#hes not really 13 software

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

i dont think my 14 is very good i think im just making 13 software run on 14 hardware

[polarity-disturbed]

Ok no, I have to get it out of my system, Conrad is bad at podcasting. And just recording anything in general.

The sound padding is doing absolutely nothing. Sure, they’ve got it slapped on the walls, but it’s off to the side. Not behind them. Not in front of them. Just... chilling. Which is useless. You want that padding facing the source of the sound so it can catch the waves before they start bouncing all over the place.

Since both Ruby and Conrad are facing forward with the padding off to the side, her voice is bouncing off the wall behind him and hitting his mic again a split second later. That would be making the audio sound muddy and hollow. Having the foam off to the side like that is like putting a bandage next to your cut and wondering why you’re still bleeding.

Right now, the foam is just there for vibes. Bad vibes.

And who told this man to record in a glass box? Glass is terrible for audio. Everything bounces. Nothing gets absorbed. It turns your voice into a pinball machine. You could have a thousand-dollar mic and it would still sound like you’re talking inside a fishbowl. Plus, that room looks like it’s in the middle of an office space? Why, Conrad, you amoeba-brained sycophant, would you record anything there ever?? The background noise alone would be hell on Earth to try to edit out.

Pop filter and foam windscreen (mic cover)??? Both are designed to reduce plosive sounds—like "p" and "b"—by dispersing the air before it hits the microphone diaphragm. While it’s not wrong to use both, it’s redundant unless you're outdoors or in a particularly plosive-heavy environment. Stacking them can even dull the audio a bit.

Your mic doesn’t need two hats. Calm down.

Not an audio note but a soft box light in the shot?? No. Just no. They should be behind the camera, pointing at you. Or at least off to the side, not pointing directly down the middle. And what really gets me? There are windows. Real, working windows with actual sunlight. And what did Conrad do? He covered them with that useless sound padding. So now it’s badly lit and echoey.

He blocked out free, natural light to keep in the bad sound.

"But what if the sun’s there right when he’s trying to record?" some might say. That’s why curtains exist. And the soft box would still be in a bad spot.

Also, his camera audio is peaking like crazy. Even if he's not using the camera mic for the final cut, it’s still useless to record it like this. You know that Xbox early Halo/COD mic sound? That’s what this would sound like.

This happens when the input gain is too high, causing the audio to clip. Basically, the mic can’t handle it and the sound gets distorted. Ideally, you want your audio levels to peak in the yellow zone, around -12 dB to -6 dB. Not constantly slamming into the red at 0 dB. That’s reserved for 13-year-old prepubescents cursing you out for ruining their kill streak. And that’s it.

On top of that, both the left and right channels on the camera audio look identical, meaning the audio’s been merged into a single mono track. Which isn’t wrong for speech, but it kills any sense of space or direction. For dynamic audio, especially in a two-person setup, you don’t want everything crammed into one lane. (OR they’re both just peaking at the same time continuously, even when they’re not talking, which means it’s picking up background noise at a level so loud it’s pushing the mic into clipping.)

And to make things worse, the little "LIVE" tag in the bottom corner implies this is a livestream. But there doesn’t seem to be any livestream software open on his laptop, so I’m assuming there’s either a second offscreen computer handling the stream, or it’s hooked up to broadcast natively.

Either way, unless those mics are also connected to the camera or that other computer, that peaky, crunchy camera audio is what people are actually hearing.

Finally... it really helps if you hit the record button. He’s just playing back audio. I think that’s more of a “show” thing, but still.

(look I got a fancy degree in this stuff and I have to use it somehow)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Announcing the Picks and Shovels book tour

This week only, Barnes and Noble is offering 25% off pre-orders of my forthcoming novel Picks and Shovels.

My next novel, Picks and Shovels, is officially out in the US and Canada on Feb 17, and I'm about to leave on a 20+ city book-tour, which means there's a nonzero chance I'll be in a city near you between now and the end of the spring!

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels

Picks and Shovels is a standalone novel starring Martin Hench – my hard-charging, two-fisted, high-tech forensic accountant – in his very first adventure, in the early 1980s. It's a story about the Weird PC era, when no one was really certain what shape PCs should be, who should make them, who should buy them, and what they're for. It features a commercial war between two very different PC companies.

The first one, Fidelity Computing, is a predatory multi-level marketing faith scam, run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest, and an orthodox rabbi. Fidelity recruits people to exploit members of their faith communities by selling them third-rate PCs that are designed as rip-off lock-ins, forcing you to buy special floppies for their drives, special paper for their printers, and to use software that is incompatible with everything else in the world.

The second PC company is Computing Freedom, a rebel alliance of three former Fidelity Computing sales-managers: an orthodox woman who's been rejected by her family after coming out as queer; a Mormon woman who's rejected the Church over its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and a nun who's quit her order to join the Liberation Theology movement in the struggle for human rights in America's dirty wars.

In the middle of it all is Martin Hench, coming of age in San Francisco during the PC bubble, going to Dead Kennedys shows, getting radicalized by ACT UP!, and falling in love – all while serving as CFO and consigliere to Computing Freedom, as a trade war turns into a shooting war, and they have to flee for their lives.

The book's had fantastic early reviews, with endorsements from computer historians like Steven Levy (Hackers), Claire Evans (Broad-Band), John Markoff (What the Doormouse Said) and Dan'l Lewin (CEO of the Computer History Museum). Stephen Fry raved that he "hugely enjoyed" the "note perfect," "superb" story.

And I'm about to leave on tour! I have nineteen confirmed dates, and two nearly confirmed dates, and there's more to come! I hope you'll consider joining me at one of these events. I've got a bunch of fantastic conversation partners joining me onstage and online, and the bookstores that are hosting me are some of my favorite indie booksellers in the world.

BOSTON (Feb 14): Boskone, 4PM, Westin Boston Seaport District

BOSTON (Feb 14): Brookline Booksmith with KEN LIU, 7PM, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline

VIRTUAL (Feb 15): YANIS VAROUFAKIS, sponsored by Jacobin and hosted by David Moscrop, 10AM Pacific, 1PM Eastern, 6PM UK, 7PM CET

MENLO PARK (Feb 17): Kepler’s Books with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS, 7PM, 1010 El Camino Real

LOS ANGELES (Feb 18): Diesel Bookstore with WIL WHEATON, 630PM, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica

SEATTLE (Feb 19): Third Place Books with DAN SAVAGE, 7PM, 17171 Bothell Way NW Lake Forest Park

TORONTO (Feb 23): Another Story, 630PM, 315 Roncesvalles Ave

NYC (Feb 26): The Strand with JOHN HODGMAN, 7PM, 828 Broadway

PENN STATE (Feb 27): Kern Auditorium, 7PM, 112 Kern Building

DOYLESTOWN (Mar 1): Doylestown Bookshop, 12PM, 16 S Main St

BALTIMORE (Mar 2): Red Emma’s, 2PM, 630PM, 3128 Greenmount Ave

DC (Mar 4): Cleveland Park Library with MATT STOLLER, 630PM, 3310 Connecticut Ave NW

RICHMOND (Mar 5): Fountain Bookstore with LEE VINSEL, 6PM, 1312 E Cary St

AUSTIN (Mar 10): First Light Books, 7PM, 4300 Speedway/43rd

BURBANK (Mar 13): Dark Delicacies, 6PM, 822 N. Hollywood Way

SAN DIEGO (Mar 24): Mysterious Galaxy, 7PM, 3555 Rosecrans

BELFAST (Mar 24) (remote): Imagine! Festival with ALAN MEBAN, 7PM UK

CHICAGO, Apr 2: Exile in Bookville with PETER SAGAL, 7PM, 410 S Michigan Ave, 2nd floor

BLOOMINGTON, Apr 4: Morgenstern Books, 6PM, 642 N Madison St

PDX, Jun 20 (TBC): Powell’s Books (date and time to be confirmed)

I'm also finalizing plans for one or two dates in NEW ZEALAND at the end of April, as well as a ATLANTA date, likely on March 26.

I really hope you'll come out and say hello. I know these are tough times. Hanging out with nice people who care about the same stuff as you is a genuine tonic.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/06/picks-and-shovels-tour/#19-cities-plus-plus

[physicsgoblin]

Physics and Mathematics Resources (plus some Chemistry):

I will update this because I know I have more recommend textbooks somewhere in my files, I'm just too tired to look right now. Latest update: 5/13/25

Physics:

The Science Spot--Mostly lesson plans for teaching kids

The Physics Classroom Tutorial--Has interactive online activities and models. Some videos and also some chemistry stuff.

HyperPhysics--Quite possibly the best resource I've ever seen because it shows how all concepts are linked together. The site isn't loading for me but it says it's up. There is a downloadable version on the Internet Archive (though it doesn't look as nice and clean). EDIT: I found a GitHub that lets you clone and download the html so you can click through it offline and it works! If people are interested I can make a tutorial, it was very easy.

PhET--A ton of demonstrations and tutorials. Also has some for mathematics and chemistry.

Paradigms Physics Notes--this was the curriculum that was used in my junior and senior classes. A lot of stuff here. If you are interest about teaching physics using this method, you can read more here.

Quantum Mathamatica Add-on--Useful for calculations.

The Hypertextbook--uhh lots here. Problems, solutions, explanations, etc.

oPhysics--interactive physics software.

MiniPhysics--more demonstrations and interactive software.

Michel van Biezen--really clear work-throughs of many subjects (algebra, calculus, chemistry, physics). He actually has a tumblr but has been active in like a decade @ilectureonline

Mathematics:

Paul's Online Math Notes--Got my whole class through junior and senior year

Calculator Soup--a lot of different kinds of calculators

3Blue1Brown--Very interesting youtube channel that shows a lot of calculus and linear algebraic principals visually or in intuitive ways.

Mathologer--more interesting advanced mathematical concepts.

General:

OpenStax--Free textbooks, legally

[josharko300]

Kittails has been on my mind lately and I got thoughts.

- Assuming Tails is 13-14 in current IDW, I'd imagine Kit would be about 12-13 (though no one's sure since he has no memories and he looks younger due to being malnourished)

- Their relationship starts off as a one-sided rivalry (Kit just sees Tails as being Sonic's assistant like he is with Surge) but cools off after a couple years and a catastrophe or two (and Kit realizes that their relationship is not the same).

- Tails got tall, Kit kinda didn't. Again, malnourished.

- Kit lets slip that he doesn't really have any other friends his age, so Tails introduces him to Cream, who invites both of them to her house for lunch.

- At lunch with Cream, they ask him what he likes to do. He says help Surge, they tell him that kids their age really should not be responsible for stuff like that.

- Kit goes quiet and over the next half hour and has an anxiety attack. He makes a bubble around himself to shut the world out. Tails goes to get Surge.

- Surge hasn't seen this before. Vanilla takes her aside to chew her out, only to realize that Surge had no real way of knowing what she was doing wasn't helping, and that it's really on Starline.

- Kit eventually passes out, drops the bubble, allowing Surge to place him in Vanilla's spare bedroom.

- Surge and Vanilla agree for Vanilla to take care of him for a bit so he can learn to be a bit more independent. (Surge still visits every other day tho).

- Kit doesn't take it well. Assumes that it's because he's a burden. Doesn't say that though.

- Eventually starts hanging out with Tails more and begins to trust him. They work on gadgets and stuff together and Kit gives the Miles Electric some software improvements.

- Not entirely sure what happens next, but they only start really dating after they both turn 16.

[haiisx]

can we hear more about adam's quirk and his support items? im really curious abt them!

Of course, Anon! I'm so happy to hear that you're interested!

Adam's Quirk is called Phase Shift. Pre-awakening, it allows him to change the state of any matter he touches, such as turning a liquid into a solid or a solid into a gas, etc etc. One of his trademark moves is solidifying the air around him, which he uses to create solid walls of air or stepping stones to allow him to walk on air, in a sense.

Post-awakening, his Quirk not only alters the bonds between molecules, but the bonds between atoms and subatomic particles. For example, he could manually take hydrogen gas and oxygen gas and make Hydrogen Peroxide, or knock an oxygen atom out of each molecule and create water. He has to be very precise, and his ability is dependent on his knowledge of chemistry. After his Quirk Awakening, one of his signature moves is to create a combustion reaction upon punching a villain (I mostly came up with this because the idea of him punching a villain and the spot exploding on impact was really cool to me).

Moving onto his support items; they actually work to counteract his Quirk. Adam is not immune to his own Quirk! From a young age, his messed with the molecules in his own body without his control. It was a very small disturbance at first, but as his Quirk developed the effect it had on him increased.

It began with his hands. At around 13-ish years old, his Quirk started to cause him pain as it attempted to change the phase of the matter in Adam's hands. That was when he got his first support items. I'm a little fuzzy on what these support items looked like exactly, but they resembled gloves with some tech woven into the fabric. They canceled out his Quirk in small doses.

These support items worked for a while, but at 16-ish years old he had to get new ones. This time, the pain had spread up to his arms. His next support items were similar to his last ones, but the sleeves extended up to his elbows.

Like the last ones, these didn't last very long. By 18, he needed new support items. His new support items were an experimental design meant to track brain activity and cancel his Quirk completely when he wasn't consciously making an effort to use his Quirk. Something so high-tech was incredibly expensive (and not covered by any sort of insurance, because support items are considered luxury items).

Thankfully for Adam, Avery, who had been saving money from doing sidekick work alongside going to a Hero University, paid for the new support items.

(the general idea)

This iteration lasts quite a while! In fact, it stays with him until he becomes an actual Pro (not a sidekick) at 28~ years old. There were a few kinks in the software along the way, though---for example, sometimes the software would fail to accurately determine when Adam was or wasn't trying to use his Quirk, leading to moments during Sidekick work where he would have to fight Quirkless or moments in his daily life where he'd be in agonizing pain until his support items figured themselves out.

His last support items are the ones he has now! They're grey bands around his neck, biceps, wrists, thighs, and ankles. Much more compact and sleek than all that wiring. It's new tech, so instead of cancelling Adam's Quirk, it redirects his Quirk into keeping all of his molecules/atoms in place. It's much more effective than all the previous iterations.

Of course, his battle with his Quirk doesn't end there. His latest support items are new tech, but they're also as new as it gets for a while. So while he can go in and get them recalibrated every now and then to account for his Quirk overcoming them, it also means that there's a limit to those support items' effectiveness.

There's not much he can do after that, but he does get some painkillers (which my friends and I have dubbed Super Morphine) to deal with everything. He is my little guy and every day I put him in the torment nexus and blend blend blend.

[misfitwashere]

April 11, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 12

READ IN APP

On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration.

Former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in Newsweek yesterday that the position Haugh held is “one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America.” Kendall writes that NSA and CYBERCOM oversee the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques to penetrate computer systems, monitor communications around the globe, and, if national security requires it, attack those systems. U.S. law drastically curtails how those tools can be used in the U.S. and against American citizens and businesses. Will a Trump loyalist follow those laws? Kendall writes: “Every American should view this development with alarm.”

Just after 2:00 a.m. eastern time this morning, the Senate confirmed Retired Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin,” for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a vote of 60–25. U.S. law requires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the Army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the commandant of the Marine Corps, or the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.

Although Caine has 34 years of military experience, he did not serve in any of the required positions. The law provides that the president can waive the requirement if “the President determines such action is necessary in the national interest,” and he has apparently done so for Caine. The politicization of the U.S. military by filling it with Trump loyalists is now, as Kendall writes, “indisputable.”

The politicization of data is also indisputable. Billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) claims to be saving Americans money, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that effort has been largely a failure (despite today’s announcement of devastating cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that monitors our weather). But what DOGE is really doing is burrowing into Americans’ data.

The first people to be targeted by that data collection appear to be undocumented immigrants. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using a database that enables officials to search for people by filtering for “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including scars or tattoos, bankruptcy filings, Social Security number, hair color, and race. The system, called Investigative Case Management (ICM), was created by billionaire Peter Thiel’s software company Palantir, which in 2022 signed a $95.9 million contract with the government to develop ICM.

Three Trump officials told Sophia Cai of Politico that DOGE staffers embedded in agencies across the government are expanding government cooperation with immigration officials, using the information they’re gleaning from government databases to facilitate deportation. On Tuesday, DOGE software engineer Aram Moghaddassi sent the first 6,300 names of individuals whose temporary legal status had just been canceled. On the list, which Moghaddassi said covered those on “the terror watch list” or with “F.B.I. criminal records,” were eight minors, including one 13-year-old.

The Social Security Administration worked with the administration to get those people to “self-deport” by adding them to the agency's “death master file.” That file is supposed to track people whose death means they should no longer receive benefits. Adding to it people the administration wants to erase is “financial murder,” former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley told Alexandra Berzon, Hamed Aleaziz, Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac, and Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times. Those people will not be able to use credit cards or banks.

On Tuesday, Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Melanie Krause resigned after the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security agreed to share sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes, in part to demonstrate their commitment to citizenship, and the government has promised immigrants that it would not use that information for immigration enforcement. Until now, the IRS has protected sensitive taxpayer information.

Rene Marsh and Marshall Cohen of CNN note that “[m]ultiple senior career IRS officials refused to sign the data-sharing agreement with DHS,” which will enable HHS officials to ask the IRS for names and addresses of people they suspect are undocumented, “because of grave concerns about its legality.” Ultimately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the agreement with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Krause was only one of several senior career officials leaving the IRS, raising concerns among those staying that there is no longer a “defense against the potential unlawful use of taxpayer data by the Trump administration.”

Makena Kelly of Wired reported today that for the past three days, DOGE staffers have been working with representatives from Palantir and career engineers from the IRS in a giant “hackathon.” Their goal is to build a system that will be able to access all IRS records, including names, addresses, job data, and Social Security numbers, that can then be compared with data from other agencies.

But the administration’s attempt to automate deportation is riddled with errors. Last night the government sent threatening emails to U.S. citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) terminating “your parole” and giving them seven days to leave the U.S. One Massachusetts-born immigration lawyer asked on social media: “Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?”

The government is not keen to correct its errors. On March 15 the government rendered to prison in El Salvador a legal U.S. resident, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the courts had ordered the U.S. not to send to El Salvador, where his life was in danger. The government has admitted that its arrest and rendition of Abrego Garcia happened because of “administrative error” but now claims—without evidence—that he is a member of the MS-13 gang and that his return to the U.S. would threaten the public. Abrego Garcia says he is not a gang member and notes that he has never been charged with a crime.

On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. no later than 11:59 pm on April 7. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down a 9–0 decision yesterday, saying the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, but asked the district court to clarify what it meant by “effectuate,” noting that it must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

The Supreme Court also ordered that “the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

Legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained what happened next. Judge Xinis ordered the government to file an update by 9:30 a.m. today explaining where Abrego Garcia is, what the government is doing to get him back, and what more it will do. She planned an in-person hearing at 1:00 p.m.

The administration made clear it did not intend to comply. It answered that the judge had not given them enough time to answer and suggested that it would delay over the Supreme Court’s instruction that Xinis must show deference to the president’s ability to conduct foreign affairs. Xinis gave the government until 11:30 and said she would still hold the hearing. The government submitted its filing at about 12:15, saying that Abrego Garcia is “in the custody of a foreign sovereign,” but at the 1:00 hearing, as Anna Bower of Lawfare reported, the lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, said he did not have information about where Abrego Garcia is and that the government had done nothing to get him back. Ensign said he might have answers by next Tuesday. Xinis says they will have to give an update tomorrow.

As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens. Indeed, both President Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have proposed that very thing.

Tonight, Trump signed a memorandum to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture, and homeland security calling for a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” The memorandum creates a military buffer zone along the border so that any migrant crossing would be trespassing on a U.S. military base. This would allow active-duty soldiers to hold migrants until ICE agents take them.

By April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable him to use the military to aid in mass deportations.

—

[kittygawa--jr]

Any katagawa hcs?

Random Katagawa Jr. Headcanons | 500-ish Words

content warning for substance abuse and vague allusions to self harm

does a little spin. hi anon. i have a physical written collection of katagawa headcanons. i have dedicated an entire notebook to this which is purely katagawa (at the moment) headcanons and notes i wish to keep track of. do not get me going.

23 at death

Just about shorter than Zer0.

Vegetarian, sometimes indulges in fish.

Actually cut his pinkies off to fit into the Zer0 suit

Covered in moles :3

Has impacted canines, still has braces as an adult, was in headgear as a child.

Prefers clothes made to be prudish, that are then altered to be revealing. (Cropped/sleeveless turtlenecks, pants with slits/holes/tears for example, idk, he dresses like a slutty steve jobs)

Very small appetite, prefers to snack throughout the day rather than eat a few big meals.

Prosthetic eye and port are self developed, modelling off Atlas prosthetic software/hardware. Implanted them first at 18.

Bar code tattoo was given at 16, when starting a proper corporate mentorship and actually beginning to contribute to Maliwan.

His combat training was mandatory from 13 onward; he struggled to find a field to go into, so becoming useful as a weapon was the compromise until he could contribute another way.

He stuck with it after finding his place within Maliwan because the regular exercise and rigorous routine kept him busy and gave him an out for his frustrations at home.

He's extremely insecure about his height, always feeling awkward over never fitting into spaces well.

Remedies the previous problem by training himself to be extremely flexible.

Struggles with substance abuse. Towards his later teens he started drinking with encouragement from his brothers, while he only began really messing with drugs after meeting Troy and being introduced to Eridium based offerings.

Addressing prior point, for a few of his BL3 appearances he's likely coming down or currently high. He was most definitely actively using during his fight, however.

He takes great pride in getting his hair styled and taking care of it once it's out of a pompadour. I like to headcanon him as having a fancier pomp with am elaborate back and a slight ducktail/mullet in the back too, but what do I know.

The Zanara is his only space that is truly his own that he has to himself, away from his family. He wasn't JUST being a big baby about not being able to take what he dishes out okay. Rhys blew up something very very important to his sanity.

He drools in his sleep more than Rhys does.

He has a couple tattoos under his suit and tie: a replica of Rhys' neck tattoo on his inner right forearm, matching katana tattoos with his brothers over his left pectoral, and a work in progress of a cat prowling down his right thigh. He died before he even got the colors started.

Most intelligence he actually possesses in any real capacity mostly surrounds technology. He loves to tinker and customize and mod, though it was rarely what was asked of him at home or at Maliwan, since he already had other siblings that were also good with tech. It was almost entirely a personal hobby inspired by Rhys.

His family nickname is Junior. Do not ever call him Junior his face will get so red it'll be so funny. uh. I mean Don't do that.

He holds so much tension at all times that you would think his muscles were his bones from how stiff and strained they always are.

[stevebattle]

Tineee (1989) by Fiona Woon and Kevin Gomez, Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Singapore. Tineee was the winner of the IEE UK Micromouse competition in 1989. "With only 18 months of preparatory work, the team of Mr Kevin Gomez and Miss Fiona Woon designed and took their computer-controlled robot to London, which ran through the maze to beat the defending champion" – NTU School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

"Mr Gomez and his coursemate Fiona Woon, both 26, from the Nanyang Technological Institute, built an electronic robot, called a micromouse, for the annual "rat race" in London, on July 13. The mouse ... beat the defending champion and hot favourite Mitee Mouse III from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by 1.79 seconds. The competition involves racing a computer-controlled robot through a maze to its centre. The duo were ecstactic when they found that they had won. But both said the race was a nerve-wracking experience. Miss Woon said: "I turned my eyes away from the race - I did not dare look because something could easily go wrong. When we won, my first reaction was just relief." Mr Gomez said: "When we knew we had won, my legs felt like water. I was more nervous during the race, because so much depended on our mouse - but it would have been an achievement even if we had taken second place." The duo won £150 (S$470) and a book entitled Robotics and Control. To celebrate the hard-won victory, Mr Gomez said he went to sleep. "The victory gave me peace of mind and as we had not had any proper sleep for three days running, I was really feeling exhausted," he said. The two have just graduated from NTI with electrical and electronic engineering degrees. Miss Woon has a first-class honours degree and Mr Gomez a general degree. A team of four lecturers from NTI and the two students took about 1½ years to develop a prototype and then the winning electronic mouse. "It was a close fight but the team is very pleased with the results as this is the first time NTI has entered such a competition," said Associate Professor Goh Wee Leng, head of the information engineering division, and who headed the team which devised the winning mouse. Mr Gomez worked on the hardware — the body of the mouse – and the movement-controlling software, while Miss Woon worked on the maze-solving software. They completed the mouse in just 1½ months. As a team, they complemented each other's strong points as Miss Woon loves writing software programmes and Mr Gomez's favourite pastime is "fidding around with electronic circuitry and making robots." The winning mouse looks anything but a whiskered rodent. Weighing 370 grammes (without batteries), it has eight pairs of "eyes" (infrared sensors) on two horizontal arms. Instead of legs, it has two wheels. And it doesn't squeak – all moving parts must run smoothly. It runs on six rechargeable alkaline batteries and its "brain" is a micro-processor which can store information about the places it explores."

– Micromouse winners lose their luggage, by Francesca Nathan, The Straits Times, 27 July 1989, Page 19

The video is an excerpt from "UK Micromouse 1989."

[psychiatry-and-poetry]

Out-of-Pocket Quotes

A/N: These are random quotes I have overheard, seen, or said irl and I thought it would be funny to make a little compilation of them here! Lmk what you think of these (bonus points if you try to guess where these come from/the context!) Also, note that these might be offensive jokes in some cases but I don't actually mean anything with these

What if the king was on drugs?

You’re the reason people yell fire instead of help

Hashtag yakuza fan page

I want a lobotomy

How much pussy do you think I’d need to eat before I die?

Your spiritual level dick

If you were Pinocchio, you’d have a nose long enough to ride

I did not need to be flashed by Italy’s fascist dictator

We turn on the stove but lay in the pan

Mr. Incognito over here

I’m very economic friendly

Ugh, heterosexuals

I’m gonna put you in a chamber

“I love sluts, I want an orgasm” in a dream

No, homosexuality is big enough of a contraceptive

Last time, you dislocated his cotton

That seems like Lord Farquaad from Shrek put into Benito Mussolini

Did you see his speeches? It looked like a Taylor Swift concert

I'm not a software. I’m hardware, cause I’m always hard

I don’t know, I think it would be unethical to give out small children

I only showed my boobs to (name)! It’s the same thing!

World peace is lame, I like employment

No, actually, I'm going to seduce German brainrot

Jalapeños in your ass water

You know the saying “the more, the merrier”? I think they were referring to polyamory

It means you’re a gay whore

I’m doing gay shit and I keep touching his ass. I need to calm down.

Homiesexual

A fetish for fibre? Yeah, that’s a fibre addiction

It’s not cheating if it’s a threesome

She should be illegal! No, she’s an aryan

So apparently WikiHow supports mpreg?

It’s like 37 degrees here. Wait, let me get that for you in communism units

So Dorothy is basically a terrorist

Do you know what it feels like when I point at your eyeball?

Why are you leaking rulers?

The lottery is more complex than childbirth

Why are white people…scientifically? Do they have hidden whiteness?

Why are we so weird? No, we’re just queer

The human body has 206 bones. When I’m with children, I have 207

Be molested or something

I want to permanently mutate my body

Imaginary logs sound schizophrenic

You felt her gaze? More like you felt her gays

Do it before it does you

Why are these incest tomatoes?

They could have been sexting through carrier pigeons

It’s like the Pokémon fish version of Chappell Roan

Hamstring? Yeah I’m about to string your ham

I’m pretty sure I have to be made by two straight people

Mildred from Fahrenheit 451 is basically their version of an iPad kid

Does herpes make me cry?

Apparently seagulls are gay

Dora is so terrorist-coded

How hot does the Earth have to be for our farts to spontaneously combust?

Fuck off, hydrogen!

You know what’s really bad? Sexual torture

You’re not white. Yay!

Let’s peel back hairlines like we peel back layers of onions

This is definitely dinosaur porn

Your bloodline probably has 25 STDs but you do you

I didn’t sign up for having weird, disfigured incest babies

See, this is why guillotines are the best!

It tasted like perverted sushi

I love bombing brown children, someone’s gotta do it

Mmm, plant sperm, smells delicious

Burning is not a personality trait

He drew a really shitty tree that looked like a uterus

Maybe buildings can have sex, maybe we just don’t know it yet

Reptiles would be such good capitalists

Euler was the first gigachad

Phonic apparatus

International transcendence

Hitler, you can’t take the Jews. Give them back!

World War 2 was just a failed version of gentle parenting

It’s dick macaroni

Stop bringing the incestual vibe to the function

Hitler was like the suicidal son they never wanted

My friend is investing in the stock market, which is basically glorified gambling

Why are you molesting my spoon?

Do your child victims relate?

I abuse all my friends equally

How is cannibalism not PG-13?

Everyone walking around is superhuman. Except poor people

It’s not considered kidnapping a kid if it’s an orphan. Then it’s free housing

How many grandmas could you drop kick before you die?

Dear King Philip came over for gay sex

Why are whales better at sex than humans are?

My trans parent bed is part of the LGBTQ furniture

Why would I jerk off to Hitler’s ghost?

Homophobia is cool if I hate straight people more

I really didn’t think (name) would be into a dead fascist, but here we are

Bisexual until proven straight

We don’t discriminate when it comes to molesting

This is corruption therapy

They don’t need Jesus guys, they just need the IB

Don’t worry guys, it’s not infidelity, it’s pedophilia, which is better

When in doubt, Pavlov yourself

I'm not gonna teach you sex ed for lesbians!

How long do you think you'd be able to use a corpse as a boxing bag?

Maybe if you make your cow run enough, it'll start producing lactic acid

I'm gonna lie on my deathbed jacking off to AO3

I can shove 8 baguettes up my ass

Polyamory is like one of those Egyptian pharaohs

Bro forgot he wasn't playing tennis when he started clapping balls

Can you deep fry a dick?

I want to have a war crime named after me

Feral kids are very easy to mass produce

Why would you clone humans? It's called having a child

Think colonial thoughts

I feel like my intestine is getting sticky

The unit circle is definitely an alcoholic, abusive man

I don't remember there being a KKK in my hair

"It was dark and someone started screaming." "Was it you?" "...Yes."

I wasn't expecting a thirst trap for Punnett squares on my fyp

Live, laugh, be a faggot

If the wind is a bit too strong she might catch feelings for Mother Nature

My accent is genderfluid

"What sign is God sending me?" "I don't know, maybe to become a Hitler themed femboy?"

Do you think I could give off the impression of a horny Master Oogway?

masterpost

Line dividers credit goes to @enchanthings

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 11, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 12, 2025

On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration.

Former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in Newsweek yesterday that the position Haugh held is “one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America.” Kendall writes that NSA and CYBERCOM oversee the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques to penetrate computer systems, monitor communications around the globe, and, if national security requires it, attack those systems. U.S. law drastically curtails how those tools can be used in the U.S. and against American citizens and businesses. Will a Trump loyalist follow those laws? Kendall writes: “Every American should view this development with alarm.”

Just after 2:00 a.m. eastern time this morning, the Senate confirmed Retired Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin,” for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a vote of 60–25. U.S. law requires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the Army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the commandant of the Marine Corps, or the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.

Although Caine has 34 years of military experience, he did not serve in any of the required positions. The law provides that the president can waive the requirement if “the President determines such action is necessary in the national interest,” and he has apparently done so for Caine. The politicization of the U.S. military by filling it with Trump loyalists is now, as Kendall writes, “indisputable.”

The politicization of data is also indisputable. Billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) claims to be saving Americans money, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that effort has been largely a failure (despite today’s announcement of devastating cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that monitors our weather). But what DOGE is really doing is burrowing into Americans’ data.

The first people to be targeted by that data collection appear to be undocumented immigrants. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using a database that enables officials to search for people by filtering for “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including scars or tattoos, bankruptcy filings, Social Security number, hair color, and race. The system, called Investigative Case Management (ICM), was created by billionaire Peter Thiel’s software company Palantir, which in 2022 signed a $95.9 million contract with the government to develop ICM.

Three Trump officials told Sophia Cai of Politico that DOGE staffers embedded in agencies across the government are expanding government cooperation with immigration officials, using the information they’re gleaning from government databases to facilitate deportation. On Tuesday, DOGE software engineer Aram Moghaddassi sent the first 6,300 names of individuals whose temporary legal status had just been canceled. On the list, which Moghaddassi said covered those on “the terror watch list” or with “F.B.I. criminal records,” were eight minors, including one 13-year-old.

The Social Security Administration worked with the administration to get those people to “self-deport” by adding them to the agency's “death master file.” That file is supposed to track people whose death means they should no longer receive benefits. Adding to it people the administration wants to erase is “financial murder,” former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley told Alexandra Berzon, Hamed Aleaziz, Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac, and Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times. Those people will not be able to use credit cards or banks.

On Tuesday, Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Melanie Krause resigned after the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security agreed to share sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes, in part to demonstrate their commitment to citizenship, and the government has promised immigrants that it would not use that information for immigration enforcement. Until now, the IRS has protected sensitive taxpayer information.

Rene Marsh and Marshall Cohen of CNN note that “[m]ultiple senior career IRS officials refused to sign the data-sharing agreement with DHS,” which will enable HHS officials to ask the IRS for names and addresses of people they suspect are undocumented, “because of grave concerns about its legality.” Ultimately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the agreement with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Krause was only one of several senior career officials leaving the IRS, raising concerns among those staying that there is no longer a “defense against the potential unlawful use of taxpayer data by the Trump administration.”

Makena Kelly of Wired reported today that for the past three days, DOGE staffers have been working with representatives from Palantir and career engineers from the IRS in a giant “hackathon.” Their goal is to build a system that will be able to access all IRS records, including names, addresses, job data, and Social Security numbers, that can then be compared with data from other agencies.

But the administration’s attempt to automate deportation is riddled with errors. Last night the government sent threatening emails to U.S. citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) terminating “your parole” and giving them seven days to leave the U.S. One Massachusetts-born immigration lawyer asked on social media: “Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?”

The government is not keen to correct its errors. On March 15 the government rendered to prison in El Salvador a legal U.S. resident, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the courts had ordered the U.S. not to send to El Salvador, where his life was in danger. The government has admitted that its arrest and rendition of Abrego Garcia happened because of “administrative error” but now claims—without evidence—that he is a member of the MS-13 gang and that his return to the U.S. would threaten the public. Abrego Garcia says he is not a gang member and notes that he has never been charged with a crime.

On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. no later than 11:59 pm on April 7. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down a 9–0 decision yesterday, saying the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, but asked the district court to clarify what it meant by “effectuate,” noting that it must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

The Supreme Court also ordered that “the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

Legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained what happened next. Judge Xinis ordered the government to file an update by 9:30 a.m. today explaining where Abrego Garcia is, what the government is doing to get him back, and what more it will do. She planned an in-person hearing at 1:00 p.m.

The administration made clear it did not intend to comply. It answered that the judge had not given them enough time to answer and suggested that it would delay over the Supreme Court’s instruction that Xinis must show deference to the president’s ability to conduct foreign affairs. Xinis gave the government until 11:30 and said she would still hold the hearing. The government submitted its filing at about 12:15, saying that Abrego Garcia is “in the custody of a foreign sovereign,” but at the 1:00 hearing, as Anna Bower of Lawfare reported, the lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, said he did not have information about where Abrego Garcia is and that the government had done nothing to get him back. Ensign said he might have answers by next Tuesday. Xinis says they will have to give an update tomorrow.

As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens. Indeed, both President Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have proposed that very thing.

Tonight, Trump signed a memorandum to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture, and homeland security calling for a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” The memorandum creates a military buffer zone along the border so that any migrant crossing would be trespassing on a U.S. military base. This would allow active-duty soldiers to hold migrants until ICE agents take them.

By April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable him to use the military to aid in mass deportations.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[hellbubu]

If you don’t like what I post, filter tags and block me. I’m not gonna argue with anyone

Got so confused by the crying, he didn't notice he got poisoned

Bestie, you should know that's some sort of poison not an actual curse. Or are you so worried about Ciel's health you aren't even thinking

My poor baby

One, the poor asthmatic boy is taking this surprisingly well. Two, Bassy you fucking idiot. This isn't a curse. Get the boy a doctor

I know you're like a witch and all, but are you actually gonna eat them?? Shouldn't you fatten them up a bit??

They now have underwater hearing??? When did they get that software update??

Why are you licking your lips??? The food (Ciel) isn't ready yet

Perdon?

ana is brave enough for this but not for the omegaverse?????? smh

Using the plural "you." This is vague enough, it could be a hint, but the mf could just be talking about the kidnapped kids

Am I dirty minded or does this look-

Was it like this in the manga or are they just spoiling the reveal to anime-onlys??? It has to be smth because the positions aren't really consistent

Tanaka to the rescue

Where did Sebastian get all the ingredients? Is there a Rewe there? Netto? Edeka? Did he steal these from someone's garden?????

Referring to Finny as the gardener is so fucking funny. Because the audience understands why he came along, but literally anyone else? No. This poor girl is probably wondering why they dragged another butler, a maid, a cook (who has done 0 cooking), and a gardener to a cursed forest

Girl, time and place. Don't talk about his fetishes. Please. I'm eating

Smth smth that one post where OP said that if you gave a demon butler to the average 13 y/o you'd have to save/be worried about the butler's safety smth smth

It's giving amnesia fic. I'll have to go reread that one amnesia fic for that one ship. Not that I mind.

A Hans Holbein original

Wolf, chill man. Bassy cares too much about Ciel to try and fuck it up

[collapsedsquid]

In 1989, when Firmage was 17, he’d founded a software company in Salt Lake City called Serius, which he quickly sold to Novell, a big networking-technology company, for more than $22 million. At age 25, while he was an executive at Novell, he co-founded another company, USWeb. This enterprise, which helped companies establish an online presence on the early internet, went public with a $2.5 billion market cap and an estimated 50% share of the market for web design services. Its clients included AOL, Apple and 20th Century Fox. In 1998, at the height of the dot-com boom, Forbes listed Firmage among 13 “Masters of the New Universe” alongside Jerry Yang and Jeff Bezos.Firmage during his 2020 presidential campaign.Source: Joseph Firmage for President “The whole time I was working with him, I thought, ‘Life led me to someone who’s going to be, like, a Steve Jobs, super billionaire guy,’ ” says Bruce Gilpin, a former USWeb executive. “I was convinced I was going to spend my career with Joe.”

[...] The younger Firmage was short, with boyishly thick brown hair and a wide nose. A workaholic known to linger at the office past midnight, he was an avowed teetotaler; one early employee recalled him ordering a glass of milk at a steakhouse. And he wasn’t a conspicuous spender, apart from a red Corvette with the vanity plate “USWEB.” “It wasn’t like he would wear million-dollar watches,” says Linda Keala, USWeb’s former human resources director. “He wasn’t that kind of guy.” But then came a self-immolation of intergalactic proportions. One day in 1998, Firmage began to tell colleagues that, as he later recounted to the press, an otherworldly “being clothed in brilliant bright light” had appeared in his bedroom. “He said, ‘Why have you bothered me?’ ” Firmage recounted. “And I said, ‘Because I want to travel in space.’ ” He later said the being emitted a blue sphere that entered his body and caused “the most unimaginable ecstasy I have ever experienced, a pleasure vastly beyond orgasm.”

[...] Firmage had assured the couple that a $200 million government contract was in the works and that they could expect strong returns. In the meantime he sent Vega videos of his prototypes, including a spinning gyro called the Accelerometer that he said could power antigravity propulsion. He touted a roster of distinguished backers: hotel chain heir and former US Representative David Daniel Marriott; Arizona State University physicist David Hestenes; and General Wesley Clark, who’d served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe during the 1990s. (All of them really were Firmage supporters, Bloomberg Businessweek confirmed.) Firmage also stressed that his father maintained elite connections in Washington. A few of his longtime associates, people who’d invested more money than Vega and her husband, also helped temper their doubts. Despite Firmage’s eccentricities, they assured the Vegas, he was a genuine “genius” on the cusp of revolutionary change.

Folks this is why the US government want to censor Bloomberg, it's too revolutionary for US govt employees to be reading

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Main Story: Part 4 - Act 13: Budding Spring - Episode 19: The Company's Freshman

Employee A: The interns are coming today, aren’t they? I heard the president’s son will be amongst them.

Employee B: I wonder what kind of kid he is?

Employee C: Seems like he’s an actor for a theater company.

Employee A: Is he coming for an internship 'cause he’s looking for a job?

Employee B: Is he that unpopular as an actor?

Employee C: Ahhh, he’s second gen so maybe we shouldn’t expect too much.

[Knocks on the door, then the door opens]

Masumi: Good morning.

Employee A: — G-Good morning.

Masumi: I’m Masumi Usui, I will be interning here starting today.

Masumi: I may bring some inconveniences along, but your guidance and support will be appreciated.

Employee B: W-We’ll be counting on you.

-

[Flashback starts]

Masumi: Suits? No way, they’re too stifling. 

Itaru: If you’re gonna do it right, start doing so from the first day. What will you do if you get hit with unnecessary debuffs because of your equipment?

Chikage: If you don’t have any, I can buy some from the place I usually buy mine from.

Masumi: I do have one…

Izumi: A suit, huh~ You’ll look adult-like in a flash if you wear one.

Masumi: I’ll wear one every day. And I’ll have breakfast here and then leave.

Tsuzuru: Didn’t we just finish saying it’ll be faster for you to get to work if you stay in the company dorm?

Izumi: There’s no point in you stopping by here every single morning.

Chikage: You have to pack plenty of shirts and neckties.

Itaru: Well, you can leave that to us senior office workers.

Masumi: … I don’t really care either way.

[Flashback ends]

-

Employee D: That’s all you need to know about the industry and our company. Now, we’ll get to group work—

Employee D: In order for you to grasp a basic understanding of what promotions are, we’ll have you experience everything, from the planning stage to the presentation stage.

Employee D: Here, I have prepared a fictitious company with a problem that needs solving.

Employee D: Using this as reference, each team needs to come up with a plan to solve this problem, and make a proposal in the form of a presentation.

Employee E: Feel free to ask any questions if there’s something you don’t understand.

-

Masumi: … After examining the data, we came to the conclusion that this is the best solution to the company’s problem.

Masumi: Does anyone have any questions?

Masumi: If not, then we would like to end this presentation here. We would be grateful if you took this into consideration.

Masumi: Thank you for your time.

Employee F: W-Woah…  He’s an actor, alright… He’s dignified and persuasive.

Employee E: He cleans up well, and he seems to be built kinda different, like he’s already mentally prepared to represent the company one day. (1)

Employee D: It makes me want to bring him to the presentation this afternoon.

-

Masumi: I’ve finished this.

Employee E: Eh, already? Did you read all of it?

Masumi: I’ve also compiled a report.

Employee E: … Then, can you use this software? And I’ll have you compile this material next.

Employee E: Once you’re done, you can take your lunch break.

Masumi: Understood.

Masumi: …

[Keyboard keys clicking]

-

Masumi: … *sigh*

Masumi: (I need him to confirm these… Is he in a meeting? I’ll do it later. He said I can take a break once I’m done, didn’t he.)

Masumi: (Since I have the chance to, I’ll compile promotional methods that can be used for theater companies and ask for more information about them.)

Masumi: (Now that I’m studying and getting the hang of them, the promotion plans the Director and Sakyo are always hunched over seem interesting.)

Masumi: (Looks like the other theater companies also think of various ways they can use to let people know of their activities.)

Masumi: (Even though all of these should’ve been familiar to me, I wasn’t aware of them at all. I feel like I’m looking at this world from a different lens.)

Masumi: (Oh, right…)

Curry has entered the chat

Masumi: (No one’s on… I don’t like being the first one to send something, but…)

Curry: thanks for the suits

previous episode | masterpost | next episode

NOTES:

(1) the original line (スーツもびしっとしてるし、なんかやっぱりいずれ会社を 背負って立つって心構えからして違うんですかね) drove both me and my friend/proofreader crazy to the point we convinced ourselves nothing other than 'built different' works

[fujobritta]

weird storytime and an abed analysis (abednalysis ?)

in s1e17, physical education, abed says that he didnt mind changing for other people because hes comfortable with who he is . a season later, in s2e19, critical film studies, he says instead that he doesnt like change . and now i realize what he really meant when he said that he didnt mind changing .

when i was younger, around 11-12, i would pretend to be other people online . more than five different separate identities in one discord server . because i wanted people to like me more . i made these alt accounts and assigned each one a personality, a different typing style, a reason for joining, a region, and a timezone . and for the most part, they were people who were nicer and just generally likeable . because im not someone who is any of those things . i am not a nice person . i dont even think im a good person . and god i am not likeable . at all .

so i played these characters . most of them only being active for short periods . i would have full back and forth conversations with these alt accounts to sell it . i had these weird insane elaborate plans . a 16 year old former drug user, lives in manitoba, somewhat parental . 13, california, liked minecraft and drawing -- completely different artstyle (and different software) too . etc .

i would let these accounts bake (make them and then not use them) so that it didnt seem suspicious with a brand new account joining the server . then i would spend a week making the account and forming a character to go with it, sometimes asking people to help me out . it was so fucking crazy . i was insane . might still be .

…yeah i probably still am .

i was such a better person on those different accounts . because i didnt know how to change on the inside, i just started over and over again . different account, new me . like i was experimenting with who i really wanted to be like . formulating the perfect person to act like when i finally decided that i wanted to become a better person .

i gave up eventually obviously . im not a tween anymore . i was a really weird tween . obviously . but i think about it a lot .

honestly i only went back to being myself because it was comfortable . i felt better being a fucking douche . and i still am a douche . im not a good person . i dont think ill ever be a "good person" . what the hell is a good person, anyways . all i know is that im fine with myself like this . even as much as i not-so-secretly hate myself, and deny it out of fear of seeming like an "edgy attention seeking loser" .

its not that abed doesnt mind change, he just doesnt mind changing the persona . he doesnt mind changing the person showing on the outside . a separate identity . but ultimately, he wouldnt ever fundamentally change as a person . because hes fine with who he is, even if other people might not like him for that . and i want to be like him . i want to be someone who is fine with who they are, even if that someone is a socially inept ass who learned tenth grade math at age ten but cant figure out when their own face is making a smile or not .

[jujumin-translates]

★ Main Story | Act 13 - Budding Spring | Chapter 19 - First-Year Office Worker

Company Employee A: Those intern kids are coming in today, right? Apparently, one of them is the son of the company’s president.

Company Employee B: What’s he like?

Company Employee C: I heard he’s an actor at a theater company.

Company Employee A: Well, if he’s interning, does that mean he’s looking for an actual job?

Company Employee B: Maybe he’s an unsuccessful actor.

Company Employee C: Yeah, well, he’s just a nepobaby, so we probably shouldn’t expect much from him.

*Knock on door and door opens*

Masumi: Good morning.

Company Employee A: --G-Good morning.

Masumi: I’m Masumi Usui, I’ll be a new intern starting today.

Masumi: I may be a bit of an inconvenience at times, but I will appreciate any guidance and encouragement you may have for me. I look forward to working with you.

Company Employee B: L-Likewise.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Flashback*

Masumi: A suit? Too stiff, not wearing one.

Itaru: It’s better if you do this sorta thing right on your first day. You don’t wanna self-debuff by wearing the wrong armor to your first encounter.

Chikage: If you don’t have a suit, I can buy you one from the place I usually get mine.

Masumi: I have one, but…

Izumi: A suit, huh~. They really do make a person look more mature in an instant.

Masumi: I’ll wear one every day. And I’ll have breakfast at the dorms before I go.

Tsuzuru: I thought we literally all just agreed that it’d be a quicker commute to the office if you stayed in the company dorms.

Izumi: There’s no point in you coming back to MANKAI’s dorms every single morning.

Chikage: You’ll have to get some dress shirts and ties too.

Itaru: I think I’ll leave this sorta thing to our veteran office worker.

Masumi: …Whatever.

*Flashback end*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Company Employee D: That’s all for the explanation of both the industry and our company. From here, we’ll move on to group work--.

Company Employee D: To give you a basic understanding of what promotion is, we’ll have you experience everything from planning to presenting.

Company Employee D: Here we have created a fictitious company with a specific problem.

Company Employee D: Using this as a reference, each team will come up with a plan to solve the company’s problem and then propose said plan in a presentation.

Company Employee E: If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask questions.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: …And that’s why these data results suggest that this could be an effective way of solving the company’s issues.

Masumi: Finally, does anyone have any questions for me?

Masumi: If not, I would like to conclude here. I hope you’ll consider my proposal.

Masumi: I thank you all very much for your time today.

Company Employee F: W-Whoa… he’s one hell of an actor… He’s so dignified. And really persuasive too.

Company Employee E: He cleans up nicely wearing that suit and he’s got a different kind of mindset than your typical “I’m-going-to-one-day-take-over-the-company” kind of guy.

Company Employee D: He’s the kind of guy I wish I had coming with me to my presentation this afternoon…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: I’m finished.

Company Employee E: Huh, already? Did you read through them all?

Masumi: I’ve also compiled everything into a rough report.

Company Employee E: …Well then, are you able to use this software? Next, you can put that in a document using that.

Company Employee E: You can take your lunch break once you’re done with that.

Masumi: Understood.

Masumi: …

*Typing*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Masumi: …Phew.

Masumi: (Now to confirm with… Oh, they’re in a meeting now. I’ll do it later. I should be allowed to take a break now that I’m done, right?)

Masumi: (I guess while I’m at it, I’ll put together a list of promotional methods that could be used for the troupe and ask whatever questions I can.)

Masumi: (It’s interesting to study promotion like this again. I get why Director and Sakyo do it.)

Masumi: (I wonder if all the other theater companies are thinking of different ways to spread the word about the stuff they’re doing.)

Masumi: (It’s like I knew all of this existed, but I never really was aware of it. It’s the exact same world of theater, but I feel like I’m seeing it in an entirely new way.)

Masumi: (Ah, right…)

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Curry has entered the chat.

Masumi: (No one’s here… I kind of hate having to be the first one, but whatever…)

Curry: thanks for the suit

[ ⇠ Previous Part ] • [ Next Part ⇢ ]