Sparrowdreams

Personal Blog maintained for archive purposes. This is still my main because I can't switch it to become a sideblog. Go to @riversidewings for my current Tumblr presence, please.

[literary-potato]

Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved The World,' Dies At 77

Petrov was on overnight duty in 1983 when computers indicated the U.S. had launched a nuclear strike against his country. He had only a few

RIP to a quiet hero.

A good reminder in these times that even when powerful men act with impunity to do evil, tossing out callous orders left and right, that at the end of the day those powerful men often depend on ordinary, low-level workers to push a button somewhere, to flip a switch, to pull a trigger… and that those ordinary individuals have the power to say “no.” You can refuse to push the button, and you might save countless lives in the process.

[literary-potato]

ALSO a good timely reminder that automated systems can be wrong!!!! Sensors can be tripped incorrectly! Data can get corrupted! Electronics can fail! Machines shouldn’t make decisions!!!! There needs to be at least one human (ideally more than one for big decisions!) assessing the machine’s output, weighing it against other sources of information and the potential consequences, and making a rational, moral decision. Not just logical: RATIONAL.

[thekalzone]

Came home from work to find a Wife on the doorstep!

Art by @lacteaway thanks for making such a beautiful design! 🥰

[riversidewings]

The Combat Doll Diaries #3: "Among the Furries"

One: Expedient Means I know in my bones the clanking rattle of an M48A5 Patton, the deep thrum of the rotors on a UH-1B, the sound an AK-74 makes when it’s racked, and how car bombs echo against buildings the way big fireworks do on July 4th. I’ve walked through a minefield and by some miracle, come out safe. I know how to talk to a man pointing a Glock at my chest. I know, as an Armenian, that…

The Combat Doll Diaries #3: "Among the Furries"

[riversidewings]

If you've enjoyed my work, consider supporting it by getting me something specific! Check out my wishlist at https://throne.com/riversidewings for my current roster of improvements to tools, recording capabilities, and library. Thanks for your help!

[riversidewings]

Chin up, mm? There we go. 🖤

[sparrowdreams]

staff can kiss my fucking ass, this site is a fucking joke.

[riversidewings]

@staff this is a pinned post introducing myself and my work as a historian and novelist, headed by a selfie where I am entirely clothed, it's been there for over a year without getting flagged, what the Jesus Duchovny Christ is NSFW about it?

[riversidewings]

Home maintenance setup with the comfy padded workbench: because a combat doll and mech pilot that heavily customized is going to have a lot of downtime, and she and her engineer wife find maintenance sessions often end with clothes on the floor and more than just the hydraulic kind of press...

[riversidewings]

well, this is awkward.

Tax season has cleaned me out and the press that published my books is running late in dispatching its latest round of royalty checks. I have a few payments declining as of today.

a few dollars in the direction of http://ko-fi.com/riversidewings would be greatly appreciated, from those so inclined.

[riversidewings]

(Friday Night History) #105 (S4E5)- Manslayer Bridge

Support this podcast! Become a patron on Patreon or Fourthwall, help me improve my library by getting something from my wishlist at http://throne.com/riversidewings, or buy merch and send a donation via https://riversidewings-shop.fourthwall.com/ Prologue He knows he is going to die. But he is seventy-two years old as he rides through the winter cold, leading a paltry force into the waiting…

(Friday Night History) #105 (S4E5)- Manslayer Bridge

[riversidewings]

This week, #FridayNightHistory is taking a break, so I took the opportunity over on the Patreon to reflect a bit on a mentor to whom I owe a debt: read on in my essay on Dr. Kobayashi Seiji and his work:

(Friday Night History) "A Mentor to Whom One Owes a Debt": Dr. Kobayashi Seiji and "Date Masamune" (1959) | Dr. Nyri A. Bakkalian

Get more from Dr. Nyri A. Bakkalian on Patreon

[riversidewings]

A Wielder enjoys karaage from her cedar magewappa. Under the shade of a red umbrella borrowed from a friend's wagashi cafe, she basks in the warmth of a gentle spring day.

Ordinarily, she'd oversee a range day like this, but today, she's but a spectator to the dolls in their mechs.

It's her tachi doll wife in one of the spots the firing line in the valley below, and she watches both through her binoculars and over the live feed from the remote cameras behind the line.

The blossom of flame. The tendrils of smoke. The deep kettledrum bang of 105mm cannons letting fly.

They are connected, she and her doll wife, wirelessly linked to share the background current of each other's senses, two hearts cybernetically assisted and beating as one. When her doll's mounted up, the current is still, almost silent, the linkup with the mech taking precedence.

And yet.

Even in the stilled, invisible current from her doll, the Wielder can feel the euphoria, and it sends her heart soaring.

After all, even over the video feed, the clang of spent 105 millimeter shell casings rings sweet.

[cutevintagetoys]

💖 Get it here: Holiday Kitten String Lights

Use code “TUMBLR” for a discount!

[riversidewings]

There are three of them at least, running the mountaintop ARSR system for the SDF. Not quite a combat doll, not quite a general purpose doll, but something else entirely.

That night, the tachi doll crosses paths with one, in the Rawson, when she gets home late from the range.

Somewhere between the oden pot and the soft hum of the karaage case, the tachi sees her, a shadow in the corner of her eye.

Purple hair. A loosely knotted necktie. A leather jacket that looked several sizes too large. A furtive but piercing gaze, carefully scanning.

"Sister," she says, looking up at the tachi, ocular scans meeting ocular scans as they nod to each other.

"S-Sister," the tachi nods, hoping she's doing this right. None of these dolls has ever spoken to her before, even if they've crossed paths here many times before, in the liminal hours.

There's a long silence that passes between them. What is the doll from up the hill thinking, the tachi wonders? How much of me can she ascertain, with eyes that sharp?

"That one is in the way of the oden." She points.

"O-oh! Oh. Oh um. Sorry."

The tachi flusters, fumbling with the basket of bottled tea and zundamochi ice cream as she scoots clear.

By the time she manages to turn around, the shorter doll has ladled out a now lidded container of oden.

She dips her head.

"A pleasant evening to that one."

The tachi stands blushing, even after the purple haired doll has taken her leave.

Just like that? she asks herself. Yeah just like that, I guess.

"My Wielder's not gonna believe this," she mutters with a tired smile.

[riversidewings]

Sometimes I get asked about my setting in the #ConfluenceNovel: what about the state of combat dolls in the US military?

Well, the quote at the top of my prologue in my WIP prequel may offer a hint.

[sparrowdreams]

"What's my Roman Empire?"

The Roman Empire. Obviously. I'm Armenian and I grew up in an old Roman retirement colony you might know by its modern name of Beirut. On both counts, I have strong opinions about those fucking so-and-sos.

[riversidewings]

Visit Original Link

So I've been doing daily voice training, both in the interest of getting gendered correctly as well as for improving my lecture voice and training myself out of my baseline Philadelphia affect, and an amusing byproduct of the intersection of both is that I'm developing a voice that seems to have an ability to...

...fluster.

So I play with it, and doing the "disappointed Grande Dame" thing seems to yield some of the most interesting results, so...I thought I'd share it for everyone's enjoyment 🤭😘