#steelyard

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[onegirlthinktank]

08302021 Part 1

A desert in the city

[shippingsincebeforeyouwereborn]

First time plasma cutting.

I’m not good but wow is that fun and addictive!

If you squint maybe it’s a pirate happy face say sing “arrrrr”

[whothefuckisjanefonda]

Jane Fonda in 'Steelyard Blues' [1973]

[canonical-transformation]

Tag from @cadriona

---

Kokomi wanders the length of the boat, feeling in good spirits with the sea all around her and the skies as clear as her schedule for the coming weeks.

Towards the cargo hold, she stumbles across a woman in distress.

The woman is using her arm as a cushion as she bangs her head against the wall, slowly and rhythmically. In her other hand is an expensive looking mechanical contraption, all weights and sliding pieces and hooks, which she is spinning around like a nunchaku or maybe a children's toy.

"Every time I go to Mondstadt," the woman sighs. "Every time."

(The Liyuean accent suggests she is not an elk youkai, contra Kokomi's first guess.)

"Are you all right?" says Kokomi.

The woman looks startled to find she's not alone. "Oh! You surprised me." She laughs awkwardly. "Hi there! You're Inazuman... You must be the Tri-Commission delegation registered on the manifest?" She stops fidgeting with her sliding-spinning device immediately, looking a little sheepish. "Oh, whoops... anyway, I glanced at it when I boarded... never hurts to know who you're at sea with."

"Indeed," says Kokomi. She takes a seat on a nearby crate. "You boarded at Liyue Harbour, I take it?"

"Hah, yeah." The woman rolls her eyes and grins self-effacingly. "Pretty obvious, huh."

Some strangers—the majority, even—require a lot of energy to interact with, but here, Kokomi feels rather at ease. She's used to this level of nervous energy and chattiness from some of the shrine maidens. Not to mention the Liyuean woman exudes the same sort of innocent non-judgementalness that Sara and Ayaka do.

"May I ask what was troubling you a second ago?" Kokomi asks.

"Well, I'm not supposed to be working right now, but I was playing with my steelyard..."—she waves the device she was spinning around, which does look a bit like a scale now that Kokomi looks—"...and something was messing with the readings, right? Like a magnet near a compass, but instead of messing with directions it was devaluing everything nearby... so I thought to myself, hey, I already read all the textbooks I brought with me, I'm bored, maybe I'll try to figure out what's going on here... solve a little mystery, maybe impress the shipping company while I'm at it. And then it turns out..."

The woman stills.

"Omigosh," she says, "I should have led with that."

"Led with what?" says Kokomi.

"Half a dozen crates in this hold have custom tamper-proof seals on them," says the woman. "The kind that send a message to the Abyss."

Kokomi takes this in, and reconsiders the slightly chastened look on the woman's face.

"...and I'm sitting on one of them, aren't I," she sighs.

The Liyuean woman nods. "Every time I go to Mondstadt," she says. "Eula's never going to let me hear the end of it... say, I don't suppose that Hydro Vision of yours has ever seen combat use?"

"Once or twice," smiles Kokomi.

---

If you're reading this and you want to be tagged consider yourself tagged ♥️ But especially if you're @pj-was-here / @fishareglorious / @ossidae-passeridae / @dandelion-wings .

[musiconspotify]

Gravenites & Bloomfield - Steelyard Blues (1973) … soundtrack …

[costarringyourlocallibrary]

The exterior of the Main Library branch of the Oakland Public Library (Oakland, CA) in Alan Myerson’s Steelyard Blues (1973).

[jim-webster]

Retiring to somewhere quiet in the country

Retiring to somewhere quiet in the country

There comes a time in life when some people discover that they can no longer continue in the career that has supported them so far. The rooftop burglar finds that his knees have taken too much damage from ridge tiles and tilting fillets. The man-at-arms discovers that he can no longer vault onto the back of his destrier when in full armour and has to be lifted with a crane, like a sack of meal.…

[broomsick]

Cairns erected in honor of the semi-legendary hero Egill Skallagrímsson. They trace a path that leads from Reykjavík to Borgarnes, West Iceland, where the sorcerer and poet was born. Skallagrímsson was especially renowed for his ability to get out of sticky situations using his wits. He notably convinced equally legendary King Eiríkr Bloodaxe (Erik I) to spare his life by composing in a single night a poem of praise, Höfuthlausn ("Head Ransom").

"On his golden arm The bright shield swings: To his foes, harm: To his friends, rings; His fame's a feast Of glorious war, His name sounds east, From shore to shore.

And now my lord, You've listened long As word on word I built this song: Your source is war, Your streams are blood, But my springs pour Great Odin's flood."

Egill's Saga, chapter 63

Another one of Skallagrímsson's works is the Sonatorrek, or "The loss of sons", written circa 1220–1240. The emotional nature of the text has made it a prime example of the extraordinary beauty of skaldic poetry, and a classic of the art.

"I can hardly move my tongue or lift up the steelyard of song; now there is little hope of Viðurs theft, nor is it easy to draw it out of the hiding place of the mind.

It is not easy, because of my heavy sobbing, to let flow from the mind's place the joyful find of the kinsmen of Frigg, which in times of yore was carried away from the lands of giants."

Egill's Saga, chapter 81

I personally greatly enjoyed Einar Selvik's rendition in the album Skald, which I will link below. I highly recommend giving it a listen if you've read the text and enjoyed it!

[tacoma-narrows]

Dorney Park! - 5/19/21

Decided to not let this trip report have a two week long gap like my Great America post did, so I'll write it out now!

Made my first trip of the year to Dorney Park this past weekend! I went by myself for about 5 hours or so and got on everything I had wanted to ride. Lines were very minimal, with the longest (not accounting for a short maintenance delay) being maybe 20 mins. Got a bunch of re-rides on the park's major coasters and I'm sure I'll be able to get more later in the summer, since Dorney is my home park lol. But here are some pics I got, and then like for my Great America post, thoughts about my individual rides will be below them!

Here's my breakdown of what I rode!

Iron Menace - Coaster Credit #169! (Rode twice) I am so glad Dorney finally got a brand new coaster after so long! Their last new coaster was Stinger in 2012 (which was a relocation, and closed in 2018), and their last custom built coaster was Hydra way back in 2005 (Possessed, opened in 2008, was also a relocation). I really liked Iron Menace for what it was though! It looks absolutely FANTASTIC for it's plot of land, and it's directly in front of you as you drive into the park. Makes for a fantastic first impression! The ride itself was pretty much what I expected (in a good way), it's definitely the weakest of the three dive coasters I've ridden, since it doesn't have the scale of Valravn and Sheikra, but I thought it had some fun elements and some surprisingly strong positive forces. The main downside is that it's a short ride, at only maybe 40 seconds or so after the drop. But all things considered, I think it's a great fit for Dorney and I LOVE it's theme! The Steelyard area around it looks pretty good as well! Currently, I have Iron Menace at 56th in my rankings between Flight Deck at California's Great America, and Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, but that could be subject to change once I decide if I like this or Hydra more lol.

Steel Force - (Rode twice) I'd heard during the park's Winter Chill Out event back in March that they we're speeding up the chain lift on Steel Force this year since (I believe) they had gotten a new lift motor or something to that effect, so I was excited to see how it rode this year. I didn't really notice a significant difference in the speed or airtime, but that wasn't a huge deal to me since I really enjoy Steel Force. A lot of people give it and the other Morgan hypers flack for not having any airtime, and I just don't see that. I always get tons of air over this hills, especially on the return trip. Then the double helix turnaround acts as a good change of pace with some good positives. So Steel Force still retains it's place as my favorite at the park.

Thunderhawk - (Rode once) Thunderhawk is a ride that's had my opinions on it change a lot over the years. When I first rode it the first time I went to Dorney in 2012, I did not like it. I remember it being really rough and uncomfortable. Over the last few years though, the park has been doing a really good job taking care of it and it's running really well now. My ride this time had surprisingly strong airtime, which I was not expecting. The main problem I had this time, and why I only rode it once, was because I got stapled BAD and the surprisingly strong airtime made for a rather uncomfortable experience lol. But for a ride that's celebrating it's 100th birthday this year, it's still really solid I'd say.

Hydra the Revenge - (Rode twice) Hydra is such a weird little ride but I love it. Lots of funky inversions, especially for a floorless coaster, and you gotta love the hangtime on the jojo roll out of the station. It's running a little shaky this year but not too bad as long as you keep your head forward, as is the case with a lot of B&M loopers. That's nothing new for Hydra as well, since in my experience it's always had a bit of a rattle. I love how dynamic its forces are though between hangtime, airtime, positives and a little bit of whip coming down the first drop in the back row. At the moment, I'm not sure if I'd take it over Iron Menace as my third fav in the park, so that's something I'll have to think about next time I'm back there lol

Talon - (Rode once) I really enjoy Talon as well, which finds itself as my second fav in the park after Steel Force. Very snappy and forceful inversions and it still runs pretty smooth. I especially love the super intense high banked turn right up against the ground towards the end of the ride. The one thing that's a little disappointing is that the park took out the signs underneath you as you go up the lift hill. They were spaced out and said thing like "Going up" "No turning back!" "Getting closer..." as you went up the lift hill, with the last one at the crest saying "Goodbye!" as you go over the drop. They didn't affect the actual ride at all, but I thought they were a funny little thing the park decided to put in. They may have removed them prior to this year, since I didn't go to Dorney a lot between 2020 and now, but this is the first time I noticed it at least. Anways, gotta love Talon, real solid invert all around. I would've rode it more than once, but it got a bit of a longer line towards the end of my visit that I didn't feel like waiting in lol

Possessed - (Rode once) I've never been a huge fan of Intamin's Impulse coasters, and I've always thought Possessed was just kind of okay. It's got a fun launch, and since I was sitting towards the back row, the feeling of height looking straight down on the vertical back spike was pretty cool, but other than that, the ride doesn't do a whole lot for me. I wished the holding break on the vertical spike still worked like it used to, that would make the ride a bit more unique at least, but it's still fine enough without it.

Other than the coasters, I rode two other rides, both of them being drop towers lol. One was Dominator, the park's 200 foot S&S drop tower. I rode the shot side that blasts you up to free fall down and I thought it was way more tame than I remembered, which was unfortunate. Then the other drop tower I rode was Demon Drop, which is one of the very few rides out there that still kinda wigs me out lmao. Something about the moving forward from the lift shaft to the drop track and the fact that the ride looks, sounds, and feels like it's made of sheet metal still kinda gets to me lol. I love it though, and for as rare of a ride that it is, being the last of it's kind in the country, if it's running, you gotta give it a ride.

So overall, I had a fun time at Dorney! It's not the biggest or best park in the world by any means, but it serves its purpose as a regional theme park well and offers things that are fairly unique from other area parks like Hersheypark, Knoebels and Great Adventure. Once the waterpark opens for the season (they were having their season passholder preview day when I was there), then it becomes more of a full day park, since their waterpark is really solid. So I'm sure I'll get back later this summer and you'll get another post full of my ramblings lmao.

[recentadultburnout]

My Dear Gangster Oppa

Thiu ทิว

A long row or line of things connected together.

Array, row, line

Guy กาย

Body, physical form

Possibly a non-Thai word nickname

Wal วาฬ

Whale (common use)

Snake,  beast of prey (not common at all)

Tul ตุล

Libra

balance, pair of scales, steelyard, ancient measure or weight

Phaibul ไพบูลย์

Fullness, completeness

Not a Thai word

Nami นามิ

Boss บอส

Muffin มัฟฟิน

Kenji เคนจิ

Index

[onegirlthinktank]

08302021 Part Deux

I want to report wherever adventure tells me to go

[funjoke]

Jane Fonda joue au billard dans Steelyard Blues, 1972.

[antebellumite]

We cannot forget the loss imbedded in this half of the story as well. Long ago, the preacher Joshua ben Sirach said, " Some there be, who have no memorial, who perished as if they had never been, and are become as if they had never been born, and their children after them." So it was on slavery's frontier. The earth took many of them back, alone, almost unmourned. Some never conceived children. Or the children died in the womb. Their lines ended. We do not even know where. Those who ruled their world, who terrorized them, did not care about their survival, for enslavers and investors could help hedge the financial bets against enslaved migrants deaths. Yet some dared to live under the threat of the overseer's sidearm. Some succeeded in surviving the driver's lash that dangled over them, just as the cotton sack balanced against the steelyard's weight. And what they did with their survival changed the world. Survivors refused to accept the stories they were told, stories meant to justify the thefts perpetrated on them every day of their lives.

Again and again enslaved people created their own accounts of the history of plunder in which they were trapped, and they told them to each other. They built new relationships to each other in the wake of death and despair and disruption. In these relationships and with these stories they found new ways to communicate, new ways to worship, new identities. They created and impressive political and cultural ethic of solidarity that transcended origins and geograph and has lasted to this day. So they dared to love each other and themselves.

-- Edward E. Baptist, The Half Has Never Been Told

[apoapsis]

@dimensionalspades // ♥ [jack]

                     Jack’s opportunistic retreats regularly drew a sobering degree of awareness to the weathered soldier’s situation. Rarely much more than a tactically advantageous position, a fleeting moment of cover in a maelstrom of strife, SIGMA finds them woefully subject to the location's temperatures every time he attempts to settle in for visitation. Despite this, however, he enjoyed the unpleasantness of it all– experiencing it with Jack. It was something to commiserate over, moments of what would have normally evoked complaint from the scientist made so meaningful through mutual discomfort.

Today seemed to be the worst in recent memory– he really shouldn’t have opted to stay, made apparent by the way the fickle, overcast sky had worsened, releasing a frigid, torrential downpour of rain just after Jack had slipped out in the earliest hours. But he had been so comfortable, left to doze so peacefully within the residual warmth left for him in Jack’s absence– leaving it much too easy for the old man to stubbornly power his holopad off to avoid any disturbances. By the time he bothers to properly awaken, several hours have been utterly wasted, surely, judging by the lack of light that filters through the disintegrating iron structures of the abandoned steelyard. Ice cold rain drums against the corroded alloy of the structure, spilling through various breaches of the rafters to collect within the sundry of receptacles set about in favor of keeping their sleeping area relatively dry– offering a rather comforting drone of background sound to cancel out some of the interference within his mind, while he clings to what little warmth remained within the shoddy bedding and undersized blanket.

                He really can’t imagine what it must be like when Jack’s here all alone. 

When the other returns, he’s sat cross-legged upon the makeshift bed, with the little blanket pulled tight around his shoulders in an effort to keep the worst of the chill out. “-- Ha! So you’ve returned…!” SIGMA chimes contentedly, limbs stiff and joints popping noisily as he lurches from his rigid position in an attempt to coax him towards himself. “Oh, you must be freezing!” He croons, using gravity to assist in the removal of the wetter outer layers of his clothing– and, once certain they’ve gotten Jack somewhat drier, at least, SIGMA almost immediately takes hold of the soldier’s frigid hands, rubbing and cupping them within his own gloved ones in an earnest attempt to quickly warm him. He doesn’t even bother asking about what may have been brought back– instead, he entirely preoccupies himself with accommodating the soldier; showing a degree of authoritative tenderness he didn’t often display.

                “... There. How is that…? Does that feel any better?” He coaxes further, opting to press the backs of the soldier’s broad knuckles to his cheek affectionately as his voice drops to a soft drone. “-- I would have had something warm prepared for you to drink, but, ah… Well, I thought it would be a waste of your resources to prepare it prematurely…! Would you like to sit down in the meantime, Jack…? My goodness– you must be utterly exhausted!”

[gremoria411]

Note: This is Part 2 of a post on the Pale Rider Seies. Part 1 discusses the original Pale Rider and it’s design.

Before beginning though I would like to mention that, while the actual number of Gundam’s running around the One Year War is largely set in stone, the Pale Riders are pretty much always deniable assets, with much of the information destroyed or lost. As such, new models are introduced on a semi regular basis, with the White and Black Riders being the most recent to my knowledge.

So, how about those other Rider units, then?

The White Rider was the first (in-universe) machine manufactured under the Pale Rider Plan. It is not equipped with a HADES system, but is instead equipped with the earlier ZEUS system (oh… I see what you did there). Which instead of hijacking the pilot like HADES, instead acts as a sort of really good fire control system. This is also the reason for the crown and more Gundam-like face. The system has not yet been miniaturised, and thus extrudes from the head quite considerably. It is armed with the Prototype Shekinah, which houses a Gatling gun and High-output Beam Cannon. The Shekinah was found to work fine, but the High-Output beam cannon severely limited the suit’s ability to use other beam weapons (and was quite frankly overkill), so the output was ratcheted down in future iterations. Because of this, the White Rider is armed with a heat sabre, styled after a rapier, as opposed to any beam sabers. I’m genuinely not that sure what the “cloak” on its left arm is for. It could be extra armour, but I seem to recall reading it was cooling apparatus/balancing for the Beam Cannon at some point, so I’m not sure. I’ve chatted about it’s design in a post I did on Code Fairy little while back, but in a nutshell, I like. The Beam Cannon being styled like a bow and the crown on its head both evoke the Biblical White Rider Pestilence, who rides a white horse, dons a crown and carries a bow, which is pretty neat. It was given to the Federation’s Black Dog Team after testing, and deployed against Zeon’s Noisy Fairy.

Next up, the Red Rider (which has some lovely art of it, by the way). The Second unit produced (by process of elimination) and the one that basically nailed down what the design was going to be. It was built to collect data to fine-tune the final product and was supplied to the Aggressor Squadron. It is fitted with an ARES system (getting a theme here), which… is essentially a baby HADES system, just with a much higher chance of killing the pilot. Because of this, the cockpit is fitted with a heart resuscitation program called “rymm-va”. I have no idea how this passed health and safety, not to mention that if the pilot dies in the suit, Zeon forces could easily capture it and steal valuable federation secrets. Nice job guys. Anyway, the Red Rider is armed with the standard suite of Federation machine guns, a beam saber and two new weapons. One, a 100mm machine gun equipped with beam bayonets, and two, a shield that can unfold and become a Zweihänder (as seen in the upper right image). Which is honestly pretty dang cool. It is designed after - you guessed it - the Biblical Red Rider War, who rides a red horse and carries a sword.

Unit 3 of the Rider Plan is the Black Rider. It was built to test a variety of specialised equipment, now that the basic design was down. From the fact that most of it never shows up again, we can assume things didn’t go well (or the data wasn’t properly backed up). It is equipped with a Rail Cannon (identical to the type used by the GM Ground type from M-MSV), heat daggers, a grenades launcher, stun anchor (a sort of electric harpoon similar to weaponry found on the Gouf) and fitted with a unit known as a Steelyard. I’ve talked at length about it’s design and my opinions on the existence of the Steelyard in an earlier post about Code Fairy, but in a nutshell: actual cloaking just isn’t a thing in UC, so this unit having it is very odd. I do love the Black Rider’s design though. It nails that whole “Tacticool” style I see getting thrown about so much lately without falling into the easy trap of going overboard with it. The Steelyard unit itself is styled after a pair of scales - such as the ones used by the Biblical Black Rider Pestilence (to measure the rising cost of grain). It is also equipped with the THEMIS system, which is a weaker version of HADES that removes most of the drawbacks (to my knowledge). Like it’s sibling unit the White Rider, it was eventually handed off to the Black Dog Team after testing, where it was then deployed against Zeon’s Noisy Fairy, and destroyed while attempting to kill Renato Germi, commander of the Black Dog Team.

The last Pale Rider unit deployed during the One Year War was the Pale Rider Cavalry. It was essentially supposed to be the Pale Rider, tweaked and simplified for mass-production after the war as a next-gen mobile suit. It was eventually stolen by the (by this point rogue) Slave Wraith team, but was later damaged and abandoned. It was armed with the Shekinah, a composite weapon made up of a Beam Cannon, Gatling Gun and Missile launcher in order to save costs (essentially a composite of the G04 and G05’ primary weapons, built to look like the Heavy Gundam’s frame Launcher). Other than it existing and having a pretty sweet design, I don’t honestly know a whole lot about it.

But speaking of that pretty sweet design, let’s go over that, shall we? I honestly really like the more Gundam-style design here, with the extra detailing just being wonderful. The Shekinah is a really good integrated weapon, because whatever weapon you want to switch to is going to be aiming at the same target at the one you switched from, so it’s very quick. I do love the Heavy Gundam’s frame launcher anyway, so the Pale Rider Cavalry having one is also nice. The colours evoke the Blue Destiny Unit 3, which is a very advanced and very good mobile suit. It all works so very well together, I think.

The Pale Rider Dullahan was built and deployed in 0080. It is the wreckage of the above pale rider cavalry restored to a functioning state after it was damaged. Unfortunately, since a large amount of the records regarding the Pale Rider had been lost, it was reconstructed without the HADES system. It was armed with a Hyper Beam Rifle/Hyper Bazooka, Heat Lance (taken/spare from the G-line Project) and Guardian Shield (taken from the GM Guard Type). It would be deployed against remnants of Zeon’s Marchosias team, where it would be destroyed in combat against the Pale Rider (VG). It was named the Dullhan after the headless horseman, since it wasn’t equipped with the HADES system. I honestly don’t have a whole lot to say on this one.

What I have considerably more to say on is the Pale Rider DII. It’s a reproduction of the Pale Rider Cavalry, with the Pale Rider Dullahan filling in the parts they don’t have information for (so, again, no HADES System). It was deployed against Zeon Remnant forces (that would eventually become part of the AEUG) in UC 0084. The full story can be found in Anaheim Laboratory Log, but in essence, the Pale Rider DII deploys with some GM’s to take on Two Galbaldy Alpha High Mobility Customs along with a new mobile suit, the Dowas Custom (painted red). The Pale Rider DII gets wrecked (though not destroyed).

The Dowas Custom, while initially appearing to be little more than a supercharged Dom, is actually rather special. It is the first (in-universe) second-generation mobile suit, acting as a carrier for some of the early Axis Zeon’s best technologies, which will in turn be used to develop the Rick Dias, the AEUG’s first mobile suit. So the fact that the Pale Rider, arguably the Zenith of First-Generation Mobile suit tech, loses to it is wonderful. Why? Because it shows that the Pale Rider’s time is over, that a new generation of mobile suits is coming, far superior over what came before. It emphasises just what a big deal the second-gen suits are compared to their forebears, how different things are going to be compared to the One Year War. It’s the first victory of the early AEUG over the titans. I love how the DII is used here as a microcosm of the events surrounding it. (Also it makes me think of a beefed-up GM Quel, which is quite nice).

Last one now. The AMX-18 [HADES] Todesritter. An unapologetic fourth-gen mobile suit, it was built by Neo Zeon using parts from the original Pale Rider, and retains its pilot, Chloe Croce, in addition to the HADES system in its head. It’s armed with Vulcans, Machine cannons, beam sabers, beam guns and so much more. It’s main gun is a hyper Knuckle Buster taken from a Ga-Zowmn, it uses a shield from a Bawoo with built-in mega particle guns, it has the tri-blades used by the Dreissen, and of course Incoms taken from the Döven Wolf. In addition to all this, it has two sub-arms in its shoulders that are used in close-quarters to wield additional beam sabers, such as hyper beam sabers of a similar design to those wielded by the ZZ Gundam. It is a lot. It was deployed by Char’s Neo Zeon in UC 90, against some Glemy Faction remnants, and is piloted by former Marchosias team personnel. Honestly, I quite like it. It doesn’t feel overarmed, since fourth-gen mobile suits typically have a lot of armaments. If anything, I tend to look at it as Neo-Zeon’s answer to the ZZ Gundam. It looks like this big, operatic villain, the incom units looking like a cape and the pointy feet adding a lot to this impression. The built-up arms and obvious emphasis on its weaponry makes it feel like it’s about to turn to me sadly and say “well if that’s how you really think of me, *draws sword* then you and I are enemies”. It’s a very solid aesthetic, is what I’m trying to say. It’s a distinctly odd blend of old Earth Federation aesthetics and Neo Zeon ones, but it all works. I especially like the legs, though that might just be because they remind me of the Döven Wolf. (Also, as an aside, I really like a lot of mobile suits with High Heels, simply because they’re always animated to run so delightfully. The Todesritter having a very busy back adds to this significantly, it looks like it’s lugging around a small dress train, or indeed, a cape).