RaptorSigh Personal Blog

S/O: *rolls over in bed and faces him* Can’t sleep?

Sigma: I’m afraid not.

S/O: Is it the melody?

Sigma: No, I think this time it’s disbelief.

S/O: What do you mean?

Sigma: My research can continue here, I’m not a weapon for Talon, I’m not in prison for having my powers. The freedom I have now, it isn’t an illusion is it?

S/O: *runs hand through his hair* It’s not an illusion, and nothing will take it away from you. You should get some sleep though, you’ve got a session with Mercy and Zenyatta tomorrow after your morning in the lab.

Sigma: *smiles* You’re right. *gently tugs on your arm* Will you stay close tonight?

Okay real talk I actually relate to this a lot. Growing up I had OLP (ordinal linguistic personification) occur a lot. Basically my brain was convinced that numbers had personalities/characteristics/ages so needless to say it made learning math a horrible experience and I still have a distaste for it. Ironically I work with numbers all day now lol 

But worry not! He’s here to help <3 

He noticed that you would struggle with math right away when he saw you try and pay for your share of a dinner once when calculating a tip. Instead he offered to pay for you both anyway so you wouldn’t have to think about it. 

But he definitely saw that you grew frustrated, even when you didn’t say anything when trying to solve small problems here and there or scheduling payments for bills around the house. In those instances, he would squeeze your hand and offer to take over for you.

He wasn’t sure how to bring up the fact that he noticed these things without embarrassing you or making your feel helpless, but he wanted to lift the burden from you so badly. He hates seeing you upset or confused!

He *never* belittles or judges you for not understanding different levels of mathematics. After all, physics is a crazy complicated field and the only people he judges are the ones who act like know-it-alls but really have nothing to show for it!

It wasn’t until one day a few weeks later that the truth finally broke out when he saw that you were flustered in front of one of the whiteboards in his lab.

You had papers sprawled out everywhere trying to solve just one of the otherworldly equations that he had written out, but to no avail in the end. 

He gently placed his arms around your shoulders and brought yo backwards into his arms so that he could rest his head on top of yours, “Would you like me to walk you through it?”

You slowly began to cry and hide your face in your hands, “I can’t do it, I’ve never been able to do this! I just don’t understand and I know you probably would think I’m dumb if I tried learning something like this!”

He softly shushed you and explained to you that he loves you for being yourself, not for being a pioneer in the field of physics or mathematics! In fact, he admired you for trying to break free of your comfort zone by learning something new!

“Just because an old man like myself spent decades learning this material doesn’t mean you need to compare yourself, schatje!”

He offered to show you how some of the basic forms of the equations were broken down once you felt calmer. Even though it sounded like a foreign language, you felt better knowing that he accepts who you are without question so you gladly listened (and he even threw in a few kisses at the end for sticking it out!)

From then on he encouraged you to reach out if you ever wanted to learn some basic tricks to understanding some problems more quickly. While he never pushed it, you were always glad to take him up on the offer since he always motivated you with floating hugs/kisses whenever you tried and succeeded ;)

If you want him doing the tipping or the tax calculations, ask away! He loves the change of pace from complex equations! He’ll never judge and he loves that you can rely on him for small things like that.

My buddy my pal we are all terrified. Making things is scary, and there’s nothing I can say that will help as much as showing your brain that the thing is not scary by doing the thing. If it turns into a monster, pick up your sword and run at it screaming. If no garbage comes, go out and chase it down. Do the thing. 

Look at these images from Kiki’s Delivery Service for a sec. Both of them are perfect.

This one at the top is part of a storyboard, so it is rougher. It’s in pencils, there’s not a lot of detail, and obviously isn’t a finished frame like what’s below. (The second image also had an entire team working to make it). The thing is: the second image wouldn’t exist at all without the first one. 

Now, obviously, an official storyboard that’s ready to go to frames isn’t stage one in creating something, it’s stage, like, five. Storyboards usually go through an uglier phase, when they’re still just getting the ideas figured out. Check out this piece of storyboard from Adventure Time. 

Just take a minute and take it in. Bask in it. Look at his weird little mouth. This image is also perfect, because it’s not supposed to be pretty, it’s supposed to convey an idea, which it does. Pretty happens later. 

My point is: You have plenty of time to turn whatever garbage you make into something beautiful and splendid. Masterpieces have started as napkin doodles. We all draw ugly things and write uninspired prose and sing off key. But you’re never going to draw well or write excellent words or sing off key if you don’t do the things. 

The only way out is through, pal. 

Greg Ellis, voice of Cullen in Dragon Age, is reportedly missing. Via friend Jeff Rosenthal, Ellis allegedly was a no-show for a scheduled visit with his sons, and reportedly is “in need of mental health assistance.” The two have talked on Twitter in the past as friends, so the information on Ellis’s disappearance appears legitimate.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.   At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne ( from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook. At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.  At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs. Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51. Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40. Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40. Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career to pursue acting at age 42. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first movie role at age 52. Kathryn Bigelow only reached international success when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57. Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78. Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. Hell, it’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. 

Never tell yourself you missed your chance. 

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. 

March 23,1989: That one time we almost all died

(#Sciart) Happy National Near Miss day! This image is one I created as a last-ditch effort to pass my astronomy class at BYU, but is now also hanging in the BYU Museum of Paleontology. What is Near Miss Day? It celebrates our survival of 1989, despite the advent of the first Tim Burton Batman film. Oh yeah, and also a close scrape with an asteroid. How close? And how bad was this thing?

To give you an idea of just how close, the asteroid passed within 425,000 miles of earth; that’s less than the distance to the moon and back (and within spitting distance of Tom Hanks). Even more frightening, the asteroid passed directly through a patch of space occupied by the Earth only 6 hours before. That’s a Netflix-binge-breadth between earth and apocalypse. How bad was this rock? Think of it this way. The largest nuclear weapon humanity has ever detonated, the Soviet Tsar Bomba (footage), created a blast about 1,400 times the size of that at Hiroshima. 4581 Asclepius, the rock that almost nailed us in 1989, would have created an explosion 12 times that size.

So, how would humanity have fared if Asclepius had hit? It’s tough to say, but it likely would not have been an extinction event for our species. Depending on where the asteroid hit it could have taken millions of lives, even a country or two, and left us with environmental, economic, and political issues for years to come. However,  life on earth would likely recover within a geologically negligible amount of time. That sounds so heartless and cold, but keep in mind I’m speaking in terms of daily life and biodiversity, not to minimize the unfathomable tragedy of such an event. 

Let’s compare Asclepius, now, with the Chicxulub impactor, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. The Chicxulub blast was on the order of 10 billion Hiroshimas; that’s like giving every person on earth their own personal Hiroshima bomb, and then having almost half of us come back for seconds. To put that in perspective with National Near Miss day, it would have taken a rock with 170,000 times the blast potential of our 1989 asteroid to approach the devastation experienced by the dinosaurs. Yeah, they had it rough.

That’s all they are. Rumors. Conflicting stories in a variety of locations. In some of the stories, the Champion is a human woman. In others they are a human man. And in some they are an elf or a dwarf. 

The tales vary, but there are around 7 different variations. In them:

-The champion is a human woman, a member of the guard, who has returned to Kirkwall to keep the peace. During her times off patrol she takes on vigilante work with her husband.

-The champion is a human mage who runs a mage camp in the free marches and doctors those who come for his aid. He takes on all who oppose his people’s safety, but knows mercy as well as he knows justice itself.

-The champion is an elf, who lives in Kirkwall, training loose mages and helping the elfish population survive in extreme poverty. She protects them from those who which to exploit their circumstances, and while fearful, she always is willing to give flowers to those who visit.

-the champion is a dwarf who has come back to reclaim his seat as Viscount. He rules fairly, with good humor, and despite his lofty status, he is not afraid of taking to the streets to protect those who need his help

-the champion is a human woman who sails the seas outside the city, sinking ships of slavers and saving those captured upon them. She is one of the most beautiful woman in the land, and her dancing is said to be almost as dangerous as her skills with a knife.

-the champion is an elf with strange tattoos, who has dedicated his life to fighting slavers across the area, taking them down with no mercy. Those he saves, however, are treated to soft words and directions to safe areas. He is known to carry around a book and read stories to those who are willing to listen.

-the champion is a grey warden who lost their sibling to the Inquisition. They fight the blight day in and day out. Their gender and personality depends on who is telling the story.

Those are the variations. The tales of who might be the champion. They don’t have much in common except for name. And one other detail.

last two letters of your first name

middle two letters of your last name

first two letters of your mother’s name

last letter of your father’s name

A merry band of Modern!DA2 misfits.

Hawke: @satanstrousers