where I think it results in predictable awful policy prescriptions.

I should say though that this is not exclusively a thing I see in tech. I've also seen something which feels very subjectively similar in a lot of humanities spaces, especially of the lit-crit/media analysis cluster as opposed to like, the history/philosophy/etc. cluster. You probably know what I'm talking about. The constant arms race to be the most "radical" (as if academics are in any real sense radical activists), to use all the right terminology, etc. etc. It feels the same to me. Just as angry and micromanaging and just as much of a strain on my psyche.

Well anyway. There are, I think, real critiques to be made of the culture of "STEM", and I am personally invested in making them. But they should not be made by people who seem more interested in advancing an academic interdepartmental culture war than in seeing things improve. Idk.

[kitscodingblog]

Coding Update 7

I'm gonna try to keep this blog updated at least once a week so I make sure I'm always doing SOME sort of coding.

Something something read more.

So the Alien Invasion game is coming along pretty well. I'm learning a lot of tools very quickly. Which also means I'm forgetting a lot of stuff quickly sometimes haha.

So here's some of it. AlienInvasion is basically the whole game stuff, including all the sprites and other key information. It had me do a lot of creating Classes in separate files, then importing them into the main file to keep things clean. Which I get is mostly to keep everything clean and organized.

I'm also, as a full disclosure, mostly just writing the code it wants me to write. So this isn't wholly my own or anything.

Also I have NO idea what sprite group is. I think, if I'm understand it right, it's basically creating a stored group/list thing for the bullets and aliens?

Also there's this. The super().__init__() . I have, literally, no idea why that gets called. It never explained it or made an reference to why its used in the Sprite function. It just said "we call super() so it works properly" and I was like but WHY?? What does it MEAN??

I still don't know.

Also as you can see here, this is everything slimmed down to make the code easier. It had me write out what each of those events do first, under run_game(self), then it was like "we'll refractor this so the code is easier to read." Plus it makes it 100x easier to adjust the code.

I could go into the specifics of them but nah. Just know that they do what they are supposed.

Though while writing the bullet function, it originally let me spawn as many as i wanted as i spammed Spacebar. As I was testing it, I was like "huh.. Those bullets are off screen but I'm pretty sure they still exist. Which means eventually this will be a huge problem." And sure enough, the next part was like "those bullets will add up and slow down everything, so let's fix that." Which means I'm at least thinking about the right things sometimes! Yippie!

So as of right now: I have a moving ship, a bunch of aliens, the ability to shoot up to 3 bullets on screen, and I can close the game. The next part I think is making the aliens move and get blown up!

I did have a hard time doing the on-your-own problem though. It wanted me to create a bunch of stars, like I did the aliens, which worked fine AT FIRST. But then it wanted me to randomly space them, so it looked more like a real night sky.

The problem? If a star spawned outside the borders of the game, my whole thing FROZE. It became completely unresponsive. I also couldn't figure out how to get it to choose a random number for EACH star. It basically chose a random number when loaded and stuck to it.

I ended up looking up the code for how they did it, but i still didn't really understand it. Oh well. I'll go back to it some other time.

I also tried to do an easy Leetcode problem, the famous "two sum" interview question. Basically, it needs to pull numbers from a list to add up to the target sum, then print out their location within the list. so if its two numbers that equal 9, and they are in the list spots 0 and 4, it'll print [0, 4].

I know WHAT it wants me to do, and I know WHAT i want IT to do, but not HOW to do it. Which...made me really frustrated. I think its just cause I don't know how to use sorting algorithms, or any of the search ones. Which is a whole nother beast to manage. I'm honestly not sure how to even APPROACH that. Or where to study it. So I'm putting a pin in it for now.

I think I might learn some of it when I do some of the other projects, but I guess we'll find out. If anyone has any advice to learn that stuff please feel free to send it my way.

I think the other thing is it's gonna start making me think in math terms I don't know or understand. Like I was watching a show about programming and they were talking about uh.. Lambda math or something? and I was like "nope I have no idea what you are referring to." I'm under the impression I might be OKAY without knowing a ton of math, but uhhhh. We'll see I guess?

Anyway, I'll keep you posted. The most important part is ya gurl isn't giving up. We gonna do it to win it!!!

-Kit