#he's my absolute favourite builder and this style is so cool i love it so much

[k-kaez]

joel genuinely gets so excited when he builds and it makes me so excited GOD HES SUCH A GOOD BUILDER

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Double or Nothing 2021

In which the spirit of WCW is alive in confusing and delightful ways and we are left to parse whether overbooking and extracurriculars are offset by having actually very good wrestling happening at the same time.

- Lessons learned from Revolution on the production side? Maybe just cool it on pyro, though the rappelling adventure in the Stadium Stampede showed some of that now-characteristic 'trust us it'll look better on TV' flair. Hot crowd tends to paper over most woes, and the crowd was pretty hot. My one gripe is that the casino theme is hanging around like yesterday's takeout containers. Nothing wrong with clinging to a theme, I just think it's time for season 2. My suggestion? Under the Sea.

*Pre-Card Serena Deeb (C) v Riho for the NWA Women's Championship (***1/2) - Serena Deeb's star has finally risen. She's a remarkably consistent technician and she can get a match out of anyone at this point. She's working at the level of Mercedes Martinez or Madison Eagles at this point, it's amazing that she was overlooked or considered fit only to be a coach for so long. With the NWA belt she has this new swagger, she's basically everything Tessa Blanchard might bring to the table with none of the downsides (Serena has a lot of friends and seems like a lovely person, even!) - Riho's back and here to stay. Her time in Stardom didn't do much for my evaluation of her, which is that there are many better wrestlers that would be better representatives of the joshi style and she's merely pretty good. - The match was very good. Serena showcased a champion's aggression against a sympathetic Riho, they really work well against each other, Deeb's technical prowess against Riho's flexibility led to a very dynamic finish.

*Main Card Hangman Adam Page v Brian Cage (***1/2) - Here the shenanigans start. Brian Cage is on Team Taz, Team Taz has nothing else much to do tonight, so why wouldn't Team Taz flex their muscles, bait us with HOOK, etc? (Because it would be nice to have some variety in the card in terms of a match where one competitor stands across from another competitor?) - Hangman is (checking notes) yeah, still over as fuck, as befits the Anxious Millennial Cowboy. Cage terrifies me, he's a child's drawing of a body builder. He do be very agile for a man of his immense musculature tho. They match up well, Page is biggish for a flyer, Cage loves to play catch. Nothing much to write home about, other than Hangman's beautiful moonsault to the floor and what was overall a very good curtain jerker. - Okay fine, I am curious about Cage's reluctance to lean on the goons, Starks can't come back soon enough.

The Young Bucks v Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston (***) - I will not be referring to Mox & Eddie as (The) Wild Things because it gives me 'he calls it the wacky line' flashbacks for some reason. - The Bucks have to cheat and abuse Rick Knox's attention span constantly to be on even footing with Mox & Eddie, which is a clever sort of thing that gets washed out by the appearance of LG and Karl Anderson, which again, is cool in a vacuum but was the story of the evening. - Pace was weird - repetitive in eliminating Eddie, then Mox fights back, failed hope spot, Bucks team up, Eddie saves x2/3 in a row. - Mox, unlike Cody (in so many ways,) will probably actually be taking some time off with Renee, which is the kind of thing I would prefer not to know in terms of booking, but they really uh, put him down on the canvas here, and it felt pretty finale-esque.

Casino Battle Royale (n/r, but on the balance pro) - Any changes to the theme of the PPV would likely include changing up the nonsense suit format of these largely joyless slogs. - Obviously anticipating a NJPW talent, or... I dunno, actually -- Lio Rush was a surprise. Got in a quick demonstration of his otherworldly quickness, and you know what, there's probably a fun place for him in AEW. He'll need some friends, of course, feel like Team Taz might fit his temperament. I wonder if he was aware of the Mark Henry news... - Christian does not need to win this kind of match to get a title shot, obviously, but that said it was super lovely to use him to give Jungle Boy the shine. Jungle Boy would be a license to print money if he was even as big as Hangman. - Could register some continued griping about how Penta is not getting his due in AEW but he also literally was dressed as the Joker so I'm low on sympathy on this one particular night.

Anthony Ogogo v Cody Rhodes (*) - I did not like this. It's hard for me to read jingoism as a face move to begin with, and Cody's was egregiously tone deaf and kinda silly yet delivered without a trace of irony because Cody doesn't do irony on purpose, ridiculous neck tattoo aside. - Great argument to be made that Ogogo just isn't experienced enough to be winning matches against Cody. But like, what are we doing here? Cody needs to take some time off, maybe. I thought that's what was happening when he had his mini feud with Penta that really just ended in quick decisive Cody win. I though maybe Cody was being turned when QT and The Factory snapped-- sure, they're a group of impotent player 2s, but Cody is an out of touch elitist with a callous and manipulative streak. Alas, also no. America #1. - Cody is approximately 8 times as tough as Billy Gunn based on his weathering of the one punch man. Match ran a bit long given how little there was to go on. Cody gigged? Quelle surprise. - Cody had the best match on the card like, 3 out of the first 4 AEW events or something, and that was all booking and storytelling. I do hope Cody follows Moxley's lead into a little sabbatical.

Miro (C) v Lance Archer for the TNT Championship (**1/2) - Card's hossiest hoss match, a quick burst reminiscent of a car wreck. Absolutely hit on what it should've hit on but a little slow moving considering it went all of 10 minutes. - I will not complain about Jake the Snake, who I love. And also the gimmick spot, with Miro very astutely yeeting what was definitely a snake in a bag (surely.) back down the tunnel.

Dr Britt Baker, DMD v Hikaru Shida (C) for the AEW Women's Championship (***) - Picked up a lot of steam toward the end but seemed a little toothless (heh) until the last five. - Shida 'deserved' some more time as champion in front of crowds but also it's time to let heel Britt reach her peak, I can't even imagine how obnoxious she can be as the champ, it's going to be great.

Sting & Darby Allin v Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky (***1/2) - Such is the power of STING that I feel like I might be underrating this match... I mean it was an okay match about very simply getting some revenge and the sixty year old man did a very subdued Code Red and a slightly less subdued dive. He's also Sting. They missed an opportunity in calling it the 'Scorpio' Death Drop, but the main takeaway here is you see something like this where it's The Icon and you start to understand why WWE trots out their legends to come out of incredibly still kick ass without bending their knees. - The difference, I guess, is that Sting is absolutely being used to build up Darby Allin, whereas it's not like the fed brought back Goldberg and his attendant aura to pump up... anyone but Goldberg?

Kenny Omega (C) v PAC v Orange Cassidy for the AEW World Championship (****) - Off the top I have to say I'm very sad that the rest of the Galaxy's Greatest Friends were seen only very briefly, nice of them to bring OC's backpack. - Also have to point out that PAC's promo featured one of my favourite jokes, that Kenny must be short for Kenneth as a sort of legal/birth name belonging to a professional wrestler. (See also: Samoa Joseph) - And Mr Cassidy certainly did try in this match, ragdoll sells and all. Kenneth and PAC are absurd talents who bring aerial, power and technical maneuvers in equal measure and OC is not doing any of those on the same level, but he picked his spots, showed his genre savvy and hung in there to the point that he wasn't just the fall guy. - The extracurriculars continue in a match that was already a little overboard for silliness due to asymmetry... I think if you're the Invisible Hand it would've made sense to save up all your tricks for this match, but who am I to question the golden goose? - Sure, Kenny and Don ran the classic heel manager interference spot and taking out the ref in desperation spot but having to take out the ref because PAC wouldn't break the hold is fun, as is the stupid/inspired sense in running the 'smash opponent with the belt' spot four times so as none of your heavy gold prizes feel left out. (I love that AAA Mega Championship, they weren't on TV so we get to see it?) - "Fuck You, Don," indeed.

The Inner Circle v The Pinnacle in 'Stadium Stampede II' (***1/2) - This one had to grow on me for two reasons, first that it's usually pretty unforgivable to co-opt the main event spot from the championship match, and second to law of diminishing returns on dumb gimmick matches. - But grow it did. There's a full on meat locker? Commentary will refer to a cardboard cut-out of Shahid Khan as Tony Khan's father (that's canon now,) and Jericho will lovingly pat it? Konnan happened to be the DJ at whatever night club there is a Jaguar Stadium? Spears surrounds himself dramatically with chairs and his hoisted by his own petard? - Ultimately it comes down to letting Sammy shine. His involvement with the Inner Circle has sometimes come at the cost of being able to showcase that prior to AEW he was an ascendant talent in PWG, on his way to Ricochet level feats of acrobatic excess. Still feel like Sammy could've/should've been the one tossed off the cage a few weeks ago, but even better is being the guy getting the pin in the ring.

[talenlee]

Here’s a one-part diary, one-part itinerary, one-part aspirational documentation of what I did this past year as best I can explain it and we’ll see how well we go as we go with it. This wrapup is at least in part to look at what I did, but also to try and get a handle on my own feeling of yawning lack of accomplishment. If you didn’t do a lot this year and you get overwhelmed by lists, please don’t read this because it might make you upset. On the other hand if you want a wrapup of the kind of things I do and try to do… well, hey, checkit out.

Writing

I got back into writing daily in July, and did so consistantly throughout the year. Part of what let me get onto that schedule better was the use of a Bullet Journal, a tool I found very handy for tracking my progress as I blogged and recorded my mental health and wellbeing. A material object is very satisfying to handle, so I recommend it to anyone struggling with frantic feelings of impermanence.

Of the things I wrote, it seems the things people were most interested in were the articles on Jace, and my Amerimanga covers, with a late-year run-in for Perry’s Lock story.

Study!

I finished my honours thesis, and did well enough to get an almost-but-not-quite top rating mark. The research was considered interesting enough to serve as the basis of my PhD, which I then applied for, and my application was approved. This was a really harrowing experience – I thought writing and applying would take a few weeks at most, but it took almost two full months of work.

My Honours thesis is listed under my government name so I’m reluctant to share it as is, but the basic gist was to try and tackle the idea that when critically engaging with games, play is a paratext, rather than text. That is, there is no true textual analysis that can be done of play without recognising the input of the player, but, you can examine the play the player brings if you recognise what the player means to the reading. This wound up forming the basis of my Making Fun videos.

Reading!

I don’t read enough, I tell myself, so I did my best to read more. When I found myself reading, I made sure to share it and indulge in it, which helped me focus on reading more. Interestingly when you share reading you’re necessarily framing it, which means you’re sort of explaining it, a thing that made approaching some books a lot easier. I’d wind up at the end of a book realising I’d explained it and understood it, without noticing that’s what I was doing.

The Grasshopper: Life, Games and Utopia, by Bernard Suits

Alien Phenomenology: What It’s Like To Be A Thing, by Ian Bogost

Paratexts: Threshold of Interpretation, by Gerard Geanette

Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games, by Paul Booth

Understanding Media, by Marshall McLuahn (SUPER dense)

I also read some manga and comics, and some of those I’d recommend are:

Sense Art Online

Lumberjanes

Irredeemable

Top 10

I also reread Nation, by Terry Pratchett, which isn’t at all interesting because this is merely one of my favourite books and just one of the best things he ever wrote. Also, one final note to Blades in the Dark, a game book I really liked and makes me very excited.

Robots!

I made a bunch of twitter robots, which are basically an automated way of playing with text. They seem like they’d be harder than they are – and you’d be surprised once you get past a certain threshold how well they do things you forgot you told them they could do, or never realised. You can look at all of them here.

Media!

This year I made a protracted point, as well, to actually watch some TV! That may sound like a really minor thing, but TV these days is such a vast thing that there is some cool stuff there. What’s more, TV you can’t interact with and you can’t be expected to get wrong – which can make it good for relaxation and trying to diminish anxiety. I know I watched all of the first two seasons of American Horror Story back to back while in the grip of The Worries, and you would think that would be distressing but it was kind of the opposite.

This also broadened my palate and gave me more ideas for stories. As a nearly non-stop Youtube watcher as well, I’m already in the market for short, informative videomaking, which I also got into, so longer-form, higher-production stuff – even stuff like just Bob Ross was good to watch.

I also took this chance to catch up on some TV series and movies that are part of ‘the zeitgeist’ that for some reason or another I never really watched. I tried watching more anime, too, which is like TV but you can’t multitask during it, unless you watch it dubbed. And on that note, I watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, dubbed, and didn’t hate it. In fact, my thesis and FMA Brotherhood, as well as the work of Sideways, is what convinced me to try making Youtube videos on the subjects that interest me.

What I’m saying is I have a FMA Brotherhood video in me, but we’ll see how I go with this new editing software. Anyway.

Shirts!

I made at least 36 different t-shirt designs this year – holy nerts, that’s a lot more than I expected. My original goal was something like 1 shirt design per month – and thanks to the practice doing graphic design, I wound up making three a month.

In case you were curious, yes, these don’t really sell.

Playing Games!

I did a lot of work on my backlog of games. At the last accounting, I have 559 games in my Steam Library, and of them I have marked 229 as Completed. Note that to me, a game is completed when I’m done with it – I don’t need to slog through a game that bored me in the first hour.

Making Games!

And here we have an absolute bumper. Partly because my thesis required a lot of game design and partly because I cannot resist the joy of merely making, I spent a lot of time this year creating card and board games, including our first proper release of a board game.

I planned to make a game a month for 2017, based on 2016, and that arc follows here, but.

January – D-73C7, a hidden movement game on cards

February – Chin Music, a memory game of punching

March – Pie Crimes, the prisoner’s dilemma, with cake

April – Dragon’s Favour, a voting game of hidden roles

May – Queer Coding, a cooperative communication game

June – Fabricators, an economy game of 3d printing futuristic factories

July – You Can’t Win, an impossible trick taking game

August – Cafe Romantica, a handsome boys builder game

September – Good Cop, Bear Cop, a hidden identity accuse-em-up

October – Sector 86, a space station builder

November – Escape Code, a bluffing conversation game

December – C-QNS, a pattern matching number game

In addition to this, there were some extra games we released, Push Pins, Nobeard’s Treasure, Skulk, Camp Osum (Alpha) and Yes Chef. In my thesis I had to complete preliminary design for two more games, Mystery Machine and The Coins Of Tarim, and I did prospective work for Kinksame and pushed through stage one of The Comissioner’s Game. I also put out a prototype concept for a VHS-style wrestling game. So far none of these games have proven to be world-beaters, but I’m happy with all of them, in no small part because I love the process of making them. There are stories about each one, stories about how they improved or changed and that may wind up going up over on the main Invincible Ink website.

I also collaborated more and made more games solo. I made D-73C7 entirely on my own (and incidentally, that number is 881,607, in decimal), and continued this with some of our games – Fabricators and You Can’t Win, for example, were entirely solo projects. Yet at the same time, this year featured Skulk, which has art by Alex Zandra, Sector 86 uses some of our first paid stock art, and Cafe Romantica is a game whose entire visual aesthetic is made by Fox.

In addition to this, games that were complete in 2017, but not released include LFG (releasing Cancon 2018), Black Jack’s Dungeon, Bag O Pipes, Domains of Meh, and Winston’s Archive. There were also revisions and second editions for Crowdfund This, Murder Most Fowl and Chin Music. As I write this, in another window, I have a document open for what I’m hoping might be yet another complete game, which I’m super excited to get my hands on.

Anything Else?

I attended six conventions this year – Cancon, Comic-Gong, SMASH, MOAB, GaymerX and LFG, with varying degrees of success. Cancon was an absolute corker, as was Comic-Gong, with GaymerX surprising us with their interest in our ares, and MOAB and LFG a bit more low-key. Still, contact was made with vendors and FLGS, so here’s hoping going forwards there will be more.

I tweeted a lot, and had a handful of tweets go viral, including a new Most Viral tweet of mine, about Vincent Price. This year that was less annoying – the new twitter feature ‘mute this conversation’ does its job.

Emotionality!

This year featured a few big changes for me. One of them is that I spent some time this year making the conscious decision to minimise my interaction with people who actively make me feel bad, and to instead focus my emotional energy on improving the lives of people I really care about. Something in my family life has come up that I simply cannot deprioritise – it’s too important – and that means that I’ve had to ask myself if the emotional distress of a stranger is really my business, even if I do want to live in a world where people will randomly be kind to you. I acknowledged that there are some people, even queer people, who are just jerks, and I don’t need to spend my time listening to and ceding to them, because they are not immune to basic social consequences. I still take the hit when I can, as my privilege armours me pretty well.

I’ve taken to offering random instances of kindness to people, as best I can, to simply tell people hey, here’s a reminder the world doesn’t suck so bad, and being okay when they drop it.

I admitted to some of my trauma. I opened up and shared with some people about my stress. I watched as my parents recognised that their best intentions have had problems in both my life and my sister’s life and started to learn how to forgive them. And I started to face things about myself that make me miserable and sad and feel inadequate, and start to try and develop a framework for them.

Here’s the big thing: A member of my family is getting divorced. It is not a nice divorce. There are kids involved. Abuse is involved. This sucks. This straight up sucks on toast. There is no cutesy way around it.

What’s next?

Tune in tomorrow.

The 2017 Self-Examination Roundup Here's a one-part diary, one-part itinerary, one-part aspirational documentation of what I did this past year as best I can explain it and we'll see how well we go as we go with it.

[somar78]

An Australian Custom BMW R100RT – The Ellaspede EB882

This post was written by Hughan Seary of Ellaspede, with contributions by the bike’s owner Sam K. When possible we like to bring you the story of a custom motorcycle in the words of the people who built it to cut out the middle man and give you insight into their thought process and methods.

It’s not surprising that the iconic silhouette of a Boxer motor could be the memory to spark Sam’s 1982 BMW R100RT build. Here’s how a fleeting childhood encounter planted a seed for a custom project decades later.

In their day the BMW R100RT (T for Touring model) was one of the most expensive production bikes you could buy and although they were well reviewed for touring purposes and had a great production run from the mid 70’s to early 90’s, they gained a bit of a reputation as an ‘old man’s bike’.

Maybe it was the massive fairing (that was actually wind tunnel developed and decreased fuel consumption for touring despite the extra weight) or the high price only ‘older people’ could afford. But whatever the case, BMW had built an excellent bike with the type of 80’s german quality that would position it as a ‘forever bike’ to eat up the miles and last a lifetime.

So how did a young Engineer from Sydney with an eye for design end up with an ‘Old Man’s Bike’ from the 80’s? These days it’s usually because they spotted a cool one on social media, but we’ll let owner Sam start his story…

“I randomly have this vivid memory of an Airhead of some description growling down the streets of Newcastle when I was a kid. The cylinders all ‘pokey-outey’ and the block sitting at that weird jaunty angle somehow etched itself into my memory. I didn’t get into bikes for a couple of decades after that, at which point I joined the dots on what I’d actually seen and realised I’d have to have one at some point. Fast forward a few years and everything lined up to get my hands on one. I was keen on one of the early/mid 80s models, but still with the iconic tank shape from that era and the ‘snowflake’ wheels.”

Sam actually did such an awesome job detailing the bike build when we asked him a few questions we’re going to let him carry on…

“I’ve had the beamer for a few years now. She’s been a very faithful weekday commute, as well as a bunch of fun out on the old windy roads out of Sydney whenever I’ve found a chance to stretch her legs.”

“I bought the bike from a bloke who was keeping himself busy in his retirement bringing otherwise totalled old bikes back to life out of his garage. I don’t have a long history of the bike; only that he’d brought it out from South Australia in pretty good knick but with a big old crack across the crankcase. He took the opportunity to do a full mechanical rebuild and get her back on the road before passing it onto me to free up space for a new project.”

After a few years riding around Sydney with the BMW in ‘old boy status’ Sam knew that the next step was going to be a custom build.

“I guess it boils down to self-expression. I wanted a bike that I knew there was only one of in the whole world, and that it reflected me and my tastes. In going custom I’m so happy we were able to create something uniquely mine but also objectively good looking, and still practical that I can enjoy for many years to come.”

“I’d been following Ellaspede on the socials for a few years before hitting them up about doing a build. Through that I’d built a bit of an understanding of their aesthetic and what they uniquely offer. Not strictly related to the build, but I also love that Ellaspede have such a strong focus on community and brand. “

“I’m an engineer by day, and from that have built an appreciation for good results coming from a solid understanding of the foundations/first principles of what’s being designed. Having a shop approach the process from industrial design principles was a real draw-card. I don’t have that knowledge, and also have no shortage of crazy ideas, so working with someone with those design foundations steering the project (and my ideas) was important.”

With contact made and some plans laid out it wasn’t long before the R100RT was rolled off the transport truck and into the workshop. Sam also sent through some inspiration from classic auto designs and picked bikes from some of our favourite international builders to help us get an idea of the direction we were heading…

“When poking around for inspiration for the build, I found CRD49 build by CafeRacerDreams. It really resonated how they’d taken a classic colour way (silver smoke it was called I think?) but reimagined with a unique/modern spin. The idea of taking old and making new was super cool but the idea of applying that to the green and gold paint on my bike wasn’t really setting me off. I researched other classic airhead colour schemes and discovered the fairly rare ‘Exklusiv Sport / Lufthansa’ colours that came on a limited run of R90S’s in the 80s. It just jumped out at me. That inspiration, mixed in with a fair bit of Ellaspede magic, and we’ve got the colours on the tank today.”

“Other inspiration for the tank design came from me digging a whole bunch of retro 70s tanks with the big block colours and bold curves of that era. I also wanted to see those rad stripes when I was riding so wrapping the curves over the top of the tank was a must!”

“The anthracite grey frame and forks was an interesting one. I think the idea came from my day job in the graphic design biz where there is a soft rule to never use absolute hard black when designing (as it can look a little bit unnatural/inorganic in that medium). I instinctively followed this idea and thought that a dark grey could also really complement the blues and silvers on the tank/ seat/grips and also the shimmery aluminium of the vapour blasted pieces. It actually came out a bit lighter than we expected but it was a good surprise as I think it really works well.”

We really liked Sam’s intent for the bike and went to work on the build. The R100RT models are rumoured to have a slightly higher compression ratio than some of the other R100’s, presumably to push that big touring fairing around. So once the fairing and other stock parts started to come off the bike it really became evident how much lighter the bike had become, even just pushing it around the workshop. That’s some free performance gains right there!

As usual, most of the stock gear wasn’t going to find its way back on and the parts that did were all refurbished, replaced or got the usual paint or polish. A stack of custom fab went into the bike with some key input from Sam on aesthetics and an intent to keep most of it looking like factory fit and finish as if BMW might have done on a ‘stripped back’ version of the day.

Our favourite parts of the build are definitely the custom subframe which can be tricky to get looking right with the ‘offset BMW geometry’ and holds quite a lot of elements together while still looking super clean. We also used this bike as a tester for an upcoming Ellaspede universal muffler that we’ve been developing and were pretty excited to have them looking and sounding just the way we wanted when this bike rolled out.

When we asked Sam about his favourite parts… “I love the way that the curves in the subframe flow into the rear fender. That whole piece was a bit of a yolo… I tossed the idea out there and you folks ran with it but it turned out fantastically!”

“I also love how tidy the front end came out. From the switchgear that kind of disappears into the bars, the beautifully placed bates-style lamp, and just the right amount of fork lowering. It really is a very elegant package. Elegant is weird for what I guess is kind of a “scrambler”, but hey I think that speaks to the unconventional nature and unique mix of styles going on in the bike that I love.”

“Then of course there’s the tank… which again was also a bit of a gamble. I’d never tried designing a tank livery before, but had a gut instinct for what I thought would look cool and fortunately that gamble paid off (with the crucial contribution of Ellaspede picking out specific colours). There was an awful lot of umming and ahhing in our house over whether it was going to look striking (in a good way) or be a bit ostentatious, but it definitely turned out to be an absolute ripper.”

Building a custom R-series BMW these days is a reasonably well travelled path, but Sam’s shown that by drawing on some quality inspiration and committing to a well thought out build you can achieve a bike that looks like a classic custom BMW but also highlights the individuality of it’s owner.

We find that when a custom bike is done ‘right’ then many of the subtle details and design cues disappear at first glance, instead blending into an overall aesthetic that perfectly fits together. Luckily Sam shared much of that vision with us and as a result has got himself an R100RT with a timeless style that you don’t often see on custom builds.

“Reflecting on the process, I’m really glad we took a few gambles on ideas that popped into my head rather than tried-and-true strategies for customising these bikes. That, mixed with Ellaspede’s wisdom and experience in effective ways to bring those ideas to life and we’ve ended up with a final result that I absolutely love and can’t wait to get out and about on every day.”

The only shame for us about doing builds for interstate clients is that we don’t get to see the finished bike (and owner) popping back into the shop for a coffee now and then! But we’re hoping Sam keeps us updated with ride photos so we can also enjoy seeing one of our favourite Bavarian builds out and about.

“The bike has now slotted back into my life as my weekday commuter where she catches an awful lot of eyes and compliments around the streets of Sydney. She’s made it out onto the back roads for a few cheeky rides since coming back home, but it’s been a tough run lately with the air thick with bushfire smoke. When it hasn’t been thick with bushfire smoke it’s been thick with (very welcome) rain. With some good weather back I’m looking forward to some solid weekenders through the national parks and along the rivers around the city.”

Here’s to a lifetime of enjoyment on your R100RT Sam! We’re sure it won’t only be kids that are turning heads when you’re blasting through the backroads of Sydney now. With that iconic motor now surrounded by some classic custom design you’ll be making memories for motorcycle enthusiasts for years to come!

If you’d like to see more from Ellaspede you can visit their website here, or you can follow them below.

Follow Ellaspede – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – Tumblr

Images courtesy of AJ Moller Photography Instagram: @ajmollerphotography

The post An Australian Custom BMW R100RT – The Ellaspede EB882 appeared first on Silodrome.

source https://silodrome.com/custom-bmw-r100rt/

[almostprotagonist-antagonist]

Buck

GENERAL

Name: Buck I could imagine that this isn’t his real name or at least not “really his name”. One idea is that he’s in fact called Adrian de Buck but noone uses this name anymore. There was also a real guy named Adriaan de Buck of whom I try to find out more to see if this would be a cool telling name or something.

Alias(es): Bug, Bugboy Not quite sure about this. But since my acc is named amdukiasthebugboy and yours is named voidfan we could have a nice little backstory here

Gender: Male (Cis) I simply see no reason in making him trans or nonbinary or anything like that. He just doesn’t feel like a LGBT* character.

Age: 28 In fact he could be anything between 20 and 35 but I think making him close to thirty is the best in between solution

Place of birth: The town in which the story takes place I’d say we make up a fictive town which only exists in the future?

Spoken languages: A future form of english I think language will develop until then so I’d say there is a new language but it’s based on english. Maybe we could see if we find some kind of slang just as the one used in “Clockwork Orange”.

Sexual orientation: Asexual (Heterosexual but no sex-drive) As said he doesn’t feel like a LGBT* character. I don’t see a point in starting an ace-discourse here, fact is Buck doesn’t count himself as LGBT* he just noticed that his sex-drive vanished after some time of living as a cyborg.

Romantic orientation: Aromantic (Heteroromantic) Same as which sexual orientation. But I think he didn’t even notice until know.

Occupation: Technician Assisstant In Fact he’s something like an humanoid syntheziser or something like that. I feel like he’s also able to control spotlights and stuff like that but only if he got connected with them before (with something like bluetooth etc.)

APPEARANCE

Eye color: Yellow As a red haired person he most likely had light eyes before his surgery and I’d like to stick to green or grey. The yellow is some kind of sulfur-like and his eyes most likely glow a little.

Hair color: Dark Red/Brownish Red He has really long dread locks which hide most of the wires who are connected with his head. He didn’t cut his hair since the age of 12 or something and wears them as dreads since about 5-10 years. Also he really likes his hair color and never died his hair.

Height: 175 centimetres His height is something he really hates. Most of his family are about 10 centimetres taller I guess and he has some insecurities about being that short but thanks to his big mouth most people won’t comment on his height too much.

Scars: Several Scars I have to think about where they are and why he got them. I think he has no huge ones but some have to be there.

Burns: Maybe I’d really like the thought of him having a burn but I still need to think about that.

Overweight: No I think he’s not a body builder or anything but he has some muscles and his BMI is a little close to overweight than to underweight.

Underweight: No Look above

FAVOURITE

Color: Yellow, Orange, Red He loves bright and burning colors but he would never wear them

Hair color: Dark Red / Blonde On himself he loves his own haircolor but he used to have a thing for blonde women

Eye color: Green & Blue He might really likes his yellow eyes but he’d sometimes prever his old color again

Entertainment: Raves, Parties, Concert He is noone who would go to a bar to sit down and have a drink, he always needs a dance floor and even if he seems to be a really calm person he’s absolutely into Rave parties and aggressive dance styles

Pastime: Smoking, messing around with technical stuff Boredom turned him into a terrible chain smoker. Also he always has to touch everything that has to do with sound or light technics. He has no idea what he’s doing exactly but he loves to figure out how things work.

Food: Anything pistachio flavoured Honestly, he lives of that kinda stuff. No matter if salted & roasted or in form of icecream.

Drink: Beer with Coke Not quite sure about that but I think it suits him

Books: // He always hated books

HAVE THEY

Passed university: No I’m pretty sure he stopped after high school because he just doesn’t gave a fuck

Had sex: Yes He actually was some kind of a fuckboy or something I guess. Well not really fuckboy he never lied to any of the girls he had sex with. He only never was into relationships or something

Had sex in public: Yes If parties count as public places. May he had even sex in school but I doubt that

Gotten pregnant: No Obviously not lol

Kissed a man: Yes I think he sometimes kissed a friend of his when he was drunk but it was just for fun and they never assumed there would be more

Kissed a woman: Yes Several actually

Gotten tattoos: Yes He has several in his face and his joints. I don’t think they have a huge meaning but he thinks they are cool and most of them only visible in black light

Gotten piercings: Yes I think is hands are pierced. Also I think of giving him a septum or one or twoo piercings in one eyebrow but I’m not sure about that

Had a broken heart: No Also I think he never really broke one

Been in love: Yes But only as a young teen and only twice

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Yes I think this happens at least once every two weeks, maybe even more often since he’s a cyborg now

ARE THEY

A virgin: No He lost his virginity at the age or 15-16 I guess

A cuddler: Rarely I think he never really gave a fuck about that until he lost his sexdrive. Now he sometimes wants to cuddle someone but never does. Or maybe he cuddles cats.

A kisser: Rarely He never was the typical kisser but did it when he hooked up with someone. Nowadays the thought of kissing someone without having sex with them disgusts him somehow.

A smoker: Yes As said he’s a chain smoker. I think he sometimes smokes a package a day when he has nothing to do.

Scared easily: No He isn’t extremely brave but he also doesn’t jump at the slightest sound and can deal with the everyday horror of life

Jealous easily: Sometimes He isn’t the typical jealous person but sometimes he feels like he would miss out on something that others have

Trustworthy: Mostly He doesn’t really gossip but when something makes a good story he tells it. But he’s aware of that and doesn’t lie about his trustworthyness

Dominant: A little He isn’t into kinky stuff but he used to have an outgoing personality and even if he got quieter at the moment it’s still a part of him

Submissive: Rarely He is more used to hold his head down now than he was a few years before but he will never be a submissive person

Single: Yes Also he isn’t interested in having a relationship. As a human he described himself as a relationship anarchist.

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No At least not intentional

Thought of suicide: Maybe I’m not really sure about that but maybe he thought of killing himself after the law got changed and he was no longer human

Attempted suicide: No He’s not the kind of person who would actually try to kill themselves

Wanted to kill someone: No Of course he played with that in his mind but he knew he never really wanted to do that

Actually killed someone: No I’m not sure if he actually could kill someone. Maybe with the help of someone else but most likely not on his own.

Ridden a horse: No Why should he?

Have/had a job: Yes As said he’s a technician assisstant. Aka part of the job of someone else.

Have any fears: Yes Getting sold like a thing because he’s no longer human, getting attacked or killed because he’s a cyborg, getting hacked,...

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Yes I think he has one brother and one half brother, both older than him. And maybe a younger half sister.

Parents: Alive I think he has just no contact with them anymore

Children: No He never wanted some and now he’ll never have some

Pets: Part Time Cat and Part Time Dog The two don’t actually belong to him but they visit him at home (cat) and at his work place (dog).