#i think i'm probably gonna go for the battery replacement but i'm gonna have to back up all my shit uuughhh

[mothbaaalls]

ALSO. MY PHONE'S BATTERY LIFE IS SO BAD NOW THAT WHEN I PLUG IT IN, IT KEEPS DYING FOR A FEW SECONDS *AFTER* I PLUG IT IN.

AND THEY EMAILED ME WHILE I WAS ASLEEP SAYING THEY'RE GOING TO RELEASE A SOFTWARE UPDATE TO "IMPROVE THE STABILITY" OF THE BATTERY. WHILE ALSO REDUCING BATTERY RUNTIME AND PERFORMANCE???

AND THE OPTIONS THEY OFFERED ME ARE. FREE BATTERY REPLACEMENT (EASY TO FUCK UP ON MY MODEL OF PHONE). 50$ GIFTCARD (NOWHERE NEAR THE COST OF A NEW PHONE). 100$ CREDIT TOWARDS A NEW PHONE (NOWHERE NEAR THE COST OF A NEW PHONE)

[swifty-fox]

mr predictable in with "did you eat today?" however benny/ johnny to really keep u on ur toes

for those who do not know this is for OP's punk au that I'm literally waiting for like the rapture

cw: self harm, eating disorders, John Brady being a Mess, discussions of drug abuse, ocd in connection to food contamination

"Stop picking at it."

Johnny pauses, fingers curled under his shirt and a faint stinging spreading across his stomach. His fingertips feel damp and he shoots Benny a moody look. The pillows on their bed are soft and smell clean which means Benny's done laundry sometime in the last few days because Johnny sure as hell doesn't remember doing any.

"M not," He says, pulling his hand out and rubbing the blood from his nails

"You're gonna feel stupid if that scars," Benny says, pulling his head from blowing smoke out the window.

It wasn't that either of them really cared about smoking inside, but the landlord had threatened them if they took the batteries of the smoke detector one more time

"I'm not touching it," Johnny repeats stubbornly, rolls onto his stomach and tucks a pillow under his ribs, pressing against the scratched letters on the skin.

HOLLOW.

He felt a little stupid now, but it's not something he'll admit to anyone because if he was gonna snort whatever shit John put in front of him without asking what was in it he was going to take it like a man. Probably, it felt very existential and profound and stick-it-to-em at the time and he's pretty sure he even sterilized the pin. But now, his stomach just stings whenever he tries to wash in the shower and Benny keeps giving him concerned looks whenever they fuck and really it's more trouble than it might have been worth

"What'd you think of John's new groupie?"

It's a little bit cool. Richey Edwards had done it, so maybe it was kind of cool. A spiritual ode to the greats.

Or something.

"Think he's doing a great impression of a snow plow," Johnny says.

Benny snorts, and theres a dip in gravity and a creak of cheap boxsprings as he crawls onto the bed with Johnny. Something cold and beaded with condensation touches the back of his neck and he hisses, swiping back against the water bottle. Benny snickers and settles on Johnny's thighs, knees caging him easily. His fingers run up Johnny's sides, bumping along his ribs and cool lips press against his neck in replacement.

"If he's a snow plow what're you?" a finger hooks around Johnny's chain necklace, tugging lightly against the broad links.

"Tired," Johnny mutters.

Benny turns him, lifting onto his knees to allow for the movement of Johnny's body. Johnny huffs, going with the movement. He keeps his arms crossed above his head, frowns at Benny for all of a minute before he feels it shift so something a tad more gentle. Benny bends down to kiss him, tasting of menthols and cold water. Johnny opens up for him like he has for longer than it felt easy to think about.

Hands slip under Johnny's Ranger's hoodie, seeking and assessing and he nips Benny's lip in irritation but Benny's already abandoning him, pushing the blue fabric up to his armpits and tsking.

"I knew you were fucking with the scabs."

The neosporin is still on the nightstand where they'd left it, along with a half-finished packet of disinfectant wipes and an ashtray so caked with tar it had half molded to the cheap particle board. The wipes are as cold and stinging as Johnny remembers. He hisses, stomach jumping away from Benny's touch but the heavier man just holds him still.

Johnny watches him spread the neosporin, watches his frown deepen, eyes traveling over his skin. Johnny casts his eyes to the headboard, breathing through his nose with intention. His heart is racing and it makes him dizzy, it beats against the wall of his sternum with almost bruising force.

"Did you eat today?" Benny asks casually, placing a patchwork of bandaids over the worst of the irritation.

Johnny's hungry, in the sort of way where you feel it in your head rather than a physical pain. Crystal clear but surrounded by cotton. Where he felt sharp and horribly relaxed. It was better than checking every piece of food before it passes his lips, picking it apart into tiny pieces like a toddler might in the off chance there was something in it.

By the time he got through a meal sometimes it felt like he'd already digested the start of it.

He sits up, shoving Benny off him. The other man goes easy, never one for fighting back. He stood his ground sometimes, but somehow did it without ever putting up a fight. Johnny swings his feet over the side of the bed. He doesn't like lying to Benny, found it difficult to lie to most people really, but Benny especially was hard because he's pretty sure Benny wouldn't resent him for it. And that just made the whole attempt unsatisfying.

"I don't -" He clucks his tongue, feels a few bandaids loosen and peel away from his stomach, "It's-"

"Jack."

"Can't you just leave it be?"

Benny's thumb smooths behind the shell of Johnny's ear, brushing the short hairs there. He shoves the other man off, takes a ragged breath.

"If you don't want to be with someone sick the door is right there."

He says the words before they're really considered and part of him doesn't know where they come from. It's not something he'd been ruminating on, really. He gave Benny enough self-agency to know the man wouldn't be here if he damn well didn't want to be. But even that doesn't erase the simple fact of the matter. John Brady was not a simple kind of person to share a life with.

"That," Benny says slowly, "isn't even remotely the conversation I was trying to have here."

Johnny stands, resting a palm against one of the brick support beams of the apartment at the sudden headrush, "I'm not changing, so if that's not-"

"I'm not asking you to change, I'm asking if you've eaten today."

"Does it turn you on to have this same fight every couple of weeks?"

"I'm here," Benny answers. "Having it."

Johnny exhales sharply, taps quick fingers against his thigh.

"If you want to sit here and argue about it all night I can do that. If you want to sit here and pick apart every speck of food until it's safe I'll put on Band of Brothers or some other war documentary you like and we'll make a night of it."

Johnny groans and tips his head to the ceiling, presses the hells of his palms to his eyes and claws desperately at the fading threads of his anger.

Benny shrugs, "Your choice. But I'm definitely not walking out that door, asshole."

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

It was only supposed to be a one night stand part 6

Tw: yandere stuff, fat shaming from this idiot man here (not towards reader)

Part 7

You won't believe your boss granted you a one-month leave. Well, actually you can. Since you rarely take days off, work is a distraction for you.

When you told Montgomery this, he held you tightly in his arms and sang praises. He's extremely grateful for this and he made it very clear by booking a reservation at a restaurant that is absolutely above his pay grade. Fortunately, though, you managed to convince him to cancel the reservation and stay home instead.

He set up a romantic candle-lit dinner on the dining table, and of course the main dish is some random pricey takeaway. You wondered how the candles haven't tripped the fire alarm yet, only to see that Montgomery replaced its batteries when the dinner is over.

You had a headache when he told you where his hometown is. You don't know if his shitbox can handle a whooping 20-hour drive from your city to his place. You asked why he didn't pick a city closer to home to work in, you're puzzled why he decided to come all the way up here.

"I did. The folks there were mean, so I moved. Thinkin', maybe they're nicer up north." He sighed. "I came to realize that they ain't getting friendlier the further I git. I was dirt poor and stuck in a rut."

He cupped your cheek and gave you a kiss on the forehead. "I'm glad I met ya', honey bunch. You saved my life." Montgomery whispered as he pulled you into a loving hug.

That piece of information he revealed made you wonder how many times he moved. It definitely showed that he's resilient and stubborn... and thin skinned.

However, it was impressive how he managed to shun his natural accent and pick up another one so well. You would have never guessed he was from the South, but now you're completely sure he is. That's probably why he was quiet in the beginning. Sometimes it was hard to understand what he was saying because of his drawls and ways of pronouncing certain words, but it's charming nonetheless.

You think that he's getting bolder because he's gradually feeling secure in his place in your life. Too bold, in fact. You think he's possessive now, he doesn't like you having lunches with your coworkers. To the point that he would go up to them and act nice-nasty, he wouldn't outright tell them to leave you alone or act hostile, he would still put on a darling smile. However, your coworkers would still feel attacked and guilted, but he's so... nice! They can't just accuse him of such things, it's probably a Southern thing.

"Nice of y'all to bring my sweetheart to lunch. Now, what am I gonna do with all these since my darlin' is fed without me? Oh, by the way, I see that y'all are lookin' a lot healthier. Don't get too healthy now, too much of a good thing is a bad thing."

Maybe the fact that he's outright calling them fat in a mean-spirited way flew past your head, maybe it didn't. But it definitely landed on theirs.

Montgomery throwing these types of discrete insults would eventually drive your coworkers away, they stopped bringing you with them, not wanting to face your boyfriend's sassiness afterward.

There were times that you would want to surprise him by visiting his worksite. He would be pleasantly surprised every time, but he isn't usually aware of what he has on him when he would come barreling towards you, picking you up, and giving you a bone-crushing hug. You stopped coming to him eventually because you kept going back to work covered in mud, dust, paint, or a combination of the three.

He keeps you away from his peers, who only give you and him amused smiles. Some of them would come up and tease him, congratulating him for getting out of his shell. You asked them what they meant, as this is a good opportunity to know more about Montgomery. They said that he's extremely shy and would hide in his car during lunch, he works hard and is engrossed in his own job. The first time where he got distracted was when he laid eyes on you, which shook them to the core because he was perceived as a reclusive enigma.

Montgomery would look away and not participate in the conversation, feeling moody because he couldn't have your undivided attention. He goes back to his usual romantic self when his coworkers leave him alone.

The date to leave for his hometown is fast approaching. The two of you wrote up a detailed itinerary, well, mostly you. Because he's used to sleeping in his cramped car and using public bathrooms, he completely forgot that not everyone is comfortable with that.

You're sitting on his lap, and a laptop on your, well... lap. Montgomery rests his head on your shoulder, his arms hold you to him tightly as you ask him if he agrees with the choice of motels.

"I'm fine with anythin' you choose, darlin'. He sleepily mumbled, clearly bored. "Ain't no price too high for my baby." He closed his eyes, tired after working a full day with power tools and materials that are quadruple his body weight.

The only sound in the living room is your keyboard clicks. It's pitch dark and the only light source is the screen.

Montgomery began to snore.

You turned your head to look at him, he's definitely out cold. But his grip on you is unwavering.

You stretched your hand to reach for his credit card on the coffee table.

Your eyes flitting between the numbers on his valuable piece of plastic and the computer screen as you typed the necessary details in.

[thenixkat]

currently thinking about like worldbuilding the Scarabs more, especially as magi-tech bioengineered organisms. They aren't actually written consistently with weaknesses or even… how their biology would work

like for weaknesses all I can say that I've seen that doesn't feel like a cop-out is that we've seen Scarabs drained of energy and also bothered by very strong magnets

tech and their senses would definitely include magnetoception which would be bothered by strong magnets close by.

when drained of energy the Scarabs will respond by eating a fucker back to regain their energy or powering down/dearmoring their hosts and ??? i assume waiting til they recover on their own

we know that the Scarabs have charging ports/charging decks. But that's not where they're getting their energy while inside a host. They do seem to generate some energy on their own but nothing said where they get it from

i'm going to assume that they likely recover some energy from skimming their host and the environment. yeah. it would make sense. No idea how long their battery equivalent charge would be but given the timescales that the Reach operates on I would assume long lasting, would make sense if they dont want to dip below a certain amount of charge and shut down/go low power if they hit that level. WOuld also make sense if they were high key energy vampiring stuff, siphoning off local power grids given they arent supposed to wake up and pick a host until the world they're on reaches a certain tech level

i will also assume if they're magi-tech, like the retcon of the retcon claims, they probably also tap into like leylines and shit for power and I would assume that while armored up the Scarabs could also take in solar energy

like the energy from the plasma canons and blasters has to come from somewhere

Granted it would help if we saw the Scarabs having limits on how long they could stay armored and how much they could use their energy weapons and mass generation

like sure, i'll buy that they can convert energy into mass and like convert mass into energy but where are they getting it from? is the thing

we do know that the Scarabs can make clothes for their host out of bodily waste and dead skin cells and shit and that the Scarabs do something with their hosts' waste if they ever have to go while armored up.

Huh, that would be an interesting side effect to being a Scarab host if like the hosts just never had to use the bathroom ever even unarmored if the Scarabs just collect and store all the waste as mass to use for something else

I also would think that if we go with Scarabs skimming energy from their host it would alter the hosts' apparent metabolism/dietary requirements

which if the scarab collects waste products would be a win-win if the host consumes more

also, the Scrabs would need to be a lot denser than they look and/or have some spacial fuckery going on inside them for storing mass. cause… again the mass has to come from somewhere for armoring up and making the weapons

I'm not gonna read the New 52 run stuff but I do like the idea that the Scarabs are capable of asexually reproducing and creating more Scarabs. Since we got nanotech and like techno-organic so it would have cells that can replicate.

Can get a small army fast, which depending on the type of Scarab (and we know there's multiple types) that's great. And also potentially replacing a Scarab that's not able to fulfill its purpose for whatever reason.

[texasdreamer01]

:campfire-emoji: (cuz I can't get them up on my keyboard haha) for misit orare, ut venirem!

So my original plans for that fic was circulating around the tag "Friends to Lovers to Married" after an episode where Rodney McKay, uh, blew up a fair portion of a solar system mostly by accident.

...In his defense, he was trying to replace a faulty energy system that some people a long, long time ago had developed (think battery but not rechargeable) and he was feeling super guilty about getting some scientists working for him killed over some mistakes in the data (replacement attempt is also from the people from long, long time ago) and he was really pushing himself to Get It Right because they're technically in the middle of a war and really, really need that.

Unfortunately he gets rather ostracized for it, but John Sheppard (military commander and pseudo-canonical love interest, the other half of the McShep ship) gave him shit for it on top of the leader of the expedition (Elizabeth Weir, who... usually is rather indulgent on Rodney doing whatever science he wants but this time was Big Mad).

I was on track for this, being a sort of 5+1 kind of deal that digs up all of the little emotional underpinnings between Rodney and John and why both acted the way they did, but then I remembered the whole deal with Rodney being deathly allergic to citrus and how the mess hall... only served food with lemons (and presumably other citrus) in it for a while.

So now I have their other friend - and also team mate - Teyla being (rightfully) pissed off about this, and Ronon (also friend, also team mate) is involved and now I feel like this is going to be still a #Friends to Lovers to Married but kind of with a matchmaking tilt to it? I'm still in the middle of resolving that plot point and I'm not sure where it's gonna end up (hopefully I can get it back on track lol).

Initial summary that's probably gonna stay thrown-out:

They had learned, carefully, to ask.

[fortnas]

𝙰𝙽𝙾𝙽𝚈𝙼𝙾𝚄𝚂  𝙰𝚂𝙺𝙴𝙳  :   ⚪, 🙈, 🎭 !

⚪  WHAT ARE SMALL THINGS THAT MEAN SOMETHING TO YOUR MUSE?  :  i'm not gonna lie, i still don't entirely get this question. wish i did ! but i don't ! for ned my mind goes to like ... the weasley family jumpers that molly knits and that he's received, once or twice - he's probably never shown her the kind of gratitude she truly deserves but they do mean a lot to him, and he's just not sure how to show it. his parents probably scraped together a fairly measly sum when he came of age to buy him the traditional watch and i think that he probably still uses that same one, despite having had enough money at one point or another to replace it. the strap is worn and the watch face is all scratched up and he's probably gone weeks without replacing the battery when it runs out but i know ( despite how ratty he probably was when he was a teen and he wanted something new and it was just another example of not having enough to go around and having to just make do ) that it's one of his more prized possessions, now. i don't know what else i can even say !

🙈  CAN YOUR MUSE BE BLINDLY LOYAL?  :  answered !

🎭  DOES YOUR MUSE TRY REALLY HARD TO COMPENSATE FOR SOMETHING?  :  he's a short king, of course he is.

𝚀𝚄𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝙼𝚈 𝙼𝚄𝚂𝙴  »  currently  not  accepting  !

[clockworksteel]

Well, I guess my usual end of year thing is to look back at goals and say how they went. Honestly, the year was kinda rough, and I think I spent most of the second half of the year in some stage of burnout, so I'm not gonna worry too much about things that didn't get finished.

Serious Goals

Exercise: Some token efforts were made, but no true habit formed. Maybe next year.

Take care of something around the house: I did put a new auto-closer on the back door, as was one of the tasks I listed as something I might do, so technically accomplished already in January. I also arranged to have the water heater replaced, so a bit of a bonus. There were a couple things I was honestly hoping I'd get around to that I didn't, but honestly, it's fine. Plus even though it wasn't an emergency replacement or anything, getting a new water heater was probably better than getting the outside of the house painted.

Clearing the stacks of paper from my desk: Well… I think the stacks of paper might be shorter? Also, vaguely related, I did at least take care of a lot of the plastic bottles and snack containers that had built up nearby, so that's something.

Gender progress: I feel like I didn't gather any new evidence this year. I'm currently kinda going with the idea that I'm almost agender, but, like there's 3% of a gender just kinda wobbling around, which I guess technically could be called something like demi-genderfluid but I feel like that label implies way more gender non-conforming than I've been doing. I've compared my current gender to a TV remote that's basically out of batteries but can still produce a little signal if you're lucky. Two years ago I definitely had 3 months of feeling transfem, but, I mean, if you bottle up 1-3% of a gender for 3 decades maybe that does come out to 3 months. I haven't done the math. Of course, anytime I make an avatar of some sort of a video game lately I'm like, "Well, time to make a girl and see if there's trans flag clothing" so there's really no way of knowing whether there's more going on. I mean, I'm about to go to my parents' house, so maybe it's better not to dwell too hard on that anyway.

Fun Goals

Earn at least 100 Challenge Enthusiasts Points: Doubled the goal. Site updates adjusted some point values and added some objectives I'd already done, but my best attempt at adding up everything I actually did this year comes out to 200 points, anyway. Turns out the fun ones are kinda easier to stick with, although honestly, the points were mostly frontloaded in the year. Burnout even affected my gaming.

Finish Factorio and at least one other game I stopped playing for at least 4 months: Yep, did this too. Factorio, Hue, and Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe.

I'm not gonna try to get too into next year's goals yet. That's kinda an activity for me in the car closer to New Year's. I just thought I'd get the wrap-up done now since it's not like I'm gonna do anything more while I'm gone.

I do want to actually finish those monster-type writeups for The Void Rains Upon Her Heart though. I've written most of a post on Glyph Monsters and already have the screenshots I want from story events.

[theorist-influencer-untitled]

11.1.24 Friday-- All saints day???

9:02 am

Still,have windblow...

I feel bitterish... 17 years they just smashed me without a fair fight... I was never happy here... I don't know what will be my future now... I hate my old fakers friends...

Hating Mitch if she knew everything from the start. I guess probably she gave me these "simple batteries"??? Still, wanna see her... I need to hear her stories...

Still,hating Noralyn Sapatua, I feel a bad thing on her... I hate her for so long... For taking away my life and doing something weird at my back...

Hating as well my cousin's for being a mystery just like my old fakers fucking friends.... I REALLY FEEL JEALOUS ON THINGS THAT I DON'T KNOW...THAT I MUST KNOW...

I need to get a LIFE... I'm worrying so much to be simply flatten this way without a fair fight.

I still wanna buy Starbucks everyday and wanna do vanities that I deserve... I wanna get job,I badly need money... I wanna travel in a way...

I lost my original life... STILL,HAVE WINDBLOW...I always feel ugly and fat these days... There are group of people who are organized to destroy my entire future...

What am I gonna do??? I FEEL JEALOUS...

10:17 am

Still,have windblow...

I feel lazy to move... I feel super self-pity... I feel self-pity in all angle of my life.... On my love life on the men that I like, on my issues with cousin's and the cousin that I want, my job that I'm jobless on repetitive my own money that I have no available money now, my own vanities and future and my son-dog dog show still I'm broke...

I wanna get a nose perfection and I need to go back to a dentist, I have coffee stain every now and then... I want unlimited coffee...

My cousin's don't like me,angels...

I feel lazy to move, I need to clean John's floormats, I feel self-pity on my cleaning materials. It is supposed to be in washing machine...

12:33 noon

Still,have windblow...

I'm having headache... I don't wanna dwell on people who are into that 2nd cousin... I hate them so much...

I hate them so much for getting that even on showbiz industry that 2nd cousin who probably fucked people along the way, even my first cousin and all of my first cousin's...

All of a sudden, I'm having headache talking to someone from fakers showbiz industry... We led to a particular picture of me with them with my 2nd and 3rd cousins, that supposed to be, we shouldn't talk about... I didn't even know them at all... I just saw them in the house of my most favorite cousin on my Aunt Ten/ Tin... I don't know them that much.... That's why they chose her that 2nd cousin over me... I don't know why we talked about her that 2nd cousin!

I hate them so much that they like that 2nd cousin over me... Even my male cousin's and Aunt Ten/Tin chose her over me... Where am I in my family? I'm the first cousin, I'm being replaced as always!!!!

I'm being replaced.... I want a revenge angels!

My cousin's didn't like me and I feel hurt...I feel hurt that I'm being replaced by a 2nd cousin!

That 2nd cousin is having linking with a showbiz industry....

I feel jealous!!!

3:28 pm

Still,have windblow...

I feel weird... After that conversation text on some fake showbiz industry person, I suddenly have headache until now... It is pulsating and I feel heavy and I feel like vomiting... I feel sick... Seriously,having headache... I feel stress on my shoulders.

4:13 pm

Still,have windblow...

Weird! I still have headache...

10:08 pm

Still,have windblow...

I feel bitterish here... I hate those people who made my life hellish... I wanna leave this place... I can't grow... People who controlled me are being thicked-face for dropping my vagina just like this flat... I want death to them angels...

I feel fat and ugly...I'm thinking of money and my vanities... I really feel ugly and old just for nothing..

I can't get a new circle for me who can accept me... I hate all my cousin's now,they are like my old fakers friends who hated me to be with them around...

I feel hurt on my most favorite cousin-white on my Aunt Ten/Tin, why they hated me? Choose the 2nd cousin over me??? I can't accept it...

I now starting to hate my old fakers friends for being a mystery since 2007...

This Mitch, I feel jealous, I thought I'm gonna be the baby??? I sense a weird thing since 2007... Did she give me these "simple batteries", it's been 17 years... Too much for avoiding me and not even approaching me...

I really feel jealous!!!

I feel jealous on everyone!!!

[snowmuttgetsweird]

07/31/24, morning

Actually slept okay. I would really have preferred to get, like, at least one more hour, but for once I didn't wake up at like, 5 AM randomly so I'll take it. I've actually heard that sleeping worse is a common side effect of being at a caloric deficit, so maybe that's actually a good sign...? I haven't been counting my calories really- just my protein, though even that I know I've been undercutting quite a bit. I'm probably getting about 100g on average, when I should really be shooting for at least 130-150g, but it's just really hard to convince my stomach AND my wallet to consume that much food in one day. This might be a "you just need to incorporate protein powder into more meals/snacks throughout the day" situation. I'll do some research, but honestly, this early into my "fitness journey," I don't think my body is going to do a lot with that much protein anyway.

Decided the overnight oats need to be eaten pretty quickly. While distracted by another activity like drawing or posting art or something, I tend to eat and drink very slowly, so yesterday it probably took me an hour to eat my oats, and they got pretty gloopy and unpleasant after a while. Good to know.

Red Beans and Rice were a great success. Best pot I've made so far. Added a red bellpepper to the usual trinity, diced everything up MUCH finer than I usually would, threw in a good scoop of bacon fat after browning my andouille to sautee my veggies in, cut a few seasonings in favor of a couple big tbsp of Tony Chachere's, threw in a few dashes of a nice vinegary hot sauce, and simmered the whole mess WAY longer than I normally do- like twice as long. Blown away by the result. I was worried the Tony Chachere's being mostly salt would keep the beans from softening, but cooking them down longer made up the difference just fine, and now I've got a vat of rich, delicious red beans and rice that'll feed me for like a week! Think the only thing I regret is not having some cornbread and collard greens to go with it all. Next time I wanna source a ham hock to throw in too.

Still keeping up my morning exercises. I decided what I'd originally committed to was too much too early, so I've mostly been doing 3x10 knee push-ups, 3x20 crunches, and 3x20 glute bridges the last few days, but I think I'm gonna be ready to tack the bicycle crunches back on soon, and I'm just about ready to graduate to full push-ups. I can see myself trimming up a little bit, and my shoulders starting to fill out just a little, but I think it's mostly just that I've been shedding water weight. I haven't been using my scale the last week or so- the battery died and I keep forgetting to grab a replacement, so I don't know how much I'm actually losing, but again I'm pretty confident it's mostly just a combination of water loss and eating less overall, and fewer things that would make me bloated or gassy shrinking my tummy.

I'm very used to starting a new exercise routine, and then quitting out through shear distraction about a week later, but I'm really doing my best and this is the longest I've kept it up in a while. That said, I haven't had much DOMS since I first started besides a little achiness in my thighs the day after squats here and there, and it's making me nervous. I hope I'm not sabotaging myself by not lifting heavy enough or something, but even my shoulders didn't get achy despite really struggling on even just 10lb dumbbells for my side lateral raises. I couldn't even quite finish a 3x10 that way- I think I got to, like, 3x8 and had to tap cause I couldn't even really do a decent partial rep by that point. I was really expecting that I'd be sore after but my shoulders are absolutely fine. Well, yesterday was my "rest day." I didn't even hop on the treadmill, though I wanted to, but being that I hadn't walked much yesterday anyway since I was just drawing all day, I wasn't exactly prepared to spend 100 minutes on a treadmill to hit my 10k steps for that day anyway. Today I'm back on weights though. I think I've got a good idea of what I should be lifting for each exercise, but I think I might still need to up my squat weight more. We'll see tonight.

Think that's about it... Uh, final thoughts: Furikake and sriracha are great, they make like 50% of all my meals right now way way better. My shift at the day job today is short enough that I won't really wanna bring a lunch, but I think I'm gonna hardboil an egg to snack on anyway to try to cram a little more protein.

Think that's it. Think I'm gonna try to relax and conserve some energy before work- maybe read my book and clean up around the apartment just a bit. I need to hit up my friends and try to get them to play pickleball with me or something.

Tchuss.

[fae-iii]

Started playing Pokemon Yellow again after losing the save. It happened again!!! My cartridge just might be screwed up? I mean, I was able to replicate the Analogue Pocket erasing a save with a different cart (only once and I think it's pretty easy to avoid as long as I remove the cart with the power off). The Analogue pocket is probably mostly fine, but I decided- just in case- that I would backup my saves beforehand (w/ the Epilogue GB Operator, unrelated to Analogue) and if anything goes wrong I'll just put the save back on the cartridge.

But I couldn't reload the save because it was corrupted again (or possibly nothing was in the .sav to reload)! It's worked perfectly fine backing up and reloading saves before, so I assume it's something with my cart.

Man, I give up! Eventually gonna go in there and resolder the battery, maybe replace it outright. I probably wasn't too good at soldering when I initially replaced it, but I'm not redoing it right now.

Anyway my next sprite is going well. I think I'm managing to capture the spirit of Pokemon RGB's style better than my other recent sprites by maximizing the area used to try and get that square look a lot of those sprites have. It's kinda at the stage of this piece where I start to overthink and take forever on minute details. I think that might just go away the more I practice. Here's an illustration of my hypothesis:

I'm somewhere in that middle section right now, maybe :3

[thedivinecalamity]

Holy shit have I had a week.

So early morning on the 13th I lost power, and It was below like 15 degrees outside. I was in my house for around 2-3 days. The first day it was too windy to setup the outdoor gas camp stove, We have a fireplace but tbh we've discovered it doesn't heat up the room that much, so nothing hot to eat/drink really. On the third day we we're very close to running out of firewood, had a ton of layers on but we're still freezing our asses off. And then of CO2 detector went off cause it was low on battery but we didn't know at the time if we could actually have a carbon monoxide poisoning risk cause of the fire and possibly a break in our furnace. Turned out to be false but was still fucking scary to deal with when we had literally nowhere else to go. Just being in a house wondering if you're poisoning yourself since outside is a literal blizzard.

We try to find a hotel but everywhere is without power and the roads are covered in ice. The next day we do find one, but could only find a no pets allowed one. I am not leaving my cockatiel and two budgies to freeze to death in our house, this is an emergency so I decide to sneak them in. Everything goes alright, until 12:30 am. And the fucking hotel alarms go off. You always see those signs in hotels pointing to emergency exits, and never think you'll actually have to use it. The alarms are blaring occasionally with a "fire, fire, carbon monoxide detected" being played, great to have 2 CO2 scares just within a few days. My birds are freaking out, I'm worried they're gonna have heart attacks, the one fucking time I sneak pets into a hotel and this happens. I run out of the hotel with them, go into our car. Even if they did figure out we had birds they'd be pretty ballsy to try to kick us out after this. Turns out there wasn't a fire, but a burst pipe and someones room flooded. Are fire alarms supposed to go off because of that? No idea but anyways, the alarm goes on for an hour, the firefighters show up, and then the alarms turn off. On all floors except ours. My mom asked the front desk and they said they're just waiting for the alarm company to turn if off. So we wait in our car for another hour and a half, switching between turning if on and running the heat and off to conserve gas. My ears felt like they were going to rupture for 20 mins after I left the hotel, and I think I'm coming down with something. 3 am and we can finally go back in, have fun trying to sleep when you're worried about the alarm coming back on.

Anyways the power came back on around Friday/Saturday, it was on for about probably a day and we weren't told cause we were literally couch surfing and the power company's communications is run by monkeys on typewriters. And a pipe burst. Over our living room. And it is completely destroyed. The wood floors buckled and are ruined, the wall and ceiling are ruined the front door is ruined and won't close, luckily we managed to salvage the carpet, but the other furniture's surfaces are ruined. The walls are going to have to be torn down and replaced. Oh and my closet got destroyed, I lost a bunch of shit and clothes, but thankfully my work pants survived, wow thanks... And throughout all of this I'm pretty sure I had the flu, the one time I put off my flu shot. Oh and the living room is where we have our fireplace and were sleeping in front of it so we put my mattress out there and it was destroyed. So I am sleeping in the guest room.

There's a bunch of other shit I've omitted cause this has been long enough, but holy shit this has been one of the worst weeks I have had in recent memory. In a few months when prices are down we are going to buy a shitload of emergency supplies. I have been genuinely fucking depressed and had multiple mental breakdowns.

[chaos-connie]

I've got my own bit to add to this.

I'm in the automotive industry, specialising in motorsport. Currently about halfway through my uni course. One of the things that REALLY gets on my nerves about modern vehicles is just how overcomplicated they are. A car built in 2023 is PACKED with unneccesary technology. Sure, some of it is useful, but I really don't think we need computer screens everywhere. Plus, my car (from 1999) actually has physical gauges, and i don't wanna have to scroll through menus to check my oil temp or fuel level. Plus, touchscreens are bad from an accessability side of things; it's much easier to push a chunky button that's always in the same place than it is to have to deal with menus and inevitable screen degradation.

Plus, modern cars are designed to be cheaper to produce and harder to repair. Again, on my 1999 Volvo, if a headlight or indicator breaks, it's as simple as replacing the bulb, which anyone with a bit of google and some steady hands can do in their driveway. On a shiny new car, with fancy LED headlights that blind everyone else on the road, that simply isn't possible, since the headlight assembly is a single piece. Instead of spending a couple of bucks at the store for a lightbulb, you're looking at a few hundred, and you're almost certainly gonna have to take it to the shop.

Obviously there's good things about the tech - you can plug in a diagnostic device and have the ECU tell you exactly what's broken sometimes, but it's massively overshadowed by the difficulty of repairability. There's also a degree of planned obsolescence in it - a single button is way easier to replace than a touchscreen, for example, and while the parts might be cheap, the labour costs can be enough to simply write off some perfectly good vehicles.

It's honestly tragic to me to see so many perfectly repairable and usable vehicles just being thrown away because some asshole billionaire wanted bigger profit margins, and with the ill-advised push for going fully electric (which is a whole other can of worms), it's not long before we'll see cars being written off just for their battery degradation (looking at you, Tesla, and your idiotic idea to make the battery an integral structural component), which then circles back to the original point.

A lot of old people, and a lot of younger people too (such as myself) just don't want these new features. My car is simple and reliable, and relatively easy to repair and modify. I don't have to deal with any subscriptions or overcomplicated electronics. But my car will absolutely not last forever, and it's worth so little to my insurer that even a small accident will probably end up a write-off. If that happens, what i want is another simple car that's easy to work on, but eventually I'll have to get something newer, and deal with all the features I complained about.

While someone like me has grown up around these features and knows how to work them, the same cannot be said about my grandma, who has just bought a new car for the first time in 24 years. She's overwhelmed by all buttons and screens and overcomplicated design. She doesn't know how to adjust the bass on her car's speakers, and she doesn't want to. The ideal car for her is one that's simple and easy to use and drive, but that's not made anymore. And as time goes on, more of these simple cars are going to be taken off the road, be it from damage, rust, laws, or simple age making parts too hard and expensive to get.

Its okay they could call me on a rotary faster than i could explain to them I’m old enough to know what a rotary phone is

[shiningstages]

@jardinae - 🌻 speak thy mind freely .

new ask game send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want

this ask has been sitting in my inbox for forever...........still don't know exactly what i want to ramble about though.

ummmmm retail sucks. working in it, i mean. i'm definitely in the camp of "be nice to your retail workers" / "if you think retail is so easy why don't you work in it?", just because the customers i deal with are either super understanding or sweet, or super negative / haughty / full-of-themselves when i'm helping them. it helps that i act how i want ( very cute~ ) unless you get me mad, but i've also gained a sort of confidence and seriousness from working in retail? but i'm also just done with it and am so sleepy vfggfgchfcfchnc

also i wanna write here!!!!!!!! so bad!!!!!!!!! but because of work the energy has been nonexistent, especially since i work in the later hours nowadays, and that just drains me even more since i'm a night owl and wanna like. do things. at night. so i stay up until 2am when i get home around 11pm from an 8/9 hour shift. and get more sleepy. (when i start school again dude i swear......25 hours a week max; i need more days to myself)

back to writing, i haven't forgotten about........some of the ideas i've had hjgfhghgkhgjh i'm gonna make that atlas gbf oc!!!!!! that's like at the forefront of my mind, but going through replicard sandbox (for the first time hehe) i'm like "...........should i make this guy like an opposite of The World (says girl who hasn't even finished the story in arcacum however it's spelled aaaaa)" because that Would be funny. but then i'm also like "if i made this guy At All, it would be at least a little bit of world building importance in him, and that energy is Not present" because it's atlas........we all remember the tale of atlas yes? maybe????? (has to look it up again)

ANYWAYS i also wanna make a starter call at some point. i have a lot i need to get done outside of here and work (get AC in car fixed, get a couple tires replaced Eventually, same thing with the battery, get my transfers / application for other university done (most important to me rn), get my hair cut (will probably happen first), do all my laundry / do a closet cleanout Again, clean the rest of my room, etc.) BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wanna be here because it's fun and nice and calm here ggjhgjfhgfghfjcf calm for me anyways!!!!!! tumblr is...........tumblr, as we all know, but i've gotten a lot of memories and joy out of it, and i wanna write and be here!!!!!!!!! so i'm gonna look at my drafts, see what i can do there when i have time......then starter call / i'll just run headfirst into someone's askbox hfhfgcghfjgghcfg

ALSO TO END OFF AS I WAS WRITING A WASP GOT IN THE KITCHEN AND I FREAKED but i was gonna try and be brave and kill it because my dad's on a call, AND THEN MY DAD KILLED IT FOR ME WHILE HE WAS ON A CALL; WHAT A HERO!!!!!!!!!!! okay that's it; now i have to get dressed for work fggfdfghjghgcvjg

[haleviyah]

iPhone is in the ICCU

Yes, my iPhone finally hit the Intense Cellphone Care Unit is now on life-support and in need of a battery transplant. *insert sarcastic "yay..."* What I'm saying guys is BAD NEWS: that it's off and it won't turn back on. The dreaded low battery icon is not going away. It's that fried. Some of you may be skeptical, because I've been repeating this narrative for two months to no avail... but I am being blunt an honest here: A few hours after I shared my prices on dA, Tumblr, Amino and my website - BOOM! Phone shut itself off again, battery wasn't reading or charging after it turned back on. I tried restarting it to snap it out of limbo, and now I regret turning it off. I even gave the poor thing a day to turn on... nothing. I pressed the power button so many times, I'm surprised I haven't broken that part either. Now, some of you all may be wondering why, oh why I didn't get the phone fixed sooner: Well guys, business was freakishly slow and I needed to eat. That's all I can say. Also, like I said, I over-worked myself to the point I had to close down my comics section due to high demand. I will take responsibility for that. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind working on comics. I love it. But when the work is underpriced that's where I will slap myself for being so stupid. Plus... You want to know a really silly reason why I didn't talk about my phone sooner since this has been an issue for a year... Some of you guys are probably gonna laugh too. To come clean here I feel SUPER awkward asking for help. Every time I ask for help, I feel like a bother or broken record to a degree... I have never asked for help because I'm either too damn used to doing things by myself, or I'm used to people not helping me at all. I'm gonna be honest, you guys on and offline have proven me wrong on the latter the past years which is great. But I also beg for your pardon of me being quiet of my issues because of what I explained; I even have this habit of putting my needs, my issues on the back-burner to take care of others. I'm looking at myself confused right now, because I broke knuckles and got down to business when it came to getting my husband a new computer after his Lenovo got infected with a virus and crashed. I was on the ball with that... So why am I not cracking those same knuckles for myself when I NEED THIS PHONE during this difficult time? That's the more root reason why I was quiet until it was too late. I feel so embarrassed, but it's the truth. But enough of my lament of regrets. Am I upset about my phone being in "iHospice"? Nope! Surprisingly I am not... I'm just thinking "Well, I can't use that anymore. At least for a while." To be frank with you all, I'm getting tired of my temper rising up when shit happens... Its as though my temper is about as burned out as my phone battery. So enough with my ramblings, let's get serious here: For those of you who use Instagram or Messenger to message me, I won't be able to reply probably for a long while. Thankfully my Mac and iPad are still going strong (Jesus, I'm so fucking low-tech), and I can talk to people through: Email DeviantArt Tumblr Amino My Website So not all is lost, really. So what now? Well, battery replacement is still on the table. I can either do it myself or a professional do it for me. (Doing it yourself looks more charming I'll be frank...) BIG NOTE: You guys don't have to buy character commissions from me all the time, (I understand they look cool, but still) that's why I opened different simpler, cheaper more relaxed options such as backgrounds and photo editing that when multiplied can offer more than doing a Character Commission one after the other. I have these options out because not only is it more convenient for you to have something different, but it's convenient for me to relax more with the work load. Basically, we both win on that case - you have a cute, fancy painting for grandma for Christmas for half the price Target will charge you, and I can breathe with hopefully a functioning phone. Hell I even still have other

experimental ideas. Remember those customizable posters I mentioned a while back in Spring? I think I found a trick to make that possible, but it may take a while for me to release a demo to test it out. This is another reason why I opened up my website so that way I can keep talking to all of you and you guys can just drop messages to me asking for commissions. So yeah, I really need this repair done soon otherwise I don't know what I am going to do... I honestly don't know what else there is... It's OKAY if you can't commission me, don't sweat it just spread my commission info around. That's the least I can ask for from you all. And last of all is this urgent. FUCK yeah... it's urgent.

[haddonfieldproject]

<<PREVIOUS⏺<<CONTENTS>>

1.2.21 HALLOWEEN NIGHT/NOVEMBER 1st AROUND SUNRISE

Haddonfield, Illinois

Rosalita craned her neck to see the time. There was no clock in the supply closet, no light now to see a clock if there was one, the power had gone off shortly after Sheriff Brackett had left her here. When that lightning hit, she thought. She knew the lightning had something to do with it. The Sheriff's daughter, who lay in a hospital bed that took up virtually all of the room in the storage closet, had an IV hooked up to her arm. On the pole that held the IV was a little box with all sorts of buttons and blinking lights and gauges of a sort. Rosalita of course, had no idea what it all meant or was for, but the box had a little display screen that cast a soft blue-green glow inside the closet, and gave her the only light she had. On the bottom right corner of the box was the time. ‪05:46‬. Next to the time was a battery symbol, it was red and flashing...just like the same kind of symbol on the box on Rosalita's IV had been as well before it died about thirty minutes ago and went dark.

This one is gonna die too and soon I'll be in the dark, she thought to herself in her native Spanish, looking down at her newborn baby which she cradled in her arms. The Sheriff had left her, the baby, and his unconscious daughter more than an hour and a half ago. He said he was going to see “just what the hell was going on”. A part of her hoped he'd gone ahead and found it out—or was going to find it out soon— so she could get out of this god-forsaken closet. Another part of her hoped he didn't.

She knew what was going on.

When they had heard the gunshot, she had known right away it had come from Ole' Bitch.

The only thing Sparky Warner may have loved more than his shotgun was draining the cans of Coors Light he used to shoot with it...certainly not Rosalita. He abused his wife almost as much as he had abused the cans. At least when he was done with Rosalita he just rolled ahead on over and went to sleep, but with the cans, he liked to line them up on a log in the back yard and either take pot-shots at them with his .22 or sometimes, if he was in the real mood for some fun, he'd obliterate them with 'Ole Bitch'.

“I named it after your mama,” he had told her once as he pulled it from the back of his work van.

Rosalita knew who the shotgun blast was for too.

Whitey Grey had done a bang-up job on the new roof of the Warner home last year. Sparky had been real appreciative too, and knowing Whitey to be a stand-up guy, and having felt sorry for him because he had been on the outs with his high-school sweetheart, he had been all too willing to give Whitey some odd jobs here and there around the Warner castle in exchange for some cash from time to time.

“Chelsea Keane has always been a fucking bitch, ever since high school” Sparky had belched, crushing an empty beer can in his hand and tossing it off the front porch. “I'm surprised you stayed with her this long.”

Whitey had looked into the hole of the can of his own beer. “I've always loved her man. Ever since we were in six grade. I've always felt she was the one for me.” He had taken a swig. “You know, like my soul mate.”

Sparky had fished a cigarette out of his mouth and laughed, punching his friend in the arm. “You gotta be kidding me with that pussy shit.” He had said, putting a flame to the end of his smoke. “Naw man...you stay here with me. Make that bitch feel what it's like to miss you.”

“You think so?” Whitey had asked.

“Fuck yeah. Besides, I got tons of shit around here you can do in exchange for crashing on the couch.” Sparky had replied, the cigarette bouncing in his mouth.

“Your old lady won't mind?” Sparky had asked.

“Who do you think wears the pants around here motherfucker?” Sparky had exhaled a plume of smoke. “You see,” he had said, pointing the cigarette at his friend. “That's your problem. You always let that bitch run you over. You think I ever let my woman boss me around?”

Whitey changed the subject, “What do you want done around here?” He had asked.

“You're a handy motherfucker...lots of shit.” Sparky had smiled. “These gutters haven't been cleaned a month of Sundays. I've been meaning to pressure wash this driveway. I got siding on the side that's fucked up and could use replacing...and shit...that well in the back has been compromised by about three autumn's worth of leaves.”

Whitey had shrugged and taken another swig of beer. “That sounds cool.”

“Yeah!” Sparky had taken another drag, “And you know...odd job shit. Like bring the salt pellets in from time to time. That shit's heavy and God knows my old lady can't do it.”

They had laughed together at this. Rosalita had watched and listened to this conversation out of the window while she was doing the dishes. She remembered it well because moments after her husband had berated her to his best friend, she had sliced her finger on a steak knife under the soapy water. It had left a small car on the inside of her left index finger.

Rosalita felt that place in the darkness now, thinking.

Yes, Whitey had done a real good job around the house.

After all, Sparky was real busy. His little electric company hadn't taken off the ground as well as he had liked, and he found himself a corporation of one, working seven days a week, twelve hour days.

Anyone with half a brain would have known how this was gonna play out.

One of Sparky's job's on a ‪Tuesday morning‬ had re-scheduled. Rosalita had never found out why. Sparky had come home ‪at ten o'clock‬ in the morning to find Whitey Grey in his underwear making pancakes for Rosalita, who was also in her underwear...well...at least from the waist down. If it wasn't for a well-timed right hook by Whitey and an even better timed smack with the pancake skillet by Rosalita...Whitey and Rosalita would have probably gotten a taste of “Ole Bitch” right then.

Rosalita and Whitey had gotten a room at the Extended Day down in Russellville for awhile, after six months they snuck back into Haddonfield, renting a little apartment two blocks from the Bypass near Orange Grove. By then, Rosalita was sporting a little belly that everyone in town knew wasn't Sparky's doing, and word of mouth travels fast in a little Midwestern town.

So far though Sparky hadn't caused any trouble. Hadn't even called.

That didn't stop Rosalita from knowing that the shotgun blast had come from “Ole Bitch”. She knew it as well as she knew that the sun was gonna come up over Little Egypt ‪tomorrow morning‬ from the east and set over the corn fields and hills to the west ‪tomorrow evening‬. She knew it deep down in the marrow of her bones and the bottom of her soul and had now fought for the last hour and a half to shake the image of Whitey Grey, the father of her newborn baby, laying dead somewhere in the hospital with his brains splattered all around.

And Sparky was now coming for her.

Her and her baby.

Can't think about that now, Rosalita thought, looking down at her newborn baby boy. The Sheriff said he'd figure out what was going on, and he'll figure it out.

Sheriff Brackett had been the top deputy dog in the town as long as Rosalita could remember. If pressed she would say that she had always trusted him, and she would just plain have to trust him now.

The display screen on the Sheriff's daughter went dark. Rosalita couldn't see her hand in front of her face...let alone her baby.

Oh please God. She thought. Let somebody find me in here.

And then she caught herself.

Anybody but Sparky.

NEXT>>

[totodiletears]

???? I tried holding power button again this morning and it showed a screen saying to connect to a power source? Which it REFUSED to do last night even when connected to laptop which should be a viable way to charge it, so surely if it was a battery thing it would have showed this screen then? It's not like it would have magically gained power over the course of eight or so hours, not if it was so drained then that it couldn't even show that screen. But once I did have it plug in today I was able to navigate music and it shows all my stuff still there, even plugged in my headphones and successfully listened to the song I was on when it shut itself off last night, which surely wouldn't be possible if the flash memory (it's a Nano) had failed. That's what I thought had happened, see. Flash memory failure, permanently killing the whole thing. But if that was the case it wouldn't be working now!

I think for now I'm gonna mostly go with the battery got really uncalibrated and see if a good recalibration will fix it, but I'm skeptical cuz I did pretty recently recharge it?? But that was via plugging into laptop instead of by plugging into the wall, which maybe doesn't work as well, and I didn't FULLY charge, just go "yeah that's probably good enough," and that's actually what I did the last few times I charged it, so maybe it really didn't have all that much juice and just displayed it wrong.

But also I should probably really look into replacement MP3 players and be ready to do what I need with that.

awwwww my ipod seems to have just died :( :( :( I was hoping it would last at least like two years after the battery change but it seems to be just entirely dead after not even a year, not showing up when i plug it into the computer or anything. probably WOULD have been more cost-efficient to just get a new one but unnecessary e-waste ugghhhh