Fightin' Pythonist

Gen-Xer mostly here to follow/reblog. Don't expect deep thoughts. This blog accepts and loves you for who you are.

[prokopetz]

I try not to meme on people I don't know, but sometimes they're just straight handing you setups. I once saw a theatre kid accuse another theatre kid's interest in theatre of being performative.

[cock-holliday]

We have got to stop framing our oppression in ways that promote the idea that other people cannot relate to our struggles. Not only does it isolate comrades in the struggle, it actively diminishes recognition of other struggles--often including those even more horrific than what we are at risk of. And this happens especially between Gay and Black struggles.

"when have straight people ever had to check what states were safe for them?" Sundown towns are still a thing. Starlight tours. What states have abortion access? What states have open carry? What states have stand your ground? What states have 3-strike rules? Women, people of color, disabled people, immigrants, and more have had to be abundantly cautious where they travel to. Straight trans people have much more travel risk right now than gay cis people.

It's a new iteration of the same tired question: "imagine if straight people weren't allowed to marry" interracial marriage in the US is younger than my parents. We disgrace people of color by forgetting their history and contemporary struggles, and we abandon queer people of color, Black queer people, by segmenting their overlapping fights.

As lovelyshananigans says, "intersectionality, babes"

[prokopetz]

I've regularly done stuff that warrants adjectives like "daft" and "senseless", but some day I hope to rise as high as "harebrained" – or even, in my most fanciful flights of ambition, "preposterous".

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[they-bite]

part of the fun of the original alien is the horror of the nostromo itself imo. it’s a cell of corporate greed ferrying narrowly-trained workers across barren space. it’s huge and yet claustrophobic, cockpits crammed with machinery giving way to yawning berths dripping chains and water. the supercomputer is named mother in a stroke of human anthropomorphization, but instead of providing comfort or protection, it’s only a courier between its creator and its wailing brood. ripley yells “mother! mother!” at a matronly-voiced computer that speaks calmly over her helplessness. the ship is full of endless details and patterns and unlabeled buttons and dials the audience can’t entirely make sense of; to do anything on the ship is a rigorous, technical process, and we must depend on the characters to know it. the internal mechanics of the ship are so alien that a literal alien can hide among the bits and bobs and not be noticed. it’s great.

[pyreo]

I'd like to add the appearance of the craft for anyone that hasn't seen it

Look at that thing. We get used to sci-fi where the spaceships try to look aerodynamic and cool, and the Nostromo went in the exact opposite direction. It is an entire industrial refinery floating through the void, matching the interior of overly complex panels, cramped spaces and chimneys dripping with water, chains dangling and clinking in the factory shafts.

It's enormous. It gives the impression of being understaffed by its sheer size - it doesn't seem to fit that a crew of seven, only two of whom are engineers, can be responsible for this towering manufactory, an implicit reference to the corporate mishandling at the core of the story.

It takes the symbol of antihuman greed - the factory with its barely paid, unsupported, physically endangered workers - and slaps it directly into space. It tells you that Weyland-Yutani did not invent exploitation, but is part of a repeating cycle that never ended even once we commodified travelling to the stars.

Its labyrinthine layout, exposed piping, its ridiculous size, it all gives the alien a perfect place to hide and hunt the crew, as if the alien turns the very ship against its passengers, which Ripley then discovers was an intentional collaboration from the start. Even the vent shafts they believe they can corner the alien in have an unforseen advantage in the alien's favour.

The alien doesn't want them, their employer doesn't want them, even their very ship doesn't want them, and it's the only thing between them and the vacant hostility of space.

[foxgirlmindcrank]

Small correction, this is the Nostromo. It's just this little bit that's out front. It's a commercial towing vessel for automated refineries, which is the massive thing behind it.

[oldschoolfrp]

Happy birthday, Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938), here's my annual 3d6 rolled 6 times to generate a D&D character. It's a mostly average roll this year, nothing too terribly low, nothing super high. Rolled in the order listed in the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons Volume I: Men & Magic, I get:

Strength 9 Intelligence 8 Wisdom 12 Constitution 8 Dexterity 13 Charisma 9

There are only 3 main classes in OD&D without using any supplements: fighting-man, magic-user, and cleric. The first 3 stats are the prime requisites for the 3 classes, and with only wisdom in double digits it seems this fellow would be a better cleric. But note that 9-12 are all considered average scores, with no bonuses or penalties to experience gained and no bonuses or penalties to abilities. This character does receive a +1 for missile fire for having an above average Dex, so being a fighting-man with a bow is an option. (The thief class won't appear until Supplement I: Greyhawk in 1975.)

I still want to let the dice decide the class, so he's a cleric with the title "Acolyte" at level 1, and I'm going to argue that slings are non-edged and therefore allowed so he can use that missile bonus. Only humans can be clerics in these rules, so that's what he is. There's no suggestion that picking a god or pantheon is necessary, and a cleric doesn't commit between Law or Chaos until reaching level 7. He needs a name -- "Brother Eggmus" will do, working in EGG's initials.

A Con of 8 isn't low enough to penalize his hit points. I roll 1d6 and get 3 hp. (Per 1974 rules all classes are assumed to roll d6s for hp. As characters level up, fighting-men gain dice and bonuses faster than clerics, who gain more than magic-users. In 1975 Greyhawk specified different hit dice types for different classes.)

3d6 x10 = 60 gold pieces to start, barely enough to purchase chainmail, a shield, a mace, and a pack, food, water skins, and torches. Sling is missing from the price list, but a note at the bottom says to interpret other prices from the examples given.

With a Cha of 9 he can have a max of 3 henchmen at normal loyalty, and that's pretty much all there is to character creation in 1974.

[dduane]

What's going on around here (redux)

So as a follow-up to the mid-July post: (1) The new glasses continue to work in nicely. ...NGL, though: my Eye Lady is adamant that I need to go see a specialist ASAP. (This is something to worry about in a few weeks, as right now there's a convention appearance in the way.) I strongly suspect that my right eye is developing a cataract, and I may also need a vitreous transplant: we'll soon find out. So in brief: on top of the right-ear hearing problem, a significant percentage of my sensorium is something of a dumpster fire right now. (shrug) Entropy, right? It's a fecking nuisance. :/

Anyway: the other unexpected health junk that had been behaving itself during the spring continues to kick up cranky. (eyeroll) I don't want to get into more detail than necessary about this (my mom used to refer to such behavior as "the Organ Recital"), but it's an outgrowth of the internal problems that have forced me to give up long-distance travel. The MRIs and other diagnostics aren't always something the Irish national health service pays for (depending on who referred you or recommended it). So over the last couple of months I've had no choice but to drop a four-figure amount of cash on this, and as a result I've fallen behind on my rent.

My landlord is still being easygoing about the situation, understanding what I'm going through. But I really want to get caught up on this before it gets any worse. (As being behind this way, I'm finding, is increasingly interfering with my work... especially as that's now become so much easier to get to grips with due to the new glasses.)

So it seems like this is a good time to remind folks that we're repeating the Summer Reading Sale over at Ebooks Direct!

...I imagine lots of people here know the drill by now. Everything's cheap, and the ebook bundles are all being held at their lowest price points for the duration (meaning specifically the "All The Wizardry" bundle, the Middle Kingdoms series bundle, the LGBTQ Pride collection, and the Feline Wizardry bundle—Even our "Give Me Everything You've Got" collection, which is the whole ebook store in one package, has had a bit knocked off.

So could I get folks to reblog this post so that those who might not have caught one of these sales before can do so now if they want to? Please & thank you!

And additionally: for those who're already up to their necks in ebooks and don't need any more, but still want to help out with the rent situation—if you'd like instead to drop something into my Ko-Fi, it'd be very welcome. And if you feel like doing this, I thank you very much in advance! 🙂

Support Diane Duane

Support Diane Duane

In advance of whatever happens: thanks again, everybody. You're all stars. 🙂

[luminouslumity]

[allykatsart]

Oh god he's doing a dragon

Oh fuck off- BALOONS?????

Yeah no that's a dragon

we get it its a dragon-WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU MADE THE WALL OUT OF CHOCOLATE????!!?!!

[soulerflaire]

Not just any dragon. That's the head of Onyxia, a raid boss from World of Warcraft!

[mamoru]

life pro tip: if you happen to be considering purchasing an LG TV or monitor, you possibly want to pick something else! and if you have an LG monitor that has not been plugged into anything in a while, you might want to leave it that way!

if you already have an LG monitor or TV or intend to buy one, you probably want to watch this video and keep an eye on gamers nexus for updates (or anyone else covering the LG spying situation):

posted july 16 2026

LG is doing some bad things. how bad? well. here are some very brief bullet points. I am not an expert, gamers nexus is, see the video for more information than this:

LG monitors (brand new and years old, cheap and expensive) auto-install LG's own adware-spyware called LG Monitor App onto windows 10 and 11 computers. you plug in an LG monitor for video output and this gets installed automatically. no hitting OK, no confirmation, no toggles, NOTHING.

the auto-installed LG Monitor App auto-grants itself access to your internet connection and ALL computer resources. the LG Monitor App has the ability to collect: geolocation data, device data, personal information, online activity data, contact data, and more!

...and it shows pop-up ads! because fuck you

on some affected versions of windows, auto-installed shitware like the LG Monitor App can be prevented by navigating to gpedit.msc -> computer configuration -> administrative templates -> system -> device installation -> prevent automatic download of applications associated with metadata

...but, if your LG monitor already installed the LG Monitor App, this is like closing the barn door after the horse got out. and that horse has the logs of everything you were doing on your computer! someone stop that fucking horse!!!

unrelated to the LG Monitor App, many LG TV owners are now required to tell all household members and guests that their LG TV is recording and processing ALL nearby voices. or else they may be in violation of local eavesdropping and wiretapping laws. for owning a fucking LG TV.

plus, how many businesses, workplaces, public spaces use LG TVs?

allegedly the microphone spying can be turned off by disabling microphone features, but LG has been caught disregarding opt-out settings before.

LG TVs can record everything that happens on the TV, including the video output of connected devices like phones, computers, gaming consoles, anything that happens on the TV screen.

LG was sued for their spying, and as a result of that spying suit, now shows pop-ups saying oops! they got caught spying and intend to continue spying. thanks for buying LG!

as of when the video was posted, there was no list of every spying LG monitor or TV. but this stuff is getting rolled out to more and more LG devices, including those purchased years ago.

and that is the shortest summary I can make of this situation without just summarizing more of the gamers nexus video.

@gamersnexus.bsky.social

Update: We are working on a follow-up to the LG story and have some disturbing findings re: LG's products. It will take us a while to parse

⬆️posted july 23 2026

gamers nexus is fairly respected in technology journalism. they fly around the world investigating companies that fuck people over and have pressured major companies to make major changes over the years.

so for gamers nexus to say that this LG spying situation is both unprecedented in how uniquely bad it is in this era of spying, and that it gets even worse than their video where they already say to stop buying and using LG products while recanting every prior recommendation for LG products?

oooooofff

[libraford]

Saw a new type of guy in the grocery parking lot.

[atomic-two-sheds]

I thought this was one of your book characters for a second.

[mrlovenstein]

Secret Panel HERE 🐸 patreon.com/mrlovenstein/posts/scene-stealer-126433759

[winged-void]

just remembered that my middle school bullies were named Chase and Hunter. what was up with that. what was going on there.

[winged-void]

were you bullied by the pope?

[doomtemparts]

one of my friends in a discord server was talking about how they were nervous about their first scheduled acupuncture appointment. another friend offered to do a tarot reading for them. sent this picture.

[beardedmrbean]

[larkandkatydid]

“When in doubt, he charged into the cannon’s mouth—by proxy.” - Gary Wills describing Robert E Lee at Gettysburg with the most devastating use of an m-dash in literary history.

[bransonreese]

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[bransonreese]

[bransonreese]

[bransonreese]

[kattigans]

when tumblr dies i'll live under your bed and you can say out loud what you would post and i will say LIKE or REBLOG it'll be just like we're still here