#tell me theres actually an efficient way of doing this

[om-chats]

Just checked how much chat convos I have to read and it all amounted to 630+ this is why ive been avoiding the main casts dude

and the fact that only a quarter of what goes on in chat actually gets posted im dying 💀💀

[tsukana]

GOD but rewatching the bit where phil teleports to the favela and strides into the order again makes me feel so insane like-

the movements of the cubito are expressed so so well because even though you arent hearing the clips of his mouse or keyboard like he's slamming them theres such an intensity and urging purpose behind all of his movements. everything is done efficiently and precisely and it FEELS like im hearing sounds the way you do when etoiles is clack clack clacking away and you can hear him over the stream and every other player in the vicinity.

but when he enters that meeting room? you barely even see him whip around and close the door behind him before he faces forward again. its literally a SPLIT SECOND of motion on the stream. it happens so quickly i genuinely had to take a moment and be like this man just aggressively slammed that door closed. it is a moment that i literally see no way to interpret as any thing BUT q!phil throwing the meeting room door open and slamming it shut behind him in a split second before launching himself into the chair at the head of the table; wanting to slump into it under the weight of everything he's feeling but not being able to because of the tension threaded through his body from the high sense of emotions of exactly what he's just been found and seemingly taunted with, especially given the specific situation differences compared to the rest of the static photos found

(specifically seeing more of the actual egg bodies compared to their items like in the other photos, the photos found at places that are specifically dear to his kids and NOT just in a chest on these fucking freaky alien ships)

just. you can tell that phil himself is definitely feeling the intense emotions, but damn he translated the expression of that into the movement of his character in the game so well.

[omamorens]

Excuse me, I know it’s been a while since fantasy high junior year, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts or head cannons on Adaine and Oisín as academic rivals in senior year?

OH I HAVE LOTS OF THOUGHTS ABOUT THEM the lack of content has not stopped my brainrot (a curse or a blessing…. who can tell) but senior high inkblade thoughts coming right up

Nothing beats forced proximity. Wizard classes are notorious for giving out group tasks to mitigate the stereotype of wizard shut-ins

General student population has not taken kindly to TRG’s return… and they’re still pretty much approached with caution

Not TBK though. they dont gaf bout these kids

Especially not Adaine.

So if she happens to be paired/grouped with Oisin Hakinvar for a lot of the projects, she just learns to work with him in relative peace.

“Peace” being doing most of the work herself because duh. Who else can do anything better than she does?

But Adaine’s idea of “peace” hurts Oisin’s draconian sense of pride.

The second time it happens, Oisin finally gets the sense to tell her to knock out of it and include him in the work.

“Why? You’re already getting a free pass because of me. Just say your thanks and take it.”

“This free pass is gonna bite me in the ass.”

“You think I’ll snitch?”

“I just don’t like owing you anything.”

Their argument quickly escalates until the threats of violence have reached their wizard teacher’s radar.

Which was perfect. Now Adaine can actually complain and have her partner changed without whining or sounding like she was being difficult.

Too bad for her…

“I can’t do that, Miss Abernant. Mr. Hakinvar is the only one with comparable capabilities as you that if anyone else were paired with you, it would almost be like handing them a free pass.”

There was a compliment there somewhere but Adaine cannot be bothered to dig for it. Not when she was being compared to Oisin Hakinvar of all people.

In the end, Adaine didn’t get a change of partner and was left to deal with Oisin on her own.

Surprisingly, he was not that difficult to deal with. Misgivings aside, Oisin had common sense and worked on his parts well enough that Adaine had no problem with their output.

Doesn’t mean she won’t complain though.

This rivalry was a battle of wits mostly— who could create the most efficient spell? who could cast more practically? who wrote glyphs more intricately?

Wizard classes were also deeply twined together that it was hard not so be in the same class despite having different wizarding schools.

Which also presented arguments in theory and the nature of magic as they see and interact with it in their perspective.

In short, Oisin Hakinvar was a fucking challenge.

When you’re Adaine Abernant, you’re used to being the smartest person in the room.

Sure her friends were smart in their own ways too (Riz was inquisitively smart, Gorgug practically smart, and all her other friends were brilliantly talented), but all of them mostly did not care to have the scholarly aptitude and arcane awareness to actually challenge Adaine.

And honestly? Being the smartest person in the room was kind of dull.

Oisin just had to exist and change that, and now Adaine is both challenged, uncharistically motivated, and driven to come out as the better wizard.

Being the Elven Oracle does not matter when your opponent is an annoying dragonborn who only had comparable capabilities as you do after he killed some rats—

It was infuriating, honestly insulting, and most of all untrue.

Adaine will just have to prove it to everyone when she eventually graduates top of the wizarding class.

That will happen after she tackles the mysteries surrounding her senior year first because Of Course something had to go wrong and it was up to the Bad Kids to actually do anything about it.

No, she will not be distracted by this. She can solve a mystery AND be academically competent. Who do you take her for?

Oisin will have to pry the top spot from her cold, dead hands—

in my head, theres another pov of this from oisin’s perspective but this has gotten too long and i have uni to tackle first. i hope you enjoyed this hcs because i truly have daydreamed inkblade senior year in its full glory in my head at this point.

[memorycycle]

post for @wuggen asked to see the code i wrote for simulating a realistic car engine so here

its built in godot btw

the script extends rigidbody3d cus im actually just moving an invisible sphere along the ground with a car basically stapled to it

did you know car engines put out different levels of torque at different rpms which affects like basically everything about the car. the torque curves are actually way more complicated than this, they kind of look like ramps with a hump in the middle followed by a dip followed by a bigger hump. but im just doing something that looks more like a perfect mound here. it works fine

i found the equation power=torque*rpm/9549.3 online from a forum where some guy posted the results of a dyno run on his porsche. the number 9549.3 is definitely specific to that porsche, so its probably a variable id want to be able to change later i guess

theres 2 big scary chunks of code here written by someone else which youre looking at in the pic above. i dont know shit about rotating and transforming 3d shapes so yea thanks guy on youtube

^this is basic shit but let me say one thing having the layout of accelerating with up on the right stick and braking with down on the right stick makes racing games so much more intuitive to play because suddenly it all just becomes one button that like the player understands in their mind as just "movement" and say for example when the player is coming up on a turn and they point both the steering and throttle joystick towards the turn whats happening is that they steer towards the turn of course but also they decelerate because the right stick is no longer pointed fully up in the Y direction, its Y value is now something like 0.7 instead of 1.0 because of the angle the stick is pointed in, that extra 0.3 went to the X direction , meaning the player automatically decelerates the car based on the angle of the turn without even having to think about it. if the turn starts to become more hairpin the angle is so great that the Y starts becoming negative and now braking is happening instead of acceleration automatically. its actually beautiful how simple and effective it is

^heres my cool function that does basically everyuthing related to the rpm. different gears rise and fall at different rpm speeds and it even simulates the effect of engine braking caused by releasing the throttle when shifting gears. it has so many fucking magic numbers from me just fiddling with it for like years trying to get the acceleration and shit to feel just right

^this ones mad complicated i commented every line

awesome gear shifting stuff its so fucking yummy because if u look closely in the video at the top u will notice i never use the brake to slow down. i downshift gears which causes causes the car to lose speed because the power it was giving out is less efficient now due to the lower gear ratio which also means the rpm jumps up to redline speeds which lets me instantly shift back up to retain some acceleration i cant tell u how satisfying it is to drive this thing and it feels like a real car

^and thats it thats the last function. 212 lines of code honestly pretty small tbh. theres still stuff missing like for example when a car is turning the rpm starts increasing at a slower rate due to things like centripetal force traction rolling resistance weight transfer weight load engine load steering angle friction but im probably just gonna end up calculating it only based on velocity * steering angle or something lol. if anyone made it this far i contratutle you i dont think anyone who isnt as obsessed as i am with this stuff could ever read this whole thing so thank u

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hey! I hope you are better, I waited a while to request this to hope you were better. Take your time writing this, or if you don't feel comfortable that's okay!

I wanted to request a Kinger and Caine x reader in the sense of lovers, whose y/n is deaf

I imagine that maybe they were already deaf before entering the digital world, or it just ended up having a problem when they put on the headset and ended up not hearing anything there. Either way, they would be the embodiment of calm and would speak in sign language

Caine and Kinger x deaf!reader !

yahoo going to write this request then take a break n do the things i gotta do today!! gotta make a coffee cake for someone!

CAINE:

i think i might have said this somewhere before but caine is actually pre programmed to know a bunch of different languages! i dont think it would be too far of a stretch to assume he also knows sign language, or at least enough to communicate with you! if theres anything he doesnt know hes more than willing to sit down with you to learn, plus that just means more bonding!

obviously, caine constantly signs his adorations to you whenever he gets the chance! asides from that there isnt much different than how he would be with a non deaf partner; he still absolutely showers you in love and affection!

should anyone ever be rude to you or say something horrible hes going to be real pissed; fiercely defends you as well as possibly making the next IHA hell for that person.. though thankfully, i dont think anyone in the main cast would go out of their way to be an asshole to you

yes that includes jax, i may write him to be a huge butthole but i dont think he would target you for your deafness, you know?

KINGER:

in contrast to caine, i dont think kinger knows any sign language! so youre going to have to teach him if you guys want to learn to communicate efficiently that works for you; in the mean time while hes mastering sign language you guys may have to speak through writing </3 but trust me thats ditched the second kinger knows enough!

good news, too, kinger is a quick and devoted learner, so hes going to be hooked on your lessons until its over; hell he would let you teach him everything in one sitting if you wanted to!

practices a lot in his pillow fort, probably also practices signing nicknames for you, and i think thats sweet... tries to practice his signs so he can tell you how much he loves you... i think caine would do this too, but kinger holds a timid-ness that i cant quite put down into words, you know?

if theres a library type area in the circus that happens to have a book on sign language you know damn well kinger is going to check it out... alas, i dont think the circus would have such a thing... maybe.. i mean it has a bunch of weird rooms so is it really outside the realm of possibility?

[aragonlediagon]

OoMH (Re HRtP) drawing series update

Hi. I bring important news regarding my Touhou PC98 current drawing series, for those who followed it seriously. Initially I was working on making 2 per week on average (4 out of 11 done), but havent done anything since I posted the 4th one.

The reason is because since late march, ive been revisiting my basics seriously as I wish to improve the quality of my works. I will be honest, I am really unsatisfied of how I handle coloration/rendering, the shading especially. I had people telling me it looks fine, but I dont like it, and its a painful step for me to do each time. Drawing is my hobby, and I dont want it to feel like chores.

Even if ive been using digital tools since 2017, Im still unable to use most of it in any proper, efficient way. I dont find a good variety of tutorials for the software I use (SAI v1). Most of them guide you into having styles which I dont want to use (long story, I prefer traditional looking visuals especially watercolors & oil painting, but all I find are to achieve 3Dish airbrush-abuse results).

Looking back at most ive done these past monthes I also find what ive done lack balance and/or dynamism, so coupled with my rather poor rendering work, I end up disliking them fairly quickly. Theres a lot of them I want to revisit.

Staying hours facing my computer is also starting to really drain me. Until that Ive been drawing with a cheap xp pen without a screen + an old, big windows 7. So I finally invested in a tablet with screen + which doesnt require to be cabled to an other device. I just want to go draw outside before the crazy summer heat and be more comfortable in general lol

Im also following courses from japanese masters I like the works of to finally get to know how to properly use a software, since Ive always been going with blind processes.

Ive prepared already some sketches of the next parts of my pc98 drawing series, but I wont be posting any finished work until I get my new tablet. Im revisiting entirely my coloration style so that its technically better, and reflects more my actual inspirations (I BEG of you people, that my actual inspirations come from ukiyo-e & art nouveau, im hoping people will stop calling my art "old final fantasy")

Because I will have a new coloration style, Ill be redrawing the characters Ive already done so that it doesnt clash, having 4 pieces with old style next to the new style will bother me. I wont simply give them new colors, its going to be brand new posing in general.

Thank you for reading and understanding. This drawing series is very important to me so I want it to be my best effort, which I do solely out of love for the pc98 era. Ill be happy that ill be able to provide higher quality works.

Have a mr priest Shingyoku quick redraw for attention (hes a pretty boy worth 2.25$)

[owlets-outlet]

habits you should have, regardless of beauty standards:

we all know that sex sells, and if youre like me, you refuse to be a part of it. the issue is, many of the habits that are advertized to be for the improvement of your looks, are actually really important for your health as well, often times even life saving. if youre like me, you might be unaware of this and deliberately NOT participating in them as a protest against beauty standarts, which might actually be hurting you. let me tell you which! (long post)

1. wearing sunscreen:

unless you have a lot of melanin, you should wear sunscreen every time the uv index is 3 or higher, to protect yourself from skin cancer.

why does society tell us to wear it?

i always hear 'sun exposure gives you wrinkles, freckles, sunspots, etcetc' and went 'well i dont CARE, fuck you' and never wore it.

everybody tries to sell sunscreen as 'antiaging'. its crazy how thats the biggest selling point, and not the fact that sunscreen protects you from getting CANCER.

heres the thing, you SHOULDNT care about getting wrinkles! theres nothing wrong with them, no matter how 'premature' they are!

why you should actually wear it:

you should care about skin cancer though. asides from melanoma, which has very low survival rates, other skin cancers, while not as deadly, can then spread to different organs and *cause* other deadly cancers.

okay, im new to sunscreens, what should i do?

well first, let me say that mineral vs chemical doesnt really matter, as long as the spf is high enough. the general rule is the higher the spf, the better.

if i were to reccomend a sunscreen, it would be beauty of joseon. it has gone viral, and while i do think its overhyped, i think its a great basic. its pretty cost efficient, not sticky or smelly and doesnt burn my eyes.

you should apply spf if the uv index is 3 or higher, which you can check the levels in your area on any weather website. if youre staying outside for longer than 2 hours, you should reapply.

you dont have to wear suncreen indoors! your windos block most uv rays.

your face needs at least a quarter of a teaspoon to be fully protected. of course the amount varies depending on the size of your face, but usually two fingers are enough to protect your face:

to save as much sunscreen as possible, try to stay in the shade and and cover your body when going outdoors!

before you go to sleep, you should remove your spf by double cleansing!

2. working out:

why does society tell us to work out?

the most common answer is: to lose weight. the get a 'desirable' body shape. to get a 'healthy' body shape.

there are many scientific papers that talk in depth about how your weight isnt indicative of your health, so i am going to spare you, and i certainly dont need to go in depth about how nobody should conform to societys beauty standards.

another thing worth pointing out is that often times, exercise cannot actually give you the shape you want. there are many factors to this, such as genetics or hormones, but the fact is, exercise often just wont help you archieve the ideal body shape anyway.

why should you actually work out, then?

many reasons!

-being in shape (metaphorically, not literally) will make moving around easier and you'll get less tired perfoming your daily tasks.

-working out improves mood and helps with brain fog

-increases energy levels (ironically)

-good for cardiovascular health, digestive health, good for bone heath: that means that as you age, you are more likely to retain more of your mobility than if you didnt work out, and your body will in general be happier

-sometimes it helps you socialize, participate in community etc.

how to get into working out?

now, this is the fun part: there is no wrong way to go about this!

you dont need to do a specific type of working out! in fact, just pick whatever suits you!

you can run or go for walks. dance in your living room or attend dance class. shadow box. go to the gym to box.

lift weights or do at home calisthenics, do chloe ting workout videos, climb trees, go for a bike ride, whatever!

just keep moving! you should workout a few times a week :) you dont need any fancy equipment or clothes.

3. eat healthy

now, this one may be different definition of a healthy diet than youve heard of: you shouldnt eat less, but more. the biggest adjustment to your diet shouldnt be removing things but adding things.

you should eat a lot of vegetables, as well as proteins, sugar and fats.

you can keep your fries and a burgers, but you should add a salad as well!

maybe you grew up believing that you dont like healthy things, like fish or collard greens, but you might be living in a lie :D

i reccommend trying new recipes, you might be surprised!

a good diet will have similiar effects to working out- its very important to nourish your body so that it can work properly.

[wiihtigo]

19 for Wolfgang 🐺

ask game

we got a real wolfgang fan

19. How does your OC behave when enraged?

it might shock you but i actually have a hard time picturing wolfgang being angry! hes patient and passive to the point where its baffling. if an attempted murder doesnt make this guy even annoyed, what does. emm i think he doesnt shout or even say anything for sure.. the most obvious example i can think of is finding benny at the fort and seeing that they were beating the hell out of him <//3 his most predominant emotion though even then was just protectiveness -> its most efficient to get benny out of here if everyone is dead so its not exactly a crime of passion...hes just cutting through what he sees as the easiest safest way to save benny. anyways... going off that i think he would just quietly kill you </3 and go on with his day. hes really not the type at all to seek revenge or argue or marinate in angry feelings

23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

he has a hard time processing people being angry with him or passive aggression/sarcasm and stuff lol. maybe this counts but he has a weird problem with not processing fear or registering danger too (guy who keeps stepping on fucking landmines)

he has a realllyyy hard time articulating himself/trying to explain himself if hes asked anything directly. he usually counts on his actions speaking for themselves but if someone was like "I want you to tell me exactly what the hell you meant by that." he'd be like ??:( ..he struggles speaking in sentences that are too long. almost none of his inner thoughts ever come across to anyone he knows because hes so hard to read and his actions are eternally confusing. i think it bothers him a little sometimes but he doesnt dwell on it

6. How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass?

moral compass...HE DOESNT HAVE ONE. LOWKEY. his motivations are entirely "when a bad bitch tells me to do something" in regards to choosing an independent new vegas because its what benny wanted to do. Generally, he doesnt hurt people unless they attack first (with benny being the exception) and i suppose a hard line for him would be causing any sort of harm to children. he does like kids a lot actually. he likes animals too but if a rabid dog was mauling his arm off he would do what had to be done </3 (he'd be a little sad abt it).....i cant imagine any situation where he would cross this line. even if benny told him to kill some kid that stepped on his shoe he would say Um....No. (99.9% of the time he does whatever benny wants so this is genuinely shocking for everyone around)

his 'moral compass' basically is that he helps people who help him in whatever ways he sees available to him but most of the time his mind goes to "if theres someone bothering you i can kill them and the problem is gone" ..LOL. he believes in fairness and repaying kindness.

10. What’s an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

i just imagined wolfgang in a modern setting and cried bcuz he would be serving life in prison. umm ummmmm ummmm. maybe we could run with his aesthetic and put him as a horror movie antagonist and benny is his final girl. LOL

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

he wants to be seen as a kind person and protective source to the people he cares about. he doesnt realize how offputting he comes across to most other people (sob)

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

Em! I was thinking about the stolen heir again and how holly doesn't do the best convincing us its actually the future? I know Wren was pretty detached from any society, but there was nothing that really convinced me she was living in the year of 2026 or 2027 (one of those years). mortal society, even from the outside, i would say evolves pretty quickly because of technology. the book just made me think of living in 2019 again when tqon was first released. the only way we really know its the future is because the characters are aged up. i know theres a lot of nuance with writing a modern future but there surely could have been a mention of Something that would make us think "yes, i can see this is not how we live now but it is recognizable" you know?

it’s interesting that you bring this up, nonnie, because i also thought it wasn’t quite believable that so much time had passed. four years ago, Oak was what? 7? 8? to see him suddenly 17, grown, and very different from the boy we knew in The Folk of the Air, was a little jarring to say the least.

but i don’t necessarily think it was the world-building that caused this issue for me.

from a writer/editor perspective, i can see how the addition of superior technologies, while a fun idea and certainly a way to show the passage of time, would be a bit irrelevant to the story considering (as you said) Wren’s detachment from both the mortal world and Faerie.

it would muddle the genres of fantasy and sci-fi a little too much. so unless mortal technology is a crucial part of the story/characters (which, so far, it is not), i think the way Holly portrayed mortal technology in the few scenes that actually have it was fine.

the issue, for me, was more about how little we saw of Oak between the ages of 7/8 and 17. there were a few scenes that described flashbacks- a couple when he’s still 7/8, and one when he’s like 13 or 14?- but Oak doesn’t grow up on page. and Wren does not grow up close enough to him to know anything but rumours about him.

in the spare few flashbacks she does have of him, he is nothing but kind to her. there is no reason for her not to trust him. there is no conflict between them. and yet, she immediately listens to Hyacinthe when he tells her Oak can’t be trusted.

what i wish we would’ve gotten to see was some sort of history between Oak and Wren that leads to a conflict in their formative years. a B plot set in their past and ending in some sort of irrevocable betrayal on his part. this would be an efficient tool to show the passage of time clearly and give Wren good reason to be distrustful of Oak to begin with.

then, perhaps a third/half of the way through the present day story, after she’s spent some time with him in which she begins to trust him again, it could be revealed to her that Liriope was a “love talker”, and so Wren is forced to doubt Oak and even her own judgement in the last few days, proving her opinion of him “right” all along and creating conflict in the "present day" plot.

i would’ve also loved to have seen more of Wren’s jealousy of Oak’s upbringing. if she had stayed at Court somehow, she would’ve had a closer view of Oak as he grew older. and thus, we the audience, would have been able to catch a few glimpses as well.

–Em 🖤🗡

more theories & analysis

[ohpossuhm]

even the replies to a jellyfish post can be rage bait if youre a me and filled with rage all the time/lh

(very rambly btw)

if something is 95%water you process the water as water, the 5% thats protein is protein, aside from the water in a jellies body, its literally like, 99.99% protein.

watermelon is 92%water

and people just hating on it as a food rubs me the wrong way in general, given its significance in several asian countries. no one is eating only jellyfish for the rest of their life unless youre a sea turtle in which case even you will eat a few plastic bags as well.

even if its just a fun texture snack and they did have 0 nutritional value who gives a single fuck, you shouldnt demand no one eat it or try to discredit it as a food at all- and also also no ones forcing you to try it, if its not your thing thats fine, typically the species being eaten (probably not 100% i wouldnt know, im not claiming to be some expert im just a guy who reads articles and a book sometimes) arent endangered. and if whatever species theyre talking about is endangered then its a entirely seperate conversation needing to be had not the nutritional value or culinary value

so many of the responses just felt very ethnocentric, unwilling to look at these several cultures thatve been doing it for hundreds or thousands of years completely writing it off

theres so many different ways to eat jellyfish too, saw one person saying “put that in the oven itll just evaporate” well if you dont want that dont put it in the damn oven! i dunno jellyfish crisps sounds pretty fun tho- ive mostly seen/heard of it in stir fry or noodle or raw so idk what theyre on about.

like i get it, people dont like new things anf thats so incredibly fine, its just a problemmm when you try to recruit people to your opinion as morally or in this case i guess nutritionally superior? it was phrasd a little poorly so i would consider it a little moral too tbh- but instead try this “oh i dont like that but you might” or “im not interesting in trying that but i wont be making anyone feel like they shouldnt try it” personally i dont wanna eat bugs for the texture, but fuck id try it once, especially if the texture issue was removed via turning it into a burger or cricket flour and into bread

i would fuck up a cricket burger tbh i love burgers

read some thing a whiiile ago about mixing cricket and beef to make burgers and the tasters couldnt tell the difference until it was 20%beef 80%cricket- thats probably a way over simplification of whatever they actually tried- i also think it was not a scientific study just some people making burgers

bugs are more efficient protein in terms of production- ie i give yiu 10lbs of corn u give me 8 lbs of cricket OR just 1 lbs of cow

if we wanna talk about overlooked sources of protein,,, fucking;

bugs are where its at dude

but jellyfish are good too! everyone’s food doesnt have to look the same and id argue it really really shouldnt

i love burgers i would kill 1,000,000 crickets for a burger

[the-whispers-of-death]

i feel like sylvester would never get a ranch on his own. too much work for that and its a hassle to drive so far out just to get to work every day

however, i feel like the constant encounters with Līva do end up pissing him off enough to where he leaves London. he's telling me he'd find some mid-sized city and move there with Mārīte. he gets private property that comes with a backyard so he can still mess around with growing his own flowers and tomatoes and whatnot. also his work is way closer now: probably just in an office building of sorts, working as the tech guy

i wonder how grim reaper!stone and sylvester even knew each other before him appearing on his doorstep there. eh for now imma say that they met at work and at some point and time, sylvester casually said "yah if you need anything done for you outside of work, come find me" .. maybe he only said that because mārīte still really liked him and he figured "eh the kid likes him, might as well offer to help"

and thats on him for not specifying he originally meant that only for tech that needs fixing. but yknow. too late now

when grim reaper!stone appears on his doorstep late in the evening, bloody and wet, he probably takes a double take at him, before cooing ".. awh, look at you.. cashing in the favor? alright... come on, lets getcha cleaned up... just dont be too loud, kid's asleep, yea?"

imagining that after coaxing grim reaper!stone to shower and putting his clothes in the wash+dryer, he either offers to patch up any injuries, or places the medkit in front of him so stone can do it by himself

stone can take the guest bedroom. theres a lock and key in the door if he so chooses to use it. but something's telling me that sylvester will wake up with grim reaper!stone in his bedroom. either in bed next to him, or on the floor... ((cue chiding that the floor's not good for his back and how he should just get in bed))

at some point, stone will need to explain whats going on, mostly because mārīte's getting antsy and wants to genuinely talk to her 2nd favorite person. but sylvester is also mildly curious about how he found them

sylvester's also telling me right now that they moved before he fucked up his back via falling down the stairs. rare sylvester W right there, so he can do more stuff now

~ rusty

I was leaning towards Grim Reaper!Stone just randomly finding Sylvester with no clue as to who he and Mārīte were, but this is better.

Even Grim Reaper!Stone doesn't know why he took Sylvester's offer for help. He should've been a good weapon and just let himself die on the battlefield, but he just... didn't?

It's not even like he panicked for the first time since he was a very young child and suddenly developed a fear of death. No, it was just him being oddly enough hopeful/naïve enough to think that the Marine Corps didn't mean to leave him behind to die. They just had no choice because the helo was full and they're clearly just waiting for him to come back to base on his own, it wouldn't be the first time he wandered onto base when there was no room for him on the transport back.

(All of those previous times were actually times the Marine Corps had tried and failed in leaving him behind to die, because Grim Reaper!Stone was starting to get old and not be as efficient ((in their eyes)). He just kept surviving and coming back to the base he was stationed at, much to numerous superior officers' dismay.)

I feel like Sylvester and Mārïte wake up in the middle of the night the first few weeks that Grim Reaper!Stone is healing to just see the man towering over them as they sleep. Because he's like "They may be threats, even the child."

Sylvester, I hope you can give this man a wake-up call because as soon as he's healed enough, Grim Reaper!Stone is going to try and go back to the base he was stationed at. Maybe be gentle when you tell him that the Marine Corps deemed him no longer a good weapon to use, though, because the news/realization will just break him.

[tigertrack]

god theres so much about rdr2 gameplay that i just. want to streamline and remove completely and replace with rdr1 mechanics and features

the way it's obsessed with being realistic not only in terms of graphics but actual gameplay makes it lose so much charm for me. graphics so real everything blends in, and makes it so hunting or picking flowers or spotting even just consumable items isnt as fun or easy as it was in rdr1

like having to activate a power to tell that theres interactable objects nearby cuz youd just straight up miss them if you don't SUCKS. hunting in particular is so frustrating for that cuz even the trail it marks is hard to see and then it disappears unless you reactivate the skill constantly also the fuckin movement speed. why does it take forever to do anything!! the swaying and dragging movement is sooo annoying, makes me feel like im moving through water. like i just think about rdr1 and how quick and easier it was to do the same things.

rdr2 in the end just has too much realism and simulation and not enough fun and exciting gameplay imo. the story and characters are fantastic, and of course the visuals, but to its detriment. its just sooo much visual clutter and unnecessary details jammed into a screen you can barely tell whats interactable and what isnt then theres ppl defending the choices made in rdr2 cuz theyre more 'realistic' like broOOO BROOOO!!! im so TIREDDDD of gamerbros defending boring shit cuz of Realism. MY GUYS MY BROTHERS ITS A VIDEO GAME!!

Why have we as a collective decided realism = good ? i dont want realistic graphics i dont want simulator gameplay in a game thats telling a story. let me do a fuckin barrel roll like john does in rdr1. idc if arthur is "too big and burly" to do one WHO CAAAARES WHO CAAAARES!!??¿ WHERES THE GAME??? also realism ≠ immersive!!! if anything its so much easier to break immersion with realistic games since. we literally live life. makes it much easier to notice inconsistencies and reinforces gamerbros attitudes when they say they prefer boring gameplay which is detrimental to development of games. sigh SIGh

and dont get me started on rdr2s 500 separate menu screens for every little thing and going through and exiting each one takes 30 years. like yayyy theres so much stuff in this game... boooo theres no real streamlined and efficient method to checking it out in a nice and timely manner. just makes me feel dread and overwhelmed i dont wanna bother with any of it

[filmsrus]

CLASS WITH TIM COURTNEY

This week in on-set production, we had BAFTA winner Tim Courtney, a director from Inverness, come in and give us a lecture and do a blocking exercise with us.

We watched his BAFTA winning short, My Loneliness is Killing Me, which we talked about how he made. He met with the actors beforehand and got to know them on a personal level, finding things they had in common before the shoot. He spoke of the minimal soundtrack in it, that he likes to see and hear the spaces - the background noises and the breathing of the characters for example, to help the audience connect.

He annotates scripts by actioning a lot of the heavier dialogue to note dow what the character is thinking and feeling when saying the line, which I have been doing for Closing Night and it has definitely helped a lot to move things forward on set.

Scripts are constantly being amended after every HOD meeting where someone expresses a concern about the script regarding their department. Scripts should have 'Amend #' at the bottom.

HIS TIME IN TV

Courtney directed a few episodes of Hollyoaks. He said that soaps are a great training ground for directors as it forces you to think on your feet and use creative ways to solve problems efficiently, as well as teaching you to work in teams of crew and even cast who you may have never even met before.

He would first read the scripts then meet the team, ask questions and give suggestions knowing that they may not be taken as he is only jumping onto the project and does not have as much control as if it was his. It is the producers' project - not his. He has to be fully prepared to explain his plans to the DOP as only a few days later shooting begins so any special equipment has to be requested from the producers immediately. He would only get around an hour to meet only the main cast beforehand and would have only around 20 minutes to set up, block and shoot a scene. You had to get creative to have as little set ups as possible, keeping the shotlist simple. Soaps are very talkative with minimal action to churn them out as quickly as possible so getting the eyeline right is about the most important thing, rather than elaborate set ups.

He spoke of how all of this helped in his own projects as he went from shooting 30 pages in one day on Hollyoaks to around 6 a day in shorts. I definitely understand where he is coming from as during our rehearsals for Closing Night, we had only 2 hours to set up, block and shoot what we have set aside 6 hours for for the actual shoot, which makes me feel a lot more confident for our time management on set.

Andrew spoke of how in order to get onto a higher end TV production, you must have a certain number of hours of work logged in TV. I think I will definitely try to get onto Rivercity or something like that when I'm back from Germany as it sounds like great experience.

SCRIPT SUPERVISORS

Tim spoke of his newfound appreciation in script supervisors as he never had one on MLIKM, but said that on Hollyoaks his right hand was his 1AD and his second was his script supervisor. He described the role of a script supervisor really well, it made me realise that I didn't have a full understanding of it beforehand.

He recommended a book to us that expands on all of this more: Directors Tell The Story by Bethany Rooney and Mary Lou Belli.

A script supervisor is a second pair of eyes for the director - directing can be a pretty lonesome job but this is the person you can ask questions and ask for suggestions and bounce off of. They will know best if you have enough coverage, if there's a possibility for a better take. They may notice things you don't.

IN PREP:

you can ask your scripty 'how did you read that?' they will also have questions prepared and will take notes on your answers

This is especially handy on soaps when theres 15 interlinking storylines that have to be kept on top of.

ON-SET:

The scripty will annotate the script, drawing lines to represent what part of the script each slate covers, labelling that line with the slate and take number, and noting down a simple shot description such as 'wide'. They will also circle the slate/take that the director likes the most, and may also note down what one they think is best too.

They will also be taking continuity notes. For example, if a character crosses their arms in a script, they will note which arm goes above with a little doodle even and make sure that it stays consistent. This of course creates some devise between actors and the 'continuity police' as actors are told that their amazing performance is not usable because they stepped forward at the wrong beat or something. Especially when you're on a soap and don't know your actors.

IN POST:

They are the middleman between the director and editor. This is especially important in soaps where you only have 3 days for the edit, meaning the editor doesn't have time to watch all the rushes and will just go off the notes for the best takes. On soaps or reality TV shows like Love Island, the edit basically begins on-set, with precise note-taking.

Andrew said that he has had editors on set edit the footage as they film to get a rough idea of what you're missing and what is working - eliminate any surprise and ensure there is no continuity issues.

FLOORPLANS

Tim showed us one of his floorplans and talked us through the blocking stage.

He started with this position but it makes the characters quite closed in as the camera is pointing at the radiator and the desk, not the big open space.

He then condensed it to two more interesting shots and gave the D's character a more interesting movement. The DP wanted to keep the wide to capture D's face at his second point by the sofa, instead they compromised and Tim got D to turn around to the camera by the desk when delivering his lines. As D is not the main character, Tim argued that he doesn't need that close up on just him by the sofas.

Tim spoke of the difference between TV and Film DOPs. The former want to get the job done, the latter want to achieve a cinematic look. Of course this is not a rule but is the norm.

Tim told us to always have a call sheet on us as director to know everyones name. Andrew also told us to print off the actors' names and characters names, laminate them, and stick them to the camera so the DOP can refer to actors by their name when asking for things to do with blocking.

BLOCKING EXERCISE

We did a blocking exercise which I directed. It was pretty nerve wracking to do so infront of Tim as I obviously wanted to give a good impression but he revealed a lot of gaps in our learning and understanding of a film production which I had to adapt to on the spot. I'm not sure how much of the year I can speak on behalf of, but it appears as though almost all of us were under the impression that the blocking is up to the director but the shotlist is up to the DOP. This however is not true. A director should have at least a rough shotlist for the DOP for their first meeting - it is all up to the director. I'm not sure how so many of us were under this wrong impression for the last two years but I have since, as director, taken the shotlist that Ben, our DOP, for Closing Night, started to make and refined it and added to it, as before I thought that that would be me overstepping my role.

As we started running out of time, Tim swooped in and managed to condense the 3 shots I had planned into 1 through blocking. It was really impressive and interesting to see. It was a great exercise for that reason - it makes you realise how much you can capture with minimal set ups. I have already started trying to apply this where appropriate to the film I'm directing and the one i'm DOP on.

This was definitely one of the best classes we had. Big thanks to Andrew for organising that for Tim for giving us his time.

[idkwhatimeis]

IM FUCKKED AAAAAH

Thats how my brain fells right now. I don't really feel insperation any more an i just dont care of living my best life, and that makes me disappointet in my self.

And im just existing with no energy to live, kind of suck from going to finding good human relationships and happiness and purpose in you life - to not giving a flying fuck about others or making meaning full relation ships because your scared of people abandoning u again.

Im not sure of what i what i want my life to be after this school year is over... I just so over living my current life and I JUT WANT TO SCAPE FOR ALL OF IT. Make i should actually try to live my on life instead of wishing to do it.... BUT MAN im so fucking scared of just living (tnks mom xoxo)

Its just that i always new were my life was suppose to be going, but now i dot want to now what my life is going to be like - and at the same time not knowing whats going to happen is one of my biggest anxiety triggers.

MY WAY OF THINKING IS SOOO CONTRADICTABLE AHHHHH, i hate it so much. I just have gotten to the point that i have tough so much that nothing makes sense anymore and i just so complicated i prefer not to think ANYTHING. I made living so complicated and i hate my self for it. Actually i hate my self SOOOOO much, so many mistakes i see and disagree with wet i still keep on making them. AND I HATE MY SELF FOR HATING MY SELF.

See im so contradictory that just nothing makes sense, theres little in my irl life that i enjoy ... im so drain and tiered of living in a meaningless and unenjoyable life.

How do i explain to my team-mates that i don't what to let them down but im so drained i can focus on anything or use my brain with out thinking of how much i hate my self for not being efficient enough (witch make me feel more self-loading). HOW DO I TELL OTHERS THAT I JUST DON'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING??

At the same time im like FUCKE IT i just let people be disappointed in me, but i know i cant take more rejection from others anymore, i can't be abandon again.. please.

I don't know what I want out of life or what i need, and thinking about it just hearts my brain. I don't want to think anymore, I just want to lay in the ground and look at the cloud in the shy.

[weirdmageddon]

five years too late let’s analyze this. the commentary has gotten me back into gravity falls reigniting thoughts and insights i came to years ago

i love everything about this commentary in general it hits the points of humor, genuine analysis of the characters, but most of all im so glad hirsch addressed that the droid not detecting any fear from dipper here doesnt make any scientific sense because that was a massive CinemaSins moment for me

IDK the fact that dipper can fucking stand after an airship crash because theres a bigger threat at hand is literally one of the defining capabilities owed to adrenaline lol...... IM SORRY im a biopsychology student if i dont point that out iwill seethe and die because that was just . its a grudge ive held for a long time about this episode but didnt rant about because it was something so minor and i’m sure nobody would care.

i was 13 when this episode came out and i’m almost 19 now, i had a special interest in biology and i still do but now i’m actually having college classes in biopsychology so i can give my arguments more oomph now. and i have to say, now that i know more about the brain and autonomic nervous system the more this scene bugs me, if that was even possible. and it says a lot of dipper and ford’s relationship.

if dipper clearly wasnt calm before, why would he be now just because he’s put up an outwardly confident facade? before he was in the flight but now hes in the fight. my boy just rode on top of a spaceship by nothing but a magnet gun that could detach at any time if it failed and then the ship crashed, he sustained injuries, is in emotional turmoil because he thinks his uncle is Fucking Dead and the threat of a security droid that detects adrenaline is on his tail and produces a Big Fucking Gun in response to dipper saying “i hAvE a MaGNeT gUn” and hes screaming and has his teeth clenched but sure there’s no adrenaline coursing through his body in that moment i can totally believe that

when dipper asks what happened, ford says “the orb didn’t detect any chemical signs of fear, it assumed the threat was neutralized and self-disassembled” but i don’t think measuring someone’s heartbeat alone is particularly relevant in detecting ... chemical signs of fear?? they dont really tell you this shit but noradrenaline (and maybe adrenaline too if the acetylcholine from sympathetic outflow always activates the adrenal medulla??, theres two pathways) is always active in small quantities to make sure your parasympathetic nervous system doesnt slow your heart to dangerous levels on its own, regardless of your emotions. it’s just a homeostatic mechanism. your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are CONSTANTLY modulating control of your organs on a see-saw, literally with every breath you take. simply standing upright causes specialized mechanoreceptor neurons in blood vessels to signal your brain to project signals to release catecholamines via the sympathetic nervous system to constrict your blood vessels so that blood is able to reach your brain and not pool in your legs. i have a deficiency in my body’s ability to adapt to this which is why i know so much about it. if i stand up my heart races to compensate. i’m not feeling fear, my body is just adjusting—albeit grossly and incompetently lol.

but what im saying here is that the security system is flawed. it’s a cool idea to have security droids detect fear, but in practice by detecting adrenaline, and not even directly by detecting the molecule itself—it’s done in a roundabout way by reading the heartbeat, could be a recipe for false alarms. like what if someone’s on beta-blockers. that’s not really an adequate way to measure “fear”; there’s so many variables that could interfere with the measurement the farther you abstract from what you’re really trying to detect. and besides, adrenaline is NOT just a sign of fear, it’s just for preparing the body for action. i know the sympathetic nervous system and adrenaline is constantly linked with the “fight-or-flight” reaponse to a stressor, but 99.9% of the time the sympathetic nervous system is used in your life is to balance out your parasympathetic nervous system to maintain homeostatic equilibrium for mundane things.

i think detecting amygdalar activation would be more efficient in detecting fear. the amygdala sends projections to the hypothalamus which then in turn modulates the autonomic nervous systems. but the amygdala is intensely activated specifically in response to a fear-inducing stimulus (it does activate in response to other emotions but they’re mostly negative and is most activated by startle and fear), and wouldnt be highly activated by many other confounding variables like measurement of the heartbeat could be. the amygala is one of the first stops directly from external stimuli.

to show you how integrated the amygdala is as the first step in registering fear after receiving input from sensory stimuli let’s look at the auditory-amygdala connection for example

see how the auditory thalamus projects to the primary auditory cortex and auditory association cortex? the cortex is where conscious awareness of what the stimuli is comes from. this is the “high road”. it goes sensing -> perception -> emotional response. but sometimes you can be startled without even processing what it is you’re sensing, like the startle response of an alarm or a phone ringing in a quiet house before you even register what it is. this goes sensing -> emotional response, without perception happening until after you’ve already felt the startle. that’s when it takes the “low road”. here’s a simplified version:

even if that were the case with these droids though it’s obvious dipper is still fearful on some level here. his body language, voice, expressions all give it away. for the amygdala, aggression isnt too off from fear so it would be detected equally.

the reason this is so important is because ford uses this as evidence for why dipper is special, “i did it?” “you did it. this is what i was talking about, how many 12 year olds do you think are capable of doing what you’ve just done?”

but like....did he really? i’m not saying this to shoot dipper down or make him out to be more of a wuss, he was incredibly strong-willed here and i dont want to take that away from him because it WAS growth on his part. but the underlying psychophysiological reactions of aggression and fear shouldn’t be that different and this was a total asspull. maybe the droid was so old that it fucked up. maybe dipper being covered in grime and dirt made it harder for the droid to measure the correct heart rate through photoplethysmography (im assuming since they use a camera and are non-contact).

and in all honesty everything i just said brings into question the interpersonal healthiness of ford’s judgements, what he thinks, his expectations, and how he communicates that. in this video alex already talks about how ford is projecting onto dipper. and i think ford may be projecting his expectations for himself onto people who are not him, and the fact that it’s on dipper here makes it far more unfortunate. you realize how much this boy idolizes ford, right? how much impressions matter? dipper even tells himself before he leaves in this same episode, “all right dipper, this is your first big mission with great uncle ford. don’t mess this up.”

even though it’s unstated, the implicit message dipper is perceiving from ford based on their dynamic is: “do you have what it takes for me to be proud of you?” and to accomplish this he must be like ford, even though he’s clearly not and he knows this. he says “i don’t think have what it takes. i was tricked by bill, i was wrong about stan’s portal, heck, i can’t even operate this magnet gun right.” then, by simple chance without even knowing what he did, he activates the magnet gun and pulls out the adhesive, which immediately takes the focus away from what dipper was telling ford about his feelings of inadequacy to ford saying, “yes! dipper, you found the adhesive!”

these thoughts of dipper’s hang in the air without resolve or comment from ford. we don’t know what ford would have said. but it then becomes painfully self-evident in the scene immediately after when the droids emerge and ford tells dipper, “they’re security droids and they detect adrenaline. you simply have to not feel any fear and they won’t see you”, to which dipper replies with an exasperated (and rightful) “WHAT?”

dipper goes in a panic trying to indirectly tell his uncle that this isn’t something he can do. and he is completely right and valid to be freaked out by that full stop. that IS crazy. you can’t control your fear. you can control how you interpret that fear in your higher brain regions but the physiological changes will stick around for longer than it takes to cognitively calm down. it’s easy for me to detach from my emotions to analyze them, but being able to do this does not come naturally for everyone. even i have an irrational fear of wasps and i can’t control it by detaching myself, my body is just automatically primed to get the fuck out of there. i know it’s stupid and i know it’s irrational and isn’t helpful to get myself worked up but i literally can’t stop how my body reacts no matter how i cognitively think about it. expecting composure from dipper in a situation like this when he’s being made to consciously be aware of his anxiety is absolutely fucking insane. look what you did, placing these cruel expectations on him, now he’s afraid of being afraid! this isn’t a case where two wrongs cancel out, they just stack on top of each other.

there’s a good reason these scenes were put side by side but it seems up until now it had remained unanalyzed.

what dipper fears from ford is disappointment. not living up to his uncle’s (quite frankly badly placed) expectations for a twelve year old with anxiety. not once did ford say or subliminally communicate “i don’t expect you to be able to do what i can since you are not as experienced as i am and that’s perfectly okay, no judgements”. you don’t put a child on bike before training wheels. you don’t throw a kid into a swimming pool without giving them swimming lessons. the way ford is doing it, there’s no room for trial and error or mistakes that are an opportunity to grow and learn; instead, it’s life or death. he only seems to pride dipper on what he can do while ignoring the underlying struggles that plague him and never making it known it’s okay for dipper to fail in front of his hero and that he won’t think anything less of him for it.

and that’s why i found the ending scene for dipper and ford’s adventure in this episode to feel so.. wrong. on a scientific and social level. because by the sound of it ford focused more on what dipper had done to dismantle the droid (the droid not detecting any fear) instead of how dipper displayed love and protection for him even if he was truly afraid. what if the science was accurate and the droid detected adrenaline while dipper was confidently standing up for his uncle. would ford still be proud of him regardless?

[wecandoit]

i just started 11th grade and also my medical entrance exam preparations like other students in my country. my last school is very good academically but the friends i made there are emotionally exhausting. i recently ended things with them and now i am considering changing schools to a school that's closer to my house, because i want time for self study and i feel suffocated with my old friends and i barely talk to anyone else apart from them there . but the school I'm considering to transfer to, has a mixed enviornment i.e. not as studious as my previous school. I'm iin an all girls catholic school rn, and my new school is a co-ed catholic school, so thered be a huge change in the enviornment too.e I'm extremely confused. and have no idea what to do. Do you think it'd be okay for me to switch schools or try making new friends at my old school?

Hi! Obviously, ultimately this decision is up to you but I can tell you some things from my experience that may help:

a co-ed catholic school: I actually attended a catholic co-ed school myself and a LOT of girls transferred there from a particular all-girls school and I think they adjusted really well. I’m sure that you won’t struggle to fit in there bc of the fact that it’s co-ed. Obviously I don’t know what kind of people who attend the school and that’s always a consideration too.

moving schools: I’ll also mention my own experience moving schools. keep in mind that this was in fifth grade when my social life was far more important to me than my grades or individual space. At the time I was just excited for the experience but it ended up being the main trigger for a series of mental health issues. I advise that if you decide to move schools, you ensure you are emotionally and mentally prepared for it (ofc if you have your friends numbers and socials you may still be able to connect with them which may help mental health wise)

old friends: The way you worded it, that your old friends are suffocating you, makes me feel like there are other things you are having to compromise, not just studies, for your friends. which is a major red flag 🚩remember that losing old friends (and making new ones) is an inevitable part of life.

new friends/prioritisation: Despite my last point, if you’re like me, you may find it hard to make friends very easily and may find it hard to separate from your existing friends. This is where prioritisation is key. You need to decide whether for the remainder of your school life, you prioritise forming friendships VS academic success. It sounds like you’re prioritising your studies over socialisation and if you’re old school is getting in the way of studies it’s clearly a reasonable decision to move even if it means that making new friends may be difficult (but not impossible! i’m sure there will be lots of groups and people you can fit in with)

cost + efficiency: You may also find it useful to look into the cost of the school and the efficiency they provide. I obviously don’t know if costs are something that is important to you but efficiency is always important in studies. A school closer to home provides opportunities to stay back for special classes etc. while this may be difficult attending schools further away. But then again, if you are the kind of person who gets to work as soon as they get home, a longer ride home provides a much need break from studying.

academic resources: Now the most important thing, in my opinion, is the quality of resources the school provides. Something a lot of people forget is that the school does not make the students successful, rather the students make the school successful. Ultimately, how well you perform depends on the resources and help provided to you, not necessarily what ranking your school had that year. Ask around and find out whether the teachers are patient and willing to spare time giving you extra support if needed. If the classes are comprehensive and easy to understand. If I didn’t have such helpful teachers for 11th and 12th grade, I don’t know what I would have done.

Remember that a change of scenery and breaking routine may be refreshing, but consider whether it is what you need and can afford (financially, mentally, academically) right now. I’m sure that you can make the right decision, often in these situations, you already know what you want in your heart. Good luck!!!