lorekai: And so my faith in humanity has been whittled away a little more…

I’m assuming by now that many of you have seen, or at least heard about, the video of the woman walking around New York City, if not you can view it here.

But it’s not the unsolicited commentary, or the downright creepy behavior of some of the men in the video, or even how it demonstrates a fairly serious societal issue, that whittles away my faith. No, it’s the number of people who seem to think that that sort of behavior is completely alright, that a woman should expect to be harassed if she dresses up nicely and goes out in public. And if she doesn’t like it, she should move, she shouldn’t dress so provocatively, she should loosen up and learn to take a compliment. What helpful suggestions, except, it happens everywhere, regardless of what you are wearing, the sincerity of a compliment is obvious, and it most certainly is not a compliment if you are left fearing that the wrong response could be met with anger, or even violence.

It’s ridiculous, and I cannot comprehend how some people can think this way, that they cannot even try to think of what things are like from another person’s perspective. Surely it cannot be hard to understand that being hassled nearly every time you walk along a street is unpleasant, that being followed around by a complete stranger is at best uncomfortable, at worst terrifying. How can they be so closed off, that they think it’s it’s perfectly alright for anyone to face this on a regular basis. I thought people were better than this.

Sorry for the rant, thanks for reading.

Alone in sleep

It has three heads.  The heads are Death, the Devil and Fear.  I know somehow they are one because of me.  It has bat-like wings, seemingly out of some awareness of convention, since it drifts motionless toward me like some Hindenburg of terror.  It is red, but the air around it is black, and blood drips to the floor below it.  I can’t see the heads with my waking eyes, for which I am grateful.  I know only that my mind shuts down when I try to confront that awful truth.

It has been hunting me for weeks now, from one landscape one night, to another impossible dream-scape the next.  At first it was a formless fear, my id spending the nights running through fields, forests, cities and oceans.  Impossibility means nothing in a dream, but escape was impossible.  I only knew to hide when I could.

Next was the horrors of the waking world, in all the distorted, childish horror lent it in dream.  Fear experienced in video games, in books, at work.  All took on new and terrible meaning, and I ran from them.

But then, I saw it.

What was most horrifying was how real it seemed.  Even after I’ve woken up, I can remember enough to make me wonder if I’m still asleep.

Last night, I only just escaped it by jumping and climbing into an oven exhaust.  Its claws scratched my legs.  That woke me up, no air in my lungs, skin blistered with stress.  I somehow knew that climbing into that ceiling was a portal to another world, that escape lay through it.  But I also knew that freedom was temporary, that the Beast would soon pass through. No trap would hold it, no hidden path would fool it, and the chase would start anew.

For now, I type frantically, and hold myself upright.  I’m holding off the urge to sleep now, but I’m tired, and it’s been so long since I slept well.

What will happen when It catches me?  I don’t know.  I don’t want to know.  How do I escape?  Where- how can I get away?

…

I’m going to sleep now.  I would like to- I can’t even pretend I’m going to fight.  I’ll run tonight, like I have every night this week, and I wonder if when it catches me, will I even wake up the same person?

One good thing and three bad things

Be thankful for the small things, sometimes they’re all you get!

Windfyre:

Bad: Worked in a new office;

Cat pee everywhere

Realised its been a year and my posts still suck’

Good: Got my XBox One!!!

lorekai:

Bad: All alone in the house with two super, super, super, needy cats.

Daffodil sprouted in the garden, daffodil summoned storms, storms killed daffodil.

Ikebana class was cancelled, already bought flowers and harvested branches.

Good: Xillia 2! 12 hours in and still going strong.

anit the Flea:

Bad: Had mini breakdown on kitchen floor over an imagined slight by one of sisters.

Cats were generally vague in their definition of what constitutes a toilet.

Found out how ridiculously bad I am at the secret super training in Pokemon X which is my only way of getting more of certain items I need (Sun Stones mostly).

Good: I got an interview for a new job!

EbolaBooze:

Bad: Everything I did at work was one step short of perfection. I reached for the stars but instead got the skies. I wanted those damn stars, damnit!

I got sick with a cold. Cured by rice.

I got less sleep in a week than I usually get in two days.

Good: I bought a tier 10 tank in World of Tanks.

300 Megapixels Worth of Heartache

So the DNA sequencing facility I work at moved to a different hospital campus a couple weeks back, and the boss finally got rid of a few deprecated sequencing machines that were taking up valuable storage space. Gave them a good clean-out so no nasty chemicals were left in them, and sent them off for disposal.

Two SOLiD 5500XLs, two SOLiD 5500s and a single SOLiD 4 sequencer. Five sequencers in total. These sequencers use fluorescently-tagged DNA fragments to sequence stands of DNA bound to microscopic beads immobilised on a glass plate; in short, they take pictures of glowing DNA, cleave off the glowy bit, attach a new, different glowy bit, rinse and repeat. Then, through the magic of SCIENCE and COMPUTING POWER, we get a DNA sequence.

 

That’s not important at the moment.

What’s important is, that to get the sorts of resolution needed to tell each of these microscopic beads apart, you need a pretty damn good camera and optics assembly. I don’t care about the optics assembly, I have narrower bandpass filters in my camera already. The camera sensor though….. There were five of these beasts that I could have acquired.

The sensors inside those machines were sixty, that’s right, six-zero, 60 megapixel CCD-type sensors. That’s not the biggest sensor in the world, but it’s certainly up there. As a comparison, the sensor I used for all of the astrophotos I’ve put up on this blog is a TrueSense Imaging KAF-8300, 22.5mm diagonal 8.3 megapixel sensor.

A little bit of searching brought up the model of sensor in the sequencing machines.

They were FTF9168M sensors from Teledyne DALSA, the glorious bastards that brought into the world the 111MP single-chip sensor for the Astrometry Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory (http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1319797632/dalsa100mp), and the 570MP FermiLab Dark Energy Survey camera (https://www.darkenergysurvey.org/DECam/DECam_add_tech.shtml).

 

Long whitepaper short: these imaging assemblies had larger sensors with a higher resolution than any commercially available CCD for astrophotography, quantum efficiency that puts a lot of other sensors to shame, and double the dynamic range of my current sensor.

I only learnt of this AFTER the machines had been disposed of.

 

No chance of salvage, no chance at making an array of sensors, no chance at selling three off and making obscene amounts of money. I was in physical pain when I heard that. The expression on my boss’s face when he realised what he had done was an amazing amount of shock and horror. I will be hurting about this to the end of my days.

 

300 megapixels worth of heartache.

 

Stay angry my friends, I certainly will.

Half Angry Alpha Nerds

marsy: My knee says bonjour.

And with that scintillating comment, we open. Three of the Nerds are gathered, as one is still out of the country, and two are sick, assumed dead. It’s most unfortunate. The suspected diagnosis is a severe case of wommblosis. The explosive kind.

We aren’t creative without the crutch of alcohol, it seems. The cocktails consumed from teapots have worn off for marsy and lorekai. EbolaBooze has the distinct honour (misfortune. Ai-yah.) of being designated driver. Such is life in soviet Perthia.

 

The thinking capacities of this group is severely limited at the moment.

 

EbolaBooze is simply worried that his telescope will fly off in the breeze. It’s 120+kg of equipment, so not a particularly big one. An idea for airborne telescopes is sufficient helium balloons. Dragonforce agrees. (A trail of broken hearts flying freeeeeee~)

 

marsy didn’t know that song was by Dragonforce. This is her learning done for the month. She disagrees, and says that you learn something new every day. Ebolabooze begs to differ. How cruel. As expected of EbolaBooze.

 

lorekai wonders why EbolaBooze thinks himself cruel. He responds that he knows himself too well. Also the voices in his head make good debating partners.

marsy: Such is life in soviet EbolaBooze. (lorekai: wouldn’t want to live there…)

 

These posts are more fun with greater numbers of people involved. Yes, EbolaBooze does think the company is boring. And will decrease the fuel efficiency of his car. I’m talking to you, payload.

marsy: that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me!

 

Adeiu.

marsy: It’s not my fault!

 

Blame lorekai. Maybe EbolaBooze too.

marsy: Exams are not my friend

It’s that time of year again – exam time! Well, technically it’s exam time in couple of weeks, but that’s beside the point. The point is, that I have managed to find so many important things to do instead of studying. Some of these important tasks include painting my nails, having naps, playing really frustrating mini-games in otherwise fun games (I’m talking about you, Final Fantasy X), watching movies, reading fanfiction, and thinking about my place in the universe.

 

I will further explain some of these things because that is a great use of my time.

1. Painting my nails. They are pink now. And shiny. I got the nail polish from lorekai for my birthday. She understands my needs.

2. Having naps. Naps are good. I have to extend my naps sometimes because I have cats sleeping on me. Some sacrifices must be made for the greater good. I couldn’t possibly move a cat and do something useful.

3. Mini-games. I love Final Fantasy X, and the rerelease is something I’m enjoying. What I’m not enjoying, however, are the stupid mini-games. Lightning dodging, butterfly catching, chocobo training, and blitzball. I think I hate blitzball the most.

4. Watching movies. Saw the new X-men movie tonight. Enjoyed it. Magneto is a jerk. So rude.

5. Reading fanfiction. What better use of my time could there be? None.

6. Thinking about my place in the universe. Sometimes I just zone out, ok? Geez! Today was not a good day for braining. I cannot brain today, I have the dumb.

 

Now I must go – my people need me.

marsy: Just my luck

You know what sucks? Breaking your glasses. I need those to see! I’m using my old ones for now, and the prescription is wrong so it makes me feel dizzy. The worst part is that my good glasses literally fell apart on my face (and then fell off my face). Bah!

No backspaces is cruise control for cool

Or: windfyre is now named Wang Fu.

Wildfillysama really shouldn’t leave, for our sake. Please come back. Pleeeeease.

There are mermaids on a tissue box.

Ebolabooze keeps manhandling lorekai. The computer craves his touch only. We are adults.

Ebolabooze’s skype name is justabit.  Don’t actually check that. Maybe he left his password in his other butt. Wrapped in plastic. The miracle of birth.

We have 89~ subscribers, we might not after this.  Do we have nothing better than drunken in-jokes?

No.

Marsy-chan only has sober in-jokes.  They hurt more, I assume.  I’m assured they are fabulous. Lorekai would like to say buuuuuutts, but not with a fancy little squiggle.  I just heard her say bottoms.

 

This not me I do not want this, I do not say these things.

Buuuuuttsn.onono0nonononon.o

😦

 

(Disclaimer: none of us are being held against their will.  Only some of us have had alcohol.  Not lorekai, which is why… this.)

Beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

 

Does skype power your passion? Discuss.

 

There will be a test on this.

The Tarantula nebula is cursed for EbolaBooze. We are now hearing the smallest violin in existence.

 

Sword Art Online is cool, like the tower one but better because it has levels; Anit the Flea (2014, one beer)

Let that stand for prosperity.  Expletives make lorekai think of extweetives, which are like cute birds that talk in exclamation points and things, which are apparently punctuation.  Who knew?  “Extweetives came up earlier, just like me”; Windfyre (nee Wang Fu)

EbolaBooze’s standards have dropped ever since wildfillysama left the country. We’re lucky he bathes. These things aren’t related (I have very mild body odour, for the record. Ebolabooze et al.)

CAN’T BREATHE. HELP US.

Don’t laugh, send help.

The other angry alpha nerds are vicious liars who also smell… Ebolabooze stole my seat, it’s very upsetting.

Rood.

I like this jacket, it’s got bows.

With your science and your fandangos and your woopwoops.

Justifiable Anime Protagonist Idiocy

Or: Marathoning White Album 2 without wildfillysama in the country was a terrible idea.

 

So, White Album 2. It’s a recently concluded anime series based off the first half of a visual novel, and from first impressions looked like a standard, straight high school romance with added musical element.

I must admit, I picked it up expecting crappy writing and directing, pretty character designs and a couple more tracks to add to my music collection. Boy was I wrong.

I really can’t say any more without giving the essence of the story away, so spoilers ahead.

 

First things first – A guilty pleasure of mine is a story where the protagonists fight though overwhelming odds to earn their happy end.

This is not one of those stories. It is a story about three generally good people: two girls, damaged in their own ways but still far too nice, and a boy too helpful, earnest, caring and goddamn inexperienced for his own good putting themselves in a bad situation and proceeding to do ugly things to each other.

It’s a story where you can’t help but watch the train derail, and any ending other than forcing you to watch that thing crash and burn leaving no survivors would leave you feeling cheated.

 

I had to stop halfway through episode 8 and walk around for a bit to work the anger and churning bile away at the incredible density and lack of communication that every single one of the three main characters showed. What’s worse, (or better, really) is that given the narrative presented their actions are justifiable.

You can see the big miserable cycle of manipulation, selfishness masquerading as selflessness, hurt and hurting building up even from the early happy-go-lucky episodes. The characters presented are so painfully human that I have to applaud the writer and pretty much everyone involved in the adaptation.

It’s not a nice story, but it is a beautiful one.

 

For good measure, the lyrics of the final song of the anime grab the knife so lovingly planted over the course of 13 episodes and twist it. Hard.

5/5, recommended, feels were had, would feel again. I won’t comment on the quality of adaptation, since I haven’t gone through the visual novel, but the general consensus is that the anime does it justice.

 

Oh yeah, the soundtrack was excellent, at any rate.

 

Stay not feeling emotionally drained, my friends.

Addendum: Touma Kazusa best girl.