#I don't even know how to use a soldering iron and I have still done repairs and maintenance that would cost stupid amounts

[moghedien]

honestly I encourage everyone to get comfortable opening up their electronics. game consoles. computers. phones. keyboards. headphones. whatever. like obviously don't start with the most difficult thing to open up and don't just mindlessly pop open something and lose all the screws and don't do it while its on. but get comfortable looking inside your stuff yourself

its not hard to open up most electronics that don't have an apple logo on them (and even a lot of those are easier than you'd think) and it DOES NOT VOID YOUR WARRANTY.

Companies will try to scare you from learning how to care for your own stuff because they get money that way. Warranty stickers are technically illegal in the US but just isn't enforced, and a company can't actually void your warranty if you repair something yourself, so long as you don't break something else in the process.

like I look at threads all the time where people express fear about just opening up a console and looking at the internals to see which version they have but don't be! its easy, its safe, its free! get comfortable with your electronics and learn how to clean and repair stuff yourself, it isn't scary, companies just want you to think it is!

#I have been inside of like a dozen different video game consoles at this point #i'm talking like atari 2600 through X Box 360 in terms of generations #newer ones I've just had no reason to open up so that's the only reason I haven't tho I should probably do some cleaning #but like I've done cleaning and repasting and straight up surgery on motherboards and its FINE its not hard #I don't even know how to use a soldering iron and I have still done repairs and maintenance that would cost stupid amounts #I've taken part ipods regularly and removed puffy batteries from iphones and popped open headphones to replace parts they don't want replac #i've frankensteined keyboards from different ones to make what I wanted and built ones I myself #as long as you're careful and don't fuck around with power supplies that are ON or act reckless with batteries #its FINE #open up your junk and clean it

[trainsinanime]

And here's the other model railroad thing: A german class 426 train, model from Kato. Plus this time some white paper to make the lighting better, not sure how well it worked.

I bought this one as a kit at a model train show in Göppingen in September of last year. "Kit" meant a box containing all the components as spare parts, and a spare part order sheet as the "instructions". But, you know, it's Kato, it's really not that difficult.

What was difficult was getting DCC into the bloody thing. The official Kato way is to buy three different decoders, five if you want internal lighting to be DCC controlled, and shove them at various parts into the machine. Obviously I didn't want to do that, I have a Dremel and a soldering iron, so I did it myself, with one decoder (again the PD10MU that I also put in the FP7s and that was the reason for my rant about Bit.ly. There's nothing special about this decoder, it's just cheap and small and works well.)

The thing is that Kato's models are really intricately designed out of lots of cleverly interlocking plastic parts, and soldering a DCC decoder in requires undoing all of them and drilling holes. Some parts are just plain insane, like the motor contacts - if you solder anything to them directly, they'll come out of the motor. If you solder to the small copper strips that transmit the power directly, you'll have to find some way to isolate them because if you put them upside down, they won't conduct properly.

And then there's the fact that there's two parts of this, and of course I didn't want to use two decoders. Routing the wires through was not trivial.

Finally, at the last moment I decided they needed interior lighting, because I still had some Kato interior lighting kits from the Hiawatha. All Kato trains use the same light kit, which is great, except the light kit and the way it's integrated into the train can be very fiddly. In this train, you need to shorten a plastic light bar, lay it down on the roof, and then insert the chassis straight up so that the lighting part comes to sit right behind it. But you also need to push the chassis in diagonally forward, so the headlights come to rest in their proper holes. You need to push forward and straight up with no forward motion at the same time. The solution for me was to glue the light bar in place using adhesive pads, push the chassis in diagonally, then poke the lighting assembly with a long wooden stick until it lands in the right position, then finish closing. I don't think that's right.

It was worth the effort, though, it looks much better with lit windows, even if that means you can see all the cables. Also, yes, some of the cables are not in their right position (I think I'd need to cut some more plastic) so the front part's shell isn't positioned quite perfectly, but I have no intentions of fixing that. I also lost the plastic part that lights up the top headlight and destination display. Oh well. It's nice that it's done, but definitely no more Kato EMUs for me for the foreseeable future (at least next six months, probably). It's always something like this with them.

#kato #model train #model railroad #model trains #model railroads #unitrack #db #db regio #db regio nrw #et 426 #quietschie

[echo-echo31]

One Quiet Moment | Chains Series One-Shot

A little birdy told me that it's @angelic-guest's birthday. Happy birthday and here's a small gift! - as I know you like the Chains series <3

Warnings: Possessive behaviour

MASTERPOST

You know something's not quite right as soon as he enters the room. Actually, it's even before that; your brand had started itching uncomfortably, making you squirm a little in your seat but still not daring to touch it. Shortly after he'd given it to you, you'd tried to examine it in the mirror, fingers only slightly grazing it before an overwhelming feeling siezed you - that's called joy, sweetheart. I am so glad you like it.

So, now that Alpha walks into the room, strong shoulders tensed slightly, you alright know something is wrong. You watch him from your place tucked into the side of the sofa, relieved but also confused at his apparent lack of interest in you. Usually, he'd already have settled beside you, encourgaging you into his arms before muttering praises into your skin - But you don't resist it, do you? No matter how much you try to convince yourself you don't want me.

Eventually, the tension (and curiosity) gets the better of you.

"What's the matter?" You try to seem nonchalant but your eyes rake across his back as his muscles relax at the sound of your voice.

He turns and you're immediately drawn to his arm. A gash about half an inch across and running from his wrist reveals wires underneath; blue liquid seeping at the edges and the flash of steel glinting under the lights.

You sit up without knowing it, arm reaching up of its own accord, as if becoking him closer. Surprisingly to you, he steps towards your oustreched hand, a small but infatuatingly soothing smile playing at his lips.

"Don't worry yourself, sweet girl. It doesn't hurt,"

You scoff, both at the way he assumes you are concerned about him and that you'd forget that androids can't feel pain. Despite this, you can't shake the feeling of wrongness; how you can see he's damaged and that's wrong.

He kneels to bring himself eye level to you, but you don't dare return the gaze. Instead, your fingers follow the trail of the wound, hovering just above it as you spot some component flashing deep behind the synthetic skin.

"Get me my soldering kit," You say without thinking, momentarily caught up in the familiarity of this. You look up as Alpha raises his eyebrow, and for a moment you can see brown eyes and a blue shirt kneeling in front of you.

"...please?" You ask, tentatively, and there's a glint in his eye as he gets up, walking towards your room as the loss of proximity allows you to breath again for a moment.

Quickly though, he's back and sitting on the couch beside you, his injured wrist layed out as he places a small metal tin next to you.

The sight of your engineering equipment makes you excited, smiling softly to yourself as you open the lid, laying out and prepping the necessary tools happily.

Finally, you hold the iron in your hand, carefully pulling his hand to rest it on your own knee as you go to work, filling the gaps and creaks.

You get into a concentrated flow, the silence oddly comforting. Before you know it, your work is done, and you lean back to study it with satisfaction. A silver line fills the gap and you smile before looking up to your patient and-

He's staring straight at you.

"Y/N..." His deep voice almost whispers, eyes flicking downwards to trail across your lips and your brand has started to warm your spine.

He moves then, hand moving to stroke up your own wrist. Somewhere beyond the blue eyes you can see the android that you used to fix up, that let you be fanatical about his engineering, the one that used to hold you when you'd had nightmares. You feel...safe.

"There's my girl,"

#echo writes #tw: posessive behaviour #chains series #echo is sfw

[mushroominlove]

Warnings: poor self talk, non descriptive burn/ hand injury

A/N: I wanted to try my hand at writing a dream I had the other day! It kind of solidified Snart’s place on my f/o list. This is kinda sad i guess idk I don’t write :)

We’d only just gotten our crew back days ago- time was more difficult for me now. What was minutes to us were years for them and I couldn't help but feel further away than before.

A couple fuses down in the engine room were fired from our last encounter and lucky for us Jax wasn't the only mechanic, he also wasn't the only one studying the ship. It was usually him and I doing the brunt of the work, but tonight Kendra was lending a hand. I was thankful, she's always made things easier, but I needed something else to focus on. 

I needed something to do with my hands, something I could hyperfocus on, get lost in, make me stop thinking. Just my luck it wasn't taking, the rhythmic motion of removing wires and repairing circuits and soldering things in place wasn't enough today. 

Jax made her laugh. they were too far away for me to hear the joke and I wasn't trying to listen, but Kendra found it funny. Her laugh was loud, she shushed herself but not before it interrupted me. I couldn't bring myself to be all that upset by it, I mean her laugh was perfect. out of the corner of my eye I could see them, Jax was gesturing into an open panel, likely telling Kendra what was happening in there. she was so smart- she doesn't give herself enough credit there. 

 I hear a pair of softer footsteps walk in. Snart. He just stands with me, he’s not usually much help with this stuff. Mick must be napping or something. He doesn’t say anything, but I know he’s looking at me and the exchange on the other side of the room. I squeeze my eyes shut to refocus myself, but my hand never stops moving, I'm almost done with this panel. I open them, I can see again, I strip a couple wires and reconnect them, covering the exposed metal thread I replace the panel. Only one more left. I glance back at the pair across the room, almost envious. "So, which one are you pining after?"

It's Leo, his volume is quiet but deliberate. He's teasing me. I'm in no mood unfortunately, God, I wish I was. my jaw clenches and I shake my head. work the wires, be careful of your fingertips. I think over and over and so I work the wires while I speak, just as quiet.

"Neither one of them, thanks. Jax likes Kendra and she wants to like Raymond because he likes her but she's still mourning Carter. and I don't stand a chance with or against any of them. I mean she's practically perfect and she and Ray spent nearly three years together and I just don't measure up." I couldn't stop the bitter, empty laugh that left my throat at the end. 

And we stayed like that. silently working, finding comfort in just being present. Jax and Kendra laugh. I'm not sure who laughed first but I wasn't ready for it, so I dropped the soldering iron. While it clatters on the panel below it I take a breath deep enough that I feel my chest tighten. And I hold it. I’ve closed my eyes and find myself slowly releasing the breath I was holding. 

Turning my head, barely, his eyes meet mine and I crumble, just a little bit. “How pathetic do I look right now?” I can’t help but ask Leo even though I feel like a wet bag. Heavy and drooped, mopey. Wondering if I look as bad as I feel. His head tilts back and to the side just a little, like he’s trying to get a better look at me. He doesn’t have to I’m right in front of him, but the extra action almost makes me want to smile. He knows this. “Not at all, but you do look sad.” I can’t find it in myself to look at him anymore because he’s right. I am sad and it’s pathetic. 

I’ve only a few more wires to go and then I can nap before Rip inevitably calls us for another ‘mission’. Work the wires and be careful of your fingers. Sighing I shake my hands and take up the iron once more, but only once more as I quickly caught my thumb under the tip of the iron. 

Kendra and Jax are whispering and Leonard’s eye’s bore into my skull and I realized I was shaking. Embarrassing, that's what this is, embarrassing. I can’t even find it in myself to be mad at anyone but myself, they all care too much for me to be able to justify any anger but for fucks sake would it be easier. 

I can’t even stop Leonard from taking the iron from me, I’m so lost in thought, this is ridiculous. I’m ridiculous. He finished my job for me. Granted it was only a couple wires, not hard to do, but my work nonetheless and Snart did it for me. “You know better than that, you are better than that.” In the moment I’m not sure what he’s referring to but I know my face is tense. It probably looks like I’m scowling at him. It isn’t until he’s holding me that I start to come back to reality.

“I’m sorry Leo.” I mumble into his chest. He isn’t exactly too keen on pda. We’ve never hugged before, he’s warmer than I would’ve thought. It’s nice. He’s nice. I’ll tell him later.

He doesn’t smile, per say, but it's pretty close as I break the hug. He gestures to my hand, it’s worse than I remember it being a few minutes ago and I cringe. “Medbay” we say simultaneously and, begrudgingly, I follow him as he guides me by the shoulder. I’m not sure how we became friends. but I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

#toad writes #temporal zone #ahhhh he means a lot to me and i miss him he is my friend and i want to beat him up #i did tell him he was nice and he threatened to shoot me <33 told me to keep it a secret he has a rep to uphold #dreaming mushroom #fic

[dismalzelenka]

“Does it make you nervous when I stare?” for whichever characters you like <3

I did this one for Katarina Thekla & Clemence Perren from the most recent arcs of The Place Where I Belong. Rated T, no warnings. @dadrunkwriting

Katarina isn't really sure why she ever bothers with paperwork. She's doing a job she effectively stole, one that she killed her asshole predecessor for, and she's honestly not even sure where the funding for this position even comes from, but she gets enough crowns in her bank account to get by at the end of every month, and that's really all that matters in the end, right?

"Sheriff Caine?" Flissa pokes her head in through the front door of the station. "Just letting you know that shipment of banana taffy you asked for just came in. Want me to drop it off after everything's sorted?"

"Nah. That ain't necessary." She looks up from her desk and can't help but offer a grateful smile. "I'll come by after I finish sorting this shit out. Could use the break."

"Sounds great!" Flissa leaves, the door bangs shut behind her, and Katarina wonders for a moment why no one ever bothers just sending a goddamn text message before remembering she's one of three people out here with a satellite phone.

Laysh is a fucking blight on the map. A hairy mole on the sweaty ass cheek of Thedas.

Damn, she's sick of this place.

Still, there are things that make it bearable, at least. People who make the bullshit feel a little worthwhile sometimes.

Clemence is at his desk, thoroughly absorbed in fixing the switchboard for the spare solar generator. It's been three years since they crashed into this shithole together, and somewhere along the line, that laser focus of his has stopped being creepy and started being a little endearing somehow. She studies the lines of his face as he works, watches the steady and deliberate motion of his hands with the soldering iron, and thinks about how they've somehow managed to reach a weird little equilibrium where they can start pretending they have something even closely resembling a normal little life.

As if any life of hers could ever really be normal.

She thumbs the amulet around her neck and wonders if this is as good as it's ever going to get, and thinks that maybe she's starting to get used to that idea.

Acceptance, after all, is her most valuable survival mechanism. Karl had taught her that.

She sighs, drags a hand down her face, and goes back to her paperwork. If fucking Gerhard Madler parades his drunk ass down Main Street in his birthday suit in the middle of the day one more goddamn time, she's going to just kick him into the Volca Sea and be done with it.

She finishes filling out the appropriate lines, checking the appropriate boxes, and slaps the pen down on the desk with a tired groan before running her fingers wearily through her hair. Gods, she needs a cigarette. She digs through the pockets of her jacket and fumbles a cigarette from the box of Lucky Strikes she fishes out. "Hey, Clem—"

When she looks up, he's watching her with an odd expression on his face.

Well, as much of an expression as he's capable of making, anyway. She can't look away, though, and not just from the brand on his forehead. Something in his eyes holds her captive, slate blue and full of a questioning curiosity she doesn't know how to respond to.

"Does it make you nervous when I stare?" he asks finally.

"What the fuck kind of question is that?" she sniffs. "Of course not. Don't be an idiot."

It isn't that he makes her nervous. Not really. Not unless she counts the way her heart jumps around in her chest with anxiety at the thought of him going out into the desert alone to check that damn wind turbine when she isn't around to help. Or the way she forgets how to breathe and stares a hole at the front door when he takes a little too long coming back from a supply run she wasn't able to go with him for.

There's something empty about existence when he isn't there with her. In this dead end middle-of-nowhere town full of ghosts, he's the closest thing to life she ever feels, and yeah, maybe he isn't much one for heartfelt conversation, but she doesn't need words to care for someone. To care about someone.

"You're a terrible liar, Katarina. Even I can see through that one."

"Yeah, whatever." She snorts. "Can I get that light before you fuck off?"

"Of course." He tosses her a Bic from his pocket that she snatches deftly out of the air.

"You coming?"

"Sure."

She doesn't know what to make of their friendship. How to define it, how to describe it in words someone else could understand. He follows her onto the porch, leans on the railing beside her, even accepts the cigarette she passes him and takes a passive pull from it before handing it back without a word.

All she knows is that if anything ever happens to him, there will be hell to pay.

#da drunk writing circle #the place where i belong #supplementary fic? #katarina thekla #clemence #canonically the tranquil guy from redcliffe #another victim of the diz npc refurbishing treatment #eheheh #anyway #diz writes

[thlpp]

I'm about to go home for about two weeks for the holidays, and I would leave my baby boa here and have a friend check up on him, but he's about to shed :c I don't think he'll be able to do it on his own because of moisture issues. Should I take him on my trip so that I can keep an eye on him?

To answer a question you didn’t ask: Go to a WalMart or a Home Depot or some such, and spend $7.99 on a 40 quart latching tub. On the way home, stop by a pet store and get a heat mat big enough to cover half the bottom of the tub, and a thermostat ($15 and $25 respectively). I recommend Zoo Med products. They cost a touch more, but they last, and also I haven’t seen any of them develop hot spots. Which is important!

When you get home, melt 10 or so holes in the lid or the sides of the new tub (soldering iron works best, but if you don’t have one, you can probably use an awl or a long nail that you hold with pliers -- you can heat that on your stove, and be careful please!).

Now flip that tub upside down. Stick your brand new heat mat on the bottom, to one side, so that you have two temperature zones in the tub. Then tape your thermostat probe to approximately the center of that mat, on the bottom. Aluminum tape is great for that, but any tape will do.

Now flip that tub right side up. I set mine on a folded up blanket to keep the heat in. Manufacturers advise against that, but they assume you won’t be using a thermostat with their product. Even if you set your thermostat to 95F (your body temperature), the heat mat should not be able to get much above say 97, which is still waaay too cool to melt the plastic. But you know, you’re leaving home for a few weeks, so maybe don’t. Maybe just sit the whole thing in your (dry) bath tub or shower if you’re worried about things catching fire.

Now measure the hot spot temperature and set the thermostat so you have the right temperature (90F) on the bottom, inside the tub, right over where you stuck the heat mat. Use one of those heat guns, you may have one already. If not, add that to your shopping list. Walmart and Home Depot both should carry those.

Now put some paper towels, empty tissue boxes, toilet paper and paper towel rolls etc. in there. If you have something to offer your boa to perch on, give them that thing too. Their hides, fake leaves, the whole nine.

And give them a large water bowl. Large, diameter-wise. To increase evaporation. Like, 6-8 inch wide. Fill it with no more than an inch of water. Put it NOT on the hot spot. Done.

Now put your boa in there, latch the bin, secure the lid with bungee cords, binder clips, or some straps, and you’re set. No more humidity issues.

Now you can take off on vacation, and your friend can change your baby’s water when they check on him. They can also lightly mist the enclosure, although that should not be necessary if you follow the steps above. The humidity should stay at or above 65-70 percent easy. Probably more like 80.

He’ll shed like a champ.

To answer your actual question -- please leave him home. A snake in shed is so much more easily stressed, and there’s no way that he’ll have better husbandry on the road than he already receives at home. Snakes die from stress. Like literally, after a few hours in a car, they up and die. So no, don’t take him.

Even if you don’t follow the steps above and don’t set him up in a plastic tub. Still, leave him home. I have no idea what your setup is like, so can’t make suggestions how to optimize it, but I’m sure something can be done. Humidity needs to be fixed, not just for when he’s shedding. I have this general snake optimization guide you can try, or you can send me some pictures of your setup (like, via chat or submission), and I’ll do my best to help.

I am positive whatever needs to be done, can be solved for under 100 bucks, long-term. Probably less.

Good luck and best of wishes to you and your precious boa beb.

#snake husbandry #reptile husbandry #traveling with snakes #travelilng #maybenoots #ask thlpp