Y'know, life's been a giant buzzkill lately, especially 2024 so far, and hopefully that changes soon. To kind of make things a little better, why don't I talk a little about my favorite Scrambled States character, California? Some nice addition to TSSOA content (california-wise, that is. mwahaha)
^ my lovely art of the boio
Okay so, there isn't a particularly solid reason why he happened to be my favorite? When I look at him I associate him more as the character himself and not the state, though it could have just been that I generally love driving to Cali
So obviously he's still kind of the rich and famous actor, I've been drawing him where he's got Da Drip and those fresh shades Personality wise, he feels his best when socializing or some other situation where he can engage his senses; that is he's very extroverted and flashy. He has a fun, action-loving side but also has a serious and somewhat tempered side. He can be quite impatient with others.
Cal's also got a sweet soft spot for the ocean, his favorite past times would be surfing and hanging out on the beach, but he also Loves marine life, ESPECIALLY seals and sea otters. He'd cry to whale songs /gen
Also his lactose intolerance can really mess him up, so he tries to avoid going through that as much as he can. Some other things are that he loves bears too, and he still ain't a good singer lol.
It's actually fun to draw him like this lol
Wisconsin and him, first of all, not exactly the best fit, but they don't hate each other. I like to imagine she tries to help him get better at singing.
Nevada is like a wingman to him, sometimes they act like brothers even. Will always go to a party with him.
He enjoys going on tour with his neighbor, Oregon
Him and Arizona also have a good friendship but it's one of those where they sometimes don't Get each other. Not in a bad way, they have largely different opinions on each others' interests but they respect it. Either will lightheartedly go "I don't understand how you can like this..." sometimes.
Florida and Hawaii are some great pals of his. He gets to ramble about the ocean and surf with them.
Marty. (Marty's his favorite phone agent)
my mindspace has a framed photo of him on the left wall next to the portrait of the Psyche spacecraft and my mars 2020 poster. Kepler's Third Law of Planetary Motion.
Just reblogged one of my posts there, gives me the chance to bring up: I opened up a side blog for my silly little SSOA fan stuff !!
There will be more information about it on that blog, but I'm here on my main to get some things out there that I hope people will be able to note
The new tumblr blog is there to keep This main blog organized and because its more narrow it deserves its own blog for its own things. Even though my activity may fluctuate from time to time, I still will definitely post other non-stellar states stuff right here!
I still will post art here that may or may not already be on the blog! This isn't cross-posting to get attention: My main blog is more general and I still do include my projects, and I still want to keep this side blog connected in some way (it may be updates and the like)
You may notice more reblogs from it. Please note that it's still just your local Rollie ^^
Her name's Big Tex (often just called Tex). She is indeed as tall as a tower but isn't the only one with that kind of leg to body ratio going on.
New Mexico is still New Mexico, he still hasn't gotten a name yet lol
I understand that perhaps not many people watch me, but any sort of action and increasing awareness and education about this situation is super important. Please check this out and help/take action in any way you can ^^
will not be posting art today (march 2nd) in participation of the 1 day strike for Palestine. posted here is some resources + ways to help.
BFDIA 10 has also released today. it is encouraged that you avoid talking about it today and talk about Palestine.
-- educational --
- Decolonize Palestine, an in-depth educational resource about Palestine's history, Israel's rainbow washing, as well as myth debunking.
- Advocating For Palestine, a booklet including how to effectively communicate and advocate for justice, important terminology, and in-depth myth debunking.
-- donation --
- Arab.org , each click donates a small amount. no money necessary!
- Care For Gaza (PayPal link in their bio) trusted organization directly providing aid to Palestinians.
- Funding esims is incredibly important to keeping Gaza connected to the world, and keeping eyes on the atrocities committed, in light of a complete communications blackout.
- UNRWA's funding has been cut by countries in support of Israel. They are short on funds as a result and need help to continue their operations.
- Many Palestinians have started individual GoFundMes or similar fundraisers for help. Here is a document compiling them.
Always be aware of scams, and double check before donating!
- action -
- Official boycott from the BDS Movement. These (the consumer targets) are the companies you should avoid more than any others in support of Palestine, and let it be known why you are avoiding them. The website also explains what the different types of boycotts mean, and some things to keep in mind when boycotting. I'd recommend reading the whole thing. if you want to boycott other entities, that's fine, but FOCUS ON THESE COMPANIES!
- For contacting representatives from a selection of countries
- United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Provides more ways of contacting your reps (in the US) as well as resources on other things you can do.
reblog posts, talk about Palestine to anyone who'll listen. keep going until Palestine is free.
Twenty years ago on this day, a new interplanetary explorer set out to complete her mission
Happy 20th anniversary, Rosetta. We're still cheering you on!
flroiodia
since it's the year of the dragon, i decided to draw my long march 9 rocket
neither have an official name but here's a teensy bit about each
Montana - She/fae (thanks to a nice friend for suggesting the fae neopronouns because it was fitting :] )
She loves being out in the wilderness and she has a gentle personality
Nevada - She/her
People person and also very flashy. Quite sly but not maliciously however. If you took the last slice of cake she would follow you and trick you into giving it to her (never give her the cake, its the number 1 rule of the house. never give her the cake - Arizonac)
Rosetta
Kepler
NGC 1499
Scorpius
Florida
California
Pennsylvania
Psyche
c a t
the timing is a little different than i did with arizonac, so as much as i want to sync them up it might take me a little editing lol
i cant state how unreasonably long this took lol. its almost 5 AM and i started at 12 AM ish. its not like i have the time and energy for animation memes so why not make loops as if i was doing one :P
first of all i tried doing this in Synfig but the interpolation wasn't looking how I wanted, so I switched to OpenToonz (something im more familiar as ive had it since late 2019)
However the interface sort of breaks on my newer tablet so i couldnt do much in the animation; hoping to find a way to fix it so if you have a suggestion pleas let me know ^-^
though you may fly no more, in our hearts you still soar
(made on the day of the loss of contact, Jan 25, just uploading late)
Once every blue moon, Arizonac does the impossible and actually goes out and gets social interaction
he's also trilingual, yes. English, Spanish, and Navajo which he usually keeps between him and his brother.
i feel silly
"I wanna punch him in the nevada" - Rollie, January 17th, 2024
(2/2) * will add information at a later date, has some of the same clips from the other video
context because i have so many sillies
Enjoying the people, has a good time: Euclid, Cassini, Voyager 1, Lucy, Compton, Dawn, Gaia, Herschel, Opportunity, Spirit, Earth Return Orbiter, CALIPSO
Silent/standing in the corner of the part: Hubble, Fermi, Voyager 2, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, INTEGRAL, OAO-2, IUE, Mars Global Surveyor, also CALIPSO
Trashes the place, disables security cameras: Kepler, Chandra, Sojourner, DART, Juno, Mars Odyssey, Philae, also IUE
BLASTS MUSIC FROM THE LEAF ROOM (the big room with the speakers): MAVEN, Perseverance, IXPE, Spitzer, CloudSat, Psyche, also Philae
steals ESTEC sign from outside: James Webb, Swift, Ingenuity, also Psyche
got trapped in the CPTR (the room with the foam spikes): Curiosity, Rosetta, New Horizons, Landsat-9, OSIRIS-REx, InSight
knocked out on the golf course ragdolled: ICESat-2, also InSight, TESS, OCO-2, JUICE
READY TO BURN THE ENTIRE CENTER DOWN: Planck and Giotto
probably the last thing ill do in blender for this year, nothin' too big :P
It definitely was a good year in terms of development,and although i certainly did not make a bunch, i spent a lot of time leveling up my skills and i am ready to see what awaits me next year !
adding some facial features now
(i also made Dawn's bus color a little bit lighter since i had trouble with lighting because it was so dark and has no specular reflection)
December 19th, 2023 - started writing at 3:19 AM
So when we were coming home I bought some arts and crafts on the way...and a little bit of context I've been into The Scrambled States of America as a new interest
I'm not stopping all of my astronomy-related stuff ! Usually when I find a new interest, it's a really intense hyperfocus so I may not be as focus on spacecraft n stuff as I usually would be. The same thing happened with constellations it's just states so it feels super different hehe
Anyways, when I got home and later that day I started getting to work and making use of those supplies i bought, and the result:
Meet California !!! Spent over 7 hours working on him non-stop with the power of my dark magic /lh
*He doesn't wear glasses but does wear sunglasses sometimes, I just didn't find any so I used my own LOL
him with the gang:
This is California, Rhode Island, and Arizona !!! I have to prop them up with cut foam pieces because they're so blubby shaped LOL. Arizona was the first I made, then after her I used some extra foam to make Rhode Island (he's freakishly strong for his size !!!)
a very snazzy state, I will say
he wore a lil top hat in the talent show book hehe
been making SSOA OCs in my freetime hehe...they're usually based on astronomy but i like including science/wildlife that the state may be recognized for
I've only properly named two so far, Californium and Arizonac, but I'll talk a little more about Arizonac since he was the first I made
As much as the Pomni I've made him out to be he's not like that 24/7, but he's very secluded and prefers to be alone (or with a few close friends)
He's a very skillful and dedicated astronomer, and that's because I've read a lot of notable astronomy-related things about Arizona (ex. its various dark sites, lots of telescopes, Flagstaff's Lowell observatory) and being an Arizonan im proud of that hehe
So with that, he's actually nocturnal and so he's very sensitive to light and sound (and touch). That's also a reason why he prefers to be alone other than his introverted personality because daytime noises and light are discomforting. The little red dots around his eyes help him kind of see in the dark (as with red light when you're stargazing, it helps preserve your dark adapted eyes)
Californium I haven't done much about him other than make him like this futuristic robot-type guy who's just in love with space exploration (because of the JPL, Caltech, Silicon Valley, DSN at Goldstone, the Vandenburg launches, all that jazz) but also other science topics and wildlife because I heard California's quite diverse in that.
December 19th, 2023 - finished writing/posted at 5:55 AM
December 19th, 2023 - started writing at 2:17 AM
The trip started at 5 AM on Friday, that was when I left on my eons-long road trip to California.
I wasn't really feeling that tired, I actually didn't get any sleep (had an awful headache until I had some tea mere minutes before I was supposed to wake up and get ready)
We packed some blankies if any of us needed to lay down, but I knew I might've not been able to sleep so just in case I packed up some study guides and an encyclopedia to read in the car. For the most part I just stared at the window listening to music because we drive through a very dark desert so I got to watch Orion set as Ursa Major was above me while Libra was rising to my east.
When the sun was rising I was definitely eager to see some major star in Scorpius appear as a very faint dot but I guess not lol (the sun should be in ophiuchus right now, not too far from antares, but im impatient to see my favorite constellation)
We went on the route we'd usually take when we go to Big Bear, mainly because less traffic, so we went through San Bernardino I think? Halfway I started getting really tired and giddy to the point where I was laughing at trees for no reason LOL (and me imagining TSSOA California being a rebellious teenager)
The main point of the trip was to visit my relatives at a cemetery near Los Angeles. And it was nice having breaky with them over at a Denny's. I had some chicken tendies and. fries with ketchupie and. ranchie idk WHAT IM SAYING LOL and I felt like my tired sleepy side was definitely catching up to me (I'm not one to be a part of conversations 😠im kinda shy tbh)
After that we drove about 30-40 mins to the California Science Center, one of my favorite places to be haha because THEY GOT SOME SPACECRAFT MODELS!!! and can't forget Endeavour herself :D
^^ some of my favorite models that they have. when i went here for the first time i remember i was so happy to see hubble and juno
They also had this area where you could use NASA's Eyes on Earth software and it was really cool because they projected the satellites and earth onto a sphere so it was like you could actually view it
ICESat-2 :D (seeing it made me feel so giddy)
they had so many cool goobers there, even if one of them's a giant space boat <3 (they had a timeline of space shuttle missions and seeing CGRO made me feel happy, i have the mission patch btw lol)
NOW IT'S OFF TO THE GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY !!!
and this time we got to park much closer to the observatory, and we didnt walk eons and eons down the road LOL.
It was a lot more crowded this time but that was probably because it was later and so people might have come to use the telescope at the top of the building.
I see what they did there. Nice one. (That's the California Nebula on the left lol. Yes, it's a real name and it's in Perseus)
The view from when we left was really pretty,,I love going to these kinds of places :sob: but now im back in good ol' desert Arizona (came back early on saturday) but I LOVE GOI
i think im runnin out of space here so ill continue into some other stuff in another post
December 19th, 2023 - finished writing/posted at 3:18 AM