#1000 days since the channel ended

[doublelsatan]

It's been 1,000 days since Unus Annus ended. I miss them but their memory will live on forever.

I wanted to make something more light hearted to celebrate the occasion. Because yes it is sad that they're gone but they'd want us to smile instead. A better way to enjoy life.

Plus, I wanted to have a different take on how'd they look after being gone for so long. The suits are out, they're going merch casual!(I didn't draw the crew neck wrong, I just reversed the colors. It's dope!) I didn't want to draw suits that's my excuse lol.

Anyways, a salute to the time boys of grayscale colors. Unus Annus, Memento Mori.

[ONE MORE THING! The images have a weird texture, it's okay! I glazed them to protect them. Just wanted to say :D]

[pearwaldorf]

I hate that you can't see a tweet thread anymore if you're not logged into Twitter (as a gesture of disrespect I refuse to call it by its rebranded name). Here is a copypasta of a thread from Dan Olson, a Canadian documentary filmmaker, expanding upon camera quality, the guilt trips Somerton used to goose his Patreon subscriptions, and how the best tools will never make up for lack of dedication or patience. I have added clarifications in [[double brackets]] where I feel it is necessary.

START OF THREAD

Okay, so, back in April I snapped at James in reply to a tweet that was linking to this video (which James has since delisted but not deleted) and I want to talk about the full context of that but I don't want to make a video, put your beatdown memes away. [[The video has since been deleted. I can see the title of the video is "Maybe the end (not an April Fool's Day thing".]]

The first bit of context is that I initially got keyed into James to fact-check his claims about indie filmmaking in Canada. As a filmmaker the entire Telos venture was immediately obvious as a juvenile fantasy dreamed up by someone with no idea how to make a movie.

Just wild claims about their plans that weren't worth debunking because they bordered Not Even Wrong. But in watching one of these pitch videos I noticed that he had a $4000 current-gen camera in the background as a prop, and that seemed both pretentious and weird.

You don't use your best camera as a prop, you use your second best camera as a prop. So being an obsessive weirdo I needed to know, and I watched his BTS stuff until I spotted his main rig, a $6000 camera with about $1000 in accessories.

Now, these in isolation are unremarkable because his Patreon at the time was bringing in ~$8000 per month, his channel was a full on Business business, and so investing in some professional equipment of that level is maybe a bit indulgent but justifiable.

What was weird is that he doesn't shoot multi-cam, doesn't shoot outdoors, doesn't shoot on location, and in a studio the two cameras kinda really step on each others' toes. Basically if you already have one and don't need a B cam there's no reason to get the other.

Again, on its own, this says nothing, it's just indicative of poor financial decisions, maybe impulsive purchasing, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Biblical sins, but not crimes.

Paired with the constantly inflating fantasy scope of the Telos films it was clearly an expression of a very, very common bad filmmaker habit of "if I just get the right gear then my movie will basically make itself" Buying stuff because it feels like progress.

At the end of February he tweets "I want to start shooting anamorphic" and then three weeks later in March he posts the worst, out of focus, under-exposed "I just got a new lens!" video I've ever seen, showing off his trash-covered bedroom.

Based on what's available for his cameras and the lead time, that's enough time to get a Laowa Nanomorph or Sirui Saturn from B&H but not enough time to get a Great Joy from the UK or a Vazen from China. And with the flaring blah blah blah, $1300 lens.

Again, [gear acquisition syndrome] is not a crime and these lenses are budget options. Bit of a pointless impulse purchase since he only used it for the Showgirls video. But this is what he was doing just a few weeks before that above video came out: effortlessly impulse purchasing lenses.

James has (had?) a habit of regularly, aggressively driving viewers to Patreon by claiming that videos were getting demonetized. While tacky, it is something a lot of queer YouTubers have dealt with, so there's precedent there. But people were noticing he did it a lot.

Mid-March he humble brags about needing to work so hard to make 6 videos in April because he has over-booked sponsorships.

Then March 29th James posts this whole incel screed on Twitter about how sex work should be "subsidized as a mental health service."

[two image descriptions.

1. "For the majority of people sex (and human contact) can be imperative to a healthy state of mind. A kind and talented sex worker can make someone feel wanted for the first time in their life. I know sex workers who have pulled people back from suicide just by being there for them." 2. "Not only should (sex work) be legal, but it should be subsidized as a mental health service."]

He spends several days getting absolutely *roasted* for this, just dragged across the pavement and read for filth, and doubles down in the replies the whole way.

So this is the context immediately surrounding James waking up on Friday, and posts the above video and the below tweet.

[image description: "We just got the lowest Patreon payout we've gotten in well over a year. Like, a "maybe we need to rethink things" kind of amount... NOT an April Fools Day thing btw. But I don't know if we'll be making videos much longer."]

Now, this unfolds in kinda two directions. The first is that I'm convinced he was just lying about this income shock in the first place.

There's a million theoretical edge cases about what maybe happened and if maybe he just misunderstood the data or saw a glitch and panicked, maybe one of those happened, I don't believe it, I think he just lied because he was salty about getting dragged and felt owed a win.

A big tell to me is that he doesn't blame Patreon. He says he doesn't know what happened, but let's be real, Patreon screws up all the time, they're the first people anyone blames if anything confusing happens, just as a reflex action, even if it's completely not their fault.

The only reason to not blame Patreon is if you already know that it's not their fault and that any investigation on their part might reveal embarrassing details.

Instead he indirectly blames his viewers for not watching enough, not sharing enough, and not turning on auto-renew.

So regardless of the unknowable truth, this segues into the second, far more offensive direction of the messaging itself. "I don't know if we'll be making videos much longer." "Maybe the end" He explicitly framed this as an immediate existential threat to his channel.

In the video he is vague about everything, leaves a ton of hazy room for plausible deniability on how long the channel can keep going, but the messaging is "I need more patrons right this minute or my YouTube channel is over."

He repeatedly evokes all the "fun stuff" they had planned that would never see the light of day if this didn't turn around right away.

And his audience received this message loud and clear. Tons of people making far, far, far less than him left very heartfelt messages about digging a little deeper to subscribe or up their pledge or unsubscribe from other channels to move their pledge to his.

1200 new patrons in one day.

Since I simply don't believe the income shock was real in the first place that would put his post-"Maybe the end" Patreon income at around $10,000 per month. US. Add YouTube income, he's spent the last seven months making around $18,000 per month.

I have seen creators scale back their capabilities to the bone purely to keep making videos for the love of just, like, making stuff even as their funding evaporated and they needed to go back to a desk job to cover their bills.

You'd have to be so outstandingly reckless with your finances as a channel that a one month spook leads immediately to "channel over, sorry about all the fun stuff we won't get to do with you, our patrons, specifically because you, our patrons, aren't giving us enough money"

And not a spook where you then spend a couple weeks crunching numbers. Oh no. A shock so violent where less than two hours later you're weeping on camera about the channel being over.

Three weeks later he brought a brand new Sony FX6v for $8000 CAD to add to his pile of cinema cameras despite the fact that he was, but scant moments earlier, in such a precarious position that a single bad month would kill his channel.

He stole your money, and for that I'm profoundly sad and angry. That's why I snapped at him in April. I'm sorry I couldn't give you the full context then, and I'm sorry if that anger upset you.

END OF THREAD

[a-butterfly1]

==✦NINJAGO AU MASTERPOST✦==

This is an AU I've been working on, I will actually work on it on writting ( on AO3 ) instead of making a comic/manga because I tend to procastinate when it comes to drawing panels ( if you have been keeping up with other pojects of mine you would know this), hopefully I will keep this updated.

==❤���CHARACTER INFORMATION❤︎==

Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon

Age- 1000+ (immortal) Height: 5'8 (1,73m)

Lloyd has lived many years, of course, now he's immortal, he doesn't have much of a choice but to continue living on. He was many things throughout his life: a bratty child, a son, a master, a hero and now he's nothing more than a myth, while still a part of ninjago history many actually question if he ever really existed or not. He ostracized himself from society for a reason, after all,- it's painfull to make relationships when they are so short lived. He is considered a god by many, but he denies that being the case, maybe the embodiment of the balance between good and evil but he wont try to call himself anything more. Lloyd now lives with the spirits of his family with the occasional visits from Morro and Garmadon, his father.

==꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶꒦꒦︶︶꒷꒦==

Jay Walker

Age- 1000+ (spirit) Died at 115 Height: 5'10 (1,78m) Status: Nya's husband

He was a man of the spotlight, he shined brithly- TV shows, TheyTube channels, he was knowed worldwide. Not that he minds the retirement, he lived his life; he had two beautiful twins with the love of his life, Nya. He died happy, even if he was the last one to die, 3 years after Nya had passed. His last years were spent with Lloyd. In his many years in the Ninja team, he's come to realise he doesn't exactly have the same type of strengh like the others so he created a different weapon one that creates iron alloy strings, that resemble spider webs. He also practiced racing with his wife in his free time and created all kinds of machines and weapons which ranged from house equipment to ninja tech, like mechs, weapons and transport.

==꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶꒦꒦︶︶꒷꒦==

Kai Smith

Age- 1000+ (spirit) Died at 95 Height: 6'2 (1,88m) Status: Skylor's husband and Nya's bio brother

Kai was a little bit of an influencer in his younger years, but as the years went by he settled more into being a family man with his wife Skylor and his little girl. How did he become a spirit? Well it was his idea; well his plan was to become immortal like Lloyd but he was intersected by Morro, so he opted for the second best option: giving his powers to Lloyd, so even if he was dead he would be with Lloyd through his power; what wasn't part of the plan was he actually becoming part of Lloyd as a spirit, not that he is complaining, he got what he wanted in the end; and since he was the one that piched the idea to the ninja, he just involved them all into the mad plan- one that Lloyd was unaware of. He trully is a mad man, no one, and I mean, no ONE, puts themselves between him and his family, the last person who did so, is no longer amoung us, the last thing they saw was Kai becoming a demonic ball of flames.

==꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶꒦꒦︶︶꒷꒦==

Nya Smith Walker

Age- 1000+ (spirit) Died at 112 Height: 6'0 (1,83m) Status: Jay's wife and Kai's bio sister

Nya, famous racer, only had to step down from the hobbie/carrer when she got into a small accident, while she wasn't gravelly wounded that was enough for her to be proibited from competitive racing. From that day on she still raced but became more of an idol than a racer per say. She ended up working on engineer projects, solo or with Jay, mostly out of boredom. Now, since she is dead, she has more free time than ever, and uses it to learn and explore every digital corner of the internet, catching a few criminals in the way. Many say she is mystical and her strengh is as crushing as the waves in a storm can be, yet calm and relaxing as the days in the beach, others, like the Ninja themselves just see her as they're beloved sister.

==꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶꒦꒦︶︶꒷꒦==

Cole Brookestone

Age- 1000+ (spirit) Died at 87 Height: 6'8 (2,03m) Status: Vania's husband

Cole, King of the Kingdom of Shintaro, Husband of Queen Vania, father of the prince of Shintaro, and our beloved cake lover, sadlly passed away early, well earlier than his siblings at least, the unknowed illness that had taken the life of his mother had decided to claim another. Cole fell gravelly ill, bedridden in his late stages of life. Bedridden in the castle, he invited Lloyd over for most possibly a final goodbye, although he didn't think that Lloyd would stay around the whole time it wasn't completly unexpected, right there he was the first one to execute Kai's plan, and the first to discover the side effects of the plan; from then on he was part of Lloyd and made sure to let the others know of the end result.

==꒷꒦︶︶꒷︶︶꒦꒦︶︶꒷꒦==

Zane Julien

Age- 1000+ (nindroid) Height: 7'0 (2,13m) Status: P.I.X.A.L's husband

Caretaker of the rest of the Ninja team and their children, especially since those little kids sure liked uncle Lloyd a whole lot and would visit constently. He stayed with Lloyd in the monastery alongside P.I.X.A.L and Morro (who visits soo much he pretty much lives there, has a room and everything). Him and Lloyd share house chores, and Zane is in charge of looking at news around ninjago, to ensure it's safety, as well as helping in some researches since Lloyd is only one person and can only intake soo much information at a time. He is the only one that hasn't partaken in Kai's plan, since there is literally no reason to, Zane obviously doesn't die of old age, one may claim that he could possible get rusty and need repairs at some point but Lloyd and P.I.X.A.L are always around is any issue is to come.

==✿ADDITIONAL INFORMATION✿==

The Ninja team, many years after most of the team's death, has move the location of the monestary far away from the main ninjago island, and instead now lives in a far away island that Lloyd created west of Ninjago city, around the middle of Ninjago and the dark island (thats has been sealed away by Lloyd). The reason for that change is because of something rather strange, it's not just to ensure Lloyd's ever soo wished isolation but also because a merchant had attented to buy the place, with the intention of turning the monestary into a tourist attraction. Lloyd got a bit peeved and decided to pick up the mountain where the monestary was on top of and relocated it;

The only reason the Jay was living with Lloyd in his last moments, was because he genuenly belived he would miss the mark to execute Kai's plan, because he belives himself to be quite clumsy and distracted; either way he didn't miss it and now is with the rest of the team (which is a way to say that he can now torment the Ninja forever);

Lloyd has a cute nickname for all the Ninja's kids, and spoiled them to no end (he is the fun uncle who takes everyone to Disneyland), he calls Kai's daugther "munchkadee", Jay and Nya's twins has "Starlight" and "Moonlight" for the girl and boy respectively, and Cole's son is "Duckling";

the age diference of the Ninja are, from youngest to oldest: Lloyd - Nya - Jay - Kai - Cole - Zane ( to say, with maybe the idea of the 1 season, Lloyd (8->15) - Nya (15) - Jay (16) - Kai (17) - Cole (18) - Zane (30-40? he is old);

(conceivable for change) As of right now, Lloyd's power is one that could rival gods, the source of said power is something OP is still considering but the possible main reason might be related to "source dragons", has to why the other Ninja's had powers even after having kids is related to Lloyd giving them an artifact that has their specific element embodied into them (the artifacts are not phisical and can only be visualised when the Ninja have already passed, the artifact will most likely have the form of a card); (the reason of this possible change is the development of the plot of "Dragons Rising").

[velnat004]

Hi! I love the idea of Turkish qunari, I was wondering if you'd be willing to share your headcanons about them? No pressure, I just think it's a fun concept to explore!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a meta but rather just self-indulgent stuff, if you headcanon the qunari as a different ethnicity OR have a non-qunari oc that is turkish-coded,  that’s completely fine by me!

“Before their arrival in Thedas, the aforementioned race were once a part of the kossith that predated the Qun. The earliest known kossith contact with Thedas was when a colony of them had settled in the southern Korcari Wilds in -410 Ancient. It was overrun by darkspawn during the First Blight, and it is presumably this colony which led to the darkspawn developing ogres. There were no other recorded sightings of the horned race for another 1000 years.

They returned as the Qunari en masse on warships, called dreadnoughts, and arrived in Thedas from the north in 6:30 Steel. It's said that they originate from an unknown eastern land across the Boeric Ocean. Some scholars theorize that the Qunari come from the supposed eastern continent known as Amaranth.[20] They once threatened to conquer all of the known world, but after several Exalted Marches during the Qunari Wars they have lost much of the conquered land. Since then, peace has been made since with every nation except the Tevinter Imperium; with whom they are still involved in a prolonged war for dominance of the north.” (https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Qunari)

Turkish history extends back thousands of years before the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Turks, originally a nomadic people from Central Asia, established several empires, including the Seljuk Empire and later the Ottoman Empire, which was founded in Anatolia by Turkish ruler Osman in 1299. The Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453 and became a dominant world power encompassing Anatolia, the Maghreb in North Africa, southeastern Europe, parts of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian  Gulf, modern day Iraq, and portions of the Caucasus. Consequently, the Ottoman Empire had a religiously and ethnically diverse population. Ottoman loss of territory starting in the 17th century prompted constitutional, educational, and military reforms to begin in the late 18th century. However, due to fragmentation of national groups within the empire, slow economic and technological progress, and the Ottomans’ ill-fated alliance with Germany, the empire collapsed at the end of World War I. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who had risen to prominence as a war hero in the Battle of Gallipoli (Gallipoli Campaign, (February 1915–January 1916), in World War I, an Anglo-French operation against Turkey, intended to force the 38-mile- (61-km- [https://www.britannica.com/event/Gallipoli-Campaign]) long Dardanelles channel and to occupy Constantinople., subsequently united disparate Turkish forces against the foreign occupation of Turkish lands and in favour of national sovereignty. (https://www.tc-america.org/issues-information/turkish-history-28.htm)

-----------------------------------

"The Qunari do not have a concept of personal identity. While they possess names, they do not use them, primarily using titles rather than names to identify and present themselves. The names are in fact simply strings of genealogical information used only by the Tamassrans for record-keeping. Some of the name-titles include Sten, Arishok, and Tallis. However, they do make frequent use of nicknames."

Before that, Turks, as well as other ethnicities living in the Ottoman Empire, had no surname. People were addressed with titles like "hadji" (pilgrim), "hodja" (teacher), "agha" (master), "pasha" (general), "hafiz" (someone who have completely memorized the Qur'an), "lady/madam" and so on.  (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/surname-law-a-profound-change-in-turkish-history)

-----------------------------------

"The Qunari call outsiders bas ("thing") and consider them unfortunate beings who, however, have a potential to grow if the Qun's wisdom is imparted to them.The best an outsider can hope for amongst the Qunari is to be considered a basalit-an, "worthy of respect"; a basalit-an is a worthy foe, and one that can be negotiated with to an extent, but still bas regardless."

Giaour/Gavur (a Turkish adaptation of the Persian gâwr or gōr, an infidel), a word used by the Turks to describe all who are not Mohammedans, with especial reference to Christians. The word, first employed as a term of contempt and reproach, has become so general that in most cases no insult is intended in its use; for example in parts of China, the term foreign devil has become void of offence. A strict analogy to giaour is found in the Arabic kafir, or unbeliever, which is so commonly in use as to have become the proper name of peoples and countries. (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Giaour)

---------

Aside from the historical jazz, the word "Kadaan" sounds and translates similar to "Kalbim" in Turkish <:

Kadan: Literally, "where the heart lies;" friend. An all-purpose word for a "person one cares about," including colleagues, friends and loved ones. Also means "the center of the chest."

Kalbim : "My heart" in Turkish, an endearment word

i couldn't find her reply under one of my posts but @loghainderolo mentioned that Seheron is the Thedas equalevent of Cyprus

Thank u for the ask! :D

[aleheartilly]

Calculated distances between cities in Final Fantasy VIII

So, since I needed some consistent references for some stories of mine, I thought "why not ask ChatGPT to calculate the distances between places in FFVIII?" I did, and I'm sharing the results for anyone who may be interested!

So, first off, the AI tried to guess the scale of the map and first it was a little too small (only 1000 km between Deling City and Esthar City). I tried with a planet diameter similar to Mercury's, and it got too big (like, 7 hours between Balamb City and Garden with a car running at 150 km/h). In the end, through some research and wild guesses, we managed to determine a planet diameter of 3052 km, similar to Europa's, one of Jupiter's moons. Of course, this was done just for fun, and I share it just for fun, so feel free to ignore it. Also, if you want specific calculations you can just ask and I'll try to provide them :) And if I forgot something just let me know!

Please note that distances are in km because that's the system I use.

Results under the cut!

So to do this, first I asked the AI how we should do the calculations. Then I used this map and to avoid uploading it since I didn't like the idea of the AI scraping it, I followed the AI's instructions and measured the distances in pixels. Then I asked it to calculate also the time needed for travels between places, telling it if it was to be done by foot, car (and if it was, for example, through a desert), train, or boat. For this calculation, Gardens have a diameter of 10 km, similar to the city of Florence, in Italy.

So here's what I got. Note that I tried to give some order to these results, but if you notice something strange just let me know.

Balamb Garden → Fire Cavern: 35.15 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 35.15 minutes for this route.

Balamb Garden → Fire Cavern: 35.15 km; walking 25 km/day you'd need 1.41 days for this route.

Edea’s House → Deep Sea Research Center: 2464.57 km; a boat running at 30 km/h would need 82.15 hours for this route.

Balamb Garden → Trabia Garden: 278.67 km on land (I considered the docking points at Balamb City and the beach nearest to Trabia Garden); a car running at 60 km/h would need 4.64 hours for this route.

Balamb City → Trabia Garden: 1694.57 km by sea; a boat running at 30 km/h would need 56.49 hours for this route.

Balamb City → Timber (via underwater tunnel): 2072.47 km. For this one, I gave it the entry and exit points of the tunnel on the map. A train running at 250 km/h would need 8.29 hours for this route. The entire tunnel is 1182.34 km. For reference, the Channel Tunnel underwater part is about 39 km!

Balamb Garden → Balamb Town (via Alcaud Plains): 12.84 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 12.84 minutes for this route.

Dollet → Timber (via East Academy, following the train lines as close as I could when giving it pixel positions): 1281.94 km; a train running at 250 km/h (which would be a typical high-speed train) would need 5.13 hours for this route. I think I also asked it to consider a 15-minute stop at East Academy (yeah I don't remember if I did).

Galbadia Garden → Its nearest train station (forgot if it has a name in-game): 82.85 km; a car running at 80 km/h would need 1.04 hours for this route.

Galbadia Garden → Deling City (following the train line across Monterosa Plateau): 1467.91 km; a train running at 250 km/h would need 5.87 hours for this route.

Deling City → Tomb of the Unknown King: 124.40 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 2.49 hours for this route.

Dingo Desert → Deling City (following the visible train line): 1394.25 km; a train running at 250 km/h would need 5.58 hours for this route. I figured this one would be the route used to bring the party to D-District after the end of Disc 1.

Dingo Desert → Timber (via Lallapalooza Canyon): 1094.17 km; a train running at 250 km/h would need 4.38 hours for this route. I figured this would be the route followed by Squall's party when they split up for the Missile Base/Balamb Garden missions in Disc 2.

Dingo Desert → Missile Base (via Great Plains of Galbadia): 851.11 km; a car running at 150 km/h (because Selphie would drive that fast!) would need 5.67 hours for this route. Fun fact: when we tried the calculation with Mercury's diameter and the distance was enormous, I wondered if Selphie could drive at the Indianapolis 500 pole position speed - and it was almost 378 km/h for the 2024 pole sitter.

Fisherman’s Horizon → Balamb Garden (by sea with a boat moving by inertia with favourable wind): 159.75 km; the calculated speed for drifting was 10 km/h (which seems a little too fast for me), so it would need 15.98 hours for this route. I asked this for the drifting phase at the beginning of disc 2.

Trabia Garden → Shumi Village: 330.73 km on a straight line

Winhill → Edea’s House (by sea, circumnavigating Poccahari Island and Humphrey Archipelago; this was specifically done like this for a story of mine): 3224.10 km; a boat running at 30 km/h would need 107.47 hours for this route.

White Seed Ship → Fisherman’s Horizon: 207.60 km; a boat running at 30 km/h would need 6.92 hours for this route.

White Seed Ship → Edea’s House: 264.48 km; a boat running at 30 km/h would need 8.82 hours for this route (probably more to find where those *** are hiding).

Fisherman’s Horizon → Great Salt Lake (through Horizon Bridge): 2010.59 km. This is the distance Squall walked. It would almost 17 days of non-stop walking at a speed of 5 km/h! The entire Horizon Bridge spans over 3721.57 km.

Esthar City Center → Esthar Airstation: 47.19 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 47.14 minutes for this route.

Esthar City Center → Lunatic Pandora Laboratory: 78.65 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 78.65 minutes for this route.

Esthar City Center → Great Salt Lake: 1157.87 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 23.16 hours for this route.

Esthar City Center → Tear’s Point: 188.76 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 3.43 hours for this route.

Esthar City Center → Sorceress Memorial: 227.37 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 4.55 hours for this route.

Esthar City Center → Esthar Medical Facility: 98.67 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 98.67 minutes for this route.

Esthar Airstation → Lunatic Pandora Laboratory: 101.53 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 101.53 minutes for this route.

Esthar Airstation → Great Salt Lake: 1122.55 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 22.45 hours for this route.

Esthar Airstation → Tear’s Point: 138.71 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 2.52 hours for this route.

Esthar Airstation → Sorceress Memorial: 181.61 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 3.63 hours for this route.

Esthar Airstation → Esthar Medical Facility: 112.97 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 112.97 minutes for this route.

Lunatic Pandora Laboratory → Great Salt Lake: 1075.36 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 21.51 hours for this route.

Lunatic Pandora Laboratory → Tear’s Point: 211.64 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 3.85 hours for this route.

Lunatic Pandora Laboratory → Sorceress Memorial: 284.57 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 5.17 hours for this route.

Lunatic Pandora Laboratory → Esthar Medical Facility: 177.32 km; a car running at 60 km/h would need 2.96 hours for this route.

Great Salt Lake → Tear’s Point: 968.11 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 19.36 hours for this route.

Great Salt Lake → Sorceress Memorial: 956.67 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 19.13 hours for this route.

Great Salt Lake → Esthar Medical Facility: 840.84 km; a car running at 50 km/h would need 16.82 hours for this route.

Tear’s Point → Sorceress Memorial: 94.38 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 1.72 hours for this route.

Tear’s Point → Esthar Medical Facility: 233.09 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 4.24 hours for this route.

Sorceress Memorial → Esthar Medical Facility: 221.65 km; a car running at 55 km/h would need 4.03 hours for this route.

And that's all folks! Hope it was interesting enough.

[hel-the-growl]

Nezha Reborn annotations - Part 3

Part 1｜Part 2

Who is Cai Yun? Monkey explains that she is a disciple of the demoness Shiji. 3000 years ago, 7-year-old Nezha accidentally shot and killed Shiji’s gatekeeper and Caiyun’s sister - Biyun - while playing with the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan’s Qiankun bow from 1000 miles away. Seeking revenge, Shiji overpowered Nezha before being killed by Nezha’s master Taiyi Zhenren. After her death, she was canonized at the Investiture Altar as Yue Youxingjun (月遊星君 "Star of Moon Voyage"). Apparently Caiyun has held onto that grudge since that day.

Chentang Pass was Nezha’s birthplace and the residence of Nezha’s family. Two treasures - the Qiankun bow and Three Sky-shaking Arrows that the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan used to kill his rival Chiyou (the Yan Emperor) - were kept there.

The most epic scene.

“But you’re Sun Wukong, the Great Sage who wreaked havoc in heaven”.

It was right here where Wukong obtained his magic staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang. Roughly 2000 years ago, it was sitting in the crystal palace as a piece of scrap metal. Wukong came here to seek the dragon king for a weapon. After none of the celestial weapons satisfied him, the dragon king’s wife suggested that if Wukong could lift the 13500-catty (6.75 tonne) Ruyi Jingu Bang, then it would be his. Not only was Wukong able to pick it up with ease, he could also make it grow and shrink to his command.

The REAL dragon ball.

When Yunxiang tugged on the Ribbon, the earth shook. It is a reference to an incident in IOTG: After taking a dip in a stream, Nezha was drying himself with the Sky Ribbon. Unbeknownst it him, it caused the ground beneath to shake violently each time it touched the water’s surface.

Ao Guang digging into Yunxiang’s guts is also a reference to how Nezha once broke his own bones, slit his belly and gouged out his intestines to appease the dragon king. 

If she’s a doctor, her first instinct should be chest compressions right???

The ribbon encasing Yunxiang like the lotus symbolizing Nezha's rebirth. The visual metaphor is incredible.

These four large triangular flags are nearly always an integral part of Peking opera, used to adorn the performers’ backs. They have their roots in the small flags Chinese generals would use to signal their subordinates. Journey to the West also has its own peking opera play.

Mid credits scene:

The mink is Mo Lishou’s familiar. The other items in the room are Mo Lihai’s pipa, Mo Lihong’s havoc umbrella. Nezha’s wind and fire wheels sit inside the box.

Names from IOTG’s list of gods swirling around the cauldron include Shiji (石矶娘娘), Shentu (神荼), Shen Gongbao (申公豹), Fang Bi (方弼), Jinling Shengmu (金灵圣母), Bo Yikao (伯邑考), Zhao Gongming (赵公明), Li Gen (李艮), Chong Houhu (崇侯虎), Chong Heihu (崇黑虎), Mo Liqing (魔禮青), Mo Lihai (魔禮海), Huang Tianhua (黄天化), Ao Bing etc...

Finally ending in the words “Investiture of the Gods”

Post credits scene:

This is a teaser for the second New Gods instalment - New Gods: Yang Jian.

As Yunxiang rides his motorbike down the street, he is stopped by a white dog. The dog is Xiaotian, and her owner is the formidable three-eyed god, Yang Jian.

Although Yang Jian doesn't end up in Donghai in that movie (yet), Light Chaser did tease an eventual crossover on their youtube channel.

Stay tuned for New Gods: Yang Jian!

Part 1｜Part 2 | New Gods: Yang Jian breakdown

[reactor-four-official]

History of the RBMK 1000 (Reaktor Bolshoy Moschnosti Kanalnyy): High Power Channel Type Reactor

The RBMK 1000 reactor, the type involved in the Chernobyl Disaster, is a boiling water reactor (BWR) designed in the 1960s at the Kurchatov Institute, the Soviet Union's nuclear science center.

The USSR had placed a priority on developing nuclear power in the late 1950s in its never ending attempts to improve its infrastructure and power its rapidly expanding industrial base. Nuclear reactors are extremely effective at providing high baseload capacity to a power grid, since they are rarely switched off and (depending on the design) can generate enormous amounts of electricity for lower running costs than a more traditional hydrocarbon power plant. Essentially, since they are (almost) always on, they are always providing the grid with a large and extremely reliable supply of energy. It also allowed the USSR to appear at the front of atomic energy, and laude the successes of the ‘Peaceful Atom’. In the atmosphere of the Cold War, peaceful use of atomic power was a key propaganda tool at home and abroad.

The RBMK was selected for construction by the Ministry of Energy over the rival VVER Pressurized Water Reactor in 1968. It was chosen because it was cheaper to construct in terms of material costs, and the components could be mass produced in pre-existing factories for far lower cost. With an enormous power output of 1,000 MWe (megawatts of electricity) it was declared the 'National Reactor' of the USSR. Construction began on the first RBMK in 1970 at the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station. This unit entered service on December 21st, 1973.

Below: A labeled diagram of the core of an RBMK type reactor.

The RBMK 1000 and its successor RBMK-1500 (basically the same reactor with a slightly higher power output) was fraught with safety issues almost from its inception. This was related to several design features and quirks of the reactor, notably the abnormally high positive void coefficient due to steam bubbles in the coolant circuit and the use of graphite as a moderator. Several other even more concerning design flaws would become apparent over the course of its operation, culminating in the explosion of Chernobyl Unit 4 on April 26th, 1986. These revelations have even continued up until present day, with the most recent example being in 2012 when Leningrad Unit 1 (the one mentioned at the end of the previous section) had to be shut down for 18 months to replace graphite moderator blocks that had deformed due to heat and extensive use. This issue has been identified at several other RBMKs.

The reactor type experienced no less than two partial meltdowns in the history of its operation, one at the Leningrad plant and one at the Chernobyl plant (the partial meltdown incident at the Chernobyl plant is different from the explosion and complete meltdown of Unit 4 in 1986). Both of these were serious incidents with not insignificant radioactive releases, but they only partially damaged the respective reactors. The public was not notified in either case, and all information on the design flaws was kept secret by order of the USSR’s highly centralized government.

RBMK construction was halted only in the wake of the Chernobyl Disaster in 1986. Of the 26 reactors approved for construction, only 18 ever entered service. Several modifications were made to the existing RBMKs to eliminate the dangerous flaws that had lead to the 1986 accident. As of 2023, most RBMKs have been shut down and decommissioned. Of the 18 completed reactors, only eight still operate (Three at the Kursk NPP, two at the Leningrad NPP, and two at the Smolensk NPP. All but one of them are scheduled to be shut down and decommissioned by 2030).

The RBMK’s impact has primarily been showing that graphite moderated reactors have far fewer safety features than other water moderated reactors like those in the West. Ironically, the VVER which had been sidelined by the RBMK has enjoyed massive commercial success both in Russia and abroad as an exported design. VVERs are still being actively built and operated in about a dozen countries worldwide.

This is simply an informative blurb on the history of the RBMK-1000 nuclear reactor. I am going to make a more in depth explainer of how the reactor is built as well as an analysis of the physics of the accident at Chernobyl. I will update this post with a link to them when they are complete. My planned deadline is the 26th of April, the anniversary of the explosion. I hope this post has been informative and I am of course happy to answer any further questions and provide any requested information.

[worldburnrp]

MARCH 2ND, 2024

A POLITICAL RENDEZVOUS at THE CLOISTERS

"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics." — Charles Bukowski

No one knows how both parties haven't clawed at each other's necks yet, co-existing under the same ornate roof. Nor is anyone surprised that a protest had formed outside of the venue, blocking one of the access streets.

While officers and those with political capital have been warned of it, the venue is grand enough, shielded enough, that the chants aren't heard by guests and attendees. The rich and powerful still get to enjoy their day, inside a bubble, as they always do.

And they all gather together at the main hall — as auction results are just about to roll in.

OOC INFO

PART THREE. There is no need to wrap or drop Part One or Part Two threads.

AUCTION

THE AUCTION IS NEAR ITS ENDING. Please follow @wbauction to participate. The auction will end on March 24th (Sunday) at 10pm EST. The last bid placed before 10pm, so long as it fits the rules listed on the item post, will be the winning one.

CHALLENGES

All challenges from Part 1 and Part 2 still stand. As always, please post completed challenges to our #point-depository channel so the admins can tally your points.

STORE

THE MEDIA SCOOP. [ PURCHASE FOR 1000 POINTS ] (2 AVAILABLE — 0 CLAIMED)

Can be purchased by any member of the media. This person gets to overhear some hot tea during the event and publicize it. Whoever purchases this slot must publish an article (or other media-oriented piece, depending on their character. For example: a TV host may write a self para of a live report, etc) on dash. How much information is publicized should be plotted and consented between the muns involved and any characters or establishments it may impact.

THE MAGIC KEY. [ PURCHASE FOR 2500 POINTS ] (2 AVAILABLE — 0 CLAIMED)

Can be purchased by any character. With this purchase, your character can jump into any event thread on dash of their choosing, no matter how private. The interaction will then automatically become a three-way thread. The only way to ‘reverse’ a Magic Key is by purchasing ‘Not So Fast!’, which is always available in our Burnie Bucks store.

THE BLAME KEY. [ PURCHASE FOR 2500 POINTS] (1 AVAILABLE - 0 CLAIMED)

Can be purchased by any character. With this purchase, your character gets to do something at the event (this can be anything — as silly or as dark as you'd like) and escape consequences, since the blame will be placed on a different character of your choosing. The only way to 'reverse' a Blame Key is by purchasing 'Not So Fast!', which is always available in our Burnie Bucks store.

THE HIJACK [ PURCHASE FOR 3500 POINTS ] (1 AVAILABLE — 0 CLAIMED)

Hijack an auction item. Damage it, steal it — the sky is almost the limit.

BY THE END OF PART 3...

— The two protesters who acquired the most amount of points during the event will be arrested by the two law enforcement characters who acquired the most amount of points during the event.

— The two government characters who acquired the least amount of points during the event will be trapped by the protest, with difficulty to leave the venue.

— The government party that ends the auction with the largest amount of donations will premiers the polls with a 5% advantage.

— The character who acquired the most amount of points during the event, out of all characters, will get to choose one reward from the options offered by the admins.

*Exclusively for this, points will be considered per character, not per mun.

PSA

If you're feeling unsure about how many points you've earned so far, and whether it will get you what you're hoping for, don't worry! Points will be considered until March 29th, at 10pm EST. That means, you still have a week to collect points and compete for the spot you want. You can get points the 'traditional' way by posting replies to threads, and we also have challenges we offered on Part 1, 2, and 3 that are worth more points each time you complete them. You can use any of the challenges posted for the event, even if they were prompted in earlier Parts.

HAVE FUN!

[mukuharakazui]

I'M SO SORRY TO HEAR YOUR MAIN GUY CAPTAIN SPARKLES QUIT MINECRAFT STUFF 💔 MY CONDOLENCES

no it's ok!!! he's still doing minecraft stuff, just on twitch and his 2nd channel rather than his main channel. right now he's doing an all advancements 1.21 snapshot series as the "finale" of his main channel mc content. i've also been kind of expecting this given the vlogs/"talking in front of a green screen videos" he's been putting out, esp the ones in the past year and a half.

unfortunately, while his dedicated audience is still committed to him, the new generation of minecraft youtube fans is nowhere near as keen on episodic series and are more for short-form content (e.g. "i survived 1000 days in hardcore this is my world" "this MOD lets you KISS the WARDEN in MINECRAFT?!"). jordan tried to appease the algorithm with this for a while and then did a whole series of videos talking about how he was done with that because it wasn't making him happy. he also did a big poll on his channel and found that a majority of his viewers have been watching him since around the mianite days or earlier, and we also weren't especially happy with his clipped main channel mc videos.

he's been making minecraft videos for 13 years now, and even as someone who's been watching since his original survival series, there are plenty of series and videos from him that i haven't touched yet because of the sheer amount of videos he dedicated his career to making. i can still go back and watch his older series i never caught, plus some videos i watched back in the day and don't remember very well/didn't understand the humor of (*cough cough* buildinggame *cough*).

given the way stampy ended his minecraft career, i'm glad to see jordan taking a similar route. they're definitely some of the few popular minecraft youtubers who were never involved in any sort of intense drama or horrible scandals. i would honestly argue that this is a small shift for jordan, but a large shift for his audience. his major shift definitely occurred around the time mcc started and when dream and his cohort got popular. that's when the youtube algorithm and new mcyt audience started to value him less than other mc youtubers and the whole thing where jordan tried to appeal to the algorithm and hated it. the only difference between what he's been doing for the past 2 years and what he'll be doing going forth seems to be that his minecraft content will, as a lot of it already has been, be focused on captainsparklez2.

i do think "retirement" as he put it, as opposed to "quitting" or "leaving," is definitely the best way to describe what he has planned. he'll still do mc, just not as his primary career. he also said he may be willing to do mc videos on the main channel if a huge update appeals to him in some way at some point. he's definitely not suddenly quitting minecraft forever, and if he does, i have no doubt he'd still enjoy hearing from people who like his minecraft content and wouldn't be too bothered by being known as the minecraft guy.

tl;dr i'm not sad cuz not only is he putting his own needs and goals first, but he also...isn't even quitting minecraft altogether. i mostly watch his twitch vods on cs2 anyways, so it's no big deal to me in the end. long live captainsparklez, team ianite forever, etc.

[talopeiros]

Learning to Smelt - 1

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. Last year, I wanted to pick up smelting. It seemed fun, and felt right up my field in the realm of making things. I did all the research, got the equipment and earlier this year I finally managed to start! My goal is, once I'm comfortable enough to do it solo (since I had help from my insane uncle during my training adventure) to have it livestreamed and smelt things on request! Honestly at this point I reckon my skills have advanced to the point of almost competence (huzzah!) Nonetheless I want to post some stuff showing the process, just in case anyone's curious!

First off, I made an AGGREGIOUS error when it came to choosing the smelter brand. The one I bought didn't have a connector that worked with Australian Gas tanks, only US ones. I was very luck my uncle had a bunch of spare fittings/hoses lying around otherwise it would've been impossible to do anything from the start. Funnily enough too, despite it eventually getting to +1000 C temperatures, it didn't need that much fuel overall! Only had to slightly open the valves with one full rotation on the gas tank. I guess that's by design, since the whole idea is keep heat in (this just in, local hoplite PNGTuber discovers how heat works!) Also, fun fact! Don't buy a shitty $50 temperature gun that says it can get to 1000+ C and expect it to do so! So many infrared sensors are so pricey and there was no way in tartarus that I would use that kinda money on a glorified nerf gun but then it turns out the cheap one I got was incapable of reading anything beyond 400 C. Fortunately you can just eyeball it when it comes to smelting using this simple rule! If metal = solid: Wait If metal = liquid: Congratulations, you've done it!

Have to make sure it's done in a well-ventilated area too. Doubly so if you're melting brass since that garbage can burn and make zinc oxide which is NOT GOOD. First time I melted stuff was just done to make sure I knew what I was doing, not to cast anything. All I did was melt down brass and copper separately to make small ingots.

(btw if you ever plan to make casted finery, don't bother with a specific ingot mold, those things are pricey. Just get a cast iron muffin tray w/o the teflon on it or something similar. You can make a lot more that way and they're more likely to fit in the crucible if you want to re-melt). Also another piece of advice: DON'T OVERLOAD THE CRUCIBLE. My uncle wanted us to melt down all the copper we had (which was a lot, I had been going to town on the neighbourhoods wiring/plumbing in preparation for this) since "it was more energy efficient to smelt more instead of letting it cool down!" While technically true, a crucible full of copper is VERY HEAVY and picking that thing up with crucible tongs is gonna be a legendary struggle. We did end up spilling a bit, fortunately it didn't go anywhere. The vid attached to this post shows it: A crucible full of copper and regret for our lack of forethought. Following day I did try to cast one thing: My channel emblem as a medallion. I poured molten copper into an open sand mold and well, you be the judge:

Still, twas a good first go! Thanks to the ingot molder we used the cast metal in it's default form comes out in a style akin to that of a paperweight.

I'll be posting details on the second and third smelt soon, so stay tuned!

[rigelmejo]

I'm going to make a comprehensible input resources guide, these are some long winded notes on the process.

For the purposes of this guide, by "comprehensible input" I mean language learning materials that are specifically made for you to be able to understand the meaning simply by engaging with the learning material. Learning materials designed to teach you the target language IN the target language. The hope is that after learning around 3000 words and main grammar concepts through comprehensible input, along with some basic listening and reading skills, you have learned enough to move on to watching/reading things in the language made for that language's speakers. At which point you should comprehend enough of what's going on (the overall main idea of most scenes/paragraphs) that you can continue learning from what you can comprehend alone. You can of course speed up how fast you learn new things at that point by looking up unknown things (the same way that in my native language I looked up "opaque, morose, grievious, mahogany" when reading to learn their meanings quicker growing up compared to the vague understanding I had of the words from what I comprehended and guessed from context alone). But at bare minimum, the goal is to get a foundation in the language through learning material you understand the main idea of, and get to a point where you can continue to learn using material for native speakers and just engaging with it.

An example of a (mostly) comprehensible input study plan:

1. Start with comprehensible input video series on youtube that is made for total beginners (examples: Dreaming Spanish, Learn Korean in Korean, Comprehensible Input French, Comprehensible Chinese, Comprehensible Chinese, Ayan Academy videos of Direct Method textbooks in various languages). You may watch these videos only once, once with target language subtitles (to practice reading) and once with no subtitles, or rewatch/relisten often if repetition is something you like to do when studying. An alternative to a comprehensible input youtube channel could include: audio flashcards (since they're "comprehensible" since you hear the target language, then english, then the target language again) examples of this include Glossika Audio Files and Spoonfed Chinese Anki deck Audio Files, and also any textbook/course audio or sentence flashcard audio files (like Clozemaster Radio Mode) you can find that repeat sentences in target language/english and go through a SIGNIFICANT amount of vocabulary and grammar. Tips: Explore the learning material options because some teachers, presentation styles, materials will click better with you than others (for example I hate anki and can't focus but sentence flashcards with audio would ultimately work fine for this if you can focus on flashcards 30 minutes - 1 hour a day, I love Comprehensible Chinese youtube channel but the ambiguity and struggling to understand may make some people dislike the lesson style). I strongly urge you to pick learning materials that teach a LOT OF VOCABULARY ASAP. I can't insist on this enough. Try to get exposed to 1000 common words ASAP (within a few months), and try to find various learning materials that will ultimately teach you 3000 common words or more (because you'll want to know at least 2000-3000 common words before engaging with material for native speakers comfortably). This is harder than you think, for example Duolingo only teaches 3000 words if you do the entire course, so unless you're cramming through Duolingo in 6 months (and I spend 4 years on it so I sure wasn't) then it's way slower paced than you need. Glossika is a good option, IF you intend to get through the whole 3000-6000 sentences in a year. If you use a youtube channel you'll want to look for courses that go into B1-B2 lessons and aim to get to the B level lessons by the end of a year or sooner. If a youtube channel only teaches colors, numbers, my name is? It has way too few words to teach you and while you can use it to start, you'll need another course with more material later. Good textbooks/audio courses will have 2000 words in them (at least) and if they have less I recommend either skipping them or cramming them quickly then moving on. If a lesson is 10 minutes long and you aren't exposed to at least 5 new words, the course might be going too slow. (I found an audiobook in my library for basic japanese that taught about 40 japanese words in 2.5 hours... that is WAY too slow of a rate to introduce new words). If the course is more than 50% english, it may be moving slower than you need (and in a comprehensible input material like 90% or more should be in the target language unless you're using sentence flashcard audio where 50% will be english). TLDR: find learning materials that teach in a way you can easily engage with regularly and focus on, and find various learning materials to work through that will eventually teach you 2000-3000 words. I will give examples below.

2. Once you have a few hundred hours studied (100-800, it really depends on how soon you want to jump into doing more) find Graded Reading materials in your target language. The goal here is to start graded readers once you know the amount of words the graded reader you pick recommends you know when starting. So for example, Mandarin Companion books have some graded readers for near-total beginners, and you could start the Mandarin Companion books quite early after starting to watch Comprehensible Chinese. French by the Nature Method textbook is made to be used by total beginners, and teaches roughly 3000 words, so you could start that graded reader immediately upon starting french and read it alongside listening to Comprehensible Input French youtube videos. Things to look for in graded readers: they will tell you how many words you should know when starting (say 500 words) and the book will be easier to read if you don't try to read it until you get close to the recommended words (like say knowing 350-400 words when you start reading). Check how many words the graded reader contains: if you know 200 words and the book teaches 200 words, you may only learn 20 new words that didn't happen to overlap words you already knew. It would be good practice for learning to read better, but that particular graded reader will NOT teach you many new words. So if your goal is to continue increasing vocabulary at a fast pace, you may pick a graded reader with 100-500 more words than you currently know. It may be a slog at first to look up the new words, to reread sections, and to try to follow whats going on, but by the end of the book your vocabulary will have grown a lot. How many new words per book you can tolerate will greatly depend on you. When I knew only 500 chinese words, I picked graded readers with 300-800 unique words. 300 unique word graded readers helped me improve reading skills, and 800 unique word graded readers gave me roughly 300 new words to learn which was the upper limit of what I could handle. Once I knew 1000 words, I'd pick 1500 word graded readers with 500 new words for me to learn. Now that I know 3000+ words, most novels have at least 500-2000 unknown words for me and I just pick based on how it feels to read and how much I want to look words up (I usually go by 20 or less new words per page, 30 or less new words per chapter, when I want to pick novels where I don't have to look any words up if I don't want to...5 words you don't know out of every 100 words you see is usually the limit to where people still feel comfortable reading without looking anything up. If there's more unknown words than that ratio, people usually start feeling frustrated unless they look words up). TLDR: basically look for "beginner graded readers" for your target language, and keep pushing yourself to pick graded readers with more words for the next one. You will eventually push your vocabulary up to 2000-3000 in this way after reading several graded readers, in combination with watching/listening to some Comprehensible Input learner material.

3. Immersion "the fun stuff." You've studied for 1-2 years now and learned 3000 words. Or, like me, you are impatient and comfortable with ambiguity and have studied 4-6 months and have at least vague familiarity with 1000 words. You have at least some familiarity with common grammar, and pronunciation (from those comprehensible input learning materials with audio, and graded readers). You can now learn by immersing with materials for native speakers! If you have a high tolerance for difficulty, you can start immersing as SOON as you can bear it. I've seen some people start immersing knowing 500 words, basic grammar, and 3 months of study. I personally can tolerate learning from immersion at around 6 months of study and 1000 words learned. For some people with lower tolerance for ambiguity, they are really going to want to know 3000 words before starting to immerse. However, IMMERSING IS ALWAYS HARD AT THE START. You are not bad at the language, you are not dumb, you CAN do this! Everyone eventually has to "immerse" because even if you study to B2 in classrooms, having a real conversation in the country or trying to read a new novel in the language will BE HARD if you never practiced that particular activity before. Half of immersing is continuing to learn new things, but the other half is LEARNING to understand what you already studied. That part is HARD when you start, because it's the first time you're trying. So if when immersion starts, it feels difficult, I urge you to continue trying to immerse for at least 3 months anyway

Try to immerse 10 minutes daily at first. Basically try to immerse "until it feels too draining." Build up to 20 minutes daily, 30 minutes, until you can actually tolerate 1 hour blocks at a time. I also recommend picking the EASIEST STUFF POSSIBLE when you start immersing, since you're learning to understand what you've studied... you may not want to also get a ton of brand new words shoved at you simultaneously. Good options for initial immersion may be: watching a show you've seen before in english, watching a slice of life/romance/action show where often what people are Doing Visually is related to what they're saying, playing a video game you're really familiar with (so you can guess the words easily), reading the kids form of a novel you're familiar with (so if say you know The Monkey King story then finding a chinese kids novel of The Monkey King may be approachable), finding books and shows with low unique word counts (Heavenly Path's site has a lot of good recommendations that list word count, you'll want to aim for 1000-3000 unique words when you start and the lower the better). My personal rule for immersion has always been: I must at LEAST understand the main idea of each scene (or be able to look up only 1 key word every 5 minutes to get enough information to grasp that main idea) in order to immerse with it. If I watch a show and I can't follow the main idea of the scene, even if I look up 1-2 keywords? Then that show is too difficult for me to learn from. And as I learned more words, much of my immersion material became "I can understand the main idea of scenes without any word lookups, and optional word lookups are only needed if I wish to understand some specific details I cannot figure out from the context I understand." Once you've learned 3000 words, you SHOULD know enough to grasp the main idea of your average slice of life romance show or a kids show you've seen before in english. If you're watching a slice of life romance and have no fucking idea what's going on, and you know 3000 words? I urge you to re-watch the episode 2-3 times. Because the problem is likely that you're struggling to understand words you DO already know. If you watch something with target language subtitles, you can pause and read subtitles at first until you get better at understanding what you know at speaking speed. You can also use the subtitles to see if the thing you didn't understand was Actually a new word, or if you just didn't catch/recognize a word you've studied before.

In my experience, immersion progress went through stages. I imagine that if you start immersion after already knowing 3000 words, the beginning stages will be shorter and less draining.

Stage 1: immersion feels exhausting, you only tolerate 10-20 minutes of immersion before feeling fried trying to pay attention, you are pausing constantly to read target language subtitles, you are replaying sentences frequently to hear things multiple times until you clearly hear it, you may do immersion on and off with several days break in between each attempt, and do easier less draining graded readers and comprehensible input learning materials between attempts. Over time the learning materials start feeling way easier than they used to be, and the immersion material feels like you can tolerate immersing a bit longer. Note: if you start immersion after already studying ~3000 words, then you should know enough words that any word lookup should be completely optional during immersion... as word lookup would mostly be review of stuff you studied, rather than learning new words, and new words should be surrounded by enough stuff you know to simply learn the new words from context alone. This applies to all stages: if you have enough vocabulary to understand without looking up any keywords, its excellent 'easier' immersion material for you and you can continue to immerse without looking up anything.

Stage 2: you can watch 20 minutes to 1 hour of immersion material at a time before feeling drained, you may be looking up key words once every 1-3 minutes (or else feeling confused a lot), you are starting to reliably follow the main idea of scenes as long as you look up a few key words, and you're getting a better idea of what words will help you understand what's going on. You are getting better at "understanding things you already know" and no longer need to pause as frequently when words you've studied before are said or when grammar you've seen before is used. You are getting somewhat better at comprehending speaking speed.

Stage 3: You have gotten much better at "understanding things you already know" and now only pause once in a while when words/grammar you've studied is used, most of your pausing and looking words/grammar up is happening when you see something new to learn. You may replay lines to catch more detail, but you do not need to replay lines constantly simply to understand them. You can look up 1 keyword every 5 minutes and follow the main idea, or even look up no keywords (if the immersion material is easier) and comprehend the main idea.

Stage 4: for easier immersion materials, you are now comprehending the main idea of scenes without much effort, watching 40 minute shows is no longer extremely draining on your focus, and you now notice DETAILS you are not understanding. A lot more of the new words you look up relate to DETAILS in scenes. While you may still want to replay lines to catch more details or double check that you understood a main idea correct, you could go through a whole episode without ever replaying and still follow the main story. You could go through a whole episode with no word lookups and still follow the main story.

Stage 5: for easier immersion materials, you no longer feel it takes intense focus to follow the main idea. Following the main idea may feel almost as easy as in your native language. Most of your focus/feeling drained is happening with details and the words that now stick out to you as words/phrases you don't know. If you decide to look up unknown words at this point, you can look up more than just keywords because there are few enough unknown words it is not extremely time draining to look up most unknown words. At this stage, depending on how easy the immersion material is, you can simply watch for pleasure and pick up words from context, without feeling drained.

Stage 6: You start picking harder immersion material, and repeating various stages 1-5 with it. The harder immersion material gives you more new words to learn per minute, since the easier immersion material was no longer providing you as much. Again, you do not strictly need to look up any keywords when watching. If you choose to look up keywords, you can pick "more difficult" immersion material since you'll have word lookups to help you comprehend it. But if you choose to look up keywords or not, as LONG AS you understand the main idea of scenes you WILL understand enough to learn some new words from context alone. If you would like to learn primarily from just DOING aka watching/reading in the language, not looking things up, aim to pick easier materials where you understand the main idea of scenes without any word lookups. If you enjoy looking words up, you can dive into immersing in fairly difficult materials quickly since the main barrier will just be "words you need to look up to comprehend what's going on." I would recommend though, even if you like looking words up, to do the first few immersion months with "easier material." Because the first hardest part of immersion is learning to understand things you've already studied. That will feel very difficult at first, so picking things that mainly comprise of what you already studied will give you time to practice That Skill without overwhelming you with other new things. Likewise, the first few times you do listening-only practice... it may be a good idea to practice listening to stuff you've watched before or read before, so you know the words and the difficulty is mainly in just understanding listening to things you already know. That way, when you improve, it is obvious to you.

(In reality, my actual study plans consist of: some comprehensible input, some watching shows/playing video games and looking up new "key" words for meaning with Google Translate, a lot of reading graded readers extensively, a lot of reading novels and looking up words either just key words or every single unknown word depending on how I feel, reading along to novels/transcript while listening to an audiobook/audio drama, chatting with people on Hellotalk* I need a better strategy for output practice though, reading grammar guide summaries and grammar book portions when I want, and in the first 6 months of new language study I usually do 2000 flashcards crammed in 2-4 weeks in anki/memrise and read through a grammar guide summary in 2 weeks and cram study radicals/letters/building blocks in a few weeks along with cramming through a pronunciation guide in a few weeks. Those first 6 months I learn very little *well* but I get a vague familiarity with a lot of Common Words and Common Grammar and pronunciation and features, so when I start studying more in depth by like reading novels and listening to audio and looking up lots of unknown things... I have this 6-month basic foundation to attach my newly learned memories to. All that said... after the initial 6 months, a majority of my study is either comprehensible input or doing things in the language while looking up unknown words/grammar.

[golbrocklovely]

Twitter is trying to cancel SnC yet again I see.

If I were SnC I would literally just delete all my twitter profiles except for their channels twitter which I'd then use ONLY for promoting when new videos drop. Just so the twitter fans can learn that they aren't as important as they seem to think they are because those boys are nearly at 12 million subscribers on youtube, twitter is but a mere handful of that subscriber count so it really wouldn't matter if they all decided to stop watching.

(plus the video they're all angry at is actually performing very well, it's already at 2M views on just day 2 of releasing. This suggests a lot of the fandom may not share twitters opinions...)

i don't see snc deleting their twitters, but i do see them continuing to not use them and just letting them sit dormant bc that side of the fandom is too dramatic.

i've said my peace on this 100 times over, but i don't mind saying it again bc it keeps happening and no one over there is getting it lol

not that i'm telling them either since most of them i have blocked or they have me blocked lmao

that side of the fandom has cried wolf one too many times and now expects snc to still listen to them. and look, back in 2020/21, maybe that would have happened. bc twitter held a lot more stock back then. but not anymore. they thought they could call out snc for every little thing and expect them to always listen and for all of the fandom to agree. and reality is that just won't fly anymore.

were there genuine reasons to call them out before in the past (and even now)? sure. i'm not here to argue that. but what i am saying is once everyone jumped over the line in the sand and started getting mean and calling them out for nonsense things, idk what you expected to happen.

it's one thing to complain about content and what's going on in it or that it's taking too long to get new content out. it's another thing to bitch about their gfs and say they shouldn't date them, or in general to bring up personal shit.

where our input starts and ends is content related, and that's it. anyone that thinks they have a say in what snc do in their own personal lives are delulu. it doesn't matter if you believe you have their best interest in mind, your input is unwanted. that's just reality.

also i think a lot of ppl on twitter think they speak for everyone in the fandom but they fail to realize that this fandom has 12 mil ppl in it (roughly). even if one of the louder fans on there has a 1000 followers, that's not even 1% of the entire fandom. that's not even .01%. that's how little the amount of ppl you speak for.

my thing is, all of this complaining and drama started in january, around colby's bday, when the pics of them with the girls leaked. and since then, this fandom and that side in particular hasn't shut up since. and look, obviously not everything is about the girls and not everyone is even complaining about the girls. i'm not trying to cast wide nets here and assume. but… be honest: yall have been complaining for WEEKS about a variety of things, ranging from them having gfs that might be clout chasers to snc not talking about a genocide, and somehow…….. i'm supposed to take any of that seriously??? snc are supposed to take that seriously??? those are two VERY different things, no?

but hey, you wanna be upset at snc for whatever reason, be my guest. i'm not here to stop you. do whatever you want. but at what point do you just accept that snc aren't gonna meet your demands and thus your only option is to leave?? just curious. and are you okay with the fact that just bc you leave doesn't mean anyone is gonna miss you, including snc? harsh reality is snc don't know who you are, and that's not bc you don't deserve to be known - they just realistically don't know you, and you leaving isn't gonna do anything.

but if you aren't enjoying your time here, leave. it's better in the long run to pay attention to something that actually brings you happiness rather than stick around and be miserable.

[mariacallous]

Three months into its war against Hamas, the Israeli government has announced its intent to seize the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 8.7-mile strip of land that runs along the border of Gaza and Egypt. Controlling the territory would allow Israel to better prevent a postwar rearming of Hamas, which appears to have smuggled much of its arsenal via the Sinai Peninsula. But a long-term Israeli occupation of the corridor is also likely to irritate Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. While Sisi has maintained very good relations with Israel—including deep tactical counterterrorism cooperation in Sinai—lately the authoritarian leader has been unusually solicitous of Egyptian public opinion about Gaza.

To be sure, the Palestinian issue resonates greatly in Egypt. Sisi’s rhetorical support for Palestinians has enabled him to get ahead of the street, channel popular anger, and likely bolster his waning popularity during a profound domestic economic crisis for which many Egyptians hold him responsible. Disruptions in Red Sea shipping related to the Israel-Hamas war are also having a significant impact on Suez Canal revenues, exacerbating Egypt’s financial woes. For whatever reason, Sisi talks about Gaza a lot, and in recent months he has sponsored rallies and even a rare mass public demonstration in support of Palestinians.

Even so, Sisi has little affection for Hamas, the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood that rules Gaza. Egypt largely eradicated its own Muslim Brotherhood branch in 2013, reportedly killing more than 1000 members of the Islamist group in a single bloody day. Since then, Sisi has built nearly three dozen new prisons to incarcerate remnant brothers and other regime opponents. Nevertheless, like many of his regional counterparts, Sisi continues to articulate staunch backing for Gaza.

During a government-sponsored rally for the Palestinian cause in Cairo in November, Sisi pledged Egypt’s fealty. “My decision was resolute,” he said, “namely to be at the forefront of the supporters of our brothers in Palestine and to spearhead action for their sake. … By virtue of its history and geography, Egypt is destined to be the backbone in supporting the struggle” of the Palestinian people.

In providing this professed support, Cairo has been clear about what it will not do for Palestinians. First and foremost, Egypt will not serve as a Palestinian place of exile. Sisi has defined any Israeli expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt as a “red line.” He also declared that Egypt’s borders will not be opened to allow entry to Palestinians displaced by the violence. Egypt has been less clear, however, about what it will actually do proactively for Palestinians.

Importantly today, Egypt is serving as a staging ground for hundreds of trucks filled with humanitarian assistance crossing into Gaza. Cairo has also hinted that it could participate in an as-yet-undefined U.S. plan for an Arab stabilization force in postwar Gaza. An Egyptian contribution to a peacekeeping contingent would be an unusually helpful gesture during what is sure to be a difficult transition period.

But this is only part of what Cairo should do to support Palestinians once the war is over.

The Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of mainly Israeli civilians was a milestone in the ongoing divorce proceedings between Israel and Gaza. Although Israel formally ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, until recently it continued to provide the territory with water, electricity, and employment. Indeed, on Oct. 6, nearly 18,500 Palestinians from Gaza were working in Israel, the second largest source of Palestinian employment after the Hamas-led government.

Regardless of whether an Israeli-Palestinian political settlement is eventually achieved, Palestinians from Gaza are unlikely to ever receive permits to work in Israel again—especially after reports emerged that laborers from Gaza may have provided intelligence on kibbutzim and military facilities to Hamas in advance of the attack. In early November, it was reported that Israel’s construction sector petitioned the Israeli government to allow companies to hire up to 100,000 Indians to replace Palestinian laborers from both Gaza and the West Bank. In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, Israel also suspended the sale of electricity and water to Gaza. Water supplies have resumed, but it’s unclear for how long.

After the war, Israel may be reticent to continue with business as usual, preferring instead to cut all ties with the troubled strip.

This is where Egypt comes in. Egypt’s anemic economy precludes the possibility of financial contributions to Palestinians in Gaza, but if underwritten by the Gulf, there is much Sisi can do to support post-Hamas Gaza—perhaps even profiting Egypt along the way.

There is ample space in the Sinai Peninsula, for example, to build a desalination facility and power plant to serve Gaza’s needs. Like Israel, Egypt could sell this electricity and water to Palestinians.

Egypt could also help Palestinian laborers by providing daily work permits. Initially, these workers could participate in the building of these utilities; later, perhaps, they could find employment in new economic zones situated in Sinai near Rafah. Washington could incentivize this initiative by establishing qualified industrial zones—like the ones created after Israel’s peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan—manufacturing products with Egyptian materials assembled with Palestinian labor and sold duty-free in the United States and Europe.

Beyond this assistance, Egypt could agree to train, if asked, the Palestinian Authority security forces that Washington hopes will fill the void after Hamas is eventually vanquished. Another useful and lucrative prospect for Cairo is the opportunity for Egyptian construction companies to be at the forefront of Gaza’s rebuilding.

Since the end of Egypt’s occupation of Gaza in 1967, Egyptian engagement with the territory has largely been confined to political mediation and intelligence operations. The Hamas crisis presents Egypt with the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Not only can Egypt take a leading role in helping Palestinians. By playing a productive part in postwar Gaza, Sisi can also blunt criticism of himself in the U.S. Congress, including of his December reelection, a contest widely considered neither free nor fair.

While Sisi understandably wants to avoid being perceived as complicit in Palestinian dispossession, Egypt is the only Arab state bordering Gaza and can no longer reasonably absolve itself of any responsibility for its professed brethren. Sisi talks a lot about supporting Palestinians. As the war in Gaza moves toward a less intensive phase, it’s time for Egypt to act.

[murder-and-toast]

TW: mention of child experimentation, mention of organ replacement, mention of murder, mention of human trafficking, medical/experiment whump, suicidal idolation, self-harm, corrupt government

'I love you' was never a phrase Betzalel ever really liked. It would always bring him back to the days when he was locked away, with his 'Aunt' trying to make him the perfect weapon. He cared for people since that's human nature, but never anything more that he could describe. He'd only use the words to manipulate the people the government needed him to help capture or dispose of.

Betzalel was laying in bed next to Yves, considering waking him up, but instead he just stared at the ceiling thinking. Then a thought crossed his mind, "Where is Aunt now, Is she still doing her past work? Is she trying to track me down since she worked so hard to make me perfect??"

Those thoughts came and went so often, Betzalel knew she knew he was still alive because of the number of news channels that reported on the mass killings he was ordered to do by the government.

Betzalel slowly slips out of the bed, trying not to wake Yves, he grabs his military coat and a pack of fresh cigarettes. He then unlocks the room door and looks back for a moment before opening the door and walking out to go smoke.

Betzalel always hated cigarettes, but the nicotine helped to distract him from the crimes he had to commit. And he has hoped that they could shorten his long lifespan. He never wanted the power he had gotten but he also never wanted the 1000 year lifespan of the god-like creature he was stuck with. Betzalel never wanted to kill himself, he had just hoped that the people the government wanted would succeed at doing it. But the creature always made a shield to stop those hopes.

Betzalel opened the pack and pulled one out along with the lighter in his coat pocket, he then lit the cigarette and put it in his mouth while staring off into the woods around the building. And stuffed the lighter and now open pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

After a few minutes he rolled up the sleeves of both his coat and his pajamas. Revealing layers of bandages on both arms. He then began to undo them, underneath was just a bunch of dark scarring from how much he had used the power of the creature.

Betzalel hated not being in control so to use the power to its max ability he would have to cause himself damage in the process. Though if he had the choice he just wouldn't use the power at all since it was draining and always ended with him throwing up and unable to do much after. At least the regeneration worked fast otherwise he'd still be bleeding out.

The government wanted to make sure that every person they bought would've been worth their money so they'd use everything the person could do. Betzalel only had one knife unlike a lot of his coworkers who had collections of knives and guns. But it was to make sure Betzalel was gonna actually use the reason the government had picked him.

Betzalel knew though that he was closer to being sold off than most of the others here, he was disobedient and questioned orders, unlike when they had first purchased him.

He knew Yves was gonna be forced to stay in the government since he was useful and listened to orders. He never wanted to leave Yves as he was the reason Betzalel was even able to get out of being tested on, but he knew he'd have to suck it up sooner or later.

He took the cigarette from his mouth and signed hard. He then ran his right hand through his bangs and pinned them behind his ear. His right eye wasn't his, it hadn't been since he was 4, his 'Aunt' wanted to test the limits of what she could do, removed a few organs and stuff and replaced them from that of the corpse of the creature.

Betzalel thought the replacement for his actual eye was quite pretty, you could see a galaxy of colors and glitter within it. But he hated how he couldn't see out of it and how it could randomly start to bleed. He knew he was more of a corpse than a person at that point, but there wasn't anything he could do to stop it. All he could do was hope that things get better within the next at most 1980 years of his life,

"Living until the year 4000 would be so terrible--" he laughed to himself as the door opened and Yves came out, "oh, you're up, almost ready to go get some work done?"

"Ya"

[emersonrees90]

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[mercurygray]

If you don’t mind me asking- about how many words do you write in one writing session and do you have any tips or tricks?

That's a good question, Kind Anonymous Friend!

It depends, I think, on how long the idea's been floating around in my head and how clear a vision I have of where I want the scene to go - I'm not a very regimented writer, so I don't...set myself a goal to write 1000 words in an hour, or anything like that. I just write until I'm done saying what I have to say. Usually that's anywhere between 500 and 2000 words, in two or three hours.

My trick, if you want to call it that, is to find a process that works for you. I can't do word goals - the writing that I've done during sessions like that feels and sounds inauthentic to me. I know that my brain works best early in the morning, so I set up my writing sessions to capitalize on that. Since I don't work well under deadlines, I make sure I don't have anything scheduled that would create the idea of a deadline. I just have...time I could be writing in. Then I make myself a pot of tea, I bring my computer into whatever workspace I'm using, and I open a new Notepad document and write.

Yes - Notepad. The free text editor that comes with Microsoft Windows. I use Notepad because I then can't get distracted by formatting, or spelling, or flipping to another tab in the browser. It's a single-channel software and I find this helps keep me on task.

And when I'm done with whatever scene I'm working on - then I'm done. I paste it into the document where I'm keeping the actual fic, and then go on to another task. It's not too terribly often that I'm writing for hours and hours on end - usually it's 2-3 hour chunks and then I'm finished.

But that's just what works for me - you could ask a dozen different writers this question and get a dozen different answers! Experiment with where you feel comfortable and what time of day and whether you like having goals or music or ambient noise.

I hope that answers your question!