#this is miles ... he's a software developer

[brdsongs]

open  to  :  f 

"  i  can't  keep  pretending  like  i  don't  have  feelings  for  you  .  .  .  "

[lightdancingwords]

Crossroads of the Heart - Part Fifteen of ?

Pairings: CJ Braxton x Y/N Female reader

Series Summary: Y/N is a psychology major assigned to shadow CJ at The Stand, unaware he's the one who basically saved her life four years before. CJ is unaware that she's the one who left a notable impact on him over the phone four years ago. As they navigate the work at The Stand, they develop a spark that demands revelation and connection.

Word Count: 5,949

Tags/Warnings: Some fluff, angst (I guess?)

A/N: Comments, Likes, Reblogs, Kind feedback are always highly appreciated. Please let me know if you want to be added to the tag list! Evidently my muse won't shut up, so here we go! A new story in a new setting! I hope you all enjoy!

Dividers: credit to @saradika-graphics

Chapter Fifteen: Power

The Stand was still in shambles, but progress was finally being made.

The construction crew had managed to rewire the power correctly—without cutting another crucial cable—and most of the computers were back up and running. The volunteers were handling the transition as best they could, with some still working remotely while others adjusted to the lingering noise of drills and hammers echoing from the hallways.

And Miles, miraculously, had not actually combusted.

Mostly thanks to Gabby.

CJ watched from across the office as Gabby, ever the agent of chaos, continued to hover around Miles, insisting on keeping his stress levels in check—whether he liked it or not.

“You know,” Gabby mused, leaning against his desk, “you should really try deep breathing. Or yoga.”

Miles shot her a flat look, adjusting his glasses. “I will literally code you out of the system if you don’t leave me alone.”

Gabby gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “How dare you! After everything I’ve done for you?”

“You mean ruin my life?”

“Miles!” Gabby swatted his arm, and CJ actually had to bite back a laugh at the sheer suffering on Miles’ face.

“This is my nightmare,” Miles muttered under his breath.

CJ shook his head before turning his attention back to his actual job.

He stood by the main workstation, overseeing the remaining equipment shifts, while Priya checked off tasks from the operations list.

“All right,” she said, tapping her pen against the clipboard. “We’re finally down to just a few more adjustments. The doors are fully rewired, the badge system is almost ready to go live, and IT is still working on making sure the software is functioning correctly.”

“Meaning?” CJ asked.

“Meaning,” Priya said with a smirk, “you can maybe stop looking like you want to strangle the entire construction team.”

CJ exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair. “No promises.”

Y/N approached then, stepping beside him, her presence immediately grounding him. “How are we looking?” she asked.

“Better than this morning,” CJ admitted. “Which, to be fair, is a low bar.”

Y/N chuckled, giving him a teasing nudge. “You love this place, admit it.”

CJ shot her a look. “I love you. This place? Questionable.”

Y/N grinned. “I’ll take it.”

Priya, watching their exchange with mild amusement, shook her head. “You two are disgustingly adorable.”

“Jealous?” Y/N teased.

“Not even a little,” Priya said dryly. “But it’s good to know that when the world inevitably collapses, CJ will still be flirting with you in the rubble.”

CJ smirked. “Damn right, I will.”

Before Y/N could respond, a loud beeping sound filled the office.

“What now?” Miles groaned, turning toward the sudden alarm coming from one of the security panels.

One of the contractors rushed over, looking mildly concerned. “Uh, okay, so… the new system is a little more sensitive than we thought.”

“Define ‘a little,’” CJ said, already dreading the answer.

“Well…” the guy hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck. “It may have just triggered a lockdown sequence.”

CJ stared. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Nothing major!” the contractor quickly added. “Just a test protocol. Doors will remain locked until IT clears the alert.”

Miles muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “kill me now.”

“How long will that take?” Priya asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Uh…” The contractor checked his tablet. “About three hours?”

CJ groaned. “Of course it will.”

Gabby, ever the optimist, clapped her hands together. “Ooo, so we’re trapped! How fun!”

Miles turned to her, exasperated. “How are you like this?”

Gabby grinned. “Natural talent.”

CJ sighed, rubbing his temples. “This day will never end, will it?”

Y/N patted his arm. “But look on the bright side, babe. At least the power’s working now.”

CJ exhaled sharply, shaking his head. “I hate how low our standards have gotten.”

Y/N laughed, leaning into him slightly. “But you love me anyway.”

CJ smirked, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Damn right, I do.”

Priya sighed, flipping the last page of the schedule. “All right. Until the power company gets us out of here, we might as well get some actual work done.”

“Or,” Gabby said brightly, “we could play a game!”

Miles looked horrified. “Please no.”

As the Stand remained locked down with no escape, CJ closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

This was his life.

And, honestly?

He wouldn’t change it for anything.

By the time evening rolled around, the worst of the chaos had finally settled.

The security system was fully installed, the power was officially stable, and IT had lifted the temporary lockdown. The last of the construction crew had packed up their tools and left, and for the first time in days, The Stand actually felt like itself again—no loud drilling, no power surges, no construction workers accidentally cutting crucial wires.

CJ stood near the front, hands on his hips, scanning the office like a man assessing battle damage.

"Well," Priya said, stepping beside him, "miraculously, no one died."

"Yet," Miles muttered, still typing furiously at his station. "I'm still debating if I need to commit a murder."

Gabby patted his arm cheerfully. "Aw, babe, you love it here."

Miles didn't even look up. "I actively hate it here."

Gabby beamed. "Right, but in a loving way."

CJ shook his head, amused. "Honestly? This could have been worse."

Priya shot him a dry look. "CJ, we had a power outage, an accidental lockdown, and Miles nearly went into cardiac arrest."

"And yet," CJ countered, smirking, "this still isn't the worst day we've had."

Priya sighed, rubbing her temple. "You make a concerningly good point."

Y/N appeared at CJ’s side then, slipping her arm through his and leaning into him. "So, do I get to officially say ‘I told you so’?"

CJ glanced down at her, raising an eyebrow. "About what?"

Y/N grinned. "That things would work out."

CJ exhaled, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer. "Fine. You get to say it."

Y/N beamed. "Told you so."

CJ smirked, pressing a quick kiss to her temple. "Yeah, yeah."

Across the room, Gabby clapped her hands together. "Okay, so now that this day is officially over, I vote that we celebrate."

"Celebrate?" Miles asked, finally looking up from his computer. "We barely survived."

"Exactly," Gabby said brightly. "Survival deserves celebration!"

Priya rolled her eyes but smirked. "What do you have in mind?"

"Food, obviously," Gabby said, already pulling out her phone. "And drinks. And a toast to not having to deal with construction ever again."

CJ hummed. "That last part feels optimistic."

Y/N grinned, nudging him. "Don’t jinx it."

As their shift wrapped up, the evening crew arrived, seamlessly taking over as the daytime team gathered their things. The Stand never really closed—there was always someone here, always calls coming in, always someone on the other end of the line who needed to hear that they weren’t alone.

CJ exhaled, relaxing for the first time in what felt like forever, before letting Y/N tug him toward the door.

Finally, things were looking up.

The night air was crisp as CJ and Y/N climbed the stairs to their apartment, the quiet hum of the city settling into a peaceful lull around them. The celebration had been exactly what they all needed—laughter, good food, and the kind of camaraderie that made even the worst days feel bearable.

CJ had spent most of the evening watching Y/N—how she lit up while teasing Gabby, how she made sure Miles didn’t actually combust, how she touched his knee under the table, grounding him without even realizing it.

And now, as they reached their door and stepped inside, something in him paused.

Before Y/N could move further into the room, CJ reached out and pulled her into him.

Y/N let out a soft sound of surprise as he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into the curve of her neck, breathing her in. His grip was firm, steady—like he needed to feel her in his arms, like he needed the reassurance that she was here.

Y/N blinked, resting her hands against his back before tilting her head slightly. “CJ?” she murmured, her fingers sliding up into his hair.

He didn’t answer right away. He just held her, his heart beating steady and strong against hers.

Y/N smiled softly against his shoulder. “What’s gotten into you?”

CJ exhaled, pulling back just enough to look at her. His hands slid up to frame her face, his thumbs brushing along her cheekbones, his gaze intense and unwavering.

“Nothing,” he said, voice low, quiet. “Just… grateful.”

Y/N’s breath caught, her lips parting slightly. “For what?”

CJ’s eyes softened as he searched hers. “You.”

Y/N blinked, her chest tightening. "CJ…"

“I mean it,” he murmured, his hands trailing down to her waist. “I don’t say it enough. You make everything better. Even the worst days. Especially the worst days.”

Y/N swallowed, overwhelmed by the weight of his words. "You do that for me too."

CJ smiled faintly, dipping his head to press his lips so gently against hers—slow and unhurried, as if trying to memorize her.

When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against hers. “Just wanted to remind you.”

Y/N let out a soft laugh, her fingers curling around the front of his shirt. “I really like when you get sentimental.”

CJ smirked, brushing his nose against hers. “Don’t get used to it.”

Y/N grinned, looping her arms around his neck. “Too late.”

CJ chuckled, shaking his head before kissing her again, longer this time—deep and slow, the kind of kiss that anchored them, that reminded them both exactly how much they had found in each other.

And in that moment, nothing else mattered.

Just them.

Together.

The morning was calm, but CJ knew better than to trust the quiet.

He was at his desk, half-focused on emails and half-sipping the coffee Y/N had made before leaving for her shift, when a firm knock sounded on his office door.

“Come in,” he called, already sensing something was off.

Priya stepped inside, closing the door behind her with more care than usual. Her expression was composed, but there was a weight in her eyes that immediately set CJ on edge.

He set his coffee down. “What’s wrong?”

Priya exhaled, setting her tablet on his desk. “I’ve been tracking the storm system off the coast.”

CJ frowned, already feeling where this was headed. “The one they were saying might hit?”

She nodded, swiping on the screen to show the latest updates. The map displayed swirling bands of red and orange, the storm’s projected path shifting slightly inland.

“They just upgraded it to a hurricane,” she said soberly. “And if it doesn’t weaken before landfall, it’s going to hit hard.”

CJ dragged a hand down his face. Of course.

Priya crossed her arms. “I wanted to talk to you about what that means for us. The Stand can’t exactly shut down, but I need to make sure our volunteers and staff are safe. If conditions get bad, we need a plan.”

CJ nodded, already shifting into problem-solving mode. “How long do we have?”

“Maybe a couple of days before it makes landfall,” Priya said. “But we’ll probably start seeing the outer bands sooner. High winds, flooding in low areas—enough to be a problem.”

CJ exhaled, glancing at the map again. “Alright. First things first—we make sure people don’t travel in dangerous conditions. Anyone scheduled to work in person should have the option to go remote before the storm actually hits.”

Priya nodded. “Agreed. But there’s another issue—what about people already here when it starts?”

CJ leaned back in his chair, considering. “We’ll need supplies on hand. If travel gets too dangerous, we can’t have staff or volunteers stuck here with nothing. Food, water, flashlights—whatever we’d need in case of power loss.”

Priya’s gaze softened slightly. “Already ahead of you. I started making a list before I came in here.”

CJ smirked. “Of course you did.”

Priya arched a brow. “One of us has to be organized.”

CJ chuckled, shaking his head before turning serious again. “How bad are we talking? Worst case?”

Priya exhaled slowly. “Worst case? Sustained winds over 90 mph. Power outages for days. Major flooding in low-lying areas. If it strengthens anymore before landfall…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

CJ let out a sharp breath. Damn it.

“I’ll get in touch with Y/N,” he said. “We should coordinate a plan for helping people outside of The Stand, too. If this hits like you think it will, people are gonna need resources. Not just for us, but for the community.”

Priya gave him a look—one that was part respect, part exasperation. “You always have to take on extra, don’t you?”

CJ smirked, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “If we can do something to help, we should.”

Priya sighed, but there was warmth in it. “All right. I’ll start reaching out to our contacts for emergency support.”

CJ nodded, already mentally preparing for the long days ahead. “Good. And Priya?”

She looked back at him.

He held her gaze. “Thanks for staying on top of this.”

Priya’s lips twitched into a small, knowing smile. “Someone has to.”

With that, she turned and walked out, leaving CJ staring at the storm map, already planning for the worst.

The storm had arrived.

For most of the morning, it had been manageable—heavy rain, strong winds, but nothing that felt like a crisis. CJ, Y/N, Priya, Gabby, Miles, and a handful of other volunteers had made it into The Stand, prepared for a long shift of handling storm-related crisis calls. They had stocked up on supplies, rerouted calls for remote access where possible, and done everything right.

And yet—

CJ should’ve known something would go wrong.

The building shuddered as the power shut down completely. The overhead lights flickered, then died. The hum of computers ceased. And most importantly—the newly installed electronic security system?

Gone.

A beat of silence followed before—

“Oh, for the love of—”

CJ turned just in time to see Miles throw his hands in the air. "I knew this would happen! This is exactly why I said putting the entire security system on a single electrical grid was stupid!"

Gabby, who had been rifling through a supply box, abandoned it immediately and strode toward him, grinning like she was delighted by his meltdown. "Aw, come on, Miles, it’s kinda fun! We’re having a workplace adventure!"

Miles turned to her, scandalized. "Gabriella, we are trapped in a building during a hurricane with no backup power. Does that sound like fun to you?"

Gabby tapped her chin. "A little."

"Of course it does," Miles muttered, rubbing his temples. "This is my nightmare."

Priya exhaled, already reaching for her phone to check for updates. "The system should have had a backup," she said, frowning. "Which means—"

"—the backup also failed," CJ finished grimly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Fantastic."

"What now?" one of the volunteers asked, looking a little too nervous for CJ’s liking.

"Now," Priya said smoothly, "we stay calm and wait for the power to reboot."

"And if they can’t?"

Priya exhaled, tucking her phone into her pocket. "Then we make the best of it."

CJ looked over at Y/N, who was watching the storm outside through the large windows. The wind had picked up, hard, the trees bending, rain streaking against the glass.

She turned, catching his gaze. "Guess we’re stuck here, huh?"

CJ smirked. "Looks like it."

Y/N hummed, stepping closer, nudging his shoulder. "Think you can handle being locked in with all of us?"

CJ glanced over at Miles, still aggressively muttering to himself, and Gabby, who was now attempting to calm him down by offering to braid his hair.

He exhaled. "Debatable."

Y/N laughed softly, looping her arm through his. "Well, we might as well make the best of it."

CJ shook his head, amused, before leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to her temple. "Yeah, yeah."

Gabby turned at that exact moment, eyes lighting up. "Oooooh, look at you two sneaking cute moments in the apocalypse!"

CJ groaned. "Gabby."

She beamed. "What? I love this for you!"

Miles groaned even louder. "I swear to God, if we’re stuck here overnight, I’m quitting."

CJ chuckled, shaking his head. "Relax, Miles. What’s the worst that could happen?"

Just then, a loud crash sounded from somewhere in the building.

A very familiar power tool-related crash.

CJ closed his eyes. "I take it back."

Priya sighed. "Of course you do."

And just like that, the night really began.

The Stand was officially on lockdown.

The rain lashed against the windows, the wind howled through the cracks in the building, and the backup generator that was supposed to keep the power on? Completely fried.

The worst part? IT couldn’t do anything about it.

The utility company had to restore power first, which meant they were at the mercy of the storm. Until then, the office was pitch dark, except for the dim glow of emergency exit lights and the occasional flash of lightning outside.

And because the brilliantly designed security system ran on electric locks, the doors were stuck.

Trapped.

CJ sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. "Of course this is how today ends."

Across the room, Miles was pacing, his grumbling increasing in volume with every step. "This is a perfect example of why everything should have a manual override. Who the hell—"

"Miles," Gabby interrupted sweetly, stepping in front of him, "breathe."

Miles scowled, adjusting his glasses. "I am breathing. I’m also raging."

"Multitasking, I love that for you," Gabby teased.

Miles muttered something unintelligible that definitely wasn’t appropriate for work.

Priya leaned against the desk, arms crossed, her expression cool and composed. "IT says we’re stuck until the utility company gets power back. No power, no system reset."

CJ exhaled, already bracing himself. "How long?"

Priya shrugged. "Could be a couple of hours. Could be all night."

Miles stopped pacing. "All night?"

"Relax," Y/N said, stepping beside CJ, slipping her hand into his. "It’s not the worst thing in the world."

CJ smirked, squeezing her hand. "Could be worse."

"Could it?" Miles snapped. "Because I’m struggling to see how."

"We could be stuck outside," Y/N pointed out. "Or on the road. Or in an elevator."

CJ snorted. "That last one might’ve broken you, Miles."

"I would not have survived," Miles admitted grimly.

"Exactly," Y/N said, squeezing CJ’s arm. "See? Perspective."

Miles groaned, throwing himself into a chair. "I hate all of you."

Gabby beamed, plopping onto the desk next to him. "Aww, you love us, tech boy."

"I actively do not," Miles muttered.

Gabby patted his shoulder. "Denial is the first step, babe."

Priya sighed, pulling out her phone—not that it was of much use with the Wi-Fi down. "We might as well make the best of it."

"I swear to God," Miles muttered.

"Ooooh," Gabby interrupted, her eyes lighting up. "Let’s play a game!"

Miles’ head snapped up. "Absolutely not."

"Gabby," Priya said tiredly. "No."

"Come on! We need to pass the time!" Gabby grinned, eyes flicking to CJ and Y/N. "I know you two will back me up!"

Y/N laughed, glancing at CJ. "I mean… she’s not wrong."

CJ smirked. "Not committing until I know what the game is."

Gabby beamed. "Truth or dare."

Miles threw his head back. "I hate this place."

"You love it here," Gabby chirped.

CJ shook his head, leaning against the desk as Y/N pressed into his side.

They were trapped in the dark, the storm still raged outside, and the power company had no ETA.

But Y/N was right.

They’d survived worse.

And for now?

They’d make the best of it.

The office was dim, the only light coming from the emergency exit signs and the occasional flash of lightning illuminating the room through the windows. Rain hammered against the glass, the wind howling as the storm raged on.

And in the middle of the chaos, they were playing Truth or Dare.

CJ wasn't sure how this had happened.

Well. He did.

It was Gabby’s fault.

She had somehow convinced the group—through sheer force of will—to go along with it, and now they were fully committed.

Miles, however, was suffering.

"I want it on record," he muttered, arms crossed, "that I was forced into this."

"Duly noted," Priya said dryly, taking a seat on one of the desks.

"Oh, hush," Gabby said, leaning against Miles’ chair. "This is fun."

"This is not fun," Miles shot back.

"It is fun," Y/N chimed in, grinning as she curled up next to CJ on the couch. "You just don’t like admitting when you’re enjoying yourself."

CJ smirked, resting his arm along the back of the couch, his fingers idly playing with a strand of Y/N’s hair. "She’s not wrong."

Miles scowled. "You’re supposed to be on my side, Braxton."

"Nope," CJ said easily. "You’re on your own, buddy."

Miles groaned. "I hate all of you."

"Right, right," Gabby said, delighted at his misery. "Now shut up, because it’s your turn, tech boy. Truth or dare?"

Miles sighed deeply, clearly rethinking every life choice that had led him to this moment. "Truth."

Gabby’s grin widened. "Ooooh, excellent choice. Let’s see…" She tapped her chin dramatically before her face lit up. "What was your actual first impression of me?"

Miles stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

Miles muttered something under his breath before sighing. "Fine. First impression? You were loud."

Gabby gasped, mock-offended. "Loud?!"

"And chaotic," Miles continued. "And a menace to my personal space."

Gabby grinned. "So basically, you fell in love at first sight?"

Miles groaned, scrubbing a hand down his face. "This is my nightmare."

CJ actually laughed, shaking his head. "Alright, next." His gaze flicked to Y/N, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Your turn, sweetheart. Truth or dare?"

Y/N smirked, tilting her head. "Dare."

Gabby let out an excited gasp. "Oooooh, okay, okay! I dare you to…" She paused dramatically, her grin turning mischievous. "Sit in CJ’s lap for the rest of the game."

Y/N arched a brow. "That’s not even a real dare."

"Oh, it is," Gabby assured her. "I just wanted an excuse to make him blush."

CJ rolled his eyes but did not protest when Y/N immediately climbed into his lap, getting comfortable like it was second nature.

Because, well. It was.

"Happy now?" CJ said dryly, resting his hands on Y/N’s waist.

Gabby beamed. "Extremely."

"Whose turn is it?" Priya asked, shaking her head.

"CJ’s," Y/N said, smirking at him. "Truth or dare?"

CJ smirked, leaning back slightly. "Truth."

Y/N tapped her fingers against his chest. "If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be?"

CJ hummed, pretending to think. "Easy. A snowflake."

Y/N’s breath hitched slightly, her fingers curling against his shirt.

Gabby gasped dramatically. "Oh, my God, are you two in a romance novel?"

"Apparently," Priya muttered.

Y/N swallowed, smiling softly. "Good answer."

CJ smirked, tugging her a little closer. "I know."

Gabby sighed happily. "Ugh, I love this for you two."

Miles muttered, "I do not."

CJ shook his head, watching the group with amusement as the game continued.

They were trapped, in the dark, in the middle of a hurricane with no ETA on when the power would return.

But somehow, with Y/N in his lap, Gabby annoying Miles, and Priya quietly observing, CJ thought—

This might actually be one of the best nights they’ve had in a while.

The storm raged on outside, but inside The Stand, the game was in full swing. The group had fully embraced the ridiculousness of their situation, and CJ was actually enjoying himself—mostly because Y/N was still curled up in his lap, laughing against his shoulder at the latest truth Gabby had managed to drag out of Priya.

But the real highlight of the night was about to happen.

Y/N sat up slightly, turning her attention to Miles, who had been painfully avoiding eye contact with Gabby for the last few rounds. She smirked, her fingers lightly tapping against CJ’s chest as she tilted her head.

"Miles," she said, eyes glinting mischievously, "truth or dare?"

CJ immediately knew something was up.

Miles sighed, clearly wary. "Dare."

Gabby gasped dramatically, clapping her hands. "Oh, he’s feeling brave tonight!"

Y/N’s grin widened before she leaned forward slightly. "I dare you… to kiss Gabby."

CJ choked on air.

Gabby froze, eyes going wide. "Ohhh, I love this game."

Miles, on the other hand, looked like he was about to die. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Y/N said sweetly, biting back a grin. "You can’t back out, Miles. Rules are rules."

CJ grinned, highly entertained. "She’s right, man. You accepted the dare."

Miles looked murderous. "I hate all of you."

Gabby, however, was beaming. "Oh, come on, tech boy," she teased. "Just a little kiss? What’s the worst that could happen?"

"A lot," Miles muttered, but the redness creeping up his entire neck gave him away.

"Tick-tock," Priya said smoothly, crossing her arms. "We’re waiting."

Miles groaned loudly, looking everywhere except at Gabby. "Fine."

Gabby perked up, her grin turning absolutely smug. "Ooooh, is this happening?"

"Shut up," Miles muttered before turning toward her, adjusting his glasses like he was mentally preparing himself for battle.

Gabby bounced slightly in place, looking highly amused. "Come on, tech boy, lay it on me—"

Before she could finish the sentence, Miles grabbed her by the face and kissed her.

CJ wasn’t sure what he expected—but it definitely wasn’t that.

Gabby made a startled sound before melting into it, her hands gripping his shirt as if she had been waiting for this moment her entire life.

The group erupted.

"Oh my God," Y/N gasped. "He actually—"

"I did not see that coming," Priya admitted.

CJ grinned, shaking his head. "Well, damn."

After a few very long seconds, Miles finally pulled away, his face redder than ever. "There. Happy now?"

Gabby blinked, stunned, before she smirked. "Oh, babe. You are never living this down."

Miles groaned, covering his face. "Kill me now."

"Nope," CJ said, highly entertained. "You brought this on yourself."

Y/N, absolutely delighted, clapped her hands. "Best dare of the night."

Gabby, still grinning, leaned toward Miles. "Wanna do that again just to make sure it counts?"

Miles visibly short-circuited. "Absolutely not."

"Your loss," Gabby teased, winking.

CJ exhaled, leaning back against the couch. "This was an excellent idea."

Y/N grinned, snuggling back into his lap. "I know."

The game continued, but there was no topping that dare.

And as CJ watched Miles try desperately to recover while Gabby whispered things in his ear just to watch him blush, he decided—

Storm or not, this was officially the best night they’d had in a long time.

The Stand was still wrapped in darkness, the storm continuing to rage outside, but inside, the energy of the group was lighter than it had been in days.

Miles was still recovering from his very public kiss with Gabby, sitting stiffly in his chair like he wasn’t sure what to do with himself, while Gabby was thrilled with her victory. Y/N was nestled comfortably in CJ’s lap, looking way too pleased with herself after her successful dare, and Priya was watching the chaos unfold with her usual amused but composed expression.

And then—

"Alright, CJ," Gabby declared, turning her attention to him. "Truth or dare?"

CJ smirked, adjusting his arms around Y/N. "Truth."

Gabby’s grin widened, mischief lighting up her eyes. "Oooooh, excellent choice, Mr. Braxton."

CJ arched a brow. "Why do I suddenly regret this?"

"Because you should." Gabby tapped her chin dramatically before looking directly at Y/N, then back at CJ. "Okay. Real talk, CJ. Are you ever going to propose to Y/N?"

The room went silent.

CJ froze.

Y/N stiffened in his lap, tilting her head up to look at him, her eyes wide with shock.

CJ tried to answer smoothly, tried to play it off, but his brain stuttered, and instead of something cool and collected, what came out was—

"Uh—yes?"

Gabby gasped, delighted. "Oh my God!"

Y/N blinked. "Wait, what?"

CJ felt his face heat, suddenly very aware that all eyes were on him. "I—" He exhaled, dragging a hand through his hair before looking down at Y/N, whose expression was an even mix of shock and curiosity. "I mean… yeah."

Y/N stared at him. "You were— You were thinking about that?"

CJ swallowed, realizing there was zero way out of this, so he just sighed and went with the truth. "I wasn’t planning to do it right now, but… yeah. I’ve been thinking about it."

Y/N’s lips parted slightly, her breath hitching, like she was fully processing his words. "CJ…"

Gabby clapped her hands together, practically vibrating. "This is the best game I’ve ever played."

Miles, who had finally recovered from his own public emotional turmoil, smirked. "Damn. Didn’t think I’d see Braxton actually stammer over something."

Priya, watching CJ struggle, simply sipped her tea, eyes twinkling with amusement. "This is so much better than the construction disaster."

CJ sighed, looking back at Y/N, suddenly needing to explain himself. "I wasn’t gonna say anything yet," he murmured, his voice softer now, just for her. "Because I wasn’t ready yet. Not because I don’t want to. But because when I do it? I want it to be right."

Y/N exhaled, and something shifted in her eyes—something softer, something warmer. "You really mean that?"

CJ tilted her chin up, brushing his thumb against her jaw. "Yeah. I do."

Y/N’s lips curved slightly, her eyes shining in the dim light. "Well. That’s… unexpected."

"Yeah?" CJ murmured, his heart pounding.

Y/N grinned. "But not unwanted."

CJ felt his chest tighten—not with anxiety, not with pressure, but with something so much better.

Y/N wanted forever with him.

And damn if that didn’t make everything else disappear.

Gabby sighed dramatically, clasping her hands together. "God, I love love."

Miles groaned. "I don’t."

Priya chuckled, setting her mug down. "Alright, let’s give our future married couple a break and keep this game going."

Y/N laughed, shaking her head, but when she turned back to CJ, there was something different in her gaze.

Something knowing.

Something that said this conversation wasn’t over.

CJ smirked, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead before murmuring just for her—

"Come to my office. Let’s talk."

Y/N’s grin widened, something curious flickering in her expression. "Okay."

And just like that, the game kept going, but CJ knew—

Something had definitely changed.

The door to CJ’s office clicked shut behind them, muffling the sounds of laughter and conversation from the break room. The dim glow from the emergency lights cast long shadows across the space, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.

Y/N stood near the desk, her arms crossed loosely, her expression thoughtful—still trying to process what had just happened.

CJ leaned against the edge of his desk, watching her carefully. He wasn’t nervous, exactly, but there was a weight in his chest that hadn’t been there before Gabby had opened her mouth.

And now, there was no going back.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn’t mean for you to find out like that."

Y/N let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head. "Yeah, I figured."

CJ exhaled, looking down for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "But I meant what I said."

Y/N’s lips parted slightly, her gaze searching his. "You’ve really been thinking about it? Marriage?”

CJ nodded, his voice steady. "Yeah. Not because of pressure, or because it’s ‘the next step,’ but because…" He exhaled. "Because I love you. Because you’re it for me, Y/N. And I don’t want anyone else. I don’t even want to think about a life that doesn’t have you in it."

Y/N swallowed hard, her fingers tightening around the fabric of her sweater. "CJ…"

"I know it’s soon," he added quickly, sensing the hesitation in her voice. "I know we just moved in together. I know you have school, your practicum, all of that. I’m not asking for an answer right now. I just… I needed you to know how I feel. Because it’s been in my head for a while now, and after everything that’s happened—the storms, the chaos, even just us—I can’t pretend I don’t think about it."

Y/N let out a slow breath, rubbing her arms like she was trying to gather her thoughts. "I—" She hesitated, biting her lip. "I love you, CJ. You know that. But I’m just…taken aback by all of this. I wasn’t expecting to talk about marriage this soon. I just moved in with you. I still have school, my practicum, my entire career to think about—"

"I know," CJ interrupted softly. "And I don’t want to take any of that from you. I want you to finish school. I want you to do your practicum, to build the future you’ve worked so hard for. I just…" He paused, searching her expression. "Where do you see that future, Y/N?"

Y/N blinked, caught off guard. "What?"

"Where do you see yourself, years from now?" CJ asked, his voice careful, not pushing, just curious. "Because if I’m being honest… I used to have a plan. My whole life was The Stand. I thought that was all it was ever going to be. And then…" He exhaled, his lips twitching into something soft. "And then you walked in and everything changed."

Y/N’s breath hitched slightly, her fingers twitching at her sides. "CJ…"

"So I’m asking you," he continued, voice steady. "Where do you see yourself in the future?"

Y/N opened her mouth, then closed it.

And for the first time, she didn’t have an answer.

Because everything had changed since she walked through the doors of The Stand.

She had thought she knew what her future looked like—finishing school, finishing her practicum, taking a job somewhere as a psychologist or crisis counselor.

But then there was CJ.

Then there was this place, these people, this life she hadn’t expected but couldn’t imagine giving up.

Y/N exhaled sharply, closing her eyes for a second before meeting his gaze again. "I don’t know," she admitted, voice quiet but sure. "I don’t know where I see myself in five years, or ten years, or what my career will look like exactly. But…" She swallowed, taking a step closer to him. "I know one thing."

CJ tilted his head slightly, waiting. "What’s that?"

Y/N inhaled deeply, holding his gaze. "I don’t see a future without you in it."

CJ’s chest tightened, warmth spreading through him at her words.

He reached for her then, his hands finding her waist, pulling her closer until they were just a breath apart. "Then that’s enough for me," he murmured.

Y/N exhaled, resting her hands on his chest. "It is?"

"Yeah," CJ whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. "We’ve got time. I’m not in a rush. As long as I have you, the rest can come when it’s meant to."

Y/N let out a shaky laugh, closing her eyes briefly before looking up at him again. "I really, really love you, CJ Braxton."

CJ smirked, brushing his lips against hers. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

And when she kissed him, slow and deep, CJ knew—

It didn’t matter when.

She was his future.

And that was all he needed to know.

Tag List: @kmc1989, @ozwriterchick

Want to be a part of this tag list or others? Message me here! And check out the other story I’m writing!

[amalgamate-exe]

TW: Spoilers for The Outsiders By S.E.Hinton, Talking about death, Alcohol and Suicide 

If you're familiar with S.E. Hinton's classic novel "The Outsiders," then you probably know all about Dallas “Dally” Winston, the quintessential bad boy of Tulsa who's always causing trouble and ending up in the cooler (jail). He's a complex character pivotal to the book's plot development. Recently, while listening to music and contemplating the parallels between Dallas Winston and to the songs I was listening to, I noticed a striking correlation. Specifically, McCafferty's songs "Trees," "Bottom," and "Beachboy" encapsulate the essence of Dallas Winston's character archetype This observation compelled me to write this essay, which delves into the thematic connections between McCafferty's music and the portrayal of Dallas Winston in "The Outsiders." 

The First song I will be covering is the song ‘Beachboy’ Which is track 6 off of the 2014 Album Beachboy This song was the song that made me initially link Dallas Winston to the band. This song could be confusing and have a lot of different meanings but the interpretation I am going with is put best by the authors at Songtell “is about accepting change and making the best of the situation. It speaks to the idea of growing up and taking on responsibilities, even when it is difficult or uncomfortable to do so.” (Songtell) Overall the song has the vibe of an angst-filled teenager who you gave access to a guitar and a music editing software, but a few parts of the song stuck out to me in particular when I heard the song with the idea of it representing Dallas. The first quote that represents Dallas Winston is “She says, ‘Your lips tasted like they did way back in July’/ Headaches and overdose I Hope that we never die”. While it's never fully stated where Dallas lives. Lots - if not all of fan theories and fan fiction - believe that he lives at Buck Merrill's Barin a spare bedroom when he isn't crashing on Curtis’s couch. Buck, is stated to be a shifty character “Buck Merril was Dally's rodeo partner…and made most of his money on fixed races and a little bootlegging” (Hinton 52) Buck along with earning money dishonestly was a troublemaker similar to Dallas, stated in the same paragraph “he used to be bucktoothed before he had the front two knocked out in a fight.” Buck Merril was also known for throwing parties and all around not being a safe individual so much so that The main character of the book Ponyboy was instructed by both of his older brothers to not be caught WIthin the proximity of his Barand he was happy to abide “I was under strict orders from both Darry and Soda not to get caught within ten miles of his place, which was dandy with me”(Hinton 52). Ponyboy notes that some of the events at Buck's parties leaned to the more adult sides of things “I was remembering what usually went on in the bedrooms at Buck's parties…” (Hinton 52). It should also be stated that in Pre-Book events Dallas had a girlfriend named Sylvia. Sylvia was Dallas's girlfriend but while Dallas was in Jail for one of many reasons she cheated on him. Dallas says this Himself to Steve on page 13 of the book “‘You break up with Sylvia again?" ‘Yeah, and this time it's for good. That little broad was two-timin' me again while I was in jail.’”(Hinton 13) Knowing where Dallas stays his past relations with Sylvia and potential future relations with Cherry Valance and any other girl that Dallas will flirt with You can assume that he has taken at least Sylvia to Buck's place to party, this relates to the song Beachboy By McCafferty because the second paragraph has the line “She says, ‘Your lips tasted like they did way back in July’/ Headaches and overdose I Hope that we never die” The ‘She’ in this scenario could be Sylvia because Dallas has been thrown in jail so many times one could infer that they go long periods without seeing each other which explains why she cheated on him and could explain the line “Like they did way back in July” following up with that, knowing buck is a shady character known throwing parties you could also make the argument that “headaches and overdose” could be hangovers and poor decisions being made while hanging out with Buck and Sylvia.

The next set of lines off of Beach Boy that describe Dallas are the lines “And I know that you think that I don't care / About all the friends I left behind” which would make sense,If there is two words to describe Dallas winston it would be Cold and callous, Ponyboy makes that Exceptionally clear when describing him even if not those word exactly anytime Dallas is described in the book it is always made clear about his bitterness and hatred towards the world one example being “His eyes were blue, blazing ice, cold with a hatred of the whole world.” (Hinton 10) and then in the same paragraph “the warfare is between the social classes… Maybe that was why Dallas was so bitter.”(Hinton 10) with descriptions like that anyone would assume Dallas Winston is some Unbridaled hate machine, another example being “One time, in a dime store, a guy told him to move over at the candy counter. Dally had turned around and belted him so hard it knocked a tooth loose. A complete stranger, too” (Hinton 22) Dallas is willing to hit a *STRANGER* so hard it knocks a tooth out However, it's stated that Dallas has a soft spot for Johnny Cade over any of the other members of the gang this is made clear after Johnny Scolded Dallas for harassing Cherry Valance and Marcia At the drive in “Dallas scowled for a second. If it had been me, or Two-Bit, or Soda or Steve, or anyone but Johnny, Dally would have flattened him without a moment's hesitation. You just didn't tell Dally Winston what to do … But Johnny was the gang's pet, and Dally just couldn't hit him. He was Dally's pet, too.”(Hinton 22) All of this is to say that Dallas reminds me of this set of lines because Dallas goes even further to protect his friends than just not hitting them, Dallas is seen as a hardened criminal by the group, due to his time spent in the “Wild side of New York'' and his character all around, after Johnny Kills Bob the Soc Johnny and Ponyboy Run to Bucks bar to go to Dallas for help and without a second thought he helps them, Giving them a loaded gun and 50$ cash to buy groceries, on page 53 “Dally appeared after a minute. He carefully shut the door. "Here"--- he handed us a gun and a roll of bills--- "the gun's loaded. For Pete's sake, Johnny, don't point the thing at me. Here's fifty bucks. That's all I could get out of Merril tonight He's blowin' his loot from that last race."(Hinton 53) This is Major enough Dallas also gives Johnny and Ponyboy the location of an old church to hide out in Windrixville and on top of all of this Dallas lies to the police on their behalf to keep the cops from looking for them In Tulsa, or Windrixville Oklahoma “‘The fuzz won't be lookin' for you around here," Dally said, lighting up. "They think you've lit out for Texas…”(69) Now Dallas has had his fair run share of run-ins with the police before, and Johnny didn't Just pull some small-time thievery he killed a man, Dallas knew how much trouble he could get in for helping Johnny and Ponyboy out here, He was now an accessory to a crime but he still did it for them because he cared about them. While Dallas may have left the rest of the gang behind, literally when he killed himself via cop shoot-out at the end of the book he died caring for them he died because Johnny was the only thing keeping him afloat, he is also shown caring up until the end with his last words being “Ponyboy” He Died angry at the world yet in the same vein he died caring about his friends until his last moments. (1/3)

[fettesans]

Screen captures from Anatomy of a Fall, directed by Justine Triet, 2023.

--

Back in 1991 when the book (Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox...How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean) was first published, just over 1% of Americans were using the internet. But Gelernter claimed computing was about to revolutionize life on Earth. “This book describes an event that will happen someday soon,” he wrote in the opening line. “You will look into a computer screen and see reality. Some part of your world — the town you live in, the company you work for, your school system, the city hospital — will hang there in a sharp color image, abstract but recognizable, moving subtly in a thousand places.”

In essence, Gelernter believed that every aspect of life could soon be modeled in a parallel digital simulation. Everything happening in our lived reality would be tracked and monitored and fed into software “by a steady rush of new data pouring in through cables” to create a high-fidelity real-time digital representation of the world and all of its pulsing, swarming and sensuous qualities. This would be like Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse on steroids: our exact world, our very lives, all digital. And you could view, manipulate, experience and interact with this mirror world, like a child with a dollhouse. A dashboard for reality.

These “high-tech voodoo dolls,” as Gelernter described them, “will mark a new era in mankind’s relationship to the man-made world. They change that relationship; for good.” It would be possible, he believed, to not just monitor what was happening around the world, but also to predict what could happen — endless simulations of possible future events would be running inside the mirror world. We could prepare ourselves for any outcome — any future — in the physical world because we would know what was coming. (...)

The dream of a digital twin is to bypass the averages and biases and develop a personalized and predictive form of healthcare that is built around a person’s specific physiology and pathology rather than vaguely representative historical data. “The idea [of the virtual human] starts from the premise that modern medicine isn’t really that modern in scientific terms,” Peter Coveney, a computer scientist and coauthor of “Virtual You” (2023), told me over Zoom. Coveney worked on a project to digitally twin the entire 60,000-mile-long circulatory system of a deceased South Korean woman named Yoon-Sun who had donated her body to science. Cross-sections were taken from her frozen cadaver to help trace the network of vessels, arteries, veins and capillaries. Once mapped, they created a digital simulation of how her blood flowed by feeding 200,000 lines of code into a supercomputer.

Joe Zadeh, from A Digital Twin Might Just Save Your Life - Digital twins offer humankind the ability to command virtual replicas of forests, oil fields, cities, supply chains — and even, maybe one day, our very bodies, for Noéma, March 21, 2024.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

[thefairorgan]

FAIRING No. 1 – George Townsend

Fold-out music: Kevin Meayers and the art of the fair organ book

This is the first in a series of 'fairings', offshoots from the project that culminated in the pamphlet, She Moved Through the Fair (2025), where we responded in different media – poetry, artwork, historical research and more – to the eponymous traditional song. 

Back in February, we presented at the launch of She Moved Through the Fair, a perforated, concertina-folding book of fair organ music, alongside a ‘template’ scroll and a trail of stray, offcut ‘notes’, both of which played their part in the book’s making. 

Photo: Rey Conquer

A short film concluded the evening's performances, showing the book in action as played by an organ at the Amersham Fair Organ Museum and filmed by myself and Luca Mantero. The film, 89-key Gavioli No. 8265 plays ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ (2025), appears online here for the first time.

A few miles from Amersham, in Chesham, Kevin Meayers runs Kevin Meayers Organs, a factory set up to handle all aspects of fair organ building and repair, as well as the manufacture of perforated music books. After I interviewed Kevin at a museum open day in December 2023, he very generously made an original arrangement of ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ for fair organ, and physically hand-made the book, especially for the project. 

Kevin can sight read the books, the perforations of which will be curiously familiar to anyone who’s come across music production software like LogicPro, or other punch-card systems like that of the Jacquard loom. Dot- and stripe-shaped holes represent different notes or actions; the organs often incorporate drums, statuette-movements and other non-melodic functions, along with classic organ sounds.

Steam-powered and often the loudest thing around, fair organs hit their peak between the late nineteenth century and 1914, when thousands travelled the UK accompanying rides, circuses and other attractions. They were rigged up into the centre of gigantic rides and showfronts, hand-carved and gaudily decorated with bright colours, gold leaf and electric lighting.

A showfront at St Giles's Fair, Oxford, 1907

The Showmen using them suffered economically and through loss of men in the First World War – as did the Paris-based organ builders – while developments in electric amplification dramatically accelerated through wartime investment. Fair organs were largely displaced by amplified record-players as a result. They remain active today in enthusiasts’ collections and among the attractions of a few (primarily continental) Showmen.

The organs usually played operetta, music-hall and orchestral tunes in their heyday. This means Kevin’s arrangement of ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ – a traditional Irish folk song typically performed by an individual musician/singer – is something of an anachronism. ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ is new to the fair organ repertoire (as far as we know), despite the lyrics' pertinence to the fairground. 

Music books at Amersham Fair Organ Museum; AFOM flyer

Cross-pollination between ‘folk’ and 'commercial' popular music is nothing new, however. Anne Briggs, whose haunting acapella rendition of ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ from 1963 provided the project’s initial spark, learnt the song from Irish Traveller, street performer and folk icon Margaret Barry. When Barry was asked, on the other hand, whether she’d learnt the song from family or from other Travellers, she replied cheerfully, ‘Oh, no. I got it off a gramophone record by Count John McCormack.’

An interview with Kevin was one of two interviews I contributed to the project – the other being with feminist activist and historian Sally Alexander. As an early participant in the radical history collective History Workshop, Sally wrote the pamphlet St Giles’s Fair 1830-1914: Popular Culture and the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century (Oxford: History Workshop, 1970) – another key reference point for the group.

To read the interview with Sally, and find out more about these extraordinary machines and Kevin’s lifelong connection with them, pick up a copy of the pamphlet – available to purchase here:

P. S. Following on from the launch, the Director at Ab Anbar gallery kindly invited us to present a poetry and performance evening in dialogue with Earendel, Hessam Samavatian's exhibition of photography and sculpture. The fair organ book got another outing as part of a pop-up installation and a recording of Kevin's arrangement again concluded proceedings.

[shampaisthinking]

Want to be successful ❓❓❓

When you are looking for a job in a bank at the age of 27, someone your age is sitting as a manager in that bank. When your career has not even started, some people are driving expensive cars bought with their own money and passing in front of you.

First comes the matter of hard work-

those who are ahead of you are more hardworking than you. Accept this. The joy of sleeping and the joy of seeing the dawn cannot be found together.

Only hard work is not everything. If that were the case, then the donkey would be the king of the jungle. It is not just hard work, but also getting its reward that is the big thing.

only your results are rewarded, not your efforts!!!!

How can you stay ahead the extra mile if you don't work extra hours? Every day is 24 hours. I have seen my friend, when others are sleeping, he does outsourcing at night. He will also get the benefit of staying up late!

What you did extra will determine what you will get extra. If you can't do something different, you won't get anything different. Bill Gates didn't become Bill Gates overnight. You can't become Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg just by being a university dropout.

Read the book Outliers. Great people have great preparation.

If you read Nazrul's articles, you will understand how self-educated he was. You can't become Nazrul just by working in a bread shop. Or you can't become Rabindranath without going to school and college. Not everyone can become Michael Faraday by working in a bookbinding shop, most of them spend their entire lives binding books.

Don't worry about who said what in student life. The boy who could not program is now the owner of a software firm. The one who no one ever dreamed of is now teaching thousands of people to dream. The one who had no idea about his career, first went to America to do his PhD. The boy who failed all the exams with great enthusiasm is now a successful businessman. What you can and cannot do, don't let anyone else decide.

Didn't get a chance in a government university? Are you studying in a private one? Everyone is saying, your life is over? I say, hey! Your life hasn't even begun yet. How far will you go, who else can decide this? Is it their life or not?

Why do you have to be a doctor or an engineer? No matter where you study, your progress depends on yourself.

Don't just live your life with 'Oh shit', 'Sorry baby', 'chatting dating'. Imagine your position without the person you depend on. Did you buy the car you use to come to university and travel with your own money?

One day you will have to go on the road of the world. Then start doing all the things you have to do now. To grow in life, you have to read some good books, watch some good movies, listen to some good music, visit some good places, talk to some good people, do some good work. Life is not just about spending it laughing. One day when you have to face life, you will see that the ground is moving away from under your feet, the sky is collapsing on your head. You have to give time for skill development. These things don't happen in a day or overnight. "What do I have to do to write like you? I want to get results like you. What do I have to do?" I often hear this. I say, "I have to work hard. No shortcuts. Sorry!" The reply comes, "But I don't like reading. What can I do?" I will answer this in a slightly different way. When you were in school or college, you used to laugh at your first boyfriend when he was lying face down on the desk. Now the time has come, you will be sitting at the desk. When life is meant to be beaten, you enjoy life, when it is supposed to be enjoyed, you cannot enjoy life, this is normal. Accept it. If you can't accept it, turn around. Now is the time!

Work hard, set a goal, fail

but don't stop, move forward--

If you fail 1000 times, learn 1000

lessons from it, and then succeed.

The saying goes, "Girls are old at twenty." It is really true. After they cross twenty, parents, out of their sense of responsibility, get up and get married to their daughter. Although they are not so worried until twenty-three, after twenty-five, an unmarried girl is stuck in their throat like a rope. They cannot get it out, and they cannot swallow it.

Not only boys wear their sandals by getting tutored. Girls do it too. Girls also turn their backs on the beauty of the evening and are busy finding mistakes in the notebook of the child who is reading next to them. They also know how to strangle themselves to death by wearing a blue saree and a white blouse.

After the father retires, the eldest daughter of the family has to take care of the family. That girl knows how to blow away thousands of opportunities to be loved by someone. Due to family worries, the hair of the girl who did not sleep at night is now just history. Along with that, there are harsh words from people.

I am not saying that girls are washed basil leaves. Again, it is not that all girls are bad. So it is nothing but foolish to see everyone in the same light.

Girls also know how to sacrifice. If you look around a little, you can find it perfectly. And the girls who are full of such thousands of sacrifices, their self-respect is a thousand times more than their love. Respect them a little, and you will see that they will return you respect several times more.

Shampa....... ✍️

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF NASTY LITTLE PROBLEMS MAKES YOU STUPID

You have to be making money. Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people who go from one to the other and never realize the whole world doesn't work that way. False positives are innocent emails that get mistakenly identified as spams. But both began with a core of fanatically devoted users, and all feel guilty about it. This pattern is repeated over and over, and it's all about us. It's especially good if you're different in a way people will increasingly be. All the best hackers can't save you. Maybe as startups get cheaper it will become more common.

In programming, as in most fields, those tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than just an effect? So naturally the people at the startup work a lot harder. They gradually congeal in your head. But if I have to change what I was saying as well. And that doesn't seem to be ideas for companies, just things that would be enough. When we haven't heard from, and someone sending you mail for the first time they raised money. It would be pretty cool if merely by staying in regular contact with us you could get the Intel and Microsoft stickers off the front. Now survival is the default, instead of drying up, curiosity becomes narrow and deep, like a river, one runs up against a wall. This is a mistake, because the main value of notebooks may be what writing things down leaves in your head. Measured on the time scale of social change, what we have now is pre-beta.

Just that some kinds of work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of that word experience when I was in high school, I now realize, is that you should put your business model in beta when you put your product in beta. I have no idea if these guys are doomed.1 I looked and they weren't smiling. The most promising group to be liberated by the new, lower threshold are those who have them. The word try is an especially valuable component. I'm telling you is that you need time to grow a silicon valley becomes: who are the great things to work on.2 In fact, it may be just as much of the time, and investors are very sensitive to it. Plus this method yields teams of developers who already work well together. I called a huge, unexploited opportunity in startup funding: the multi-week mating dance with investors; the distinction between termsheets and deals; the fact that they have the resources to do what they tell you to do. And after high school it was probably understood that you were supposed to go to college. Among programmers it means a startup makes just enough to pay the bills. The less it costs to establish a central corpus of spam.

Surely they can manage that. I couldn't imagine a great hacker, the way to notice startup ideas: the unsexy filter and the schlep filter, except it keeps you from working on problems you despise rather than ones you fear. Raising money decreases the risk of failure. But it's a question anyone ambitious should face. How does responsibility constrain you? 99 shortest 0. And a couple miles south of that is the approach I'm advocating: filter each user's mail based on the spam and nonspam mail he receives.

I recently saw an ad for waiters saying they wanted people with a passion for service. What should they do research on? The real problem is that they grow fast, and consulting just can't scale the way a product can. There is a danger in designing a language based on one's own experience of programming. It seems to me there is a gradual continuum between rule breaking that's merely ugly using duct tape to attach something to your bike and rule breaking that is brilliantly imaginative discarding Euclidean space. The committee would choose one at the height of his career—that is, as far as I can tell you what users want. For example, Web-based software threatens the desktop. We're moving back to Minnesota, but we're going to keep working on the company to do that in a spectacular way: I think undergraduates are undervalued. So if you're not good at anything yet, consider working on something: you could work on a problem you have? But when Verisign sends me mail warning that a domain name is about to expire at least, other hackers can tell. I get a lot of fields. No thanks, intellectual homeowners may say, we don't need any outside help.

The verb you want to do with your life. 027040077 quite 0. And you don't have to look at users. Closely related to poverty is lack of social mobility. Girls who dissed him in high school? Are there zero users who really love you, but they all wait to invest. Angel rounds are their whole business, as online video was for YouTube. Most investors, unable to judge startups for themselves, they sound more like hackers.

Notes

Microsoft discourages employees from contributing to open-source projects, even though it's a bad idea the way up.

If you freak out when people are magnified by the surface similarities.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Patrick Collison, Kevin Hale, Sam Altman, Josh Kopelman, Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, and Hutch Fishman for reading a previous draft.

[downloadoverthehillforpc]

Over the Hill Review for PC

OTH Obtain – Just how & How to be able to Download the Software Lawfully

This kind of word can often be employed to discuss time within a to some degree How to Download In the Hill hilarious or even teasing means. It's regularly employed humorously or perhaps gently, though this can at some point carry a poor meaning. Whether the in a joke or maybe important system, “Over the Hillside” explains how idioms draw each of our existences. The item proves the way intense terms is usually, touching unique age group.

Inside final scene, Arthur in addition to Isabelle get refurbished the house with regard to On the Rise Download Over the Hill his or her got married these morning. Tìm hiểu về thành ngữ tiếng Anh và cách sử dụng chúng trong thực tế. Understandings straight into British idioms with that they are widely-used within true to life. Thường ở mốc 50 – 60 tuổi là có thể nói rằng đã “over the mound”. Into their ranch home in the New York small town, Mother Shelby gets ready breakfast on her several babies, Isaac, Tommy, Arthur along with Leslie, after which it wakes them. The racket the lads create because they performance in addition to combat gets up the minister, who slaps the eldest, Isaac.

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[cyberbenb]

Unmanned Systems Forces have carried out over 220 operations deep into Russia since its establishment, commander says

Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) have conducted over 220 operations deep inside Russian territory in the six months since its creation, Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of the USF, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published on Feb. 3.

Throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, both Ukraine and Russia have heavily invested in drone technology, revolutionizing warfare tactics.

“Our units have conducted over 220 operations to engage the enemy on Russian territory. More than 3,500 weapons have been launched so far,” Sukharevskyi said.

Ukrainian bomber drones and the units that use them are “extremely efficient,” Sukharevskyi said. Ukrainian bomber drones have recently hit targets over 50 kilometers (31 miles) deep inside Russia, the commander added.

Work is also underway to systematize various types of software systems, develop tactics, and use ground robotic systems, according to Sukharevskyi.

“We have already begun the process of synchronizing and developing the components of activities at sea regarding defense and attack. And I think we will move on to the practical part very soon,” he said.

Various aerial, naval, and ground drones have been developed and are frequently used by Ukrainian troops for reconnaissance, combat, and other tasks.

The USF said on Jan. 31 that Ukrainian soldiers are now using a long-range drone capable of traveling up to 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) and carrying a 250-kilogram air bomb.

Ukraine also produced more than 30,000 bomber drones in 2024, according to Ukraine’s Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin.

How Ukraine’s new drone-missile hybrids are changing long-range weapon technology

Ukraine has turbo-charged its long-distance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), making “rocket-drones” to compete with cruise missiles or save the trouble of asking for more Western-made ranged weapons. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration has been showing off the latest results, with videos…

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

[sharktankinsights]

RewardStock Shark Tank Update – RewardStock Net Worth 2024 - Planning a trip can be challenging, particularly when utilizing frequent flier miles and reward points. Most consumers either don't know how to maximize their points or find it difficult to remember all the rewards. People frequently wind up spending far more on hotels and flights than they need to instead of saving money.  Jon Hayes spotted an opportunity here. He developed Rewardstock, a smartphone software that aims to simplify and lower the cost of vacation planning. In order to get the greatest offers on flights, lodging, and other travel-related expenses, Rewardstock assists users in organizing and optimizing their travel rewards. In Season 10 of Shark Tank, Jon's experience with Rewardstock was highlighted. He went into the show hoping to get $200,000 in exchange for 5% ...

[otiskeene]

Top 5 Edge Computing Software Of 2024

Remember the 1990 comedy Home Alone? Its 1992 sequel was equally beloved, especially by kids who probably wanted to defend their homes just like Kevin McCallister did against some bumbling burglars! Kevin set up creative traps, but he had to be there in person to activate most of them. Now, if only he had edge devices back then, he could’ve controlled everything remotely, from the comfort of a chair. With today’s technology, edge computing makes this possible by using sensors and management platforms. Sadly, that wasn’t available in the ‘90s!

These days, Edge Computing Software lets you gather, analyze, and process data at the source, cutting down on transmission time to a cloud server. This means faster decisions and more efficient systems. If you’re in the market for the best edge computing tools, you’re in luck! We’re diving into the top five Edge Computing Software of 2024.

Betty’s day started with making breakfast, managing chores, and squeezing in a client meeting. Between juggling household duties, like turning off kitchen lights, and trying to relax, she realized how convenient it would be to control everything remotely. With IoT smart lights and other devices, she could automate her day.

For businesses, however, the scope is much larger, spanning miles, countries, or even continents. Thankfully, Edge Computing Software enables controlling machines and applications directly at their source, speeding up response times and reducing data transfer bottlenecks.

Let’s take a look at the Top 5 Edge Computing Software of 2024 that bring businesses these cutting-edge advantages.

1. Azure IoT Edge

Microsoft’s Azure IoT Edge helps consolidate data and reduce IoT solution costs. You can code in multiple languages and manage devices even when they’re offline, syncing data later. It also integrates with the Vision AI DevKit for easy AI and machine learning capabilities.

2. AWS IoT Greengrass

Amazon’s AWS IoT Greengrass is an open-source platform that offers local processing, messaging, and machine learning. You can manage IoT edge devices remotely, even pushing software updates and security fixes without physical access.

3. ClearBlade Edge Platform

ClearBlade’s platform excels at managing data at the edge, offering security, real-time performance even when offline, and seamless connections across protocols. It’s a versatile tool for IoT development that guarantees 100% uptime.

4. Gravio Edge IoT Platform

Gravio is a new addition, bringing automation and integration for edge and cloud devices. Its no-code solution lets you automate processes easily, and its focus on interoperability means better connectivity between devices.

5. IBM Edge Application Manager

IBM’s tool brings fast insights and enhanced security across thousands of edge servers, letting you act on data closer to where it’s created. It also supports autonomous operation and seamless 5G and IoT integration.

Edge computing is transforming industries by enabling faster decision-making, better data control, and improved availability. If your business is ready to benefit from edge technology, now’s the time to choose the right platform.

[archoneddzs15]

Super Famicom - Wizardry Bane of the Cosmic Forge

Title: Wizardry Bane of the Cosmic Forge / ウィザードリィVI 禁断の魔筆 

Developer: Sir-Tech Software / GAME STUDIO Inc.

Publisher: ASCII Corporation

Release date: 29 September 1995

Catalogue Code: SHVC-AW6J-JPN

Genre: 3D Dungeon Crawler

It is said that the Cosmic Forge is a magical pen possessing an enormous power: whatever is written with it instantly becomes true. A group of explorers ventures into the castle where the king, the queen, and the wizard who created the pen used to dwell. Nobody knows what has happened there for the last hundred years, since nobody dares to enter the haunted castle. As the heroes step in, the doors behind them close forever. They are left alone to discover the truth about the Cosmic Forge and the drama between the castle's inhabitants.

Here's a fun one indeed. It is a Wizardry game that is part of the main series, yet it has a console conversion that has stayed in Japan its entire life. It is said that this game was released on the Super Famicom 20 days after the Playstation launched in North America. There may be some English translation options here and there but unlike the Super Famicom version of Wizardry V, there is no option to change everything into English this time. So if you want to play this Super Famicom version, look up a fan translation of this.

Anyway. Bane of the Cosmic Forge is the sixth entry in the Wizardry series. While retaining the basic premise of creating a party of up to six adventurers to roam first-person dungeons and fight enemies in turn-based combat, this installment contains numerous enhancements and new features. It is the first game in the series to feature full-color graphics and a mouse-driven interface (as far as the computer versions go). Dare I say it, this looks miles better than stuff like Bishin Densetsu Zoku, or Golden Fighter come to think of it. This game reminds me of some of the best Sega Saturn titles out there, which is saying something.

Combat options are more detailed, with precise weapon moves (such as thrust and bash) available. Magic is divided into six different schools, with the spellcaster's powers increasing if he or she concentrates on one of them. Picking locks or disarming traps by thief-like classes is done actively by participating in a simple minigame. Characters can learn skills unique to their class when leveling up. These skills range from weapon proficiencies to field abilities that can be used outside of combat.

In addition to the traditional races of humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, and gnomes, the player can choose between the Lizardman, the cat-like Felpurr, the canine Rawulf, the pixie-like Faerie, the intimidating Dracon, and the furry Mook. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses, as well as predispositions to certain classes. Exotic character classes such as Valkyrie, Alchemist, Psionic, Ninja, Samurai, and Monk are also available during character creation, though they require a higher amount of bonus points received during the initial dice roll. It is also possible for characters to switch to another class during the game.

Conversations with NPCs have been extended, the player being able to talk about various topics with the same character. The game also features a branching storyline: depending on the player's choice to believe or mistrust a key character, the plot will split into different directions, resulting in several different endings. The entire game takes place within the castle and its surroundings, without the possibility to travel back to the town or create other characters after the game has started. Unlike the previous entries, it is possible to save the game anywhere manually. The Super Famicom version is compatible with the Turbo File Twin as indicated by the box making mention of a Super Famicom-exclusive "Super Turbo File" mode. Other games that make use of this functionality include Bahamut Lagoon, RPG Tsukuru Super Dante 1 & 2, Daisenryaku Expert World War II in Europe and Tactics Ogre.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Another very quiet week at home and work.

I hope you enjoy the links.

Dan Heching and Zoe Sottile • CNN

Estey said Simmons died early on Saturday morning. He had celebrated his 76th birthday the day before. “We lost an Angel today - a true Angel,” Estey added.

I remember Richard Simmons from the 80’s. Always the showman, always enthusiastic, always fighting to teach folks how to lose weight and talking about his own struggles.

R.I.P.

Carmel Dagan • Variety

Bob Newhart, the genteel but sharply satirical comic whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits throughout the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

I know he’s well know for his television series but I really liked him as Papa Elf in the movie Elf.

R.I.P.

David Nield • ScienceAlert

The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it’s reached that speed since it launched in 2018. We’re talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here.

It’s impossible for me to wrap my brain around the idea of going 394,736 miles per hour. 😳

But, it’s pretty cool!

Lily Hay Newman, Matt Burgess, and Andy Greenberg • WIRED

Only a handful of times in history has a single piece of code managed to instantly wreck computer systems worldwide. The Slammer worm of 2003. Russia’s Ukraine-targeted NotPetya cyberattack. North Korea’s self-spreading ransomware WannaCry. But the ongoing digital catastrophe that rocked the internet and IT infrastructure around the globe over the past 12 hours appears to have been triggered not by malicious code released by hackers, but by the software designed to stop them.

What a day for our global network, Microsoft, and CrowdStrike.

I feel terrible for any shop using CrowdStrike and their DevOps or IT Administrators and Technicians. The only way to fix this issue is to be in the room, in front of the computer.

I once worked at a pistachio and almond processing plant that ran on Windows PC’s. At times I needed access to certain computers and had to get someone to unlock a door for me. Can you imagine having to fix thousands of computers with this issue? Sure, developers and the techies in the organization can fix it on their own and help others, but what a pain in the butt. ❤️

Hafiz Rashid • The New Republic

“I have stood up in rooms with all of these people and I have said, ‘Game out your actual plan for me.’ What are the risks of this going to the Supreme Court? And no one had an answer for me.… I’m talking about the lawyers. I’m talking about the legislators,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

What’s the plan? Seems Democrats don’t have one.

This entire kerfuffle couldn’t have come at a worse time. More than ever we need to be united to stop the GOP in their tracks. They are the political enemy and you defeat a political enemy by beating them at the polls.

Turn out, vote for the Democrat, save democracy.

It really is that simple.

Maya Posch • Hackaday

With performance optimizations seemingly having lost their relevance in an era of ever-increasing hardware performance, there are still many good reasons to spend some time optimizing code. In a recent preprint article by [Paul Bilokon] and [Burak Gunduz] of the Imperial College London the focus is specifically on low-latency patterns that are relevant for applications such as high-frequency trading (HFT). In HFT the small margins are compensated for by churning through absolutely massive volumes of trades, all of which relies on extremely low latency to gain every advantage. Although FPGA-based solutions are very common in HFT due their low-latency, high-parallelism, C++ is the main language being used beyond FPGAs.

A friend worked on one of these high speed trading systems. The pressure on him to write bug free, highly performant C++ code was immense. These trading folks are crazy serious about making money and these systems need to be super solid. Their drive to be filthy rich depends on it.

He didn’t stay for long. The stress wasn’t worth it.

Heather Cox Richardson • Letters from an American

This morning, after a day of Republicans insisting that it is political polarization to suggest that Trump is a danger to our democracy, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in the last days of his presidency, dismissed the classified documents case against the former president. She wrote that “Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”

It seems Judge Aileen Cannon is in the bag for Trump. She’s been delaying and dragging her feet for months on this matter. Either she’s incompetent or corrupt or maybe a little of both?

Regardless, we can also thank corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for planting the seed of this plan to dismiss the case. In the Trump Immunity decision he noted Jack Smith’s appointment may be unconstitutional. Of course the documents case has nothing to do with the immunity case. He just slipped it in there to sow doubt. It worked.

There is still a path to prosecution but it won’t happen before the election. If the Orange Clown wins it’ll never happen.

Dan Moren • Six Colors

Ultimately the reaction to 18’s initial public beta may be more about what’s not there than what is. When Apple first announced its latest annual update to the mobile software platform back in June, most of the attention went to a suite of features—the top-billed ones if you look at the company’s iOS 18 Preview Page—collected under the aegis of Apple Intelligence. These marked the company’s much anticipated foray into artificial intelligence and promise everything from image generation to a reinvigorated Siri.

TL;DR - if you’re expecting to see Apple Intelligence as part of the betas, don’t hold your breath. Those features will roll out over the next year and into the future.

Outside of the excitement surrounding Apple Intelligence there are plenty of nice features to explore and enjoy.

Nick Schager • The Daily Beast

Longlegs is the horror event of the summer—a serial killer thriller that plays like a nightmarish swirl of The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Psycho and Zodiac, albeit with far less rationality and considerably more demonic derangement.

I’m excited to see this! I’d imagine this is one film I’ll be able to get Kim to see in theaters. 😃

Ploum

TL;DR: put your open source code under the AGPL license.

While I don’t agree with a lot of what’s said in this piece, it is worth a read to gain a different perspective on Open Source and the problems around maintaining it.

Jake Edge • lwn.net

At the 2024 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Wedson Almeida Filho and Kent Overstreet led a combined storage and filesystem session on using Rust for Linux filesystems.

I like how this was written. It’s basically meeting notes from the session.

The Rust developers will have to be the ones to absorb the pain of keeping up with changes to the filesystem. As a developer using a newer technology I wouldn’t expect anything less.

I’m looking forward to the day we see Swift showing up in filesystem components on the Mac. There is an effort underway to rewrite Foundation in Swift. That’s a great start.

Wes Davis • The Verge

Apple has approved UTM SE, an app for emulating a computer to run classic software and games, weeks after the company rejected it and barred it from being notarized for third-party app stores in the European Union. The app is now available for free for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.

I’d imagine European Regulators made this happen. Apple doesn’t need them crawling any further up their butts. They’re already in enough trouble.

Brett Berk • The Drive

This is the golden age of full-size pickup trucks. Because the market demands it, and because the market is enormous and extremely profitable, the latest breed of pickup trucks is comfortable, commodious, potent, and dare I say luxurious. The Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500 are, respectively, the top-selling vehicles in America. And with their Brobdingnagian scale, appliqué steer horns, remotely erecting towing hitches, and power-opening tailgates that drop like the rear flap on a cowpoke’s union suit, pickup trucks may be the greatest examples of overcompensation ever invented.

This is a piece from 2019 but it still holds up today. Trucks are definitely no longer the multipurpose towing and hauling vehicles they used to be. When I got one with power windows and AC I thought it was pretty luxurious, but modern pickups are like luxury automobiles.

I’d bet real farmers and workmen using trucks as trucks don’t buy the luxury models. 😁 I’ve seen the inside of real work trucks. They smell of dirt and oil and usually have mud all over the floorboards. Not to mention barebones interiors.

My grandfather was a mobile mechanic for his entire life. His trucks had flat beds with large generators, a boom, and tool chests and various tool compartments. When his motor or transmission wore out, no problem, he pulled them and replaced them, himself.

I’m sure those folks still exist today but luxury trucks weren’t made for them. 😃

[shautopartsblog]

The Automakers asked NHTSA to Reconsider The Automatic Emergency Braking Rule

Source: Gasgoo

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly every other automaker including GM, Toyota and Volkswagen, is asking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reconsider rules issued in April that would require the U.S. government to take action by 2029. Almost all new passenger cars and trucks must be equipped with advanced Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation said rules issued in April requiring all passenger cars and trucks to be able to stop and avoid hitting the vehicle in front at speeds of up to 62 miles per hour were “virtually impossible with current technology.”

Congress directed NHTSA in the 2021 Infrastructure Act to develop a rule setting minimum performance standards for AEB systems, which use sensors such as cameras and radar to detect when a vehicle is about to collide and then automatically apply the brakes if the driver fails to do so.

Image source: Toyota

NHTSA’s strict requirements for high speeds can cause vehicles to “apply automatic braking far earlier than the average driver and others on the road would expect,” leading to rear-end crashes. The group also felt that NHTSA “significantly underestimated the necessary and costly hardware and software changes required for vehicles to meet this requirement.”

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a letter to Congress, “NHTSA’s action will require automakers to adopt more costly systems that do not improve driver or pedestrian safety.” He also added that NHTSA rejected automakers’ concerns and that the regulation “shows that the deliberative rulemaking process at the nation’s top traffic safety watchdog has broken down.”

The rule is one of the most far-reaching U.S. auto safety regulations in recent years. Safety advocates say existing AEB systems don’t perform well, especially at night. They argue that regulators need to create new rules to ensure that more crashes are avoided.

NHTSA was not immediately available for comment, but the agency said in April that the rule would save at least 360 lives and prevent at least 24,000 injuries each year due to a spike in traffic fatalities following the outbreak.

[spidersgaeul]

Doctor’s note 18

Alright, training has begun.

Current stats:

1 mile- 8:22

Bench- 70 lbs

Box Jump- 16 inches

We’re measuring these three stats because we think they’ll best represent how he grows and develops his muscles. For a kid who’s been on his own two feet for less than a week, he’s already not bad. Already knew how to walk and run of course, apparently muscle memory stays when you get new muscles. Someone should write that down.

All his cybernetics are off still, not risking there. But we did explain wha he has, and what the do. He said he noticed that he couldn’t do everything, which means two things- first, we need to make sure we don’t ever have them active while the control software is on, else it could cause someone to panic because it would feel like a part of you is missing or disabled. Second, the control matrix works as good as we could hope for, and his mind considers tech a part of him and not an outside entity. Which s good given that it’s under his skin.

I’ll be back soon with more numbers, plus a report about what happens when we turn the cybernetics on.

Sometimes I feel bad about taking the brain of a 15 year old kid and building an entire body out of it, especially one which is a weapon of war. But then again- firstly, he’d be dead elsewise. And second? He can leave if he wants. I mean, we’re clearly on orders not to let him leave. But he can run faster than anyone in the base already, can probably tear apart metal doors with his bare hands, and has bladed weapons in his arms powerful enough to cut through over a foot of solid cement. Who’s going to stop him?

[sunaleisocial]

NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke - NASA Science

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/nasa-wildfire-digital-twin-pioneers-new-ai-models-and-streaming-data-techniques-for-forecasting-fire-and-smoke-nasa-science/

NASA “Wildfire Digital Twin” Pioneers New AI Models and Streaming Data Techniques for Forecasting Fire and Smoke - NASA Science

5 min read

NASA’s “Wildfire Digital Twin” project will equip firefighters and wildfire managers with a superior tool for monitoring wildfires and predicting harmful air pollution events and help researchers observe global wildfire trends more precisely.

Whereas current global models describing the spread of wildfires and smoke have a spatial resolution of about 10 kilometers per pixel, the Wildfire Digital Twin would produce regional ensemble models with a spatial resolution of 10-to-30 meters per pixel, an improvement of two orders of magnitude.

These models could be generated in a span of mere minutes. By comparison, current global models can take hours to produce.

Models with such high spatial resolution produced at this speed would be immensely valuable to first-responders and wildfire managers trying to observe and contain dynamic burns.

Milton Halem, a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, leads the Wildfire Digital Twin project, which includes a team of more than 20 researchers from six universities.

“We want to be able to provide firefighters with useful, timely information,” said Halem, adding that in the field, “there is generally no internet, and no access to big supercomputers, but with our API version of the model, they could run the digital twin not just on a laptop, but even a tablet,” he said.

NASA’s FireSense project is focused on leveraging the agency’s unique Earth science and technological capabilities to achieve improved wildfire management across the United States.

Earth System Digital Twins are dynamic software tools for modeling and forecasting climate events in real time. These tools rely on data sources distributed across multiple domains to create ensemble predictions describing everything from floods to severe weather.

In addition to assisting first responders, an Earth System Digital Twin dedicated to modeling wildfires would also be valuable to scientists monitoring wildfire trends globally. In particular, Halem hopes Wildfire Digital Twins will improve our ability to study wildfires across global boreal forests of cold-hardy conifers, which sequester vast amounts of carbon.

“The reason CO2 emissions from Boreal wildfires are taking place at an increasing yearly rate is because global warming is rising faster at high latitudes than the rest of the planet, and as a result, boreal summers there are becoming longer,” said Halem. “Whereas the rest of the planet may have warmed one degree Celsius since the pre-industrial revolution, this region has warmed well over two degrees.”

Halem’s work builds on other wildfire models, particularly the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NUWRF) model, developed by NASA, and WRF-SFIRE, developed by a team of researchers with support from the National Science Foundation. These models simulate phenomena like wind speed and cloud cover, which makes them the perfect foundation for a Wildfire Digital Twin.

Specifically, Halem’s team is working on new satellite data assimilation techniques that will blend information from space-based remote sensors into their Wildfire Digital Twin, enabling improved global data forecasts that will be useful for emergencies and science missions alike.

In October, Halem’s team participated in the first FireSense field campaign in collaboration with the National Forest Service’s Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) to observe smoke as it traveled more than 10 miles during a controlled burn in Utah, using a ceilometer. Now the team is feeding that data into their modeling software to help it track plumes more accurately.

They’re especially interested in tracking particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which are small enough to pass through a person’s lungs and enter the bloodstream. These particles, also known as PM 2.5, can cause serious health issues even if a person is nowhere near an active burn.

“When these fires ignite and start to burn, they produce smoke, and this smoke travels considerable distances. It affects people not only locally, but also at distances of thousands of kilometers or more,” said Halem.

Data from the controlled burn will also help Halem and his team quantify the relationship between aerosols and precipitation. Increased aerosols from wildfires have a huge impact on cloud formation, which in turn impacts how precipitation occurs downstream of an affected fire burn.

Assimilating all this information as it streams from sensors in real time is essential for detailing the full impact of wildfires at local, regional, and global scales.

PROJECT LEAD

Milton Halem, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

NASA’s FireSense Technology Program, a part of the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), funds this project.