#this blog started in feb 2016

[politicalpadme]

kind of amazing how we've gone so far past satire.

[dragonagefanevents]

Dragon Age Fan Event Listings

The beauty of fan events is that they are run by fans.

Including you.

▸What are the types of fan events? - #education

▸Start a new event! - #how tos (volunteer to write for us!)

▸Ask Box - send us advice, or ask for it!

▸Blog Tag List

Below is a list of all Dragon Age fan-run events we can find. The links should bring you to the most recent iteration of the event. Where possible, the time period the event covers is listed next to the event.

Want to get an event listed? Check out the link and submit. Look here for multi-fandom events, or more events in general.

Event Masterlist - #compendium

Bangs

25k Big Bang (July - November)

10k Big Bang (March - April)

Dragon Age Reverse Bang

Exchanges

Arlathan Exchange (April - June)

DA Polyshipping (August - November)

Handers Exchange (March - May)

Templartations Exchange (March - May)

Black Emporium Rare Pair Exchange (June - September)

Platonic Ideal Gen Fic Exchange (December - February)

Smutquisition (January - March)

Theme Weeks/Months

Anders Week (Feb 3 - 9)

14 Days of Circle Mages (Feb)

DATV Companion Weeks (Multiple)

Kink Memes

Dragon Age Kink Meme (Dreamwidth) | DAO | DA2 | DAI

Zines

Dragon Age Flower Zine (Processing Period)

Wanderers Zine (Creation Period)

Dragon Age OC Zine (Mod Apps Open)

Alistair Zine (Creation Period)

Faith: A Leliana Fanzine (Interest Check)

Grave Gold: A Mortalitasi Zine (Interest Check)

Special Events

Dragon Age Drunk Writing Circle

Dragon Age Annual (2025 Digital Orders Open)

Dragon Age Create-A-Thon

Reddit Weekly Dragon Age Writing Prompts

Unofficial Dragon Age Day (Dec 4)

Solavellan Day (April 11)

Thedas Weekend Tag Games (Ongoing)

Past Events

Retired Bangs

DragonAgeBB (last: 2015; formerly on LJ and elsewhere)

Retired Exchanges

Demands of the Qun (Qunari)

A Paragon of Their Kind (DA Dwarves)

Solas Lovers

Hightown Funk (Varric/Hawke)

Retired Theme Weeks/Months

Autumn of Anders (Anders Appreciation Event)

Dalish Week

30 Days of Dorian (Dorian Appreciation Event)

Dragon Age Fan Week (2013)

City Elf Week (2024)

Cullen Appreciation Week (2019)

Cullen Week (2021)

14 Days of DA Lovers

Fenris Appreciation Month (2017)

Krem Week 2024

Leliana Week (2024)

Rylen Appreciation Week (2018)

Sera Appreciation Week (2019)

Sera Appreciation Week (2024)

Sub!Solas Week (2016)

Tranquil Week

Zevwarden Week

Past Zines

Adoribull Fairytales

Age of Romance Zine (Incomplete)

ApprovesGreatly (Incomplete)

Andoralis Zine

Arcana: A Dragon Age Zine

Arlathvhen Zine (Incomplete)

Beyond the Veil Zine (Zine)

Bring Down the Sky Bioware Fanzine

Dragon Age 2 10th Anniversary Zine (Zine)

Dragon Age Codex Zine & Myths and Legends Zine

Fortitudo Dorian Artbook

Good for Each Other (Adoribull Zine)

In Peace, Vigilance Zine

Insufficient Skill Fanzine

Legend Mark Zine

Lotus and Root OC Zine

Love Across Thedas Zine (Zine)

Na Via Lerno Victoria (Fenris Zine)

Patron of the Arts Zine

Rebel Hearts Handers Zine (Zine)

Road to the Imperium Zine

Solasmancy Zine

Sunlight (Anders Zine)

The Coming Storm Zine (Ukrainian Zine)

The Dragon Age Zine (Russian Zine)

The Keeper's Codex Fairy Tale Zine

The Unsung Dragon Age Zine

The Zevran Zine (incomplete)

Thedosian Archives (incomplete)

to be happy (FenHawke Zine)

Wicked Eyes: A Dragon Age Finery Zine

Year of the Mabari (Incomplete)

Other Past Events

Dragon Age Calendar 2018

Dragon Age Calendar 2021

For Fans by Fans - Fan Forge

[hoovesandfloorpaws]

✨HOOVESANDFLOORPAWS' TAGLIST

Do Not Reblog, please. It’s continuously under construction ⚙️ 🔞 This blog is 18+

⏱ if you want to look at a tag in the order old to new, add /chrono to the end of the tag link! (in-browser only)

Larry 🏠⚓️💙💚 main tag for everything Harry&Louis Masterpost • masterposts & compilations Timelines • timeline compilations Meta • insights/explanations/analysis Complete Larry Tattoo Timeline • w/ pictures & meta (last update: Jan '25) H&L Companies Masterpost • deep dive into all 19 companies Harry & Louis were/are in during and after 1D (last update: Feb '25) [coming soon] Elongated For Archive Purposes • old important masterposts, etc. that were previously under a Read More (which get deleted when the blog deletes). (I only started doing this in Nov '24, so there's quite a lot more to come.) Do Not Lose • extra important posts

For New Larries

2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025 • i only started in Oct ‘24 to use the years in my tagging system, so bear with me while I go through almost 600 pages of this blog and slowly add them

Baby Boyfriends • est. 2010 Future Husbands • mostly pre-Sep-2013 (still need to tidy this tag up) They Are Married • mostly post-2013 (clarification: i don’t believe they are legally married in the UK, yet, but that they’ve been engaged since 2013 and are practically married) I Love Their Love • domestic bliss Pick Someone Who's Supportive Rainbows • 🏳️‍🌈 everything sexuality-related Coming Out • Closeting Larry Tweets • Always in my heart, Harry Styles, yours sincerely, Louis Receipts • Harry&Louis-centered Lyrics • *what does it mean what does it ALL MEAN.gif* Tattoos Signals • Touches • Lyric Changes Sharing Clothes • Coded Clothing Harry Wants A Baby & Louis Wants A Baby / The Larents RBB and SBB • 🧸🏳️‍🌈🧸 Harry's Rings ⚓️ Media: Video • Live • Interview • Audio • Unreleased Songs Manip • Artwork • Comic • AU GIFset • Edit Fic Rec Download • videos, fics, etc. Music Video • Crack / FIMQ X-Factor • Wellington 🥔 • 1D Day Dunkirk • My Policeman ⚓️ Misc: Ask Paz Rambles • posts including my thoughts Mine • my posts LMAO • posts to chuckle & snortlaugh about Cute Things • Larry-themed, for when you need a Pick Me Up :') NSFW • Cock Talk • Butt Business • 🍌🍑 Fond Frog Laser Stare • it's a Harry-thing 🐸😌 Music Industry In This House WE HATE SYCO Pleasing • 28 Clothing ⚓️ People:  Harry • Louis • Liam • Niall • Zayn • Anne • Jay One Direction  The Tomlinsons • all things Tomlinson-Styles family Louis' sisters & Harry's sister all have their own tag, as well. just click on my The Tomlinsons tag and when posts with them pop up, click on their respective tag ⚓️ Old tags & stuff: Power Sigh You Can’t Make This Shit Up  Zayn Left Housekeeping • general info on the blog ⚓️ Beards, Stunts & other bullshit Babygate • Holivia • Haylor • ElouNO • Stunts

[sharpfurry5917]

Um, okay so... Hi! Hello! Welcome! You can call me Sharper, or just Sharp for short, and this is my intro post! So uh, yeah! let's get started...! I guess... I honestly don't know how to do these, it's been so long since I posted on any social media-

✨

Things You'll See

This is a multi fandom blog, so I'll be posting all kinds of stuff. Such as:

· Art, both traditional and digital.

· My quotes. Which are funny things I say in my head that I write down on my phone.

· And other various things I write, like my scenarios. Which are basically my way of writing fanfics, but they're written more like screenplays, I guess?? It's just been more easier for me to write that way, but I have been branching out.

✨

Things To Know About Me

· She/her.

· 20 years old.

· I have selective mutism and social anxiety. Two things I hate greatly. 😊👍

· I have this friend in my head, named Mind that I talk to that I had since childhood. They're kinda like a headmate??? They show up in my quotes, so I'm mentioning them so you know who that is.

· I don't use swear words. It's something that I refused to use for years, and it just kinda stuck. Instead, I come up with my own "swears". Like 'fudge', 'ship', 'bass', and 'cheez its mice'.

· As I said, it's been a while since I posted on social media, 5 years, to be specific. And I've just been browsing through it as a bystander instead. I eventually wanted to put myself out there again, but my crippling anxiety prevented me from doing so-

Until eventually, I gathered enough courage, and did it. And I'm very happy that I did!!

✨

The Many Fandoms I'm Into

(Including when I first got into them)

· SpongeBob Squarepants ~ ???

· My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ~ 2012

· Minecraft ~ 2012/2013

· The Sonic series ~ 2014

· Okami ~ 2014

· The Spyro series ~ 2015

· Steven Universe ~ 2015

· The Splatoon series ~ Dec, 2015

· Minecraft: Story Mode ~ 2015

· The Last Guardian ~ Jan, 2016

· Hello Neighbor ~ Dec, 2016

· Tattletail ~ Mar, 2017

· The Bendy series ~ Mar, 2017

· Poppe the Performer ~ Jun, 2017

· Villainous ~ Jul, 2017

· Camp Camp ~ Sep, 2017

· Cuphead ~ Oct, 2017

· Doki Doki Literature Club ~ Dec, 2017

· Baldi's Basics ~ May 15, 2018

· Detroit: Become Human ~ Jun, 2018

· Mystery Skulls Animated ~ Oct 18, 2018

· Deltarune ~ Nov, 2018

· Undertale ~ Mar 2, 2019

· Ace Attorney ~ May 10, 2019

· The Owl House ~ Aug 16, 2020 (My b-day, btw)

· Danganronpa ~ Jun 21/Sep 4, 2020 (Watched someone play the prologue and Chapter 1 on 6/21, then got the game for myself in August, and actually got into it when I reached Chapter 2)

· Friday Night Funkin' ~ Jan 9, 2021

· PaRappa the Rapper ~ Mar 5, 2021

· Komi Can't Communicate ~ Dec, 2021

· The Horizon series ~ Feb, 2022

· Andy's Apple Farm ~ Jan 15, 2022

· Beastars ~ Aug, 2022

· Danganronpa: Despair Time ~ Apr 7, 2023 (First started watching in Jan, 2021, but really got into it due to a certain character-)

· Super Danganronpa Another 2 ~ May 1, 2023

· Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE ~ Jul 10, 2023

· Zero Escape ~ Sep 4, 2023

· The Amazing Digital Circus ~ Oct 25, 2023

· Murder Drones ~ Oct 29, 2023

· The Another Code series ~ Mar 11, 2024

· KinitoPET ~ Apr 18, 2024

· Al: The Somnium Files ~ Apr 27, 2024

· Indigo Park ~ May 19, 2024

· Garten of Banban ~ May 22, 2024

· Max Design Pro ~ Jul 11, 2024

· Poppy Playtime ~ Nov 19, 2024

· Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld ~ Dec 22, 2024

· Mouthwashing ~ Dec 25, 2024

✨

And uhh, that's it...

Thanks for stopping by!

[barbiebraganca]

HSHQTASK059: FAREWELL !

when did you join ? what made you join ? what do you remember from the plotlines that were current at the time ? where were you in life when you joined and where are you now ?

right at the beginning of 2016, around feb or march. i had just finished high school and took an off year to prepare for uni admission exams. i needed something to take my mind off studying for it and my friend julia suggested i joined her on tumblr rping. i had no idea what that was but she helped me through it and we joined another group together. at the time i also developed a bit of a thing for royals and made my character in that group an undercover norwegian royal, on some princess diaries bullshit. but looking up things for that group i decided to search norwegian royalty on tumblr and found the blog for a character in vik. olav if i'm not mistaken. i started stalking the group and got really interested in it and mentioned it to julia who told me she'd been here before and would join with me if i chose to so we brought barbie and biel. then the group closed and i completely gave up rping until one random day many months later i logged into tumblr again god knows why and there was a message from martha, she told me the group came back to life and i decided to rejoin. and here i am, haven't left since.

which characters have you written over the years ?

ffs, let me see if i can remember all of them: ayo, bruce, barbie, toni, leon, sergi, silje, ilija, zoey (silje's draft), pedro, noémïe (poor thing lasted 3 seconds), ionie. i feel like there's more, i just can't remember.

what is your favourite plotline that you've been part of ?

the zulu & the southern africa conflicts. even all of us applying together that day was such a moment, i loved every bit of it. i had so so much fun writing ayo even if he was one of those characters it is impossible to write filler threads with, i still felt so much joy when i got a notif that someone replied to him, even if the entire reply was someone hating on him hard.

what about other people's plotlines ?

it's impossible to pick one when you've been here from the start and have seen countless amazing ones but the english plot was truly a wonder, even the murder mystery event was fucking incredible. anything involving russia and the romanovs as well was so well thought and made so much sense when you put the pieces together you just can't help but love every bit.

who is your favourite character from the ones you've played ? why ? what made you love them ? what made them so fun to write ?

favourite to write i'd say ayo, for the same reasons i mentioned on the plotline question but if i had to choose only one to keep playing forever it would either be silje or ilija. i feel like those are versatile ones that i could go in different directions with if i'd wanted to. the one i had the most fun writing though was pedro for sure.

if you could relive a plotline, which would it be ?

the invasion in greece and i think everyone who was here for that would say the same thing. that was our most iconic event and for a reason, everyone put 150% into it and it worked out so so so so well we didn't even imagine the outcome it would have, we just wanted to traumatise everyone a bit but received the best event in hshq in return.

is there a plotline that you'd edit now if you could ?

i don't think there is, especially because i don't think i remember even half of them but even then everything was fun and a joy to write about so i probably wouldn't change anything.

what's a plotline you wish you would have been able to finish before closing or just write more of ?

the ones that never happened. e mentioned some of the things we planned and didn't happen on the timeline post but i assure you that's not even the beginning. at times we'd plan an entire year of events in advance and come up with a full story, reasoning, plot drops for it but when the time to have them came we forgot all about it and change everything to something we'd put together in 20 mins instead of the plans we spent days working on. even the cruise ship they were supposed to be stuck in was an idea we had so much fun coming up with and it didn't get to see the light of day.

what is your favourite ooc memory ?

every honesty hour chaos was such a fun time to be on the dash, or whenever something big would happen ic and there would be 100 ooc posts reacting to it on the dash and the jokes were the peak of comedy. but i'll always have a soft spot for the soletsky silent thread bc icb we actually had 40+ notes on that, it was priceless. the word lunch is stuck with me forever. AND that one time i got kicked out on this exact date a couple years back.

where can others find you if they want to get in touch ?

i won't delete the tumblr app from my phone just yet so if you want to send me a mssg, i'll be checking it every now and again. same with discord, i'm there under barbielandwired and we're not deleting the hshq server so we can still have that in case anybody wants to pop into the chat and catch up. i'll give you my socials too if anybody wants that, we're all friends here. i've known u lot for 8 years.

what else would you like to say ?

here.

[bryan360]

Here’s my note before I’ll get started….

(NO COPYING OR PLAGIARIZING FROM ME AND ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIEND’S WORK! THAT INCLUDES OUR CHARACTERS, DESIGNS, STUFF, ETC. IMPOSTERS AND SEXBOTS ARE NOT WELCOME TO FOLLOW MY BLOG WHATSOEVER! 😡 That will be all….I mean it.)

On This Day - Feb. 14th, 2016

Thought it would make sense by bringing two-in-one during this ❤️Valentine’s Day; especially that time when introduced two female friends for Max and Sam. Good thing when doing some changes like Emme’s hands that its not supposed to be look like. 😅 Aside that, they’re pretty much (at least so far) to know what good female friends are. Speaking in which….⬇️

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301 @rafacaz4lisam2k4

[itsjustmarle]

Let’s talk about samples!

I return from the Easter break 🐣 with some food for thought to explore. I wondered for a long time whether I should come up with something striking or related to past core content, but since I would like to revisit my Erasmus, I decided to put together my experiences and insights from my colleagues' blogs and from course lectures tied to this project. 

GUERRILLA DESIGN is the first shot

I came across this concept while scrolling through the course material and would like to bring it into a declination of examples chosen to mix my personal experience with its relevance in a social and cultural context. 

We can barely try to define this extremely varied practice:

“Unsanctioned, unscripted, and seemingly “undesirable” activities have long appropriated urban spaces in routine and sometimes unexpected ways, bringing new meanings and unforeseen functions to those places.”

This special issue aims to advance our understanding of urban design by situating it in a broader social, economic and political practice that includes formal and informal practices performed by a wide variety of individual and collective actors.

Expressiveness can be demonstrated by many nuances:

Street vending

When vendors take over street corners and sidewalks on a daily basis to provide basic and necessary services to city dwellers.

Here some cool, cutting-edge and Italian-vibes examples:

Graffiti

Gardening

Knitting

Skateboarding

Coming across the Graffiti thing I feel in the mood to share with you, tongue firmly planted in cheek, the most relevant model of resistance in street art beliefs: Banksy.

He has built a celebrated body of work, both permanent and impermanent, that uses satire, subversion, black humor and irony to create social, political and humanistic messages that resonate with the masses on a popular and public level. He is credited with catapulting guerrilla work into the mainstream as a viable art form.

I had the opportunity to see a very well curated exhibition here in Vienna, which was extended until 16th of April, with a substantial portion of his artwork, and my attention was stolen by the material applications pasted into the public and collective environment. 

That was my closest contact with Banksy's art and I really enjoyed all the provocative works, especially material and architectural ones, such as the following:

October 2013, Banksy undertook a month-long residency in New York entitled ‘Better Out Than In.’ 

Summer of 2015, Banksy opened the dystopian theme park Dismaland in the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare. Prepared entirely in secret, the project unveiled 10 new works by Banksy as well as works from 58 other artists.

Banksy went on to participate in the designing of the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem in 2017, opposite the Israeli West Bank Barrier.

To show you more:

[raredrop]

im telling the story again bc its my blog

here it is the full chain of events

stumble on a deviantart journal talking about a french film that copied Up and leads to a blog called You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice

read a post on there that talks about some ice cream place or something? that copied the characters from a webcomic called Kawaii Not

read through Kawaii Not

find a post that mentions ms paint adventures

think something like “oh i love ms paint i wonder what this is about”

try to read both PS and Homestuck, end up just reading Homestuck

since i didnt have a working computer at the time nor a smartphone (this was 2010...i was late to the smartphone party) i bounced mostly between using my moms laptop and my psp

lurk the mspa forums and find someone’s dave strider themed blog (one of those fyeah blogs that were popular at the time) look through it often

dont remember if i looked at any other blogs at this time

between this and joining tumblr in march 2011 im not exactly sure what else might have happened BUT

march 2011 i make my tumblr blog (this very one)

live terminally online and on tumblr throughout high school

2015 sign up for a random mmo beta...blade and soul

fully begin playing blade and soul when it comes out in 2016

start a sideblog for mmos in about march of that year

meet a bunch of people both on tumblr and in game

fall out of touch with a bunch of them between then and the fall

start following a blog @shironuri a bit before then and minimally interact

she tries to help me with an event but we are on different servers (back when they eXISTED) so we couldnt

read the tags on a post about her one assassin that she might have been on one server or the one i was playing on with my soul fighter (which was just about before that server and my main server got merged)

add as friend

decide i want to find her in game

spend a good chunk of time running around until i spot her and whisper “boo” to her

we become friends

we start dating feb the next year

and thats how homestuck lead to me meeting my girlfriend

[livingasaghost]

head full, so i'm gonna do a quick brain dump and then move on with my life

woke up from a nightmare where this robot cyborg person was hunting me and so i ended up on the run with like three other people and we went through some kind of traffic stop thinking we were safe but we WEREN'T and i really wanted to see how we escaped but i woke up before that happened and then i was like...ya know, actually i don't need to suffer more than we already are

bc then i woke up to the news that all the diversity events are banned for the federal gov so i started spiraling real bad

had a mini breakdown, cried a bit, texted michelle and wrote a long pointless angry post on facebook to make the older christian relatives i have on there Think About The Consequences of Their Actions (it won't work)

found out my guitar teacher from hs added me on facebook :,)

i am currently in the middle of reading FOUR BOOKS bc ass quest is taking forever and i wanted to start a black nonfic book and then i needed an audio for work and then last night i was so sad about finishing s2 of heaven official's blessing that i opened vol 4 and now i'm over a hundred pages into it........and it's so good

hualian my beloved. save me hua cheng.

actually kind of loving the "reading books in translation" thing i'm doing because even though i've been focusing a lot on chinese this month with tgcf, i already feel like i'm learning a lot in new ways! i ordered a paperback copy of this 1930s classic folklore book that was originally written in yoruba and i had zero plans to pick it up bc i only found out about it like a week ago but now i'm actually so interested to read it...if only because it's so random and kind of outside my norm. idk! translation is super cool! the usa is hell so let's read about other places from non english people!!!!

i started a book by hanif abdurraqib bc people have been recommending him forever and this one is specifically centered on music and it's both well written AND full of taste! already converted me to listening to chance the rappers 2016 record (i remember when it came out but ive never really understood the chance hype bc the only people i knew who listened to him were literally christian white girls like what) and i'm learning so much about so much UGH

rereading aftg is not what i planned on doing this month but every audio sample i tried (i did like ten last week istg) was NOT RIGHT and i just need to listen to stuff while i'm working and somehow here i am, once again reading about neil figuring out how to trust people. three weeks til D-Day. three weeks til kevjean content.

i am very aware that i need to start my bone season reread but i have to finish ass quest first and i'm like 300 pages from the end and i cannot see how this will all resolve in such a short time

but WE ARE ALMOST 3 WEEKS OUT FROM WARDEN CONTENT and i literally am not letting myself think about it until i start rereading because it's been four years and i don't think i'm emotionally ready to dive back into the bone season

anyway. i'm drowning in books. it's all i have and i feel so good about it.

also for the record, today according to libib i own 319 books. so. yeah.

work is kicking my ass again if only bc my boss is being annoyingly frustrating. trying to work on marketing projects (LIKE I WANTED TO DO WHEN I WAS HIRED ALMOST THREE YEARS AGO) and he's just.....making things so difficult. but i do have a blog post going up on my company's website???? crazy times

even though it's annoying i am kind of glad that this weekend is all about cleaning bc my apartment has been dragging me down for weeks and i need spring cleaning pronto (it is feb 1. it's in the 70s next week. it's basically spring.)

OH! aND!!!! i shared this earlier but i think i booked a SECOND wedding for 2025 (which is crazy bc one wedding is usually all i can accomplish these days, and the one wedding i had on my cal was for my beloved tess) and the couple was so sweet when we talked on thursday and they didn't even have to deliberate, like when we left they were like DRAW UP THE CONTRACT LETS DO THIS :,))))

and THEN! after i got home from that, i found ANOTHER wedding inquiry for november so if i pull that off there's a chance i could do a THIRD wedding this fall??? sounds fake, i'm counting on it falling through. but the inquiries keep coming and i swear, quitting insta was the best thing i ever did for my business holy shit

which is to say, i was waiting to book that second wedding before committing but i did something crazy and emailed a brand designer (who is......ungodly expensive but honestly all brand designers are, and as a small business owner i respect it) and i have no clue if she'll even want to do work for me bc she seems very selective but i feel like the universe is trying to tell me to invest in myself? like i thought my business was dead and i thought i didn't want to freelance anymore and i thought i'd never write or read or youtube ever again.....and yet.....life is a circle and the things you love do come back to you and it's crazy but i do think my thirtieth year is going to change everything.

in some ways, i think cutting that person out of my life changed my entire mindset and countenance, that i'm like returning to who i was before them, and yeah so much of who i am IS because of them obviously, but also no! i crushed myself over and over for years because of who they made me into and i never realized just how small i had made myself.

and i've really shifted a lot of boundaries and relationships in general, like prioritizing fewer people because so many people have let me down in the last five years and EVERY STORY HAS AN ENDING AND ITS NOT OUR JOB TO STAY and that doesn't mean i hate them or don't want the world for them but my god i am allowed to stop people pleasing, i am allowed to spend time alone or with just my very best friends, i am allowed to unmask and be myself and not feel bad about the things i love!

but also changing my relationship with the internet has helped. getting off as many socials as i dare, writing more long form posts, building a habit of reading instead of posting or scrolling...i don't feel perfect or completely satisfied with everything in my life, and obviously the outside world is on fire, but goddammit i've never felt this good. not even when i was thriving in 2019. not even when i thought i was doing as good as i ever was when i started college.

you don't realize how broken you are until find where you're meant to be. until you're doing the things you always wanted to do. until you finally finally FUCKING FINALLY are preparing to exit your twenties.

three months til thirty and THANK GOD FOR THAT

[chronicallycosy]

Stardew Valley; My Beloved

A special interest of mine since its release! My first chronically cosy blog is about Stardew Valley. It is mostly a love letter to this game. How much it means to me. The happiness and cosiness it brings. SDV has gotten me through so much. 

This game may have been released over 8 years ago back in Feb 2016. However, over the years, developer Concerned Ape has brought us quite a few free updates. Bringing more quality of life, more end-game content and more. A low purchase cost and free updates? Concerned Ape massively sets the standard for the games industry. I will forever love indie games. 

Did you even play Stardew Valley if you didn't put the shorts in the soup?

After being over 200 hours on switch and 700 hours on steam, I like to consider myself quite the seasoned SDV player. As it has become one of my biggest autistic special interests, my mind has become a walking wiki. I recently dived into Stardew Valley Expanded mod which was super exciting to play. I definitely recommend checking that out if you are a SDV lover and play on PC/Steam Deck! 

I recently put to bed my beach farm which ended up being a perfection run of which I married Emily. Ahh, I love her. She has a golden heart. 

I haven’t started the new chicken starter farm though! I am patiently waiting for switch update release so I can enjoy the new update there. Unless someone wants to get me a steam deck, please steam, hit me up. I desperately need a steam deck in my life. Also, my next run, I will be marrying Sam. He doesn’t get the love and appreciation he deserves and he is an angel. 

Speaking of the recent update, hello?? XP books, book buffs, the mastery levels?! The upgraded furnace?? AHHH. There was so much welcomed quality of life and boosts to end game content. The racoon family is SO CUTE. I love the festival in Calico Desert too. The new furniture tables, the trinkets, dehydrator, fish smoker, extra house space, just so many cool new features that enhances the game. Hot tip, turn your quarry into a tapper and moss combi farm! 

I could speak about this game all day, I just love it so much. Relaxing winter days re-arranging the farm ready for the start of a new year. Trying to get that community centre done in year one. Creating the craziest ancient fruit wine farm on Ginger Island. Getting to 100 in Skullcavern with no stairs. The Marnie and Lewis scandals. The excitement of waking up to a giant crop, or multiple! The game is just full of so many satisfying, wholesome and funny moments that never get old, at least for me anyway! 

However, the game is absolutely not immune to critism. Nothing is perfect and things can always improve! As a non-binary person one of my biggest wishes is for a pronoun update. I would also love to see some more new characters with more diversity. I also wish we could give Marlon gifts and get friendship with him! I would also really love to see Marnie and Lewis actually marry, and be open about their relationship further into the game when you learn of their secrets. More roommate options similar to Krobus would be cool too! I also wish for a special item or book that allows to see daily luck without tuning into the TV. I really hope Concerned Ape continues to bring us updates, no matter the wait, it is always worth waiting for. 

What are your favourite Stardew Valley memories? What do you love about the game? What do you hope for the future of Stardew Valley? I would love to hear your thoughts! 

Oooo also, have you been to the concert or are you planning to go? I’m going in June and I’m so excited as I absolutely love the soundtrack and orchestra! 

Chronically Cosy, aka Georgia :) 

[wot-tidbits]

10 Years Anniversary

PART 8

Stats a.k.a. The Boring One

I have been always fascinated by the boring numbers showing me what is the progress of my blog. And every 6 months I methodically published small part of them. On the 10th anniversary I would like to show you some more. I am not doing it to brag as I do not know if these numbers are good or bad. I do not have anything to compare with so literally I am clueless in the first place. But I would want to give some reference to others who probably also are intrigued in that boring niche. As my blog has been one of the most consistent with WoT content every day, the data can show how well the attention for WoT developed in these 10 years.

The following statistics are measured by supercounters.com and clicky.com

Let start with may be the most interesting data – how the TV series influenced my numbers.

Here are the stats for visits by month for the period between June 2021 to December 2023.

Jun 2021     692   

Jul 2021      670

Aug 2021   686   

Sep 2021    988

Oct 2021    1,021

Nov 2021   1,816

Dec 2021    2,646

Jan 2022     1,728

Feb 2022    1,051

Mar 2022    906   

Apr 2022    824

May 2022   952

Jun 2022     674

Jul 2022      735

Aug 2022   606

Sep 2022    574

Oct 2022    560   

Nov 2022   491

Dec 2022    476

Jan 2023     583   

Feb 2023    506

Mar 2023    633

Apr 2023    590   

May 2023   412

Jun 2023     497            

Jul 2023      513   

Aug 2023   634   

Sep 2023    1,313

Oct 2023    1,072

Nov 2023   666

Dec 2023    611   

So it is very visible that the TV series did make change on my numbers as expected – having double and triple numbers than regular. The interest for the second season was not bigger or longer though. The first season peaked for 9 months while the second one only for 2. December 2021 is my highest record with 2,646 visits. For reference I had several 1000+ visits in previous periods but they are not as fascinating as the TV show period. 

Under the cut I will put some more if you are interested.

What is the number of visits by year?

2014 5,252

2015 7,551

2016 7,654

2017 6,076

2018 7,509

2019 14,716       

2020 8,838

2021 12,364

2022 9,577

2023 8,030

My most successful period is from March 2019 to May 2020 – 15 consecutive months.

Feb 2019    662

Mar 2019    982

Apr 2019    1,159

May 2019   1,892

Jun 2019     2,107

Jul 2019      1,378

Aug 2019   1,626

Sep 2019    1,006

Oct 2019    884   

Nov 2019   1,285

Dec 2019    1,074

Jan 2020     1,449

Feb 2020    772

Mar 2020    822   

Apr 2020    898   

May 2020   918

Jun 2020     706

Jul 2020      584   

What is the progress of followers (and unfollowers. Yes, I know your names as I counted them manually.) by year?      

Stats for the period of 22.01.2014-22.01.2015

Followers – 1209

Unfollowers – 138

Stats for the period of 22.01.2015-22.01.2016

Followers – 649

Unfollowers – 311

22.01.2016-22.01.2017 

Followers – 463

Unfollowers – 190

22.01.2017-22.01.2018 

Followers – 322   

Unfollowers – 168

22.01.2018-22.01.2019

Followers –  324

Unfollowers – 150 (Here I stopped counting as it got tiresome to go through 3000 names)

22.01.2019-22.01.2020

Followers – 241

22.01.2020-22.01.2021

Followers – 385

22.01.2021-22.01.2022

Followers – 424

22.01.2022-22.01.2023

Followers – 236

22.01.2023-22.01.2024

Followers – 143

The last two years are so bad because of many newcomers who saw that I have no good feelings for a certain TV product.

What are my top 20 countries for total visitors in 10 years which also shows the diversity of WoT fans around the world?

1.United States     33,756       

2.Russian Federation  11,051  

3.Finland              8,262

4.Bulgaria             4,197

5.United Kingdom 3,870

6.Germany            3,403

7.Canada              3,296

8.Australia            2,189

9.Ukraine             1,674

10.France             1,556

11.Brazil               1,221

12.Greece             998  

13.Serbia              853  

14.Netherlands     821  

15.Spain               804  

16.Sweden            776  

17.Poland             771  

18.Italy                 755  

19.Norway            649  

20.India                503  

Stats how regularly people check the page of Robert Jordan's notes for his casting – my most visited page. To shorten the boring list I select when it was visited more than 50 times a month.

Aug 2019 – 468

Sep 2019 – 87

Sep 2021 - 52

Oct 2021 - 54

Nov 2021 - 127   

Dec 2021 - 208    

Jan 2022 - 51                          

Apr 2022 - 97               

May 2022 - 204   

Jun 2022 - 62       

Jul 2022 - 53        

Aug 2022 - 86

Oct 2022 - 57

Jan 2023 - 52       

Sep 2023 - 767    

Ok. I think this is enough irrelevant numbers for today. Thank you for your curiosity.

Let the Light keep you safe

LightOne

[indiesole]

BLOG INDEX: Indie’s Blogs through the years.

BLOG INDEX: Indie’s Blogs through the years. Greater viewership demands more sophisticated means of infotainment eg. proper blog page. But start this page off, linking index to blogs written on my Twitter handle @PanaceaPlethora , in 2017 (as also on my Instagram a/c handle @1ndiejones), and entirely on Twitter in 2016 and 2015, (and even in 2014, but on a different handle, and now lost 😦 ), to try avoid any overlap in themes and content, and unnecessary repetition, hard as may be in our freely and fairly fiery, disjointed, unhinged times.;) NOTE: ALL THESE BLOGS CAN BE READ ON TWITTER, BY USING ADVANCED (DATE) SEARCH OPTION IN TWITTER SEARCH.Here’s a link first to my 2015 blog collection on Twitter handle @PanaceaPlethora .

And here’s a link to, index of my blog collection for 2016, on Twitter handle @PanaceaPlethora.(1/2)

BLOGS WRITTEN IN 2017, ON TWITTER HANDLE @MIRANCHANNEL : (ASIDE AT INSTA A/C @1NDIEJONES).

Since most thoughts and, if at all, blogs henceforth be on Instagram account @1ndieJones, n here when lengthier warrant.. thought to update the list of BLOGS, on my Twitter account @PanaceaPlethora. To collate and recall, and so as to avoid any overlap, for self and for old and new readers.

Dig in! Enjoy!

BLOGS IN 2017: 1. Case for ABSOLUTE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, in times of Extremism. – Dec 24 2. RELIGION, and its MONOTHEISTIC SPIRIT. – Dec 27 3. Politics and its different wings – Feb 28 4. Touching upon some blatant unfairness in Feminism – Feb 28 5. Case, for religiously casteing aside RESERVATION – Feb 28 6. Some all-in-one ideas, for genuine large scale GENDER EQUALITY. Feb 28 7. PARTITION (OF INDIA) From not both, but all sides. – Feb 28 8. CLIMATE CHANGE IS IT ALL ABOUT SCIENCE, OR RELIGION TOO? – Feb 28 9. SUPREME COURT AND ITS FUNDAMENTAL DICHOMOTOMY ON VARIOUS ISSUES. Feb 28 10.THE WEB OF ANTI-NATIONALISM Its mystification,and uselessnees Explained. – Feb 28 11 .The fallacies/counterproductiveness in Govt’s handling of Kashmir.- Feb 28 12. RIGHT TO PRIVACY IE. RIGHT TO DECEIVE IN THE AGE OF MOBILE INTERNET. Feb 28 13. Some poetic musings on d KASHMIR issue.-Feb 28 14. The field of ANTI-NATIONALISM Perspectives.-Mar 1 15. The importance of EDUCATION, WITH CHOICES.-Mar 1 16. National Referendums Teething problems. -Mar 1 17. The concept of ‘COMPROMISING EXCHANGE’ IN POLITICS. &OVERREACH OF CONGRESSIONAL VETTING IN PRESIDENTIAL DEMOCRACIES.-Mar 2 18. The role of EMBLEMS in NATIONALISM. Some carbs for d soul.-Mar 3 19. The use of Animal Sanctuaries, as shelter for Political animals.-Mar 3 20. ‘Freedom of Public Information’ freelancers, Internal hacks, n Hostile States. N a trumped up reality.-Mar 4 21. Some remedies, for d menace of ‘Fake News’. Mar 6 22. Mental Hurt, is just opinion hurt. Ie. No body’s hurt. Mar 13 23. #MSM- The paradigms of it’s MISCHIEF, n it’s AGENCY! – Mar 14 24. The search for identity, of political parties, in today’s Indian politics.Some ideas.- Mar 14 25. The case to refurbish voting systems in Indian democracy.Change or perish.- Mar 15 26. Inter-national communication vs Tresspass.- Mar 20. 27. Mild Case for Single Payer Healthcare in US Tough pill to swallow – Mar25

All the remaining >100 blogs for the year 2017, are on my Instagram a/c @1ndiejones !

[lethiwebhengu]

BLOG 5

In the medical context, cultural humility may be defined as a process of being aware of how people's culture can impact their health behaviors and in turn using this awareness to cultivate sensitive approaches in treating patients. Prasad SJ, Nair P, Gadhvi K, Barai I, Danish HS, Philip A (.2016 .Feb).

My patient comes from the Xhosa culture which is quite similar to the isizulu culture. Bhat R.T (April. 2014) reports that “the medicinal plants are mainly used in making infusions and decoctions or poulties to be taken orally or applied externally. Some lants are used as a source of scepters for healing ceremonies and driving away bad spirits”.  This is just like the Zulu culture. The patient had lost his new-born baby in 2014 and had a wrist drop due to car accident in 2019 and now a TBI in 2019.

According to this culture this would be explained as that the patient had not performed certain rituals when the baby was born and when the baby passed. Therefore, it will haunt him until these rituals are done. The patient could go a traditional healer “nqhwele” to consult which rituals he is to do but knowing my patient does not believe in IsiXhosa traditional

ways of healing and believes in medical and western ways, the therapeutic implications for his treatment would be to not take the patient’s use of traditional medicines into account when planning treatment.

It has been a busy week and final week for blogging. Overall, it was an amazing week for me because I got to know more about myself, how I’ve grown and how I have changed since entering UKZN Westville Campus.

Monday’s day. I really do not like Mondays, I won’t use the word hate because it’s really not that deep. Mondays are full days and normally the patient that sees you later in the afternoon gets the exhausted and very hungry version of you (lunch is never enough). Last week Thursday, I was assigned a TBI patient who also presents with a wrist drop. All has been going okay ever since, I met him. To me he is one of those patient’s I will never forget. H has been quite a big eye opener in terms of my overall progress and clinical performance when I’m working with patients.

I am a panicker by nature by I think that has been working for me as now I am receiving assistance from various people with different perspectives and clinical reasonings. On Monday, I had planned to do a sandwich making activity using his left affected hand. My supervisor is not crazy about this choice of activity, but I had hoped it would work considering the feedback she had gave me when I had done it the first time which was that it does not bring many demands to the patient but wrist movements and gravity at play. I had also considered the fact that wrist extension is the functional position so I was positive it would work. And guess what? It didn’t quite work.

Well mainly because yes, the activity requires wrist movements, but does it really require wrist extension.NO. It is so embarrassing when your session doesn’t turn out to be what you had hoped for but rather become a total flop.

The main feedback that stuck on my mind was using activity analysis. I didn’t really prioritise this in my mind given the amount of time I have to do my session write up as I get to res late and had gotten away with it quite a number of times and really did not think it was that important.

It wasn’t until that my mentor read my write up on Wednesday and said the same thing. She broke things down for me, slowly and I got the importance of it. I had a visit from our academic leader to check on my progress which was quite intimidating considering his position but was effective as I am in desperate need for help. He also said the same thing. Do you know that thing that happens when different sangomas from totally different areas you don’t know of randomly bump into you and start telling you the same thing and it starts to force you to believe them and start making what they are saying a priority. Yes, that is exactly what happened to me. My supervisor, the academic leader and my mentor all saying the same thing just in different languages.

Another thing our academic leader picked up on was my lack of confidence. This is sad actually because I am not one to act like Miss-Know-It-All and I’m the youngest at home. I am the person you tell what to do not the other way around. But that has to change because it is going to be problem to my career overall.

 REFERENCES

Prasad SJ, Nair P, Gadhvi K, Barai I, Danish HS, Philip AB. Cultural humility: treating the patient, not the illness. Med Educ Online. 2016 Feb 3;21:30908. doi: 10.3402/meo.v21.30908. PMID: 26847853; PMCID: PMC4742464.

Bhat R.T (2014, April). Medicinal Plants and Traditional Practices of Xhosa people in the Transkei Region of Eastern Cape, South Africa. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. Vol.13 (2), April 2014, (pp.292-298)

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

As I’m getting started it’s a nice crisp 27F outside just before 8AM EST. The sun is out and will be all day. We’ve had a very mild winter this year, with the exception of that polar blast around Christmas, and I don’t expect us to get any snow.🌞

My coffee is in hand, time to get started. Hope you enjoy the links. ☕️

Reuters

A gunman opened fire on Monday night on the main campus of Michigan State University, killing three people and injuring five, before an hours-long manhunt for the suspect ended with his death, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot, police said.

It’s the guns. I don’t know what else to say. Over and over and over again we see this and do nothing. A truly American thing and not one to be proud of. 😞

Chicago Tribune

Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl for the 2nd time in 4 years, beating the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on a FG with 8 seconds left

I’m happy for the Chiefs and their fans. It was a great Super Bowl, a nail biter, not a blowout. Oh, and the Mahomes to Kelce connection is without a doubt the best in football and one of the best ever. If Patrick Mahomes can stay healthy and have a 20-year run he’ll break all kinds of records and win some more rings.

Macworld

Just short of the 10th anniversary of that first Mac Pro misstep, Apple is now late in concluding its processor transition by shipping the first Apple silicon-based Mac Pro. What’s worse, reports from Bloomberg suggest that the company has ditched the next Mac Pro’s highest-end processor, calling the computer’s entire purpose into question.

Given Apple’s new chip architecture with memory and processor built into the chip I have a difficult time defining what a pro machine should or would be. Maybe you have to accept a new definition? Maybe it doesn’t mean a flexible and expandable architecture?

What I’d like to see is Apple give the Professional computing world a way to use their current investment in Mac Pro a way to replace the x86 based Xeon chips with Apple Silicon. Of course Apple would never do such a thing because money. 💸

Linode

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 15, 2022 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the world’s most trusted solution to power and protect digital experiences, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Linode, one of the easiest-to-use and most trusted infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform providers.

I follow a number of indie software developers and they tend to use Linode for their service backends. Two that come to mind are Micro.blog, the system I use for publishing my blog, and Overcast, the indie podcast app for iOS. I’m sure there are many more out there I don’t know about. I’ve never done any large scale backend work for my indie endeavors but if I did I’d most likely choose Linode because they’re inexpensive, reliable, and have great customer service.

Hopefully they don’t start hiking prices, laying off people, and becoming a terrible place to host. 🤞🏼

Semafor

Spotify’s podcast push began in earnest in 2016, when Ek invited audio executives including higher ups at Gimlet to the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden to explain the emerging American podcast market.

Spotify calls their recorded audio podcasting. It’s not. Podcasting is the audio plus a delivery mechanism in the form of RSS. Yes, you can have a podcast as I’ve defined it behind a paywall. They just want to lock you into their app with their advertising and try to upsell you on other things. That’s fine. It’s their business but don’t call them podcasts. Ok, off the soap box. 📦

I was listening to the Pivot Podcast last night and Scott Galloway point out that very few podcasts make a profit. That’s true of what he defines as a podcast. Remember, this started as an open technology built by Dave Winer and Adam Curry. It was used and loved long before businessmen decided they could monetize it. Just like blogging. It’s was and still is a way for us mere mortals to communicate to the outside world, even if we’re not paid a dime to do it.

Oh, and I have a feeling some of the small podcasting shops are doing just fine, but they do things differently and have well loved shows. They’re just not exclusive to Spotify or Apple or whatever Big Co place you get your podcasts. They’re fully open and downloadable using your podcast player of choice because they’re built on top of RSS as the delivery mechanism.

The key phrase to listen for when you hear a podcast advertised is ”Download wherever you get your podcasts.” Then you know it’s a real podcast.

Crooks and Liars

The hearing got incredibly creepy when Arkansas state Sen. Matt McKee asked a trans pharmacist if she had a penis. “Do you have a penis?” he asked the woman, who seemed stunned at the question.

Unbelievable. I wish we could get past this and so many other things. So many people want to control how others behave and how they live their life. Often times based on some form of religion they’ve twisted to support their hate, disdain, or jealously of others.

Let people live their lives. Show them respect and grace as fellow human beings. It’s not our job to tell folks how they should live. That goes for women, brown skinned people, and the LBGTQ+ community. ❤️

Doctorow

After half a decade of sedate, steady growth, Mastodon suddenly surged, from 600,000 daily users to 2.6 million in the space of months.

Some folks are already writing off Mastodon. Silly people. If you’re looking to get a huge following and interacting with movie stars, influencers, government officials, and the rich and famous, don’t expect that from Mastodon. It’s not built for that. It’s built like your everyday neighborhood for us commoners to engage in. It’s real people carrying on real discussions. Sure, there’s gonna be some hate but there are mechanisms in place to take care of that crap. I love it and I’m excited to see it grow. There’s no algorithm to encourage you to follow people or corporate master to satisfy and no need to grow to billions of users because of it.

It’s like blogging. It’s all open and up to us, everyday people, to keep it. ✌🏼

New York Times

Lurking behind the concerns of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, over the content of a proposed high school course in African American studies, is a long and complex series of debates about the role of slavery and race in American classrooms.

Talk about hateful, mean, and unsympathetic to fellow human beings. DeSantis is an authoritarian who wants to mold Florida into his own disgusting image. He doesn’t want you to think for yourself or question authority, no sir. He wants a bunch of dumb drones serving the rich and powerful.

Get out if you can. It’s a terrible state. If you can’t, or don’t want to, I wish you luck and hope you find a way to help change the state. 🍀

Joseph Heck

In the past couple of years, I’ve had the occasion to want to make an XCFramework – a bundle that’s used by Apple platforms to encapsulate binary frameworks or libraries – a couple of times.

I don’t know Joseph personally but I’ve interacted with him on the NetNewsWire Slack and Mastodon and he’s a really kind, thoughtful, selfless man. He’s given me feedback on Stream and Mac programming questions. All that to say he’s one of the good ones.

Anywho, this is a great piece on how he built an XCFramework with a Rust core. Rust has become the new, safe, language for creating highly performant software and being able to use it natively on iOS or Mac and integrate it right into Xcode is wonderful. 🧰

Cory Doctrow

Mobile tech is a duopoly run by two companies – Google and Apple – with a combined market cap of $3.5 trillion. Each company uses a combination of tech, law, contract and market power to force sellers to do commerce via an app, and each one extracts a massive commission on all in-app sales – 15-30%!

Web tools continue to improve to the point that native apps may become a thing of the past for many companies. Of course folks like me will continue to do native iOS, and hopefully Mac, apps for as long as we can, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Native apps are becoming less and less important with each passing day. Learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

New York Times

Over the past year, we have seen a sweeping and ferocious attack on the rights and dignity of transgender people across the country.

A really great piece by Jamelle Bouie. Please, go read it if you can.

curmudgeon.cafe/@fahrni/1…

[ecodweeb]

Gopher: 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive Cabriolet

Gopher was the first electric vehicle that I purchased three days after turning in my “Clean Diesel” Volkswagen.

Service Stats

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

In Service Date: 4/4/2016

In Service Mileage: 8,980

Out of Service Date: 5/11/2019

Out of Service Mileage: 43,108

Service Life: 34,212 miles, 3 years in service

Avg. Miles/yr: 11,056

The Story & History

In Service Date: 10/9/2020

In Service Mileage: 55,085

Current Mileage (Jan 2023): 65,000

Out of Service Date: --

Out of Service Mileage: --

Service Life: ongoing

Avg. Miles/yr: ~4,000

Towards the end of my TDI saga, my best friend bought a used Nissan LEAF. I loved the car and when I knew I was going to be giving back the VW, I began looking at used LEAFs for the replacement. My husband, well boyfriend at the time, was not on board with “something so hideous” parked in the driveway all the time. As he became evermore featful that I was about to bring one home, he found two Smart Convertible Electric Drives on AutoTrader. One had more miles, less features, and the car that I bought for just under $10,000. I called the dealer up and asked a single question: “Does it have two keys?” When they said yes I put a deposit down with my credit card and the next day we faxed and emailed some things back and forth to finalize the sale with my local credit union. I named Gopher after a character in a Victoria Laurie novel series that I was reading at the time.

My friend, Brad, took me in his LEAF to pick up Gopher on a Monday. I was so excited when I saw the truck enter the parking lot. The driver was concerned that this was a car for me, given my gargantuan size, but the handoff was quick and painless. I immediately opened the roof and took out the roof rails for the full open air affect. After running to Apex for lunch with Brad, I drove my new car home and plugged it into a 120v outlet to charge for the first time.

My blog started with Gopher back on Blogger, eventually migrating to Tumblr after a few years. Most of the stories pre-2018 are all about Gopher and adding Level 2 chargers to PlugShare across the region. But in 2019, a changing of the guards occurred. A friend of mine needed a cheap to run car and I wanted to get a DC Fast charging car. I sold Gopher and bought a Hyundai Ioniq (named Alanis). During Gopher’s time with my friend, he added an average of nearly 1,700 miles per month. Then one day on his way home from work, my friend spun out on a 70mph highway and crashed gopher into a retaining wall.

Miraculously, no air bags deployed and all he needed was a near wheel, tail lamp, and rear body kit to be functional and pass inspection. After buying Gopher back from my friend’s insurance company, I then bought a bricked 2014 Smart Electric off another friend and scavenged the parts needed to repair my beloved Gopher. 

Gopher was assigned a salvage title, and I cannot carry full coverage with any insurance carrier as a result. Gopher’s battery turned 10 years old in Feb of 2023. One of my longer term projects will be reporting on his battery health. At last calculation, the pack was around 92% of original capacity since new. I use a driving route to test the range of the vehicle along with pulling the Battery Management System health data. I’m currently working on an Open Vehicle Monitoring System installation for Gopher, which will not only replace my BMSdiag box but also allow me to remote start my climate control again!