Fandom and random...

@Calidris_Minuta on AO3. 40+. Loves Final Fantasy, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean, Octopath Traveler/CotC, older jRPGS, fanfic, and stories with happy endings. Fond of flowers. Tired optimist. Carer. Aro ace. She/Her.

[shitpostingkats]

Do you people even know about Prompto's photographs

[shitpostingkats]

Do you know that in hit game Final Fantasy 15 (2016) one of your party members is this cute lil' nerd and one of his Things is he's a photgrapher, so he's always taking pictures, there a whole system coded in to just randomly take in-engine screen captures of your party as they go about their day-to-day. And whenever you save you get to go over ten of those pictures and choose if you want to save any to your personal in-game album. This is obviously a feature designed for word of mouth fan promotion, because from your in-game album there's a ton of options for sharing your photos or downloading them to personal storage. Which is fun, games are allowed to do that, but. Ya know. Maybe not worth the effort of making a whole system to automatically do that.

Except it's also very baked into the world. There's a couple photos you have to get as you advance through the story, but mostly they're fun so you bookmark one or two as you progress through the game. And as you explore the world sometimes Prompto will ask to stop at scenic locations or tourist traps or whatnot and bam you've got a few more. And if you do this every time you save, you end up with quite a collection.

Anyways, fast forward to the end of the game, when you, the main character, are about to die. You know this. You are marching stubbornly to your own martyrdom, with no hope of survival. And the main character turns. And asks to see Prompto's photo collection.

YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE!!!!! YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE ONE!!!!! You have to pick, from those maybe dozens of silly goofy funny little screencappable moments, which one the main character is going to physically take with him into the last battle and clutch to his chest as he dies!!!!!! That photo you choose will show up in cutscenes!!!!! They make it your save files lockscreen!!!!!!! Is this thing on????

[mysteriousbean5]

I knew this was a genius mechanic at the time, but reading this makes me remember YES THIS WAS A GENIUS THING

[cavernclaw]

How it feels to be mutuals with someone for over a year

[youhavethewrong]

Perhaps this is an obnoxious take on my part, but video games should, above all things, prioritize the ability of being paused. At any point. Regardless of whether it's during a cutscene, a special animation, or a time-based puzzle. You never know when you're gonna get a phone call, or someone will need you in another room, or you get a sudden urge to go to the bathroom, or you hear your cat licking plastic, or whatever. Other entertainment mediums like books, movies, and music can be paused whenever you want. Why do some games not give you the same luxury??

[kedamakedama]

[robinade]

In conversation with multiple posts going around discussing technical literacy and typing skills…

I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is less than 35 Words Per Minute

I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is less than 35 WPM

I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 36-45 WPM

I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 36-45 WPM

I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 46-55 WPM

I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 46-55 WPM

I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is 56-69 WPM

I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is 56-69 WPM

I HAD typing classes: my typing speed is faster than 70 WPM

I did NOT have typing classes: my typing speed is faster than 70 WPM

I'm on mobile/ vanilla extract option

Remaining time: 2 days 13 hours

➡️ Take a typing test here (and you need an actual, physical keyboard for this):

1-Minute Typing Test — TypingTest.now

The industry-standard benchmark used by employers and typing certifications worldwide.

➡️ 'Typing classes' refers to computer skills classes you might have had in school; you can also count games or other related typing training your parents might have had you do.

➡️ Across 3 different typing test websites*, the (english language) world average typing speed is 40 WPM.

*typingtest.now, typingtestgo.com, typerworld.com

[okavara]

[sobadbad]

FROZEN PLANET II 2.02 • Frozen Ocean

[cricketcat9]

Look at the beautiful siren

[dduane]

Just a reminder about settings best turned off over at Instagram

To keep your stuff from being scraped by / remixed with AI.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[ariaste]

OMG I got so excited about this because they used a really similar (though far less refined) version of this for contracts in the European medieval period!

First they were called "chirographs", but later the word "indenture" (in its earliest meaning as just a legal document of any kind between two people) came to be used, originating from the practice of a contract being written twice on a single piece of parchment and then cut in half with serrated edges (as in dent, "teeth" -> indents -> indenture) in order for each party to take one half, so they could later piece them together and verify that there had been no forgery -- same as the Chinese silver drafts!

(Charter of the Clerecía de Ledesma, 1252, showing the serrated indents at the top -- presumably they are cutting rather than tearing because they're using parchment, which I expect is much harder to tear than wood-pulp paper like the Chinese were using)

Delights me when human beings find similar ways to solve the same problem at two different ends of the world. <3

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

You end up in an Isekai. What is your special skill or power?

you have been isekai'd and end up with this ability!

Are you happy with it?

yes!!

It's okay

no

NO.

results/other

Remaining time: 2 days 15 hours

[angelicdewdrop]

[ofchaosgoddess]

help I’m having ideas beyond my available free time

[nothereforthedrama]

help I'm having ideas beyond my available energy levels

[electronickingdomfox]

This gotta be the funniest Enterprise-Klingon exchange ever:

[here-comes-tribble]

Uhura you fucking queen

[boylerpf]

Vintage Sterling Silver Coral Onyx Drop Earrings

Source - Boylerpf

[ladyignatius4]

Mentally making a cup of tea and giving a gentle forehead kiss to every struggling writer on my dash right now.

Your story matters, your ideas are good, and someone out there is going to fall in love with your world.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

finding that one fandom friend that GETS you and your blorbos the way no one else does is a privilege and it will literally change your life

[adhdwannabewriter]

Writers, which software do you use?

Google docs

Microsoft word

Ellipsus

Libre office - writer

Notepad (the fuck is wrong with you lol)

Pages

Other (comment, please, esp if you recommend it)

Checking results

Remaining time: 2 days 6 hours

I used to use Google docs, but the white mode only was really annoying me (tires my eyes), so I swapped to Ellipsus (which I genuinely love and recommend), but it was bothering me a bit that I need wifi in order to use it, so now I switched to LibreOffice Writer, which I do like.

It very much has a Microsoft Word feel, but is open source and you need no accounts to use it. It's local on your device, so no AI can scan it, and no wifi is needed.

I still wish it had the Google Docs cards, because, bitch, that thing is so good for easy organizing.