#simple budgeting method

[realestateinvesting001]

Breaking Down the 50/30/20 Rule: A Beginner’s Guide 💰📊

Are you looking for an easy way to manage your money without getting overwhelmed? The 50/30/20 rule is a simple yet effective budgeting method that can help you balance your spending, saving, and investing. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey or looking to fine-tune your current strategy, the 50/30/20 rule is a fantastic tool to help you get on track. 📈💡 What is the 50/30/20…

[batbetbitbotbut]

Low space & low budget weaving

Want to weave but don't have space for a loom? Have a few sticks and yarns but no DIY skills? Come, be tempted anyway. Weaving is a whole family of crafts, some of which don't require a loom at all.

Small-ish looms like box looms (as basic as yarn wrapped around a cardboard grocery tray), inkle looms, and rigid heddle looms exist, but I'm assuming every possible space for a box in your life is already filled. In this post we're going even smaller and cheaper. As far as possible, everything either is flat enough to stow behind/under furniture or rolls up safely into a bundle of just sticks and yarn.

Many of these crafts have some crossover - the same setup can be used for multiple styles of weaving. Most of them can be improvised at home depending on what you have on hand, or if you need to buy something there is not a huge gulf between homemade vs professional equipment. Alas I am not skilled in any of these and my descriptions will not be wholly accurate; corrections and additions welcome! If you need help, I'd only be able to tell you to seek out books and tutorials yourself, ask other weavers, and just try stuff out.

All photos included with permission. My thanks to the people allowing me to use their projects! I saw so many gorgeous and skillful projects when assembling this and I wish I could have included them all.

Fingerweaving

Projects by @kitteniestkitten (here) and @wefty-weaver (here)

Culture - I am aware of this as a Native American technique, I don't know its history with any more specific nation.

Fabric - "Warp faced" cloth of any width, insofar as warp and weft have meaning for this craft as the weaving is on a diagonal. Often used for sashes or blankets.

Method - There is no loom! A couple sticks hold the yarns to begin with, but then it is all freehand. Starting at one corner, you use your fingers to weave a strand through the other strands, and... that's it. Very simple beginnings work up to very complex patterns that no loom is capable of. The whole project can be rolled up when not active.

Backstrap loom

Projects by @calendae-creations (here) and @weavingforlooms (here)

Culture - I am most aware of this from the Andes but I think it is much more widespread than that.

Fabric - Warp faced or balanced fabric of any width up to your own reach, suitable for blankets and clothes and many other things.

Method - You are the loom! Several horizontal rods hold and manipulate the warp threads but your body provides the tension, with the other end hooked to some furniture or around your own feet. When not in use, you can roll up all the equipment into a small bundle of yarn and rods. You can also use a backstrap loom setup for other methods like tablet weaving.

Warp weighted loom

Projects by @shadowcreepling (here) and @doctormead (here)

Culture - used by ancient Greeks among many many others.

Fabric - any kind of fabric at any size. Shadowcreepling is using a warp weighted loom for a tablet-woven band, Doctormead is probably using heddle rods to make a wider piece of cloth.

Method - the warp threads are held by a bar at the top and tensioned with weights on one end that hang down towards the floor, then the weft is woven into them with any method such as tablets, heddle rods, or by hand (if you have a lot of patience) and beaten into firm fabric at the top or bottom of the loom. Warp weighted looms can be very big, but they are simple and can also be very small and taken apart when not actively weaving.

Tablet weaving / card weaving

Projects by @damage-ko (here) and @foxease (here, hardware from CellesKit on Etsy)

Culture - found as far apart as textiles (geographically and temporally) from Byzantine Egypt and the Vikings

Fabric - a warp faced fabric with patterns made by twining warp threads around each other, usually used for strong narrow bands like collars, belts, and shoelaces.

Method - the cards hold open the shed so you can pass the weft through, then rotate the cards to advance the pattern. Many people make their own with cardboard or playing cards, or you can buy some. The rest of the weaving setup can be improvised with a backstrap (or just a shower curtain hook clipped to your trousers), a cardboard box loom, or warp weights.

Rigid heddle band weaving

Projects by @pisaracraft (here) and @crookedtines (here)

Culture - small rigid heddles like the first project have been found in Roman archaeological sites across Europe. The larger rigid heddle in the second project is being used for "baltic pickup" style designs on the band.

Fabric - can be warp faced or a balanced weave, size limited by the size of your heddle.

Method - you provide tension with any setup you please such as an inkle loom, backstrap, or warp weights. The heddle creates sheds so that you can pass weft yarn through the warp easily. Infinitely many "pick-up patterns" let you weave patterns and even words into the cloth.

Pin loom / potholder loom

Projects by @pardalote (here) and @weavingmyheartout (here)

Fabric - a small square (or rectangle or triangle) of balanced weaving, which can be used alone or patched together into larger fabrics. Pin looms are finer and suitable for many knitting/crochet yarns, potholer looms are chunkier and designed for big elastics, but the method is similar.

Method - wind yarn lengthways around one set of pins and then pull yarn widthways through these strands with a hook. Or, work at 45 degrees in continuous strand weaving! Lots of room to experiment with colour and texture. You can improvise a pin loom by cutting notches in a square of sturdy cardboard.

Needle weaving / stick weaving / peg loom

Projects by @thaylepo (here) and @pastelispunx (here)

Fabric - weft-faced fabric and rugs of any size.

Method - thread long thin warp threads through the pegs, then wind a thick weft (eg heavier yarn, sheep fleece, or long scraps of fabric) around the pegs. Push the weft down along the pegs as they fill up, so that it slides off onto the warp. The pegs can be secured in a base to make a peg loom for large projects, or just handled freely. I believe these evolved as separate crafts and the nuances are different, but the overall method is similar.

Frame loom / tapestry loom

Projects by @squeakygeeky (here) and @battlestar-gasmacktica (here)

Fabric - weft-faced or balanced fabric ideal for wall hangings and upholstery, size limited to the frame being used.

Method - (usually) thinner warp threads are wound round a frame, such as heavy cardboard with notches cut in the end, a picture frame, or a small and flat purpose-made loom. Thicker weft threads are woven in by hand using needles or just small lengths of yarn. Some people make lifelike images, others make more ordinary fabrics or geometric patterns.

Bobbin lace

Projects by @crochetpiece (here) and @noxx-notions (here)

Culture - began in renaissance Italy and spread throughout Europe, often as a cottage industry.

Fabric - balanced fabric usually made of very thin threads in freeform shapes. It's not usually considered "weaving" but the basic cloth stitch is definitely a woven fabric!

Method - each thread is wound onto a bobbin (e.g. a clothespeg) and then bobbins are crossed over each other to weave threads together. The lace is pinned to a cushion to hold everything in place while the design grows.

[ceruark]

Hello! Recent follower but long time fan of your work. I adore how introspective you are with writing characters and how you tend to write the darling/reader, its a very refreshing take on yandere content.

On that note, I was curious if you had any insight or thoughts on how yandere!Aventurine would handle a Darling that rejects his advances, not from a place of distrust but a place of insecurities? Like I imagine it would be entirely possible for someone who is quite capable or self-assured to become overwhelmed by the glamor and brilliance that Aventurine maintains for his carefully crafted facade, esp if its directed at them with romantic intent.

What could you have to offer someone like Aventurine, a man who seemingly has everything he could ever desire? In perspective, it would be extremely humbling and perhaps make Darling feel self-conscious upon consideration, leading them to politely turn down Aventurine's advances and affections in the sake of self-preservation.

yan! aventurine x insecure! gn! reader

wc: 633 cw: yandere themes - obsessive behavior, stalking. a/n: thank you so much for the ask! i'm so sorry i'm answering it so late, but i'm very grateful for your compliments and your ask :> (this got a little suggestive at the very end, hope that's alright!)

Aventurine is incredibly adept at reading people, which makes this situation quite frustrating for him. You’ve always come across as someone secure in your identity—it’s clear in the way you carry yourself, in the way your brilliance takes up the entire room, an outward reflection of the completeness of your character. And he latched onto that immediately, holding the gem that is your personality up and carefully studying each refraction of light, committing the patterns to memory. He’d played his cards just right with you, and had no problem luring you in and getting you right where he wanted you.

So, then, why are you rejecting him? 

Things had been going so well between you two, up until he began flirting with you more openly and gifting you things he knew you wanted, but were out of your budget. He made sure not to lovebomb, of course—it would scare off someone like you, and he couldn’t have that—and he knew that you hadn’t yet discovered his… rather underhanded methods of learning everything about you. 

He knows you, everything has gone perfectly for him, and yet here you are, turning him away.

You’re being painfully sweet about it, too, in the way that you always are, reassuring him in a soft voice that it’s nothing he did, you just don’t think you’re ready for a relationship. You say this, but he can see it in your eyes, see that you want him, too, but for some reason, you’re hesitating. You’re scared.

From your perspective, it’s quite simple, really: Aventurine can do better, and he deserves better, too. He’s an extremely high-ranking member of the IPC, with an unfathomable amount of wealth to his name—what could you possibly offer him? 

You’ve heard countless stories of high-ranking IPC officials using marriage as yet another tool at their disposal, so his advances toward you leave you confused and bewildered. You’re a mere civilian who lives in the capital city of one of the planets he’s been assigned to watch over. You don’t come from wealth or political power, so what does he want from you? 

Not to mention all the risk that would come from being romantically involved with him—what if one of the IPC’s enemies came after you as a means to get him? You do like your head where it is, attached to your neck, and your own safety aside, you don’t like the idea of being seen as Aventurine’s weakness, something that would hold him back.

It takes an incredible amount of willpower for him to not spiral. No, he’s worked too hard for this, and he can’t risk messing things up by abducting you. It would ruin the feelings you so clearly reciprocate, yet refuse to act on, for some reason.

It’s not difficult to pay someone to pull your messaging history and get it cloned to his own device. After digging through conversations with some of your friends, your insecurities are made clear to him, and with them, your reason for rejecting him.

Oh, how he wishes he could coo at you and pull you into a reassuring hug. You’re worried about the fact that you don’t add value to his position in any way? How silly, that’s exactly why he wants you. You’re real, and once you overcome this trivial worry, you’ll be entirely his—not the pawn of some government body, not the IPC’s, but his alone.

No matter—it’s a minor setback. He’ll just have to work harder at showing you just how much he loves you, and that there aren’t any strings attached. His devotion will get through to you one way or another, whether it’s from honey words dripping off his tongue, or from loving every inch of your body with his mouth until you can’t take it anymore.

[oh-no-its-bird]

More early Konoha thoughts, specifically in culture sharing between the clans

Most clans have specific foods and types of products they use— they have their usual trades, usual hunting grounds, usual crafts and methods to make things, that sort of thing.

So when Konoha is created, there's this sudden influx in just the variety of things that are now easily accessible to them. Let's use alcohol as an example:

Most clans would have a specific way of brewing their own alcohol, not to mention what local ingredients they'd use, or they'd have a usual merchant they'd go to for their specific usual brands. For some clans, their situations, locations, and budget might mean they have less or more alcohol available to them

Then they come to Konoha and suddenly they have this big variety of all sorts of different drinks.

Suddenly, when before you would have to jump through several hoops and travel a stupid amount of miles to get yourself some Senju brewed beer, it's just. Right there. You can now ask your neighbor to pretty please share some with you

There's so much variety!!! So much to choose from!! I think it'd be overwhelming for some people, especially those from smaller clans who were used to having 3 options of food, drink and amusement to choose from for their entire life.

There's suddenly so much for them to explore

Especially having fun thinking about all these specific 'clan delicacies' in such close proximity ,,, I want to see some foodie losing their goddamn mind and legit crying as they realize their quest to taste the specific foods of every clan in the land of fire is suddenly so much more realistic than they thought before

This same thought process goes for pretty much everything crafts or culture related ^^

There's suddenly so many different games and rules and clothing styles and jewelry and courting traditions, all dumped into one big pot together

Some people are trying to play a simple card game together then realizing that their clans call the cards different things (named after different clan gods)

Someone lends their friend one of their shirts, and the friend finds that the shirt's weaving pattern is completley different from any of the clothes they're used to

Two farmers from different clans begin a heated debate over the "right" way to tend and harvest their crops, and what type of soil and watering schedule is best for what plants

By the time modern Konoha comes around, all of these things have found a new normal.

The mixing pot finished most of its stirring, and while there is still plenty of cultural separation between clans (particularly the larger ones, who stubbornly held on to their own identity throughout the years) there's also an overall 'Konoha culture.'

Konoha has its own signature crafts, adapted from several clan styles.

They have their own drinks, made from Konoha crops, with recipies argued over by several drink makers decades ago.

They have their own styles of card games, the rules adapted from multiple different clan rule-sets, into something most could agree on. (Bearing the most similarity to the Shiranui clan's rule-set, which became quite a popular middleground for most people to play— not that many remember that now)

Konoha found it's own identity, made up of all the clans who donated their own to it.

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 3

Part 1 Part 2

More of the brain worm that has taken me over, gonna probably post it to Ao3 here before too long. Already got another part started and so many ideas for additional stuff, someone please send help I've been consumed by this thing lol

Sorry if Waller seems out of character, outside of fandom I'm mostly familiar with her through Justice League the animated show & Justice League: Unlimited and her vibe there has always struck me as "deeply incredibly unlikable character that also kind of has a point but also has done so much fucked up shit in the name of her goals that you don't really care about her point anymore." So you know, complicated lol. If she's completely unrecognizable let me know, but I'm hoping she feels at least somewhat like Waller.

Forgot to say this in the last update, but still feel free to use all this as an overly long prompt if yall want. Literally anything I throw out to the void should be treated as a prompt lol If there's anything at all interesting to you in any of this nonsense go for it <3 <3 <3

---

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Ruthless, heartless, vicious, cruel.

She’d been called it all. Wore the words thrown as insults as a badges of pride and valor. Because at the end of the day, when it came to the problems she was given to face, the issues she was meant to solve, those words meant she’d done what others had been too squeamish or cowardly to do. Life was a never ending slog of trolley problems and she the only one unshakable enough to pull the levers that needed pulling.

It wasn’t so simple as a matter of greater good.

Greater good was what the weak willed muttered to themselves after having feelings over doing the bare minimum. A justification used by people on all sides to do what they wanted with fractured, faulty logic thrown around like truth was a thing immutable. To assuage their guilt when they were forced to make a call they didn’t want to.

It wasn’t a matter of greater good. It was a matter of preservation. Of protection. Of digging through the filth to find the threats skittering beneath and crush them with ruthless abandon. Of facing a god and not blinking because if you did it could cost the world.

Of doing what needed to be done, no matter how underhanded or atrocious it was.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the throat of something that could threaten to destroy it all.

When the Ghost Investigation Ward had been shoved her way with it’s sucking wound of a budget, it’s bloated incompetent staff, its asinine methods she’d seen a rotted limb in need of hacking off. It hadn’t been until she’d been conducting her inspection, digging through the trash for a few pearls of effective agents she could snatch up and put to work elsewhere, that she’d truly seen what they were working on. The potential.

Potential to better arm themselves with in the forms of the strange new weapons being created.

Potential for threats far greater than anything even she had thought possible before.

The GIW as it had been when she’d first come across it was a fetid waste of time and resources. A laughing stock agency only secret because no one took them seriously enough to look. Made stupid and useless with its own conceited delusions of importance it didn’t actually have. Yet.

She went to work on it. Hacking away as she’d originally intended, but this time with a different goal in mind. She ripped out the weeds with bare, calloused hands and planted proficiency and loyalty in their place. She took over as director herself, tossing the self-aggrandizing fool that had been running the place into the ground to the dogs as the culprit for misappropriate spendings, saving the agency by tweaking things until their ballooning budget was pinned neatly onto the former director as an embezzling charge.

Then she got to work.

The Fentons were brilliant, if entirely insane. But Amanda could work with that. She’d reigned Harley Quinn in - more or less - she could do the same to the two deranged scientists that so eagerly wanted to be apart of the fight against the dead. Especially when the benefit came in the form of the inventions they threw together so easily, especially when those inventions were weapons.

It took very little to get them on board with her plans for the GIW. Keeping their focus could be a chore, at times, but she didn’t even have to really do much in the way of pressing to get them back where she wanted them. They craved knowledge and understanding nearly as much as they craved the eradication of the entities themselves. Letting them have the first look at a new subject here, free reign over a vivisection there, it took so little to fuel their fervor and keep them busy working on the projects she set for them.

Things had been going smoothly.

For a time at least.

Until Phantom.

He’d been the main focus of the previous director’s attention, the big fish he’d so desperately wanted to catch and put up on his wall. Amanda wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t a tempting prospect, but not one she’d put above the other projects she had set in motion since taking over. No, Phantom was powerful, enough to be a real problem one day, but she could the awkward youth in the way he held himself, the inexperience in how he handled situations. She had time to get everything else in order before focusing on getting Amity Park’s would-be hero brought to heel.

And he would be brought to heel. One way or another.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the Core of a fledgling god and bending him to her will.

An artifact, old an powerful, recovered with some effort. A means of controlling specters, of chaining them to the will of the artifact’s wielder. Dangerous in the wrong hands. Dangerous in the right hands.

It was shattered, and even whole and functional Phantom was resistant to its power. But Amanda Waller prided herself in her ability to see the potential in things. It could be repaired, be made better. Even gods could be bound, be made to kneel, with the right pieces, with the right application of force.

It was just a matter of time to gather everything needed.

Phantom didn’t know he could single handedly destroy every last member of the Justice League. The baby fat, the innocent eyes, the split-second hesitations when he fought. He knew enough to be confident in fighting the usual ghosts that haunted Amity Park, but he still very much saw himself as a little fish. Maybe it was the part of him that was still Daniel Fenton, gangly teenager not quite sure what he was truly capable of yet.

She had time before the Fenton’s son truly became an issue. Time to judge if his parents’ obsessiveness would overcome their - rather shoddy, by Amanda’s estimation - parental instincts and continue to hunt him once they knew the truth. Time to get as much out of them as she could before hand, should they falter at the idea of attacking their own son. Time for the staff to be repaired and returned to working order, to get the other items needed for the truly big fish hidden on the other side of the veil between worlds.

She had time.

Until she didn’t.

Pariah Dark had not been something she thought she’d have to account for - not yet, at least.

If he wasn’t already dead, she’d ring the Ghost King’s neck with her bare hands. His arrival had opened Phantom’s eyes to what he was capable of, of just how big of a fish he was. Worse still, Phantom’s defeat of the war mongering King changed the state of play. Phantom was no longer an impressively powerful half dead teenager.

He was King Infinite.

He was an Ancient.

He was getting on her last damn nerves.

Phantom’s rogue gallery were now firmly under the boy’s control. Still distinct nuisances around Amity Park, but no longer considered true concerns. They were loyal to their boy king, delighting in ruffling his feathers but never crossing the line into treason or attempted regicide. Which meant that the GIW was the only thing that held his attention.

Amanda took the time to send a care package to the former GIW director in his tiny, dank prison cell. As thanks for his carelessness in revealing to the entire town - both living and dead - of the agency’s existence and their intentions. Had he stuck to standard protocol, Phantom would have been none the wiser to their presence. Would have scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders at the ghost that went missing upon occasion. Would have been boredly uninterested in the people his parents had begun working with. Would have been taken by surprise when they finally came for him.

But no.

No that self-obsessed, fame chasing imbecile had to go and announce to everyone and their dead mother that the GIW existed and exactly what it was they were in Amity Park to do.

Phantom knew what they were there to do.

They could only count on his naive certainty that he could broker peace with them for so long.

Peace. As if he and his people weren’t the invading force, the monsters slipping in through the cracks between worlds, the latest threat that had to be accounted for. As if he himself hadn’t rent their world asunder himself in another world, another time. No. Peace was not something they could hash out with this baby-faced monarch with his too-big crown. Peace was the assurance of safety, security. Of control of the situation.

There could be no peace.

The higher ups were somehow surprised when Phantom took that to mean there would be war.

Amanda Waller was not.

The Fentons, as suspected, took the right side when all was revealed. Steady hands and flinty eyes as they crafted the weapons that would be needed for the coming fight. Minds even sharper in their maddened grief, hearts set on revenge for the son lost and the entity that stole his face and friends and sister in his garish pretense at humanity. They were blinded to the reality of the situation in its entirety, the potential in what their son truly was, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. They did what she needed them to do, they could believe whatever it was they wanted so long as they did.

By the time the boy king and his armies marched upon the Amity park facility, preparations had been put into place. The base in Amity had been stripped back to bare essentials, everything of importance moved to more secured locations.

The weapons labs.

The artifact.

The girl.

All tucked well away from the front lines where Phantom and his motley crew could not reach. Their time to be put in play would come, but not yet. First she needed to gauge what Phantom and his people were capable of, what they were willing to do in the name of what they wanted. Amity Park was a pawn well sacrificed on that front. As were the other facilities she’d left easy to find.

The problem with making children gods, with giving them crowns and calling them King and giving them armies to play with, was that they thought there should be rules. That even in the trenches tearing apart their enemies, there was a certain level of playing fair that everyone was held to. They thought there was a way the world worked, of how things should be that blinded them to more effective options even as time stretched on and desperation set in.

It was the Dead’s problem though, not hers.

She reached out to the Justice League. Sour faced, unhappy, bitterly reluctant to accept that she needed their help. Stone faced and barely containing their rage at what little they knew of the situation, they agreed to a meeting.

She didn’t let herself smile until she was well and truly alone in her office.

Greater good. A lie people told themselves. A fairytale told to children. A means of convincing the weaker willed that they had no choice, that they had a noble duty to bend to. A belief that could be wielded like a weapon if the fantasy of the idea had dug in deep enough. And there were few it had dug into so deep as the members of the Justice League.

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands clenched tight on a victory long in the making.

---

Part Four

[bekolxeram]

Human remains as props — the Billy Boils of old horror movies

In this week's Halloween themed 9-1-1 episode, Buck rented a mummy replica from a Hollywood prop shop which turned out to be a real human body. This set off a series of misfortunate events for the firefighter, that might or might not be the result of a curse. Once again, the writers have surpassed themselves in terms of over-the-top silliness that has become the trademark of our beloved weewoo show. There's no way someone can accidentally get their hands on a real corpse... right?

Oh, you'll be surprised. You too may have seen a real cadaver or two on the silver screen.

The Economics of prop dead bodies

Using real human remains as movie props was such a common practice back in the days that prop masters working on the 1979 Vietnam war epic Apocalypse Now were totally unfazed when body broker (later revealed to be a grave robber) brought several dead bodies to the set. The plan to use those bodies as props for maximum authenticity was only scrapped after a producer ruled against it.

Source: The Independent

Interestingly, films that ended up actually featuring real bodies were the low-budget, fake looking ones. In the age before 3D printing, creating a set of realistic human skeleton was a very labor intensive process. That combining with the cost of the material used, the price of a plastic replica was in fact more expensive than a real skeleton.

A special effect make-up artist who worked on the 1982 Spielberg classic Poltergeist explained the film's decision to use actual human remains on a podcast:

Source: Snopes

Eerily, two young actresses who worked on the Poltergeist trilogy passed away unexpectedly shortly afterwards, leading to the urban legend of a curse on set.

The story of Elmer J. McCurdy

In late 1976, the production crew of the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man was filming scenes at the Pike, a then amusement zone in Long Beach, California. While shooting a scene at a thrill ride, a member of the prop department spotted a wax mannequin covered in fluorescent paint dangling from a noose. Worrying it would get in the way of the camera, they gave the dummy's arm a tug in an attempt to remove it, but instead of the whole thing coming off, only the arm broke off, exposing a human bone and muscle tissues.

A penny from 1924 and ticket stubs to the "Museum of Crime" were found in the body's mouth. Investigators contacted the museum owner's son, who identified the body as Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw killed in 1911 in the middle of a shootout with police following a botched train robbery in Oklahoma.

Unlike the fictional McCurdy in 8x05, the real McCurdy was a simple petty criminal looking for some extra cash to support his alcohol habit. Utilizing the skills he learned from the army, his robbery method of choice was explosives, but he was very terrible at it.

Source: KCRW

His body was subsequently taken to a funeral home, where he laid unclaimed for the rest of his stay. The undertaker embalmed the body, shaved his face, dressed him in a suit, but refused bury him until someone come forward to claim it and pay for the service. As time went by, the owner of the funeral home decided to dress the body as a gunslinging cowboy and allow visitors to see "the Bandit Who Wouldn't Give Up" for the price of a nickel, in order to fund his burial.

5 years later, two men claiming to be McCurdy's long lost brothers came forward to take custody of the body for a proper burial. End of the story, right? Well, of course they were travelling carnival owners lying to acquire the body for their shows. In 1922, the body was sold to yet another travelling exhibit called "Museum of Crime", which featured wax figures of other famous outlaws in history.

For the next 3 decades, McCurdy's body travelled all around the country as an attraction. He even had a brief film career. He was once used to promote the 1933 film Narcotic!, then he had a small cameo in the 1967 B-movie She Freak. In 1968, the Museum of Crime owner's son decided to sell his father's exhibits to the Hollywood Wax Museum. There, McCurdy's body started getting mixed up with other wax figure, and his origin story long forgotten.

Following over half a century of voyage, McCurdy eventually became fully mummified. The wax museum believed that the body was too gruesome and unlifelike to be showcased anymore, so he was finally sold to The Pike, an amusement zone in Long Beach, where he began his new life as a thrill ride decoration dummy.

After the shocking revelation by TV crew in 1976, McCurdy was transported back to Oklahoma, where he took his last breath 66 years ago, and finally laid to rest after a graveside service attended by 300 people. (Under 2 feet of concrete, to prevent grave robbing)

Source: Atlas Obscura

[t-top-apologist]

At the end of the day the average civilian wishes to be catered to like an old money steel baron or perhaps one of those chaps from Downton Abbey. The entirety of modern society has come together to enable this, mass-producing cheap facsimiles of fortunes that should rightly either be built on child labor or perhaps serfdom.

Their lawns, taking up what could otherwise be used to grow crops or serve as "outdoor garage space," exist to ape the wide ranging estates meant for the nobility to chase down a fox while adorned in silly jackets. Their houses sport columns and stupid windows meant to imitate three different classical artforms at the same time because of something called "economies of scale." They even have male-centric social clubs meant for parlour games, discussing sports, and dining with friends, in this case franchised out under such names as "Buffalo Wild Wings."

This aping of the upper class continues to the hire of "artisans" to do relatively simple work deemed too complicated to warrant the time of the average citizen. It's not that the jobs are too taxing for your average person, but rather that the market has crystallized around the desire to live like budget royalty. Therefore they take their wafer-thin computers to artisans (now more commonly called "experts" or "Apple geniuses") for repair and have democratized the position of carriagemen to 22 year old dealership lube techs named Ryan who will turn a 15 minute job into a 30 minute endeavor thanks to frequent vape breaks and a brief brush with what the industry refers to as "a misplaced drain bolt."

The mid-40s project manager and mother of 3 is no less competent when changing oil than her grandfather before her who knew what "Valve Lash" is, but what separates the two is a series of wars in the 1900s that required an entire generation of men to become very familiar with operating and repairing machines better than the Germans and Japanese (an exercise that Chrysler would later abandon in favor of the phrase "if you can't beat em, join em").

This conflict ended with a surge of able-bodied men finding themselves returning to their project management jobs (like their granddaughters after them) but armed with captured German weapons and a comprehensive understanding of tubochargers. Just as a line can be drawn from troop drawdowns to political violence, there's a distinct correlations between GIs returning home and the violence with which Ford Flathead V8s were torn apart by inventive supercharging methods paired with landspeed record attempts.

Give a man a racecar and he'll crash it on the salt flats in a day. Teach a man to repair a racecar and it will sit in the garage of his suburban house for a few years in between complete engine rebuilds required by what can only be described as "vaporized piston rods."

Of course this hotrodder generation created the circumstances we live in today, as the market saw their fast cars cobbled together from old prewar hulks and simply stamped out new ones from factory, faster and more convenient for the next generation than building one from scratch. Now the project manager mother of 3 drives a 4wd barge with climate controlled seats boasting more computing power than the moon mission and an emissions-controlled powertrain with more horsepower than her grandfather's jalopy and her fathers factory muscle car combined. And she doesn't care at all.

Yet Amongst the average civilians there walks a rare breed: people who know how to change their own oil. We the chosen move among you silently, bucking the system, operating outside the cultural helplessness and trading in forbidden knowledge in almost-abandoned forum threads (flame wars over conventional vs synthetic).

While we do have a marked air of superiority about this, I can't say I haven't stooped to imitating the rich myself. I've been known to wear a silly jacket from time to time.

[justforbooks]

The DeepSeek panic reveals an AI world ready to blow❗💥

The R1 chatbot has sent the tech world spinning – but this tells us less about China than it does about western neuroses

The arrival of DeepSeek R1, an AI language model built by the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, has been nothing less than seismic. The system only launched last week, but already the app has shot to the top of download charts, sparked a $1tn (£800bn) sell-off of tech stocks, and elicited apocalyptic commentary in Silicon Valley. The simplest take on R1 is correct: it’s an AI system equal in capability to state-of-the-art US models that was built on a shoestring budget, thus demonstrating Chinese technological prowess. But the big lesson is perhaps not what DeepSeek R1 reveals about China, but about western neuroses surrounding AI.

For AI obsessives, the arrival of R1 was not a total shock. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 as a subsidiary of the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, which focuses on data-heavy financial analysis – a field that demands similar skills to top-end AI research. Its subsidiary lab quickly started producing innovative papers, and CEO Liang Wenfeng told interviewers last November that the work was motivated not by profit but “passion and curiosity”.

This approach has paid off, and last December the company launched DeepSeek-V3, a predecessor of R1 with the same appealing qualities of high performance and low cost. Like ChatGPT, V3 and R1 are large language models (LLMs): chatbots that can be put to a huge variety of uses, from copywriting to coding. Leading AI researcher Andrej Karpathy spotted the company’s potential last year, commenting on the launch of V3: “DeepSeek (Chinese AI co) making it look easy today with an open weights release of a frontier-grade LLM trained on a joke of a budget.” (That quoted budget was $6m – hardly pocket change, but orders of magnitude less than the $100m-plus needed to train OpenAI’s GPT-4 in 2023.)

R1’s impact has been far greater for a few different reasons.

First, it’s what’s known as a “chain of thought” model, which means that when you give it a query, it talks itself through the answer: a simple trick that hugely improves response quality. This has not only made R1 directly comparable to OpenAI’s o1 model (another chain of thought system whose performance R1 rivals) but boosted its ability to answer maths and coding queries – problems that AI experts value highly. Also, R1 is much more accessible. Not only is it free to use via the app (as opposed to the $20 a month you have to pay OpenAI to talk to o1) but it’s totally free for developers to download and implement into their businesses. All of this has meant that R1’s performance has been easier to appreciate, just as ChatGPT’s chat interface made existing AI smarts accessible for the first time in 2022.

Second, the method of R1’s creation undermines Silicon Valley’s current approach to AI. The dominant paradigm in the US is to scale up existing models by simply adding more data and more computing power to achieve greater performance. It’s this approach that has led to huge increases in energy demands for the sector and tied tech companies to politicians. The bill for developing AI is so huge that techies now want to leverage state financing and infrastructure, while politicians want to buy their loyalty and be seen supporting growing companies. (See, for example, Trump’s $500bn “Stargate” announcement earlier this month.) R1 overturns the accepted wisdom that scaling is the way forward. The system is thought to be 95% cheaper than OpenAI’s o1 and uses one tenth of the computing power of another comparable LLM, Meta’s Llama 3.1 model. To achieve equivalent performance at a fraction of the budget is what’s truly shocking about R1, and it’s this that has made its launch so impactful. It suggests that US companies are throwing money away and can be beaten by more nimble competitors.

But after these baseline observations, it gets tricky to say exactly what R1 “means” for AI. Some are arguing that R1’s launch shows we’re overvaluing companies like Nvidia, which makes the chips integral to the scaling paradigm. But it’s also possible the opposite is true: that R1 shows AI services will fall in price and demand will, therefore, increase (an economic effect known as Jevons paradox, which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella helpfully shared a link to on Monday). Similarly, you might argue that R1’s launch shows the failure of US policy to limit Chinese tech development via export controls on chips. But, as AI policy researcher Lennart Heim has argued, export controls take time to work and affect not just AI training but deployment across the economy. So, even if export controls don’t stop the launches of flagships systems like R1, they might still help the US retain its technological lead (if that’s the outcome you want).

All of this is to say that the exact effects of R1’s launch are impossible to predict. There are too many complicating factors and too many unknowns to say what the future holds. However, that hasn’t stopped the tech world and markets reacting in a frenzy, with CEOs panicking, stock prices cratering, and analysts scrambling to revise predictions for the sector. And what this really shows is that the world of AI is febrile, unpredictable and overly reactive. This a dangerous combination, and if R1 doesn’t cause a destructive meltdown of this system, it’s likely that some future launch will.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[vergil-sparda-5]

Commissions open!

— I will be very grateful if you order something from me, supporting me and my little dream 💋

Also look at the cute little richtofen in the corner.. I'll kill the tumblr if it eats the quality

✧ Hi, I am an Artist Vergil Sparda with eight years of drawing experience and dreaming of saving up for a good computer to learn how to draw further. The common name is Vergil. I draw pictures in Digital format ✧

✧ Rules :

• Before you order a drawing, write in private messages first.

•50% prepayment (due to the fact that customers often stop responding and paying after the sketch stage)

• Publish drawings in your public with your permission

•The author's painting in the corner will remain

• 15% discount when ordering two or more drawings at a time

•For every third purchase, a 20% discount

•5 changes to the sketch for free, then an additional fee of +1$ for one edit

• In the late stages of editing, + 2$-5$ per edit

• Before full payment, the drawing will be sent with a watermark and in poor quality. You can pay in full after the sketch is approved and you will receive the subsequent stages in good quality.

•The duration of the work takes from 7 to 31 days, depending on the task. In case of emergency situations or vice versa (namely, the opportunity to finish the drawing earlier), I will inform you.

• If you have any questions, do not be afraid to write, I will answer whenever possible.

✧ I draw:

• People/The Elves/Other

• Portraits

• ONLY IN DIGITAL

✧ I DON 'T draw:

•Furry

•Any prohibited symbols, gestures, etc.

• Anime

✧How to place an order :

1. You write, you say Task, we discuss the budget, and I start drawing the outline.

2. I am sending an outline (in poor quality with a watermark), you approve or make edits.

3. You pay an advance payment of 50% / immediately the entire amount of 100%

4. During the drawing, I will send you each stage in bad/good quality with a watermark (depending on whether you paid half or immediately)

5. After full payment and completion of the work, I will send you the finished drawing with a small author's painting in the corner. I can also send it in perfectly good quality with a link in the Google Drive folder

!!! IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THE DRAWING AT THE END OF THE WORK (although all the stages were sent and you could have said so at any time), THE MONEY WILL NOT BE REFUNDED. (since the job was done by me) !!!

✧ Price list :

• +30%/50% for additional character/person (depending on difficulty)

✧ Background:

•Regular (simple, not detailed)/Color (fill with color) For free

•Detailed background +10-30$

✧ Art (shoulder-length/waist-length/full (for full-fledged drawings, additional details)) :

• Sketch: 15$/20$/25$

• Black/White: 50$/60$/70$/90$ ( more detailed)

• Color: 80$/90$/100$/130$ ( more detailed)

✧ Portraits (Regular/More detailed):

•Black/White: 90$/105$

•Color: 115$/130$

✧Payment methods:

• Boosty (Non-Russian cards + 20% of the cost of art)

• Any Russian card (No transfer fees)

— Thank you very much if you read this in full..

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

Noah Sheidlower, John L. Dorman

Medicaid may be on the chopping block as the Trump administration prepares its budget blueprint.

The House Budget Committee's budget draft included a goal of about $2 trillion in spending cuts and allowed for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

The blueprint draft called for at least $880 billion in spending cuts from the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade. This would likely mean large Medicaid cuts, potentially leading many Americans to lose their benefits. A Ways and Means Committee document outlining reconciliation options reveals over $2 trillion in potential Medicaid cuts, though some could overlap.

President Donald Trump has said Social Security and Medicare, which are the largest federal government programs, wouldn't be cut. Elon Musk has also accused "federal entitlements" such as Social Security of fraud.

The draft directed the Committee on Agriculture to reduce the deficit by $230 billion, which would mean cutting nutritional programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. [Food stamps/EBT]

The most recent Medicaid enrollment data from October 2024 revealed over 72 million people were enrolled in Medicaid, while 7.25 million were enrolled in Children's Health Insurance Programs. Medicaid provides healthcare and long-term services coverage for lower-income Americans and is financed by both the federal government and states. In some states, over 30% of the population is covered by Medicaid. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid spending in 2023 was nearly $872 billion.

Some GOP leaders have proposed reducing Federal Medical Assistance Percentages, the amount the federal government pays to states based on factors such as a state's per-capita income. Others have proposed Medicaid per-capita caps, which an early House Budget Committee proposal said could save up to $900 billion. This shift would lead states to either cut back on Medicaid services or identify other methods for funding potentially billions in losses.

Figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have argued that Medicaid is ineffective, and some question whether it has improved people's health. Critics of the program have also said people relying on Medicaid could get insurance from other sources, such as their workplace. However, Medicaid expansions have been shown to improve care access, reduce mortality rates, and spark economic growth.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in recent days had already moved ahead with his border security, military, and energy package, as Republicans in the upper chamber had been waiting for their House counterparts to offer their budget proposal.

Graham is aiming to pass a second budget resolution extending the 2017 tax cuts later this year.

Senate Republicans can pass a budget reconciliation bill with a simple majority, or 51 votes, as they wouldn't have to meet the normal 60-vote filibuster threshold. The party currently holds a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber.

House GOP leaders see their budget framework as one that could pave the way for passing a reconciliation bill through Congress with the priorities of Trump and top conservatives in mind. Republicans have a razor-thin 218-215 majority in the House, so every vote will be critical, and they're looking to pass one bill with Trump's signature policy desires.

Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday told reporters that Graham's plan was a "nonstarter."

"We all are trying to get to the same achievable objectives," the Louisiana Republican said. "And there's just, you know, different ideas on how to get there."

GOP leaders have recently pushed for Medicaid cuts, leading to debates over how much to cut services many Americans rely on.

Other major points from the House blueprint included increasing the debt limit by $4 trillion, reductions in education totaling $330 billion, and allocating up to $300 billion in additional border and defense spending.

The Senate's plan calls for $150 billion in additional defense spending and a $175 billion boost for border security.

[centrally-unplanned]

I have been taking my fit-and-starts second stab at playing Victoria 3 - I did a Japan run, and a Korea run, and this is a very frustrating game. It bothers me because its deep core is probably the best of Vicky so far. It understands that the appeal of these game is Factorio-esque; you want to build up this cool little supply chain that goes chug chug chug I make-a the widgets and numbers go up.

Vicky 1 was ofc just pure cheese; most goods could just be dumped on the global market with no buyer and do fine, certain goods were just hard-coded to be profitable, and insane things like 100% of import costs coming out of the government's budget pushed you towards a kind of samey, slapdash hyper-industrial mercantilism. Vicky 2 was the opposite - so opaque in its function that you as the player didn't really have agency over it, as the vaunted World Market just does its thing. Your strategies "worked" no matter what you really did though, so you just kind of followed basic "build factory in same territory as RGO" logic and let the system run itself. Both of these systems made for functional-but-not-exceptional gameplay loops.

Vicky 3 is more complicated than its predecessors, but in ways that makes how the economic system functions more concrete. You have local prices for goods, wider markets with clearly labelled high-and-low demand, and clearly defined "production methods" where buildings can commit to better tech at the cost of different inputs. As a player you can build factories, farms, and mines of a dozen different types anywhere, so you always have agency - and those new production lines gives you goals. Invent steel tools, so now your tooling workshops can make more tools but will need steel instead of iron as a input? You can switch over the lines...but make sure you have enough steel mills! And oh, that drives down the price of tools once you do it...so now your cattle ranches can justify switching their line to tool-assisted butchers! And now you make more meat, your local cost is low, but oh in the Russian market meat prices are high - as shown by that little gold coin icon it - so you can export it now!

Things are looped, contingent, and based on your decisions. It is simple, of course, you are making lots of little, easy calls that build you up over time - which is what makes it fun. It has to be simple, because otherwise it is a dizzyingly complex web of a million markets, it would never work. You feel like you are actually building the economy without being overwhelmed by it.

Which would be great if it wasn't stapled to one of the worst political & military systems I have ever seen, played with a UI God abandoned in shame.

So you can join the markets of other countries? Like you have your own market as a default, so you can click the "market" tab and it will show you how much wheat your country makes, how much iron it buys, etc. All good. But if you join another country's market, now that tab shows the collective market, everyone's wheat, iron, etc. Useful but like obiously I am not playing the market, I am playing the country; so how do I see how much wheat I make?

You can't.

You actually can't! Idk maybe they patched it in recently, but I couldn't find it and all the reddit threads I google from 2023 say you can't. Are you planning to declare independence and wanna see if you make enough food for your people? Too bad! Fuck around and find out I guess. I saw one thread where someone's advice was "save the game, declare independence, screenshot the new market, then reload". Quantum timeline level of experimental design going on in these guys' Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It isn't even the gameplay implications that bother me the most - this is a game about building an economy. You want to see what you built! And they stop you. It is baffling, and is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many things like this. One of my favourites is that your "construction sector" is a hybrid of government and private projects, sometimes it is you spending the money, sometimes investors. Okay, cool, when it is you spending it comes out of your treasury, right? Well, yes, but the way they show that is when everyone spends it comes out of your treasury, but the private sector reimburses you for their share. Which you will not understand your first ~3 games, and instead just see huge red numbers on your budget screen and panic. And you are just left asking why? Why do that?

Beyond UI, the political system is just half-baked. It is "interest groups", each has baseline popularity, and verrrry slowly that changes as your economic structure changes (or revolutions). And to change laws you initiate campaigns to drum up support with roll dice to pass/fail. Which isn't a bad baseline, but it completely fails to capture how political change occurred in the era. Like the Meiji Restoration is "done" by you putting industrialists in power and kicking out the "landlords" lol. Japan didn't have industrialists then! Landlords are the ones who did the restoring of Meiji.

More importantly than inaccurate it isn't fun - to change a law you just arrange a coalition in power than kind of backs it, then pray you get good random events. In Vicky 2 they had a lot more railroad-style decisions and stuff you could do to capture history, "hit this military score benchmark and launch a civil war" kind of stuff. It wasn't complicated, and it was less organic, but it was pro player agency, you could take active steps to achieve it. In Vicky 3 it is mainly waiting or cheese - people often talk about getting the Meiji Restoration by deleting all your armies at game start and launching a civil war immediately that the AI will lose by default. A checkbox decision is better than that!

The military mechanics are the epitome of their "systems over gameplay" approach. What they wanted to do was two-fold; reduce micro in Vicky 2 where it is "click army to province" over and over, and "balance" the game by making combat not reward micro where players could cheese the AI. Very valid goals, I totally support it. What they did was built a system where armies auto-move to "fronts" and their AI can't handle it, but now as a player my agency over my units is gone so I can't fix it. The UI is awful, you can't even really tell armies to attack or defend, they just ~whim. You have to do a lot of clicking to fight the system - yes it is less clicking than Vicky 2, but in Vicky 2 that wasn't mentally taxing, it was fun enough to wage the war you wanted to wage. Everything was concrete and in your control.

Here...look, as Korea I declared war on China to gain independence. Then the UK - not my ally, just separately, declared war on China as well. So now we are kindaaaa on the same side? At which point half my army auto-reployed to Hong Kong because a "new front" had "appeared". One my one boat. Then the UK declared war on me as well and then 50% of my army was fighting the UK in the South China Sea alongside the Russians (???) while the other half of my army is sitting there at home facing the Qing troops along the Yalu River going "bro, wtf?". At one point a newly spawned army of mine tried to auto-redeploy to Senegal.

All of this is just so preventable - you wanna reduce micro? Make combat provinces really big. You just invade "Manchuria", no clicking from Jilin to Mukden, and have bordering armies support each other defensively or something like that so you don't have to dash back and forth. Don't try to make your AI "do it for you" because it clearly can't and you want to play your own game. I'm sure the above will get better as I learn the system but I can just see the hundreds of players who saw this system and insta-quit, because until you "understand" it, it stabs you in the back. Not what you want out of a game.

Anyway enough me whinging about the game for way too long - the fundamentals are strong in the end. I will test out mods, I could see an overhaul mod really fixing everything except maybe the combat (and then you just cope). I definitely want it to work, the potential is high.

[jazzy-art-time]

THE Wee's

"A popular show in the country Torvanko, THE Wee's is a nonsensical animated sitcom show. Known for it's random and explosive humor and filled with satire. Due to it's popularity, it even came out with a child friendly spin off show called "THE Wee's JR" It's absurd nature has raised some brows amongst other countries but has quickly began to spread in popularity, including Jarbline City. Although the normal show is saved for late night viewings, THE Wee's JR is often showed frequently on the kids network throughout the week. When questioned on the shows nonsensical nature, Critics are often quoted as saying "You either get it or you don't, simple as that." Despite the shows low animation budget and almost powerpoint episode format, the show has blown up significantly. Gaining mass amounts of merchandise and even its own convention called "The WeeCon" that is held yearly. Fans of the show are self proclaimed "Weeners" and it is common for people to draw self inserts of themselves into the show. Using a strange abbreviation method of combining the first two letters of their name and "wee". Jarbline City is slowly being overcome with "Wee Fever" and more and more shops and smaller conventions are being held within the city. Book tickets now! Next event being hosted in the Shining Ring Convention Center this spring! -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Behold my Wee's. Just a "in universe" tv show. Something I can draw on TV's or have characters reference. It is also certain characters favorite show n whatnot so it's like Important but also not. Anyways. Enjoy my Wee's.

[independentanon]

Budget Portable Projection for Simple Tags

I've been keeping to myself lately. My life is falling apart, but I'm pretending everything is fine. To distract myself, I've been working on a few ideas, and I'd like to share one of them today: how to make a cheap as fuck projector for assisting with simple spray paint tags.

This all started with a simple idea: try to recreate the iconic lambda tag from Half-Life 2, which is shown on the left. On the right is the original symbol from Half-Life which the tag is based on.

Seeing as the tag from Half-Life 2 appears to be freehand, I attempted to recreate it myself the same way, but I quickly learned that it is surprisingly difficult to replicate.

(In retrospect, I wasted paint covering up the previous attempts. I could have just used more cardboard, as it's much cheaper and abundant than paint.)

At this point, I knew I had to come up with a solution for how to stay precise while also keeping it freehand. I came up with a few ideas, but I eventually settled on trying a simple method of portable projection. The idea would be to make a basic projector using a combination of cereal box cardboard, tape, sandwich bag plastic, and permanent marker ink which could then be taped to a cellphone and have its light shown through it.

Here's the first prototype and how it looks in use:

You can see the projection is fuzzy and the projector has to be REALLY close to the target surface. Not great.

The second prototype ended up bigger and longer, which looks like the following when in use:

The projections from this version are much more clear, but the light is slightly darker because the projector has to be further away. A worthwhile tradeoff, in my opinion.

Even so, there was still room for improvement. The design for this projector was still too complicated and didn't work as well as I wanted it to.

I also realized here using a negative of the graphic would likely work better. The best way to achieve this - instead of covering plastic sheets with tons of permanent marker ink - would be cutting a stencil out of something like cardboard or paper.

The third and final prototype ended up being the winner, having the simplest design and producing the clearest projections. It's even reusable with masking tape, allowing us to switch out gobos (the thing with the design cut into it) without causing much damage to the projector or the gobo itself.

I made and tested two gobos. One had the original design, the other had a thin version of it.

I'll explain how to make the projector and gobos later on in this post. Just know that, in the end, the design with the thinner lines ended up being the most useful.

In testing, I found that attempting to follow a design directly from a projection ended up too difficult as my hands would warp and block the light...

Yeah...

So instead, I tried gently blotting some paint over the projection before moving the projector out of the way and finally connecting the dots.

Despite me failing to follow the dots on the bottom-left of the design, this produced the best result and was an excellent proof of concept! I'd recommend blotting clearer dots than I did, though.

=================================

Ok, so here's my blueprint for both the projector and the gobos that go with it.

It's pretty straight forward. For the projector, cut where solid lines are shown, and score and fold where the dotted lines are shown.

The flaps on the bottom overlap in a circular arrangement, with either clockwise or counter-clockwise overlaps, much like how you'd close a box without using tape. In this case, we will use tape to help hold these flaps in this arrangement. We'll also want to tape the long edges of the projector together (not shown, but you'll know what I mean when you get to this part).

The flaps on the top are folded outward instead and act as surfaces for aligning and attaching our gobos to.

As for making the gobos, I'd recommend cutting them out of card stock (it's the same type of poster paper I've been using for my other stencils). Even though the gobo will be 3" x 3", the design has to fit in a 2" x 2" space in the center. The 0.5" of padding is where the tape goes when attaching it to the projector. For how to make stencils, please refer to this other post of mine:

The last thing I forgot to mention is that you'll need something to hold your projector setup in place. I have a tripod and a simple cellphone mount which can hold my phone in the correct position and angle while I blot the design onto my target surface.

Here's the mount I use:

And that's about it! I'm pretty happy with how this all turned out, and I hope it's useful for you too... for legal purposes, of course :)

[oxford-garments]

MOCRØ STYLE

Regional Matrix Flat Hierarchy

Arcabine Lords with Bullfrog & Rabbit Sacrifice

Selective Fire 30 Round Mag

Chef for Importers and Painters/Realtors for Exporters

Everyone is a Shooter (Fortdix) et Maritime Corruption (Portdix)

Budgeting and Forecasting Re-up Pill Presser and Cough Syrup Investments

Scrum Management Festival Dealing

Phone Number Scores

Warehouse REITS and Ownerships

Offshore Real Estate Brokerage Trust Account

STERRC (Smuggling Trafficking Embezzlement Rugged Refined Cultivator)

VIVRE MOCRØ: HEEL DOUBLE TOUCH, HOP STEP OVERS, TRIVELA CUTTERS, RABBANA, SHOULDER CRADLES, MOCRØ 9 INVERTED FREEROLE (PASS WITH LEFT AND SHOOT WITH RIGHT), AND NATIVISM & POLITICAL VIOLENCE RIOTS FOR FAN ENGAGEMENT

SHIFTY MOMENTUM FLIP FLAP SENSATION AND TRANSDUCTION DRIBBLING: DÉJÌ CROWN SCALENE AND ISOSCELES TRIANGLE PHILOSOPHY (3-4 NUMBERED FOOTWORK & TAP DANCE AGILITY LADDER DRIBBLING); SCALENE CHOPS AND ISOSCELES STEP OVERS WITH IN AND OUT COUNTERS; EYE POCKET (BALL AND DEFENDER'S FEET); BALLS & ARCH OF FEET FOR TOUCH AND KNEES FOR DIRECTION WITH HIP ANGLES; OBJECTIVE: BACK HEEL REVERSE MOMENTUM CAUSING DEFENCE

The behavioural tendency of ultras groups includes singing football chants, playing musical instruments such as drums, their use of flares and smoke bombs (primarily in tifo choreography), frequent use of elaborate displays, vocal support in large groups and the displaying of flags and banners at football stadiums, all of which are designed to create an atmosphere which encourages their own team and intimidates the opposing players and their supporters. Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of native-born or indigenous people over those of immigrants. Violence in Politics can also describe politically motivated violence which is used by violent non-state actors against a state (rebellion, rioting, treason, or coup d'état) or it can describe violence which is used against other non-state actors and/or civilians.[2][3][4] Non-action on the part of a government can also be characterized as a form of political violence, such as refusing to alleviate famine or otherwise denying resources to politically identifiable groups within their territory. *Sensation is the process that allows our brains to take in information via our five senses, which can then be experienced and interpreted by the brain. Sensation occurs thanks to our five sensory systems: vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. In simple terms, sensation can be defined as what the sensory organs do. In psychology, sensation is defined as the process of the sensory organs transforming physical energy into neurological impulses the brain interprets as the five senses of vision, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. When the brain experiences sensations based on the environment, such as a feeling or an experience, the brain then uses transduction to convert the feeling or venture into a more easily processed neuron. One can think of it simply as the scientific method of external influences on a person's brain.*

Sensation and Transduction Psychology Political Intellects with Culture Extremists Left Wing Politics with Far Right Parks and Recreation Curriculars.

Energy Drink Bassline Club Labels; each Bassline has its own Energy Drink with own Club; Beach Club, Night Club, Hotel Club, has different basslines.

DÈJÌ

[karikarasuno]

this has turned into a whole thing and i apologize. linking the other parts tho in case you're interested: part1, part2, & part3

--

shouto has a smart mouth. he never grew out of that trait much to his father's dismay and ire. but he never thought you'd bring that out in him. he's usually so calm and resolute in your presence. but today you're irritated. annoyed. agitated.

you're in rare form, truly. and it shouldn't bother him when he walks into the conference room and you're clicking your pen incessantly. you called an emergency meeting about the budget. seems like there's an issue with the funds allocated to your account so you asked all the department heads to meet with you after the lunch hour. iida was already in there, focused on the open laptop in front of him, and so was izuku, who was awkwardly fiddling with his bluetooth mouse. he was used to their moods.

iida was always concentrated, stern, and serious. while izuku was always a nervous wreck and a chronic overthinker.

you, though, were always poised and polite. smiling and professional in any circumstance. not today. today your mood was sour and it shifted the energy in the room to something almost suffocating.

"hi," izuku squeaked out when he noticed shouto's arrival.

"thanks for coming," you say, absentmindedly writing something in your planner. you didn't look up at him like you always did. that bothered him.

he's grown used to your gaze. has found great comfort in it since you two have started dating. but now you're ignoring him and it's making him feel... fussy.

"what's this about?" he asks as he slides into the chair opposite you. your head snaps up when you recognize the hint of attitude present in shouto's tone. especially because he knows exactly what this is about.

“the budget is wrong,” you respond flatly. “im missing a chunk of funding from my account and id like to figure out why.”

“doesn’t seem like something that would warrant a meeting with everyone. accounting should be able to fix it,” he says that last part in iida’s direction. his fingers halt above his keyboard at shouto’s callout.

“i wish it was that simple,” iida begins explaining, “but the money seems to have disappeared.”

“that’s impossible,” shouto answers with something close to condescension in his voice.

“well, yes—,” iida attempts to continue his explanation.

“only a moron would lose this much money,” shouto says dryly and he hears a gasp from izuku.

“watch your mouth, sho,” you reprimand. anger so evident the room frosts over. he swears he even sees izuku shudder.

but he keeps his eyes on yours, challenging when he replies, “I can’t see my mouth.”

your eye twitches with irritation and his lip twitches with barely contained smugness as the room rapidly heats up. neither of you were backing down. and he got a strange thrill from it. maybe he also enjoyed you angry.

“a word?” you stand methodically and gesture an arm to the door, signaling for the both of you to step out. he rises in silence.

he’s following you down the hall to your office. he can’t help but keep his eyes trained on your figure. not really feeling apologetic for his behavior. even though he was rude.

when he enters your office he reclines on your desk and watches as you quietly shut the door. he can tell you’re practically fuming. your cheeks are flushed, your breathing is deliberate, and you won’t stop fidgeting with your ring. you only fidget with your ring when you're trying to regulate your emotions. he guesses he’s to blame this time.

“what is your problem?” you ask with a sigh. disappointed? no. just aggravated.

“nothing,” he shrugs dismissively, lying.

“yeah right,” you laugh humorlessly. “you calling iida a moron was just a cute nickname then?”

“i didn’t say he was a moron,” he argued, technically not lying this time.

you pinch the bridge of your nose, fingers sliding up to massage your brow bone. you were prone to headaches, he learned. a part of him feels bad now for adding to your stress. but not bad enough to back down. he's stubborn like that.

"it was the implication," you explain, slowly, reeling in your anger through a tight jaw.

you still aren't looking at him. even alone, your eyes remain closed or averted. he's learning that he hates that. and while your eyes remain elsewhere, his trail over you.

your blouse is lavender today. soft and flowy where the fabric ripples against your skin. your slacks are black and they hug your hips in a way that makes his pulse pump just a bit faster. he's quite fond of your legs, especially right now. you're wearing heels. you often do at work, but for some reason your legs look longer today. maybe its the pants. he's not sure.

but before he can think too much about it, his fingers are slipping beneath your belt loops. he spreads his fingers wide across your hips and tugs you into him. he's surprised when you don't resist. given the fact that you're upset with him. but you fit easily between his parted legs.

your eyes don't meet his and even though indignation flares in his chest, it doesn't matter. because his face finds your neck. and you smell good. warm. cozy. when he brought it up to you awhile back, you mentioned a patchouli fragrance oil. he didn't know nor care what that was. just that he liked when you wore it.

"you're being annoying today," you mutter, but regardless of your words, your body still softens in his embrace and your fingers find the hair at the nape of his neck.

"i don't like when you ignore me," he mumbles against the collar of your shirt. it's silky on his lips. he smiles at the feeling.

"ignore you?" your voice is incredulous and when you try to move from his grasp his hold tightens. "when?"

"the conference room."

the office is suddenly silent. your breaths even quiet at his admission. he can tell you're holding it, but he refuses to unwrap himself from your body.

"shouto," you say, tone shifting into something teetering towards amusement. he buries his face further in your neck. but before he can get too comfortable you start laughing. your whole body squirms and vibrates as your giggles increase.

your hands find his biceps and with much more strength than before you peel yourself away from him to look directly in his eyes. that was all he wanted really. from the beginning.

your expression is completely different now. your features are no longer pinched with irritation and your lips aren't flattened together. your eyes are watery from laughing and your cheeks carry a pretty blush.

"i just want you to know," you start, hands rising to cup his cheeks, "that you're the most ridiculous man i've ever met."

he pouts. he doesn't really mean to. but it awards him a brief kiss from you, so he doesn't complain. "and for whatever reason i find that incredibly endearing, but i'm warning you now if you ever interrupt my meeting again because you feel neglected, we're fighting in the parking lot."

he can't help it. the laugh bubbles up from his chest and his head falls forward from how completely unexpected that was. he rises to his full height and moves you with him towards the closed door. but before you open it, his lips fall to your ear and he whispers, "if you're giving me an excuse to get you to touch me, i'll take it."

[unhonestlymirror]

There are many smart, pragmatic and far-sighted people in the US. But the current government does not want to listen to them.

New York Times: Trump was offered a plan to make money and force russia to make peace

American economists have offered US President Donald Trump a plan that will force russia to stop the war. It is enough to introduce a tariff for all buyers, sellers and intermediaries in the trade of russian energy resources in the world. As a result, the money will fill the US budget, and Putin will have nothing to fight for.

According to The New York Times, American economists Glenn Gabbard and Catherine Wolfram noted that US President Donald Trump needs new methods to persuade the russian dictator to negotiate and end the war.

Given the situation, they have suggested a simple way to improve Washington's influence on the peace process.

In their opinion, sanctions should be imposed on everyone who sells russian oil and gas to any country in the world. Russia could avoid these so-called “secondary sanctions” by paying a fee to the US Treasury for each delivery.

“This payment would be called the “russian universal tariff” and would start at a low rate, but would increase with each week that passes without reaching a peace agreement,” the experts noted.

If russia does not pay these fees, then secondary sanctions will be transferred to all participants in the transaction, including the owner of the oil tankers, insurers and buyers.

Thus, Indian and Chinese companies that import significant volumes of oil from russia and have not imposed their own sanctions do not want to fall under US sanctions. All such tanker shipments are carefully monitored by both commercial parties and Americans.

Economists say that, unlike the deal to control Ukrainian minerals, such a tariff would immediately bring the United States a solid profit. According to their calculations, a levy of $20 per barrel of oil could bring in up to $120 million per day and more than $40 billion per year, and additional revenues could be generated if a similar levy were introduced on natural gas. Every dollar collected by the United States is money that russia will not be able to spend on financing its war.

“Ideally, such a policy should persuade the Kremlin to negotiate, where the abolition of the tariff could be part of the deal. If not, the United States would still collect billions each year, which could help finance Trump’s proposed tax cuts. In such a scenario, russia would effectively help return American taxes that were used to help Ukraine defend itself from an aggressor attack,” the columnists write.

Hubbard and Wolfram believe that while Trump is considering this strategy, Congress could strengthen his negotiating position by passing a bill to impose such a universal tariff on russia. This would give the White House head additional leverage over moscow and push the kremlin towards a peace deal.

“Combining secondary sanctions, a powerful tool in the US economic arsenal, with a tariff levy could put pressure on Putin, threatening his most valuable source of revenue. It would also make it easier for Trump to fulfill his promise to establish a lasting peace,” the economists concluded.