Pentru că a venit vara și vreau să mă simt cute pe role, am zis că ar fi cazul să imi iau un skort (fustă sport cu pantaloni integrați în design). Inițial m-am dus ca vaca pe Shein că na, modele multe și ieftine. După m-am gândit că nu e etic, că sunt făcute într-un sweatshop de rahat și că probabil calitatea lor e 0. Așa că m-am dus pe site la OYSHO și văzut asta https://www.oysho.com/ro/fusta-compressive-l31053206?colorId=800&pelement=136649629&categoryId=1010477056 Părea promițător până să realizez că și magasinul ăsta e parte din Inditex și deci tot în sweatshops sunt făcuți. Na, îmi imaginez că la bugetul meu de maxim 150-160 nu o să găsesc ceva sustenabil și etic, dar măcar e vreun upgrade la calitate de banii ăștia? Sau efectiv plătesc pentru lifestyle-ul promis de oysho :))?
Evident, dacă aveți alternative de unde aș putea găsi astfel de fuste, hmu.
Mulțumesc

We are planning for a Harry Potter theme party and need a customised cake for that. I don't have much idea about here, is there any place that offers that kind of service. Also the quality and taste should be good!
For example, the kind of cake we need
Thanks in advance!

A multi-genre roleplay server
We are still growing, the server was made public just recently so we are very new. This is mainly a casual or long-term roleplay server but we do have other chats for anyone to: socialize, play games together, talk about anime, debate, send memes, or share art! Even though this is mainly a roleplay server, many of us here are also anime fans, gamers, artists, etc. We also have super cute emotes, stickers, and soundboards now too so join the server and give it a shot!
Invite link: https://discord.gg/qFYBCCDq
More about Terra:
Terra is a world that I made. It’s broken into 4 continents where all sorts of creatures have existed since the beginning of time. As the years went by, some countries stayed behind while others advanced. Some continents continue to change, evolve and grow through time, except for Primera, they are set in their medieval times and are proud of it. This makes it very possible for there to be all sorts of different types of characters.

• 18+ server, only mature, serious role-players.
• Slice of life, medieval times, fantasy, and sci-fi.
• Each country packed with its own rich history and simple plots for anyone!
• NSFW type of roleplay is allowed in the designated chats.
• Multi-liners and up please. No one liners.
• This is an original character based roleplay, you can have up to 10 OCs
• Different types of species are accepted, Terra was made flexible enough for you to mix genres in your roleplay
• This is not a fighting, combat, or dnd type of roleplay.

As table setting, I haven’t listened to MBMBaM in three years, give-or-take, so I have no clue what the modren era (😎) of the show is like. However, I have been hate-listening to a movie podcast enough that I’ve actually turned a corner into liking it, so I feel spiritually ready for this. Plus I’m a little drunk, which has never been a bad decision for anybody ever.
0:00 - I’ve always kind of disliked the intro, especially the “cool baby” part, and sadly that has not changed with time.
0:20 - First time hearing the new theme song, which is fine if a little twee for my taste. I weirdly hate how they deliver the “1, 2, 3, 4” up top, but that’s just nitpicky. We can’t all be DeeDee Ramone, you know?
1:10 - Introductions. Travis introduces himself as “noted intellectual and middlest brother”, and Griffin just says “…And I’m Griffin… McElroy”. I didn’t laugh, but I did actually find that slightly funny, so I’m optimistic for how this goes.
1:35 - Justin has invented a new game that he wants to play called “Simply the Guests” where he tells them who guested on a celebrity’s podcast and they have to guess the celebrity. Travis points out that the title is a touching tribute (to Tina Turner, he clarifies a few seconds later) and there’s a bit where Justin and Griffin pretend not to know she died that Justin interrupts with a parody song. Is this too soon? I can’t tell, but I also only get my celebrity death news from Simpsons memes.
2:31 - I’ve had to pause and restart enough times that I’ve realized how shitty the web player is, since I have to click like three times before it registers as being on the page and actually trying to play instead of just highlighting the button, and if I try to click the 15 second rewind button it usually skips to the ~11 minute mark right above the button. However, I refuse to actually download the episode because if I do that, Jesse Thorne wins.
2:58 - Justin only has one round prepared, but expects it will take longer than they expect. Griffin rightly questions if it’s actually possible to play this game based on the information that will be provided. Travis says that sometimes when he comes up with a game, it’s like when you start off at level 1 fighting Sephiroth and die, but it just takes you to a cutscene and is all part of the game. I’m struggling to think of games he’s come up, which is maybe a metaphor for how I never finished FFVII. Justin says it should be easy if their heads are on a swivel, and 50-50 if they’re half paying attention.
4:30 - Justin is giving the guests in order as they’ve appeared: Billy Ray Cryrus, John Carter Cash, Billy Bush, Albert Pujols. Griffin laughs and makes a joke about how his head is on a swivel but it hurts, and I’m shocked and a little disappointed that it wasn’t a joke about how one of the greatest Cardinals of all time has a name that’s pronounced “Poo Holes”.
5:00 - The next guests listed Adam Carrolla, Clint Black, and Gary Busey. Travis incorrectly guesses Blake Shelton. Justin says Katie Couric was the next guess, and Griffin’s postulation of Kevin Sorbo is apparently pretty close.
6:10 - Dr. Drew is the next guest. Travis asks if they would be willing to guest, and Justin says he likes to think they’d have a nice long talk about it. Griffin guesses Randy Quaid. Justin neither confirms nor denies, but instead finishes listing the guests - Sharon Stone, Martin Short, Mike Lindell (the MyPillow CEO), Jim Brown, and Anthony Fauci. I actually kind of like this game, because what the fuck?
8:40 - Justin says he’ll give them an episode title for any celeb mentioned. Travis picks Sharon Stone, who covered “Pandemics, Social Justice Movements, and Animal Actors”. Griffin picks Pujols, who covers “Baseball, Downs Syndrome, and Living the American Dream”, and asked if there were other baseball players on the list.
10:05 - Justin admits he skipped Jimmy Morris because he didn’t know who that is. I didn’t either, but I have the power of Google and in the time it took him to explain why he was skipped, learned that he starting playing for Tampa Bay Devil Rays when he was 35 and The Rookie was based on him.
10:30 - Travis and Griffin discuss “Sorbo adjacent” celebrities and Justin scolds them for not talking to each other, saying that’s what a podcast is and that he’s trying to do a podcast. To paraphrase a joke from Jon Gabrus, it’s three straight white men talking, we already know it’s a podcast.
11:30 - Travis suggests Dennis Quaid, since he has a strong connection to baseball and Christ. Griffin agrees and Travis is in fact correct. Ironically, that means that Jimmy Morris was probably the most helpful clue, since Dennis Quaid starred in The Rookie. Justin offers a bonus for naming the show, and says it’s something with “Dennis”. Griffin accurately guesses “The Dennissance”.
13:45 - Justin mentions Morris was the titular rookie, and claims that people forget Dennis Quaid. They discuss the Quaid siblings a bit and advise Dennis to get back in the podcasting game.
15:15 - First question of the episode: “My boyfriend and I were looking for a bar before your Columbus TAZ show and walked by one that looked empty and not our vibe, but it had tinted windows so it was hard to tell. We walked to another bar and inside the door person flagged us down and said someone was looking for us. We were already inside this other bar when the woman who was working at the first bar said she saw us looking in and said “Please come into my bar - we have cheaper drinks. We were confused and startled and decided to stay at the bar we were already at, but we weren’t sure if we regretted it because this person went to the effort to chase us down half a block, cross a busy street, went through a revolving door to get to us. Also, the drinks at the bar were expensive. Should we have gone back to the other bar instead?” - Confused in Columbus. Not to brag, but I’ve been to a lot of bars in my lifetime and can say with some confidence this didn’t happen.
16:05 - They immediately answer that, no, they should not have gone back to the other bar. Travis accurately points out that weird pursuit aside, if they have that little business then 100% of the focus would be on them. Griffin thinks they would have had a tremendous amount of power and would get their drinks immediately, and the bartender might have cool stories. They discuss how bad the design of this bar is that it’s impossible to see inside, both because they crave attention and so that someone will notice in case they go missing.
18:45 - Travis says if he ran a restaurant across from another restaurant, he would go up to patrons at the competitor and try to lure them away. Apparently Tom Green did this with pizza delivery as a TV show, and Justin thinks he would have Shark Tank’d it if it was a viable option.
19:36 - Travis says Tom Green would’ve probably called it “Shart Tank”. I laughed out loud.
20:00 - Griffin says in Austin they basically have to have barkers for the various bars given the amount of competition for foot traffic and Justin thinks they should just go for hyper-local advertising.
21:00 - Travis offers Griffin an investment opportunity, claiming he needs angel investors. Justin is incensed that he isn’t offered the chance, and Griffin says it’s because he has no money but maybe his “crypto shit’s gonna pay off some day”. Justin says he doesn’t have “crypto shits unless I’ve been eating cryp-tacos” (Griffin pitches crypto-salsa) and that Superman hates cleaning up Krypto shits.
21:44 - Travis points out that Superman named his dog after a thing he hates. I swear this had to be a Seinfeld joke at some point, since the two things I know about Jerry Seinfeld are (a) he loves Superman and (b) he’s not funny. Actually, I know a third thing, which is that he dated a 17-year-old when he was 38. Anyway, fuck that guy.
21:50 - Travis pitches having a long stretch of connected bars by buying all the existing bars and knocking down the connecting walls. Griffin and Justin point out that’s essentially the Disneyland model, and Justin mentions the Goofy sour balls.
21:51 - I Googled “Goofy sour balls” and thankfully it was a real candy. Griffin indignantly says that they stopped making them and that “Goofy took his sour balls away”. Travis says “He washed them” and they ignore him. I laughed out loud again, man’s really winning me back. They continue on this riff, making more and worse versions of the same joke.
24:07 - Question 2: “I’m enrolled in summer college courses. In one of my classes, a guy in front of me likes to stretch backwards over his chair with his eyes closed. His head basically ends up right on my desk and he will breathe in my face. I’ve had to move my laptop to stop him from laying on it. Am I the weird one for staring at the guy as he disrupts all my belongings and my personal space? He does it more than five times a class. It’s very awkward and makes it hard to focus on the lecture. Should I say something? Help me brothers, how do I stop this stretching bandit from stealing my peace of mind?” - Cramped College Co-Ed in Canada.
24:57 - Justin has an immediate suggestion. I assume it’s the actual solution, which is to say something like an adult or just switch seats, but nope, it’s the old chestnut of put some jelly on it. Griffin suggests surprise massage. Travis clarifies that they’re definitely ignoring the “excuse me, could you not do that” option, which Griffin confirms because it’s not very funny. This takes me back to when I used to regularly listen, since part of the driving force for me stopping was the sheer number of questions that could be solved by two seconds of slightly awkward conversation. I totally get it, social anxiety is a bitch and I’ve absolutely been there, but the lack of funny kinda stems from the question. They all agree, and Travis suggests adding broken glass to the jelly.
26:57 - Griffins goes back to the massage suggestion, with “dual percussive massagers”. Justin suggests hovering over them and saying “There’s my sweet boy” and Travis suggests a “little kiss on the forehead” which, thankfully, they immediately shoot down. Still, I’m uncomfortable.
28:00 - Justin points out that, if someone actually followed the advice they give, the problem would be solved, it’s just a question of consequences. There’s some more discussion of the Quaids but my spirit is a little broken and I can’t bring myself to rewind to accurately transcribe any of it.
29:43 - Money Zone: Travis says, “Well Justin,” and Justin misidentifies him as Griffin. So far, hardest laugh of the episode. The ad is for Zocdoc, which Justin mispronounces a lot. I assume any service that advertises on a podcast is actually just a money laundering scheme, medical stuff doubly so, but it does remind me that MaxFun podcasts are the only ones where I can tell the ad copy was done in a single take with no edits. I admire it, in a way.
32:45 - A MaxFun ad for “Just the Zoo of Us”, which is apparently a podcast where they rate animals on their “effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics”. It kind of worked on me, which is to say I’m debating the merits of getting a Zoobooks subscription as a childless woman approaching her thirties.
33:30 - A MaxFun ad for “Feeling Seen”, where the editor likes to play the game of taking a sip of coffee anytime the guest says how good a question is, how smart the host is, or cries unexpectedly. I cannot stress enough how much this makes me not want to listen. I don’t even have anything snide to say, I’m just genuinely put off by it.
34:19 - Griffin introduces the Wizard of the Cloud: How to “Talk Nerdy” to someone, which is meant to help you talk to the “cute nerd in your science class” by becoming more adorkable to them. Justin and Travis are disgusted by the word “adorkable”, which feels like a real split with their brand of appealing to mid-2010s Tumblr users.
36:00 - Travis points out that this article presupposes that nerdy people only want to be seduced with nerdy things, and will shun all other romance. The original pickup line is “Are you a carbon sample? Because I definitely want to date you. If you’ve seen The Big Bang Theory, you already know science and physics nerds are the best” Travis punches it up with “I’ve got a theory that we should Big Bang.” Currently he’s batting a thousand for me.
36:55 - Wikihow asks “Can math be sexy?” They talk about how sexy 8 is and Travis makes a 69 joke, so I retract my previous statement. There’s a gross astronomy-based pickup line saying “Do you mind if my comet enters your solar system” and “Hey, nice asteroids”. Mercifully, no “Can I touch Uranus?”
38:30 - More bad pickup lines, now about computers. Apparently “You’re hotter than the bottom of my laptop” is a good come-on. The video game lines are equally impressive, and Wikihow recommends that distracting gamers away from their games is easier said than done. These are more sexually charged than before, but no more clever.
43:30 - We’ve arrived at Star Wars. Wikihow says “Jedis are tough nuts to crack, so you may need to use the Force to woo them effectively.” It’s been a while, but I’m fairly certain Jedis aren’t allowed to fall in love and that’s kind of a whole thing with the prequel trilogy. Also, are we not doing phrasing anymore? Cuz Jesus, they should take a second pass at that.
43:46 - Wikihow suggests several “Yoda-approved pickup lines”, and they do some bad Yoda impressions like “pull down some trim, you will” and “wet, you will get”. This is apparently a thing they’ve done before called “Clipping Yoda”. Justin makes a “something something something, I thought they smelled bad on the outside” joke.]
46:08 - They discuss the very limited situations when the suggested “I find your lack of nudity disturbing” is acceptable, then move on to the Lord of the Rings lines which are equally questionable. Travis brings up the theory that Frodo doesn’t know Legolas’ name, and now I wanna rewatch LotR.
50:09 - Justin suggests coming up with their own lines, which results in “You make me feel like John Rhys-Davies in Sliders, cuz I wanna climb in those holes” and Griffin looking up “nerd movies”.
51:40 - Question 3: “My bank has been advertising a home ownership service to help folks buy and sell homes. I usually ignore them, but this time they’ve been offering a chance to win a flattop grill package with a $100 gift card to a very expensive butcher. I’ve been really wanting to get my dad a new grill. Brothers, I have no way of buying a house, let alone sell one. They’re contacting me, trying to help me buy a house. How do I explain to them I’m only entered to maybe win the grill and have no interest in the service?” From the Poor Hopeful in B (?).
53:00 - First of all. Second, they suggest the asker (a) admits they were only in it for the grill or (b) saying they have a budget of $750 for a furnished home. It devolves into a riff about Bobby Flay and pitches for “Flay Bobby Flay” and “Bob Bobby Flay” to see if he floats.
56:15 - Plugs for stuff and the end of the episode.
Closing Thoughts: I actually enjoyed that, although with a lot of stopping and starting to write this. Also anyone who likes Clipping Yoda may also like Action Boyz, because pedophile Yoda is a surprisingly rich vein to mine. I don’t think I’ll ever actually pick up listening again, since I have about 280 episodes of Off Book to get to first and this whole recap has made me really contemplate my mortality, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it

In India, preparation for engineering entrance exams leaves very little time for deep meaningful discussions of fundamental science concepts. I have created a hypothetical conversation between a student and a teacher to inform prospective students of science about the level of thinking needed to completely understand fundamental science concepts.
On Cats, Kittens & Molecules:
Let's take John Dalton's Law of Multiple Proportions used to theorise the existence of atoms: "When two elements combine with each other to form two or more compounds, the ratios of the masses of one element that combines with the fixed mass of the other are small whole numbers":
• At what stage does a small number change into a big number? Is 9 big compared to 2 or is 9 small compared to 20?
• What is the significance of whole numbers? Dalton was trying to prove that elements combine in fixed units called atoms. Individual atoms & molecules are too small to observe & count but if elements were actually combining in fixed units called atoms (this fact wasn't confirmed yet) like how in every Cat 🐈 "molecule" 1 atom of Head "element" 🐱always combines with 4 atoms of Leg "element"... so even if individual Cats were too tiny to observe, we can count the total number of Heads & Legs in billions of Cats and get a ratio very close to 1:4 - thus proving the existence of atoms. "Now, wait a minute!" exclaims the student.
• "Why did you say close to 1:4 ? Shouldn't the ratio be exactly 1:4 ?" There are unavoidable random errors in scientific measurements but the good thing about randomness is that we get readings which are sometimes larger and sometimes smaller than the correct value. Taking the average of multiple readings reduces this type of error. On the other hand if you get readings which are always smaller or always greater than the expected value, then it indicates either a correctable systemic flaw in the design of the experiment or a mistake in the underlying hypothesis - perhaps all cats don't have 4 legs 🐱.
• "You should't have picked cats as an example of molecules because there are cats with amputations having 3 legs so the ratio will be always smaller than 1:4 disproving the underlying assumption that every atom of Head element is attached to 4 atoms of Leg element." You are correct. I thought it would be cute to use Cats 🐱 to illustrate the idea of molecules. Now I'm inclined to think that Cats should be left alone.
• "Or you could have chosen Kittens 🐈 instead of Cats to prove that although some adult cats have 3 Legs, all cats are born with 4 Legs." Yes, that would also correct the systemic flaw in my experiment. Remember, Dalton was trying to prove that molecules or kittens 🐈 cannot have 3.5 Legs - the number of atoms of Leg element in a Cat molecule should be an integer like 2, 3 or 4.
• "But let's assume that our microscopic Cat molecules indeed have 1 Head attached to 3.5 Legs. Then the Head:Leg ratio would be 1:3.5 = 2:7 We still get a whole number ratio! We also cannot rule out each cat molecule having 2x heads and 7x legs. Or we could have concluded that our current understanding of what constitutes a Leg is wrong. Legs are actually made up of 2 components and in cat molecules 7 of these smaller components are attached to a Head atom instead of 3.5 legs. So ratio of Head atoms to Leg-Component atoms is 1:7 Because there are so many ways to get whole number ratios, they don't tell us anything useful."
• That is correct. Whole number ratios of atoms inside a single type of molecule don't tell us anything. In fact, what was actually getting measured were the masses of elements combining and not their "count". So, even if individual atoms have non integer masses like Chlorine (35.5), the ratio of the masses of Chlorine in FeCl2 and FeCl3 will be 2:3 when combined with the same mass of Fe. The small whole number ratio points to Chlorine combining in discrete units or atoms whose very existence was being proved during Dalton's time. That's why Dalton studied 2 different molecules having the same elements.
• "So he made 2 groups of cats? One group with 3 legs and another group with 4 legs?" Using cats as an analogy, yes. So one group will contain molecules whose formula could be HL4 (1 head 4 legs), another group may have HL3 (1 head 3 Legs). Dalton's hypothesis was that no group will comprise of cat-molecules having formula HLx where x is not an integer. For HL3 and HL4 we can see that the ratio of L in both groups is 3:4.
• "That still doesn't prove that HL3.5 does not exist! Suppose the 2 groups are HL4 and HL3.5 we still get a whole number ratio of 4:3.5 = 8:7" But now the ratio contains larger numbers.
• "Oh, c'mon! 8 & 7 are small in comparison with 20 or 100. I think we are missing something in understanding this so called Law of Multiple Proportions". You are correct. We need to discuss some Mathematics first.
• If I tell you that there is a number strictly between two consecutive integers 3 and 4, what is the probability that the number will be exactly 3.5? "Practically 0 because there are infinite numbers between 3 & 4 like 3.27, 3.79, 3.779, 3.7779.... and so on." Correct. And out of all these numbers, we picked 3 and a ½ which is kind of special because we need to multiply it by a very small number like 2 to convert it to an integer. If elements were combining in continuous quantities (all fractions possible) instead of discrete quantities (integers only), and there are many many more fractions than integers and "nice" fractions like ½, ⅓,⅔ then in majority of cases we should not get small whole number ratios. But we do. So that points to a strong possibility that atoms exist.
-Vinit Ajgaonkar
4th June 2023.

A multi-genre roleplay server
We are still growing, the server was made public just recently so we are very new. This is mainly a casual or long-term roleplay server but we do have other chats for anyone to: socialize, play games together, talk about anime, debate, send memes, or share art! Even though this is mainly a roleplay server, many of us here are also anime fans, gamers, artists, etc. We also have super cute emotes, stickers, and soundboards now too so join the server and give it a shot!
Invite link: https://discord.gg/qFYBCCDq
More about Terra:
Terra is a world that I made. It’s broken into 4 continents where all sorts of creatures have existed since the beginning of time. As the years went by, some countries stayed behind while others advanced. Some continents continue to change, evolve and grow through time, except for Primera, they are set in their medieval times and are proud of it. This makes it very possible for there to be all sorts of different types of characters.

• 18+ server, only mature, serious role-players.
• Slice of life, medieval times, fantasy, and sci-fi.
• Each country packed with its own rich history and simple plots for anyone!
• NSFW type of roleplay is allowed in the designated chats.
• Multi-liners and up please. No one liners.
• This is an original character based roleplay, you can have up to 10 OCs
• Different types of species are accepted, Terra was made flexible enough for you to mix genres in your roleplay
• This is not a fighting, combat, or dnd type of roleplay.

A multi-genre roleplay server
We are still growing, the server was made public just recently so we are very new. This is mainly a casual or long-term roleplay server but we do have other chats for anyone to: socialize, play games together, talk about anime, debate, send memes, or share art! Even though this is mainly a roleplay server, many of us here are also anime fans, gamers, artists, etc. We also have super cute emotes, stickers, and soundboards now too so join the server and give it a shot!
Invite link: https://discord.gg/qFYBCCDq
More about Terra:
Terra is a world that I made. It’s broken into 4 continents where all sorts of creatures have existed since the beginning of time. As the years went by, some countries stayed behind while others advanced. Some continents continue to change, evolve and grow through time, except for Primera, they are set in their medieval times and are proud of it. This makes it very possible for there to be all sorts of different types of characters.
​

• 18+ server, only mature, serious role-players.
• Slice of life, medieval times, fantasy, and sci-fi.
• Each country packed with its own rich history and simple plots for anyone!
• NSFW type of roleplay is allowed in the designated chats.
• Multi-liners and up please. No one liners.
• This is an original character based roleplay, you can have up to 10 OCs
• Different types of species are accepted, Terra was made flexible enough for you to mix genres in your roleplay
• This is not a fighting, combat, or dnd type of roleplay.

**(**Content warning: Gay boys being gay but still in a pretty SFW way. Credit to u/spacepaladin15 for the “Nature of predators” universe that I am currently doing… things to. Trains next chapter I promise.))
​
First//Next
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Memory transcription subject: Yotul exchange subject Ouon.
Date [Human standard time]: August 22, 2136
“What is a scale model train?” I asked tilting my head a little. My translator said it was “a smaller copy of a train” but how the speh would you take a train and make it smaller?!
“Oh I can’t wait to show you!” He said as he practically bounced in his seat. “It was hard getting permission to bring all our gear, lots of our backlog, and diorama parts up to the station, but pointing out it was an art exhibit, history exhibit, a showcase of earth terrain and features, and more all wrapped into one they were far more willing to sign off on us bringing it! But, the others are probably meeting their partners right now so we should wait a little while before I show you. Wouldn’t be fair to the others for me to get such a head start!”
He then laughed a little before pointing his mask at my face. My fur did crawl a little knowing that those predatory binocular eyes were locked onto mine for sure, but I also felt… excited? Odd. I mean, I had been picked as the “most adventurous” yotul back in high school, but that was for… other reasons. “Its best to just show you what a scale model is rather than just try and explain it. I promise it will be cool! Or… at least pretty.”
My ears pinned back a little in confusion at such a clearly happy and excited show about trains that were small. How could small trains be so exciting? I mean, I knew personally how small things could be fun and interesting but a brahking train? What?
I shook my head to clear my confusion. Worked pretty well too! Sure I looked primitive doing it but who would care? “Well. Guess we need to go to our room.” I pointed out as my ears perked up in excitement. Yeah, I was used to rooming with guys, but this one was cute, interesting, and exotic. A delicious trifecta for sure! My tail flicked side to side already planning on various ways to get my eyes allllll over that human body. I simply HAD to know what they were working with.
Was I being weird about it? Yes. Would I probably be hauled to a treatment center for these thoughts? Yuup! I mean here I was already checking out a predator guy and we just had met. Still, I DID have a running checklist of all the various species who I had at least gotten a kiss (or something like one) from one of their guys. It was silly, but after kissing a krakotl, koloshian, and a dossur all in the same night I just had to do start one up!
Admittedly, was kinda worrying how fast species were added to it, but it wasn’t like I had anything else top brahking do other than my speh day job. A guy has to have SOME sorta fun in his life!
Besides, was probably going to be awhile before I had the chance to add a human to the list, and it was probably going to be super hard. I mean, I super doubted any kinda predator had any real concept of same sex relationships. A few prey species struggled with it too.
Still, wasn’t going to rush it. For now, room. Me and Freddie walked down the hall to our room. Freddie told me him and the other humans had been there for awhile to help get things set up, and pointed out again that was why it had taken so long for us to meet. We were the “last batch” since all the others had to be handled first. If the others were not done then they could have been to busy with us to help, or too busy helping to be with us.
The room we were in was rather plain, but I was used to plain bunk rooms by now thanks to the WONDERS of the federation train system. The room had storage, rather spacious bunk beds, and a table. Of course I slid right into the bottom where I belonged, chuckling to myself at the joke I made as I rolled just a little in the bed. Many others would say it was just another example of just how “savage” my kind was, but if I was going to be stuck on some cheap mat-
Ooooo this was rather nice actually!
My tail flicked side to side as I snuggled up with the pillow and enjoyed the soft sheets. It seems they spend more than I thought they would on the beds! Probably since a good chunk of venlil were proooobably going to use them to hide. That, and the poor little things were probably going to have trouble sleeping with a predator in the room.
“Ah! I already moved in, but I got on top.” He explained. “I always like being on top.” Once again my “herd” sense was tingling, but there was no brahking way he made the joke on purpose. Not like I could tell if he was joking or not anyway thanks to that mask. I couldn’t wait to see what was under it! Well, sure it was pretty scary the more I thought about it, but frankly I had seen scary before.
I poked my head up just in time to see the human changing clothes. “Hope you don’t mind if I change really quick. I wore the fancy clothes to make a good first impression, but if you are going to be living with me for awhile and spending lots of time with me it only makes sense to show you what I normally wear.”
He slipped on very loose and small-ish pants with lots of pockets and a shirt that looked like it got tossed around a grav-arcade’s paint area. It was adorable though! The design helped hide his rather large stomach and really made him pop out! I mean, not going to lie here though. Tacky. As. Could. Be. But somehow the man made it work! He buttoned up the front and stretched out a bit before closing his-
No.
Brahking.
Way.
I saw some outfits that had no place outside of the kinds of clubs I went to when I felt particularly lonely. What was a human doing with some of that stuff!? I mean, yeah, it had its uses but why would a predator need them! Maybe the preds had some sorta other use for them? Maybe they meant something different to humans?
Ah speh it. My “herd” sense was now maxed out and practically giving me a headache so bad it was like a gojid was rolling around!
“So… Freddie…” I deliberately used my cutest voice possible. High pitched, slow, and steady as I flicked my tail slowly side to side. Gotta lay it on thick juuuust in case.
“I saw some of those outfits.” I cooed as I watched his body stiffen up. Was the predator… afraid? The brahking speh!? Almost dropped my act I was so shocked.
“Uh… yeah… sometimes humans like to dress up in various ways that are not normal to better… show their interests and draw others to them.” Oh this was precious. My ears and eyes were locked on him now. I knew exactly what he was going to say, but it was still just absolutely shocking to hear a PREDATOR talking about being a boy-lover. Just. Like. Me. No wonder I was so comfy around him!
He was still dancing around the topic a little, so I decided to give it juuuust a little push. “So, are those interests other men?” Sure the push was with an FTL driver, but I wasn’t one to really play around much. When your fun happened on train rides back in the day you tend to not exactly play around TOO much.
He looked at me then laughed. Hard. “Ohhhh fuck meeeeeee!” He howled out still laughing. The noise made me scared AND annoyed at the same time! Why was that so funny!? “Of course I wind up with the gay feminine alien boy!” He laughed even harder. “Ohhh shit. Carla ain’t going to let me live this down! I mean, the bet was for Theo to get with an alien first, but- shit!” He laughed even harder till he had to sit down. At this point my fur was on end.
“What is so brahking funny!” I squeaked out.
“Yes! Yes it is to draw in men! But unless your kind are different the only way to know is if YOU were into that kinda stuff!” He took deep breaths to try to calm down. Wasn’t working to well, but he was. “Ohhh fuck. And one of our buddies has an… interest in aliens in a special way. Hell we thought I would be the LAST one to get close to an alien since I was gay!”
Translator what is gay? Oh? Ohhhh! Oohhhhhh~
Jackpot.
My “herd” sense always was on point!
My smile grew as I deliberately laid a bit more… spread out. “Oh? Well I will have you know I am quite the outfit collector.”He laughed again then lifted his head up and down. “Seems we have quite a bit in common to talk about then.”
“Yes we do.”
He then held up a finger. Why? I don’t know? Nothing was above us.
“Just no thigh highs for a bit. If you wore them before we get warmed up to each other I think I would break.”
I didn’t know what those were, but they sounded powerful enough I HAD to get my paws on them!
First//Next

People keep saying the graphics sux, but, the design is actually kind cute. The older game's Gollum look so demonic. This one looks like a lost puppy.

I can barely remember this game other than me spending so much time on it as a kid and a few details. I think the quickest way to describe this game is that it's very similar to this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spilgames.a10.google.crashdrive2 but you play as a dragon instead. I remember the dragons looking rather like baby dragons (not in an exagerated way but very cute, different from all the other dragon sims ive found on the play store as i was looking for this) and the atmosphere being pretty magical and ethereal.
The game was just you being a dragon and kind of roleplaying (although I can't remember whether there was a chat or not) and as you leveled up you'd unlock new dragons (I loved the designs!!!!) and maps (I remember there was an ice map) where you could freeroam around with other players, kind of like wild animal sims.
The hard part baout this is that I'm pretty sure the game has been deleted from the appstore, as I've been looking oretty hard for it and can't find it (I'm not exactly new to looking through hundreds of games on a list to fund something I super vaguely remember) but as long as anyone has a name or any lead to this I NEED to hear it I'd like to at least the game one more time I feel really sad not being able to do so

This is my first time watching Ugly Betty and I have thoughts on the first season I’m currently on the season 1 episode 22 and I have thoughts . 1) I cannot stand Walter I’m so glad I don’t have to see his annoying ass self for the rest of the season he’s extremely irritating and the fact that ignacio and Hilda keep pushing her to date him annoys me as if he didn’t cheat on her and leave her for gina…. Why couldn’t she have just gone for Henry he’s so cute and I really like what they have going on
2) the alexis plot twist had me shook…and the arrest in the same episode . The drama in that episode 😭😭😭
3)Daniel is likeable so far and having some form of character development however he can be an asshole at times but I do think at his core he is a good person.
4) whilemina is a great villain I love to hate her 5) Marc and Amanda are terrible and awful to everyone except each other at times…sometimes they display empathy and humanity like that episode where Marc came out .
5)Hilda’s heart is in the right place but she can be really impulsive and annoying like pushing Betty to date Walter or cancelling Henry’s voicemail
6) Ignacio is wholesome sometimes he annoys me but his heart is in the right place. I love Justin I have no complaints and I like how his relationship with his dad Santos is portrayed in a realistic manner.
7) This show is so camp , dramatic and I love the interior design of the set . I find myself excited to watch every damn episode .

It's been a week and a half since I finished the game and I finally feel like I've ruminated on it enough to start trying to get these thoughts down. I don't write a lot of game reviews, so sorry if this is strangely structured; I really wanted to formulate something better than a wimpy couple of tweets that no one would read.

Puzzles

In terms of integration into the world Riven-style, I think this game did a lot better than the latter part of Obduction, by simply limiting the puzzles to the controllable mechanisms. The tasks that we needed to be completing to make it through the realms did feel quite natural and none felt so ridiculously arbitrary, like the Maray Gauntlet did for many people (personally I enjoyed that puzzle, but I do get people's critiques of it).
I think the angle of having to "figure out" each mechanism also made the scope of the puzzles a bit clearer. I've seen some people say that the puzzles were too simple, but I personally found most of them to feel well balanced with their difficulty; I often got to points where I felt pretty stumped, but was able to get eureka moments without looking at the backer exploration guide.
The exception to this was the puzzles where you had to get in the Bulwark Kit. Those sucked. I hated those. They were tedious and had so much backtracking, and the ice/mineral deposits to be broken up were very difficult visually to spot. I did look up in the exploration guide for these and found that it didn't even list the locations of those ice deposits, so I really struggled through that puzzle in Curievale. Especially frustrating since the ~Cavitation Hammer~ sounds rad as hell, so it's sad that the relevant game sections suck.
I also struggled with the Curievale crane which got stuck and I had to reset, but it seems that that may have been fixed in the most recent patch. Otherwise, I didn't encounter any breaking bugs in any of the puzzles, which was relieving since I know others have.

Environments

I think we can all agree that this game is very beautiful. I like the variance in the three realms, and I think that each of them felt like they contained a sufficient amount of content (as opposed to Obduction teasing visiting the fourth world Soria, only for it to be a stroll with an ugly view).
The Swan was cool to explore at first, but felt extremely static and kind of boring after the initial period. It would've been cool to have areas unlockable with the various power-ups that you get in the realms' arches, so that there's a consistent aspect of exploring the hub as you progress through the actual worlds (sort of like Myst V and the exploration of the Great Shaft, but also even the simpler aspect of opening of the shortcut bridge gates on Direbo).
Changing the interactions with the environment to be fully mediated by the adjunct had both positives and negatives. I liked the UI aspect of being able to represent the mechanisms, which really aided in conceptualizing how you were progressing through the puzzles, but it also limited the feeling of actual interaction by no longer being able to click on levers, etc. I'm not really sure there's a middle ground to be had here, as I think that the adjunct works well for what Firmament wants to be, but it definitely contains that trade-off.
It seems that Cyan took the complaints of little toddler babies who didn't like that they had to read in Obduction and fully caved in. I know there's a hidden achievement about reading all of the documents in the game, but honestly I feel so uninterested in seeking these out, because each felt so inconsequential. This was extremely disappointing to be honest as I feel like reading people's journals was such an important part of earlier games that I really appreciated, but Firmament just doesn't really care about that at all. The only issue with the Obduction reading IMO was the illegible handwriting which could have easily be fixed by doing a text overlay thing similar to a game like Ether One.

Bugs

First installing the game gave me an issue that blocked booting entirely, as I detail here in this post. This ended up being a relatively simple fix, and I was playing the game a day and a half later.
As mentioned above, I had issues with the Curievale crane mechanism, which may no longer even be a problem.
When I first explored the Swan, I went back in the conveyance pod for Curievale since that was the realm I was already working on. I began experiencing a bug where I would arrive in Curievale, but the conveyance pod door wouldn't open, so I'd just go back to the Swan. I tried this a few times with no changes, and then had to go to the other conveyance pods to see if they were also affected (they were not). The original pod still did not work after the others proved to work properly, and I decided to just give up on trying it until I reached points in both St. Andrew and Juleston where I couldn't progress. At that point, it finally decided that it would work.

Story

A side effect of the conveyance pod bug I mentioned above was that each time I ended up back in the Swan, I'd get a line of dialogue from the Mentor. I had to move back and forth so much that I exhausted all of these lines before I even began exploring any of the realms. Compounded by the lack of additional story that could have been communicated in either further exploration of the Swan, or in any books, I basically got a bunch of story exposition at the beginning, and then a bunch at the end, with nothing in between. The ending felt so hollow by the fact that the only other stuff I heard about these characters in the final monologues were from days ago. I know other people have other problems with the story, but I wish that design decisions were made that could have enabled me to have a more consistent experience, so that at the very least I could have any of the other problems.
I am definitely also interested to hear more about the extent of the AI assistance for the writing and creation of worldbuilding materials. I don't really mind the use of image generation for the portraits, but it's honestly no wonder that the books sucked if they were written by ChatGPT.
I do think the concept of the generation ship is pretty cool though. It was a cool twist at the end IMO and walking around outside was so awesome.

tl;detc.

I liked this game. I think the puzzles are overall good with some glaring exceptions. The environments are beautiful but are lacking in meaningful interactibility that supports the story. Bugs for me weren't severe, but severely reduced the impact of the ending of the story. I do not regret backing this game, and will definitely play this game again, but not anytime soon. I hope Cyan is able to enhance it further after release, because I'd like to be able to savor this game a bit more before starting to look forward to the Riven re-master.
Lastly, I don't have any idea what the plushy version of the final design of the adjunct is going to look like and I'm kind of sad because the proof of concept was so cute lol

I found a really cute pose reference and I couldn’t resist using it for these two! Luz and Amity have some of my favorite time-skip designs, and I just had to draw them!
Luz is Bi and Amity is Lesbian, so I guess I kind of followed both prompts???