#which is why it was MERanda

[eating-you-alive-cutely]

oc rant moment feel free to ignore

I love when people spell Meranda’s name with an “i”

like if they spell it correctly they will lowkey convey to me that I’m a dumbass and need to change it

it’s not changing- 10 year old soop chose it and 19 year old soop is keeping it

I just like how much softer it looks with an e-

the i looks like a cactus sword that’s ready to jab me in the spleen

anyway have a glow up thing

2017-2022

(this wasn’t her original design but it was the earliest drawing I could find)

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Because tattoos aren't something my mother has ever been interested in, she finds it incredibly weird that I love them so much.

Which leads to an absolutely hilarious situation when I send a photo of a tattoo that isn't JUST a tattoo but one she actively doesn't like. Because she just go SILENT.

It's so fucking funny.

Like, Dad's texting back, "LOL LOVE IT" or hearts or smiling emojis.

Mom's just sitting there doing...something. But definitely not responding to the photo.

Cannot WAIT to see her in person soon because she will do the "Why did you get that?" sounding exasperated but also like she's expecting me to sympathize with her, and I will say "Because it's fantastic!" And she will then try to ask me a second time to justify my choice of my body art on my body to her, and I'll reply, "Because I like it. It's cool if you don't like it."

And that will turn into "Oh, I don't NOT like it!" because she cannot take anything that feels like criticism.

(by the way, the scab is coming off Meranda, and y'all, she is SO BRIGHT.)

[sovengardeswag]

The Dogtrot Murder And Why You Should Read it (contains spoilers)

Like many people, I don’t read as much as I would like. I’ll set aside time to read during the day, but it’s limited, which is why it took me several months to read "The Dogtrot Murder" by Nick Sanders.

At a little over 400 pages, this urban fantasy is what I would call average in length, if not a touch shorter due to the illustrations by the author. They're lovely black and white pieces, traditionally drawn in a cartoony style, filling the book with just an extra bit of life and helping the reader get a sense for the scenes and characters.

The story is about an apprentice mechanic with a drinking problem named Maurice Hutch who finds himself turned into a vampire by a roving pack and must become accustomed to his new life as a creature of the night, all while dealing with life in the 2000s, personal problems with his coworker, and a mysterious serial killer who may or may not be supernatural in origin.

For full disclosure, I need to say that Nick Sanders is a friend of mine. I was familiar with the main character for about two years before the novel’s debut. However, I can tell you with confidence that The Dogtrot Murder is a book that I highly recommend.

The first point in this book’s favor is the strong narrative voice. As shown on page 12, line 15, “For a moment, their lips met under the buzzing yellow backlot light. Jessica ran her hand down Maurice’s side. He could feel her laugh against his lips. Maurice felt like he was dreaming. Maybe things were turning around. Jessica ran her hand from his side down along one leg of his breeches and dipped into his toolbox.

With a single graceful sweep of her arm, Jessica brought a heavy pair of pliers against the side of Maurice’s skull.” The narrator really conveys how sudden this violence is, going from Maurice’s perspective to Jessica’s almost seamlessly. It feels like something a friend is telling us. The narrator also shows a bit of personality while being matter-of-fact, as seen on page 124, line 35. In a section of the book where the omniscient point of view lets the audience know what some cows feel about being fed on. “However, all Maurice heard was “Moooo.” because he didn’t speak cow.”

What really impressed me however was how the narration was able to convey “mundane” despair in a way that doesn’t feel necessarily like tonal whiplash. This is seen on page 361, where the character Meranda, Maurice’s co-worker at the gas station he apprentices at, learns of her father’s death. For context, Meranda spends the book becoming increasingly more irritated and volatile due to her father’s terminal illness and this is the culmination of that stress. Maurice and the audience were unaware of this. “Then, everything he’d known or thought he knew about the stony Meranda fell away as she sank to the floor and collapsed into herself. She had started to bring her hands up to her face but stopped halfway and let them dangle uselessly, fingers curled, as powerful sons shook her tiny frame. She coughed and squeaked and tried to choke back the awful sounds coming out of her.

She knew it was stupid and that she was stupid for pretending nothing was happening for so long. And now nothing really was happening because it was over. Meranda wailed.”

The characters are also a highlight of the book. The first thing you’ll notice is that several characters have uniquely spelled names, such as Meranda and Margret (Maurice’s mother). While some may find this distracting, it’s my opinion that these names add a sense of authenticity to the characters as unique spellings are, ironically, not too uncommon throughout the South. But I would be remiss to imply that names are the only reason these characters feel real.  The third-person omniscient perspective allows us to get into each character’s head when needed, such as in the previous passage I quoted. Each one is vibrant and full of life, especially the undead ones. Even in the case of one background character whose personality can be succinctly described as “an asshole,” you feel like you’ve had the displeasure to meet someone like him before.

However, I need you to take the A Night in The Woods comparison seriously. The Dogtrot Murder does have a larger overarching threat and conflict, mind, but it is much more about Maurice adjusting to his new life as a vampire than it is about the identity of the serial killer. Much like how A Night in The Woods’ gameplay is more focused on Bea’s interactions with her friends and family than it is on her dreams. If you like slice-of-life and coming-of-age type stories, however, I highly encourage you to order the book on Nick Sanders’ website here.

[siegelst]

still thinking about Karl, - how he was never the bad guy, but victim of experiments gone wrong & could see through the brainwashing of mother meranda, & just wanted out. he’s only one that didn’t actively wanted to harm Ethan, he says to Ethan ‘hey we could team up.’ and when Ethan said no, Karl is all ‘that's okay, stay out of my way’.  which Ethan did not do. why couldn’t they go separate ways & team up at the end of the game? the possibilities yo...

[upshotre]

Pregnancy: Fans slam Davido over handcuffed women

Supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari on social media came hard on popular musician, David Adeleke aka Davido, for handcuffing and parading two women who had jokingly accused him of impregnating one of them. Davido’s hype man, known as Special Spesh, had posted a video on Instagram showing the two women, Helen and Susan, handcuffed and sitting on a chair in a living room. Spesh could be heard telling one of the ladies to lift up her head or get a slap in the face. Davido also shared the video, defending the action of his sidekick. However, some of Buhari’s supporters on social media reminded Davido how he attacked the President during the Osun governorship election but was never touched. They accused the musician of being a hypocrite and abuse of power. Popular Buhari supporter, Kayode Ogundamisi, said on Twitter that Davido would have abused power if his uncle had emerged as the governor of Osun State He tweeted, “Imagine Davido as first Cousin in Osun State with his uncle Isiaka Adeleke as Governor and Buhari is meant to be the tyrant o!” Another Buhari supporter, Jack Obinyan, said Davido should have left the women alone after they apologised for the prank. He tweeted, “After the public apology, why will the girls be handcuffed and dehumanised in that manner?  Davido is crap! Who arrested him for all the nonsense he said during the Osun elections? I dislike this guy now.” Ayo Oyalowo, popular Buharist, said it was laughable that Davido could call the President a tyrant and then act in such a manner. Oyalowo tweeted, “How come a simple civil case turned into handcuffs, harassment and videoing them? If this one’s brother had become governor, I can’t imagine how he would treat anyone who as much as refused to ‘dobale’ for him… meanwhile these same folks defame PYO daily here. “This same Davido has been calling the President a tyrant ooo, imagine his brother was governor, just imagine it for a minute “They (the women) defamed him, true, but it is a civil case, not a criminal offence

Ambode: Court summons Obasa, others over probe

The battle between the Lagos State House of Assembly and former Governor Akinwumi Ambode has shifted the court. Instead of Wednesday’s drilling session on the floor of the House, both parties will appear before Justice Y.Y. Adesanya. Mr. Ambode has sued Speaker Mudashiru Obasa and members of the panel raised by the House to probe some of his activities in office. Accused of mismanaging resources and failure to get legislative approval for some of his projects, the lawmakers summoned the former governor to appear the House panel today. Ambode told an Ikeja Court on Tuesday that the 820 buses procured by his administration got budgetary approval from the House of Assembly. He said the purchase was captured in the state’s 2018 Appropriation Law as a Capital Expenditure under the heading ‘LAGBUS Public Transport Infrastructure (MEPB); Part financing of 820 buses’. According to him, it was unconstitutional for the House to attach another condition in Section 9 of the Law for further approval to be sought before incurring any expenditure on the purchase of the buses. Ambode made the claims in a motion ex-parte moved by his counsel, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN). He prayed the court to, among others, halt the planned probe of the buses procurement by the lawmakers. Granting his prayers, Justice Adesanya summoned the Speaker, House Clerk, Mr. A.A Sanni; Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee set up by the House to probe the procurement, Fatai Mojeed and members of the Committee. The others to appear are: Gbolahan Yishawu, A.A Yusuff, Yinka Ogundimu, Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, M.L Makinde, Kehinde Joseph, T.A Adewale and O.S Afinni. They are to appear before the Judge today. Justice Adesanya also ordered the originating processes and all the accompanying processes filed by the claimant (Ambode) to be served on the defendants and subsequently fixed today for hearing of the motion for interlocutory injunction. In his suit, the former governor is contesting the constitutionality of the probe. According to him, the buses were procured based on budgetary approval as part of the Bus Reform Project of the state government designed to revolutionise public transportation in line with global best practices. He alleged that some of the lawmakers breached his “constitutional rights to fair hearing” on August 27, 2019, when, during proceedings of the Assembly, they criticised and accused him of purchasing the buses without budgetary approval and that the procurement was a waste of public funds. According to him, the lawmakers who raised the accusations also constituted themselves as the probe panel. He denied allegations made on October 10 that the House extended an invitation to him to appear before the Committee but that he failed to honour it. The former governor also averred that no former Commissioner who served in his government indicted him when they appeared before the House on October 15, 2019. Ambode also claimed that the “entire members of the House” had already adjudged him as having committed wastage of public fund by the procurement of the buses. He is seeking several reliefs including a declaration that “sections 8 and 9 of the Appropriation Law of Lagos State 2018 which required the approval of the House of Assembly of Lagos State before certain expenditure of money is incurred by the Executive Branch of the State is … unconstitutional.” Ambode is also seeking a declaration that the lawmakers have no power to indict him. In a publicized invite entitled: “Notice of summons: Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (the former Governor of Lagos State), is signed by the Clerk of the House, Mr. A. A.  Sanni, the Assembly reminded Ambode of the importance of appearing before the Committee to shed light on alleged infractions raised by the Assembly. The notice said: “The Lagos State House of Assembly, pursuant to Section 129 (1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) hereby summons His Excellency, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the former Governor of Lagos State (May, 2015 – May, 2019) to appear before the Committee of the House on Wednesday, 30th October, 2019 at the Lateef Jakande Auditorium, Assembly Complex, Alausa, Ikeja by 1.00 p.m.” He will be asked to clarify the following: Unauthorised discounting of Promissory Note; Purchase of 820 Buses by your administration without due authorisation; Misappropriation of Special Expenditure Funds; Improper implementation of the Appropriation Law; and Non-adherence to the Financial Regulations of the State. The notice urged the former governor to provide the Committee with documents to justify that the transactions did not violate constitutional provisions. It reads: “You are kindly requested to furnish the Committee with fifteen (15) copies each of all relevant document(s) relating to the issues raised through the Office of the Clerk of the House on or before Tuesday, 29th October, 2019. “It is pertinent to state that your presence at the proposed meeting would give you the opportunity to shed light on issues that are material to the investigation. Read the full article

[sndsandsnakes]

Alliance Trials

Alliance Trials should be completed daily. Do alliance trials even if you think your commanders are bad. Do alliance trials even if you don’t think you are good at strategy. All of the other alliance members would appreciate the help, and it will get you rewards. You may get more alliance coins for yourself, and more compasses and chests as rewards.

It is really easy to do alliance trials.

Click on the Alliance shield at the bottom of your screen. Then click the Alliance Trial section. Then select the commander on the screen that is in color with a number (e.g. 2-15). Click Battle. 

If you don’t have a lot of time today, you can click “quick formation” and then head into battle. Then you can click the arrow in the top right corner to skip the battle. If you have more commanders (which you should!), then you can click “quick formation” again, and repeat until you are out of commanders. This is the bare minimum that you should be doing to help your alliance.

If you have more time, then you can afford to be selective.

Let’s talk about positioning. “Tanks” like Chris, Russell, Robb, Gorell, and Haley go best in the front. Jeane and Tyrion will do fine in the front. “Glass cannons” are powerful attackers with low defense like Arslan, Merell, Arya, Sheila, and Soren. Your glass cannons should generally go in the back row. If you have good enough tank and/or “healer” (Jeane, Sansa, Margaery), you might be able to put a glass cannon in the front row and have them do even more damage than they would otherwise. You can generally put bowmen commanders (like Kravras or Robert) in the back, but Sansa can certainly go in the front in a pinch. Mix it up; don’t put all of the tanks that you have in one formation, leaving your powerful attackers with low defense vulnerable in a different formation. You may have invested more medals or levels into your commanders, so they might do better in unexpected positions.

It is a great idea to observe how often your commanders die or stunned in different formations against different kinds of opponents. If commanders die, then something should be tweaked. Make a note of which formations work, and which ones do the most damage. Additionally, you should see how many total points that you get from all of your formations during a given day. Perhaps you will discover that one excellent formation and two poor formations will give less points than three okay formations.

Some commanders are strong or weak against others. For example, if I am facing Jeane (a blue cavalry commander) in Alliance Trials, I know that Gorrell (a green spearman commander) will do very well against Jeane. Arya (a red infantry commander) will not do as well against Jeane. Soren (a brown bowmen commander) has no weaknesses against any other color types, but does not have any strengths either. If you are planning on coming online later in the day, then there is a chance that the alliance will defeat the current enemy. After Jeane might come Meranda (a green spearman commander), so those red infantry commanders like Arya and Chris will be great to have!

As shown above, sticking Arya in the center of the front row against Jeane might not go as well as other combinations. However, if she has a good support system, you might discover that she can do more damage somewhere in the front row. Feel free to try her out in this or other positions to see what happens so that you know what works best.

You generally should try to have at least four commanders facing your enemy. If you have a total of 16 commanders and they are all pretty good, then putting in six commanders, then four commanders, and another four commanders will likely be more successful than sending two commanders to face the enemy. Why? There is much less of a chance for your commanders to die. You are trying to maximize your points for the day, not have the best singular formation.

Ask for help if you have any more questions. (Thanks to Loewe for input on this guide)

[moonysmittenpadfoot-blog]

Hey there Meranda,

Today is your birthday! I know you don’t like your birthday, but I do. Here’s why:

Without your birthday I would’ve have never met you! You taught and given me so much! You’ve given me friendship and adventures for a lifetime, numerous road trips, and sleepovers. You’ve given my heart a place to call Home. Sure, we’ve fought but we always end up back at each other’s sides. First time, you could call a fluke. Second time, you could call a coincidence. Third time, unignorably (I don’t think that’s a word xD) something greater, something more.

I can’t wait to move in with you! Mom is 100% behind us and will get me there. I will too! I just hope our cats get along and hopefully there’ll be no fights as to which cat gets to occupy the laundry hamper. I can’t wait for you to show me the city like we have all the time in the world!

I’ve been watching more Say Yes to the Dress because of you. Every time it’s on I wonder what dress you would like most. Do you want a veil? Do you want a big wedding? Would you want me as your life partner? My urge to go wedding dress shopping grows. I try out last names in my head.

You’re my Moony. My Partner in Crime. I know the future is uncertain but one thing I’m sure of is my love for you. I’m happy you were born because you’re the best friend I could ask for! Here’s to your birthday and the many more adventures that lie ahead!

Yours always,

Padfoot

[afarid21]

Tara Meranda-Nelson Lecture Response

Tara Meranda-Nelson Lecture Write-Up

4/16/18

Tara Meranda-Nelson provides a very interesting aspect to her short movies because of her main medium, film. They provide a feeling of reminiscence for the viewers, with a certain aesthetic that brings back memories of childhood to the current youthful generation. Because they are displayed on film, the little imperfections provide a stark contrast to modern day digital filmmaking, and even the sounds that go along with the film rolling through the projected light to display the image bring a more ancestral feeling to the short productions.

Also, what she is displaying in the films are quite interesting to me. Some pieces were a little confusing, such as the piece that included bits of the newscast from the recent presidential debate mixing with scenes from someone exploring the outdoors and at a waterfall. Others however seemed quite beautiful, displaying what looked to be scenes from a childhood, which helps to transport the viewers back to their own youth. I am very fond and support any work that is able to transform emotions and cause memories to be reawakened. Overall, that is why I believe that Meranda-Nelson’s work is very powerful, and she should continue working and pushing her work further.

[symbianosgames]

Talos-1 runs on eels.

This large space station, setting to Arkane Studios’ recently released emergent sim Prey, deals with its residents’ effluent by sending it to large vats where it’s consumed by the things. When they’ve grown large enough, the eels are caught and butchered and their flesh is sent up to the station’s restaurant to be served back to the crew as sushi, setting up a self-sufficient cycle of energy. 

“The way the station is laid out and the way you go inside and out of it, we really tried to think through the things it would actually need,” says lead designer Ricardo Bare. And this particular detail, well, it was inspired by Bare’s experiences with having a septic tank installed for his house, which opened up to him a world of drainage and seepage, and how it’s all founded on a careful balance of biological organisms to break down his own household’s waste. 

“Of course, if you were a NASA expert you’d probably say that technically we didn’t have this and that in Talos-1, but we spent a lot of time on that level of detail,” Bare says. And the eels, as entertainingly gross as they are, are indeed emblematic of the thematic coherence of Prey’s world. This is a real place that makes sense. And it’s crewed by an equally coherent set of characters, most of whom are recently dead.

"You’re moving through the space station right after the wave of the alien terror, and it’s not even finished happening in some places."

To play Prey is to pick through their last moments, as well as their lives and relationships with your character, Morgan Yu. Throughout Talos-1 lies a tangled web of timelines that record the events of the alien attack that has laid it to waste. And overlaying them is the web of keycards, clues and items that lead you through its different divisions and areas, from HR to the power plant, the cargo bay to the crew’s quarters, as you seek escape, or the station’s destruction. 

“There were several junctures along the development of the game where we had to stop and get the timelines sorted, like, big time,” says Bare. “It’s not the kind of game where you come into the area months after the terrible thing has happened. It’s happening as you’re escaping, moments ago. You’re moving through the space station right after the wave of the alien terror, and it’s not even finished happening in some places.”

Talos-1 was destroyed with the same imaginative rigor with which it was put together. The level designers would sit with Bare and other members of the team to talk about exactly what happened when the aliens attacked, explaining precisely how that body ended up lying over there, and why that person hid over there. “We had level designers put timelines down for many of our spaces like that. Five minutes in, this guy did this; ten minutes in, this guy sounded an alarm; 15 minutes in, the security guard tried to set the turrets up.”

Consistency like this would be important for a game that can never know exactly when a player will come across things, and, indeed, whether they’ll ever notice or if they’ve made a choice that makes it irrelevant. For any conversation that a player can hear, Bare and his team had to work out what the player might have done before that point and how that might affect it, leading to many different permutations of situations in what seem like simple scenarios. 

Take, for example, the three characters who can potentially be in Morgan’s office during the game. The robot January is there from the start, and later Mikhaila Ilyushin and Dr. Igwe can travel to it. Either could be first to arrive, and you may have decided, for whatever reason, to destroy January. So when they call you to give you an update, they might announce that there’s a wrecked robot there and ask what happened. Or there might be an operational robot and Dr. Igwe already arrived. Every permutation needs to be considered and written for.

Though it was greatly inspired by System Shock, Prey is a lot more open, its quests defining pathways that criss-cross the station. The main storyline takes a methodical route that visits each area in turn, but various side quests make interesting additional connections between locations, injecting them with storylines and character relationships. 

"We deliberately went for a strategy of allowing the player a lot of leeway and freedom in when they consume story bits."

To encourage these quest lines, each level designer was tasked with coming up with side quest that began in their level and ended in someone else’s. “One designer, Steve Powers, who’s been around since the Ultima days at Origin, came up with two characters from different departments who are stealing company secrets and selling them to competitors,” Bare says. “In order to do that, they’ve made a number of dead drops where one can make requests of things and the other hides them so they can be smuggled off the ship, and you can pick up on this and steal all the loot out of all the dead drops yourself.”

But Arkane never knows how a player will approach any given quest, when during their playthrough they’ll receive it, or when they start engaging with it. “You can have radically different experiences based on when you decide to go find the smugglers’ dead drop, and you can be anywhere on the space station when you take it on, and it might feel like you had to travel across the whole station, or you might be standing right on it,” says Bare.

And even then, the quest will feel different depending on the player’s general attitude. A completionist might view it as yet another fetch quest to be overcome before they can tick it off their list, but another player might find it an opportunity to revisit areas, encounter new monsters and discover they can get into areas they didn’t realize before. Some players might feel overwhelmed by learning about new characters and others might disregard it and feel there’s barely any story in the game. 

"You just have to start accounting for all those crazy out of order, sequence-breaking things the player might do and make it still work."

But as much as Bare says he has no idea whether he and his team did a good job of managing the pacing of it all, it was all part of the plan. “We deliberately went for a strategy of allowing the player a lot of leeway and freedom in when they consume story bits,” he says.

And Arkane went a long way with this strategy. Some major elements of Prey’s overarching theme and storyline are seeded across Talos-1 in such a way that many players might never come across them or fully understand their meaning. But the sense of discovering these secrets for yourself and realizing that Prey’s narrative timelines are even more tangled than you thought is one of the game’s biggest delights. 

One of the most impactful is in the Who Is December? side quest, which explains Morgan Yu’s true background. By the time it begins, we know that Neuromod experiments have been performed on her (or him, depending on which Morgan you chose at the start of the game) in the hopes of learning more about how they give humans new abilities. And we know that removing a Neuromod will wipe a person’s memory back to when it was installed, and that in the past she made an AI called January that’s fitted with her memories and personality in order to help guide her in the future.

But then December appears. Here’s what we discover during the quest (beware, spoilers follow in this and the next paragraph): December is another AI, built by Morgan before she built January. While January is guiding you to destroy the space station in order to prevent any chance of the aliens invading Earth, December wants you to simply escape. And since they’re both imprints of Morgan’s own personality, they’re illustrations of the way it’s been drifting between Neuromod experiments, at one time towards selfish behavior and at another towards sacrifice.

The quest leads you to several locations where clues to this history are hidden. In Morgan’s living quarters, there’s a computer where she’s been noting her relationships with other crew members in an effort to remember them between experiments. There are unfinished robot chassis in her office and room that show that she’s potentially made several AIs. In her brother Alex’s room there’s a safe with a series of recordings of her, and in the station counselor’s room there’s another recording in which you hear an evaluation of Morgan’s fractured psychological state.

Initially, this revelation was going to be made through a single audio log. “But then, as we started to play the game, we realized we weren’t driving home this theme hard enough; it wasn’t present enough,” says Bare. “Raf [Colantonio, Arkane president] was like, ‘Hey we should take that December idea, not just an audio log and a broken robot. Let’s put December in the game. You think you understand it’s just January and Alex, and then December calls you and you’re like, what?!’”

The details grew organically over the game’s development. Level designer Albert Meranda realized that Morgan’s office could be the location of the key to her quarters, and thought there could be a bag with supplies in to to suggest that she was preparing to escape. “You have to set aside the fact the player can do this at any moment, and instead just – at least the way I work – sort of flow-chart out the ideal path,” says Bare. “If I wasn’t distracted by anything and I had access to everything and I was following the clues, what are the five steps I would follow?”

Then from that skeleton they wrote the dialogue and set the objectives so they could follow it from start to end. “Now we go back to the beginning and throw in the permutations. What if January’s dead? What if I shoot December as soon as I meet it? What if I skip meeting December and instead discover the safe behind Alex’s Looking Glass first? And then you just have to start accounting for all those crazy out of order, sequence-breaking things the player might do and make it still work.”

Prey embraces the principles of the emergent sim, putting player choice above everything. But while that comes with the risk of players missing or forgetting key points, Prey’s world is built with the kind of consistency that allows you to trust in it, to relax, and know that if you want them, the answers are sure to be found in the details.

[goats-and-coffee]

5.2 #Bele

Wow okay so I wrote this big, long email last night but couldn't go out to send it and now it disappeared right before my eyes. So that sucks. Both for me and you because there is no way I will be able to remember everything that I was going to tell you. Anyway...

Botarde ita boot hotu, Swearing in the other day was great. Except for the part where I was having stomach issues because of course someone has to. I think at least a quarter of us if not half had been having stomach issues the past few days. And now I'm fine. But the bug bites here are still killing me and even more so in Manatuto than Dare. Also I have never sweat this much in my life. But I got this. I can do this/hau bele halo nee.

I'm so glad that the church is closer here than in Dare because the sun is too strong for that walk. I'm so used to walking though that folks usually are wondering why I am walking to the market when I could sa'e ojek (ride in a cart). I'm like it's a ten minute walk only and I don't need to pay 50 cents for a ride. That's more expensive than a mikrolet going around Dili. Living in the city, I do see more wealth than in Dare. A good number of houses around here are painted and have tile floors. The doctor and seamstress two houses down have a nice garden with a star fruit tree and grass, and an interior that's painted like the Venetian. It's a bit strange  to me the contrast between Dili and here, where Dili still appears to be struggling to rebuild and rejuvenate and develop and here, more homes seem more well off and the structures that are rundown are still from way back in the conflict and long abandoned. The villa center, near the beach, looks frozen from the time of the conflict. I'll take some pictures because I can't really explain it. I have to wonder how this contributes to the stereotype that people in Dare always tell me about Manatuto. They say two things always, that it's manas para mate (really really hot) and that the people are  canteen (stingy/don't share). I don't know, folks have been perfectly generous so far. Anyway.

Speaking of pictures:  I have some for you! Not too many because I prefer to live in the moment, but I'll get better at taking them more often. Some other volunteers say they're going to organize their photos from pre service training to share by Reconnect, our training in three months.

My family gave me tais on top during our goodbye festa and our family next door iha uma leten gave me one too as I left our community. It was a really hard goodbye because of all they had shared, all we learned and all the love our community had for us and vis versa. They shared everything with us: water, food, shelter, language, culture, love, family, everything essential for life. And we felt like an integral part of the family. I was invited to my brother's graduation last weekend. Amy's family said her room and plate and cup is saved for her until she returns to America. Kayla's family always brought us all snack (meranda) during class or even if we were sitting sitting outside long enough. Kultura Timor mak hanesan nee (is like this), people will give you a golden spoon and eat with a broken one.

So now what am I doing? Still not sure. Trying to get the lay of the land when I can't walk alone and the kids don't quite yet want to walk me around. My job for PC as a community economic development volunteer has the three pronged framework of strengthening business skills and financial management for income generating activities (like driving the ojek or running a kiosk), and education on WASH and Nutrition. Some quick notes about WASH here that I've noticed is the PSA by BESIK (an NGO) Uma Kompleta ho Sentena campaign; a good number of folks around here drink bottled water and buy like the water cooler jugs; if not, many folks also boil water; the proper language is bee tasak, which means ripe water essentially over drinking or clean for obvious implications. I feel like I can do some work around nutrition until I get the lay of the land. Anyway there's more to tell you but my mail app keeps crashing from all these photos taking up memory in this email and I forgot. I'll be more diligent in my journaling and maybe next week I'll send a bonus email but no promises.

Happy holidays, ksolok Natal, Mana Jazmine

[itsworn]

Car craft automotive news and readers rides

From the Field to the Tavern

Who: C. L. “Buckshot” Cake Where: Madera Ranchos, CA What: 1967 Dodge Dart Why: Buckshot somehow found this nearly perfect Dart sitting in a field. It was low mileage and had avoided the ravages of rust during its long slumber. Buckshot plucked the stock 273 V8 and is in the process of dropping in a 440 snatched from a motorhome and rebuilt by Dave’s Performance in Fresno, CA. A 727 TorqueFlite will back the tunnel-rammed RB and a Ford 8.8-inch rear sits out back. Other upgrades include disc brakes, subframe connectors, and an aluminum radiator. He builds custom Harleys on the side, so he included a picture of Buckshot’s Tavern, where he works on the bikes.

V8Z

Who: Dan MacKean Where: Tucson, AZ What: 1971 Datsun 240Z Why: Dan writes, “As a long time reader and subscriber, I was pleased to see that you are considering import cars with V8 engines. The feeling of a V8 in a 2,300-pound car is hard to beat, and the engineering obstacles should keep the average reader interested.” He included pictures of his Datsun, which runs a stroker LS6 and T56 combination. It runs on E85 and makes 530 hp at the wheels, and Dan added that though it’s street legal, he mostly drives it at open track events.

V8 Vega

Who: Mark Knepprath Where: Kewaskum, WI What: 1972 Chevrolet Vega Why: Mark sent this picture of his son, Skyler, standing with his Vega. They dropped a 1968 327 with fuelie heads in place of the anemic four-cylinder engines that came in these things. Random trivia: The Vega was part of GM’s H-body platform, along with the Monza, Buick Skyhawk, and Oldsmobile Starfire.

Letters

Pro Mod Problem I think the Pro Mod takeover article in the Feb. 2017 issue was really interesting. It looks like there are two sides to this: either Pro Mods should be allowed to compete in races like this, or they should not be allowed to enter. But I think there is a third side: let Pro Mods compete in no-prep races, but give them their own class. I say this because I think it’s cool to see Pro Mods run on the streets, but at the same time I want to see small-tire cars winning races. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. —Noah Kreutzwieser, Saskatoon, Canada

G-Body Love

The Mar. 2017 issue with the two Cutlasses on the cover was a great issue. My 1981 Cutlass Calais was a T-Top with a stock aluminum hood and FE3 suspension—it was good handler, but that punky 260 [wasn’t good]. Two sets of rockers in 50,000 miles demanded an engine swap; I went bigger, of course, to a 350 from a ’71. Our engine rebuild used an aggressive Crower cam, Hedman headers, cleaned-up ports, and a three-angle valve job. The four-barrel carburetor from an 1980 Olds 350 had the right choke for the ’81 controls, and the only welding required was the bung for the oxygen sensor. Everything else was bolt up or simple. It wasn’t exactly a drag car, but it was strong on the street. Four years of my son’s college commute wore it out, but the body/chassis was still pristine in spite of New England winters. Credit goes to the galvanized lower body panels. My little brother had a tire-smoking 1976 442 with the body rusting off the clapped-out suspension. The next project was obvious, but life got in the way, and both cars went to auction. Maybe someone got both and built what I would have bought in the first place: a 455 G-body. —Dave Rogers, via email

Burnout!!

“Christmas day was perfect here, so I took Meranda (a 1972 Mustang Cobra) out and did a burnout for you guys. She has a modified 302, automatic transmission, and 3.25:1 gears with limited slip. It was built to cruise and go!” —Mike DiLonardo, Riviera Beach, MD

Blown-Up Parts

“This happened after 16 years of beating on the forged crankshaft in the 401 in my AMX. A couple years ago, I sent a picture of the ring-and-pinion I also grenaded. My ZIP code is 80401—go figure.” —Jeff Sackley, Golden, CO

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