so in my mind you only gotta build it once...or at least, it's exponentially harder the first time.

okay let's say we wanna build a Gundam, a fictional giant robot thingy (likely fictional, at least one nation's military budget is extensive enough to produce a flying anthropomorphic battledroid 90 meters in height, but we have no evidence of their existence at this time so let's move on) that I remember from that decade I watched way too many cartoons.

how would we even begin to approach this?

do...do we start with...the leg? 

...and yes, "we"...no shot at doing it alone so I am dragging you into this.

...but yeah, like, there's no popular instructional guide to building a Gundam, is there?

 just kinda gotta...combine everything you know about everything (which averages out dangerously close to "nothing") and wrestle with wires until it works, I imagine.

from there it might have a problem with hydraulics at the elbow or need new brake pads or hell maybe the whole booster system needs yanked and replaced before too many more outings but its probably fine this time.

...but you don't gotta ever build the whole thing ever again. 

like, the boring part with the grid paper and plasma sword order forms is pretty much over. you know how many hardware stores you gotta check to find this stuff?

the process is kinda cool because a lot of time along the way people see you're building something unusual and offer up something specifically helpful...their time caring about your insane project, the name and number of a friend who designs force projection shields up in Seattle, perhaps a box of microchips their kid still had lying around in the basement after going off to college.

every bit of it is mutual aid, and swear to blog I shall repay it all when I can.

I plan to be in a position to do so...after all, what can't you get your hands on once you know a guy with a genuine, bonafide, electrified giant fighting mecha?

on those long nights where I'm on my knees in a puddle of motor oil or dragging a liquid-cooled hypertransmission up a couple dozen flights of stairs--sweat stinging, mind exhausted, gravity fighting against every ambitious step--the view will be a lot nicer when I'm staring up at a sky-scraping combat-ready Mobile Suit.

...and so that's what's pulling me these long days turning the screws damn near every waking second of 2026...because this is the time to do it, and I probably never have to do it again.

lookit, this post may mostly be about giant space robots but I am under no delusions about this: the tour is currently and will continue to be the greatest sustained challenge of my life so far.

like, me, AJ the person. 

there will no doubt be fun and frivolity along the way (I planted it there in advance) but make no mistake this is gonna be a solid summer of hard work.

imagining how cool it will be to roll across the continent in a weaponized musical vehicle is great, but it doesn't always square with the mundane on-the-ground realities...the cost of parts, operational clearances...ugly, tedious logistics.

...but I drag us through it this time because I imagine how much easier it will be next time.

next time we can spend less time figuring out what we're doing and more time doing it...pick up some shortcuts and strategies, optimize the whole operation,

next time we will have established bases of support far and wide.

oh yes indeed...next time there will be even more of us.

all power to The People.

--Flor!