#ive gotten so many new followers since the last time i deep dived into one of these albums lmao

[sydmarch]

it's about time i write at least some semblance of a review for gadzooks volume 2 rather than continuing to throw out vaguely incomprehensible text posts about it so. here goes

SO it feels weird to say that ANYTHING is better than volume 1 bcus I have such a deep deep love for that album it almost feels like a betrayal. but objectively 2 IS better it takes everything from 1 and builds on it. every single thing caleb releases manages to be better than the last even when the last one has had you for months like "this is the best album in the world". like it absolutely has the same vibes as 1 and feels like how a volume 2 of something should feel yknow but it also feels like. tighter & slightly more cohesive without losing that experimental wandering feeling that 1 had. & I feel like 1 was such a departure from the mother stone and then 2 kind of brings some elements from tms back around like it had those moments that feel dark and sweeping in the way that only tms does.

yknow how people do those web weaving posts collecting artwork or quotes I am mentally doing that w music all the time & it's like this album takes the best of both the previous albums like. touchdown yolk is in between a venn diagram of you're so wonderful and this won't come back. obviously not like its just a mix of them both but like i fewl elements of each in it & like. those are mt absolute big favorites on both albums so of course thay ends up my favorite on this ine. near the end of the album it's like you get the vibes from little planet pig but also for a short time. love how opening with croc killers 2 followed by little lion kind of mirrors the never wet + yesterday will come combo as opening up volume 1. & I've always felt like one of the strongest & most interesting things in his songwriting is the way a song will like go in and out of different parts then bring another part back & loop around and you'll almost forget how the beginning started but then the same elements come back around & thinking about that interview where he says it comes from writing songs mentally while on set so he's not recording or writing them down really just keeping them in his brain for months where they grow and warp & blend and how obstacles and challenges are where creativity really shines through. & I feel like the shanty shine achieves this more strongly than anything since you're so wonderful. (WAIT california also does this extremely well to a smaller extent) but THEN just a few songs later slink on fido does it just as well.

i also love the way vocals are used so many songs out there feel like it's just about the vocals & the music is just there to support it but with a lot of Caleb's stuff it feels more like the voice is just another instrument that weaves in and out, sometimes it gets more focus but sometimes not there will be times where it feels more like strings or drums are the star of the show and I love love love that. makes all of his songs feel so thought out and cohesive and more like the vocals are PART of a song & other things aren't sacrificed for the sake of vocals. so much stuff I'll listen to an instrumental version & be like wait you can't even hear that sound, you never even notice that in the version with vocals, wtf, & wish there was more balance between the two. I feel like his stuff does that balancing act extremely well. 

& ik I had previously said idk if croc killers 1 is as strong of a closer as this won't come back but at that time I hadn't realized that the entire last 8 mins of the album was all that song so I'm going to amend that statement. when comparing just the VERY end like final minute of each song's ending twcb will always win out over anything that final minute is like The Finale To End All Finales. to me. I've already talked to death about that so I won't go on but otherwise. yeah croc killers 1 is just as strong an ending if im being objective & putting aside twcb being so special to me personally. OH & I didn't even touch on the more abstract synesthesia stuff like I meant to but yeah it goes back to 2 feeling a bit tighter & more cohesive just looking at what colors tend to pop up like 1 goes through such a journey from skies and grass & light colors to reds & pinks & blacks then to a mix of both & back & forth while 2 feels much more consistently jewel toned. crimsons at the start & orange and green & mostly darker throughout the later songs. while I feel like it absolutely sounds much more like 1 with some of the elements of tms brought back in my minds eye it's colors are much closer to tms than vol 1 which is inch resting. anyway. I didn't even get into lyrics bcus I still feel like I haven't spent enough time with the album in isolation to dive into looking them all up & figuring them out for sure yet. 

[jedimasteramell]

Fives Times, Cael & Astra

Original Characters // SWTOR // SFW

The four times Cael missed Astra’s birthday, and the one time he didn’t.

Sorry @uldren-sov this was so late lol, happy extra-extra-belated birthday

————

i.

Balmorra is nothing but pitted earth, colicoid slime, and a pervasive sensation of frustration bordering on hopelessness; from the Balmorrans and Imperials both. After more than three weeks here, Cael could go another life without experiencing any more of it. Maybe if he could get more sleep it would help.

How painfully ironic that Baras was using him to hunt down his own loose ends embedded in the Republic? The murder of Rylon’s son stung him somewhere under the impassivity he’d been trained in. A Sith would have done it, and that what he was now wasn’t he? Astra had disapproved, as she did of many of his decisions. It’d been months since they met on Korriban and she remained as evasive to his scrutiny as she was to attacks during battle. And yet despite that, or mayhaps in spite of it, he’d yet to shake her. Astra had a game of her own, and he’d yet to figure if it was in his interest to play it with her or leave the board all together.

As if summoned, Cael heard her melodic drawl. “Lucien, there you are.”

“Astra.” He greeted curtly, stiffening as she brushed her fingers across his arm, mentally damning that the reaction was not entirely an act. Of every impulse he could restrain, the way he felt about being touched escaped his control more often than he was comfortable with.

She smiled in response, the barest hint of teeth feline and tsked. “It wouldn’t hurt you to pretend you weren’t so petulant all the time.”

Lucien rolled his eyes, scoffing, though his retort curled the corner of his mouth. “And what would you do if I weren’t so?”

Astra’s eyes narrowed wickedly and she flicked her hair back, golden jewelry sparking in the glow of the morning. “Fall into another’s heroic arms I suppose.”

At the memory of the other day, he summoned a flush to his cheeks. Let her think she had any power over him, that she knew who the ‘real’ Lucien was. The gesture seemed to satisfy Astra who rolled her neck and walked away towards her dashade. As she went, Cael watched and mused. For him to truly trick her, he needed to know her, and yet after months he knew nothing personal: not a last name, not an age, not even the planet she grew up on.

Seems his choice was to play the game.

ii.

A fast flight from Dromund Kaas with a half-dead Astra was not how Cael planned on continuing his day.

He’d meant to arrive with gusto, a lord, confidant, working past his months of fumbling through Alderaan and Nar Shaddaa. But all that went out the window taking her to safety, half guiding, half carrying her to his ship. She muttered things like ‘Thanaton’ ‘punishment for Zash’ and ‘doesn’t know I’m alive���. Part of him even wanted to believe the glimmer of recognition in her eyes was of appreciation as he led her up the gangplank and order Quinn to take off

Even after they cleared atmo, and the inertia shifted with the jump to lightspeed, the little twist in Cael’s heart hadn’t subsided. Keeping his expression a stern mask of unconcern, his thoughts kept slipping back to Astra asleep in his quarters.

He’d fallen so far into this game, times like these he cursed under the lull of the engines how distracted he’d become from the bigger picture. Astra came to him. She’d never done that before. In truth, he’d been the one that needed her assistance, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that had they not met on Korriban she’d have come this far regardless. Crafty, charming, an impressive actress, she’d survive, for it seemed that was what she did.

The knot in his chest tightened uncomfortably. A slick blade of cold guilt he had to toss away. Now was not the time to consider any of this. He should have never gotten this close to begin with, not to apoint where her memory wormed into his thoughts, when her smile and teasing glare was enough to blow him off course.

If Master Sen knew he’d order her death and Cael would have to comply, eliminate Astra before she became a sympathetic person in his eyes. There would be no deep questions, no pursuit of her past, no extraneous interest, or so Cael resolved himself.

Just why did that knife keep turning?

iii.

Strange how much Corellia reminded him of Balmorra, or maybe not strange at all, the carnage, separated by space and stars replicated itself over and over on each world with a breathable atmosphere. Strange how he’d gotten so used to the smoke, sounds of distant buildings tumbling to the ground, the chorus of screams and blaster fire, and the bodies in the millions; so much so that it didn’t faze him anymore. He wished he could attribute it to his composure as a Jedi, but that was a lie. A part of him had died somewhere.

Shame the rest of him refused to follow suit.

A huff from behind him, signaled Astra’s arrival, having followed him out of the spaceport. He readjusted his composure as she stopped next to him, arms crossed and her own expression unreadable as she stared out over the burning city. In her winged armor, glowing with the hazy orange-reds of the sunset and the fleeting light glittering off her jewelry, she looked like an angel of death to him. The fire in her golden eyes matched the flames eating at the city.

His heart stirred, a painful tightening of the only emotion he seemed to feel these days: guilt. Guilt for lying to her, guilt for planning to disassemble everything she and the rest of the Empire worked for. Guilt for falling in love with her and letting her see it.

Seeming to have resolved herself, Astra looked up to him, a cat-like expression on her face, and something else maybe. “Just this last place and we’ll be through with Thanaton and Baras.” Cured of the crippling effects the Sith spirits had on her body, fearlessly ready to win the Kaggath, her devious spark had come back in full. Her fingers danced up his arm, and while he stiffened, just as he always had, no longer was it from inexperience or reluctance. Though that part of him was true enough, she always seemed to enjoy that boyish aspect of Lucien. “Try not to look so excited.”

Cael summoned a small smile just for her, and Astra accepted it, strolling down the ramp towards the Imperial outpost. There was a confidence in her he wished he could mirror, and only the smallest spark of curiosity of what she’d been planning when he caught up with her in the spaceport. Only one way to find out. He followed after her, a large, dark shadow in her wake.

The ringing of her comm brought her to a pause, answering it to the miniature blue aspect of the Moff she’d allied herself with.

“My Lord,” Pyron bowed “we’ve found out more concerning Darth Thanaton’s apprentice, if you choose so, I believe he could be swayed to reveal his master’s plans. He has not been the Darth’s apprentice for very long.”

Astra’s smile was wicked. “Thank you Pyron.” Bowing once more the holo disappeared. “What a productive day this is turning out to be, Thanaton must have known it was my birthday.”

Part of him registered that, mapped the date. Before he got his mouth working, she had already walked off, leaving him with little more than a glance over her pauldroned shoulder.

Next year… He’d say it next year…

He’d be lying to himself if he thought he ever had that chance.

iv.

“I can never tell with you Jedi, is it stoicism or moodiness?” Jonas Balkar swiveled casually on his bar stool, his languid glance around the room hiding his professional vigilance. He’d dragged Cael out to one of his favored dives, one with just the right ambiance as he put it. Which was Jonas speak for ‘good booze, good music, real dancers, and at least 5 escape points’.

Cael stared into his untouched glass, like the thick amber liquid could give him some new kind of insight. He reached up to run a hand through his hair, only to be met with the short strands of his recent haircut. One of the only things that changed since he’d returned to SIS and the Republic.

“You can never tell with Theron either.” Cael countered, making the same instinctual sweep around the cantina Jonas had.

The other spy raised a humored eyebrow and downed the remains of his drink. “Shan is easy, because he’s always both.” Jonas glanced at Cael’s untouched drink but said nothing as he waved the bar droid over for another.

“He was raised like me, at least for a time, so what do you think that says?” Strumming his fingers on the bartop, Cael fought off the darkness that crept up on him when he least expected it, pretending like everything was fine for another night.

Not that Jonas bought it. “That says you jedi are all irascible philosophers with one facial expression.” He humphed, amused at his own retort.

Absently swirling the glass for maybe the eighth time that night, Cael’s heart suddenly quickened at the fleeting glimpse of vermillion skin. Stomach in his throat, he turned in time to watch a red-skinned twi’lek wrap her arms around neck of a fellow patron. When she kissed them, Cael’s gut turned to lead, that pang in his chest that refused to heal, a burning knot. He set his elbows on the counter and covered his mouth with his hands.

Having followed the fleeting moment, Jonas scrutinized him and finished his newest drink. Though he might have never read Cael’s report, and Director Trant had made the subject highly classified, that didn’t mean Balker couldn’t read Cael himself. “I thought you weren’t supposed to form attachments.” He whispered in genuine sympathy.

“Today is her birthday.” Cael admitted, tongue suddenly too heavy and awkward in his mouth. He hadn’t spoken about her aloud in months, the mere memories the subject summoned enough to demand his reticence. “Three years, I never knew, never wished her happy birthday. I… I never asked.”

Jonas pushed Cael’s glass closer towards him. “You’ll get to, someday.”

And with such comforting conviction, the sweet lie almost tasted real.

v.

Morning sunlight chased the mist deeper into the forests on Odessen. The fresh scent of earth and dewey stone combined with the way the balanced Force cradled everything on the planet was enough to blanket Cael with one of the most profound senses of peace he’d experienced in a long long time.

There was only one place where he felt more alive, more confident, more right: being beside Astra.

She’d gotten up earlier than him, a gentle surprise. It wasn’t her movement or noise that roused him, but the caress of the bond between them. It remained, of all he had seen, the most improbable chance. The Force had bonded the two of them, an unbreakable tie that ebbed unhurriedly along like the waves that lapped at a ponds edge. So many things had come to clarity when they learned of it, and those understandings had settled flawlessly into place when she accepted it.

Cael couldn’t stop the smile that the reflection brought to his lips. It had only taken ten years, but now he knew that the part of him he thought had died, the piece that was missing: it was accepting his love for her, and all the good and bad moments, the wondrous and ill decisions, that brought with it.

“Morning.” He found her in the hanger, breathing in time to the life awakening across the planet, knowing she sensed him long before he even spoke. Astra slipped softly from her meditation, turning her brilliant eyes on him. They narrowed with affection as she smiled.

“Good morning to you too sleepy-head.” Graceful red fingers rose to run through his hair, unwinding the little tufts that tangled in his sleep.

He kissed the top of her head, settling into the calm that just came from being at her side. “Happy Birthday Astra.”

The red-skinned sith looked up in shock, yellow eyes wide. “How did you know it was my birthday?”

Cael grinned at her. “How accusatory,” he teased, “were you planning on not telling me?”

Astra’s eyes rolled theatrically, her hands on his hips. “It’s not that… and that wasn’t the answer to my question.”

“I’ve known for a long time… since Corellia.” Cael’s eyes clouded with the bittersweet memories for a second before Astra’s touch drew him out. “You said it so casually, and I, well, I hadn’t been in a good place. For a long time it was one of the few things I truly knew about you. There was so much I never asked, so much I selfishly ignored. I’ve wanted to say that for seven years now, finally got my chance. I’m sorry I don’t have a present.”

Wrapping him in a tight embrace, the bond conveyed what words couldn’t: a kittenish mix of affection, amusement, and melancholy.

Astra’s cheek rested against his collarbone and she nuzzled him a moment before turning her eyes up to his, gold melding with gold. A part of her wanted to be painfully sentimental, to say that him being here was enough, but rather she grinned, cupping the side of his face in her hand, tilting him down towards her. “I can think of so many presents you can give me, and in so many positions.

Blood immediately shot to Cael’s cheeks turning nearly as crimson as she was. Never was he going to get used to that teasing from her; or control the way he reacted to it.

Astra laughed, a charming and heartened purr, dragging him closer to press an adoring kiss to his lips. She felt his affection surge down their bond in time with his arms drawing her ever closer.

Breaking for air, Cael’s cheeks still scarlet, she laughed once more, overcome by the swelling of emotions in her heart and the breathlessness in her lungs. “You being here is enough.” Okay maybe she could be a bit cliched. “But if it’s really so pressing, I find my legs are just not strong enough to stand, you’ll have to carry me around all day.”

Cael smiled broadly, swooping in to kiss her with the same motion that swept her up into his arms. There was not removing the doe-eyed tenderness from his eyes and foolish grin off his face. Stars, how he loved her. “I think that can be arranged.”

[hopefulfestivaltastemaker]

August 30, 2020

My weekly roundup of things I am looking at and working on. Topics include agroforestry, carbon sequestration, wildfires, climate solutions playing cards, vactrains, and two years of marriage.

Agroforestry

I got back to drafting a brief agroforestry section for Urban Cruise Ship.

The image under development is a summary of select studies on the yields of agroforestry systems. Specifically, the metric is the land equivalency ratio (LER), which is the ratio of how much land would be required to grow all crops on separate monocultures in the same climate, to how much is required for the intercropped agroforestry system. The LER metric can be applied to any kind of intercropping system, not just agroforestry, and also to agrivoltaics (mixture of crop and solar PV, which evidently also often has LER>1 but I haven’t looked at yet). An LER>1 means the intercropped saves land relative to monoculture. Most of the studies give an LER>1, with the median seeming to be somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0. While the list of studies in my chart is far from comprehensive--I already know of a few more that weren’t included--I think it is a representative sample.

Agroforestry also seems to be generally advantageous on soil health, nitrogen fixation, and erosion prevention, and a mixed bag on water consumption and runoff.

If agroforestry is so great, why are we not doing a whole lot more of it? I don’t have a firm answer, but my instinct from the last time I thought about the question seems to be confirmed by several sources: agroforestry is also more labor intensive and requires greater specialized knowledge to do right. This seems like the kind of problem for which extension programs were developed.

I might want to develop some tangible proposals, which would require a much deeper dive into the economics of agroforestry. But while the yield and other benefits are good, they are not dramatic in the way that yield gains from, say, greenhouse hydroponics or synthetic agriculture are, and I would probably want to focus my attention on where the biggest gains are. There is also the question of how big and how differentiated the agroforestry market potential is.

Carbon Sequestration and Forests

Continuing on with forestry topics, I also added a bit on the controversial and currently hot topic of carbon sequestration and forestry. There’s a lot to parse, but my read of the major recent studies is that there is a theoretical potential of about 200-600 billion tons of CO2-equivalent potential of carbon sequestration in the soil, with practical considerations no doubt putting the limit much lower. The theoretical limit is about 5-15 years of emissions at current rates. Busch et al. estimate that about 0.49 to 1.84 billion tons CO2e emissions could be negated each year through tropical reforestation as a carbon price ranges from $30 to $100/ton. That’s about 1% to 4% of annual emission. Nothing to sneeze at, but biotic carbon sequestration is hardly at the top of the list of most effective solutions. Kim et al. give a theoretical potential of 3.4 billion tons CO2e sequestration annually from agroforestry, though again a distinction is needed between theoretical potential and practical potential.

Wildfires

Speaking of hot topics, wildfires have been on my agenda for the forestry section, and the fact that I came up to it during the peak of ongoing California wildfires is a coincidence.

I was motivated in part by annoyance over the tendency of climate activists to seize upon the fires as a climate change talking point, when wildfire management is a complex and important issue that deserves to be treated on its own terms. Worldwide, it doesn’t seem that there is a clear trend toward more wildfires, but there is in certain hotspots, including California. Furthermore, it is indeed the case that evidence points to climate change as a driver of wildfire intensity and lengthening of fire season. This study says that over half the increase in aridity--a major driver of fires--in California can be attributed to climate change.

Fire suppression has been flagged by many researchers as a major contributing factor to the increase in wildfire intensity in the US West since the 1980s, and this seems to be a generally known and accepted fact among people who are familiar with the issue. For those unfamiliar, the basic idea is that suppression disrupts the normal ecological process of fire, causing forest biomass to accumulate and therefore increase fire risk in the future. I would be very interested in some good quantification, though. For instance, how does suppression compare to climate change in portion of observed trend explained? I would also like to know how much of a cost deferment can be identified from suppression practices. If we could put a number on how a suppression operation is going to impose costs in the future, then it should help make better decisions, especially if there is a way to incorporate that “fire debt” into the Forest Service’s budget.

Aside from cutting back on suppression, controlled burns and forest thinning--the removal of small trees and other excess biomass--can help reduce the risk. Some people argue on ecological grounds that fire is to be preferred to thinning as a better way of recycling nutrients and maintaining biodiversity. There is also ongoing suspicion (or maybe hope) that thinning is a back door for the timber industry.

There is also the issue of the wildland-urban interface, which is the fancy term for how much human development is exposed to wildfire risk. Since the Forest Service can be relied upon to attempt to defend property, there is a cost of WUI development that is externalized both to the private homeowner and to the city/state governments that make zoning decisions. I think it would be worthwhile to quantify and internalize this cost. Without endorsing all of the proposed solutions, this report goes deeper into WUI development issues.

If I were to pick one reading to recommend (which I am), it would be this one from FUSEE, an advocacy organization for an ecological approach to wildfire management. It goes into detail about the Forest Service’s practice and some interesting history. It’s from an advocacy organization, so I won’t vouch for the objectivity of the report, but it is a good education piece.

Climate Solutions Playing Cards

A whimsical idea: with a good illustrator, I would design and have printed a line of playing cards, each featuring a climate change solution and a line or two of text. If anyone is reading and wants to steal the idea, go right ahead.

I think I would go with the following solutions. For each rank, solutions are presented in the following order: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades, and generally in that order from the most established to the most speculative ideas. The ranks, from Ace to Two, are meant to capture my subjective estimate of the relative importance of the solutions. Aside from the Jokers, I would endorse each idea, though maybe with qualifications or in a limited way. Since there are only 54 cards, I can’t be comprehensive, so my apologies if your favorite solution is left out.

Two: Onshore Wind, Offshore Wind, Building-Integrated Wind, High Altitude Wind

Three: Agroforestry, Precision Agriculture, Hydroponics, Synthetic Meat

Four: Carbon Capture on Coal, Carbon Capture on Gas, Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Direct Air Capture

Five: Afforestation, Enhanced Weathering, Solar Radiation Management, Ocean Iron Fertilization

Six:  Recycling, Energy Efficient Buildings, Urban Density, District Heating and Cooling

Seven: Demand Response, Microgrids, Energy Storage, HVDC Supergrids

Eight: Hydropower, Biofuels, Geothermal, Ocean Energy

Nine: Electric Vehicles, Catenary Wire Trucks, High Speed Rail, Remote Work and Events

Ten: Low Carbon Steel, Low Carbon Cement, Industrial Ecology, Non-fossil Chemicals

Jack: Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Rooftop and Building-Integrated Solar, Space-Based Solar

Queen: Hydrogen Electrolysis, Clean Ammonia, Clean Methanol, Electrofuels

King: Generation III Nuclear, Small Modular Reactors, Generation IV Nuclear, Fusion

Ace: International Climate Agreements, Clean Energy Standards, Public R&D Investments, Carbon Pricing

Joker: Degrowth, Population Control

Trans-Planetary Subway Systems

I came across this paper this week from 1978, proposing a network of deep subway tunnels spanning the Earth and advanced tunneling methods. I have no idea how feasible the idea is, though clearly not much has happened in the 42 years since. Now there is the Boring Company, but I don’t think even Elon Musk is attempting “hypersonic projectile spallation, laser beam devices, and the ‘Subterrene’ heated tungsten probe that melts through igneous rocks”.

I’m all for ideas that are bold and attempt to build entirely new systems, as opposed to merely tweaking existing systems.

Two Years of Marriage

Today my wife and I celebrated our second anniversary. It is customary to use such occasions to talk about martial bliss and the beauty and perfection of it all, but the reality is that I didn’t know going into the marriage if I would be cut out for married life, and I still don’t know.

A person should go into marriage fully aware that it is hard work, that events are not going to go according to plan, and that one’s life priorities will be very different. The same conditions are true of having children, I would assume, though we haven’t gotten there yet.

Anyway, I’m glad we made it this far.