#science nerdery

[datasoong47]

#puns #star trek #quarks #Quark #science nerdery

[mikansei]

the frustrating part of writing a canonical genius is that i myself am not a genius, and to make some of kisuke's science-speak believable i find myself stumbling thru wikipedia articles on particle physics like a bull in a china shop

the fun part of writing a canonical genius is that technically i can make kisuke say little bastard words like "dark matter and dark energy are just reishi and reiryoku" anyway, b/c bleach worldbuilding is like 'whose line': the magic's made up so the physics don't matter

#my notes doc is full to bursting of magiscience bullshitting (affectionate) even if 90% of it isn't going into the actual fic #bc it's not really about the science - but this IS kisuke #he needs to go on caffeine-fueled science binges every once in a while or he'll wither and die #like an amphibian that needs water to survive (except the water is stale coffee drunk from a dubiously clean beaker) #his science binges need topics even if they're filtered thru the pov of someone who has no fucking idea what he's talking about lol #i also wind up with a lot of notes on historical stuff he (and the visored) might've picked up since 1900 #finding ways to distort that thru the viewpoint of a centuries-old ex-shinigami is always fun #the duality of kisuke: keeps up to date on the bleeding edge of string theory but thinks freon was banned 'recently' #💚🤍💚🤍💚 #oh that reminds me - i figured out where his 'atashi' came from and i DESPERATELY want to put that in the fic somehow #but like. i'm writing the fic in english. but technically they would all be speaking japanese #and i haven't found an elegant way to talk about the actual japanese pronouns thru the lens of technically-a-translation english #even with ichigo's linguistics nerdery i'm not quite there yet... #adventures in fic writing #bleach #kisuke

[haesi-perpetuo-in-r2]

me: if i ever had i kid i think it would be funny to have their middle name be null

me: this is why i should probably never have a kid

@sapphire-reblogs-and-rambles: You're right on both counts

#cs nerdery #computer science #verba haesis

[therainscene]

It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but the Alan Turing poster really tells us so much about Will that I consider it to be a significant piece of foreshadowing for S5.

First, let’s dissuade ourselves of the notion that Will chose Turing for his hero project for nerd reasons -- Will’s preferred flavour of nerdery is escapist fantasy, not computer science. He doesn’t know what an IP address is and the first thing he thinks of when he hears modem noises is a movie he likes.

No, he chose Turing because he admires him for being a gay man who accomplished so much in his short life.

On one hand, that’s pretty heart-warming -- the fact he’s willing to identify with other gay men and look up to them as role models shows us he’s making good progress in accepting his identity. On the other hand, it’s heart-breaking, because Turing’s story is not a happy one -- he was caught having a sexual relationship with a man and forced to choose between jail or chemical castration. He chose castration.

I remind you: Will identifies with this guy.

Will is growing up under the twin specters of AIDS and homophobia and likely assumes he’s destined to die young too. He’s been abused and bullied so much, I imagine he’s heard and internalized it all: that he deserves to die, that he’s disgusting, that he’ll never be fulfilled in life.

So when puberty begins crawling its way inside him and implants those shameful desires that make gay men so worthy of abuse... he chooses castration.

For all the sad pining he does in S4, we never really see Will express desire for Mike -- he never checks him out or shows signs of nervousness when they touch. He behaves with perfect platonic decorum at all times...

...unless we consider That One Scene With The Hose.

Sexual interpretations of this scene are controversial, and I can understand why; we’re so used to seeing Will as this innocent, immature little boy that it's shocking to catch him fantasizing so lustfully, even though these sorts of thoughts are pretty normal for a 15 year-old. But I think that’s the point. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable about this, because Will feels uncomfortable about it too.

He’s done well in accepting his identity, but he’s an absolute repressed mess when it comes to accepting his sexuality.

So, that’s what the Turing poster tells us about Will. Here’s where the foreshadowing comes in: Will is not the only queer-coded character to have been metaphorically castrated.

Henry’s experience bears striking similarities to Turing’s: he too was caught engaging in a natural but forbidden behaviour and forced by his government to undergo a medical procedure to suppress that behaviour.

His villain speech to El in 4x07, which is ostensibly about his powers, also reads very strongly as a scathing criticism of heteronormativity, and it’s covered in rainbow motifs.

The metaphor here is obvious: Henry’s powers are a manifestation of his homosexuality.

Which implies that Will’s homosexuality can also manifest as powers. They’re repressed because he’s repressed.

It’s not a coincidence that the sexual tension was through the fucking roof in the infamous sauna scene. Every time Will’s supernatural ability to sense the Mind Flayer triggers in S3, Mike is also nearby.

What’s interesting about Mike is that his queer acceptance issues mirror Will’s: Mike has a healthy relationship with his sexuality (he casually checks guys out and plasters his bedroom walls with posters of buff dudes) but he just can’t bring himself to accept what this implies about his identity.

Always with the symmetry, these two. They complement each other perfectly; one’s hang-up is the other’s strength. They have a lot to teach each other about being queer.

And as repressed as they are, I think they want to learn from each other -- Will lets himself get flustered when Mike flirts with him in his bedroom, and Mike hangs on to every word of wisdom Will shares with him in their heart-to-hearts.

Internalized homophobia is a powerful force, but their bond is so strong that it empowers them to fight back.

Henry’s powers symbolize his anger at being mistreated and his desire to take that anger out on the world... but Will’s powers symbolize self-acceptance and love.

So he isn’t just going to defeat Vecna with his powers, and he isn’t just going to get the boy: these two things are one and the same.

#stranger things #will has powers #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #henry creel #my analysis

[sepublic]

            On another note, and these are random ideas based on stuff I’ve seen and read. But this post brought an interesting idea about Christianity being hailed as the religion of reason, of domestication, a place of safe haven from the wild mysticism of the unknown. After all, many revered scientists, such as Gregor Mendel or Isaac Newton, were Christians who saw their work as contributing to a closer understanding of God and his creations. I had a professor who explained how many native cultures have criticized Western science and rationale as an attempt to control and limit nature, as is the effort to quantify everything.

         So with that in mind, I really wonder if this was intentional in Philip’s characterization, how his journal especially sets him up as a scientific explorer with diagrams, ‘figuring out’ the New World to master it. His diary is rife with all sorts of sketches and formulas. And the documentation, the categorization of science might even be compared to Belos’ covens, and their seemingly arbitrary distinctions…

         By contrast, Luz is more willing to engage with the magic of the Titan on his own terms, trusting him and what’s different and unknown. She’s communicating with nature, following the advice of Eda, who espouses how magic IS wild and that this is a good thing; She enrolls at the University of Wild Magic at the end of the show. ‘Wild’ is obviously a term meant to demonize witches as savage and barbaric, which has its connections to colonizers who dismiss nomadic cultures, people who live off the land, as more ‘primitive’.

         People more knowledgeable than me on mysticism have also made posts about Luz’s relationship with magic, such as her acknowledging the power of names by saying Camila’s in the climax of Yesterday’s Lie, summoning a cube with a direct link to her. Names are a big thing in magic from what I understand, hence the creation of middle names; People couldn’t just refuse to give their name to a fae for fear of being deemed rude and punished, but giving your name gives them leverage. So have a REAL name to protect, while your first name is more of an alias.

         For the record, I don’t think TOH is taking an anti-science approach or anything; Keep in mind Keeping Up A-Fear-ances, and how it calls out alternative medicine as a dangerous hoax in its A-plot. The cast is composed of unapologetic nerds who are validated for their nerdery, wanting to learn things for their own sake; Lilith’s history hyperfixation is celebrated.

         Plus, Season 1A encourages Luz to critically question what she’s told, even from Eda; There’s a whole character thread where Luz feels the need to draw her own conclusions, and Eda realizes she can’t just dogmatically order Luz to trust her on authority alone, because she knows firsthand how harmful that logic is in the long run. So she allows Luz to attend Hexside and figure things out for herself, how SHE feels about them; Eda answers Luz’s questioning and admits her mistakes.

        In the end, I think it’s simply about respect; Respect for different cultures and ways of thinking, which also ties into the themes of neurodivergence. People see the world in different ways, and they don’t want you to abandon your own to embrace only theirs, they just want to be allowed to exist and live in actual harmony.

#the owl house #philip wittebane #emperor belos #luz noceda #meta

[polizwrites]

An Attractive Concept

This is a fill for today’s @flashfictionfridayofficial  [#FFF250 Rushing Train] as well as my  @steverogersbingo  E3- Steampunk square.   

Fandom: MCU/Marvel Pairing:  Steve Rogers & Tony Stark  (Stony if you squint)  Rating: General Tags:  No Powers AU, Steampunk AU, Trains,  tech nerdery Summary:  Steven listens to his partner explain his latest idea to improve the world.   Word Count: 380

“What do you mean you’ve found another way to power a locomotive?” While he was quite fond of his handsome, clever companion, Steven couldn’t disguise his skepticism regarding Anthony’s latest claim. 

“Don’t sound so dubious, my dear Captain,” Anthony grinned, his whiskey brown  eyes dancing.  “After all, I am a certified genius.” 

This was true; one of the many things Steven admired about his dear friend was his vast, free-ranging intellect. But sometimes Anthony’s flights of fancy roamed too far.  “Steam engines are  a tried and true technology,” he protested.  “Making them faster or more efficient would surely be a better use of your time and energy.” 

“You sound like my father,” Anthony scoffed.  “As for ‘faster and more efficient’ - this technology is both, by a goodly margin. For example, instead of having to transport its own fuel,  my design will be  powered by the rails it runs upon.  You are familiar with the concept of magnetic attraction and repulsion, are you not?”

“Yes, somewhat.”  Science and engineering weren’t Steven’s strong points;  his training was in military tactics and strategy.  It was part of what made the two of them such a good team: Anthony’s ideas supported by Steven’s military connections.   

“Then consider this,” Anthony posited, ”if one were to place a strong enough magnet under a train car and an equally strong magnet of reverse polarity between the rails, the train car would, for lack of a better word, levitate due to the power of magnetic repulsion.” 

“In theory, I suppose,” Steven replied, trying to envision the scenario.   “But then how would the train car move?” 

Anthony’s eyes lit up.  “Electro-magnets!  When one wraps  wire around a core of iron and supplies it with electricity - it becomes a magnet.  If we lay down a series of electromagnets, alternating their polarity, and turning them on and off in sequence - it would in essence pull - or push, depending on your point of view - the car down the tracks.  The rails would only be needed to keep the car in position. Without friction - we could move freight at speeds nearing fifty, perhaps sixty miles an hour!” 

“And you know how to create magnets strong enough to make an entire train car levitate?”       

“That, my friend,” Anthony sighed, suddenly deflated,  “is the trick.” 

#writing stuff #fanficlet #flash fic friday #stony #steampunk AU #steve x tony #tony x steve #shameless self promo

[wen-kexing-apologist]

15 people, 15 questions

I got tagged by: @rocketturtle4 and @italianpersonwithashippersheart

1. are you named after anyone?

One of my names is shared with a family member.

2. when was the last time you cried?

Probably a day or two ago, my mother is re-homing the dog sometime in January which I am very opposed to, but this trip is the last time I'll see her so I've been very emo.

3. do you have kids?

Not at the moment

4. what sports do you play/have you played?

Swords! hehe, stabby stab.

5. do you use sarcasm?

Oh, probably like 90% of the time, yeah.

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

Difficult question, I think it depends on the person and how I met them. I feel like I tend to latch on to people's personalities more than anything else.

7. what’s your eye color?

Not stupid big brown baby cow eyes, even though my commentary on the sort is at least a fraction of my brand on this website.

8. scary movies or happy endings?

Yes. I will not pick one because I think both are important and serve different purposes. Not every story needs a happy ending, not every movie needs to be scary. When I do watch scary movies, I prefer them to be hauntings, so like Haunting of Hill House is one of my favorite pieces because it is just so fucking beautiful. When I think a story really deserves a happy ending it is when the characters have suffered through so much and are finally granted peace.

9. any talents?

I will take a chance not to self-disparage and say that I think I have many talents, just like everyone else has many talents.

10. where were you born?

The best country in the world (SARCASM) 'Murica.

11. what are your hobbies

I mean...I think most people who follow me on this website know what my current primary hobby is, I have 70+ pieces of evidence on it pinned to my page lol. But otherwise, sword fighting and Dungeons and Dragons, so you know...nerdery.

12. do you have any pets?

None that are actually mine.

13. how tall are you?

About average

14. favorite subject in school?

English, Science, honestly the only class I really hated with any level of passion was pre-calc. Fuck pre-calc.

15. dream job

Used to be physician, but I am so far outside of that field now it's hilarious. I'm young, dumb, and trying to get over burnout so I have not been thinking about my future like that for the last year, and it's been amazing.

tagging some friends I do not plague daily with messages: @solitaryandwandering, @wanderlust-in-my-soul, @negrowhat, @dribs-and-drabbles, @telomeke

#tag game

[ruby-static]

After all this time- I finally have a good ref for my Fallout New Vegas Courier 6: Riley Redmont Haddock. (But friends just call him "Red") AKA the nerdy human embodiment of anxiety.

+ some doodles of him with various companions I plan for him to have in my playthrough.

Riley is my timid, easily annoyed, anxiety-ridden mess of a wasteland wanderer. Dude has an affinity for robots, tinkering, inventing, repairing and general science nerdery. Poor guy is wrapped up in an absolute bullshit chain of events and is quietly losing his shit.

If you wanna know a little more about the dude, I'll leave more info under the cut. (I'd also be more than happy to answer any asks about the dude.)

Name: Riley Redmont Haddock

Age: Mid-30s

Pronouns: He/Him (Transmasc)

Sexuality: Gay/Ace

(Current) Voice Claim: Lin Manuel Miranda. Mainly just because of his voice as Fenton Crackshell Cabrera/Sheriff Marshall Cabrera from Ducktales 2017. That is, unless I find a better voice.

Personality: Timid and overwhelmingly anxious, and a bit easily irritated in the face of his new travels. Due to his affinity with tech, he tends to be more comfortable around robots than people. (At first, at least.) A bit near-sighted and stuck inside his own head, while still fiercely looks after people close to him. Over time in his adventures, he slowly develops into a more confident, collected, yet reckless person.

Bio:

Riley grew up being the child of a Mojave legend known as "The Scarlet Rider", a woman (named Ellie) famed as a masked vigilante who fought to help the people of the Mojave wastes as the stories would tell. But people rarely knew abot "Scarlet's little girl". (Riley had obviously not "cracked the egg" yet for a good while.) Growing up with a traveller and masked hero for a mother, he learned a lot of what formed him into the person he is. Being a decent shot, a skilled mechanic, and more.

But when in a tragic incident his mother disappears, presumed dead, Riley was then sought after and brought in by his estranged father. This man, however, wasn't exactly as noble as his mother. Him being a notorious crime boss of the Vegas area. Having to spend his teenage years as a pawn to a crime lord, certain events would lead to him running off at the age of 16.

Now with his father's men after him, and almost no one to turn to, Riley would travel across the Mojave wastes and other surrounding areas to find safety.

Young Riley ends up finding a group of travelling performers, who he spends his time with for some years. But after a tragic death in the group, the remaining members break apart- leaving Riley on his own again.

Riley starts further developing his skills in robotics where he finds his love for tinkering and repairs. His endless tinkering ends up in the creation of his closest companion, Buddy. A tiny companion robot made completely from scrap, but somehow harboring an endless rabid thirst for violence and wanton destruction. But due to his size, he's effectively harmless. And for a while, he's Riley's one close friend.

So over the years, he's gotten around the wasteland by keeping his head down and taking various jobs and roles. Scavenger, singer, mechanic, and many more.

To Riley, his position as a courier is just a temporary gig "to get me from here to there". He's never really been too attached to it. But with his latest gig, he didn't really have any idea what this seemingly insignificant job would be getting him into.

Because that fateful night with the poker chip and the man in the checkered suit- Well, it just changed everything to say the least.

After the shock from taking a nasty shot to the head wears off, Riley isn't looking for any petty revenge- but answers. Because he can tell something is deeply wrong. And he's just too damn curious to let it go.

Random Info:

Riley tends to be a bit of a "robot whisperer". He seems to become friendly with bots a lot easier than he does with other people. This is typically due to his repair skills, but he generally seems to socialize easier with robots. (Prior to the NV story at least.) For example, he tends to get along pretty well with Victor early in his journey. And the first real 'companion' he meets is ED-E.

As mentioned- prior to the events of the game, Riley has a connection/history with one of the companion characters. Raul Tejada was a close friend of Riley's mother Ellie. So as a kid, Riley grew with Raul as a sort of uncle-figure. After his mother disappearing and him being turned over to his father, they lost contact. After running away from his father, he would come across Raul again, but it wouldn't last for long before he would have to run again with his father's men searching for him. Sadly, they wouldn't meet again for many years until Riley comes across him imprisoned in Black Mountain.

Riley has no idea just how in high hell this happened, but he manages to form a decent relationship with The Kings. He can't explain why he's friends with them, it just... happened. And he's incredibly confused about the whole thing. The King lets him hang out with his adorable robo-dog, though, so he's not complaining.

He also tends to hang around the Followers of the Apocolypse on occasion after bringing ED-E to them. He just tends to chat around with the members- (Arcade in particular.) But he likes to fix any broken tech around, so nobody really complains.

Riley has a texan accent! He tends to hide it around people, but it tends to slip out when he's emotional. (Extremely angry, extremely happy/excited, you get the idea.) Or when he's around certain people, like close friends. As the story goes along, he tends to hide it less and less.

Riley has an interest in various pre-war topics. Specifically, pre-war fashion, pop culture, and music. He believes that if he was born before the war (or if the war never happened) he would be working in fashion. Namely, working in a bridal parlor.

With his additional background in music/performing, he knows a few instruments! Namely guitar, violin, and a little piano.

#Fallout #Fallout New Vegas #Fallout Fanart #Fallout New Vegas Fanart #FNV #FNV Fanart #Fallout OC #Fallout New Vegas OC #FNV OC #FNV Courier #Courier OC #Riley #Riley Haddock #FNV Arcade Gannon #Arcade Gannon #FNV ED-E #ED-E #FNV Raul #FNV Raul Tejada #Raul Tejada #FNV Rex #FNV The King #I've been playing NV bit by bit (but haven't been able to make much progress thanks to college.) #I already love my Courier dude so gd much though :') #Sorry if the bio is long and weird- #It's late as hell but I REALLY wanna infodump about the dude. #I still need to play the game more so I can fine-tune his story #but I wanna draw him a lot more soon! #I gotta draw the dude with Arcade- #anywAYS *passes out*

[spicybylerpolls]

'Mike doesn't express sexual interest in the Phoebe Cates, the hot girl of the day, like his friends'

why am i the only person who doesn't see the mike/phoebe cates thing as disgust?

the conversation re: suzie goes:

will: girls go to science camp??

dustin: suzie does, she's a genius-

mike: is she cute?!

dustin: think phoebe cates, only hotter.

max: what's going on?

will: we're going to talk to dustin's girlfriend!

there's so much in this conversation, i especially love the walk-and-talk vibe of the scene taking its inspiration from shows like the west wing which pioneered that technique to keep characters moving and show larger objectives. the gang are not static, showing that meeting dustins's girlfriend and seeing his radio are top priority right now. however, the convo is about girls, and suzie, and not the radio, giving romance double importance and setting the tone for the season: nerdery vs puberty.

will's line shows his ongoing lack of knowledge of girls. ding ding ding! queercoding + great characterisation for will.

dustin's line then shows his respect of women overall, but with an emphasis on how amazing suzie is. supportive bf dustin!

notice how mike is the one to bring up physical attraction, and he even CUTS DUSTIN OFF TO SAY THIS. eager much? it's interesting that el is right behind him here, making this chat about hotness performative, as if he's asserting himself both in front of her and his friends. 'i'm a guy who can talk about girls.' this is a loaded characterisation for mike, and keeps the byler plot twist obscured, as it's meant to.

BUT mike is already making a face of incredulity when he asks if suzie is cute. dustin's response is more Supportive Bf Dustin (applause), but mike's response face, in the context of him being the one to ask if she's cute or not (a.k.a. turn the topic to the potential attractiveness of girls), does not, on the surface, mean he is disgusted with suzie or girls in general. it means he's incredulous that anyone could possibly be hotter than phoebe cates.

does this mean mike actually thinks phoebe cates is hot? NO. but he is currently PERFORMING masculinity and heteronormativity for el's sake and for his friends sake and for his own god damn sake. so that response face was not and COULD NOT be actual genuine disgust at phoebe cates and/or girls, because that would give his game away IN FULL VIEW of all his friends who is walking and talking towards and amongst. in the context of the scene, he's clearly performing the required 'bro' response to someone saying that it's possible to be hotter than phoebe cates: i.e. surely not, impossible, she's the hottest woman alive.

viewing this moment as disgust is totally misunderstanding mike and his performance of heteronormativity. it's still performance, but performed outrage/incredulity.

agree - disagree

if you don't agree, would love to hear why!

Please note that the purpose of this blog is not to be creepy or to make anyone uncomfortable. That's why I created the #spicy byler tag (I will tag all polls with this). If you don't want to see this blog or anything related to it on your feed, please block that tag. Not everyone is comfortable with this sorta stuff, and that's okay.

#spicy byler #byler #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #phoebe cates #not so spicy polls #suzie bingham #will byers

[dynamoe]

Last month I uploaded the last chapter of Tomorrow's Just Another Day to AO3.

71,832 words, written between 5/2022 - 6/2023 → go to the Billy Quizboy & Pete White index

If you read any of this shit, thank you very much. I hope you got some entertainment out of it. I can now retire from my brief but intense career as fiction writer.

— THIS TUMBLR IS ALSO RETIRED —.

Tomorrow... follows Boy Genius: 54,414 words between 11/2021 - 2/2023

Boy Genius was meant to read like a (very long, unfocused) episode of the Billy & White spinoff show, had it existed. Tonally, it's in the sci-fi-through-mundanity Venture genre: a SuperScience convention paralleled with the culture of competitive boy geniusing. Billy's mother is the only other canon Venture Bros. character to appear.

Tomorrow is fan fiction in response to fan fiction. I never saw a Billy romance attempted so I wrote one. It's not slash or erotica— just '90s style indie film awkwardness. Not in the Venture Bros tone at all. There's no sci-fi element other than Billy's robot hand; no Venture content other than Billy's Rusty Venture memorabilia collection.

It's still a nostalgia wank. I go real deep on mid-1990s specifics.

Because the show came out so slowly over a long period of time (20 years!), the current generation of most-fired-up-fans are way younger than the creators or the characters. Each fan creates their own internal canon for the characters they love. They experience it through their own frame of references. Own it. Go on with your bad self. I GET IT! YOU DO YOU!

THAT SAID...

Seeing fan stuff saying like "Pete identifies as gamer ..something something playing Minecraft" "Billy buys import Vocaloid/Anime figurines" totally gives me whiplash. Because I'm an old. (Not as old as AstroBase Go and not as old as Conjectural Technologies but enough to know their references.)

My read on it— Venture Bros is a quintessentially a Gen X show and Gen X nerdery is a whole other animal. Being a weird dork manifested in a whole other way before widespread internet use and the current age of geek culture dominating pop culture. It was a shameful niche.

So, playing around in the '90s I got to define some of that old school dorkwad identity and I got to top-load it with every nostalgic element of the era I could think of (and research for even deeper cuts.) I was in high school then, so some of that shit is stamped on my brain.

I created an original character who I hoped would be interesting and flawed and believable for the era but most importantly funny playing off the characters fans would already know. (And then get rid of her when I was done, though I felt bad about it.)

Between the two stories, the only material I never found a use for was high school stories of 9-12 year old Billy meeting an inspirational (secretly alcoholic/crack-smoking) teacher, taking over the varsity Quizbowl Team, a battle of wills with his rival (the unctuous team captain with a McEnroe perm and temperment) and getting stood up by his prom date (Pretty in Pink situation where he is both Duckie and Andie).

if you've read all the way to the end of either story, please leave me a comment or send me an ask or DM or something. I wrote a hell of a lot of words (and drew way too many illustrations) on this fuckin' thing. Thanks.

all Billy Quizboy & Pete White material:→ FAILURES of SCIENCE index

off into the sunset (in a universe where I didn't blow her up)

→ go to the Billy Quizboy & Pete White index

#ao3 #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #ao3 author #billy quizboy #pete white #vbros #venture bros #venture brothers #fiction #story #writing #illustration #1990s #raygun #grunge typography #romance #love story #1995 #1996 #tomorrow's just another day #lettering #illustrator #afterthought #afterword #reflections #Original character

[nailamoonsi]

Find the word

this one is super interesting!! although i was tagged a long time ago, i liked reading yours, @kaylinalexanderbooks! thanks for tagging me sometimes even though i've been putting off doing tag games.

my words: refuse, beam, own, product

your words: excite, worth, wonder, undo

i'll tag everyone i've tagged so far and a few others. go for it if you want! if you plan on going tradpub i hugely rec putting any excerpts under a cut or asking people not to reblog.

tagging @lonelyyvampire @faraway-wanderer @motthepaladin @meerawrites @darthnell @mjparkerwriting @uraniumwriting @words-after-midnight @newmoonjuno @ryns-ramblings @earlronove and @autumnalwalker!

as usual, my excerpts deal with blue horizon; since i'm editing it again, decided to go with excerpting blue horizon's epic fantasy book 1!

the word "refuse" in blue horizon epic science fantasy book 1!

The rest of the Milky Way no longer matched the trajectory from three years’ past. He hadn’t had the time to step into Tireseas University’s observatories in months, but it’d turned out to stay steady, yet be thoroughly alien to the galactic region that the planet [ ] occupied. For reasons that didn’t make Ranvir anxious at all, Armando had refused to come with. For all the imagery his family had cultivated around [ space-related alchemy ], he seemed to shy away from actually paying attention to them on an astronomical scale. Ranvir knew that it hadn’t been the same with his passed brother—Antonio Herrera had loved the stars, and he’d managed to occasionally catch glimpse of him amidst the club that congregated to converse about and check out the ever-increasing space-related nerdery, innovation and rapidly-evolving news. The people of [ their planet ] had begun to shift their attention to the stars once again, after all. The students around him were uneasy about speaking on current events.

the word "beam" in blue horizon book 1... i've been avoiding spoiling how antonio and layla and their friends are like in part 2 for years but it's the main scene with "beam" that's not too spoilery, so everyone gets to see them for once, haha:

“I barely know anything about what Alia’s up to.” said Layla, sounding breezy. “Even though you follow her around as much as you do?” Hazan laughed. “We’re buds.” said Layla, and that beam looked way too genuine. “So there’s some kind of trouble following all of you?” Diego asked Khalida, with his posture straightening. The red of his eyes glowed. “We thought there was someone tracking us while we were heading back from the mission,”  said Eliza. “but they’d only show up randomly in the past several days. Threat levels were low till now. It’s someone we’ve barely managed to…miss, or possibly evade, at one point.” “‘Miss, or possibly evade.’ Sounds watery.” said Raj, wryly. He’d been playing with his Ninth’s bracelet; it was passed down from Rajani-fupi, though Antonio had never known him to be particularly devoted. But he and Raj didn’t speak often anymore.

the word "own" in blue horizon book 1:

Ranvir escaped into the warm summer night after a while of cheek-aching smiles and laughter, and almost found a moment’s rest alone for once in these past several months. Being in a team with the likes of Tarak and Lana—with Tarak had to be a feat on its own within the Protector’s class. He stepped around a wide pond that had an elaborate fountain stemming from a broken kestral statue’s heart, with waters that had rumors surrounding it—of how there was a soft song people would hear at times, near or even within them. As if children were singing. But he’d allowed himself to reach out to its waters more than once and had found nothing out of ordinary. Nothing that implied that the [ strange magic ] lingered anywhere near.

the word "product" in blue horizon book 1... doesn't exist! i went with "prod" instead and found a typical ranvir and armando excerpt:

By the time they’d arrived at the hangar together, Ranvir wondered what the hell it was he was doing. “Isn’t it enough that we trekked all over the fissure-ass…all over the freaking campus thrice?” he tried to be the voice of reason with a tone to match, but got the sense that he might sound like he was pleading to a bunch of little babies. And a semi-grown hunk of a man. Who still slept through his alarm way too often and needed a physical reminder proddi—needed someone to throw water on his face to wake him in the mornings. “Jogging everywhere that second time made for a really good workout!” Armando blithely agreed. I’m doomed. Ranvir thought, miserably.

thanks again! that was really fun to try out.

#mywrites #Blue Horizon #tag games

[osrs-stonks]

Introduction Post

Hey, I'm the guy writing all these esoteric essay-length blog posts about a video game stock market. You can call me Mal or Stonks.

I'm an old hand when it comes to OSRS. I've been playing since I was ten, way back in 2005, and I've had an account on OSRS since... 2015-ish? I'm not some hardcore God Mode player with maxed stats or whatever, my current grind is getting all my skills up to level 70. I only have twelve more skills to go.

A few things up front:

My interest in the OSRS Grand Exchange - and by proxy digital stocks, value trends and profit margins - is confined solely to the MMORPG game Old-school Runescape. I would rather delete all of my social media and spend the rest of my life as a lighthouse caretaker than touch anything crypto-related with a ten foot pole; my nerdery is explicitly and solely focused on Runescape and its own unique, self-contained video game stock market, because I enjoy playing the game so much.

The charts and figures shown in each post are accurate - at least in an approximate sense - at the time of that post's writing. Historical figures are... well, not entirely immutable, but immutable enough. "Current" figures are destined to fluctuate.

This is a fun fandom sideblog, not a hardcore financial science paper authored to the highest scrutiny. I graduated high school and I have a blue-collar job; I'm not claiming to be an expert on anything. I'm just nerding out.

I'm gonna be honest, I'd be pretty surprised if I had more than twenty of these extensive ultra-niche video game stock market posts in me. If I were you, I'd fully expect this blog to burn out and become defunct hard and fast.

Suggestions are a bit of a grey area right now. I kind of want to bumble through the wiki or find something in the game that gives me an idea, but honestly if someone is so enthused by the concept of this blog that they contact me going "hey hey I want to see a post about this thing!", that's cool too. I also wholeheartedly encourage other users to write their own posts if they end up enjoying this blog.

The general tags I use are underneath this post, and each post will be tagged with the item's name. Not that it'll help with how terrible the website's search function is, but it's the thought that counts.

#osrs #oldschool runescape #old-school runescape #runescape #grand exchange #osrs stonks

[demonslayedher]

Japanese Sword Production Lore As It Relates to Kimetsu no Yaiba – Master List

Master List of Teppi’s Adventures in Raw Sword Production

A very surface level look at transforming raw materials into something you can make a sword out of, looked at through the lens of KnY, with other tidbits of Swordsmith Village Lore throughout (especially names and names). This information is especially thanks to the Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum (which has become a KnY hotspot for a black sword displayed there) and the Itohara Family Memorial, a historical iron making site. (Links shall be added momentarily) Part 1: Teppi is sent to Mt. Youkou and sees how Shoujouhi iron sand is gathered Part 2: Teppi gets put to work on making charcoal and clay Part 3: Teppi helps build and work the Tatara furnace for three exhausting days Part 4: Teppi sees the general process from kera to katana

Additional resources for nerds, KnY fic writers, or viewers who want to more deeply appreciate Nichirin blades (and Haganezuka says that should be all of you):

Please note, this is merely scratching the surface; it would be impossible to slice through all the Nihonto resources out there with a single starter list. I hope it covers a wide range of Nihonto topics helpful to both beginners and not-beginners. I am a not-beginner, but not at all any sort of expert whatsoever.

Text Based: An explanation of Nihonto and what makes them beautiful, written by the Former Senior Managing Director of the Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Sword & the associated Japanese Sword Museum. This society is best source for all things Nihonto related and a major reason we still get creative new blades to enjoy. This article is lengthy, but it’s the best place to start as a Nihonto nerd. A good glossary and diagrams of the different functional and structural parts of Nihonto Look, some jihada examples, pretty. Videos: A 10 minute, wordless overview of the Tatara process—basically what I’ve written about for Teppi but you get to watch it all unfold. A very ASMR video of sword polishing, to better appreciate Haganezuka’s battle in the Swordsmith Village Arc (includes English text in the video to explain some parts) Or, if you want the sword polishing process with English commentary (granted, it’s very dated sound quality): A beautiful video of basics of Japanese sword appreciation. Very clear and informative! …That is, if you speak Japanese. You can get auto-translations of the auto-generated Japanese subtitles, but those can be spotty. A much more detailed video, fully in English, taking apart the blade to better appreciate it. Excellent explanations both for beginners and not-beginners. Science! The light version explaining the curvature of a Japanese blade, with cool clips of the curve happening underwater. Science! The heavy version explaining the Hamon. I hope you like hearing about carbon. Oh, you want something more specific to Kimetsu no Yaiba? Was my conjecture not enough for you? Well, here’s a short one that’s been going around, proof of concept on the cutting ability of Inosuke’s sword, thank you, you excited nerds (Genya’s gonna be so upset about those watermelons though). And then when you’ve got a who-o-o-le lot more time on your hands, HOLY FUDGE, THIS GUY MADE IGURO’S SWORD. Not only that, he’s got video after video after video after video of the very, very, very extensive process of making the sword. You know what really blows me away? EVERY VIDEO HAS ENGLISH SUBTITLES AND THEY ARE GOOD. (Taisho Secret reminder from Chapter 190: Iguro’s sword was produced by Tecchikawahara’s son Gantetsu, with a special folding sheath that opens upward instead of drawing it out through the koiguchi (“carp mouth” because of its shape) like normal single-curve katana.) A note from a fanfic writer to other fanfic writers: There are no limits to nerdery. I fully encourage you to be a nerd. Go! Unleash yourself! Be a nerd! However, you can never assume that your readers have as much knowledge as you, or that they are there for a science or history lesson (though I assumed everyone who read Teppi’s adventure is here to learn). While being rich with details can draw people into your writing, don’t feel pressure to understand everything about a topic like Nihonto, because you don’t need to use everything in the topic. That daunting we don't need to do that to ourselves. Your readers are there for plot and characters (or lack of plot, even), so my advice is to use only as much detail as serves the readers’ enjoyment. Am I guilty of too much sword detail? Yes. Sometimes. I’m sure I am.

#kny nerdery #kny fandom theories and meta #SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS #by the way Nihonto is the catch-all phrase for Japanese blades #because katana is only one type

[shirks-all-responsibilities]

Thanks @iamskyereads fer the tag!

🎵 Last Song: "Cross My Mind" by Jill Scott and all my other faves from her CLASSIC first three albums. Neosoul was my early-mid-aughts JAAAM in college, memorieeeees!

📺 Last Movie: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, while I try to justify continuing my Max subscription. (Fun fact: Thorin Oakenshield was my first fanfic love, and pretty recently 🙈😊).

🎞🎬 Currently Watching: Gaming captures all my attention these days, but I watched Chernobyl soon after TLOU ended (apparently I wanted EVEN MORE pain 😆) and ever since, on my commute to and from work, I've listened to the official podcasts with Craig Mazin, over and over and over, the reality of what happened is so FASCINATING, I can't stop listening...

💻 📖📱Currently Reading: Scholarship on cognitive science, imagination, and literature/fiction, like the chapters "On Truth and Fiction" and "Patterns of Thought: Narrative and Verse" from the book Cognitive Literary Science: Dialogues between Literature and Cognition. The insights offered by the cognitive and biocultural sciences of religion in recent decades changed my life, and I'm gobbling up everything they have to say about why fic is so valuable, meaningful, and an incredibly human product of our complex brains. Fic is not just silly little fake stories about imaginary people, it's much, much more than that, and it warms my heart to find scholarship that is giving voice to that deep down feeling many of us have about its worth and how deeply satisfying it can be, in a way that totally shifts your paradigm and blows your mind, ya know?

🍽 Currently Craving: Indian/South Asian takeout, which I just finished consuming as I type this. 😎

No pressure tags/just saying hello/covertly spreading my fiction research nerdery: @davnittbraes, @imtryingmybeskar, @julesonrecord, @galactic-basic, @skyshipper

#tag game #ask game #personal

[flo-nelja]

AO3 Meme

I've been tagged by @vampirenaomi, thank you!

If you want to do it, tagging @allen-kunekune, @anysin, @mnemosynelethe, @calimera62, @andersssandrew

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

1033

Most of them are very short.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

2253582. It's a lot.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Your God will be my God (Jon/Martin, 924 Kudos)

Watchful (Jon/Martin, 552 Kudos)

The flower and the fairy (Original smut, 499 Kudos)

Only in a dream we are as one (Jon/Martin, 458 Kudos)

Spin their webs in the depth of our brains (Jon/Martin, 451 Kudos)

Damn, there was a time when TMA was popular. :D

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, always. I don't get that many, it's easy.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oooh, there is competition! Looking at the fics I've tagged "Bad ending" rather than all of them.

Pain and revenge is a dark rapefic, On the edge is about the characters turning evil, Le destin ne recule pas is about a desperate and failed attempt to prevent the Ragnarök, by the villains even.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Same, looking at the tags

L'ennemi intérieur was a longfic with dark parts but a happy ending for Stan and Ford

7. Do you write crossovers?

Rarely, compared to the total number of fics, but it happens! I had this series of Flander's Company crack crossovers.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes but not recently and not on AO3.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. And it's... mostly dark smut, to be fair. Unhealthy relationships, noncon, supernatural horror tropes.

I must have a few happy smut fics here, but not that many.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Some by myself but it doesn't count, exist in bilingual, French and English. But I also had fics translated by another person, a few times.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, there's a fic a friend abandoned and let me do things with with the parts, and there's this RP adaptated

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

It's so hard! To remember the intensity of past shipping feelings! But then I will use an objective metric: the number of fics.

It's Bill/Ford from Gravity Falls. Not a surprise, this one has sooo many of the tropes that make me weak. Betrayal and science nerdery and deals with the devil and all.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

My Silmarillion fic from the PoV of the villains, Les Ténèbres sur nous

15. What are your writing strengths?

For fanfic, I'm usually good at seeing the hidden implications of canon details.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm so bad at surprises and plot twists, at walking the line between "everyone must have understood this" (I'm wrong) and "no one could understand this" (I'm wrong)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

The whole dialogue, no, unless it's a bilingual bonus that we're meant not to understand (and/or the character does this in canon)

An intranslatable word from time to time, Japanese honorific... it depends. Sometimes it sounds weird, sometimes it sounds weird not doing it.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Writing my own stories about other people's characters before I knew what fanfic was: Brer Rabbit when I was a kid.

IIRC the first fic I wrote knowing what fandom was, was a Ruroni Kenshin fic. Discovering the world of fic made me realize that I could write even if my style wasn't perfect.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I have hundreds of fandoms and plan to write a lot more, but in immediate plans, maybe something about the Hilda cartoon.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Ouch hard to decide again. I often rec Les enfants de l'acide because it's a fandom everyone knows, Vestiges de l'ordure et de la lumière because it's one of the best horror/dark humor smuts I wrote, channeling the original almost, I showed it to my grandfather even.

For my personal fave, it must me one of my BillFord fics, maybe De l'autre côté de l'éternité

#meme

[brandyschillace]

Is the Book launch Dead? If so… Now What?

So back in 2021, full lockdown, I released a nonfiction with Simon&Schuster (it’s here if you like history of science).

It was covid. But it’s more than covid; unless you are a REALLY big name, you aren’t getting a book tour. Instead, you might do some virtual events. I did. And I realized how incredibly boring most author events can be for the audience. A talking head. No interaction. That’s what used to happen at the book signing desk. For most authors and readers, those days are gone. But I *wanted* to interact… I missed book clubs and chatting around signing tables.

So I developed a twice monthly YouTube show that’s a bit like the muppet show meets Addams family meets book club. Claymation, custom book cocktails, skits, live music, and an actual book club chat with both the authors (!) and members (who actually read the books). I called it the PECULIAR BOOK CLUB.

It’s been slow growing, but we have 10k FB followers, 2500 free group members, and a committed set of about 75 people who religiously follow and support the show through paid membership. Oh. And we also have a podcast that turns all video content into audio AS WELL AS offering book launch shows and our ‘peculiar at the movies’ series.

Here are our links of note. Subscribing to the newsletter is how you receive show links.

Website:

Instagram:

Newsletter:

YouTube:

Podcast:

Member levels:

FB page:

FB Group:

#booksbooksbooks #books and reading #book club #books #reading #authors #author event #livestream #music #cocktails #comedy sketch #youtube #writers on tumblr