Bryce: 2 - Rust Electricity Basics (sorry)

     Hello everyone, today I will be addressing a common misunderstanding among certain friends which is basic Rust electricity. I fear if something were to ever happen to me, they would be left with cold and dark bases lacking any personality. Therefore, I will leave a guide for even the simplest player to understand.

    Firstly, you will require a power source. There are currently 3 in the game: solar panels, windmills, and generators. Generators output the smallest amount and require fuel (low-grade) to run, next highest power source is solar panels, with the most efficient and expensive option being the windmill. For this explanation, we will stick with the more complicated of the three which will leave you with an understanding of the other two as well. The solar panel. For optimal placement, the solar panel(s) must all face north. If you are playing a monthly wipe, 2 weeks in these must be adjusted for the sun cycle to NE or NW. The solar panels can be hooked directly to your intended usage, such as lights, but once the sun sets, you will lose power. To counteract this, we will need a battery. The medium battery is what I have found to be best unless you are setting up auto turrets, then you will need large. 

    The medium battery holds 9,000 rWm (Rust Watt Minutes) and outputs a maximum of 50 rWm (Large 24,000 rWm with an output of 100 rWm, small 400 rWm with an output of 15 rWm). What does this mean? Well simply, it means the medium battery outputs 50 electricity and each item requires a certain amount of electricity. For example, the ceiling light requires 1 electricity to run, so this battery can output enough power for 50 ceiling lights. The medium battery has a 80% efficiency on charging, meaning all incoming power is 80% of the source, keep this in mind if balancing charging vs output.

    Now that you understand power sources and batteries, how do we connect it all. For this we will use solar panels and a medium battery as explained. You will require 4 North facing solar panels on an open roof with no shadows casting over them. Next, acquire 3 root combiners and place them on your roof near the panels. Take your wiring tool and connect 2 solar panels to the 2 inputs on one combiner, then the other 2 solar panels connected to another combiner. Next, connect the outputs of both of these combiners to the 3rd combiner. Now all 4 solar panels are ran into a single wire. Run this cable NEATLY into the battery input. The battery should be placed near the core to protect from raiders.

    Your battery is now charging. For our last step, we need to connect it to our utilities and decorations. Almost every item requiring electricity has an "input" and a "passthrough". If you take the wire directly from the output of the battery to your items, you will quickly drain your battery or encounter other various roadblocks. So before we get ahead of ourselves, lets get some root branches. These allow you to branch off only the necessary amount of power you need. Lets place 5 lights in the base for this. We are going to go to our battery room and place a branch, then interact with it and type "5" to branch off five power. Now from the output labeled 5, run the wire to the first light then click the passthrough ad run it to the second, third, etc. You can optionally place a switch between the branch and first light to have control of when they are on and mitigate battery drainage.

    With this knowledge, you can continue on to power anything your heart desires. Just make sure you look at how much power the item requires (examples: auto turret: 10, neon sign: 15, water pump: 5) and branch off accordingly. If you have any questions or are interested in more advanced electricity, including but not limited to: automatic doors, turrets, farms, HBHF sensors, smart alarms, fog machines, dance floors, music/speakers, etc. please feel free to reach out, id love to help!

    

Quentin: 2

 Second Blog

Firstly, great job everyone on round one of blogging, wow.

For the last 10 days, I’ve agonized over the subject of my second blog post. When I sat to write the first post, the idea came to me and soared from there. Yet the last 10 days I’ve been left with a multitude of ideas, none of which I have actually desired fleshing out. 

• Valorant Masters Bangkok Tournament Recap

• The Pressure of Working Out Again Once You’ve Regressed

• Savannah Travel Blog 

• Nathan’s 21st Birthday

• The Engineering Behind the Velocicoaster

• Various Songs and the Mental Images They Conjure

• Rorschach Test w/ Shower Tiles

• Settlers of Catan Game Breakdown

Like I said, none of those have compelled me to toil at my keyboard, so I think I may just use this post to express my feelings on a broad topic that I’ve experienced firsthand recently: Grief. This may become heavy and has a chance to ramble on like my first post; feel free to skip over this post at no offense to me. 

Grief is typically discussed alongside its five stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. These cold, emotionless descriptors do a rather poor job of illustrating Grief in its totality.

Grief is the waves of the ocean. You lay on the sand, and it will wash over you. Then it’ll retreat back from whence it came, granting you short moments of relief during its consistent barrage. Eventually the tide will go out, but you’re not exactly sure when, and all you can do is wait. 

Grief, despite this, is a beautiful thing. It brings people together for a moment of peace, everything else shelved. It forces you to look inward, grappling with emotions that have lain dormant. There will be days where it consumes you and days where you don’t even come face to face with it.

I have really only experienced, out of the aforementioned stages, sadness. When you’re grieving, every small thing is a reminder. Small references in conversation will send your mind in a flurry. Tiny memories pop back into your head any chance they get. The movies you watch and songs you listen to take on entirely new meaning. I even sought out movies that I thought would help bring catharsis, and holy shit did they (still haven’t logged it on Letterboxd). I scoured the internet for poems, finding two that resonated with me. I'll attach those at the end of this post. Writing the speech I had to say at the funeral was almost, ironically, the death of me.

Grief is universal. It can feel at times like you’re walking this treacherous path alone, but there are always others there experiencing that very Grief that you feel.

At my grandma’s funeral, a moment that really stuck with me was when one of her neighbors recognized me. I had never met her formally, but she said she had seen me from across the street taking my grandma’s trash out and took note of it. She gave me a hug, called me sweet, and I went on my way. I hope to never forget the feeling I had in that moment. 

Grief

---

It’s been five hours since I last typed a word on this. I ran out of steam and, quite frankly, anything else meaningful to say. Oh wait, I’ve got one more thing.

A few days ago she was in my dream. I got to talk to her and laugh with her; she scolded me for driving too fast; also, Skye from Valorant was there. I think that’s my favorite dream. 

Here are the promised poems and a picture I took while stationed at my computer trying to write this.

“Poem” Langston Hughes, 1926: 

I loved my friend. 

He went away from me. 

There’s nothing more to say. 

The poem ends, 

Soft as it began,—

I loved my friend.

“Immortality” by Clare Harner, 1934: 

Do not stand

   By my grave, and weep,

I am not there,

   I do not sleep--

I am the thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints in snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle, autumn rain.

As you awake with morning's hush,

I am the swift, up-flinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the day transcending night.

Do not stand

   By my grave, and cry--

I am not there,

I did not die.

Will: 1

uneven brick roads that kick auburn dust onto car wheels

the flock of parrots that long ago escaped a pet store to careen across the downtown skyline, unnerving big-city transplants with their screeching jolt of green

walking into the first barbershop i saw and getting lucky enough to have it be my barbershop for the last decade, even when they didn’t recognize me under my post-covid mop

the older neighbor with the trump / punisher truck decoration who used to ask me if i wanted to come over to smoke weed

the way i could see a storm rolling in off the gulf at my first apartment, the thundering rain on that metal carpark

hot pants jesus, patron saint of bewildered looks in old northeast

the shade of yellow on mom’s first house

the bay-facing benches at vinoy park on a partly sunny day

the haslam’s book store cats weaving between your legs as you browse

sitting in a desk chair at a too-short coffee table chopping samples for the first time on a janky midi keyboard

wandering into shep’s beer emporium, hearing someone else playing milo in public, knowing i’d found a friend

seeing the back room of bananas for the first time

reading on kathi’s screened in porch on a rainy day

falling in love at the st pete beach christmas boat parade

walking into horse and jockey for the 2019 champions league final wearing a tottenham kit, not knowing it was a liverpool bar 

sunbeams arcing the big green chair at the front window of black crow

the way the greens get deeper after it rains, especially at sunken gardens, especially when you’re there with someone you’re falling in love with

talking albums while enjoying the ice cold slabs of concrete at the brutalist on an august day

trying every coffee shop and always coming back to black crow, until we started always coming back to intermezzo

the relentless sunshine, the 4pm thunderstorm

the whine of the late winter indycars no matter where you are in the city 

the pier when it was an inverted pyramid 

thanks for everything st. pete i love you  

August: 1 - An Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider and A Great Tree Talk

 Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider -> EAJS

Tree -> Tree

------- scene -------

An Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider has found a perch upon a great Tree in the Amazon rainforest. This Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider, a creation of god made at the tail end of his bout of divine creative experiment, touted all of the magnificent God given features that the Creator had only been able to master after a literal billion attempts and renditions of life.  

The Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider was Magnificent. 

                *The Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider, for his credit, was quite humble regarding his station -                        which really seems obvious if you think about it. 

The great Tree amidst the Amazon rainforest, while Old and Wise, was nothing more than a modest Tree. His canopy reached high above the rainforest floor, but his crown was not too tall that you might stare up in awe and reverence of his might. The Tree after all, was created fairly early on by God. Undoubtably a ingenious Creation, the absence of flair was made up in inherent Virtue and Humility. 

EAJS: Tree?

Tree: I am here.

EAJS: Ah okay okay..... Would you mind if I sit here on this branch? This little corner right here where your branches nearly meet, then pull away, then almost meet again - its just really spectacular. I'd love to build a web here if you don't care. Thanks.

Tree: It would be an insurmountable pleasure to provide a canvas for your Life. Please, make your self at home.

EAJS: Thank you, Tree - I appreciate that!

------- scene -------

Dawn is breaking. A layer of Dew covers everything.

It is indecipherable from a Coat of Diamonds.

Tree: Why is it you toil as you do?

EAJS: Oh, hey, Good morning. The web? or the spinning? I am assuming that's what you are referencing.

Tree: All of it. The jumping.

EAJS: Jumping? Never thought of that one as work I guess. People usually just give weird looks, honestly never been introspective about it - but yeah it's probably included in the All of it. 

Tree: *Tree noises*

EAJS: Well personally, I enjoy all of it. I mean you know what they say about loving what you do and never working a day in your life. Catching bugs, feeding myself, the Hunt, The necessity of it all really removes any feeling of labor. The web-spinning is probably my favorite part of All of it - that one stands out. I hope that answers your question? 

Tree: An Answer was never really expected. I enjoy listening.

EAJS: Okay, I get it.                             Anyways, what's your Work like?

Tree: I don't believe I work. 

EAJS: What? Really? 

EAJS: You're just....... so tall? Your branches are quite literally filling up my entire field of view - and I have eight eyes dude. 

Tree: I am Constant.

EAJS: Constantly working?

Tree: No. Just Constant. I don't believe I ever stop. I don't ever feel the urge to stop. Nor do I ever want to Go.

EAJS: Hmm.... Yeah I apologize but I honestly don't know if I comprehend any of it. But uh, I enjoy listening too. I really appreciate you and what you stand for though. *winks*

                Note: The Exotic Amazon Jumping Spider was really never Created with any intention of having the ability to wink. It's pretty entertaining to see, if seen multiple times, because its always a random assortment of 4 eyes that are closed while the others remain open.

Tree: Listening is Good.

------- scene -------

Author's Note: would have really loved to keep going but I dont have any more time. Going to a house show tonight and im excited! Music!!!! Love you guys.