#wtf that's not even on the spec??? did she take it from an a level paper or what

[thursdayg1rl]

biology test didnt go too badly actually...

[lostinwoods]

A different take on SessKag relationship or why it would be more realistic than InuKag.

Let me begin with

Sesshomaru's and Kagome's past and how they are similar.

Sesshomaru had always been a very sentimental and emotionally receptive being. He had loved and cherished his dad the most. Loving and competing with him, wanting to surpass him, desiring recognition and acceptance so much so that his entire world revolved around his father. He did not want the swords because they were powerful or the bs about supreme conquest. What is that shit? Sesshomaru never needed that. The swords, especially Tessaiga was the most important acceptance to Sess. I will get back to this later.

Now Kagome. This kid was born and then we never saw her dad even when she was a kid. Another classic case of growing without a dad? Perhaps. But I feel her grandpa filled her missing dad's place. That is why the kid grew up in a lovely household, filled with love and peace and made Kagome what she was later on, a selfless girl who wants to love and protect her friends. Because that is what she learnt. Her grandpa, mom, everyone and her own family dynamics taught her how important it was to cherish the ones she loved.

What they initially thought of Inuyasha in their life

Now back to Sess. When his dad died, he dies saving Izayoi. What is the thing he feels at the time I wondered. Surely devastated? Yes, but even worse. His most important person, his goal, the thing his life revolved around was gone. And for what? To protect a weak, useless bitch like Izayoi? Here is a thing, he never knew Izayoi but knew the hut had collapsed on his dad when Izayoi had escaped. What can a teen feel when they hear such a thing? 'That useless bitch, ran away when my dad was in danger and cost him his life. Fuck that bitch and that kid they made. Useless, all humans are useless and weak.' This was really where his hatred came from. Probably.

Kagome on the other hand from the beginning was shown as a selfless kid, who loved both humans and demons alike. Reason? She had never lived in the feudal era. She was a kid grown in a society where everyone is placed on a equal pedestal. How would she, a modern kid understand the bad blood between demons and humans? If she were ever born in Feudal Japan, would things have changed? Maybe. Then she falls into a world where nothing was similar to where she was from. She was frightened, unsure and confused. And then Inuyasha came into her life. Honestly their first meeting was not romantic and pretty terrific in a sense. That was a weird day for Kagome. She fell into an alien world only heard in fairy tales, got involved in a weird prophecy, learnt she was a mythical sort of being herself and then got attacked by a guy who had saved her only seconds before, all ready to rip her heart out. In such a case, the 'osuwari' was probably a safe word for her. Why she uses it later in the series? Probably because she never trusted Inuyasha and felt more comfortable using a word which gave her power over him. Honestly, what would you expect? Kisses and love showers?

Analysis: Kagome was still scared of Inuyasha for a long time and did not trust him completely.

Before Inu no Taisho's tomb battle

Kagome before this went home and then cane back because she felt that fixing the Shikon was her duty. More honestly, she just returned coz Yura attacked and she wanted her family to be safe. Here I want to take some time to gush over how cool Kagome is. Intelligent, smart and extremely powerful. How she understood that Yura's skull was her weakness and breaks the god forsaken thing with just an arrow. That is some level of OPness. Who says Kags is useless?

Anyways, after that when Inuyasha called her 'Kagome', a lot of the viewers thought that Kagome was ecstatic because it was romantic and she was in love. But that is bs. It is not possible to love someone a week later they tried to gut your heart out. It is masochistic and unreal. Kagome over here felt a sense of acceptance from a guy who she felt previously hated her enough to kill her. And that to Kagome was a sign of friendship and more like, 'don't worry, I am not at least gonna attempt to kill you anymore.'

Kagome, inheritently a person who gives a hand when given a finger. She accepts Inu as her friend and they were far from being lovers.

It is exactly this time that Sess attacks them. And quite cruely might I say. Bringing Inu's dead mom like that was not funny and Sess was an outright jerk for doing that no matter how much he hated Inu and Izayoi. He is all weird and sarcatic at high levels. And Kags hated him. She hated how he was attacking this one friend she had made in the era. She hated how cruel this bastard was and how much pain her friend was going through. And her own lovely bond with her brother did not help her to look into their complex brotherly bond which seemed to her more like some battle royale. She probaably hated the bitch for showing up and hurting her friend like that even when he, being the older brother should have loved his younger brother and nurtured him like she would do for Souta.

For Sess, it was really weird and shitty all over. A basic human bitch, standing behind Inu like she was weak fawn. Reminded him so much of Izayoi. Someone who never even tried saving his dad. That was why his sarcastic words were like, "Inuyasha, it suits you so much to have a human behind you". Ya and he was irritated by looking at how helpless af the bitch was. He was narcisstic, filipant of Kags presence and all around indifferent to a 'weak human filthy woman', who he felt was just like the one for whom his dad died.

Surprise is how he did not outright murder her. Perhaps he felt like they were worthless and beneath his boots.

Lol, these two are the best.

Inside Inu No Taisho's tomb

Kags was really angry with this bitch who just chained her up, clawed a pearl out of her friend's eye and then jumped into a black hole. That is why she followed with, "This sort of a person, with no blood or humanity in his veins, I cannot forgive him" and then she chased. Even Inu was like, WTF bro. It was fun. Then she spouted lines like, " Take the sword Inuyasha, it will be like a hit to his pride, what a shame!"

How tf did she know about how much his pride hurt him. Lol felt like Kags knew Sess more than Inu ever would and they only met. That was some soulmate level shit right there. Lol!

Then there was Sess who was outright dismissing Kags and she was not even a spec of dust in his eyes. Then she went and pulled that sword out. Remember the scene where he was so surprised that he stopped the battle with Inu and turned around and LOOKED. Like really LOOKED. It was such a heart stopping moment and for good measures as well. He saw a girl, a woman standing there, holding an inheritance which was supposed to be his and she did something he could not. Did Tessaiga accept her then, did his father accept her more than him? He was baffled, confused and low-key awed. That was why he said, "What are you?" And legit measured her top to bottom. That was some turning point for Sess. Something that proved to him that all humans cannot be dismissed. But he was in rage. How can a mere human be worthy of Tessaiga and melted her along with that sword. I wonder if it was his second test to see whether Tessaiga would protect her or not. And then it did!

Sess went ape-shit crazy after that. A sword he desired for so long (The sword used to protect Izayoi was a thorn in his heart. Made him feel like his father had chosen a human over him. But if the sword had accepted him, it would have proved that his dad had still loved him, thought of him). That was the significance of Tessaiga to him. Power sure, but more of an acceptance. His dad's acceptance. And then what happened? The sword preferred a human who then gave it to his damned hated brother.

Aftermath of tomb battle

Kagome never really liked Sess's guts and probably had no form of sympathy towards someone like him. On the other hand things picked up with her and Inu's relation. She came to know some facts about Kik. And her inferiority complex began with her incarnate. But having a part of Kik's soul in her, began her obsession with Inu. She strived to understand him, make a better person of himself. But their relation was still not there to lovers.

Then Sess came across Naraku. He probably just wanted to dick around more with Inu and accepted the human hand.

2nd battle for Tessaiga

Sess's desire to possess the Tessaiga had increased at this point. His rage of having his arm cut off by that sword felt like the worst rejection from his dad. He was going insane and might have wanted to kill Inu for real in this fight. He was in no mood for theatrics in this one, unlike the tomb where he actually watched some InuKag drama and even applauded (lol). He was absolute business this time. He snached the sword and showed Inu exactly why he should not get that sword, 'You cannot even make the wind rift, why should you be more worthy?'

He meant to kill Inu and then Kags arrow sailed in, charging with enough power to even cancel the demonic energy filled into the sword by Sess himself.

His thoughts were for the same reason, " She canceled Tessaiga's transformation? Who is this girl?"

His respect scale jumped for her here. He truly had never met anyone who could rival his power to such extent. He had never met a girl who stood so powerfully in face of danger to protect this some half-breed scum. She was like the embodiment of everything he had hoped Izayoi to be to his dad. A strong woman who would wager her life to save the one she holds dear. Sess had learnt this fact from his dad's death. To sacrifice in name of love and then in this fight he understood how much that meant both for Inuyasha and Kagome. He probably somewhat understood what this feeling was after seeing these two.

Sess had an idea of love and protection and Kags became its centre. She was this vague expectation Sess had of human love and an absolute loyalty towards whom you love most. He felt complicated towards her. He respected her.

3rd Tessaiga battle

Sess's most sceptical battle yet. Why break the tessaiga? 'I will break it if I can't have it!' Desperate much?. Then the wind drift appears and for the first time Sess acknowledges Inu. For maybe being a somewhat worthy of having Taisho's blood, only if a little bit. He is saved by Tenseiga. Oh, how he hated this worthless sword more. This sword could not cut throught things and saves his life. What a worthless shit.

Kagome's narrative here was important. "How can he weild the Tenseiga? He needs a compassionate heart for that." Always wondered why Kags was the one to say this. But realised the reason later on.

Rin

Obviously the most controversial topic of Inuverse. What Sess felt for Rin, why was she there.

Rin has often been compared to be the Kagome version of Sess. And that is the only truth. She came in like a ray of sunshine when he was in most need. He was in self doubt, hate towards Inu and complex emotions towards Kags. And then Rin was there with the exact same face and the same warm feeling like Kags. Even he knew what InuKag were to each other then and no matter how much he respected Kags, he was not really interested in a further relation with Kags. But his deeply unsated desire to understand his dad's mentality and reason behind saving a human was what made him think of Rin. As she was his chance to understand that. His chance to understand why his dad could do that, why Inu could do that and why humans like Kags and Rin could save and love demons. It was not romantic in any sense. He had a confusion and Rin was his way towards a solution. Though it was a different fact that he loved her later on and cherished and protected her. Enough to feel that there was no meaning to his anything if she was not there.

So yes in a way, she is Kags embodiment in Sess's life, a picture of Kags selfless love. His desire to truly understand such beings called selfless humans and the result of his single minded belief of human women being trash and unable to love shattering.

And for fun just to contradict Kags speculations, for first time ever, Sess uses the sword and we viewers realise how wrong Kags was. Sess had every bit of compassion in his heart.

Later events

The events went on with Kags finally understanding her position in Inu's life and her single-minded chase to be accepted by Inu as just Kagome and not Kikyo's reflection. I do not even know if this could be called love or just a misinterpreted need of attention from someone you hold dear. But whatever, we realise Kags is in love with Inu now and still cannot stop from feeling compassion towards Kikyo. Honestly she and Sess are truly two opposite sides of a spectrum.

Sess on the other hand gets Tokijin and attacks Inuyasha. This time around, I highly doubt he was still chasing Tessaiga. It had more evolved into his need to show he is more powerful than Inu. 'What you do best, I can do better.'

Stopping Inu from transforming

In this the most debatable question was whether he was there to stop Inu or not.

Sess had wanted to see and experiment the limits of Inu's blood beast.

After some fighting, Kags jumped in. Sess stared at her, like forever. That staring tho. Even when she was like, "Stay away, you idiot." Sess stared. For Sess, that was what he admired the most in Kags. Her selfless devotion. He was staring at that fearless figure who once again surprised him by being a sacrifice to save her loved ones. She was to Sess what he had always thought of 'love' to be. She was the embodiment of the term 'love' to Sess. For a guy who knew nothing of how to define emotions, it was Kags who showed him what love was. And thus he jumped over and over again in front of Rin to protect her. She taught him how to cherish even the even the most weak individual in a group, and thus he protected Jaken.

Rin was there to show him the same thing everyday. But no matter how much Rin showed him her own loyality, love and warmth, Kags always remained that shining beam to him. I will say later on how I understood this.

Kag's love was the validity of his dad's sacrifice. A way for him to make sense of his dad's mindless death over protecting some weak human.

And in this scene for the first time ever, Kags saw Sess as more than an insufferable pest to her friends. She saw his noble ideals and realised why he was there and thus she thought, "Was he here to save Inuyasha?"

It is very curious as to why Kags was again given these lines. It was probably because her opinion mattered, to Sess it did. And we will see more why in the future.

Random encounters

There was one time when Kags saw Rin while Jaken was trying to steal Tessaiga and she had asked herself, "Why is a little human girl traveling with Sess?' It was again a small thing which she did not need to feel but was very imp. for her development towards Sess. How she started to understand him more.

Kohaku incident

Here we saw how was the first time Sess listened to Kags.

Kags opinion mattered. Inu's mattered and when he realised that Kohaku was being used he let him go. There was one reason that he did not want to be used, the next I am sure was for Kags and Inu. He knew then that Kohaku was imp. to them and he stopped. Big character jump for him.

Then the most curious fact was how Kags knew what the girl meant to him, "Please let him go Sesshomaru, the girl is fine."

Kagome: Thanks Sesshomaru!

Sesshomaru: I just never wanted to be used by Naraku and fall into his trap.

Lol...

Then after Rin left, Kags thoughts about how she had left with Sess and was awed . An important point for her change in feelings towards Sess. She understood the guy was changing and Rin was changing him.

The fun fact was how she was instantly in love with this little girl and that would become important later on.

More random events..

After that it was shown that many times Kags was the only one who could stop a fight bet. the brothers. Example that time when he fought with Inu to get some direction for Naraku. And then Kags came and told him to go north or something and he was like, "That is all I wanted to know." And left.

What is to be seen in these parts is how RT made only him and her interact like this. He listening to her like they have been friends forever.

The saving of Kanta's father was also an example of how much she affected him.

Her plea to save Kanta's dad even when no one believed and no one bothered to ask him. Tensaiga moved because he felt deeply moved by her plea. He might have never wanted to voice it but since Tensaiga only worked when the weilder felt compassion and a need to save someone. Sess must have felt it subconsciously and Tensaiga had stired. Or it had stired because it is a SessKag shipper as well. Lol!

Mukotsu

I wonder how Sess knew Kags was in trouble. Another fun fact like how he appears at times when Inu is not there to save Kags. Sess is there. Probably he knew her scent too well and hence could even distinguish between that and the poison. After that was the gruesome death of Mukotsu. The thing to notice over her was how large Sess looked in that hut doorway, it was a symbolism to how big and huge his protective self looks when he is protecting Kagome. A very romantic thing indeed. The first time he protects someone who is not under his protection. A complete selfless act if considered from his pov. Sess being a very private person and while saving Kagome showed her place in his heart. Yeah and that was very visible from how he killed Mukotsu.

The takeaway from this episode is not this though. It was the fact that Kags defended Sess. For the first time ever, all the good deeds she had seen him doing had outplayed her hatred for him. She accepeted him as a friend with these words, "No Inuyasha, he was here to protect us, he saved us." It was a completely unnecessary detail in the whole scheme of this episode but very important for Sess. Her acceptance matters, her opinion matters and Sess is a Tsundere.

Sesshomaru: I did not save YOU, I just killed him coz he did not answer me properly.

This proved how much she affects him, rattles him and how much her life means to him. And an unspoken promise to himself to protect her when Inu was not around.

Fight with Shishinki

No one ever mentions this fight. But there is a very important SK interaction in here. Something which was important for Sess. Kagome's understanding.

When Sess was lost in the same darkness of never being accepted by his dad, Shishinki made things worse by saying Tenseiga was a cast out of Tessaiga and it was given as a leftover to Taisho's least fav. son. Sesshomaru was hurt, lost, and his daddy issues, his biggest weakness was sharply opened by a knife, cruely and Kagome's words saved him.

Kagome: But there might have been a reason their dad had done this.

Kags belief that Taisho had infact not rejected Sess was like a balm to his soul, the only thing he had needed to hear throughout his life. The thing which made him accept in the end that Tensaiga was there to protect Inuyasha, the thing that was needed to sort of activate Tessaiga and then he finally formed his biggest and truest meido. It was romantic, touching and outright heavenly. Then it was made cute with Inu's awkward concern. It was the best ep. as of yet.

Kagome's deep concern and her understanding of Sess's pain was brilliant and alien level insane. She should not have, but she did and that's why they felt more like soulmates.

Battle with Magatsuhi

Sess had gone batshit crazy when Magatsuhi had hurt Kagome and that had only been worsened by him questioning Sess's honor and pride. Sess had turned full on doggy mode and lost control in that way for the first time since the tomb. And the strike at Magatsuhi's eyes was another symbolism of his revenge for doing shit to Kags eyes and mindfucking her.

RT has always thrown these small hints in between IK drama. Which are brilliant and lovely. Even that one scene where he stands protectively inbetween Kags prostrate body on Kilala and Magatsuhi. Beautiful symbolism, really.

It was also fun to see how Kags half power was sealed by Magatsuhi and Sess's half power was returned via Bakusaiga. I felt that Sess's true acceptance of his protection to Kagome and his detachment from Tessaiga was what made him the true daiyokai and surpass his father. Since somehow Tessaiga has always been linked to protecting Kagome and somehow protecting her might have also been the thing to finding Bakusaiga. The desire to protect her perhaps.

Soul mate mind link theatrics

This is something only some people realise. Sesshomaru and Kagome have been shown not once, but twice to be doing this. Once while fighting for Kohaku's life and the last shard and the other in Naraku's body. Kagome and Sesshomaru had been shown to think in absolute synchronisation. He thinks half the sentence, she completes the rest. Absolute soul mate shit.

SessKag power combo

Shown a lot of time in Inuverse. Sess attacks and Kags completes. A small thing but their timing is insane. And is defintely the best power combo, far better than an InuKag combo.

Fight in Naraku's body

This was the time when Sess finally shows what Kagome means to him. Where she stands and how much he cares for her. She is his FIRST priority. Proof? When Rin and she are in simultaneous danger, he stands there infront of Kags for God knows how long, removing those snake things like he had all the time in the world and once she is awake he is concerned about her well being.

Sess: Those wounds, are those Inuyasha's doing?

And his disappointment in Inuyasha not being able to protect Kags.

Sess: As expected of a half-demon. He lost himself in the bloodlust.

Kags obviously considered Sess to be a friend at this point. A very close friend at that. Family perhaps? Their familiarity here was not missed by anyone. Her defending Inu and then still prioritising Rin over Inu were only somethings we realised this chapter.

The most important was her belief in him.

Manga exclusive,

Kags: I believe that you would be able to do it. Do not fall into Naraku's trap and play his cards that is what he wants. Only you can do this, I know.

Wow, Kags wow...just wow... It is the best actually. She does not believe Inu in this situation but she does Sess. She believes in his protection and she knows her influence on him. This speaks volumes. This shows her unreal connection to him and how they match each other instinctively.

Sess knows her influence. This is his weakness.

The mokomoko scene was truly Sesshomaru's best confession. For him who cannot say much in words, allowed her to fly on mokomoko. Something which everyone of us know has a heavy weightage for Sesshomaru. It is his weapon, his forever companion and his support when he is injured and tired. Offering such a thing to her for whatever reason was truly his way of showing what he exactly feels for her. He cherishes her the most and I could say even more than Rin. Trusts her the most and would jump in front of danger to protect her.

Which is only seen more when he asks her to stay away from the fight because she would be a 'hinderance'. Which means he could not fight if she is in the middle. He would be vulnerable and weak. Intersting, very interesting. Another time where he stood between her and a dangerous blood beast that Inu had become.

The best part was truly him getting concerned when she fell down from the top while removing Tessaiga and then when Magatsuhi tried to possess her.

His anger was so vibrant. "Get away from her!"

What a brilliant thing to say. The possessiveness. The will to protect her. The absolute anger. Brilliant. So much was spoken in those lines.

The best ending though was the SessKag power combo of Bakusaiga and holy arrow. Best ending. Inu was not even much involved in ending Naraku. It was weird how the titular character failed in finishing the main villain with his meido. Shows a lot what SessKag meant to RT.

Big brother

Yes, the iconic scene where fans of all ships shout out that SK is not a romantic ship.

Well over here I want to say that Kagome truly saw Sess as a big brother figure at this point. Part of it was because she still felt that she was in love with Inu and part because she was not receptive to her reactions to Sess and what he truly meant to her at this point. She feels an intimate connection to him but cannot justify the weirdness because she still feels a closeness to Inu so she thinks of him as big brother. Which was a very intimate thing for Kagome to say. She loves him like family and clearly places him higher than the rest of her friends only second to Inu. That was more of a declaring her closeness to Sess rather than a confirmation of her and Inu's relationship. Kags is not a vain character who does things coz they are convinient. She would not call a friend if they are not a friend. And certainly not a big brother if she does not feel so.

Sess actually was relieved, ecsatatic and happy when Jaken informed hin of Kags arrival as was seen in his expression. Very funny actually. Because next second he was called big brother and he was hilariously ticked off. He could not believe what he was being called. Lol that interaction though. It showed how close they ended up being. Even more close than he was to his own brother.

But he accepted the title even if with much pain in his neck and then was really offended when Jaken badmouthed Kagome.

Conclusion: No one badmouths Kagome.

Haaha....end of this long analysis. I tried to analyse it from the character's pov and found some interesting small tidbits and detail that RT had hidden in this story.

Thus I felt that SK would be a more natural ship maybe not outright. Since Sess loves her truly but does not understand the nature of the relation and Kags is still too much blinded by Inu filter a.t.m. Maybe given years when Kags will realise exactly what sort of love she feels for Inu. Which will happen because such a toxic relation like IK should not exist and then she will probably see Sess's love for her.

My Conclusion: SK is a defintive. It will happen with some time and care. When both would mature. But it will happen for sure. All the ingredients are there, the stage has been set just the players have to realise what they feel for each other.

[callistawolf]

my thoughts on Arrow 6x22

Hoo... that was a good one, wasn’t it? I mean... the sheer volume of OLICITY in that episode, plus we had Dyla being such a solid couple and even LYLA AND FELICITY scenes... I want to roll around in it and pretend this was the sum total of season 6 right here. 😂

Ugh I forgot about the stupid Quadrant. SMEH.

EGGS. COOKING TOGETHER. I LOVE THAT. Look how domestic this is.

CHEZ QUEEN. Did Oliver JUST call their apartment CHEZ QUEEN? I’m gonna die.  

“Salt me please, Felicity” lol

Aww she’s still worried. And I love when he reassures her. THIS IS SO CUTE.

Kiss kiss kiss I love that. OMG grab her boi.

I love breakfast for dinner. Just fyi.

OLIVER DOES WHAT WIFEY SAYS ALWAYS. YAY FOR WARNING THO. My boy Anatoly.

Felicity protecting William and getting him safe while Oliver beats up thugs is my aesthetic.

Oh man he’s so scared about his family possibly getting hurt MY HEART.

Did no one warn Rene? LOL

Or Dinah.

LYLA AND DIG ARE BAMFS.

“Diaz isn’t going to attack the mayor” OH FELICITY. You aren’t this naive are you, bb?

She is NOT gonna let him sideline her again. YOU GO GIRL.

Your bunker has NEVER been secure, lbr.

Aww but they have to watch Diaz’s dudes trash the bunker. SO SAD.

Whatevs, Felicity fixed up the foundry and improved it in the hiatus between 1 & 2 so I feel certain she could do the same thing here. 

Don’t hate me but I like the teams working together again. I know they’re not officially back together or anything but joining forces makes the most sense right now.

Look at my boy looking and sounding like a leader. I’m so proud. *Sniff*

Am I supposed to feel bad that Curtis got stabbed?

Cuz I don’t.

I KNEW DIAZ DIDNT TRUST ANATOLY. Okay so it wasn’t a trap but he is onto my boy here. STAY SAFE.

OH Nice play there Anatoly. Shift suspicion onto Quadrant lady. Casamento. Vento? Mento? I STILL DONT KNOW.

SNIFFERIFIC. She’s so damn cute.

HE CALLED HER A PARENT. I’M EMOSH.

He’s so worried. I love him.

I LOVE THESE TWO TEAMING UP. YES MORE LYLA AND FELICITY TEAM UPS PLEASE.

Marital advice lololol oh god I love this so much.

Yeah Felicity doesn’t wanna get divorced tho. So…. Scratch that.

RUN LYLA. OH HELL.

Felicity wyd baby. Oliver is gonna be so mad at you.

HE MAD. OH GURL. Time to bat your eyelashes.

TELL HIM GIRLFRIEND. YAS. “There is no alone for us anymore.”

DINAH LEARNED. That’s promising.

DUDE. KILLED QUADRANT LADY. WTF.

Felicity and Dig talking about Oliver and then Dig talking to Oliver about Felicity…. FEELS LIKE OLD TIMES.

No more going into the field okay honey lets see how well that works for you. Felicity should take that news SUPER WELL. GOOD FUCKING LORD, Oliver.

I love when Diggle yoda’s Oliver. Its when I know all is right with the world.

She is stressing Oliver the frick out with needing to stay behind.

Lyla and Dig are such a great example of a couple that fights well together.

William needs US.

MY HEART.

I LOVE WHEN HE PICKS HER UP

I love when my babies do stunts together!!

So there goes that lair/bunker/hideout. THEY HAVE NO MORE PLACES.

Yeah no chance Diaz is dead. Its not the finale.

UGH so it was for nothing.

FAMILY PHONE CALL. MY HEART.

I love a heart to heart. He needs to trust her and him and them. BLESS. My boy leveled up.

Kissing his shoulder. That’s her thing.

Oh god he has an idea. His ideas are always awful. I feel like Felicity told him this after the scene cut. Let me have my dream. 

Its not a Quadrant if there’s only two people, amirite?

Honestly, going to Samanda and the FBI for help makes the most sense right now. I know I bagged his ideas, but... this one is not bad. 

“I am the Green Arrow” DAMN RIGHT YOU ARE.

What’s the second thing tho.

It’s prison isn’t it? The second thing is prison. 😭

So this was so good. I don’t think there’s much about the finale we don’t already know but I’m always ready for the show to shock the heck out of me. I expect Quentin to die because of Diaz. I expect Siren to get very upset about that and to fight Diaz. I expect Diaz to be taken down. I expect Oliver to get taken into custody. These are the facts. 

I haven’t said much about it the last couple of weeks but I’ve been moving further and further from the “Felicity is pregnant” spec. I left a door open before last night’s ep... I thought if there were some good clues and/or sexy times, then MAYBE. But there wasn’t, not by my estimation at least. I just don’t think it’s gonna happen. But it WILL happen eventually. Just might not be a thing till next season or whatever. I can be patient. I just don’t think it’s gonna happen in the finale. 

Which is a bummer cuz I feel like the timing with Oliver going to prison is PERFECT. That is fantastic angst. And I’m not even worried that he’d not be out/free/whatever before the baby would be born cuz obviously he would be. There’s plenty of time. BUT. Oh well. Someone will just have to fic it for us this summer. Cuz its too beautiful to just let go. 

[dailytechnologynews]

Why the AMD keynote at CES was what it was

So, just like many of you guys I watched the AMD keynote, and I was also watching some commentaries as the livestream went on. What I saw in the commentaries though was a whole lot of "wtf why are you talking about this?" and "come on show us the product" comments. While these were understandable from an enthousiast/gamer perspective, I'd like to explain why the keynote was what it was to hopefully give you all a better understanding of what transpired.

First thing to understand is what the target audience for keynotes like these are. As much as you'd like to hope it is, they are very much not made for average consumers like us. Keynotes at big events like these are primarily made for investors and potential large corporate customers and partners.

See, AMD had a couple of things they had to prove and showcase here

Being able to compete with Intel in the CPU market

Being able to compete with nVidia in the GPU market

Having a clear path to increasing market share in existing market areas

Expanding into new and emerging market areas

And they did exactly that.

Now, let's break down the presentation, you can rewatch it here

16:30 - Introduction by Gary Shapiro

This is the general "look guys, we're important, some important guy from another big company is introducing us". Yes, it's boring, but it's there to prove a point that AMD is now one of the big boys again. The introduction even emphasises that this is AMD's first time having such a keynote at CES

20:58 - Lisa Su's opening presentation

This starts off with the usual "look where we came from and look where we are now" spiel to please investors and give the entire keynote some initial forward momentum.

She gives some initial hooks here that they keynote will try to build further on, such as pointing out what the projected growing demand for compute will be, then following up by essentially saying "we have answers for all of this". This is a flag again for investors and partners: the market will change, and we're the partner for you to face this challenge.

29:30 - High Performance PCs

This part of the presentation is mainly about content creators, which is why Threadripper takes center stage. This part build on from the introduction to expand on just how they have changed the market in the last 2 years and how they have made inroads in the existing, and quite lucrative, creators market. This is why they have those guys from Fox VFX talking, they want to show they have actual big customers using their product, which pleases investors and can get them potentially more customers, as this is a market where having references is a big thing.

As a sidenote, it's funny that she makes it sound like Threadripper was a planned product from the start, while we all know that Threadripper was a passion project by AMD engineers who basically went "hey, we have EPYC, maybe we can make a HEDT platform out of this too?".

35:35 - Ultrathin notebooks

This part exists to showcase "hey guys, we HAVE made great inroads in the mobile market, contrary to what you might have thought". Intel and Microsoft has also redoubled their efforts to make laptops relevant again in this modern tablet and mobile dominated market. This is why she points to the Modern Windows PC initiative. The showcase here is "we're not missing this boat now that we actually have something that is competitive". She ends this part with again showcasing they already have partners with products lined up, a flag for investors.

39:31 - PCs for education

This part is to showcase they have products to make inroads in the education market. Education is a BIG market. Depending on the area they either need powerful devices (STEM, research) or cheap devices (Chromebooks).

43:07 - Gaming : Microsoft

This part is to showcase their existing partnership with large players. Why Microsoft is here and not say, Sony, is that Microsoft represents 3 markets for them: console gaming (XBox One), PC gaming (Windows) and cloud gaming (Azure). Cloud gaming is an emerging market and is expected to grow significantly. It's another investor hook to show "look, we have a great installed base, and we're making great inroads into new market areas, which will lead to future growth of the company".

51:00 - GPU technology retrospective

This part is again a recap of what they have already created. It exists to emphasise their current market positioning and market share (which is again, a flag for investors and potential partners), and serves as a jump-off point for the next part.

53:40 - Radeon VII, part 1

The Radeon VII exists because they had to present something that could go toe to toe with the nVidia RTX2080. That was the only thing that mattered. This is emphasised by the comparison charts she projects. The game demo is a bit lame, but it just serves to showcase "we're not making this up, it does perform", and serves as a hook for the later "yeah it's 699, but you're getting games with it! So it's really not that bad!".

Ubisoft is on there, talking about how they are partnering in development with AMD. The hook here is to show that AMD is still closely working with game developers, and that it's not just nVidia being the only one calling the shots.

1:06:13 - eSports

Intermezzo. eSports is a decently big enough market to warrant another "hey guys, we're in this as well" showcase. Again, investor and partner hook. The guy from Fenetic is there to just drive the point home.

1:12:40 - Radeon VII, part 2

The pricetag is dropped: 699, but with game bundled. Yes, we (as gamers/enthousiast) all were dissapointed by this.

But, if I can make a sidestep here to explain why AMD made this move. As I mentioned: they had to have something to compete with the nVidia RTX 2080. But, the thing is, this is actually a really niche part of the market. Most of the market is in the RX560/GTX1050Ti range. When it came to raw specs, they had a product that would fit : the Radeon Instinct MI50, as it is based on 7nm Vega. But, the MI50 is a datacenter part, and is manufacturerd with 16GB of HBM2. Remember, this comes as one big package, to make an 8GB variant they'd have to create a whole new package. So AMD is faced with a choice

Don't compete with the RTX 2080

Create a new 8GB package

Use the existing 16GB package from the MI50

First one is not an option if they don't want to fall flat for their investors. Second one doesn't really have enough volume behind it to make any kind of positive business case, so all that was left was the third option. But, they can't quite sell these cards at a loss, so they were pretty much forced to use the 699 price tag. Is there some margin to lower the price later? Of course there is, but not enough margin to start the price off at 649 or lower.

The Radeon VII really is their "damned if you do, damned if you don't" GPU.

Will it sell? Of course it will, those who really want a 7nm Vega will buy it anyway, those people were clamoring for it loud enough. Will it sell in high volumes? We'll have to see.

1:13:34 - Cloud gaming

Another partner and investor hook showing how they're making inroads in this emerging market with their product stack. They showcase Google Project Stream, because hey, Google is a big partner to be able to show you're doing business with.

1:16:30 - High Performance Computing : AMD EPYC server CPUs

This reiterates what they already have in the pipeline for the datacenter world. Yes, it's CES, and the C stands for Consumer, but remember, investors and partners, and many of those partners will also be interested in servers.

She drops here that 2nd gen EPYC will launch mid 2019. This simultaneously shows that their product is nearing completion (in the server world, 6 months is nothing), but also is a small hint for what she will say in the next part.

1:24:57 - 3rd Generation Ryzen based on Zen 2

Here they had to showcase they were able to compete with Intel. Zen2 for desktop is still on engineering samples, but they had to showcase it (again, investors and partners), and they needed to show they could go toe to toe with the best Intel had to offer right now. And they did, even showcasing they did it for less power draw. The demo was simple, but it sufficiently drove the point home that she had to make.

Showing the delidded CPU was also an obvious hook to what is to come. We saw the IO die, we saw one 8 core chiplet, and we saw there is enough room on there for another component, be it another core chiplet or a GPU. This is deliberately done at the end of the presentation to end on a note that will get everyone hyped again for the possibilities of 16C/32T CPUs and 8C/16T APUs. It also served to soften the dissapointment of a mid 2019 launch. This mid 2019 launch window matches the 2nd gen EPYC launch window she mentioned early, pointing out to investors and partners that this is just the timeframe that is needed to get Zen 2 to the neccesary maturity level for a succesful product launch.

1:31:52 - Closing off the keynote

A recap of what was shown, and a re-emphasis that AMD is investing in what is needed.

To cap off my post

Well, this is probably the longest post I've ever written. It's based on my experience in the corporate world and with these kinds of presentations (I tend to go to some of these events for my job, so I knew what to expect of these kinds of keynotes).

I should note I originally posted this on /r/amd but the content was shadowremoved there for some reason.

[axiomandidiom-blog]

>m-m-m-my corona

holy shit fam it’s weird as fuck out there. how y’all living? I’m doing fine. I’m doing just fine.

Let me catch you up:

I fixed my >tired problem, after a solid year of gaslighting from doctors (as if I needed more reason to hate them), when a doc who lives out near my parents (i.e. the sticks) decided to try me out on something on spec to see if it worked and holy shit it worked and I’ve been taking it every day since.

This came at the end of a 3 month period of fmla at work, during which I did not get paid and mostly just felt awful, but occasionally enjoyed some interesting commercial substances.

So that happened. Uhh, what else. Oh! I came to some conclusions about my life. The one that comes to mind is that I don’t like being touched because of my time in hospitals, where people come at you with a smile and a needle and say nice things and then hurt you (as if I needed one more goddamn reason to hate fucking doctors).

I fell briefly in love (!!!!) with a new girl at work who turned out to be in a committed, long-term lesbian relationship (LMFAO). This was an experience that was strange for a few reasons: first, the last time something like that had happened was so long ago (see my post on functional memory) that I had begun to doubt it would happen again, or even that it had happened at all; second, that it felt bad but it was a good bad, it was a tension that I sort of liked and was exciting and while I was pretty busted up about it I wasn’t, like, destroyed or anything, and I think that’s probably because I wasn’t in any kind of actual relationship with her; third, and I apologize for this, was that she is a person of color, and while I have always harbored some amount of attraction to brown people, she is of a particular persuasion that I’ve never felt attracted to before; fourth, that I was fucking ready to cosplay as peter gabriel in shock the monkey at dragon con in order to impress her, which is fucking wild (I still have most of the pieces assembled, and while there ain’t gonna be no con this year (more on this in a bit) I will definitely still pursue this costume--also it involves “clown white” makeup, which is good if I need to get jokerfied in the future (more on this as well, sit tight fam)); fifth, that the nature of my fantasies about her at the time weren’t sexual (ok, they weren’t all or even mostly sexual), it was more like I was imagining us cooking dinner or watching tv or shit, weird domestic shit I can’t even fucking fathom, and would have thought impossible to fathom just a few months ago.

Anyway I still love this girl but it isn’t like a pining romantic love, it’s more like I think she’s cool and I want to hear what she has to say and I want her to talk to me, which is how I feel about my friends so I guess I consider her my friend, and I hope she at least comes to think of me that way.

Also, I considered quitting my job, because they wanted me to work on Sundays occasionally, i.e. work either 7 or 11 days in a row depending on the weekend situation at work and I don’t fuck with that shit. Now I’m glad I didn’t because lmao it turns out the entire world is on fucking fire holy fuck it’s so bad out there.

Meanwhile I’m holed up in a bunker at an undisclosed location and it’s honestly the motherfucking dream. I spend all my time cooking and playing video games and doing little chores here and there and I feel so fucking relaxed and good I can’t even explain it, and I feel guilty as hell because everyone out there in the world is feeling the fire and I’m just coasting. I’m even still getting paid and I still have my insurance wtf is going on I don’t want to look at it too hard in case it stops being true.

Before all the ‘rona shit I was only working 30 hours per week on doctor’s orders and let me tell you it was fucking paradise. I never want to go back to 40 hours a week, FUCK YOU CAPITALISM.

Oh and I moved out of my apartment, because it doesn’t make sense to live there any more what with the state of the world in complete fucking shambles.

I feel so strange because on some level I felt this shit coming. Like it’s a weird validation of my inner doomerism that’s hard to describe but all I feel is smug, like I knew better than everyone even if I was shaky on the details of the nature of the coming crisis.

Anyway it’s May 2020 so I feel like I’m going to look back on this and wonder how I could have been so naive but I wanted a record of how good I feel.

Like shit is just absolutely tits up out there. There’s no more cons, there’s no more movies, politics is upside-down and backwards, people are in the streets complaining about haircuts while other people are being sacrificed to the blood altar of the money god, these things are happening literally simultaneously.

I’m more or less completely converted to socialist ideology, and anyone not converted is going to earn my utmost scrutiny, because if this shit doesn’t convince you that we were all participating in a shared delusion while vampires sucked the vitality our bodies and the wealth from our society than I don’t know what to tell you, you’ve gone full ostrich and I can’t imagine what it could possibly take to pull your head out of the sand.

Shit’s coming, y’all. After the ‘rona I mean. Things will get worse before they get better. But I have my clown white and I have an old military jacket and if I gotta become secret ginger revolutionary man then I’m down with it, because, and this is important, there can be no growth without the fire.

hold on fam, keep it together, one day we’ll be ok again.

[myvelouri]

So like, a lot happened. I just got home tonight.

I snuck into her room and it was nice.

I don't know where to begin to be honest and I'm forgetting a lot.

She loves root beer and so I got this special alcoholic root beer. She tried to like it but she didn't like it. Unfortunately. Also specs totally ripped me off cause I used credit instead of cash or debit which charges you an extra amount of money which is BULLSHIT

So we started cuddling and listening to music. This is gonna be out of order cause I can't remember all of it..we talked a lot and a lot happened.

So she wanted to know me more. And I wanted to know more about her. Oh also the guyfriend from earlier today! Well, I finally got her to tell me. I basically told her she doesn't tell me all the lil details of her day. I'm used to that and I actually prefer it. She said she does too. But anyway, yeah, I didn't tell her I was butthurt about that guy. But it was a guy. And she was at campus and she hung out with him. They talked actually A LOT. she's the one who reached out to him on campus. Um... She said he's a college friend and the only one. She said they took classes together and then they got so fuckin close that she had arranged for him to take the next semester with HER. She told him what classes and everything... Dude I've never had a girl like me as a friend that would try to demand me take classes with her. She said he's chill. She said he's a pharmacist. She said he told her some funny shit about working at a psychiatric ward. Um. She told me so much. It seemed a lot and I wanted to ask her "did you all have a thing as well?... Was it platonic or nah?" But I absolutely didn't as that seems so insecure. She probably had a crush too. But anyway yeah I'm like surprised she didn't tell me about this whole ass hang out with another guy and I had to ASK about it cause I only could guess it even happened at all from a post on her story. Like, really? Where's the open and honesty shit. Damn

She said she could get a crush on a guy even though she's in a relationship, I said that's really messed up to me..she said it's only happened once..she said she wouldn't act on it. I said, nah that's not the point? The point is you were in a relationship and you actually were capable of having a crush on another guy as well as that's not just physical attraction, that's a whole ass higher level, a CRUSH, bro, you like this other dude when you're in a relationship. She said it's not the same but, to me this is a huge issue.

Oh so I found out the thing she was not telling me she'd do earlier. It was that she was going to text her recent ex and ask if he's doing okay. LIKE DUDE WTF. She's said nothing but negative things about him.and how she doesn't want to hear his voice or see him and she makes cringe faces as well as serious disgust at the thought of seeing him ever again. She told me many times she wants him out of his life and not be friends either. She said this a lot and it's also why I was okay with going out with her. Also he invited her to a thing and she really REALLY didn't want to go, she was so grossed out by him....in fact she didn't go and we went out that night instead. So why the fuck is she getting drunk and thinking about him to the point she wants to drunk text him how he's doing. That goes against every single thing she told me... Wow.

You still have feelings for the dude. I figured. But I didn't since she shat on him a lot..I thought damn she really hates him

Also I think I'm balding, or it's stress related, or the dandruff shampoo I been using. Idk what's happening.. I'm devastated

Anyway also she asked how much do I like her. She said she wanted to be honest. She said right now she likes me at a 6/10 but changed it to a 7/10... I was confused cause I thought she liked me so much, I thought it'd be a 10/10. Boy was I wrong. She said it started at a 3/10....I was like wow that hurts ha. But okay. Np.

So I asked more about it and she said, the first time she saw me, she was physically attracted to me at a 8/10 but it's at a 10/10 now, but she started liking me, which is different, it's harder for her to like someone SO SHE SAYS and it was at a 3/10 for a second and that day we worked together with another co-worker and we joked around she liked me at a 5/10. I was like damn that was fast actually

She asked me what I don't like about her. I asked her instead first. And she said "physically? Or personality wise? And my heart slightly jolted in a horrible way, I thought, wow there's something she doesn't like about me physically?... And she straight up said she doesn't like the hair on my butt. But to be honest I detest it too and I actually trim it every month, I guess she saw it when it was longer..yikes. embarrassing

I told her I like everything about her physically. Seriously, there's nothing bad? Like, I legit like it all. She has a nice body.

I said I don't like the parts of her personality where she's confusing and contradictory or just like what she did tonight with not telling me what she'd do when she was acting crazy and drunk and saying she was gonna hit up someone... The people she talks to.. which turned out to be ex's. Yep. And I said there's just a few things. I was only able to tell her this because she said what she doesn't like about my personality is whenever I get anxiety (because of her) that I shut down and stop talking and won't talk. And I realize that. But I can't change it.

Okay so she also told me about her day finally cause I asked. And she said she had a group project and they had to sing a thing. Make your own beat to a Shakespeare thing. She said there was this guy in her class who's super country and he started singing in a deep deep voice, singing country as fuck and she looked all turned on and said "oh, boy, oh, mmmmm, don't do that"... I was like wtf you're checking out dudes in your class and shit like that? (I didn't say that out loud, I just thought it) it made me feel really insecure and like, I asked her if that was a good thing, country guys, and she said yeah, that'sa huge thing, she loves country boys and we joked about it for a second. I was half joking. I said I'm not even your type... I'm only a few things. And she said she likes guys in all black, emoish, like alternative music but like country as well, are country but alternative, deep voice, and then I added "yeah and have blue eyes, are white and have a big dick" and she moaned to each one of those saying "mmm yeah" like she's fantasizing about this guy in her head already. I'm like yeah.... Okay..

And she said something fucked up. I said I'm not good at pleasing you sexually, I can't get fully hard and (my dick ain't big) and she said she doesn't care anymore about that because her ex fucked it all up for her (cause he was fucking rapey as shit and always constantly fucked her and tried even tho she said no) and I said to her "so you would have dumped me already had you never been with your ex..." And she said "I don't think so cause I'm not like that..."

But... Dude... She's saying I'd basically not be good enough sexually had her ex not fucked her up. That makes me feel so bad about myself. Like I'm a reject she's just settling for. A piece of shit that has a small dick and can't fuck her right.

We had sex. I ate her out. She really tastes so good I'm like wow. I couldn't get fully hard and I fucked her standing up, she looked so good sucking my dick on her knees. The first condom immediately made me lose my erection so I couldn't fuck her. She sucked me off more and I got the second condom after taking the other one off of course, and we started fucking. It felt good but I hated that I wasn't fully hard. I fucked her hard, rough, choking, everything almost. But we had to be quiet. I was getting too loud in every way. She said she was so close to cumming. But she didn't. She told.me to cum. I wasn't about to. But I made myself cum. And I was upset about it all. I also did intially have to fuck her raw for a few moments before I could get a condom on. It felt so good, she felt so tight around my cock, I was surprised. My dick is so useless and tiny, like I could legit tell how good it's feel if it was bigger and thicker, longer, everything, I could feel every nook and cranny, like seriously, what a FUCKING shame to have my genetics.

Okay so we were watching music videos, they just played and I told her one of my man crushes is the darker haired dude from the band Boys Like Girls, and so their music video was playing and she was just talking to me and he popped up on the screen and she stopped and moaned "ohh...mmm" cause she thought he was hot as fuck. And she told me. I'm so bothered dude, she gets so jealous if I do this with other girls but she continues to check out other guys and she justified it saying he's a celeb she can't ever have. I was like nah, you could get him, plus I'm as hot as the celebs so... Derp. Anyway what I said was YEAH THAT DUDE IS HOT AS FUCK, HES THE MANCRUSH IVE HAD SINCE FOREVER, I TOLD YOU HE WAS HOT. and in fact she's already told me that I look like him and am the same type as him before. He's hotter than me. Also another thing, I was telling her I know her type, blue eyed white guys with dark hair and alternative style etc, and she said nah, she doesn't like blue eyes. But this music video came up and the singer has blue eyes, same video, and she goes "mmm okay you were right, those blue eyes got me though mmm" and I was so bothered, especially cause she tried to argue that she doesn't like blue eyes that much earlier. And she said if the other darker haired guy had blue eyes instead, and she said "oh mmm" I said nah he'd still be the same hot. She said "no, hotter." And she continues to make me feel jealous or whatever..like no wonder I'm fucking balding. And she doesn't tell me she hung out with a guyfriend alone before class. Like wtf, she said she'd never do that. She just is so untrustworthy to me

I overall feel like... Shit.

She said she thinks it'll be hard for her to get herself to like me more, for her to get there. And that came out of left field honestly, cause she's been hyping me up and saying how much she REALLY REALLY likes me everyday

She opened up her notes and I saw a message to herself that said "I feel like" and it kept going and it was about half a paragraph but she quickly hid her phone. And shes aware that I write to myself, like here, but of course I don't let her see this, it's private. But I do tell her I do this. And she wants to know what I write about. I feel like she's hiding things from me as well tbh

I'm gonna get drunk now.

[kinetic-elaboration]

January 3: The 100 2x08 Spacewalker

Spacewalker is probably a bad episode to watch when I’m feeling sad like this but... what can you do? (I’d say ‘skip the episode’ but I mean... it never gets cheerier so.)

The Grounders as a whole don’t intimidate me at all since I’ve seen their ineptitude too many times but I will never be over those costumes/masks.

See okay this Finn thing... On the one hand (I know I’ve said all this before), Raven is right that asking for Finn in exchange for a truce isn’t an offer. The offer has already been made. Clarke made it. The Reaper cure for backing the army away/maybe even forming an alliance. (This is a win-win-win for the Grounders btw: the war they’re so intent on fighting has no clear cause or purpose, so they lose nothing by just forgetting about it, and they gain a lot from the Reaper cure and anti-MW allies.) And Lexa accepts that offer, but then when she gets what she wants she demands more. I recognize that she is in a position of power and Clarke one of weakness, but I still think her attitude is dishonorable and bad faith and it pisses me off.

BUT I also don’t think that it’s inherently wrong for Finn to be punished by the Grounders for a crime against Grounders. I think their method of justice and punishment is bad but this isn’t actually a “Blood must have blood” scenario. It’s more like... how societies operate now? Because it’s, you know, pretty reasonable? Like if I went to France and killed someone, you can bet I’d be tried and imprisoned in France. So it’s really not, as Bellamy says, “insane.” (But then of course they have no concept of international law because they have never known any other ‘nation’ before so I guess..IC??)

Similarly, if the Grounders committed crimes against Arkadians, it would be fair for the Arkadians to punish them. (And I’d like to say ‘and they would and wouldn’t think twice’ but then I remember Ilian in S4 and just....ugh.....) (They should have killed him is what I’m saying.)

BUT it’s also gauche that Finn’s people are so quick to just hand him over. Unsurprising--from a world-building perspective I appreciate when the delinquents are considered nobodies, as they should be--but gauche.

Clarke always wants to save everyone, to find solutions to everything. Promise first, figure out the details later.

Also love Bellamy in the background pushing people away from Raven and trying to diffuse the situation, too.

“You’re running fluid dynamic specs while we’re having sex” is honestly such a self-burn though? Like if that’s what she’s doing, the sex isn’t good.

I love the set of Raven’s room. Whenever I picture the Ark, I always blur the details but these spaces are so cool. Hers looks basically like a mechanic’s workshop.

Every SINGLE time I see one of Finn’s pieces of metalwork art I think about that post laying out how Finn/Murphy could have been a thing and I just physically can’t stand it it made so much sense.

Speak of the devil.

All these people have their issues with Finn but when it’s time to protect one of their own (one of t100) they are all in. Like literally they are willing to turn Alpha Station into a fortress for one person.

And like honestly turning on Murphy though? I guess I understand it if we’re willing to say they were truly Finn’s friends, and given that Murphy uh killed some people and tried to kill Bellamy but--I never got the impression that Bellamy liked Finn and Clarke has many reasons to be upset with him. But I guess people are just like this: good at compartmentalizing. Murphy is just an easier target for anger right now, and you can’t be second guessing your defense of Finn when there’s literally a whole village of warriors out to get him. I guess from Clarke it’s a practical position, which she’s very good at. In a way perhaps... she is more practical than strictly loyal?

And Murphy always available to tell unvarnished truths. (That Finn was looking for Clarke isn’t relevant to blame or morality--it doesn’t make it her fault--but it does go to the heart of why she’s looking for scapegoats.)

I agree with Lincoln, obviously, over Octavia: Lxa would 1000% sacrifice one of her own in Clarke’s position, no question. Because she’s cold, but also it’s tactically and arguably morally the right thing to do. Lxa’s positions are often black and white--so are everyone’s--but O’s are like downright naive. (”She can’t ask us to hand over one of our own! Would she do that??”)

I can’t believe Clarke is so shocked that Lincoln would turn on Finn. Oh yeah this guy who was nice to him once but subsequently massacred his village? Yeah, they’re not friends anymore lol.

I feel like I didn’t have much sympathy toward this when I first watched it but I do like Lincoln’s line “We all have a monster inside of us. We’re all responsible for what it does when we let it out.” I think I disliked it because it made me uncomfortable tbh. (What still makes me uncomfortable is how much blame Lincoln gets, from the narrative, for actions he took when he really wasn’t in his right mind. Like... yes it was still him and something to live with, but he wasn’t just an addict, he was made an addict through torture by an enemy... seems perhaps a situation where more slack is warranted. Anyway.)

That said the Grounder torture machine is just...... leave me alone, I don’t need this gratuitous violence. I’m neither shocked nor impressed.

What they should have done was try Finn initially themselves because while I do stand by everything I said about facing Grounder punishment for crimes against Grounders, by the standards of his people, that torture is itself a moral wrong. And that’s reason to refuse extradition. But you can’t take the high ground about acceptable punishments when you let a war crime go with a ‘well, we don’t have a judiciary so I guess you’re pardoned?? idk??’

Another thing that I wish Clarke or someone had mentioned is that “He must suffer the pain of 18 deaths. Then we can have peace” may not be true at all because L has already shown that she does not act in good faith. There is every chance Clarke will hand over Finn, he’ll be tortured and killed, and then L will say “I also want [x arbitrary number] of your people as penance for frying my warriors” or “I also want access to your magical ship because I said so” or “I also want you to do a song and dance for me because it would be funny”--and she can say this because she has this army. And if Clarke says no at any point in the long litany of requests, L can just send the army in. She’s made no gestures of good will at all. So it would be nice if someone showed some skepticism about what good handing over Finn would really do--based on what they know at this point in the narrative.

Abby versus Jaha: I’m with Jaha not because I really agree with him--this is the period where he’s pissing me off--but because Abby taking the high ground is just so......... I mean yeah when it suits her?? I’m not sending a child to his death bitch please you already did that.

Clarke was legitimately disgusted by Finn just like 1-2 eps ago and now she’s ready with the excuses? It’s too much. I semi-understand her, as I said before re: compartmentalizing, but also I expect better from her. He wasn’t trying to look for anyone or save anyone; he was off his nut in a rage.

That love confession is so manipulative. And so weird... I mean he obviously doesn’t love her lol. But then again I always complain about these characters not acting like teenagers and then whenever one does I’m like “stop being so unreasonable CHILD.”

And Clarke with the awkward ‘mmm just gonna ignore you said stuff about love and forgiveness.’

Love the Griffin / Blake power walk.

This was back when I was still invested in Kabby (I loved them up until the moment they got together, then my interest level plummeted tbqh.) Kane’s return with such like off-center romance.

Legit question but considering the pretty amazing defensive structure they have in Alpha Station plus their guns and, like, General Technology... could they have won a battle? All of the negotiations, private and public, rely on the assumption that they could not but... I mean the 100 won at the end of S1 with, arguably, less.

I love that you can see the trees through the windows of the Ark, and some of the trees are coming in.

“I wasn’t a prisoner, but I wasn’t allowed outside either.” So.... you were a prisoner?

Abby, Kane, and Marcus are one fucked up trio. “The former Chancellor is being detained for treason.” Aka disagreeing with Abby. Kane: wide-eyed wtf??? Abby: oh and btw I’m keeping this job for as long as I feel like it; who’s the chancellor now bitch? Like power’s just a hot potato they throw among the three of them.

I do not at all believe L would actually agree to letting the Ark prosecute and execute Finn as a sufficient fulfillment of their end of any bargain. I think that would be a smart compromise but I don’t believe it of her tbqh. Still it is a best case scenario and Abby putting up her nose at the possibility of Finn being guilty of “war crimes” (which like he definitely is???) (except in the sense that there’s probably no real ‘rule of war’ in this universe and thus ‘war crimes’ is impossible to define but other than that...)--just drives me nuts.

I know I’m saying a lot of inconsistent things--that I think Finn should be punished but that I also think Grounder “justice” is gross and immoral and L is inherently untrustworthy--but basically it comes down to: they keep talking in terms of practicality, and no one is bringing up the moral dimension. Does he deserve to be punished in some way by some one for massacring 18 innocent civilians? Because I think just about anyone with any sort of moral dignity would say yes.

Anyway Raven’s really hot.

Really wish there’d been more a sense of where the delinquents are versus the main population. They only seem to use the majority of the Arkers when they need some conflict or some extras, but they don’t have, like, a real or consistent pov.

We NEEDED those Kane & Lxa scenes honestly. He keeps on saying things like “I spent time with her” and “I know her” and “she’s a visionary” but I’m gonna be honest I saw 0 visionary qualities in her, I legit do not get this, and you can’t say shit like this without backing it up. Like is she a “visionary” for keep them alive this long or is she just being reasonably intelligent by attempting to extract as much as she can from them, knowing she could kill them at any time? I mean her calculations are pretty easy as long as she has no honor--which she doesn’t--so I don’t see anything visionary or remarkable, even, about it. If she had to decide whether or not to accept non-torture punishment for Finn, that might be somewhat harder--but even then, nothing like what Abby, Clarke, et.al. are going through. She could prob. just lie and say she saw them torture Finn and now he’s dead (even if he weren’t even dead lol) and get away with it since she’s such a good liar generally and has no qualms about it.

What about anything she has experienced here makes Abby think that “showing Indra she understands her pain” will do literally anything?

I actually think Finn’s desire not to shoot that Grounder when he could, and would have had some reason to, is interesting--like he really did snap at the beginning of the season, and now he’s more “himself” again. I know this whole story line was devised to get him off the show but it actually could have, hypothetically, been a good exploration of living with long-term guilt, integrating a part of yourself you didn’t think existed into your more general, and still mostly accurate, vision of yourself. (There are a lot of other characters who could do this too obviously... Finn’s really the only one that I can think of who just snapped out of and then back into place, though.)

Damn that burned out dropship. (Definitely did not describe it right in that fic whoah-well.)

“Murphy, what are you doing here?” / “I believe I was invited.” Murphy just wants to be one of the group, ultimately. I really do believe that. I find it kind of touching and sad. (Especially since he’s only there to be thrown to the wolves by Raven lol. Not quite as hard to watch as him shooting her but close.)

Nurse!Murphy back at it again, helping Bellamy with Clarke.

I’m sorry but I just really don’t get why Finn is the hill Abby wants to die on lol. Yeah he’s your daughter’s friend and you’re rightfully guilty about the 100 situation and he’s only 17 or so but--he actually did what the Grounders said he did? NOW is the time to go all peace and love with Indra like ‘let’s stop the blooodshed!!!’?? Okay well you can start with not condoning war crimes.

People get so up in arms about the Finn cheating thing and honestly, not a great move--but I have some sympathy for the situation. Finn and Raven were not romantically compatible; they’re all young; and feelings really do change. They handle the situation with a remarkable degree of maturity overall--Finn admitting he shouldn’t be let off the hook, Raven emphasizing that they’re family, Clarke refusing to be the other woman in S1, Raven and Clarke becoming friends.

“The things that we’ve done to survive, they don’t define us” is all well and good--for someone suffering from guilt over actual impossible decisions, or self-defense killing, or killing in war. But Finn really didn’t have to kill a bunch of civilians, he didn’t rationally think he had to (he had Murphy there telling him he was being irrational), and he didn’t accomplish anything or serve any loftier goal by killing them. So basically what I’m saying is, Clarke, let him be guilty. He should feel guilty about this. And if you think he should live, he’ll never be able to move on until he acknowledges his wrong-doing.

Similarly, though, “maybe this is who we are now” is also rich--speak for yourself, buddy.

“It’s a capital crime” is such a dumbass thing to say, since the pilot established that “capital” is tied to the age of the perpetrator not the action taken. But I guess just as an audience reminder of the stakes.

Also this says “a year ago” but it clearly wasn’t a year ago--Finn says he’ll only be in the Sky Box for a few months, and he’s still there as of the pilot, and S1 is only about a month long--so Raven is 18, not 19 as she’s usually portrayed.

Anyway saving Raven from getting arrested was a legitimately good and noble thing he did.

I feel like we as a fandom collectively underestimate Raven’s ruthlessness. Like she really would have turned over Murphy instead of Finn and I truly find that sickening. I know that he shot her and that probably contributes to her sense that he’s expendable but it’s just such an obviously insanely wrong thing to do. Even Bellarke, not exactly paragons of virtue here, are like ‘woah, that’s a bridge too far, even for us.’ Also I really think Murphy has a thing for Raven and I really think that he was touched and complimented when she asked him to be part of the group, which just makes the betrayal so much worse--and really hits me in a softer part of myself, because this is more relatable to me than, like, guns and war.

Never a good sign when your friend says a prayer to you solemnly before just leaving for a few minutes.

Honestly it’s so... like darkly comic that after an entire episode of people talking about Finn, he ultimately just surrenders himself. Fitting. Satisfying.

Ugh, Kane’s that annoying guy who calls men younger than him “son.”

Okay the last ten minutes is just like gratuitous sadness.

So like basically we’re to assume from that conversation with Lincoln that Kane’s allegedly great idea about Ark justice wouldn’t have worked out, I guess?

I don’t agree with Lxa on anything but this isn’t a hill I would die on if I were her, either. Like maybe sometimes showing mercy can be revolutionary and maybe you can even get away with it--but this isn’t the situation where that’s possible. Finn isn’t a child by their standards (he’s probably about Lexa’s age?) and he isn’t an innocent. So “show my people how powerful you are” isn’t a great argument. She isn’t powerful enough to stop an execution like this, one so popular and--unnecessary torture aside--basically justified according to the laws and customs of the relevant societies.

Also super pisses me off that Clarke is comparing herself and Finn. Burning 300 warriors during a battle in order to save yourself is absolutely not the same as opening fire on a village of civilians and she is certainly smart enough to know the difference. I know--an emotional time, a last ditch effort. But I’m annoyed because having watched 4 seasons of this show and tumblr-watched a couple more I LEGITIMATELY do not know if the writers understand the difference. Like I think I might be supposed to be taking Clarke seriously here.

Like Clarke does need to wrestle with her own guilt--but this is still nuts.

Also she has never actually wrestled with her own guilt and neither has anyone else: it’s either ‘woe is me I’m so guilty’ or ‘what guilt? lol’

I mean Olav has already done the whining about his own un-atoned sin thing WAY better so....

ALTHOUGH back to everything I said about Kane’s proposal--ultimately, that’s what Clarke just unilaterally did: she executed Finn, which is probably what any fairly applied bit of Arker justice would have decreed--without torturing him--dealt with his very real crime on Camp Jaha’s terms, basically, not the Grounders’. And Lexa accepted this because it was too late to change it and ultimately she’d already gotten pretty close to what she wanted and could see that there was more to extract from Clarke’s people (as anti-MW allies) alive than dead.

This is obviously a very emotional and wrenching scene but I just can’t allow myself to feel it right now because I’m very upset and this is my distraction.

I do remember being actually floored when I watched it the first time though.

I’m going to tentatively say I agree with the opinion that Raven never got over Finn’s death and Clarke’s part in it--that they were never truly friends again after this.

Bravenlarke are such a physically attractive ot3.

Overall a good episode but not a fun or enjoyable episode. I miss my MW kids.

[deiupvote]

So, just like many of you guys I watched the AMD keynote, and I was also watching some commentaries as the livestream went on. What I saw in the commentaries though was a whole lot of "wtf why are you talking about this?" and "come on show us the product" comments. While these were understandable from an enthousiast/gamer perspective, I'd like to explain why the keynote was what it was to hopefully give you all a better understanding of what transpired.First thing to understand is what the target audience for keynotes like these are. As much as you'd like to hope it is, they are very much not made for average consumers like us. Keynotes at big events like these are primarily made for investors and potential large corporate customers and partners.See, AMD had a couple of things they had to prove and showcase hereBeing able to compete with Intel in the CPU marketBeing able to compete with nVidia in the GPU marketHaving a clear path to increasing market share in existing market areasExpanding into new and emerging market areasAnd they did exactly that.Now, let's break down the presentation, you can rewatch it here16:30 - Introduction by Gary ShapiroThis is the general "look guys, we're important, some important guy from another big company is introducing us". Yes, it's boring, but it's there to prove a point that AMD is now one of the big boys again. The introduction even emphasises that this is AMD's first time having such a keynote at CES20:58 - Lisa Su's opening presentationThis starts off with the usual "look where we came from and look where we are now" spiel to please investors and give the entire keynote some initial forward momentum.She gives some initial hooks here that they keynote will try to build further on, such as pointing out what the projected growing demand for compute will be, then following up by essentially saying "we have answers for all of this". This is a flag again for investors and partners: the market will change, and we're the partner for you to face this challenge.29:30 - High Performance PCsThis part of the presentation is mainly about content creators, which is why Threadripper takes center stage. This part build on from the introduction to expand on just how they have changed the market in the last 2 years and how they have made inroads in the existing, and quite lucrative, creators market. This is why they have those guys from Fox VFX talking, they want to show they have actual big customers using their product, which pleases investors and can get them potentially more customers, as this is a market where having references is a big thing.As a sidenote, it's funny that she makes it sound like Threadripper was a planned product from the start, while we all know that Threadripper was a passion project by AMD engineers who basically went "hey, we have EPYC, maybe we can make a HEDT platform out of this too?".35:35 - Ultrathin notebooksThis part exists to showcase "hey guys, we HAVE made great inroads in the mobile market, contrary to what you might have thought". Intel and Microsoft has also redoubled their efforts to make laptops relevant again in this modern tablet and mobile dominated market. This is why she points to the Modern Windows PC initiative. The showcase here is "we're not missing this boat now that we actually have something that is competitive". She ends this part with again showcasing they already have partners with products lined up, a flag for investors.39:31 - PCs for educationThis part is to showcase they have products to make inroads in the education market. Education is a BIG market. Depending on the area they either need powerful devices (STEM, research) or cheap devices (Chromebooks).43:07 - Gaming : MicrosoftThis part is to showcase their existing partnership with large players. Why Microsoft is here and not say, Sony, is that Microsoft represents 3 markets for them: console gaming (XBox One), PC gaming (Windows) and cloud gaming (Azure). Cloud gaming is an emerging market and is expected to grow significantly. It's another investor hook to show "look, we have a great installed base, and we're making great inroads into new market areas, which will lead to future growth of the company".51:00 - GPU technology retrospectiveThis part is again a recap of what they have already created. It exists to emphasise their current market positioning and market share (which is again, a flag for investors and potential partners), and serves as a jump-off point for the next part.53:40 - Radeon VII, part 1The Radeon VII exists because they had to present something that could go toe to toe with the nVidia RTX2080. That was the only thing that mattered. This is emphasised by the comparison charts she projects. The game demo is a bit lame, but it just serves to showcase "we're not making this up, it does perform", and serves as a hook for the later "yeah it's 699, but you're getting games with it! So it's really not that bad!".Ubisoft is on there, talking about how they are partnering in development with AMD. The hook here is to show that AMD is still closely working with game developers, and that it's not just nVidia being the only one calling the shots.1:06:13 - eSportsIntermezzo. eSports is a decently big enough market to warrant another "hey guys, we're in this as well" showcase. Again, investor and partner hook. The guy from Fenetic is there to just drive the point home.1:12:40 - Radeon VII, part 2The pricetag is dropped: 699, but with game bundled. Yes, we (as gamers/enthousiast) all were dissapointed by this.But, if I can make a sidestep here to explain why AMD made this move. As I mentioned: they had to have something to compete with the nVidia RTX 2080. But, the thing is, this is actually a really niche part of the market. Most of the market is in the RX560/GTX1050Ti range. When it came to raw specs, they had a product that would fit : the Radeon Instinct MI50, as it is based on 7nm Vega. But, the MI50 is a datacenter part, and is manufacturerd with 16GB of HBM2. Remember, this comes as one big package, to make an 8GB variant they'd have to create a whole new package. So AMD is faced with a choiceDon't compete with the RTX 2080Create a new 8GB packageUse the existing 16GB package from the MI50First one is not an option if they don't want to fall flat for their investors. Second one doesn't really have enough volume behind it to make any kind of positive business case, so all that was left was the third option. But, they can't quite sell these cards at a loss, so they were pretty much forced to use the 699 price tag. Is there some margin to lower the price later? Of course there is, but not enough margin to start the price off at 649 or lower.The Radeon VII really is their "damned if you do, damned if you don't" GPU.Will it sell? Of course it will, those who really want a 7nm Vega will buy it anyway, those people were clamoring for it loud enough. Will it sell in high volumes? We'll have to see.1:13:34 - Cloud gamingAnother partner and investor hook showing how they're making inroads in this emerging market with their product stack. They showcase Google Project Stream, because hey, Google is a big partner to be able to show you're doing business with.1:16:30 - High Performance Computing : AMD EPYC server CPUsThis reiterates what they already have in the pipeline for the datacenter world. Yes, it's CES, and the C stands for Consumer, but remember, investors and partners, and many of those partners will also be interested in servers.She drops here that 2nd gen EPYC will launch mid 2019. This simultaneously shows that their product is nearing completion (in the server world, 6 months is nothing), but also is a small hint for what she will say in the next part.1:24:57 - 3rd Generation Ryzen based on Zen 2Here they had to showcase they were able to compete with Intel. Zen2 for desktop is still on engineering samples, but they had to showcase it (again, investors and partners), and they needed to show they could go toe to toe with the best Intel had to offer right now. And they did, even showcasing they did it for less power draw. The demo was simple, but it sufficiently drove the point home that she had to make.Showing the delidded CPU was also an obvious hook to what is to come. We saw the IO die, we saw one 8 core chiplet, and we saw there is enough room on there for another component, be it another core chiplet or a GPU. This is deliberately done at the end of the presentation to end on a note that will get everyone hyped again for the possibilities of 16C/32T CPUs and 8C/16T APUs. It also served to soften the dissapointment of a mid 2019 launch. This mid 2019 launch window matches the 2nd gen EPYC launch window she mentioned early, pointing out to investors and partners that this is just the timeframe that is needed to get Zen 2 to the neccesary maturity level for a succesful product launch.1:31:52 - Closing off the keynoteA recap of what was shown, and a re-emphasis that AMD is investing in what is needed.To cap off my postWell, this is probably the longest post I've ever written. It's based on my experience in the corporate world and with these kinds of presentations (I tend to go to some of these events for my job, so I knew what to expect of these kinds of keynotes).I should note I originally posted this on /r/amd but the content was shadowremoved there for some reason. via /r/hardware

[realtalk-princeton]

So I have heard that the cos departmental are fairly different from cos prefers like 226/217. What would you say the differences are? Also does grading get easier lol Trying to decide cos major vs certificate

Response from Roonil Wazlib: 

The COS departmentals are so different amongst themselves (systems, applications, theory) so it’s hard to generalize the differences, but one clear difference is there is much less hand-holding. For example, in 126 assignments, they tell you exactly what you need to do in the assignment specs, the order you should do things in, and how to do it. This lessens in 226/217, but they still give you a fair amount of help. On the other hand, I’m in infosec right now and they literally tell you nothing useful in the assignment - the last assignment just told us to “design a threat model” and my friends and I were like what?? is a threat model?? I find myself looking through Piazza a lot more and going to office hours than i did in 226/217. However, the problems you are solving and the things you are doing become a lot more interesting, and even though classes are harder, you get the hang of things - I’ve done better in every upper level COS departmental thus far than I did in 226 (and I’m by no means great at COS). My friend thinks the curve is also better in departmentals - you also get better at coding so it becomes easier to do well (I remember reading this from a response that Ziggy, the old CS rtp contributor, wrote, and I was like lol wtf?? but now I totally get it.)

Some things to consider - what major would you be if you were getting the cos certificate, and what career are you considering? If you’re looking to go into software engineering, it definitely helps to major in COS because a lot of companies look to see if you’re majoring in CS/CE. My friend is ORF but is doing software engineering internships, and says she wishes she just majored in COS. If you’re not looking to go into software engineering though, it’s quite doable to go into other tech fields (fintech, PM) with just a COS certificate. A lot of people just get the COS certificate because they think it’s good to have on their resume.

I think one huge thing that makes people get a certificate over the major is the fact that you have to take 2 systems classes (like OS, 217 style), 2 theory classes (math/proofs-y), and 2 applications classes as a COS major. Some people adamantly refuse to take classes from a certain area, and prefer just majoring in something else and taking lots of COS classes in the other areas. 

hmu if you have more specific questions!

Response from Sushi:

Wanted to offer a contrasting perspective. My close upperclassman friends in the department say that departmentals are the same level of difficulty as COS 226/217. Even though there are fewer assignments, the assignments are still hard because there is less hand-holding and you have to turn to Piazza for most of the info. Perhaps you can think of them as easier in a sense because you are more used to the Princeton workload, but in terms of raw difficulty they are around the same.

For the rest of your question, I agree with Roonil. The main thing turning me personally off from COS is that you do not need a COS major to work in software engineering, and also I did not want to take systems (217 type) classes.

Response from Roonil Wazlib:

^ yeah retweet sorry I agree, that was what I meant - COS departmentals are objectively more difficult than 226/217 (save for a select number of classes), but I feel like I’m dying less so in departmentals and have done better because I’m more attuned to the difficulty of the COS department and know what to expect! Also it helps that I don’t have to take the departmentals alongside math/physics classes (if you’re BSE)

[smoothshift]

GT350 Roadtrip: 1 week, 9 states, 4400miles. Lengthy post, pics included. via /r/cars

GT350 Roadtrip: 1 week, 9 states, 4400miles. Lengthy post, pics included.

TLDR: It was a lengthy but short roadtrip. You're welcome.  

Ain't got no time for readin and stuff? I got you: http://ift.tt/2vmKRwc  

States visited: OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, CO, UT, AZ, NV  

Notable locations: Glacier National Park, Pike's Peak, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Zion National Park, Shelby Museum/Factory/Store  

I left San Francisco on Saturday 8/12 at 5:30AM. Returned Saturday 8/19 at 11:45PM. Following are the notes I took on the trip and recollections after. I hope you enjoy. I certainly did.  

Northern California: Nothing notable, I live here. Took 80 East to 505 North, later merging into 5 North. Met two guys with built-out BRZs in Suisun Valley; they were headed to a meet. Cars were tastefully modded and I favored the burnt orange and black wing combo car. Didn't talk long, but the burnt orange guy wanted to know if I was "driving the ecoboost?" Nah, this isn't the ecoboost. Those are good cars, though, and I envy the MPG.  

Oregon: Fast-forwarding to the land of "thou shalt not pump your own gas." Really weird but whatever, Oregon has the most beautiful semi-populated back country I've seen. Didn't find any technical driving roads but the long straights and gentle sweepers were nice. Fantastic ranches you guys have, btw, wow. When the sun hits the golden fields as you're blasting by and the horses look up ya think, huh. I can dig this. P.S. your speed limits are terrible, not updated since 1912 or some such.  

Washington: Ah, crossing the border with that feeling of anticipation, the wonder of sights unseen, the joy of... 2 KA bands and 1 laser hit. WTF Washington, nice welcome wagon you got there. But you're not done, no sir or ma'am. Pasco, WA, aka interchange city. So. Many. KA. Bands. And. 2. Laser. Hits. I get it, you need the revenue. But not from me. Motored along merrily on 90NE/E to Spokane, crossing into Idaho.  

Idaho: Coeur d'Alene. Wow. Amazing roads; long sweepers in the mountains, gentle and lengthy elevation changes and fantastic scenery. You win, Idaho.  

Montana: I'm on the way to Glacier National Park. 3 things of note in this state:  

1 - "Keep Right Except to Pass." I've seen posts about this on r/Cars and never really "got it", but now I do. Montananians have this down to a science and it works. Granted the population is sparse but its a model of managing traffic flow and speed. Consider me a full-time convert.  

2 - I pulled in to a rest stop on Highway 2; it was 11:30 at night and the area poorly lit. A family was setting up a giant tent on the grass; it was just them, me and a semi parked in the lot. Blacked out the car windows (sunscreen and blankets) and made myself cozy. 3AM and I'm suddenly awake, its time to visit the facilities and take care of urgent business. As I approach the men's room I hear a noise, it's a loud buzzing and a man's booming voice. Montana rest stops have speakers playing the weather report ("The weather in Big Fork was clear, and the wind was..."). This speaker was blown due to the loud volume setting. Creepy at 3AM, moreso with dim fluorescent lighting. Good news though: Bathroom is clean and I've got my choice of two stalls. I take the luxury stall aka the doublewide aka the handicapped version. Oh. Lock is broken. NP, I switch to the economy stall and run down the checklist. Door locks, check. Floor and seat clean, check. Enough TP to build an assnest on the seat, check. We're locked and loaded and I'm going in, Cap'n. Except for one thing: The lone bit of graffiti on the door. It read: "8/11. Let's %$# or at least piss on me. Tap foot." Imagine its 3AM and you're groggy with so few hours of sleep and that's me, mouth slightly open, brow furrowed with squinty eyes trying to comprehend this lonely missive of love and bodily fluids. First thought: Is it the 11th? No, ok good. Second: I'm the only one in here. Third: I no longer have the urge to do anything but GTFO; the creepy factor went from 3/10 to 10/10. Not that it mattered to the disembodied man's distorted voice; he continued belting out the weather report as I left a contrail of relief denied.  

3 - Glacier National Park. My first must-see destination and it was so worth it. Lovely, narrow roads albeit packed with appliance cars. On the West Glacier Road there's a spot to park and take a shuttle bus up. Not for me but it's a popular thing. Some tourists get bored waiting and attempt to hitchhike; as I rounded a curve I saw a hitchhiker sorta gently shove his (I presume) SO away and say loudly in his Brit accent, "I know what I'm about!" Hey brother. You're ok hitchhiking in a park, but don't do that anywhere else. Unless you like the song Goodbye Horses in which case have at it. Anyway, GNP: Pictures can't convey it well, nor can they convey the batshit crazy old lady driving a minty green Fiat ... Fiat uh, not the Abarth but the lower spec model. Old lady, her Fiat and personal GNP Formula 1. Like everyone else she'd pull over for pics, but when I saw her coming I got out of the way.  

Wyoming: Plains. Plains as far as the eye can fall asleep.. I kid. Beautiful state, really. Pulled over and listened to a thunderstorm slowly roar across the open land. Amazing, spiritual, awe-inspiring. Congrats, Wyomingians. All 3 of you.  

Colorado: Colorado is amazing, and as a California native I'm genetically predisposed to moving there. But don't worry, Coloradorians.. eh, Coloradori, F it, lets just go with Pot Smoking REI Junkies and Rednecks. As I was saying, I won't move there, ever. Not me. Nuh uh. Well. Not unless I get bored, or ... wait. Wait a second. Huh. Zillow says I can buy how many bedrooms, with how big a garage and a backyard that's spacious in a good neighborhood for how much? Hmmmm.  

Pike's Peak. You've heard about it. If you've not gone, go. Don't expect a Hill Climb though, the usual appliance cars and Lifted Lambos (trucks) clog the roads - although I did get lucky in spots, and did a Matt Farah a few times by making a gap on the straights. 14k elevation, no big deal, I've done that before in Ladakh (India, Himalaya foothills). Think again, that 14k kicked my ass. Just taking pictures of the car was wearing me out. While at the summit some lady hiked down (apparently there's a trail) and needed rescue, she simply could not climb up. I believe it.  

Great Sand Dunes National Park. Yep. It's sandy. The approach road (well outside of the park) is minimal to no traffic, you can go 10 mins without seeing a car. I may or may not have done a triple. Or as I call it, 25 MPH in Mexican school zone. Because I'd never do that in the US. Not me.  

Small towns. We all know its common for small towns to be speed traps. Colorado small towns take it to the next level. Its dark, I'm in BFE, and 1-2-3 small towns in a row: K Band, X Band, KA Band, no apparent falses. In one case the local popo followed me about 3 miles out of town. My very first police escort, I'm so proud.  

Montrose, CO. I'm a coffee nerd so this trip has been mostly hell. The hell of McD's coffee or worse, gas station coffee. Swill. So what makes Montrose, CO, special? La Zona Colona Coffee off Highway 550. You're going to pass it when heading to Silverton, so stop. Clean outside and in, tastefully done decor and, crucially, outstanding coffee with what seems to be an extra dose of caffeine. I suspect this because it wasn't long before I was road raging pretty hard, I mean come on. LANE CAMPERS RADKJEKEJREKJFDKJ gargle scream do nothing but wait to pass. Yep. Road raging. Best coffee I've ever had.  

Silverton,CO. Quaint, preserved old-timey Western town. They even have a steam train and stagecoach, actual ones that move along and make old-timey choo choo noises and whatever sounds horses make. Popular place.  

Highway 550 to Durango. Rounded a curve and a blond guy with man bun waved me down. He and his GF were stuck, older Toyota with a dead battery and as it turns out, bad alternator. I had a battery charger but no cables (ugh) so he plugged it to the battery and we waited. I suggested waving down a truck as those guys must have cables. Cars go by, no one stops or acknowledges his waving. Weird; he's young, good looking and dressed in Mountain Chic - I mean, he's not scary looking and its full daylight. Finally a red F150 stops, older guy with cables. He's a little sauced, not drunk but he's had a few. Engine turns over and I follow the Toyota couple a while, and it dies again. This happened 4x til we made it to the guy's house in Durango. On the last pullover the red F150 guy shows up again. "I wanna see how fast this Shelby can go," he says, slightly slurred, "It's ok, I party with the cops in Durango." This was just not gonna happen, Durango's not a little town with deserted roads and I didn't see any signs for open track night. I politely ignored him and we got the Toyota couple home, wished them luck and off I went.  

Utah: I dunno, it's Utah. Mostly impressed with the people vs. the places, although those are nice too.  

Four Corners. Not sure what I expected, maybe something grand to commemorate 4 state borders, maybe some good dining and driving roads. Nope. You get a short dusty road (fine, its the arid desert), a $5 entry fee, signs saying cremated remains cannot be spread here (huh, who, why?), vendors selling Navajo-themed jewelry and stuff and that thing. That thing set in concrete marking the celebration of 4 state borders meeting. I was done before I got there and was walking back to the car when I saw her. No, not the love of my life. Rather a woman wearing an awesome tshirt which just then struck me as hilarious. Pic taken. Nice lady, she was a riot. She liked the GT350 too.  

Zion National Park. 105 degrees. Two European guys driving below the speed limit in a rental Focus. I get it, you're here to see the sights. But uh, pull over. Thanks bye.  

Kanab: Nothing notable here other than I stayed in the Quality Inn's "suite." But there was one cool encounter at the local car wash (I detail my car religiously): Mr. Walker with his 1965 Thunderbird. OMG. Maroon paint, black leather interior, dusty engine. Overall excellent shape (driving condition, not concours) and he's the second owner with all maintenance records from new. Mr. Walker liked the Shelby and had a lot of questions; I had just as many for him. He showed his car and apologized for being unable to wipe down the front and rear chrome due to his age. Not a problem, yours truly wiped it down for him and it was a pleasure doing so. What a car. Tip of the cap to you, sir.  

Nevada AKA Las Vegas: Stopped to visit the Shelby Factory, Museum and Shop. The shop is the first thing you see once inside and lemme tell ya. Need a Shelby leather coat? They got you, Holmes. Socks, tshirts, bottle opener, model car, hat, travel mug, earrings, key chain? No problemo. I made a dad joke (tm, not an actual dad) after buying some shirts: So uh, you guys have everything, literally everything for sale, don't you? Sales lady: (thinking FFS not this again): Yes, we do. Me: Great, I'm in the market for a new fridge. Sales lady: Points to her left and there it is, a I-kid-you-not-Shelby-branded-fridge. Joke's on me; abort abort mission failure RTB.  

Walked outside and there was an Aussie family sorta standing by my car. The dad went on about how much they liked it, and a US friend of his was considering buying one. Told him to tell his friend, yep, buy it.  

... And that's pretty much it. Went to SoCal but there's 2 kinds of SoCal: coastal (nice) and inland desert (less nice). At Barstow I couldn't take it anymore, GTA got crappy desert towns right. Connnected to 5 North and pulled over for gas: $3.89 for premium, the good ole welcome home price. Drove 6 hours north to SF, woke up the GF and flopped right into bed. Best parts about coming home: GF reunion, Game of Thrones and 7 hours detailing the car. Still haven't got all the bug bits off the grille.  

Random stats:

23.1 MPG

Cheapest gas / Premium: $2.48 (Wyoming, Ethanol blend)

Oil consumption: 2 quarts

Breakdowns and flats: 0

Truck Stop Hookers Observed: 2

Drunk Drivers Observed: 1

Accidents seen (after the fact): 3

Road rage battles seen: 1 (SoCal. Of course)

Live deer: Too many (Montana, but especially Colorado)

Dead deer: 12 +