you know when little kids are told to smile for the camera and they do the biggest grin bc they aren’t self conscious about their teeth yet they just give it their all.. that’s wat this looks like
“spicy pillow” jokes aside, I think @flowerkrone’s tags deserve a serious reply:
#my old phone looks like this on my shelf lmao #im too scared to touch it to throw it away #idk what trash this even goes into when its at this point
The pillow-shaped object here used to be the phone’s battery. It’s not a battery anymore. Now it’s a balloon full of corrosive, pyrophoric chemicals and hydrogen gas and it’s one puncture away from burning your house down. I am 100% serious. You should be scared to touch it.
But you gotta touch it, because you gotta get it out of your house before the pressure builds up to the point where the balloon pops. This isn’t going to happen soon – there is no need to panic – but it will happen eventually.
And, indeed, it doesn’t go in the ordinary trash. You put this in the ordinary trash and you’re gonna set the garbage truck on fire. Don’t do that to the garbage collectors, their job is hard enough already.
The first thing you need to do is get a fireproof container. The most common household item that qualifies as a fireproof container is a cast-iron cookpot with a cast-iron lid – often sold as a “Dutch oven.” Any other cooking container that’s unreactive, has a very high melting point, and has a lid made of the same materials will also work: enameled or stainless steel, Pyrex with glass lid, etc.
However: Do not use a pot with a PTFE-based non-stick coating. If the battery does explode, the fire will probably be hot enough to degrade a PTFE coating, producing toxic smoke. (Not that you should breathe the smoke from the battery fire either, but PTFE breakdown products are worse.) Do not use a pot made of aluminium or copper. The fire might even get hot enough to melt those.
Whatever container you use, you might have to throw away along with the phone, so don’t use your good Dutch oven for this. Go to a thrift store and buy a cheap one.
Once you have the fireproof container:
Gently pick up the phone and put it in the fireproof container. If possible, gently tape the phone to the bottom of the container to prevent it from bouncing around. Don’t put any padding in there, that’ll just make a fire worse if it does happen. Put the lid on and tape it shut.
Put a label on the container, something like “DEFECTIVE LI-ION BATTERY – FIRE HAZARD”.
It is now reasonably safe to move the container around. However, if the battery does explode, the container is very likely to leak smoke and get hot, so keep it in a well-ventilated area and away from things that will be damaged by heat. Don’t leave it exposed to the weather, either.
You need to find either a hazardous waste disposal site, or an e-waste recycler that
will accept defective Li-ion batteries. I can’t help with that because I
have no idea where you live.
However, your local fire department, if you have one, will probably be happy to help. Call their non-emergency number. Nothing is on fire yet, so this isn’t an emergency, but things that can easily start a fire are still within the fire department’s responsibilities. Tell them you have a phone with a bulging lithium-ion battery, you put it in a fireproof container, and you want to know how to dispose of it safely.
If the fire department tries to tell you this isn’t dangerous or it’s okay to throw it out in the regular trash (with or without fireproof container), hang up on them and write a cranky letter to your local government representatives, then keep looking for a proper disposal site.
When you do find a a hazardous waste disposal site or an e-waste recycler, call them and make sure they will take defective Li-ion batteries, before showing up. That’s also a good time to ask if they will let you have the fireproof container back.
Anonymous asked: My MC will have a “not my circus, not my monkeys”- behavior, but I want her to slowly want to help peopel as she gets more powerful throughout the series and eventually grows into her role as protector of the people. I want to give her natural character growth without it seeming “out of nowhere” or “out of character” since it will be a total 180 from the start of everything. Do you have any tips for the natural transition in character development that is drastically different from the start?
(Ask edited for length…)
Having a character do a complete but natural 180 between the beginning and end of the story is what’s called a “character arc.”
Here are the steps in creating a natural character arc:
1 - Understand the Internal Conflict - Stories are either plot-driven (centered on an external conflict/problem in the character’s world), character-driven (centered on an internal conflict/problem in the character’s self), or a combination of both. Character arc occurs in stories that are character-driven or both plot and character-driven, mainly in the protagonist and other important main characters. It’s this problem in the character’s self that causes who they are in the beginning of the story, and it’s this problem that they must resolve in order to change by the end.
2 - Choose a Relevant Internal Conflict - Your protagonist needs to have an internal conflict that is relevant to the story events. If your story is entirely character-driven, the character arc is the whole story. The events of the story should naturally stem from your character’s journey to resolve their internal conflict. If your story is partially plot-driven, the internal conflict should tie into the external conflict in some way. Both conflicts should stem from the same problem, or the path that leads to resolving the external conflict should lead to resolving the internal conflict–either directly or indirectly.
3 - Events = Experiences = Change - As the events of your story unfold, your character should have experiences as a result of those events that impact their understanding of their internal conflict. Let’s say your character’s internal conflict is the belief that they have no value beyond their role in a villainous organization. As the events of the story unfold, they would need to start seeing evidence that challenges that belief, makes them ask questions, and motivates them to push against the boundaries of that belief. In other words, as this character gets involved with things outside the organization, they start to see evidence that they do have value outside their role in the organization. This avalanches into questioning not just their belief but the organization itself and their involvement of it. As they test the waters of this new understanding and find confirmation that change is right for them, the change naturally takes place.
4 - Include Doubts, Fails, and Setbacks - Although you want the overall trajectory of their arc to be in the direction of their change, you still want to illustrate their doubts (Could this really be true? Do I really have value beyond the organization? Could the organization be bad? No, surely that can’t be right…) and have the occasional failure or setback in their attempt to change. In other words, you don’t want them to have an easy transition from where they are at the beginning to where they are at the end. Their internal conflict’s claws are in pretty deep, so there needs to be some struggle as they try to move in a different direction.
5 - Show the Completed Change in Action - Wherever they end up, you want to give the character the opportunity to show that they’ve changed. For example, maybe the villainous organization comes at them with an “offer they can’t refuse,” and the old them would have jumped at that opportunity, but they’re not that person anymore. Showing them refusing this offer illustrates that they’ve really and truly changed once and for all.
Happy writing!
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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!
I have 3 months to raise $13k and I’m very nervous about it.
If you guys could tag others in my donation post and share it that would be a huge help. If you follow me on twitter tag other people as well. Sharing is just as helpful!
Here’s my Twitter handle. Please share and tag others if you can.
touching grass isn’t enough some of y'all need to drive out to the countryside and look at the stars
this post was aimed at the discourse-addled and terminally online, but i’m glad it’s reaching an audience of people who are just excited about stargazing in general
If there was a way to run SUPER MEGA AD BLOCKER on this website I fucking would
“Please oh please open up your computer to a porn virus! If you don’t you’re evil!”
Freeloader Comin’ through!
We didn’t start this war internet users have with ads - We might have moaned about banner ads, but it was only when they started making noises when we might be listening to music or a podcast or whatever, causing two sound sorces at once, that we started trying to block ads universally rather than just a specific type of ad (pop ups).
And since then ads have gotten worse - Actual malware rather than merely breaking one of the fundamental sins of web design - though shalt not autoplay anything with sound. And the more aggressive a website is with ‘please turn off adblock’ the less I trust it to bother to vet ads and advertisers to make sure they’re not installing malware.
Not to mention that the idea that avoiding ads is “freeloading” is hilariously backward. Advertisement is a transaction between the platform and the advertiser, the user has no obligation to provide the views/clicks the platform has promised. Using an adblocker isn’t freeloading in the same way that leaving the room to get a snack during a commercial break isn’t cheating the tv network.
Ok y’all, I work as a web developer and I’m here to tell you that you are 100% right and that it’s shit. SO I’m going to tell you how to get around websites that block you from using their website if you’re using an adblocker.
Every website uses a language called JavaScript; long story short it’s a website language that allows developers to do the crazy shit you see on websites. Now the easiest thing to do is to disable JavaScript to stop them from knowing you have an adblocker:
Oh no! I’m blocked from viewing the website. It would be a terrible shame if I were able to right click and select the “inspect” feature
Click the three dots in the top right and open the “Settings” Menu
And then scrolled down to “Debugger” and checked the “Disable Javascript Option”
my dog is having a really difficult recovery from surgery. His wound reopened and he seems to have gotten sick. I’ve taken out a loan to help pay for any vet visits to figure out what’s going on but I’m really struggling financially. if you wanted to toss me a few bucks, my ko-fi is ko-fi.com/kaseyb. I also have Venmo @kcbob.