#CE revision things <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[rosesradio]

sure nico's gay & all but i still think he should get his face grabbed by powerful monsters women attempting to seduce him into letting them drink his blood. or something

[writingstoraes]

hair tie 🎀

pairing: charles leclerc/fem!reader

type: imagine/drabble (fluff)

notes: my first drabble! not proofread and not revised so please expect errors hehehe please lmk what u think by replying or messaging and if u wanna be part of my taglist! <3 google translated french!

about: you didn't pay no mind when charles randomly asked for one of your hair ties. one car ride later, you find out why.

"Amour, can I have one of your hair ties please?" Charles softly says, gently shaking you awake from your slumber. Due to your half-asleep state, you didn't bother to question him why and quickly pointed to the dresser, where a thin, black hair tie is found on its surface.

"As-tu quelque chose d'autre? Quelque chose qui en un regard, je sais que c'est le tien," Do you have anything else? Something that in one look, I know it's yours.

Prying your eyes open once again, you decide to position yourself to sit on the bed to give Charles a knowing look.

"What do you mean? Do you want a scrunchie?"

"What's that?"

"The thick one that looks like ruffles."

"Oh no." He replies, rifling through your dresser drawers. "Maybe something a little less high profile."

Before you can mutter anything, the Monegasquè exclaims as he finds something he liked after absolutely destroying the organized drawers: a red hair tie with a small black ribbon.

Clearly with a motive on his mind, Charles quickly picks up the hair tie and proceeds outside to his car. You didn't pay it any mind, you had a lot of hair ties anyway, most of it scattered around the room and even in your purses. You just assumed he used it to tie something; used it like it was a rubber band.

You and Charles made plans to visit his family today which can explain why he was up and about getting ready for the drive. The drive up to his family home is about two hours and it has been a habit of his to prep the car every time you had to go somewhere. While he was in the garage, you got up and made breakfast, all the food on the table in pairs of two's.

As you sit through breakfast, you already had enough caffeine in your system to be sober for the morning, not that you were drunk, just sleepy. Being in the right state of mind, you give in to curiosity and ask him why he needed a hair tie in the first place, up to why he needed to choose one he liked.

"Ce n'est rien," It's nothing.

You didn't pry anymore, it was just a hair tie after all. If you know him well, he probably did use it to tie something or replace something he broke while fixing the car. After breakfast, the two of you went on like clockwork to get ready for the drive up to his family's house. Being all dressed up and ready, Charles opens the passenger seat door for you and you were off.

Halfway through the drive and several songs sang in the car later, your eyes dart towards a very familiar hair tie. The red hair tie with a black ribbon was wrapped around the car's gear shifter, much to your surprise when you thought he only used it to tie something or mend something he'd clumsily broke.

"Ah, so this is where you used my hair tie," you tell Charles, who returned a sheepish smile.

"You are cute in your own ways, do you know that?" you stifle a giggle, waiting for him to respond. "Can I ask why is that there?"

"Why? Do you want it back? I'm sorry, I have my reason I promise." He replies, voice laced with guilt.

"No, baby I just... want to know what it's for."

You were fine with not knowing actually. You're sure Charles had his reasons. Maybe he liked the ribbon or the red reminded him of Ferrari. Maybe he thought his spectacular sports car was so manly it needed a splash of ribbon. The thing is, Charles has his antics, something you've grown to love over the years. In your eyes, this hair tie situation is mundane to say the least.

"Fine but you have to promise you won't laugh." Charles says, eyes kept strictly on the road.

"Je promets." I promise.

"It's a reminder." He says in a low and soft voice.

"I put it there to remind myself that I have to drive safe because you're waiting for me at home," Charles continues, and you swear you could just melt right there. "Okay I know it sounds cheesy and sappy and that an F1 driver knows how to drive safe but it's a nice reminder."

"Charles, you drive cars at 300 km/h," you laugh, gaining a chuckle from him.

"I know. It's just a good reminder to be extra safe every time I'm in a car because there's someone waiting for me at home. It's for when I lose my cool on the road so I can be reminded to stay calm and avoid road rage. It's for when I drive cars at the speed of light but I take my cautions because I look forward to seeing you, always."

"Je veux toujours être en sécurité pour que tu ne t'inquiètes pas pour moi," I want to always be safe so you don't worry about me.

Charles pauses and turns to look at you, quite lovingly, spending the 30 seconds of the red light awaiting your response. It is safe to say you were out of words, because you never knew a gesture as simple as this could make your heart swell ten times its size. All because of a hair tie.

"I love you so so so much, you hair tie stealer." you smile as his free hand trails up your thigh to capture your hand as he kisses the back of it. "But for what it's worth, I will always worry about you."

"That I know. But treat the hair tie as an immunity charm."

----------

tagging: @slytherheign <333 hope u r doing well mwah

notes: my first imagine (written)! im still working on writing dialogues cause its the part i find the hardest :// lmk what u think! will be posting ig imagines tomorrow hehe that or a very angsty charles imagine based on midnight rain by taylor 🫠

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

How does time work on Gallifrey? What do their calendars look like, is it like ours 365 days and 12 months?

How does time work on Gallifrey?

Gallifreyan time is as complicated as you think it is, and it can be a bit mind-bending to wrap your head around, especially if you're used to the conventional flow of time that Earthlings experience.

⏳Inner Time

One of the first things to know is that Gallifrey exists in a time state known as Inner Time or Gallifreyan Absolute Time—a realm "outside" of regular Universal time, separated by powerful barriers and advanced technology. Essentially, Gallifrey's history and continuity are protected and separate from the rest of the universe's flow of time. This means that any events or disasters etc. that affect the wider Universe's flow of time will not affect Gallifrey - it will always flow at its own pace.

However, just to confuse you, Inner Time flows about 5 times faster than normal time in the universe, and it's actually been slowing down by about 1 second every hour, so the time difference isn't as dramatic as it used to be. This means Gallifrey's time is slowing down to sync up with Earth's time (but very, very slowly).

📅Gallifreyan Time Systems

There are several methods for keeping track of time on Gallifrey, and the most prominent ones are:

Gallifreyan Absolute Time (Local Dateline): Gallifreyan timekeeping began with the installation of the Eye of Harmony in the Citadel, marking the start of the Rassilon Era (RE). This system measures time from the perspective of those living within Inner Time on Gallifrey. Dates are written with the suffix 'RE' (Rassilon Era), and they can get quite long, so they can be reduced to a five-digit format (e.g., 5725.2 RE). So, for example, the Doctor's loom date could be recorded as 2004716.44 RE, or 4716.4 RE (sources vary).

Date Index/Gallifreyan Mean Time: This system uses a Date Index format, like 3-0-9-9-0-6 or an abbreviated two-digit version (like 92). It tracks Inner Time, but this system doesn’t seem to be used much outside Gallifrey, possibly reserved for more scientific purposes.

Gallifreyan TL Dating System: Possibly a Time Lord exclusive, this tracks time on Gallifrey from around 100,447 years before the Doctor's birth. Quite what happened on this date to start a brand new calendar is a bit of a mystery, but it could possibly be related to the Gallifreyan Civil War or the creation of the first of the Newblood Houses.

GRT (Gallifreyan Relative Time): This is probably just dates relative to each planet—i.e., how each planet tracks its own time. So when they're discussing the start of the First World War on Earth, it's just 1914 CE or AD, as humans would say.

Relative Date: This system converts GRT into Gallifreyan Absolute Time/Local Dateline. For example, the Eye of Harmony was activated in the year 3.5 billion BC on Earth (so, 0 RE), and Earth's 1999 AD is 3,500,034,139.89 RE. It essentially allows Gallifreyans to compare their time to what’s happening 'outside' in the rest of the universe.

Revised Local Dateline: This system adjusts the Local Dateline to compensate for the gradual slowing of Inner Time. It's used primarily in the Matrix and APC, which rely on accurate time tracking. It's more precise and takes into account the overall slowing of Gallifreyan time.

🗓️ Gallifreyan Calendar and Timekeeping

While Gallifreyan time is more complicated in how it's counted, it does have basic systems that overlap with how Earth measures time.

Gallifreyan Years are around the same length as Earth years (around 350 days), but a year is divided into 13 or 14 months, each roughly 27 days long.

Gallifreyan Days are still 24 hours like Earth days, but they're divided into 18-hour days with 9 hours of daylight and 9 hours of night, for some insane reason. The exact hours change with seasons and geography, so perhaps the length of a day might change throughout the year to give an average of 24 hours.

Weeks are mentioned, but the Doctor finds the concept a bit weird, possibly because Gallifreyan 'weeks' might be more fluid and not as significant as Earth’s seven-day cycle.

🏫 So ...

In summary, Gallifreyan time is a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey mess of systems and shifts, but it works for them. It's all stupidly complicated and my head hurts.

Related:

📺|🗣️⏲️The Timing of a Time Lord

💬|⏰🎉What are some major Gallifreyan traditions and holidays?: Events through the Gallifreyan calendar.

💬|🗣️✍️How do Time Lords write coordinates?: How coordinates get written and work in TARDISes.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[alesseia]

make me write: poll!!

jumping on the poll bandwagon because I have not touched Scrivener in FOREVER (read: two weeks)

unfortunately, I do not have multiple stories like most people on Writeblr since I keep fixating on the same story and its characters, lmao, so IDK if I can do the same thing everyone else is doing

HOWEVER, I will be taking my thesis in BFA Creative Writing this year and I am going to do doing something based on my main story! I was planning on finishing Book 1 (which I already have 4 chapters for), but my thesis adviser is heavily discouraging I do a full novel (minimum requirement for word count is only 15k and we're supposed to finish writing that with revisions by early December) so I've got a bunch of backup plans just in case I can't convince her!!

so here's a poll + bonus read more for further description of thesis ideas!!

Book 1 (Excerpt)

This is actually the option my adviser recommended the most. I have already written the first four chapters, even doing major revisions, and that already hit the 15k minimum word count, so she said that just revising these chapters would be the easiest option.

My biggest gripe with this is that I don't want to end it after Chapter 4. It ends on a mediocre cliffhanger, and we don't meet the other two main characters until later on. Not to mention, the BFA CW majors in my university get to (independently) publish and sell copies of their thesis at the end of the year, so it would be much more satisfying if I do the full Book 1.

Anthology: Thematic

I was thinking I could do instead a thematic short story collection linking the common traits of the main characters (Axel, Avery, Leandro, and Nathan). Each of the short stories would focus on a different MC's backstory. The central theme would be their loneliness.

The stories are (without giving away certain plot twists in Book 1):

AXEL: a story about a group of friends playing together, which turns out to be a product of Axel’s imagination

AVERY: the story behind the fallout with her ex-friends

LEANDRO: Leandro talking to his family about getting friends while figuring out he's a trans guy

NATHAN: Nathan talking to other children working under his drug pimp spirit stain dealer

Anthology: Characterization

This one was inspired by fanfiction, specifically the concept of the same characters in alternate universes. How can you tell the character is still the same character when they have a completely different backstory and setting? Up to where do you draw the lines?

The various settings are:

Historical — Pride and Prejudice but set in the late Spanish colonial period and from the POV of Elizabeth’s (Avery) best friend (Axel)

Sci-fi time travel — From 2099 CE, Axel is asked to travel to 2013 Metro Manila to chase after a time-traveling criminal (Raven)

Urban fantasy (Aswangs) — Axel the friendly manananggal helping their friend Leandro, who recently discovered they’re a manananggal

Modern real-life — Axel signing up their friend Nathan on a blind date auction during high school fair season

Alesseia (Original) — Axel discussing how to beat Rex with all of their friends

Anthology: Timeline

A short story collection featuring the same character, likely Axel, at different points in the series. The series is divided into three arcs, so it would likely be:

Before Arc 1

Between Arcs 1 and 2

Between Arcs 2 and 3

After Arc 3

The Actual Book 1

The actual book 1 of Alesseia. Tentatively titled the Dragon's Deed. I really, really, REALLY want this, but like. it's gonna be what, 50k words 😭 so unless I pull a NaNoWriMo again, I can't blame Ma'am

Anyway if you read all that, thank you SO much!!! I really appreciate your support 😄 wishing you the best of luck with writing as well!!

[tropicalbildung]

건강하게 성실하게 할 일 합시다

4/16 (T)

Comparative Essay Prompt

Rubric

Peer Review

Grading the essays (1-3)

Research my thing ... ha

4/21 (S)

Midterm Exam - questions - done

answer sheet making

teaching prep - ce2

4/23 (T)

Teaching prep - Brit poetry

Grade - two more - Brit lit - 1st assignment

Copy - Romanticism

Example

Modal verbs

Tense

Topic Sentence

4/24 (W)

4/26 (F)

현민 grading

Editing

compare/contrast writing prompt

토요일 thesis-revision

at least research my thing!!!!

4/28 (S)

수업준비 두개 미리 해두고

CE - 2nd writing grade (5개)

집에 가서 - midterm grading - 영국시

[concupiscience]

Executions as Mythical Re-enactments

Warning: This chapter contains graphic descriptions of violence.

A particularly gruesome form of execution involved making the condemned criminal play a role in a mythic re-enactment. A form of this was inflicted on the bandit Selurus, who was brought to Rome and executed on a wooden platform made to look like Mount Aetna:

And recently, in my own time,[1] a certain Selurus, called the “son of Aetna,” was sent up to Rome because he had put himself at the head of an army and for a long time had overrun the regions round about Aetna with frequent raids; I saw him torn to pieces by wild beasts at an appointed combat of gladiators in the Forum; for he was placed on a lofty scaffold, as though on Aetna, and the scaffold was made suddenly to break up and collapse, and he himself was carried down with it into cages of wild-beasts — fragile cages that had been prepared beneath the scaffold for that purpose.

Strabo, Geography 7.2

The poet Martial records several far more elaborate executions in his Book of Spectacles (originally written for Titus’ games for the opening of the Colosseum, he revised it and it was presented to Domitian in 81 CE).

V Believe that Pasiphae was mated to the Cretan bull: we have seen it, the old-time myth is now believed![2] And let not long ago time, Caesar, marvel at itself: the arena makes real for you whatever Fame sings of.

VII Just as Prometheus[3] chained on a Scythian crag fed the untiring vulture with his too prolific heart, so Laureolus,[4] hanging on a real cross, defenceless gave up his guts to a Caledonian bear. His mangled limbs lived on, though the parts dripped gore, and in all his body there was nowhere a body’s shape. He finally won a deserved punishment: the guilty man had cut a parent’s or a master’s throat with his sword, or, in his insanity, had robbed a temple of its piled up gold, or had secretly set a savage torch to you, Rome.[5] Accursed, he had outdone the crimes ancient legends tell told; in him that which had been a show before was punishment.

VIII Daedalus, now you are being mangled by a Lucanian boar,[6] how you wish you now had your wings!

XVlB A bull carried Europa along fraternal seas; but now a bull has carried Alcides[7] to the stars. Compare now, Fame, the bulls of Caesar and of Jupiter: the burden was the same, yet Caesar’s bull threw his higher.

XXI The arena has shown to you, Caesar, whatever Rhodope saw, it is said, on the Orphic stage.[8] Cliffs crept close and a marvellous wood moved swiftly on, one such as men think the grove of the Hesperides was. Every kind of wild beast was there, mixed in the herd and above the Orpheus many birds hovered – but he fell, mauled by an ungrateful bear. This was the only thing which did not correspond to the legend.

XXlB When the earth yawned suddenly and sent out a she-bear to attack Orpheus, the bear came from Eurydice.[9]

XXV Stop wondering that the night-time wave spared you, Leander[10] – it was Caesar’s wave.

XXV B While bold Leander was swimming to his sweet love and his weary head was now being engulfed by the swelling waters, in misery (or it is said) he spoke to the surging waves: ” Spare me while I  go to her, overwhelm me when I return.”

XXVI A trained bevy of Nereids played along the sea and danced on the yielding waters with their varied arrangements. A trident threatened with straight spikes, an anchor with a curved one: we  thought we saw an oar, and we thought we saw a boat, and that the Spartan[11] star glittered in welcome to  the seamen, and sails filled wide for all to see.  Who imagined such marvellous art in liquid waves?  These pastimes either Thetis taught or learned herself.

Martial, On Spectacles

Not all re-enactments involved Greek myth: some also involved people playing the role of figures from Roman legend as in the following poem about a criminal being forced to play the role of Gaius Mucius Scaevola, a legendary Roman who thrust his hand into a sacrificial fire after being captured by Rome’s enemies when on a mission to assassinate the enemy leader: he did this as a way to show them how little Romans valued their lives or cared about pain:

Mucius Scaevola

The spectacle which is now presented to us in Caesar’s arena, was the great glory of the days of Brutus. See how bravely the hand bears the flames. It even enjoys the punishment, and reigns in the astonished fire! Scaevola himself appears as a spectator of his own act, and applauds the noble destruction of his right hand, which seems to luxuriate in the sacrificial fire; and unless the means of suffering had been taken away from it against its will, the left hand was still more boldly preparing to meet the vanquished flames. I am unwilling, after so glorious an action, to inquire what he had done before; it is sufficient for me to have witnessed the fate of his hand.

Martial Epigrams 8.30

If that Mucius, whom we recently saw in the arena in the morning, and who shoved his hand into the blaring fire, appears to you to be a man of patience, fortitude, and endurance, you have no more sense than the people of Abdera; for when a man is commanded, with the alternative of the pitched shirt before his eyes, to burn his hand, it would be more courageous to say, “I will not burn it!”

Martial, Epigrams 10.25

 Tertullian raged[12] against these mythic re-enactments (along with other things, such as farces)

Others of your writers in their depravity even amuse you by vilifying the gods. Look at those elegant writings of your Lentuli and Hostilii, whether in the jokes and tricks it is the mimes or your gods which make you laugh, [writing likes] Anubis the Adulterer, and Mr. Luna,[13] Diana Whipped, and Reading of the Will of Jupiter Deceased, and Three Mocked and Hungry Herculeses. Your dramatic literature, too, depicts all the sins of your gods. The Sun mourns his offspring cast down from heaven to your pleasure; Cybele sighs after the scornful shepherd without a blush from you;[14] you tolerate Jupiter’s misdeeds appearing on stage, and the shepherd judging Juno, Venus, and Minerva.[15] Then, again, when the face of one your gods sits on a disreputable and infamous head, when an impure body of someone and up for the art in all effeminacy represents a Minerva or a Hercules, is not the majesty of your gods insulted and their deity dishonoured? Yet you not merely look on, but applaud. You are, I suppose, more devout in the arena, where after the same fashion your deities dance on human blood, on the pollutions caused by inflicted punishments, as they act their themes and stories, doing their turn for the wretched criminals, except that these, too, often put on divinity and actually play the very gods. We have seen in our day a representation of the mutilation of Attis, that famous god of Pessinus, and a man burnt alive as Hercules. We have made merry amid the ludicrous cruelties of the noonday exhibition, at Mercury examining the bodies of the dead with his hot iron; we have witnessed Jupiter’s brother, mallet in hand, dragging out the corpses of the gladiators.[16] But who can go into everything of this sort?

Tertullian, Apology 15.4-6

 

Media Attributions

Mucius Scaevola © Photo by Jastrow is licensed under a Public Domain license

c. 35 BCE. ↵

Pasiphae was the wife of Minos, king of Crete. As a punishment to Minos she was forced to fall in love with a bull by the god Neptune. She mated with him after the craftsman Daedalus built a hollow wooden cow for her to hide in. The child of this union was the Minotaur.  ↵

As a punishment for stealing fire and giving it to mankind, Jupiter chained the god Prometheus to a rock; every day a vulture ate his liver, which grew back in the night. ↵

He was a legendary Roman bandit; there was a mime named after him ↵

Arson was considered a particularly heinous crime in Rome because of the great amount of damage it could cause. ↵

Lucania is a region in the South of Italy; densely wooded, it was known for its wild boars. ↵

Alcides = Hercules. Europa was a princess who was abducted by Jupiter in the form of a white bull; he carried her from Asia to Crete. ↵

The mountain of Rhodope in Thrace was associated with the mythical poet Orpheus, who was said to be able to charm wild animals with his song. In this re-enactment it seems as if a condemned prisoner was made to play the role of Orpheus, eventually being mauled by a bear. ↵

It is likely that XXI and XXIB were originally parts of the same poem. Eurydice was Orpheus’ wife, whom he tried unsuccessfully to rescue from the underworld.  ↵

This and the following were part of a naumachia, rather than an event in the Colosseum. Part of the show was presumably someone representing Leander re-enacting his mythic swim across the Hellespont to his beloved Hero. ↵

  The stars of Castor and Pollux, gods worshipped by sailors. ↵

  I suspect that at least 50% of Tertullian’s waking hours were spent raging about something. ↵

The moon goddess, Luna, was not usually a man. As might be guessed by the fact that she was a a goddess ↵

Attis; he was a shepherd who was driven mad as a punishment by the goddess Cybele. In his madness he castrated himself, the mutilation that Tertullian is referring to. ↵

A reference to the Judgment of Paris, where the shepherd Paris gave the Golden Apple as prize to Venus after she’d promised him Helen of Troy. ↵

In the arena there was a person dressed up as Pluto, god of the underworld and Jupiter’s brother, who hit the corpses with his mallet to make sure they were dead and dragged the corpses out with a took. ↵

Previous/next navigation

 Previous: Damnatio ad Bestias

Next: Executions of Christians 

[the-hem]

Introduction to the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad, "The Exploration of the Mysteries of the Power of Yoga."

The Yoga Kundalini Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Power of Yoga was written sometime after 200 CE. It is numbered 60 of 108.

The text mentions a conversation with Gautama Buddha which makes me think the dates the text was written and revised could be quite fluid.

After I finished my analysis of the Narasimha Upanishads which ended on a high note, "pursue wonderfulness like a lion" I wanted to start a new text as soon as possible, hoping to find it.

The Yoga Kundalini Upanishad is considered one of the greatest in the Vedas, so I am excited to take this tour through it.

The text begins with a hypothesis: The Prana the Life Essence called Chidatma, "the soul in the mind" is created by Pratyatma, "the Soul of God" but because of delusion, one loses one's sense of the apparent and ethereal connections between the two.

How the two become separate and are yoked together again is the subject of the Upanishad.

Chapter - I The Causes of the Mind.

1. Chitta (the mind) has two causes, Vasanas and (Prana) Vayu. If one of them is controlled, then both are controlled.

2. Of these two, a person should control (Prana) Vayu always through moderate food, postures and thirdly Sakti-Chala "the energy of delusion".

3-4. I shall explain the nature of these. Listen to it, O Gautama . One should take a sweet and nutritious food, leaving a fourth unfilled, in order to please Shiva (the patron of Yogins). This is called moderate food.

Posture herein required is of two kinds, Padma "Lotus" and Vajra "Lightning".

Prana is the autonomous life force that enters the body of a living thing after Purusha, the Male God touches inanimate matter, the Female God. The result, the "fruits of the actions" are living things, which are endowed with independent continuous process like circulation, respiration, digestion etc. which keep them alive.

The process also produces desires which like the heart beat, cannot be ended only controlled. When a desire is in control, it is called a bias, or a vasana. A person must always be in control of his biases, or vasanas not the other way around.

To control the vasanas, the sage suggests Padmasana "perfect pose" and Vajrasana "diamond pose".

5. Placing the two heels over the two opposite thighs (respectively) is the Padma (posture) which is the destroyer of all sins.

6. Placing one heel below the Mulakanda and the other over it and sitting with the neck, body and head erect is the Vajra posture.

All desires originating in the Mulakanda Chakra, the area between the genitals in front and the anus in back must be manned by the "Diamond Mind" the direct and focused aspect of the intellect.

Control over the desire to eliminate from the "sacred area" is a given, but one's lordship over the desire to mate is not. To be the master instead of the slave to the Mulakanda Chakra and avoid a fallow way of life is the goal. This is the goal with all vasanas and their sources.

[painterofhorizons]

I posted 8,511 times in 2022

That's 637 more posts than 2021!

326 posts created (4%)

8,185 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most: (love to all of you!)

@zwergenmaedchen

@thornhands

@hunnybadgerv

@foofygoldfish

@amistrio

I tagged 2,327 of my posts in 2022

#art reblog - 415 posts

#mass effect - 368 posts

#quote - 173 posts

#architecture - 137 posts

#on writing - 135 posts

#happy things - 98 posts

#kittycats - 93 posts

#fic rec - 91 posts

#reda shepard - 73 posts

#painterofhorizons writes - 65 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the things i'm panicking about rn are 50% actual worry 50% bitch ass circumstances and 200% hormonal imbalance caused catastrophizing due to

I sent 6 gifts in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Gosh, I’m so excited to share just another piece about Akuze with you guys. :D Hell of a shoutout to @shadoedseptmbr and @amistrio for the AMAZING beta, and for @theoriginalladya for her brilliant opening lines help.

Expect to be hurt by the text. There’s so much ouch in it.

Ghosts from the Past

Summary: Fifteen months after surviving the thresher maw massacre on Akuze, Shepard is confronted with ghosts from her past, when a relative of one of her dead former comrades takes a position on the same vessel that she's assigned to. (pre-ME1)

Length: ~5k in 2 chapters

Rating: General Audience

Warnings: death mention, dealing with death/grief/loss

Characters: Reda Shepard, Engineer Greg Adams

Tags: Pre-Mass Effect 1, Sole Survivor, Akuze, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, SSV Tokyo, Thresher Maws, Dealing With Loss, dealing with death    

25 notes - Posted April 6, 2022

#4

Writing MASTERPOST, Mass Effect Edition

Reda Shepard

(Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Infiltrator, paragade/renegon, ace, Shakarian, post-war Shega, tumblr tag)

You owe me, little bird! (6.4k): Shepard owes to a lot of people, both from her past and from her present. And she is very aware of it. (how Shepard met Anderson, Earthborn origin story from 2015, might get revised in the future)

20 times Akuze almost gets Shepard (8k): After Akuze, Shepard fights to gain back agency. (pre-ME1)

Ghosts from the Past (5k): Fifteen months after surviving the thresher maw massacre on Akuze, Shepard is confronted with ghosts from her past, when a relative of one of her dead former comrades takes a position on the same vessel that she's assigned to. (pre-ME1)

Joker steals the Normandy (600): Shepard might or might not have know about Joker's plans to steal the Normandy. (pre-ME1)

Area secure, Commander (1.5k): Just Shepard, Garrus, Tali, the MAKO and a thresher maw. (ME1)

Retirement Plans (1k): Shepard does not think about retirement, or does she? (aka Ahern's apartment on Intai'sei) (ME1)

On the Helmsman‘s Watch (5.8k): Joker's job includes a lot more than just flying the Normandy. (ME1, post Feros, beacon angst, Thorian mind fuckery)

Memories carved into flesh (700): Shakarian, prompt: Helping scratch that itch on their back they can’t reach. (ME2)

Human (4k): After priority: Thessia (ME3, from 2015, might get revised in the future)

A Life In Letters (<1k): The life of Reda Shepard told in various emails to different people she starts to write after her gang exit 2169 CE. (might or might not get picked up again)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I also write for Criminal Minds, you can find the masterpost about my Meeting Strangers fic here.

28 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

#3

Following Reda Shepard through the aftermath of Akuze. // Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Infiltrator, paragade

20 times Akuze almost gets Shepard (AO3): After Akuze, Shepard fights to gain back agency. // 8k, pre-ME1, PTSD, recovery, Captain Anderson

Ghosts from the Past, pt. 01 (AO3): Fifteen months after surviving the thresher maw massacre on Akuze, Shepard is confronted with ghosts from her past, when a relative of one of her dead former comrades takes a position on the same vessel that she's assigned to. // 2k, pre-ME1, Engineer Adams

Ghosts from the Past, pt. 02 (AO3): With both of them hurting a relative's death, Adams tries to mend burning bridges. // 3.5k, pre-ME1, Engineer Adams

Area secure, Commander (AO3): Tali's first encounter with a thresher maw doesn't exactly go ideal, but little does she know. // 1.5k, ME1, PTSD, Tali, Garrus

will be continued

header image kindly provided by @swaps55​

37 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

#2

See the full post

63 notes - Posted April 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

1st Lieutenant Reda Shepard, Earthborn, Sole Survivor, being promoted shortly after Akuze happened (and not happy about it)

You can read about Akuze and it’s aftermath here.

Commission by the wonderful @redreart​ who is an absolute pleasure to work with and who captured exactly what I had hoped for. Thank you, dear! I am in total awe. *.*

234 notes - Posted June 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Barghest Analysis REVISION

Since making my Fairy Knight Gawain / Barghest analysis, a couple of big changes happened in the game, that being Append Skills / Koyanskaya / Oberon. In addition more time testing out Barghest revealed she was quite a bit better than initially believed, so she is getting a revised analysis.

A link to the original analysis is here. In addition, I won't be rehashing her stats or skills, since my first analysis already did that and arguably linking to her wiki or atlus.io page is better. Without further ado, let's get started.

First things first, let's discuss her internals again. In comparison with other Sabers, she has the 3rd highest HP amongst 4-star Sabers and the 16th highest HP amongst all Sabers, giving her a lot of HP to work with. Her attack sits at 4th lowest and 9th lowest respectively, which means she has a very generic high HP low ATK spread. She's not as bad off as Summer Medb or Siegfried though, and sits closer to Chevalier d'Eon. In addition, her BBBAQ card set means she does more damage than her low ATK stat would initially suggest thanks to her Buster Brave Chains. While a very polarized stat spread is never a great thing to see, Barghest at least makes good use out of her high HP and can overcome her lower ATK.

Her NP generation on her cards is a solid chunk above average too. 2.22% on her Arts is nice and complimented by her 3.70% on her Quick, which makes it quite good. Her Extra is more mediocre though, having the same base as her Quick. An ABQ chain will Barghest will generate on average about 29% of her gauge, with her BQA generating 23% and her BBA generating 17%. While not initially amazing, Barghest's 3rd skill helps her overcome the inherent weakness of her cardset and makes her a lot more consistent. Her Star Generation is okay. Most chains with her Quick at the end will on average generate 16 crit stars, which is good for a one-Quick cardset but might not be enough if you want to incorporate critical hits into her strategy.

Her first skill, Numeral of the Saint, is the dud skill on her kit. It's not bad, being a three-turn Attack boost on a 5-turn cooldown and having a really strong additional upside on battlefields where the Sun is out that boosts her damage a lot, but there are many situations where this skill just functions as a low attack steroid. However, what is important to note here is that unlike Gawain before he got his buff to be able to set-up Sunlight whenever, Barghest is not reliant on this skill to do good damage. The rest of Barghest's kit makes up more than the difference for this skill being lackluster and makes Sunlight an additional perk rather than essential. It is still worth noting as before that in Sunlight, this skill boosts Barghest's Buster cards by a total of 51% for 3 turns on its own.

Wild Rule is probably the best skill on Barghest's entire kit, and it's the skill that really defines Barghest's usefulness in many situations. The skill first provides a 30% Buster up for 3 turns, which automatically helps cover for Numeral of the Saint or adds additional power onto it (resulting in a total steroid of 86% for her Busters). But it's the extra effects that make it very powerful. First, it restores 1000 HP to Barghest every time she attacks an enemy with one of her cards (NOT her NP). This can result in a lot of healing every turn with good access to her cards, and functions as a very powerful soft survival tool. In solo situations, this skill will restore 4000 HP a turn for 12,000 HP total, without factoring in CEs such as Maid in Halloween or the Good Wife Command Code which can further ramp this. But, in addition to that and the Buster buff, it also grants her the ability to remove one of her opponent's buffs every time she attacks, and then inflict a guaranteed (except for Debuff Immunity) Def down debuff of 10%. Barghest, to date, has one of the only ways to deal with bosses and Servants who will use a buffing skill every single turn, since the buff removal is not limited in the amount of uses, just the turn duration of 3 turns. She's amazing in a solo situation against bosses like Hessian Lobo in Shinjuku, since she can purge the Evasion buff he gets every turn and further increase her damage. It's never particularly likely she'll be able to inflict the maximum number of stacks, but even 3 or 4 dramatically increases her damage ceiling and makes it hit a lot harder. The fact that Barghest has a skill with two really strong effects on top of a good Buster buff AND all on a 6-turn cooldown is insanity.

Foul Weather though is another really powerful skill. It grants the party a 3 hit 1000 Damage Cut for 3 turns, and also charges the party's NP gauge by 15% at the end of every turn for 3 turns. This not only basically solves Barghest's NP generation concerns, but also acts as a very powerful ramp tool for her allies. Although a bit slow, Barghest has one of the most powerful party NP chargers in the game, giving a total of 45% at Level 10. This skill is not only good in general, it's vital in several easy to use farming comps with Barghest and Oberon as well for giving Barghest and her allies enough NP to work with. The damage cut also works as another good soft survival tool, helping her to shrug off basic attacks pretty easily, as well as helping out her allies as well in that regard. It's less exciting than her 2nd skill, but its pretty similarly powerful.

With a really solid skillset, there's nothing more to talk about with her NP right? I'm sure its one of those that like, inflicts critical chance down or something.

Oh. So Barghest's NP is extremely good and helps to really tie her kit together. First it provides an additional Buster buff for 1 turn before doing damage, further increasing her steroid count. Accounting for her 1st skill being off or on, her NP will have either a 77% power buff or a 110% power buff, which is a very strong start before including any Type 3 buffs like killer damage or NP damage buffs. After that, it gives her a chunky 3000 Max HP buff and reduces the cooldowns on her skills by 1 turn. This NP adds even more soft survival and healing, and on top of it accelerates how quickly her skills come online. This means her damage is even higher than expected since it has greater uptime and her NP generation is very consistent. Her NP hits decently hard despite her low ATK stat, but it really more important for the extra effects that it gives. It's hard to find a more synergistic NP on a DPS Servant, as this is one of the best.

So what roles does Barghest fill? Her primary roles are as a Farmer, a Soloer, and a DPS Servant. Previously, her status as a Buster Servant without a particularly strong instant NP charge made her mostly incompatible with farming, but with the release of Oberon, suddenly she has many farming comps available to her, many of which are remarkably F2P. Foul Weather will provide her 30% NP gauge over two turns, which fits perfectly with the 70% NP charge that Oberon provides. In addition, it also helps for slotting in more powerful CEs for other farmers. With Mana Loading unlocked, Servants like Arash and Spartacus can use their NPs on Turn 2 easily with a 50% Charge CE, and Servants with 20% NP charges like Medusa can use a 50% charge CE with Oberon's S1 as well.

As a solo Servant, she's almost unparalleled. Thanks to the incredible amount of soft survival she has and her buff removal, she can very easily solo a lot of bosses that might have been difficult for other Servants. Her ability to stack Max HP buffs means she can often just outright survive weaker AoE NPs and some resisted ST NPs as well, which makes hard survival less needed. With an MC that provides some kind of hard survival and a Guts CE its hard to find a boss Barghest can't solo. Solos aren't exactly primo meta, but they are very fun and Barghest is one of the best.

Finally, as a DPS, something to remember is that while Barghest hits harder than one might initially think, there are definitely Servants who are better at killing bosses than she is. Barghest fits well in longer, protracted fights where her powerful Foul Weather skill can be used to support the other Servants in the party. This doesn't mean that a faster strategy isn't possible, for example Barghest / Koyanskaya / Koyanskaya is fast, reckless, and fun comp. But Barghest fits better in comps that give some time to breathe. Barghest's main value is the consistency and resiliency she gives to comps because of her skills and NP.

Support Options:

Merlin by far is still the best Buster support for Barghest, and it's really really easy to see why. Barghest and Merlin form a powerful feedback loop, where Merlin's NP grants Barghest additional NP regen, which accelerates how quickly she can use her NP to reduce her skill cooldowns to use her Foul Weather more, which charges Merlin's NP faster. You can probably see where this is going, and it's not uncommon for a double Merlin comp to be almost constantly using NPs and providing so many Crit stars that Barghest can crit very consistently. Koyanskaya is also quite powerful due to providing strong steroids, cooldown reduction, and NP generation through her 2nd skill and her NP. Barghest / Koyanskaya / Merlin forms a very nice mid-range between pure ramp and high burst damage. Oberon is also very strong in enabling farming comps, and can even be used with Merlin if you're feeling very lucky. He also can provide a strong finisher buff if Barghest is using Black Grail.

More defensive Servants can also be used like Mash, Hans, Leonidas, and Castoria to slow the pace down. Barghest / Mash / Merlin is probably one of, if not the strongest, version of the F2P classic DPS / Mash / Merlin comp, since Barghest not only provides additional defense and buff removal but also gives Mash additional NP ramping, since Mash's very average NP generation is always a problem with this comp. Hans can be considered somewhere between Mash and Merlin and Barghest / Mash / Hans probably works pretty well.

Command Code: Barghest is very flexible with Command Codes, but many of the very good ones, like Maiden of Orleans / Mage of Flowers / Good Wife Wise Fox should probably be found no matter what. Extra damage is good in general, while many Command Codes that remove buffs or debuffs, or provide Sure Hit are very good for solo situations. Since Barghest is often used in solos, the Command Codes you give her will very likely be flexible and change based on the boss you are currently fighting.

Craft Essences: With Barghest, you choice of craft essence will generally fall along a couple of lines. First, you have Kaleidoscope (and the weaker Wizard Marshal) which is good if you want to do farming set-ups. Second you have damage boosting CEs such as Black Grail, Joint Recital, Heroine Eli-Chan's Adventure, so on and so forth. The third is equipping CEs that increase Barghest's survival or her consistency. Maid in Halloween and Prisma Cosmos are pretty notable along with most Guts CEs, and even Def up CEs can be good depending on your comp. The point here is that Barghest is very flexible with CEs, and works with a wider variety of CEs than one might immediately expect.

Append Skills: The order of priority on her append skills are 2 -> 1 -> 3. Mana Loading is often vital to farming comps if you do not have a Superscope. The Extra Attack performance not only provides an okay damage boost in solo situations, but improves her NP generation on her extra which is not insignificant at all, and can result in a couple extra crit stars with every chain. Her 3rd Append is Anti-Alter Ego, which is very niche but not totally useless. Alter Egos can sometimes be difficult to solo because they gain charges quicker than other classes, so having the extra damage might be the difference maker in a solo.

Grails: Normally Grails are not particularly important to talk about with a higher rarity servant, but Grails actually do make a pretty big difference in Barghest's performance. Grailing her to Level 90 will put her at about the 10th highest ATK among 4-star Sabers while having a lot more health than even Siegfried, while Level 100 will give her the highest ATK of any 4-star Saber while giving her about 16.5k HP. The ATK and HP are both important to Barghest since the extra HP gives her a lot more wiggle room in solos and the ATK means she can perform a lot better in farming. For people who want to grail her to 120, it gives her enough ATK to compete with even the top-ends of the 5-star Sabers like Ibuki and an absurd 19,000 HP.

Now this being said, while Grails ARE good for Barghest, this doesn't mean you have to Grail her. Grails for be for love first, but it is a nice side effect that they benefit her disproportionately compared to other Servants.

I could give a list of pros and cons and how she fares against competition, but I don't think that's actually necessary. Her niche should be immediately apparent compared to other AoE Buster Sabers, and well as her pitfalls. Maybe some day in the future I'll do an in-length breakdown of different comps you can use Barghest in and how they compare to each other.

But for now, consider this a much more in-length review of Barghest in F/GO.

[300iqprower]

Just for posterity’s sake:

If you ever feel like these Hypothetical Rank Ups have gotten way more powerful as time goes on, that’s because I wasn’t always taking into account Lostbelt 6 onwards powercreep at the start, and because as i’ve done these i’ve gotten way better understanding of just how fcked the balance of FGO is, gacha or otherwise, as i’ve learned more and more from systematically comparing stat and scaling values.

Side note: Things I generally try to avoid giving characters are invincibility, pure NP battery, DOTs, Sure Hit, and Heal Amount Up. This is because the former 2 are all purpose solutions that are often a lazy way out; they’re useful on literally anyone rather than a matter of dynamic/reactuon synergy or a fix to a specific issue. This is also why I usually use charges when handing out invincibility since raw invincibility is a more limiting yet a more powerful tool, especially when on demand support COUGH Merlin COUGH. This is why an overall bad servant like Danzo (believe me she’ll have her day) could have incredible potential in certain situations and the failings her kit are pure failings of the game’s inherent design. NP battery meanwhile is self explanatory…and i admit is also ironic when the first HRU was me giving one to my favorite servant but I explain in that why it’s specifically the exact thing needed and synergizes with his pre-existing kit (although looking back on it, it probably would be better off on his first skill…I’m probably gonna end up revising an HRU or two down the road-)

The other 3 are cause…they suck. And are basically unsalvageable. DOTs need a complete overhaul into being percentage based rather than flat damage amounts and are fubar the same reason Noble Phabtasm Damage down is ALMOST as pointless as the other three, which is the sheer scaling of hp where enemies have thousands of times as much hp as your servants yet enemy servants have their damage scale the exact same way. It’s why without hard survival or a dedicated wall strategy, an aoe boss np is near guaranteed frontline wipe. In fact enemy NP damage down is probably about as useless as Sure Hit, which isn’t as bad as the other two but is still terrible because ignore invincibility isnt rare enough to justify the idea if invincibility being Evade but even more safe. This is exactly why Castoria has true invulnerability, because they fucked up the idea that ignore invincibility is supposed to be super rare super special. The end result is that I.I. isnt Sure Hit but better, it’s the new default while Sure Hit is just a worse/incomplete version of the same effect.

HP Recovery is is its own entire bag of worms. A large part of it is definitely the aforementioned lack of separate scaling fir enemy damage but a large part of it is the skills cooldown and how high they are. The ONLY servants who can reliably make use of HP recovery up are dedicated healers in a game that us hardwired to be anti-healing meta beca of sheer damage output that means without a full set of healing skills you cant heal often enough to get better use out of Recovery Up than if you just put a flat amount of recovery per turn. Your options are hard survival or a combination of defense increases AND ho recovery and at that point team compositions benefit far more from stacking those things than giving up a CE/unit/skill slot in favor of HP recovery up. This is all not unrelated to us only having ONE servant with HP Recovery support to date, and that’s Medea Lily. No Santa Jalter doesn’t count it’s there for pure flavor and cant even affect active skills. Oh and btw this is all why Asclepius, YA KNOW, ASCLEPIUS, does not have heal up and in fact his np has NO heal and instead provides Guts, a form if hard survival.

This is a game where the meta is so fucked that the God of Medicine has no heal on his ult, and TWO SEPARATE Goddesses of Love has no charm in their entire kit. Gods help me.

…Nothing really brought all that on like i said this is all for posterity’s sake. But yeah that oughta give a good chunk of insight on how this process goes.

[system76]

Behind the Scenes of System76: Sales Team

The System76 Behind the Scenes series aims to give readers an inside look at the people behind our mission. This week, we spoke with VP of Sales Sam Mondlick about the challenges of conducting business during a pandemic, and how long it’ll take the Sales Team to make a certain blog author a millionaire.

You know. The important things.

Take a moment to describe the different functions of the Sales Team.

The Sales Team itself is currently made up of two different positions. The Customer Experience Specialist (CES) is the first line of conversation with System76 with regards to anything order-related. Their job is to make your process from purchase to shipment as easy as possible and provide you with as much information as you might need, such as giving status updates about orders or answering questions that may have arisen.

The other position within Sales is Account Management. They’re the people you talk to from first inquiry to System76 about products. These guys help anyone, from my 80-year-old grandma who’s looking to transition from Windows to Linux, to Fortune 50 companies. They deal with a wide variety of customer base, so they’re pretty much experts in getting the customer what they need.

Then there’s the Product Management side of Sales. The Product Manager stays up to date on all-new technology, and then informs and directs the team. The position was built to ensure System76 is at the forefront of new and exciting technologies, whether that’s within the Thelio product line or in the form of updates that come to our laptops. And that could be as simple as tracking memory updates from DDR4 to DDR5, or with PCIe 3.0 updating to PCIe 4.0. For things like that we’ll track and update products throughout their lifetime.

What is the guiding principle for how the System76 Sales Team operates?

The Sales Team philosophy we push is what I call, “Consultative Sales.” We’re here to be an assistant to the user in order to get them the right product for the job; we’re not going to upgrade you for the sake of upgrading. The team is there to understand what you want to accomplish so that they can get you the right machine with the optimal performance for your use case.

What factors into the decision to introduce a new product?

There’s quite a few factors internally that we’ll go through. Looking at our product line we ask ourselves, is there something that’s missing from it? And if we do find something, what are the benefits to it? How is it going to make us as a company better, and us as a provider of Linux-based technologies the right fit for our customers?

For the Lemur Pro, battery life had always been a high-value item for our customer base. Before the Lemur Pro and Darter Pro were introduced about 2 years ago, the average battery life on a System76 computer was about 3-5 hours. The ability to introduce a product with a higher battery wattage allowed us to extend battery life almost threefold. That value is really what drives a product forward. 

What is your team’s background with Linux?

A lot of the team members have a background in Linux as users. That’s what we tend to typically hire and bring on. They are apt in review and understanding, and helping customers that have specific tasks and needs within the Linux environment. Charles was using Raspberry Pis in order to do some cool things, and Bradley used Ubuntu even before he was hired. The same can be said for Jeremy and John. They all believe that Linux is the right tool for people, and they showcase that for incoming customers. Even if they’re not tech-savvy within Linux, there’s a background there with using it and seeing it in the wild.

What challenges did the pandemic present when it first started?

I think at the very beginning, the biggest challenge for us was the loss of the team camaraderie. A lot of Sales is personal relationships, and the team feeds off of each other, so having everyone in the same area was a huge benefit pre-pandemic.

In the first month or so after it started, there were definitely challenges with productivity and communication because Sales works a lot with Engineering, Support, and other departments in order to give the customers the information they need to make an educated decision, or to update them on the status of their order.

But, I think one of the best tools we have is our employee messaging client. That was already ingrained in us as something that was used pre-pandemic that really started to show its value post-pandemic, especially with the team members being in different homes—and in some cases, different states. It allowed us to provide our staff with as much as they needed to make their environment feel like they were still in an office, still able to get the camaraderie, and still able to get almost the same instantaneous response as they would in the office, but now done remote.

Our ability to put tech first, especially within Sales and Service, is one of the things we do really well. We never throw people at a problem. By that I mean we don’t delegate a problem up the chain to solve it. Instead we work for a solution, and our people evolve into that solution. From my viewpoint, we’ve established that a remote environment is as productive as an in-person environment, which has opened up the door for System76 to grow. Instead of working within a local pool, we’ve now moved to the ocean. Whereas you used to have to hire and work to provide resources for new hires to move to Denver so they can work with the team, now we can bring on team members from pretty much anywhere on the globe to come help make System76 better. 

System76 has seen steady growth in the past year despite drastic political and economic changes. What do you attribute the success to?

I think we’ve matured as an organization. We have introduced products and product lines that are meeting and exceeding a lot of different customer requirements. When I look at our desktop line from when I started seven years ago, our options were the Ratel, the Wild Dog, the Leopard, and the Sable. With production moving in-house and the introduction of Thelio in the last two and a half years, keeping in mind both Intel and AMD, we’ve gone from offering a four-desktop solution to nine.

Laptop and desktop quality has also increased in the last seven years, and a lot of that has to do with what we’ve done in our new manufacturing facility. We have made leaps and bounds with regards to what we’re doing with software engineering now. There’s a huge demand for what our Software Engineering Team has done, driven by Jeremy and our open firmware/open EC that speak to a lot of people. Companies are looking at an open source solution instead of proprietary because they want more control over what their team and their organization are doing.

One of the things we’ve noticed is that our business clients have grown. There’s significantly more support and drive from both the end user and the corporate side to make it so Linux is a valued and desired solution for their teams. Today, I can probably put a Windows 10 machine next to my Pop!_OS 20.10 machine and accomplish everything in the same amount of time or faster. Maybe I’m not using the same applications, but anything I as a businessperson could do within Windows, I can now do with Pop!_OS or Ubuntu. The Linux ecosystem is continuously changing, and that only helps us as a company.

You’ve been at System76 for quite a while. What’s it been like watching the company grow?

It’s amazing. When I started at the company, I was really the first Sales-oriented person. I was the 8th employee at the time, and now I’m the 5th-oldest employee of System76 out of over 50 employees. So it’s huge, man.

When you look at a lot of big corporations, change is hard to make happen. It’s looked at as too different, too risky. But here, change is really something we strive for. We work to be different, to be new, to figure out new ways to help our customers or create solutions to help them, or figure out ways that can change us for the better that you just typically wouldn’t see from a corporation.

What was your favorite moment?

When I first looked at System76, back when we were only offering Ubuntu, I saw the beginning of something very similar to another major player. Very grassroots, very much specialized and hardware-specific. They also created their own operating system, so when I interviewed in 2014, I made comments during my interview with Carl that I expected us to probably produce our own operating system as well. I thought that would be our endgame as a company. At that time, and Carl might contradict my memory on this, but I remember he didn’t think that would ever happen. And then in October 2017, we released the first version of Pop!_OS. That made everything come kind of full-circle for me.

The following year, we brought hardware inside in order to make it the best that we could. So in three short years from me starting, we took what we were doing and elevating it to something that only a handful of companies do, and do well. Our potential is really limitless from what I’ve seen so far, and it’s very apparent with what we’ve done with Pop!_OS since its release, as well as where we’ve taken Thelio. I bet you we never thought we would’ve implemented something like i3 tiling into Pop!_OS. I really goes back to how we view change. We embrace it. We see it as trying to do something better than we did before. Carl and the Engineering Team view software as always being about revision, and we bring that philosophy back to hardware and back to the company as a whole.

[rosesradio]

“there’s no smut in the ceaselessverse because it’s t for teen—“ wrong! it’s because leo’s in cringe jail

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

hi I hope I'm not bothering but could you talk a little about the different versions of Gounod's Faust? I've heard a few different versions and I'm confused

of course!

so in 1859, Faust premiered as essentially an opéra-comique. I listened to a recording of that version earlier this year, so here are more detailed thoughts.

the opera was initially not a huge success but it very quickly became one, and almost immediately Gounod began revising and adding things, most notably the aria "Avant de quitter ces lieux" for an 1864 London production.

in the late 1860s, the Paris Opéra took notice of the work and asked Gounod if he could revise it to fit the standards of a five-act grand opéra. He did so, most notably adding a 15-minute ballet in Act V (the Walpurgisnacht ballet), the piece was a hit, and this is the version that people more or less see, hear, and love today.

Of course, this being a French grand opéra, companies want to trim it down a bit (my thoughts about this are a rant for a different post). The most common edit made is to drop the ballet, which is...somewhat understandable, I guess. However, a lot else of the cutting, and presumably this confusion, has to do with Act IV.

As written, Act IV has three scenes:

Scene 1: Marguerite's house

Scene 2: A church

Scene 3: A town square

However, and here's where things get a bit messy, this gets changed a lot. Many productions drop Scene 1 altogether (grrrrrr) or only perform a cut version of it, although this cut (mostly dropping an aria planned for Siébel) was apparently sanctioned by Gounod, so...okay I guess. Neither of the other two scenes are ever really cut, but the other confusion is that the two scenes (regardless of whether or not Scene 1 is included) are often switched to have the church scene end the act. The scenes make sense in either order and both arrangements are equally (albeit in different ways) effective. I mean, I still don't know which order I prefer!

Anyway, I hope that helps!

[awkwardbsd]

Hello! Thank you for this blog, it really helps me navigate in anything bsd related. I'm still kinda new to this fandom.... I've read the manga up to chapter 40 (as of writing this ask) and finished 2 seasons of the anime. I'd like to ask in what order should i consume bsd content? Should i read first the 1st light novel? Please care to give me an order of those stuff because I'm so confused but I'm trying ︶︿︶ i love bsd so far and I've shed tears for idk how many times. Ahhh thank you so much!

Thank you so much for this ask! I love knowing that I’ve helped out someone in this fandom! It’s why I run this blog! Welcome to the fandom! I hope you have lots of fun~

Thanks to BSD-Bibliophile who helped me find a bunch of these links. If you want to check out the original authors’ writing (which the characters of BSD are based on), light novel, manga, or any other related information, make sure to check out their account and their list of links (https://bsd-bibliophile.tumblr.com/links)

~Timeline in Chronological Order~

[NOVEL] Origin of the Detective Agency: Untold Story

[10 years prior to the main timeline]

This tells the story of how the Armed Detective Agency was founded! Ce-la translated this! You can find it here!You can purchase it here and here!

[NOVEL/ANIME] Dazai, Chūya, Fifteen Years Old

[7 years prior to the main timeline]

This was adapted into the first three episodes of season three of the anime. However, many people weren’t pleased with the results of the adaptation (due to time crunches and changes in the source material). If you’d like to read it, Lea provided a good summary along with excerpts! It offers more insights into the characters and their motives. You can find that here! You can also read the translation here (it is only missing the epilogue).

[NOVEL/ANIME] Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

[4 years prior to the main timeline]

This was adapted into the first three episodes of season two of the anime. This happens to be one of my favourite arcs.You can find the official novel for purchase here and here.

[NOVEL/ANIME? Kinda] Osamu Dazai’s Entrance Exam

[2 years prior to the main timeline]

This was adapted into episodes 6 and 7 of the anime, and while it might not go along with the particular timeline, it’s still an adaptation! You can find the information about the novel from this ask I answered quite a while ago here! Check the link at the bottom of that ask.You can purchase it officially here. 

[MANGA/ANIME] Season One, Season Two, Dead Apple Movie, Season Three…

That’s how we got here! In terms of manga to anime… well, I keep hearing that there are massive differences between the anime and manga, and believe me, there are as far as I can see, but I also haven’t read all of the manga. I watched the anime for the first two seasons then picked up the manga. I can say that:

Season Three ends on chapter 53 so pick up on chapter 54

Season Two ends on chapter 37 so pick up on chapter 38

Hopefully, that helps make the manga/anime transition. 

DEAD APPLE is an anime original movie that has a prologue taking place 6 years prior, but the majority of the movie takes place within the current timeline. Most would consider this a side-story and a cash grab, but it was still a good cash grab. I even got to see this one in theaters. 

Spinoffs/OTHER NOVELS:

BEAST

This is an alternative universe. You can read some of this AU thanks to Lea!

BEAST (Summary + Excerpts)Complete Version: List of Significant RevisionsComplete Version: Translation of Added ScenesComplete Version: Asagiri’s Afterword and Harukawa’s Comments

If you want to read the complete thing. Apparently, you can read it here.

You can also check out some of the manga here! (I typeset it!)

55 Minutes

According to the Wikia, this takes place after the fall of the Guild (which would mean after season 2).You can read it here:

IllustrationsSummary (Part 1)Translation (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)Official Purchase (Yen Press: Barnes & Noble | Indigo)

Gaiden

This doesn’t have a complete translation, but https://ranposama.tumblr.com/ is on that! They are also in charge of translating the manga version of this light novel. You can find the light novel masterpost here, and the manga masterpost here.

[thewhizzyhead]

Prime numbers for the ask game!

Oooh thanks for the ask cress!!!

1. what's your favorite way to dress?

i like to going for comfort so i almost always bring a hoodie or jacket with me. i do wanna try out more stylish stuffs tho

2. if you could change anythjng about yourself, what would it be?

if God gave me the ability to wish away my lisp that would be absolutely fantastic yay (also on a bit of a um not-so-positive note i guess the broad shoulders? i just aaa really don't like the body-shaming remarks from my family so um yea just to make them shut up)

3. what movie/game/etc. helps you calm down?

ooohh the piano tiles 2 app helps me deal with my anxiety and yes i am aware of the irony in that sentence

5. do you like to organize?

yup i find it therapeutic in a way! am i in any way organized tho? hahahahaha hell no.

7. what song is your aesthetic?

i honestly don't know what my aesthetic is like so ummm i guess either Okay Okay by Alessia Cara, Sober Up by AJR, or Sampaguita by Ben&Ben (i dunno i just vibe with these songs the most aaa)

11. vague about your crush(es)

what does this mean FJSJXJSJF

13. talk about an au or story you came up with

This is gonna be long so i'm gonna use the tiny font for this

i recently started revising the musical idea thingy that 13-year-old me came up with for the yearly sunday school christmas musical prods and um yea there are a lot of changes. So the first version of the thingy (aka the one that 15-year-old me impulsively deleted, please keep in mind that 13-year-old me was still very devout) was about 3 21st-century teens that ended up in 1 CE Bethlehem due to timey-wimey stuff aka divine intervention aka ✨ plot convenience ✨ and how they try to back to the 21st century while learning to deal with their own shit through bringing back their faith and all. The current version aka post impulsive-deletion has the narrators (who are fully aware that they are in a musical) bring (or kidnap) said 3 21st-century-teens (who don't know they are in a musical) to 1 CE Bethlehem in order to "fix them" by "bringing back their faith" in a fourth-wall-breaking kind of way which then makes the narrators realize how vERY FLAWED THAT LOGIC IS which is basically me criticizing everything that was in the old version. both versions emphasize the importance of forgiving oneself and giving yourself a chance to live, moving on and healing from trauma, and stuff that most parents in my church shove under the rug and refuse to openly discuss but are experienced by many of my churchmates i.e mental health issues, addiction, the effects of bad parenting etc but i guess the new version emphasizes on how almost every single one of the things that makes the church brand the kid as "troubled" or a "misfit" are actually systematic problems that aren't caused by simply a "lack of faith". I also decided to make it ambigious on whether or not the 3 teens turned Christian in the end cause I didn't want to make seem that Christianity is the only way for one to get better. At the end of the day religion is merely a choice and not an obligation and no one should be disrespected on whether or not they choose to believe in one. religion isn't necessary for one to be a good person to others and to themselves - one can be kind even without a religion soooo yea just wanted to emphasize that at the end nfjxns

oh and i decided to make it very gay and yes tony and shelby from the wilds inspired the gay shit. i dunno how i'm gonna get my church to include this in the production tho should they ever decide that they still actually want to make this despite the very drastic and controversial changes-

17. what form of government do you like the most? (capitalism, socialism, etc.)

uhhh i guess democracy? umm okay note to self: research about this question cause maybe i'm answering it wrong i dunno jdjsdf i'll get back to you on that-

19. what do you think our purpose is in the universe?

to simply be kind and make the world a little bit better for each other and for the future in our own little way.

23. do you like soft, fluffy blankets, or rough, smooth blankets?

SOFT AND FLUFFY SOFT AND FLUFFY

29. what do you think about tumblr discourse?

either it grinds your brain into pieces at just how mean people can be or it grinds your brain into pieces at just how hilarious people can be. there is no in-between.

31. how easy is it for you to be honest?

it's still very hard but ey at least it's a lot easier now. i'm a lot more comfy with sharing shit with people now compared to a few years ago so yea

37. what do you listen to music on?

if i can't be bothered to skip the ads and if i'm busy with schoolwork or chores, then spotify. if i like having the freedom to choose my music, then youtube.

[noobsomeexagerjunk]

NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE SPECULATION

Part 2! PART 1|PART 3

Definitely gayer than Firebringer

If we’re getting more new actors, hopefully this gives way to trans and non-binary characters

Looking forward to a GrACE Chastity btw

Or GRAY-ce Chastity

Hoping this becomes another source of popular ace characters next to Bojack Horseman’s Todd Chavez and Jughead from the Archie Comics

hold up do we have any aspec rep in theater? if it’s none, that is expected

Perhaps an exploration of aromantics too, because tomorrow there’ll be more of us, I am praying--

Development of the teen characters

More focus on Alice and Deb’s relationship

Alice’s Mom makes an appearance

Jane Perkins as the original nerdy prude--perhaps either a literal or metaphorical ghost to most likely Grace Chastity

Assuming Jane and Tom hooked up in this universe, bonding between Jane and Grace as a “take care of Tim for me” scenario

Alternatively, Tom and Becky hooked up--whether Tim Houston, son of Tom and Jane, exists is up for debate

Based on Grace’s babysitting job and the fact that Bill meets her in Church implies she lives in Hatchetfield

We may see Tom teaching again, and Becky nursing as well assuming we go to the hospital this time

Exploration on Bill’s divorce

Exploration on whatever the hell Ted-Charlotte-Sam-Zoey is supposed to be

more gags with Homeless Man and Man in a Hurry

Gary Goldstein and Dr. Gerald Monroe gets a mention for fan service, as well as Professor Hidgens in some sort of lore-related exposition

Carol Davidson does choke her husband--this musical would state all the things she wants him to do to her

We are introduced to a new guy who helps our main characters and is revealed to be McNamara’s husband in Act 2

McNamara’s monologue, uncut but revised to fit Nerdy Prudes Must Die

Another crack of religious jokes, typical of a Starkid musical

Imply some sort of connection between the Paranormal, Extraterrestrial, and Interdimensional introduced in the past 3 Hatchetfield pieces

Black and White my ass--there has to be a GRAY

Webby

if webby is a spider, then she better be Pincer-sized