I take most of my community college classes online these days so on the occasion that I actually go to campus in person I’m like dang have nineteen year olds always looked this young? I can’t be getting older, right? Nah.
The older I get the less I understand why some people try to date eighteen year olds. Yeah that’s an adult and I’ll take them seriously and all that but they’re too smooth and polished though. They might not even have experience with making their own doctors appointments. They need two or three more years of life shaking them around in a can.
one idea/image i'm fond of is a marksman-type living weapon hunting for food. like, on missions in the field, or during a wilderness survival arc after escaping/being rescued. maybe they learned to hunt and prepare game before the whump, maybe they picked it up at some point on a mission, or maybe they've never hunted before in their life, but they and their allies are hungry, and they're superhumanly Good At Guns, so, may as well...
POV: you've just finished setting up camp and the strong-and-silent guy whom you've literally never heard speak and almost never seen act without a direct order wanders off into the forest and comes back with a rabbit. hey, thanks, man! i didn't know you could do that!
plus, every level of living weapon culinary skill has potential. no knowledge of/interest in cooking beyond "tear it into chunks and heat them until they stop bleeding"? nice. surprisingly good at cooking? nice. surprisingly opinionated about cooking? hell yeah. let's coax you out of your shell with the power of Grill.
like they've got a gun and a knife and the means to make a fire. let them have fun. and assert their ability to feed themself thereby covering one of their own basic needs and feeling safer. and feed their allies thereby turning the destructive skills that were forced upon them into something with a constructive side. And surprise said allies with Surprise Rabbit
i'm kind of fond of them having learned on a previous mission... assigned to a team that are still whumpers but mostly indifferent to them, rations are running low and the team is talking abt hunting to supplement them and then someone points out that they literally have Super Gun. just make this guy do it. "yeah Handler, use your gun lol" and they do. so LW kind of gets coached through hunting by means of orders and then watches them clean and prepare the meat. maybe someone specifically shows LW how to do that so they can offload it to them in the future. which LW is fine with, it's a useful skill and it's far from the worst thing teams have ordered them to do while idle.
"Oh yeah, we have an outdoor Corgi, he just gets so bored cooped up inside all day. He knows to stay off the road. Don't worry, he's way too smart for coyotes and the neighbor's know to look out when they drive past."
"Us? Oh, of *course* our Dachshund sleeps inside- we just let him out in the morning and make sure he comes back for dinner. He just does his own thing, no worries."
"Um, you know it's not humane to keep a chihuahua confined to an apartment? They're dogs, they're natural predators. They need to experience hunting behaviors or they get depressed. No we don't leash ours, he absolutely hates it, we just let him come and go whenever."
Yall get how fucking stupid that sounds, right? So stop letting your goddamn cats get eaten and attacked and infected and hit by cars
A toddler would probably love full unattended access to the neighborhood too, but we don't do that either, do we
It's 2026, "keep your damn pet in a house or in your view" should not be controversial
(SCENE: Jason Todd as Red Hood, trying to teach his goons how to break the law without getting caught)
— — —
“—and if you’re going to run from a traffic stop, do it before you give them your license,” Jason finished, crossing his arms. “Questions?”
A man in the front row of mismatched folding chairs raised his hand. “Even if it’s fake?”
“Yes, even if it’s fake.” Jason took a breath before continuing. “It’s still your face, height, and weight, right?
Slowly but surely, the group began to nod.
“Mr. Hood?” A skinny twig of an 18 year-old raised a hand.
“Yeah?”
“My buddy told me that if they arrest you, and they don’t read your, uh,” the kid stumbled looking nervous. “Your, uh, Melinda rights, they have to let you go.”
Jason sighed into his helmet. There were times when he appreciated Bruce’s breathing tech. The sigh had been filtered and dispersed just after it had finished.
In the intervening moment, the group began to lean forward in their folding chairs, attempting to parse the silence.
Jason lifted one finger.
“They’re Miranda rights.”
Second finger.
“And no, they don’t let have to let you go. Best case scenario, they’ll have to throw out anything incriminating you said. That’s it.”
A plumber-for-hire perked up in the last row, opening his mouth.
“Shit you said during questioning,” Jason clarified quickly.
“Wait. You’re not supposed to talk during an arrest?”
Jason closed his eyes. Behind his helmet, they couldn’t see him. He couldn’t see them. It was beautiful, just for a moment.
Someone scoffed.
“What are you, a fucking snitch?”
“Devon,” Jason said, recognizing the voice, “Chill the fuck out. Brady, what the fuck are you saying when you get arrested?”
Brady was trembling in his seat.
“That I’m gonna f-fuck them up. And t-their families.,” he stuttered. “And I might even s-steal their dog so their k-kids hate them f-forever.”
“See?” Jason waved at Devon. “Terroristic threats. Not snitching.”
Nobody laughed. Jason could sense the incoming questions like they were bullets curving toward his head.
“Terroristic threats?”
“Okay,” Jason said. “So remember when we talked about the different definitions of assault?”
i'm like a caricature in a children's show. "and then Whimsy took a deep breath, made a few polite phonecalls, and everything resolved itself 🥰" fucking hell man when do i get to punch someone hard as fuck in the jaw
it has occurred to me, as I age, that most people did not spend their childhoods getting simplified breakdowns of class-action lawsuits explained to them over dinner at least once a week
I'd straight up need more context for this. From what I've seen of the IDF they think of their enemies pretty much like literal cockroaches to be squashed. They mime gun violence with their children to get them used to the idea of killing early. Like yes I acknowledge that the effects in both cases are very similar, but I'm skeptical of the claim that falling for the sleight-of-hand style propaganda about 'greatness' that America does is truly equivalent to what's going on in the IDF.
Also the U.S. has a code of conduct (ostensibly) and (afaik) teaches to default to de-escalation. Does the IDF do that? X Doubt.
In your haste to rightfully call out the military industrial complex, don't make yourself look like an idiot.
If you don't know what our military does, it's because you've chosen to avoid learning about it. If you navigate your life neutrally you will learn about it before you're old enough to join. For most people it just takes noticing how many unhoused people are vets.
If you somehow lived under a rock and never learned about any war we've ever been in and you join the military, you'd have to be a specific kind of person to not react when you realize a couple weeks in what's going on. You don't get treated the way you do in the military if your job is to always err on the side of nonviolence. You don't have to have layers and layers of protection in place in order to refuse unethical orders with some semblance of safety if nothing unethical is driving that bus. You don't get assaulted on the reg with absolutely no recourse if nothing violent is driving that bus. You don't end up surrounded by people who view humans who aren't white as inhuman monsters if nothing bloodthirsty is driving that bus.
A very very very small subset of our military is comprised of people who are so critically unaware of what's happening around them at ALL TIMES that they think they're not doing anything wrong.
A slightly larger subset of our military is comprised of people who didn't go outside at all for the first 18 years of their lives, have just had a bucket of ice water dumped on them, and are now having to figure out how to leave without having their lives ruined.
The rest of our military is comprised of people who idolize serial killers, who want to cheat on their wives, and who want to be allowed to kill people without getting in trouble (but weren't able to become cops).
Reminder: if your partner safewords for any reason, first you stop, and then you thank them. You ask if they are okay, and you let them know they did a good job.
What's the process like for slab building mugs? I've only done them on the wheel before and i was wondering how hard it is to get a smooth rotational symmetry when you don't have the wheel helping you
they’re pretty straightforward, but they definitely take practice. and I think an aspect of slab building (and hand building in general) is that it’s not going to be perfect. I had to learn to accept that and to love it for what it is
I use two tools to get my slab-built mugs nice and round:
1. a turntable/banding wheel. spinning it as I’m refining the shape helps keep it round, just like wheel-thrown pottery
and
2. The Cone
The Cone can be any cylinder that’s narrower at the bottom at wider at the top, and the right size to fit in your mug. just press it in and shape the rim to it, don’t leave it in the mug as the clay shrinks
but here’s the whole slab-building process!
under the cut
1. roll out clay.
this time I cut it straight from the bag so it’s air-bubble free, but otherwise it should be wedged first. I use a rolling pin with measured rings on the ends so I can easily roll it out 1/4” thick
2. I used to use a cardboard template and a pin tool for this (you can find the templates online and print them, or you can cut up a disposable cardboard cup to make a template)
but I upgraded to cutters a little while ago and I love them.
remember also to cut out a circle for the bottom of the mug.
3. smooth
4. let sit for a couple hours, or put it in front of a fan for awhile, so it’s not too floppy to work with. it should be flexible, workable, but not floppy. it shouldn’t crack if bent but it should stand up on its own once you’ve got it in a circular shape
5. I usually make a handle right before starting to build the mug, so it’s firm enough to work with by the time I’m done with the cylinder part of the mug. I prefer handle-making tools, rather than pulling them by hand
6. cut the mug edges at a 45 degree angle. you can eyeball it or use a tool. remember to flip the slab before cutting the other side, so they line up lol. I only made that mistake once.
I used to not do this step but my seams are a lot cleaner now.
7. score and slip, then join. once I’ve blended the two sides together a bit with my fingers, I like to use a soft rubber rib to smooth out the seam on the inside and outside, adding extra slip to fill any little gaps. it’ll be ugly at first, just keep refining it!
8. score and slip to attach the bottom piece to the cylinder. I add extra slip around the inside of the mug where the bottom attaches, and once I’ve flipped the mug back over, I smooth the extra slip along the seam on the inside with a brush or sponge, to help fill any gaps and attach everything nicely
9. here I usually use The Cone. the rim is going to warp again as I add my handle, so I’ll use the cone again later. it’s just helpful to have the rim round before adding a handle
10. attach handle. I like to attach them over the seam so as to leave the rest of the mug as smooth as possible for decorating
11. use The Cone again, refine the rim, cover mug with plastic and leave until leather hard
12. trim it, clean it up, etc (here’s one I prepared earlier!)
Slab building does give you some fun options besides just "round," too. I didn't like having a seam on something that was supposed to be round, and trying to make it invisible was driving me insane, so instead I. Made the seams a design feature. Et voilá!
This one was an early attempt and came out hilariously large. I have since decided to make my mugs about four inches tall and four inches around at the top (smaller at the bottom), which makes each hexagonal side two inches wide and a bit over four tall (due to the curve). That shrinks down to about 3.5, which is what most of the mugs in our cupboard measure at.
I suspect, from the looks I got while I was making these, that this kind of geometric assembly would drive a lot of potters crazy. I had fun though.
I did, yeah. It goes a little like this. This is on 0.5 cm grid paper if anyone wishes to try and replicate it. The floating, curved bottom is A Lot but, to me, worth it - very satisfying to use a spoon with. You could also just stick a flat bottom on it. For Big Mug, simply. Make big. It's not actually much taller, but it is a *lot* wider (2.5 inches on a side instead of 2, if we trust the firing ticket.)
I roll my slabs about the same thickness as OP, except for the bottom (which I do a hair thicker). I use a similar angled wire cutter tool, just the 30° side instead of the 45°. You can do it manually with a rib or needle tool, but I highly recommend not doing that. The angle wire tool is really satisfying and a good thing to have if you're interested in slab building at all. A protractor and a ruler come in clutch for this, but aren't necessarily required.
Finished examples (ignore the messy glazing, please):
I pull my handles, but you can use pretty much any method. You do want to think about whether you want it on a side, or a corner - it affects the way you drink out of it. I also added a foot ring that I haven't included in the diagram - up to you if you wanna do that, and how.
Big Mug wasn't getting used here, so I sold it (at a discount) to someone who was very pleased by its size and heft. Hopefully it's making them happy.
