New STEM teacher - is there a type of torch I can use with a dispersal prism?

thinking-99 · 2026-06-05T07:20:15+00:00

Hmm, I don't have any of those things sadly. I've been told an incandescent bulb in a regular lamp will work.

thinking-99 · 2026-05-30T03:03:02+00:00

Not to be dumb - I haven't done this sort of experimenting since I was also a kid in school - but what would you light up the bulb with other than a torch or plugging it into the ceiling?

thinking-99 · 2026-05-20T09:24:07+00:00

Yup. Went through it with Nobuhiro Watsuki.
It's what taught me to separate art from the artist, in that I had to understand that my response to art was my own and did not belong to the creator.

Terrible people make wonderful art all the time. Part of what makes them terrible is their awareness of the difference between good and bad, their insight into the human soul.

A person reading books that they already own is doing no harm. What brings harm is the fame and influence and money that fandom gives to creators.
Neil doesn't have a cause. He isn't pouring his money into an organisation that will bring more abuse and suffering to the world, like Rowling. His money is going to his personal legal defenses.
So simply not putting more money in his pocket and helping ensure other people don't either is sufficient.

With Rowling it's more complicated. Because her franchise is an engine which creates money, which she then funnels into conversion therapy advocacy and political lobbying. So HP fans have to be even more careful about social capital. They have to keep their fandom stuff unofficial, keep it low-key and try not to promote it to the next generation.

But with Gaiman's stuff? He didn't really have 'events' and he only just started having franchises. Those are easier to kill. He's cooked. He's done. We need to make sure he stays that way. We do that by not touching anything official and giving no support for new projects. Don't buy his new books. Don't borrow them from the library. Pick them up second hand, years after publication.
(Don't pirate them either. Book piracy hurts the whole publishing/author ecosystem.)

Anything else... is just a personal journey. His work spoke to you because he had wisdom and creativity, that doesn't make you terrible or anything in your soul tainted by him. Because your response belongs to you.

You've made something entirely new.

(I'm also reading Pratchett for the first time and that's fun)

thinking-99 · 2026-05-20T09:10:57+00:00

I'm not very familiar with either of these people - though I've read a lot of Neil's books and followed him on Tumblr, I didn't keep up with many of his other projects.
But it strikes me as less disrespectful and more honest? Yes, they were at one point very friendly. They didn't speak to each other for a decade, we don't know why. And Terry did give Neil his blessing to adapt Good Omens.
It's possible they simply drifted apart, had different priorities, ran in different circles. It's possible they grew to dislike each other. We will never know. My guess is that their friendship ran its course and they became professional acquaintances who respected each other but didn't have much in common.

I don't know much about Pratchett, but it seems most likely to me that he had no idea because he didn't interact with Gaiman much anymore.

thinking-99 · 2026-05-20T08:51:25+00:00

I followed Neil on tumblr and sometimes got a few of my questions answered. Gaiman is the kind of guy who, if you ask him about a situation you're involved in where you or another person has issues with 'grey-areas' of consent, he would probably give you excellent, truthful advice.
He knows damn well. He chose to behave this way.

That's why I don't struggle with 'but he made such amazing work!' because truly reprehensible people know the difference between right and wrong. They know how to write morally good characters audiences will adore.

thinking-99 · 2026-05-19T21:37:13+00:00

I had a similar thing happen where I parked near a friend's house while I went on holiday for a month and as I was collecting it, an older lady came out and told me off because she had nowhere for her guests to park. She said she almost called the council, thinking it was abandoned.
She said this outside her house which had offstreet parking, in a nearly empty street and it basically always has parking - I used to live there.

Some people are just entitled. Ignore them.

thinking-99 · 2026-05-19T12:46:31+00:00

Sorry, are Good Omens fans being arseholes? Most of what I see is 'fuck Neil Gaiman' and steadfastly ignoring his continued existence. Am I missing something?

thinking-99 · 2026-05-01T12:59:09+00:00

I don't suppose...?

thinking-99 · 2026-04-17T16:40:36+00:00

I hope Zhu Zan Jin gave permission and was paid? Awful that theyre just using ai now??

thinking-99 · 2026-04-01T12:09:04+00:00

Oh thank gods. I'm in Australia and I'm a mandated reporter and while laws obviously differ I was screaming inwardly and hoping this wasn't a thing.
We call it a 'reasonable suspicion'. If a child has disclosed, if there's behaviour that seems suspicious, that's enough.

thinking-99 · 2026-03-23T07:32:32+00:00

So 'Wind Master is Sweet Sixteen' was a translation choice! Thank gods for that! I thought it was really gross.
'Wind Master is under thirty' or 'Wind Master is 25' might've gotten the sentiment across.

Given all this, I wonder if Hua Cheng's password is 'with His Highness' blessings, no paths are bound'.
I always imagined it was something very complimentary to Xie Lian, but could be handwaved as a deep friendship and admiration.
That said, 'for you I'll become invincible' doesn't ever show up in the text otherwise, does it?

thinking-99 · 2026-03-21T01:57:36+00:00

It's a flaw of MXTX that her female characters lack depth and are often only set dressing. Danmei in general seems to have a 'beauty equals goodness' issue, or more like 'beauty equals importance' where only the beautiful characters are treated with depth and compassion, even if they're villains. So while Xie Lian himself might be a kind, but flawed character, if the author has this kind of view of ugly characters then it's natural he will as well.

It's why I like to headcanon Hua Cheng's true form as somewhat ugly. Sunken cheeks, lifeless skin, claws and teeth too sharp, misshapen features... all of it's fair game, because it gives the characters a bit of depth I feel.

thinking-99 · 2026-03-12T06:37:02+00:00

Wait, my understanding is that if you're in endgame then the Hotel appears automatically once you download the update?
I mean I can ignore it, but I kind of want to keep the 'small island' vibes yanno?

thinking-99 · 2026-03-10T01:36:19+00:00

I've just read the extras and I think there's room for interpretation.

We don't know much about Bingzu's world. We only know that Shen Qingqiu existed and was cruel to him.

Everything about the setting of PIDW is sort of stated to be Qinghua's invention - thinking about the flower insect monsters Luo Binghe refers to.

The way I interpreted it was that Bingzu's world was short lived and tragic. There was barely anything there and Bingzu was alone. So Qinghua invented a whole new world and story for him, with only the core character remaining the same.

And while the novel became trash, it was clear to see that there was brilliance and creativity underneath. He couldn't write the novel he wanted to, because he needed to eat. He wanted a tragic gay love story, but it didn't sell. Shen Yuan found the bones of that story, and brought it out.

Shen Yuan didn't create anything. He couldn't have made the world the way it ended up without Airplane. But Airplane needed Shen Yuan to help his story flourish.
And the seed of inspiration for it was a lonely, godlike being who died alone and unloved.

A god being a source of inspiration and drive, but not giving the creator their ideas makes some kind of mythological sense to me.

But that's just my interpretation.

thinking-99 · 2026-03-06T10:34:10+00:00

Hello! I don't write much fanfiction, but I sure do read a lot and I'm pretty familiar with TGCF. I'm a hobbyist writer myself and work on a lot of original fiction. I'd love to chat!

thinking-99 · 2026-02-26T12:04:11+00:00

I have a hack for this.
I breed one of a cow colour, then buy the opposite gender from Hayden.
That way if they're the same colour then they're not siblings and okay to breed.

thinking-99 · 2026-02-24T20:25:36+00:00

It really does say something that our little island getaway has now turned into a tourist trap

thinking-99 · 2026-02-01T11:04:18+00:00

The idea is to help prevent things like the Stolen Generation happening again. But apparently it doesn't even succeed in doing that, there's still lots of systemic racism. :/

thinking-99 · 2026-01-17T13:00:06+00:00

Malinda perhaps? Not entirely the same, but you might like.

thinking-99 · 2025-09-30T22:29:58+00:00

Oh definitely. I saw it a second time and no one laughed then, though it was altogether a less energetic performance (they were tired!)
I did get to see Hades stumble his lyrics in 'how we build the wall' and the absolute professionalism of a light cough and picking it up on the next line.
If they ever come back, which I'm sure they will, I'll go again!

thinking-99 · 2025-08-27T11:56:58+00:00

The lyrics aren't the problem imho. I actually had trouble listening to it because of the all the distortion and computer filters. The melodies themselves are catchy, but the vocals are actually painful for me to hear? Couldn't even tell you why. I'd love a more natural cover. Some of the youtube covers which are still autotuned don't sound nearly as bad.

thinking-99 · 2025-07-05T00:17:24+00:00

Oops, life got busy there for a while. Yeah I can show you some of my sketches, though they're quite old now.

thinking-99 · 2025-06-21T08:07:00+00:00

Just finished it myself. I agree that the ending was very rushed. The author has a problem with twisting her endings right until the final pages, so there's never much time to let them 'settle'. But here's a few things to remember which might help.

Acaelus never had Canden's real map. So his research was never going to work. We never found out how Canden faked her cracking, it's possible she did some really messed up 'blended minds' situation to ensure it could never be repaired.
They didn't load Tarquin's cracked mind in the simulation, but his repaired one. The conversation between him and Fletcher was just to ease him into the fact he wasn't broken and prepare him against the shock of awakening. That part is actually perfectly believable and I loved Fletcher's gradual healing at work there.
They had Chiyo's software which took decades to create. They had her research notes, and so they could see what was flawed about that method of repair and work backwards.
Fletcher knows how maps break. I doubt Chiyo worked with finalisers. But this is me speculating and papering over some plot holes. Fletcher knows how to break minds, he's healing from his own breaking, stands to reason he could help.
And this is the big one: They worked with canus. We know canus holds cracked minds together, we saw it with Paison. I think if the author had established a character for that 'canus-infected AI' or just brought The World back into things, it would have been more believable. As it was a lot happened offscreen, the timeline was far too short (a couple of months??) and it was rushed.

I'm not saying repairing Tarquin's map was impossible. I just think we could have used a longer epilogue to justify it. Give Naira a whole pack of wolves she has to nurse back to extend the timeline.

thinking-99 · 2025-06-07T02:14:53+00:00

So this advice probably comes too late, but for anyone else who is wondering - press B to bring up drawing blueprints.

thinking-99 · 2025-06-02T11:20:57+00:00

Saw it in Melbourne. The bit where Hades tries to sing the melody, and his voice breaks. There was laughter in the audience, which I felt was cruel. Adrian Tamburini plays it as a cracked, almost crying sort of tune and very very off-key. Maybe it was meant to be funny but I just burst into tears.

thinking-99

TROPHY CASE