#reactive maintenance

[cimcondigital]

Transforming Predictive Maintenance with CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform: Unlocking Proactive Asset Management

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced and technologically advanced world, the need for efficient and proactive asset management is paramount for businesses to stay competitive. CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform emerges as a game-changer in the realm of Predictive Maintenance, empowering organizations to detect anomalies in advance using ML algorithms. This capability not only enables customers to plan schedules well in advance and avoid costly downtime but also provides real-time visibility into the remaining useful life of assets. In this article, we delve into how CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform revolutionizes Predictive Maintenance with practical examples of proactive asset management.

1. The Challenge of Reactive Maintenance

Traditionally, companies have been plagued by reactive maintenance practices, where assets are repaired or replaced only after failures occur. This reactive approach leads to unexpected downtime, reduced productivity, and increased maintenance costs. Predicting asset failures and planning maintenance schedules in advance is critical to ensure smooth operations, optimize resource allocation, and minimize overall downtime.

2. Empowering Proactive Maintenance with ML Algorithms

CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform is equipped with advanced Machine Learning algorithms that analyze real-time data from connected assets and machines. By continuously monitoring sensor data and historical performance trends, the platform can accurately detect anomalies and deviations from normal operating patterns. This proactive approach allows businesses to predict potential asset failures well in advance, providing ample time to schedule maintenance activities before any critical failures occur.

3. Planning Ahead to Avoid Downtime

Imagine a scenario in a manufacturing facility where a critical piece of equipment experiences an unexpected failure. The consequences could be disastrous, leading to costly downtime and missed production targets. With CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform in place, the same equipment would be continuously monitored in real-time. As soon as the platform detects any unusual behavior or signs of potential failure, it triggers an alert to the maintenance team.

Armed with this early warning, the maintenance team can plan the necessary repairs or replacements well in advance, avoiding unplanned downtime and minimizing disruption to production schedules. This capability not only ensures smooth operations but also optimizes maintenance resources and lowers the overall maintenance costs.

4. Real-Time Visibility into Asset Health

The IoT Edge Platform goes beyond detecting anomalies; it also provides real-time insights into the remaining useful life of assets. By analyzing historical performance data and asset health indicators, the platform estimates the remaining operational life of an asset with high accuracy.

Consider a scenario in a utility company managing a fleet of aging turbines. The maintenance team needs to know the remaining useful life of each turbine to plan proactive maintenance and avoid sudden breakdowns. With CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform, the team can access real-time information on the health of each turbine, enabling them to make data-driven decisions about maintenance schedules, parts replacement, and resource allocation.

5. Benefits of CIMCON Digital's IoT Edge Platform

CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform offers a host of benefits to businesses seeking to enhance their Predictive Maintenance capabilities:

a) Proactive Decision-making: By detecting anomalies in advance, the platform enables proactive decision-making, reducing reactive responses and enhancing overall operational efficiency.

b) Minimized Downtime: With the ability to schedule maintenance activities in advance, businesses can avoid costly downtime, leading to increased productivity and higher customer satisfaction.

c) Optimal Resource Allocation: The platform’s real-time visibility into asset health allows for better resource allocation, ensuring that maintenance efforts are targeted where they are most needed.

d) Cost Savings: By avoiding unexpected failures and optimizing maintenance schedules, businesses can significantly reduce maintenance costs and improve their bottom line.

Conclusion:

CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform empowers businesses to transcend traditional reactive maintenance practices and embrace a proactive approach to asset management. With the platform’s advanced ML algorithms, businesses can detect anomalies in advance, plan maintenance schedules proactively, and gain real-time visibility into asset health. This transformative capability results in minimized downtime, optimized resource allocation, and substantial cost savings. As CIMCON Digital’s IoT Edge Platform continues to revolutionize Predictive Maintenance, businesses can embark on a journey towards greater efficiency, productivity, and long-term sustainability.

[traqops]

Preventive Maintenance Software

Preventive maintenance (PM) is the regular and routine maintenance of equipment and assets in order to keep them running and prevent any costly unplanned downtime from unexpected equipment failure.

[ms-demeanor]

Hello,Do you have any tips for recovering from internet brain rot? It's like my patience has dried up and if there's a huge amount of text (even about topics I'm very interested in) that I have to read, I get annoyed and just don't interact with the material at all.

I have multiple tips!

TL;DR (Because of course I generated a wall of text): Take a break from the internet, create a schedule for getting yourself used to reading longer texts, take breaks while reading, and perhaps reconsider how you interact with The Internet and the world in general.

Here are the basic "to reduce the brain rot just don't interact" tips:

Take a break. Give yourself time off from The Internet (for these purposes The Internet is the social media industrial complex; clickbait news, recommended videos, social media sites, etc. You don't have to totally check out of email or your local news site, just get away from the huge time sucks). I'd say to take at least one day a week where you're online for less than an hour a day, and to maybe work up to doing a week-long break from whatever the main agents of rot are.

Once you've identified the main agents of rot, give yourself a time limit or set up rules for yourself. I don't let myself look at social media in bed, for instance; no staying up late on my phone, no scrolling before I get up and start my day. I don't give myself a strict time limit anymore, but for a while there I was very firm about "you only get to go online 4 hours a day" with myself.

Don't comment (or at least only share the things you really want to share). If you feel the need to argue, or if you feel pressured into sharing something, don't. Step back, maybe even open the post in a new tab or send it to yourself, and come back later. If you've been thinking about it and have decided it IS something you care enough to talk about, share it. If you look at the tab and feel stressed out or still feel reactive, close the tab and walk away.

Go out and interact with the real world in a non-work capacity for a few hours a week; take walks or go shopping or go out and take pictures of insects. Touch grass so that The Internet is not the only thing you're doing with your downtime.

Here are the "work on reading longer texts specifically" tips:

Set a reading goal for yourself. Maybe you want to read one New Yorker article a week, maybe you want to read all the way through news articles, maybe you want to read novels like you used to in high school. Figure out what your actual goal is and articulate that goal to yourself.

Set up a practice schedule and gradually increase the amount of time you're reading. Don't go from short tumblr posts to a novella, go from short tumblr posts to slightly longer news articles, then to slightly longer essays, then to a novella. You can do this in literal paragraphs if you want to - maybe your goal for your first day is to read five paragraphs in a row, and the second day is seven, and the third day is ten, etc, until you are comfortably reading for longer amounts of time without counting paragraphs. (Try this with books from gutenberg.org; read a classic you haven't read a few paragraphs at a time and if you find yourself going over your paragraph count, let yourself run with it. If you finish a book, good for you, find another one and start again.)

Set up a maintenance schedule. If your goal is to read longer news pieces, try to read a longer piece every week and try to read to the end of every news article you open. If your goal is to read novels or longer nonfiction, try to read a book a month (maybe setting aside dedicated time each week to read, maybe Thursday evenings are book time now). If you find yourself falling back into old habits, take a break from The Internet and do some more rigorous practice for a while.

If you find yourself getting frustrated while you are reading you can also take a break! Read until you get frustrated and then *instead of switching to a different page or closing the article* close your eyes or look out the window or away from the screen for thirty seconds (count 'em! count out the time in your head) and then continue reading. You can also take a longer pause and sit and think about why you're getting frustrated. Is it the subject matter? Is it just looking at this text for longer than a couple minutes (if you are experiencing FOMO because you're reading for another few minutes instead of scrolling, the harder tips at the bottom are going to be important to you)? Are you comfortable? Are you reading this text to procrastinate from something and the procrastination is making you nervous? Are you trying to read to the bottom of your dash and reading a long post is taking up more time than you want while scrolling? Are you bored? Genuinely and very seriously: are your eyes straining and does your head hurt (if this is the case when is the last time you had your eyes checked or your glasses prescription updated)?

Here are the much harder "examine yourself and reassess your reactions to things" tips:

Work on re-training your attention span.

Identify something that you enjoy and find deeply engaging, and schedule some dedicated time for that thing. Set a literal timer (it can be a short amount of time at first) and sit down and do the thing without switching to a different website or opening up an app on your phone. This can be re-reading or watching a couple episodes of a show you like or listening to your favorite album while you sit down and draw. What's important is to spend a longer time focusing on doing something you DO like before attempting to spend a longer time focusing on something you DON'T like.

When you're starting on things you DON'T like, start with things you mildly don't like, or that feel tedious but aren't actually unpleasant. One way I do this is by transcribing poetry; I look up poems that I connect to and I transcribe them into a notebook that I have for that purpose. I enjoy having the finished product, but I don't enjoy the process, so it takes some effort to stick with it. Maybe there is a boring book you have been trying to get through, maybe you need to detail your car, maybe you've been trying to take up embroidery - these are good things to make yourself pay attention to (having music or a podcast on can help, but avoid watching videos or opening social apps)

When you're okay at that kind of thing (doing something not actively unpleasant) work on your attention span for things you ACTIVELY don't like. I don't think you should be a masochist about this, but you should work on being okay with doing unpleasant things for a sustained period of time. All of us have to do unpleasant stuff sometimes, and it's better to be able to pay attention to it for an hour at a time than it is to put it off forever.

This leads into the next Big Tip which is:

Work on being less reactive

Find something that you dislike; I'm going to use conservative talk radio as my example.

Expose yourself to the disliked thing for short periods of time (under ten minutes, maybe under five minutes).

Work on moderating your emotions during the time spent exposed to the disliked thing. If it makes you angry, work on intellectualizing the anger without becoming agitated by it. If it makes you sad, work on accepting that sadness without letting it drag down your mood. This isn't precisely about becoming numb to stimuli, but it is about being more in control of how your emotional reactions impact you.

Analyze the disliked thing. Why does it make you angry? Is that on purpose by the creator of the thing? Would it make someone else angry in the same way? How would you explain the anger to a neutral third party?

Consider responding instead of reacting. Let's say you're seeing a lot of very sad and upsetting things online and it's making you sad and upsetting you. You re-share these things because you don't feel like there's anything else you can do or you get angry when you see people sharing incorrect information, perhaps you argue with people about this. Now try looking at the upsetting things through the lens of point number four. This has upset you; how has it upset you? And once you've thought about how it upset you and have articulated that to yourself, find out what you can DO. I cannot make conservative talk radio go off the air, but I can support the groups harmed by conservative talk radio; thus there is no point in me getting upset and angry about conservative talk radio when I could be helping the people they target instead.

And that gets us to the last big tip which is:

Ask yourself if you are spending your time in a way that is enjoyable and edifying.

We all have limited time in our days and limited time in our lives. If you are finding yourself frequently frustrated online, it's a good time to consider whether you want to be spending so much time online.

If you feel like The Internet has become a rat race in which you can't read more than a few paragraphs without getting frustrated, there's a good chance that not only are you spending too much time on The Internet, but you're also spending it on doing things that you don't particularly like.

A realization like yours, Anon, that you are getting frustrated with any longer texts, can actually be really helpful because it provides a good opportunity to look at what you're engaging with and consider the questions:

Is this something I enjoy?

Do I feel good when I do this thing?

And that's a great way to figure out how to get rid of things that are leading to your background frustration. Maybe that looks like paring down the list of blogs you follow, maybe that looks like unsubscribing from some youtubers and podcasts, maybe that looks like uninstalling apps, maybe that looks like blocking a whole bunch of people and terms on your socials.

I don't think that everything we do has to help us grow as a person or expand our consciousness or anything like that, but I do think it's important to prioritize doing things that you like and doing things that you feel good about.

Like, I'm not doing something *wrong* if I spend an afternoon on Youtube watching drama channels every once in a while, but if I come out of a few afternoons of watching youtube drama channels feeling restless and anxious and like I wasted my time - even if I enjoyed myself while I was watching - it's probably a good idea for me to take a break from drama channels and see if there's something I can do instead that will make me feel better.

ALSO, A NOTE:

You are an animal that requires significant enrichment in your enclosure.

Think about tigers. Tigers in captivity are going to be excited to get high-value treats for any reason. They will eat and enjoy the treats. But if a tiger in captivity is only given the treats and never given any other form of activity to engage with, it is not going to be a happy tiger. If you start putting their treats in a pumpkin or a puzzle feeder or giving them toys to play with, that is going to be a much happier tiger.

Please give your brain things to play with that are more than just treats (though it does need some treats!). Make yourself a happy tiger. Your brain need a puzzle feeder, not a treat button.

[rassicas]

The Art of Splatoon 3, pages 300 and 301, translated and typeset. The page features the map of the world of Splatoon 3, which had already been translated officially...mostly. There were a few landmarks present in the JP version that aren't in the english version. I went and added those missing landmarks and included the map as a separate higher res image. You can compare it to the official english version here. The names of the locations are pretty direct translations. Yokosuka peninsula and Chi-Ba (minus the dash) are real places in Japan. Kara Highway comes from how Bankara and Haikara both end in "kara"...if I were to localize it, I'd call it the InkSplat Highway... Atsugi oasis I assume is a play on atsugiri, a thick slice of food, and atsui, hot (???uncertain) I also took the liberty of changing "border zone" to "prefectural border". This implies Inkadia and the Splatlands are part of the same country, and is info present on the JP map, but not on the official english translation.

transcript of text under the cut...

Worldly Investigations We investigated a variety of places, and we discovered many fascinating things, such as traces of humanity, interesting structures, and more on the lives of marine creatures living in the present day. The following is a supplemental report of our investigation, with a map included.

The Splatlands A region located to the west of Inkadia. It consists of the Outer Splatlands Desert and its surrounding area, and has the second largest urban and economic area after Inkadia. The region is famous as a world-class tourist destination, with Scorch Gorge and the Splatlands Desert National Park still existing in their nature-rich prehistoric state. Numerous settlements have been scattered around rivers and the Crater since ancient times, and a unique and diverse culture has developed in the region.

Rocket Launch Pad The rocket was aimed for a new world separate from Earth, but an unfortunate accident occurred in the final stage of development, and the human race perished without the rocket taking off. The launch pad is in near perfect condition, and could be reactivated anytime, so as long as there is enough energy.

Undertow Spillway A huge underground flood bypass that was destroyed during the last great war. It had been abandoned for many years and garnered a negative legacy due to the enormous cost of dismantling it. However, when an area with relatively few collapses underwent maintenance and opened up as a battle stage, its popularity exploded. The longtime fans of the spillway loudly protested against the changes, but this opposition has subsided.

Trizooka A modified version of a special weapon once used in Inkopolis. A huge compressor fills the bottle with a huge amount of ink, and with compressed air, shoots the ink forward in a spiral. It's considered good manners to pick up the fallen bottles after battle.

Red Hammertreads Anakki has caught on to the latest trends, and has presented a collection of "looting"-themed footwear. The message of "Take what you want by force!" resonated with the boom of rough and rugged Splatlandian fashion, creating some die-hard fans. The motif of the collection is a gangster octopus, which has turned blood red with rage. This deep crimson color is symbolic of the collection.

[artfortytwo]

The IU-3 Billhook is, above all, a really bizarre mech. This was actually one of the first chassis designs produced by the PDR, a few months after they had already been facing down Purview teams, but it ain't your typical line mech. See, the Republic obviously can't outdo the Armory on quality or quantity in a straight up fight, so they got clever with these little bastards when a head on engagement was unavoidable. The first thing you'll notice is the giant tumorous growth of a shell hanging off the back. It's got a few minor hardpoints in it, along with a ton of reactive armor, enough to draw attention and make you assume it's a weakpoint that would cripple the machine if you took it out- but it's actually just an empty, detachable storage unit, only occasionally carrying some non-volatile supplies. The entire damn chassis is built like that, everything put in a weird place and disguised as something it isn't- even the joints have an annoyingly weird placement that makes maintenance a pain, but if that means offsetting the amount of bullets you have to pull out, I guess it's a win. Overall, it's substandard to even some outdated SP1 models, but with how cheap it is to build and how effective the gimmick can be, it sees a lot of use. That's just the thing, though, it's a gimmick. If the enemy knows what horseshit you're trying to pull, all you've done is bring a knife to a gun fight- so, usually, these things are the first units to see combat in any given conflict, and are outfitted for an alpha strike without regard to operating time or endurance. Single-shot weapons with fuck-off payloads, the works. On the high-mobility types that are built for repeated engagements, though, you've got a more standard loadout, and the storage unit gets filled to the brim with gyroscopes and reaction wheels alongside some crazy FCS that lets you get some damn good mileage out of the PD lasers in the antennae when you're up close.

i was having artblock trying to think of an idea and my friend said to me "hey, why don't you make a mech based on, i dunno, a snail?" and i told her "primrose pandora screamermod you are a fucking genius" and then spent 3 days making this thing along with the above flavor text for it. does this count as an oc, who knows but i'm posting it now because jegus dick it took a long ass time

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing a "Highly Sensitive" Character

Sensitivity - awareness of and responsiveness to the feelings of others; susceptibility to being easily hurt or offended

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) - often show heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as loud sounds, bright lights, or strong smells. They also tend to experience deep emotional reactions, empathy for others, and may need more time to recharge after social interactions or stimulating environments.

Traits of Sensitive People

HSPs have distinct traits that could be mistaken as symptoms but do not indicate a disorder. They can include the following (Aron, 2010):

HSPs feel everything deeply and more intensely than others, whether joy or sadness, pleasure, or pain.

HSPs' high sensitivity means they take great joy in the simple pleasures in life, making them low maintenance and easy to please.

Need a lot more downtime than others, thrive in silence, and need a slower pace of life. This means taking the time to relax and process experiences is essential for their wellbeing.

Take longer to make decisions than others due to the depth of information processing involved, including conducting a thorough risk assessment and proceeding with caution.

Change can pose problems for HSPs. Even positive change may result in high levels of excitement and anxiety simultaneously due to the overstimulation caused by new experiences.

Can find handling conflict and criticism challenging, as they tend to have very high expectations of themselves and are hard on themselves when falling short. Others’ additional criticism can feel overwhelming.

Tend to have a rich inner life, being more self-aware, creative, and insightful than less sensitive people. This is likely to draw them into exploring a spiritual path in life, especially contemplative practices like meditation. They also enjoy a deep appreciation of the arts such as painting, dance, and music.

Tend to avoid the negative overarousal caused by violent films and news coverage, which almost hurts them physically.

HSPs' vulnerability to overstimulation can lead to a tendency to withdraw in new or tense situations. This can lead to them being seen as shy or unsociable when many are extroverts who just need extra time alone to process things.

Prefer a small social circle full of love and support, which they return in abundance due to their high levels of empathy. Letting another person in takes time, but when an HSP becomes your friend, they are loyal and supportive through thick and thin.

A highly sensitive person is someone who processes sensory input and emotions more deeply than the average person. This heightened awareness makes them more reactive to both external stimuli and emotional experiences.

This is a trait characterized by sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), which identifies a highly sensitive person/personality (HSP).

The term HSP was first coined by the psychologist Elaine Aron (1996), who is herself an HSP. She and her husband devised the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS), which spawned further research into the trait, including its neurobiological origins (Aron & Aron, 1997).

Before that, Carl Jung was the first to recognize the importance of sensitivity and believed that it played a more important role than sexuality in an individual’s susceptibility to neurosis (Aron, 2004).

The terms HSP and SPS are often used interchangeably. In later research, Aron (2010) differentiated the HSP trait into 4 categories.

Depth of processing. HSPs process all types of information more deeply than others, are more reflective, and take longer to make decisions (Aron, 2010). Depth of processing occurs both consciously, through analysis of information conveyed by communication in relationships, and unconsciously, through gut feelings or hunches.

Overarousability. HSPs notice a lot more than others in the same situation or environment, including other people’s emotions (although they may remain unexpressed), noise levels, smells, and other aspects of the environment (Aron, 2010). This can be advantageous but can also lead to overarousal and chronic stress.

Emotional intensity or empathy. HSPs experience strong positive and negative emotions in response to a range of pleasurable and painful stimuli (Aron, 2010). This increases their sensitivity to others’ feelings, making them very empathetic.

Sensory sensitivity. HSPs notice subtle environmental stimuli that other people miss. This can help protect them and others in their social group from unforeseen dangers but can also lead to problematic levels of sensitivity to foods, medicines, pain, noise, and light (Aron & Aron, 1997).

The combined effects of the trait result in empathic, conscientious, cautious individuals, who may also be sensation seeking and relish novelty (Aron, 2010).

There is no correlation between the HSP trait and extroversion or introversion (Aron, 2010). However, an HSP will always carefully evaluate the risks before proceeding with an adventure, as their sensitivity counters impulsivity (Aron, 2010). HSPs tend to plan ahead and are excellent strategists.

From an evolutionary perspective, HSPs may have an oracular function in social groups due to heightened intuition and sensitivity to environmental cues (Acevedo, Jagiellowicz, Aron, Marhenke, & Aron, 2017). Highly sensitive members of around 100 animal species have been identified and often warn their group of dangers undetected by others, helping to keep them safe (Aron, Aron, & Jagiellowicz, 2012).

The HSP trait is not aligned with giftedness, which comprises only 3% of the population (Aron, 1996). However, research conducted by psychologist Elke van Hoof found that 87% of gifted people are highly sensitive (Koolhof, 2020).

HSPs also have a heightened aesthetic sense, being highly sensitive to beauty in nature and the arts (Aron, 2010).

HSPs are also more disturbed by ugly or coarse stimuli than less sensitive people and avoid violent action films and news coverage (Aron, 2010). They are also more likely to have vivid dreams and have a rich inner life (Aron, 1996).

While HSPs are more distressed by negative environments than less sensitive people, they also benefit more from positive, supportive, and nurturing environments (Aron, 2010). This is especially true during childhood, but HSPs also benefit greatly from counseling and psychotherapy to overcome childhood difficulties, leading to low self-esteem (Aron, 2002).

There are cultural differences in their experiences, too. HSPs are highly valued members of societies that value reserved, cautious behavior such as China, Japan, and Sweden, but less so in bolder, competitive cultures such as Anglo-American and some European societies (Ketay et al., 2007).

Smolewska, McCabe, and Woody (2006) conducted a factor analysis of the HSPS and found it comprises 3 distinct factors:

Awareness of aesthetics (AES)

Low sensory threshold (LST)

Ease of excitation (EOE)

Further analysis from Smolewska et al. (2006) found that higher AES indicators bestow more positive outcomes of the trait, including a more intense perception of subtleties and empathy, while higher LST and EOE scores tend to indicate more neurotic outcomes, such as anxiety, social withdrawal, hypervigilance, and overarousal. 

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[gold-onthe-inside]

corrective maintenance

a reactive maintenance strategy employed to restore a system, machine, or software to its optimal working condition after a failure or malfunction has occurred.

who? spencer reid (s7) x analyst!reader what? the much demanded sequel to greylist; your complicated and suppressed feelings for spencer result in an argument, the blowback of which leads to a fight with penelope. content warnings: a little more background to reader given (neglected childhood, not many friends) word count: 2.1k a/n: finally put this thing together, reader and i will both have eye strain by the time we're 60

It’s just past a quarter to 11 when you trudge back to the apartment, the painkiller Spencer had given you just barely dulling the ache in your head. You close the door with your back, slipping out of your heels, the keys clattering in the clay bowl, pink with white cat-eyes. “How was your night?” came Penelope’s voice, floating over with a cup of coffee, wearing a red silk robe.

“Don’t get me fucking started,” you muttered, finding the energy to peel your coat off and Penelope hid a giddy grin as she sipped her coffee.

“You stayed at his place, huh?” she asked and you glared at her.

“Yeah, because you didn’t have the decency to go to your boyfriend’s place. We have rules about this stuff, Penelope,” you said, exhausted. You didn’t want to get into another fight, not when it felt like a construction crew was working in your frontal lobe.

“Did you at least have fun?” Penelope asked, her voice hopeful, and you scoffed, remembering the last half of your argument with Spencer.

"Just cause I don't have the same weird co-dependency that you lot seem to have with each other doesn't make me lonely," you said, your head still hurting from the hangover, rummaging through your purse for a painkiller but all you found was a couple Altoids, and you hear the pop of a tablet beside you, Spencer standing there, holding out a Tylenol for you.

“Then explain why I was the only one you had to drink with last night,” he said, not unkindly, but he’s probing into areas you’re uncomfortable with. You barely talk about it with Penelope, and you live with the woman.

“Only because Penelope was busy,” you retorted, almost not taking the pill out of sheer spite, but your head hurt too much for you go through with it. You popped the tablet, fully aware that Spencer’s still watching you as you chase it with water.

“And if you didn’t have Penelope?” he asked softly and you look at him angrily. God, why was it so easy for him to get under your skin? “Face it, you’d have been drinking alone, because Penelope’s the only friend you have.”

“And what were you doing, Mr Friendly?” you snapped back. “Since we’re all about facing facts, you had nothing better to do on a Friday night than answer Penelope’s call?”

His face blanched, and if you’d been in a better state of mind, you’d have played it off with a joke, lightened the tension. You wouldn’t have pushed him so far. “Because I’m willing to bet the only reason Penelope called you is because you reliably wouldn’t have plans,” you continued, a sharp edge to your voice. “Derek, who’s always got a date, and Emily who’s always doing something new, and Hotch who’s got a kid at home, and JJ who has her family. So don’t tell me about how lonely I am, Dr Reid, before you take a long, hard look in the mirror.” You let out a breath, running out of steam, looking at Spencer’s hurt expression, his angular face all drooping. You almost apologise. Almost.

“At least I’m not a coward about it,” he said quietly. “At least I keep trying. You’d rather make people not like you than realise they wouldn’t like you after getting to know you. Because what happens when Penelope wakes up one day and leaves you?” When. Not if. The sting is too much, the lump in your throat choking you.

“I have to go home,” you said instead, and he doesn’t stop you this time, in your black dress with the cut-out waist, wrapped up in a coat.

“What?” Penelope demanded, almost a shriek as you finished telling her the story. “That’s… Oh my God, you two are cruel, why would you say that to him? Why did he say that to you?”

You rub your face, tired and sad, your eyes half-closing of their own volition. “I was just… My head hurt and he was trying to be nice, but it just… it was too much, Pen, and then he started reading into it, because fucking profilers and—”

“So you shut him down,” Penelope groaned, sinking her head into her hand, saying your name with such disappointment. “So much for hoping you two would finally get along.”

“I don’t understand your insistence on making us get along,” you said, pouring yourself a cup of coffee and Penelope scoffed.

“Because you’re both perfect for each other,” she cried, as if it was obvious. “Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t see it—”

“When have you ever been right in saying I can’t do something?” you ask, but she steamrolled over you.

“You’re both insanely smart, you have the same sense of humour, you both devour books, you banter, it’s a made-for-Christmas rom-com,” Penelope insisted, watching you look at her skeptically. “You’ve never even given him a shot,” she said softly. “He… He’s not like every other guy, you know that.”

“He hasn’t even asked for a shot—”

“He dropped everything on a Friday night—”

“Because you demanded it of him—”

“Because he likes you!” Penelope cried hotly, standing up from her seat at the kitchen table. “This whole argument, where you were so mean to him, was all because he was trying to take care of you.”

“I don’t want to be taken care of—” you cried out only for Penelope to interrupt with, “Bullshit!” You stared at her outburst, uncharacteristic of the cheery woman.

“Everyone wants to be taken care of,” she told you. “You wanna act like you’re so above it all because deep down, Spencer’s right. You’re scared. And I wish you weren’t because you’re so wonderful and smart and kind and one day you’re gonna push everyone who cares away because it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting to have to keep peeling layers away.” Penelope paused, catching her breath, looking at you, waiting for it to sink in. And it doesn’t.

“Then stop trying,” you said, as if it was that simple. The coffee was too bitter for you, and you leave your half-full mug to go shower, leaving Penelope stunned in the kitchen.

You stay in your cubicle all day, resigning yourself to your code, your pride keeping you from Penelope’s lair. You’d even left early, rather than your usual lazy commute to work in her car. Spencer’s not like Morgan, he doesn’t stick out from the rest of your co-workers, all computer nerds working on other projects, so you don’t see him approach you.

“For the last time, Jerry, I’m not reviewing your code for—” You looked up, pausing at Spencer’s hopeful face sticking up over your walls. “Oh. You.”

“Not the worst reaction I’ve had,” Spencer admitted and you let out a dry huff.

“I’ll break out into a rash for you next time,” you replied and he pursed his lips.

“How’s Penelope doing?” he asked, rather than playing along with your inane game.

“What do you mean?”

“Morgan said she took a sick day, which she hasn’t done since 2009, and I tried calling her but she wouldn’t pick up,” Spencer said and you frowned. “Is she okay?”

“I— She was fine last night,” you said lamely, your stomach bottoming out, and Spencer could read your expression of guilt far too easily for your comfort. “Don’t do that. Don’t profile me,” you snapped at him, standing up and grabbing your coat.

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You didn’t have to,” you retorted, starting to head out and dialling Penelope’s number while Spencer chased you.

“Can I at least know what happened?” he asked, hazel eyes on you with as much concern as they had last night. You tutted, hitting her voicemail and enter the elevator to head out, Spencer following you inside.

“You happened,” you muttered, pocketing your cell.

“What?”

“You happened,” you repeat, heated and angry, mostly at yourself. “You just had to pick a fight with me—”

“Hey, I was being nice to you—”

“And so I was pissed off when I got home—”

“And you unloaded it on her,” he filled in before putting on the receiving end of your glare. “You keep doing that, you’re gonna desensitise me to that look,” he pointed out and you sighed.

“Fine, yeah, I did, happy?” you asked bitterly and Spencer looked at you slumped back against the elevator, and he pushed the stop button, essentially trapping you both inside.

“No, and neither are you, and you never will be if you keep acting like this,” Spencer told her.

“I’m getting a little sick of being lectured to, Professor,” you snap at him and he frowns at you.

“And I’m sick of walking on eggshells around you,” he replied. “I don’t know what I did, but for some reason, you’re acting like a killer T-cell. So intent on protecting yourself that you’re destroying every relationship you have.”

“Oh please, the last thing I want is pity from you,” you scoff, stepping away from him.

“There it is, see?” he insisted. “It’s like a reflexive response, to push everyone away if they get too close. If you’re always alone, then no one can hurt you, right?”

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" you demanded.

“No, not when you’re just waiting for me to give up so you can be right,” he replied. “It’s classic avoidant attachment—”

“God, just stop!” you yelled at him. “Stop, stop trying to worm your way into my head!”

“That’s the thing, I’m not!” he insisted loudly, stepping closer to you and you back up against the wall. “You act like all I want from you is some intellectual spar, some— But I’m trying here! I’m standing in front of you right now, with nowhere to go, asking you to talk to me, actually talk to me.”

"About what?" you asked.

"Anything!" Spencer replied, his voice echoing. "You always have some smart-ass remark to throw at me, to just shut me up. So tell me what's going on, tell me why that's easier than just talking."

You look at him, speechless. His hand comes to his face, pushing his hair off his face as he looks away. “God, I sound like a crazy person,” he said, as though the realisation took him back. His hand fell to his side, and he turned to leave. “Just… Just go see Penelope before I make it worse, okay? I’m sorry,” he said, looking at you. “You’re just so confusing, and you have this way of pushing my buttons, and— God, I’m gonna shut up now.” He stepped forward to turn the elevator back on, pressing the buttons that kept him facing away from you.

You stayed by the wall, looking at him. "I'm not used to it," you said softly. "I don't... have people like you guys do."

Spencer paused, before turning back to you. "Penelope said you never talk about your childhood."

"There's not much to talk about," you said, scuffing the floor with your sneakers as the elevator went to the lobby. "My parents both worked long hours. Weren't really around. Didn't have a lot of friends growing up. And I got into tech, but when you're the only woman in the class..."

"It's not very welcoming is it?" he filled in the blanks, and when the door chimed, you found yourself not wanting to go. He stepped out, holding the lift open for you. "So how did you end up an FBI agent?"

"Get to do a lot more interesting work here than at Apple," you replied.

He lets out a sigh of recognition. “I felt the same way when I joined.” He smiles at you softly, gesturing for you to keep talking.

"I just... I dunno, I'm not wired for this stuff," you continued, stepping out of the elevator. "Friends, relationships... Coding's a lot easier."

“I can get that,” he nodded. “It’s easier, less complicated.” He let out a sigh, taking a step closer to you and you looked up. “I’m not gonna let you push me around anymore,” he added and you blinked at him.

“I figured.”

When he moved away, the relief you felt confused you. “Go talk to Penelope,” he told you. “I’m sorry I’m not great at this stuff, and that we fight a lot, and I’m always in the way but— but I want to get better.” He turned quickly, leaving you standing in the lobby, unsure of what just happened.

[b1asho]

Round one of the species introduction!!!!

Prectikar Master Post:

Here's some info on them, and if you want to see some other drawings I've done of them (albeit some occasionally older n crustier ones), check out my deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/blasho

Anyway let's get into a terribly long string of paragraphs about some of their info:

Prectikar are a large sentient species, usually standing at around 8-9 feet tall when fully upright and weighing anywhere close to or upwards if 1000 pounds

They are covered in feather-like fur (or is it fur-like feathers? They're occasionally branched like feathers, and all have quills, but some are more hairlike) due to the cold climate they evolved in, though length and thickness of it now varies by region.

They are omnivorous, and while they have many traits to help them hunt and kill, most of their diet tends to be plants.

Originally rush-down predators, they use their considerable strength to move in quick bursts and their specialized tusks to either ram prey to death or gouge into it as they grapple it.

Their jaw strength is also insane,with their skull actually sacrificing brain space in favor of it, which helps them eat pretty much anything they come across. They pay a lot of attention to food and cooking because of their high calorie needs and very sensitive nose/tongue.

They have manganese as an oxygen carrier is a result of the scarcity of other metals in their environment and potentially because of its general affinity for oxygen.

This causes their blood to be an amber/orange brown and shades of pink depending on its exposure to oxygen.

Through a network of cooperative bonding and other adaptations (like better oxygen retention in muscles and the easily carried size and longevity of the molecule) they’ve managed to bring this manganese transport molecule close to hemoglobin in terms of effectiveness, though they can also make use of manganese’s catalyst properties to temporarily push it to bring lots more oxygen to their tissues at a time (used for short bursts of speed and strength that allow them to take down large prey and plants for food).

their large body size (selected by their colder environment) lets them use their own high body heat to keep the O2 fixation and liberation going in their highly effective lungs.

An extensive understanding of their internal chemistry is unknown (aka gatekept by their colonizers/"uplifters" who ill get to later) but it seems like they also have a network of bacteria in their body just to manage the more reactive and damaging oxides that form, and to remove/convert the spent manganese into connective tissue and aid in bone maintenance.

They have higher calorie needs from keeping up the body temp and recycling/removing all that stuff, alongside just being big in general. Alongside a lot of sleeping, they also basically just eat all the time (compared to other species) to compensate, though their mammal-like fat retention and other metabolic adaptations for scarcity mean that they can handle long periods without resources(though this causes increasingly compounded problems for them)

Some other downsides include low tolerance of changes in oxygen levels (particularly low) and temperature levels, and poor adaptation to environments outside of their biosphere/without all the microorganisms since these things upset their delicate balance.

(part of why so many tribes were nomadic was/is to chase temperate and ‘warm’ seasons, even though to us that’s still cold. Prectikar living in human dominated areas often just take a lot of supplements with beneficial bacteria in them to cope with thr lack of that in their environent, and any food printers need an 'ink' cartridge containing these things or else theyre basically useless.),

They also experience faster general wear and tear from having constant complex and intensive chemical reactions(sometimes with dangerous chemicals) going on in their bloodstream and tissues.

( I’m not a biochemist, so if there’s any glaring issues with this then just explain it away to yourself with ‘they have a gland for that’ or ‘just don’t think about it actually’ which is what I did. I just wanted the fun color with a metal that can reversibly bond with oxygen :). )

They have one nasal passageway for smell/air and a second, bigger cavity for just vocalization (which they can’t breathe in from as easily).

This second cavity is between their first set of eyes, and has a phonic lip structure inside to produce higher pitched sounds.

The upper nasal opening has muscled nostrils that act as lips to further help control sound. The noise coming from here sounds very high to them, but to us it sounds like a nasally human voice, broken uobhere and there with squeaks, buzzes, and clicks).

They can pitch this nose voice very high, closer to dolphin-like clicking noises but not quite echolocation level.

Their throat vocal cords by their air sac are very long and thick, used for making very deep noises that carry long distances.

However, the vocal control they have through their mouth is very poor due to this and the inarticulate lips and tongue they have, and due to the more limited air they can bring in and out of it, so when speaking only through their mouth they sound a lot like seals or dogs and can only really go in short bursts before having to refill the sac.

Most of their languages are spoken with the nose and mouth sounds in tandem, where the high and low mix to make a more even sounding voice.

It’s fairly easy to understand them, but nearly impossible for us to truly speak any of their native languages, and if they wanted to they could also just start making sounds we cant hear.

They see it as strange that humans and other species speak with a single tone without difficulty.

The red flaps pictured on the drawing of their mouth and nasal passages can be moved to seal off the passage and direct airflow elsewhere.

The big red one in their throat acts as a “diaphragm” to fill and empty the air sac (which is left over from when their digestive and respiratory tracts were more connected like ours, but time in the water heavily shifted it to a more ‘blowhole’ type outline to help them breathe and vocalize from the surface).

The other flap by the air sac and its vocal cords moves upwards to block off the digestive tract whenever the mouth or nose is opened to allow air to be drawn in by this diaphragm.

The two red flaps making a pinched shape can move independently or with the other red flap, but never at the same time with each other. The main airway is always separate from the digestive tract, though the flap to the middle, non vocal nasal passage can be moved so that it’s a part of either the vocal nasal passage to draw in air or the air sac part to act as another resonance chamber.

Air can be drawn in by the diaphragm via open mouth and through the nose via open top red flap at the same time, and can be released at the same time, resulting in their near continuous double speak sound they use for their own language.

Their characteristic large tusks are retractable and housed in a cone-shaped bony socket on the side of their jaw.

A muscle is attached to the bony root of the tooth, and pushes it out. As it slides towards the front of the mouth, the cone socket narrows and wedges a protrusion on the tooth into a hole in the socket, and then the muscle stiffens, locking it in there.

When the tusk retracts, the muscle quickly jimmies the tooth forward then draws it back to get it out of the hole, and then pulls it back into the wider part of the socket.

This is mainly because their tusks are ever growing (but very slowly) but not great at self sharpening, and are their main weapon in self defense and hunting,so it seems this just happened to keep them safe.

If a tusk is broken, as long as it was not cracked at the root, it can be regrown with extensive time in the socket, but otherwise they stay safely stowed in da socket where the majority of its sharp edge can stay protected from chewing and other mouth stuff. Tusks won't start growing in until their teenage years.

They are primarily bipedal/ quadrupedal and switch between the two occasionally.

Knuckle walking helps distribute their top-heavy weight and give them more balance for long and short distance, while walking upright gives them better visibility, less stress on their neck/upper back, and quicker but unsteadier movement.

Their gallop/sprint utilizes both arms and legs to propel them forward in a gait halfway between a bear and a gorilla (since their big mid arms are set like a bears) to overtake prey after an ambush or drive them into the rest of the pack waiting elsewhere. Quad walking also helps them get around in buildings meant for species half their size.

Their hands are some of their only places without hair, but as they age, they loose it on their arms and face too.

Prectikar have different uses for each of their pairs of limbs, and have for all stages of their evolution.

The front ones specialized for grappling prey and grabbing things, and so have a ‘sprawling’ shoulder position like humans and have hands with relatively nimble fingers, the outer two are angled inwards but can also move in a pamprodactyl ish fashion (which acts as their version of a thumb, and lets them switch from big to little grabbing motions) .

Their mid limbs used to be wings with hands, and still have a basically zygodactyl finger position that was helpful for holding onto branches (with the backwards facing finger), but over time they have been converted into terrestrial knuckle-walking limbs, with the one that swings back and forth being brought forwards to walk or swung back to adjust grip on big things they want to move or for balance on unstable terrain like ice . The fingers on this one are big and clumsy, pretty much only useful for digging, walking, or slashing.

Their back limbs also used to be for grasping but were mainly counterbalances, but have now turned into plantigrade walking limbs (and much like humans, that’s pretty much all they use them for). All have nonretractable claws.

Prectikar are viviparous and usually give birth to litters of up to 8.

They have a specific mating season, where their dimorphic traits will become more pronounced.

Males in rut will shed the feathers on their throat sac region and it will become a bright ambery yellow color, and they will also grow in longer feathers on their butt region (in a fan shape for display purposes. The dont have a true post anal tail like humans).

They will also develop some of that pinkish orange/yellow on their chest skin. Females go throguh estrus cycles and will also grow a more prominent butt feather crest, as well as some very long feathers around their neck, shoulders, and abdomen for babies to hold onto.

Their skin patches turn a much brighter shade of yellow to help direct newborns to where they can feed from. Once they give birth, they will start making an oily and thick secretion across the skin patch which is collected into a divot which the infant licks from. Part of why the babies hold onto them is so they can constantly lick the 'milk'so they can grow.

Newborns come out blind and hairless, but quickly grow in a thick down and open their eyes so they can climb on mom.

Once they're weaned, they'll drop off and use the muscles they gained hanging on and climbing to start moving with the adults. They grow very fast, and canes are a common sight in teens to help deal with the rapid bone and muscle growth.

Usually, it is only during this season where chest/skin related nudity standards change to be more conservative, since showing those colors means youre down to fuck and so doing that is usually restricted to in private with their partner or for bachelors.

They have very strict binaries for sex and gender based on this seasonal divide and religion.

Most tribes show gender identity through a piercing on their lower nose for male or chin for female (so dont worry, the main guy up there is showing some male presenting chest outside of the mating season, so hes fine).

Normally, only some cultures pierce their ears, which are like if owls had a little mobile flap of outer ear to swivel I stead of their whole head. Very little of it is actually flesh, and the sound is mainly captured by the feathers around it.

While they have a reputation otherwise, Prectikar are highly social within their tribal/family groups.

They regularly allogroom, greet each other with hugs, and usually travel in sibling groups. Households are multi generational.

They have a reputation as standoffish or irritable because they take things very differently and have other standards/specific body language truggers. also most other species treat them differently/with fear by default.

their upper pair of eyes is larger and focused on long distance vision while their lower pair is for close up vision, creatign a bifocal effect for them when using both at once.

Aaaaaand that oretty much everything, I think. I'll post some other arts related to them soon, but consider this the Master Post on the things you should know about them!!

[carionto]

Ignition

Once the Galactic Coalition had (without other realistic options) given Humanity an equal position among the governing bodies, despite the fact they were a single planet race, the initial dread of what they would do eased. A little. When they showed how they powered their impossibly massive vessels, the fears of our ancestors who deemed the Responsibility Barrier a necessity reemerged a thousandfold.

The Humans, with a slight grin, said "Solar power, of course."

They took a delegation within the bowels of one of their smaller, civilian research craft, which was still bulkier, better armored, and more worryingly - better armed than most flagships of the other predator-races. Were we not able to see with our own eyes their actual, what they aptly call, Dreadnoughts, from distances you would normally need a telescope, we would have assumed this was their mightiest warship. Yet it was just one of hundreds.

As we passed through the ludicrously thick and seemingly excessive number of bulkheads and shielded and compartmentalized hallways, the ever present hum of raw power beneath our feet gradually became nerve-wracking. What is that? It reminded us of stories told by those who traveled near Black Holes - of the sheer vastness and infinite apathy they felt from the all consuming entities.

A dozen or so biometric gates later, we were greeted by a gigantic sphere, easily a hundred and fifty meters in diameter, an abomination of reinforced panels, wiring, heat pumps, and countless tubes, hanging from numerous power conduits in the middle of an even more massive chamber from behind our observation platform. A true, pure fusion reactor. And there were Humans, in full protective suits at least, working directly next to it within the ominous chamber.

"We wanted to give you a demonstration of our advances in the past millennia, so please observe as we turn on this one."

This one? As in... the power we were feeling was not from this monstrosity? We had to ask.

"Oh, of course not, this ship has three such reactors, we recently performed a full maintenance on this and decided to delay reactivating it for you to see."

The delegates' mouths (or equivalents) were agape. Sure, nuclear fusion is known far and wide, but due to it's high potential for cataclysmic failure, or worse, deliberate destruction, the vast majority of such reactors were mostly found in deep space stations where solar radiation was scarce. Background radiation converters, while efficient at what they do, were nowhere sufficient enough for anything more than as passive emergency battery chargers. And no civilization kept fusion reactors anywhere near populated or colonizeable planets.

Yet here they were, looking at one nearly five times larger than any other known or attempted. And there were three on this ship alone. They counted hundreds of similar size, a few dozen of their Dreadnoughts, thousands of smaller vessels ferrying between the stations, the surface, and other larger ships. Countless world ending bombs-in-waiting right around the Humans' only home.

"Yeah, us science ships get the biggest ones, kinda need the extra oomph for our projects. The military kids like their redundancies, so theirs are smaller."

A slight relief.

"I think their newest capital ship, the UGSF Caliban of York, has fifteen, each about half ours."

A few delegates passed out. Their attendants rushed to salvage some dignity, but Captain Knoslark of this vessel, The Radiant Dusk at Everest, didn't seem surprised or offended and simply waited for the delegation to regain composure before continuing.

"This is my favorite part."

He said quietly with a glint in his eyes, then his tone changed to a more formal and authoritative one.

"Chief Engineer Ira Tameki, status of Reactor 2."

"All green, Captain. She's ready to purr to life at your command."

"Good. Then," his tone shifted once again, to a far more theatrical one as he took a pose, half turning his body and extending his right hand towards the reactor, index finger pointing dramatically. As he pronounced every syllable of the next word, there was a silent resigned sigh from his crew:

"ignition!"

Outwardly, nothing of significance changed. The engineers clicked at their consoles, bars slowly rose and everyone was deliberately doing their best to make it clear they were ignoring the fact that the captain was still in the same pose.

There was a muffled thump from the chamber, then the hum beneath their feet became a rumble for a few moments before steadying back to a now slightly more intense almost-buzz. Physically, nothing all that noteworthy. Mentally, everyone in the delegation was in true shock as they fully understood what they had just witnessed done all too casually:

The birth of a star.

[museaway]

this is going to sound ridiculous because I am talking about an animated television show that ran for two (2) entire years on netflix, but damn did that beloved lion cartoon fuck me up. I'm not the only one. I can't count how many conversations I've had about this since the finale. that was December 14, 2018.

(just googled that and it was apparently 6 years, 6 months, and 6 days ago. ha. hahahahahaha. cursed.)

about two weeks ago, I finally had the stomach to re-read my sheith fics (the only one I could touch for years was klance). and it was like that scene in Jurassic Park where Ellie has switched the power back on and the lights are rapidly illuminating in the maintenance shed (right before the raptor tries to get her! the raptor is my ship feelings!).

it's weird that I am so emotionally hung up on the way a TV show ended, but it truly left me bereft. when I started watching, I was in my just-divorced-not-doing-so-hot era at the time, and I think I expected the show wouldn't hurt, that it could be something safe to watch and a safe fandom to join (I was blessed & never did have a fated anti run-in).

losing that show was almost like a breakup. I think that's why I've stayed upset about it.

but it doesn't feel bad anymore. I'd thought many times of offloading my merch, and now I'm so glad I didn't let any of it go. I have the standee from Syn back out on the shelf, I wore one of my necklaces to work, the missing scenes from tivos's unfinished sequel are pouring out, and I burst out crying looking at an older piece of art just now. in the past few days, I've seen other sheith friends wandering back. some klance friends managed rewatches last year. Syn and I are going to run a ship week next June for show's 10th anniversary. I'm so glad it's not just me feeling better.

I read the final fic this morning, the one where I handwaved the last season as Keith's hospital fever dream. I remember sobbing while that thing poured out; I literally wrote it on the floor. Jess did the beta. (a few weeks later, she would send me a new animated show called Mo Dao Zu Shi.)

anyway, I'll be working on this fic for the next couple months if your feelings have also reactivated and you need some company.

[bedbugbiting]

I have had one hell of a night. Day. Whatever.

I was preparing to take a bath before bed last night, and while running bath water, I heard a strange noise. The noise kept repeating. The cats clearly heard, it too. I turned off the bath water and found that it was my smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector. I JUST had a new one installed last month so I knew it wasn't a dying battery. There was no smoke, and the carbon monoxide alarm actually talks when there's carbon monoxide detected, so it wasn't that.

I looked at the alarm and there was water pouring out of it. Water. Pouring out of my smoke alarm. The smoke alarm didn't like this and decided to make incessant chirping sounds. Most of you know how I feel about high-pitched repetitive sounds.

I hit the button to stop the alarm but it didn't work. I removed the alarm from the ceiling and water poured down. I put an old dish tub on the floor to catch the water.

At this point, the alarm decided to go off at its full volume. I stopped it, but it kept going off. Again, again, and again. This was after 10pm and I knew my neighbors could hear. I am absolutely terrified of anyone complaining about me, so I ended up deactivating my alarm entirely just so it would shut up. You can't reactivate those things, so I just don't have an alarm now. My ears are still ringing from holding a shrieking alarm.

At a bit before 4am, the cats got into a massive fight. Maggie got soaked because she jumped into the dish tub with the rusty leak water. She also poured rusty leak water onto my dirty laundry. It was already dirty, but now it's rusty, wet, and dirty.

I had to separate the cats. Maggie was wet and growling. They knocked over everything on my nightstand. Art on the wall was crooked. They were doing angry cat parkour.

I had to get up early to babysit for my friend. Then I have art class. Then I have a concert I'm going to but would rather not. I don't have time to deal with maintenance and this leak or whatever is happening.

I am so tired.

This is the second ceiling leak I have had recently. The first one caused water to come in through my bathroom light fixtures. They told me it originated from the bathroom directly above mine. This time, the water seemed to come from me, and it stopped dripping once I stopped running bath water, so maybe I just can't bathe anymore.

I haven't used my dishwasher in a year and a half because it was leaking downstairs. They "fixed" it, but I don't trust them!

I have to tell my landlord "HEY, I have rusty water coming into my apartment and also I don't have a smoke detector even though you JUST installed one. Can you come back and fix this? Great." You all know how much I love dealing with my landlord!

When this stuff wasn't happening, people were screaming for a recently-evicted drug dealer next door. My head hurts and I'm so, so sleepy.

Evidence of cat parkour:

[alien-shmalien]

Pllllzzzzz ramble about debug pllllzzzz!!!!!

EEEEEE YAY!!!!!!

So!!! Debug! (her post if u dont know what im talking about :3)

Debug is my Regretevator oc whos mostly focused on the concept of the Melanie Clones and the Infection! (if you're unaware of what i mean by the melanie clones, in the "melanie recovery log" Scag says she might clone her... and well, Dupes of Melanie are easily gathered in the Elevator so!! I think theyre scag made clones :3) The idea is she (debug) WAS a melanie clone made by scag, who was friends with kasper before his infection, and was present when That happened, and it corrupted her system. She was shut down, and presumed dead, and... well, promptly thrown out in the trash. Resident junkyard scrapmetal hoarder Pest showed up and started to tear her apart for her parts and internals- which were all infected, and nearly unusable. He was simply going to break her down for her metals, when he accidentally reactivated her, and she booted into an empty personality state, and was only capable of saying [DEBUG NEEDED], an error code warning about the infection!

(this is completely unreadable i know, but the gist is he activated her again and she started mimicking him)

So, as a sort of Pet Project, Pest took her in to try and repair her!

Nowadays, her personality is heavily influenced by Pest, Kasper, Melanie, and leftover files from her previous state as a Melanie. She's kinda a dick, but also a lovable dick LOL

Debug lives with Kasper and Unpleasant, and is besties with Kasper, and has a father daughter situation with Pest due to how much he takes care of her :3

If you ask him if he sees Debug as his kid, he would say no, but ... we know what he is

^ this one is a dream sequence of a bigger comic

she has a whole situation going on where people cannot stop mistaking her for Melanie, and she HATES it. only a few people know her as Debug, because most just see "tv rabbit" and think Melanie, and even worse, some particular people exclusively see her as a busted melanie clone that needs fixing. She has a hard time knowing who she is herself, so people saying it make her really upset

Her infection also causes her really bad pain, as it's corroding away at her internals, and sometimes even turning them into new things, so she requires constant maintenance and ALOT of parts and scrap- but Pest tries his best to keep up with it, and with Melanie's help, they keep her running fairly smooth.

But, she feels... guilty. Pest drives himself sick to find her new parts and take care of her, even more so when her infection flairs and gets worse, and she has to keep fighting for her individuality as something More than just a melanie clone... and well, the desire to be less of a "burden", and to be more than just a "broken melanie", she's started to look into some... not so great avenues. (please note that if you need help, you are not a burden! She simply thinks this way)

(^ a mockup of some of her elevator dialogue with Melanie!)

However, besides all that, she runs a little shop behind the apartment complex, called the Bugsnare Shop, which sells a bunch of things she borrows* from other shops, with a huge markup. It does fairly well though, and is how she pays her part of the rent, besides shaking down Unpleasant for any coins it hides away.

I. Am ill about her. if you cant tell. ive got whole write ups for her relationships with the NPCS. ive got SO MUCH on her relationship with Pest. shes got weird beef with Bive.

I EVEN MADE HER ACHIEVEMENTS AS YOU SAW FROM HER ORIGINAL POST. IM ACTIVELY WORKING ON GETTING DIALOGUE WRITTEN AS IF SHE WAS AN ACTUAL NPC.I NEED TO LEARN TO 3D MODEL TO MAKE HER. GRIPS HEAD. DEEEEBUGGGGG

[brownsugar-dreams]

Another Approach To Online Sugaring

Recently I took a break from dating. The dating apps can get exhausting and sometimes you’re just not in a place where you have the physical/emotional energy to get dressed up and go out. I didn’t want the money to stop, so I decided to start camming again but only for online sugar dating(OSD)/girlfriend experience (GFE). It’s been such a success I decided to make a post about it.

When I reactivated my no face cam accounts, I started casually talking to users in my chat rooms. There were a good share of users who just want to chat. If you have an outgoing personality, this is really easy and comes natural. We would talk about all sorts of things from what they do for work/fun, casual interests, kinks. I’d tell them stories, my POVs on pop culture topics, fantasies, made up stuff. At this point I noticed specific users were tipping in the general chat. I focused on those users and made sure to show them the most attention and they continued to tip. They’d often initiate a private session (more $ per min) and we’d continue chatting.

If you’re consistent with signing in at least 1-2x a week, it’s easy to find someone who adores you. I created a Snapchat (SC) profile and advertised it on my cam site as a way for users to connect with me 1:1. Set it up so they have to pay to get the username. Using SC, I posted no face pics with a link to my wishlist/cashapp and sparingly answered messages (mostly messages inquiring about pricing/services never free endless chatting). Later I created a price menu for services offered and shared that from time to time on my story. Once a relationship is established, it’s super easy to straight up ask for money. Since they met you on a paid cam site they already know what’s up so don’t let anyone pretend to be naive or use your time for free.

Overall this has been a flexible way to earn money that is relatively easy and low maintenance. Most of these clients are lonely and desperate for female attention so making each feel special is the key.

Things to Note/Logistics

I personally don’t show my face by having the cam positioned from the neck down. But other no face cam girls have talked about using full or half face masks to conceal their identity. Given the nature of “professionalism” in our fields I can understand a lot of us wanting to preserve our identities. But do what you’re comfy with! I’d suggest no nudity in free chat otherwise users will be less likely to pay for private.

Each cam site is different and pays differently. Most let you adjust your price settings as you like. I researched the sites with the most consistent/quickest payout schedule and reputation by searching Reddit posts and cam girl forums. I picked my favorite sites shared below.

To maximize earnings, I stream multiple sites at a time by opening tabs. Some use OBS software but I haven’t had the time to figure out how to incorporate that yet.

I changed the settings to allow only users with money to participate in chat. This helps reduce hecklers and incels looking for a free show.

Sites have varying popularity during different times/day. Keep that in mind when starting out so that you can develop a schedule. We’re busy professionals irl so making sure to cam on days/nights that have the most earning potential saves a lot of time.

Different clients have different needs so it’s important to be flexible and only take on clients you’d be comfortable with. I have clients that want me to be bossy and mean while others want a more traditional GFE where they’re the caretaker (think MTS “daddy am I your baby” type of thing lol).

Tips to Earn More

Share your wishlist in your bio across platforms. I like to use throne.

Create a links page and share to let your big spenders get notified when you’re online. I use beacons

I use sextpanther to supplement on weeks that are too busy to cam. I love the convenience of texting and it yields good money.

If you want to incorporate toys in your private shows when you’re starting out, use Aliexpress to order cheap toys. Eventually when you gain a consistent following, I suggest making the guys pay for anything they’d like to see you use and of course non sexual gifts for you too!

Keep a list/diary of users to keep track across platforms. Make note of their interests/kinks/imp things they’ve shared so you can refer to it during sessions.

Successful Cam Sites: CB CS

Keep working towards your goals!😘❤️✨

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Projects continue apace. My current (Jan 2025) focuses are

Processing the paperwork for incorporation (LLC with long term goals of NFP or cooperative structuring)

We've moved onto product testing folks! Some of the things we're working on all designed in tandem with my lovely wife @loreofthejungle: cloth dolls and Creature Plushies (weighted and unweighted, all designed by @loreofthejungle and patterned by me!), stickers, embroidered pieces (buttons, pins, bookmarks, pendants), and scent pack pairings for other items

Continuing to develop the Pilot Program for Community Food Forestry as a protective feature against food insecurity in the region (build greenhouse and continue to build modular chicken run, monitor hurricane and flood resilience, track supply capacity and timeline, plant appropriate food crops and companion flora, discuss "food fridge" shed affiliation with local food banks and coordinate to fund the construction, etc)

Purchasing equipment for long term growth and expansion (carpentry tools, looms and spinning wheels, sewing findings and notions, wire and bead work equipment, smoker and hot house, etc)

Continue monitoring and documenting Canine Behavioral Rehabilitation model for maintenance of recovery from stress-related reactivity (track recovery of current subjects, monitor the human-canine clinical interactions and their role in prognosis and recovery, document the process and identify common areas of resistance, setback, or difficulty, etc)

Document and create educational/outreach material for Stress Modeling and anti-psych community mental health initiatives/alternatives suggested by the research

Maintain access to infusions (current access to specialist who can prescribe is delayed until Sept. 2026 with some possibility of sooner availability via consultation with non-specialist care management) to manage the severity of my OH/dysautonomia symptoms and reduce my risk of falling/head trauma

If you want to help me with my work or support me in doing what I do, there are a few options!

I accept cash donations and can currently do so digitally via: Venmo at morbidly-queerious, CashApp at $RazTalks

You can send digital gift cards to the email subsistence_botanicals@proton.me from any of the following online shops: webstaurantstore.com, seedsavers.org, southernseeds.com, sowrightseeds.com, tractorsupply.com, rowhouseyarn.com, dickblick.com

It's not necessarily my preference due to the company practices, however here is an Amazon Wishlist for those who may prefer to purchase specific gifts or donations for the work. It includes low-, mid-, and high-budget options, and the most helpful items are typically either seeds or animal feed, but folks are always welcome to reach out and ask directly if there are any currently pressing needs!

As always, I would prefer people only support us if they can genuinely do so in comfort and without sacrifice. We do the work we are doing so that we and others can be safer, not for anyone to put themselves at risk to support us.