I love when a meme gets so many steps away from its source material that it would be completely incomprehensible if I didn't know what today's date was
Justin of the Timber Lake: A mythical figure revered in the early 21st century as the Harbinger of May, thought to be the name of a deity, or possibly some sort of messianic figure
Excerpt from A History of Pre-Contact Earth, published 2903
I could . not. put. this down for 48 hours - stayed up too late, had weird dreams about it, woke up early, and played it while I was supposed to be doing other things. the last several dozen items took a lot of googling, which I do not even begrudge it.
and then. My partner started it. And the SAME THING happened to him.
surprisingly compelling. start when you have free time. like, yanno, a snow day.
oh my god, if you are the kind of person who gets sucked into logic puzzles, do not click that link if you have to do anything/go to sleep in the next couple hours
I was disappointed there weren't more levels, so I made them! The creator's code was under CC Share Alike, so I moved a copy to my website, rustled up 40 new categories, and added buttons so you can generate smaller puzzles!
FIRST LOOK: ted lasso season 4 | source | “ted returns to richmond, taking on his biggest challenge yet: coaching a second division women’s football team. throughout the course of the season, ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would.”
Gavin Newsom is an anti-LGBTQ bigot, being even further right than the California Republican Party. I'll repeat that, the man considered the front runner for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States is even more bigoted against LGBTQ people than Republicans.
This man should not only not lead the Democratic party, he should be nowhere near any kind of lever of power ever again once his term is done.
Anyone who gives even the smallest shit about LGBTQ people should not support this man. Point blank. I don't care if he posts AI slop on Twitter that mildly annoys fascists while they rip people out of their beds and off the street to send to concentration camps in El Salvador.
He doesn't want to beat Trump to end discrimination against LGBTQ people, he wants to beat Trump so that he can be the one discriminating against LGBTQ people.
WRONG. GAVIN NEWSOM SIGNED INTO LAW OR CONFIRMED EXISTING STATE LAWS PROVIDING FOR ALL THE TRANS RIGHTS/SERVICES IN THE PARAGRAPH EXCERPTED ABOVE.
A few sentences above that paragraph:
"Newsom neither signed nor vetoed a number of bills passed by the Democratic California House and Senate addressing LGBT+ community concerns."
And below:
"Editor’s Note: The original version of this story mistakenly stated Newsom has chosen not to sign trans protections. It has been updated to say he has until the end of the week to act."
And of course, that was not the end of the story.
Responding to an unprecedented wave of hate against trans communities, California legislators have sent bills supporting queer healthcare an
According to the Trans News Network article above:
AB 82 / SB 497 : SIGNED - "These privacy-focused bills provide needed confidentiality for patients, providers, and volunteers involved with trans healthcare. "
AB 1084 / SB 59 : SIGNED: "This pair of legal name change bills includes one that streamlines the process of updating legal name and gender, and another to ensure that older court records of name changes can’t be used to out or dox trans people."
SB 418: VETOED: Bolsters nondiscrimination protections for health insurance plans and requires the plans to cover up to a 12-month supply of prescription hormones. (Letter with veto excerpt: "I appreciate the author's intent to ensure patient access to the comprehensive care they need. While there are provisions of this bill that are worthy of support, [...it] is likely to result in an increase in enrollee premiums to offset costs incurred by health plans and insurers.") In 2022, Newsom signed California's first-in-the-nation TGI Inclusive Care Act requiring insurers to cover gender affirming care, including hormone therapy.
AB 554: VETOED: Requires insurance coverage of all FDA-approved medications that prevent HIV such as PreP, without prior authorization. (Letter with veto excerpt: "I wholeheartedly support efforts to ensure affordable and accessible prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, and I share the author's desire to address politically motivated changes to long-standing preventive services requirements by the current hostile federal administration. This year's budget specifically codified the January 1, 2025 recommendations made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for no-cost preventive services..." [Translation: The cost of these drugs is already covered by the state of California. We got this.]
AB 727: SIGNED: Mandates that schools and universities must provide all youth suicide hotline information, including numbers for LGBTQ+ hotlines in the wake of Trump’s defunding of the Trevor Project hotline.
AB 678: SIGNED: Requires state housing programs to coordinate with LGBTQ+ communities to ensure homelessness programs remain inclusive and nondiscriminatory for queer people experiencing homelessness, directly combatting federal efforts to force homeless shelters to ban trans people.
SB 590: SIGNED: Expands paid family leave protections to include the diverse caregiving needs of queer families.
SB 450 SIGNED: Clarifies California adoption law to allow for LGBTQ+ couples who live outside of California to adopt children born in the state through California proceedings, which are more inclusive than many other states.
So basically the two he vetoed are already taken care of by existing legislation HE SIGNED, but he's resisting anything that gives health insurers an excuse to jack up premiums. And blame trans people for it. (And, yes, him.)
As for AB 86, the gender education bill, which required schools to use 2019 health instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1-8, including introducing the concept that gender does not necessarily match sexual organs in third grade. Newsom's veto message says, "The Budget Act of 2025 authorized a Curriculum Guidance Study to evaluate and improve the current state-level curriculum […] Proposals like AB 86 should only be considered after this study is complete."
If he had signed that into law, he could kiss any presidential aspirations goodbye. Is that the purity test for which we're going to cancel him?
I can't help noticing the OP is yet another example of a tiny grain of truth being wrapped up in lies "Newsom vetoed [all these things he signed into law]!" and out-of-context quotes, presented by someone appearing to be from an oppressed community, in order to stir up outrage in that community against a progressive candidate.
HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO FALL FOR THIS PATTERN?!
It's happened for four election cycles now. It's an entire industry. There's reams of studies on it. In 2016 and 2020, they targeted the Black community most. The pre-Trump FBI even busted a whole nest of them on Tumblr. Are we going to let them dupe the queer community the same way?
Do not let these milktoast muppet white men content creators convince you that we are doomed. They are selling fear and profiting off of it.
His health is failing. The cult has lost its’ momentum. The Epstein victims are actively making their case and trials will be happening, worldwide. The GOP is fighting amongst themselves about everything. Dems are winning their elections at the state and federal levels. The military is being sent to cities to then stand around and be mocked. Judges have also ruled it’s illegal for them to be sent to blue cities in the first place. Alligator Alcatraz got shut down. They’re desperate to hire people for ICE because people keep quitting. Protests are happening every week, everywhere.
We are in a very scary and chaotic time. Project 2025 is terrifying. People are being emboldened to be violent, and people are being traumatized and harmed. The country has been divided and damaged, but not beyond repair and rebuild. We will get through this, we just can’t give up and comply in advance. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
#wait sentinel aus are based on an actual show???#I thought they were just one of those inexplicable Fandom Things - im WHEEZING, i love this so much
never Once have I ever seen a reference to an actual extant intellectual property, it’s always “what if we had this super complicated codependent pseudo-magic sci-fi thing going on” and then just running with it OTL
i do not have the spoons to FULLY get into it, as it demands, but the one with the military haircut (he’s a cop, a “protector”, c’est la vie) is Jim Ellison, former Army Ranger, repressed fool. curly haired bb is Blair Sandburg, an anthropology grad student who realizes Jim is a Sentinel of legend, latches onto him like a remora, and Jim basically leans on Blair like a crutch all the while pretending he doesn’t care for him in a very “I made you a friendship bracelet” “ugh gross” “well you don’t have to---” “shut up I’m gonna wear it” way
they were handsy
HANDSY I SAY
they STARTED handsy
they moved in together in like. ep one.
they become partners in the cop sense, they do a lot of gift of the magi shit for each other, every time I start to think of the stupid shit they do for another I remember More Weird Shit, codependent fucking weirdos
Okay, I absolutely MUST chime in For The Sentinel which NEVER gets the respect of its peers just because "the plots were a little convoluted" and the "central premise wore a little thin as the seasons went on." those men were in love. THOSE MEN WERE LOVERS!!!!!
What you need to know about The Sentinel is that the very first episode is about Jim Ellison acquiring mystical powers. YES I want to be clear, the way he acquires these powers is "problematical" and "not great, respecting indigenous cultures wise" but okay, so he's got these powers that make all of his senses amped up to dangeous levels. he can hear things no one else can hear, he can see things like he's fucking legolas, you get the deal.
so he goes to the doctor to be like "i feel weird" because of course, and Blair Sandberg, twink anthropologist to the stars, BREAKS SEVERAL LAWS to get in Jim's exam room and say—i know how to help you. i know what's wrong with you. i know how to make life better. and jim ellison looked at the little twink man and said yes....YES to love YES to life YES to living in a 1 bedroom LOFT apartment together. YES to being soulmates and life partners! YES I'LL MARRY YOU!!!!!!
This is the ORIGINAL big gruff german sheppard/lil yapping chihuahua pairing. And fandom looked at this show and said "this is good. i will build a kingdom upon this land. from now on, these are the two genders: big, angry, powerful, forced to their knees by circumstances beyond their control AND small, jokester, has skills INVALUABLE to Big, bad self worth. And then so the sentinel/guide aus RULED the pervert community, and everyone rejoiced.
And then SPN looked at this, and said "but what if the guides also had wet butts" and u kno what? innovation is CRUCIAL.
my friend had Sentinel VHS tapes acquired from someone on the internet and basically every episode featured tough military man Jim being driven to his knees in agony verging on madness bc of his mystical senses being overwhelmed and tiny commie academic Blair soothing him and healing his agonies by touching him (and communicating with him via psychic leopards????) so they could save lives and the show wasn’t GOOD but my god it was something
God this was such an important fandom to me. My Sentinel friends are my family now, more than a quarter of a century later. Merryish, who first offered my fanfic a home* in —1997? 1998?—taught my kid to snorkel 20 years later. Flummery are my kid’s fairy godmothers. I basically married astolat 25 years ago. And every time I see one of you Sentinel people online (waves to a bunch of you who reblogged this) I feel like I’ve run into someone from the old country! That fandom literally changed my life.
But also, fannishly, so inventive! Some of the first vids I ever saw back before there were computers –VHS vids, wonderful ones. (Shout out to GloRo!) Great great fanfic and art. I still have gorgeous zines from this period. And the loft tape! Go to fanlore and look up the loft tape you guys!!
*before the AO3! When you needed someone to host your fic! This is part of why we built the AO3! So many (so many!!!) Sentinel people involved in building the AO3! Astolat built the Sentinel archive, 852 Prospect, a decade before the AO3, that was our first practice archive software. That software was adapted and used in other fandoms like due South. Seah and I were both DS archivists. This is all part of the story of how the AO3 came about. The sentinel/guide trope is the least of it. The Sentinel’s impact on fandom is totally outsized considering what a minor show it was. But it had a great concept that it did not fully exploit, which I think is in fact, what an amazing fandom needs.
Fun Story: My director kept telling me and my tenor sax buddy to play softer. No matter what we did, it wasn’t soft enough for him. So getting frustrated, I told my buddy “Dont play this time. Just fake it”
Our Band Director then informed us we sounded perfect.
Okay yeah so I play the bass clarinet and the amount of air you have to move and the stiffness of the reed means it only has two settings and that is loud and louder, with an optional LOUDEST that includes a 50% probability of HORRIBLE CROAKING NOISE which is the bass equivalent of the ubiquitous clarinet shriek.
One day, when I was in concert band in high school, we got a new piece handed out for the first time, and there was a strange little commotion back in the tuba section — whispering, and pointing at something in the music, and swatting at each other’s hands all shhh don’t call attention to it. And although they did attract the attention of basically everyone else in the band, they managed to avoid being noticed by the band director, who gave us a few minutes to look over our parts and then said, “All right, let’s run through it up to section A.”
And here we are, cheerfully playing along, sounding reasonably competent — but everyone, when they have the attention to spare, is keeping an eye on the tuba players. They don’t come in for the first eight measures or so, and then when they do come in, what we see is:
[stifled giggling]
[reeeeeeally deep breath]
[COLOSSAL FOGHORN NOISE]
The entire band stops dead, in the cacophonous kind of way that a band stops when it hasn’t actually been cued to stop. The band director doesn’t even say anything, just looks straight back at the tubas and makes a helpless sort of why gesture.
In unison, the tuba players defend themselves: “THERE WERE FOUR F’S.”
FFFF is not really a rational dynamic marking for any instrument, but for the love of all that is holy why would you put it in a tuba part.
Those fortes are environmental storytelling. Thats the mark of a man who kept saying “louder!“and was not satified with the volume he got and decided to be passive agressive about it
Job cuts and frozen funding could inch one of the world’s rarest species even closer to extinction.
DOGE just froze funding to vital Federal and Indigenous conservation programs devoted to supporting the very delicate and tenuous existence of the black-footed ferret.
I fell in love with these animals as a kid traveling to our National Parks. Their rarity and ferocity made me sharply aware, even as a child, of just how much of a responsibility we have toward our environment. I can't bear the thought of them being a fucking casualty of Trump and Musk.
Okay I don't want to end this on doom and gloom, so I'm also going to add that the Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance was one of the indigenous-lead organizations who were supposed to receive a $1.1 million dollar grant that has since been frozen. But they do have a website and they do accept donations.
They are currently doing an emergency fundraiser!! Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance (BNGA) is raising $50,000 in emergency funds to support Tribal efforts to recover black-footed ferrets
Native American Tribes manage 14% of all remaining black-footed ferrets in the wild. Freezes of federal funding are jeopardizing their conse
gummygunk
origamiaround
ellievsbear
jbbartram-illu
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
