namistrella

[namistrella]

hi this blog is indefinitely inactive

only making this post to pin at the top of the blog since most of my fics still link here

to manage expectations. I may (I hope!!) post to ao3 from time to time in future but thats about it. will try to answer dms/discord still but the response time will be slow

#im fine just tired and in pain #thought a lot about whether or not to even pin anything but its looking like im in this ride for the long haul so #heres hoping im wrong!! #personal #no need to reply this is literally just so I can pin something without having to edit my profile and mess up my html links

[namistrella]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

#multiple in the past year ✌️✌️ #still here and kicking tho #luckiest unluck ever

[namistrella]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

#i love spiders they are like tiny puppies to me #little tiny friends #theyre so cute #esp the jumping spiders when they want to play

[namistrella]

Grec Johnz by Amer Mohamed for Hapers Bazaar Arabia Magazine December 2023

#art

[namistrella]

Blupees

#too cute #loz

[namistrella]

Ficbinding, 2023

Year in Review

I didn’t think I bound many books this year, but woah my! there were WAY more than I remembered :)) Y'all are brilliant.

Below are all the books I bound in 2023. Every single one is worth a read 💖

A Veteran’s Affair by @watermelontuesdays

I’m realizing I didn’t do an original post for this one, which is an absolute sin! Because if you read sheith, @watermelontuesdays is fucking brilliant.

This is Mr. Pitch by @standalonefics

Top 3 Simon Snow fics. Go read it. NOW.

Link for original binding post.

The Bachelor of Baltimore by @likearecordbb

Record is such a gem 💖 She’s given me hours and hours of amazing stories to read. Absolute madwoman-genius. Rom-com extraordinaire.

Link for original binding post.

The Mirrors that Hold Us by @artsyunderstudy

Ashton, I love that we have you in this fandom. (I’ve got to do Wicked Thing soon, cause that fic needs to be a book).

Link for original binding post.

Game, Set, Match by @ninemagicks

This might be my favourite cover I’ve ever done. Something about the simple gold on green makes me 😍 Also, @ninemagicks is fucking hilarious.

Link for original binding post.

In What Universe? by @amywaterwings

This is the first fic I've ever bound that's mine. But I wrote the thing for @namistrella and it was so lovely, to bind it with them when they came for a visit ☺️

Link for original binding post.

Raunchy bakery au by @stillmadaboutpetra

Look at these minis. I love these minis.

Link for original binding post.

Collected Works by @otherworldsivelivedin

We made this together! The clour, the gold, the formatting! All @otherworldsivelivedin. They designed this gorgeous cover. GAH! I have such amazing friends.

Link for original binding post.

R E C O N S T R U C T I O N by @namistrella

This. Fic. I got to do this one as a surprise. I got to give it to nami in person. I got to see their face when they opened it :)

Link for original binding post.

Water Closet by @stillmadaboutpetra

I'd read mad's grocery lists, their packing lists, their everything lists. <3

Link for original binding post.

#ah I love this #Amy's bindings are gorgeous #they put so much thought into them 🩵🩵

[namistrella]

redraw of one of my favorite wolfwood panels

#wolfwood #trigun

[namistrella]

Because I have just seen this specific thing for the second time, I would like to say:

If I reblog your art, I do not expect you to reblog (or share!) my fic in return

If I comment on your fic, I do not expect you to comment on (or read!) mine in return

My enjoyment of anyone's work does not come with strings or expectations

My friendship is not a bill that you will have to pay later

That's it!

#fandom

[namistrella]

hello to the people who followed me for the tornado info, I'm flattered but must inform you that this blog exists to post about gay fictional characters. only storm I'll be blogging about is vash the humanoid typhoon ✌️

#aaaaand that's all for tonight's weather report folks #back to our regularly scheduled programming #thanks for tuning in to the old man yaoi channel

[namistrella]

Just adding some additional viz I have saved from this week on the state of covid in the US right now... From Dr Hoerger and also Dr Lucky Tran on Twitter

That 1 in 35 is slightly outdated though, as of this morning (12/23) it's 1 in 29 Americans who have active covid

Transmission is higher right now than in 90% of the rest of the pandemic.

Good news is masks (esp N95 or equivalent respirators) DO work! So does air filtration! The more layers of protection the better, but some is always better than none

Covid Update, USA, late December 2023: Buckle up, folks.

Takeaway from his (very informative) thread:

Wastewater counts are obscenely high right now, belying the official case numbers. Considering that we've stopped collecting or reporting most COVID data, wastewater is the best way we have to judge the actual infection rate now.

We are currently seeing ten million new infections a week, and can expect that to greatly increase within the next three weeks.

If you've stopped masking, please start again, for your own safety and the safety of your community. Many hospital systems are already trending toward being overwhelmed right now; let's do what we can to lighten their burden.

Avoid unnecessary gatherings where possible.

Ventilate your spaces well (this is a good time to build that Corsi-Rosenthal box you were thinking about! I made one, it's great).

And just from me, personally--now's a good time to reevaluate casual habits. I've been careless, again, about touching my face. Time for me to knock it off!

This is a period where we need to act with more care. Not a time to panic, but a time to be more cautious.

#covid #I have been seeing more masks in the wild this week #if anyone has questions abt respirators or DIY air filters I have a LOT of accumulated knowledge and resources I'm happy to share #also PSA if we've EVER talked on here before I will mail you a box of masks or tests if you want them but can't afford them just dm me #keep yourselves and your families safe 💖 #long covid and immune system damage are no fucking joke #I am curious why PA is showing oddly low prevalence... differences in state measurement? Doesn't mesh what I'm seeing there

[namistrella]

These images are super cool!! And the art added is awesome. I love a good scary tornado scene.

From someone who studies tornadoes and damage ratings for a living (me), some corrections (and a few bonus fun facts!)

1. Dr. Tetsuya Fujita had proposed the idea of multiple vortices within a tornado after the 1970 Lubbock Texas tornado, based on evaluation of increased damage and death at certain "suction" spots. He proposed the suction spots were created by multiple vortices. His colleagues didn't believe him then, partly because good photographic images of multiple vortex tornadoes didn't exist (and there are no known photographs of the Lubbock tornado), but it did lead him to create the original Fujita-Pearson scale, which is based on observed structural damage, and estimates wind speed from that damage (rather than the other way around).

2. The scale in use today is the Enhanced Fujita Scale (the EF-scale), implemented in 2007, and is still a set of wind estimates based on observed damage. It was not changed because of the Jarrell tornado. It was changed because research and consistent testing showed that the damage-based wind speed estimates didn't match well with the wind speeds actually being measured, and they needed better/more specific damage indicators that accounted for building type and construction. So they adjusted the scale. Damage and classification (1-5) are comparable to the old scale, but wind speeds are not.

3. The 1997 Jarrell tornado was not an isolated event, though it was particularly devastating. It was the most powerful of a multiple tornado outbreak in Central Texas. One commenter pointed out it only destroyed one subdivision, which is true, however the damage done in that subdivision was particularly extreme. The tornado was wide and moved very slow (and had that bonus suction action). Still, the damage was pretty much only in the direct path. Residences on the fringe of the path still had some walls after all was said and done, and some survivors in central rooms of the houses. (FYI, yes, if you're ever in a tornado, getting to a centrally-located room such as a bathroom or closet, away from exterior walls and windows, CAN and WILL save your life. Unless you are extremely unlucky, as was the case for the people in the tornado's direct path.)

4. Speaking of shelter: "Taking shelter outside of the town" is entirely unrealistic. First of all, Tornado Warnings (when one has been spotted headed your direction, in contrast to a Tornado Watch which is just conditions favorable for a tornado) come ~15 minutes on average before they hit. ALSO, tornado paths can be very unpredictable—there's a reason they give tornado warnings for larger areas, not just in perfectly straight lines the direction the tornado is currently moving. It is so close to impossible for the average person to be able to figure out exactly where the tornado is going to be and "get out of town" in under 10 minutes AND in the right direction, that tornado damage has been used as an "essentially random treatment" in a bunch of "natural experiments" type research. When a tornado hits, you basically are where you are. Go to a safer room in your house, pull over and run into the nearest building if you're on the road, go inside if you're out on the lawn, but that's about all you can do. So no, no one in any of those towns was evacuating them before the tornado. It's not like hurricanes where you generally know where it's going to be (even if you don't know how bad it will hit) and you have more time to prepare.

4b. According to the National Weather Service post-event report (I looked this up just now out of curiosity), Jarrell had a 10 minute warning before the tornado hit, and the northern part of the county had no lead time at all. Though devastating, the death count was 30 total, 7% of the population (a small town, so a high death rate, but also hardly 100% of the people who couldn't evacuate... Which was all of them. Because they couldn't evacuate.) The 27 deaths that were in Jarrell were all in that same subdivision. 33 additional injuries from those tornadoes in total, 15 of them from Jarrell itself.

5. There are no federally-mandated tornado building codes in Tornado Alley or anywhere else in the US. And state and local building codes vary. Storm shelters are different—if a building or room is built specifically for the purpose of being a storm shelter, they do fall under federal guidance since 2009. However, federal storm shelter requirements were not implemented because of the Jarrell tornado. It is only since 2015 that tornado shelters have been required to be built for new schools, new fire/rescue/ambulance/police stations, and new 911 call centers and emergency operations centers. In 2018 the guidance was expanded to more new construction (including new additions to existing buildings), and to include minimum occupancy requirements. Safe rooms have stricter requirements and also qualify as storm shelters. The storm shelter guidelines (different from the 2008 building codes) were published by FEMA in 1998 and 2000 based on research from Texas Tech on the most common wind speeds across the most damaging recorded tornadoes, on average, setting the "250 mph standard" for the wind speeds a shelter should be able to withstand. Jarrell may have been included in that average but certainly wasn't the sole basis for the policy.

5b. (Aside from Katrina—which was such a colossal fuckup that's a whole other post—it is VERY VERY EXTREMELY RARE for one single disaster, even a particularly destructive one, to be THE reason for a major policy change. It is just too hard to get people on board with it, politically.)

6. The Xenia Ohio tornado pictured above was 1974, also part of an outbreak (called the 1974 Super Outbreak). Like the Jarrell tornado, this one had the most recorded damage and fatalities/injuries of all the other tornadoes in the outbreak. It killed 36 people and injured 1,150 people. The Outbreak itself has 148 individual tornadoes. It was the second largest tornado outbreak on record.

7. The largest tornado outbreak on record was the 2011 Super Outbreak, when 360 tornados hit across several states over 3 days. That's a lot of tornadoes!!! Tallied fatalities were 324, and over 3,000 people injured.

8. The 2011 tornado that went through Cullman County Alabama was—you guessed it—part of that 2011 Super Outbreak. This one was mostly an EF-3, but briefly an EF-4, so classified as an EF-4 since they go by the max. Not the most destructive of the bunch, but notable for its visible multiple vortex. Its path was 47 miles long (just slightly above average for an EF-4).

Some more fun facts

The deadliest tornado in US history by far was the 1925 tri-state tornado with 695 deaths, though as far as I know there's no evidence whether or not this one had multiple vortices—it's certainly possible!

The deadliest in the US in the 21st century was the May 2011 Joplin tornado with 158 deaths, not part of the Super Outbreak but part of a string of bad tornado events that spring (one of which got my hometown and destroyed half my neighborhood)

The US is not the only country with tornadoes, but has the most by far

Tornado Alley is moving!! Tornado researchers have shown it's moving east. Which is both cool and terrifying

Tornado Alley doesn't have an officially designated list of states, so some states are only included sometimes, depending who's defining it

Buildings, hills, etc don't impact where a tornado path goes, though it's possible topography could affect the wind speed somehow. Lots of people think tornadoes are more likely in rural areas, but that's not true. Tornadoes are equally likely in densely populated areas—it just so happens that cities take up a lot less combined space in the central US than rural area... so it adds up to a higher # of rural tornadoes overall, even though a city isn't statistically any less at risk than a small town if the weather conditions are right

Sources (sorry, fingers hurt and I'll have to add actual links in later but all of this came from):

National Weather Service post-event report on Jarrell

Official documentation on the original and Enhanced Fujita scales

National Weather Service data on historical tornadoes in the US

An official training course from FEMA on storm shelter regulations and how to interpret them, publically available online

Like 20-30 different scientific papers on tornadoes that I really don't want to go pull citations for right now

Personal experience

What are dead man walking tornadoes? :O

it’s a multi-vortex tornado. i dont remember the tribe it originates from (i think it was cherokee), but there’s a native american legend…? saying? that goes “if you see a man in a tornado, you are about to die.”

the most infamous shot of a dead man walking tornado hit jarrell, texas in 1997

it did so much damage to the town it caused the scale that tornados are measured by, the fijita scale, undergo revisions, and it made anchoring buildings in the tornado alley region pretty much mandatory. (it took the entire town off the map. only those who had taken shelter outside of the town or in underground bunkers survived.)

two more examples of dead man walking tornadoes looking like a person are a tornado from 2011 that hit cullman, alabama

and a tornado from 1975 that hit xenia, ohio

#tornadoes #lmao sorry this is why you should never ever ask a researcher what they research #to be fair no one asked me #but this is the rambly nerd website so here I am rambling about my nerdy shit

[namistrella]

adult life is crazy because you can be going through the most devastating and heartbreaking things while still having to go to work and do the laundry and grocery shopping

#this #so much this #no tragedy is big enough to stop the world from turning even when it feels like it should #tw grief

[namistrella]

in b4 95% of all websites in june 2024 announce that "for security" they will only work with browsers that use manifest v3

#firefox #easiest and best switch i ever made

[namistrella]

Ao3 subscriptions are so fucking wild to me. Every time I write my silly fanfictions and post them 124 people get an email just to let them know that this idiot is posting their fanfictions again. I send 124 people an email every time I write smut. Imagine sending 124 physical letters out just to be like “hello everyone, I put some guys we made up in our heads through the horrors again.” Absolutely absurd. I am kissing all of you on the lips.

#:) #writing #if ao3 ever goes bust i will be sending u all handwritten letters about my smut fyi

[namistrella]

context

think I mildly horrified my sister (who is writing my will) by telling her I want to be put in the skeleton dishwasher tube when I die

#tw bones

[namistrella]

think I mildly horrified my sister (who is writing my will) by telling her I want to be put in the skeleton dishwasher tube when I die

[namistrella]

#it absolutely is i watch it every year #christmas movie = movie u watch at cheistmas #single criterion classification