Cybertronian Units of Time: a Guide
…concocted by me, via:
Canon Definitions
Most Common Terms Used in Fandom (that I have seen)
Most Common Interpretations of Aforementioned Terms
Math That Makes Those Terms Make Sense Together
Filling in the Blanks With What Sounded Good (to me)
So essentially I began with Cybertronian units with explicit definitions in canon that are also widely used in fandom (ie. Vorn = 83 years, Joor = 6 hours, Groon = 1 hour). I then worked my way out from those and tried to keep to rough factors of 6/8/10.
Some terms that did have explicit canon definitions had to be slightly skewed from their value (ie. Breem: 8 → 6 minutes, Klik: 8 → 6 seconds) if their definition contradicted another definition that made more sense/fit better.
At any rate, obviously no one is obligated to use this standard, but canon Transformers content has been unfortunately… awful at establishing any universal units of time, their relationship to each other, or their equivalents to human units of time.
So this occasionally makes fanfiction an absolute nightmare for people like me with a crap memory who don’t want to constantly have to scroll through a thousand pages of the wiki to remind themselves what the hell a groon is.
So, naturally, I simply spent far too long whipping up this at-a-glance guide to keep track of it & on the off chance that the fandom might adopt it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I love the tf fandom and everyone in it so fucking much I can’t fucking stand it. If there was ever a solid argument for trapping yourself in a flesh prison to slowly die over the next 100 years, it’s being able to exist on the same planet as you people.
Thank you for being alive you brilliant insane assholes
Star Trek has seen captains who are scientists, diplomats, warriors, artists, inspirations, explorers, and heroes. But never has Star Trek seen a captain who is just done with everything and wishes he could go back to bed.
Finally, a character I can relate to.
hey don’t cry. spiro the bald eagle failing at catching a crab, okay?
DS9 trivia from IMDB - Part 1
- Colm Meaney was initially reluctant about signing onto the series. Meaney was comfortable playing O'Brien on an episode by episode basis for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and at the time, was unsure if he wanted to play a full time television role.
- Although we only rarely see it, there is an ATM in Quark’s bar. It dispenses the various types of currency used by major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks, and Ferengi latinum.
- Constable Odo was originally envisioned as a young Clint Eastwood type. When Rene Auberjonois was called in for his audition, the casting director told him that none of the previous actors had been “grouchy enough”. So Auberjonois improvised his lines using his most gravelly voice, and secured the role. Odo’s scoff eventually became such a character trademark that the screenwriters would often script it into his lines (as “harrumph!”), much to Auberjonois’ annoyance.
- Michael Dorn did not want to reprise his role as Worf, since the daily make-up application was exhausting, and he was relieved to be able to move on. Dorn said that the salary he was offered made him reconsider.
- The Dominion storyline was originally only meant to span two episodes. Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr lobbied to make the storyline on-going, but met with resistance from Executive Producer Rick Berman, who wanted to maintain an episodic format to the series. After Berman left production to oversee the launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Moore and Behr were given more creative control over this series, making the Dominion War the main plot of the show, and adopting a serialized format.
- Wolf 359, mentioned as the battle site between the Borg and the Federation where Sisko lost his wife, is a real star that is seven and a half light-years from Earth.
- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations (1996) when Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock, Dax has the hots for Spock. In August 2017, Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) got engaged to Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy (Spock).
- The jars of “pills” in Dr. Bashir’s office were filled with M&Ms. In many instances during the early episodes, the level of the pills would change between shots because crew members kept stealing them. The problem was solved by epoxying the lids in place.
- When Colm Meaney was fitted for his Deep Space Nine uniform, he made two requests of the costume designers. He explained that unlike the officers, the non-commissioned Chief O'Brien was a working man. So he needed to be able to roll up his sleeves, and he needed pockets for his tools. The costume department altered his uniform accordingly.
- The character of Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the Lurian bar patron who is always seen sitting at Quark’s bar, was written as a nod to the character of Norm Peterson, played by George Wendt on Cheers (1982). Morn is an anagram of Norm. The mask worn by Shepherd originally had no opening for the mouth, so make-up artist Michael Westmore gave him lips over the course of the series, in case the character needed to speak. Several lines for Morn were scripted over the years, but unfortunately for Shepherd, these were always written out at the last moment. So Morn never said one word during the entire run of the show, leading to a running gag where bar patrons, station crew members and civilian residents often mention that Morn is excessively talkative off-screen, and “never shuts up.”
Good news: Prodigy season 2 was confirmed November 2021 and will also have 20 episodes! It will release later in 2023 and production is already underway.
So Star Trek Prodigy is an absolutely excellent show full of heart, wonderful storytelling, endearing characters, beauitful art and music, and a great balance of episodic and overarching storytelling that many of us have wanted Star Trek to find! Also there are some fun throwbacks that feel mostly purposeful and thought out and not too gratuitous! Lovely season 1, highy recommend to any Trek fan and hoping there will be a season 2!
When I started consuming more native Chinese content, I quickly discovered an area in which my knowledge was lacking: single-character verbs. In my experience, it’s very easy to focus on learning words consisting of two or more characters and overlook single-character words.
Driven by curiosity, I went through my Anki deck (and also wracked my brain) to generate a list of characters/words that I have learned over the past couple years (roughly). Then I selected 75 verbs that are fairly common and important to know. They skew towards intermediate and advanced vocabulary.
Definitions are from MDBG. For characters with additional meanings that I am not yet familiar with, I have bolded the meanings I want to share.
(1) 抢 qiǎng - to fight over / to rush / to scramble / to grab / to rob / to snatch
(2) 救 jiù - to save / to assist / to rescue
(3) 扶 fú - to support with the hand / to help sb up / to support oneself by holding onto something / to help
(4) 催 cuī - to urge / to press / to prompt / to rush sb / to hasten sth / to expedite
(5) 夹 jiā - to press from either side / to place in between / to sandwich / to carry sth under armpit / wedged between / between / to intersperse / to mix / to mingle / clip / folder / Taiwan pr. [jia2]
(6) 咬 yǎo - to bite / to nip
(7) 砸 zá - to smash / to pound / to fail / to muck up / to bungle
(8) 毁 huǐ - to destroy / to ruin / to defame / to slander
(9) 嚷 rǎng - to shout / to bellow / to make a big deal of sth / to make a fuss about sth
(10) 塞 sāi - to stop up / to squeeze in / to stuff / cork / stopper
(11) 贪 tān - to have a voracious desire for / to covet / greedy / corrupt
(12) 拆 chāi - to tear open / to tear down / to tear apart / to open
(13) 掏 tāo - to fish out (from pocket) / to scoop
(14) 跪 guì - to kneel
(15) 摘 zhāi - to take / to borrow / to pick (flowers, fruit etc) / to pluck / to select / to remove / to take off (glasses, hat etc)
(16) 拎 līn - to lift up / to carry in one’s hand / Taiwan pr. [ling1]
(17) 扛 káng - to carry on one’s shoulder / (fig.) to take on (a burden, duty etc)
(18) 拽 zhuài - to pull / to tug at (sth)
(19) 愣 lèng - to look distracted / to stare blankly / distracted / blank / (coll.) unexpectedly / rash / rashly
(20) 搂 lǒu - to hug / to embrace / to hold in one’s arms
(21) 垮 kuǎ - to collapse (lit. or fig.)
(22) 撑 chēng - to support / to prop up / to push or move with a pole / to maintain / to open or unfurl / to fill to bursting point / brace / stay / support
(23) 甩 shuǎi - to throw / to fling / to swing / to leave behind / to throw off / to dump (sb)
(24) 围 wéi - to encircle / to surround / all around / to wear by wrapping around (scarf, shawl)
(25) 愁 chóu - to worry about
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What language are you learning?😊
Mandarin Chinese (traditional) and Polish. I used Duolingo as a starting point and am now using Clozemaster and Anki cards for vocabulary.
Drift ends up back on Lost Light high command because he’s the only person who can read Megatron’s atrocious handwriting
I love the attention to detail in this show! It always irks me when shows just use random physics equations for science-y scenes so this was a real delight when watching the episode
All of the equations that appear around Rok as she tries to figure out how to get to the Protostar are real equations and formulas needed to make the correct calculations.