#there are lots of combinations that we never saw in rws and. like.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

So in the first story in the Stepney book, the dynamic between Percy and Douglas is really interesting. (Especially when I edit it almost beyond recognition, lol.)

Coz they're talking about, well, you know, how there's an actual genocide of steam engines going down on the mainline. And in such a conversation you'd think Douglas would be the more grounded and worldly, yeah? Coz he's fresh from that frying pan, himself. Or maybe you'd recall that, after all, it's definitely Donald who is the brain of our Caledonians, and predict that actually Perce and Douggie are on a level.

But in fact, in this of all conversations, it's Percy who strikes me, again and again, as the more aware and open-eyed of the two. And it's all the more remarkable because Percy himself is really playing up this "oh don't ask me 🙃 I am but a simple saddletank, I do not understand the ways of the cruel and confusing outside world 🙃 I like to sing daft songs and think as little as possible 🙃" shtick to the hilt. But... what he says and how he says it doesn't bear this out at all? He got the gist of what the Fat Controller told them at the staff meeting perfectly well, thanks. The "nuance" and correction in the author's note is literally corporate propaganda and Percy is right to have tuned that line out. And he is not insensitive at all to their mainland counterparts, he feels deeply for them, but he also shows a lot of sense about how he conducts himself. Douglas has been happy to ignore any updates on the mainland situation till now—I'm not criticizing him, just pointing out that in comparison Percy has in fact paid attention and kept himself well-informed even though he goes on living his best life on Sodor. Perce is doing fine. He's excited about their visitor, as he gets excited by most grand events, but it's actually Douglas who starts immediately romanticizing and lionizing this new idol in a way that I find kind of naive...

D: 'He's sooo brave to travel among all those hordes of murderous diesels just to see us! 😍'

P: '... He has his Controller with him??'

D: 'SHORT 🤩 KING 🤩'

Douglas can't comprehend the idea of getting to Sodor with official permission, lol. Also, lookit him—he's already thirsty for Oliver before he ever meets him! My man is actually out here projecting his boyfriend fantasies onto a celebrity. How this lucky, lucky bastard had said fantasy just materialize in front of him in the moonlight at Barrow yards is beyond me. Douglas the Bullshitted His Way Onto the Island of Sodor Engine was truly built under a lucky star.

Mind you, I think Percy is right there being a short king. Like, Douggie. My babe. The way you immediately take Percy's remarks about 'it's really sad what's happening to our poor brethren on the mainland 😓' to 'yeahhh, fuckin' diesels, man. they're all devils' at the speed of light? Now I am criticizing you. Like I understand where you got this attitude but I am disappointed at your machine racism.

But Percy? Percy 💖. I will eternally love him for at once calling his friend out. 'douggie, what the fuck? you know that's not true. can it.' Like he's not super assertive about it and he doesn't press the point. But he does instantly drop the whole "i am so clueless and WHIMSICALLLL hehe" persona he'd been playing literally one second before to just speak directly and intelligibly and to the point—and he nails it. Douglas can't separate his fears about scrap from his feelings about diesels but Percy's is basically all 'it's literally so easy to not be a dick... so don't.'

[shinygoku]

very intrigued to see what you think of Henry!!! ^v^ (character ask!)

Another day, another Big Green! (The others are Piccolo and Thunderbird 2 lmao)

First impression

"Green ver of that one big creepy dude" (Look, when I was Babby I saw a Gordon picture somewhere that minorly spooked me lmao)

Impression now

Ahh, Henry! In some ways, very much like Duck! Green, long nose, popular with the fans and I'm here like Yeah he's a good fixture of the series lol

Ok well, maybe I should disclaim that he's not one of my favourites, which is partly as I guess it's a bit hard to nail down his personality.

His, for lack of a better term, Illness Arc is fascinating and oddly Real for a series about machinery. Something's genuinely amiss with him, but the lack of a clear cause (at least, to the other engines, who presumably don't know he was built from stolen, incomplete plans and the logical issues that would arise from that) and his frequent complaints turn the other characters off wanting to hear about it, thinking he's exaggerating. Then the Welsh Coal stopgap is found! Then the very next story he has a horrible crash but it was a blessing in disguise because then he's rebuilt as a Black 5 and his health issues are gone forever! (ain't we envious of machines now?) Until Lazy Writer Disease sets in Meta-wise, but more on that later.

I think it's safe to say that it's Entry Level RWS Knowledge to know Awdry's frustrations with the character, and it is kind of hilarious how much he tried to write him out, and iirc Henry wound up with the most appearances and 'his' book has 5 stories instead of the uniform 4 for some reason. But it seems it takes further Lazy Corporate Mandates to actually write him out in BwBa which really sucks and is doing such an iconic lad horribly dirty.

Pictured: Henry as seen by Awdry/Mattel, who are about to just shove him out of the story with varying degrees of success.

Well yeah, for me I can't really settle on an opinion because he never seems to have anything solid after the Rebuild. He's kind of the nicer one out of the Terrible Trio, but sometimes he's as bitchy and obnoxious as Gordon without prompting. He seems to be pretty unlucky and sometimes his misfortunes are self inflicted, but they don't commit to this bit. He gets his (in)famous forest, much to Awdry's chagrin, but it does offer a nice gentler side to him. He also seems to be the main Fast Freight engine, particularly more Fish shipments, but this doesn't really inform his character. He all too often feels like a Spare, Green Gordon who's less full of himself (but still gets boughts of Envy and inflated self importance, like Tenders for Henry), and that's a shame because this nebulous lack of anything concrete seems to be why Bad TatMR Writing diagnosed him with Need Welsh Coal again for quite a long time (dunno if that only changed when Mattel/Brenner came in or not). But then the US dub makes him sound like w--dy all-n and that's the worst treatment of all! I kind of understand the temptation to make him the resident worrier but HUUURGHGHH NOT LIKE THAT

So yeah, the better characterization of him needs to strike a good balance of him being ...I guess a Gentle Giant, who enjoys nature and maybe is a smidge prone to bouts of feeling jealous. Maybe catches the engine version of colds more than the others because the early morning runs in the freezing air? I dunno, I'm trying to combine several traits that have been in Henry but never seemed to stick. But done properly, I could really get behind a nice, faceted character like that~

Favourite moment

It feels a bit mean to say, but it's due to the strength of the episode itself with the fantastic visuals, godly music and shocking drama (with a nice bonus of Correct Head Codes!) that put Flying Kipper at the top of this list!

Another part of this ep, is the beginning where the Driver is saying "Don't tell Gordon, but if you pull this nicely, the Fat Controller may let you pull the Express!". Like, that really squeezes my heart, because his driver is rooting for him, the prospect of a better regarded job is floating there, and knowing what eventually happens, it's like... oof! But in a good way.

...Also I think that must have been something Awdry added after deciding not to kill him off because having that bit and for it to all go up in flames would have made children and me extremely upset and he would have been buried under letters of complaint from angry mothers of the time.

Idea for a story

Other than the overly simple and grimdark "he was in fact killed that day" type coma inducers, I suppose the Two Henries theory being explored could offer some interesting interactions.

Like, what if the Henry who rolls back into The Big Station is instantly accepted and in fact, liked more than og Henry? What if the other engines instead couldn't fully relax around him? Were his memories perfect? Too Perfect?

And what would happen if OG Henry were later discovered... (and in what condition?) Dun Dun Dun dododo Dun!

The thing is, it is hard to really explore this because it's innately such a dark, heavy concept. I don't enjoy the 'Authoritarian Hellscape" lameass interpretation by normies. I like my silly workcom on the rails with warm fuzzies and funny antics, thank you very much!

Unpopular opinion

Some of his faces (even before the worsening first inflicted by Magic Railroad) are pretty weird looking! Maybe cause his forehead is so huge and smooth, but maybe just the odd mouth shapes. I like the variety, but they aren’t what I’d call cute... I find myself thinking ‘Moon Face’ looking at him [even with the lack of craters lmao] and oops I think I missed the weirdest grin of all, but here’s a small sample anyway

Favourite relationship

Not a favourite, per say, but some of the more friction-ish interactions he has with Thomas or Percy are pretty funny. With Thomas’ immortal flippant disregard to viaduct safety, Percy retorting that engines with Proper Funnels do, in fact, need scarves, something Henry wouldn’t know about, and that Henry somehow manages to dismiss Bill and Ben, a feat Gordon needs to take notes from. Even the Something in the Air exchange with Thomas, which isn’t really stellar writing just has a funny lame argument vibe.

For some nice Wholesome interaction, Bear is hands down the winner! Easy pick maybe, and it makes me wonder if Bear’s complete absence in the TVS is part of the downward spiral because he’d offer a lot more Plotlines.... hmmm...!

Favourite headcanon

Other than the universal fandom acceptance that He Digs Nature, Baby is the notion I’ve seen a few times that his “fear” of the rain, or what it would do to his paint, isn’t actually why he stopped in the tunnel, and it had more to do with his mechanical failure and/or him having something of a nervous breakdown. He does come across as something of an ass if you take the episode at face value, but there having a secret deeper meaning is way more interesting 👀

[fossadeileonixv]

WTF Friday Q and A!

It’s on you today guys. Open Q and A.

Blank slate. 

Tabula rasa. 

I’ll be here on and off all day long to answer your questions about everything Milan and pretty much anything else. 

Fire away!

Derek Favretto from twitter asks: 

Other than CB and RW…what are the additions that are needed to push this team over the top?

The thing we forgot to shore up last summer was the AM spot. It’s still a problem. While Diaz was out with Covid we were doing everything we could to plug the hole but nothing really worked. In my mind it’s still the number one spot that needs addressed this summer. Then it’s CB followed by RW.

From Amir on Twitter:

Both healthy, who starts? Giroud or Ibra?

Honestly I think you keep rotating the two of them. Why? 2 reasons. The first is both are old and even though we have a game a week I think 10+ days each time for both will do wonders. The other is these guys need to stay sharp and motivated. What better way to do that than to have them try and top each other down the stretch? If things go well they combine for 25-30 goals which would be great.

From JS_370:

Who do you consider the biggest disaster at DS : Leonardo or Mirabelli?

Mirabelli had more cash but Leonardo had more flash with the names he brought in. Both did a shit job.

Jesus. That’s tough. Mirabelli, for all his flaws kind of had a plan and needed to build a team almost from scratch. We had a bunch of expiring deals, dead weight and nothing to sell of any value whatsoever. The early deals I loved. Conti and Kessie were at the time great buys. Bonucci seemed like a great move that would help shift the power of the league. Hakan and Musacchio filled roles we were desperate to solve. Same with Rodriguez. Then came the strange moves... Biglia, Silva, Kalinic and Borini all made no sense. You’re talking 90 million of trash. 

Leonardo had to make sense of that trash but also added to it by bringing in Laxalt and Castillejo for another 40 million. Then Paqueta for another 40 million. Ugh.

Which was worse? I gotta go with Mirabelli. Sure there was some bad luck (Conti’s knees) and a total snake (Bonucci) but he set us back 5 years with some really questionable. Honestly it’s miracle that Elliott and Maldini came in and got us back into CL in under 2 years. 

From Brian Johnson on Twitter:

Where do babies come from?

Right now I’d say they are the result of Milan fans watching Olivier Giroud have his way with people this last week. Better than Pornhub.

From the comments on Tumblr:

Are we at the point yet, that if we'd still extend Kessie, it will harm the team spirit?

I don’t think so. Inside the squad I imagine things are fine. it’s a business. you play games. There isn’t a single person on the club that’s either never changed clubs or hasn’t seen friends come and go. He played great against Lazio and from watching the game I saw no issues. He even saluted the fans after the goal. I think 99% of that comes from supposed fans and nonsense websites that really don’t have the good of the club at heart. 

From our man Richard Kharman on Twitter:

Can Milan re-focus after the derby and  good training session Wednesday at the San Siro and avoid having a trap match vs Sampdoria?

Wait... didn’t we have a GAME on Wednesday... ? Ohhhh. I see what you did there. Hehehehehehe. I imagine Pioli will put out a best XI on Sunday morning. We have 6 days off after so need need to rotate a whole lot. Probably flip Giroud for Zlatan. Tomori should be back starting. Theo will miss the match through suspension. which means a Ballo-Toure appearance. Right now Pioli is pushing all the right buttons so it’s hard to go against him. It is tricky since Samp under Giampaolo are off to a flying start and will play the little seen 4312. I would think our 2 deep lying mids should be able to choke off that AM and can walk out of the San Siro with a win. 

Our in house artist extraordinaire Gillis comes in with 2 questions:

If you were a betting man, would you bet on Milan winning the Scudetto this season at this point in time?

Fuck it. YES.

Diaz has 3 hockey assists the last 1.5 games and overall I think Milan's game moving forward is much better when he's playing as the TQ. I know some Milanisti aren't convinced of Diaz but do you subscribe to this idea of vs the better teams that can score that a more defensive player in the TQ role is the better way to go?

When he’s on he’s a beast. No doubt. His form of late is amazing. Problem, and I’ve said this since day 1, he can’t go 90 minutes. Certainly not against the best teams. That’s a tough spot to play. You have to be able to go 360 degrees for 90 minutes which means you are on ALL THE TIME. There’s no breaks. Ultimately in this system I think you need 2 guys for that spot. Maybe that means Diaz and Adli rotating down the road? Then in the random game against Salernitana you stick a Krunich out there. 

Loyal reader Alf3dwards posts:

Very grateful for Theo extending when many others gave up and left. I wonder if he would thrive as a winger like Bale?

Could he? Sure. No doubt in my mind. I could totally see him as a wing in a 352 or higher in a 433 like Bale. Does he want to? Him extending til 2026 tells me he likes his role here. 

Webmaster, Art Bell enthusiast and regular tin foil hat wearer TR chimes in with:

Many physicists conservatively estimate that life is abundant in our universe with roughly 200,000,000,000 galaxies that host roughly 100,000,000,000 stars each. However, if life is indeed as abundant as the math may suggest, why is it that we haven't had contact with any extraterrestrial life forms?

I often stay up at night thinking this exact same thing. Either we were separated at birth or we just happened to have the same dark corners in our minds that neither of us REALLY want to talk about, DO WE?? 

Yup. These are our readers!

FORZA 

Lisi

[chaoticstudentcomputer]

Iproxy Download

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Download and Run checkra1n on your device. Open two terminal tabs. One: iproxy 2222 44 device udid Two: ssh root@localhost -p 2222. Mount -o rw,union,update /. Welcome to Proxy-List.Download. We provide great lists of free public proxy servers with different protocols to unblock contents, bypass restrictions or surf anonymously. Enjoy the unique features that only our page have on all the internet. 35648 Proxies available. 13552 HTTP Proxies. Download iproxy for free. Kubernetes Cluster Explorer gives you full visibility—and peace of mind.

1SSH over USB using usbmuxd

1.1Using binary

SSH over USB using usbmuxd

You can either download a binary and run that or use a python script. The python script is a lot slower than the binary version. On Linux the python method is mostly deprecated, use the binary version provided by libimobiledevice. There is also a newer solution called gandalf.

Using binary

On Windows, ensure iTunes is installed, then download itunnel_mux_rev71.zip from Google Code. Unzip to a directory of choice.

On OS X and Linux, install usbmuxd from your package manager.

Then:

X-Proxy 6.2.0.4 add to watchlist send us an update. 4 screenshots: runs on: Windows 10 32/64 bit Windows 8 32/64 bit Windows 7 32/64 bit.

Windows: Run path/to/itunnel_mux.exe --iport 22 --lport 2222

OS X/Linux: iproxy 2222 22

Connect to localhost -p 2222 as you would over wifi.

If you have multiple devices connected, it may be useful to run multiple instances, specifying UDIDs and ports like so:

Making iproxy run automatically in the background on OS X

Install it with Homebrew (brew install libimobiledevice).

Create the file ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.usbmux.iproxy.plist with the contents:

Run launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.usbmux.iproxy.plist.

You now don't have to run the iproxy binary every time you want to SSH over USB as the iproxy software is always running in the background.

If you have several devices you can create a daemon with a specific port for each one.

Create a file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ but name it using the device UDID, name or an identifier of your choice (like com.usbmux.iproxy.iPhone7,2.plist).

Replace UDID_HERE in the following snippet with the device UDID. The label should be unique and is best to match the filename you used.

Run launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/FILE_NAME_OF_YOUR_CHOICE.

You now don't have to run the iproxy binary every time you want to SSH over USB as the iproxy software is always running in the background.

Using python

Tested on OS X and Windows.

You will need to have Python installed on your system.

Get usbmuxd source package and unpack. (Or if the linked usbmuxd package doesn't work, try libusbmuxd.)

Go into folder python-client

chmod +x tcprelay.py

Run ./tcprelay.py -t 22:2222

Now you can log into your device via ssh mobile@localhost -p 2222

The -t switch tells tcprelay to run threaded and allow more than one ssh over the same port.

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See ./tcprelay.py --help for further options.

Using gandalf

Tested on OS X and Linux, each with up to 29 devices connected at the same time. The advantage of using gandalf is that it is written in a functional programming language, which practically means that it won't give you seg faults and it is actively maintained https://github.com/onlinemediagroup/ocaml-usbmux

Installation

You need to have opam installed, it is OCaml's package manager.

On OS X you can do:

(If on Linux, then get opam via your package manager, details available https://opam.ocaml.org/doc/Install.html, Ubuntu users please pay attention, need to use a ppa for opam). It is important that your compiler is up to date, you cancheck with opam switch, make sure its at least >= 4.02.0

then

This will install the command line tool gandalf and an OCamllibrary.

gandalf usage.

The following are a series of usages of gandalf, all short formarguments have long-forms as well and -v can be added at any time.

1) See with realtime updates what devices are connected

This will start up gandalf in listen mode, that is it will printout whenever a device connects or disconnects and more crucially it will print out the UDID of each device.

2) Start with a mapping file which is of the form

So an example mapping file would be:

and the gandalf invocation is:

2.1) You can also daemonize gandalf with the -d flag. *NOTE*: You might need to end up doing that under sudo as gandalf needs tomake a pid file under /var/run.

3) To see a pretty JSON representation of devices and their ports that are currently connected, do:

4) To reload gandalf with a new set of mappings, do:

This will cancel all running threads and reload from the originalmappings file, so make your changes there.

5) To cleanly exit gandalf, do: *NOTE* This might require super user permissions.

Check out the man page, accessible with:

or

Simple invocation:

Important Notes and Catches

1) If you are running this on Linux, then you might get issues withusbmuxd having issues when more than around 7 devices are pluggedin. This is because multiple threads are trying to call variouslibxml2 freeing functions. I have a forked version of libplistthat usbmuxd uses, sans the memory freeing calls. Its availablehere. Compile and install that, then compile and install usbmuxdfrom source. This will leak memory but its not that much at all andI believe it to be a fixed amount.

2) Another issue you might have is USB3.0. The Linux kernel might crapout on you after 13 devices. This is a combination of the kernelnot giving enough resources and the host controller on yourmotherboard being crappy. The solution to this problem is todisable USB3.0 in your BIOS. To verify that USB3.0 isn't workingcheck with lsusb

SSH over USB using the iFunBox GUI (Windows only)

This feature only exists in the Windows build of iFunBox.

Get the latest Windows build of iFunBox and install it.

Click on 'Quick Toolbox,' then 'USB Tunnel.'

Assign ports as you see fit.

SSH over USB using iPhoneTunnel Menu Bar Application (macOS only)

Turn Tunnel On

Tools -> SSH

Theos usage

Export the following variables in your shell in order to deploy builds to the connected device:

export THEOS_DEVICE_IP=localhost

export THEOS_DEVICE_PORT=2222

SSH without password

Run the following commands one time and you will not be asked to type your password again.

You must create an SSH key with ssh-keygen if you have not created one. A passphrase isn’t required but still recommended. You can use ssh-agentas described here to keep the passphrase in memory and not be prompted for it constantly.

Then run the following command:ssh-copy-id root@DEVICE_IP

On OS X, ssh-copy-id will need to be installed with brew install ssh-copy-id.

Retrieved from 'https://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php?title=SSH_Over_USB&oldid=5201'

Q: What is checkra1n? A: checkra1n is a community project to provide a high-quality semi-tethered jailbreak to all, based on the ‘checkm8’ bootrom exploit.

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Q: How does it work? A: Magic hax.

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Q: Why was the beta release delayed? A: We didn't want the release quality to end up like iOS 13.2, you deserve better.

Q: wen eta? A: bruh we're past that.

Q: How do I use it? A: Open the checkra1n app, and follow the instructions to put your device into DFU mode. Hax happens auto-magically from that point and the device will boot into jailbroken mode. If you reboot the device without checkra1n, it will revert to stock iOS, and you will not be able to use any 3rd party software installed until you enter DFU and checkra1n the device again.

Q: Ugh, I don't like GUI? A: Ok, you can use './checkra1n.app/Contents/MacOS/checkra1n -c' from the console, or download a Linux CLI build.

Q: Is it safe to jailbreak? Can it harm my device / wipe my data? A: We believe jailbreaking is safe and take precautions to avoid data loss. However, as with any software, bugs can happen and *no warranty is provided*. We do recommend you backup your device before running checkra1n.

Q: I have a problem or issue to report after jailbreaking. A: Many problems and bootloops can be caused by buggy or incompatible tweaks. Remember many tweaks never saw iOS 13 in the pre-checkra1n era. If you suspect a recently installed tweak, you may attempt to enter no-substrate mode by holding vol-up during boot (starting with Apple logo until boot completes). If the issue goes away, a bad tweak is very likely the culprit, and you should contact the tweak developers.

Q: I have a problem or issue to report and I don't think it's related to a bad tweak. A: Please check here and follow the bug report template.

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Q: I lost my passcode. Can checkra1n decrypt my data or get access to a locked device? A: No.

Q: Can I ssh into my device? A: Yes! An SSH server is deployed on port 44 on localhost only. You can expose it on your local machine using iproxy via USB.

Q: I love the project! Can I donate? A: Thanks, we love it too! The project does not currently take any donations. If anyone asks for donations, it's a scam.

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Q: Where are the sources? I want to write a dark-mode theme and publish the jailbreak as my own. A: checkra1n is released in binary form only at this stage. We plan to open-source later in 2020.

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Q: When is Windows support coming? A: We need to write a kernel driver to support Windows (which is a very complex piece of code!) which will take time. Rest assured however, we are working hard on it.

[thrashermaxey]

Wild West Summer Series 2018: St. Louis

The summer season is quickly winding down. We have a few more teams to cover and I will make sure to squeeze them, hopefully as you are preparing for your drafts. As always make sure you buy the Dobber Guide and check out Cam’s, Eastern Edge Series.

  The idea for these columns to compare end of 2017-18 Fantasy Hockey Geek rankings for individual players with an expected ranking based on their average draft positions from the start of the year. This process does not necessarily identify who was the most important player to each team but gives us not only an idea of who was a steal/bust on draft day, but where each player was valued going into this season. I will also be adding some thoughts on whether or not that is the new normal for the player in question and if we should be adjusting our draft positions. For a deeper dive on each team plus full projections make sure to get your copy of Dobber’s Fantasy Guide, out now!

  And now for the technical details. We will be using the Fantasy Hockey Geek tool to get a ranking that combines all of a player’s stats for the searched categories. Like for the previous series, the ranks are based on a 12 team, head-to-head league, using the categories of goals, assists, power play points, shots, hits and blocks for forwards/defensemen and wins, saves, save percentage and goals against average for goalies. Player eligibility for this series is based on Yahoo, and draft ranks are based on average draft positions compiled from Yahoo, ESPN and CBS by FantasyPros.

  St. Louis

  Recap:

St. Louis started the 2017-18 season very strong sitting atop the NHL standings on December 11th. An injury to Jaden Schwartz and some inconsistent play from Jake Allen seemed to trigger the an implosion that lead to St. Louis dropping out of the playoffs by one point on the last day of the regular season.

  Undervalued:

  Brayden Schenn

  The move to St. Louis clearly agreed with Brayden Schenn. The finished as the 57th most valuable player and the 11th most valuable center. To say that was an improvement on his previous season is an understatement. It was also a relatively significant improvement on his draft position.

  Evgeny Kuznetsov

WSH

C

44

John Tavares

NYI

C

54

Brayden Schenn

STL

C

57

Sean Couturier

PHI

C

61

Eric Staal

MIN

C

71

  In the summer of 2017 it seemed the general consensus that Schenn would likely improve on his 2016-17 numbers, but not many projected him to hit anywhere near 70 points (except Dobber so you had better go buy the guide).

  Games Played

Goals

Assists

Points

Points/ Game

Shots

Sht%

Hits

PPlay Points

Blocks

82

28

42

70

0.85

210

13.3

154

19

37

  2017-18 saw Schenn’s highest goal, assist, point per game, and shot numbers of his career. He is also incredibly valuable in this league set up as he adds a significant number of hits. His power play numbers, while all still excellent, were actually down slightly from his power play specialist role in Philadelphia. Clearly though, the addition of two minutes of ice time per game overall and playing with the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko will do wonders for your even strength production.

  His shooting percentage was within the normal range, but a few of his other numbers are a touch high which could imply that 70 might be a bit of a ceiling for Schenn and he may settle in a few points below that. I should also note that Schenn, like the Blues on the whole, collapsed during the second half of the season. Over the first 44 games Schenn had 52 points (97 point pace), over the final 38 games Schenn managed 28 (60 point pace). Now certainly a 60 point pace can be valuable, and that pace is much more in line with his time in Philly than the first 44 games. The question for us then is how much stock do we put into the first 44 games. I come down on the side of the larger sample, and think we can hope for something close to the full season pace from 2017-18, but perhaps not a full repeat.

  Carter Hutton

Carter Hutton, Ben Bishop and Braden Holtby. I would never have placed those three in the same goalie tier for my 2017-18 draft. And yet, here we are, Hutton the most valuable of the three. Hutton was undrafted in essentially every league, while the goalies surrounding him had an average draft position of 67.

  Martin Jones

SJS

G

27

Antti Raanta

ARI

G

33

Carter Hutton

STL

G

64

Ben Bishop

DAL

G

74

Braden Holtby

WSH

G

75

He started the year as a backup, and with the help of a faltering Jake Allen, was able to seize the reins for a chunk of the season an post excellent numbers in the process.

  Games Played

Wins

Saves

SV%

GAA

32

17

754

0.931

2.09

  Now it is tempting to think that Hutton just needed the opportunity, and when it was finally given to him he tore it up. Unfortunately that isn’t entirely the case. Hutton is a 32 year old journeyman backup who has played for three different teams in the last five seasons (soon to be a fourth). The jump in 2017-18 wasn’t really about opportunity. In 2016-17 he actually a got a similar amount of games (while still on St. Louis) and clearly no one was rushing to grab him in 2017-18. Why? His numbers were decidedly worse.

  2016-17

Games Played

Wins

Saves

SV%

GAA

30

13

605

0.913

2.39

  2017-18 isn’t even the most he has played in a season. Back in 2013-14 he played 40 games and his numbers were even worse than in 2016-17.

  Buffalo saw something that they liked in Hutton, and are seemingly hoping to pull an Antti Raanta and turn a backup into a solid number one. On the plus side he has a chance at some extended playing time in 2018-19, but on the down side Buffalo isn’t exactly known for their defense, and Hutton doesn’t really have a history of exceptional goaltending. Because of the change in team, Hutton certainly carries more value going into 2018-19, however expecting him to repeat 2017-18’s success is likely a mistake.

  Overvalued:

  Jaden Schwartz

Ok, I know, I have put injured players here for a couple of teams now. That is the obvious answer. Clearly an injured player is going to disappoint in a season long comparison. So yes, Jaden Schwartz was injured for a bit, only playing 62 games, but that is only part of the story.

  Schwartz finished as the 251st most valuable player, and the 65th most valuable winger overall. He was drafted 112th on average, but those around him were drafted somewhere around 190th on average (still a disappointing return).

  Kyle Okposo

BUF

RW

242

Alex Tuch

VGK

RW

243

Jaden Schwartz

STL

LW

251

Austin Watson

NSH

LW

252

Mark Stone

OTT

RW

254

  It is hard to square that value with the season I remember from Schwartz. His name was always seeming to appear on the score sheet, and that is actually born out in the stat line.

  Games Played

Goals

Assists

Points

Points/ Game

Shots

Sht%

Hits

PPlay Points

Blocks

62

24

35

59

0.95

157

15.3

52

11

30

  Schwartz had the highest point output and point per game pace of his career, and by a fair margin. He saw his highest power play time and total time on ice. He seemed to click well with Tarasenko and Schenn, so if only he had played a full season…

  Unfortunately if you look at his value per game to account for those missed games it actually gets worse. Schwartz becomes the 83rd most valuable winger, and yes that is Cal Clutterbuck who provided more value than Jaden Schwartz. To be fair a very the average per game values at this level are all very close, and a small deviation in performance would could easily move him up to 75th overall, but the point remains.

  Cal Clutterbuck

NYI

RW

David Backes

BOS

RW

Jaden Schwartz

STL

LW

Brock McGinn

CAR

LW

Josh Anderson

COL

RW

  The problem is, that while there are not a lot of wingers at his scoring pace or better (maybe 15), there are quite a few (about 60) who are shooting more than him, about 80 who hit more than him, and about 40 who block more, and another 40 that have a better power play point pace than Schwartz. That hurt a bit as those peripheral categories can weigh quite a bit in a composite score for a player.

  Schwartz then is a bit of a conundrum. His scoring pace makes him a high draft target, but he doesn’t necessarily provide the value of some of the other wing options. In points only leagues he certainly provides a great per game value. In leagues that count a wider range of categories, he definitely starts to fall a bit. In the type of league described above, I am expecting the asking price to be more than the season value so I am unlikely to have the chance to draft Schwartz.

  Thanks for reading.

  Next week: Vancouver

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    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/the-wild-west/wild-west-summer-series-2018-st-louis/

[thebrotherspiece]

Aether Revolt - The Cards I’m Intrigued By

Let’s kick it off with the top three for each color in typical WUBRG order. White 1. Sram, Senior Edificer This guy is the most interesting card in white to me for one major reason.  He has the potential to push fringe decks, like RW vehicles and Sigarda’s Build a Boat, out of the shadows and into viability.  The biggest issues with these two lists is that they tend to run out of steam and risk major blow outs as a result, with Sram those blowouts are going to be less common as you won’t likely be top decking at any point in the match.  The combination of Sram, lots of control aura’s and fairly cheap but effective equipment/vehicles floating around Standard makes him a card with lots of cool potential. 2. Solemn Recruit Nothing begs “build around me” quite like a double striker with more upsides and that’s exactly what Solemn Recruit is.  A 2/2 Double strike for 1WW would have been good enough but with the new Revolt mechanic allowing her to receive +1/+1 counters at the end of your turn she offers a lot more than your typical double strike creature.  In Standard there are tons of ways to make things leave your side of the battlefield in a positive way while staying just white, add in blue and you have more than enough bounce/flicker type effects to practically promise a counter a turn.  Regardless of your colors you can always force trades in combat on your turn, this card just shows so much promise you can practically guarantee it will see play in most white decks this coming tournament cycle.

3. Conviction As strange as it may be this common is actually very appealing to me.  It resembles equipment by having the re-usability factor of the “return me to my owner’s hand” ability while also making a creature drastically harder to kill.  It may not be some power card, or a rare as you would typically expect from a top picks card, but with a low investment you can trigger your revolt cards or just give a valuable creature a little extra protection from the many damage/reduction related creature killers in the format. Blue 1. Baral, Chief of Compliance Everybody knew this was coming but honestly this may very well be the best blue spell in the set.  Even if you ignore his second ability this card is just good. A two drop in blue is easy to remove but gives you an activated ability, with Baral you get a pretty big back end and the ability to play whatever kind of spell heavy deck you want at a way more manageable cost.  He’s a Legend so clearly you can’t stack him which is kind of sad but he honestly doesn’t need it. Now that second ability is good and opens lots of alternate deck options for control decks but his cost reduction ability is where this card shines and I’m excited to see what cards “become playable” when you run your 4 Baral mainboard. 2. Efficient Construction This card maybe one of the most “build around me” cars in the set and boy has it been fun to brew.  The card is at an awkward spot due to two major things. At four mana it comes in at a really odd time that makes it a little harder to capitalize on and the fact that it triggers on cast, and not enters the battlefield, really reduces the power it could have had.  Regardless of its drawbacks Efficient Construction could shine with fairly low cost vehicles that don’t cost much to crew and could result in a powerful and new “U Vehicles” archetype. 3. Mechanized Production I’ll admit, this card isn’t reliable.  Despite that it gives a fun new win condition and has people wracking their brains for the best builds for a quick win and that deserves a spot in the top 3 regardless of its power level.  People are already theorizing UG clues, UB fabricate control and U+ Gearhulk army.  A single card that begs everyone to break it is going to be in my personal favorites every time. Black 1. Midnight Entourage It’s not very common to get a new creature type in a block and when we do Wizards of the Coast typically doesn’t give us a “lord” type creature for them so I was pleasantly surprised to see them do exactly that for our new Aetherborn friends.  At 4 mana a 3/3 with an Aetherborn anthem is not bad at all but it’s that second ability that I like the most.  Whenever Midnight Entourage or another Atherborn you control dies, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.  That’s right folks, mandatory half a sign in blood tacked onto a tribal lord.  A very cool tool for what could prove to be a surprisingly potent new deck. 2. Secret Salvage The perfect answer to the age old problem of “I really needed X to win but I never saw my other copies.”  Secret Salvage let’s you exile a nonland card from your graveyard for 5 mana to go find all of the copies with the same name in your deck and put them into your hand.  This card will let you go find all of your other engine pieces for your deck and all it needs is for you to have one in your grave by mid to late game.  The card isn’t a powerhouse by itself and it’s certainly not for everybody but the potential it holds in the right deck is a power we should all be keeping an eye on. 3. Herald of Anguish An awesome end piece for any artifact lovers deck the Herald of Anguish becomes a problem very quickly and makes himself harder to answer the longer he stays around.  In the perfect hand you can cast this guy on turn 4, maybe even 3 but I need to do some more testing, and in every other hand he can be cast by turn 4 if you tap out.  This card is much easier to play than you might think and puts your opponent on a very short cost. Don’t be fooled by the 7 CMC this guy is big, he’s fast and he will be a major problem. That’s going to be all for tonight.  I will finish the Red, Green and Artifacts later this week.  I want to apologize for the extended absence.  Hope everyone is staying warm and pulls great packs this coming pre-release.   ~ Mishra

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

you see gordon as autistic? i saw you say so in tags talking about his & edward's conversation in a railway series book

*vibrates almost to the point of explosion trying not to immediately spend the next twenty-four hours solid spilling every thought i have about autistic!Gordon and all its implications for the RWS*

Yes!

I’ve made a post about this headcanon before, and not to flex—but also? to flex—the smart and prolific @feigeroman cast a +1.

To me, it just seems sooo—well, maybe not “obvious,” because you have to really notice a lot of little things about Gordon’s character? But when you starting trying to puzzle how they all fit together, this theory explains all of the pieces very elegantly.

A few such pieces:

🚂 Gordon has a Pose of acting like the others are such annoying little children—especially funny since he’s actually the youngest in the cast until the ‘50s! But really, that’s such a classic autism thing, not fitting in with your peers and therefore finding them to be infantile.

🚂 He takes his identity as “the most important” to such extremes, and is shown to have such a difficult time slowly unbending and shedding some of the Basic Tenets of his very hierarchal, classist worldview, that I can’t help but think that his categorical thinking is reinforced by the autism. Especially because…

🚂 In “Tenders for Henry,” when his entire world is rocked by terrible news, Gordon feels it deeply but is unable to express himself. He struggles to wade into the unfamiliar waters of Talking About His Feelings. It seems painfully accurate autistic representation that Gordon cannot spit it out—everyone's chatter and banter moves too fast for him to get a chance to make himself understood. And when he finally manages to say, after a whole day, “I’m not happy,” no one takes it seriously. Why would they? Gordon never seems to have feelings, and the way he expressed it was so awkward and funny! No one thought it was anything serious!

Ouch.

🚂 Kudos to Fat Controller 2 for knowing exactly how best to communicate with him: notices something’s wrong, asks Gordon to tell him about it, and then actually does very little conversation. After reassuring Gordon that he’s safe, he instead takes action—invites his sole remaining brother for a visit. And that’s just a good lesson in how to show support. For everyone, of course, but especially for people with autism, for whom actions often speak much more loudly than any words.

🚂 While we’re at it, I’ve commented before on the way Fat Controller 3 introduces Gordon to the idea that he’s been replaced in the role that he’s loved so much for so long with what I regard as stunning coldness.

However, we also know that FC3 is really very sensitive about engines’ feelings (“Shh! You’ve offended him”), and Gordon does in fact take the change remarkably well. So I propose that FC3 presented it the way he did because guiding Gordon towards the logical conclusion that Pip and Emma would be better for the whole railway in this role than him was, in fact, 1000% the kindest way to do it. FC3 knew his engine, and it’s common to the point of stereotype that autistics don’t like to beat around the bush.

🚂 Another scene that strikes me as Not Exactly Neurotypical: his lil speech to himself at the beginning of the Ditch Incident. “Sometimes it’s really tiring to be such a large and splendid engine! One does have to keep up appearances so!” That’s such a fascinating insight into his smokebox. Combine it with his frequent napping while at station, and I have to wonder if he didn’t spend a lot of his early life telling himself this narrative because a) he’s masking his intense social anxiety and b) it IS tiring to mask (literally “keep up appearances”) so he is in fact tired and c) bonus! napping (or even fake-napping) gives him an excellent excuse to interact with the others less.

🚂 Given the shit everyone else gives Gordon, in that story and elsewhere, I think the others are on some level aware of these facts… and like to get their revenge for the inappropriate and insensitive stuff he’s said to them by poking the sleeping tiger.

🚂 Which brings us to that inappropriate stuff he says. Like, sometimes he’s just a complacent jerk. Other times, however, he’s so completely out of line that it’s astounding. His bitching about Henry being, uhh… *checks notes*… too healthy and too happy after the latter miraculously recovers from a near-death experience? Wow! Of course wow! But it’s all the more baffling because Gordon doesn’t actually strike me as this mean-spirited.

🚂 So many (in universe and among us fans) see Gordon as the Biggest Bully Ever, but… he’s really not mean? Not as a character trait? He doesn’t have James’s nasty streak. He just has an ordinary level of selfishness, an extraordinarily swollen ego, and… a lot of benevolence, really? 

James and Thomas both mock him mercilessly after the ditch incident, but he goes around graciously helping them both when they need it. I know those incidents were in His Book, and the point of His Book was to show Gordon’s hubris finally getting knocked out of him so that he becomes a humbler (and grander-than-ever) engine, but… this trait wasn’t new to post-Ditch Gordon, either. Like, literally One Damn Day after the strike drama, Percy the Scab has an incident—and Gordon shows up to help him, very kind and friendly. Also, Gordon seems to have misunderstood the seriousness of his position at the end of “Wrong Road,” but the point of it was, he has (1) nice interaction with a diesel and does a complete 180 in his attitude on the spot. (Compare James clinging to his diesel prejudice for another two decades!)

🚂 Don’t get me wrong, Gordon does do and say some things that are stunningly cruel, but it’s all the more striking because at heart he doesn’t seem at all cruel to me. Sometimes he retreats and strategizes and pays someone out, but only when he believes he’s been grievously wronged (“Thomas and Gordon”—where notably Thomas had to mock him for ages before Gordon did anything but scowl at him—“Trouble in the Shed,” and “Dirty Work”)

… and sometimes he hasn’t actually been wronged, but he believes he’s been. And the misunderstanding of the social reality itself strikes me as an autistic trait!

🚂 But. When a conflict is over, for Gordon it really is over. He doesn’t seem to carry grudges. I think that’s a worthy trait (especially on the N.W.R., where grudges are prolific as weeds and as unlikely to die out!) He’s very gracious about a lot of demotions and reversals and defeats, and yeah, there’s a big element of face-saving in it, but it allows both parties to save face. It’s to his credit that he generally wants to keep the peace.

That he so often offends the others, without necessarily being an offensive personality, makes me wonder if a lot of the times he really meant to give offense. “Tugboat Annie” was just Gordon making a random pop culture connection! But Duck had already (rightfully) warned Donald and Douglas that the big engines might dish them some nonsense, so the Caledonians were predisposed to take this as an insult when I’m not even sure that Gordon wasn’t just word-associating and laughing randomly. Like, it was rude, but I’m not sure he intended to be. (‘Was that meant to be funny?!?!?!?!’ Gordon: *sees their faces* ‘… no?… NO! definitely not. ig. idek.’)

🚂 So we have an engine with a benevolent personality who nevertheless sometimes comes out with crushing comments? Not just “teasing”—he does that too, no argument here—but some real “wtf�� moments of apparent cruelty from someone who is not cruel by nature. I argue that it’s just an unlucky combination of 1) Gordon Wields a Ton of Privilege and 2) He’s Also Just Blunt Autistic.

🚂 Sometimes Gordon’s comments get tagged as “rude” and his attitude as “selfish” or “self-important” when I would argue that he’s just acting in neutral (but Different) ways. ("That's no use, Edward can't pull that train... I told you so." In the RWS text this gets explicitly editorialized as "rude," but given how everything shakes down, I question whether this was just relevant commentary re: solving the problem at hand. No malice intended.)

And autistics getting their autistic communication and thinking condemned as morally wrong in and of itself… I mean, isn’t this just peak representation? Especially peak historical pre-recognition autistic representation?

🚂 Honestly, Gordon is strangely helpless when any of the others have a go at him without him having a chance to do his retreat-and-strategize thing.

At least, when they have a go at him that’s sort of “indirect” or “slyly laughing up their sleeve.”

I love this face in the TVS. It says it all. Like, as just one example, at the end of "Cows"? Henry's scowling but Gordon is more just baffled. Like "... am I getting away with it? is my bluster working? how bad is this rn anyway idk?"

He can meet conflict head-on, but ironic double meanings—he really can’t handle banter? This means that messing with Gordon and making him splutter incoherently seems to be everyone’s favorite pastime.

Which, uhhhh. I mean, on one hand I get it because Gordon is On Top of the Status Pyramid, so naturally they’re keen to get their own back. But, I’m sorry to say, isn’t this “it’s almost too easy to wind him up, lol” thing also a frequent dynamic with The Weird Autistic Kid In the Class?

🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂 🚂

All right, I think I’ll forcibly stop myself here.

For now.

Feedback welcome!