random feckless meanderings

[ab9rf]

On inappropriate connections

Earlier this morning, I was at my computer fiddling around with Dwarf Fortress (I’m working on a DFHack plugin to automate clothing management at the moment), drinking coffee, and only-sorta watching AM Joy (on TiVo), when my wife, seemingly out of nowhere, announces “Oh, that’s Sapphire’s daddy!”

Since I’m more or less immersed in hacking at Dwarf Fortress at the moment, I react to this interjection by pausing AM Joy, which freeze-frames on attorney Michael Avenatti, and try to make sense out of what she’s just said. And the first thing that comes to me is to conclude that something Avenatti has just said (to which I am not paying a whole lot of attention) made her conclude that he is, somehow, the father of Sapphire from Stephen Universe. (Or maybe it was just the combination of that jacket and tie that did it. I have no idea.)

This is, of course, ridiculous on so many different levels. First, as far as I know, gems in Steven Universe do not have parents. At least, that’s what my daughter tells me. Second, even if they did, why would Michael Avenatti be Sapphire’s father? I don’t even know what Sapphire is like, and thus have no basis to judge whether Sapphire’s hypothetical father would be in fact anything like Michael Avenatti? Third, why would I, someone who has never watched Steven Universe, jump to this fairly insane conclusion? Why did this meme invade my consciousness at this particular point?

I could probably tell you everything I know about Steven Universe in under a minute. I even had to use Google to check whether it was “Steven” or “Stephen” in order to write this post. I’m vaguely aware that Steven Universe is an animated cartoon about a boy named Steven who has a bunch of friends(?) who are (mostly?) female entities that are somehow also avatars of gemstones with superpowers and that he has superpowers of some sort for some reason as well. I know nothing about Sapphire other than that I’m pretty sure that there’s a character called Sapphire in Steven Universe, and that that character is most likely (a) female and (b) blue. And the “blue” is simply because most people envision sapphires as being blue. Beyond that, I have absolutely no idea what Sapphire is like, or what characteristics she has that might relate in some way to Michael Avenatti. 

It turns out that my wife was talking about an entirely different Sapphire, this one:

Yup. Skyrim. My wife was actually talking about the thief Sapphire in Skyrim, whose father is *SPOILER ALERT* Mallory Glover, the blacksmith in Raven Rock. I knew this already, having gotten to that point in one of my own playthroughs quite some time ago, and I even think I’ve mentioned it to her once before, but apparently she just discovered this for herself for the first time in the game, leading to the excited utterance that prompted me to make a completely absurd connection between Michael Avenatti and Sapphire from Steven Universe. 

For the record, I am also not suggesting that Michael Avenatti has anything in common with Glover Mallory from Raven Rock.

[despazito]

revised my chicken post, still very basic but its an intro to appearance

[justhere4coffee]

When people call you a “snowflake” just remember they’re quoting Fight Club, a satire written by a gay man about how male fragility causes men to destroy themselves, resent society, and become radicalized, and that Tyler Durden isn’t the hero but a personification of the main character’s mental illness, and that his “snowflake” speech is a dig at how fascists use dehumanizing language to breed loyalty from insecure people.

So basically people who say “snowflake” as an insult are quoting a domestic terrorist who blows up skyscrapers because he’s insecure about how good he is in bed.

[vortexsophia-deactivated2022110]

[geekygothgirl]

I don’t know what we did to deserve Mr. Rogers but I’m so glad we had him. 

[dennys]

Honestly, out of all the casualties of the diner, sugar packets probably have it the worst. We keep them stuffed in a little box all pressed up to each other until we decide they can come out. And what do we do once we let them out? We rip them open. We pour them into hot, scalding coffee. We take a few of them and crush their bodies beneath a wobbly table leg. It’s really sad. Especially because they’re so….sweet. ;)

[devildaisies]

im art blocking so hard

have half a piece of sushi

[devildaisies]

hey guys…. it’s me….. goku sushi

[devildaisies]

im glad that out of all the art ive been painstakingly cranking out on a daily basis this month, this is what you people decided to reblog

[houseplanthoe]

My mom just sent me this picture of my cat with no explanation.

[thegirlbehindthepiano-blog]

so the montreal police officers are on strike and to shame the government they decided to wear different kinds of pants

[notverygoodatflyingaeroplanes]

that’s so beautiful

[katie-and-her-fandoms]

the fashion police

[ab9rf]

Sadly, the protest in question ended in July of 2016, and without the police union actually winning their dispute: the law they started the protest over (which was adopted in December of 2014) is still on the books.

And, yes, they really did carry on this protest for a year and a half.

[babyionian-deactivated20200611]

this is the funniest fucking thing ive ever seen (x)

[sad-jew-with-cake-deactivated20]

pipistrellus:

corvus-cornix:

maskseller:

robotmango:

PROBLEM: -THE TRUMP TEAM NEEDS TO FILL 3,000 VACANCIES IN THE NEXT TWO MONTHS.

WHOA, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?? -they assumed the white house staff would be sticking around, because they never watched “the west wing” and also because they are GRADE A FUCKSTICKS WITH THE INTELLIGENCE OF DEAD PRAWNS, and thus not only do they not have policy papers written, they are also lacking an actual body of qualified staffers ready to slot into white house and related positions -they have bupkis, frankly -whole lotta nothing

SOLUTION: -THEY HAVE PLACED AN OPEN CALL FOR STAFF APPLICATIONS ON THEIR WEBSITE

THAT’S NOT… VERY WEIRD, RIGHT? PEOPLE APPLIED TO WORK FOR OBAMA ONLINE -yeah, and the website looked like this -trump’s call for applications is a trainwreck. i assume it was written by one of trump’s three adult goblins. look at this paragraph:

“You will be asked fill out a Personal Data Statement if you are considered for a specific position. You will be asked about possible conflicts of interest… organization[s] which you belong or once belonged; speeches you may have given… legal, administrative and regulatory proceedings to which you may have been a party; in short, anything that might embarrass the President or you if he should choose you for a position in his administration…… If Senate confirmation is required for the position you are nominated for, the Senate committee that reviews those nominations may ask you to provide additional information.“ 

WAIT…. WHAT?? -just a little casual there, guys, huh? like…. the whole thing makes it sound like they don’t have a vetting team ready to go. it makes it feel like there’s no solid recruitment team or strategy in place and… -oh my God, wait a second -doesn’t that sound kind of like they’re asking people to vet themselves? -maybe because they are so WOEFULLY, CATASTROPHICALLY SHORT-HANDED?????? -pun intended

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN, ORANGE?? -well, i’m glad you asked, it could mean a lot of things -firstly: i wouldn’t trust these sloppy motherfuckers to staff a lemonade stand -secondly: like, YOU could go WORK FOR TRUMP, probably. they are mass-hiring, like a new denny’s franchise. like eight new denny’s franchises clustered around a single interstate exit, shivering in terror. is your head firmly affixed to your body? are you carbon-based?? they badly need people with those qualifications -thirdly: it may also, eventually, mean that the trump white house is going to produce an unheard-of metric fuckton of personnel scandals in its first year, since there’s no voluntary, self-reporting “are you a serial murderer” box to tick -also, do they not understand that people are going to apply just to fuck with them??? and waste their time??? -i don’t recommend it, honestly. i personally will not be submitting any private information to the trump team even as an obstructionist joke, because they are terrifying anti-semitic racist garbage-fucking hate trolls. i wouldn’t voluntarily give them the address of a shoe store. but if you choose to step up and play the game, have fun and be yourselves*

*technically you can be anyone you want, they DON’T APPEAR TO HAVE A VETTING TEAM YET

THERE’S NO USER LOGIN AND YOU CAN APPLY TO BE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

i’ve seen applications/screenings for minimum wage jobs that were 200% more intense than this

“like eight new denny’s franchises clustered around a single interstate exit, shivering in terror”

[ab9rf]

One thing I noticed is that the “application form” ask if you are a citizen, and if you’re not a citizen if you’re authorized to work in the United States.

I am amazed. Federal law and practice has long required that all civilian federal employees be US citizens, essentially without exception. That second question is utterly pointless: if you’re not a US citizen, you will not be working for Donald Trump’s administration, whether or not you’re authorized to work in the United States.

This is stunningly incompetent on the part of the transition team. It is also, sadly, what we’ve come to expect from Trump and his ragtag band of incompetents.

[ab9rf]

me, using a ouija board: A... L... I... V... E...

friend: alive? ALIVE?? is it saying it's alive????

me: idk i'll keep going

me: S.. T.. A.. Y.. I.. N... A.. L.. I.. V.. E..

friend:

me: shit this is a Bee Gee board

[nohrianlordleo]

[cognitivedissonance]

Your cute cat of the day

[ab9rf]

[wilwheaton]

In response to the person who talked about how to cope with an unattractive face, I recently came across this quote from Erin McKean that really resonated with me: "You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female'."

Signal Boost.

[ab9rf]

The real reason Trump is running for President...

I am increasingly convinced that the real reason why Donald Trump is running for President is so that he can pardon himself to avoid criminal prosecution and use executive privilege to avoid civil prosecution. He’s headed for a huge loss in the Trump University case, and his tax woes are very bad indeed, including credible arguments that his tax returns are so far divorced from reality that they amount to calculated tax fraud, a felony. Of course, if elected he could pardon himself and thus avoid prosecution for this felony. Or at least so he thinks....

I think Trump is broke, or very close to it, and the whole point of this Presidential run is a Hail Mary to get himself out of that situation.

[ab9rf]

Inspiration or coincidence?

Last night, Rachel Maddow interviewed Bill Bogert, the actor who portrayed a Republican with deep misgivings about Barry Goldwater in the classic 1964 political commercial “Confession of a Republican”. I had heard the ad before (previously on Rachel, in fact) and so when she replayed portions of it I did not watch as intently as I had previously. But this had a hidden benefit, because when I listen to something subconsciously like that, I sometime notice things I may have missed the first time. For example, it was on my third viewing of the Matrix that I realized that Hugo Weaving, as Agent Smith, was channeling Marlon Perkins in his monologue about how humans are a virus. And so, while I was subconsciously listening to Mr. Bogert’s performance as (it turns out) himself, I realized that I was listening to none other than WKRP’s star reporter, Les Nessman!

Now, obviously, the character of Les Nessman (portrayed by Richard Sanders) was created for a TV show that aired from 1978 to 1982, and so Mr. Bogert wasn’t channeling Les Nessman (unless you believe in the possibility of retrotemporality). No, indeed, it’s far more likely that Les Nessman was created to resemble Bill Bogert, at least in terms of speech patterns and mannerisms. They do also physically resemble one another, but it was the similarity in speech mannerisms that I noticed last night first. I have no idea if this is pure coincidence, or if was the deliberate choice of either Richard Sanders, as the actor chosen to portray the character, of or the show’s creator, Hugh Wilson. 

Of course, I never noticed this when I was watching the show when it was first on, but I was born in 1969 and thus the 1964 LBJ campaign commercial wasn’t something that would have been in my memory. If my parents or any of the other adults in my life at the time noticed it, none of them mentioned it, at least in a way I noticed.

[micdotcom]

Watch: Samantha Bee takes on untested rape kits and the cops and politicians who want to destroy them.

[burn0uttt-deactivated20160829]

Holy fucking shit that last part oh my god

[bettieleetwo]

people think rape culture isn’t a thing