#it was still A Lot but it was 50% off plus i got an extra $200 off so i didnt really wanna pass up the opportunity lol

[tinakibed]

bought a laptop to play so much palworld at work 😏👍

[naumin]

november updates

ok so i know november ended yesterday, i did think about titling this post december updates but i know december will be a whole different beast for me... just let me have this... it's been a really long time since i sat down and talked about all my recent projects and goings on!!!! so in case you missed what i've been up to, read on... :)

the free Laios/Marcille fanthology I organised is OUT!!! no tall towers to climb (https://naumin.itch.io/laimar) came out November 10th, and erm only 5 days later than scheduled... it's a big boy at 112 pages with contributions from 14 fans !! I had so much fun organising this and was really touched by the love and care ppl put into their works... fans are so powerful... it's free to download and read digitally or even print and bind your own copy (I am really excited to see your printed and bound copies if you have made them please dont hesitate to @ me...) I love books.. i love making books...

I don't have plans to organise a Volume II however I did start writing a post of my process to maybe help and encourage anyone else who'd like to start a project like this one. It got really lengthy though and I wasn't sure if it was helpful to anyone lol so when I have a minute I really gotta go and edit that thing down

also nobody asked me but the title is based on a poem by 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji. i guess the tower reminded me of their dungeon misadventures hehe.

also did i mention it's FREE! !!!!!!!

7 months of subscribestar I've officially been making new posts on substar every single week since May ! It's been really fun tbh and I don't have plans of slowing down yet :) I really appreciate everyone who's visited and it makes a huge difference even just subscribing for 1 month or 2, just having that little extra to help out on months where I can't take as many commissions or I'm sick or away from home etc! You may have noticed I've added a tip jar tier ($2.5) for those who can't manage the $6 sketchbook tier... on principle I wanna make it lower but after fees it'd be zilch and I am kind of like if you have $2... maybe hold onto that. lol. maybe use that somewhere else. you can always make 1-time donations through substar or ko-fi (yeah, I have one...) my next projects...

Ballet Yuri Year One, the compilation book of one year of works on Ilze & Evangeline, whos 1st birthday was in September and I haven't had time to look at the files since October but I will look at them again soon-- last spot I left it, it was at least 30 pages... I think it will definitely be double that and could possibly be triple that (omg).

NERD SEX VOLUME III my annual NSFW sketchbook which traditionally comes out around January/February! I'm delusional that this one will be the simplest to put together and so it might be the next thing you see from me. It will be available for all subscribers as soon as it's ready. I also gotta remember to upload Nerd Sex I & II at the same time. for those who dont wanna subscribe, you can get 50% off Nerd Sex I & II in the meantime now :) also i forsee about 300% more lesbians in Nerd Sex III. It's the year of the dyke.

A collaborative NSFW anthology coming next year. This one has a longer production period to give everyone time to work and give me time to get organised lol. Hopefully you'll hear more about this one in the new year! It's for the boys and the ppl who love boys <3

the issues oh my god I've been having technical issues with my ipad the last month. I keep getting random lines and marks while drawing in procreate ! A lot of people said it could be my sweater or hand or case touching the screen while I draw but I don't think that is it, plus it's only started recently. It's not my pen and it's not my settings. it apparently COULD be a technical issue with my ipad model which would suck cuz I got this refurbished (from Apple still) so do i have like..... warranty? will they repair it for me :S? idk. I'll have to look into it though sooner or later cuz it's driving me bananas and slowing my output! AGH! I pray she heals on her own overnight. amen.

commissions I am NOT taking any new commissions in December (unless you are a $10 subscriber) but I am still doing the KISS YCH which also has a very cute wintery version up for this month only lol. same price! check it out if you wanna see your pookies under the mistletoe <3 would make a great present to you or someone u know...

alright that's all. thanks for reading my updates post. did anyone read this whole post besides me? thanks for being there for a while whilst i talked to myself before you presumably left and did something more fun and enriching. i love you.

[accio-victuuri]

💟 yh family concert vlog cpns & some yibo thoughts…💭💬

thank you to yibo-official for feeding us with some content this weekend. it’s been kinda quiet since friday, so this is a sweet treat for everyone before monday comes in.

( excuse this very extra gif i’m using for this post. lol. i’ve just been obsessed w/ how yibo looks in this. the way he turned his head is so cute. soooo… ☺️ )

YBO is back. or the question is, did they ever leave? lol. ever since that news/rumor came out, together with the lrlg post, I was still 50/50. Because it’s hard to confirm things, especially ones that involve his career and what’s allegedly going on. However with the content that’s being released, from OnO to now, it has the same feel as the original YBO. who knows. I’m just happy, like everyone else, to see this kind of updates from his team.

Yibo is not really one to share much personal stuff anymore on his social media accounts so YBO is so important. Plus the fact that they regularly update their IG too ( remember to interact on their please! ) for us international fans gives them plus points in my book.

It’s also a relief to see the negative comments wind down to being non existent. I truly understand why some fans feel the need to complain, but ybo is not really that place. I personally don’t like the idea of acting like an anti in a space that represents yibo. that could just be me tho.

Anyway, I hope we get more! I wanna see the bts footage they have with BTF & One and Only! I feel like they spoiled us with HB’s 1 hour + BTS footage so we’re all expecting to get the same for BTF & OnO. BTF has some restrictions i guess with what they can share since some filming were done in military sites.

Now I wanna highlight this portion of the vlog, with WYB being in a good mood during the last part of the concert.

This was the part where some people were saying that he looked ‘unhappy’, implying that’s because he didn’t wanna be there / cause there are mostly bxgs who attended. however, this clip, and a lot of the moments on the blog told a different story.

He was obviously not dragged in there — crying and screaming to perform. He was invested with his performance. He looked happy to be with his professional “family”. It’s an example of some fans having their own biased interpretation with this event. I respect those who decided to not attend, it’s their choice and money. But it was really irritating to see them nag and bitch about those who decided to support yibo. Plus it’s their own money. They can spend it however they want.

Funny thing is, those big name accounts who were so vocal about being against Yuehua Ent. & attending — did in fact, attend the concert 😂😂😂 so yeah. It’s an age old story. Don’t believe big name accounts, especially on weibo. These KOLs that “lead” fan opinion can be very shady. At the end of the day, we’re all here to support WYB and his projects in the best way we can. 🙏🏼

=====================================

🍫🍦 TIME FOR SOME SUGAR/CPNS !!!! 🍭🧁

=====================================

The fact that the video is 8:05 minutes long which is an example of how kadian/numbers are important. Well, not all the time, but the team takes that into consideration. So if you see them pulling a 10:05, that would be very sus 👀

As usual, some editing similarities….

Again, editing similarities, even if there are so many could still be a coincidence but it’s fun to still pay attention.

Also the details in YIBITO. He has the apple watch! I will never get over the fact that this “detail” is being highlighted like this when it is a popular cpn among turtles and we always look for it.

Some also noticed this “….” Which we don’t know the relevance of, but it could be a clue that LRLG is from Bobo’s team. This is unusual for me, cause ellipsis are usually “…” right?

I’m taking it as a galaxy brain cpn 🌌

ZZ also allegedly got off work today at 19:22, and then ybo posts @ 19:36. Yes, WYB has his own team but since we CPN that their staff could overlap — this timing is interesting. Maybe it needed a final sign off from the other boss? 😂😂😂😂

SHOUT OUT TO BOTTLED JOY, cause WYB was seen using some during the bts. He also took one with him in the Thailand roadshow. So i guess it’s safe to say that he has a good relationship with the brand, despite what others feel about them. He wouldn’t be showing off if he wasn’t. I’m looking forward to his renewal with them and what new stuff & campaign will be in place. BXGs will surely be lining up to support.

-END

[aemiron-main]

Something Hungry for Blood vs Brenner Sr “Consuming” Blood

Thinking about all Mike talking about “something hungry for blood” in S1:

Vs Brenner Sr “consuming” blood when getting his blood transfusions in TFS (even though the transfusions didn’t work because his blood type had changed, he was still using up the blood while they tried to make it work) vs “when 001 kills he consumes” vs the Brennergorgon & Doppelganger-Demogorgon stuff & the way that Greater Doppelgangers can consume the memories, personality etc of their victims…

And then “hungry for blood,” versus the “hungry One” line from S3 and the fact that when 001 got sent to Dimension X, he ended up weirdly resembling Brenner (which also extends to Brenner Sr) during his transformation, which is extra weird considering that Brenner Sr also ended up in Dimension X due to project rainbow:

What’s extra interesting though, is that while the “hungry for blood,” line is still connected to the Demogorgon because it was meant to be a fake-out for the Demogorgon/to trick the party into thinking it was the Demogorgon when the Demogorgon wasn’t there yet, it was actually about Troglodytes initially:

And what’s interesting about Troglodytes, and specifically the idea of Troglodytes being connected to Brenner Sr, is the fact that Troglodytes tend to drag victims back to their caves to eat them:

Which, TFS Henry vanished into a cave prior to the events of TFS, and seemingly may have ended up in Dimension X during that time- versus Brenner Sr also ending up in Dimension X, and then there’s the fact that Troglodytes take their victims to caves to eat them versus all of the “something hungry for blood” vs brenner sr consuming blood stuff i just talking about PLUS the fact that henry “changed” the same way brenner sr did/seems to have the same sort of weird new blood type as brenner sr, meaning that he would be the only person whose blood brenner sr could Actually use/“consume… Brenner sr and/or brenner jr, quick, did you guys try and take some of henry’s blood in the cave to try and save brenner sr or something?? Like with the context of time fuckery/time not being linear/the idea that blood from henry in the 50s could be used back in the 40s to save brenner sr…. There’s just something rattling there.

Troglodytes can also a.) chameleon to change their skin colour/blend in with their surroundings which then connects to all of the shapeshifter-doppelganger-demogorgon stuff, and also connects them to the project rainbow stuff because the elridge was trying to turn invisible/chameleon itself with its surroundings and b.) they can literally smell fear, which has me staring at all of the fear stuff in TFS/the way that the MF seems almost feed off of fear vs all of brenner sr’s connections to the shadow Plus the way that TFS brenner jr seems to try and scare henry & also purposefully flickers the light, scaring the inmate:

Anyway. Lots to think about!

[orchidshroomgardenselfships]

You seem to have many f/os from Cookie Run Kingdom! So, what are your adventures like with them? Do you all go together in a group? Is there any places of scenery, villages or areas that you pass by that you guys like to relax together during your journeys? :)

(@/make-my-dream)

Hi! Thank you for your ask!! I got a little rambly with providing extra context, I apologize in advance!

So the way I perceive it is that uhhh there's like. different almost?? alternate timeline orchid cookies if that makes sense? i'm admittedly still figuring it out! this post gets long, so I’m putting this under a readmore!

They don't all go together as a group depending on a lot of things, but sometimes there's crossover! Due to Orchid cookie's bard work, she moves around a lot, and has been a lot of places! Sometimes they'll come along, sometimes they don't! Generally, though, Every Orchid cookie ship is a different timeline! I do this admittedly so I don’t get overwhelmed and overthink a ton.

For Captain Caviar cookie and Orchid cookie: On occasion, When the salty sharks are between medics before a voyage, and need someone to fill in, when Orchid’s there, she usually takes up that position, seeing as she’s a healer class! She’s not a permanent crew member by any means, but her presence is generally welcomed aboard, as- well, healers are good to have! Plus, due to being a bard, she knows how to keep morale up.

Generally, when they stop at places, it tends to be to either drop off and restock supplies. So they tend to stop at all sorts of places! Generally, the whole crew tends to dip into taverns to unwind (:

Capsaicin cookie and Orchid cookie: Honestly…? They’ve both probably seen a lot. See, here’s the thing. They both have energy that just… bounces off the other. When you put them together there’s a 50/50 chance of an infinite feedback loop being created. /pos

That being said, I feel like a lot of their (smaller scale) adventures are very impromptu- it can be anywhere from “Hey do you wanna go get ice cream” (it is three am) to “We should plan a roadtrip or something. We could make it a whole thing and bring some friends along.”

honestly for them their adventures and destinations are very very varied! A constant though is that no matter the place, cuddling is p much always on the table when resting! (:

Purple yam cookie and Orchid cookie: Admittedly this is my least developed of the Orchid cookie ships- I haven’t figured out as much for it yet, but In their timeline they met while Orchid was travelling! And then they either just kept running into one another. Like. It just kept happening. Eventually they became friends. When Orchid on occassion joins up with them and their group for things, they tend to stop in all kinds of places! One of the most memorable, though, was when they were camping outside, somewhere snowy, with a clear view of the sky, and there was an Aurora borealis (:

Pitaya dragon cookie and Orchid cookie: This one is still in wip too, but! They met during legend of the red dragon! (Crk) While the group was in a tavern, Orchid happened to be performing there, aaaand through some happenstance, because Orchid cookie sure is great at Getting Herself Into Situations she ended up being brought along. Orchid’s good with children, so she definitely helped care for Snapdragon, (who she now considers her child). Pitaya slowly became endeared to her over the course of all of that, and now… (: So in terms of that, the group tended to stop at a lot of different places.

Butter roll cookie and Orchid cookie Hoya cookie: Butter roll is admittedly a fairly new f/o, so how him and my self insert met isn’t as solidified yet but…! Fun fact! In a few timelines, Orchid cookie gets cursed to turn into an eldritch looking creature! After that happens, she changes her name, and essentially ends up (willingly) getting taken in by the cookies of darkness for study. During this, she meets Butter roll, who was not NEARLY as terrified or cautious as others who’d seen her in her now cursed form were?? Butter roll would often take Hoya cookie outside the lab, with the excuse of “This is an important test! This is part of a test I’m conducting.” …It really was just a way for them to hang out outside the lab, though. Hoya’s memory is… foggy, sometimes, but her favourite place she went with Butter roll was just… outside. Into a forest. But if Hoya’s being honest, it’s the intention that really makes her smile so much. ✿✿✿✿ Taglist: @mistercage @dolphboi @berryshipbasket @staticshipstation @wulfums

[blackjackkent]

Lorroakan bossfight report!

Our buddy the mean wizard has four myrmidons on hand (earth, air, water, fire), plus an animated armor named Krank, and a dwarf named Miklaur.

The dwarf is kind of perplexing; all of the myrmidons have triple digit hit points, Krank has 50, Lorroakan himself has 98, and Miklaur the dwarf has... 8.

He's level 1! He's just a little guy! I don't know what the hell he's doing here or why he's in this fight.

Very strange.

Shoutout to Rolan, though! Unlike Aradin, he has been eating his Wheaties since Act 1 and is now level 12 like us!

The myrmidons are all thicc but not particularly scary; their primary function is to buff Lorroakan himself, who gets extra elemental damage for each one that is still on the field:

Realistically I think Hector (who does primarily Fists damage) could probably beat Lorroakan up regardless, but to do this fight as it is meant to be done, I think we want to get the myrmidons off the field ASAP.

Gale's Counterspell did a lot of work in this fight, as any time Lorroakan's turn came up was generally the scariest moment. Gale also managed to successfully Banish one of the myrmidons which was the first time we've done that successfully. XD

I was actually going to try to leave Miklaur alive since he seemed so useless and out of place in the fight but Aylin IMMEDIATELY obliterated him off the field.

I'm literally watching all of Rolan's combat logs and cheering him on. I think I've come to the conclusion that Hector feels distinctly paternal towards all of the tieflings at this point and it's rubbing off on me, because I'm sitting here cheering about Rolan having his own "Rolan's Magic Missile" spell like an overenthusiastic parent at a T-ball game.

Atta boy!

Lorroakan lost his entire third turn because he was stupid enough to run away from the earth elemental Gale summoned onto the field, and it bitchslapped him straight onto the floor, which was VERY satisfying to watch.

I actually kind of take back everything snarky I said about Aylin's combat back in Act 2; she rocked this fight. Maybe we'll blame the Ketheric fight on her having been in lockup for a century and needed to warm up. Look at this set of crits she got on a the Hold-Monster'd Water Mymidon:

Beautiful. Meanwhile Hector, who's usually flattening everything, spent the whole fight stunned. XD Everyone has an off day I guess.

Once the myrmidons were taken care of, Lorroakan folded like wet tissue paper. I actually skipped through a couple turns to let Rolan get the killing blow:

Get his ass. \o/

[mdhwrites]

Fire Trailblazer is Slept on Too Hard

Since I got him, he has been a permanent part of my team. Literally only Skaracabaz has ever convinced me to take him out. He was my sole sustainer until Phantylia, at which point I rocked dual sustainers with him and Bailu and I have cleared up to Conundrum 6 of Gold and Gears with him as my SOLE sustainer running Nihility.

And very reasonably you might ask "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?"

They (and sorry that I'll likely use He a lot in this, I have Caelus) don't look impressive. They don't even look functional! A LOT of people have stories of what is supposed to be their showcase fight leaving only them alive to fight the Phase 2 of Jarilo 6's boss specifically because he couldn't keep them alive. So what gives? Do I just have the most cracked out Trailblazer on the planet with literally as high defense as you can get it?

No, I just have the defense set on and the Belobog Planar Ornaments on. I have okay defense substats but when I put together the set, I wasn't paying hard attention to substats and haven't grinded the set since. I admittedly have even defense boots on him so quite literally EVERYTHING gives him defense besides his gloves but that's it.

The thing that needs to be remembered about the role of sustainer, especially for preservation is that their job isn't to make sure you take no damage, it's about keeping you alive. Fire Trailblazer does that. Even if you're taking chip damage each round on your characters, he's still reducing the damage they're taking by roughly 10-20% of their health for most characters in the game. After all, max level of his ability might only be a bit over 6% of his defense but 6% of FIVE THOUSAND DEFENSE is still over 300, plus another 89 base on top. That's 400+ shield in a game where most characters have less than 4000 health at level 80, even when fully equipped, if not almost 3000. And the game's damage understands this, keeping damage a lot lower than you expect in most scenarios so that your DPSes in main content don't just crumple up and die from a light breeze. This gives them the extra buffer those DPSes need to stay alive A LOT longer.

And that's without recognizing two elements:

1: He has an emergency button for if aggro gets off of him and your DPS is getting hammered. His ultimate not only deals not an insignificant amount of damage (his damage scales off that giant defense stat after all) but also reups his shield because

2: Literally every action he takes gives you his shield. You don't need to spend skill points to get this buffer. If you do use his skill, not only is his defense already super high but he takes 50% less damage than he'd already be taking while giving a 15% damage reduction to your allies for those pesky AoE attacks. Which...

Let's admit one of the biggest issues for him: He doesn't have a natural taunt, he only has his skill. Admittedly, Preservation characters inherently pull more Aggro inherently but you DO want a Landau's Choice or Moment of Victory on him. I went from sometimes everyone ganging up on my DPSes and causing problems despite the party wide shield to that being a LOW chance of happening after getting Moment of Victory on him. But that only happened for me maybe two months ago. Slightly before Scaracabaz came out. I still used him before then because any defense Preservation LC works and I literally didn't get Landau's Choice until like maybe a month ago. My luck in this game is not good.

The other big detriment for him is that he is slow and his shield only lasts two turns. This is okay usually but it easily can leave your party open to the first attacks from the enemies (then again, there are enemies with 140 speed and so will outspeed most DPSes with their speed boots on so good luck stopping that damage with anyone) and there can be times where because your other characters lap him, they may briefly be without shields, especially if you don't hold back on his ultimate to be able to cover those blind spots. And the defense aren't insignificant. They give me 600 defense. Sure that's like 40 points of shielding but you are barely keeping your shields on people after an attack already. It can be daunting to want to swap out for that speed even if it means more consistent defense. But if you want speed boots on him with some good defense substats to help make up for what you're losing, it's the ONLY variable relic he has that has more than one substat you care about. Heck, his chest, rope, boots and orb could all be dedicated to getting speed substats if you wanted because they can't get the ONE substat he cares about otherwise which is Defense%. Unless you want to go Energy Regen Rope which is an interesting idea that I wouldn't go for personally but that's because I use his ult as a panic button.

I've saved his best role for last though, and frankly want to do a couple blogs about this game mode: He is the best sustainer in Simulated Universe. Aventurine is the only who is going to rival him in this and you get Fire Trailblazer for free.

That might sound even more insane than the rest of these claims but it's actually really simple. Shields are a lot harder to come by than healing in Simulated Universe. Literally only Preservation and Remembrance don't have a way to give you back health in their blessings. The only ones with any form of shield though are Preservation, Remembrance, Destruction and now Erudition. Erudition's requires using its keyword though so it's not easy to pull off while funny enough, the only one who can't heal in combat with a healing blessing they have without their keyword is Abundance. There's also only one relic that gives health during combat... But zero that give shields.

And hey, the way to get shields in these paths isn't consistent. The ONLY consistent shields (especially ones that are worth a damn) for multiple rounds in Preservation, the shield path, is a level 2 blessing that has an 80%/100% chance to give a 12%/15% shield, usually weaker than Trailblazer's already, and a level 3 blessing that gives its stackable shield. Meanwhile, the blessings that heal? Most of them are level 1 blessings with a couple stronger level 2s. Some paths like Hunt even get more options for healing once you have their keyword. That healing can turn on Abundance's blessings but you're going to hard pressed to enable Preservation through blessings alone.

Which is a kind of a big deal when one of the level 1 Preservation blessings just gives a flat damage decrease of 16/24% damage which is a LOT for the only requirement being that you have a shield on. Preservation in general has a lot of strong blessings that can be utilized by any other path, not just when you're focusing Preservation... So long as you have a shielder.

And Fire Trailblazer doesn't even stop there as his offensive ult makes him able to take advantage of some fringe elements like ANYTHING in Erudition and being able to be given a follow up attack from Elation. All while giving a shield that makes sure that your characters aren't one shot. Hell, I run dual sustainer a lot of the time with Bailu as backup and those teams literally HAVE to be oneshot to die at that point most of the time. I don't know if I've ever lost an SU run with those two as my sustainers.

So yeah, I REALLY like Fire Trailblazer. It'll be hard for any other version of trailblazer to be better than them in my opinion, especially as a free character. Aventurine after all is the one I said could dethrone him as the best sustainer in SU after all and he's a limited five star. The fact that no one else in my opinion has beat him yet is kind of a big deal. I won't say he's the best sustainer everywhere, Huohuo kicks ass and Luocha is honestly so mechanically perfect as to be a mistake, but there's a reason I haven't pulled on another sustainer's banner yet.

I already have one that has almost never let me down.

======+++++======

Frankly, I could try to use Fire Trailblazer against Scarakabaz at this point. His death balls just kind of spooked me with their damage and so I actually swapped to running Bailu and Gepard for the fight so that essentially I could ult for ult his explosions. It's not a fast way to do the fight but it got me through it, even with Welt and Yanqing as my two DPSes otherwise.

And I am serious about wanting to talk more about SU stuff. I saw a comment of someone going "I can clear Memory of Chaos 12 but can't beat Swarm Disaster 5" and that has gnawed at me because it's a skill issue but a reasonable skill issue because not everyone is good at roguelikes. It's just that talking about that has so many facets it's probably going to be multiple blogs interlinked to each other because just general advice/rules I have on the mode would be LONG.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[wirewitchviolet]

Console Design- Can I have my cake and eat it too?

Recently I spilled the beans that I have a little hobby project slowly brewing away where I am designing a new game console. I'm still not ready to really properly pitch the whole thing, but between sharing that, explaining computer architecture, and seeing people's feedback, it keeps pushing itself towards the front burners over more practical projects I SHOULD be giving my focus to, and while people are paying attention, I might as well try to crowdsource answers to some questions I'm getting hung up on.

So... a lot of what I'm doing here is, I'll be honest, rooted in nostalgia for 16-bit consoles. There's a certain retro appeal to the look, speed, and general immediacy of 8-bit games, and more than plenty of support for making games that evoke that feel, and even recently made free dev tools for people to just make new games for older systems, and as I'm writing this, there is this massive renaissance going on with indie devs restricting them to the constraints of early polygonal-graphics-focused consoles, but we mostly skipped right past that 16-bit period, and all its hallmarks:

2D graphics with more color-depth than people really knew what to do with. All sorts of hardware-level flashy effects like transparency, resolution changes, neat little raster effects. A soundscape of crunchy FM synth and sparingly used sampling with distortion effects. Just a little taste of support for polygonal graphics. Not enough to go all-in, but enough to make a nice spice here and there. A general push to show off with fancy jointed paper doll sprites, 3D effects from sprite-scaling, just... clear ambitions all over to make low res 2D eye candy. Plus everything was cartridge based, allowing people to add extra custom chips for things they really wanted that they didn't quite have the power for.

So that's basically what I want to deliver here. A platform where you have more toys and tricks than you know what to do with if you're coming from 8-bit style stuff, but a real tricky set of restrictions to work around from a more modern approach, hopefully with its own look and sound. To that end I've been doing a ton of research into how some of those work... and a lot of it involves fun little tricks between scanlines. In particular, if you look at that mode 7 video above, right around 7:50, we've got this real eye-popping barrel distortion background. What's going on here, on a hardware level, is we have the ability to, essentially, apply one single image as a texture to a single parallelogram, which in this case is just taking a rectangular background and squishing it in towards the center then out towards its regular dimensions... but where doing that squishing and stretching between individual scan lines as we send the video out to the screen. Several changes to the shape before we've even finished rendering out one frame of the video, and tada, weird barrel.

Being able to support tricks like THAT, specifically, is a must-have feature for what I'm working on, and I'm pretty confident I can design the hardware with that exact capability... but the original hardware doing that was, to my understanding, very much working with the peculiarities of how a CRT worked and the exact number of operations it could get done while the beam was swiping back to the left to draw the next line, and I legitimately have no idea if tricks like this are even really possible if I slap together a similar chipset and send video out an HDMI cord to a modern display.

Like, I know I can fake that. I've got a Retron 5 hooked to a cheap flat panel TV with Castlevania 4 plugged in, but my understanding is that's actually emulating an SNES in software on some very-much-overkill for this sort of thing modern processor. What I would LIKE to do is build this with a chipset you really can push to its limits, hooked to modern display, and get this sort of effect. Because while I realize a big chunk of the audience for this sort of thing totally have nice well-maintained CRTs, I don't want to be married to hardware people no longer manufacture. And I'd rather not have some way more capable sub-processor wedged in here just to get the video output of whatever cheap fast legit 16-bit chipset I use otherwise to play nice with HDMI standards.

I'm still sort of in the dark about HDMI and modern display options, to be clear. And you know in a perfect world I'd like to have support built into this if you want to hook it to a CRT, but at the end of the day I need to pick an aspect ratio, and it's probably gonna be 16:9.

A similar fork in the road I may need to pick a lane for before I can really get going is looking at ASIC chips. What I'd really love is to be able to just point people at a design files for the casing and PCBs, and a warehouse of old mass-produced chips that sell for pennies, make the whole thing a neat little home electronics kit where the total price of everything is like, maybe $10 or $20 or something, you get out a soldering iron, and assemble it all yourself. But, I might need to custom design a chip or two in the end, and there's a chance it ends up being cheaper to just build literally the whole system on one chip. Simpler, easier to make a portable version of the whole thing, but it loses that DIY feel.

And of course there's also the risk that the overall architecture and chipset I'm looking at isn't going to have the oomph to do what I want it to do at a nice steady 60 FPS (maybe 120?) I'm just kind of assuming once I commit to a path I'll be able to find a dirt cheap chipset covering all the bases I need it to that'll hold up at a faster clock speed than consoles really ran at in the mid-90s. I want people to be able to do things smoothly that historically really had some slowdown, and you know, I AM planning to have a higher base resolution than the systems I'm taking inspiration from (maybe the same height but clearly more width).

And of course the real pain is going to be prototyping all this since none of it's going to work without hooking display AND something popped into a cartridge slot. I'm at least saving myself some headache starting with a controller I can at least test in other things, but wow there's gonna be so many different potential failure points to worry about at one step in here.

[the-pitchfork-kids]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

This will be regarding the future of the PFK series. Please read EVERYTHING it is very important.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the direction of the series and being a better writer and such and I've realized that- I really dislike Headless Hummingbirds. I think it's sort of well-known within y'all by now that it was originally a joke. A silly joke for my friends- and it somehow blossomed into this big idea and story that I want to tell through my writing, but because Headless Hummingbirds was originally a joke- and ultimately, that time the group was changing far more than right now, it causes a lot of plot points and characters to be rushed and messed up and it was just all a mess to write.

That plus the fact I never put any real effort into this to being with all led to a product yes, but a product I could have improved. At the time I kept holding myself to deadlines and I forced myself to publish the absolute moment I could, I never through of re-writing and despised the idea of writing a draft so I just published what I had and called it a day.

That was back in September, five months ago- and a girl can change in those months.

Since I've published the book I looked more into actually learning how to write better- because nobody, no matter what you wish; can make a career on pure talent alone. You gotta actually take time to learn stuff- so that I did!

And that learning made me realize that I really dislike the book and I don't want to continue the series with a book starting it off like that. I want this to be good and entertaining- I want this to tell the story right. And what I've made currently is nowhere near how I want to tell the story.

I won't get into nitty, gritty details of what I dislike and what I think is wrong- because I don't want anybody's pity. I just want patience and understanding.

I have decided to re-write Headless Hummingbirds.

So book two will be paused- and actually the few pages of it I already have are going to be deleted. I now know what I want to do with this series unlike before- and I'd like to start with a book in this series that I wrote keeping that in mind. I want to start with a book I put effort in, that I knew was something big I wanted, not a silly joke that I accidentally blew up.

The original idea for Headless Hummingbirds was supposed to be a big, fat, joke. It was supposed to be 50 pages of fun nonsense for us to laugh at- I was actually planning to start writing a different book at the time, but then as I wrote I kept needing more and more pages and adding more and more and eventually- you got Headless Hummingbirds.

But that Headless Hummingbirds can be improved- it can be better and I want it to be. I want to give you guys quality that you'll actually enjoy reading- not something you'll just tolerate for the sake of getting to see what happens to the main gooberish cast.

Now I will say, a re-write does come with some complications that you may or may not like- but I know this is the best decision for my series. I know what I want- and I want to deliver it to you guys in a way that had heart and soul poured into it instead of overused metaphors and brainless ideas.

What does this mean for the audiobook?

This means not that much for the audiobook project actually.

If you don't know, I'm producing a voice-acted audiobook for Headless Hummingbirds- because I'm really extra like that.

In all seriousness, you don't have to worry. The audiobook will still come out- and it won't be paused either! Now it will still take a long while to be published- probably taking till next September or November to release because of re-casting issues and VA's quitting, but the re-write has not effected it at all.

It just means we'll have two Headless Hummingbirds audiobooks!

Speaking of...

What does this mean for the old Headless Hummingbirds book?

Again, it doesn't mean too much- it just means that everything that book says it no longer canon!

As you might have griped- not too long ago I updated saying that the book was the "prologue" to the series, to try and make it seem like a faraway distant to the better books of the franchise I was going to write- but it still didn't feel right.

Now I will still keep it up on the blog! Because it's still a part of the series and should still get it's spot! Though it will be listed as the "Beta Draft," acting sort of as those concept art releases shows will have! This is what we thought of before compared to what you got!

Honestly, that is what it is- I got all the ideas out onto paper- now it just needs re-working and an uncluttered brain to organize them into a proper story- and honestly, I think it's very cool and interesting to look at concept ideas for shows and games- so why shouldn't books have that same thing? Why shouldn't I share the concept and the splatter of messily conceived ideas that brought you the real product?

So don't worry, the book will still be up- it just won't be canon anymore. I know a lot of you probably really liked the original and won't like the fact some of it will have changed, but trust me. The story will be almost identical to the new one I'm writing- just a few character, relationship, setting and event changes is all.

And hey! Who knows, I might make it a thing I do! Share the concept manuscript for the actual installment so you can see where the glory you read came from!

What does this mean for the blog?

Does this mean a restart? Does this mean a deletion? Does this make every single post up to this point incorrect? No No And again, no. Most of the posts I already said aren't canonical don't canonize anything specific I plan on changing from Headless Hummingbirds.

This also does not mean the blog is going to be stopped.

Yes, I have been cheating you out of incorrect quote content- but that due to something entirely different.

Something called school.

(And Hazbin Hotel but I digres.)

But the blog will run smoothly and most everything of recent is 100% canon if I didn't already say it wasn't canon!

In conclusion

I hope you guys wait and stick around to see the re-write of Headless Hummingbirds. I really do, I want to start the series with a book that I wrote knowing what I wanted our of it. I'm a terrible pantser and that is very noticeable in my writing- so this would help me make everything better for you guys! I really want you guys to love this series and I'm going to try my best and write you quality, entertaining things for you to enjoy later down the line!

Thank you for reading

And thank you for your patience :)

I cannot wait to get you the actual HH book!

[a-case-of-the-ace]

Fic writer interview :D

Thank you @eoinmcgonigal for the tag!!

Welp let's see how this goes. I've been doing the writing thing for a little over two years, I think? Time has flown and I have done... little.

How many works do you have on AO3? 21.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 57,611. None of which have reached over the 12,000 mark.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Something, Old, New, Broken and Blue at number 1, followed by Something Precious, a Bold Beginning, My Soul Says Ouch and Match Made in Vain. The top 3 are for Stranger Things, and the 4th and 5th are for Mafia: Definitive Edition. I reckon the top ones are at the top mainly because they're a bigger fandom.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do, I'm always so happy when I get them, but I worry I sound like a broken record. there's only so many ways to thank someone for reading and commenting, even though I'm overjoyed every time it happens.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Possibly Ready for Table for Doctor Who's The Two Doctors, since that doesn't end in a good spot for the main character, but the canon story has a good ending, so you know it's going to be ok. Probably Bon Appetit, for Mafia: DE, since it's a dark yandere cannabilism fic.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? That's a tough one, most of mine have happy endings. Possibly My Soul Says Ouch, since the characters spend so long pining over each other before getting together? Also my only polyam fic, (or at least where it's not just implied) so 50% extra love?

7. Do you write crossovers? I haven't, none have really occurred to me. I don't usually read them either, but if it's done well, I'll read it.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Not hate per se, but I did have one commenter who didn't like some things, and told me I could change things, and didn't need to stick to the canon. I quite liked my choices, though, and so did other kinder commenters. I do the fic for me, first and foremost.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Not in anything I've posted, but I'm currently writing a Galavant fic that has some, for angst reasons. I did have a tad in A Bold Beginning, but I danced around the subject so much that I don't think it counts. I'm ace, which I don't think helps much, I'm basing most of it off of what I've read.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Wouldn't mind if someone did though.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship? Mega tough one. Good Omens got me into it, but I haven't read much of them. Stobotnik, since I only watched the films for them? Two/Jamie? I read a lot of Johnlock, but that was ages ago. Geraskier? I think I just binge a ship and return to it if I really liked it. Depends if the ship's small or big, I guess.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I had a mermaid!Tommy au I tried to get going for a long while, but kept getting stuck on logistics. An omegaverse mafia fic, an angsty guilt fic, and even a fic for Forever (TV show from 2014). Plus a bunch of ideas that hit while I was writing something else, and I'd lost the fixation by the time I finished. There's still a few sticky notes with ideas in my phone, from inspo at work. I think I get a lot more ideas than I manage to write :(

15. What are your writing strengths? Beginnings. I love nothing more than going "Bang! Here's what's happening." Otherwise, I dunno what my strengths might be. Writing in full sentences for the first draft?

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Hanging on to the motivation to finish a fic. Not using a variation of the phrase "All they could do was hope." Nearly put that in thrice in three chapters by mistake, I'm sure it's getting old. Motivation for sure though, I miss the days when I was writing tropey one-shots, at least they were one and done.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I haven't really had a need to do it, and would worry about formatting if I did. Closest I've had to this was a heavily accented character, but I didn't really know how to write an accent and so I didn't write it in. Not sure if I'd do it that way again, but it made it easier.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Mafia: Definitive Edition. Wrote my first fic in one of my last year 12 math classes. Also the fandom that made me switch from looking at tumblr on Pinterest to actually being on tumblr. There wasn't enough content, so I had to go searching, and then make my own.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? Really want to throw my hat into the ring on Wez/The Golden Youth, from Mad Max 2, but the only ideas I have for them are really long. Other ones I've considered writing include Forever, Red Dwarf, Sportarobbie from Lazytown, Johnny/Reg from SAS Rogue Heroes and Jude/Cardan from The Cruel Prince.

20. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? I'm really liking the Galavant fic I'm writing at the moment, mainly because it's shamelessly self-indulgent. Probably one of my Mafia fics, Chosen by the Life, Choking on my Love or Bring Me Home. It's been a while since I've read my own stuff, this has been a real trip down memory lane.

Desperately trying to remember people who write so I can tag them... I'm so bad at names, if I miss you I'm sorry. And I may not know you at all well so I apologise if you find this weird.

@feline-ranger @iiep-wop @lilies-in-a-vase @somethingaboutamagpie @ihni

[turboacek-blog]

RWBY Volume 10: 100 characters

Kerry joked that Volume 10 would have 100 characters

It’s a contrast to volume 9 smaller cast that focused on RWBYJ and the ever-after characters like Little/Somewhat, The Cat, Blacksmith, and so on

So my attempt at trying to count the 100 characters lol

Crazy I know...

Ruby

Weiss

Blake

Yang

Jaune

Nora

Ren

Oscar

Ozpin (yes separate as different characters)

Emerald

Qrow

Robin

Winter

Willow

Whitley

Fiona

May

Joanna

Harriet

Marrow

Elm

Maria

Pietro (next are maybes depending on how the story goes for others)

Flynt (team FNKI but their status is unknown)

Neon

Kobalt

Ivori

Sun (Team SSSN is there)

Sage

Scarlet

Neptune

Coco (Team CFVY is there too)

Fox

Yatsuhashi

Velvet

Mercury (and the other antagonists should appear)

Tyrian

Cinder

Salem

Arslan (student characters we know are there because of before the Dawn novel)

Bolin

Reese

Nadir

Nebula

Dew

Gwen

Octavia

Nolan

Theodore (the headmaster that we should meet)

Raven (characters that could cameo or actually be there depending on story reasons)

Tai Yang

And that’s all I got…

I can make some leaps of faith with a character like Ciel appearing

And the books went over some of CFVY’s and SSSN’s family members like Velvet’s dad

I haven’t read the books so I know there are some original characters but I don’t know if they are still alive or not, or just one-off characters like the video game characters

And the Summer Maiden is also one but there’s a chance it could be someone we already know, and connected is the relic and the genie that resides in it which will be its own character

So if I stretch with those thanks to the wiki that’s an extra 23 (novel), and 3 (Ciel, Sword Genie, and Summer Maiden)

Making that 77 characters…

Then potentially new characters like maybe Theodore has his own potential Ace Ops like team

If Raven maybe she brings her tribe with her

Maybe they would retcon a team like CRDL deaths from the novels to add some more characters

Plus beacon characters like Glynda, Port, Oobleck, the unseen Peach

And white fang characters like Ghira, Kali, Ilia

Maybe even Adam’s still alive lol

The brothers and ever after characters cameo

Neo comes back after ascending, who knows

But yeah I generally got 50-ish characters as characters like Tai Yang is a stretch and the novel family members are nice and if they are there I can’t imagine more than one scene or episode with them but otherwise might be a waste of resources to make models and give voices for them

I imagine it’ll be a lot of old characters like Sun and Velvet filling the extra cast spots as the Atlas cast even with Ironwood, Watts and Jacques, Vine and Clover's death is a large cast

Others I can see not at all or pushed to Volume 11 or 12

[wromwood]

"Living with my parents again" rant under the read more

OK, I know there's something to be said about family being playfully rude to each other or lovingly teasing each other. After all, these are the people you know best or know you best or are closest to you or whatever. And I definitely have happy moments like that with my family members, where each person participating in the behavior is in on the joke and there are no hard feelings, or at least not for long.

.... BUT

Today, my dad got these candied orange slices from the store that my mom loves, and that I'm trying for the first time. They're really good! We each got a slice while he was putting away groceries. I'm about halfway done with mine, plus an extra bite, when my mom asks for another slice. My dad's busy in the kitchen and I can't get the orange slices without getting in his way. So I go to mom, offer the rest of my orange slice, and go, "Here, mom, you can have the rest of mine while you wait!"

Her response is to take the rest of my slice from my grasp, squint at it, say "That's not half," and then pop in her mouth without a thank you.

Now I'm annoyed and I don't any more orange slice.

And it's like... this isn't unusual behavior from her, but I KNOW that if I were a kid, she'd at least have a 50% chance of trying to teach me a lesson on sharing, or saying thanks. I don't know if this is unreasonable or not, but I still expect that reinforcement as an adult, and her not doing that at all now kinda pisses me off. And this isn't the first time something like this has happened. All of these instances make me want to not share anything with her, or to stop expecting positive outcomes from helping her, which of course she senses and uses to claim that I don't love her as much as I used to, which makes me feel worse, yadda yadda, the cycle continues.

Also, I've spent a lot more time living and socializing outside of my household by now, being with people who would at LEAST give basic "thank you's" or apologies even as they tease or do something "rude," or who would get told off by someone in the group for being an ass in a way that was outside any kind of "bit" or comfort. Suddenly being in an environment where I have to respect/defer to someone who won't abide by even those levels of consideration is really grating.

I hope that me being frustrated at stuff like this isn't unreasonable, because man does it get on my nerves.

[aita-blorbos]

WIBTA if I decided to leave my siblings?

I'd ask you to read the full post before deciding, but the crux of the matter really lies in the title.

I (17m) have a lot of siblings, but right now I'm specifically talking about the three I was raised with. (in age order: A is 17m, K is 15m, and D is 13m. Relevant also are G, 18F, and her/our mom, E, 50s?F. E has more of our siblings but they're not relevant here.)

A, K, D, and I were all raised by our dad (762M). He wasn't even supposed to /be/ our dad -- we were given to him by our biological (kind of, we're all test tube babies) father as repayment for something he'd stolen. He was /supposed/ to give back the thing or some money or something but, nope, toddlers. Our dad kept us as his anyway and he really did do his best. He was a famously dangerous type but he spent who knows how much money on dealing with A's scandals without ever saying anything about it, he stopped wearing leather because D wanted to sit by him but the sound bothered him, he taught all of us the skills of the trade, he fully funded all of our hobbies, whatever. Hell, when I finally told him I'd been going farther from home than I was supposed to and met some of our other siblings, he was upset, sure, but he gave me permission to leave the city and invited them to come by pretty much whenever they wanted. The associates who knew him before we showed up claim that we made him soft, and I believe it.

Doesn't mean he was a perfect dad, we got in a huge fight about some of my issues with him the last time we talked, but none of it was ever /that/ serious. I would take the fight back if I could.

So with that context, he died recently. None of us were expecting it, it was very sudden and violent, but my siblings (the ones I met last year) and I accidentally got involved in this whole mess of stuff regarding our bio dad's world domination plans or whatever and dad just.... died. For us, which makes it extra rough.

According to K, I apparently just shut down so bad G had to pick me up and carry me out and I then I cried so hard I threw up. I really don't remember, so he could be lying, but E immediately put on the whole stern mom voice about how it wasn't kind to make fun of me for that, so. K and A are also trying really hard to insist that he's still alive, but they didn't see him die, /I/ did, and G agreed there's no chance he's still alive but they won't believe me on it.

We've been living at E's place ever since.

And I don't know, I just don't feel like I can do anything else here. D got freaked out by something and nearly took out G's eye and she handled it so well that he's been following her around like a puppy since. (Not exaggerating. E and I still haven't been able to get the blood out of the carpet). Meanwhile A made ONE comment about me not having loved our father enough or something and I got so nasty with him that we're not on speaking terms right now.

I don't know what exactly it would help if I left, but it's not as if they would be ALONE. A has hit it off really well with one of our siblings and they've declared themselves bonded brothers and spend all of their time together. D is pretty much ignoring everyone else in favour of G and she's endlessly patient with him, so he'll do fine. K found out E still knows all our genetic codes by memory (from helping to create us) and has been pestering her about it, plus he's started some kind of friendly engineering competition with another one of our siblings. It's just me that's not settling in, and having more of us makes us more difficult to hide. E kept her kids entirely away from our creator until last year and he still doesn't know how to find them when he wants to, but she has a lot less resources than our dad had.

[bindupthesebrokenbones]

Hello everyone! I'm breaking the formula today as we observe Self-Care Sunday here.

Originally I had planned a post about having a spa day - basically a comfort/relaxation self care post.

However!

I actually have something else to talk about today, and it's something that will roll very nicely into tomorrow's Mindful Monday post. So what happened?

Yesterday I went to the flea market to work on offloading my extra belongings, and I got heat exhaustion.

Yep, you read that right. The author of a blog about taking care of yourself got heat exhaustion. So how did that happen? What did I do about it?

Nabbing a table at the flea market is a part of my weekly routine that I've been building in part to keep myself from wallowing in grief, in part to re-teach myself good customer service, and in part so that I get out of the darn house at least once a week.

Here's what yesterday's weather looked like while I was at the market:

The flea market hours are from 7am to 4pm, so as you can see, we started the day off with warm temperatures, HIGH humidity, and light breezes. The other vendors and I were all sweating by 9am.

In the afternoon, the temperature rose, as it does, and we were still dealing with over 50% humidity. Still sweating, and the breeze was still pretty light.

I was lucky enough to nab a table under a canopy, but with the breeze so light when it did blow through, the stagnant, humid air was enough even without direct sunlight.

It's very important to stay hydrated at all times, but especially so in high temperature situations. If you're sweating a lot, you're getting dehydrated, and you have to drink more to balance it out again.

And here's where I went wrong. I didn't drink more than I usually would. Part of this was that I was on my own and didn't want to leave my table multiple times to get more drinks and, inevitably, go pee. Part of it was that I didn't recognize that I was dehydrated until I was already starting to feel sick. I dozed off in my chair multiple times, and I would get up and move around to wake myself up.

As soon as I realized what was happening, I went to get two 12 ounce drinks from the concession stand, and a snack because I hadn't eaten in a few hours either. Now, I don't know if you've ever had heat exhaustion, but rehydrating in that state is a delicate balancing game, at least for myself. If I drink straight water especially, I have to take small sips every few minutes. If I drink large, or even regular sized mouthfuls, my stomach will lurch and I'll lose all that water, plus more.

So here I am, steadily downing 24 ounces of fluid and nibbling on my snack. After a few minutes, the nausea goes away and I think to myself, ah! I caught it in time and I'm fine.

And I was fine. For about 90 minutes. And then the symptoms hit me like a freight train.

Symptoms of heat exhaustion include dizziness, feeling faint, cool/clammy skin with goosebumps, blurred vision, fatigue, headache, nausea/vomiting, heavy sweating, rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, swollen feet/ankles/hands, and a drop in blood pressure when you stand.

If you've never had heat exhaustion, good. I hope you never do. I sent my mom a message that I needed to pack up and leave early, and while I waited for her to show up, I packed my totes. It was so hard, dear readers. I had to keep one hand on the table almost constantly so I didn't fall. I had to pause for several minutes at a time to just gasp for breath.

By this point, almost all the vendors around me had already left. The only ones left either didn't notice what was happening, or I was hiding it very well. Either way, a task that I normally could have completed in ten minutes took me thirty. And my mom still hadn't arrived with the car yet.

I sank into my chair and pulled up Discord to chat with some friends, and just prayed that I wouldn't completely pass out.

When my mom arrived, we loaded up the car and climbed in.

Now, I want to take a moment to tell you all that the correct thing to do when someone is experiencing heat exhaustion is move them as quickly as possible to a cooler environment, preferably an air conditioned room, provide them with plenty of fluids and loose clothes, and if they can, get them to take a cool shower. If they can't, use a mister or cool wet towels to bring their temperature down.

You should also avoid giving them fever reducing medications like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen. And if they aren't starting to feel better in 30-60 minutes, you want to take them to the hospital because heat exhaustion can very easily become heat stroke.

The reason I'm telling you this is because what my mom and I did was pretty much the exact opposite of all of this. Our plan was to get a room at a hotel together (it's a long story) and cool off in the AC for a while. Due to some circumstances that I don't completely remember (I was really fucking out of it by this point), we didn't go to the hotel. We went to the auto shop where my mom works, and I spent several more hours in the hot office there. They have AC there, but it's not great. We did get me a couple of cold drinks, and I drank them all, and then I spent the next few hours dozing on and off.

Sitting in that office, half asleep and miserable, I had a terrible headache and chills. My mouth was dry no matter how much I drank, and I was miserable. More than once, I thought about asking my mom to just bring me home, but we'd had plans. We were going to go swimming, and get dinner, and go see a movie. I still wanted to do those things - or rather, I wanted to want to do those things.

So even when I should have said something, I stayed quiet. We spent about six or seven hours in that office before finally going to the hotel. There, I quickly rinsed off in the shower, then so did my mom and stepdad, and instead of staying there and just resting for the night like I probably should have, I agreed to go to the movie still.

I was uncomfortable, agitated, and aggressive right up until the movie started, and even during the movie, every little thing pissed me off. Someone fell asleep mid movie and was snoring (don't do that guys, that's rude). People kept getting up and leaving. Like five people in front had their phones out with the screen brightness at max.

I felt like tearing off all my skin, I was so uncomfortable and miserable, and my mom seemed like she was getting frustrated with me, which made me more miserable.

Somehow, I made it through the movie. We went back to the hotel. I crawled into bed and promptly crashed for about 6 hours. By this morning, I felt better for the most part, but even now at 6pm, over 24 hours after getting out of that heat, I can still feel the lingering nausea and exhaustion.

I made a lot of bad choices yesterday, and I can only really blame myself for the situation that I found myself in. There was a lot that could have been done better, but that's for me to reflect on in my journal tonight.

The biggest mistake that I made however was failing to listen to my body and practice the most basic, practical self care - providing my body with food, water, shelter, and rest. I could have ended up in the hospital yesterday, and I'm grateful that not only did that not happen, but I also recovered enough to be able to share the story with you.

Now excuse me, my lovely readers, while I get a little more rest before making a healthy snack.

[gadgetrevive]

I Tested Every New Samsung ProductSamsung has just launched a bucket load of new products. There's new folding phones, new earphones, new watches, including, for the first time ever, a Watch Ultra. And the thing that I've been most excited about: the Galaxy Ring. I've just been hands-on with all of it, so here's what's good and what's less good.There are two new phones, the Z Flip 6 and the Z Fold 6. I have to say, I have a lot of respect for this Flip because it is a design improvement. Compared to the last Flip, it looks smarter from every angle, feels cleaner thanks to the matte finish on the sides, and the camera rings now match the color of the body. The hinge protrudes out less, and crucially, the display crease on the inside is less noticeable. The screen also has a new layer that makes it more impact-resistant, plus a new coating to reduce scratches and fingerprints. Major key feature if that works out over time. But the thing I'm really happy about is that the design is not the focus here—all the best improvements are under the hood.It's got the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, now with, for the first time ever on a flip phone, a vapor chamber which gets heat away from that chip to keep it fast. It's got improved speakers, 12GB of RAM by default instead of last year’s 8GB, a bigger 4,000 mAh battery instead of 3,700, and an inner screen that now goes up to 2,600 nits of brightness compared to 1,750. These are substantial jumps. The ultra-wide camera has been upgraded slightly with a bigger sensor, but the main camera has been upgraded majorly. It is now 50 megapixels after having been 12 for far too long, and it’s much better for it. It’s good enough now that even without any separate dedicated zoom camera, you can still zoom in 10 times and get a sharp output.There are a couple of strange features that accompany those improvements, like a camcorder mode which nudges all the controls to the other side of the screen for your thumb. But I don’t understand why anyone would want to do this—this isn’t a 90s camcorder, and that’s a good thing. The cameras can now also auto-zoom while taking photos using your front screen, but the feature is a little bit slow to be useful. The important thing is that the cameras are finally not just passable on the Z Flips but actually good.Another interesting tidbit I found out during my briefing was that Z Flip users change their wallpaper more times than any other type of phone user, which I guess is why Samsung is leaning into a few funky cosmetic extras too, like interactive wallpapers that you can tilt, flip, and touch. I don’t really see the appeal beyond the first 10 minutes, though. There are ambient photos, which means whatever wallpaper you apply to your cover screen, you can mirror the current time of day and weather conditions onto it. That I might actually use. They're also introducing the Flip Suit 2.0 cases, which can have LEDs embedded inside the case that draw power from the phone to light up when notifications come in. I wouldn’t personally buy one, but I sure enjoyed seeing it.The final thing though, and the thing that I wasn’t expecting to see coming into this, is that these folding phones are also where Samsung is showing off their next-gen Galaxy AI. It’s actually improving rather quickly. There are a couple of bits I’m not so sure about, like when someone messages you, now you get smart suggested replies on your cover screen. The phone looks at the last seven messages sent to understand the tone of the conversation and then serves you up your options. I need to test it more thoroughly to see if it actually nails human tone, because that’s typically a key failing point, but the idea is solid.There’s portrait studio photo editing, which lets you use a photo that you’ve taken with a person in it, and then AI turns that person’s face into a highly stylized depiction. It does work quite well, but I don’t know what I would use it for. It would be cool if it applied the effect

to the entire image and not just your face, but as it stands, all I can think of is you could maybe use it to generate some slightly uncanny valley alternative profile pictures of yourself. The live translation feature, you know, the one we saw earlier this year when Samsung announced Galaxy AI, that wasn’t very good—that is noticeably better here. These new phones are now starting with an AI that has access to an improved language pack, improved microphones that can pick up your voice better, and improved AI noise suppression that lets those microphones focus just on what you’re saying. I’m not sure which of these ingredients is making the most difference, but in my early testing, the feature does seem to work quite a bit better and faster than it did at launch. Oh yeah, and it also now works on third-party apps, so you can have a live translation call on WhatsApp. But there’s an extra twist now because you can also have that translation experience while in the same room as another person, thanks to an updated interpreter mode which lets you use both screens at the same time, so each person can only see their own language. It’s still not 100% there with the translation, but I can feel it creeping closer. Until ChatGPT’s real-time translation feature fully rolls out, this is probably the best implementation of it that I’ve ever seen.And what I’m pretty happy about is that the Flip 6 is all of these things and, at least here in the UK, without going up in price. It’s still £1,149. There are actually a few more AI features, but I’ll show you the rest on the Fold 6, because this phone is interesting for the opposite reason—it’s much less about internal improvements but has had a lot more work done to the exterior, with sadly also a £50 price bump versus last year. So, it’s immediately noticeably lighter at 239g, and it comes with this new titanium frame which makes it only 7g heavier than the non-folding S24 Ultra. It’s thinner, 5.6mm when it’s open—the S24 Ultra is 8.6mm for context. They’ve made it shorter and wider, which in my books are actually both perks, so you can actually reach the top of the phone and also feel like you have a more natural ratio to type and scroll pages with on the cover screen. It just looks so much neater from the front—the squared edges, the slimmer even borders, the fact that those borders actually follow the natural curve of the device. And this Fold is actually where you particularly notice the more compact hinge. You could probably fool just about anyone at this point into thinking this is a normal non-folding flagship phone.Now, there are also spec bumps here: again, the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip with a 1.6 times larger vapor chamber than the last gen. The screens are super bright, both inside and outside, going up to 2,600 nits. This phone gets the same slight upgrade to its ultra-wide camera. But the AI features are the most interesting actually, and almost all of these should come to most recent Samsung phones too. There’s a new smart select, which is kind of like taking a screenshot but a screenshot of the specific thing that you’re looking at without having to manually drag four corners and crop the screenshot yourself. You can instant copy just the thing you want on any page, and it is good. Do you remember the circle to search feature? That’s improving too. It now lets you circle QR codes to go straight to the link, or equations to get not just the answer actually but also the entire methodology. RIP college professors. Oh, and then sketch to image is really wacky. You scribble something down, you specify a style of finish, and it manages to produce a result that feels weirdly human-like. It does neaten up everything you do, it applies a really convincing artistic effect, but it also retains just enough of your base image to still make it feel like you made that. It’s one of those features that actually makes my head start to spin with all the possibilities. Like sometimes when we make

videos, I have a really specific vision of the graphic that I want to show to visualize the point that I’m making. This could actually allow me to make that graphic myself. And you can also sketch to image on top of an existing image, and this, I think, has a very high ceiling. But I think the actual feature itself needs a little bit more cooking. The idea is that if you decide you want a pair of glasses, or a cool tie, or some devil horns in an image, you just sketch them in, and the phone then literally creates those objects within your scene using AI to factor in the lighting and the shadows and the objects in the real photo. Sometimes it was breathtaking, and I was so impressed how the objects don’t look like cheap little stickers slapped on top of your photo but full-resolution objects baked inside of them. But then other times it was fiddly and also produced some pretty weird-looking things that didn’t really make sense in the context of that image.Aside from all that, Samsung have also said that the crease on the inside screen of both this and the Flip 6 is now down to just 100 microns instead of 240, but it doesn’t feel like that much of a difference to me. It’s definitely not the best phone for this that you can get right now, and it does bug me that the inner camera still looks like it’s genuinely VGA quality and that there’s still no way to store the S Pen inside of the phone like you can

[cesium-sheep]

the kirby dr moricky pillow in beige (the color I wanted cuz it has the drawing I didn't get on the mat I will eventually hang up or the storage case) is on sale for $10 rn. but I've already got 3 multi week purchases in the queue and buying that still sets everything back by another week even if I'm lucky and shipping is cheap. (preorder a lauraillustrates tapestry blanket ($140), buy the princess peach game ($67), buy The Rug for soon-to-be-just-my room ($300).) I got paid extra for the unicorn but that only means I can get the blanket first instead of having to push it to the very end of the preorder window.

decisions are hard and $40 a week is very very small even when someone else is taking care of the bills. (once my credit card is paid off I can raise my allowance because I actually get allotted now $300/mo but I put everything above the current allowance rate to the credit card, but that's still got $1330 left on it even with matt helping me out last week. originally once arin finally started getting paid in 2022 I negotiated $250/mo to cover 5 weeks of allowance (for the months that have 5 mondays), plus a minimum card payment of $50, but months that don't have 5 mondays I'd put the extra $40 on it too more often than not. and sometimes scraping some out of personal savings if it seems unlikely to be immediately necessary. (plus for a while the minimum payment was actually $60 but it's not like she was available for further negotiations.) mom's still a co-signer on that card and I really just need it fucking gone already, but it took a lot of hits getting through the past couple years.)

theoretically my disability compensation appeal is still in the queue somewhere. I'm sure they'll email me in a couple weeks with my quarterly reassurance that it is. maybe I'll be really, incredibly fortunate, and it'll get scheduled for after the immunologist tells me about a powerhouse treatment that'll turn my bones to dust but let me fucking live again, but before the treatment actually takes effect, so I'm still as pathetic as possible for the hearing but not quite so fuckin defeated. (as if I have been truly no-silver-linings fortunate even one time in this whole fucking travesty.)