#scale 1/160

[swirling-orbs-of-disorder]

Cafe Latte Swamp by Tatsuya Tanaka

泡の上ではあわてない a relaxing ride through the foam

[trainsinanime]

I have a cold and I'm tired, so I'll post better pictures later, especially ones of the new T-Trak module I recently built. But I did want to show at least this little thing I did with some of the leftover material. Not all of the leftover material, though. I have so much leftover wood strips…

Anyway, this is a very small section of a North American style railroad trestle (I think they're also a thing in Australia?), based on plans by the Great Northern, but then adapted with more bracing because I think that looks better. The height is chosen so that it can be connected to T-Trak modules if you replace the connectors. The track is… I don't actually know. Might be Minitrix? Something I found on my desk.

The wooden structure is all built by hand, out of 2x2 mm balsa wood (main frames), 3x3 mm pine (the sections under the plastic track piece and 1x1 mm linden for the bracings in the longitudinal direction. All cut by hand with a sharp cutter knife (except the 3x3 mm pine, I used a tiny saw for that) and glued together with wood glue.

The locomotive is either Athearn or Atlas, I can never remember which of these is which. I think Atlas. And yes, the rear truck isn't on the rails properly, as I said, I'm sick.

This project was a lot of fun, as was the full T-Trak module (I'll post about that later, hopefully in a couple of days), but also sometimes a bit annoying. I know a couple of places that I could do better, but the main one is the ties. They should be much wider for a bridge like that, but I am not aware of commercially made wide ties. Maybe I'll need 3D printing for that, because I don't think gluing rail profiles to wooden ties is the proper solution. Still, it looks neat as it is. Feel free to ask questions if you have any!

[wncrails]

Finally back at the work bench. Finished up adding decals to this Delaware Valley Airslide. Also added an etched metal walkway from Plano Model Products.

[albonium]

where do you guys get mini helmets? i want to get an alex one but there isn’t any on the kind of serious websites i looked at

[reasonsforhope]

"A 1-megawatt sand battery that can store up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy will be 10 times larger than a prototype already in use.

The new sand battery will eliminate the need for oil-based energy consumption for the entire town of town of Pornainen, Finland.

Sand gets charged with clean electricity and stored for use within a local grid.

Finland is doing sand batteries big. Polar Night Energy already showed off an early commercialized version of a sand battery in Kankaanpää in 2022, but a new sand battery 10 times that size is about to fully rid the town of Pornainen, Finland of its need for oil-based energy.

In cooperation with the local Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö, Polar Night Energy will develop a 1-megawatt sand battery capable of storing up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy.

“With the sand battery,” Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, said in a statement, “we can significantly reduce energy produced by combustion and completely eliminate the use of oil.”

Polar Night Energy introduced the first commercial sand battery in 2022, with local energy utility Vatajankoski. “Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy,” Markku Ylönen, Polar Nigh Energy’s co-founder and CTO, said in a statement at the time. “The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.” ...

Sand—a high-density, low-cost material that the construction industry discards [Note: 6/13/24: Turns out that's not true! See note at the bottom for more info.] —is a solid material that can heat to well above the boiling point of water and can store several times the amount of energy of a water tank. While sand doesn’t store electricity, it stores energy in the form of heat. To mine the heat, cool air blows through pipes, heating up as it passes through the unit. It can then be used to convert water into steam or heat water in an air-to-water heat exchanger. The heat can also be converted back to electricity, albeit with electricity losses, through the use of a turbine.

In Pornainen, Paajanen believes that—just by switching to a sand battery—the town can achieve a nearly 70 percent reduction in emissions from the district heating network and keep about 160 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually. In addition to eliminating the usage of oil, they expect to decrease woodchip combustion by about 60 percent.

The sand battery will arrive ready for use, about 42 feet tall and 49 feet wide. The new project’s thermal storage medium is largely comprised of soapstone, a byproduct of Tulikivi’s production of heat-retaining fireplaces. It should take about 13 months to get the new project online, but once it’s up and running, the Pornainen battery will provide thermal energy storage capacity capable of meeting almost one month of summer heat demand and one week of winter heat demand without recharging.

“We want to enable the growth of renewable energy,” Paajanen said. “The sand battery is designed to participate in all Fingrid’s reserve and balancing power markets. It helps to keep the electricity grid balanced as the share of wind and solar energy in the grid increases.”"

-via Popular Mechanics, March 13, 2024

--

Note: I've been keeping an eye on sand batteries for a while, and this is really exciting to see. We need alternatives to lithium batteries ASAP, due to the grave human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by lithium mining, and sand batteries look like a really good solution for grid-scale energy storage.

--

Note 6/13/24: Unfortunately, turns out there are substantial issues with sand batteries as well, due to sand scarcity. More details from a lovely asker here, sources on sand scarcity being a thing at the links: x, x, x, x, x

[robertreich]

10 Worst Things About The Trump Presidency

Donald Trump left office with the lowest approval rating of any president ever. But some people now seem to be suffering from amnesia.

Let me jog your memory. Here are 10 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency — in no particular order.

#1. Trump fueled division and sparked a record uptick in hate crimes.

#2. Murder went way up under Trump. He presided over the largest ever single-year increase in homicides in 2020. A number of factors might have contributed to that, but a big one is…

#3. Gun sales broke records under Trump, who has bragged about how he “did nothing” to restrict guns as president in spite of…

#4. Under Trump, America suffered more than 1,700 mass shootings.

#5. Trump said there were "very fine people" among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

I’m halfway to ten. If you think I’m missing something big, leave it in the comments.

#6. Trump allied himself with the Proud Boys, a violent hate group who helped orchestrate the Jan 6 Capitol attack.

#7. Trump’s not wrong when he says…

TRUMP: I got rid of Roe v. Wade.

It is entirely because of Trump’s judicial appointments that 1 in 3 American women of childbearing age now lives in states with abortion bans.

#8. One of Trump’s Supreme Court justices was Brett Kavanaugh, a man accused of sexual assault by multiple women.

#9. Trump’s White House interfered in the FBI’s investigation of Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assaults.

And now: #10. Trump has been convicted of committing 34 felonies while in office. The criminally false business filings he got convicted for in New York? All of them were committed while he was president.

I’m sorry, did I say the 10 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency? I meant 15.

#11. Trump’s failed pandemic response is estimated to have led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths. By the time Trump left office, roughly 3,000 Americans were dying of covid every day. That’s a 9/11-scale mass casualty event every single day. How did Trump screw up so badly?

#12. Trump’s White House discarded the pandemic response playbook that had been assembled by the Obama administration.

#13. Trump disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team.

#14. Trump repeatedly lied about the danger of covid, saying it was no worse than the flu or that it would go away on its own.

But behind closed doors, Trump admitted he knew covid was deadly.

#15. Trump promoted fake covid cures like hydroxychloroquine and even injecting people with disinfectants.

After Trump’s “disinfectant” remarks, poison control centers received a spike in emergency calls.

That’s fifteen things. Should I keep going? Ok, I’ll keep going. The 20 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency.

#16. Trump presided over a net loss of 2.9 million American jobs — the worst recorded jobs numbers of any U.S. president in history.

#17. Trump profited off the presidency, making an estimated $160 million from foreign countries while he was president.

#18. Trump also billed the Secret Service over $1 million for the privilege of staying at his golf clubs and other properties while they protected him. That’s your money!

#19. Trump caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history when he didn’t get funding for his border wall, which he said Mexico was going to pay for.  

#20. Under Trump, the national debt increased by about 40% — more than in any other four-year presidential term — largely because of his tax cuts for the rich and big corporations.

You didn’t really think I was stopping at 20, did you? We’re going to 25 —

#21. Trump separated more than 5,000 children from their parents at the border, with no plan to ever reunite them, putting babies in cages.

#22. The Muslim Ban. Yes, Trump really did try to ban Muslims from entering the country.

#23. Trump sparked international outrage by moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem while closing the U.S. mission to Palestine.

#24. Trump tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner with drafting a potential Middle East “peace plan” with zero Palestinian input.

#25. And finally, Trump recognized Israel’s occupation of the Goh-lahn Heights, which is considered illegal under international law.

So there you have it, folks: The 25 Worst — Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did I mention the impeachments? We’ve got to do the impeachments. Let’s go to 30.

#26. Trump broke the law by trying to withhold nearly $400 million of U.S. aid for Ukraine in an effort to extort a personal political favor from Ukraine’s Pres. Zelensky. Trump wanted Zelensky to interfere in the 2020 election by announcing an investigation into the Bidens. Delaying this aid to Ukraine weakened Ukraine and strengthened Russia.

#27. Trump personally attacked and ruined the careers of everyone who stood in the way of his illegal Ukraine scheme, including Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman.

#28. To cover up the scheme, Trump ordered the White House and State Department to defy congressional subpoenas.

#29. For these reasons, on December 18, 2019, Trump became the third U.S. president to be impeached. He was charged with Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.

#30. Even while he was being investigated for trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the U.S. election, Trump publicly called for China to interfere in the election.

So those are the 30 Worst Things —

I’ll go to 35.

#31. Long before Election Day, Trump started making false claims that the election would be rigged.

#32. After losing, Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen, even though his own inner circle, including his campaign manager, White House lawyers, and his own Justice Department and attorney general told him it was not.

#33. Trump kept telling his Big Lie even after more than 60 legal challenges to the election were struck down in court, many by Trump-appointed judges.

#34. Trump ordered the Department of Justice to falsely claim that the election “was corrupt.”

#35. Trump and his allies used threats to pressure state leaders in Arizona and Georgia to falsify the election results.

We may go to 40.

#36. When none of the previous schemes worked, Trump and his allies produced fake electoral votes cast by fake electors in multiple swing states. His former White House chief of staff and Rudy Giuliani are among the many members of his inner circle who have been criminally indicted for this scheme.

#37. Trump tried to bully Vice President Pence into obstructing the certification of the election.

#38. Trump invited a mob to the Capitol on Jan 6 with his “be there, will be wild” tweet.

#39. Sworn testimony alleges that when Trump was warned that members of the crowd were carrying deadly weapons, he ordered security metal detectors to be taken down.

#40. Knowing the crowd had deadly weapons, he ordered them to go to the Capitol and…

TRUMP: …fight like hell.

#41 — Yes, yes, I know, bear with me.

Trump betrayed his oath to defend the nation by doing nothing to stop the Jan 6 violence. Instead, according to witness testimony, he sat and watched TV for hours.

#42. On January 13, 2021, Trump became the only president ever to be impeached twice. This time he was charged with incitement of insurrection. It was a bipartisan vote.

#43. The majority of senators — 57 out of 100 — voted to convict Trump, including 7 Republican senators.

So that’s the two impeachments and the Big Lie, but wait, we haven’t dealt with Russia, right? So we’re going to 50.

#44. In a likely obstruction of justice, Trump pressured then FBI Director James Comey to stop the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn. This was documented in the Mueller report.

#45. When Comey didn’t bend to Trump’s will, Trump fired him.

#46. Trump tried to shut down the Mueller investigation by ordering White House Counsel Don McGann to fire Mueller. McGann refused because that would be criminal obstruction of justice.

#47. When news got out that Trump tried to fire Mueller, Trump repeatedly told McGann to lie — to Mueller, to press, to public — and even create a false document to conceal Trump’s attempt to fire Mueller.

#48. Trump ordered his staff not to turn over emails showing Don Jr. had set up a meeting at Trump Tower before the 2016 election with representatives of the Russian government.

#49. Trump convinced Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and Cohen served prison time for lying to Congress.

#50. Trump was not charged for criminal obstruction of justice because it’s the Justice Department’s policy not to indict a sitting president, but more than a thousand former federal prosecutors who served under both Republicans and Democrats, signed a letter declaring there was more than enough evidence to prosecute Trump.

So those are the 50 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency. Now I could go on…

And I will! The 75 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency.

#51. Trump said he’d hire only the best people, but…

His campaign chair was convicted of multiple crimes.

So was one of his closest associates.

His deputy campaign chair pleaded guilty to crimes.

So did his personal lawyer

His National Security Adviser

The Chief Financial Officer of his business

A campaign foreign policy adviser

And one of his campaign fundraisers.

They all committed crimes, and Trump pardoned most of them.

#52. Trump said he’d drain the Washington swamp. But he appointed more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls to his administration than any administration in history

#53. Trump intervened to get his son-in-law, Jared Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.

#54. Trump hosted a Russian Foreign Minister to the Oval Office, where Trump revealed top-secret intelligence.

Oh, and Trump’s economic policies!

#55 Trump promised that the average American family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of his tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. How’d that work out? Did you get a $4,000 raise? Of course not! Nobody did!

#56. Trump vowed to protect American jobs, but offshoring increased and manufacturing fell.

#57. Trump said he would fix America’s infrastructure, but it never happened. He announced so many failed “infrastructure weeks” they became a running joke.

#58. Trump said he would be “the voice” of American workers, but he filled the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union flacks who made it harder for workers to unionize.

#59. Trump’s Labor Department made it easier for bosses to get out of paying workers overtime, which cheated 8 million workers of extra pay.

#60. Trump repeatedly suggested he might serve more than two terms in violation of the Constitution — and continues to do so.

#61. Trump called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries.

#62. Trump tried to terminate DACA, which protects immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Luckily this was struck down by the courts.

#63. Trump called climate change a “hoax.”

#64. Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

#65. Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental protections.

#66. Every budget Trump proposed included cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

#67. Trump tried (and failed) to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have resulted in 20 million Americans losing insurance. And striking down the ACA’s protections for the roughly 130 million people with pre-existing conditions could have driven up their insurance premiums or led to a loss of coverage.

#68. Trump made it easier for employers to remove birth control coverage from insurance plans.

#69. By the end of Trump’s term, the number of people lacking health insurance had risen by 3 million.

#70. Trump lied. Constantly. He made 30,573 false or misleading claims while president — an average of 21 a day, according to Washington Post fact-checkers.

#71. Trump allegedly took hundreds of classified documents on his way out of the White House, reportedly including nuclear secrets, which he then left unsecured in various parts of Mar-a-Lago, including a bathroom. He was even caught on tape showing them off to people.

#72. Trump seriously discussed the idea of nuking a hurricane.

#73. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Trump delayed $20 billion of aid and allowed Puerto Rico to be without power for 181 days.

#74. Trump suggested withholding federal aid for California wildfire recovery and said the solution was to “clean” the “floors” of the forest.

#75. Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, placing Iran on a path to developing nuclear weapons.

Honestly, there’s so much more, from exchanging “love letters” with North Korea’s brutal dictator to publicly denigrating a Gold Star military widow and making her cry, to the way he attacked journalists, to late night tweet binges.

Look, I can understand why a lot of people want to block all of this out of their memories. But we cannot afford to forget just how terrible Trump’s time in the White House was for this nation.

And we sure as hell can’t afford to put him back there.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to write genius level characters? :(

One of the most reliable measures of intelligence today is the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale—currently in its 5th edition, with an upcoming edition in the works.

Using the tool/scale, scores are converted into nominal categories designated by certain cutoff boundaries for quick reference:

Measured IQ Range — Category

145-160: Very gifted or highly advanced

130–144: Gifted or very advanced

120–129: Superior

110–119: High average

90–109: Average

80–89: Low average

70–79: Borderline impaired or delayed

55–69: Mildly impaired or delayed

40–54: Moderately impaired or delayed

To write your "genius" character, you may want them within the Gifted to Very Gifted categories.

Note: With reference to this list, Roid (2003) cautioned that “the important concern is to describe the examinee’s skills and abilities in detail, going beyond the label itself”. The primary value of such labels is as a shorthand reference in some psychological reports.

These are the factors measured by the scale, and you ideally should aim for your "genius" character/s to exhibit high levels of:

Fluid Reasoning: Novel problem solving; understanding of relationships that are not culturally bound

Knowledge: Skills and knowledge acquired by formal and informal education

Quantitative Reasoning: Knowledge of mathematical thinking including number concepts, estimation, problem solving, and measurement

Visual-Spatial Processing: Ability to see patterns and relationships and spatial orientation as well as the gestalt among diverse visual stimuli

Working Memory: Cognitive process of temporarily storing and then transforming or sorting information in memory

Or maybe your character doesn't excel in all of these areas but in a specific one, or just a few of these. Maybe they perform within the average or high average in some, but are highly gifted in other areas.

The following may also guide you in writing your genius character, based on research compiled by Dr. J. Renzulli, which can be found in the Mensa Gifted Youth Handbook:

Characteristics of Giftedness

LEARNING CHARACTERISTICS

Has unusually advanced vocabulary for age or grade level

Has quick mastery and recall of factual information

Wants to know what makes things or people tick

Usually sees more or gets more out of a story, film, etc., than others

Reads a great deal on his or her own; usually prefers adult-level books; does not avoid difficult materials

Reasons things out for him- or herself

MOTIVATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Becomes easily absorbed with and truly involved in certain topics or problems

Is easily bored with routine tasks

Needs little external motivation to follow through in work that initially excited him or her

Strives toward perfection; is self-critical; is not easily satisfied with his or her own speed and products

Prefers to work independently; requires little direction from teachers

Is interested in many "adult" problems such as religion, politics, sex and race

Stubborn in his or her beliefs

Concerned with right and wrong, good and bad

CREATIVITY CHARACTERISTICS

Constantly asking questions about anything and everything

Often offers unusual, unique or clever responses

Is uninhibited in expressions of opinion

Is a high-risk taker; is adventurous and speculative

Is often concerned with adapting, improving and modifying institutions, objects and systems

Displays a keen sense of humor

Shows emotional sensitivity

Is sensitive to beauty

Is nonconforming; accepts disorder; is not interested in details; is individualistic; does not fear being different

Is unwilling to accept authoritarian pronouncements without critical examination

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Carries responsibility well

Is self-confident with children his or her own age as well as adults

Can express him- or herself well

Adapts readily to new situations

Is sociable and prefers not to be alone

Generally directs the activity in which he or she is involved

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

[weirdo09]

estas bien, mami?(gn)

a miles g/prowler! miles x reader

requested by anonymous

warnings:

teasing to the point of short term periods of not eating

slight eating disorder

possibly sensitive topics

tooth rotting fluff

annoying brothers

any of these seems uninteresting to you, don’t read.

you know how your younger brother can say stupid shit at times but you really didn’t think it affected you until that day. every now and then, you’d get little comments from your brother like “oh, she’s eatin’ again? fattie.” or “why do you eat up all the food?” it didn’t really effect you, all it did was annoy you but as it persisted, the more you started to wonder if he was actually right.

the first time he ever said anything was at a cookout with your extended family in georgia. you were on your second plate of food when you heard him and your boy cousins snicker bout how much you were eating. “look, watch out! y/n’s gonna leave us hungry with the way she’s eatin’!” they said, you just rolled your eyes and went to sit with your other cousins. it was nothing but a harmless joke at the time.

the second time was when you and him were at the dinner table. “you sure you wanna eat all that? i mean, you look pretty big already.” he whispered past you, getting his fill on mac n cheese and chicken. you huffed and put up the finger, your momma scolded you and sent you upstairs to finish your dinner. “estúpido.” you said under your breathe, that you learned from miles. (y’all aren’t dating officially yet) that night, you didn’t eat as much as you normally did but it wasn’t like anyone would notice, right?

the third time was when you two were over a friend’s house, your momma forced you to bring your brother over for ‘quality time’ or some shit. as you left downstairs to eat, he popped up, snickering with your friend’s brother. “look at the hippo!” they squealed, unfortunately your friend and her mom barely heard so your mood was officially ruined for the rest of the night. you eat a moderate size amount of food and you would soon suffer the consequences for your stomach growled most of the time there.

the fourth and final time before the ‘day’, was the day after getting back from your friend’s house. you didn’t even bother getting breakfast not like your family cared, apparently. you went down for lunch and got a apple while your brother was staring at you.

“all for today, hippo?” he asked, you nodded and ran up the stairs. you walked over to the bathroom, you decided to weigh yourself just out of curiosity. surprisingly, you lost 20-25 pounds in the last week. the last time you weighted yourself, you were 199 lbs. you thought about going lower, maybe then he would stop picking on you. so you decided you go down to 160, losing 39 pounds was easy.

as the weeks passed, you were getting slimmer and slimmer. you smiled at the console of getting skinny, you weren’t an ideal type for boys. maybe then they’d start to notice you. your mom also made quick remarks about your unknown weight loss and about how she was so proud that you stopped eating as much. you weighted yourself and saw that you slimmed down to 146.

‘yes!’ you thought, you were finally perfect. or should you go lower? ‘do it, y/n.. you know you want to..’ a voice said creepily, you shivered. you got off the scale and made way to your room. that was a strange thought but you managed to look past it. you thought about it for hours, it was slowly eating away at you. 1-2 weeks later, you were down 130. you felt tired but happy.

after that, you were getting more and more exhausted. simple tasks began to take a toll on you. one day, ‘the day’, you went on the scale and passed out. you woke up, laying on the bathroom floor. you tried to get up but you were too tired. then you thought about calling miles, ‘he wouldn’t want to see you… not when you look so ugly, so disgusting… you should be ashamed..’ the voice said again.

going against it, you rang up miles. “què pasa, mami?” he asked, you sighed deeply. “nothin, could y-y-you come over? i wanna see you.” you said, gasping for air. “alrigh’, ma, hang on tight.” he said, hanging up. you passed out again.

“hey, mrs. [last name], you do know where y/n is?” miles asked, the lady shook her head. “maybe try in her room?” she suggested, he thanked her. he walked up the stairs and made way to your bedroom before he saw the bathroom door open with you lying on the floor. miles stared in concern and walked towards you. “mami? puedes oírme?” miles asked, shaking your body for a response. “nnghhh…” you groaned, “stop shaking me!” you said in annoyance, miles pulled you into a hug.

“ma, estás viva!” miles exclaimed, holding you close and smiling down at you. “yeah? i’m fine, miles.” you said, staying in his hold a little longer before attempting to get up. you fell before miles caught you. “estas bien, mami?” miles asked, worried. you looked down at your body and began to tear up, “no, miles, no, i’m not ok..” you whispered, miles picked you bridal style and walked downstairs.

gladly, there was no one there to stop him from taking you to his house because best believe he would fight if he had to. you hid in his chest most of the way there. once you got there, miles made way to his room and closed the door with his foot. he placed you down on his bed.

“mind tellin me why i found you on the floor passed out?” he asked, staring into your eyes. “i just tryna ‘ose a few pounds, ‘s all..” you mumbled, miles frowned. “mila, mi vida,” he began to say, getting down on his knees to hold your hands. “eres tan hermosa, mi niña bonita.” he finished, kissing up your arms to your lips. it was short and sweet.

you started to tear up again, miles frowned deeply. “ah, mami, no lloles, pol favol, odio verte molesto…” he said, rocking you in his arms. the two of you ended up cuddling, miles hummed a song softly to you while tracing your face. you lied against him, content. “who said that you needed to lose weight?” miles asked, his demeanor changing slightly though he still traced your face with his finger.

“uhm, no one-.” you began to say when miles shot you a “tell me the truth or i’ll fight a random nigga” look. you sighed, “my brother..” you spat out, miles stopped tracing your face to look at you properly. “and my mom, a bit.” you confessed, miles’ usual warm hazel eyes turned cold. “you’re with me for a few days, mami, ok?” he said, though it sounded more of a command. you nodded, rio’s cooking was amazing. “good..” miles whispered, kissing your cheek. you cheesed softly. “estás a salvo conmigo, niña..” he whispered in your ear, him speaking spanish always made you fall head over heels.

translations-

què pasa, mami? - what’s up, mommy?

mami? puedes oírme? - mommy? can you hear me?

ma, estás vivas! - ma, you’re alive!

estás bien, mami? - are you ok, mommy?

mira, mi vida - look, my life

eres tan hermosa, mi niña bonita - you are so beautiful, my pretty girl

ah, mami, no llores, por favor, odio verte molesto.. - ah, mommy, please don’t cry, i hate to see you upset..

estás a salvo conmigo, niña.. - you’re safe with me, baby girl

[simdertalia]

🍴 Animal Crossing Lunch Break Set 🍴

Sims 4, Base game compatible | 18 items | I’ve added an item that I made myself, the punch clock! I wanted one in my game very badly, so I put this one together. In my excitement, I forgot to add hands to the punch clock, so I added some (May 11 2023) just move to your mods folder to replace the old file 💗

-Coffee Mug | 42 swatches | 844 poly -Cooler Box | 6 swatches | 998 poly -Crisps | 5 swatches | 990 poly -Drink To Go 1-3 | 1 swatch each | 160, 254, & 160 poly -Fries 1-3 | 1 swatch each | 248 poly -Hoagie 1-3 |1 swatch each | 569 poly -Hoagie Tray 1-3 | 3 swatches each | 1089, 1183, & 1089 poly -Punch Clock (made by me) | 11 swatches | 201 poly -Water Jug 1 | 5 swatches | 1182 poly -Water Jug 2 | 2 swatches | 912 poly

Always suggested: bb.objects ON, it makes placing items much easier. For further placement tweaking, check out the TOOL mod. Start typing “animal crossing lunch break” into the search query in build mode to find quickly. You can always find items like this, just begin typing the title and it will appear.

Use the scale up & down feature on your keyboard to make the items larger or smaller to your liking. If you have a non-US keyboard, it may be different keys depending on which alphabet it uses.

📁 Download (SFS, No Ads): <HERE> https://simfileshare.net/folder/188331/

📁 Alt Download (still no ads): <HERE> https://mega.nz/folder/A5Z0WYzI#FaL3Zt6cIbuG1hWNKyauNQ

As always, please let me know if you have any issues! Happy Simming! ✨ If you like my work, please consider supporting me:

★ Patreon  🎉 ❤️ |★ Ko-Fi  ☕️  ❤️ ★ Instagram  📷

Thank you for reblogging ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

@sssvitlanz  @maxismatchccworld @mmoutfitters  @coffee-cc-finds  @itsjessicaccfinds  @gamommypeach  @stargazer-sims-finds  @khelga68  @suricringe  @vaporwavesims  @mystictrance15 @public-ccfinds

-Lifting Safety Poster -Wall Keys -Space Mugs -Clipboard -Jade Plant CC by BrazenLotus but i can’t seem to find the download page -Folder/Binder CC by ATS4 -Chair CC by Noir&Dark -The Teacher’s Desk by EA (Discover University) -Bulletin Board by SimKoos

[tinsyfairy]

09.16 food diary ! 🍂

* note : this is not intended to encourage anybody or follow my habits i'm just documenting my life and i want to find others who are like me :)

₊⊹ intake limit : 1.3k

₊⊹ water intake : 2L

₊⊹ f4st¡ng time : 20 hrs

⌗ breakfast : yog + brownie 🍪

– choban¡ flip cookie dough (160)

– fiber one choco cookie (70)

> total : 230

⌗ lunch : smoothie bowl 🍓

- frozen strawb + banana (90 there was more strawb than banana slices tho T_T)

– 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (15)

– 6 tbsp choban¡ vanilla yogurt (78)

– 1/2 cup honey comb cereal (65)

> total : 248

⌗ dinner : salad 🥗 (bc im a meal repeater)

– 3 cups of spinach (17)

– 1/3 green bell pepper (10)

– 2 tbsp of feta (35)

– roman tomato (7)

– 10 slices of pepperoni (101)

– 1 boiled egg (72)

> total : 242

other :

– SF jello (5)

– 4 tbsp of chobani yog (65)

> total : 70

☆ total : 800

☆ burned : 555 / 12.5k st-ps / 25 min p¡lates / 10 min y–ga

☆ net : 245

— log :

hi friendsss :) today went well!! i got a lot of stuff done and i was really productive! HOWEVER (a bit tmi) it's the first day of my per¡od meaning my w8ight is gonna be fluctuating a lot so i need to stay off the scale T_T luckily i dont really have an appetite and i was pretty full w my intake today. my mom wants to have tacos tmrw and idk what to do. usually I tell myself i can have those foods to prevent a b¡nge but whenever i do it just TRIGGERS one. i think it's bc i still have the "good foods" and "bad foods" mindset. i'm seriously trying to get out of the 140's and i don't want to trigger a b-nge so i'll just have smth else but idk im super indecisive. i hope everyone else is doing well :) stay safe and hydrated guys!!

[mfdragon]

I'll apologize for this later-

But I was thinking about Blitzwing deciding to just build model trains in the mines with Caprison and-

So model trains come in a variety of different sizes, measured in gauges, some of the largest being G gauge, 1:25 scale of the original (45 mm wheelbase (width) and 16mm scale (1:19.05), and the smallest being T gauge, 1:450, 3mm. There are others, see the image below.

So one cannon I've heard is that Blitzwing's about 30ft tall, which I'll run with for the general purposes of this... ask. This makes him about 6 times the size of the average human (1:6), which I'll also run with. If Blitzwing were to run G scale model trains, then that's the equivalent of running trains around the N scale (the equivalent is a 1:150 scale, and N models vary from 1:148 to 1:160).

N scale is pretty small! Not the nightmare that running T-scale would be, but it's still nothing to snuff at.

But it's still doable. G-scale in particular is great for outdoors use, which a mine shaft IS outside, and the size itself is pretty reasonable to do.

My question now is: How does he get the trains, tracks, additional model decor in the first place? Is detroit safe from at least some of the robot menace but every model train manufacturer tremble in fear at the 30-foot-tall robot raiding their places every so often?

Firstly, don’t apologize because this is the best ask I’ve ever gotten (sorry other askers)

Secondly, omg I never thought I’d get to learn so much about model trains and I love it! I always like to learn this type of info from people. Share your deep passionate knowledge with me for we are creatures of the same neuro-spicy cloth✨

Thirdly, I did kinda think Blitzwing would be crafting his own model parts, since we know him to be a bit of a sculptor. He’d probably download schematics online but then Caprison would point out the inaccuracies and help correct them. But now I can’t stop thinking about a 30Ft robot showing up near closing time being like “Hi, yes I need supplies and materials”

Icy enjoying organizing and putting everything together; Random enjoying painting them; Hothead enjoying playing with them when no one is looking 👀. He def has to start hiding them from Lugnut cause he gets angry that these “tiny inferior locomotives” are getting in Megatron’s way!

OMG Blitzwing making a web page and posting pictures of his trains online being like “hi new here. Do these models look ok? Any tips?” And he makes online friends and they suggest the best shops to order from. He takes commissions and delivers them and that’s how he makes enough money to buy materials for his trains! Ive done it; I’ve connected the dots!

Agahsjdkdlror He makes a YouTube channel about how he makes his trains and that’s how the autobots find them! “Remember to support me on Patreon, so I can keep making my son happy with my tiny trains.”

Sorry now I’m just having fun cause train model YouTuber Blitzwing is my new favourite thing ever. (Thank you for your ask and I’m sorry for my answer)

[trainsinanime]

New toy! Tatra T4 from Tomytec, the set with two of them and one motor chassis. They're in the colours of Prague, because the alternative (Leipzig) looked very boring. DCC pre-installed by the dealer (I know how to install DCC in Tomytec trains, and have vowed to never do it again unless I have to).

I'm really happy, the train runs really well and quietly. Power pickup is good, pulling power is decent. Only one bogie is powered, but it's fitted with two traction tires, a design made necessary because the chassis can be changed into different lengths easily. No lighting, which is not something I'm bothered about, but if you are, it's probably possible to retrofit it at least to the powered car with a medium amount of hassle.

[wncrails]

Before & After

Purchased this Atlas Beer Can Tank Car from eBay. The red hand rails were just a little too much for me, so I upgraded the paint job. I left the brake wheel the original red.

[zeldahime]

I did math on David Tennant's hands (so you don't have to)

EDITED WITH MORE ACCURATE PHONE INFORMATION AND A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION.

I swear all I wanted to know was what kind of phone Crowley has in season 1.

See, I have an iPhone, and one of my gigs shares a building with an Apple Store. I was taking a screenshot of his contact picture for Aziraphale, and noticed that the camera on the back of his phone is laid out horizontal. Most iPhones aren't! So, I fell into this rabbit hole: what phone does Anthony J. Crowley have?

(The bit where you can see the cameras, immediately before the cool heart-in-flames picture he has for Aziraphale's contact, is basically impossible to screenshot; the phone moves very fast and reflects the environment. But his contact photo for his angel is so neat and I love it ❤️‍🔥)

I figured out very quickly the only iPhone with that camera layout is the iPhone SE series, but there have been only three generations: 2016, 2020, and 2023. Season 1 of Good Omens was released in 2019. The iPhone SE first generation was also Apple's "budget" phone. It just didn't make sense to me that Crowley would have an old budget phone, but the new SE wasn't commercially available so it also didn't make sense to me that the prop department could have given him a new phone.

The main visual differences between gen 1 and gen 2 are threefold: gen 1 didn't come in black; gen 2 has slightly more beveling; and they are different sizes. The first two visual differences are basically meaningless, because it's trivial for a props department to turn a white phone black and the beveling difference only is obvious in comparison. So I had to figure out what size Crowley's phone was.

We see Crowley's phone in s1e4 and s1e5, but the only thing in its environment we can really measure to get an accurate read on its size is... Well. David Tennant.

More specifically, we get a fairly good shot of the phone in his hands, held level with the screen, and thumb easily available to use as a reference.

But if anyone has done David Tennant Hand Math before, they weren't on page 1 of Google and therefore may as well not exist. So I took up this quest myself.

So first, I had to find a picture of David Tennant holding something of known dimensions. I am, first and foremost, a Doctor Who nerd. There's only one answer to that.

Another Doctor Who nerd on the internet went and figured out 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver was about 160 mm and the head of the sonic from tip to the joint with the middle section was about 40 mm.

I then got out my actual goddamn fabric tape and measured this man's fingers on my computer screen. After converting the measurements back to scale, first to second knuckle on his middle finger was 54.55 mm.

Then to figure out how long his thumb is, I needed a photo of his hands. This one is courtesy of the GO Reference Server:

His thumb came out to being approximately 68mm long. (My thumb came out to 55mm long. Not relevant, I just got curious while I was doing all this measuring.)

Finally, the data necessary to the main event: the goddamn phone.

Using the thumb as a reference, the phone came out to 136mm in length.

The iPhone SE Gen 1 was 123.8 mm long; the Gen 2 was 138.4 mm long.

Given that I rounded quite a bit during my calculations to keep things at 2 digits or less, I'm very comfortable saying: Crowley had an iPhone SE (second generation) during the events of Good Omens Season 1, a phone that would not become commercially available until April 2020.

I don't know how the props people got their hands a phone that wouldn't be released for a full year and change after filming, but they did that for us. It's a character note that practically nobody noticed, for a prop that gets barely a full minute of screentime. They could easily have used an iPhone XR or iPhone XS Max, which were the newest iPhones actually on the market at that time and which people would have recognized when the episode aired, but they knew Crowley would have the newest iPhone before anybody else had the newest iPhone and by Jove, he did.

After I posted this in Discord, @giveintomay pointed out that the iPhone SE second generation used the same build as the iPhones 7 and 8, which came out in 2016 and 2017 respectively. So, he most likely had an iPhone 8, which would have been the latest generation while filming (as generation 10 became commercially available over the summer and fall).

[fishenjoyer1]

Fish of the Day

Today's fish of the day is the Wahoo, known by the scientific name Acanthocybium solandri! These fish are well known for the high quality of their meat, and their high speeds, regularly compared to tuna in terms of speed and agility. Visually, these fish have been mixed up with barracuda and king mackerel or spanish mackerel. Distinction between wahoo and mackerels being found in a flap of skin covering the mandible when the mouth is closed in the wahoo. Barracuda is distinguishable from both the wahoo and mackerels due to differing scale sizes and teeth shapes. 

Wahoo have two distinct species, the Atlantic wahoo and the Pacific wahoo, which can hybridize and are thought to be visually identical. Wahoo grow fast, getting as large as 8ft in full adulthood, and weighing as much as 160 pounds. Both males and females reach secual materity at 1 year, although by this point they are only about 3ft long on average, it will take another 2 years for them to reach their full size. Their eggs are buoyant, and although Wahoo rarely exist in schools, preferring to exist in small groups or simply alone, they will gather in large groups for spawning.  When born, the larvae and fry stay in the pelagic zone. Adults also prefer to remain close to the surface, but dive deeper for hunting, or in pursuit of food. 

The diet consists mostly of fishes, oftentimes, schooling fishes. Although those in the Atlantic are known to have a penchant for cephalopods. Often, wahoo are in direct competition with tuna for food, but they have an advantage with their sharper teeth. Younger wahoo are preyed on by large fish, and adults are preyed on by sharks, other than that, they are relatively unbothered in the waters. Wahoo's habitat lies along tropical and subtropical waters, and although migration routes are currently unknown, they are regularly found at higher latitudes in the summer months. These fish can exist in almost every environment, but they prefer to live along banks, and closer to shores, although they can be found in the open ocean just as easily.

Have a good day, everyone!

[bladekindeyewear]

Hello, what do you think of optimisticDuelist's Role-playing theory? Basically, he suggested that instead of inverting, Rose was role-playing a misinterpretation of her mother's classpect. He also suggests Terezi was role-playing Redglare's Knight class while investigating Murderstuck, and that Vriska and Aranea were role-playing each other's classes. I recommend watching "HSE: Guardians and Ancestors" for more about his theory. :D

Since I'm trying to get back in the swing of things (might still take me a few weeks), I might as well remind y'all of my earlier position:

I haven't read or watched optimisticDuelist's theories yet, and I probably ought to before I make any serious judgments on the matter. Plus, I'm not caught up with HS^2's recent new updates, and I was under the impression that oD had some input into HS^2 as a whole-- I'm not sure if Andrew gave the writers and collaborators on that project the latitude to make some changes from the system that was intended by Andrew in the original comic's run, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had, so for all we know some of those theories may retroactively fit the original comic even if they weren't initially intended! Or introduced as just a NEW thing that can happen! That's one sort of thing that I was originally so devoted to the comic's "original intent" that I wouldn't have accepted easily, but I'm coming to accept as a possibility a bit easier now, with how much Andrew has pushed Death of the Author and how much the ending of the comic showed that many of the things I judged were "important" in-comic weren't important to him at all.

However, if we're looking as far back as Act 5 Act 2, I believe there's a serious fundamental difference in scope and scale between trolls like Vriska and Terezi poorly cosplaying the trappings and aesthetics of ancestors whose classpects we didn't know at the time -- ancestors who were in fact constantly teased with words like Thief (Mindfang), Seer (Redglare), and Witch (Condesce) to match their younger descendants' classes even though Andrew likely intended for them to have had different classes all along -- and the severe, extreme, and powerful event that seems to be full-on hero role inversion.

Reading some Homestuck liveblogs lately, I was reminded of the strong and intentional connections that all of Homestuck has with Carl Jung's psychological theories and the concept of the "Shadow" self. And I'm not just talking about a superficial resemblance between the Shadow and role inversion, or the "assimilation of the shadow" and the uniting of one's Real Self and Dream Self to ascend to God Tier. No-- I mean that Jung's theories, even if somewhat discredited, are referenced by the complex stew of mythologies that make up Sburb and define how the game is played, just like all the pop and serious references to works like Lord Of The Rings that made it into the game's objectives. If you skim that wikipedia page you'll very quickly see what I mean:

Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while "no one should deny the danger of the descent [...] every descent is followed by an ascent",[54] and assimilation of—rather than possession by—the shadow becomes a possibility.

"We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up."[53]: 160–1

There's a good reason that Rose was given an interest in psychotherapy leading into the comic. It's tightly tied to the whole story's themes! Trying to show players the potential they have as individuals, the power inherent in their very personalities, and setting them a stage to confront themselves and grow into someone who would shape the future and accept their own self-worth, is the entire point of the game and the answer to the Ultimate Riddle. Every major character had to go through the arduous process of confronting their flaws and talents and trying to accept who they were. The game IS the psychotheraputic journey from start to finish, complete with the same monumental challenges, pitfalls, rejection and acceptance (of help and of oneself!) that all sorts of different people must confront in order to simultaneously fully appreciate and become themselves, and also become the people they truly want to be. Because despite what self-loathing and toxic gender norms and all sorts of naysayers would have us believe, those two things are closer to the same thing than most can easily imagine. The journey to discover, accept, unite with and leverage the power of being you.

And when you tie Jungian Psychology to MBTI personality types, you can practically flip the letters into an opposed Shadow too, in a less literal but startlingly similar way to the class-and-aspect-flip Inversion Theory that we proposed. (DAMMIT i still need to rewrite the Aradia post to be less pretentious, that's been on my to-do list for years but I've never been up to it...)

Again, I still need to read/watch optimisticDuelist's theories (I've had a hard time emotionally looking deep into anything Homestuck for a good while now, and even though you're referencing some pretty old theories i was NEVER very good at keeping up with others' theories besides what was specifically brought to my attention, it was a serious problem), but from what I recall in-comic every time I saw someone mimic or cosplay an ancestor they were mostly... just cosplaying! Nothing is stopping a Seer from picking up a sword and trying to do some knight stuff. TRYING. The only issue is that they won't be very good at it, because they're not actually learning about themselves and leveraging the strengths of their own personality and power set. I have no idea how to use a gun or weapons; if I were to pick one up and try to suddenly join a battle, I would have no idea what I'm doing and would be more likely to get myself or others hurt rather than do anyone any actual good. And even when someone like Terezi picked up a (cane-)sword in the comic, she still mostly used it as a Seer would, as the threat to punctuate or act on explicitly foreseen possibilities. When she ran Vriska through, she was acting on a VISION borne of the realities that hinged on others' decisions and fronts, that revealed themselves through her understanding the Mind aspect. It was no martial superpower, no mental trick-- all Terezi had was the superpower of understanding how badly Vriska's move to fight Jack would play out, with the necessary certainty she needed in order to confidently stab Vriska.

(Brief edit: as an aside, many classes of Heart player might be more positioned to take on and leverage the skills and uniqueness of others. Roleplaying others was one of NEPETA'S strengths.)

Rose's inversion was very, very, VERY different.

The word "witch" was EVERYWHERE around Rose, almost moreso than the Void symbolism. "Witch" was plastered all over Act 5 Act 2 in both the text and visual representations. Other players like Eridan CALLED her a witch REPEATEDLY. We saw a Witch of Time using dual needles and magic. Andrew couldn't have shouted the word any louder. It came with IMMENSE power, the sort of power level we've deduced (and Doc and Rose hinted) comes from someone's Hero Title because it's more powerful than any other mundane, magical, or psychic power source, fitting to the Ultimate Riddle-- when someone pulls out their Hero Powers against any non-hero power source besides sometimes the Green Sun, the one using Hero Powers always wins. It isn't even a contest.

When Rose went grimdark, she looked like a Witch. She didn't look like her mother. And she didn't act like her mother either! Especially when we got Roxy Lalonde in Act 6, it was clear that Rose's Grimdark actions and modus-operandi were absolutely nothing like those of her ecto-sister, even with all the commonalities they shared as people. Whatever inspiration Rose received from her mother's behavior and aesthetics, all it seems she took from it in her Grimdark descent was the Void, and little else.

If you were to try and convince me that what Rose did in Act 5 Act 2 was meant by the author to convey to us the actions of someone behaving as a Rogue of Void and not a Witch of Void, you wouldn't just need to show me evidence of Roguish activity. You'd need to show me ENOUGH evidence that Andrew meant to hide Rogue behavior beneath an intentional Witch whitewash (like that prior tease with the Troll Ancestors being coyly made to sound like they matched their descendants that I described earlier), and that all the Witch symbology and actions were actually a bullshit red herring!!! Few readers thought there was any serious impact of her Grimdark phase to her Class until we stumbled upon Inversion Theory as an extension of Aspect Duality, and a red herring is pretty pointless if it doesn't convince anyone.

Saying that NONE of those witch hints mattered? THAT'S A REALLY TALL ORDER. "Witch of Void" is just way, way too strongly evidenced in my eyes, and almost half of our derivative understanding of classes and aspects is based on Seer <--> Witch duality! It'll be weeks before I have my mental health together enough to watch optimisticDuelist's theories, but like, Seer <--> Witch is the most confident I still am in any theory besides the Ultimate Riddle and Aspect Duality. It'd take quite a lot to make me believe otherwise, so expecting optimisticDuelist's videos to change my mind on this matter would be... er. A little optimistic.

And because of how dependent so many of my theories were on what we learned about aspect duality FROM role inversion, if Seer <--> Witch didn't happen, then you might as well throw out almost everything I've ever said on classpects with the bathwater and start over. Rightly call me biased, but I do really hope I don't have to do that!

(edit 1pm cdt: added a bit more to the second-to-last paragraph before the cut to hammer home that "Shadow (Psychology)" wikipedia article, seriously so many of the characters' journeys in the comic follow it like a playbook. edit 1:15pm cdt: fixed wandering read-more)