#non-communicating meter

[stopsmartmetersaustralia]

AEMC moves to accelerate the roll out of smart meters in Australia

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has made a draft rule designed to turbocharge the deployment of smart meters. The draft rule determination states that the rule would achieve ‘universal uptake of smart meters in the NEM [National Energy Market] by 2030’. The new rule represents a major departure from the ‘Expanding competition in metering and related services’ electricity rule that…

[bimobuddy]

hey so

who in the community is okay with spam boops

Because I'm fine with it, my phone doesn't give me spam notifications, so it literally won't bother me

But I didn't know that wasn't universal, so I spammed my friend and pissed them off ^^"

[ridher]

rafe cameron defending his shy & non-confrontational girl

one the the biggest perks in a relationship with rafe is how different he is from you, opposites attract or something like that.

his charismatic and confident nature makes it easy for him to interact — and more importantly, get what he wants. something you, however, tended to struggle with. it's not a negative quality, just the way you grew up and part of your personality rafe loves so much.

he caught on right away and it was what drew him towards you. being able to provide for his girl and be the man she relied on was truly all he could wish for — especially in situations like these.

today, you and your boyfriend went out to the country club, a common pastime for the two of you. he would hit a few holes and you'd watch all prettily from the golf cart, sipping on a drink that'd get you tipsy and clingy — just happy to be there.

that is, until another cart pulls up, the sound startling you before you're able to turn and look over at the disruption.

it's a group of asshole kook boys — something you used to assume about rafe, so you remain nonjudgmental. the rowdy group of three is focused on you since your boyfriend is a few meters away, zoned in on his sport.

"yo! could you go any fuckin' slower?" the driver shouts, hanging out the side of the open vehicle. his words leave you stunned, mouth agape and face heating up from the accusation you weren't sure how to handle.

instinctively, your head snaps back towards rafe who's already making his way back over with his club held dangerously tight in his grip — knuckles white and all.

"i'm sorry, i said something, didn't i?" the boy speaks back up, trying to get your attention through the subtle insult.

it works, because you look back over at the group, silent and overwhelmed by conflict. something that wouldn't seem like a big deal to others — namely your boyfriend who's already handling it with nothing more than a tense jaw in reaction — feels equivalent to the end of the world.

like always, rafe fixes it for you and they speed away with a wave of the middle finger — directed towards who is unclear.

he snaps you out of it with the touch of his hand on your chin, refocusing your eyes to connect with his. bracing the other on the roof of the golf cart, his body leans over yours and speaks up all low and soft just for you.

"that was all 'cause of me. nobody's mad at you, aight?" and he knows just what to say. if your eyes could be filled with hearts, they would be — instead, dilated pupils fill the color of your iris almost completely and you're nodding at his reassurance, mind hazy.

he smirks lazily, ego inflated at the feeling of being your savior and the confirmation that he is that person for you.

pressing a wet, sloppy kiss to your forehead, he taps firmly at your hip as a signal to scoot over so he can slide into the driver's seat and take control. all is well again when he feels your head fall to his shoulder during the bumpy ride across the course.

his large hand snakes around your waist and his thumb nudges the hem of your shirt when it starts circling absentmindedly.

the outing is cut short for reasons neither of you need to communicate, even more so when rafe hurries the two of you back to tanneyhill where he all but manhandles you up the stairs and into the familiar space of his bedroom — giggles and affectionate kisses following all the way.

[27moremoons]

400 days and 76 years

RNN:

*Numbers of martyred and wounded is what is recorded, not actual, actual is higher

This photo shows the extent of destruction by the zionist entity on the Gaza Strip in the last year, with each red dot representing a bombing.

With 85,500 tons of explosives dropped (seven nuclear bomb equivalents), this means that and equivalent of 38 kilograms of explosives have been dropped on every man, woman, and child in the Gaza Strip.

This means that 1.8 tons (1,800 kg) of explosives was used for every martyr, including the over 10,000 children killed by the occupation.

According to the Government Media Office and UN, 66% of buildings have been destroyed (over 200,000 homes), 68% of crops, 3,130 kilometers of electricity networks, 330,000 meters of water networks, 655,000 meters of sewage networks, and 2,835,000 meters of road and street networks.

This is what a genocide looks like.

A new report by the UN Human Rights Office found that 70% of the martyrs in Gaza are women and children, in the six months between November 2023 and April 2024.

80% of the martyrs ascended in residential buildings, killed by American weapons. 44% of them were children, and 26% are women.

The most represented age group was children between the ages of 5 and 9. The youngest verified martyr as a result of the IOF aggression was a one-day-old boy, while the oldest was a 97-year-old woman.

The report also noted deliberate communications blackouts and bombing of communication infrastructure, targeting of journalists (making Gaza "the most dangerous place on earth for journalists"), mass displacement, attacks on educational sites, attacks (bombings and invasions) on hospitals—rendering them non-functional—among other crimes.

In the last 400 days of genocide, 3,759 massacres have been carried out by the IOF, resulting in 53,508 martyrs and missing, including 17,000 children (786 under one year old), 12,000 females, 1,047 medical staff, 85 civil defense, and 185 journalists, as well as 37 martyrs by starvation. 1,206 Palestinian families have been erased from the civil registry.

85,500 tons of explosives have been dropped in the last year, equivalent to 7 nuclear bombs, or nearly 2 tons per martyr.

Martyrs continue to ascend daily, particularly in the besieged northern Gaza Strip, amidst a lack of Civil Defense, medical care, and media coverage.

[mxtxfanatic]

Maybe this is just an introvert thing and most people are extroverts that refuse to understand introverts, or maybe this is just a growing up thing, but uhhh… Wei Wuxian doesn’t need friends.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, this is not to say that Wei Wuxian doesn’t need love or affection or a community. This is to say that Wei Wuxian already has exactly the kind of people in his life that fulfill all of those roles, and he is not yearning to find new people to shoot the shit with. He has Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, the juniors, Mianmian and her family, the outer Lan disciple girl he saved, and—who knows—whatever random non-bigot wangxian run across on their journeys and choose to stay in touch with. Wei Wuxian fills his social meter by talking to the people wangxian meet on their travels. He doesn’t need or even express a want for more, and I think people are mistaking his ability to be charming and the center of attention for a need to charm people and be the center of attention, without accounting for the fact that “being likable” was a trait Wei Wuxian took on in his first life for survival purposes as both a street orphan and then as the ward of a great clan leader with no real status or stability. Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian could give less than a fuck what anyone thinks of him.

Some of the cultivators at the second siege said they’d never thank him or forgive him or welcome him back into the fold, and he looked them dead in their faces and said, “And?” Like what, was he supposed to cry about it? The rest of the cultivators start including him in the conversation about how to follow-up on capturing Jin Guangyao, and all of his thoughts on this “inclusion” are tinged with exasperation and a faint disgust. He attends that Lan family banquet in the extra and the thing that kills his mood is not the disapproving atmosphere but the fact that he didn’t like the food. Those people may not like him, but the feeling is mutual! He doesn’t like them either! He doesn’t care if they like him or not because they are irrelevant to his life and decisions! Everyone he loves, loves him, and those are the only people who he wants to be around longterm.

It may trip some folks up, but some of us are just like that. We aren’t actively looking for new people to integrate into our friend groups, and we do not revolve our lives around how others view us. Nobody who’s actually secure in themself is crying over the mean mug Sidewalk Extra #27 threw in their direction or why Coworker #5 didn’t invite us over for a gossip session. The vibe of adulthood is: nobody needs an infinite number of friends that must be collected throughout your whole lifetime. Sometimes a handful of people you’ve been through hell and back with is enough. Be like Wei Wuxian and master that.

[archie-sunshine]

A Year in Review

SO ITS BEEN A LONNNNG YEAR! a very very long year, but a lovely year and a very precious year!!! I feel like because of how big a year its been, we need a recap of everything that happened, and everything that this platform has allowed me to achieve!!

SO LETS START WITH JANUARY!!

I was still in school during this month, so I didn't get to draw as much as i wanted, but i wrote a ton!! I published chapters of Survey Says, Rehab/Cohab, and also the seminal work of fiction that is Positive Reinforcement! I want to celebrate how much writing i got done, especially with how that's taken a back seat on my blog for a while now!!

In february I got more time to focus on my work, and I hit 1000 followers!!!! I conducted the first ever askbox purges, and I drew a load of art!! I also met some great new friends during this month!! (hi soda! :D)

I STARTED STREAMING IN MARCH!!! I think this was one of the best decisions i ever made, because being able to chat and hang out with everyone as i draw is always hugely inspiring. I look forward to streaming and chatting with everyone each week :]

IN APRIL I DREW TOO MUCH NON ROBOT ASS. I finally got around to watching dungeon meshi and i became absolutely fucking obsessed with fantasy. I've always been a huge interest in fae and fantasy and worldbuilding, so knightformers is such a fun creative exercise!!

and then in may my computer exploded. Not actually, the screen just broke. I drew so much knightformers in may that my screen killed itself. oops!

In june, I not only hit 2k followers, but started a stickers business!!! All of your support from that made me feel confident in my ability to sustain myself on my art, and gave me the inspiration to push myself harder as the year went on!

In july, not only did I go to my first transformers convention, I met @pinkanonwrites in person for the first time, and MY BOYFRIEND MOVED INTO MY HOUSE! This month was so busy, but meeting pink and going to tfcon was so fantastic :]

In august it was my BIRTHDAY!! :D i turned 21! And I went on a prolonged inbox hiatus to focus on establishing my art style !

In september my hiatus continued, and I created meter, the greatest blight on the tfa tag to ever exist! Everyone exploded over my sweet boy, and it made me very happy to see :D

In october, i entered what I consider my own personal renaissance!! I was incredibly inspired by tf one, and starting to use more colour in my artwork since september! I released halloween merch (and then got my account on ko-fi suspended for a bit but it was fine) and hit three thousand followers!

IN NOVEMBER I KEPT MYSELF BUSY. I worked on tons of merch, made hypnovembers, and sketched up an absolute storm. The whole month honestly feels like a blur to me. AND THEN THE CANADA POST WORKERS WENT ON STRIKE (union strong, lads, good luck!)

Andddd because of that postal strike, I had to cross the us border into america to get all of my stickers sent off!!! december has continued to be incredibly busy, but! if you're seeing this, it means I'm ON HIATUS OFFICIALLY!!! AND MY WORK IS DONE (or mostly done ehehe)

I want to give a huge thanks to all of you. Because of your support, both financially and socially, not only has my confidence grown, but with it, so has my artistic skill and my income.

Drawing for all of you has allowed me to manage my anxiety more readily with medical marijuana, has allowed me to become more financially independant and responsible, and has opened up so many doors for me socially.

doing this has always been something that was more pipe dream or fantasy than reality, so the fact I get to say I draw for a living at all is a privilege i don't take lightly in the slightest.

I will always be proud to draw for this community. Thank you everyone, and see you next year!

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - December 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles for 50% off this month!

1. 7 good things humanity did to combat climate change in 2024

“The UK […] closed its final coal power plant in October. [… In India,] the share of power provided by coal dropped below 50% for the first time since the 1960s. [… A non-profit] has provided solar energy to more than 6,000 of the poorest Nigerians.”

2. California Voters Said Yes to Prop 4, a Win for Birds, People, and Our Shared Future

“[…] Prop 4 will direct millions of dollars for water conservation and habitat restoration [… and] includes a requirement that at least 40% of its funding go to lower-income and climate-vulnerable communities.”

3. This Pennsylvania school is saving big with solar and EV school buses

“Steelton-Highspire’s solar arrangement will save it about $3.6 million over the next 20 years. As for the electric school buses, Steelton-Highspire is one of thousands of districts able to access federal rebates from a $5 billion program created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

4. Autism Speaks Canada shuts down in January. Good.

“As Canada’s autistic-led advocacy group […] we are relieved that Autism Speaks Canada will be shutting down in January of 2025. This is an opportunity for autistics and our families to collaborate locally to build new, neuro-affirming spaces and projects.” [If you don’t know why this is a good thing, please click here]

5. LA Zoo hatches first-ever perentie lizards, one of largest lizard species in the world

“The LA Zoo is one of only three institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that have successfully reproduced them[….] Adult perentie lizards can reach more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) in length and can weigh more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms), the zoo said.”

6. Research reveals an inexpensive fix for California's struggling wildflowers

“[… R]aking [“dead, invasive grasses”] is decidedly less labor-intensive and more ecologically friendly [than other management techniques…, but doing so] increased plant diversity overall, reducing invasive grasses […] while increasing both native and exotic wildflowers[….]”

7. A new EV battery could last more than 8 times longer, travel farther

“[… A] typical battery lasts 2,400 cycles, while the new battery lasted more than 20,000 cycles. [… Used batteries could be repurposed] for grid storage on wind and solar farms, the study notes.”

8. Women who are homeless in Boston find safe space and care at 'HER Saturday'

“Women can get lots of other care on the spot — from sick visits and basic health screenings to Pap smears and contraception. [… They also come for] "The makeup, the snacking and the girl talks. And ... picking out a new outfit," said Pinky Valentine [“a homeless transgender woman”].”

9. ‘It absolutely took off’: five UK biodiversity success stories

“[…N]ew methods are emerging to preserve, improve and generate new habitat and, in many cases, attract back or reintroduce species not seen for decades. After a nudge, ecosystems are often doing much of the heavy work themselves.“

10. Personalized gifts really do mean that little bit more to your loved ones, says research

“Research has also shown that receivers of personalized gifts are more likely to take care of them. […] In this sense, gift-giving can be not just an emotional exchange, but also a more sustainable one. A carefully preserved [personalised] gift avoids waste and brings long-term satisfaction.”

December 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[matan4il]

IDK how to write today's update post. There were so many things I meant to include info about, but now everything pales in the face of the terrible news we got this morning.

At least 24 Israeli soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours in Gaza.

Here are the faces of some of them:

The terrorists responsible for most of these deaths, attacked in a spot just 600 meters (0.37 miles, with the border breached on Oct 7 in the middle) from a southern Israeli community, Kissufim.

[this paragraph is for the people spewing hate, on and off anon : if you read the news and smiled to yourself, or felt any kind of joy, I want you to know that's vile. It's devoid of any morality or humanity. You can tell yourself and others that you're for human rights all you want, but if you feel joy at the death of human beings, human beings who had the right to live (and would have lived, had it not been for the terrible massacre Hamas carried out on Oct 7, which the terrorists promised to recreate repeatedly, targeting Israelis and Jews alike), then you're not for human rights. It's just an excuse you use to be able to publicly celebrate the death of Jews, and of non-Jewish citizens of the Jewish state who defend their fellow Jews. It's just the same, age old antisemitism under a new guise]

IDK how to explain what that number does to me, as an Israeli, as a Jew, as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.

I still remember the morning of Oct 7, as the news started pouring in. First, just talking about the rockets, they had no confirmation of casualties yet. Then, we got the news of one elderly woman, killed by a rocket as she left her home to open the communal bomb shelter for others to use. Then suddenly it was 5 dead, then 10, then 22, along with the news that Palestinian terrorists from Gaza have invaded Israel's south.

And I knew then that the number is going to be higher. The way it normally goes with news of terrorist attack, is you first get a big number, those killed immediately or shortly after the attack, and then there are a few more wounded who don't make it. Basically, there's a big number, and then a small adjustment. Something like... first hearing about the 10 immedaite casualties of an attack, then the number is adjusted to 12 or 13 in the following hours, or days. But here, the jump in the number of dead from 10 to 22 told me we're not in the "small adjustment phase" yet. We're still in the "counting the initial big number phase."

That was so hard, because 22 was already hard to deal with. Up until Oct 7, if I remember correctly, we had lost 38 people in 2023 to Palestinian terrorism. That was already considered the bloodiest year in terms of terrorism victims since the second intifada. People were already grieving, asking questions about what was going on, talking about how the renewal of certain (American) funding to Palestinians (such as the Palestinian Authority's Pay for Slay program) was causing this surge in murderous activity, and what can be done to change the situation. To lose 22 people in one day meant that the number of 2023 terrorism victims was almost doubled already... and we were not yet done counting our dead. The grief and loss of almost 9 months and change almost doubled in a day... and it was likely about to grow.

The number of dead kept rising. We jumped from 22 to 50. From 50 to 100. Then 200. Still no sign of getting to the "small adjustment phase" and it was hard to breathe with every new update. We got to 300, and it was almost unbearable. Then 450. A jump of 150 dead. There was no way to process it, no way to really comprehend it, and the worst was always that the jumps in numbers between updates meant we're still in the "counting the initial big number phase." Somewhere after 600 and before the next update, I realized from an interview (nothing official, just the implication of what one person, who was in the know, said) that it was not going to be less than 1,000 people killed. And I no longer felt like I could contain any of it. The horror, the grief, the shock, the struggle to comprehend that this is real, and not the worst nightmare I've ever had.

At least 1,200 people were murdered during Hamas' massacre. It's been over 3 months, and when I write that I didn't know how to contain everything I was feeling back then, I still don't. So you might think, what's 24 people in comparison to 1,200 dead? But that's not how it works. The death of one person does not pale in comparison with the death of the many.

When I work on Holocaust research, and I work on the testimony of one Jewish girl, who had to watch her father being beaten in front of her eyes by Nazi-collaborating Italian fascist soldiers in a concentration camp in Libya, in northern Africa, when I try to process what the murder of just one parent, just one person means to her, I know it's the destruction of her whole world. It doesn't lessen the pain, that the number of Jewish Holocaust victims outside of Europe is "just" in the thousands, while in Europe it's in the millions. One death can in itself be impossible to bear.

And here's the thing. Those deaths and their impact accumulate. We didn't just learn today that we lost 24 soldiers. We lost 24 worlds (because as the Jewish saying goes, "He who kills one person, it's as if he killed the entire world, and he who saves one person, it's as if he saved the whole world," Mishna Sanhedrin 4.5) and we lost them as a part of now over 220 soldiers we lost in this war (see below a map of Israel with a red dot for every place where at least one soldier was killed), which was forced upon us with the murder and destruction of over 1,200 worlds, which comes after 75 years of a conflict we didn't want, in which we lost 28,000 worlds, and that followed a genocide in which we lost at least 6,000,000 worlds, and that in itself is the peak of almost two thousand years of persecution, during which the full and total number of Jews lost, of worlds destroyed just because of antisemitism, will never be known. All I know is that the Jews we know today, we're not the Jewish people. We are what's left of the Jewish people. And we will live. Am Yisrael Chai. Always. In the face of countless attempts at our destruction, we're still here. But we remember them all. Every single soul lost. Every world destroyed. Every child that had been murdered, every child that will never get to be born. We have lost 24 worlds today, and the fact that we have lost so many before, only makes the loss worse.

And we would not have lost a single person in the fighting in Gaza if we had actually been guilty of the crimes they accuse us of. We could have wiped out all of Gaza from the air, without risking the life of a single soldier on the ground. Every one of the Israeli soldiers killed, died to protect Israelis, as well as to save Palestinian civilians.

The way I feel right now, I think about the words of one member of Kissufim who I heard today: "We are broken, but strong."

May the memory of those lost be a blessing, every single one of them, every Jewish person, and non-Jew killed for standing with Jews, in every generation.

You're all still with me, I carry all of you in my heart, always.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[genderkoolaid]

Hiltz ran a personal best in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:02.32, good enough for a silver medal, winning the first American medal in the event since 2003. Their performance left Hiltz in shock. “Yeah, I’m in disbelief. I can’t believe it.,” said Hiltz, 29, who is transgender and non-binary. The gold medal was won by Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu and American Emily Mackay took the bronze. Afterwards, Hiltz and Mackay celebrated on Instagram. [...] “Wore my ‘them’ necklace yesterday at the US championships for all the they/thems out there,” Hiltz wrote on X. “I’m so thankful for the nonbinary and trans community for believing in me and encouraging me to continue to chase my silly little dreams. Keep showing up and taking up space.”

[velvetvexations]

i feel like the sentiment of ‘human shields’ or ‘you should be able to use slurs (“theyfab” the one im thinking of) against a group that (you perceive as) your oppressors’ comes from like. a flow chart way of thinkin

it really isn’t math. certain women (as broad and vague as the group can be defined) absolutely have power over certain men sometimes. race is one of the main ones, but like, off the top of my head there’s also age, disability, and certain authority or workplace positions. i would even include as small as a community as like, a gathering of friends to whom ive just invited a new person. the new person is statistically gonna be shyer or more prone to being pushed out. of course there are always a million modifiers, a million past and future happenings that shape someone and may or may not add to their “power meter” (if such a thing is real and operates like a meter) but being any specific identity is not going to be the sole driving factor of all interactions, especially in micro communities with their own standards.

i guess what im trying to say is that the claim that one is oppressed in every situation due to their identity and therefore any bullying towards others of one identity just counts as ‘pushing the needle’ is disingenuous. it is much more comfortable to feel like the ‘beaten down person who is just lashing out against their attackers’ without realizing that those attacks do hurt because some of those people may in fact be just as powerless as you (not you, velvet!! example you)

Flowchart anon: forgor to mention, or course own identity can be impactful and everyone knows better than a stranger how they’ve been affected by their identity, but also I think it’s possible to harness power even when you don’t know it, or unfortunately don’t approach people that way

it's wild too because the slurs get explained away as being like Black people saying cracker and a White person telling a non-binary person of color you should get to call them slurs because they're like White people to them is wild on it's own but like

have you

EVER

seen a Black person go to the fucking mat on a daily basis for 'cracker' like TRFs do th**yfab?

Yes, obviously, Black people have regularly argued with disingenuous idiots about it all the time. But have you ever seen Black activists, out doing serious, important work, fiercely argue every single day against a massive horde of White people telling them not to? I'm not even saying that a Black person can necessarily say the word cracker without ten White people popping off in the replies. But how often do they get replied to? And how much of those White people are trying to get through that it sincerely hurts them, and not just claiming it's rhetorically hypocritical?

Because from the TRF perspective it feels like "no but we should get to use this insulting word for other people and if not you're literally killing us!" is like, the major discussion to be having! I've talked a lot before about how even I, someone massively triggered by things outside of intercommunity stuff, somehow manage to bring those issues up more than TRFs do with their incessant focus on the perceived transmisogyny of other trans people, but good Lord. Even if it WERE okay and justified, it's so obvious they care about their sacred right to be aggressive towards other people over literally anything that will ever actually help a single trans woman.

They're exploiting the concept of "punching up" to be mindlessly cruel to another group of marginalized people. And frankly that should be insulting on it's own. Even if you did buy into the explanation that the word was coined by trans women mad about some non-binary people scabbing for Wymyn's Warped Tour,* they're seriously saying that's the equivalent of centuries of enslavement and violent terror? Like yeah, God, remember that time some th**fabs got to watch a bunch of cis women play acoustic guitar while reciting bad poetry and I didn't? That was exactly like a burning cross in the yard warning me to not vote.

*AND IT FUCKING WASN'T

[ggidolsmuts]

Move - woo!ah! Nana

Drunk on this undefinable atmosphere

How did you even end up here? You briefly wonder, before Nana pulls you into the hotel room. A glance, that was the spark, then you joined her at the bar. You bought her a drink, then the two of you were sharing one—first by glass, then through each others lips. It was electric, the few seconds between each sip tingling the air.

I let you go

That you did as she excuses herself, but she comes back for you, leading you upstairs. The elevator was warm as you hug Nana close, pinning her against the wall. And now on the bed you let her go once more, and she strips, no, peels off her tight top and jeans, stoking the fire that's infernalizing the room.

You can't get away from me

She doesn't get to take her underwear off as you pull her back to you—you wanted to be the one to do it.

Your hair becomes disheveled, how pretty

Nana's coiffed hair is ruined by your fingers, and it won't be the only thing ruined by your hand tonight. She presses her lips fiercely on yours, working on your shirt and pants. You unclasp her bra and pull it off, toss your own shirt away, and your lips are immediately on her chest, sucking and leaving a mark on a breast. Your hands dive down her bare back, slipping underneath her panties, and Nana moans when you squeeze her.

"Fast!"

The two of you work in tandem to remove your pants and boxers, and showing off her flexibility Nana stays seated on top of you as she slides one leg, then the other, out of her own underwear. The two of you gasp and pause, savoring the feel of her wet heat pressed on your shaft.

Look at me properly, oh yeah

You try your best, and briefly you win the staring contest with Nana, her large round eyes falling shut first, like a progress meter being filled as she sinks deep on to you. You close your eyes soon after, groaning at her tightness as you hold her slim waist. The two of you stop to bask in the pleasure of the other.

"Fuck..." She whines.

Under the dim lighting, we start to move again

The lighting may be dim, but for you it is pitch black, as your eyes stay closed when Nana begins to move. Her hip movements guide your hands up and down, front and back, slowly, sensually. A firm hand on your neck makes you tilt your head back, and you taste Nana's lipstick, tangy and sweet.

Elegant hand movements, subtle glances

Her soft hand is now on your cheek, and you force your eyes open to look at her. Her gaze is needy, and silently she rides you harder, the kiss she takes from you more urgent.

An undescribable feeling, a thrilling desire

Every drop of her hips on you sends a bolt through both of you, and you can't wait for her to lift herself off you, just to do it again, and again.

You got got the rhythm, your moves grip me

Nana indeed has you in her grip, made slicker but tighter after every passing beat of her rhythm. You have a grip on her too—on her waist, on her tits, on her ass, you squeeze her to your hearts content, non-verbal communication of your pleasure to her. You latch your lips to her neck.

Temporarily everything is erased

Nana's mind goes blank, and she gasps when the angle changes slightly—you're rubbing her just right. Her eyes draws you in, and she whispers one word before they gloss over in pleasure.

"More!"

Your bodies move with more purpose, eager to fuck each other perfectly. They move with more force, to ruin each other loudly.

Your delicate makeup runs, discard your beauty

Nana's sweating and drooling, her lipstick smudged, her mascara trickling. But who gives a fuck when she's giving you the best ride of your life? She wipes her drool away, smearing her lipstick on the back of her hand before smearing them over your lips, throwing her arms around your neck.

My shirt might get wrinkled, but it's fine, look at me

Your shirt is wrinkled by Nana's foot digging into it, pushing it into the bed as she struggles for leverage. Her movements are wild now, loud audible claps of her hips into yours as she chases her peak.

"So fucking good!" She cries out loud as your hands find her lower back, helping her push against you even more.

We're perfect like this, so let go and just repeat this, just repeat this

Again and again and again you sheath Nana around you, using what little leverage you have in the position to make that sheathing all the more violent.

"Nngh, nngh... yes, yes, yes fuck!" Nana shouts in climax. You join her shortly as her powerful thighs and silky walls close around your hips and shaft. You seed her belly and she honeys your thighs, and your fluids act as the rain that turns the inferno back into an ember. She runs her fingers through your hair, and you do the same to her—this time you are the one cuffing her neck, demanding a burning kiss from her. You slip out, and the two of you watch the thick stream of white drip on to the bed. Wordlessly she takes you to the bathroom, and the sound of the shower you take together is almost calming, apart from the fact that she palms your length, stroking you back to hardness once the water stops.

Nana turns her back to you, allowing you to admire her lithe figure as she lines herself up and splits her pussy on your cock once more. She moves herself back and forth, and you take the hint to begin thrusting. You pause briefly to gather her long hair together, and gently you tug on it. Nana looks back at you.

"Don't stop."

There's no need for further words.

Just repeat this, just repeat this, just repeat this

A/N: Youtube randomly recommended me Nana's Move performance again from Queendom Puzzle, and it just made me want to try and do a "lyric fic" of Move, which is one of my favorite songs (Taemin is awesome), so here you go. I took some slight liberties with the translation, but yeah it works for the most part, thanks for reading! And thanks youtube I guess lol

[stopsmartmetersaustralia]

AusNet Services hits customers on manually read meters with quarterly fee

It appears that AusNet Services, which is one of the five Victorian power distributors, has lost its moral compass.  According to a letter which it mailed to customers, changes to its manual reading process will result in customers with a manually read meter being charged a quarterly fee of $34.80 (excluding GST) from 1 July 2023.  The letter states that this fee will increase every financial…

[dogtoling]

Biology of Inkfish - Introduction to Neocephalopods

Neocephalopods are the modern, land-dwelling forms of many cephalopods whose ancestors made their home in the ocean. These species are adapted for hunting on land with an upright posture. They are large, intelligent, terrestrial cephalopods that are mostly ectothermic, boneless molluscs that reach an average height of 1,5 meters (~5ft) in their upright stance. Most species of neocephalopod are social and form shoals (or alternatively schools or packs, depending on wording preference).

Neocephalopods can be divided into two basic groups, within which they can further be divided into three separate ones. The first classification of neocephalopods is into the neonautiloids and the cephalings. The neonautiloids consist of modern, terrestrial nautilus species, while the Cephalings consist of terrestrial, bipedal coleoid cephalopods including squids, octopuses and octopodiformes, sepiidae and sepiolidae. Cephalings are further split into inkless cephalings and ink-using cephalings, the latter of which are commonly referred to as inklings or inkfish.

[Crude drawing highlighting some of the shared traits of cephalings. Cephalings have three hearts, two gills and a minimum of eight limbs out of which four are attached to the torso and the rest onto the mantle. A facial siphon is often present, though it is more commonly encountered in inkfish.]

Ink-using cephalings get their common name, inkling, from their signature ability to create large amounts of ink that they largely depend on for many functions including defense, hunting and locomotion. All Inklings share a bipedal gait, brightly colored ink, the ability to compress their bodies into a more aerodynamic form, and advanced color-changing abilities to camouflage into their ink. Inklings have at least four brightly colored, largely decorative crown tentacles on their heads, which are used mostly for communication. Out of all neocephalopods, inklings are by far the most social with nearly all species forming complex groups with social hierarchies and cooperative hunting strategies, being commonly credited as serving as the gladius of modern cephalopodan society*.

(*At least in their own narrative.)

Inkless cephalings are biologically quite similar to inklings, in that they typically share a similar body plan. In practice, though, they can look very distinct externally, with much duller colors, sometimes nonexistent color-changing abilities and little to no ink production. Contrary to their name, some of these inkless cephalings are capable of producing ink - but this ink is dark in color and little in quantity and thus is utilized much more rarely, often just for defense against potential predators.

[A demonstration of a quite typical size difference between an inkless cephaling (Taonius borealis) and an inkfish (squidling sp.). Many so-called inkless cephalings actually have ink sacs, but they are either non-functional or the ink production is dramatically lower than that of inkfish.]

Cephalings are found all over the world, exhibiting a very large-scale case of parallel evolution. Many different types of coleoids ranging between squids, cuttlefish, octopuses and bobtails, evolved into very similar forms. Aside from influence from the fallout of human pollution and traces of their environment, the similarities between cephalings have been thought to be partially caused by the existence of other species of cephalopods in the same areas, causing similar features to develop in different species to both communicate and properly compete with other species. 

[euripidestrousers]

What are your big wolfstar hc?

Ooh good question!

I tend to change my hcs based on the AU I'm writing, but i am not exaggerating when I say these little freaks are Always on My Mind so I have an ungodly amount of canon-themed hcs. Here we go:

- Remus is one of the only people Sirius cuts a fair amount of slack. Sirius has high standards and expectations of others but he has a huge Remus-shaped blind spot, so will find reasons to excuse Remus' sometimes shitty behaviour. He has heart shaped eyes for his gangly, sly, avoidant attachment style man.

- Remus sleeps like an absolute log, anywhere, anytime. Sirius has always been a light sleeper, wakes easily, and doesn't sleep much.

- They kept their casual fucking-turned relationship secret until well after graduating. The only ones who knew were James, Lily and Peter. Lily was the first one to figure it out because poor James had been in the trenches, so used to his friends' flirting that he didn't even clock it anymore. It brought Lily and Sirius together because he had someone to talk about it with, the first person he'd met who wasn't a casual homophobe about it, and was sympathetic.

- Second to this! James and Peter weren't always rainbow flag waving allies. They were teenage boys in the 70s - they'd drop casual homophobic comments all the time before finding out about their friends. Sirius joined in sometimes to hide it from James (he never cared what anyone else would think but he was secretly afraid of losing closeness with James), and Remus went very quiet whenever this happened. James was surprised at first when he found out but came around within minutes and apologised for being a thoughtless dick when he was younger.

- Peter most definitely used Remus and Sirius' tumultuous relationship against them. Remus was very avoidant about coming out and Sirius, while not his highest priority, resented having to hide. They bickered about it and Peter would often throw a spanner in to make their fighting worse.

- Sirius' hair is a good indicator of his mental health. While he's not vain he tends to keep it neat and out of the way when he's in a good place mentally. When he's fighting inner demons he lets it go and Remus knows this. He uses it as a Sirius-meter, and knows when it's starting to get long and unkempt to gently pry into what's going on with him.

- They do the crossword puzzles together most mornings (when Remus gets up in time)

- Sirius is fantastic at baking although he only did it once or twice for Lily's birthday (per her request). Remus is the cook for both of them, although when Sirius isn't there he sustains himself on tea, biscuits and deeply suppressed anxiety.

- Sirius is a singer when he's in a good mood. Remus adores coming home to hear his deep voice belting out a mix of muggle and wix songs because it means Sirius is in his happy place. Sirius is a serenader - it starts as a joke but there's a soft look in his eye when sings while he spins Remus around the kitchen. It's one of Remus' favourite Sirius-isms

- Sirius jokes about Remus' lycanthropy to make light of it. He can be a bit callous and insensitive about it at times, but his candour does make Remus feel less like a monster.

- They are god-awful at communicating as they're both rather private, skeptical people. While it's something they have in common and respect about each other, it makes for difficulties in a relationship.

- Sirius is a Nightmare when he's bored so Remus has a mental Rolodex of thought-provoking questions to stop him from wreaking havoc (or just being annoying). As soon as he sees the restlessness starting, he casually brings up that new law about to pass in the goblin senate, and how it might affect non-human creatures in the wizarding world. He still hasn't recovered from the time Sirius got bored and took apart his record player to see how it worked and he's not getting caught out again. This is also one of the reasons why Remus is in Sirius' top 3 favourite people - he always has something interesting to say and will happily debate for hours. Sirius is hardly ever bored around him.

- Neither of them are jealous lovers. Remus' self-worth is in the toilet, so if he sees someone flirting with Sirius he just feels miserable and spirals, thinking about how Sirius can do so much better than him. Sirius is a fiercely loyal person so he never flirts back and thinks Remus' self-image issues are ridiculous. On the odd occasion that someone flirts with Remus, Sirius rather enjoys it because a) it's ammunition for teasing and Remus will go bright red when he brings it up, and b) Watching Remus eventually realise he's being flirted with is prime entertainment - he fumbles and blushes so hard and almost takes out whoever's around in his haste to flee. It's priceless. Also - Sirius is extremely self-assured and knows his partner is hopelessly gone for him and would never cheat. Trust is extremely important to them both.

- Remus is extremely unpleasant around the full moon. He's got all sorts of aches and pains, has trouble sleeping properly, fatigue, and nausea issues. It makes him irritable and snappy. Sirius is incredibly patient with him and gives him space. He doesn't take Remus' mood to heart and occupies himself while Remus wallows. He's always there when Remus finally emerges from his misery to pitifully request a massage or a pain potion, and is uncharacteristically soft with him during the full moon period.

- Sirius. Cannot. Stand. the way Remus runs away from problems. It's his biggest pet peeve and it's a source of some of their biggest fights.

- Remus is mostly vanilla-aligned but is open to trying whatever new thing Sirius comes home with, smiling giddily and clutching a new toy or book with a spell he wants to try out. Occasionally Sirius will strike gold and find a kink Remus is wild for (ahem, praise kink), and is horribly smug about it

- Sirius is hopelessly gone for Remus' feigning innocence, lying through his teeth act. He doesn't understand it, but seeing Remus lie point blank to someone's face with those big, trustworthy brown eyes, sends him off-the chain, I-need-to-fuck-this-man-right-now-wild and he has no clue why. Remus is aware of this.

- They are mostly switchy but will go for months at a time with a preference for topping/bottoming. When Remus is feeling particularly insecure he tends to want to be fucked intimately, face-to-face, where he can see every twitch in Sirius' face, can catalogue the evidence of how much Sirius adores him. Sirius is just happy to be along for the ride because this way he can completely blanket Remus and grind slowly, swallowing every one of Remus' whimpers and broken moans as he fucks him slowly and thoroughly. Sirius can't get enough of taking him apart, finding his limits, anything that breaks Remus' finely tuned composure.

- Sirius is awful at apologies when they're younger. He has trouble admitting or even seeing his wrongs. After becoming an animagus he finds that it's much easier to apologise as Padfoot. After a fight he'll go for a rage-fuelled long walk or bike-ride, and cool down. When he's said or done something he regrets, he'll come home as Padfoot, tail drooping and wagging hopefully, big grey eyes fixed on Remus. He'll sidle up to him and just stare, wagging his tail. Remus knows exactly what he's doing but it's impossible to stay mad at him like this and he begrudgingly accepts that it's Sirius' way of apologising. It's not the healthiest communication tactic but they're not perfect. Once Sirius receives a begrudging head scratch, he changes back to his human form and acts like they never fought. It's annoyingly effective.

- Remus absolutely loathes flying on Sirius' motorbike. He begrudgingly admits it's hot to see Sirius dismounting, windswept, leather jacket donned, but god help him he'll do anything to avoid joining him on that death-trap. The only upside is that when he gets cajoled into riding, he can wrap around Sirius like a squid, burying his face in his back, and it's the only way it feels even slightly safe. Sirius secretly loves when Remus does this, and although he doesn't know what cute aggression is, it makes him want to squeeze Remus until his head pops off.

- Sirius is The Garbage Bin of the relationship. Oh you're not gonna finish your dinner? Pass it on over. Random assortment of treats Remus can't finish? Munches on them instead of meals. He often forgets to eat so he gets what he can when he can - ADHD eating style. Remus is the sick Victorian child, 'i can't eat too much dairy or I'll die'. Takes one bite of an apple and feels sick, Sirius, come get your snack, boy.

- Neither of them ever wanted kids but they both like children, which is a surprise to both of them. Given the chance, they are the Coolest Uncles, although Remus is cagey about their relationship and insists they're just best pals that live together until Harry is old enough to call bullshit, and Sirius just shrugs like 'yeah, he's weird about it. If you ask him about it he'll run away to Turkey. I'm working on it.'

Wowwww okay I have so many more but I have to stop somewhere. I hope you don't regret asking this question anon! You have opened Pandora's box

[referrix]

I'm currently working on trying to find locations for some of the known rooms and things inside Alfea, (at the moment specifically, I'm working on the kitchen and dining hall) before I put myself through floor plans again. So I thought I'd share what some of my working out looks like behind the scenes.

And why it might be a problem that Season 8 turned these flat topped towers:

Into these much shorter flat topped towers:

Because I'm currently fairly certain that was the dining hall in that upper half.

Trying to figure out where the dining hall is, isn't a one room tracking operation, because we know there's a kitchen, we've seen it, we've seen the Winx Club set fire to it with their negligence. You don't typically put a food making place far from the eating place, so tracking one, should help track the other.

We first see the kitchen in episode 105, when the girls are on dinner duty (or making a spell with potato peels and a magical back-flip if you're a 4kids truther), and during dinner prep they head back to their dorm to help Stella pick an outfit.

From their dorm, they're able to smell the smoke and react, racing to the kitchen before even the chef and Griselda arrive, though not by much in Griselda's case. (Also, Bloom uses the same spell Griselda does a few episodes later back on Earth in her house while cooking with Vanessa. Just saying.)

This means, or at least suggests that the kitchens are not only in the same building as their dorm, but reasonably close by.

When we return to the kitchen in episode 115 we actually have a little zoom around the rear tower and focus in on a spot above/behind the rear most dorm balcony on the building before phasing inside to the girls walking along a hall to the kitchen.

While the hallway is different between the two episodes, background continuity is not Winx Club's feature, but it does double down on the idea that the kitchen is in that building.

(In 105 the girls turn a corner into a short hallway, while in 115 it appears to be a long straight hallway with windows all along it. Though later in the episode the looking out view does look kindamuch the same as 105?)

(props to Alfea for having non-magical fire extinguishers for added safety)

Or at least one of the kitchens is in that building, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there are two. Or at least a smaller communal kitchen for the other mirrored building, so the girls don't have to go across campus for a midnight snack.

Further, although the exterior and interiors of the school don't always match up exactly, in several shots of the dining hall, we can see the six bays of tall windows. Now there is a chance they could just be windows from the middle floor, one of the balconied window sets, but the shape and compactness matches much more closely with the tower's rear facing window wall, the one that leads out onto the flat balcony.

The number of windows/bay divisions don't match up perfectly, but again, internal-external logic consistency isn't 100% at Alfea,

Additionally, in these shots from season two, we can see some smaller windows lining the upper sections of the wall opposite the window wall, which match up loosely with the windows on the rear towers, where they meet the roof of the dorm section.

We should also talk about sizes and room dimensions.

Based on the door below the smaller windows, the windows are at least three maybe four meters off the floor. The tables run about 5 meters.

Estimating for girls behind pillars, the most packed side holds 16 students, while the least packed has space for 13.

A quick bit of research into bench tables brought me some numbers.

The longest commercial tables I could find that came with suggested sizing by seat number suggested that for a 10 person table (4 on each long and 1 per end cap, so realistically for out count and 8 person table) would range between 2.2m, 2.6m, or 2.8m depending on how comfy or squished the seating is expected to be. Doubling those numbers to get tables to seat 16 max per side, we end up with tables ranging 4.4m, 5.2m, and 5.6m.

Doing a quick eyeball and stamp measurement, and given that the room isn't perfectly circular, but there is at least one (suspiciously straight) hallway outside it, I'd be okay saying that we're looking at a space with a rough diameter between 9 and 15 meters.

Finally, there's the thing that might be a door opposite the teachers' dais, which I think might match up with the external door on the tower that leads up a protruding staircase to a spiral staircase that leads to the observation platform on the top of the tower.

Or at least an elevator or internal spiral staircase up to the external door, or even a door across a corridor to the external door, depending on how big the overall dining hall really is in relation to the tower it's sitting in.

Why don't I think it leads to the kitchens?

Well, let's look at the kitchen: it looks roughly square, or at least not a whole lot longer one way than the other, so we're looking at a squarer sort of rectangle at most, and with that we can do a few quick calculations based on what's in the kitchen.

First, my research tells me that in a commercial kitchen, like for a restaurant, recommended kitchen size is .5m² per seat. The count of the students at the table (estimated 16+14+14+13=57 plus three teachers) give us around 60 seats, which makes our estimated kitchen around 30m².

(That's a fridge in the left corner as far as I can tell, though I did for a short time assume it was stairs. Gosh darn pattern on the door, fooling me.)

Further, commercial fridges, double ovens and cupboards give me widths of 610cm for a fridge, 60.96-68.58-76.2cm for double ovens, and 1200cm for a cupboard. recommended ventilation distance between ovens is a suggested minimum of 15.24cm, and there are four ovens along one wall with the fridge and the free standing cupboard. Using the largest width for ovens, we're looking at a room of at least 5.62m across.

It's important I note here, that the room isn't actually square, while the main body of it looks that way, there's also a little alcove attached along that wall.

Now there is a bit more space between the ovens than is recommended, enough for Musa to hide between them comfortably, but this gives us a starting base.

Even if the dining hall is 15ms across on the outside, that's still enough room to fit the kitchen in the tower given some of my other calculations which have the width of the mirrored buildings at 24-30m across, which should translate to the width of the flat topped towers.

But again, there's that zoom in, and the fact the girls come in from the side and turn left into the kitchen. I think we're looking at a kitchen position that's a little something like this:

Although I am hoping that despite the lack of any doors in the alcove, there's actually a walk in fridge/freezer behind the back wall, because there's plenty of cooking spaces, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of food storage outside the free standing fridge in the corner, the pantry by the alcove, and the alcove.

Maybe there's more in the various short cupboards, but at least a portion of those would be for cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, and I don't see any that are different enough to indicate cold storage vs long-life/shelf.

[snapdragoned]

alternative university ideas 🤔💭

so i've been trying to think through how i want to handle university in my game. i like the idea of my sims having at least a round to "go to college" (whatever that looks like) before they transition into full adulthood. but i honestly hate university the way it works in the game and never look forward to university rounds. i hate grinding to fill up a performance meter with no real-world use for my sims. the skill points are nice, but i dread the homework/term paper side of it.

so i'm thinking i could create a single lot that has classrooms and practical skilling areas, both for standard skills and talent badges. kind of a cross between a community college and a community center. i could have my newly adult sims stay there for a round in a mocked up dorm and pursue whatever they want for 5-6 days and move out significantly more talented than they came. i was planning to use the sim blender/visitor controller to teleport relevant sims in and make them selectable to use skilling objects to make the lot seem less empty. i think there are 3 practical ways to do this:

an apartment - make an apartment building with only a few small units. the common areas would be the classrooms. the pros of this are that my sim could actually live there and pay reasonable rent (i could depreciate/tweak the rent with pescado's magic wand, or cheat them enough money for rent). the cons are that non-students could move in, and that i'd have to either knock down walls or use cheats to make the apartments bigger if i'm sending multiple people to college at once. and just the general bugginess of apartments could be an issue.

an owned business - make a random sim own the college campus, take them to the lot, and transport/make selectable the students i want to play. this is closest to how other simmers handle playable schools (to my knowledge). the pros are that i'd have more freedom with it not being an apartment and it would have more activity as a business. the cons are that i feel like i'd need additional mods to make this work and some tweaking to adjust the business aspect to not interfere. would i be able to have the business owner/visitors sleep there overnight for multiple days to mimic a dorm? i don't know! i've never tried it. i feel like there's potential for issues there.

a college dorm - make a dorm in the university subhood and cheat the college progress bars full/manually stop students from going to class, then let them do whatever in their downtime. the cons are that i honestly don't even want to fuck with the university subhood anymore and i'd either have find new mods or micromanage my sims to make sure they didn't go to class. the pros are that it would auto-populate with dormies and there wouldn't be any issues with trying to finagle a dorm.

i don't know! just thinking out loud a little here... any feedback/ideas for mods are totally welcome! if you play university differently than how the EP was meant to be played, i'd love to hear your thoughts in the reblogs/replies.