#using Google Maps for writing

[astramthetaprime]

IceMav Landmarks

For the curious, here’s a few real-world points of interest with regards to the Shooting Star series:  

Ice and Mav’s first little house that they buy in “The Night Road” is located just to the west of Oxnard College in Oxnard, CA.  There is no specific neighborhood to pinpoint.  It’s within a quarter-mile of the college, with a natural foods co-op market within a mile west or southwest of it.  

Their second house is located in Simi Valley, in a relatively new and actually quite wealthy subdivision.  It’s within 2 miles of the Simi Dog Park, so that when Mav goes out for his daily run he runs to the dog park and back for the full 4 miles as he intends to do in “Hiding and Hunted”.  Ice and Mav mostly designed the new house (with the help of an architect) and had it built in 2018, so it’s still very new.  

Sarah’s psychotherapy practice is in Pasadena, CA.  Look up the Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA and the picture that comes up on Google Maps is the model I had for her office as used in “The Devil You Know”.  

NAS Point Mugu and Point Mugu State Park are as in the real world, though of course with my own inventions as to their layouts and contents.  They’re quite a ways west of the city, on the coast.  Oxnard is north and west of the base so it’s an easy drive in to work for Ice and Mav, and not too much longer later once they build the Simi Valley house.  

Slider went home to New York after he left the Navy but once Avex Aeronautics became a real going concern they relocated their operations to Phoenix, AZ and he relocated there himself.  I don’t have a specific location for where he lives though, but I imagine it’s near Sky Ranch at Carefree in the northeast part of the city where he keeps the little red jet.  When he comes up to see Ice and Mav he flies out of there and lands at Camarillo Airport which is near their Simi Valley house.

Sayyad, Kholm, the AH-76 and FOB Robatak in "The Night Road” are real places, as is the narrow valley where Mav was shot down.  Look up Sayyad, Afghanistan and you’ll see the AH-76, then just west of that you’ll see the mountains that constitute the narrow valley.  The south end of those mountains are the narrow part where Mav flies sideways on one wingtip, and what told Ice he’d been bored with the patrol pattern and was playing when he was shot down.  The place where Mav was found by Bowcott and his squad is Saighanchi between Sayyad and Kholm.  I used the pictures on that entry quite a lot as to what the terrain was like in the area, the caves, etc.

Dryden Flight Research Center is a real place, though these days it’s been renamed to NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.  If you look it up on Google Maps and switch to the terrain view, look at the dry lake bed to the east of the center.  They’ve got a very convenient compass and several landing strips carved into the dry lake bed.  Almost directly east from the center, at the edge of the lake bed, you’ll see a small mountain with no name that looks like it’s been split down the middle from east to west.  This is Turnaround Hill, where Slider and Sarah went to watch Mav on his Mach 10 flight in “The Shooting Star” and where the disturbance and Alan appeared in “Windfall”.  

Hope you enjoy!  

#writing #The Shooting Star #Windfall #IceMav #using Google Maps for writing

[oswinsdolma]

i was going to have an early night and then i made a colour coded mindmap debating some basics for where camelot might be, but i haven't read any arthurian literature in ages so it's all based off wikipedia pages, memory and willpower.

#i might make this my summer project #a post a level treat if you will #but anyways i hope you like my deranged posting xx #i generally use winchester as a base for camelot #glastonbury as a base for avalon #figheldean as a base for ealdor #and idk about camlann it's never come up #when i write #but anything goes #google maps my beloved #arthuriana

[oumaimas]

summer of being insanely offline ❤️

#most used app merlin and google maps. am up to activities. after two weeks it is writing time. insane how much more offline and how much #sleep i get when im not at work lol #love love u bisoux

[nnnnnnnothingtoseehere]

“Do I need to drop you off?”

“We’re fine,” Jongho tells him. “And you’ll drop me off here, but won’t let me walk five feet to the car?”

“It’s different at the apartment,” Mingi says. “People know you live there.”

“And they know where I go to college,” Jongho points out. “What’s to stop them from trying to take a hit here?”

Mingi doesn’t answer, rolling down the window to deal with the ticket machine outside the parking garage. Once he’s done with that and the window is back up, he answers.

“Because this is Manhattan. None of the gangs that would be out to get you operate here. Plus Hongjoong hyung is in and out of the apartment enough to warrant someone watching it.”

“Good grief you’re getting suspicious,” Jongho mutters as Mingi eases into a parking spot. “Or old.”

- Looking for a mostly lighthearted mafia fic? Look no further! This one has it all: gangsters, cute bartenders, illegal boxing rings, and the most pathetic Mingi to ever be written. (Also one highly suspicious Yunho and an incredibly clueless Yeosang.)

The latest product of my collab with @allyallyorange! Go check out her amazing art for this au; it’s gorgeous.

#my writing #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #ateez fanfic #this has been so fun to do #ally is a saint and puts up with so many random questions #would like to thank Google Maps #very useful for this fic

[evenstarfalls]

I MISS MY HOUSE I MISS MY FUCKING HOUSE

#looking at Zillow and Google maps trying not to cry that was my house for the first 10 years of my life #and now it doesn't even belong to the people that bought it from us. I don't know who they are!! they're nobody for all I know #like does it ever just hit you. that was my clibming tree and the big limb is gone. that was my dad's pecan tree #that was my butterfly garden and there aren't even roses there anymore #I miss my house so bad the one with the crepe myrtles in the backyard and the blue shed and the ash tree in the front that's gone now #it's not even my house anymore #this is just me rambling and being sad because it's 3 am and I'm so stressed and tired and I need to be. writing. #but I'm sad I just miss it yk even the parts where it was bad. I miss my house I want to go back

[lauronk]

it’s fun writing stuff set in places you’ve been before or grew up in, and your brain gaslighting you into feeling like you don’t know anything about the area and have to double check every road and landmark lmao

#fanfic struggles #the brain is an evil and tricky thing #seriously why am i having to use google maps for an area I’ve spent a gazillion years driving around #writing struggles #writer things

[adarkermiserablecrow]

Me, writing: police procedures probably dont work like that but eh it's fine

Also me, writing: if I do not find a precise real life spot (in a country I do not live in) that meets exactly the criteria the story demands, I will Die

#i have looked at the us on google maps for hours now #idk man #writing #crow rambles while high on sleep deprivation

[pupuseriazag]

Making my own region for a dnd out of spite for lack of mesoamerican (in the case of this region, Nahua) cultures and cities as well as also inserting the names of cities from my country because of their meanings (like for example Nahuizalco means "Four places of obsidian" god thats so cool)

#zagreus rambling #I also have a google doc writing everything with charts and drew the overall map of the main region + two isles close to the mainland #if I ever expand it I would add a Mayan based religion and investigate more of the Lencas to also give them some spotlight #since they were also one of the big cultures here in centroamerica #if I ever finish this cohesebly Ill think about sharing it with yall in case yall are interested #I have also written about the races that are native to the mainland #buuuuuut mostly its me taking these races from dnd and making them less... ya know #like Im skipping a lot of “lore” of the races in the forgotten realms and making them all live in (mostly) harmony with one and another #also less racism between them 😬 most you will find is racism towards faerunians and their turism done in the region #and unlike the maztica region there will be no fcking colonizing of them. #why are people so obssessed with always adding the colonization of mesoamerica even in fantasy?! #also my year long investigation of deities. traditions and culture is helping me a lot on this #I was supposed to use it for the webcomic and im using that knowledge for dnd awebo #I also want to play with the northern region having the nahuatl dialect meanwhile in the south/west and in the isles the dialect is nawat

[even-if-in-another-time]

YOURE DATING SOMEONE???? HOW??? WHEN???

THIS IS THE THIRD ASK AJDJDKBDKDBDJD IM DECEASED /POS

#but yes i maybe kinda sorta have a boyfriend #(he’s genderfluid) #(and the reason i discovered i’m mspec lesbian as opposed to just lesbian) #but uh. yeah. childhood-best-friends-to-him-shutting-himself-off-from-the-world-when-i-had-to-move-because-it-was-really-painful-but-then-on #-the-last-day-before-i-move-we-have-a-sleepover-and-stay-up-all-night-until-i-have-to-leave-to-literally-drive-two-thiusand-miles-and- #because-we-didn’t-have-phones-promising-to-write-to-each-other-and-then-my-new-life-starts-in-a-brand-new-place-and-i-just-never-do-write- #until-two-years-later-when-covid-hits-and-i-think-of-him-and-find-his-old-address-on-google-maps-and-then-send-him-a-letter-and-am-terrified #-we-won’t-be-anything-like-the-people-we-were-because-i-sure-as-hell-am-not-until-we-get-each-others-phone-numbers-and-i-call-him-and-it- #just…-clicks-and-we-slowly-become-closer-and-closer-friends-and-as-we-both-discover-our-sexuality-and-gender-shit-and-maybe-kind-of-realize- #that-we-both-like-each-other-but-not-telling-the-other-because-we’re-literally-two-fucking-thousand-miles-apart-but-it’s-been-two-years-of- #going-to-sleep-with-each-other-on-facetime-and-being-there-to-say-goodnight-and-i-love-you-and-putting-my-phone-on-mute-to-scream-into-my- #pillow-because-fuck-i-love-him-and-then-finally-one-day-he-asks-me-if-i-like-him-and-im-99%-sure-thats-the-closest-ive-ever-been-to-having-a #-heart-attack-but-i-cut-him-off-and-tell-him-yes-of-fucking-course-and-we-both-are-sitting-there-at-1am-for-me-and-4am-for-him-crying-on- #facetime-and-laughing-at-the-absolute-absurdity-of-it-and-then-just-going-on-with-our-lives-and-our-conversation-because-of-course-it’s- #always-just-been-like-this-with-us-just-somehow-inexplicably-clicking-and-the-only-thing-that-changes-is-that-he-tells-me-“goodnight love’’- #when-we-go-to-bed-and-i-want-to-explode-because-im-ninety-percent-sure-its-a-fucking-dream-but-it’s-NOT-and #i #okay im going to hope that absolutely nobody took the time to read those tags #because the more i type this the more im realizing just how much it sounds like a fucking ao3 story #anyways. #so moving on

[merchantofwhispers]

[ me: lets work on Cinead's google doc Me, thirty minutes later: Ah yes, Renowned linguist - Jakob, son of Jakob. ]

#(;tea time | ooc ) #to be deleted #listen i love my son and i wanna write him well so i end up looking up the most ridiculous details no ones gonna check me on and then #i somehow end up on the Norn Language Wiki page for the 80th time #and Jakob Jakobson never fails to make me chuckle #also its so endearing that if you look at the orkney islands on google maps you can drop into some places and if you pick the right spot #youll see the google cam propped up on 500 year old rock walls #thats so endearing to me #like some farmer built those for his sheep and he probably leaned on that very spot and stared at the same ocean i am now using a computer #humans are so cool #...yes i am neurodivergent how could you tell

[lit-in-thy-heart]

brb just engaging in the most convoluted manner of coming up with a surname ever

#googled what nemeth actually meant and it's a hungarian surname meaning 'german' which in turn meant 'he does not speak' #so then finding out what old english for 'silent' was #(sālnes for those interested) #which in turn is related to the latin silęō #which is related to the old norse sil #meaning 'slow flowing water' #and in that fan map i use nemeth is where the old kingdom of wessex was #and west saxon for lake is 'mere' #(like with windermere) #so we get mithian mere #initially was going to have mithian lynn but that's cornish #...although mithian lynn does sound cooler #anyway #lit talks #lit writes

[running-in-the-dark]

I just came home after five hours of running errands - it would have been four but then I decided it would be easier if I just drove 30 minutes and picked my husband up from work, rather than (probably) having to leave the house again an hour after getting back (to pick him up from the bus stop in town).

I was totally fine as long as I was moving/busy, but now that I'm sitting on the couch... yeah I'm pretty sure I'll fall asleep soon. I'm so tired.

anyway - it's really nice that I actually enjoy driving now that I'm on the anxiety meds. I was constantly scared before - not in a way that would be dangerous or anything, probably the opposite of that actually. I'm still really careful and everything but now it's not because I'm scared, I'm just cautious. and I didn't realise this before but a big part of the anxiety around driving on my own was dealing with unexpected/unpredictable situations, just stuff like having to find a parking spot... that's totally fine now, I might think about it but I can just go 'I bet I'll be able to figure it out when I get there'. before, a thought like that would have been so terrifying and overwhelming that I wouldn't risk it, so I just wouldn't go at all 🙃

#like. it's insane to me that I can spontaneously decide to drive somewhere now. and I drove there without using google maps even though I #wasn't sure I remembered the route #and yeah that did make me feel a little uncertain/worried but only slightly. it would definitely have made me panic before (well. I #wouldn't have done that at all before. but...) #idk it's just really nice #but damn I'm so fucking tired now 😭 how do people go to work. how does anyone do anything. #(when I did my apprenticeship I literally came home from work every day and immediately went to bed. and I still barely managed to stay #awake at work... literally how do people do it?? it makes no sense) #(yeah maybe I really do have narcolepsy. or something similar. just.. something. since apparently that's not normal?! idk) #personal #anxiety stuff #anxiety meds my beloved #(lol apparently it took me 30 minutes to write this post... so tired. 😭)

[narutomaki]

as someone who did well in school here's what I learned:

I only need to remember something until the test on it comes out and then I wipe it from my brain either FOREVER or just re-learn is next year/when it becomes relevant

#this is why im so bad at sooo many things lol #do i like this about my brain? no. #but it got me straight As/90%+ until i dropped out. so. #i can point out canada on a map and maybe my general location but i dont even know which direction the sun rises/sets in #and i cant read analog clocks unless you give me time to count. and even then sometimes im wrong #i cant do long division but tbf i never really could and i can only multiply 5 or 10 but i still need my fingers generally #like?? idk man. i was praised in school for my skills and initiative and i was just like. #bro idk wtf you mean i could not tell you what a quotation mark was until i started writing fiction/fanfiction #like. idk! i dont like this about myself. idk how to fix it bcus so many memorization techniques slide off of my brain #i can tell you random facts about a lot of things but i cant even tell you a plot synopsis of NARUTO #THE THING I NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT in less than 12 sentences #which im supposed to be able to do. if you ask my grade 7-12 english assignments #i used google translate to pass french class with a 98%. so man. idk what to tell you other than the education i got did fail me #if i need to know something now as an adult i look it up and watch videos on it for what i need to know #and then retain. somehow. the most BAREBONES. KNOWLEDGE. #I HATE IT. #any way i didnt take my adhd meds today hi how are you

[jadevine]

Preindustrial travel, and long explanations on why different distances are like that

Update March 1, 2024: Hey there folks, here's yet another update! I reposted Part 2a (the "medieval warhorses" tangent) to my writing blog, and I went down MORE of the horse-knowledge rabbit hole! https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/741423906984951808/my-post-got-cut-off-so-i-added-the-rest-of-it Update Jan 30, 2024: Hey folks, I've posted the updated version of this post on my blog, so I don't have to keep frantically telling everyone "hey, that's the old version of this post!" https://thebalangay.wordpress.com/2024/01/29/preindustrial-travel-times-part-1/

I should get the posts about army travel times and camp followers reformatted and posted to my blog around the end of the week, so I'll filter through my extremely tangled thread for them.

Part 2 - Preindustrial ARMY travel times: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask

Part 2a - How realistic warhorses look and act, because the myth of "all knights were mounted on huge clunky draft horses" just refuses to die: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/732043691180605440/helpful-things-for-action-writers-to-remember

Part 3 - Additional note about camp followers being regular workers AND sex-workers: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/740604203134828544/reblogging-the-time-looped-version-of-my

--

I saw a post on my main blog about how hiking groups need to keep pace with their slowest member, but many hikers mistakenly think that the point of hiking is "get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible" instead of "spending time outdoors in nature with friends," and then they complain that a new/less-experienced/sick/disabled hiker is spoiling their time-frame by constantly needing breaks, or huffing and puffing to catch up.

I run into a related question of "how long does it take to travel from Point A to Point B on horseback?" a lot, as a fantasy writer who wants to be SEMI-realistic; in the Western world at least, our post-industrial minds have largely forgotten what it's like to travel, both on our own feet and in groups.

People ask the new writer, "well, who in your cast is traveling? Is getting to Point B an emergency or not? What time of year is it?", and the newbies often get confused as to why they need so much information for "travel times." Maybe new writers see lists of "preindustrial travel times" like a primitive version of Google Maps, where all you need to do is plug in Point A and Point B.

But see, Google Maps DOES account for traveling delays, like different routes, constructions, accidents, and weather; you as the person will also need to figure in whether you're driving a car versus taking a bus/train, and so you'll need to figure out parking time or waiting time for the bus/train to actually GET THERE.

The difference between us and preindustrial travelers is that 1) we can outsource the calculations now, 2) we often travel for FUN instead of necessity.

The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.

Why is this so specific? Because not everyone in preindustrial times was fit, not everyone was healthy, not everyone was between the ages of 20-35ish, and not everyone had nice clear skies and good terrain to travel on.

If you are too far below 18 years old or too far past 40, at best you will need either a slower pace or more frequent breaks to cover the same distance, and at worst you'll cut the travel distance in half to 10 or so miles. Too much walking is VERY BAD on too-young/old knees, and teenagers or very short adults may just have short legs even if they're fine with 8-10 hours of actual walking. Young children may get sick of walking and pitch a fit because THEY'RE TIREDDDDDDDDDD, and then you might need to stay put while they cry it out, or an adult may sigh and haul them over their shoulder (and therefore be weighed down by about 50lbs of Angry Child).

Heavy forests, wetlands and rocky hills/mountains are also going to be a much shorter "distance" per day. For forests or wetlands, you have to account for a lot of villagers going "who's gonna cut down acres of trees for one road? NOT ME," or "who's gonna drain acres of swamp for one road? NOT ME." Mountainous regions have their traveling time eaten by going UP, or finding a safer path that goes AROUND, so by the time you're done slogging through drier patches of wetlands or squeezing through trees, a deceptively short 10-15 miles in rough terrain might take you a whole day to walk instead of the usual half-day.

If you are traveling in freezing winters or during a rainstorm (and this inherently means you HAVE NO CHOICE, because nobody in preindustrial times would travel in bad weather if they could help it), you run the high risk of losing your way and then dying of exposure or slipping and breaking your neck, just a few miles out of the town/village.

Traveling in TOO-HOT weather is just as bad, because pushing yourself too hard and getting dehydrated at noon in the tropics will literally kill you. It's called heat-STROKE, not "heat-PARTY."

And now for the upper range of "traveling on horseback!"

Fully mounted groups can usually make 30-40 miles per day between Point A and Point B, but I find there are two unspoken requirements: "Point B must have enough food for all those people and horses," and "the mounted party DOESN'T need to keep pace with foot soldiers, camp followers, or supply wagons."

This means your mounted party would be traveling to 1) a rendezvous point like an ally's camp or a noble's castle, or 2) a town/city with plenty of inns. Maybe they're not literally going 30-40 miles in one trip, but they're scouting the area for 15-20 miles and then returning to their main group. Perhaps they'd be going to an allied village, but even a relatively small group of 10-20 warhorses will need 10-20 pounds of grain EACH and 20-30 pounds of hay EACH. 100-400 pounds of grain and 200-600 pounds of hay for the horses alone means that you need to stash supplies at the village beforehand, or the village needs to be a very large/prosperous one to have a guaranteed large surplus of food.

A dead sprint of 50-60 miles per day is possible for a preindustrial mounted pair, IF YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. Moreover, that is for ONE day. Many articles agree that 40 miles per day is already a hard ride, so 50-60 miles is REALLY pushing the envelope on horse and rider limits.

NOTE: While modern-day endurance rides routinely go for 50-100 miles in one day, remember that a preindustrial rider will not have the medical/logistical support that a modern endurance rider and their horse does.

If you say "they went fifty miles in a day" in most preindustrial times, the horse and rider's bodies will get wrecked. Either the person, their horse, or both, risk dying of exhaustion or getting disabled from the strain.

Whether you and your horse are fit enough to handle it and "only" have several days of defenselessness from severe pain/fatigue (and thus rely on family/friends to help you out), or you die as a heroic sacrifice, or you aren't QUITE fit enough and become disabled, or you get flat-out saved by magic or another rider who volunteers to go the other half, going past 40 miles in a day is a "Gondor Calls For Aid" level of emergency.

As a writer, I feel this kind of feat should be placed VERY carefully in a story: Either at the beginning to kick the plot off, at the climax to turn the tide, or at the end.

Preindustrial people were people--some treated their horses as tools/vehicles, and didn't care if they were killed or disabled by pushing them to their limits, but others very much cared for their horses. They needed to keep them in working condition for about 15-20 years, and they would not dream of doing this without a VERY good reason.

—

UPDATE January 13: Several people have gotten curious and looked at maps, to find out how a lot of cities are indeed spread out at a nice distance of 20-30 miles apart! I love getting people interested in my hyperfixations, lol.

But remember that this is the space between CITIES AND TOWNS. There should never be a 20-mile stretch of empty wilderness between City A and Town B, unless your world explains why folks are able to build a city in the middle of nowhere, or if something has specifically gone wrong to wipe out its supporting villages!

Period pieces often portray a shining city rising from a sea of picturesque empty land, without a single grain field or cow pasture in sight, but that city would starve to death very quickly in preindustrial times.

Why? Because as Bret Devereaux mentions in his “Lonely Cities” article (https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/), preindustrial cities and towns must have nearby villages (and even smaller towns, if large and prosperous enough!) to grow their food for them.

The settlements around a city will usually be scattered a few miles apart from each other, usually clustered along the roads to the city gates. Those villages and towns at the halfway point between cities (say 10-15 miles) are going to be essential stops for older/sick folks, merchants with cargo, and large groups like noble’s retinues and army forces.

Preindustrial armies and large noble retinues usually can’t make it far past 10-12 miles per day, as denoted in my addition to this post. (https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask )

#writing #preindustrial #horse riding #horse care #writing advice #medieval

[lunarflare64]

My google searches over the past hour: faded black lipstick, superficial vein map, did pepsi have cocaine in it, goldstone

#normally there would be more but the vein map was for a drawing reference so i was busy #adhd brain needs to google many things #i also google words (even basic ones) to make sure im using them correctly #i do that at least 5 times a day and thats if im not writing #if i am writing theres no way to count how many words i google #sometimes i spend more time looking for words via synonyms than actually writing

[jackal-202]

so I had a dream that I had just finished a lesson(maths), and like every week I was trying to meet up with my friends, but my friends were being idiots and we were trying to meet up in London so it was harder and I had to go home first. And I bumped into the most beautiful women I've ever seen, like she was Wow, the ends of her hair looked like they was covered in pollen ya know, she was on a bike that was attached to a van and she was cycling this van around and I wasn't really paying attention and I crossed a road (cycle lane) and she almost ran me over and we apologised and I went on my way, then I was waiting at a bus stop and she CAME AND FOUND ME and started a conversation and she was interested in my life and I was trying so hard not to lie to her but I didn't want her to know anything about me (stranger danger) but she was the most beautiful person I've ever seen and had a conversation with, she noticed how carefully I was saying things and then I woke up, it's like it was more her dream then mine, mine was so normal but she realised something was wrong and I woke up, do you understand what I mean? Anyway, really she wasn't that beautiful appearance wise, she was beautiful because she went out of her way to talk to me and she was kind, the whole idea of love rendering your loved ones beautiful-- like they might only be beautiful because you love them, it doesn't really matter and I hope you understand what I mean

#dreams #i mean it really was a dream #i walked out of a train station(this specific one is featured in my dreams a lot) #and opened my phone to use google maps to find the fastest way home #and at first i was going to use the tube #but i ended up going to a bus stop that was merged with a coffee shop and i think a train station? #it was like a bus terminal that was only one bus stop #like it was so surreal #im expecting this to happen to me in approximately five-six months #that ill just get the most in tense feeling of de ja vu #its happened before #im just writing this down so i have proof of the dream and my thoughts #this might be too much too early in the morning