#patch rf

[lemnnshark]

"Patch is a gray-and-pale orange tom."

[runefactorynonsense]

Melotober - Day 15 - Pumpkin

Yes, I named a pumpkin after all of you!

[sigalrm]

Busted by Pascal Volk Via Flickr: Inside a patch panel

[camcordingexe]

[pt: [ID: 2 lgballt sonas. the first one has the bigender flag as the body, as well as a heart with the panromantic flag. the have wolf like ears with the asexual flag. the 2nd one has the agender flag for the body. with a patch that has the aroace flag. bunny ears with the queerplatonic flag are also there. /End Id]]

[ID: 2 lgballt sonas. the first one has the bigender flag as the body, as well as a heart with the panromantic flag. the have wolf like ears with the asexual flag. the 2nd one has the agender flag for the body. with a patch that has the aroace flag. bunny ears with the queerplatonic flag are also there. /End Id]

3/5; 1 2 [3] 4 5

[hkthatgffan]

Are there any popular Gravity Falls AUs that you are personally indifferent to in some way, in that you either find them off-putting, don't understand their appeal, or just at minimum have the least regard for compared to other AUs that you're fonder of? For me at least, I don't care that much for Reverse Falls/Reverse Pines, Monster Falls, or 1920's Gangster/Mobster AUs.

THANK YOU! ME TOO!

I pretty much feel the same about the AU's you listed. I've never really liked Reverse Falls. In fact in some ways I hate it. Quite frankly, I think it's an overrated and super outdated AU. I mean, the whole AU idea is that it reverses the roles of the characters. But it was made back when the characters to reverse the roles of were Dipper and Mabel with Gideon (and later Pacifica). And since then, there have been far more interesting concepts that better fit the name. Relativity Falls is honestly what Reverse Falls SHOULD be; ACTUALLY reversing the roles by having Dipper and Mabel be Stan and Ford and vice versa. I just feel like it's an AU fans have just been trying to patch up and keep intact after all these years like some lemon car that really just needs to be scrapped. Maybe it made sense in 2012 when first made, but it's an AU that's showing its age and should swap names at this point with Relativity Falls.

I'll never get either how this AU out of the others got so big. I mean, it's so huge an AU now that Will Cipher as a character basically is as known as Bill Cipher. I even years back when I was new in the fandom assumed he was a real character in show I missed. I get maybe it's cause the AU seemed cool and unique, but even so, there are so many better ideas IMO that could've and should've gotten the spotlight like Drifting Stars, Immortal Pines, Reunion Falls, etc.

That said, I do have some soft spot for RF, in that finding the original creator of the AU in 2018 was a fun project and the first GF lost media search I got to be a part of back before I even made proper YouTube videos on that stuff (given the blog post is on GF Amino, lmao). Also no, I'm never making a video on that. It was years ago, I never archived all the stuff for that search properly and overall, IDC about that AU enough to spend many sleepless nights editing a video for it, lol. Art below of the gif from that post by Cherryviolets.

Monster Falls I similarly don't get. I mean, Dipper as a deer and Mabel as a mermaid? Who TF came up with that and how did the whole fandom agree on it? It's another AU that makes no sense though admittedly is a lot less outdated a concept than Reverse Falls.

IDK much about that mobster AU tbh. I've seen art for it but I think the OG artist behind it is gone so IDK much on what it was about or why or if it was popular.

Should also stress, I'm not trying to say these AU's are bad or that fans should stop making content for them. Like headcanons, AU's are a way for fans to express and make new content for the show and is an outlet for creativity. I don't like these AUs but others do and they by all means should enjoy making content for them. I'm not a big AU person myself besides the AU's I mentioned above I more so prefer (as well as working on the Adoption AU fanfics in 2018 with marehami), however, I get the value and love that fans have for them. Like headcanons, AU's are things every fan can enjoy or dislike as they please without judgement or being told they're wrong. These are just my opinions and solely my own. So, if you love Reverse Falls, enjoy it. I may not get it, but if it brings joy to you to make Reverse Falls art, then that's all that matters and more to you for that :)

[thelasttime]

i've read 100 books this year so far! here are the books:

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

Poison for Breakfast - Lemony Snicket

A Rome of One's Own - Emma Southon

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Emma Southon

Funny Story - Emily Henry

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced - Agatha Christie

Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan

Orbital - Samantha Harvey

Everything I Know About Love - Dolly Alderton

A Court of Silver Flames - Sarah J Maas

Yellowface - RF Kuang

Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel

North Woods - Daniel Mason

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers - Deborah Heiligman

Madhouse at the End of the Earth - Julian Sancton

The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates

King of Wrath - Ana Huang

Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

King of Pride - Ana Huang

King of Greed - Ana Huang

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself - Michael Singer

King of Sloth - Ana Huang

James - Percival Everett

Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingfisher

Deep End - Ali Hazelwood

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Twisted Love - Ana Huang

Foster - Claire Keegan

Throttled - Lauren Asher

Warriors: Into the Wild - Erin Hunter

Conversations on Love - Natasha Lunn

Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders

The Elixir of the Green Willow Guard - A.D. Uhlar

Warriors: Fire and Ice - Erin Hunter

Twisted Games - Ana Huang

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

Warriors: Forest of Secrets - Erin Hunter

A Pho Love Story - Loan Le

A Dance of Shadows - Eva Chase

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie

Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie

Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green

The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie

A War of Hearts and Fire - Denise Bird

The Poppy War - RF Kuang

The Strawberry Patch Pancake House - Laurie Gilmore

Warriors: Rising Storm - Erin Hunter

The Dragon Republic - RF Kuang

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

The Wedding People - Alison Espach

The Maid's Secret - Nita Prose

Caught Up - Liz Tomforde

The Friend - Sigrid Nunez

Warriors: A Dangerous Path - Erin Hunter

Play Along - Liz Tomforde

Warriors: The Darkest Hour - Erin Hunter

The Mirror & the Light - Hilary Mantel

Beach Read - Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation - Emily Henry

The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han

It's Not Summer Without You - Jenny Han

We'll Always Have Summer - Jenny Han

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

A Psalm for the Wild Built - Becky Chambers

King of Envy - Ana Huang

Warriors: Bluestar's Prophecy - Erin Hunter

Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney

The History of Sound - Ben Shattuck

Twisted Hate - Ana Huang

Horse - Geraldine Brooks

The Expert of Subtle Revisions - Kirsten Menger-Anderson

Lady of Stone - Bly Forsythe

Twisted Lies - Ana Huang

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - Victoria E. Schwab

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers

Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney

Gifted & Talented - Olivie Blake

Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood

Intermezzo - Sally Rooney

Prophet Song - Paul Lynch

Love Theoretically - Ali Hazelwood

Spare - Prince Harry

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

The Overstory - Richard Powers

My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

Not in Love - Ali Hazelwood

The Story of a New Name - Elena Ferrante

Problematic Summer Romance - Ali Hazelwood

Blood Over Bright Haven - M.L. Wang

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Elena Ferrante

The Premed Playbook Guide to the Medical School Interview - Ryan Gray

A Reign of Embers - Eva Chase

Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction - Tony Hope

Thornhedge - T. Kingfisher

[blazehedgehog]

Why do newer pokemon look so offputting? Older games had tons of diverse designs but newer ones look unfinished/not well thought out.

They might be. I dunno. There's a lot people have said about Game Freak's competency at handling the Pokemon franchise and how they've added too many new Pokemon to some of these games and are basically running the well dry on good ideas.

But I also just see it as, like, an extension of the Mighty No. 9 problem. I remember when we were still all starry-eyed and hopeful about Mighty No. 9, Inafune revealed the design and mentioned it had "increased detail to suit HD displays."

So he's got all these colors and patterns and grooves and slots, when Mega Man was basically just a kid in his pajamas and three solid colors:

Light blue, dark blue, and skin tone. That's it. That's all you needed.

And Inafune further explained that was because Mega Man had to be this tiny little 24x24 NES sprite. I'd have to look it up, but it wouldn't surprise me if the sprite came first. I know it definitely did with Mario.

So this is like designing a character with the rawest, most basic building blocks you can get. You are not adapting the above character art into this sprite. Instead, you are making a character that has arms that are a separate color from his body, you are giving him pants to denote where his waist is, and you give him the biggest eyes on earth just so people can tell that's his face.

You have the smallest canvas imaginable and have to make sure people can understand they are not only looking at the shape of a human, but watching it animate in various different poses, all when it's run through somebody's crusty old RF patch cable on their 12" CRT TV:

Whereas, in theory, Mighty No. 9 is going to be played at its native resolution in crystal clarity on a 40" flat panel display, potentially allowing you to see and understand a lot more detail.

So now we circle back to Pokemon, and a lot of those first Pokemon look like this:

They had a box, 56x56 pixels wide, just over double the size of NES Mega Man, and four colors of grey to work with. When viewed on a Gameboy screen, these monsters weren't even two inches tall. Those limitations meant they still had to keep things simple.

Whereas now, increased resolutions and screen clarity allows designs like these:

Now the point I'm trying to make here is that simplicity and limitations give birth to clear, highly focused designs created to be instantly identifiable and recognizable at any distance or resolution. More detail does not necessarily make for a stronger character. You can absolutely get caught up in adding detail to compensate for a bad character design.

...At the same time, let's play devil's advocate here. Pokemon is a very different creature now than it was 25 years ago. A single new Pokemon design probably goes through this huge insane iteration process where all kinds of departments touch and approve the design so it can appear in the anime, it can appear in spinoffs, it can appear in merchandise, so on and so forth. We're miles away from the days where one guy comes up with all the Pokemon just because he thinks it would be funny to have a fat duck with a headache.

Maybe as much as anything, you could blame the increasingly complex production machine on why these Pokemon look like this. After all, even by the second generation of Pokemon games, they were constantly chasing the dragon of trying to find "the next Pikachu."

Everything has to be polished and smoothed down, while also showing the increased capabilities of the hardware, while also staying appealing to Pokemon's core demographics (there are multiples), while also being something they can sell toys and shirts and hats of, while also being noticeably new and different from existing Pokemon, so on and so forth, on and on and on again.

Having so many Pokemon in each new game probably gives them some leeway to experiment, but I'm sure some of these characters get beaten with creative hammers in the search of their next superstar.

On top of whatever qualms people might have with the state of Game Freak as it stands today.

[super-ion]

Valiant

(Original post, Chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"Ellie!"

I blink awake. It's dark, the lighting hasn't switched over to morning mode yet and the sky is still black through the warehouse skylights. In fact, the only light is the gentle blue-white from Val's core. The indicator lights from the diagnostic equipment I have set up are completely dark.

I feel a spike of panic. A black out could mean any number of things, from benign to literal end of the world.

"What's going on?" I ask, fighting my grogginess. "What time is it?"

"I have lost external network connection. My internal clock indicates that it is 2:36:74," she says. Her voice is tinny and distant, likely the embedded speaker that I've managed to patch up.

"Ellie, I am sorry," she says. Her tone is distressed and contrite. She continues in a rush, "local wildlife nested amidst the network antenna and I attempted to relocate the nest. However in the process, I have accidently shorted the main high power bus with my drone peripheral."

Ah. That explains that. She probably tripped the main breaker. It's a terrible design and I've been meaning to add some resiliency, but that keeps getting out prioritized.

"Ellie, I am sorry," she repeats. "I have committed a mistake and I have inconvenienced you."

What?

Oh…

She's having the equivalent of a panic attack. She is a hyper intelligent AI core designed for fleet coordination and battle modeling, where failure to follow orders and standard operating procedure costs lives. This comes with a lot of built in anxiety. I understand that modern starships are less prone to such things, but when she was commissioned, the goal was to produce many warships very quickly. They were ultimately meant to be disposable, which led to some programming shortcuts.

"Hey," I say softly. "Are you okay? That's all I care about right now."

I roll out of my hammock and press my body against the surface of her core so that she can feel the plasmic discharge induced by my contact.

"I am well," she replies, her voice still small and panicked. "My core is isolated from main power. I can provide full diagnostics if you desire."

"No, that's okay. I'm glad you're alright. Should we see what we can do to take care of this?"

"Yes, please…"

She pauses.

"I do not like being disconnected. I… do not like the dark."

My heart breaks a little. Eighty-seven years, that's how long she was alone before I found her. An AI like hers can enter low power mode, but that is still an unfathomably long time. Units like her were never meant to be alone.

I reluctantly disengage from her core.

"I have to go outside," I tell her. She knows this, but I'm hoping it helps to talk through the process. "I'm going to get the headset working, so I'll be able to stay in contact, okay?"

"Thank you"

I pat the surface of her core gently before checking the rf transmitter I rigged up at her access port. It's short range, but it runs on her internal power. We used it a lot before I got her connected to internal and external networks, pretty much for this exact purpose, so I could talk to her without being right next to the core.

Connection looks good. I slip on the ear piece.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you Ellie," she replies.

Her voice through the earpiece is warm and smooth, even under the panic. It's her chosen choice and… well, it makes me feel… okay, I'll just say it, it's a very sexy voice. The speaker mounted on the access panel doesn't really convey the full timbre of it. Needless to say, I was blown away the first time I heard it in high fidelity.

I think I might be in love with her.

There's a lot to unpack there, but there's no point in denying that the feelings exist.

I throw on a sweater and a spare pair of boots and make my way up the scaffolding that leads to roof access. About halfway there, I pause for a moment to catch my breath. I chance a look down and my breath is stolen from me.

This room, this entire building, is a warehouse built for a machine of war to be abandoned and forgotten.

It's a squat for a scavenger trying to eke out an existence on the fringes.

"You're beautiful," I whisper.

It is a cathedral. It is a temple built for a goddess and her priestess.

Here in the dark, lit only by the radiation of her core, the space seems infinite.

Her core flickers in response, but she doesn't say anything. She might be embarrassed. She might never have heard those words before and doesn't know how to respond. She doesn't need to. I don't know if she feels the same about me. I'm not even sure if I should want her to. I would hate for her to feel obligated to return my affection solely by the fact that I am the only one who cares enough to repair her. I started this project because I couldn't bear the thought of her suffering alone in darkness, any romantic feelings I have are incidental... mostly.

I continue my scent and finally arrive at the roof access. The door opens with a squeal and I step into the frigid night.

"Oh!" I gasp.

"Ellie?" Val asks in my ear after a moment, worry creeping into her voice. "Are you well?"

"Oh, sorry…" I reply. "It's the stars. The high altitude haze from that dust storm last week has finally cleared. It's… spectacular."

There's a pause.

"Would you describe them for me?" she asks plaintively.

"Uh, sure… but I'm not sure if I can do it justice. Well, there's the glow from the industrial district, but it's not too bad tonight. We've got the arc of the Milky Way pretty much directly overhead. And there's like the fuzzy haze of the planetary disk. Looks like one of the ice giants too. And… well, stars. Thousands of them, just crystal clear."

I locate the main antenna and, sure enough, the drone is tangled up with the main power lines. It looks like there might have been some thin insulation that arced. The spidery drone itself might be salvageable. It is clutching an unfortunately empty nest in its manipulators, whatever wildlife must have fled when she disturbed it. The drone's head is tilted curiously back in a way that I don't think it's fully explainable by arcing.

"Wait, were you out here stargazing?

"The ocular system on the drone peripheral lacks the resolution and focal length to resolve individual stars."

It's not an answer and she sounds very vaguely guilty.

"It's alright if you were," I tell her as I bend down to examine the power conduits. "And I can see if I can get you a better camera system up here. Maybe something telescopic."

"I would not want to inconvenience you," she replies.

"Val, you're allowed to want things," I sigh.

She's quiet for a long moment while I move the drone and begin repairs on the power conduit.

"I miss the stars," she says finally. "There are many things I wish to forget about my past. Being alone amidst the stars was one of my few comforts."

I consider this. It's the most she's ever told me about her past. I've seen the diagnostic logs of her positronic activity indicating distress. Her equivalent of nightmares.

"You know any good stories about them?" I ask.

"I do not understand the nature of your query."

"I don't know," I say with a shrug. "I guess I'm just curious if you have any favorites or if you have any interesting facts in your database.

I'm not really sure how I expect her to respond. I just want to get her talking and not dwell on being trapped in the dark or feeling guilty about causing it.

"There is a star," she begins tentatively, "which according to local charts and my estimate of local time, should be located at azimuth 146.7, elevation 25.4. It is the brightest star in the southern sky, do you see it?"

I'm honestly surprised by this, and it takes me a minute to orient myself and find it.

"Yeah, the bright blue one?"

"Yes!" she replies, and as she speaks she gets more animated - her tone brightens and her cadence picks up. "Epsilon Orionis, Hipparcos 26311, also known as Alnilam. It is the central star of the asterism as viewed from Earth known as Orion's belt. It is among the brightest stars visible from this region of space. During first wave colonization, it was erroneously back translated to Al-Nilam, the Sapphire. Local neo-folkloric tradition associates it with either a maiden or queen…"

She continues on like that, and I find myself absolutely fascinated as I work. The detail is very encyclopedic, but there are aspects of it that she can't possibly have obtained from just a star chart. I quickly come to the realization that she must have sought out details about the folklore and mythology on her own.

This was a hobby of hers. There's no question in my mind now that I have to obtain a better system to facilitate her stargazing.

I finish the patch job on the conduit and heft the drone over my shoulder while she continues. I only interrupt her when I arrive back at the high power breaker.

The night lighting comes back up and she practically sighs with relief as she reconnects with the external network. I wearily drag myself back to my hammock.

"Ellie, I'm sorry to have woken you and taken up so much of your time," she says.

I sigh and press my hand to the surface of her core.

"It's okay, really," I tell her. "I'm here for you."

"Thank you for listening to me," she says, bringing a smile to my face.

"Goodnight, Val."

"Goodnight, Ellie."

I almost say "I love you". I want to.

[adafruit]

A mini GPS from uBlox with I2C and UART 🛰️📡🔧

The SAM-M8Q

is an entry-level 'all in one' GPS from uBlox - it comes with both UART and I2C interfaces plus a built-in antenna so it's ready to go 'out of the box.' It's also fairly small, so we decided to try and make a little breakout for it. It exposes both interfaces, but we expect most folks will like using the Stemma QT port for instant I2C interfacing. We gotta dig into uBlox's interface since we expect the I2C to be a little more complex than the PA1010 we've used.

[leviathanlazarus]

Reaching for Stardust - Part II

Read Looking For Space here; playlist / Read RFS Part I here; playlist

Read (comment!!) on wattpad

Word Count: ~4300

Warnings: none

<3

---

Josh and I had tackled grocery shopping first thing in the morning, unpacked it all, then headed out for a long walk through some swamps that were so overgrown and murky that it lended to a very quiet experience with no one to interrupt us. It was nice. He’d been quieter than usual again, though I thought he might just want to tune into the wildlife we didn’t always get to encounter–the tree frogs were invisible around us but loud, their throaty songs permeating the air, and Josh vocalized wonder as to what they were saying to each other. The bullfrogs were loud too, impressive in their deep calls, and we saw a couple leap from the muddy edges of the trail into the dark, shallow water and disappear. Redwing blackbirds fluttered from reed to reed, pausing on cattails to tweet more words unknown to us before going off to perch somewhere else, and the geese beyond were paddling through the water with fuzzy bunches of yellow babies, which Josh and I had to stop and watch until they got too far away to squeal over anymore. 

But Josh wasn’t quiet in the car–he was singing along to Van Morrison, the copy of Saint Dominic’s Preview that his dad had given to him rolling through the CD player, and I was amused at how he sang every word with passion despite how strangely their voices mixed. Or didn’t mix at all, really. They didn’t go together, making for quite a jarring duet, but Josh just kept going and I kept watching–I watched the sun hit his eyelashes and his cheekbones, how it cast a shadow down his neck when we drove through the trees and back onto the paved roads, and I watched his hands move from the wheel to the air as he sang along. He was always moving. He couldn’t ever just be still, not even while driving, and I could still remember how much that had annoyed me when we’d first met. Now, I couldn’t imagine why–he was like a bird too, colorful and vocal, quick and strategic. 

The sun wrapped itself through his honey curls and I reached out to touch his hair, to run my fingers over the shaved patch above his ear. “You ever gonna let all this grow out again?” 

Josh hummed with the last few words of the song before he answered: “Maybe. Why, do you miss it?”

“Sometimes,” I admitted, looking in my mind’s eye at a snapshot of Josh from years prior, all that hair wild, untamed, ridiculous, adorable. “I like it. But you already know if you get rid of all your hair, I’m leaving you.”

He laughed, nose crinkling. “Oh yeah, you’ve told me that. I’m not gonna. We still have to get married, you know.”

I huffed out a small laugh at him throwing that out there so casually. “I remember that too, don’t worry.” 

“So when are we gonna do it?” Josh asked, turning for a moment to look at me, his eyes catching the light too and I could see a brief glimpse of all their colors, the nature that lived inside those irises. 

“After you propose to me,” I told him, then laughed again. “Unless this is your proposal?”

“Absolutely not. But you said you didn’t want me to propose to you yet.” 

“You don’t think we should buy a house first?” I reminded him, looking out the window as we passed other people’s houses, all looking way better than an apartment. “That’s really my only stipulation. I thought we talked about it.”

“I know. But I just don’t wanna wait much longer, darling.” 

I looked back at him, gazing down at the pendant, the Taurean bull, the little starshine jewel, I’d given him for our first anniversary that was hanging around his neck. Truthfully, I didn’t want to wait much longer either but I wanted to put down real roots first–I wanted us to have a place we could truly call home and begin to build before we put the final touch on our relationship. Josh had never been so orthodox with anything really and that was okay, which made me wonder even more why he wasn’t so willing to just go along with my idea. But maybe this was that bull-like stubbornness rearing its head. 

“It’ll be better for us to be married when we buy a house anyway,” Josh went on. “For the taxes and everything.”

“Oh?” I quipped, not even sure about that myself. “What difference does it make? I thought married couples got tax breaks no matter where they lived.”

“Well, both our names would be on the deed or whatever regardless. What difference does it make when we buy a house?”

“If it makes no difference, why can’t we buy a house before we get married?”

Josh sighed. “We could probably plan a whole wedding and get married in the time it’d take to even find a house.”

“Wanna bet?” 

“No, I just wanna be your husband.”

I inhaled sharply. That shut me up. We’d talked about getting engaged, getting married, being married, but we’d never actually said “husband” and “wife” before. It sounded so formal. So adult. And I often still felt like Josh and I were still kids, just two silly people messing around even while being in love and having a life together, and it was jarring to suddenly be reminded that we were far from that. So far from that and there was no going back and that wasn’t even a bad thing. It was just kind of a scary thing. 

“Okay. No bets,” I said, reaching over to place my hand on his thigh. “But I still think I can find a house faster than you can get a ring.” 

“You think I don’t already have a ring?” Josh asked, then cackled over Van Morrison’s grunting. “Come on, you know me better than that.”

My heart did a little flip. “You do? Seriously?”

Josh patted my hand on his thigh. “Yeah, silly goose,” he said, then wagged his finger at me with his eyes on the road. “But don’t even think about asking to see it. That’s gonna be a surprise. The whole proposal will be a surprise.” 

I had imagined it many times in slightly different ways each time. The one constant was that it would be at night–the stars HAD to be there when it happened. I trusted Josh felt the same way. As I imagined it again, I said, “I’m sure it will be. You’ve always been full of surprises.”

“I try my best. Gotta keep things spicy,” Josh said, smiling big enough in my peripheral vision to catch my full attention again. “So about tonight–you wanna get dinner first?” 

“Yeah, definitely. You said there’s some Mediterranean place that’s good?” 

“Sam says so. Or we could go to that diner we liked the last time. Up to you.”

I looked back out the window. We were almost home and the afternoon was still relatively young and warm, keeping me optimistic about the impending night, not that there was anything to actually be edgy about. It was always just such an experience when the boys played a show–they’d come so far as time had gone on. They were on a real label, had a manager, traveled in an actual bus and had all moved to Detroit in the past year. Big changes. Josh and I knew those wouldn’t be the last of the changes, either. It felt like only a matter of time before they moved somewhere even bigger where they could really flesh out and grow to be even more successful so, for now, we all made the mini road trip whenever we could to see one another. I was glad their show was going to be in their home base and even though we could zip back home afterward, I proposed something of my own instead.

“What if we got a hotel tonight?” I asked Josh, already picturing the two of us rolling around drunk in fluffy white linens.

“Ooh, hell yes,” Josh said, smiling big again, his perfect teeth gleaming in the sun. “Why didn’t we think of that sooner? I mean, what’s stopping us?”

“Absolutely nothing.” I grabbed my phone and pulled up Google. “I’ll find us a room right now.”

We showered, dressed, packed our bags and headed on the road again with Josh driving, of course, again. He’d bought a used Jeep Compass a few months back and was still loving it even with winter being over–it was a struggle to get him NOT to drive. Not that I minded. Josh was good at going fast enough to always make good time without ever attracting police, which he was also very skilled at spotting along the highway. I did find it amusing how small he looked inside the car though, perched up high in the driver’s seat like a little sparrow. 

I missed the boys, probably far more than I let any of them and also Josh on. It’s not like they were all that far away, just a hop skip and a jump down 75 and we were there, but sometimes it felt so far. I had gotten so used to seeing them all the time. They were always around. Then suddenly they weren’t. What made it more difficult was how much busier they’d become, so texting had decreased and phone calls were almost non-existent, at least with me. I knew it wasn’t all that much better for Josh but he never let his woes about it show. I still knew it hurt him, he was just resilient, always able to find the good in everything even when it was painful to get there.

“Do you ever think about what life would be like if you’d been part of the band?” I asked Josh as we cruised down the highway, the sky a vast sea of surprisingly clear blue beyond. “I mean, you definitely have the voice for it. And the poetry.” We’d talked about this before too, but it’d been a while–I was curious if the answer had changed. Josh always struck me as someone who needed more freedom than even an artsy film instructor had; then again, sometimes it seemed like being in a touring band didn’t give the boys all the freedom they deserved. 

“It’d be fun. But my life is fun now, too,” Josh said, turning to give me a wide, sparkling grin. “Anyway, I always stole the show when Jake and I were growing up. Now it’s his turn to be front and center.” 

“They all look so–so shiny all the time now,” I commented, looking out the window as I envisioned Danny with his face adorned in rhinestones, Sam’s sleek, shimmering blazers and Jake’s jeweled details on all his stage outfits. 

Josh laughed, sounding pleased by my observation. “They clearly have fun with it. I keep asking Jake to give me some things whenever he’s done with them. Reduce, reuse, recycle to your older brother.”

“Older by five minutes,” I reminded him, although I definitely was into the idea of Jake passing on some pieces to Josh. He’d wear a bejeweled jacket out anywhere, no fancy event needed. 

-

Our hotel was more or less in the heart of downtown, requiring Josh to zip his Jeep through a dark parking garage, and then our echoing footsteps brought us down an elevator and to the check-in desk, where Josh was too late with scolding me for paying for the room. I told him he could buy dinner and breakfast to make up for it, to which he grumbled but ultimately agreed. 

The room was standard–simple and inviting and so neat and tidy that I felt a weight lift off my chest. Cool taupe walls surrounded us, with mahogany carpet to go along with the paint and a mahogany desk to match that, a queen bed made up with a tightly tucked, plush white bedspread and an excess of fat pillows, a decently sized flatscreen TV, a black mini fridge with an array of undoubtedly ungodly priced snacks laid neatly beneath it. The best part of the room was the view. We had an open, clear view of the city, the buildings tall and captivating beyond the glass, and the river wasn’t far from our eyes either. 

We dropped our bags to the floor and I beelined for the bathroom, which was also impeccably clean–at least in appearance–and neat, and from beyond the closed door, which was an element of our relationship neither of us felt compelled to change, Josh spoke to me.

“So are we still doing Mediterranean? Or do you wanna look at this visitor’s guide?”

As I zipped back up I replied, “We should look anyway. Like we’re tourists.” 

“We’re like groupies,” Josh corrected as I washed my hands, and when I came back out he was sitting at the foot of the bed flipping through the guide. 

“Yeah, that’s more accurate.” I sat down next to him, then flopped backwards to lie flat on the firm yet somehow cloud-like mattress. “The show’s at seven, right?” 

“Yep. Masonic Temple.”

“Oh yeah.” I turned to look out the window, the memory of our last experience there coming back to me–it had been the boys on that stage last time, too. It was crazy, I thought, how drastically things could change in just a couple years. I wasn’t sure I could take much more change for a while. 

Josh and I had preemptively decided that we would actually show up as sparkly and glittery as we could to go along with, and hopefully bring some joy to, the boys. We stood side by side in the bathroom mirror after we got dressed–Josh was wearing a flowy, sheer white shirt with gold embroidery that he’d found during a previous thrifting excursion–while I was in form-fitting royal purple, applying glitter to our eyes and cheeks until we both looked more or less like disco balls. 

No matter how much or what kind of attention he drew to himself, Josh never got his feathers ruffled and I always adored that about him. He walked as tall as he could, with a natural air of pride but also approachability, and kept himself open to that attention and to the whole world. He just never seemed that afraid of anything–not of judgment, certainly. And not even of all these changes. He took everything as it came, threw some glitter on it like it was magic and went through the universe like he knew he was an intrinsic, unstoppable part of it. And he’d helped me feel the same at times, like when we descended in the elevator and reentered the public, and I didn’t feel any shame at all even while plastered in color and sparkle. What made it all the better was when Josh took my hand as we exited the hotel and hit the streets. I still often felt like one of these days, he was going to take my hand and we were just going to fly away like Peter Pan and Wendy. I figured stranger things had happened, and Josh was full of wondrous strangeness. 

Our dinner ran late with the restaurant understandably being busy on a Saturday night, so by the time we got to the venue, the opener was already playing and Josh and I decided we’d wait until after the show to accost the boys. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that they’d reached a point of success where they had opening bands and weren’t the opening act themselves but by the time they were beneath the lights, glittering and sparkling even more than I expected, I was reminded yet again of just how incredible they were. 

Sitting next to me, Josh bobbed and sang quietly along to the songs. He knew all of them, even the newer ones, by heart. There was a part of me that had always anticipated him changing course, joining the band, no matter how fulfilled he already was. I could easily see him up there next to Jake, creating beautiful chaos right along with everyone else. But I was glad he hadn’t. I thought our life together was fun, too–Josh immersed in academia, in a subject he loved just as much as music, me trailing along in travel writing that wasn’t quite a passion but certainly helped to keep the focus and the funds on building more and more pieces of this life together. 

Josh took my hand and gently stroked the backs of my fingers; I thought about what it would be like if we both wore wedding rings. I didn’t even know what his might look like for sure–gold, certainly, but a simple band didn’t suit him. He’d need something more extravagant. What did my ring look like? Where did he keep it? When did he buy it? My mind was suddenly racing with so many questions that my surroundings blurred until my body registered Josh’s touch again, and I looked down at his own perfectly sculpted hand before looking back up at the stage.

When we were backstage, riding a high that wasn’t even truly our own, Josh roped his twin into a tight hug and I made my way to the rhythm section, and soon enough I felt Sam’s lanky arms and Danny’s ridiculously hard arms around me and the entire world felt like it got brighter and warmer. Their presence just did that. 

“God, you were amazing,” I said with my chin over both of their shoulders. When I pulled back, Jake suddenly swarmed me in his own hug, his slight body still very apparently buzzing with a high of his own. “And it’s been ages, you lunatics.”

“I know, I know,” Jake said, his voice even huskier post-set. “You guys should just move here.”

“Well, what’s the point when you’re a touring band now?” I replied, taking him in, all sweat and glitter and magic. They all were. Josh too, though far less sweaty, already gathered Sam and Danny in his arms like they were bundles of flowers and not nearly twice his size. “Just move back home.”

“What’d you think of our new songs?” Sam pressed, squirming out of Josh’s grasp, and wiped the back of his hand over his forehead, pushing his hair back. 

“Loved them,” Josh and I said in unison, and I added, “I remember the title of one of them, I think. ‘Brave’ something, right?”

“‘Brave New World,’” Danny answered, holding his hair up from his neck with one hand. I could so clearly see the literal growth that had taken place in silence, undetected in the passing moments, over the past few years especially in him. None of them were boys anymore. None of us were kids anymore, point blank, and the all-consuming, final realization of it made me dizzy for a moment. 

“That’s right, ‘Brave New World,’” I repeated, committing the title to memory. “I love it. I loved all of it. Your shows never get old.”

“Except you guys are getting old,” Josh said, slinging his arm over Jake’s shoulders, and Jake scoffed, rolling his eyes even as he smiled at his brother’s teasing.

“You’re only as young as you feel,” Sam corrected. “And I feel pretty damn young. Spry, as a matter of fact.” 

“Definitely spry,” Danny agreed, letting his hair down, dark curls spilling over his tan shoulders. 

“You guys going out?” Jake asked, looking Josh and I up and down. “You look like you’re dressed for it.”

“This was all for you,” Josh told him, then moved in next to me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “But we could go out, provided you’re all joining us in that quest.”

Jake laughed. “I think that can be done.” 

None of them even stopped to shower–we all headed out, the three rock stars still sticky with sweat, and all of us were as jovial as we had been when we were just kids. The bouncer sitting in the doorway of the bar asked for all of our IDs and gave a particularly lingering look at Sam’s. He’d always be the baby as far as I, and seemingly everyone else, was concerned. 

I was spared the weight of nostalgia the longer we were out and the more we drank, too immersed in the glow of the present to fall back into the past. Sam and Danny knocked back tequila shots like it was their job and Jake had apparently become somewhat of a beer expert, so he and Josh were ordering all kind of tasting glasses and debating which were the best and why, and I was in the thick of it all, blissfully getting more and more intoxicated with my own cocktails. Bits and pieces of memories came back to me at times, little moments of remembering that tugged on my heart, but for the most part I found myself tethered to exactly where I was, just grateful we were all together and grateful that things felt so similar to how they’d once been. 

“I hate saying goodbye,” I lamented after the bar lights flashed and it was time for all of us to go, and we were huddled together on the sidewalk outside. The boys were waiting for their ride and Josh assured me he was fine to drive, having got too caught up in the IPA debate to even get drunk. 

“It’s not goodbye,” Danny assured me and stumbled a bit as he stood, which was particularly amusing to see in contrast with how controlled he was while sober. “It’s just like, see ya later. Right?”

“It’s like, an hour drive,” Sam added, grabbing Danny’s arm. “‘S not so bad.”

“But you tour,” I reminded both of them, sadness dripping in my words though I didn’t quite feel the brunt of it yet. “Just–just stay in one place for a while. Otherwise Josh and I are gonna have to become roadies or something.”

Josh laughed and brought his arm to my waist again. “Yeah, that’s true. She’s very into that idea, as a matter of fact.”

“We’ll hang out again soon,” Jake said and, at least from him, it sounded real and true and I felt a little more reassurance. “We’re not going anywhere. Not really.”

“Not forever,” I said.

He shook his head, smiling. “Not forever.”

When Josh and I made it back to the hotel, it really hit me how fast the whole night had gone by and I thought, Was this what life just becomes for everyone? Time zipping by before you even have the chance to remember what you’re passing through? Even with an abundance of booze making it more challenging, I tried to commit more pieces to memory–the way Sam’s shirt had flashed and shined like pearls as he played, his face too, how he always looked so enraptured by the music there was no way to get him out of that space. His little beard and mustache combo too, which was new, and Jake’s, and Josh’s. I wasn’t sure when they’d all gotten on that train but I was secretly glad Danny kept his face bare. Picturing him with a goatee made me laugh, then I resumed trying to memorize other things–the way the bar had laser-carved a bird into the bottom of their beer glasses, according to the twins anyway, and how the bubbles from the beer followed its shape. The streetlights lining our way as Josh drove and the sound of his brother’s very own band playing from his stereo now, Josh singing along. Then his arm in mine as we meandered the halls of the hotel again, the dull, blue and beige pattern of the carpet beneath our feet and the strange quietness of it all.

Inside our room once more and kicking off our shoes, Josh even said, “You’re so quiet tonight,” and I then tried to memorize the way his voice sounded as he said it. Almost hushed, sounding a little tired but also a little concerned. That wasn’t surprising. He knew my moods well and knew what caused them to shift.

“I’m just thinking,” I answered truthfully, relieved to feel the soft carpet beneath my bare feet again. I reached up to touch my face, my fingers coming back with glitter that was flaking off my cheeks. “Currently thinking about how much of a pain it’s gonna be to take all this off.”

“I’ll help you,” Josh said, steering me alongside himself into the bathroom. I obliged him with this, leaning back against the sink as he wet a cotton pad with makeup remover and got to work, gently pressing and swiping over my skin. 

I found myself just staring at him, gazing at the glitter on his own skin, how is accented his perfect complexion; his eyes sparkled even more profoundly than the glitter though and I looked into them, through the dark lashes into the dark pools that still kept my soul happily ensnared. 

Josh met my gaze when he pulled back to get another cotton pad wet, smiling: “What are you looking at?”

“Duh. You,” I told him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him into me to kiss. No matter how many times we’d done it since we’d met, it never, ever got old–Josh’s lips were eternal flower petals against my own, his skin soft and sweet, his touch far more intoxicating than any substance on earth. And then he held me close in return, one hand reaching up to touch my face, I saw the burst of a million stars behind my eyes and the celestial glow from his body warmed my heart.

---

Tagging no one because RIP the 2018-2021 fandom LOL please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in this series!

[usafphantom2]

Colonel Mervin Leroy Evenson was a part of the YF-12/ SR-71 test flight at Edwards AFB, CA, in the mid to late ’60s. He was chief of the flight test division of the SR 71. He also flew the YF 12 on a missile launching flight.

He flew the SR-71, YF-12, U-2, B-1A, B-1 B, F-94,F-4D, F 102, and F-104. Plus, a few more.

He started his Air Force career flying the Lockheed F-94 all weather night fighter during the Korean War. When the war was over, he continued flying the night fighter on United Nations patrols over North Korea. He enjoyed talking about the X-15. He was a safety pilot in the F-104 and helped talk the X-15 down to landing similar to the U-2 because they could not see the runway. The reason why he enjoyed talking about the X 15 is that it was one of the only programs that were not classified, so that he could talk about it.

He also tested the F-4D, the first laser-guided smart bomb, at Edwards Air Force Base, Californian, in 1968.

The F4-D were used to knock out Sam sites in SEA during 1969-70, mainly along Ho Chi Minh Trail and Hanoi.

After retiring from the US Air Force in 1976, he tested the B-1A. As Rockwell International’s Chief Test Pilot, he flew the first flight of the B-1B aircraft and was the first pilot to fly more than 1,000 hours in that aircraft.

Evenson wanted to become a test pilot even before he joined the Air Force. He said watching movies of World War II and the early flight testing escapades excited him. He began to pursue the dream of becoming a test pilot patiently, and his efforts paid off in 1959 when he graduated from flight test school.

Today, Evenson is said to have more flight time at Mach 3 than any other test pilot in the world. A Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Evenson’s decorations include the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Royal Vietnam Gallantry Cross, Vietnam, Korean Service Medals, and 11 Air Medals. He logged 600 hours piloting the U-2. He also flew the F-102 Supersonic Jet Interceptor, the F-4E, RF-4, and F-104, bringing his total flight time to 8,000 hours.

Mervin passed away in 2010. He is part of the unsung heroes of the very early part of the SR 71 program. I know that he was there for a test flight because he had the same patch that my father, Butch Sheffield, had. It was only given out during a test flight in 1965. His son David shared with me most of this information.

Thank you, David. Written by Linda Sheffield Miller.

@Habubrats71 via X

[dcviated]

@rfn-margot sent: New icon inspires an ask for a new season; how is Raguna handling the weather? All those leaves all over the farm and home? (And town?)

Rune Factory is a great farm sim but like all games in its genre simplifies a lot of… things. Whether it’s the fact there’s not a single bathroom in the RF series that you can see or the quizzical state of technology. On the one hand we’re magic-wielding backwater towns and on the other we have airships and flamethrower tanks. What is it? Where even are we??? I’m reaching for concrete foundations from which to build up my own version of this world and left with so many choices I feel like I’m building my own world entirely.

Well. That’s fine.

All this a preamble for me to get into… there’s a fuckton of trees around Kardia and Trampoli. Fall comes around and we don’t have to do any raking? Are you kidding? The only person who gets an excuse is Micah in RF3 farming under a tree and I guess Ares in RF5 with the dragons up in the air… There’s gonna be leaves. Neither town Raguna has lived in are windy enough that he’d escape the wrath of leaves. But! I think he’d enjoy it! It’s busy work, sure- but there’s going to be at least one or two monster helpers with him that play in those leaves. And that brings much needed laughter to our solitary farmer. Because he needs socializing and doesn’t always get much prior to marriage.

Raguna isn’t immune to jumping into leaf piles himself. The guy can be silly, especially when people aren’t there to watch. This can and should be exploited by an ask or someone or something I am asking anyone reading this to take advantage of it and !! You know!! Don’t make me spell it out.

As for the weather? Thriving. I was actually going to make a post about this as I’ve made in the past, that despite being a spring lad and that being his favorite the fall is not too far behind. Summer has its benefits. Winter brings its reprieves. Spring brings the work drive and readiness to develop but … Autumn is a time of settling and savoring. Whether it’s the shift of climate into more temperate ranges or the resurgence of the seasonal tastes that are oh so appealing not just to enjoy but to make for others who enjoy.

Raguna particularly enjoys those soft warm evenings with a hot mug of something spiced to drink. Sitting on the porch and listening to the growing wind whistle through the branches or brush the tips of the plants through the fields. He’s a reflective person and this is something you can do in any season, sure. But it’s the drink that makes it. A drink you can savor best when you feel the chill just start to pull at your skin.

The cooler weather also brings with it warmer clothing. We’ve only seen Raguna in his one outfit (two others if you count the wedding scenes) but I 100% believe he is someone who likes wearing warm hats, scarves, and layers when he’s working outside. Compared to the hot season he’s escaping; this lets the lad actually break into his wardrobe! Okay, not too dramatic. Raguna isn’t stylish by any stretch, but he does have clothes and familiar pieces he likes to wear. Soft wool-lined pieces. Collars. What have you. COMFORT. COMFY.

Also sweaters. Girls wearing sweaters? Maybe that’s my bias.

Oh yeah. And Raguna grows a pumpkin patch to give to people to carve for the season!

He’ll carve some too! They look silly! Not very scary!

And he absolutely adores the markets and festivals.

But he doesn’t do the drinking thing still.

Anything else I’m forgetting? Hm.

[sloggervlogger]

Lope's Pad & Gorilla Family Biddy, Shufai, Ozala and Oumbi in Action by SloggerVlogger As people wanted to see Lope's family as well, I have both for you today. The family and Lope in his bachelor pad. I just got there when Gorilla Shufai came off the hut's roof and balanced along the new strap. He has to get a bit more practice as he was wobbling like a Jenga tower after a few too many moves lol. A quick upright walk before mum Ozala chased him away from the food. Even Ozala tested out the new smaller-length strap. She'll do anything to get her hands on those green beans. She crosses over again to the other side and once on the ground again she gets chased by the Oumbi the Silverback. Shufai found a tennis ball at the bottom. He has a good sniff at it and well then just stands up straight and throws it in the air. He walks up the hill and then hits the hut. Something he learned from his brother Lope. Gorilla Biddy was enjoying her snack in the sunshine on the other side. Unfortunately not for long as Oumbie came out and stole her branch from her and went straight back in. You can just see his bum, as I was just about to change the battery and stopped recording when he came out. Biddy was watching the door beforehand, so she kind of knew something was about to happen, I just thought I was quicker in changing the battery. Biddy seems to have a bald patch. Highly likely an insect bite where she scratched herself. She did get some food a bit later and she was able to eat all in peace inside. Unfortunately, Asante was only inside and it was too busy for me to film her there. Now to Lope in his bachelor pad. When I got there, he was looking at the tortoise again and all I could see was his foot. He's on the move again and stops at the end of a log to have a sniff. He kept himself mostly to the back where it is difficult to film. I got him when he walked passed me and then when he climbed to the top. Stopping to get something on the pole with one of his leg up in the air. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell for more! #SloggerVlogger #Gorillas #SloggerVloggerGorillas As you might know, Lope is in his bachelor pad and in quarantine for him to be moved abroad. The rumours are it's going to be France, Zoo Arcachon Basin, but there is still no confirmation. Calendars 2024 25% off at the moment : https://www.zazzle.com/collections/calendar_collection-119196175539509911?rf=238978496872225031 Christmas collection now available at Zazzle: https://www.zazzle.com/collections/christmas_collection-119896544832000696?rf=238978496872225031 The links are like my sidekicks – affiliated buddies! If you decide to buy something through them, I get a tiny high-five in the form of a percentage. And the best part? Your wallet stays blissfully unaware since there are no additional costs for you to worry about! via YouTube https://youtu.be/ujo1zhKjHFM