Shh, I'm not really here.

[alagaisia]

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[alagaisia]

It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!

[alagaisia]

It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.

[watermelon-converse]

Hey. Hey. Tumblr. Ides of March ppl. We can do this

[emi--rose]

Hell yeah moon holiday

[hello-delicious-tea]

Ooh coming up we should celebrate

[ariaste]

PITCH: We call it Moon Day, and then every 7 years when it falls on a Monday, that's an even BIGGER deal and we call that Moon Day Monday and go absolutely apeshit about it (the next Moon Day Monday is in 2026 so we have a couple trial runs first)

[sarostheghostcat]

MOON DAY MOON DAY MOON DAY

[wafflebloggies]

moon day is 20th July!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Scheduling this a day earlier to remind you all and myself about the Moon Day tomorow!

[irithind]

MOON DAY MONDAY

MOON DAY MONDAY

MOON DAY MONDAY

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

I REPEAT:

MOON DAY MONDAY

[invisible-mirror]

House of David Season 2

Less engaging than the first season, or maybe I was just less impressed by the various characters character-ing (which is still impressive, how well they did with the characters, but at this point I've seen it before). So we'll just do the highlights here:

I was prepared to be vaguely resentful of Sara but you know what? I like Sara. I ship it. They look so happy together dangit...

Part of me is impressed the writers went for The Invention of Steel Technology as a major plot arc. Another part of me went down a research rabbit hole some years ago and is like... you know that's steel, right? Iron weapons were proliferating around that time, but wrought iron is inferior to good bronze, and it's unlikely that the Philistines were developing consistent steel production processes just yet. (I suppose not strictly impossible, given the limited archaeological evidence we have, but eh.)

Very snazzy high priest costume on Samuel at the Tabernacle.

"Endor. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Be on your guard." (for Ewoks, I can only assume)

I don't have much to say about Eliab, because he is not a highlight of this season. He is... fine. His angst is valid, but it's kind of annoying to watch.

Same with Dinah. Watching her relationship with Eshbaal develop was fun, but I never trusted Eshbaal (knowing the source material is a double-edged sword, in a lot of ways) so I never got too invested in them.

Are they making Ahinoam THAT Ahinoam? Are they seriously gonna go the only-one-Ahinoam route? I do not see how it would work but it sure is convenient that she's banished from the palace and so is David... I suppose they could take the route they went with Joab, where the character is recognizable but their exact relationship to David is a departure from canon.

My favorite moments in this show are the sibling interactions between Mirab, Mychal, Eshbaal, and/or Jonathan (choose any two). My second-favorite moments are the ones where David gets dragged into Game-of-Thrones-level political machinations and acquits himself, if not flawlessly, better than any country shepherd has any right to.

Yeah, I knew Eshbaal couldn't be trusted. I wasn't sure what game he was playing but this works.

I regret to inform you all that they fumbled the new moon family dinner, which was the part I was most looking forward to. Points for giving it prominence in the season finale, grudging points for recognizing it as important enough to pull out the direct canon quote machine, negative points for failing to realize that canon quotes ruin the scene every time. They simply do not sound like natural English dialog. More importantly, the canon dialog in this sequence did not fit the context the show had built up. In canon, Saul is behaving erratically, and David holds out hope of returning home once he comes to his senses. In the show, Saul's motives are clear to everyone. David knows he's not going home, which makes the wait-three-days plan pointless. Jonathan knows about the assassination attempt, Saul knows he knows, and Jonathan knows Saul knows he knows, which makes the visiting-Bethlehem cover story even more pointless. And frankly, it just wasn't as exciting as the manhunt through Gibeah that immediately preceded it.

The farewell between David and Jonathan was appropriately touching, though. I accept forehead kisses as the best we were realistically going to get.

[o-craven-canto]

Come to the Human Cuisine Restaurant, we have:

Boiled grain

Flatbread with various toppings

Flatbread wrapped around filling

Fried lean meat

Stew of fatty meat and starch

Fermented vegetable

Oily sauce

Aromatic herbs

Stimulant alkaloids

Alcoholic beverage

[infiniteoreos]

undiagnosed autistic people will be like "I don't get upset when my routine changes though!!" and it's because they've built a set of if-then loops in their head to pick from one of 6 different strict routines and they do get incredibly upset when they're unable to keep to any of the 6 scripts. I'm john normal

[thundercrackfic]

This is called a fault tree. You will always know how to act if your fault tree captures all possible scenarios. In NASA Mission Control during mission critical events like landings there are huge binders with fault tree protocols, kind of like choose your own adventure books except you’re not the one making the choices, the universe is making them for you and you’re just trying to keep up.

The engineers who develop fault trees, I am told, often imagine new ways for their precious spacecraft to die (new branches on the fault trees) either while in the shower or lying awake at 3am, because human

[toothpaste-footlocker]

[yet-another-autistic-blog]

Was just thinking about this the other day. Yeah I have a favorite seat on the bus (middle of the bus, near the back doors, slightly elevated, facing forward), but I don’t get upset if someone is already sitting there, I just pick one of my other favorite spots. Then I realized that most people probably don’t have a favorite bus seat, let alone a series of backup favorites.

[panpteryx]

[invisible-mirror]

Oh geez, I had this exact realization like two weeks ago, I'm not kidding. My boss tried to thank me for working long hours by instructing me to come in late the next day. Great, a morning off, right? But but but I couldn't treat it like a weekend, because I knew I'd have to work in the afternoon, and I couldn't treat it as a normal workday because on normal workdays I like to get an early start, and I didn't have a specific plan to override the routine (I can be late for work because of a dentist appointment, no problem, but that's because I'm At The Dentist as opposed to Not At Work) and so I spent like half an hour anxiety-scrolling and then I went to work anyway.

[i-merani]

[mothermara]

remember to bury the dead with a phone, everyone. these days the ferry terminal at the river styx wants you to download a fucking app

[prokopetz]

The real reason your sapient dragon character needs a "rider":

Dragons on the wing are vulnerable to being mobbed by smaller, more agile flyers, particularly in your large rear blind spot, like a bird of prey being mobbed by crows. Having a human armed with a long spear perched on your back helps to dissuade anyone from getting any funny ideas.

Breath weapons are impressive enough on the ground, but in flight they're really only good for strafing stationary targets; trying to use your breath weapon in an aerial dogfight is a good way to get fire up your nose. A real fight calls for sterner measures – and, concomitantly, a crew to aim and reload the cannons.

In today's competitive world, it's not enough to devour a flock of sheep and call it a day if you want to keep your edge. You're accompanied at all times by a qualified personal alchemist tasked with carefully regulating your internal furnace to ensure peak performance, and sometimes you even listen to them.

No dragon of any quality would be caught dead without their valet. It's not as though you can announce your numerous long-winded titles yourself when introductions are called for, can you? You suppose next you'll be expected to pick up the spoils of your conquests yourself, like a common brigand. Perish the thought!

[mikkeneko]

[invisible-mirror]

This post is making me realize I've never read a dragonrider book where the dragons are *actually* in charge. It's all well and good to say the dragon sees the human as a pet or whatever, but if the human reports to a human commander and the dragon has to go where the human is ordered to go, the humans are in charge. Show me a dragon commander. Humans fitting in around their dragons' social structure. The humans can build themselves a castle or barracks or whatever but it's out back behind the lairs.

[galileosballs]

It's so strange that - at least in North America - the style of living in which you have your own room but only a partial kitchen, but the building has a large communal eating area in which a paid professional makes food at scale on a fixed schedule every day (with a few options, but nothing made to order) is only available to a) college students, b) prisoners, and c) people in long-term care homes.

Not everyone would want to live like that, of course, but I'll bet you that a lot of people would. It's a great living situation for single people, young people just starting out, and people who are in a city on a temporary basis. Cooking at scale is significantly more time- and cost-efficient than each individual cooking or getting takeout. Cleaning kitchen facilities scales similarly well. Employ a few people who know what they're doing and are paid well to do it, and they'll keep that kitchen running safely, efficiently, and cleanly in a way that a few hundred pressed-for-time 20-somethings never could. And a lot of people simply do not care enough about what they eat to want anything else.

Moreover, not putting a full kitchen in each unit means that the units can be smaller without cutting into living space, cheaper to build, and safer. Lots of people who live alone don't cook a lot, since cooking for one is not very time-efficient, which means that for all those people the kitchen is practically just dead space. You could replace its function with a microwave and a minifridge, and if you do, you've given that person a whole extra room.

And the thing is, this style of living does exist in North America. You just can't voluntarily get it unless you go to college. Why? Because we have - for some reason - decided that this globally-not-uncommon way of living is somehow beneath the dignity of an adult. We should change that.

[prokopetz]

This is 100% me being a crank, but I'm getting real annoyed at seeing Ancient Traditional Crafts™ videos that depict people grinding minerals to make pigments with no respiratory protection. Like, yeah, an N100 mask isn't Authentic and shit, but do you know what powdered mica does to your lungs?

[prokopetz]

@sawdust-emperor replied:

Watching any green or blue-green mineral being ground to make pigment in these, praying it's just rough glass or some shit and not any of the almost always notably poisonous green minerals:

Being as I've also seen examples where the craftsperson is handling what appears to be raw cinnabar with their bare hands, I wouldn't say the odds are good there.

[ajaxgb]

[redpandarascal]

in conversation about white people who go to Japan and expect their knowledge of anime to culturally carry them, I was once posed with “it’s like if there was a Japanese guy who was obsessed with spongebob and came over here and thought he could get by just communicating in spongebob quotes.” This is a false equivalence because if such a man existed we would crown him king. We’d love him. Americans would fucking love that. sometimes I get sad that this isn’t a real guy I can invite to a party.

[hong--zhi--zhu]

[frustratedasatruar]

[sevensmallsphinxes]

Sphinx employee slash bodega cat that blocks the door and asks riddles, the owner has the answer of the day on a paper taped to the door.

it never notices.

[sevensmallsphinxes]

important addition from a friend:

everyone thinks REALLY hard and regulars makes two bad guesses so it feels like it's doing a good job

[petzah394again]

This is way too fucking unrealistic customers would never read a sign

[prokopetz]

"The Ancients were capable of wondrous things, but they often made mistakes, and 'dungeons' are the outcome of those mistakes" is a common conceit in dungeon-crawling fantasy, but the Ancients' fuckups are typically framed as products of hubris or madness. I want to see a setting where they messed up for the same reason that real-world engineering and public works projects often come to horrifying ends. The safety reports were suppressed because the architect was somebody's cousin. The plans clearly called for unobtanium rods, but a malfeasant contractor swapped them for mudanium and pocketed the difference. Somebody got sick of having to re-summon the hellgate each dawn and propped it open with a shoe.

[prokopetz]

The warding sigils would have detected the problem, but they were so overtuned that they were constantly throwing false alarms, so eventually one of the assistant thaumaturges simply disconnected them and forgot to tell anyone they'd done so.

[invisible-mirror]

I feel like by the time you're an Ancient, these things just get rounded off to hubris. "The people who built this dungeon were proud enough to believe that they could prop the hellgate open with a shoe and survive the consequences." Etc.

[biglawbear]

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He—wait. Why dost the Lord hath clippers.

[biglawbear]

The Lord sheareth me.

[spaghetti-machete]

@apocrypals

[rabid-transcendentalist]

[animentality]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Sometimes you're like "in this chapter, there will be a conversation that covers W and X before moving into Y, thus helping the character figure out Z." And then you start the conversation about W and X and there simply is no opening to move the subject to Y. It seemed obvious when you were int he shower last night but now you don't know how to work the bridge in. So they're just sitting there in the cafeteria. Chatting. And nobody's mentioning fucking Y.

[striving-artist]

The best piece of advice I ever got was not meant as advice, but as an edict. If I was going to threaten people as a joke, it had to be so far out of proportion with what happened that it would be obvious I was joking. This changed how I expressed frustration with others. It then changed how I expressed frustration with myself.

Not “I’m going to hit you” but “I am going to buy a tuna sub from the gas station and hide it under the seat of your car”

Not “I’m going to kill myself” but “I am going to walk into the desert and let the scarabs take me”

The other side then happened. When I mess something up, instead of saying it’s bad and perpetuating negative thoughts, swing hard the other way.

Not “this art is terrible” but “this shall be framed and mounted on the wall in my museum exhibition as testament to the suffering I had to overcome”

Have been doing this since high school. It was my drama teacher who asked me to please stop scaring the actors. The other half of the edict was that I had to say it in a polite tone, and end it with either please or thank you.

Life changing. 10/10 Mr Muëller. Highly reccomend.

[llsilvertail]

lol

[striving-artist]

#Queued

Which means you saw this, could have told me, but instead, you chose this course. You chose violence. I'll be adding you to the list of traitors to be embroidered in the tapestry of my throne room.

[gryphonablaze]

Actually! Tapestries aren’t embroidered. Embroidery is taking an already-constructed fabric and stitching decorative thread onto it. Tapestries are made by weaving the fabric itself out of different colored yarns, usually but not always to create representative images. The way that warp threads (up and down threads) are and the way that the weft (side to side) tends to beat down, tapestries often end up looking like Ye Olde Pixel Art

[striving-artist]

I see you that you yearn to be included in my saga like a dog whining at the door. While your chosen name might have earned you a more interesting placement had you chosen another path, no. You’ve ruined your chance. You don’t even get to have a tiny gyphon next to your name. Or a little flame symbol. You’re going on there in a poorly kerned sans serif whip stitch.

The Bayeux Tapestry, which has the highest name recognition of any tapestry in the western world, was made to brag on the accomplishments of the Norman Conquest, and dunk on their enemies. Exactly as mine shall.

Thus. It is the archetype of fiber craft throne room victory laps, and reflects the standard of the Middle Ages. It is embroidered with colored wool thread on linen. As my list of enemies continues to grow with each passing day, my choice to use an embroidery technique rather than weaving ensures that I don’t have to overtax my weavers whenever a new foe must be added to the record. I could also easily order them remove a name without undoing all the work that came after, but that is theoretical. No one has ever been forgiven. The list of betrayers only expands.