#you all know that i think tim might take that route eventually depending on how long the show will run on and what opportunities he'll get

[vanmarkus]

some of you might be unhappy to hear this but an interview mentioning that Eddie would want to hang out with his bestie of 7 years and the guy he hung out with at least 3 times a week and who he introduced to his son within weeks of knowing him, when said son no longer lives with (or speaks to) him, especially during a time he isn't dating 2 women simultaneously, being alone bar his coworkers and friends who are clearly very busy with other things...

all of that has nothing to do with one ship or another and maybe for once we could just acknowledge that he is his own character, more than ever before probably and just not act like there is something weird about that or as if it Must Have romantic intentions one way or another

the man is lonely you all, ofc he's gonna lean on the people he's still got left, it's the least surprising thing ever

[ace-s-fav-dp-posts]

So I've seen DPxDC stories where Danny is Damian's twin brother or just full blood sibling in general and not biologically a Fenton at all, where he's Bruce and Maddie's son, Talia and Jack's son, stories where he's either Bruce or Talia's kid with some other random person and was adopted by the Fentons.

Stories where either Jack or Maddie is Ra's kid and Danny (and Jazz) are thus Damian's maternal first cousins.

I've even seen a few stories where Danny was just literally Ra's son, either by blood or by adoption.

I know of one specific post where Danny is Dusan's son and Mara's older brother, but that's it.

I have yet to see a single prompt where either of Danny's parents are descended of either Dusan or Nyssa even though both of them are far more than old enough to be grandparents.

Hell, Dusan is calculated to be around 750 years old by some people, while Nyssa canonically had her bloodline wiped out by the Nazis, a bloodline that included a great grandson and she has a confirmed birth year of 1775 (so she'd be nearly 250 years old in modern day).

So the idea of Damian's first cousin being an adult pushing 50 with kids older than Damian himself would be completely logical (if you go ahead of sticking the show aged DP characters into the 2020s).

Though to be honest if we go this route I'd pick different Fenton Parents and generational displacement from Ra's depending on which of Ra's kids Danny and Jazz are descended from.

If they're descended from Dusan, then I'd pick Jack as being his son, and Mara's older half brother, who is older than her by like 46 years.

The Fenton's are actually aware of their connection to a quasi-immortal assassin, but Jack and Maddie do their best to keep their kids out of that life.

Which Dusan isn't supper accepting about. But he also only discovered Jack when he was already an adult, and if he wants to be invited to his grandkid's birthdays and be allowed to drop Mara off at the Fenton house to be watched he just kind of has to accept that his son and grandchildren aren't interested in the Al Ghul legacy.

While if it's Maddie who's descended from the Al Ghul bloodline, then I'd want her and Alicia to be descended from Nyssa's line, specifically Vasily Vasilevich, Nyssa's great grandson.

Nyssa thinks he's killed by the Nazi's like the rest of her descendants but because he's an infant someone actually manages to smuggle him away before he actually enters any camp. He eventually ends up smuggled all the way to the United States, where he's given a new name, and raised as an American by the family that took him as their own while fleeing from the Nazi's and smuggled him to the state's in the first place.

So Maddie and Alicia are both Nyssa's great great granddaughters, while Danny, Jazz, and Dani are Nyssa's great great great grandchildren. The Fenton's (and Walkers if we go ahead with making that Maddie and Alicia's maiden names), have no idea that they're descended from a weird eco terrorist assassin cult...

Until Jazz insists on the family doing one of those at home dna tests after Maddie casually dropped family lore about how her dad wasn't the biological child of her grandparents, and that they'd ended up taking him in when fleeing Europe from Nazi persecution, and no one knew who his birth parents were or if any of his biological family survived or not. Or even the name his biological parents gave him.

Jazz just thinks this is going to be a fun family history project where nothing weird will happen, unbeknownst to her Tim Drake has created backdoor access to every single one of those at home dna testing databases he can find, specifically looking for hits on the Al Ghul family tree.

That man might be old as fucking dirt, but Talia's existence (and backstory of being conceived at Woodstock with a random hippy lady) is proof that Ra's is more likely than not still producing swimmers and going around banging random women much to Tim's horror.

And Tim wants to know if any oopsie Al Ghuls pop out of the woodwork before Ra's does, at the very least to try and prevent any more from getting indoctrinated into the League of Assassins.

I just feel like either one of these would really hammer home that Ra's line really is comprised of largely unaging immortals (if they have access to a Lazarus pit and want to), who's outer age doesn't really reflect their actual age at all.

WIth Mara and Jack being half siblings but also like 40+ years apart in age, or Maddie being Nyssa's great great granddaughter but looking basically the same age.

Because DC's never really pushes that when it comes to Ra's. Sure all of his kids are adults, but all of them are also seem to be frozen between the ages of like 30 to 50 years old, with Ra's himself looking around 70-ish, and then all of his grandkids (who we get to see) are literal children.

So if you were to take a family picture of Ra's and the descendants (who matter and) we get to see in the comics, it would just look like a normal family portrait or family tree. The grandparent looks 20-30 years older then the Parents/Aunt/Uncle generation, who looks 20-30 years older than the child generation.

Like I just feel there should be more family line fuckery going on with the Al Ghul family than there is in canon.

Or hell you could make Jack or Maddie Talia's kid if you go with the really old canon of Talia also actually being a lot older but using the Lazarus Pits to stay physically young. I think she's like 150 in that continuity but using the pits to stay in her 30s or so.

Then you could just have Jazz or Danny show up and Damian introduce them to the Batfam as his niece and nephew, played best with Damian being around ten, but Danny and Jazz in their late teens or even early 20s.

[thezolblade]

I'm curious about how Tim's feeling during all of this, especially in the darker timelines. Based on what you said he's worried and willing to help Martin out in this bad situation but I'm curious about his feelings. It seems like he, at least somewhat, considered Jon as something of a friend. How's he feeling watching his friend start being possessive and abusive towards his other friend (Jon was already pretty mean to Martin before, but not in a way that left bruises!). How does he feel when Jon starts threatening him, is he sad about this development or is he taking the canon route of getting angry at Jon, but worried for Martin? What about Sasha (in regard to the previous questions)?

Tim's angry and confused, mainly, and definitely upset and frustrated if things drag on without getting better. The details vary, but he'll be inclined to think it's a prank at first, then yell at Jon, thinking he's taking advantage of Martin out of hatred, then get confused when Jon seems to be smitten as well as awful, and maybe wonder if Jon's been hit by a curse, until he gets the chance to talk to Martin properly. Depending on how well Tim keeps his cool outside of any fights, he might stop talking to Jon beyond telling him to break up, or he might do some research and try to offer advice that might help matters if Jon even halfway listens.

If Martin leans on Tim for help, even with a 'please be prepared in case I have to run' request that he doesn't follow through on, then Tim will cope better, feeling that he's appreciated and not completely powerless. If Martin refuses to confide in him, then Tim will try to keep the offer of support open, but eventually he'll feel resentful that nobody's listening to him or seeing sense, even if he knows rationally that it's unfair to blame Martin. That might be about when Sasha convinces him that they should leave if the toxic workplace isn't going to change anytime soon. Since Sasha survives, Tim won't be hit with 'the ones closest to me could be replaced by monsters and i wouldn't even know' levels of trauma, so even when he picks fights, he'll always be looking to win, not get himself killed.

Sasha will be worried, and disappointed in Jon, but she's better at taking a step back from the problem without taking it personally. She'll be inclined to dig into their digital footprint, partly out of worry about exactly how bad it is, but once she knows that Jon's been invading Martin's privacy in ways that she's done even more often, the accusations of hypocrisy will hit harder, when she used to brush them off. She and Tim will find that talking helps both of them stay grounded, especially when they can't really talk to anyone else. She might be more inclined to strategically accept compromises.

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

it’s a fucking metaphor!

Titans 3.08

i’ve finally gathered the mental and emotional resources to do this thing, so let’s go! as always, i’m typing this up as i see the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. on watching this opening scene, i was thinking back to how gar was in s1, or even the early bits of s2. the way he idolised the others, particularly dick, and his readiness to go along with whatever they said, and the way he practically bled the need for acceptance. and here he is now, openly defying dick, fully open to and aware of the flaws of the people he loves and admires, knowing he is accepted no matter what and extending that generosity elsewhere. it’s a remarkable bit of character growth that’s... sort of blossomed in the background and so rewarding to see and acknowledge. 

1.25. i guess what i really love about this conflict over how to respond to jason--as clumsily as it is sometimes written--is how their histories and individual traumas inform each character’s reaction. dick is torn between his guilt over what’s become of jason and his drive to do what batman had essentially given up on doing: he is motivated to track down red hood at all costs but there’s a sense that he’s not completely sold on the idea that the only way to stop him is to kill him. (he might go the comics route and try to put him in arkham? god, imagine if the season ended with jason in arkham.) kory’s never had much of a connection with jason in the first place, and jason has done one of the worst things he could do in her book: track and kill a member of her newfound family and is threatening to kill more. 

and gar... sure. look. the idea of jason and red hood as separate entities appeals to him; that red hood emerged when jason was drugged to the gills by scarecrow and lost his usual inhibitions. gar’s struggled with what he becomes when he’s pushed to his limits, too--he did rip open that experimenting scientist with his teeth way back in 1.07, after all, and he was brainwashed by cadmus in s2 into becoming a literal monster. he needs to think, to know, there’s a dichotomy, a line that can only be crossed under extreme duress or by outside influence. 

and he says--and we say--that he was accepted back into the titans in spite of what he’d done, but was he really? gar’s always struggled with his footing in this group; relegated to the caretaker, the tech guy, the gatekeeper, and sometimes punching bag even though everybody’s paying lip service to how much of a family they all are. perhaps gar reaching out to jason and offering acceptance is aspirational on his part: perhaps this is the effort he hoped the titans put/or will put into getting gar back, even when it would seem like he’s too far gone.

1.5. anyway my point is that i don’t think it’s worth discussing this in terms of right/wrong decisions because all of their reactions make a lot of sense given their backgrounds/personalities. gar is doing a fine job here of tracking down jason’s friends and trying to find him that way, but we the audience know that jason is ultimately going to end up an anti-hero/eventually-hero character, so with that knowledge in mind we know that gar’s reaction is the right one. it’s knowledge that the other characters don’t have, so to judge them on it is... uh, unfair.

1.8. also, molly is awesome, yay!

2. dick and barbara flirting over the phone is so cute! i love to see this side of dick: lighter, peppier, willing (even if somewhat reluctantly) to put his mission aside to go out on a date with his girlfriend. and i love how easy this makes his dynamic with kory too: it’s all very domestic and utterly delightful. 

(also, re: the water leak in barbara’s office--you’re saying GCPD could afford fancy-schmancy table-wide touch screen computers and evil-lair lighting but needs its frickin’ commissioner to catch leaking water from above her desk with mugs and fishbowls????)

2.2225. this is probably a teeny tiny thing and i’m not sure i want to bring it up at all BUT. the fact that dick feels compelled to lie to barbara about not liking fancy gala food and eating something more substantial before the date? not a terribly great sign, though i wouldn’t call it a red flag per se. 

“this from a man who forced his students to eat cauliflower crust pizza...”

3. so.... conner and kom are a Thing. huh.

in theory i really like the idea of them bonding over an innate alien-ness and longing for a place they could really belong. both of them are alien twice-over: conner a mix of kryptonian and human, practically generated in a test tube, and kom being somebody that was born different and rejected by her own people, now stuck on a planet dominated by an entirely different species. i even like them exploring this bond physically. i guess it’s the sense of... uneasiness around what we do and don’t know about kom that makes this scene land slightly left of centre to me. i think titans, especially through s2, has cultivated in its audience a sense of distrust even until the final episode, just in case somebody vital to the season is suddenly revealed to have had ulterior motives (i’m even low-key suspicious of leslie). i really want to see this kom-conner dynamic play out but the anticipation of watching the other shoe drop is sucking out the enjoyment.

4. for fuck’s sake dick, gar’s not your gatekeeper.

TIIIIIIIIMMMMM \O/

4.5. i love this nod to tim’s origins in the comics, the way he just comes in and lays out all his evidence and makes it clear to dick that he needs tim’s help as robin. the fact that he was there at the flying graysons’ last performance, he was obsessed with their acrobatic moves, and was observant enough to connect those moves with that of robin and later nightwing... all of this came together to put him where he is right now.

(i also love how he can’t contain his giddy excitement when talking about the day dick grayson’s parents died... to dick grayson. even if dick weren’t nightwing, that would be a deeply uncomfortable thing! yet tim can’t help himself, and i love him for it.)

4.8. it’s a testament to how much dick’s caught off-guard that he can’t come up with a better response to tim’s allegations other than “uh... he stole my moves! as you know, no two gymnasts in the world are allowed to do the same moves. now, let me escort you out while pretending poorly that i’m not at all shaken by this...”

4.9. i’ve talked about this before, but i find the logic around secret identities in this universe utterly fascinating. the titans don’t make much effort in keeping their identities secret: everybody seems to know that kory is starfire for instance, or that gar is beast boy. dick grayson is seen hanging out with kory a lot, especially at crime scenes. it won’t take a lot of sleuthing to find out that the titans are currently camped out at wayne manor, and to put two and two together.

my theory was that superheroes and villains have become such an integral part of daily society that it’s almost not worth it to seek out their secret identities, or that it’s just not a big deal anymore. like politicians or diplomats, not everybody bothers to look into who exactly their local politician is, but the people who know just... know. it’s a sort of unspoken social contract.

tim’s broken this contract by confronting dick about his identity, and dick’s not ready to deal with it. not entirely.

look at him! *pinches his cheeks*

5. ngl, it was quite satisfying to see jason knock the scarecrow out like that. 

5.5. i guess... the question of jason’s culpability is always going to be a thorny one and would make for a great courtroom drama spinoff. there are a number of factors to consider: jason’s personality, the rough circumstances under which he grew up, his undoubtedly stressful transition to being robin, bruce wayne being... well, bruce wayne, never feeling accepted by the titans and having most of them turn on him, being roundly defeated and almost killed by deathstroke, alfred’s death, a fuckload of ptsd, his violent death, crane’s manipulations, coming back to life, crane plying him with a drug. but there is no easy line to draw between any of these factors to his actions. i think it would be a disservice to jason’s character to attribute his actions entirely to these things and rather irresponsible to do so. i think jason has to reckon with the fact that when he took crane’s drug, he wasn’t reckless and chaotic like the thugs he gave it to; the planning that went into hank’s death was meticulous and the way hank died--dawn essentially tricked into pulling the trigger that blew her lover into bits--is so drawn out and cruel. 

5.75. it’s occurring to me that crane might have given jason a placebo. maybe jason’s dependence is psychological, and he’s externalised his fears in such a way that he believes crane’s drugs literally wipe them out, however temporarily.

in any case, the boy needs (more) therapy.

6. “he walked like robin...” fuck, tim

“gait recognition sweep” god, this show. i don’t know whether to laugh or cry. hey, once we’re done doing this gait recognition thingy, can we get a goddamn plumber in the house??? or move the commissioner’s desk so that sewage water isn’t dripping on her head or the million dollar touchscreen desk???????

6.5. oh no dick!!!!!! i am delighted that you got hurt but i feel ashamed about it! that looked like it really hurt!

he’s really not having a good time of it, is he. from being shot by a sniper to slamming at full speed into an suv, he’s got to be really fucking battered by now. and that’s just the physical side of it.

“can you believe that just over a week ago i was sitting in san francisco eating cauliflower crust pizza and feeling good about myself for the first time in five years...”

7. kory’s having visions again! now that she’s figured what they are, do you think the show’s just dropped justin? it’s curious that HPG hasn’t been brought up in a while after featuring relatively heavily in the beginning. hmmm.

8. dick’s in hospital but... he looks remarkably whole for someone who took a spill like that. you’d think he’d at least have a bruise to show for it. on the other hand, i love that the first thing he says is ‘i need to call home’. reminds me of season 1 dick and his clumsy attempts to explain away his found family as an ‘alliance of necessity’ or some bullshit. what a long way he’s come!

*gasp* dick’s hallucinating again!!!!!!!!!!!! i’m doing the dick’s hallucinating dance! can you believe that we’re carrying over these huge honking issues unearthed in season 2 onto season 3? can you believe?!!! all that time and effort i spent talking about dick’s mental health from last season has not gone in vain!!

... ahem. anyway. more on this later.

“hold on barbara, i think kory gave me the number to this therapist that she kept calling Hot Psychiatrist Guy...”

9. just an interlude to say that i’m barely halfway through the episode and i’ve already written 2k+ words... ugh. i’m going to try and be more concise.

10. man i fuckin love it when titans goes all out with its weird mindscapes and i’m extra glad that kory’s the focus this time. is that baby kom or maybe a secret sibling that neither of them knew about? was that lady luand’r? and is this place where kory was circling where the secret sibling is? it’s all very intriguing. 

(if justin turned out to be that sibling... we’ve a real luke/leia situation on our hands.)

11. aw, i knew that nice security guard was going to die, but it still hurt to see him go :(

12. this show is so bizarre. like i get the mindscape as a narrative device, but jason using sex workers to try and vocalise his guilt about killing hank was just weird. like. i have to use tamil, sorry: idhulaan yaaru pa room pottu yosikara??? some things just can’t be translated into a second language.

i guess one way to interpret jason’s reckoning with what he did to the titans as a sign of him coming off crane’s drug, but i think it’s more to do with the disillusionment of realising that he was a mere pawn in a more sinister plan, and not, as he thought, a player in control of his destiny, rising to the purpose of liberating gotham of its fears in a way batman never could. along the way, he’s done some truly irreversible damage. it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

13. another hallucination! it’s really intriguing that it’s a young dick(?), younger than we’ve ever seen him, wearing an early-era robin costume from way before he even became robin. (this is also interesting in that it gives credence to the idea that ‘robin’ is an identity that dick created entirely on his own, and as a possible homage to his family.)

“old road, old house... it’s all gone.” i wonder what it all means.

13.5. it’s entirely likely dick’s hallucinating because of a brain injury from the accident, though just hallucinations without any other focal neurological deficit is unusual. he might’ve been microdosed with fear toxin at some point, though i wonder when... did jason do so after dick’s accident? did he get dosed at the factory from last episode? 

it’s also possible it’s a continuing manifestation of dick’s issues from last season--which, if you remember, he never told anyone about and therefore never properly addressed. maybe he was hallucinating bruce wayne in a psychotic episode accompanying an acute stress reaction and maybe that’s what’s happening now. nobody’s denying that he’s under an extraordinary amount of stress right now. another way to look at it is that this is how he externalises conflict that he can’t bear to suppress anymore; if in s2 halluci!bruce manifested his insecurities and self-loathing, then these hallucinations... something to do with his fears, no doubt.

yet ANOTHER way to look at it might be: rachel is reaching out to him through their, well, psychic bond. after all, they were able to use that bond unconsciously last season to get the titans back together; maybe rachel has learned to gain a degree of control over it in themyscira and is sending across warnings? it’s all very intriguing.

anyway:

“i hear you skipped over the discowing suit in your evolution to nightwing... how could you??”

14. can you imagine, gar did all the work of reaching out to jason via molly and jason wants to meet dick? smh.

14.5. “i’m just a regular guy doing regular things” he says, standing at the opening of a secret old tunnel, like a secret person doing secret things, confronting someone who can now officially be called his stalker. neither of you guys are ‘regular’

14.8. ‘my dad was a cop and he taught me how to investigate’ - hmmm. i guess they’re trying to Explain Tim but i don’t think that’s really necessary. so he’s smart and he’s obsessed with batman and robin--that should be enough, imo. 

15. that scene with scarecrow and his mother was... wow. i’m just laughing here helplessly, because what the hell? for a while i thought it was an extended dream sequence and i’m still not entirely sure that it isn’t...

anyway. i still love that titans is happy to throw out its plot in favour of extended character-exploration sessions.

15.5. it seems to me that this scene with crane and his mother (i have no idea if there’s anything in the comics similar to this) serves to move forward this season’s theme of harmful legacies and how parents can damage their children in the name of their mission. in a way it’s been the underlying message of the entire show but we’re really seeing it being reinforced this season. the titans, serving as a foil to scarecrow, are using the damage to rebuild themselves and actually work through their issues together, instead of spiralling further and further into the morass of their issues.

other than that... god, that scene was painful to watch. i can’t say i like this version of scarecrow or how this actor plays him at all.

16. i wonder what’s jason’s play here. i think he’s smart enough to realise that the titans aren’t going to just forgive him and let him be a titan again after what he did, and that dick agreeing to it is just a bid to pin both him and crane down. maybe it’s a ploy to trap them, get back on scarecrow’s good books so that he can have the drug again. who knows.

17. i absolutely felt dick when he said “we’ll bring him in and then re-assess the situation.” what the fuck else is he going to say? the priority is to get him.

so kory and dick are both hallucinating while potentially trying to rehabilitate their murderous siblings. CONFIDE IN EACH OTHER ALREADY

18. TIM NOOOO! you beautiful, reckless fool!

18.25. just to quickly address it here because i know it’s been brought up before: i think it’s perfectly justified to not have conner take tim to the hospital via superspeed because a) i don’t think we’ve seen conner do that with anybody so far and b) it’s probably not a good idea to submit tim’s body to that kind of stress without knowing what it would do to him. the paramedics with actual equipment and experience would be there in a few minutes, so on a risk assessment, i would say dick and conner absolutely made the right call.

18.5. i guess we won’t know what jason really intended to when the titans came to the pump to see him, but this is definitely going to set a big wedge in his relationship with crane. then again, crane got what he wanted--using starfire’s powers to blast through to the underground pipes--so jason can argue that this is exactly what he was working towards, too. 

anyway, mortal peril, hallucinations, murderous family members, creepy visions and robins sprouting left and right. time to get rachel and donna on the scene, i think.

[annsparksthegmr]

Pokemon Black Nuzlocke - Part 5

So originally this next part was written up on Christmas Eve but I had no time to post for a little bit. But here is the continuation and while this part seems tame, all I’ll say is that if anyone was wondering about my current lucky streak - wait until the next part because things have gotten extra spicy.) But read more below to get the set up for what is coming in the next part.)

The journey continues where I left it off. And that would be me heading to Twist Mountain and Cherry challenging me to another battle. No true problems with the battle. At the very least, Captain finally evolved into a Seismitoad and Alder came and gave us the HM for Surf. And I didn’t know Odette/Swanna could learn Surf despite it making sense. Just as how seeing Clay inside Twist Mountain completely escaped my memory. 

I was kind of nervous about Twist Mountain until I realized it was currently winter in game. Meaning that snow was built up for ease of accessing certain areas! I could have cheated that way but I wanted to explore everything. So I’ll keep things brief. Queen finally evolved into her final Serperior form. Most of my encounters ended up being Cubchoo and Boldore. But I eventually got my encounter: a female Woobat who I called Rouge. My own team reveals how I got no real Dark/Ghost Type Moves. Which would only mean with the team I have now would have to be Gracey. But at the same time, it would mean having another slow Pokemon. I am not sure.

I managed to escape from Twist Mountain without too much trouble. Icirrus City came and I was already hopeful with Ramona’s performance I can hopefully survive the upcoming Gym Challenge. Then I was dumb and stumped across the quiz house. And instead of exploring more, I decided to challenge the Gym. Seeing as how there was nothing in my way.

But what are the odds of getting frozen? A lot according to the RNG rolls which kept freezing Ramona. Though through her Sheer Force most are defeated without issue. Zigzagzop is also assisting with his own Flame Charges so I don’t have to use many Ethers or return to the Pokemon Center that often. Plus I bought a few dozen Moomoo Milks; I should be good on healing items for a while.

With no issues at all, I come upon Brycen and officially start our battle off! I had Zigzagzog out first to help weaken his Vanillish so I could have a clean switch into Ramona to tackle his other Pokemon. Though having him waste a Hyper Potion on the Vanillish is helpful. For me at least. Brycen sent out his Beatrix next, so I brought out Ramona to unleash her Sheer Force Fire Punch and knocked his ace out in one hit. Surprisingly his Cryogonal was faster, but Ramona took it like a champ and secured another battle without fail.

Meaning I managed to gain the seventh Gym Badge without any deaths! This made me extremely happy. Especially of how far Zipzapzop has carried my journey thus far. 

With my ego rising high, I exited the Gym to find Cheren, Bianca, Brycen and the Shadow Triad. N decided he needed ninjas to deliver me a message instead of, oh I don’t know, come and ask for me to go there like a regular person!? Seriously, sometimes I wonder what would change if N acted differently at some points.

Though I eventually oblige his request and go to Dragonspiral Tower. Even though everything is shaking because they are waking a dragon up. Or at least I think N is trying to awaken Zekrom. My encounter in the Tower was a Golett. A troublesome Pokemon to catch until I tossed a Heal Ball at it. Decided to call him BFG for fun.

Passing by Cheren and Brycen, I made my way up dealing with some more Team Plasma members. None even bothered to put up a challenge worth noting. And it’s not like I’m too overleveled - maybe aside from Zipzapzop. He’s only just level 40 at this point because of Amulet Coin switching tactics.

Then one of the Sages decided to have his four Grunts ambush me. Because isn’t that nice? And the game please stop using Super and Hyper Fangs back to back on Pebbles. I don’t want to lose her. Here, this ambush is an actual challenge since I can’t ambush healing in between battles! Another point I hate in Sword and Shield is how many times I get healed in between important battles. This is why I stock up on items; I like to use them for long dungeons or situations where I have no healing station nearby. And in actual challenging dungeons. Because even if I’m not having too much trouble with the grunts of Team Plasma, they are already giving me a challenge. By making me use all my Pokémon. And not just soloing them with a single one which knocks out all in a single hit.

Pardon my mini rant. I plan to keep those to a minimum. Yet the time has come for an ACTUAL CUTSCENE. N declares I go find Reshiram and to head to the Pokemon League. Giving me a better reason than just going to beat Leon’s butt and making Hop depressed. And I almost zoned out on the group meeting with Alder. 

Time to head to Relic Castle after I stock up on Super Repels. That quick pit stop and having Odette learn Fly allowed me to easily reach my target destination. But I did not expect an old sage man named Ryoku to be inside. Which means, time to beat up more Team Plasma Grunts!! 

Reaching the bottom was not a challenge and more of Ghetsis telling me to go and get Reshiram to fight N and all that jazz. You get the idea. Also Ghetsis seemingly shoved me out of the way. I’m awaiting the moment to kick his ass - pardon my language, but he deserves at least one bad word thrown at him.

Professor Juniper calls me to head back to Nacrene City and I finally obtain the Light Stone. Alder warns me about the responsibility, but as the main character I will be fine. Besides, with this I get the cool cutscene relating to the stone. Unlike some OTHER weapon relics. 

But that left me wondering about one thing.. Not enough to completely forget the battle with Bianca before the bridge. Forgot to heal up my Pokemon before this, but it added an extra bit of challenge. I feel happy with Bianca discovering what she wants to do. Even it won’t be fully realized until the sequel.

Apparently the Shadow Triad decided to force me into meeting with Ghetsis on the bridge. Even though he is impending my process. Not sure if it was just to ensure I wouldn’t run away or what. Still want to punch him in the face. He was basically taunting me even though it would be worth nothing.

But Route 9 came with the giant mall/shopping center. Aka Shopping Mall Nine. I’d get my encounter later after I went into the city. Also I guess I’m friends with Alder now. I love Iris and Drayden. Same with Opelucid City. It changes depending on which version. As with the Gym Leader. Though I went back and found a male Gothorita and named him Tim Burton.

Now to quickly go with Iris to learn more about the Dragon Pokemon before I try and change up my team. Because in the long run, I think sadly some of my team may have to be benched. Only because if I don’t have a Ghost/Dark move on my team, I’m going in trouble for the Elite 4. And I might need to invest into an Ice-Type for this upcoming Dragon Gym. Onto another quick training session.

I decided to leave Queen in the PC for this Gym. As out of everyone, she was the weakest link when it came to Dragons. Grass and Dragon did not mix well. And I didn’t want to lose Queen due to a mistake on my part. So Snowball will be replacing her for the Gym. I tested out how my team would fare by challenging the first Trainer of the Gym. Turns out that my fears only grew when Fraxures started using Dragon Dance and resisted most of my moves. Even almost taking out Captain with double or triple Dragon Dance Dragon Claw. Left Captain at just 8 HP. 

I may also have to replace him as well regarding this Gym if that was any indication. I might as well train up BananSplit afterwards. And after realizing that Dragons resist Electric, Grass, Water and Fire - most of which were the Types I had, I think it is best to end it off here for one last grinding session for a secondary team to challenge the Gym. Because Drayden is already showing me why I should be worried if most of my team could easily get wiped out. With only Pebbles having a slightly higher chance of surviving. 

And I can secretly level up some potential party replacements. So until next time!

I’ll smell you all later…!

Team Recap:

Queen - Female Serperior (Lvl 39)

Pebbles - Female Boldore (Lvl 40)

Zigzagzop - Male Zebstrika (Lvl 45)

Captain - Male Seismitoad (Lvl 45)

Ramona - Female Darmanitan (Lvl 42)

Odette - Female Swanna (Lvl 45)

In Box/Reserve:

Ghost Girl - Female Liepard (Lvl 20)

Cassandra - Female Sandile (Lvl 21)

Trashie - Female Trubbish (Lvl 22)

Lowen - Male Cottonee (Lvl 20)

Lady - Female Minccino (Lvl 23)

BananSplit - Female Vanillite (Lvl 21)

Voltorb - Male Foongus�� (Lvl 23)

Geartown - Klink (Lvl 36)

Snowball - Female Cubchoo (Lv 30)

Gracey - Male Litwick (Lvl 26)

Rouge - Female Woobat (Lvl 29)

BFG - Golett (Lvl 30)

Tim Burton - Male Gothorita (Lvl 31)

Deaths: 2

Fountain - Male Sampour (Lvl 15)

Puppy - Female Herdier (Lvl 25)

[mrstevenbushus]

Expert Guide to Project Management

Project management is one of those terms that can conjure up all sorts of negative images and worries for the average self builder.

It is often associated with large scale, difficult tasks and carries implicit references to risk and the potential for things to go horribly wrong.

When we think of project management, we often think of big schemes like the Millennium Dome, nuclear power stations and the HS2 rail link.

In reality, project management applies to small-scale as well as large-scale activity.

So even projects that are relatively small – and that includes a domestic self-build or renovation – need to be managed. But by whom? The question is whether to risk having a go ourselves, or leave it to the pros.

The basics of project management

In simple terms, project management encompasses the skills needed to produce a defined outcome (a new house) within the constraints of the resources available (your budget) and within a certain timescale.

The latter can be flexible, but for some reason usually manifests itself as “in the house before Christmas”. We often encounter project management in our day-to-day lives without a second thought.

Arranging a family holiday, planning a wedding and organising the office party are all projects that we are happy to approach with little or no prior experience – and more often than not, with great success.

Building a house is no different. People have constructed homes for centuries. Quite a few builders and tradesmen know how to do it rather well because, for most projects, it’s not rocket science.

Leaving aside one-off conceptual designs and instead focusing on the typical houses that we might contemplate building for ourselves, the sequence of events is based on common sense.

The real art is in finding the right materials and people to do the job to the standard you require, for a price you can afford.

Who can project manage?

There are undoubtedly professional project managers out there who will be able to take day-to-day control of your build, but the clue is in the ‘professional’ bit.

They don’t come cheap and most self builders have a finite budget, the majority of which needs to be allocated to the physical construction by way of materials and labour.

This prompts most of us to either undertake the role of project manager ourselves or to entrust the role to a general builder – someone who knows what they are doing and has the contacts to get the right trades at the right price.

I have long argued that for the typical self builder contemplating a straightforward new build, this is a sensible route to take, as long as you select the right builder.

Read more: Self Build Routes &  Costs

Remember though, the best builder is not necessarily the cheapest. While they need to be affordable, it is just as important that they are capable of doing a good job. Gauging that means doing your homework by asking them for references and following them up.

A good builder will always want to do a high-quality job as his next contract depends on it – after all, you’re the one who will be providing the references to the next clients.

Alternatively, you can ask your architect to undertake the project management role. For complex designs or builds where there is identifiable risk, this is a sensible route.

Case study: Should my architect project manage my self build?

John and Judith Turner had almost given up hope that they would ever be able to build their own house.

Their planning application to do just that on their previous East Sussex home’s tennis courts had been refused in 2009, so when John retired a couple of years later, they decided to up sticks.

They moved to Wales to be nearer their daughter and her family, and bought a Georgian farmhouse to renovate. The couple hadn’t long finished the project when, in summer 2014, architect and friend Nick Lomax, from LCE Architects, called John out of the blue with a proposal.

read the story

Architects often calculate their management fees as a percentage of the build costs (typically around 10% or so for a full service).

A common worry is that this incentivises the architect to ‘build big’ and specify expensive materials to maximise their potential return.

That said, in the recent downturn some architects have had a difficult time finding work, so they might be persuaded to do the work for a fixed fee, which gives you far more control over costs.

Should I hire a professional project manager?

So is it worth employing a professional project manager? A good one should save you some, most or even all of their fees by bringing greater efficiency to the site. By buying materials efficiently, avoiding costly delays and minimising rework, the build will be completed on time, on budget and with the minimum of fuss.

While professionals are available, they tend not to be used on the average self build project for the simple reason that they are often not on a large enough scale to make the necessary savings.

Paying, say, 10% of build costs in project management fees on a £200,000 build equates to £20,000, which pays for a kitchen and bathroom on many projects. For large, complex or cutting-edge projects, I would suggest that hiring in an architect or project manager is money well spent.

Calling in the professionals can sometimes save the day. Talking to project manager Tim Hearne of Thyme Building Consultancy, for example, he explained to me how he was able to rescue a self build in north Essex where the client ran into difficulties with their main contractor.

Work had started on his client’s five-bedroom home in December 2011, but progress was slow and the build was only 65% complete 11 months later. Eventually, work ground to a halt and the contractor began demanding more money to complete the project.

Realising that things were getting out of control, the client called in Tim and his team. In taking over the management and administration of the project, Tim sourced a new main contractor.

Just two months later, the building was complete and ready to be occupied (surprise, surprise) just before Christmas 2012 – much to the homeowner’s relief.

There’s a legitimate argument that says if a project manager has the skills, knowledge and contacts to build a house, then they are better off simply building houses rather than acting as middlemen.

Well, that’s exactly what many project managers do, and you will often see general builders presenting themselves as project managers. If there is one thing builders hate, it’s having to pull together endless quotations and compete with other firms with no certainty that they will get the job.

These days, you will often find project managers who, in exchange for a guarantee that they will be awarded the contract, will agree an acceptable ceiling price for the whole job but will then seek quotations for the individual trades and pass on some of any savings made to the client – a win-win situation.

You know the most it will cost you to build, but the contractor has an incentive to get the best prices from the trades he hires because he can increase his own margin while saving you money. What’s not to like?

Should I self manage my project?

The final option is to take on the project management role yourself.

A surprising number of people take the plunge and successfully complete their project, although most will tell you that it takes up virtually all of their time.

Because of this, first-time self builders often use one of the established package companies such as Potton or D&M Homes, which have experts on hand to help as much or as little as required throughout the project.

Then, if they decide to move on to another self build, confidence levels are that much higher because the processes involved are clearer and easier to address the second time round.

Case study: Should I project manage my self build?

Patience is always a virtue when it comes to self building, and this was certainly the case for Paul Rea and Nicola Jones, whose desire to create a new sustainable home took 13 years to come to fruition.

With their combined experience and interest in sustainable transport and renewable energy, Paul and Nicola were determined for their new abode to be as low-impact and energy efficient as possible.

Eventually, they were able to put their scheme out to tender, and approached three local building firms. This was at a point when the industry was coming out of recession, so unfortunately all three companies went with better offers than Paul and Nicola’s project.

Instead, the couple decided to take on the project management of the build, doing as much of the work as they could themselves.

read the story

If you do decide to project manage your own build, then remember that you are taking on responsibility for everything that happens – in other words, the buck stops with you.

It may seem daunting, but when you are writing the cheques, you will be acutely aware that it’s your money that you are paying out, a fact that tends to concentrate the mind.

Of course, the trade-off is that it will take up much of your free time, but you will have a keen interest in making sure that you are getting value for money. You will be surprised at just how empowering this is and how much you are capable of.

The plus side to going it alone, of course, is that by taking on this risk you will inevitably save significant amounts of money. Not forgetting that it is immensely rewarding when you see the end result – a perfect new home, made to your exact specifications, that is only there because you made it so.

Published: May 2013 Main image: Phil Raby

The post Expert Guide to Project Management appeared first on Build It.

Article reference Expert Guide to Project Management

[cullen13fg9z1-blog]

Find Reliable Construction Pro Company Houston TX

Refurbishing for house or earnings There's a big difference in between remodeling your very own home versus remodeling your investment residential or commercial property. Here's some tips. Wish to refurbish your home however do not know where to begin? A step-by-step guide t. Don't wait up until you are halfway through your renovation to find that you should have painted the walls before laying the strong lumber floorings or that the electrical wiring ought to have been finished prior to the new ceiling entered. Follow a list in your remodelling project for less tension and mess.

" The benefit to working from a checklist is clarity," states property business owner Michael Tiemens from residential or commercial property experts, Peak Property Group in Melbourne. "It supplies complete transparency about what has to happen and when. It can then assist you in rolling out the procedure and handling your tasks and trades people in the right order. This creates general effectiveness and task circulation.".

Design and preparation. " Keep it simple and be as last about your decisions as you can be before you begin. Changes to styles and materials throughout the procedure add hold-ups and costs that can really damage your budget plan," states remodeling professional Tim Carter, from Foreshore Projects in Sydney.

If you are going to do it yourself or employ a job manager or home builder, choose. " Employ a task manager/builder as this will keep the work streaming and they will employ licensed trades that will show up and do a good job. You will likewise receive a seven-year warranty for the work finished," says Angeline O'Shannessy, project supervisor and designer from Beautiful Hunter Homes, who has actually been purchasing and renovating homes for over 20 years.

" If you decide to go it by yourself you have to arrange the required sell the right order and make sure their work is done to Australian standards. I would suggest that you request for a copy of their licences and insurance coverages so you are covered if anything goes wrong.".

Get council approval. You will require to contact your council to clarify the regional guidelines prior to you start remodellings, says Bernadette Janson from The School of Renovating in Sydney. "Are you doing additions? Are you changing the use of any rooms? (for instance changing a bed room to a restroom.) Are you making structural modifications? Are you planning a deck bigger than 20 square metres and higher than one metre? Some areas require council approval for changes to the external appearance of the home, even altering paint colours," she states.

What to purchase. " Look at what requirements to be purchased," states Tiemens. "Many times the hot water systems, heating and/or cooling, roof tiles, weatherboards, circuitry, plumbing can be costly products which can blow your budget. Don't forget the cosmetic components to the home, for example painting, floor coverings, tapware, kitchen area, restrooms, tiling, wardrobes, storage, fencing and landscaping.

" Purchase all your fittings and components prior to you start, this will decrease the possibility of delays on the task site," states O'Shannessy.

Sequence of works. In general, work from the leading to the bottom of a room. As Janson points out, "it is best to co-ordinate the work by trade rather than room by room.". Dickins suggests the following easy guide for the series of works for a kitchen remodelling.

Design: Work out what you are doing, run it past the trades included, such as the contractor and electrical contractor, and check requirements for unique fittings, such as connecting the refrigerator to plumbing or tapware with filters.

Demo: Remove all the debris so there is a safe, clear area to work. Pull up the flooring and get rid of all the cabinets.

Rough in: This is when brand-new wall framing enters, plus electricals, pipes and gas are placed.

Walls and ceilings: Plasterboard is set up, with brand-new ceilings if required.

Windows and doors: All trims, architraves and skirtings must go in before the cabinets.

Cabinets: Install the carcasses, leaving the doors up until later so there is gain access to for the home appliances, like the dishwasher.

Bench sink and taps: The bench is typically cut to fit the sink so have them installed together.

Paint and splashback: Finalise all the painting prior to setting up the splashback or tiling and laying the floor.

Flooring: Lay the floor after the cabinets, however before the devices.

Devices and lighting: Call the plumbing professional and electrical contractor back to set up these.

Cabinet doors: Hang the doors, place the drawers and include any open shelves.

Lastly keep in mind that the renovation is most likely to be more expensive and untidy than you envisioned. Tiemens has some sound suggestions for getting to the end of your project. "No matter which design of restoration you are pursuing, the last 20 percent will take you longest and cost the most so it is necessary to persist right the method through till completion without cutting corners and be diligent in following your spending plan and check list.".

Let's clarify things for a second here. I am not a specialist, and this is not an article about the technical elements of really completing specific tasks.

I'm writing this because throughout 3 months of gutting and refurbishing a 2600 square foot house, I've found out a lot about the preparation, procedure, and execution of a remodel job.

Even with an excellent basic specialist, you ought to understand the general timeline and order of operations (so to speak) to finish a massive task in the most organized and effective method possible.

You may not be gutting and remodeling an entire home, however even if you need to tear just one space to the studs, you ought to recognize with the procedure of putting it back together.

Completing a remodel of this quality isn't really totally dissimilar from building brand-new building. Rather of pouring a structure and framing a house, you'll be tearing up existing materials. Depending upon just how much have to be eliminated, you'll start your restoration at a various part in the timeline.

I'll get more into the timeline and spending plan discussion in next week's post, but for today I wish to focus on preparation, design, and scope of work.

DESIGNER OR DIY? Many individuals opt to work with a designer for part or all their house style. We met a kitchen area designer but eventually chose to conserve several thousand dollars by figuring it out ourselves. Some might think that is an insane idea, while others (like me!) love handling the creative and tactical components of a task.

If you do not desire to be involved with the daily work, you will probably wish to prepare to hire a designer to deal with your general contractor to make sure all the work is performed inning accordance with strategy.

SCOPE OF WORK. Prior to you start on any of the real work, you'll have to plan what you wish to do to your home and establish a scope of work.

Are you just swapping out paint and floor covering? Do you plan to gut the whole kitchen? Are you going to re-use any of your original products? Will you be taking down or setting up any walls? Considerably changing the design of a kitchen area or bathroom? Are you going to need to re-route any pipes or electrical?

When we took on our own remodel job, we considered the design of the home and thought of how we wanted to use the space, what our future requirements might be, and exactly what we would enjoy aesthetically.

House renovation and repair work can be a fantastic method to increase the worth of your house. If you own a piece of property that remains in desperate need of repair work, you are most likely continuously on the appearance out for the most recent in remodeling styles.

There are a range of locations that you can discover excellent remodeling ideas:.

* Magazines.

* Interior Design Studios.

* Other Homes.

* Building Supply Centers.

* Internet Sites.

* Friends and Family.

Renovating your house takes more than just a style. A home remodel takes a lot of effort and dedication on your part.

You are going to be the one accountable for developing completion outcome. Although contractors and contractors will be doing the actual work, it is up to you to explain exactly what you will need. The much better you can explain you requires, the much better vision others will have.

This description is a tough part of innovative home improvement. Often, individuals understand precisely what they want completion lead to look like, but their lack of capability to clearly describe it can destroy completion product for them.

When narrowing down your redesigning vision it is crucial to bear in mind three things.

1. Information - Don't leave any detail out, no matter how small. The more detail you can offer your professional the better they will have the ability to see the vision that you see.

2. Concerns - Ask the people dealing with your job a lot of concerns. Attempt to get a feel for their understanding for the end result. If it ends up being clear that they are not seeing the same final product as you ... then go back to the details and try again. Don't be scared to clarify that everybody dealing with your job understands what you desire.

Talk straight to all parties included and don't go through a third celebration, e-mails, or voicemails. Only straight in person can you be sure that your vision is fully understood.

If you keep these factors in mind, your home redesigning experience can be a great one.

Home remodeling is one of the most stressful things anybody can do. It is a process of ruining, then reconstructing a piece of home that is really important to you. So don't begin your project till you are genuinely prepared to commit yourself to it.

When you are devoted to your renovating project, make a clear prepare for the completed item and be sure to share your plan with all of the celebrations involved in finishing the remodel.

Finally ... Relax. Renovation is difficult, but if you are decisive and clear with your vision, then you will have little to stress about. Continue to talk to the employees on your project to guarantee they are still seeing the same vision as you, then attempt and unwind to delight in the process of house renovation.

" The advantage to working from a checklist is clarity," states property business owner Michael Tiemens from residential or commercial property experts, Peak Property Group in Melbourne. Numerous people pick to work with a designer for part or all of their home design. Builders and specialists will be doing the real work, it is up to you to explain exactly what you will require. Questions - Ask the individuals working on your job a lot of questions. Don't be afraid to clarify that everyone working on your job understands exactly what you want.

[tipriwacer1976-blog]

Find Reliable Construction Pro Houston

Renovating for home or revenue There's a huge distinction between renovating your own house versus refurbishing your financial investment residential or commercial property. Here's some pointers. Wish to renovate your house however do not know where to start? A detailed guide t. Don't wait till you are halfway through your remodelling to find that you should have painted the walls prior to laying the strong wood floorings or that the circuitry need to have been completed before the brand-new ceiling went in. Follow a list in your restoration project for less stress and mess.

" The advantage to working from a list is clarity," says property entrepreneur Michael Tiemens from residential or commercial property specialists, Peak Property Group in Melbourne. This produces general effectiveness and task flow.".

Style and preparation. " Keep it easy and be as final about your decisions as you can be before you start. Changes to styles and materials during the procedure add delays and expenses that can actually destroy your budget plan," states remodeling skilled Tim Carter, from Foreshore Projects in Sydney.

If you are going to do it yourself or hire a task supervisor or contractor, choose. " Employ a project manager/builder as this will keep the work flowing and they will use licensed trades that will show up and do a good task. You will also receive a seven-year guarantee for the work finished," says Angeline O'Shannessy, job manager and designer from Beautiful Hunter Homes, who has been purchasing and refurbishing homes for over 20 years.

" If you decide to go it by yourself you have to organize the required sell the appropriate order and make certain their work is done to Australian requirements. I would advise that you request a copy of their licences and insurance coverages so you are covered if anything fails.".

Get council approval. You will have to consult your council to clarify the local policies before you begin renovations, states Bernadette Janson from The School of Renovating in Sydney. "Are you doing additions? Are you changing making use of any spaces? (for instance altering a bed room to a bathroom.) Are you making structural modifications? Are you preparing a deck bigger than 20 square metres and greater than one metre? Some areas require council approval for modifications to the external appearance of the property, even changing paint colours," she states.

Exactly what to purchase. " Look at what have to be acquired," says Tiemens. "Many times the warm water systems, heating and/or cooling, roofing tiles, weatherboards, electrical wiring, plumbing can be costly items which can blow your budget plan. Remember the cosmetic aspects to the home, for example painting, flooring, tapware, cooking area, bathrooms, tiling, wardrobes, landscaping, storage and fencing.

" Purchase all your fittings and components before you begin, this will lower the possibility of hold-ups on the task site," states O'Shannessy.

Series of works. In general, work from the top to the bottom of a space. For instance, start with the ceilings, then the walls and the floors. "If you are laying brand-new floorings, it is best to have actually the painting done first to prevent spills or splashes," says Dickins. As Janson explains, "it is best to co-ordinate the work by trade instead of room by space.". Dickins recommends the following easy guide for the series of works for a kitchen area renovation.

Style: Work out exactly what you are doing, run it past the trades included, such as the contractor and electrician, and check requirements for unique fittings, such as linking the fridge to plumbing or tapware with filters.

Demo: Remove all the rubble so there is a safe, clear area to work. Bring up the floor covering and eliminate all the cabinets.

Rough in: This is when brand-new wall framing goes in, plus electricals, plumbing and gas are placed.

Walls and ceilings: Plasterboard is installed, with new ceilings if required.

Doors and windows: All architraves, skirtings and trims should go in before the cabinets.

Cabinets: Install the carcasses, leaving the doors up until later on so there is access for the appliances, like the dishwashing machine.

Bench sink and taps: The bench is usually cut to fit the sink so have them set up together.

Paint and splashback: Finalise all the painting prior to tiling or setting up the splashback and laying the floor.

Floor covering: Lay the floor after the cabinets, however before the appliances.

Home appliances and lighting: Call the plumbing professional and electrical contractor back to set up these.

Cabinet doors: Hang the doors, place the drawers and include any open shelves.

Finally keep in mind that the restoration is most likely to be more messy and costly than you pictured. Tiemens has some sound guidance for getting to completion of your job. "No matter which design of restoration you are pursuing, the last 20 percent will take you longest and cost the most so it is very important to continue right the way through up until completion without cutting corners and be thorough in following your budget plan and check list.".

Let's clarify things for a second here. I am not a contractor, and this is not a short article about the technical elements of really completing specific jobs.

I'm composing this because throughout 3 months of gutting and renovating a 2600 square foot home, I've found out a lot about the preparation, procedure, and execution of a remodel project.

Even with a top notch general specialist, you need to know the total timeline and order of operations (so to speak) to complete a massive job in the most organized and effective method possible.

You might not be gutting and remodeling an entire house, but even if you have to tear simply one room to the studs, you need to be familiar with the process of putting it back together.

Finishing a remodel of this caliber isn't really totally dissimilar from constructing brand-new building. Rather of putting a structure and framing a home, you'll be wrecking existing products. Depending upon how much needs to be removed, you'll start your restoration at a different part in the timeline.

I'll get more into the timeline and budget plan discussion in next week's post, however for today I want to concentrate on planning, style, and scope of work.

DESIGNER OR DIY? Many individuals opt to work with a designer for part or all their house style. We satisfied with a kitchen area designer however eventually chose to conserve several thousand dollars by figuring it out ourselves. Some may think that is a crazy idea, while others (like me!) love handling the tactical and innovative elements of a project.

If you do not desire to be included with the daily work, you will probably desire to plan to work with a designer to work with your general professional to make sure all of the work is performed inning accordance with strategy.

SCOPE OF WORK. Prior to you begin on any of the actual work, you'll have to plan out exactly what you desire to do to your home and establish a scope of work.

Are you merely swapping out paint and floor covering? Do you plan to gut the whole kitchen? Are you going to re-use any of your initial materials? Will you be removing or installing any walls? Considerably altering the layout of a kitchen area or bathroom? Are you going to require to re-route any plumbing or electrical?

When we took on our own remodel task, we thought about the layout of your house and considered how we desired to use the space, what our future needs might be, and what we would delight in aesthetically.

House remodeling and repair can be a great method to increase the value of your house. If you own a piece of realty that is in desperate requirement of repair work, you are most likely constantly on the look out for the latest in remodeling styles.

There are a variety of locations that you can find terrific remodeling ideas:.

* Magazines.

* Interior Design Studios.

* Other Homes.

* Building Supply Centers.

* Internet Sites.

* Friends and Family.

Redesigning your home takes more than simply a style. A house remodel takes a lot of effort and commitment on your part.

You are going to be the one accountable for producing the end outcome. Builders and contractors will be doing the actual work, it is up to you to describe exactly what you will need. The better you can describe you needs, the much better vision others will have.

This description is a hard part of creative home renovation. Typically, individuals know exactly what they want completion result to appear like, but their absence of ability to plainly describe it can mess up completion product for them.

When narrowing down your renovating vision it is essential to bear in mind three things.

1. Details - Don't leave any information out, no matter how little. The more detail you can offer your specialist the better they will be able to see the vision that you see.

2. Concerns - Ask the people dealing with your job a lot of questions. Attempt to get a feel for their understanding for the end outcome. Then go back to the information and try again, if it ends up being clear that they are not seeing the very same completed item as you .... Do not be afraid to clarify that everyone working on your task understands what you want.

3. Don't be shy - This is not a time for shyness. Talk directly to all celebrations involved and don't go through a 3rd party, e-mails, or voicemails. Only straight personally can you be sure that your vision is completely understood.

If you keep these aspects in mind, your home renovating experience can be an excellent one.

House remodeling is among the most demanding things anybody can do. It is a procedure of destroying, then restoring a piece of property that is essential to you. So don't start your job till you are truly prepared to dedicate yourself to it.

Once you are committed to your remodeling task, make a clear plan for the completed product and make certain to share your plan with all of the celebrations involved in completing the remodel.

Lastly ... Relax. Renovation is difficult, but if you are decisive and clear with your vision, then you will have little to worry about. Continue to talk to the employees on your task to guarantee they are still seeing the very same vision as you, then try and unwind to delight in the process of house remodeling.

" The advantage to working from a checklist is clearness," states residential or commercial property entrepreneur Michael Tiemens from home consultants, Peak Property Group in Melbourne. Numerous people select to work with a designer for part or all of their house style. Builders and contractors will be doing the actual work, it is up to you to explain exactly what you will need. Questions - Ask the people working on your project a lot of questions. Don't be scared to clarify that everybody working on your task understands exactly what you desire.

[itsworn]

Homemade, 50-Year-Old Fuel Motor Roars Back To Life

The Big Banger Theory

Fueler.

Improbable survival stories are standard equipment around here. HOT ROD Deluxe is known for telling resurrection tales that defy all odds and logic. Some of those story ideas surely would’ve been rejected outright by skeptical editors as borderline unbelievable, had photographic evidence not undeniably documented a journey from distant past to survivor. Forget “borderline”; this is one backyard project that’s been unreal from the very start, when a retired machinist began building his racing engine, literally—a gigantic four-banger that once again cackles with nitromethane—a half-century later.

If that already sounds unbelievable, prepare to suspend disbelief long enough to hear the rest of the story. The happy ending depicted by these current photos followed decades of neglect, disassembly, and even theft that could’ve, would’ve, and certainly should’ve written a far sadder story. The magical intervention of a young Springfield, Oregon, engine builder was the last link in a long chain of unlikely coincidences—or was it something else?

“I feel like Grandpa led me to him,” says Carol Stange, a since-retired meter reader for the Springfield Utility Board in Oregon whose monthly route included a joint named Tim’s Muscle Cars. She’d never met or even seen anyone on the grounds until the day she spied an old Lyndwood dragster chassis out front. As a lifelong gearhead from Long Beach, California, whose grandfather had exposed the whole family to nearby Lions Drag Strip, Carol couldn’t resist knocking on the office door. When nobody answered, she walked inside and to the back of the building, following male voices.

“A buddy and I were painting his GTO in my spray booth,” Tim Riel recalls. “We both had respirators on. I thought, ‘Wow, this lady has a lot of nerve, walking up to a couple of strangers wearing masks!’” Tim and Carol agree that their introductory conversation began something like this:

“Hi, I saw your dragster out front. My grandfather had one of those.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, in the mid-1960s. He built his own engine. Car Craft wrote about it.”

“Is your grandpa Byron Barnes?”

Imagine Carol’s shock, hearing a total stranger utter the name of her late grandfather. “I followed him up to the front office, where Tim had a big stack of magazines. He went right to the issue and pulled it out. I said, ‘Yeah, that’s the article.’ I couldn’t believe this was happening! Tim seemed intrigued that the chassis survived, was still in the family, and was here in Oregon.”

A magazine published seven years before Tim Riel was born just happened to be among several milk crates of “moldy, smelly, old paper” that he’d recently purchased from a swap-meet vendor. Tim and his machinist father, Rod Riel, had been going through the pile that very week. “We kept coming back to that Car Craft and that one article. We couldn’t get over how much work went into the engine. It still amazes me. This guy not only made his own engine parts; first, he had to design and build the tooling to make them. Everything had to be perfectly aligned for those pistons to go up and down. Even with today’s technology, not many people would—or even could—do what her grandpa did 50 years ago.”

So, as an engineering exercise, this project was pretty hard to beat; as a race car, not so much. In fact, it never got past the testing stage. When the late, great writer A.B. Shuman submitted his tech story around March 1967, Byron had run the rail twice. First time out, injected on nitro, netted “a quite respectable 120 mph in eleven seconds, shutting off at the halfway mark and coasting through the traps,” CC reported. Switching to dual Weber carbs and, presumably, gasoline for a second try, there was another half-pass of 129 mph but no e.t reported by Shuman. Gifford Barnes counts three trips to Lions Drag Strip with his dad, all plagued by bogging off the line: “He couldn’t get the fuel system right,” he explains. “After the car stumbled, it really charged, but Mickey [Okahara, the driver] couldn’t get away clean.” The wide variety of used parts visible in photos and recovered by Tim Riel point to additional experimentation, as does the only time slip left behind. On the back is scrawled, “50% nitro.” If, in fact, the indicated 8.74 and 164 were recorded by this car, it would’ve been one of the swiftest four-bangers of the era—but not competitive for the type of racing Byron initially envisioned.

Considering how many years one old guy, working alone, needed to bring this engine, particularly, plus a homebuilt chassis all the way from conception to completion—the crankshaft alone required 30 days, according to CC—it’s hardly surprising that classification rules would evolve. The article cites so-called “junior fuelers” for Byron’s inspiration. After Lions bowed out of the fuel ban in 1962, that unofficial term came to be loosely applied to single-engined, normally aspirated dragsters burning nitromethane and/or methanol, regardless of engine type or size. Those not quick enough to qualify for Top Fuel Eliminator might’ve run Top Gas or amongst themselves. Byron’s decision to make his sheetmetal cylinder block tall enough to displace either 353 or 392 ci hardly seems coincidental at a time when 354 and 392 Chryslers were fashionable. Some injected Chevys were poked ’n’ stroked to 358 and even 389 cubes.

By the time Byron was ready to go, Lions had banished fuel burners from Top Gas and created an official Junior Fuel category for unblown engines no larger than 310 cubes. Bigger motors moved into either C/Fuel Dragster (up to 350 ci) or B/FD (to 400 ci), both of which were dominated by small-inch, blown Hemis and Chevys. No wonder Byron lost interest in 1968 or ’69 and parked this car. Indeed, but for one old magazine article and however few firsthand witnesses remain, nearly nobody would know it ever existed.

Getting back to Tim’s Muscle Cars, the Springfield meter reader regularly returned to share leisurely lunch breaks and talk shop. “All I knew was that the bare chassis was hanging in her uncle’s barn,” Tim says. “Carol never got over there to take pictures. I told her that I’d be interested in buying whatever was left.”

“Oh, yeah, he bugged me for over a year,” Carol confirms, laughing. “He’d say, ‘Can I just go see it, please?’ I didn’t want to bug my uncle Giff just so someone could look up in his rafters. But my family always hoped to get Grandpa’s dragster running. My cousin Frank, Giff’s son, started on that about 20 years ago. He took the car apart, spread the parts out on the bench, but it never went back together. When I finally called to tell my uncle I’d met a young guy with his own engine shop who might want to buy the car, Giff said, ‘Nope, he can’t buy it. If you really think he’ll do something with it, tell him to come get it.'”

What Carol didn’t know at the time was that thieves had recently removed critical components from Giff’s unlocked boat barn and sold them for scrap. Luckily, her uncle and cousin noticed parts missing in time to track down the metals dealer before he got around to melting or reselling most, though the rare quick-change rearend was already gone. They went to court to recover what remained and prevailed, eventually.

“All I expected to get was a chassis, or part of one,” Tim says. “I planned to look for dragster parts at swap meets, maybe put in an early Hemi or small-block. Carol’s mom, uncle, aunt, cousin, brother, and sister were all there to say goodbye to Grandpa’s dragster. I walked into this big metal shed with a huge fishing boat on one side. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Byron’s short-block was sitting on a crate. Piles of parts were on the floor. Both M&H slicks were still mounted on Halibrands. The original parachute was hanging from the rafters. We found the complete clutch assembly and can, all the mag body panels, even a firesuit. After everything was laid out at home the next day, I was amazed by how complete the car was. I saw it as a giant erector set, minus the rearend and some small pieces that my dad and I could probably make. We were lucky to have the Car Craft for reference.

“I was worried that Byron’s two children wouldn’t be around long enough to see it get done,” he adds. “I’d made them a promise to try, but Giff’s health was not good. He and his sister, Carol’s mom, were in their eighties. This was important. I wanted that engine to run again, on nitro. I really got into it.”

He sure did, gradually assembling the erector set most nights and weekends for eight months, in between engine work for patient patrons of Tim’s Muscle Cars. When he proudly unveiled the sum of those parts, Byron’s descendants were there to witness the resurrection of a father and grandfather, along with an old dragster. “We were all in tears,” Tim admits.

“To me, it’s just amazing how things worked out,” says Carol Stange, the fearless meter reader whose knock on one door opened so many more. “It was fun, and I just felt like it was meant to be.”

The all-homemade engine was designed to displace either 353 or 392 ci, depending on crankshaft selection. To minimize weight, designer-builder Byron Barnes settled on four cylinders (versus eight), a sheetmetal crankcase (versus cast iron), and valves in the block (versus overhead). Note the 3-inch offset, to counteract torque.

Both the dragster and the former Romania Chevrolet store were operational in the 1960s. Despite its lengthy wheelbase of 152 inches and maze of suspension tubing, the car weighed just 710 pounds, wet.

Everything orange was powdercoated by McKenzie Chrome Plating (Springfield, Oregon). All four wheels and tires are original. After the original mag body was ruined by a careless sandblaster—and Tim Riel was quoted a price of $3,500 per magnesium sheet—buddy Les Schoonover (Springfield) replicated the cowl and side panels in aluminum.

Restorer-caretaker Tim Riel estimates that no fewer than 100 pieces of sheet steel were welded together to create the 116-pound bare block.

Byron Barnes obviously had his own ideas about weight transfer, probably influenced by his oval-track history. He formed the fuel tank by cutting and merging two military-surplus water kettles engraved with the words “U.S. Army.”

The aluminum cover contains the coolant sitting on top of four individual cylinder heads. Water enters through the open hole (which still lacks a pressure cap to replace the tiny original). Boiling water exits through the overflow tube. Mike Maher did the pinstriping and lettering. The rear-main seal is a small-block Chevy item.

The parachute, M&H 8.20-15 Racemasters, and magnesium Halibrand wheels are original. The Portland Swap Meet produced a virtual duplicate of the stolen rearend assembly, including Halibrand champ-car quick-change, that fit perfectly.

Rod Riel, Tim’s machinist dad, reproduced one of the Anglia-style spindles and some missing suspension pieces on his CNC machines. The shocks are Volkswagen. The aluminum fuel line is original.

The custom tri-drive system is a work of art. A spur gear on the crank runs the cam, which drives the Bendix Mini-Mag, Hilborn fuel pump, and a Ford six-cylinder oil pump at the bottom that fills a custom dry-sump pan. A piece of leather that seals the timing cover to the crankcase is the closet thing to a gasket in the entire engine. Byron even built his own injectors. The original velocity stacks and Hilborn barrel valve survived, but not the exhaust flange and headers, which Rod Riel replicated. Since our photo session, Tim has completed the complicated linkage and added a mini-starter to the front of the crank. Previously, he hand-operated the throttle with a long rod connecting the individual injectors and fired the engine on a stand, since none of the Riels can squeeze into the cockpit for push starting.

Since stumbling onto this photography location in Eugene, Oregon, we’ve learned that the former home of Lew Williams and, later, Joe Romania Chevrolet is infamous for 2000 and 2001 arson attacks by local “ecoterrorists” targeting gas guzzlers. In the first incident, three light trucks collectively valued at $28,000 were torched by activists who happened to be under surveillance by a terrorism task force that night. Nine months later, a different gang set fire to 35 new Suburbans and Tahoes worth $959,000. The Chevy store was sold shortly thereafter and ultimately closed in 2005 when the University of Oregon purchased the prime, four-and-a-half-acre property adjoining the campus for storage. The wooden panels were installed after rock-throwing vandals found the original glass irresistible.

Machinists’ Union

It took a father-son team of master machinists in Long Beach, California, to create this engine, and it took another to restore it to running condition, a half-century later and 900 miles north. The shared experience has tightly bonded the Barnes-Garwood and Riel families to this day.

Gifford Barnes, 86, machined the individual cylinder heads for his late dad’s engine. He inherited Byron’s last race car in 1981 and stored it for 34 years. The Barnes-Garwood family photo album produced a rare 1930s snapshot of father and son together.

Kay Barnes Garwood, 84, is Byron’s daughter. Nearly eight decades after posing with the family dog and midget at home in Long Beach, she lives with daughter Linda Garwood (left) in Port Orford, Oregon.

Tim and Jan Riel rescued and revived their rail with invaluable assistance from Rod Riel (left), a semiretired CNC machinist. Its new home is Tim’s Muscle Cars, a restoration and engine shop in Springfield, Oregon.

Social Media, Old School

For 400 years before digital devices connected us senders and receivers, magazines did that job. This one still does, albeit with a time delay measured in months or years, not nanoseconds. You know the drill: HOT ROD Deluxe publishes an article or column or photo caption that thrills/irritates you into sending love letters/hate mail. Correspondence deemed worthy of print shows up in stores and mailboxes two or three issues later to thrill/irritate fellow readers. See, just like Facebook posts, minus fake news.

Despite modern production technology, “slick” magazines still take forfriggin’ever to print, bind, and transport, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed. Our bimonthly infrequency automatically puts HRD another month behind the monthlies. If you’re reading this on the West Coast, add another week for trains and trucks to move the bundles all the way from the Midwest, where most of America’s ink gets spilled. Finally, your copy shows up in, say, Springfield, Oregon. Reading from front to back (as editors and the good Lord intended), you eventually get to a couple of 50-year-old, unpublished outtakes from a 1968 Car Craft story. The caption asks if any reader knows what happened to an obscure race car that vanished 15 years before you were born, a car that happens to be parked in your shop.

Reader Tim Riel responded almost as soon as his heart settled back into his chest. Editor Hardin couldn’t wait to print the letter and photos Tim sent of the restored rail. Meanwhile, though, another issue’s bimonthly production cycle came and went, delaying publication by one more edition. When the car reappeared in color in January 2016’s Scrapbook section, Mr. Ed. promised in print to send contributor Dave Wallace—who claimed a personal connection to its builder—to shoot a proper feature. In consideration of the Northwest’s notorious rainy season, we postponed that photo session until the late spring. Finally, the Byron Barnes rail returns to these pages, completing a print conversation started nearly two years ago—if not 50 years ago this December, when Petersen Publishing Company staffers Bob Swaim and A.B. Shuman visited the car both at home and at Lions Drag Strip.

Original Car Craft article, June 1968

From HRD’s “The Golden Age Of Drag Racing,” September 2015

From HRD’s letters section, January 2016

Shortly after Tim Riel’s letter and photos appeared in HRD, another stranger showed up at Tim’s Muscle Cars. He told Tim that, as a kid, he lived in Byron’s neighborhood and helped clean out the home shop after Mr. and Mrs. Barnes died weeks apart in 1981. He was given the blueprint as a souvenir. He thought it belonged with the race car. Sure enough, these cockpit measurements match. Byron evidently purchased a partial kit from little-known H&L Metals. Tim was so stunned by the gift that he never got a name. He’s hopeful that the generous mystery man will see this and identify himself to HRD—extending the series of old-school, ink-on-paper “posts” described above.

Lost And Found

On the snowy morning in January 2014 that Tim and Rod Riel dragged a trailer to the Oregon coast, a bare chassis was all they expected to find. Imagine their surprise!

For the first time, Tim Riel laid his hands—and eyes—on the remnants of a chassis he’d seen only in a Car Craft issue printed four years before he was born.

Carol Garwood Stange (right) is the retired Oregon meter reader who put Tim Riel (left) together with Grandpa’s slingshot. Her big sister, Linda Garwood, held up the nose while their uncle Giff supervised.

The rotating assembly stayed inside of Byron’s sheetmetal block since he last ran the car, circa 1968-69. Three types of steel were pressed together, then arc-welded with titanium-nickel rod, to form a hollow crankshaft with a 4.5-inch stroke.

Gifford Barnes machined the individual cylinder heads so precisely that they seal to the sheet-steel crankcase without gaskets. His dad used 40 capscrews made of aircraft-grade titanium, likely left over from one of Byron’s aerospace projects. All but a few of the original fasteners were located, cleaned up, and reinstalled by Tim Riel. Threaded tubes around the spark plugs prevent coolant from grounding out the plugs.

The camshaft is hollow. Byron fused individual lobes onto the tube, then had Iskenderian grind them to deliver 230 degrees of duration with 0.400-inch lift. “The cam wasn’t even in the engine, so I had no idea about where to degree it or set the lash,” Tim says. “The drive gear is slotted about 70 degrees where the bolt goes, for advance and retard. So I called and talked to Isky’s son, who remembered Ed playing cards with Byron. He said his dad would call after he got back from lunch. I thought, ‘Oh, sure, like Ed Iskenderian is gonna personally call some little engine builder in the middle of nowhere.’ That same afternoon, I answer the phone, and Mr. Isky says, ‘Old man Barnes still owes me 40 bucks from our weekly card game!’ He said he’d look around and let me know if he found anything. About two weeks later, I get a box with the original cam card with all of the specs, a new set of valvesprings, and a handwritten note: ‘Best wishes, Ed Iskenderian.'”

Jahns Pistons cast five of these aluminum, 5-inch-diameter monsters in the wooden mold. Byron finish-machined four to arrive at 10:1 compression. He also made five 4130 chrome-moly connecting rods, welding the ends to the tubular beams. This spare was never run.

The worn main bearings proved to be the most difficult replacement parts to find, plus the most expensive. Because all crank journals are identical, Tim had to spend $1,200 on five complete sets of obsolete aircraft bearings to get the five pieces. An old-timer at Federal-Mogul successfully cross-referenced the original part numbers by searching old paper catalogs. The valvetrain combines original, slipper-style lifters with Chrysler Hemi springs, retainers, and locks.

Everything here was formed from steel. First, though, Byron had to make wooden or cardboard templates for each piece, then construct a flame-cutting rig with a tracing stylus at one end and an oxy-acetylene cutting torch at the other. The intake and exhaust ports are two pieces of steel stampings, welded together. Also note the six water jackets per cylinder.

The original, giant 2-5/8-inch intake and exhaust valves are stainless heads on chrome-moly stems.

Half a century after this big banger first went together, it’s as good as new, plus much prettier. Of many missing parts reproduced by the Riels, the most difficult to design were the spur gears and shaft driving the magneto and fuel and oil pumps. In some old photos of the engine wearing Weber carbs, the two-hole bracket contained a different mag and a coil.

Who Was Byron Barnes?

This writer should know, having met him a few times in the mid-1970s. We even lived on the same Huntington Beach street for a while, yet I never really knew the man. Among my regrets is not spending more time in the large shop behind his house on Old Pirates Lane that held both the Hudson he’d customized and his fully assembled slingshot, covered in dusty plastic. I was introduced by my then-girlfriend as the editor of Drag News, but to him I was the longhair sleeping with his beloved granddaughter, Carol Garwood—now Carol Stange, the retired Oregon meter reader responsible for connecting his last race car to the young guy destined to rescue and restore it.

Byron’s family revealed that he was born in 1907 in Nebraska. In 1911, his parents moved to Long Beach. At age 16, Byron’s first homebuilt hot rod got him arrested and jailed. Since his dad was then running for city council, the folks shipped him offshore to herd goats on San Clemente Island until the election was over. He and a buddy later assembled an airplane that Byron flew before building and driving his first midget. When World War II halted auto racing, he worked for Douglas Aircraft Company as a mechanics’ instructor and design engineer developing tooling for the B-17 bomber. In the mid-1950s, Byron designed, built, and patented oil field equipment that enabled an early retirement. For the next 25 years, he indulged automotive passions ranging from the dragster and Hudson custom to off-road racing with local pals Bill Stroppe and Parnelli Jones.

Though Byron could likely afford any new car, I saw him driving Ford Pintos exclusively. Rather than bother changing fluids, he’d torture an engine until it rattled or smoked, swap motors in an afternoon, then perform an autopsy on the dead player. (The same boat shed that stored the dragster’s engine held another big surprise for Tim Riel: “There must’ve been 70 Pinto 2000- and 2300cc motors stacked up in there!”) Byron’s last daily driver was reportedly returning nearly 50 mpg when emphysema ended an incredible journey in April 1981, just shy of his 74th birthday.

Byron (right) was also a pilot. During the Depression, he earned money repairing and reselling crashed planes. Neither his son nor daughter recognized the other dapper dude.

The crowd at San Diego’s Balboa Stadium illustrates the huge popularity of midget racing before WWII and immediately after, until free competition from television kept people home on weekends. The fourth car back appears to be Byron’s.

This flathead is thought to be the first that Byron built from scratch, during the 1930s. It disappeared with a fast-talking salesman who promised to take it from track to track, nationwide, and write orders for production copies. Byron also constructed a DOHC prototype that might be the motor pictured in his wrecked racer. Historian Greg Sharp tells us that more than 100 different engine types powered midgets, all limited to 105 ci.

A page from Byron’s logbook documents eight events in five weeks at L.A.’s Gilmore and Atlantic Boulevard Stadium tracks during the summer of 1939.

Unlike most midgets of the era, Byron’s looked as good as they ran.

Gifford Barnes doesn’t know whether this could be his dad’s overhead cammer, but it’s the only DOHC engine shot in the family scrapbook.

Evidence that Byron’s hot rods attracted hot drivers includes this steamy shot of a guy recognized by historian Greg as Mel Hansen, “a big-name midget driver who qualified six times for the Indy 500, with a best finish of eighth.”

The forward-leaning positions of both drivers suggest this to be the moment of impact after Byron’s unknown shoe spun. We’re guessing that the background cars belonged to the two workers behind the wall.

The dragster’s finished block and crank are shown in the Long Beach shop where Byron handbuilt his last racing engine. The Barnes-Garwood family still owns the building on Signal Hill. Appropriately, it’s currently leased to a company making parts for Smart cars.

In the early 1970s, granddaughter Carol paid $100 for this Northern California barn find. It was original and complete except for a front seat. Once Carol got the engine running, her mom drove the 400-plus miles home to Long Beach sitting on a crate. Never content to follow a crowd, Grandpa Barnes hopped up the straight eight and built himself the only Hudson custom we’ve ever seen.

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