inarticulate enthusiasm and complaining

Also it is incredibly satisfying to drag a rod across a steel plate and melt it like ice.

 

He’s also the second instructor there who’s told me that women are usually better welders than men. He says it’s because we pay attention and follow directions. I think it’s probably selection bias - women tend to only get into welding if they have an aptitude for it and know they’ll like it, but it’s more of a default option for men, so men are more likely to be mediocre. Obviously none of that is an absolute rule, but I think it’s a general tendency

 

...huh. I had a manager once point something similar out to me too, that women are more successful as IT techs because we tend to think outside the box more and are more willing to try new things to fix the problem. but I've never known a woman (or myself) who has entered an IT field without absolutely knowing what she was doing.

 

Yeah! I bet it’s true for a lot of other fields too - most of the trades, firefighting, maybe the military?

I’ve been trying to think of a male equivalent, but I’m coming up short. Theater maybe? The fashion industry?

 

Social services, maybe?

 

Got my first burn from welding today! A little blister almost in the crook of my left elbow where a droplet of slag spatter got me. First of many, I’m sure.

 

Ever since I quit my job and started welding classes, I suddenly have the mental capacity to listen to the news. Been putting on NPR on the 40 minutes back and forth from the school most days. Feeling like I have some measure of control over my life is pretty nice it turns out!

 

That one scene in Protector of the Small where Alanna anonymously gifts Kel a fancy armor cleaning kit really stuck to my subconscious I think. Actually her books have a lot of scenes where the characters give each other practical and high quality presents, don't they - I can't tell if that was formative, or if I liked those scenes so much because I was already inclined towards stuff like that

 

Ah. I’m an idiot who’s been driving around without registration info in the car for the past several months

 

I’m good at Don’t Starve, dammit, why is adventure mode kicking my ass this much

 

Adventure mode is always a time and i have no idea how to actually be successful with it. Theory wise, i can see how. In practice??? What the fuck is going on.

 

Yeah! I’m playing Wickerbottom and I even got Archipelago as my first world, and I still couldn’t make it through. Might have to resort to mild hax because I want to play as Maxwell, dammit

 

I watched this youtuber stream it a while ago and he made it look easy. How ;_;

 

Practice i guess. There is so much randomization that can happen that it is astounding tho that ppl can make it easy

 

I think Tris would have to hold on to the work with one hand to ground it, push the electricity up through there, and then use her other hand to complete the arc. Or rather, hold a metal rod in her other hand to melt as filler as she completes the arc through it. She’d also have to keep the atmosphere away from the square inch or so around the weld puddle so it didn’t turn into a porous mess. And she’d have to get her glassmaking student or someone to make her tinted glass for a helmet. Though I don’t think the books ever mentioned her lightning hurting her eyes or skin and they definitely mentioned how sunburnable she is so maybe she’s just immune to UV from lightning specifically.

All in all it seems like this would be too effort intensive to be worth it, even if she was using stored power from her braids or something instead of generating it on the spot. Especially considering that Daja can just melt metal together by touching it if she really needs to. A circumstance in which Tris would be forced to invent this technique would be pretty unlikely.

 

Firebenders, now - they could absolutely weld. A lightningbender working together with an airbender, or by themself with a tank of argon or something to keep the atmosphere away. Their biggest challenge would probably be figuring out how to create a constant, weaker electrical current, rather than the big dramatic lightning bolts they usually seem to work with. But regular technology-based welding definitely exists in the ATLA universe so I bet an inquisitive lightningbender is gonna figure out how to replicate it sooner or later. Unless I’m getting it backwards, and they figured it out with bending first?

Hey come to think of it how did the Fire Nation build all those metal war machines back during the war? That’s the kind of thing we couldn’t make in the real world until welding was invented. I don’t think electricity was in widespread use in the Fire Nation back then - even the palace didn’t have electric lights. Boiling Rock had refrigeration, though, and I think the gondola was powered by electricity. So maybe electricity was only used for manufacturing and high security prisons? As far as I can remember, regular firebending doesn’t get hot enough to melt metal, so firebending smiths wouldn’t be able to substitute for welding.

Whatever they did, it was mobile, since Azula had her people build that giant drill out in the middle of nowhere outside Ba Sing Se.

I should really do some rewatching since I honestly can’t remember if most of the Fire Nation had electrical lighting or not. According to the wiki they had steam trains.

 

I wish I could write so I could write this fic

 

I’m not very good at writing but I’m aces at outlining, only provided I have someone to brainstorm with. I wish I was still in contact with any of my friends who used to brainstorm with me.

 

“masculine silhouette with skirt” is my favorite type of androgynous look and I have nearly achieved it here ^^

 

Today I did cry at the end of mob psycho 100