Title: how good I could have been Author: bluerosekatie Fandom: Rockman | Mega Man Classic (video games) Pairing/Characters: (use full names rather than initials or nicknames) Rating/Category: Gen, Teen Prompt: Rockman | Mega Man Classic (game), Dr. Light & Blues | Proto Man & Rockman | Mega Man, how good I could have been Spoilers: Spoils Mega Man 3 pretty much entirely. Summary: Proto Man lived past the end of Blues’ story — and he hoped Dr. Light had forgotten about him. He didn’t plan to find out. Notes/Warnings: Contains a self-harm depiction.
I went down to Disneyland after work this evening as it's the first day of the lunar new year festival. A lot of other people were doing the same, as it was pretty crowded. The parking lot was also ridiculously full, though not just from park guests, as it's across the street from the convention center and is used for convention parking as well and there's a big convention this weekend (NAMM). I had to park waaaaaay at the far corner of the lot from the bus loading area and the lines for the bus were looking long, so I just decided to walk over to the park.
1. Work was kind of annoying today as I really only had one big thing to work on, but I couldn't work on it until the afternoon because something was messed up with the sandbox environment we were uploading files to and it had to be fixed first. But that meant I got a lot of reading done while I was waiting around for it to get fixed, so that was a bonus anyway.
2. I went to DCA in the evening and got some really tasty foods from the lunar new year festival. Today was the first day so it was pretty crowded (though still not Christmas levels, thankfully) but I had a good time.
3. My tattoo is still healing well. It's at the peeling stage and has been peeling for the past couple days and is almost all done. The skin underneath is looking good and for the most part it hasn't been too itchy. There's still some bruising in spots and redness under the yellow band, but both of those have improved a lot, too.
4. I'm very glad it's the weekend. Since I went to Disneyland tonight, I'm just planning on staying close to home and relaxing for the next couple days.
On a theory, I believe, of sustaining me on literature, my parents very unexpectedly presented me with my own copy of Leslie Howard's Trivial Fond Records (ed. Ronald Howard, 1982), which seems to have shipped from the UK as if the international post just worked.
Well, here we are, the 29th of July, 1940. What have we done with all the years since 1918? Armistice night in Piccadilly Circus is so vivid in the memory, it seems like last Wednesday week. What did happen to all those years – and what have we done with them? It seems we are back where we began. Anyway, there it is on the calendar, July 1940, and this war has been on for eleven months. And I am in London speaking these words, and when I am finished talking to you I shall go out of this building, past sandbags and bayonets, into streets of medieval blackness. As I hunt for the two pin-points of light that represent a taxi it will be about two a.m. here, which is nine in the evening your time, and I shan't be able to resist a thought of the dazzling glare which at that moment is lighting the sky above New York's Great White Way. I daresay there isn't an Englishman alive who is more familiar than I with Broadway at nine o'clock on a summer's evening.
It was something of an odyssey to get back from a family dinner in Brooklyn tonight. It should've been a little less than an hour; it was closer to two. Someone pulled the brake on the F line, so instead of riding the F to the 2/3, it was the G to the A to the 2 - more stops, more transfers, more waiting, including nearly a half-hour waiting on the F line for something to happen until someone announced it wouldn't be moving anytime soon.
There was a train directly behind the one that'd stopped in the station, meaning that if there was anyone on that train, they couldn't even get out and leave until the stopped train got dealt with. A small relief to at least be able to find another way home.
For most of the way, I told myself my apartment wasn't going anywhere and while it'd be later than I'd like, I'd still get to my own bed well before midnight. I also asked my dad that, for all the delays and all the trouble, where else in the United States could there be this kind of disruption to regular public transit service where there'd be enough existing infrastructure and alternate routes to still get us back before the end of the night?
In other places, I'd have my own ways of getting around. Here, I rely on the trains. It's something of a minor miracle they work as well as they do, and tonight's hard proof of that.
Every time I think about making a post, it just makes me tired. This is how fic writing is going also. Anyway, some things I would post about if I had the energy:
- Heated Rivalry - movies I've seen (Impromptu, Testament of Ann Lee) - my recent hip hop binge and especially why I like Glorilla so much - the Oscars - like five different snowflake_challenge posts
i love that shen qingqiu (shen yuan edition) is so fixated on the fact he’s transmigrated into a stallion novel that he completely misses the extremely early genre shift caused by his presence. it’s a late-game revelation that he’s moved over to the danmei section, and he’s frankly astonished that he’s unlocked a male romance route, wow, what a surprise.
meanwhile this whole time, shen qingqiu is out here collecting handsome men like it’s going out of goddamn fashion. half the country’s Important Figures are madly in love with him. he trips and falls and acquires another male suitor with some tragic link to his past and a complex history.
shen qingqiu is seriously standing around fixating on luo binghe’s theoretical harem of women. meanwhile he’s got the cultivation’s world Hottest Eligible Bachelors in a state of pure chaos. they are orbiting around him like lost sheep. everywhere he goes he acquires a +10 bonus to homoeroticism and manages to unlock whole new romantic dialogue options. he is at the dead centre of this extremely complex and multidimensional love triangle with zero. visibility. about it.
also, it’s extra funny because 14yo luo binghe canonically checks him out and is like “yeah can’t complain, he’s good looking, not supremely beautiful but you wouldn’t kick him out of bed” and then is obsessed with him forever. everyone is obsessed with him forever. turns out that shen qingqiu is a straight up irresistible hottie once he’s no longer radiating shen jiu’s stinky old cat energy. give the man a snickers bar and a cup of tea to calm down and suddenly he’s the world’s most in-demand man-on-man bachelor doing constant psychic damage to his myriad suitors through sheer obliviousness
One of the effect of elementary watson being a woman on sherlock is that hes always making caveats about murder suspects like a man caved his skull in. Or a woman. women can also cave skulls in 👍 he set the building on fire. Or she. I would never imply women cant set building on fire
The brutal killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer was not self-defense. You cannot defend yourself from a speeding car by shooting the driver. As in the case of Good, the car keeps going.
Why then did the officer draw his handgun when Good was backing her car away from him? Was he thinking “She’s going to try to kill me“? No, there was nothing in their interactions that would lead to that thought.
The most plausible explanation is that he drew his weapon to prevent her from getting away. And then he shot her in the head for the same reason. Self-defense? A jury should decide.
Greg Smyers Lafayette
Remove Trump before he destroys republic
Terrorist? Bully? Tyrant? Or worse?
Whatever you call him, unfortunately, he is our president. All of the Democratic leaders and people of the world know him for what he is. Even Vladimir Putin knows it and and benefits from his undermining of NATO with his strong-arm tactics and his crazy attempt to get Greenland.
If you say, do or win something that he does not agree with, he sends his flunkies in to punish, maim and even kill. Why are our law enforcement and legal system afraid to rein him in and end his reign of terror? No one under him has the intestinal fortitude or smarts to say no to him.
He has made a mockery of everything America stands for in just one short year. He needs to be impeached, removed and jailed, and held accountable for all of his illegal actions.
Mark Hertstein Pittsburg
King’s words carry relevance today
What is so different today?
“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people who would bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time.” These are the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. He also wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly,” in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963. And finally, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
What is so different today?
Daniel Smith Concord
In new revolution, voting is best weapon
We are now 250 years into American democracy. The Constitution of the United States was written as a refusal to have kings or monarchs ruling the land.
Now, after all this time, we still wind up with a man and his followers who want to dismantle and eliminate the Constitution. Why? It’s power and riches for themselves and the drive to eliminate whatever protections exist for citizens. Americans must fight a new war, one that must save the republic from a coward who wants it all for himself — him and his ignorant acolytes. You must recognize the incompetence of all his underlings as a means to this end.
Here is where voting matters.
Stuart Shicoff Martinez
Trump’s Greenland claims refuted by reality
Donald Trump has claimed, without evidence as usual, that the U.S. needs Greenland for national security and that Denmark is doing a poor job defending the island from Russia and China. Trump has added that Russia and China have a significant naval presence around Greenland.
However, Danish and Nordic diplomats have called his claims “unfounded” as tracking data shows no such presence. Furthermore, on Jan. 16, Reuters reported that Major General Soren Andersen of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command stated that Denmark’s concern is Russian activity in the region, and that Denmark conducts surveillance using patrol boats, aircraft, helicopters and satellite technology. Andersen said there were no Chinese or Russian ships near Greenland, though he added that a Russian research vessel was located 310 nautical miles away. “That’s the closest one,” he said, adding that NATO allies maintain “a good picture of the situation up here.”
Bob Benson Lafayette
Will what’s left of food stores go to the hungry
In July 2025, the administration incinerated 500 tons of emergency food aid for children of Afghanistan and Pakistan, enough food to feed 1.5 million children for a week. This is not just because the administration cut funding to USAID, but because the administration prevented the food from being mobilized to those who needed it before it expired.
Marco Rubio stated aid would only be provided to those governments aligned with American values. Then why not distribute the food to those with food insecurities in the United States? The Trump administration has no regard for any poor population, even our own, or that food would have gone to those who needed it.
There are still about 55,000 tons of usable food stores that have a shelf life of up to a year. Let’s see how much makes it to starving populations or ends up in the incinerator.
Max Taves, Margot Kushel and Larry Stone fail to acknowledge Rishi Kumar’s objective to stop runaway state and local tax assessment costs that continue to rise on the backs of seniors.
Seniors main source of income is their Social Security. The five largest worries for seniors are housing, transportation, food, health care and taxes.
Living in high-cost areas where school and infrastructure bonds are an open checkbook makes it impossible for seniors to keep their homes, let alone sell their homes in an unstable housing market. If families cannot afford housing, how can seniors with fixed incomes afford to thrive? They cannot.
Kumar’s tax plan won’t bankrupt a county or state. Rather, fiscal irresponsibility by politicians and voters who vote “yes” on bond measures will have to cease. Stop using seniors’ property taxes for state and local programs.
Just when I thought voters had put an end to Rishi Kumar’s political career by overwhelmingly crushing his assessor campaign, it looks like he’s bent on wasting everyone’s time and money again.
Kumar is still peddling his cockamamie plan to exempt senior citizens from paying property taxes. He is using what amounts to nothing more than a Trumpian style lie that senior homeowners are systematically being thrown into the streets because of property tax burdens. That’s nonsense.
As a senior myself, I don’t think it would be fair or equitable to be exempted from property taxes. I still benefit from the many services local government provides, including education, health care, clean water and law enforcement.
If you see anyone collecting signatures for Kumar’s ballot measure, I advise you politely say no thanks. Hopefully, this will be Kumar’s last political gambit that we have to defeat.
To put Josephine Rios’ article in perspective, there is no way someone could spend $1 billion in a lifetime.
Just based on the average growth of 3% fixed CD interest and not the average S&P 7% growth, we are looking at $30 million a year without touching the $1 billion; that is $2.5 million a month. Even after paying 40% income tax on the gain, you are still looking to spend $1.5 million a month.
It is not just one person’s talent or hard work that helped make them a billionaire. It is the environment, opportunity, professors of the universities, hedge fund investors and the support systems they received; it is the domino effect of the whole state.
I appreciate what Jensen Huang of Nvidia said. He is not concerned about the billionaire tax because he is busy making better chips.
Doris Khoo San Jose
ICE nabbing citizen is a bad sign for all
ChongLy “Scott” Thao is an American citizen whose story should shock even the right-wing apologists.
After kicking in his door, ICE agents dragged him in freezing conditions in his underwear, then drove him to Minneapolis before realizing their mistake. I must wonder, did he receive his Miranda rights? Was he allowed to call anybody? Is this happening in America? Are we safer?
To be clear, if there is a rapist, pedophile or other criminal, I have no problem with deporting them. I do have a problem with the methods. I am sure Renee Good’s family isn’t safer.
A letter writer opines that the main problem with ICE actions today is that they are not supported for political reasons. Let’s call his argument “ICE, by the numbers.” Barack Obama deported 5.2 million, and Joe Biden deported 4.4 million, so why complain about ICE today?
There is a large undocumented immigrant community in the United States, and there has been for a long time. Many of these immigrants work hard in jobs that few U.S. citizens are willing to do. Previous administrations did not demonize the undocumented and unleash violence on peaceful immigrant communities. Just listen, and you can hear the thuggish behavior encouraged by the president and his loyal minions at the top.
With the Renee Good incident and the administration’s web of lies that followed, it has become crystal clear that ICE can not only get away with brutalizing peaceful communities, but they can literally get away with murder.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Friday to midnight on Saturday (8pm Eastern Time).
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The latest AirPods Pro are a big step up from the first-generation buds. The third (and newest) generation comes with OTA updates that the AirPods Pro 2 also get to enjoy—but considering the second and third generations are the same price right now, why not go with the newer version? If you want the latest Apple has to offer, this is a great time to do so. The AirPods Pro 3 are down to $199 (originally $249.99) for the first time since their September release—the lowest price yet, according to price tracking tools.
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<p class='syndicationauthor'>Posted by Daniel Oropeza</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://lifehacker.com/tech/airpods-pro-3-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS">https://lifehacker.com/tech/airpods-pro-3-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS</a></p><p>We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.</p><p>The latest AirPods Pro are a big step up from the first-generation buds. The third (and newest) generation comes with OTA updates that the <a href="https://zdcs.link/Qm8mEy?pageview_type=RSS&template=content&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=AirPods%20Pro%202&short_url=Qm8mEy&u=https%3A%2F%2Flifehacker.com%2Ffeed%2Frss" rel="sponsored" target="_blank" title="open in a new window">AirPods Pro 2</a> also get to enjoy—but considering the second and third generations are the same price right now, why not go with the newer version? If you want the latest Apple has to offer, this is a great time to do so. The <a href="https://zdcs.link/QW6lBW?pageview_type=RSS&template=content&module=content_body&element=offer&item=text-link&element_label=AirPods%20Pro%203&short_url=QW6lBW&u=https%3A%2F%2Flifehacker.com%2Ffeed%2Frss" rel="sponsored" target="_blank" title="open in a new window">AirPods Pro 3</a> are down to <strong>$199</strong> (originally $249.99) for the first time since their September release—the lowest price yet, according to <a href="https://lifehacker.com/best-price-tracking-tools-1692745053" target="_blank">price tracking tools</a>.</p><div class="shadow-b-2 mb-12 mt-10 rounded-md border-2 border-[#F0F0F0] px-6 py-2 shadow-lg md:px-12" role="region" aria-label="Products List" x-data="{ showMore: false }">
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<p>The AirPods Pro 3 <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/airpods-pro-3-vs-airpods-pro-2-should-you-upgrade/" target="_blank" title="open in a new window" rel="noopener">improve on already great premium earbuds</a> with new features (like a heart rate sensor) without increasing the list price. You'll get <a href="https://lifehacker.com/tech/airpods-4-have-airpods-2-best-feature" target="_blank"><u>Personalized Spatial Audio</u></a> (so you can hear sounds seemingly coming from different directions as you move your head) and the ability to use head gestures to tell Siri "yes" or "no" (this also works for answering or denying calls). <a href="https://lifehacker.com/tech/you-dont-need-to-buy-airpods-pro-3-to-use-live-translation" target="_blank"><u>Apple added a live translation feature</u></a> to both the second- and third-generation AirPods Pro when <a href="https://lifehacker.com/tech/everything-new-in-ios-261" target="_blank"><u>iOS 26</u></a> rolled out earlier this year. You'll also get features like Conversation Awareness, which lowers your music volume when your AirPods detect that you're talking to someone; Transparency Mode, which lets you better hear your surroundings while your earbuds are in; and Adaptive Audio, which combines ANC and Transparency mode to adjust ANC levels based on the noise around you.</p><p>Since these are in-ear earbuds (as supposed to regular earbuds like the AirPods 4) the ANC is much better since it naturally blocks out the noise with a tight seal, but the ANC technology itself has also improved—as has the sound quality, thanks to the new H3 chip, as PCMag detailed in its "<a href="https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/apple-airpods-pro-3" target="_blank" title="open in a new window" rel="noopener">exemplary</a>" review. You can expect about eight hours of juice, depending on your usage, and another 24 hours from the charging case. </p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://lifehacker.com/tech/airpods-pro-3-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS">https://lifehacker.com/tech/airpods-pro-3-sale-january-2026?utm_medium=RSS</a></p>
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360-degree cameras like the GoPro Max2 are designed for creators who want to capture more than what a single-lens camera, like the GoPro Hero series, can handle. Right now, the GoPro Max2 action camera is down from $499 to $399 on Amazon, marking its lowest price ever.
Compared to the Max1, the Max2 has a higher 8K resolution and 29MP stills, resulting in sharper, more detailed footage and photos, while 10-bit color, GP-Log, and up to 14FPS Raw capture with 3D Tracking focus make it appealing for pros or anyone who wants more flexibility in post-production. It shoots 360-degree spherical video, unlike the single-lens action cams like the Hero, earning it an Editors' Choice Award from PCMag. This lets you record everything in your vicinity and reframe at any level, allowing for even more creative possibilities when editing.
With a magnesium chassis and weather protection, it's built for adventures and high-impact environments, with waterproofing up to 5 meters, a compact build, easy-to-replace lenses, and a variety of mounting options. As part of the GoPro ecosystem, it works seamlessly with the GoPro Quik video editing app for edits and reframing, while Bluetooth mic support and voice control make it even more versatile.
Still, compared to the Hero series and its sensor design, low-light performance may be weaker, and battery life varies depending on whether you’re shooting with both lenses, the resolution, and the frame rate. Long 8K sessions will be more demanding, during which heat buildup can also happen. Slow motion also maxes out at 100 fps, and editing isn’t as slick or built for social shares as platforms like Insta360.
If your priority is immersive storytelling, post-shoot reframing, and more creative freedom, the GoPro Max2 action camera is a strong choice for pros and casual users at $100 off, and a major upgrade over the original. But if you mainly want traditional action footage, often shoot in low-light conditions, and want longer battery life, the less-niche Hero line may suffice.
Last month, Google told online publishers that it had started testing AI-generated headlines in Google Discover, replacing stories' carefully handcrafted titles with truncated alternatives made up by Gemini. Some journalists were predictably unhappy, but now, the company says that the AI headlines are no longer an experiment—they're a "feature."
Back when the testing began, the results ranged from poorly worded to straight up misinformation. For instance, one AI-generated headline promised "Steam Machine price revealed," when the original article made no such claim. Another said "BG3 players exploit children," which sounds serious, until you click through to the article and see that it's about a clever way to recruit invincible party members in Baldur's Gate 3 (which, to be fair, does involve turning child NPCs into sheep at one point).
At the time, Google said that the test was a "small UI experiment for a subset of Discover users," and simply rearranged how users saw AI previews, which were introduced in October of last year and feature short AI summaries of articles, including an occasional AI headline. However, while that AI headline was previously hidden below the original, authored headline, the test put it up top, while getting rid of the authored headline entirely.
For a while, it seemed like Google might have been willing to back away from the AI headlines, but now the company says it's doubling down. In a statement to The Verge, Google said that its AI headlines are no longer in testing, but are now a full-fledged feature. The company didn't elaborate on why, but did say that the update "performs well for user satisfaction."
When 9to5Google then reached out for more detail, the publication was told, "The overview headline reflects information across a range of sites, and is not a rewrite of an individual article headline."
Well, that hasn't quite been the case for me: When I first wrote about this "experiment," I actually had yet to run into one of the AI headlines. But perusing my Google Discover feed today (to see yours, swipe right from the home screen on an Android phone, or scroll down in the Google app), I've finally seen some first hand. To Google's credit, these AI previews do seem to synthesize several sources as claimed—you can see them above the linked story. However, they still call out one article in particular, linking to it and using its header photo. That can easily lead users to think the AI generated headline was written by the linked publication.
That can have consequences for the publication or writer if the AI gets something wrong, which a disclaimer at the bottom of these AI previews admits can happen. For instance, The Verge said it saw an AI Discover headline on a story from Lifehacker's sister site PCMag that said, "US reverses foreign drone ban," even though the linked story goes out of its way to say headlines that claim this are "misleading."
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
The AI headlines I've seen personally haven't been quite that bad, but as someone with a more than decade-long career in journalism, I do question their helpfulness. For instance, "Starfleet Academy full of Trek Nods" is much less informative than the original, "One of TNG's Strangest Species Is Getting a Second Life In Modern Star Trek." I guess "Star Trek show has Star Trek things" is apparently clickier or more useful to the reader than just saying what the specific Star Trek thing is?
Another example: "Anbernic unveils RG G01 Controller." I hope you know what those letters and numbers mean, because this AI headline completely buries the context in the original headline, "Anbernic's New Controller Has a Screen and Built-In Heartbeat Sensor, for Some Reason."
I guess this is a future that I'll have to get used to though. That I'm starting to see these headlines myself, despite not being part of the initial experiment, does suggest we can expect them to stick around, and to roll out to more people. If you see something that seems questionable while scrolling Google Discover, the feature has probably rolled out to you now too.
How to check if a Google Discover headline was written by AI
To check whether that suspicious headline was written by a human or not, try clicking the "See more" button at the bottom of the article's description and looking for a "Generated with AI" disclaimer.
On the plus side, only about half of the articles in my Google Discover are currently using AI headlines, so not every piece of "content" is being affected. But for journalists, the move still comes at a tough time: According to Reuters, Google traffic from organic search was down by 38% on test sites in the United Stated between November 2024 and November 2025, and while Google Discover isn't Search, editors write headlines the way they do for a reason. Using a robot to overwrites those decisions probably isn't the best way to tackle eroding trust in media.
I've reached out to Google for comment on its AI headlines and will provide an update when I hear back.
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Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant.
ALT
