#chadd convergence

[mollysunder]

This is Chadd, he's from the Inx in Conv/rgence, he loves Jinx, and he organizes elaborate acts of terrorism/performance art against Piltover in Jinx's name. And I NEED this strain of Jinx stan to make it into season 2 of Arcane.

Chadd is the best example of the kind Zaunite that takes their admiration of Jinx seriously and let's it influence their own violence and art, because yes, he plays guitar and sings with the Inx's band. Chadd's an obnoxious, in your face, musically-talented (but borderline nerdy), organized weirdo that gathers all the other stans to plan aerial concerts/bombing events on Piltover.

He's such a dedicated stan (in the concept art) that he dresses up like Jinx too, shorts, fishnets, collar and all. Chadd even has his Jinx tattoo drawn in the same placement aswhere Jinx has her own.

Please Arcane, let obsessive freaks like Chadd overwhelm the chembarons next season as Jinx's stans believe the chembarons don't pay her enough proper tribute. Let Jinx be mildly amused at their antics and keep them around for logistics and grunt work.

[demi-shoggoth]

2023 Reading Log, pt 6

I have read a lot less this year than in the last couple of years. I'm not going to beat my previous record of 129 books, that's for sure. But I feel like I've hit a decent stride of quality over quantity with this batch (also, one of them is over 600 pages long)

26. The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, edited by Jeffery Andrew Weinstock. For anyone who is remotely interested in either monsters or literature, this book is a must-read. Yes, I know it’s an A-Z encyclopedia format and is more than 600 pages long. You can skip around, or read it in chunks. This book is the perfect tool for thinking with monsters, and is an excellent reference tool for using monsters intelligently in a project, or just as a collection of “oh, I should check that out”. It’s not perfect. All kaiju are lumped together under “Godzilla”, which barely gets two pages. Pokemon gets a single, very dismissive, paragraph. On the other hand, the entry for Harry Potter is ridiculously long and very fannish, and the “HP Lovecraft, Monsters in” article ignores Lovecraft’s racism entirely (because it’s written by ST Joshi, who else?). My biggest complaint is the lack of a general Mad Scientist entry—mad scientists are the monster of the 20th century, and both psychopaths and witches get generic entries as well as specific examples. My two biggest highlights are “Women, Monstrous”, which is a college level course in institutional misogyny and how it has been celebrated by some authors and subverted by others; and "Nick of the Woods", which is possibly the most influential American novel that has been almost entirely forgotten in the modern era. You can draw a direct line from Nick of the Woods to everything from Marvel movies to Wounded Knee.

27. Tasting History by Max Miller, with Ann Volkwein. “Tasting History with Max Miller” is one of my favorite YouTube series, and the book of the show doesn’t disappoint. It’s beautiful, with color photos of the food and images of historical characters and events. Most of the recipes come from existing episodes, and so the stories therein are familiar, but not told identically, and there are some that have new lore to go with old recipes. Or lore covered in the show, but a different recipe because the one that was made for the video wasn’t very good. Also, my copy is signed! Max Miller came to a local book fair, so I got to hear a book talk and then get my copy signed afterwards. And that was… two months ago? My reading really has slowed down!

28. Birds: Myth, Lore and Legend by Rachel Warren Chadd and Marianne Taylor. This book collects legendry about birds from around the world, and compares the stories that different cultures tell about the same animal with the animal’s actual ecology and behavior. A fair amount of the stories were new to me, which I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting the science to be as well! For example, the book talks about a paper that suggests that lyrebird foraging is important for reducing wildfires, as they help to break up mats of eucalyptus leaves and encourage decomposition. Also, as can probably be expected in a book about birds, there’s a lot of very nice photography.

29. The Cat’s Meow by Jonathan Losos. Losos is an evolutionary biologist (he’s the guy doing all of the studies with convergent evolution in Caribbean lizards) who got the domestic cat bug, and this is his book about the evolution of domestic cats. It’s written in a very readable style and goes into quite a bit of depth on how we know what we know. So individual scientists and breeders are profiled for topics like, which population of wildcats do domestic cats descend from? How does the behavior of feral cats in the Australian Outback differ from feral cats in rural Georgia? How is a new breed developed from a single individual? Losos also shares plenty of anecdotes about his own cats, as any loving cat owner would, and shares his “million dollar idea” with the reader. Saber toothed housecats, bred for both long canine teeth and a calm, indoor-friendly disposition.

30. Iberian Monsters by Javier Prado. This was a birthday present from my girlfriend @abominationimperatrix. The book is an illustrated collection of Iberian bogeys specifically—monsters designed to scare children into doing X or avoiding Y. At least half of the monsters in here are altogether new to me, and each entry often discusses multiple related monsters, with the “headliner” getting a full page illustration. Three things that jumped out to me. 1) How many parallels there are between the monsters of Spain and the monsters in Spanish colonies, like Latin America and the Philippines. I mean, that’s logical, but since I knew less about Spain’s monsters, I didn’t see the connections. 2) The large number of monsters that are based on historical individuals. Mostly soldiers and bandits, but also a watchmaker and an anti-fascist writer. 3) The story that scared me the most as a little kid was “Tailypo”… and there’s a variant in here that’s even worse. You know, for kids!

[gadget-yesnews]

NVMe-oF配合光纖打造零挻遲月戶體驗

網絡用戶對速度的需求愈來愈高，企業網絡應用程式響應速度對用戶體驗影響巨大。獨立全快閃雲端世代資料平台供應商Pure Storage（NYSE: PSTG）於本月21日宣布在其FlashArray//X產品線軟體定義引擎Purity 5.2版當中導入全新DirectFlash™ Fabric功能來支援端對端NVMe與NVMe-oF。��項全新功能���進一步擴大Pure的地位，使客戶能採用更具整合性的基礎架構來建構混合雲，不但可在任何地方執行應用程式，資料更可隨時隨地受到保護。

DirectFlash Fabric讓傳統仰賴直接連接儲存的企業營運關鍵應用程式與新的web-scale應用程式能夠進一步提升效能。代表Pure將成為第一個廣泛支援NVMe-oF RoCE的領先企業級儲存廠商。有了這項支援，企業將可拉近快閃儲存與應用程式之間的距離，提供更即時的存取與更強大的整合。

現今企業面臨的一項挑戰就是要能隨時提供可跟上社會快速變化的創新和服務，而且不允許發生任何停機狀況。根據 Google 調查，53%的行動使用者只要遇到載入時間超過三秒的網站就會掉頭離開。應用程式必須隨時上線、隨時可供存取。因此，企業若要提供隨時令使用者滿意的體驗，必須更具經濟效益地支援橫跨不同雲端的應用程式，此外更必須突破資料孤島，徹底發揮創新平台在雲端和企業內的效益。

Pure Storage產品與解決方案副總裁Chadd Kenney認為：「未來的應用程式和服務供應必須能跟上思考的速度。要做到這點，應用程式再也不能活在自己的圈圈內，必須能夠彼此互動、溝通、即時共享資料。而且架構也必須隨著資料而整合，破除今日的障礙。而DirectFlash Fabric正是能協助企業將雲端整合的一項重要元素。」

DirectFlash Fabric能為經由高速網路溝通的儲存控制器與主機帶來優化，讓乙太網路成為資料中心儲存的一線協定。今日其他解決方案或許並未提供完整的企業級功能，也或許採用的是NVMe over Fabrics搭配Fibre Channel的架構而非RDMA over Converged Ethernet（RoCE），然而RoCE卻能讓使用乙太網路的客戶大幅提升效能，與iSCSI相比，可降低50%的延遲性。藉由新功能的推出，Pure將DirectFlash技術進一步拓展至NVMe over Fabrics，為整體網路帶來更高的效率，尤其是Red Hat Enterprise Linux和雲端原生、全��網路規模的應用程式（如MongoDB、Cassandra與MariaDB）最能發揮企業級共享儲存的效率和效益。

FlashArray//X可支援25G和50G乙太網路連接埠上的端對端NVMe。此外，Broadcom、Cisco、Marvell和Mellanox也分別推出或計畫推出具備NVMe-oF功能的網路卡來實現互通性。

IDC研究副總裁Eric Burgener表示：「隨著企業機構持續邁向數位轉型，日益仰賴資料以及將資料轉換成有效商業情報的能力，企業儲存基礎架構也同樣面臨轉型的必要，如此才能提供更高的效能、可用性與效率。NVMe技術將是這波數位轉型的核心， Pure Storage是一間能夠在今日提供真正企業級儲存功能與NVMe效能的廠商，協助客戶打造一個符合未來所需的基礎架構。」

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[mollysunder]

First Convergence created the Inx.

Now Arcane's created the Jinxers.

I say within the period of season 2's time skip, there was one true Jinx stan cult gang thing, and they immediately broke into a schism like a month in based on differing interpretations of Get Jinxed.

The Jinxers are focused on the home base and generally include Silco in their veneration of Jinx. Meanwhile the Inx are more Jinx-centric and are actual terrorists who engage in real estate fraud to fund it. Chadd is once again the leader of the Inx, while the girl with blue locs runs the Jinxers.

Yeah her and Chadd used to date, that's got NOTHING to do with the schism.

[mollysunder]

This might be a reach, but that little kid next Jinx reminds me of Ajuna.

It could be the short stature and the silhouette of his haircut, but it just makes me think of him.

Anyway, this wouldn't be the first time League has had Ekko's friends associate with Jinx, or what she represents at least.

In Conv/rgence, Ekko's oldest friend, Red (on the left) hung out with the Inx, Jinx's followers, and even dated one of their leaders, Chadd (on the right). Naturally, they broke because of difference in opinion (Chadd was mad she wasn't cool with wrecking Piltover).

Sidenote: I think it's very cute the concept art made Red and Chadd dress in a similar style (puffy jacket+matching choker) but still different enough to be distinct as individuals.

[mollysunder]

When you remember that in Zaun people are giving fresh eyeballs to a giant turtle with Silco’s tattoo on it's hand, you realize the Inx aren't a huge leap in idol worshippers for next season. Frankly these Jinx stans are downright normal compared to whatever Silco's been encouraging. Sans the elaborate acts of vandalism, terrorism, and real estate theft, they're just well organized, creative, passionate young people that discovered they like pink, blue, crop tops, and fishnets.

The catharsis of revenge brought them together and the power of music/performance art holds them down. They also seem to throw amazing raves.

It's also fun to just think about the immediate ripple effect Jinx's actions have on the zeitgeist Zaun's youth. In Chadd's concept art for Convergence alone it's like the Council bombing changed the trajectory of his life, and Jinx didn't even do that in the game.

[mollysunder]

The Inx: Jinx's Great and Terrible Devotees in Spite of Conv/rgence

The most annoying thing about Conv/rgence as a game is that it introduces great concepts, like the Inx, but just fumbles the execution of them and the overall story.

In Conv/rgence the Inx are a new chempunk gang of Zaunite teens and young adults that idolize and borderline worship Jinx to the point where they're said to spread chaos in her name. But the Zaun that Conv/rgence establishes tells a different story about the Inx from the intended description.

The first time the Inx appear is in the Conv/rgence comic, where the lead members like Chadd play at the Triumph Festival. It's supposed to be a Zaunite festival to celebrate Jayce's defeating Viktor, the Machine Herald. If the Inx follow Jinx's lifestyle why would they even play at such an event to celebrate a Piltovan, and why would Zaunites think the Inx wouldn't make trouble over it? I could go on about how weird it is for Zaun to host a festival to celebrate Jayce, a Piltovan champion for a fight unrelated to them and their wellbeing, but that would take too long.

For people who admire Jinx's boldness, the best they can do in the comics is pretty harmless vandalism where they just graffiti Jinx's monkey tag over some walls. The Inx are also nowhere to be seen in major events like the Scraptown Run, which apparently all Zaun gangs participate in.

Then there's members like Moshpit Meg. Meg's a diehard Jinx fan that loves Jinx's attitude and dedication to explosions. Before that Meg was admired Vi, the enforcer, because Vi's gauntlets reminded Meg of her own naturally big fists and it made her feel less self conscious about her own hands. That second half begs too many questions I don't have time for.

Outside of aesthetic choices there isn't really anything about the Inx that says they're people who stake their identity around Jinx. This is largely because Conv/rgence's universe works hard to sanitize Zaunite grievances against Piltover which directly undermines the central class conflict between Zaun and Piltover. It also largely impacts the motivations and general existence of characters like Jinx and the people who follow her, like the Inx, because they wouldn't exist in the absence of Piltover's oppression.

To avoid addressing any real conflict between the two cities the Inx are only vaguely make sense in the story, especially the game. All except for one element, Chadd. I need to say this...

Chadd is Accidentally (on Purpose?) Great

The brief moments the audience gets to know Chadd's character gives us an interesting glimpse at the people Jinx inspires.

The first thing we know about Chadd is that he's a musician, and it's neat trait that connects him to the musical roots of Jinx's character. In League, Jinx was the first champion in League to debut with a music video. It was through Jinx's character that Riot and Fortiche begun experimenting League with music. So it's very fitting that Convergence creates a chorus of sorts for Jinx to continue that musical tradition. To add to that, the game's promo posters decided to reestablish Jinx's connections by making her a talented karaoke singer.

The next thing to know about Chadd is that he was the one who planne and organized the Inx to transform a rundown theatre into an airborne concert arena. Red, Ekko's close friend and romantic interest in the game, confirmed that it was Chadd who was the one to make it happen, within a week too. It's an impressive creative feat that's clearly in homage to "Get Jinxed's" aerial imagery. Despite how cool a stunt that was I couldn't see how it was meant to impress Jinx, she was the most destructive thing in the theater... until I read the transcript "Hold me like a Fermata".

A shotgun, a flame thrower... who's funeral were you planning Chadd!??!? Just for context this was a transcript Ekko found of Chadd and the Inx talking about a new weapon (and sound system?) Chadd seemed to have made. I'm sure Chadd was the one who made it because the Fermata is also the name of a musical note that represents a pause (sometimes dramatic) in a score.

If you're familiar with music you might also know that the Fermata has more than one name, it's also referred to as "the Cyclops Eye". That kind of reference to Silco used on a weapon for a later act to honor Jinx couldn't have been lost on the writers because the Eye of Zaun was already found on an Inx hangout.

When I finally noticed all these details I finally got that Chadd is dangerously devoted to Jinx. All the points in his character can only lead us to conclude the real plan wasn't to just play obnoxiously loud music when the theater reached Piltover's heights, it was to destroy Piltover with all the weapons they equipped on it. That's the best idea I can come up with because Jinx immediately throws bombs at their plan to cause havoc in Piltover... for reasons. It does match Jinx's track record at least, usually other dangerous or apathetic champions tend to appreciate her, like Urgot, Renata Glasc, and Khada Jhin.

Even Chadd's concept art communicates that he's probably more devoted to Jinx than rest of the Inx. The way his early design evolves to reflect Jinx's influence could even tell a story. The more this douchey glam rocker finds inspiration in Jinx the more he changes himself and his art to reflect Jinx's impact. Chadd grows his hair out, wears his tattoo of Jinx in the same place she wears hers, and even dresses more like her, but he still retains his own diva personality.

One last thing, the funniest thing about Chadd is the fact that both Ekko and Red seperately ask him to explain himself and what "statement" he's trying to make with the Inx. Chadd just flat out refuses to answer, and even breaks up with Red over that. I thought he was being douche (he was), but then I remembered Jinx doesn't explain herself in game either about the mayhem she causes, she just taunts anyone who asks. The student learns from the master I guess.

Tldr: In the Converegence game and comics the Inx are characterized by mild vandalism and pretentious artists. And I could almost get behind that idea if only Convergence wasn't so heavily biased towards Piltover the dynamics of a group like the Inx could have had a more interesting exploration in their motivations and goals. Also, Chadd is a dipshit and he makes a great follower of Jinx!

[mollysunder]

I feel like Convergence was trying to say something about Ekko and Jinx as a ship when they had Red and Chadd break up. Think about it, an artistically and mechanically talented asshole who blows things up and refuses to explain themself, paired a down to earth character that's exasperated (but still horrified) at their partner's destructive choices. What's crazy is that the Jinx stand in, Chadd, is the one to break up with Red, not the other way around when confronted.

This post has brought to by the fact that the new Arcane merch has called Jinx the "Demolition Diva" instead of the "Loose Canon". The only other League media to do that with Jinx was the game Convergence, and now I'm thinking about all that game's narrative choices and how it could influence Arcane.

[mollysunder]

If we get to see some real fans of Jinx next season I hope they're like Chadd from Conv/rgence. Chadd's musically talented, an effective project organizer, and is casually inclined to not just glorify Jinx's violence but turn it into performance to kill more Piltovans.

There could even be a story in the background about how gangs like the Inx ended up existing in Arcane. I imagine majority of Inx members like Chadd would be former mine workers from the colonies. Jinx's rebellion inspired many of the young workers to leave en masse, which ultimately saved their lives, and more importantly for Chadd, his singing voice from the mines dusts and gasses.

I know Conv/rgence is supposed to be a standalone game (good), but if they could transport this dude Chadd into Arcane (specifically the one with the Jinx tattoo) that'd be great.

Even some people at Riot Forge would have a like to see Chadd included in other Riot properties like TFT in the same vein as how Silco, a nonchampion, was included.

[mollysunder]

Didn't watch the movie so I'm not sure how the latter concept was executed, but I'd prefer the Inx as a threat because they're angry and well organized around a figurehead (Jinx) rather than just them being dangerous because they're mentally ill and latch onto "Chaos" or something (that's how I assume the Joker got his team anyway).

Personally I like the concept of the Inx as a support apparatus for Jinx's escapades, she used to rely on Silco for funding, housing, and other materials. While it's fun to think of Jinx just finessing bomb materials and setting fires to buildings on end of a city and robbing another, no man is an island.

Plus it's funny to think they fundraise for her for whatever she needs and offers it to Jinx like a tribute.

This is Chadd, he's from the Inx in Conv/rgence, he loves Jinx, and he organizes elaborate acts of terrorism/performance art against Piltover in Jinx's name. And I NEED this strain of Jinx stan to make it into season 2 of Arcane.

Chadd is the best example of the kind Zaunite that takes their admiration of Jinx seriously and let's it influence their own violence and art, because yes, he plays guitar and sings with the Inx's band. Chadd's an obnoxious, in your face, musically-talented (but borderline nerdy), organized weirdo that gathers all the other stans to plan aerial concerts/bombing events on Piltover.

He's such a dedicated stan (in the concept art) that he dresses up like Jinx too, shorts, fishnets, collar and all. Chadd even has his Jinx tattoo drawn in the same placement aswhere Jinx has her own.

Please Arcane, let obsessive freaks like Chadd overwhelm the chembarons next season as Jinx's stans believe the chembarons don't pay her enough proper tribute. Let Jinx be mildly amused at their antics and keep them around for logistics and grunt work.

[mollysunder]

To be fair to Chadd with two D's in Arcane it's not uncommon to tattoo your boss on your body. One of the kids in Deckard's gang who now works for Silco has a huge eye tattoo on his throat. Also, if you think about it Silco kind of showed Jinx that you can make your trauma part of your brand. There was also that shot of a crowd of Zaunites handing human eyeballs to a giant turtle with an Eye of Zaun tattoos, so Chadd wouldn't be too jarring for her compared to what she's seen with Silco.

Besides I think Jinx could see the necessity of keeping devoted followers alive, especially ones super chill with elaborate feats of violence.

This is Chadd, he's from the Inx in Conv/rgence, he loves Jinx, and he organizes elaborate acts of terrorism/performance art against Piltover in Jinx's name. And I NEED this strain of Jinx stan to make it into season 2 of Arcane.

Chadd is the best example of the kind Zaunite that takes their admiration of Jinx seriously and let's it influence their own violence and art, because yes, he plays guitar and sings with the Inx's band. Chadd's an obnoxious, in your face, musically-talented (but borderline nerdy), organized weirdo that gathers all the other stans to plan aerial concerts/bombing events on Piltover.

He's such a dedicated stan (in the concept art) that he dresses up like Jinx too, shorts, fishnets, collar and all. Chadd even has his Jinx tattoo drawn in the same placement aswhere Jinx has her own.

Please Arcane, let obsessive freaks like Chadd overwhelm the chembarons next season as Jinx's stans believe the chembarons don't pay her enough proper tribute. Let Jinx be mildly amused at their antics and keep them around for logistics and grunt work.