#is to print it with tree-like structural supports

[ianbirdart]

Kim's Composure, 2/28/23

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bad Buddy x ATOTS aka Damn You WMT

Dear @waitmyturtles, fuck you, respectfully wen-kexing-apologist. Turts, I have shit to do, I do not have time for this. But once again I CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT SO, FUCK ME I GUESS WE’RE DOING A FOREST EPISODE. 

More specifically, we are doing an Our Skyy 2, Episode 15 Part 1/4 post, probably far earlier than I should be, and definitely instead of doing work I absolutely need to be doing. But Pat and Phupa’s interactions in this part of the episode have me thinking about Phupa and his relationship to queerness. 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a marvelous time watching Part 1 of our latest Bad Buddy x ATOTS crossover episode. Why? Because it is absolutely incredibly fun to watch Pat personally terrorize the local gay elder. 

What I have really been enjoying in these crossover episodes is watching the ways the similarities and differences in Phupa, Pat, Pran, and Tian play out. Each person spends most of the time paired with the character who play the same role in the relationship but whose personalities and approaches to their relationships are very different. Phupa is the support in his relationship with Tian, Pat is the support in his relationship with Pran, but Phupa never bends and Pat always gives in. 

The thing I love about Pat is that he is unabashed in his queerness, he rolls up on to the scene and starts flirting the second he opens his mouth, and then he 

Literally

Never

Stops

He annoys Pran, he tests the structural integrity of the house with Pran, sure, but he also wakes up next to Phupa and then proceeds to never let Phupa forget that a) he would and b) that they thought they might have. 

He rolls up on the scene as Phupa and his coworker are getting ready to head into the forest, and he starts talking openly and loudly about Phupa’s boyfriend, and the relationship problems they are having. 

Phupa is less than amused.

Phupa does not want Pat coming with him, Pat sneaks into the back of the truck, Phupa begrudgingly allows Pat to come with him and Pat says “you’re the cutest”

Phupa is less than amused. 

I’m gonna skip ahead a little bit and then regress if that is okay with everyone, after Phupa puts bandaid’s on Pat says yet again “what a cute print, Chief”, “you have a cute side, Chief” 

“No wonder teacher is head over heels for you,” 

Here Pat is, one half of the first queer couple to interact with Phupa and Tian in god knows how long or possibly ever, talking casually, happily, loudly, and openly about Phupa’s relationship with Tian and Tian’s feelings for Phupa. Reaffirming to Phupa in a way that it is obvious that Tian is in love with him.  

And still Phupa is not having it. 

As they continue their walk, Pat starts smelling the trees and Phupa is like oh jesus fucking christ what the hell are you doing you are making my life a living hell- “What are you doing?” 

And in response, Pat is very open and sappy about Pran. 

gif from @liyazaki

“Pran smells so good, if he is nearby, I can find him,” and Phupa is flabbergasted. He just stands there for a second, looking Pat up and down like “okay, seriously…what the fuck?” and he is so obvious about it in the way he looks at Pat and in the way he walks away, that Pat is able to tell immediately that Phupa is, once again, not vibing with Pat’s casual references to his queerness, or overt and honest love and admission of intimacy with his partner. Pat knows Pran’s scent so well that he is confident he could pick it up in the middle of the forest. That suggests a level of familiarity with a body that would traditionally be considered uncouth, if you were polite, and doubly so if you are queer. 

gif from @liyazaki

When Phupa starts walking like he’s over the conversation, Pat’s easy smile shifts to confusion “What? Haven’t you smelled Teacher’s body before?” 

(Translation: Aren’t you also so in love with your partner, and aren’t you so intimate with your partner that you could recognize his scent anywhere you went? Looking at you watermelon soap sponsorship…looking at you tea bag smell pouch…)

And it’s the inclusion of the word body that really strikes me here, because to say “what? Haven’t you smelled Teacher before?” evokes a different relationship than “What? Haven’t you smelled Teacher’s body?” does. 

“That’s too bad” Pat says, and leans suggestively close to Phupa. Like a cat toying with a mouse. Pat likes needling at Phupa’s discomfort around explicit references to Pat and Pran’s sex life. And while we know Phupa has most certainly smelled Tian’s body before, Phupa SPINS around, has this brief moment of absolute wide eye about being so blatantly asked a question that alludes to his physical relationship to and with Tian, looks Pat dead in the eye and says “I’m not a pervert like you,”

gif from @liyazaki

Harsh words. Incredibly harsh words, especially because of the connotations of queerness with perversion, especially because iirc from the KinnPorsche LGBTQ+ Facts special on IQIYI, pervert is often an insult used in Thailand for queer people. Phupa is uncomfortable with Pat’s open conversation about his queer relationship, about his queer intimacy and he chooses to meet Pat with homophobia in the way of a slur. 

But Pat is having fun, and I honestly believe he expects that kind of reaction. Pat and Pran were awkward witnesses to Tian and Phupa’s little domestic about watching him shower and looking lovingly into their eyes, but Phupa is stiff the whole time, he is aware that he is engaging in that conversation while other people are present, and he can’t take it and he literally flees. And some of that is because he is getting riled up about their fight, but we see in part 2 of this episode that when Phupa is actually angry with Tian about something, he has no problem standing up and planting his feet to confront Tian about it. 

Anyway, Pat is having fun, and Pat wants to test Phupa and so, completely unphased he starts talking about how Tian smells, as if he is familiar. He is like "my boyfriend smells soooo good, do you smell your boyfriend's body? Your boyfriend smells good" and it’s a direct display of Pat's comfortability with his partner, their closeness, and their level of intimacy. 

“Teacher Tian smells so good” Pat says with the world’s widest grin 

“How do you know that?” Phupa asks almost challenging

“I thought you said you’d never smelled him” 

gif from @liyazaki

Caught ya. Phupa has indirectly admitted to intimacy. Pat has successfully engaged Phupa in a conversation that is completely about Phupa’s queerness. 

And as Part 2 goes on, we are made more and more aware of how little outward public affection Phupa and Tian engage in. If Phupa and Tian touch around other people, there has to be a legitimate reason to do so (Tian fainted, Tian fainted again, Tian fainted a third time, Tian is drunk, Phupa is drunk, etc.). In this episode, Tian is weak and almost collapses in to Phupa’s arms because he exerted himself too much with his heart. Phupa’s hand is on Tian’s back and then Tian is away from him and standing upright, and when Phupa, Tian, Pat, and Pran exit the forest and enter the clearing of the safe house. 

Pat is using Pran as a crutch, and Phupa and Tian have placed a child in between them. They are not touching, they aren’t even standing all that close to each other. Phupa is in ranger mode, sure, but he’s not really in front of people he has to impress, he doesn’t have to be completely professional and on guard when they are in the shack together. Especially when his partner with a body that is currently trying to reject his heart, is sitting there looking on the verge of a heart attack. 

Phupa is making direct eye contact with Tian here, he is worried about Tian here, his focus is on Tian here, and yet he does not offer any physical comfort. No reassuring touch, no forehead kiss, hell, not even a hand on the back of his head to check for fever. He’s focused on getting the radio working, which is incredibly important in case there is a medical emergency, but he does not spare a second to physically ground him and Tian. He can only look from a distance. Because there are other people around, there is a child around. Phupa can’t be seen engaging in homosexual softness, Phupa has to be seen as a forest ranger, doing his job, his actual job that involves rescuing his stubborn dumbass boyfriend from yet again getting lost in the forest, but does not involve him being in love. 

Again, Phupa truly has no one here he needs to impress, he’s in a room with a child, his boyfriend, and a couple of nuisances that have shown him absolutely zero respect since the moment they waltzed in to his neck of the woods. 

At dinner even, after things have settled down, Phupa still cannot bring himself close to Tian in front of prying eyes. 

Pat and Pran? Literally sitting side by side, knees touching. They are as close to each other as they possibly can be without literally sitting in each other’s laps. 

Here is a close up of Pat and Pran literally making physical contact with each other at the knee and at the elbow. 

And what Phupa and Tian do not know, is that Pat and Pran can't be outwardly and openly affectionate to one another in public when they are at school and so they make up for it by being disgusting when they aren't in school. Pat and Pran have to keep up a pretense, and its a tragic undertone to their ability to diffuse the brewing Tian and Phupa fight by looking at each other, nodding, and then improvising a fight realistic enough to get Phupa and Tian to pull them apart. 

Because Pat and Pran’s relationship at home is a metaphor for external homophobia, because they are so used to it by now, the having to hide, to pretend they don’t like each other, to pretend they are mad, to pretend they aren’t in love, that they can just ease right in to staged fights at the drop of a fucking hat. But even in their fake fight they wind up pressed up against each other. 

(hehe, screen shot funny, look at Phupa, he zoomin’)

Because for so long the only way they could have physical contact in public was by fighting, was by beating each other up, was by pushing or pulling each other away from a fight. Pat and Pran understand that Tian and Phupa are having a fight that they also once had, but they can also see the parts underneath it, the parts that make Phupa ask why the emphasis on him in Tian’s story is about Phupa being in love with Tian rather than his work. 

Pat is simultaneously taking the opportunity of being hours and hours away from home, from where he has to hide his relationship, to be as openly and obviously in love with Pran as he has always been and is telling Phupa he is safe to be gay around. That he and Pran are safe people to be gay around, are safe people for him to be openly affectionate with his boyfriend around. 

And that stems from the parts of Pat and Phupa that are wildly different. 

Like, it is very very notable that Pat confesses his feelings for Pran practically as soon as he realizes that he has feelings for him and initiates the rooftop kiss which they share before they are even together, and then they have a bunch of little kisses, and they sneak as many touches as they can, and they make out multiple times in the show 

And Phupa and Tian have…a single forehead kiss and then one kiss, at the top of a mountain, where no one would ever be able to see them after their story is complete. 

In last week’s crossover episode, the level of intimacy that Phupa engages in with Tian is called out, even by Aof himself with the roleplaying scene between Pat and Pran where they pretend to be Phupa and Tian putting up a mosquito net and conclude that they absolutely must have kissed then. 

But we know they didn’t. We know how painstakingly long it takes for Phupa and Tian to reach that level of intimacy with one another. 

I'm even thinking backstory-wise, what is forest ranger training like? Is it part of the military? Did Phupa's gay ass have to enlist in a presumably male dominated field and like, go to training, and be around a bunch of guys, and make sure they didn't suspect he was gay?

I’m thinking about the moments in last week’s episode where it seemed like things were going better between Phupa and Tian, and it was always when Phupa was physically affectionate with Tian, putting his arm around him and not letting him go, when they were at karaoke, and when they were drunkenly stumbling home together, again locked in eachother’s embrace, where anyone could see them. 

To regress as I promised back to the leech scene I am struck by what the approach to removing the leeches says about Pat and Phupa respectively. 

Pat rips the leech off of him and Phupa takes time to put a lighter to them and pluck them off in a way that does not hurt Pat

Pat rips the leech off and bleeding for it, hurting himself in the process, because he is impulsive and impatient, Pat bleeds emotion, he's practically incapable of hiding what he's feeling, and he must obey his emotions before all else. Therefore, in Bad Buddy Episode 5, when he realizes he has feelings for Pran, Pat immediately has to talk to Pran about his feelings, immediately leans in to the emotion he is feeling in the present moment, and initiates a kiss. A kiss that leaves him feeling blissful, and that leaves him hurt because Pran walks away, because Pran has known forever how much he likes Pat, because Pat has only just figured out his feelings, he hasn’t had to sit with them for long, and yet that kiss is an equally strong release for both of them. When Phupa removes the leech from Pat’s leg he is methodical and patient, he tries to minimize the wound, it takes longer but it has the same result which is why it takes so damn long for him and Tian to get together. When I watches ATOTS and they touched pinkies under that blanket and I went "ah yes! This is the part where you start making out and fucking cause they are adults who have maybe been in a relationship before and who have both been obviously painfully aware of their feelings for eachother since the moment they laid eye on each other"...and then they don’t. Phupa waits, and waits, and waits. 

I think the fundamental thing that I see replaying in this episode especially, and with Pat and Phupa’s interactions especially is the elder versus younger queer mentality we got in Moonlight Chicken, with very different characters from Jim and Li Ming, but following a similar pattern of restraint and time versus just jumping right in. 

And it’s also why I think the conversation between Pran and Phupa is so important:

gifs by @nanons

Pat and Pran’s need to keep their relationship secret because of their family’s, and because of Pran’s mom specifically is a metaphor for external homophobia. Pat and Pran are extremely comfortable in their sexuality, very open in their love for one another when they are amongst other queer people, or amongst allies, when they are away from their hometown or when they are in the privacy of their homes. 

There are a lot of different pieces in play around Phupa and Tian’s relationship, but there is ultimately a metaphor at the most or a blatant sense at the least of internal homophobia on the part of Phupa. 

Pat has chosen to stay “in the closet” in order to be with Pran. In a convo with @shortpplfedup about this, Nini said it the most accurate and heart wrenching line: “It's honestly that Pran can't really ever compare to Pat's sacrifice here, and he KNOWS it,” 

Similarly, Phupa believes that Tian has made a sacrifice to be with him, and he knows it. Which is why he can’t bring himself to go to Tian’s birthday, because Tian has left before, because he is scared every time Tian goes that he will realize that Phupa isn’t enough. Because Phupa is afraid of being seen as Tian’s partner. Because Phupa is really only capable of being physically affectionate behind closed doors. When they are completely alone.  Cause even in the camp, when the child is sleeping and Pat and Pran are off literally fucking in the tent minding their own goddamn business, Phupa cannot bring himself to touch Tian.

They’re sharing place but not space, or whatever it was that Ayan said to Akk in their Our Skyy 2 episodes. When Phupa gives Tian his medicine, at most their fingers brush, they don’t sit down together, they don’t ground themselves with touch. They share this place, but they do not encroach on each other’s personal space…

…until Phupa falls asleep

gif by @earthpirapat

At which point Tian gets up, and places his blanket on him, and physical touches his arm, his shoulder, etc. as he is adjusting the blanket for him. 

Tian initiates the touch, Tian stayed in the village with him, Tian is sacrificing his health to be here with Phupa. Phupa has spent 90% of his time alone with the bouncing ball of sunshine that is Pat, and 5% of his time with the chaotic homosexual energy of Pat and Pran together, and to be real, as much as we know about Pat and Pran’s relationship, and as much depth as we are able to pull from these specific characters interacting in the way they do, Phupa has no idea what Pat and Pran have been through to be where they are. 

To anyone who does not know Pat and Pran’s story, they seem like nothing more than two horny young adults in love, who feel no need to hide themselves and their queerness away, that have never had a struggle in their life, and do not understand the trials and tribulations of navigating an older queer relationship, who will last the length of a honeymoon period and then disappear at the first sign of real conflict. Thus, I think Phupa grossly underestimates the company he is currently keeping.

So I think, personally, Phupa is kinda of struck by the sudden and unexpected depth that comes from Pran. That Pran is able to identify and then absolutely hone in and strike at the exact things that Phupa is struggling with. As much as Pat has both relished in the freedom he has to be disgustingly in love with his boyfriend in the woods, and as much as Pat has tried to make himself an obviously safe person to be openly gay around, Phupa is incapable of understanding what he can learn from Pat and Pran’s relationship until he realizes these boys have a lot more in common with him than he thought, and that their relationship and their relationship to one another is more complex and therefore more similar to him and Tian’s situation than he would like. 

Pran and Phupa carry the weight of feeling like nothing they do will ever compare to the sacrifices their partner has made to be with them. I didn’t get much in to Pat and Tian here, but their interaction makes it clear that they both carry the weight of feeling like their partner does not need them. 

Phupa has literally saved Tian’s life on numerous occasions, Tian is chronically ill, Tian has limitations. Phupa is a forest ranger, who is a foundation in his community, who is skilled and competent, and fiercely independent. Pat is disorganized, and impulsive, his father is the reason he and Pran can’t be open about their relationship, he is the reason Pran got sent away. 

We get a fun reversal with dynamics in these Bad Buddy x ATOTS episodes because Tian and Phupa are older, but Pat and Pran have an entire lifetime of navigating and overcoming conflict under their belt. Pat and Pran have already weathered the storm of the fight that Tian and Phupa are having. They have already settled in to who they are, but Pat and Pran (Pran especially) are able to see the ways that always giving in and never backing down wears on a person. Pran learns from seeing the pain that Tian is in that being uncompromising might cause fractures in their relationship in the future. 

Tian and Phupa (Phupa especially) are learning how to resolve their conflicts. Pran, who is holding on to Tian and Phupa’s story so tightly because it is shared, because it is open, because anyone who wants to can know about it, pushes Phupa, who cannot cope with being portrayed as being in love with Tian, to read all of the diary Tian published online. Pran pushes Phupa to push through the emotional blocks, to push past his initial concerns, and to assume Tian wrote and published this story with both an understanding of who is partner is and what Phupa is comfortable with, and with no intention of hurting anybody. 

Anyway, all of this to say, that this episode has really made me analyze Phupa with an internalized homophobia lens, and though one can never trust a P’Aof trailer, it has left me with two impressions. 

On the subject of Phupa and internalized homophobia, and needing to move past that (and more) in order for his relationship with Tian to survive this fight, @shortpplfedup said it best: 

“Now I'm thinking about one moment from the preview (but just a moment!) where Phupha tells Tian he's not gonna sneak to look at him, he's gonna OPENLY look at him”

And cause it seems like Phupa learned some things from the Bothersome Boys:

--

Case in point:

Here's multiple hours of my life I will never get back, at least I had fun! Time to go do the work I was supposed to be doing tonight :p

That's all folks!

[ineedaplacetostay]

It’s late, but I wasn’t about to let Tome’s day go by! I present: so many words.

Summary: This is not a psychic union. It’s an employee union.

Word Count: 2,005 (…yeah)

—

look for the union label…

The more Tome thinks about it, the better the idea sounds. She isn’t sure what benefits members of the Sun Psychic Union get, but they have to be good ones if they can keep all those superpowered psychics around. If they’re worth paying hard-earned dues over instead of going freelance, then it has to be a top-tier organization. And it’s one she can’t join.

It’s not like Tome doesn’t like the job she has, she wouldn’t work for any other psychic in Seasoning City! Reigen could pay her a little better for all her hard work, snacks don’t grow on trees—except for that one weird month with…spinach?—, but she’s not trying to leave. A union’s good backup if she ever does need something, someday. If she was a psychic, she’d have to join the Sun union, so if you think about it, this is basically going along with the rules.

Except there’s no union for employees of a psychic or the invaluable backup work people like her and Mr. Serizawa do. Like filing or…or billing receipts for curse-breaking massages. Or going out on cases in the evening at the beginning of the school year.

They deserve a union. And if they’re the ones in charge, they can choose their own benefits, like better pay, or days off, or more snacks, not asking if Peppercorn expects her to do homework. Reasonable stuff for a Spirits & Such exclusive union. Probably. She isn’t sure.

But she does have the office to herself today and the other option is working on her history homework…so she has all time she needs to look up anything. Everything! Using Reigen’s computer is fine too, it’s for the good of the workers.

—

All of Tome’s sources agree, the first step to a successful union is getting your coworkers on your side. When you have three of them, that’s gonna be a very good thing or a very bad one. She decides to focus on the positives as she takes the familiar route back to Salt Middle School.

She’s not exact sure what happened between the city almost breaking to pieces—again—and now, but when she spots the brief member of her old club, it seems like it’s been…good. Mob smiles at her and waves backs when she flags him down leaving the school yard.

She knows how much Reigen means to him and that Mob’s not really an employee anymore, but if she can get him on her side, she can convince anyone.

“A union?” Mob looks carefully over her printed list of employee benefits.

Tome takes a deep breath. She knows she got wild about aliens and it wasn’t really about aliens and the alien hunt almost didn’t turn out well and Inukawa went missing for ten days, and maybe she misses the structure of the Telepathy Club a little, but. There isn’t much to do at Peppercorn yet.

“I like it. I think you should have one,” Mob says, handing the paper back before Tome can lay out her ten steps to union success.

There’s something in the way he says it, not angry, but…whole in a way she hasn’t heard from him before. She thinks it’s good for him.

“Really?” she asks before course-correcting. She did not expect it to be that easy. “I mean, thank you for your support, Mob. Ah, Shigeo.”

It feels more like him to call him that for some reason, even if he looks surprised she calls him that too.

Once Shigeo’s out of sight, Tome lets out a long, winded sigh out into the twilight she didn’t know she had in her. Wipes a bit of sweat off her palms. Okay, she did it. She actually did it. One down, two to go.

She’s gonna start a union.

—

“Why is it on mobgle again?” Tome overhears Reigen mutter to himself, making one of those weird faces at his laptop.

She to tries to make it look like filing is the most interesting thing in the world.

—

The thing is Mr. Serizawa is a really nice guy, kind of a pushover sometimes if Tome’s honest, but she still brings Shigeo with her to talk to him. Just for more proof that this is a serious offer.

All the suggestions said it was better to talk to coworkers outside of work, so that’s what she does, brings Shigeo along and catches up with her other coworker about two blocks away from the office.

“A…union?”

“Like the Sun Union,” she cuts in this time. “We’ll have benefits and if we don’t want to do something, we can use collective bargaining power. So we can tell the boss ‘no.’ Really stand up to him!”

Mr. Serizawa gets a kind of look on his face.

“Like if the union, us,” she pushes on, nodding to Shigeo to include him, “votes that we’re not going into a sewer after a spirit, we won’t have to.”

She figures Mr. Serizawa can agree they don’t want to do that again.

“I don’t know…” he hedges, sounding almost sorry to tell her. “I never thought I’d have a job as good as working at Spirits & Such.”

“There’s strength in a union, Mr. Serizawa. We can make important decisions for the future of the company. Better pay! Better hours! And–and a new desk!”

He does look more interested at that, a flicker of doubt in his eye. And Tome jumps on it, slamming her fist to her open palm, a familiar excitement coming up.

“Those are working conditions, Mr. Serizawa! We can put that in our demands! And if we don’t get it? We strike!”

“A new chair would be nice,” Mr. Serizawa says, more to himself that to her but she’ll take it.

“Shigeo’s joined too,” she sweetens the deal. “We outnumber the boss three to one and we’ll get you that chair!”

She thinks Shigeo nods, but the unionizing articles said eye contact was important.

“…I don’t think he’ll fire us,” Mr. Serizawa says, considering.

“He won’t,” Shigeo agrees.

“That’s the spirit!”

They only need part of a workforce to get a union and she has three out of three. She knew her counselor was lying when she called Tome too forceful.

—

The problem is sometimes it’s harder to have Mr. Serizawa as part of the union before they’re—she’s—ready to list their requests than not having him in it. Something about keeping the (temporary) secret makes him more nervous around Reigen than usual. That’d be great as a friend, but it’s exhausting as a union president.

She can’t say Reigen’s noticed yet though. Probably because Mr. Serizawa looks kinda generally haunted sometimes, but she’s had two weird nightmares about it already.

—

“I want to join your union.”

Halfway across a crosswalk, a list of possible wage increase bargaining tactics in her hand, Tome gets ambushed by Shigeo’s little brother. Well, ambushed might not be the right word, but she does yell and almost lose her list.

“…you worked for Spirits & Such?” she asks once they’ve gotten to the other side of the street.

Reigen’s filing system before Mr. Serizawa was strange enough to be in French or something and she doesn’t know how he remembers to pay his taxes, but he always wrote down when they had any expenses.

Ritsu grimaces. “I…interned. Will I be allowed to join or not?”

…well, numbers are numbers.

Tome feels like she’s gotten the politest mugging in the country.

—

“You know this won’t work, don’t you?”

“You don’t qualify as an employee,” Tome says instead of answering the only spirit around here who hasn’t been exorcised. If she says it through a mouthful of chips, that’s fine. She doesn’t have to be polite right now.

Reigen’s out dealing with the office’s owner about a window getting blown up mid-exorcism and Mr. Serizawa’s gone to pick up a drink order. She figured this would make the best time to put the last touches on their requirements to keep the union from going on strike, but now she has an old ghost telling her she’s doomed for failure.

She’s heard that and it never stuck! Thinking about it, she should hit him with that net again.

No. She has a better idea, grinning and talking around another handful of chips. “You’re mad cause I didn’t ask you to join, aren’t you?”

Ekubo huffs, forming tiny legs and sitting down mid-air. “I’m the reason this place lasted as long as it has. Reigen wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for me.”

Tome guesses she believes that with how much trouble Reigen gets into. Someone had to have tried to kill him before.

“Fine. Wanna join the union?” If this doesn’t do anything else, Tome can say she’s part of the only union in town with a ghost.

“You don’t stand a chance. Yes.”

—

Tome’s been a class president already and she held it together, more or less, for most of that year. She even brought Shigeo in, more or less, and that got her to this huge supernatural world most people don’t even notices. She knows what she wants and she goes after it! That’s why she’s here now.

She’s even had input from all of the other employees, the things they think are important like calling ahead and someone else who agrees about school nights. Hell, she cut her snack demands to fit what she guesses is the total S&S budget, all for the good of the union.

It’s something, right here in her hands and important and she doesn’t miss her friends who are still in middle school as much with her coworkers waiting at her signaland she can do this, bursting through the front door of the one and only Spirits & Such Consultation.

Reigen almost climbs up his desk with the door slam, but Tome’s not going let that stop her.

“We are officially announcing the formation of the Spirits & Such union as agreed by all employees, part timers, interns—”

“Interns?” Reigen squawks.

“—and freelance spirit consultants. Here are our requirements.”

She puts the hard copy down on the desk, between her and Mr. Serizawa it even has the company logo on it. And a shiny border, she paid to have it printed up herself.

Besides it’ll give Reigen the opportunity to follow along. Tome has the terms memorized.

They need clearer hours and leeway if they can’t make it! A competitive wage, or a better division of goods for services rendered!

“This is not a livable wage, shishou,” Shigeo adds about here in the speech. She thinks Reigen looks proud through the confusion.

And there’s the value of their labor! She and Mr. Serizawa could work other places! He has superpowers! She could focus on high school!

There’s the overtime, they have no overtime pay! No school night double time! A new chair!

Tome hasn’t felt this energized in months.

“And,” she says, winding down and half-out of breath and so, so proud, “if these terms are not agreeable, we’re going on strike.”

“Oh,” Reigen says. And goes through one of those things where he goes through several possible faces before landing on one. He puts the list back down. “I don’t agree to those terms.”

“But I—” slips out of Tome’s mouth before she can stop it. She’s not going to get upset like last time. She won’t. If they have to strike, and she has to apologize to her coworkers for that, so be it.

“I’m not agreeing to all that,” Reigen says, punctuating his words by pointing at various spots. “Look, there it says I have to give six hours notice and even I don’t know that sometimes. The supernatural doesn’t stop for peoples schedules. And here, we don’t have the budget for that type of raise in this economy.

“So you’re going to have to stay here and negotiate, Kurata.”

“Negotiate?”

“You’re the one in charge of this union, aren’t you?”

Tome grins and pulls a chair up to the desk.

[zedecksiew]

BLOGGIES 2023 BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR

On 31 January 2024, the tabletop-roleplaying-game community voted for the Best Blog Post Of 2023.

Contenders were drawn from the winners of four categories. Links, as well as their very excellent acceptance speeches---more exhortations and manifestos, really!---found here:

Theory

Gameable

Advice

Review

+++

Anyway---you voted. Results were very close; I was constantly worried about a tie. Nevertheless, a winner emerged:

Congratulations are in order, and an acceptance speech follows.

+++

(Like an idiot, I didn't plan for, and therefore didn't have the time to make a bespoke prize for the overall Bloggie winner. So they'll just get a full quadtych of lino prints. Fortunately these don't look too bad together!)

PLATINUM BLOGGIE FOR BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR:

🔮Re-inventing the Wilderness: Part 1 - Introduction🔮 from SachaGoat

Sacha:

As an (award-winning) blogger who only started 6 months ago - I want to use this "acceptance speech" to share the 5 steps that will start your blog: 1. You don't need a cool blog name. screenname(dot)blogspot(dot)com is probably available - you can move it later if you think of a cool name. The trick here is to set it up so your ideas can go live as soon as you're happy (or tired of editing). 2. Post something. Dust off your notebook (or note-taking app) and turn those musings into a structured post with paragraphs and context. Don't have anything ready to go? Take your latest game session and write a play report or spotlight a specific moment. This will take less time than your ttrpg prep. 3. Share it! With your gaming group, ttrpg friends, community discords, xwitter/bluesky, reddit, forums etc. 4. Don't worry about the rest. I don't have a fancy blog template. I've yet to compile a sidebar or blogroll. I don't have a newsletter or patreon. 5. Continue. Your readers will contribute with comments. You will be shared in community newsletters. Peers will write posts inspired by your posts. Your ideas will be used at another gaming table. (And if you're lucky, you can win the next BLOGGIES.) If you've shared your prep with a fellow DM… if you've contributed opinions on a ttrpg discord or forum… if you've read a blog post and have a thought that builds on it… if you have any tabletop advice or ideas … 👏 Start 👏 a 👏 blog This finally brings me to the "thanks". Winning the 2023 BLOGGIES is such a wonderful welcome to this creative niche. Many thanks to the creators who encourage the community to blog (especially around June 2023, I can actually see the thread that motivated me to start). I also want to thank a community whose collective enthusiasm and support nudge me to release the next post. And finally, everyone who voted for my post over the amazing nominations this year - a huge thank you.

+++

On a personal note: I am really thrilled at this final result.

The BLOGGIES can come off as clique-ish. Voting is public, but "public" on the Internet generally means a circle-jerk between subculture friends, a popularity contest.

This thing began as a jokey riff on those best-tweet-of-the-year polls over on Twitter. While Prismatic Wastelands grew it into a celebration of OSR blogging culture, it still has NSR / POSR inclinations---the specific community soil it sprung from.

As host this year I tried to extend the BLOGGIES' reach. Canvassing for nominations outside the OSR space got a couple of indie-RPG designers on the finalists list. Am proud of that; we have much to learn from each other.

I made prizes---hoping that, one day, with enough dangling carrots, these awards will eventually be tasty enough for non-POSR cliques / communities to attempt a takeover? We'll see.

Ultimately: I am glad to water this sapling and watch it grow slowly. Community is made by growing trees, not building greenhouses.

+++

SachaGoat snagging the final win is a vindication.

Sacha's blog is new. We don't share any Discord servers. We've never spoken, hitherto; the first time I messaged him ever was to tell him he'd won the Advice category.

The BLOGGIES fulfils its purpose: to introduce folks to quality blogs; to preach the gospel and importance of blogging. Its shade is spreading.

I'm glad to get to know Sacha and his blog. (Obviously it's been added to my must-read list!) I am honoured to be passing the torch: Sacha has agreed to host BLOGGIES 2024.

Thank you, everybody. Here's to growing trees.

[belsaas]

An ode to the iRiver iHP-120

For whatever reason, I've found myself deeply nostalgic for high school as of late. And for me, that is intractable from nostalgia for what is perhaps the peak mp3 player ever made:

The iRiver iHP-120 was released in 2003, my sophomore year of high school, and it changed my life. This thing held an astounding 10GB of music—for comparison, most mp3 players at the time were flash based, and held 128 or 256 MB of music. The only big competitor at the time was the 1st generation iPod, a mac-exclusive device that transferred data over firewire and had to be synced using the fledgling iTunes. Juxtapose that to iRiver, who took what I like to call the "we don't give a fuck" approach:

When you plugged in the iHP-120 with USB 2.0, it just showed up as an external hard drive—you could throw whatever you wanted on there. Naturally, it could read mp3 files, but this thing introduced me to the world of audio codecs and processing in a way nothing could have prepared me. WMA files worked fine (a big deal at the time because of DRM issues, during the heyday of KaZaA and Limewire). You want to play uncompressed .WAV files? No problem, put them on there. FLAC files? Absolutely, let your audiophile freak flag fly. Fucking OGG Vorbis files played on this thing. Hell, you could put text files on here and read them.

(The firmware for these was also basically open-source, and people did even crazier stuff with them. By the time I retired my player, it could do gapless playback, crossfading, 10-band equalizing, normalization and more. I think I also changed the boot screen to a picture of Sailor Moon.)

But the magic didn't end at uploading music to the iHP-120—controlling this thing was more intuitive than any other device around at the time. All of your music was displayed on the player in whatever folder structure you loaded onto the device—navigating the music was as simple as using Windows Explorer. You had your standard play/pause, skip forward/back and volume controls on the front joystick, but what are the other buttons for?

Yeah. This thing was also a portable recorder. At anytime you could just hold down the Rec button and start recording with the onboard mic, or using an external input (more on that later). On the right side, an A-B Interval control. You ever wanted to just listen to one part of a song on repeat to learn the lyrics? Just hold down the button. Lastly a hold switch to disable control inputs while it was in your pocket—no accidentally pausing the music.

Okay, back to the external input mentioned before. The top of the iHP-120 is wild.

The top I/O panel of the iRiver iHP-120, with 4 jacks.

From right to left, you have a 3.5mm headphone jack (naturally), a 2.5mm microphone jack, the remote control port (more on this in a bit), and in white you have Line In/Out jacks which you could use to record as well as just plug in a second pair of headphones for a friend—jacks which support both 3.5mm analog input, as well as 3.5mm TOSLINK optical cables.

The TOSLINK 3.5mm male plug. A plug I only ever encountered on this device and the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium, a sound card I wrote a review of in 2009 which seems to still be up at PC Gamer and reading it now I don't know how any of my writing was ever published, let alone in print.

Chances are good you've never encountered this, it's phenomenally uncommon, and TOSLINK as a whole largely died with the emergence of HDMI—but this fucking mp3 player could both record and transmit fiber optic audio in uncompressed stereo or lossy 7.1 surround sound. In high school, I would plug the iHP-120 into our home theatre and listened to Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream on repeat (side tangent, I'm pretty sad 5.1 album recording never really caught on, but the Dolby Atmos music format is better in every way, and I'm grateful Apple is bringing it into the mainstream).

"Okay, so we have an music player/text reader/voice recorder with optical audio, and basically every codec under the sun, what else could you go on about Erika?"

-you, the person reading this

THE REMOTE

Let me take you back to 2003. I was a depressed theatre kid teenager who would listen to Rooney on repeat on my Koss UR40s while crying over a girl who wanted nothing to do with me.

The Koss UR40 Headphones I wore like a fashion accessory everyday.

The other thing I wore everyday besides those headphones? Baggy cargo pants (it was acceptable at the time, I swear). Inside the right cargo pocket was my iRiver iHP-120, and clipped to the velcro flap of that cargo pocket was the iHP-115R remote control.

The iHP-120 remote unit

Every function of the iHP-120 could be controlled from this little fucker. Play/pause and stop buttons. Volume, skip track and recording are all here on rocker switches. You could even change the fucking bitrate of playback on this little thing, all without taking the actual mp3 player out of your pocket because the LCD screen on the remote has all the same info you'd get on the main unit.

The remote itself connected to the iRiver with that big plug you can see in the picture above (shamelessly stolen from Nathan Edwards who I worked with at PC Gamer in the late 2000s and only while writing this post discovered has already written a much more professional ode to the beauty of the iHP-120 this year).

You would plug your headphones into the remote, (or in my case you could also plug in your 1988 Chevrolet 2500 suburban's tape deck adaptor and have controls at your fingertips. No more distracted driving).

An image of a 1988 Chevorlet 2500 diesel Suburban. Not super relevant but god I miss my high school suburban. We would take the rear and middle benches out and put a queen-size mattress in the back, which 9 of my friends would ride on as we went to Little Caesar's for lunch. Also, cars just looked way fucking better back then.

I think I'm about done waxing nostalgic, but I really do miss the days of discrete devices—I kind of find myself fighting back against my smartphone. I have a camera I carry around, a pen and paper planner and writing notebook, and a kindle for reading. There's something appealing about not having my phone be my access to music either—rather, having a device that I just threw my music on and it plays it really well was rad. The iHP-120 was really fucking rad.

[multix-ct117]

DK OC Profile:

*notes below*

+++++++++++++++++++++

Video Game Series: Donkey Kong

Name: Danica "Dani" Kong

Alias: Dani, Grease Monkey, Grease/Greaser, Fixit, Goggles, Kong

Species: Yellow-Tailed Woolly Monkey (Oreonax Flavicauda)

Gender: Female

Parents: Rocket Kong (father), Juniper Kong (mother)

Other Relatives: *under construction*

Abilities: mechanical engineering, arboreal acrobatics, driving/kart racing, sketching (blue prints)

Love Interest: Donkey Kong

Allies: DK Crew, Donkey K, Diddy K, Funky K, Dixie K, Cranky K, Wrinkly K, Tiny K, Chunky K, Kiddy K, Lanky K, Swanky K, Eddie The Mean Old Yeti, Redneck Kong, Mario Bros, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toads, Yoshi, Kirby, etc...

Enemies: King K. Rool, Kremling Krew, Tiki Tak Tribe, Snowmads, King Dedede, Kamek, Cactus King, Wizpig, Manky Kongs, Bluster Kong, Minkeys, Bowser, etc...

she was born in the Jungle Kingdom and lives happily with her family. Well.. as happily as she can....

As a child, Dani enjoyed swinging in the trees as much as any other Kong, yet she never went beyond what she knew, preferring to take a more introspective approach. But don't let that fool you.. once Dani has her hands on some old parts and a wrench, she's going full throttle. She may not have as much interest in exploring the outside's greatest mysteries but when it comes to her work, she loves testing the limits. Dani is ambitious and analyzes anything she comes across. She's more reserved compared to her friends but can be just as outspoken, not afraid to tell anyone when she disagrees on a matter. She'd like to say she's a fairly reasonable and easygoing monkey but her own stubbornness has clashed against Cranky and DK's more than once. Although reserved, Dani is friendly to those around her and is devoted to her friends and family. Her ingenuity, reasonable nature, and loyalty to her friends makes her a valuable member of the DK Crew.

As she gets older, her skills in mechanical engineering improve greatly. Dani is responsible for improving kart conditions and track structure. After helping upgrade the Jungle Kingdom Raceway, she further evolved karts to have hang-gliders and even anti-gravity wheels.

Despite her abilities and supportive friends, Dani often puts pressure on herself for not knowing something or being useful. She stays in her own space and is perfectly happy working on her projects, even at the cost of other things in life. In fact, Dani sees no reason why things should change.. that is until a certain ape prince barrel rolls into her life....

Normally, I wouldn't post an OC profile until I have everything lined up, but due to what happened with my previous OC, I'm doing this to stake claims and avoid more conflict.. This post may be edited as I continue tweaking Dani's story, but thoughts and constructive criticism are appreciated (:

[altraviolet]

As the anon that asked the question, tomorrow is a mystery, will I still be around or be taken out of this world by this weird tree branch outside my window? Who knows, I like living in the moment and in this moment, I rather spend all my money supporting my favorite artists/ writers.

Sorry it's a little confusing because everyone is anon but I think this is in response to 'how much would you be willing to pay for a book'? (?)

In which case I hope the weird tree branch stays on the tree and you find great joy in supporting your favs and if I can find a way to make a printed book (or book-like structure) both beautiful and readable and affordable, I will let the world know :)

[ellasccdblog]

Exhibitions to visit:

The buildings notice me - Adam Art Gallery

Notes on each work:

1. The Round - John Harris & Steven Junil Park

This work is immediately entrancing from all angles, a circular curtain containing wooden half cylinder benches, and a structure comprised of a pile of led lights surrounded by a spinning metal fence, allowing light to pass through the gaps filling the whole room with rotating columns of light, connected to a wooden and plastic base, large needles scrape against the plastic producing a low mechanical sounding whirr.

2. Uku-Paka - Doreen Blumhardt & Students

A three dimensional mosaic sculpture representing a student’s journey.

3. To learn, by leaning into the wind - Megan Brady

Two adjacent staircase like wooden beams, supporting large sheets of hanging cloth with threads selectively removed to create a grid like pattern. One half of the cloth is light gray, the other is dark gray. There is a small rock placed on the end of each beam.

This work also has an additional section in another room of the gallery, in addition to a poem written by the artist.

4. Tūrangahakoa - Brook Konia

A wall sculpture comprised of twelve ascending chevrons made of wooden planks, with a zig zag gap left in the centre. The circular joinery is also visible along the centre.

5. Machine song: Gesture 2 - Jim Murphy

Fours pairs of metal rods sat above each other, slowly rising and falling at one end due to a rotating mechanism. On each pair, rests a silver ball, which rolls along the rods with the rise and fall, making a small clang when it hits the end. This piece feels like watching a tv screen saver and waiting for it to hit the corner.

6. Machine Song: Gesture 3 - Jim Murphy

A three by three grid of metal boxes, in the centre of each is a slowly rotating saw blade shaped disc, with a metal piece touching the top, striking the disc as it passes each blade, making a metallic dinging noise.

7. Architectural photographs - Duncan Winder

A series of black and white photographs displayed in six cases made of white wood and glass, each case containing photographs of a different theme/location in nz, with a photograph on the wall above each case. There is also a large photograph printed on the wall at the ends of the room, depicting an oddly shaped building and a tree with no leaves.

8. Te Whare Pora - Mataaho Collective

A large textile work stitched together from twenty black faux mink blankets into a zig zag like pattern, big enough to fill an entire room.

[esgagile]

Innovative Products to Lower Carbon Emissions

We are Carbon footprint consultant in Agile Advisors, "Carbon reduction" will become a required duty in the construction industry's future. Various approaches to producing new materials include 3D printing, recycling, low-carbon substitutes, and performance increases. In addition to being more ecologically friendly and opening up new construction techniques, new materials will also impact the direction and starting point of design concepts, leading to new structures with novel spaces and perspectives. Low-carbon building materials are not just a strategy, but the mainstay of the building materials sector's efforts to curb carbon emissions at the source. These materials, most of which are bio-based, utilize renewable biomass or raw materials from bio-manufacturing. The exterior of the building features two different textures: a laminated surface created using laminated printing and a carefully planned woven pattern texture on the sidewall in front of the door that gives visitors a delicate impression.

Agile Advisors provide Carbon footprint consultant In UAE, they represent a novel class of materials produced through chemical, physical, and biological processes, such as dried luffa fibres, corn stalks, mycelium, microalgae, and more. By reusing agricultural waste, mitigating subsidence, absorbing CO2, and minimizing plastic waste, they are shifting the industry's reliance from fossil to biological or planted resources, thereby significantly reducing carbon emissions. The Alive Pavilion, an entry by The Living Studio to the 2021 Venice Biennale, is a testament to the possibilities of multi-species architecture and the effective utilization of microorganisms. The Pavilion is constructed from the dried fibres of luffa, a low-cost, fast-growing vegetable that thrives in tropical and subtropical regions. These fibres, with their unique surface, create a robust, organic material that can support a variety of microorganisms. The fibre concrete the team developed—which omits formwork and steel bars—was used for cabin printing.

As a Carbon footprint consultant, Hard-to-degrade plastics, construction trash from urban renewal cycles, ceramic waste from ceramic production, etc. Both ceramic and clay tiles are mostly made of clay. Over 10 million tons of ceramics are thrown away annually in China; these solid wastes not only utilize a lot of energy and land resources, such as coal, but they also have high carbon emissions that are above regulations and seriously affect the environment. Ceramic waste disposal has grown to be an issue. A unique example of a recycled construction material made from ceramic waste, the Recycled Tree at Design China Beijing showcases design concepts for addressing China's severe waste material management issue. It was developed in partnership with Italian architect Aldo Cibic.

Being a Carbon footprint consultant In Dubai, the recycled ceramic tiles were gathered, examined, ground into a powder, combined, and subjected to laboratory testing. Materials like wood were eventually supplanted by steel and cement due to their inferior performance; however, the traditional materials are still being revived by modern techniques to enhance their performance. 3D printing technology has broadened design options and altered how architecture is conceptualized. Investigating materials for 3D printing has produced architectural environments with a range of sensations and structures. Furthermore, labour and material costs associated with 3D printing help lower carbon emissions. Two sets of robotic arm printing systems are used to print the cabin: one prints the main structure and building foundation in place, while the other prints the arc wall and dome top in situ.

[aibyrdidini]

Semantic Tree Learning combined with AI.

Semantic Tree Learning is a powerful approach that combines the study of meaning (semantics) with artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Let's jump into the details:

1. Semantic Tree Learning:

Definition: Semantic Tree Learning involves constructing a hierarchical representation (like a tree) of knowledge or concepts, where each node represents a specific concept or meaning. It aims to capture relationships, context, and deeper understanding beyond simple definitions.

Concepts:

Semantic Tree: A structured representation where nodes correspond to concepts and edges denote relationships: hypernyms, hyponyms, synonyms.

Meaning: Understanding the context, nuances, and associations related to words or concepts.

Natural Language Understanding (NLU): AI techniques for comprehending and interpreting human language.

Deep Learning: A subset of machine learning that uses neural networks with multiple layers to learn complex patterns.

First Principles: Fundamental building blocks or core concepts in a domain.

2. Examples of Applying Semantic Tree Learning with AI:

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants:

Use semantic trees to understand the user. queries and provide context-aware responses.

Apply NLU models to extract meaning from user input.

Information Retrieval:

Build semantic search engines that understand user intent beyond keyword matching.

Combine semantic trees with vector embeddings (exemple, BERT) for better search results.

Medical Diagnosis:

Create semantic trees for medical conditions, symptoms, and treatments.

Use AI to match patient symptoms to relevant diagnoses.

Automated Content Generation:

Construct semantic trees for topics (exemple, climate change, finance).

Generate articles, summaries, or reports based on semantic understanding.

3.Python Snippets (Proof of Concept):

Example 1: Semantic Tree for Food Ingredients:

```python

# Define a semantic tree for food ingredients

ingredients_tree = {

'fruits': ['apple', 'banana', 'orange'],

'vegetables': ['carrot', 'spinach', 'tomato']

}

```

Example 2: Semantic Search using BERT:

```python

# Use BERT embeddings for semantic search

from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer

model = SentenceTransformer('bert-base-nli-mean-tokens')

query = "healthy salad recipe"

search_results = get_top_k_similar_documents(query, model)

```

Example 3: Medical Diagnosis with Semantic Trees**:

```python

# Medical conditions and symptoms

conditions_tree = {

'heart disease': ['chest pain', 'shortness of breath'],

'diabetes': ['excessive thirst', 'frequent urination']

}

```

Example 4: Context-Aware Chatbot:

```python

# Chatbot using semantic understanding

def chatbot_response(user_input):

if 'weather' in user_input:

return "The weather is sunny today!"

elif 'recipe' in user_input:

return "Here's a healthy salad recipe."

else:

return "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

user_query = "What's the weather like?"

print(chatbot_response(user_query))

```

4. Applications:

Customer Support: Chatbots that understand user queries and provide relevant solutions.

Search Engines: Enhancing search results by considering context and meaning.

Healthcare: Diagnosing diseases based on symptoms and medical history.

Content Generation: Creating context-aware articles, summaries, or recommendations.

Semantic Tree Learning combined with AI can revolutionize how we understand and solve complex problems, bridging the gap between human-like comprehension and machine capabilities.

RDIDINI PROMPT ENGINEER

[innerweb]

epiphany + update

part i — update last night, after my brother went home i read out loud john o'donohue's book of irish blessings. i was not expecting anything besides sitting with the resonance of words. i ordered my brother a copy of anam cara because i think he would deeply connect to it. and i love the idea of gifting him a new book he can read on the train to work. i woke up a little late today, dropping off a package for my girlfriend and meeting up with my housemates to walk around the new ikea downtown. i ran into friends and a drag queen smiled at me, while i held my blohaj. a girl gifted me a sailor moon pin she made as we stood in line for meatballs. my gf even popped into the ikea cafe in hong kong and sent us photos of her time there. everything just felt sweet. after, i decided that i still had so much energy. and the way the light cast on the trees and the buildings led me down a journey through the park. i listened to my audiobook and sat in the park outlining the pages one of my personal zines. that was the deal with myself, is that i would give this personal project some more overarching structure and set it into motion. i feel like i exceeded it today. and even wrote some more for it. after that, i spent some time admiring how beautiful everyone looks when they're present in nature. everyone seems to glow, when they're connecting with themselves or another human being. i feel very grateful to have witnessed that today, and hope to carry that feeling with me for a while.

i bought a zine, a graphic novel, a vegan donut, and some chocolate milk as a little treat for myself — the books felt related to the personal work and ideas i have been ruminating on. and the food was a treat for exceeding my personal exercise goal for the day.

i still have some final edits to do on my zine that's getting sent to the riso printer by end of week, but my feeling is that i will have a fresher, more focused mind in the morning to carry all of my freelance tasks out. overall i feel in alignment with myself, and i think i will be reading my irish blessings before bed from now on. part ii — epiphany i realize after all of this time,

i was meant to combine my love for visualizing (art + design) and with my love for writing (poetry + long-form).

they were never meant to be separate. i think i realize this as i have been working in physical printed artifacts. words flow out of me so easily. and i think creating a visual landscape to support and compliment written words brings me such joy.

this realization is illuminating as to why i look at the world and certain objects the way i do. and where i should go from here.

[xtruss]

Climate-Friendly Buildings That Look Great and Do Their Part for the Planet

— By Fan Chen | April 04, 2023

Buildings, from construction to operation, generate about 40 percent of annual global CO2 emissions. Architects worldwide are offering their solutions to transform these structures into sustainable, self-sufficient systems that can even help slow down global warming. From a vertical garden in Singapore or a bamboo arch in Indonesia to a 3D-printed house in Italy or giant timber "mushrooms" in Spain, here are carbon-neutral structures and prototypes with great design—visually and environmentally.

Urban Treehouse, Populus, Denver

Populus, set to open in late 2023 in downtown Denver, aims to be the United States' first climate-positive hotel by using sustainable materials in the construction process and planting more than 700,000 trees offsite. Its stylish, triangular shape takes inspiration from the aspen tree, often associated with Colorado; its sculptural white facade is covered in windows that mimic the eye-shaped marks on tree trunks. The 13-story, 265-room building also features a rooftop with native plants and a skyline stretching to the Rocky Mountains.

No Footprint House in Costa Rica. Fernando Alda

Indoor-Outdoor Living, No Footprint House, Ojochal, Costa Rica

This tropical house sits in a small village at the edge of a vast rainforest. The prototype's wooden facade panels are customized for the climate with slats that can be opened or closed to connect the inside and out, and to let air flow through and sunlight drench the room. The slanted roof protects the house from heavy rainfall and harvests solar energy, forming a self-sufficient power system.

A-Block Building rendering in Canada. Dialog/Centennial College

Art of Timber, A-Block Building, Scarborough, Canada

Slated to be completed this year, this large, laminated timber building at Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology is likely Canada's first carbon-neutral higher education facility. The highly transparent six-story building offsets carbon emissions by using locally sourced wood and rooftop photovoltaic panels to generate energy.

Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain. Sylvain Sonnet/Getty

Shade and Play, Metropol Parasol, Seville, Spain

At public Plaza de la Encarnación, numerous glued veneers and more than 3,000 connection nodes are joined to create six giant timber parasols, known as the Mushrooms of Seville for their fungi-like shape. To explore this engineering adventure and one of the largest wooden structures in the world, climb to its top and trek along the winding walkway for stunning views of the city and see how the roof grid and solar cells provide energy to lower-level restaurants and markets.

Tecla House in Italy. WASP and Mario Cucinella Architect

Not Dot Matrix, Tecla House, Massa Lombarda, Italy

In a case of dreams becoming reality, this house in Ravenna is the product of 3D printers. Tecla, a combination of "technology" and "clay," is a prototype of eco-friendly emergency housing. Made of locally sourced clay and mainly biodegradable materials, the dome-shaped shell ensures the house's stability, blocks outdoor heat and allows daylight to flow from wall to wall. It takes only 200 hours to build each unit with 3D-printing technology, further reducing carbon emissions during construction.

Rwanda Institute of Conservation. Iwan Baan/Mass Design Group

Solar-Powered Habitat, Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA), Gashora, Rwanda

In one of the most impoverished districts in Rwanda, architects are building an ecological model with big impact. Completely powered by an on-site solar array, structures on the campus are built from local materials and require no electrical lighting. The array, the largest in Rwanda, also supports crop irrigation and waste recycling systems.

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. Nigel Young

Desert Cool Zone, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Khalifa University's sustainability-focused research institute features a large solar field and facades made of low-carbon materials to serve as a thermal barrier against the intense desert sun. The campus building, with its intricate latticework in traditional Islamic design and its undulating dome, consumes less than half the potable water and electricity compared to UAE's average buildings and generates 60 percent more energy.

Oasia Hotel Downtown in Singapore. Roslan Rahman/Getty

Vertical Rainforest Habitat, Oasia Hotel Downtown, Singapore

Amid the metallic high-rises in downtown Singapore, this floral, leafy skyscraper looks like an overgrown furry monster from afar. Aimed at recreating an entire ecosystem, the tower includes an open-air sky garden. The 88-foot-high vertical garden includes 21 species of climbing plants that form a living facade for the red-hued building and attract various wildlife, such as birds, squirrels and lizards.

The Arc at Green School in Bali, Indonesia. Tommaso Riva

Breezy Boater, The Arc at Green School, Bali, Indonesia

At first glance, what looks like a giant folded straw hat that the wind might carry off to the nearby Indian Ocean is, in fact, the curved roof of this school's gymnasium. The private institution in the jungle advocates sustainability education. Bamboo arches stretching 62 feet are bent to form a 45-foot-high natural shelter that resembles the shape of a mammal's rib cage. Maximizing space with minimal materials, this unparalleled structure lets the breezes provide natural air conditioning.

The Pixel Building on Queensberry St, Carlton. The building has the distinction of being Australia's first carbon neutral commercial building, and implementing several green-friendly initiatives. Getty Images

Tangram Model, Pixel Building, Melbourne, Australia

Outside Australia's first carbon-neutral office building, an assembly of recycled, colorful panels maximizes daylight and minimizes glare. Inside, a carefully designed water capture- and storage-system that includes rainfall filtration and vacuum toilets guarantees all the building's non-potable water needs. Opened 13 years ago, Pixel remains a model for green buildings—low-carbon concrete, energy self-sufficient and design-forward.

[aonemodelmaking]

3D Miniature Model Making | Landscape Model Making

3D miniature model making is a fascinating and intricate art form that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The process involves using 3D printing technology to create detailed, scaled-down replicas of real-life objects, buildings, and landscapes.

One of the biggest advantages of 3D miniature model making is its accuracy and precision. With the help of computer software, designers can create extremely detailed and complex models that accurately represent the original object or structure. This level of accuracy and precision is not possible with traditional miniature model-making techniques.

The process of creating a 3D miniature model begins with a 3D design created using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The design is then sent to a 3D printer, which prints the model layer by layer using a variety of materials such as plastics, resins, and metals.

The printing process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the size and complexity of the model. Once the printing is complete, the model is removed from the printer and any excess material is removed using various tools and techniques.

The final step in the process is finishing and painting the model to give it a realistic look and feel. This involves using various techniques such as sanding, polishing, and painting to create a finished product that accurately represents the original object or structure.

3D miniature model making has a wide range of applications, including architecture, engineering, film and television, and gaming. Architects and engineers use 3D miniature models to visualize and test building designs before construction begins, while filmmakers and game designers use them to create realistic and detailed sets and landscapes.

Overall, 3D miniature model making is a fascinating and highly specialized art form that offers a level of accuracy and precision that traditional miniature model making techniques simply cannot match. With the help of 3D printing technology, designers can create stunning and intricate models that accurately represent the original object or structure, making it an invaluable tool in a wide range of industries.

Landscape Model Making

Landscape model making is a fun and creative activity that can help you bring your outdoor space to life. Whether you’re creating a model of your backyard, a park, or a favorite natural area, a landscape model can help you visualize your ideas and plan your design.

To get started with landscape model making, you’ll need a few basic materials. These include:

A base material: You can use a variety of materials for the base of your model, such as foam board, plywood, or even cardboard. Choose a material that is sturdy enough to support your model and that is the right size for your project.

Landscaping materials: You’ll need materials such as sand, rocks, gravel, and soil to create the terrain of your model. You can also use materials like artificial grass or moss to create the look of vegetation.

Trees and shrubs: Trees and shrubs are an important part of any landscape, so you’ll need to include them in your model. You can use model trees and shrubs, or create your own using wire and modeling clay.

Buildings and structures: If you’re creating a model of a park or a backyard, you’ll need to include buildings and other structures such as fences, benches, and playground equipment.

Once you have your materials, you can start building your landscape models. Begin by creating the terrain of your model using sand, rocks, and other landscaping materials. Use glue to secure the materials in place.

Next, add trees and shrubs to your model. Place them in areas where they would naturally grow, and vary their size and shape to create a realistic look.

If you’re including buildings or structures in your model, add them next. Use modeling clay or other materials to create the structures, and place them in the appropriate locations.

Finally, add any finishing touches to your model, such as small details like flowers or animals. Use your imagination to make your model as realistic and detailed as possible.

When your model is complete, step back and admire your work! You can use your model to plan out your actual outdoor space, or simply enjoy it as a fun and creative project. With landscape model making, the possibilities are endless!

Conclusion : 

A One Model Making Company is a leading miniature model making company based in India. We specialize in creating highly detailed and accurate all types of 3d miniature models of buildings, monuments, landmarks, and other objects. Our team of skilled and experienced model makers uses the latest technology and materials to create visually stunning and durable models.

[reder]

Review – Pomera DM250

What is Pomera?

Pomera is the name of “portable digital memo pad” devices from King Jim, a Japanese company that mainly sells stationery.

I have always wanted to get one but was scared away by the Japanese keyboard and user interface. I recently knew that Pomera actually has a full English UI and supports the US keyboard layout, so I decided to get the latest version – Pomera DM250. Since Yen was down this year, I decided to take the chance and got one myself.

Hardware

My first impression is that the size is bigger than I thought, then I realized it comes with a full 80-key keyboard. It weights about 620 g and the size is 263×120×18 mm.

The keyboard feels like what you would expect for a portable keyboard, and even with this expectation it’s on the weak side. I won’t say the keyboard is joyful to type, as I am used to the mechanical keyboard I got half year ago. The typing sound is quiet, so there shouldn’t be an issue to use in a quiet setting.

The keyboard layout will take some time to get used to. I started with a lot of errors, then I realized that the keyboard is actually a bit leaning toward the left side. It supports the US layout so I don’t need to learn the Japanese one, but the print is in the Japanese layout. They provide stickers to “overwrite” the print, though I haven’t use them because most of my muscle memory is correct.

At the start, I didn’t know why sometimes the keyboard gives me double typing even though I didn’t feel I did that. It’s probably because of the typing depth is shallow and without the ability to bounce back, so I kept my finger on a key for too long. The other reason may be because of the “simultaneous key determine time”, and I changed it from the longest possible to the shortest possible. This seems to reduce the chances it detects false double clicking.

The screen is a monochrome TFT and have the ability to adjust the brightness. It’s big enough that editing is workable to perform. The battery is enough, similar to my experience with a Kindle. With my heavy first-week usage, it went down to about 40%. It is quiet enough if the battery can last for two weeks. The charging time seems to be longer than I expected, as the first full charge is about 6 hours if I remembered correctly. It is a fingerprint magnet, where the fingerprints are very easy to stick on the exterior. This is top complain I have, even though it doesn’t affect the usage.

Writing/editing

It’s a pretty decent writing/editing environment. There are several available font size with 2 available fonts. The adjustable backlight makes it comfortable to write in different light settings. There are keyboard shortcuts that are like the Windows settings to help navigate through the document.

It has the outline feature to break down large documents into small sections and jump to a specific header. The headers in the outline is also hierarchical, so I can see the tree structure based on the headers. It can split the screen into two to compare different sections of a document or even a different document. Those are useful editing features that I didn’t expected this device to provide.

I like the ability of having grids when I write. I never use a text editor that provides this functionality, but I feel more calm and organized when turning on the grids. The built-in font may not be my favor, but there is at least one font that I am comfortable living with. I have never been a template guy but I started to use the template function within it.

Content sharing

Pomera is meant to be a device for drafting so it supports several ways to get the document out. The quickest way is to generate QR codes and scan them with the Pomera companion app. Then the doc can be shared through the sharing menu on an iPhone. One may also use the wifi sharing to connect the app to the device directly. One may also connect the device through a USB cable to a computer and it will work like an external drive. There is another way to send the document out through email, though I never use it.

To me, the most convenient way is to use a SD card to save and transfer the documents. Based on the company policy, I shouldn’t share or store anything online, so I can’t use lots of online services. With Pomera, I can type a draft, store it in an SD card, and load it in my work laptop. I can also go the other way to transfer my existing notes quickly and seamlessly to the device.

How to get one?

I would recommend going through Amazon.jp to purchase one, given the reasonable price you will get and the shipping should be uneventful. This is the route I took, but YMMV. The price on eBay is almost double compared to the Amazon JP price, so I can’t think of a good reason buying there.

Note that on the box it says that “This product is for use only in Japan”, so I assume the warranty is non-existed. Please use your own judgement.

Verdict

Pomera is now my favorite “thinking” device. As a distraction free writing device, it does what I would expect and more. I am able to write and think more than an hour until I realized it.

It is also a convenient brain-dumping device. I only need to wait for 4 seconds to get into an environment that is ready for me to type down any thoughts that I have.

I also use it for note taking, even though I won’t be able to do note linking and see backlinks on it.

I know I am still in the honeymoon period as I am trying to do as much as I can with it, but I am sure it will at least be a fantastic device for initial drafts.

Appendix: My feature wishlist

Below are a couple of wishes that I have, written in the “user story” format. They range from “this should be easy to do” to “why will they do that”. I share them more like a public rant, but this may help you understand the limitations or problems.

As a Pomera user:

I want to have the word count instead of the character count in English so I can know how long a document is.

I want to save calendar entries to the SD card so I can view and edit them on my computer through the SD card.

I wan to have a better exterior painting so the device doesn’t look dirty.

I want to have an e-ink screen with backlight so I can keep staring at the screen and don’t have sore eyes.

I want to have backlighted keyboard so I can type in dark.

I want to have a keyboard with more feedback so I can enjoy the typing.

I want a built-in English to English dictionary so I can look up words when writing.

I want to have a English keyboard version so I don’t need to rely on stickers.

I want the ability to connect other bluetooth keyboard as the input source so I can use my mechanic keyboard if I prefer.

[harleyjohnsonbcu]

Project Evaluation

My project is constructed of a sketchbook, final outcome and blog which display a range of samples I have created based on my primary images that aims to project 'the story of me'. My blog explains what new processes I have learnt and an evaluation of my samples including how they link to my narrative, how have i been inspired by other artists/ designers and how successful I feel my samples are.

My research has assisted my design journey because it has inspired me to use similar techniques or ideas in my work during the different workshops. For example Anastasia Savinova inspired me to duplicate windows in my tessellation collage to cover up walls or other sections of the building to create a similar trippy effect like her artwork. This therefore communicates my narrative by accentuating the beauty of the architecture. I have looked at different designers and artists throughout to see what elements of their art I can recreate to make my samples support my narrative.

(Anastasia Savinova, 2022)

I have interpreted my primary images in many different ways such as making them more abstract and simplified for example the flowers in the grass and the Koi within the water. I have recreated certain images with mark making or embroidery such as a cat laying on stone or a flowering tree. These link to my project as they communicate my narrative by accentuating the beauty in my photographs found in my everyday life by exaggerating the shapes, colours or textures more in my images.

In response to my primary research I practically included elements in all the workshops, for example in weave I used unconventional materials such as plastic, paper and ribbon to weave with inspired by Lucy Poskitt and also keeping sustainability in mind. In embroidery, I was inspired by Christopher Kane dresses to experiment with bunching the fabric and creating ruffles to create a wave like texture. I have also used this in my final piece on my fashion illustration to begin to see what they could look like on a garment like Christopher Kane.

(Lucy Poskitt, 2017) (Christohper Kane, 2022)

I have learnt so many practical skills throughout every workshop. In weave I learnt basic plain weave and started to experiment with different lifting plans to create different weave structures. Most of my weave was successful such as my plain weave and most lifting patterns completed successfully creating different patterns such as twill zigzag. However when I weaved with paper, I did not use a continuous yarn thread so the paper didn't stay in the weave successfully.

In print I learned screen printing, heat transfer printing using disperse dye and sublimation printing. My screen printing was mostly successful however sometimes I didn't pull the binder across enough times so the print turned out not as vibrant as I wanted it to. I also found it hard to create detailed stencils with the magazine pages so some of my prints weren't as refined as I'd want them to be such as the flowers on this woodland print. I enjoyed the heat transfer printing because it was quicker and more vibrant that screen printing. For this reason most of my samples were successful but on some the dye turned out a different colour once it had been put through the heat press which altered the outcome of my samples. With sublimation printing, I managed to create some really successful samples however some did print correctly as I learnt that it will not transfer onto darker colour fabric.

In embroidery I learnt a range of techniques such as hand embroidery, machine embroidery making pleats, pin tucs, directional tucs, layering and fraying, free hand embroidery, applique,reverse applique and experimentation with aqua film. My free hand embroidery was mostly successful however sometimes It got stuck in the machine so for some samples I needed to work on longer than others. My aqua-film was a success as I joined all my stitches so they all stayed in place once I washed the film away. My reverse applique was somewhat successful however I stacked my fabrics in the wrong places so it didn't turn out how I had planned although I still managed to make it resemble the background of the stone framed by the blue fence.

My experimentation was particularly successful in my mark making and my collage work. By doing experimental mark making with different forms of media and tools such as paint, dye, markers and paintbrushes, forks and toothbrushes I was able to create a variety of samples that I used to print with or place behind embroidery to provide abstract backgrounds or textures to link my narrative such as my paintwork mimicking the sky to recreate my primary image of the Aston village. Some of my collages were made by experimenting with putting images in different places and seeing how it turned out. For example using a previously printed with picture to create a blurry look to my church sunset collage. I can refine my experiments by ensuring they look polished for example how I added some mark-making on the back of my collage to complete the sample.

[catwint]

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