#I know if no one got me JWST got me

[bucklavaa]

James Webb space telescope captured my most beloved, the Horse head Nebula. I’m going to go stare at this for the next 15 hours.

[foone]

Hi I'm Foone Turing. I've been here a while but never really did an introduction post, so...

Hi. Yes, that's my name. I'm an asexual trans enby (they/them pronouns), I'm married, and I'm both older than you expect and younger than you expect, depending on what you know me from. I'm a writer and programmer. I'm better known on Twitter, at the moment. I'm well known for being severely ADHD and I'm also on the autism spectrum, somewhere near ultraviolet. I live near Oakland, California, USA, but I grew up on a farm in the south. I'm a furry, but I don't have a fursona yet.

I'm big into retrotech stuff, especially floppy disks. 80s and 90s PC stuff mainly, but I have a passing interest in everything else. I loves me some weird tech that you have no idea ever existed. I'm also big into analog media. VHS tapes, laserdiscs, that sort of thing.

Fandom wise, I'm a Trekie from way back, primarily in the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT era. I haven't yet gotten into the new stuff, and I have only a passing knowledge of the original series. I'm also a big fan of Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, and Doctor Who (4th doctor, and new who doctors 9,10,11). I watch a bunch of British panel shows: HIGNFY, Mock the Week, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, 8 out of 10 cats (primarily the countdown spinoff).

I am a Big Hater on crytypocurrentseas and AI art. I used to be famously mad at the JWST, but now that it's in space and functional, I've calmed down. They just need to rename it and I'm golden.

I'm currently splitting my social media presence across three sites:

* Tumblr, obviously. Shitposting, jokes, queer stuff, and queer joke shitposts are all going here.

* mastodon: I'm putting my tech stuff here. Teardowns, building new death generators, fun historical weirdness.

* Twitter: formerly my primary platform, but now I just use it to keep in touch with people and make fun of the impending collapse of Twitter.

Stuff I do and have done after the readmore.

(I'm on mobile now but I'll get back to this on the desktop and add more links)

* I run lettuce.wtf, a webcam showing a lettuce to see if it will outlast Twitter. (My money is literally on the lettuce)

* my long running site The Death Generator: a tool for making fake video game screenshots, with user supplied dialogue.

* I run some Twitter bots, one of which is more popular than me, and all of which will need to be migrated soon: Gay Cats, WinIcons, Print Shop Deluxe, and Every Clue Line.

* I got Microsoft 3D Movie Maker open sourced

* I got rickrolled so hard that it ended up on national TV

* I ran doom on a pregnancy test

* I have made many horrible and weird keyboards. Keyboards with hair, keyboards which write poetry, keyboards that take 5 hours to say "hello world", keyboards with randomly placed keys, keyboards with 7 toggle switches instead of buttons, and many more.

* I tear down random electronics and try to figure out and explain how they work. (originally on Twitter, but moving over to mastodon now)

* I pissed off the FBI on more than one occasion. They tried to get me fired, they delayed my wedding by over a month, and they mentioned my 4chan nickname in a federal trial.

* I used to work for 4chan. I was a moderator and coder, I created /rs/ and /r9k/, and I convinced moot to destroy the original politics board (for obvious reasons). Things went further to shit after I left, but I am still glad I left. Oh and I also inadvertently prevented the creation of the 4chan dating/meet up site by being too ADHD to actually complete development of it. You're welcome.

* I ran a windows 95 machine for the maximum amount of time. There's a bug where it crashes after 49.7 days of uptime, so I let it happen. I livestreamed the end on YouTube.

* I've done exhibits at the Vintage Computer Festival on the history of floppy disks and optical discs.

* I've worked with the Video Game History Foundation (and others) to preserve old games and game development resources (source code and such). I'm big into archival!

* I wrote a really famous Twitter thread about the surprising way our vision works, which is still circulating in screenshots (including on Tumblr!) something like 5-6 years later.

* I made my old apartment play the Zelda Ocarina of Time shop music when you walked I the door.

* I run the Tumblr animefloppies, collecting screenshots and GIFs of floppy disks in anime.

* I run several other sub-tumblrs for collecting weird things, but I'll have to link them later.

* I am technically a speedrunner. I did the TAS of Duke Nukem 1, episode 1, and a joke speedrun of Solar Winds, where I beat the game by ignoring every single possible objective and just flying to the end, which takes over an hour.

* I used to make games. Some of them are available for download.

* but it still do, too: I'm working on a (currently unnamed) game about managing a dairy farm. Both the developers have ADHD. This is going to take forever before it comes out, if it ever does.

* I'm currently working on three books. Two are compilations of stuff previously twitterized, one is a novel:

- Always Screaming Forever: non-fiction, stories about my career in the tech industry and various other tech/science/history stuff I love ranting about.

- The Other Side of Screaming: fiction. My short stories.

- Mundane Kaya Sona (placeholder title): a linguist gets pulled into an FBI investigation into a car crash. An unknown language leads to the discovery of a wizard living in a forest in Oregon, and an interdimensional plot to smuggle nuclear weapons to another world, and break a cold war stalemate we (the planet earth) didn't realize we were in. I've been working on the setting for this story since I was about 7 years old, and I'm excited to finally get it out of my head and into yours.

* I'm probably forgetting like 5-10 major things I've done but ADHD is a hell of a drug. I'll add more as they come to me.

[queer-reader-07]

i’ve seen a lot of people talking about how they watched good omens with their parents and it was like the first time they’ve really ever gotten to share the joy media brings them with their parents. let alone queer media. and it just makes me so happy that other people are finally getting to experience that joy

cuz i know that having healthy and strong relationships with your parents isn’t as common as i wish it was. and i somehow got lucky enough to have a dad who not only lets me info dump about anything and everything that interests me but one who happily info dumps back

like. (this is gonna be me fan personing over my dad sorry not sorry)

my dad who when he realized the latest issue of his nat geo magazine came with a fold out poster of the JSWT pillars of creation photo immediately went to give it to me because he knows it’s my favorite JWST photo (and then helped me put it up in my room)

my dad who EMAILS me memes because he only has facebook on his computer so he can’t just screenshot and text me them to me but also knows i’ll get a kick out of the silly book meme or funny dog picture

my dad who will sit through me talking about the new things i learned in biology or chemistry even though his engineer self doesn’t really get any of it

my dad who instilled my love of reading in me as a child so now that i’m older we can talk about the books we’re each reading. (he was the reason i read dune and now it’s not just his favorite ever book but mine as well)

my dad who didn’t think twice about why i would want to go to the alton brown live show, he just asked how much tickets were and decided that we were going because he remembered how much the good eats tv show shaped my childhood

i just got so lucky. and it makes me so unbelievably happy to see other people getting to experience that kind of love and joy too. it’s so beautiful to see people finally getting to share their passions with their parents and have their parents be invested.

it’s the kind of thing that gives me hope for the world.

[samsspambox]

(⌒▽⌒)☆ hi sam! So 4 the 2 truths & 1 lie I think the lie is the aerospace one just bc, & the other ask game, I think a fic I'd wish youd write about(sorry if Im wrong I dont remember) anything that has gwendolyn in it I love her so much( ´ ▽ ` ) or maybe ur interpretation of Artems old beta card where it looks like mc is leaving him in the rain, that's all have a good day! (About the last I sent in in the dead of night haha sorry (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

hi cutie!! how you been?? god those asks were a trip and a half to find but i found them!!

actually the lie is being able to see jwst before launch and that they all happened in high school!

the aerospace firm one DID happen when i was in hs (i had to be escorted by security for an interview it was so cool) but happened mostly bc they got back to me late. i've written some base code but that happened in my first year of college! was fun lmaoo

i am slightly salty that i didn't get to see jwst when some of my peers did get to,,, but my childhood friend gave me a pin they stole from there so eh fuck it LOL

as for the fic ask! i can give you some bullet points rq!! god gwen was so fun to write maybe i should make a sequel

i'm pretty sure the first order of business for vyn once gwen gets freed of all legal bindings would be to celebrate

the rest of the nxx would definitely be on board with it too!! they do ask gwen what she wants tho and well... she's never been to an arcade before

so they go to a dave and busters-esque place (which is basically just a big arcade with adult level games)

artem makes them all eat his dust at the basketball free throws

vyn and gwen get stupid high scores in ddr and somehow get a crowd around them

racing games are luke's dominion and fucking dominates them all

marius and lyra get really competitive in the ball drop games but they're not good at them lolol

marius somehow finds a way to finance the whole trip even though everyone doesn't want him to

they all pitch in and give gwen their tickets and she picks the gaming console which has everyone very surprised but they brush it off quickly

they end up taking photo booth pictures in the end

very found family of them but also they get to know gwen better too 🥺

thank you for the ask!!! i hope you have a really good day!!!

[oflgtfol]

i’m seriously losing my mind like webb took literal decades to construct and launch, it was supposed to launch in 2007 and it only launched at the end of 2021. it has been plagued by countless problems and delays and yes, a literal plague as well. it almost got canceled entirely. i’m sure a sizeable portion of the community never expected it to reach completion. and yet here we are, finally receiving the first images. this is such a huge step for astronomy and space-based telescopes in general

[astronauticall]

just saying these photos are incredible for lock screens

[acaciapines]

Hnnnghgngh

Having,,, gender

LISTEN. Jim’s theme from treasure planet is the Ultimate Ftm Vibe Song. It’s the song I listen to every time I become boy. And the immediate follow up is IRIS by goo goo dolls bc ITS IN THE SAME GENRE… SAME VIBE….. ABSOLUTE GENDER BANGER. ALSO FEELS

so um I’ve also decided that iris is Hei’s theme song for 3rd year bc that’s how his heart will ache while he’s. going Thru It. and by the end of the year…… he will be well enough to be have Jim’s theme instead as his theme.

Basically I’m going to listen to iris on repeat while writing the depressing parts of 3rd year. is what I’m saying

ALSO HEI WOULD GO FERAL OVER THE JWST IMAGES IF HE SAW THEM. HE WOULD

hope y’all are doing okay! Gal says hi :) Remember to eat and drink something, take breaks, and look after yourselves and each other! We love you! This has been a Daily Interaction Ask <3

okay before anything else: YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT JIMS THEM IT IS. for me its not a gender song but it IS a species song!! there is just Something About This Song man it hits so hard...like every time i hear it come up on my playlist i go into hawk mode so hard. there are some songs that have really good beats for flying to (and this is one of them) AND THEN THE LYRICS......literally top ten songs of all times. its got gender its got species it truly has it all.

also IRIS....god that is such a good song too!! out there listening to the BOPS ive never considered it as a gender song but i just listened to it and yeah. YEAH its about the and i dont want the world to see me / cause i dont think that they'd understand / when everything's made to be broken / i just want you to know who i am LIKE YEAH THATS GENDER BABEY!!!

man yes you really do have to find the songs that fit your characters and just listen to them forever when writing about them....literally such good songs to pick for hei. thank you bc of this ask i listed to them both and YEAH. YEAH!!!!

in return you get one of my current songs. its not a gender song its just a Vibes song idk the other day i heard it for yknow. 100th time or whatever but THIS TIME i sat there like oh my god. i understand everything now. anyways the song is so long by abhi the nomad idk WHAT about this song is hitting me but now i start tearing up whenever i hear it....the lines cause there's many many places you could be yeah / there's many many places you could see yeah / but you're stuck right here waiting for my words / to change your point of view just keep hitting me every single time.

literally this ask goes on my blog i think everyone should listen to these songs actually. time for another music recs with wyn and acacia.

also god yeah hei deserves to see those amazing stars....

ANYWAYS. we are doing good over here. hope you are too!

[t-h-i-n-g]

Have you seen the new JWST (James Web Space Telescope) pictures yet??! I don’t know how into space you are but if you couldn’t tell from my blog I’m a huge space nerd. Now I am coming to your inbox to show you two of my fav pics from the new release and why they are awesome!

Stephan’s Quintet

This one is so cool because it is five galaxies interacting with each other! The telescope actually picked up on school waves of one of the galaxies smashed through the cluster! This is also JWST’s biggest image yet! It was constructed from 1,000 different image files! This image helps astronomers study how interacting galaxies impact star formations.

SMACS 0723

Okay, this one legit got sm hate bc everyone was like “uh, it’s just stars, can’t this new telescope do something better?” BUT, this image is special! First off, want to point out and say that this isn’t just “a bunch of stars” all those spots you are seeing are galaxies! This image is showing how this galaxy looked about 4.6 billion years ago. This galaxy cluster’s combined mass acts a gravitational lens, so like a magnified glass. It magnifies the galaxies behind it which some are when the universe was less than a billion years old.

Anyways, sorry to nerd out and distract you from writing. Feel free to nerd out any time if you want to me too. Idc abt what either, it could literally be about rocks and I would listen lolz.

THIS IS SO COOL!!!!! I heard about new photos being released but I didn't really look into it. Its so crazy to think that we are this little tiny itty bitty part of the universe. I personally am convinced that aliens are definitely out there. For the fact that all the things that make us up are the most common things found in the universe. Like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and helium. With all the space out there, there just has to be SOME sort of life beside us. Thank you so much for sharing the pictures, they're honestly really really cool. If you have more please share!! I don't mind at all about you nerding out its completely fine.

[oflgtfol]

i am very nervous about JWST…

on one hand, i trust the engineers and astronomers who have dedicated literal decades into this project, and the amount of delays it has experienced means that they value perfectionism in ironing out every single flaw that may or may not happen during the official launch, which is a good perspective to have on a project as big as this

but on the other hand the sheer AMOUNT of flaws that have come up over time has led to it being delayed THIS long, and especially that flaws are still coming up mere weeks before launch… that is worrying! we’re literally a week out from the launch date and it’s still getting pushed back a few more days because of another problem that was discovered

regardless of what happens, JWST is a huge undertaking that i’m glad has happened. the amount of success that has happened so far before it’s even launched is not insignificant - the design, the engineering, everything about it is groundbreaking and it was not a waste of time regardless of the outcome. the fact that we got this far is a huge achievement in and of itself

if something does go wrong, it shouldn’t be a slight on everyone who has worked on it. this thing has taken over two fucking decades and the amount of knowledge and skill and teamwork it has required is just, pardon the pun, astronomical. there are so many moving pieces required for this thing to work that it’s just like, well if something does go wrong i find it hard pressed to blame anyone who worked on the telescope because this is just like, an inhumanly HUGE project, and what with all the delays i think they’ve done everything within their power to iron out everything but god damn it is so fucking much and there’s only so much you can really do

but i just KNOW. that if something goes wrong, it will be a disaster for the community. it will be a PR nightmare. this could really hurt NASA’s credibility and the government’s willingness to fund future projects. nevermind the public backlash about it - you all remember the first picture of the black hole which was such a huge accomplishment and then everyone else was like “why is it so blurry?” like imagine how people will absolutely trash JWST if something goes wrong. it scares me so badly the blow the astro community could take over this

even the hubble space telescope - a dearly beloved telescope nowadays - had troubles when it first launched and the backlash it experienced at first was also heartbreaking. but the thing about hubble is that it orbits close enough that astronauts can go fix it if something is wrong. JWST is so far that once it’s in orbit, that’s it. nothing we can do. as soon as it launches, it’s a waiting game to see if it works and if it doesnt then well thats $10 billion and 20+ years down the drain, in the eyes of the public and government. nobody will see the absolutely incredible process behind it, the amount of teamwork and intelligent design needed to account for all these moving parts - they will only see the one point of failure (among hundreds) and that will be it