this-acuteneurosis

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Frog Paints a Water Lily Pond 🪷🎨🐸

𝑓ₒᵣ ⲕᵢ𝑛𝑔 ₐ𝑛𝑑 𝑐ₒ𝑡𝑡ₐ𝑔ₑ

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Average color of US states based on satellite imaging.

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as a long-time figure skating fan, i’ve been really looking forward to yuri on ice, and i wanted to talk a little bit about the skating in episode 1. i worry that maybe people who aren’t as into skating don’t understand how RIDICULOUS that program viktor did was.

this is not in any way a complaint. the program was completely unrealistic, but not because anyone involved with the show neglected to do their research. it was clear they actually put a ton of research & work in, and then intentionally designed something that was the skating equivalent of your power level being over 9000. viktor (and yuri) went out there and threw down the skating version of a level 100 mewtwo. it was DELIGHTFUL.

so first of all:

four quads is… not technically IMPOSSIBLE, but right at the very edge of what is currently possible in men’s figure skating. a quad (jump with four revolutions) is REALLY DIFFICULT. as recently as 2010, the olympic champion in men’s skating didn’t even have ONE quad in his program; i remember as recently as five years ago scott hamilton saying TWO quads was “superhuman.” the highest score EVER received in men’s skating was yuzuru hanyu at the grand prix final in 2015, where he performed three quads. the second highest score ever received was javier fernandez at worlds last year, where he also performed three quads. skating fans can correct me if i’m wrong but the only skater i can think of who has EVER performed four quads in one program is boyang jin, who is tiny and has made jump rotation his whole life. to have a seasoned 27-year-old skater performing four quads is completely delightful nonsense.

his first jump is a quad lutz. for some context, the rough ranking of skating jumps from easiest to most difficult is something like: toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, lutz, axel. you might notice a lutz is the SECOND MOST DIFFICULT JUMP POSSIBLE, and actually more difficult than the axel for some skaters. accordingly, MOST quads are toe loops or salchows. since a quad axel has literally never been performed, a quad lutz is the SINGLE MOST DIFFICULT jump ever landed in skating competition, EVER. although people have been trying to do quad lutz since the early 2000s, you can probably count the number of skaters who have landed it successfully on one hand. this jump is nearly ALWAYS underrotated or even downgraded to a triple. in my lifetime as a skating fan i can only think of a couple times i’ve seen this jump landed as cleanly as viktor does it here.

if that wasn’t enough, the lutz usually has a very specific set-up where the skater glides backward on one foot for a couple seconds before turning their skate blade onto the outside edge. that’s how the technique for the lutz jump is TAUGHT. it’s extremely impressive for someone to be able to throw a lutz out there without this setup. viktor does it and gets four full rotations.

then he follows it up with:

the first quad flip IN HISTORY was landed for the first time LAST APRIL. APRIL 2016. i also remember people trying this one back in 2010-2011, but it wasn’t successfully landed until THIS YEAR. and it’s viktor’s SIGNATURE MOVE!!! and he does it immediately after landing the other most difficult jump in skating!!!!!! he just pulled out two jumps most skaters can only dream of ever landing maybe once in their entire careers, BACK TO BACK.

again, the HIGHEST SCORE EVER AWARDED IN MEN’S FIGURE SKATING, EVER, was given to a program with one quad salchow and two quad toe loops. jumps SIGNIFICANTLY easier (but still extremely difficult) than viktor’s two opening jumps. and he’s just fucking getting started.

he does a flawless triple axel and then some footwork and spins. then he throws out something maybe a touch less superhuman:

for any real life skater, this would already be one of the greatest performances of their career. but viktor isn’t done yet.

he does a long (gorgeous) footwork sequence, triple lutz, triple flip, and:

i already mentioned how ridiculous four quads is, but this is even better. skaters will typically put their most difficult jumps near the beginning of the program, because they’re easier to land before your legs get tired. recognizing this, the scoring system gives you an extra 10% bonus on the jump’s value if it’s in the second half of the program. viktor pulls out a quad-triple combo, still one of the most difficult jumps in figure skating, as his LAST JUMP. HIS LAST JUMP. a free skate program lasts four and a half minutes. after four and a half minutes of grueling, exhausting activity, viktor soars into a quad-triple so beautiful it could be used to teach the combination to other skaters.

AND YURI KEEPS UP WITH ALL OF THIS. YURI, WHO CAME IN LAST AT THE GPF. YURI CAN DO THIS TOO. this program is significantly more difficult than anything that has ever been competed irl, and this show has TWO SKATERS DOING IT SIMULTANEOUSLY. WHAT A GREAT SHOW???

for any skating nerds out there, here is my breakdown of the jumps in viktor’s program:

4Lz - 13.60 4F - 12.30 3A - 8.50 4S - 10.50 3A+3Lo+2Lo - 15.40 3Lz x - 6.60 3F x - 5.83 4T+3T x - 16.06

to explain what this means. the world record score in men’s figure skating was given to yuzuru hanyu in 2015. for that program, the base value for the jumps alone (so not even taking execution into consideration, just the sheer value yuzuru got for completing the jumps he did) was 79.87 points. 

the total base value of the jumps viktor (and yuri) performed in this program was 88.79.

this program would have handily crushed the world record. and yuri throws it out there in his home rink when he’s out of shape during the off-season.

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#woodworking #snakes #the scales!!!

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leverage season 1 plot

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Women want one thing and it's quite obvious, A large affordable interconnected North American Rail Network

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Huge respect to all the disabled archers out there- this is HARD!

Please check out Patreon to support these videos- I have art references in the shop!

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oopsie! You got a bit too manic about a creative project too close to bedtime and now your brain is too awake to sleep. One million dead 10 morbillion injured

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So... from your writing ive never got the sense you liked physical combat much in writing how are you feeling about throwing Danger at Leia in scenarios? her being Quarter-God? gets you out of it for big dramatic scenes then scene changes. Just curious cause the amount and ability for Sideous to throw ALL the Assassination attempts at her in various ways is absurd, course its so soon and a calmer war that for someone so public as Padme/Leia its still early days but im curious.

Combat scenes are Hard and I thoroughly respect everyone who writes them, especially people who are good at them. I try very hard to lean into my strengths by sticking to a tonal description rather than fight details when I can. I'll keep working on the skill though because setting aside Palpatine, there will be more action in this story and I want to give everyone my best work.

#Don't Look Back

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Hi. Loved the new chap the work youve done with nakin has been great. may I suggest the Dub (done really good ) of Frieren: Beyond Journeys End for a show I think you would really like? as thanks or? you shared a nice thing, I want to share a nice thing.

I have actually already started watching Frieren (subbed not dubbed, as that is usually my preference) at the recommendation of a friend. I'm about 11 episodes in and I am very much enjoying it. Thank you for thinking of me and recommending it. :)

#I am also maybe a little obsessed with Yuusha by YOASOBI #I need to look into more music by them

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fun thought. like alot of media have used ancient sith super weapons that have glyphs and "spooky" symbols and also lot of glass/probabbly totally Kyber in the past. Which is a fun thought. poor Erso wanting to build nice Kyber things but like increasing the research on it makes more knowledgeable and stuff. For future arguments. course like historically the Sith came up with the first proto packs that made Lightsabers and the Jedi stole reverse engineered it so good weight with the bad?

I have consumed exactly zero media depicting ancient Sith super weapons, but I can agree that poor Galen Erso was very doomed by the narrative.

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Years and years ago, I read a book on cryptography that I picked up because it looked interesting--and it was!

But there was a side anecdote in there that stayed with me for more general purposes.

The author was describing a cryptography class that they had taken back in college where the professor was demonstrating the process of "reversibility", which is a principle that most codes depend on. Specifically, it should be easy to encode, and very hard to decode without the key--it is hard to reverse the process.

So he had an example code that he used for his class to demonstrate this, a variation on the Book Code, where the encoded text would be a series of phone numbers.

The key to the code was that phone books are sorted alphabetically, so you could encode the text easily--picking phone numbers from the appropriate alphabetical sections to use ahead of time would be easy. But since phone books were sorted alphabetically, not numerically, it would be nearly impossible to reverse the code without exhaustively searching the phone book for each string of numbers and seeing what name it was tied to.

Nowadays, defeating this would be child's play, given computerized databases, but back in the 80s and 90s, this would have been a good code... at least, until one of the students raised their hand and asked, "Why not just call the phone numbers and ask who lives there?"

The professor apparently was dumbfounded.

He had never considered that question. As a result, his cipher, which seemed to be nearly unbreakable to him, had such an obvious flaw, because he was the sort of person who could never coldcall someone to ask that sort of thing!

In the crypto book, the author went on to use this story as an example of why security systems should not be tested by the designer (because of course the security system is ready for everything they thought of, by definition), but for me, as a writer, it stuck with me for a different reason.

It's worth talking out your story plot with other people just to see if there's a "Why not just call the phone numbers?" obvious plot hole that you've missed, because of your singular perspective as a person. Especially if you're writing the sort of plot where you have people trying to outsmart each other.

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who else up hurkleing their durkleing

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the sequence of events I am currently experiencing:

1) realize I’m super behind on duty bound

2) start to catch up

3) go back a lil further than the last chap I put in the bookmarks bc I couldn’t remember what was happening

4) got to an italicized line (ie vader) & became curious about if we ever see the whole thing all at once/couldn’t remember

5) opened up parts 1 & 2 (entire work, but that’s just my default) to search the “I owe you” phrase via find selection on page

6) realized how long it’s been since I read part 1

7) started a full reread of part 1 (though honestly idk if it was consciously intentional)

8) etc etc etc anyways I just got to leia returning the lightsaber to the temple and I FORGOT ABOUT OBILEIA. BAHAHAHA I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THEM. AND I LOVE THEM ALL OVER AGAIN. THEY’VE LITERALLY INTERACTED FOR .5 SECONDS AT THIS POINT IN THE NARRATIVE IDEC IM SO IN

(anyways, thanks for writing the DLBverse, I adore it, I adore your writing in general (I also just read for want of a skywalker for the first time yesterday and loved it), I hope you’re having a fantastic day!)

Ah, the reread cycle. A dangerous realm to enter. I'm glad you're having a lot of fun with it. :) And I'm so glad you liked For Want of a Skywalker. I'm pretty proud of how that one turned out.

#people are so kind #Duty Bound #Don't Look Back #For Want of a Skywalker

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Is this gonna be a thing with Leia? Just hauling half dead men out of nonsense on her back? Is Galen Erso also going to have a crush on her? Given your characterization of his wife, she’s clearly his type and after this chapter, I don’t think Lyra would be offended, lol

Hahahaha, while Lyra wouldn't be offended at Galen being impressed by Leia and developing a crush on her, it's not going to happen. He's not going to have many clear memories of their escape, and most of the ones he will have will be kinda sucky (like, you know, getting his arm cut off). He was also mostly worried about his family, and while he's going to be incredibly grateful to Leia for making sure they're safe, that will probably be the sum total of it.

#Duty Bound #Don't Look Back