Constellations Abound @luckipunk - Tumblr Blog

we got a full redbox and now we're playing go fish with the redbox movies

I would never pay money for a redbox. if you ask politely and are very very persistent (i.e. annoying) they will let you take it away

here's my dad and i taking it away

a redbox makes a wonderful addition to your patio

fishmech

for those wondering why they're free to take now, it's because the company that made those "chicken soup for the soul" books bought them a few years ago and then completely collapsed so bad they couldn't afford to dispose of or even take the blu rays and dvds out of their kiosks all over.

so any of them is free game because they're all located on other business' property and they usually don't want to have to pay to get rid of them either. so asking the store manager usually gets you the ok to pull it out and keep it.

chirasul

there was a period of time right after their bankruptcy where you could put in any debit or credit card and it would spit out movies without charging you. you could even put in like an expired or deactivated card, or a visa gift card with a $0 balance, didnt matter, they'd just start spitting discs out. a lotta people raided redboxes for movies for a couple months, with some people doing what me and my brother and my dad did here, taking the whole box and signs and marquees as well. because managers sure as hell don't want a big abandoned piece of trash on their sidewalk disappointing customers. BUT they're also often too cheap to pay someone to remove it. so they just sit there.

luckily there are no shortage of freaks like us who will just take them away on our own volition. we did it all "by the book", too: we set up cones and caution tape, disconnected electricity properly, used an angle grinder to grind down the bolts in the concrete so nobody would trip on them, then cleaned everything up afterward and sealed off the electrical panel so the store would know everything is safe and tidy. though they were hesitant when we were first contacting them, they were honestly very relieved and grateful when we finally took it away, especially once they saw that we "knew what we were doing" (we don't) and look like we've "done this before" (we haven't).

the fun part: the reason why this redbox, in particular, was completely full and unraided is because the computer hardware inside had failed some months before the bankruptcy, and a failing company sure as hell wasn't gonna send a tech out to our podunk dipshit city to fix it, so it was impossible to rent movies or take any discs out. plus, for who knows how long, people were returning old redbox discs to this machine and not taking any out, leading to a much higher variety of movies than your average redbox.

there is a thriving community of redbox hackers and modders out there, as well, creating open-source software for repurposing the machines and not letting their very interesting and robust disc-management hardware go to waste. this one belongs to my brother (who was very annoying persistent and did all the legwork of contacting managers and securing permission) who is a programmer by trade and will be hacking it into a family-access movie library, with whatever discs we want. i mean the machine is completely weatherproof and has a built-in AC unit, it would be such a waste to not try to turn it into something cool.

if we get another one, i'm gonna try to mod it into some sort of art or zine vending machine. the disc boxes are just the right size for small print art or stickers. would make a great "little free library" too.

remember: the rules are made up. act like you belong there and you can get away with anything. this applies to your own life

rage-against-the-dying-of-light

Fandom is weird now. It’s becoming less trusting and friendly, and the Orwellian surveillance issues that are currently running rampant in the USA and UK have bled over into fandom spaces.

I’d read the articles that young people have no privacy and have become so accustomed to it that they enact on themselves. Abstractly I knew this and had accepted it, but it’s only now that I’m seeing it become a major issues.

Obviously part of the problem is I need to become a trusted member of my new fandom. But fandom in general is becoming far more hostile to privacy than even just 5 years ago.

I’ve had to leave 3 servers that want to do age verification. And this is new. Not even 5 years ago when I started zines ppl just turning 18-20 were far more receptive to the ideas espoused by us older folks about not being surveilled. But now it almost feels like they *want* to be surveilled.

They’ve become so used to it from tiktok and their government that they crave it. I’d write a dystopia about it but unfortunately what even is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

If you’re 18-22 now and you’re reading this and willing to listen without immediately calling me suspicious: this is not normal. Age verification will not keep you safe and will not keep minors safe either. It will only lead to the normalization of further surveillance and erosion of your privacy.

I know it can be an unwieldy text especially if you’re not used to reading academic sources, but go read The Panopticon. Watch V for Vendetta or read the comic, read 1984. Watch The Lives of Others and understand the ways this modern era is not so different from the Stasi in the film.

Please.

I don’t want to see a rerun of the surveillance state anymore.

raylangivins

nwarrior777

this made me feel so much

it also reminds me on my "i give up" technique

sometimes in Very rough times i Say "i give up i can't no more i give up"

and- nothing happens.

If you Said "i give up" out loud, nothing will happen to world to you, like, nothing will stop

As with failure - if you admit it, you just say "goodbye" to one of methods you tried to come to solution, to the goal. You don't loose your goal

and in a lot of times - saying "i can't solve it this way" is much more needed, because you finally considering alyernative paths to goal existing by that

dankxsinatra

roxylalonde

beeftea78-deactivated20200113

“I would eat his heart in the marketplace” is legit the most savage line I have ever heard, I’d like to personally thank Shakespeare for putting into words that feeling of rage and protectiveness women get when some fuckboy hurts another woman

aeleolus

Okay first off, I will always reblog this post, but secondly, I went to Shakespeare in the Park tonight to see this and all the women cheered *so loudly* when Beatrice said this line, and the guy in front of me looked around all shocked and a little scared and said “… oh wow” and it was ICONIQUE

neshamama

so weird leftists don't call out big food more remember when nestlé was responsible for over 10 million infant deaths in low and middle income countries i do

neshamama

report

neshamama

or the death and disease they have meticulously inflicted on the most vulnerable of brazil while undermining public health policy and education

exxos-von-steamboldt

delicatefury

I just googled this and… yes, it’s absolutely real.

And there are so many articles and videos and discussions. Like, the scientific community is buzzing about this.

So much research will have to be redone because the data was absolutely compromised, off by orders of magnitude, by using standard lab gloves.

The world is probably not horrifically contaminated by microplastics. Sterile laboratories, however, are contaminated by latex and nitrile gloves.

Thank God someone bothered to check.

beardedmrbean

>I just googled this and… yes, it’s absolutely real.

Sources beyond dude just trust me, for the skeptics.

Scientists may have been unknowingly inflating microplastics pollution estimates, and the surprising source could be their own lab gloves. A

https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/scientists-lab-gloves-may-be-causing-an-overestimation-of-microplastics-411138

Nitrile and latex gloves that scientists wear while they are measuring microplastics may lead to a potential overestimation of the tiny poll

Nitrile and latex gloves may cause overestimation of microplastics - Phys.org (it’s a pdf)

Researchers discovered a standard piece of lab equipment has added thousands of microplastic ‘false positives’ per each square-millimeter un

Ordinary Lab Gloves May Have Skewed Microplastic Data: That doesn’t mean microplastics aren’t a problem, though

That should be enough

butchyena

dude.

falseficus

i knew a surgeon and he once told me “nobodys insides look like how the textbooks say they will. you never know what you’re going to find in there once you open them up” and that was easily the most ominous thing anyone’s ever said to me

brownheadedcowbird

when i was taking my first year anatomy lab, we’d occasionally find a cadaver where things would branch off or attach in the wrong order, and when we’d ask our prof about it, he’d just shrug and say “they must not have read the book”

ryannorth

When my friend was in med school one of the cadavers donated for them to autopsy didn't have a belly button, just smooth skin.

dandelion-stuff-and-fluff

In the past 10 years of teaching in an anatomy lab, I have seen:

- A donor with a scrotum the size of my head. When we opened it up, we discovered it was a MASSIVE inguinal hernia and a good 1.5 ft of intestine were trapped down there.

- A donor with situs inversus totalis, whose organs were a mirror image of what we normally see (ie their heart pointed right and their liver was on the left, just for starters)

- A donor whose right common carotid artery branched off the aorta waaay over on the left hand side of the body and crossed alllll the way back across the thorax to get where it needed to be.

- A donor with 4 lobes for their right lung (should only be 3). We named the 4th lobe the Lisa Loeb, but all of the students were too young to appreciate our sparkling wit.

- A shocking variety of penile and breast implants. Y'all would not believe the number of different ways science has come up to counteract gravity.

- A couple of cases of ectopic kidneys, where a kidney didn't rise to its typical position just deep to the lowest ribs and instead stayed in the pelvis.

There is probably some other stuff that I am forgetting. Take home point is: the human body is weird and wonderful and you should learn more about yours!

brightlotusmoon

....duuude.

naamahdarling

Spleens Georg

stele3

14???????

My contribution: client co pinched nerve in L side of neck. I asked about health hx; she said, “I've got some extra ribs on that side.”

me: “some?” (!!!!!??!?!??!???)

Some was 2, but that’s crazy enough.

cactusspatz

Yeah, I don't discover the anatomical weirdness but I've had clients come in with extra ribs, missing ribs, extra vertebra, accessory muscles (that's when you have duplicates - sometimes fine, sometimes not), bones connected where they shouldn't be (spoiler: if your lumbar spine is connected to your hip, it Causes Problems), all sorts of stuff. Bodies are weird!

headspace-hotel

More from the notes

This made me remember that I had a friend in high school who had one thumb that was like half an inch shorter than the other. Not sure how that happened.

weaselle

even the things you never think about are a spectrum

quinoaphoenicks

I love you guys but I think a lot of you are the kind of people who are susceptible to falling in with a cult.

teaboot

You’re right. We should all band together under a trustworthy and influential leader who can keep us safe from outside threats

t4timekeeper

WE NEED TO START TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT BIGENDERISM

t4timekeeper

seeing people say “sometimes i wish i was a guy but i still want to be a girl too” or vice versa and it’s like YOU CAN!!! YOU CAN DO THAT!!!! TAKE MY HAND

jewish-rock

it should be socially acceptable to wear whatever type of clothes you want anywhere and i am not kidding

jewish-rock

dress is an indicator of status that poor people, people of color, disabled people, some religious people, and women consistently fail to meet due to social prejudice or barriers to acquiring the appropriate clothing

jewish-rock

obviously there are scenarios where specific clothing is required (like PPE at a job site)

but a person coming to an office job in sweatpants doesn't make them less qualified to do their work, it just means they're more comfortable while doing it

jewish-rock

"you're required to wear a face shield, an apron/coat, and closed toed shoes in this lab environment for your safety" awesome perfect, i love safety, and i can wear whatever i want under it.

"you're required to wear a suit to present your lab work" i do not become less intelligent wearing non-formal clothing, and this presentation has now become inaccessible to someone who cannot wear appropriate formal dress

jewish-rock

I FORGOT FAT PEOPLE IN MY ORIGINAL REBLOG, DONT REBLOG WITHOUT INCLUDING FAT PEOPLE

pelicanbrainz

i fucking love these movies

homunculus-argument

Random fragment of linguistic worldbuilding:

A language that has a specific verb for stealing something with the full genuine intention to return the item afterwards. The people find the concept of this kind of borrowing understandable - frowned upon, of course, but not unacceptable like actually stealing for real with the intention to keep the stolen goods.

And every time the people who speak the language as their first language go abroad and find themselves lacking a word, they end up having the exact same conversation. Trying to ask like "hey uh what's your language's word for ...rogue borrowing? Like let's say you're supposed to get to a really important job interview and you missed the bus and you have to get there somehow, so you grab someone's unlocked bike and you're sorry but you're gonna bring it back later? What do you call that, the steal-and-return thing people sometimes do."

And every single time the response is along the lines of "what the fuck, why the hell do you even have a word for that? Who the hell does that??"

hawkeyequeerce

I don't know how Terry managed it. There's just nothing on this earth like a Discworld book. I'll be listening to a book I've read countless times over and suddenly, a single line I've never even really noticed before will tear me open. They just reach right inside me and open my ribcage to expose my very heart.

Tonight, it was Hat Full of Sky and Granny Weatherwax saying, "The world is unfair. Be grateful you have friends." On their own, the words are unremarkable. But juxtaposed together, with the context they are operating in....they had tears flowing down my face before I knew what was happening. The world is unfair; sometimes, the wonderful happens when it shouldn't (and/or when you feel you deserve a divinely wrathful torment) because you have friends. The world is unfair. That doesn't just mean that the horrible happens when it shouldn't. It means that the beautiful does too. Be grateful you have friends. They are the hub on which that beauty spins, turning the theft into gold.

A lot of people I've introduced to these books haven't liked them — they find them too silly, or preachy, or nonsensical, or even puerile. I am never upset or really disappointed when they don't like them. To each their own. But I will never understand it. They are baked into my being in a way that few things are and I am better to myself, to other people, and to the world because of it.

Sir Terry, you were a gift nonpareil. Thank you for your words and for shaping my world.

discworld-heritage-posts

Discworld Heritage Post

encounterthepast

Thank you for writing this so much more clearly than I ever could. Terry Pratchett's books are a reflection on our own society but wrapped up in hilarious observational humour that means they don't feel preachy.

Few authors have made me laugh out loud so frequently and freely.

copperbadge

I was innocently buying a soda and a Kit Kat bar from a snack shop recently when the cashier said, "Oh, a Kit Kat! That's what I named my cat!" and then launched into An Monologue.

Nobody was behind me in line, which seemed to be a good reason for her to treat me to a five minute retelling of the identification, rescue, and argument over initial custody of Kit Kat, who was so small they thought when they first heard him crying for help that he was a bird and not a kitten in a tree, and is now fifteen pounds of "pure, sculpted lardass".

And I didn't mind, precisely, I wasn't bored or anything, but around the time she was bringing me up to speed on Kit Kat's current status it occurred to me that this woman is a cashier in a store that primarily sells candy bars and beverages. People must buy Kit Kat bars from her multiple times a day. Does she do this every time there's nobody in line behind the purchaser? Did I just have that I Own Several Cats And Will Enjoy Your Cat Stories look about me? Was it the first time it occurred to her that she sold the brand of candy bar she named her cat after? Was she new to the job of selling Kit Kat bars?

The idea that every time she sees a Kit Kat bar she is gripped by the urge, Manchurian Candidate style, to retell the story of Kit Kat the Cat, elevates her from a friendly cashier to a deep enigma. Truly there is no knowing the mind of another.

copperbadge

IT GETS FUNNIER

I was in the same snack shop, which I'm in, like, once a month, recently. I only recognized her because I spent five minutes listening to this monologue in sincere wonder. But I did recognize her, so as I was buying a soda and a Milky Way bar (this time) I said, without thinking about how this would come across, "Hey, how's Kit Kat?"

She looked genuinely horrified and said, "What...how?"

"Oh fuck!" I blurted. "Sorry! You told me about him last time!"

This is still quite cryptic as responses go but she gave me a frankly frantic look of sudden recognition and said, "He's fine! You bought a Kit Kat! I was unmedicated!"

I did not inform her she is small town famous on Tumblr and instead just said, "Glad you're both doing well!" and we parted as confused and mortified friends.

Gosh she's fun. I hope she's there next time. I want to reenact the Spiderman Pointing meme with her.