#MO disk

[qiu-yan]

arguing with other chinese fans in this fandom be like

[oldpuppymomomainblog]

too many people are romanticizing 2010s tumblr. my culture is not your cosplay😪😪

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 18: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Commodore 64🎄💾🗓️

The Commodore 64, released in 1982, is one of the ones we keep hearing got many people their start in their own computing history. Powered by a MOS Technology 6510 processor at 1.02 MHz and featuring 64 KB of RAM, it became the best-selling single computer model of all time, with an estimated 12.5–17 million units sold. Its graphics were driven by the VIC-II chip, capable of 16 colors, hardware sprites, and smooth scrolling, while the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip delivered advanced audio, supporting three voices with waveforms and filters, making it a lot of fun for gaming and music.

Featured a built-in BASIC interpreter, allowing users to write their own programs out-of-the-box. The C64’s affordability, large software library, lots of games, productivity, and educational applications made it a household name. It connected to TVs as monitors and supported peripherals like the 1541 floppy disk drive, datasette, and various joysticks. With over 10,000 commercial software titles and a thriving homebrew scene, the C64 helped define a generation of computer enthusiasts.

Its impact on gaming was gigantic, iconic titles like The Last Ninja, Maniac Mansion, and Impossible Mission. The C64 also inspired a demoscene, where programmers pushed its hardware for visual and audio effects. The Commodore 64 remains a symbol of computing for the masses and creative innovation, still loved by retrocomputing fans today.

Check out the National Museum of American History, and Wikipedia. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_334636 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

And…! An excellent story from Jepler -

== While I started on the VIC 20, the Commodore 64 was my computer for a lot longer. Its SID sound chip was a headline feature, and many of my memories of it center around music. Starting with Ultima III, each game in the series had a different soundtrack for each environment (though each one was on a pretty short loop, it probably drove my folks nuts when I would play for hours). There were music editors floating around, so I tried my hand at arranging music for its 3 independent voices, though I can't say I was any good or that I have any of the music now. You could also download "SID tunes" on the local BBSes, where people with hopefully a bit more skill had arranged everything from classical to Beatles to 80s music.

Folks are still creating cool new music on the Commodore 64. One current creator that I like a great deal is Linus Åkesson. Two videos from 2024 using the Commodore 64 that really impressed me were were a "Making 8-bit Music From Scratch at the Commodore 64 BASIC Prompt", a live coding session (http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/music-from-scratch/index.php) and Bach Forever (http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/bach-forever/index.php) a piece played by Åkesson on two Commodore 64s.

Like so many things, you can also recreate the experience online. Here's the overworld music for Ultima III: https://deepsid.chordian.net/?file=/MUSICIANS/A/Arnold_Kenneth/Ultima_III-Exodus.sid&subtune=1 -- the site has hundreds or thousands of other SIDs available to play right in the browser.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[onskepa]

hello again! Could you make the sully family including Mo"at and tonowari family react to how to train your dragon and both of them to be in the same universe.

hello sweetie! Okie, so its been so loooooooooooooooong since I watched the movies, so I took my sweet ass time to re-watch the first movie [idk if ya wanna ask for more in the future]. So I only placed the important events. So sit back, relax and enjoy~!!

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

Myth or Ancient?

“Here, and be careful not to touch the shiny part with your fingers, it can ruin the colors. So it's super delicate” Norm carefully instructs tsireya and rotxo who nod enthusiastically. “You can trust us Norman sir” rotxo promises with a wide happy grin. Saying their bye’s, tisreya and rotxo run to the village as they start to talk about what sort of ‘snacks’ to eat for when they watch the disk called ‘movie’. 

“Demon technology is very interesting when it is not scary. How can this round thing show colors or people?” tsireya wonders as she stares down at the flat box that is protecting the disk. Rotxo shrugs, “even if lo’ak or kiri explains to us, I get the feeling we will still be confused” he says. They make their way slowly as they look at the cover of the thin box. 

Tsireya squints her eyes and reads the letters but if anything, the bold red kinda annoys her eye site. “That is a lot of red…” she muttered. She usually sees human language in green or white. Rotxo leans in, “do you think the colors have different meanings?” he wonders. This time tsireya shrugged. 

Lo’ak and neteyam were showing ao’nung how a camera works while their parents chat in a not so far distance. Everyone had their noon meal, stomachs full and in a mood for tea as the other villagers enjoy their relaxing day. 

“Wait so I just stare at this circle thing and-” 

*SNAP!* 

“Ow! My eyes! Did it just blind me!?” Ao'nung screeches dramatically as he rubs his eyes, adjusting from the sudden flash of light. Lo’ak was cackling like a madman as neteyam chuckles at the reef prince’s antics. “Oh I have to see the result!” lo’ak says as he snatches the camera from ao’nung. 

As the boys looked at the result, mo’at, jake and neytiri were talking with tonowari and ronal. “There are many ways the people have enjoyed themselves, even with demon technology that causes no harm. We do keep it very limited to usage and the purpose of it” neytiri explains to tonowari and ronal. And as if on que, running towards them was tsireya and rotxo. 

“Mother, father, look what sir Norman granted us to see” tsireya says happily as she shows the thin box to the adults. Tonowari leaned in to see. “There are tiny letters that I cannot read so well,” he says. Tsireya hands it over to Jake to see if he can read which, Jake grins happily. “Babe, it's your favorite movie,” he grins. Neytiri's ears perk up and tail swaying happily, “how to train your dragon?”. Jake nods in confirmation. 

“What is it?” Tonowari asks, “something I believe you might all like. Come, let's prepare for what we call a movie night” Neytiri smiles wide as she answers his question.

Food was cooked and shared, many mats, cushions, and other forms of sitting was set as Jake and norm prepared the projector. Tonowari and his family got the best seats, right at the center where they can see the view perfectly. 

“How will we see this…movie?” Ronal asks as she cradles her young baby. Spider brought little treats for her baby kindly answers. “In simple terms, the movie will be seen like physical people telling their story, like 3D”. Ronal just stared at him, lost at the explanation. He chuckles nervously, “you know what? Best to see the magic yourself”. 

After 30 minutes of everyone huddling together, sharing their portions and for the Eclipse to take full effect of the night, norm began to press play. 

And for the metkayina family, they gasped in awe. Massive colors of mountains, the sea, the clouds! They looked so solid and floating in mid air! 

“Majic of holograms-” 

“Ok shut up lo’ak”

 “This is Berk…” 

The main character began to speak, narrating about his home and life. Show how it is at night, from the animals to the form of the berk village. The whole style captured the reef na’vi attention very well. 

“Incredible….” Tisreya mutters as she leans against lo’aks shoulder. 

“The only problems are the pest” 

The scene zooms in on the poker face sheeps, enjoying their nightly dinner with all of a sudden claws grabbing it. Ao’nung and rotxo gasped, just what was it? 

“Most people have mice, or mosquitos, but we have….” 

A door opens to see the sheep running away, and a monster flying dangerously close looked at the open door and breathed out fire. 

“Dragons!” 

“Dragons? What are those?” Tonowari asks, neytiri not far from his family simply smiles, “proud and fearless creatures, like the ikrans' '. Neytiri pops a popcorn in her mouth as she snuggles with Jake, enjoying her all time favorite movie. 

“Dragons…” Ronal repeats but with wonder. Oh they definitely have the family’s attention now. 

“What is he doing out here ag-what are you doing out here?! Get inside!” 

“That is stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off from its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do” 

Hiccup narrates of the large man who was able to easily pick him like nothing. 

Tonowari looks at the leader being show, “why is his face mostly hair?” he asks. “Thats how the vikings were back then. Said to attract and scare off anything” Jake replies easily. Tonowari hums at that, slowly liking this stoick guy. 

The movie continues to show the insanity of the dragons attacks. Their fiery breaths destroy so many homes, taking animals left and right. And the people fend them off in many ways. Utter chaos all around, but shows how it is their normal everyday life. 

For lo’ak and spider, hiccup has become their favorite character. Despite the awkwardness and having to be kept inside from dangers, they can understand him on a deep level. Which is why they understand hiccup’s need to kill a dragon, his way of “making his mark”. 

“One day bro…one day” lo’ak whispers to spider. But the human boy nudges him away, “dude you became brothers with a tulkun. I think you already made your mark on that” spider says in a deadpan way.

Spider can understand hiccup from how their own bodies are. Yes spider isn't shaped to stand the planet's environments but he makes it through. Just like how hiccups is small and lanky, he makes his way through his crazy viking life.

“So many different types of dragons….and many are so ugly” Ronal says as hiccup lists different dragon species. Tonowari can't help but chuckle, his guess, dragons are not meant to be a pretty sight if they are considered dangerous creatures of the skies. 

“There are prettier dragons you know” Neytiri comments. 

Ronal turns to her, “how so?” 

“Later you shall see. I rather not spoil the fun”

As the scene goes on, the one, the only, night fury dragon has entered the battlefield. Everyone cheers for that dragon, a common favorite in the clan. “Amazing! I want to see the full view of the nightly beast-what is hiccup doing?” it was rotxo who said that. He enjoyed the building hype until the next part focuses on hiccup setting up what looks like a trapping weapon. 

“He is going to get himself killed!” ao’nung whispers/shouts. 

“Yeah, that is going to happen a lot in this” neteyam calmly answers as he offers popcorn to ao’nung to whom happily accepts. 

“Yes! Did anybody see that?!” hiccup shouts excitedly.��

“He did” tsireya points happily as the monstrous nightmare dragons crawls up from the cliff. 

“Well he is toast” 

Neytiri cringed a bit at Jake's joke, but held in her laugh.

But as the next scenes go, things didn't go as smooth as stoick would have liked. Having more things being burned at the dragon chases hiccup, only for later to be given a lecture in front of the massive crowd. 

“I feel you hiccup” lo’aks voice cracks as a single tea falls from his face.

“The forest looks so pretty” tsireya comments as she admires the pretty view of the berk forest. Similar to the omatikaya forest, yet it is still different. Human environment truly never bores her. But as she admires the scenery, they reach the part as hiccup searches high and low for the night fury dragon he has shot down while ranting and venting his anger. 

“He found it!” rotxo points out the obvious thing but doesn't care. The suspense grows, hiccup takes out his blade which makes the sully’s give out a chuckle. “Tuk’s blade is bigger and sharper than that” neteyam says as he calms himself. Tisreya looks over at him. “Now that you mentioned is, where are your sisters? I figured they would enjoy this too” she wonders. Neteyam shakes his head, “no, they have something better”. 

Not sure what he meant by that, but tsireya accepts his answer. 

“Oh he is a beauty…” ronal admires the slow scene of the night fury. Capturing every detail and its mesmerizing green eyes. The look of a dangerous, unpredictable hunter. Something about it gives chills down her spine. 

“Indeed, he is my second favorite dragon,” Neytiri adds. Ronal wonders if another like the night fury will appear later on in the movie. 

Hiccup takes deep breaths, hesitating, heart racing. 

“He isn't….he isnt going to kill the dragon is he???” ao’nung asks, already feeling sad for the poor beast. Nobody answers. The tension is rising. The music is rising to its peak. Will he do it? Will he cut out the heart? 

Will the night devil accept his fate? 

No because hiccup decided to cut the ropes and only faint a minute later after releasing the dragon. 

“That was crazy of him, but also with the night fury” tsireya looks at the scene. Feeling worried about hiccup. There was a lot of stress happening in those few short minutes. “Makes you think if he still wants to follow the ‘viking’ style like his people” ao’nung comments, making air quotes like how the sully kids do.

“Can you stop that?!” gobber shouts at fishlegs who for some odd reason is doing quick math as gobber lists the dragons that are behind the tight metal gates. 

“Interesting kids…” Tonowari obersves how each teenager is like. From the annoying twins to the tough girl act, Astrid. While at the same time, Jake was able to enjoy how Astrid was like. Reminded him so much of a certain tough girl. 

“Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you’re dead!” Gobber informs. Tisreya claps her hands as ao’nung listens to what gobber is saying. 

“It is just like an iknimaya. Learning at first hand, "Tonowari says in awe. He enjoys the scene as the kids in screen run for their lives and make a fool of themselves. The reef kids all smile as they remember their early stages and future stages of their iknimaya. 

“Is it similar to what you had to go through?” Ao’nung asks neteyam, the young boy nods “similar yes. Remind me of how we tamed out ikrans”. 

“And remember, dragons always go for the kill” Gobber stares at hiccup after his massive mistake. Ao’nung and rotxo tilt their heads on that one. 

“If that is true, why didn't the night fury attack him then?”

Hiccup began to slowly gain the trust of the nightfury, keeping his distance while feeding it fish. 

“I guess for humans its harder since neither the dragon or hiccup have a way to connect” it fascinates tisreya. Using a queue makes a bond easier. However for humans, it takes a lot of work and a lot of patience. And it shows the results. 

The nightfury, who was given the name toothless, has come to enjoy hiccups presence. 

“Their bond grows stronger” Tonowari looks in awe. Reminds him of how the animals bond and grow alongside the na’vi. As the movie continues, seeing how dragons live, and learning through hiccup, it was literally learning a whole new world, or in this case, the old world. 

Ronal however, seems to wonder about future possibilities. Balancing a secret and becoming ‘popular’ is multitasking. “It is only a matter before the truth comes to light…”

Ronal was correct. 

Hiccup’s secret was found out, without meaning to. He has a final test, to defeat a dragon in the trial dome. Everyone was cheering him on, but his life was in danger. Hearing his shouts, toothless heard and ran for his aid. Exposing to the whole village that the infamous nightfury was there all along. 

And to make matters worse, stoick used toothless as a naivator to find the queen of the dragons nest. 

“He is going to get everyone killed!!” tsireya shouts/whispers. Hugging her knees tight, feeling sad for hiccup and toothless. 

Clearly a war with the dragons seems very dangerous, even with the prepared weapons to take all of the dragons down, the queen is not a dragon that can be taken down so easily. And when she came to full view, was she terrifying. 

“So horrid…” 

“Yet to captivating” 

Neytiri and Jake enjoy seeing the metkayina’s reactions. The reveal of the queen never fails. “The queen will surely give me nightmares tonight” Ao’nung says, not liking how many sharp teeths the giant dragon has. Neteyam chuckles at that, “don't worry my friend, a true dragon queen is never ugly. Beautiful in reality”. 

Ao’nung looks over at neteyam with some doubt, “you make it sound as if you met a real dragon” 

Neteyam didnt say anything further and just enjoy the movie.

“NO!” 

Rotxo hid his face with the empty popcorn bucket, not wanting to see the impact of hiccup’s ultimate demise. Tsireya hides her eyes also, ready to cry if the poor boy is dead. “Please tell me he is not dead…I can't look '', lo’ak chuckles at that. “Come on, look, you will miss it” he encourages. Gently lifting tsireya’s chin to face the film, worry clearly seen in her eyes. 

In sigh of happiness and relief, they all see toothless covering passed out hiccup. Stoick goes to see his son, safe and in one piece. Well, almost in one piece. 

“Oh no…” Ronal covers her mouth as it is revealed hiccup lost his leg. Tonowari leans in, whispering to himself, encouraging hiccup he can do it, he can walk with his new leg. “It's not going to stop him, for sure” ao’nung says, his eyes so glued in to the final parts of the movie. 

“If the queen couldn't, nothing will” lo’ak says. 

“It was hardly a queen” netyiri gently scoffing at the dead horrid dragon. 

The door opens to show the village waiting for hiccup, welcoming back. And with a newfound perspective, thanks to him. Now the village embraces the dragons as their new companions. And of course, a new saddle to ride on, hiccup takes his flight in the new era of humans and dragons. 

“This is berk, its snows 9 months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here tough and tasteless, the people that grow here even more sore. The only upsides are the pets. While in some places have ponies, or parrots, we have dragons” 

The credits began to role, thus the movie ended. 

Tsireya and rotxo clapped enthusiastically, as ao’nung nodded in appreciation. Ronal and Tonowari nodded to neytiri and jake, their way of saying thanks for the delightful entertainment. 

“That movie was incredible! But, were dragons indeed real? Have they gone extinct?” Tsireya could help but ask. She learned that the vikings were indeed real, but what else was real? As she asks aways, Ronal couldn't help but just notice something. 

“Neytiri, where are your daughters? I haven't seen them since we got here” she asks. Neytiri chuckles a bit as she prepares some late night meals for everyone, “they will all be here soon” 

“No sooner enough” was the voice of mo’at as she entered their home. The sully family welcomes her in, the metkayina greeting the tsahik. Mo’at sits beside her grandsons and accepts the meal from jake. “Where is kiri and tuk if I may ask? They missed such an amazing film!” Tsireya asks mo’at. 

“That movie of the dragons? I have seen it endless amounts of times I can recite the whole thing. My granddaughters would agree on that” mo’at answers. 

“But where are they?” 

“Enjoying the real dragon experience” 

This confused the reef na’vi a bit. But before anyone else can say anything, there was a loud shreek. It was an unfamiliar sound, at least to tonowari and his family. But this sound brought smiles to the sully family. “Right on time” jake said, everyone running out to see what it was. 

Opening the flaps wide, ronal peeked out and gasped loudly. 

“Is that…” 

“Oh my Eywa they are real!!” 

A dragon! A mighty one at that! It gently flapped its wings, landing down safely on a very thick branch. Climbing down was kiri and tuk, whose hairs were literally everywhere. “We are home!” tuk announces happily, running towards jake who catched her in mid jump. “Mom, you should have joined us, it was simply wonderful,” kiri says as she smiles. 

Tonowari and his family were left stunned and speechless, a dragon, in front of them! 

“Come on, dont just stand there, you want to meet her?” Lo’ak says as he and neteyam go to the dragon. 

“Her…?” tonowari repeats. Neytiri happily goes over to the dragon and gives her many kisses, the dragon releases what sound like pleasing purrs. 

“Yes, this is…..” 

The ending is up to you to interpret. But I hope you guys enjoyed it! Until next time! See ya!

[defjux]

Here are 81 of my favorite albums of 2024 If you noticed the lack of hip hop albums on here, that's because i already posted a separate list for hip hop which you can find here if you're interested. Chart with album titles included I probably listened to the Chelsea Wolfe album more than anything else here but the cure album was such a pleasant surprise for me that I had to put it as number 1. I thought it was a great year for music overall though. I'm really happy with the first few rows on here and those are for sure the albums i'd recommend the most, even though i think everything on here is worth checking out. If you believe there's something i might've missed or your favorite albums of the year aren't on here, let me know! Feel free to leave your own list in the comments, i'd be interested in seeing it. As always, i'll make it so the album titles are a hyperlink that'll take to wherever you can hear it. Peace. 1. The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World 2. Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She 3. Iglooghost - Tidal Memory Exo 4. chat pile - Cool World 5. Frail Body - Artificial Bouquet 6. Whirr - Raw Blue 7. OKSE - OKSE 8. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere 9. Trauma Ray - Chameleon 10. Gouge Away - Deep Sage 11. drive your plow over the bones of the dead - Tragedy As Catharsis 12. Thou - Umbilical 13 . Moor Mother - The Great Bailout 14. Terry Green - PROVISIONAL LIVING 15. Krallice - Inorganic Rites 16. Nala Sinephro - Endlessness 17. Punchlove - Channels 18. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown 19. Tenue - Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos 20. Crumb - AMAMA 21. Hammok - Look How Long Lasting Everything Is Moving Forward For Once 22. Infant Island - Obsidian Wreath 23. Meaningful Stone - Angel interview 24. Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement 25. Arooj Aftab - Night Reign 26. Ulcerate - Cutting The Throat Of God 27. Camila Bañados - Viento 1. 28. Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor 29. Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja 30. Mary Halvorson - Cloudward

31. Nails - Every Bridge Burning 32. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD 33. showmore - Liquid City 34. Blushing - Sugarcoat 35. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk 36. Lip Critic - Hex Dealer 37. Joel Ross - nublues 38. State Faults - Children Of The Moon 39. geordie greep - The New Sound 40. Candy - It's Inside You 41. SATOKO SHIBATA - Your Favorite Things 42. Julia Holter - Something in the Room She Moves 43. Gigan - Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus 44. Knoll - As Spoken 45. Jaubi - A Sound Heart 46. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee 47. Blind Girls - An Exit Exists 48. Julie - my anti-aircraft friend 49. Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding - Milton + esperanza 50. Hiatus Kaiyote - Love Heart Cheat Code 51. Isleptonthemoon - Only the Stars Know of My Misfortune 52. Liana Flores - Flower of the soul 53. SML - Small Medium Large 54. Maruja - The Vault 55. Spirit of the Beehive - YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING 56. Fievel Is Glauque - Rong Weicknes 57. Leaving Time - Angel in the Sand 58. Rita Payés - De camino al camino 59. TURQUOISEDEATH - Kaleidoscope 60. Babii - Daredeviil2000 61. Jessica Pratt - Here In The Pitch 62. HERIOT - Devoured by the Mouth of Hell 63. Dim - planted in the soil 64. Contention - Artillery From Heaven 65. Convulsing - Perdurance 66. The Body & Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven 67. Uboa - Impossible Light 68. Melt-Banana - 3+5 69. DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water 70. Amiensus - Reclamation: Part 1 71. Ginger Root - Shinbangumi 72. Hannah Frances - Keeper of the Shepherd 73. Ravyn Lenae - Bird's Eye 74. Garden Home - Garden Home 75. Aara - Eiger 76. graywave - Dancing in the Dust 77. Martha Skye Murphy - Um 78. Mo Dotti - opaque 79. Luna Li - When a Thought Grows Wings 80. Pluma - Não Leve a Mal 81. Twine - New Old Horse

[cat-angel-936]

What if Chris will work with Zach?

Part Finaly

"What did you and your brother talk about?" The raven-haired one asked seriously, with that shrill tone that characterized Zach a while ago. Chris looked at him out of the corner of his eye in an indifferent manner or that he was trying to seem like "nothing" he responded without looking at his face and with a trembling voice. Zach quickly changed his attitude and approached Chris carefully and placed a hand on his shoulder so that he could understand that everything is fine. In response, Chris placed one of his hands, sipping hers, and looked at him over her shoulder. Although he didn't smile at her, she could see a certain gratitude in his eyes, which made the Varmitech happy.

"Let's prepare for that race, I'm sure we will win!" Zach said enthusiastically, spreading that euphoria to the inexplicable assistant, who nodded repeatedly.

"Well, then it will be better to be prepared, Sir," he said with a wink and they both went to prepare what was necessary for that race.

....

Aviva skated back and forth with boxes, erasers, materials and from time to time stopping at the computer to type something, leaving the rest of the crew confused who did not understand what the inventor was doing "this goes here, this goes here." *typing sound* and that's it!" She gave a final click and a blue disk came out, with an Oryx symbol on the center.

"Guys come closer" she asked excitedly.

"What's wrong Aviva?" The one in the blue suit asked when he saw the emotion in his partner's eyes.

"Yeah, what is that Avi?" Koki asked affectionately, approaching her.

"I'm glad you asked, this is the Animal Power Disc, with this Martin will transform into an Oryx and we will win that race!" She explained excitedly, Martin stood up and took the record in her hands "do you think Chris was excited about me?" He asked in a discouraged tone, Aviva nodded with a small smile and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm sure it is," she said, comforting her friend. "I'm sorry that your part of the plan didn't work out as you expected."

"It's okay, it was to be expected, it had been a long time and Chris is still affected by what happened"

"And what happened?" Jimmy asked, somewhat curious.

"that's not important now!" She responded seriously, surprising everyone with that unusual drastic change of attitude in "let's just sit in the race, what do I have to do?" He asked looking at the inventor who looked at him with a look determined to win.

"Well MK this is what we are going to do, you will agree to run, I will guide you and together we will win this race and free the Oryx from those...from Zach and your brother!"

"And we will support them!" The mechanic exclaimed, hugging Aviva with excitement while everyone started laughing.

The time of the competition had arrived and the two inventors were preparing

"Be careful," he told him the secret. Zach smiled at him, climbing onto his hand and said, "Don't worry, green boy, it will only be a simple race." He responded nonchalantly.

"It's not your competition that worries me, I worry that they will attract predators with the race" he said, noticing anger in his usual tone of voice.

"And that's why we have the zachbots, calm down and enjoy the race, Chris" I wink at him and he just rolls his gaze in annoyance.

"Excuse me, brother," said the older man in blue, somewhat embarrassed. Chris looked at him and raised an eyebrow, making Martin feel uncomfortable. "Can I touch the Oryx?"

"Hey?" But the grimace was all that the youngest of the brothers could say, but his boss responded with an affirmative "Sure Martin, but for what?"

"You'll see, place disk, touch the Oryx, activate animal power!" And said and done when saying those last words Martin activated the suit and transformed into an Oryx surprising the two boys next to him.

"wow!" They said in unison, the one in the black vest expressed his emotion that almost seemed like he was expressing himself for both of them while the most that could be seen of the one in the green tie were his big caramel eyes that were staring at his brother.

"Haha, it seems like you liked it," the short-haired girl said in a mocking tone and proceeded to get on the blue Oryx. "I'm ready, Zach."

"Ah yes, me too," said the aforementioned, recovering the compost and getting into position with his opponent. "So that's what the vests were for, I thought it was a kind of uniform or bulletproof vest."

"Use the same material as the bulletproof vest to make the suits"

"Alright, listen up everyone," announced Chris placed twelve in front of the *race track*, spreading out a map, "the race will consist of a long block passing through the termite mound, continuing past Lion Rock and ending at the tree. with the red saint, the first one who manages to take it wins, do you understand?"

"Yes" Both imbentors said and Martin who seemed to be the most nervous there "don't worry Martin, I know we will win" Aviva told him with confidence.

"Don't pay attention to him Fuzz, I trust you" Zach whispered in the Oryx's ear so that they wouldn't hear him.

"Fuzz?" Aviva asked, somewhat amused.

"What!? It's a good name" he replied embarrassed

"ON THEIR MARKS" the youngest Kratt drew attention "Ready" the participants stood in position "Get out!" And both teams ran off without giving Chris time to run, leaving him spinning around and falling silent on the ground "ugh..."

"Sorry Chris!" The three of them apologized and continued with the race.

Chris just shook his head and walked towards the two bulls that came with his brother and Aviva. "Hi, I'm Jimmy."

"Hello," he gave a simple wave and looked at the zachbot screen where he could see the race better.

Both competitors were running and stepping on each other's tails but Varmitech had the clear advantage as it was Martin's first time wearing the animal suit. He still couldn't get used to this new form and this was starting to bother Aviva since Zach was getting too far ahead.

"Faster Martin!" I order annoying

"I'm sorry, Aviva, I'll try to do better," he responded sadly and increased the speed of his walk to catch up with the other.

"And how long have you been working with Zach?" Jimmy asked, looking away from the screen a little.

"It's been a while now, it's going to be 4-5 years"

"Wow, it's a long time, we're kind of new hehe"

"I'm sure they'll plow it well"

"Jimmy, take a moment," Koki asked, doing it to her, leaving the redhead somewhat confused.

"What's wrong Koki?" I ask in a whisper

"I don't want you to talk to that boy," the shorter one ordered, leaving her with a lost look, contrary to the impression.

"What? But why?" She complained "if he is Martin's younger brother"

"And what? They're fighting, plus he's an enemy, don't trust him" They looked at each other annoyed but the conversation ended there and they prepared to continue watching Oryx's race.

Zach and Aviva had already passed the mound of dirt and were quickly heading towards the lion rock, although at the time they checked the spot no lions had been seen, Chris had to believe that the male lion could appear out of nowhere and wanting to hunt or perceiving them as a threat to their cubs, so the youngest of the brothers could be seen very attentive and worried on the screen

"Aww look the lion cubs are playing" she couldn't help but see them as she passed and the little babies looked at her and "roared" trying to sound threatening but they only looked more adorable

"Aww" The three said but a sound left them trembling "grrrr..." was heard behind them and when they turned they could see a male African lion, large and with a fierce look, who did not seem to want to make friends, heading quickly "Aaaahhh" was heard on the screen to the horror of Jimmy, Koki and especially Chris, who couldn't help but run away shouting at his boss.

"Run faster Martin, he'll catch up to us!" Desperate screamed Aviva, who kept looking back, making her more nervous.

"I'm trying to, but stop looking back!" She complained just as scared as her partner.

"Chris what are you doing!?" I ask, I get desperate when I see it.

"Save your life idiot!" She yelled at him and unexpectedly jumped towards him causing a detour that confused the large lion and caused him to collide with a mound of dirt and become dizzy and leave "sir, are you okay?" I ask worried

"Yes, but you're crazy, could you hurt yourself?" She responded with the same concern. They both stopped and saw Peluza who took the opportunity to eat grass and she seemed not to be affected by the blow.

"There is still time, you can continue" said the assistant to which the imbentor nodded and started running again while Chris was preparing to reach the finish line to see who the winner was although he was helped a little by the zachbot who went looking for him in desperation when they saw him running towards danger that way

"Oh look, we're almost there" said Martin when he saw the tree with the ribbon nearby.

"That's it Martin, a little more and we will free the Oryx from that prison" the girl responded enthusiastically.

"Not so fast!" The inventor said confidently, "I'm still in the race." He continued standing head to head, they were getting closer to the finish line, Aviva and Zach were ready to take that bar when in an unexpected movement Martin made a jump that surprised everyone and He grabbed the bar with his teeth, winning the race to the shouts of happiness from his teammates.

"Yeah!" "That's it Martin!" You could hear Jimmy and Koki running out to hug them and Koki couldn't stop giving Aviva kisses on the cheek "they did great Avi!" The girl with black curls said with emotion and joy.

"Thank you Koko" the one in the purple jacket hugged her.

On the other hand, Zach slowly got off the animal with his gaze fixed on his assistant who was also shocked with what had happened "the winner is Aviva, therefore Zach's team will have to free the Oryx and let them live freely in the nature...."Chris announced with some disbelief, that's when he realized that spontaneity is in his genes and it wasn't just his thing.

"amazing!" Martin exclaimed, detransforming, "now they will have to comply." He looked at them a little smug and confused, although later they were a little embarrassed for having that attitude and he smiled nervously. "If you want, we can help you?"

The other two looked at each other and Chris shook his head, but before they could say anything Aviva spoke up "it's not in the discussion to refuse, we want to make sure they will" and so they spent the rest of the afternoon getting the saddles out. to the Oryx who seemed to have no sudden change other than having those devices removed and continued eating as if nothing had happened.

"Well, that was the last one," Koki announced, leaving the object in one of the boxes, watching the animal walk away.

"I will miss Peluza, she was the most charismatic of all of them," the CEO said sadly, holding the box with Peluza's mount. Chris patted him on the back to calm him down a little. "Don't worry, sir, we can visit her another time," he consoled him.

"Yes, and he will surely be very happy to see you," Martin encouraged, accidentally catching everyone's attention.

"Yes, of course, she had it under control for I don't know how long and she will be very happy to see it, of course" Koki said sarcastically, crossing her arms in annoyance. Listening to her, Chris couldn't help but make a face, annoyed by the comment made by one of his brother's classmates, "I think it's time for you to go, brother..." he hissed this last annoyance, this greatly discouraged the older man since he hoped he could improve their relationship a little more, but he nodded and then signaled to the rest of the crew to start leaving "it's okay little brother, take care of yourselves."

"Don't call me little brother, I'm 25 years old," he complained, although this only made the eldest laugh animatedly as they walked away.

"Sure Chris, sorry" this was the last thing they heard from the kratt team before they disappeared into createrra

"The conference will be in three days and we have nothing..." the inventor spoke out of nowhere

"I think we can improvise something," the secretary responded with an idea.

three days later

"And it is with this that we will be able to make Oryx-shaped animatronics that are safe for children and adults."

End.

[andmaybegayer]

Hello it's me with another very naive computer question!

One of the really common complaints you see about modern software (from Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) is the move from the single-purchase model to a subscription-based model. While I understand that people are upset about paying more money over time, this also feels like the only viable option for shipping products that work with modern OSes, especially Windows (I don't have any experience with MacOS). Windows pretty regularly updates, and if you want your product to continue to work, you have to continue paying your engineers to maintain compatibility through time.

Obviously I understand that there are lots of FOSS options out there, but for the companies that are built on making money from these sorts of software products, I don't see another way. Am I way off the mark here?

This is a really good question. I don't have a great answer, but the model I have in my head is that "traditional software distribution" is partially an artifact of an era where companies were starting to use computers but internet use was still spotty so providing support for software was just a very different ballgame. A lot of what I'm saying here is not like. Fact as much as it is my understanding of The Software Business from the side of someone who is a little involved in that but mostly not in that.

(This is mostly about "business software", that is to say, accounting packages, creative suites, design packages, modelling tools, etc. This model does not explain like. Spotify. But that's much easier to explain.)

You're not wrong that the subscription model really make sense given modern software development, where patches come out continuously and you get upgraded to the latest version every time something changes, but there has been a significant change in how software is developed and sold that makes it noticeably different. I think that the cause of this is mostly because it's finally practical to do contract-style deals with hundreds of thousands of customers instead of doing one-off sales like we used to do.

In the Traditional model you charge a pretty sizeable upfront cost for a specific version of the software, you buy Windows XP or Jasc Paint Shop 7 or whatever and then you get That Version until we release The Next Version, plus a couple years of security and support. When the next version hits, we stop adding any new features to your version, and when that hits end of life, you maybe get offered a discount to buy licensing for the latest version, or you drop out of support.

Traditional software with robust support typically costs an awful lot, Photoshop CS2 was $600 new in 2005, or $150 to upgrade from CS, because you're paying for support and engineering time in advance. A current subscription for just Photoshop is $20/mo, and that's after twenty years of inflation. Photoshop is also cheap, a seat for something like SolidWorks 2003 could probably have run you $3000-4000 easy. I can't even give you a better guess there because SolidWorks still doesn't sell single commercial licenses online, you have to talk to their salespeople.

The interesting thing to me about Traditional pricing was that I think it was typically offered to medium to small businesses or individuals, because it's an easy way to sell to smaller customers, especially if it's the 90's and you're maybe selling your software through an intermediary reseller who works with local businesses or just a store shelf.

Independent software resellers were a big business back in the day, they served as a go-between for the software company and smaller businesses, they sold prepared packages in a few sizes and handled the personal relationship of phoning you up and saying "Hey there's a patch for your accounting software so that it doesn't crash when someone's surname is Zero, we'll send you a floppy disk in the mail with some instructions on how to install it." Versioned standard releases are a thing you can put in a box and give to resellers along with a spec sheet and sales talking points. This business still exists but it's much smaller than it once was, it's largely gone upmarket.

If you were bigger, say, if you were a publishing house that needed fifty seats of editing software you'd probably call the sales department of Jasc or whoever and get a volume deal along with a support contract.

Nowadays why would you bother going through resellers and making this whole complicated pricing model when you could just sell subscriptions with well-established e-commerce tools. You can make contract support deals with individuals at scale, all online, without hiring thousands of salespeople. You can even provide varying support levels at multiple cost brackets directly, so you don't need to cultivate a direct business relationship with all your customers in order to meet their needs. Your salespeople handle the really big megacorp and government deals and you let everyone else administer themselves.

It also makes development easier. You can also deploy patches over the net, you just do it in software. You can obsolete older versions faster, since you can make sure most people are using the latest version, and significantly cut down on engineering time spent backporting fixes to older versions. I think a lot of this is straightforwardly desirable on most software.

Now, there are still packages sold by the version, and there are even companies selling eternal licenses.

Fruity Loops Studio is still a "Buy once forever" type deal.

MatLab can be purchased as a subscription or as a perpetual one-version license.

Windows is still sold like this, but also direct to customer sales of Windows are minimal, Windows is primarily sold to OEM's who preinstall it on everything.

But it's a dying breed, your bigger customers are going to want current support and while there are industries where people want to hang around on older versions, for a lot of software your customer wants the latest thing with all the features and patches, and they'd rather hold on to their money until later using a subscription rather than spend it all upfront. Businesses love subscriptions, they make accounts books balance well, they're the opposite of debt.

Personal/private users who might just want the features of Photoshop CS2 and that's fine forever don't matter to you. They're not your major customers. This kind of person is not a person who your business cares to service, so you don't really care if you annoy them.

Even in the Open Source business world, subscriptions are how the money is made, just on support rather than for the software itself. You can jump through relatively few hoops to run Ubuntu Enterprise or SUSE Enterprise Linux on your own systems for free, but really there's not much benefit to that unless you pay for the dedicated support subscription.

In many ways I think a lot of things have changed in this way, I have a whole thing about the way medium-scale industrial manufacturing has changed in the past thirty years somewhere around here.

While there are valid reasons you might want to buy a single snapshot of some software and run that forever, the reality is that that's a pretty rare desire, or at least that desire is rarely backed by money. If you want to do that you either need access to the source code so that you can maintain it yourself, or you need to strike a deal with someone who will, or it needs to be software so limited that it (and the system it runs on!) never need updates. Very few useful programs are this simple. As a result subscription models make sense, but until recently you couldn't really sell a subscription to small businesses and individuals. Changes in e-commerce and banking have enabled such contracts to be made, and hey presto, it's subscription world.

[wayti-blog]

"The universe's early galaxies were less chaotic and developed much faster than previously thought, according to new research looking back more than ten billion years in time. An international team of astronomers led by Durham University, UK, has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to find evidence of bar formation when the universe was only a few billion years old.

This latest research is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Bars are elongated strips of stars found in disk or spiral galaxies like our Milky Way. As bars develop, they regulate star formation within a galaxy, pushing gas into the galaxy's central region, and their presence tells scientists that galaxies have entered a settled, mature phase.

Previous studies carried out using the Hubble Space Telescope had been able to detect bar forming galaxies up to eight or nine billion years ago. But the increased sensitivity and wavelength range offered by the JWST means researchers have been able to see the phenomenon happening even further back in time. This means that scientists might have to rethink their theories about galaxy evolution in the early stages of the universe's formation."

continue reading article

[skullcandy11111198]

Leveragetober23 Day 5: birthday

It was his birthday. Ugh.

Yet another humdrum day of feigned well wishes from silly little sycophants that just want to be as high up as him, hoping to step on him on their own way up. (He knows he's better than all of them, but do they really need to remind him every time they open their mouths and let drivel pour out? NO. But they do it anyway. *Sigh*) Yet another backpack from the higher ups as a show of "appreciation" for his dedication to the organization all these years. Yet another pointed text from his ex-wife reveling in his advanced age -- congratulations waylaid and thrown over a cliff long before she ever got to the "happy" part of happy birthday.

The only joy this day brings him is the wonderful dinner his daughter treats him to every year. Since she was 7 she decided it was her job to get her dad to show one real smile (not solely aimed at her) at least one day a year, so she always sends him some sort of surprise gift when he leasts expects it. Ironically, he has therefore come to completely expect it, but she still manages to surprises him every year (though it really shouldn't given the type of woman she has become) with caring and thoughtful gifts that mean the world to him. She may never understand how much, but she is the reason for his joy, and if she wants him to be happy, then he will, simply for her.

Therefore, he was excited (deep, deep down in his gut, probably somewhere behind his left kidney), and not all that suspicious, when he came back from yet another meeting on this damnable day to find the CD port of his computer popped open, with a disk lying in the slot, topped with a large pink bow. On the CD, someone had written "SURPRISE!" and beneath it, "Happy Birthday!"

Feeling a small bounce of excitement within him (that he will forever deny on pain of death or sodium pentathol), and wondering what his daughter had gotten him this year, he moved the bow aside and pushed in the disk.

BOOOOOOM

Confetti explodes from tubes hidden throughout his office! His plants somehow start singing happy birthday songs, each in a different language! His blinds act on their own accord, closing to reveal another birthday message across the shutters! A party hat descends from a pulley machine lowering down from the ceiling tiles, to hang jauntily off the side of his head! His drawers pop open to reveal a cake that looks like it was baked, iced, and decorated in his desk! And his computer! Oh his computer…

His screen has been taken over by a repeating video of Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison, and Parker, all in party hats, blowing kazoos with shrieking noises emanating from his speakers, and hoisting red solo cups and cupcakes at him mockingly from under a banner declaring "Happy Birthday!" in joyful, bright font. At the bottom of the screen, once the video had replayed enough times and he could hear again after the confetti pipe bombs stopped exploding in his face, a small message appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Check the confetti." He scowled. He checked the confetti.

"Your birthday present is in your couch." He scowled. He checked his couch.

A close examination revealed the cushions were not at the exact angle he always left them in (to allow any interlopers who dared one, enter his office or two, sit on his furniture, to immediately slouch and slide forward in an unbecoming manner). Pulling away the cushions revealed a large streamer acting as a pull tab to open the base of his couch, and when he pulled it (cringing inside at the thought of any more…surprises) it revealed…A man. A man, wrapped in wrapping paper and ribbon (is that duct tape?), in a surprisingly secure manner to keep him from escaping. A man with a bow on his head and a USB taped to his forehead, along with a note. A note that read, "This is Colin Mason (also know to very few people as "Chaos," and to many more as "that asshole"). Please feel free to detain him at your leisure, you will find proof of many of his more embarrassingly simply hacking crimes on the USB (see: forehead)."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and a young blonde woman hesitantly stepped inside while the rest of the floor looked in behind her, attempting to see what had transpired in his office in the past two minutes. Looking around curiously, having missed the start of the party, she finished her look-about to give him a small smile and said, "Heyyy, Dad, what's going on in here? And…nice…hat?"

He growled.

It is Jim Sterling's 53rd birthday. Ugh.

[fishmech]

Slo-mo 486 activity 2 (Norton Speed Disk & simultaneous CD playback under DR-DOS)

[greatwyrmgold]

Noah Caldwell-Gervais's new Dragon Age video reignited the flames of long-dormant discourse in my heart. Vitriol for DLC, which I personally think is ridiculous. I do not think there is a valid argument against video game DLC that does not apply equally well to paying money for video games in general.

(A position I'm much more open to now than I was when DLC was a more relevant discourse topic, but that's not an argument DLC haters make so it's not one I'll address.)

I'll start by clarifying that I'm talking specifically about classic-style DLC, where you made a purchase and could download and use that content for as long as relevant servers worked and the game worked on your PC. Pay $20 for a new area with side quests, pay $7.99 for weapons and other options, pay $2.50 for horse armor. There are a lot of ways DLC shades into other forms of monetization (gacha games and battle passes and so forth), and I don't want to defend all of it. Just the classic DLC model.

Back in the day (and sometimes today), people talked about DLC as if it's taking bits out of a finished game to sell them separately. They say it's unfair or immoral to sell those separately, with a separate price tag, when it's part of the complete experience!

And I just do not think that is materially true. Let me start by questioning the concept of a "complete game" by pointing to Knights of the Old Republic 2, a 2004 game which quite famously had a ton of cut content—content that we only know about because (for technical reasons) it was left on the disks. Would KOTOR 2 be more complete if we didn't know about the cut content?

Games have always had stuff that got cut late in development. A random game from 1990 is likely not "more complete" than a random game from 2020, but 1990 didn't have any way for devs to distribute the unfinished content even if they did finish it later. Never mind how the manager could justify paying all eight developers for the couple of months it would take to finish that stuff! Either it got spun off into a new game or it lingered in hard drives, never to see the light of day.

From an audience standpoint, I have not seen anyone name a narrative DLC which is actually essential for the game. Excluding the DLC narrative content does not make the game's narrative incomplete, any more than excluding Han Solo from the original Star Wars movie would make it incomplete. The story works perfectly fine without Mos Eisley cantina, without Han helping rescue Leia, without the unexpected return of Han Solo at the end.

Don't get me wrong, Star Wars without Han Solo would be a worse movie. But bad movies are not automatically incomplete; they can be both complete and bad. Star Wars without Han Solo would just be a worse movie, no more incomplete than any other 1977 sci-fi film that didn't spawn a billion-dollar franchise.

And it's also not true from a production standpoint. I'm gonna link an Ask a Game Dev post on the subject and share a lightly edited image from his FAQ.

There might be exceptions, but broadly speaking, every game dev I've seen speak on the issue says that DLC is not stuff deliberately cut out of the game after development. Sometimes it's stuff that may have been prototyped during development and then scrapped, or stuff that was developed somewhat but cut because it wasn't working properly by the cutoff date, but it's essentially never complete material cut out for marketing reasons alone.

DLC is, from an internal perspective, a project that is connected to the original game, but with a separate budget and separate revenue. Less revenue, to be sure, but also less budget, because the underlying engine works and you might reuse some of those old buggy prototypes in the product.

This is true of Day 1 DLC, by the way. For business reasons, video games need to be basically done long before they are actually available for sale. The certification process is the big culprit here; it's a back-and-forth between devs and various platforms where basically the entire team needs to be available (in case something they made breaks), but most of the team won't have stuff to do. Adding anything new could cause a whole slew of new issues to arise somewhere or another, so you can't do that in the certification slog.

Clever game companies find some other project for idle employees to pitch in on. Maybe another game being developed for later release. Maybe a live-service content pack. Maybe DLC. And certification for DLC (or patches) of an already-certified game is a lot faster than getting the base game certified!

You might argue that this is no different than if the developers were allowed to keep working on the game until much closer to launch. I would say yes, it is like if the devs were working on a video game, that's why paying for day-one DLC is equivalent to paying for a video game.

You might argue that they could just include that DLC content as a free patch. I would say yeah, they could. They could also release the entire game as a free product. It's not like each electronic copy of the new CoD game costs $60 to manufacture!

You might argue that the game publisher needs to make money somehow to justify paying the devs that make the game. I would point out that DLC is often treated as a separate project with a separate budget, or at least a certain amount of the "central budget" allocated for DLC purposes.

Every reasonable, informed argument about DLC must either conclude with "It's fine for DLC to have a price tag" or "Video games should be free".`

Thanks for reading my rant. Or at least existing in a state where you could have read my rant, giving me a space where I can type stuff like this to get it off my chest. Man, I wish I had that ten years ago.

[wjbs-bonkle-au]

A bounty-hunter armed with a Kanoka-rifle. Slightly inspired by the vibes of the first two Zeno Clash games.

Full credits below.

Head, eyes, lower-legs, disk and launcher from @nattarthetimedragon's upcoming Vahki parts-pack (which I am testing, and will be officially released on 8/10 Day).

Upper-forearms and lower-neck/lower-chest joints, "spine", hips and upper-thighs, and lower-thighs are by @valtarshol, respectively from Toa Mata Custom Parts Pack, Diminished Matoran Custom Parts Pack, Custom Accessory Pack 2, and Mata Supplement Pack 1.

Finger-bases and mid-neck joint are by @orc3dprint, respectively from Mo' Connections and Articulated Toa Metru.

Laser-sight by me from my 2023 8/10 pack.

[vanshookie]

Pairing: Nanami Kento/reader

Word Count: 5865 words

Summary: Moving into a new town is anxiety inducing, but it helps when kindness of strangers occurs.

Content/Warnings: Slice of Life, Drabbles, Fluff, sprinkles of Angst, Gender Neutral

Series Masterlist

No matter how organised one can be, moving house is always super stressful. You could fine tune every detail and likely something will still go wrong. And due to the high pressure of moving, even just a coffee order going wrong could shoot up blood pressure.

However, despite your organisational prowess, you still had everything going wrong. The rain was heavy, everyone cancelled and you can’t even have a instant coffee due to the fact that you packed absolutely everything last night.

The goal was to handle as much as possible before people came to help. Making sure to pack everything up and sealed them tight in the early hours of today. It was to avoid making anyone work too hard but now has come to haunt you. With no one here to help, the only person who benefits from your all nighter is apparently you.

You were not feeling like it helped as you feel the disks in your back grate against each other as you try to maintain the correct lifting form in your zombie state.

Mid-way to your car you question if you even brought your keys. that was another fun part of today was the atrocious memory, you had already done this walk 5 times and forgot yours keys and this time it was a box of dry food you didn’t want to soak in the torrential rainfall.

Oxygen re-enters your lungs when you see you left your car door slightly open, ignoring the normal anxiety that internet horror stories taught you; to fear something sneaking in while you were away. You place the last box of kitchen items and slam the door happily.

Then you check your pockets for the keys. They are not there. Lucky it was open you guess… Where are they then? You quickly look to the ignition and pray you haven’t just left your keys in the car.

They are in the car.

Clearly that was the cars fault, so it is met with a swift kick and then a scream angrily echos the neighbourhood cause damn that was a good kick to smash your foot.

The place you are leaving is a high rise apartment but the parking is not under the building. It is across the street so everyone got to see you furiously yelling in the storm. Of course when you live in an area like this; no one cares.

You check all the car doors handles with anxious passion. None of them are open. You check the backseats for the horror story stalker to help you, they sadly weren’t there when needed. You check the trunk and it opens!

You shove yourself in and open the centre seat window. All you got was to see the keys in another perspective cause no way were you squishing yourself through. As you were doing this, the previous uncaring people around you when you were having the breakdown can now speak up.

The poetic phrase they jeer is “nice ass”, and normally you would have a few choice words to say and wish you could say them but life decided smacking your head while trying to get out and do that was a better alternative.

Hopping out you feel the tears to start to gather again, why is it going so wrong? Throwing up the middle finger as you walk away, you walk into the lobby of the building to the elevator.

Thankfully, unlike the car, you did not lock your apartment as nothing much to steal right now. The movers had already picked up all the large furniture and a few boxes that you did not think you could fit In your tiny car.

Thinking ahead, you only left the things that were essential and did not want to re-purchase if anything got lost. You see only three more small boxes and a few ikea and daiso bags packed with random things.

The counter was clear apart from your phone on there charger. Grabbing it you call the person you need most.

“Shokoooooo, I need youuu” you immediately cry as you hear the phone dial tone stopping.

“Sorry I can’t get to the phone right now, most like in surgery if you can’t reach me”

This is it, you finally have reached the limit. You lie flat on the ground and let the tears fall. Everything this morning was planned to a finite detail yet all you are brought is suffering.

Admitting defeat an uber is ordered. Trying to still somewhat be helpful, you type a long winded message explaining how much stuff you have and that the car will need to fit it. The driver gets there rather quickly. He introduces himself as Iijichi.

Honestly he was highlight of your day, he did not want you to carry anymore things so he told you to stay as he did the trips, leaving you with just your handbag to worry about. He came back with only sweat on his brow and a strawberry and cream lollipop.

You both do a double check together, nothing really to note apart from a few things you thought may be nice for the next tenants. Then Iijichi finds something that makes you want to return to the floor, your spare car fob.

You feel your head go red and want to faint but Iijichi helps you see the bright side. He can head to the address alongside you and help you bring the boxes in. It initially causes you to feel a bit suspicious, maybe he wants to steal your very exquisite random assortment of house supplies. However he walks the carpark and begins to move your things in from your car.

He explains during this that he actually knows a few of the people at your new place. This lifts your spirits even more!

“Oh that’s brilliant! What kind of people are my new neighbours?” You help him move some of the stuff but once again he only leaves you the easy bags to lift into the front seat.

“Hmm there’s a bunch of brilliantly minded kids and some very respectable men” He says with his eyes shifting. He sees you lift your brow again and quickly covers himself.

“The owner is kind of an obnoxious guy but he means well, however trust me that if anyone messes with you, the others will likely have your back”

“Oh that’s nice! Hopefully I fit in” You feel reassured but slight anxiety rises, it sounds like this is a very established neighbourhood, hopefully your presence does not bother them.

With that, Iijichi makes sure you are ready and wearing your belt and gets in his car, ready to follow.

———

You arrive at the apartments with several missed calls, Iijichi quickly catches up to and asks what’s the plan.

“Um I have to catch up with some calls, can I give you my keys and you start moving this?”

“Sounds good!” He smiles and begins his task.

He doesn’t even seem to need to check the keys and knows where to move your stuff.

You quickly move under the cover, near apartment 1B. The neighbourhood despite being talked up by Iijichi, is actually very quiet currently. Nobody actually seems to be home, or the eyes that you feel on you are hiding as well.

(3) missed calls, (70) messages

Oh god that’s a lot of messages, mostly from Shoko but have to prioritise the movers.

“Hey sorry for missing your call! I was driving” You quickly apologise.

“All good, i’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but due to the weather circumstances, we can’t bring your belongings tonight but hopefully it clears up in the morning.”

“Ah okay that’s alright, there won’t be any additional costs right?”

“Not at all… apart from potential added time of travel as the cost is calculated from the hourly rate, the truck will keep your stuff untouched at the facility under cover free of charge, we should have rescheduled this morning when the weather was showing signs of storms”

“Well to be honest, im very glad you didn’t cause I had to have the place cleared tonight, I hope your workers have stay safe in the storm” You can hear your own customer service voice and cringe inwardly.

“Thank you for your kindness, will see you once the weather clears” The man ends the call and you pause,

see you once the weather clears

Does this mean that if this doesn’t clear up, you won’t get your stuff for longer. You feel a headache come on and pinch the bridge of your nose.

You hear footsteps behind you and go to greet them. Yet your phone has other plans and blasts Shoko’s personal ringtone; Barbie girl.

You fumble the phone in embarrassment, hoping that it is just Iijichi behind you to get more boxes, the being watched feeling just must be lingering anxiety.

“Shoko! You scared me, I hate the ringtone at this point” You grumble and clutch the phone to your head and hunch, acting as if anyone cares to listen to your conversation.

“(Y/N)!! You do not have room to complain! You called me earlier and it was just a voicemail saying you needed me! I’m normally very happy to have you flirting but you sounded not okay!” Shoko complains at you, you can almost hear the cigarette burning away as she neglects it on the other hand.

“Oh! I didn’t think it sent, I’m sorry” and you genuinely meant it, you knew better than to stress Shoko at work.

“Hm, I expect more apologies when I see you, you must grovel” She chides.

“I promise I will, full bow on my knees at your feet, I really didn’t mean to worry you”

You hear the steps behind you pick up again, Instead of the lovely Iijichi, it was a blonde man. He wore a tan suit and navy shirt. You feel your face go red, praying he only just showed up.

He doesn’t seem phased though and begins to also help you lift stuff, Iijichi catching up and smiling at the man and turns to you with a thumb point at the man. You shyly give a thumbs up and point to the phone.

Iijichi nods with a mock salute while the blonde mans disposition does not change as he passes boxes to Iijichi. His face is flat and seems to be used that resting face as the creases of stress on his face direct it to be true.

“(Y/N) are you listening? I asked what was wrong? I was in surgery and getting a voice call like that scared the life out of me” Shoko’s voice is flat but knowing her better, she really is somewhat affected at this.

“Again I’m so sorry Ieiri-chan, It’s moving day and everything went wrong but Ive got it handled now!”

“What went wrong? Do you still need my help?” You can hear her grab her keys and pace.

“No, it’s okay, weirdly enough my uber driver is helping me”

“(Y/N)!! You know better than to trust strangers, let alone men!”

“I knooooow, but he knows my neighbours! I called cause I lost my car keys and he helped me!! Then he found my keys, honestly he saved my day”

You hear her click her tongue and sit down, successfully calm her down.

“What happened to my help? He said he’d be there” You guess she lights a new cigarette by the sounds of a lighter flicking.

“Yeah seemingly no show, it’s okay, I was also supposed to have more help and the weather was not my friend today”

“I’ll kill Gojo next time I see him I swear” You hear her mutter.

“Don’t! Its okay, I have to go to help them but Ill call you in the morning okay?”

“Okay, wait what do you mean them?!-“ you hang up before she finishes, oh she’s gonna be pissed. You quickly type a message.

‘Iijichi seems to have got one of my neighbours to help! Don’t worry, I’ll text you when i'm done’

You quickly trot to the car and look to see what you can hold, again you are meet by just your handbag and grocery bag of linen.

Huffing you lock the car and go up stairs to your new home. Iijichi is waiting next to the Blonde man in the kitchen section.

“He-“ You begin to greet but are interrupted.

“Nanami-san, this is (Y/N), your new neighbour everyone has been talking about!” He gives a little show off gesture to you.

You feel your face crease confusion yet ‘Nanami’s’ does not. He takes off his lenses and gives you a light bow.

“Nice to meet you (Y/N)-san, I’m glad to be the first to meet you”

You lift your hand up to give a handshake, which he accepts with a firm one back. If you had to rate it, you would say it was the optimum business handshake, all bosses would be incredibly impressed by his handshake finesse.

“Pleased to meet you! Thank you so much for your help, I can’t thank you enough” You nod your head in thanks as well.

“All is well, I apologise for almost interrupting your call, it sounded… important”

Oh no… he heard your grovelling to Shoko, so unfortunate out of context, or even with it.

“Haha ha… It’s okay! It was my friend, she was very worried after I had an unlucky day”

“That is most unfortunate, I hope our help was a positive”

“I really can’t thank you both enough, it was a highlight if my day!” You clasp your hands. “Oh! If you want I can make you a hot drink as a small thanks!” You begin to look for the coffee maker.

“That would be lovely, but I have to continue lifts” Iijichi itches his cheek.

“My goodness, I’m sorry! I held you back so much”

“No! don’t worry, I'm glad to be this helpful, trust me Nanami-san is one of the men I talked about” Iijichi winked and began to head off. You see Nanami raise an eyebrow at that but you turn to walk Iijichi to the door before questioned.

You wait for Iijichi to leave and quickly check the app to give him a good tip but it looks like he canceled! Way to dodge getting appreciation, you will get him back.

“Well, do you want one?” You swiftly turn to Nanami and he nods.

You begin to look at the boxes and suddenly feel worry rise again. You didn’t label the boxes!

Sensing your emotions, Nanami approaches. “What is wrong, if you are tired you don’t need to make me anything” he reassures.

“It’s not that, I seemingly forgot to label these boxes, I did for the moving truck” rambling on and almost sob, why is everything constantly going haywire.

“Oh… don’t stress, I can help you sort if you don’t mind?” He asks. You only nod and collect yourself again. You start with the bags. He leaves. You continue to place it in the linen cupboard accordingly.

Wait… He leaves???

You walk to the front door and see him walking back, but with a notebook and brio with him.

“Um, what’s that for?” You stand next to him as leans a arm on the counter and begins writing. He lists rooms with space given to write underneath.

“Im making a list so we can efficiently make sure you have everything” he answers.

“Oh!… why?” his answer only brought more questions.

“So you don’t need to worry about losing anything or forgetting anything, keeping track will help you not do overtime” he continues.

“Oh-kay, I trust you” you turn and smile at him, he looks down but his face only slightly changes. His mouth slightly upturns but that’s about it.

———

You finish around 7pm, it was only 5 boxes and 3 large bags of linens/towels and your ‘emergency potential guest’ futon. You were hoping you would just get your bed to sleep in tonight, but life had other plans, so you are thankful that at least some of your overplanning worked.

“Is this all?” Nanami checks, during the couple of hours, he has removed his jacket as it was damp from the storm. In this time he showed you the aspects of the apartment. So you took his jacket and placed it on a chair near the heater in attempt to dry it quickly.

You set up a makeshift table with a box and began to look at the list you made together. So far you had your bathroom set up with essentials, your kitchen utensils and coffee maker set up (important priority) and a make shift bed for the night.

You ticked off the these things and added a few that you are waiting for. Nanami sat himself across from you and politely place his hands on his thighs.

“Are you missing anything? Apart from the truck stuff”

“I don’t think so, hopefully the rest is here tomorrow” You press the pen to your lip in the thought. You look at Nanami and see his eyes flicker to your pen.

“Ah totally forgot this is your pen! Sorry!” You wipe it on your shirt and place it down with the notepad.

“Don’t worry about it, do you want to write a shopping list? You said you have time off so getting that ready before returning to work is wise” Nanami grabs the pen and begins writing one anyway.

“Um Sure! I’m going to make the promised drinks now! What would you like?” You get up and head to the kitchen, its mostly bare apart from hot drinks ingredients and some quick meals packets.

Unfortunately, you have lost most of the refrigerated foods you had but thankfully Nanami brought you milk earlier so you can share a coffee after a long day.

“Black Coffee please, no sugar” He nods and starts writing the foods he noticed in rubbish bags. You pause, why did he bring milk then if not for himself. Already Nanami seems so selfless,even subtly helping you in very thoughtful ways.

You tap the spoon on the side of the mug and place it in the sink. Sitting back down in your spot, you hand him his coffee. He accepts and pleasantly hums as he takes a sip.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take my bed? I don’t mind swapping spot for the night, you must be sore after all this” he asks as he writes more down simultaneously.

“No its okay, you have helped more than enough”

“It’s nothing, I got to get off work early today so I don’t mind”

Wait… he helped even after a workday, you choke on your coffee at the realisation and he swiftly pats your back. Taking your coffee and placing it lightly on the box-table.

“Careful” he chides as he rubs your back.

“My bad, I just thought you said you worked a full day” You dead panned at him but his face remained the same, concerned for you choking but not for him overworking.

“I did, but I’m happy to help” He seems to challenge your glare and definitely wins.

You huff and sip more coffee spitefully.

“I’ll move on for your sake” You glare and he seems to show a somewhat smug face. “What’s on the list” you turn the notepad and see a very organised list. It is sorted into aisles and has question marks next to things he wasn’t sure of.

“Wow this is an immaculate list, is this your job or something?” The stars in your eyes seem to make him laugh, even if it only was a slight blow of air to people unfamiliar. Despite only knowing him this evening, it is quickly catching on.

“No, unfortunately list maker is a competitive career, I’m a mentor of sorts but I used to be a Salaryman”

“Oh wow! That’s so cool!” Your words seem to be the most shocking thing he’s ever heard.

“…Cool?”

“Yes! You must be all your students favourite!”

“Thank you for your kind words, honestly you may meet some of them, a few live in the apartments” He shares and you feel excitement bubble in your stomach.

He gets up and takes your empty cup. He washes all the dishes from this and puts them away. His manners constantly just leave you frozen in awe.

“Did I get everything?” He turns and leans on the island bench to face you.

“Yes… for what?”

He laughs lightly and gestures to the list.

“Oh yes! you did, and the formatting is amazing, I don’t think anyone could beat this list and they will all be enamoured at the shops when they glance at it, thank you!” he must have found gratefulness a tad unconventional actually made him laugh out loud.

You feel goosebumps raise at his laugh, it’s very nice. It’s a genuine warm laugh.

“Good im glad, the local store must know your status” He jests as well. You can already tell that Nanami is going to a neighbour you are constantly thankful for, already plotting ways to pay him back.

Despite everything being done, he stays and explains the neighbourhood to you. Where the landlord lives, areas to go or where to avoid, and the neighbours names with the apartment number. As he speaks, he writes it neatly on a new page of the notepad.

“Would you like to take a photo for this memory” Nanami raises his eyes to meet yours with his question. Again, quickly reading your expression he continues. “I noticed the polaroids and frames, thought you may want to capture the memory” He stands and grabs the camera he placed on the shelf in the lounge.

“Oh my gosh yes!” You jump up and place yourself next to him. He looks confused but you lightly grab the polaroid and point it into a selfie position.

“Smile!” You laugh and press yourself into his shoulders, lifting the camera high to get the both of you in the photo. You take a photo with a giggle and quickly place it upside down on the bench so it develops well.

You feel him lightly take the camera and position it in a better position and repeat your words. Before it flashes you turn to him with a shocked flushed face that he has now immortalised.

He follows after you and places it next to yours.

You both wait in anticipation.

“Would you like me to bring you a nail, so you can hang up the cork board of the collage you already have?” Nanami asks and gestures to his room. He explained earlier that coincidentally, he is your neighbour in the apartment to the left of you, apartment 2C.

“Please!”

He leaves to grab his toolbox and gets back rather quickly. He sees you holding the pictures with a big smile.

“Did they develop well?” He asks as he rolls his sleeves up to his elbows. You see his toned arms and almost loose your ability to speak.

“They did! They might be my new favourites” you show him and he nods. “May I keep the one I took please?” He turns to his toolbox and begins to get ready to put up the cork board while glancing you.

“Of course! But warning I look really goofy” You say as you grab the cork board from the floor.

“Well I think you look lovely, can you please mark where you wish to hang it” He passes you the biro from before.

You seem to barely catch the first statement in your mission to be helpful. But are sure he knows when it does sink in as the blush reaches your neck.

You make the spot on the left side wall close to the front door. It means that when you get your shoe rack, you can sit on the small step and look at it with happiness. It also can be seen from the kitchen and main room as well so the memories will never be far.

“Good spot, lets get this up” he quickly finishes the job and places it for you with perfect precision.

You quickly grab the thumbtacks from your newly established everything drawer and hang up the picture just taken. It sits near the centre, right next to the photo of you and Shoko.

“Perfect! Thank you Nanami-kun” You give him a quick hug that he can barely reciprocate. You look up after and see him have a very faint blush.

“Oh my gosh sorry! I should have asked!”

“No it’s okay, you’re fine, you're welcome” He quickly covers, not wanting you to mistake his reaction.

“Anyway, it’s getting quite late, do you have work tomorrow?”

“Unfortunately I do, but don’t hesitate to get me if you need help” He gives you a soft bow then grabs his toolbox with the notebook and heads to his apartment.

You turn and see that he left his jacket accidentally, guess you now have a concrete excuse to see him.

———

You wake up to Barbie girl blasting on your phone. You roll off the futon and groggily grab your phone.

“Morning whatsup”

“Good morning sunshine, you must be super tired after forgetting to message me if you were alive” You here Shoko’s teeth grate as she says each word.

That woke you up rather quickly.

“Oh no im so sorry! Im alive I swear”

“You sound it now but I'm not so sure, I might need to get there right now”

“You don’t have to! Id love to be graced with your presence but I promise I'm good” Despite this, you still can hear her getting into her car.

“Then Christmas is early cause I’ll be there! Send me the address”

“Okay, see you soon” you yield and do so as she ends the call.

———

After having a shower you hear the specific knocks you know to be Shoko’s.

You open the door to see Shoko with bags full of groceries.

“Oh Ieiri-sama you really didn’t have to” You grab some of the bags to help.

“I appreciate the correct honorific, I am a divine being, but this was not me” she corrects and begins to pack the groceries away correctly, how she just knows is like magic.

“Oh- then who did”

“Not sure, we seem to have a mystery” She turns her head to look at you, face flat but you can see the jest in her eyes.

“Ha ha I’m sure it will be a hard one”

You check the bags and find a familiar notepad.

‘Good Morning,

I hope you find this home-warming present swiftly,

I realised last night that I wrote you a whole shopping list but then took the notepad that it was in, a silly mistake on my behalf.

I got what I thought would be safe without need a fridge to lessen your amount of worries and then hopefully this sunny day continues so I can bring the other half with me on the way back from work

Also, I realised that you will need my number to reach me obviously, don’t hesitate to use it

+81 03 XXXX XXXX

Nanami Kento (Apartment 2C, avoid 2A if you can)’

After reading you can feel the smile grow on your face. Yet you aren’t the only one.

“Ooo you already have a secret admirer” Shoko whistles and takes the notepad.

“Ugh less secret” she sneers and dodges your attempts to get it back.

“So Nanami-san lives here, that’s not the worst but explains why I had to dodge that tall prick” She turns and gives back the notepad.

“You know him?” You bring the notepad to your chest and hug it.

“Yup, we went to school together” she goes back to unpacking things. “At least you got a bunch of free food and now it’s less suss! You can trust that he didn’t do anything weird with this stuff”.

“Oh well that’s good, especially since you were already putting it away” You huff and help her once again.

“Well if it was bad, then you would just visit me at my workplace, I’ll look after you~” She smiles.

“Oh yes that’s a lovely way to see you, potentially poisoned from mystery groceries”

———

Shoko took the whole day off to help you. Thankfully the moving company were able to deliver today. It honestly worked out perfectly since you had help available today and it was a lovely clear day.

“Oh did actually bring you a gift though!” She randomly exclaimed, at the brief lunch time break after the movers got everything inside.

“Thank you Shoko-san, you really did not have to”

“I know! But I wanted to and don’t call me that” she kept a light tone despite each wording not fitting it. She got up and grabbed her handbag.

It honestly wasn’t really a typical handbag, much more a small doctor’s satchel. She took out a rectangular bag and you could quickly guess what it is.

“Really Shoko? Booze?”

“Yes, it is necessary to make the worn muscles be less aggravated” she says with a serious disposition.

“I’m not really sure that is backed up by research but have to trust the licensed professional, but I swear if I get hungover” you copy her acting,

“Exactly you always get it, even if I did technically cheat my eligibility for the medical examination”

“What?”

“Nothing”

Once again the neighbours were not present, but it makes sense now as you know many of them seem to be in school. Which implies that their parents must being working! This neighbour mystery is riveting and definitely not an attempt to take control the lack of information.

“Y’know I’ve been thinking, Ijichi-san said he knew everyone here and you are familiar with Nanami, do you also know everyone?” You turn jump next to Shoko on your couch.

“Oh yeah, kinda have to, I work shifts at their school as nurse” she says casually. She turns to see your mouth agape and laughs.

“Huh?! Why didn’t you tell me!?!” You cry and dramatically fall on to her.

“Oomph- Get off, youuu didn’t tell me this was the new apartment” She crosses her arms and tries to twist away from you.

“You have to admit that I couldn’t have seen this coming” you try to avoid a grumpy Shoko.

“I know. Im messing with ya, at least I feel safer with you being here, some of the people here are annoying but they are good people” she sits up and grabs your hand to sit you up.

“Are they only annoying cause you have to be their nurse” you laugh and she joins.

“pretty much”

———

After the strenuous day, Shoko heads home after eating dinner with you; it was a lovely delivery meal. She spent most of the day lecturing you about countless things while scribbling it in your newly acquired notebook and pen;

1. start answering your phone,

2. how to have your house, and

3. most of all avoid white haired men.

You weren’t sure why she had such a grudge against old men, the only demographic you know with white hair, but you made sure to listen and not question; mastering the ways of knowing Shoko Ieiri.

You were taking your rubbish out to the bins and then bumped into a familiar face,

“Nanami-san!” You quickly gave him a big hug. “Thank you so much but I am so mad at you” you let go of the hug.

“Huh?”

“You should not have got all those groceries! That’s too much!” You cross your arms, maturity be damned.

“Oh that, don’t stress” he raises his unoccupied hand to wave off your worries. That however, only draws attention to the bags in his other hands.

“What are those”

“They are groceries”

He continues to walk up that stairs and you follow to see him stop at your door and wait.

“Shouldn’t you put your groceries away first before seeing my impressive abode?.

He just stood there silently, gesturing to the door. You unlocked and opened it for him.

“to answer your question, no that would be putting them in the wrong apartment” Nanami belatedly replies and starts putting groceries away in the fridge.

“Nanami-san, I will get my revenge” you begin helping him begrudgingly.

“I’m sure you will” he hums and continues unpacking. After it is done, he folds the reusable bags and places them in the bag on the hook near the entrance.

“So how did-“

“Nanami, you forg-“

A silent pause fills the room, except for the sounds of someone’s car pulling it, loudly playing music.

“you go fir-“

“oh sorry, i-“

This interruption loop needs to be broken. You quickly stop and turn fully to Nanami. He seems to also have the same idea, this begins the staring competition.

That also goes terribly as you both crack up laughing. You walk to the island and pick up the notebook and the jacket.

“I just wanted to give you your stuff back, i felt bad accidentally pinching them both”

Nanami lightly takes the jacket but pushes the notebook and biro back into your arms.

“I want you to keep that, goodness knows I have enough of them, but thank you for my jacket, i completely forgot”

“I guess i’m just too fun and distracting” you wink and laugh, but Nanami just nods and smiles, his bluntness only seems to fluster.

“Jokes aside, I’m really grateful Nanami-san, this is beyond kind”

“Anything to help, yesterday seemed to be really stressful for you” He smiles at you and it’s hard to stay mad at him.

“It also makes me feel less worried about you meeting the blue eyed fool” He clicks his tongue and turns to your confused face.

“It feels like everyone is making sure im avoiding someone”

“That is cause we are… whoever we is” He nods.

“Well Shoko-chan and Ijichi-san”

“Ah yes, am glad to know we are all in agreeance”

“You guys are so weird” You shake your head, “Would you like some coffee”

“Oh no, I don’t want to keep you, it’s been a long day i’m sure, but maybe when I see you next” he promptly leaves with polite goodbyes and closes your door.

When he does that, you swear you hear another voice on the other side of the door, but it sounds like it quickly gone, after a sound of fabric being hit.

“Well, that was brief”

You do a once over of the house to see if there is anything to do but it seems like everything is pretty much done.

Picking up the notebook and biro, you flick through to see if there’s any other tasks. Yet a page stops you;

‘I look forward to being your neighbour (Y/N)-san’ was written on the last page, obviously in Nanami’s writing,

Yet there was another note, underneath Nanami’s message.

‘Welcome to the family (Y/N)-chan!!,

Don’t be a stranger ( ˃̣̣̥﹏˂̣̣̥ )!! - Satoru Gojo

(They probs called me the Albino Dimwit or something, ignore them, they are mean ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ)’

———

previous // next

a/n: hahaha the long awaited beginning lmao sorry, hope it was worth the wait T-T

Taglist ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚♥︎˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

@dassmyname

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 14: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Atari 400/800🎄💾🗓️

The Atari 8-bit computer line was launched in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. Both were advanced for home computers at the time. Both were driven by a 1.79 MHz MOS Technology 6502 CPU, with ANTIC and CTIA/GTIA custom chips for advanced graphics and the POKEY chip handling sound and input/output duties. The Atari 800 was the premium model, featuring a full mechanical keyboard, user-expandable to 48 KB of memory, more metal shielding, and more durability. The Atari 400 was a lower-cost alternative with a membrane keyboard, limited to 16 KB of RAM, and a simplified construction.

With hardware-accelerated scrolling, Player/Missile graphics, and rich sound, the Atari 8-bit systems were known for gaming and creative applications. They were a versatile platform with cartridge-based software, cassette, and floppy disk storage. Atari's proprietary SIO (Serial Input/Output) port allowed daisy-chaining peripherals such as printers, modems, and disk drives, making connecting them easier than with other systems.

Newer models were more compact, combined memory expansion to as much as 128KB, and compatibility with developing software and peripherals improved. Atari's 8-bit computers are remembered for having groundbreaking hardware and a very colorful game library, and they are still being used by the retrocomputing community.

While doing research for this, I saw the XE Game System, never saw it before, very 80s for sure!

The Atari XEGS (XE Game System) was launched in 1987. A repackaged 65XE with a removable keyboard, it boots to the 1981 port of Missile Command instead of BASIC if the keyboard is disconnected.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[kanye--westeros]

Top Albums of 2024

1. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU - JPEGMAFIA (Favorite Track: vulgar display of power)

2. Dark Times - Vince Staples (Favorite Track: Étouffée)

3. GNX - Kendrick Lamar (Favorite Track: tv off)

4. empathogen - Willow Smith (Favorite Track: false self)

5. CHROMAKOPIA - Tyler, The Creator (Favorite Track: I Killed You)

6. Big Ideas - Remi Wolf (Favorite Track: Wave)

7. Blue Lips - ScHoolboy Q (Favorite Track: time killers)

8. Algorithm - Lucky Daye (Favorite Track: Think Different)

9. What Now - Brittany Howard (Favorite Track: Red Flags)

10. Soul Burger - Ab-Soul (Favorite Track: California Dream)

11. Charm - Clairo (Favorite Track: Juna)

12. Two Star & The Dream Police - Mk.gee (Favorite Track: Candy)

13. I've Never Been Here Before - Erick the Architect (Favorite Track: Breaking Point)

14. Humble As the Sun - Bob Vylan (Favorite Track: Ring the Alarm)

15. TANGK - IDLES (Favorite Track: POP POP POP)

16. Nothing - Louis Cole (Favorite Track: Life)

17. COWBOY CARTER - Beyonce (Favorite Track: SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN')

18. People Who Aren't There Anymore - Future Islands (Favorite Track: Corner Of My Eye)

19. What A Devastating Turn Of Events - Rachel Chinouriri (Favorite Track: Dumb Bitch Juice)

20. The People We Become - nobigdyl. (Favorite Track: leave it to God)

21. It Wasn't That Deep - Glolorun (Favorite Track: Walk)

22. HEAVY JELLY - SOFT PLAY (Favorite Track: Act Violently)

23. Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay (Favorite Track: Cry For Me)

24. Songs For Sinners & Saints - Killer Mike (Favorite Track: Humble Me

25. Mahashmashana - Father John Misty (Favorite Track: Screamland)

26. Bando Stone & The New World - Childish Gambino (Favorite Track: Cruisin)

27. The Alexander Technique - Rex Orange County (Favorite Track: Carrera)

28. Cyan Blue - Charlotte Day Wilson (Favorite Track: My Way)

29. Atavista - Childish Gambino (Favorite Track: Final Church)

30. She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She - Chelsea Wolfe (Favorite Track: Dusk)

31. No - Tomato Flower (Favorite Track: Destroyer)

32. Pointy Heights - Foushee (Favorite Track: rice & peas)

33. Love Heart Cheat Code - Hiatus Kaiyote (Favorite Track: Cinnamon Temple)

34. Quiet In A World Full Of Noise - Dawn Richard x Spencer Zahn (Favorite Track: The Dancer)

35. Public Love - Littrell (Favorite Track: Meet Me In The Water)

36. AND THEY MINE FOR OUR BODIES - Gao the Arsonist (Favorite Track: INSOMANIA)

37. Afrikan Alien - Pa Salieu (Favorite Track: Big Smile)

38. TIMELESS - Kaytranada (Favorite Track: WITCHY)

39. HARDSTONE PSYCHO - Don Toliver (Favorite Track: BACKSTREETS)

40. ORQUIDEAS - Kali Uchis (Favorite Track: Perdiste)

Honorable Mention:

Hit Me Hard And Soft - Billie Eilish, Older - Lizzy McAlpine, HEAVY - SiR, Hyperdrama - Justice, INDIGO - Jared Evan, Dark Matter - Pearl Jam, JPEG RAW - Gary Clark Jr., What A Fucking Nightmare - The Chisel, Chains & Stakes - The Dead South, #Richaxxhaitian - Mach-Hommy, I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy, Samurai - Lupe Fiasco, Something in the Room She Moves - Julia Holter, Brat - Charli XCX, 9 - Kenny Mason, The Art Of The Lie - John Grant, Dopamine - Normani, Where The Butterflies Go In The Rain - Raveena, Big For You - Zsela, God Said No - Omar Apollo, Wide open, horses - James Vincent McMorrow, This Wasn't For You Anyway - Lola Young, Permanent Pleasure - Joywave, MEGAN - Megan Thee Stallion, Mantras - Katie Pruitt, Romanticism - Hana Vu, No Name - Jack White, CRASH - Kehlani, Shadowbox - MAVI, Bird's Eye - Ravyn Lenae, This Is How Tomorrow Moves - Beabadoobee, Bad Cameo - James Blake x Lil Yachty, Ultra 85 - Logic, The Loop - Jordan Rakei, A LA SALA - Khruangbin, Power - illuminati hotties, Better Me Than You - Big Sean, Wild God - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Please Don't Cry - Rapsody, Found Heaven - Conan Gray, When a Thought Grows Wings - Luna Li, A Dream Is All We Know - The Lemon Twigs, Penalty of Leadership - Boldy James & Nicholas Craven, You Only Die 1nce - Freddie Gibbs, Bravado Intimo - IDK, Evergreen - Soccer Mommy, The FORCE - LL Cool J, From Zero - Linkin Park, Moth - Fana Hues, PHASOR - Helado Negro, Dunya - Mustafa The Poet, Negative Spaces - Poppy, Maybe In Nirvana - Smino, Mika's Laundry - Matt Champion, Fabiana Palladino - Fabiana Palladino

Albums Worth Checking Out Despite Not Making HM:

Stargazer - Helqvist, We Don't Trust You - Metro Boomin x Future, Bryson Tiller - Bryson Tiller, Deeper Well - Kacey Musgraves, Here In The Pitch - Jessica Pratt, Pinball - MIKE & Tony Seltzer, Only God Above Us - Vampire Weekend, Loss Of Life - MGMT, Saviors - Green Day, GRIP - serpentwithfeet, Eternal Sunshine - Ariana Grande, Can We Please Have Fun - Kings of Leon, Name Your Sorrow - Pillow Queens, Visions - Norah Jones, Girl With No Face - Allie X, Melt The Honey - PACKS, All Born Screaming - St. Vincent, Everything I Thought It Was - Justin Timberlake, Lives Outgrown - Beth Gibbons, INSANO (NITRO MEGA) - Kid Cudi, American Dream - 21 Savage, Radical Optimism - Dua Lipa, Chaos Angel - Maya Hawke, Good Together - Lake Street Dive, Little Rope - Sleater-Kinney, Don't Forget Me - Maggie Rogers, Love's Letter - Shae Universe, Everybody Can't Go - Benny The Butcher, Head Rush - Channel Tres, Summertime Butch - Benny The Butcher, Quantum Baby - Tinashe, Doing It For Me - Larry June, PRATTS & PAIN - Royel Otis, flight b741 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, COYOTE - Tommy Richman, Idols & Vices: Vol 1 - Kimbra, For Crying Out Loud - FINNEAS, Leon - Leon Bridges, Glorious - GloRilla, Still Praying - Westside Gunn, Tyla - Tyla, Audio Vertigo - Elbow, WORLD WIDE WHACK - Tierra Whack, Black Yacht Rock Vol. 1: City Of Limitless Access - Pharrell Williams, Underdressed At The Symphony - Faye Webster, The Crossroads - Cordae, Petrichor - 070 Shake, Blacks & Whites - Big Hit, Hit-Boy x The Alchemist, The Book Of Clarence Soundtrack - Jeymes Samuel, ROLLERCOASTER - Cadence Weapon, BUG - Kacy Hill, Why Lawd? - NxWorries, Born In The Wild - Tems, When Angels Cry - jev., Across The Tracks - Boldy James x Conductor Williams, Memoirs in Armour - Navy Blue, The Genuine Articulate - The Alchemist

Notable EPs/Mixtapes:

Drop 7 - Little Simz, Scrapyard - Quadeca, Something Ether - Lil Yachty, ROBOPHOBIA EP - EARTHGANG, Might Delete Later - J. Cole, Slow Burn - Baby Rose x BADBADNOTGOOD, On Read EP - Dear Silas, The Pursuit - The 80s, King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2 - Denzel Curry, Alligator Bites Never Heal - Doechii

Great Songs on Decent to Bad Albums:

"OFTEN, I HAVE THESE DREAMZ" by Kid Cudi

"Honestly" by Lil Dicky

"Doomsday" by Lyrical Lemonade x Cordae x Juice WRLD

"If We Being Real" by Yeat

"Your share of the night" by Gesaffelstein

"BANG YOUR HEAD" by Devin Malik x Schoolboy Q

"Nobody Escapes" by Mother Mother

"Fuel" by Eminem x JID

"Earwax" by Ski Mask The Slump God

"Walking In The Rain" by Toro Y Moi

[biggestdev]

Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that I am too much of a messy bitch for Arch Linux.

I tried to keep my laptop going, I really did, but I figure I just had too many conflicting packages installed, and my routine of monthly (or even longer) updates kept screwing me over.

I should have guessed when I had something like 2,000 packages to update, and a dozen conflicts. I tried my normal MO (remove the conflicting packages & dependant apps, then reinstall after the big upgrade), and another red flag came up when I had to leave it on overnight to compile AUR packages (which should have taken minutes, not hours!)

Eventually it finished. Reboot... Black screen. Couldn't even get a terminal!

Thankfully it didn't scramble the disk, so I didn't loose any data. But at this point I'm too tired to recover my install... Again. I'm giving Kubuntu a try.

Yeah, yeah, sNaPs BaD or whatever, but at this point I need system stability more than anything else.

But at least I got the distro with KDE. GNOME BAD.