Oh, and one more treat to celebrate the end of the Cmdr. Hadfield era on the ISS as he readies for his return tomorrow.
Here he is singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, in space.
Your head now has permission to explode.
Guitar. Singing. About space. IN space. as;dlifja;woif;lkajfds
Have a cityscape! ♥
♥
*drags self back from Philly* Aaaaaaand … you have given me the final grist for my gridscape drablet mill. <333333333 Beautiful as ever!
Gridscape Drablet 1
Gridscape Drablet 2
Gridscape Drablet 3
Gridscape Drablet 4
Gridscape Drablet 5: The End
The light stabbed across the horizon, brighter than anything else above or below, piercing the relay gate through and through. What once had, long ago, been a shining beacon promising freedom, now heralded the arrival of their enslavement or destruction.
Tron had to swallow against the jagged disappointment of being proven right.
“We have to go … ” Flynn husked, staring too, voice dry with anxiety and dread. “We have to find the others, regroup and - “
“No. No more regrouping.”
Flynn turned to him. “But - “
The user had the grace not to pretend confusion. Beyond the single, token protest, Flynn bit his lip, glanced once more at the lightbeam that would inevitably bring Clu and his troops, and then slumped in defeat. “At least let me heal you.”
“No time,” Tron grunted, pushing to his feet. No time, because what was between Flynn and Clu, whatever stub that remained mutual to both their cores, was working in every way but how it should. There was no understanding, no recognition … only a steady leak of information that drew one to the other, as if the system itself could no longer abide their enmity and sought to force a confrontation, once and for all. “And no use. You should go.”
“What? No! Let me heal you first, you’re still our secret - our greatest weapon … “
“To what end? You know everything.” And thus, by extension, Clu knew as well; or would know, soon enough.
They had looked, they had all looked, isos and rebels alike - looking for betrayal, for a traitor … looked everywhere, except at Flynn. Flynn, who was their greatest ally; Flynn, who was their greatest weakness.
“Then I’ll take myself out of the equation.”
Tron froze. Before he could even formulate an exclamation, much less a query, Flynn had already reached back, undocking his own disc. In the cold white light that sprang from it, Tron met the user’s gaze. “You’re … no.”
It was beautiful, a user’s core. Flynn smiled gently through its delicate spirals. “Go, Tron.”
Tron clenched jaw and hands. Bowed his head, and finally turned. Tried to pretend that the waver of light reflected from the walls was a result of his own unsteady limp, but could not find it in himself to ignore the quiet narration dying slowly behind him.
“Clu. Clu happened. It was a coup … I never saw him again … “
And a super-super-quick one for DW before I go sleep - she wanted a smirky Rinzler but then my mind wandered off to him watching the Games on the occasions he wasn’t taking part, away from the crowds and just being himself by himself. Character design based on Betrayal more than anything…
<33333333333333333
Man, how do you push all my buttons.
“Do you miss it?”
The words were warm and weighted next to his ear, as heavy as if a hand had been settled upon his shoulder. In the distance, there was a sharp blue burst of cascading light as another contestant lost a duel. He did not need the playback upon the overhead banners to pick out the program’s fatal error.
“Do you wish you were there instead?”
He could feel the line of dead pixels pulling near the corner of his mouth as his lips thinned; felt more irritation for the incessant interruptions than his lack of active role in this centi’s tournament.
“No worries, ‘champion’ … we’ll have a worthy opponent for you again soon.”
He had neither words nor inclination to answer as a chuckle faded with departing footsteps, and he soon overwrote the encounter altogether. A new opponent had emerged.
Good balance … equally proficient with left and right … a little too dependent on leg-work. Don’t raise your arm when you shin-block, they’ll cut right between your knee and elbow …
Yes, he missed it, but no, he did not wish he was there instead.
At least here, he could pretend that the other program had a chance.
I’ve got a friend who’s constantly ragging me for not watching Game of Thrones, and so today I decided to take a break from my insane work schedule lately by playing a bit on her favorite House - House Martell.
It just so happened that I stumbled across this 2-colored cupcake recipe while looking up the Irish Cream ganache frosting, which turned out perfect for my purposes.
This was a surprisingly complicated recipe, due to my lack of preparations (had to wait for the butter to soften, the chocolate to melt and then cool without solidifying, and then making my own sour milk when I had no buttermilk on hand), but in the end, the results were pronounced good and nearly half the cupcakes have already disappeared in spite of the midnight hour.
Recipe: Black-and-White Irish Cream Cupcakes
So, a few things I learned:
Use more batter than less when mixing with the chocolate. When the chocolate cools, it immediately solidifies into a solid mass - before I realized I merely had the ratio of batter-to-chocolate off, I risked warming it up a bit in the microwave, but I was afraid of cooking the egg white already mixed in. The bottom layer is darker than the top sun shape because I needed the sun to be malleable, so diluted it a bit more with my leftover batter before working it.
Doing the sun shapes was a mess. I had to wipe off the toothpick after each dip or it would adulterate the chocolaty part with the vanilla part. I probably went through three napkins (sorry, trees!) before realizing I should have prepared a hand towel beforehand.
I probably over-filled them a bit, which is why they rose so high - could probably have also turned the temperature down a bit to 325 degrees F, and eyeballed the time.
Maybe it’s time to invest in a pastry bag for piping. It was a mess trying to drip a dollop of chocolate into the center of each cupcake top using a spoon.
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken — but not Uneaten!
<3 never change
Haha, well, the suns are a LITTLE broken, but next time, I will do better! I’ve already got ideas on how to improve them. (And yes, for those wondering just what I’ve been doing when I’m not ficcing or running around like a crazed chicken for my company lately, this has been my latest anti-stress hobby.)
Finished the fic where Quorra ends up being Tron’s apprentice instead of Flynn’s (and Flynn ends up Rinzler) — I hope it’s still enjoyable! I left the ending deliberately open, so who wins is up to you.
I was going to draw something totally ambitious to go with it but then I remembered that I hadn’t touched actual pencils in ages, seeing how little time & space I have IRL for traditional media (which I endlessly regret), so I went for a drawing of Q instead. I hope to use this as the basis for a more involved fanart (flawed though it is - but there’s no other way to improve and relearn) but I need to carry on with askprompts too, so we’ll see what goes first. ♥
Aaaaaaaaa fantastic in fic and art, as always Q.Q Now I wanna know what happens … *whine*
This is for Omnicat and it goes with the fic I’m writing for the Female Character Ficathon. The story is called Edit and it’s an AU take on the end of Evolution/Betrayal where Clu captures Flynn instead of Tron, so Quorra ends up learning to survive with our favourite security program. As you can imagine, things go a little differently than the Doing Nothing philosophy of Flynn. Enjoy!
Aw man, I love the line-art/comic noir feel of this, the sweep of Quorra’s hair, and your signature voxel/bits brush … ! \o/
The gastric brooding frog existed 30 years ago, but the extraordinary amphibian is now extinct.
In a world first, a team of Australian scientists has taken the first major step in bringing it back to life.
They have successfully reactivated its DNA and produced an embryo.
Full Story: ABC
I remember, years ago, reading an article lamenting the passing of species that could have benefited mankind, but which were now extinct. One of the prime examples it quoted was exactly the frog mentioned above - a frog that could turn off the gastric/digestive juices in its stomach to safely incubate its brood before turning them on again for normal life function. There had been some small hope that studying this process would allow scientists new ways of controlling and treating stomach-related issues such as ulcers or heartburn … but, of course, the frog was no more and couldn’t be studied anymore.
I never thought that, one day, I’d be reading about its potential return!
This is for Napol who wanted the voice actor’s face on the character. Speed-painted in Artrage 4 so the likeness might not be the best. Feels nice to draw again, though!
Man, I can’t believe you just whipped that out in less than an hour … that is fantastic!
<random-public-announcement>
I’ve had a secret crush on Lee Pace that started with Pushing Daisies that became a not-so-secret crush with The Fall. Seriously. If you haven’t watched The Fall, go buy it, I’ll buy it from you if you don’t fall in love with it. (And not just for Lee Pace, honest.)
(I will never stop pimpin’ The Fall.)
</random-public-announcement>
(Source: shakespearee, via wantstobelieve)
And here’s an example of what to do with the stencil pack I posted last time; I saved a few steps along the way to show you how ArtRage works. Hope you like!
Uhm, HAI EVERYONE I’M STILL KINDA SORTA ALIVE :D
Yeah, uh, work is still kicking my butt all over the place, but the end is within sight! Hopefully April will be my last really manic insane work month, but in the meantime, I’ve had these amazing omg images saved on my desktop for all of February waiting until I had 20 mins to drabble and here I am, finally.
In the theme of the gridscape drabblets, I present Part 4 of 5 (yup I’ve determined that there will be just one more final installment!)
Gridscape Drablet 1
Gridscape Drablet 2
Gridscape Drablet 3
Gridscape Drablet 4
For a single, precious nano, he was free.
As the stolen lightjet entered the apogee of its climb, he did not feel the weight of his damaged limbs. As his sensors temporarily reported undefineds, confounded by the lack of vectors at the arc’s crest, the ever-present murmur of tactical feeds fell into standby and there was silence. The jet strained against its hardcoded limits, engine guttering, and the moment was suspended when it died altogether and he could only wait … wait … wait to see if it would re-ignite, if they would survive, if they would fly again …
Everything started again with a shriek of delirious laughter.
The iso pushed them into a punishing dive as the engine roared. Tron gritted his teeth as the forces clawed at old fractures, fought to sort through the sudden flood of new data, managed to grind out, “Down!” when he sensed the jet’s vector leveling and the iso obediently drove them deeper into the clouds.
The lights appeared first; scattered bursts of brilliance as they punched through the atmospheric haze. By the time the lines became a recognizable map, though, there was another excited whoop from the iso as she strained against the controls … the lightjet groaned as it fought to pull its nose up, barely clearing the lowest structures, light ribbon shimmering bright with shed heat behind it.
There was a hollow crump behind them and a glimmer of reflected light off building surfaces when someone behind them was not so lucky. “Think we’re gonna make it,” the iso gasped, humming with excess energy, the jet dancing beneath her touch.
“The question is why this is necessary in the first place,” he retorted, fingers curling into the armrests, feeling joints creak and warning messages flash like lightning crawling across the bellies of the clouds.
“Dunno. They’re getting better at finding us - “
The second time already, that a potential meeting was interrupted. A second missed chance at pooling resources, at joining forces, at potential healing -
” - but Flynn got a message to me. He wants to try again. He said he’ll be at - “
- and suddenly, he wondered if more than just his shell had been damaged, wondered how he could have been so blind. Wondered why it was, that users seemed to always hold the balance of salvation and destruction in their hands. “Flynn,” he groaned, closing his eyes.
OH MAN I keep praising ArtRage but I don’t know a third of what you can do with the program. I only just became aware that you can make stencils out of contents of a layer, which means that I can play with variations on a drawing until I stab at something I really like. I’m still not sure if I should put him on a rooftop or atop a patrolling Recogniser. Ask is open, thoughts are welcome.
Oh dude you kills me I LOVE the newsprint feel of this
A small ficlet for an adorable gif.
Something
The first time it happened, Sam was pretty sure his life was over.
ROFL <3
A small ficlet for an adorable gif.
Something
The first time it happened, Sam was pretty sure his life was over.
Omg, so cute with just enough of an edge to make it hurt-I-mean-<3 that much more Q.Q *squishes everything*
Happy Birthday Tron— Celebrating 30 Years
Greeting Programs
Some things may change, but one thing that doesn’t is our love of Tron.
Amazing, how far computer graphics in movies have come!
(via prgm)
