You find a burrow among the rubble

Currently have The Magnus Archives in the brain. And also Magic The Gathering. Nashi my beloved, Greasefang my desired... Follows are not endorsements.

[hemipenal-system]

warehouse blue collar yuri with your burnt out butch manager twice your age

[hemipenal-system]

yeah whatever she knows she can't smoke in here. she's trying to quit. leave her alone. yeah, no, sure, you can suck her off, just close the blinds. you will have to stop if corporate calls though because she's already under investigation for fucking her employees. the company's going under in like 2 years max though, so like, whatever, who cares. plus all of you like it, so it's whatever. go ahead and close the blinds and- hang on a minute-

GET THE FUCK OFF THAT PALLET JACK SHE'LL BEAT YOUR ASS HERSELF! AND PUT A FUCKING HELMET ON

sorry. anyway. yeah. so, what, you just wanna kneel under her desk or something? that skirt looks nice on you but yknow you really should be wearing work pants. call her sleazy again, it turns her on

[orteil42]

it's been incredibly freeing to realize that i'm entitled to never having to come up with anything original ever again because i already made cookie clicker and i can be satisfied with that. sorry this isn't meant to be relatable the rest of y'all still gotta try

[orteil42]

"hey orteil you posted a joke but someone else already made that post like a month ago" don't care. popularized a game genre

[orteil42]

[birdbutchcloaca]

Tf potion that turns you into a really badly designed wolfaboo oc instead of a realistic coyote like you always wanted. Better luck next time i hope you like constant emo fringe and your eyes changing colors with your emotions.

[hemipenal-system]

[1-jar-of-stars]

On Friendship.

[caseyhughes]

i love the way tom talks like as far as everyone in that room sans jake is aware this is how tom ALWAYS acts. gotta make sure he still acts gay and annoying

[himbocorgi]

How come House never got into a little submarine and fought the virus from inside the body? They say he's a good doctor?

[striders]

the other day i saw a tiktok of a woman talking about how her hyper-militant abusive parents would sometimes punish her by “taking away her name” and referring to her as a prisoner number. genuinely terrible stuff, obviously. but i skimmed the comments and. listen. i truly DO NOT mean to dunk too hard on this person, like they could be a kid or something, but.

just. breathtaking. imagine if your primary reference for the concept of the un-personing of prisoners was (check notes) a book series about owls.

[saleensundria9]

This is why it's important to Include stuff like this in fiction, especially ya fiction. It can be a lot of sheltered and/or indoctrinated children, in the case of a lot of rural "Christians", first introduction to these types of concepts in a way they can understand.

I don't think there's anything weird or shameful about it. Knowledge is knowledge, regardless of where it came from.

[a-polite-melody]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I was once listening to one of the ten billion animorphs podcasts out there, with two hosts, one who'd read Animorphs as a kid and one who was reading it for the first time as an adult. For those who don't know, Animorphs is a war story in which a handful of children have to secretly hold off an alien invasion until the "good" aliens arrive to save Earth. It starts off with fairly clear-cut Bad Species of aliens and Good Species of aliens but as the series goes on it becomes clear that there is no such thing as a good, clean or glorious war, that a clean Good Side and a clean Bad Side is usually propoganda, that heroism is a matter of circumstance and that war will chew up and spit out even the victorious; there are no winners in war, just the side that lost less.

It's a lot, for books aimed at eleven year olds who want to read about kids turning into fun animals.

On the podcast, the two (American) hosts happened to get onto the topic of the post-9/11 Iraq War and their reactions to it. They were both children at the time and as such could not be expected to have particularly nuanced views of US military policy. The person who hadn't read Animorphs was unsurprised by the declaration of war; that's what you did. Someone attacks America, America goes to war. That's how a country protects itself, through military revenge. The Animorphs fan, about the same age, had been devastated and against the war from the start. War was a Big Deal and, while sometimes unavoidable, should be a last resort; a lot of people were going to die, and a lot more were going to get hurt, and no matter how the war shook out it was still going to be horrible. They attributed this perspective, of course, to the series that had taught them about the horrors endemic to war in an engaging way at such a young age -- to Animorphs.

That's what kid fiction is for.

[bonuscatart]

I want to give the benefit of the doubt for the commenter. I don't know that person's age. A younger person doesn't have as much life experience, so a book may be their first introduction to this. On the other hand, an older person should be able to connect prisoner numbers to something from real life. I feel like both OP and the commenter mean well here.

Kathryn Lasky writes nonfiction and fiction, including historical novels. Guardians of Ga'Hoole was written with intent. St. Aggies, the prisoner number owls, is a cult that violently forbids questions. The Pure Ones are barn owl supremacists, and their internal hierarchy is based on how white a species' feathers are. Both groups kill and brainwash for the sake of power. They show readers what suppression looks like.

On the other hand, the protagonists seek knowledge. The Guardians have classes, music, technology, literature, etc. that couldn't exist without free thinking. The protags even visit monk owls (Glauxian Brothers) who started an archive after reading remnants of Ray Bradbury. The protags are able to question authority, and they discover what society should try to be. The series is clearly against censorship.

Yes, it is weird to mention fictional owls to a person being abused. Still, learning has to start somewhere.

[toskarin]

I love when an artist does something as a joke but then obviously thinks about it until they trick themselves into being into it. like haha I drew them in the green alien au where they're both green aliens who say gleepblorp [three days later] I drew another green alien picture

[fallout-lou-begas]

it's finally that time of the year again for the clinically depressed newscaster describing february with disco elysium music

[fallout-lou-begas]

what is the single best line in this video

it's a month that doesn't hold up life any better than it really is

something great happened here but it's over with and that's the way february is

like the desperate flinging off of something that's not true anymore

the expedition is getting desperate. people are throwing things aside

this looks like a place where people who are being punished are sent

nobody is tap dancing or breaking into a rogers and hammerstein song

theyre just barely able to get across the street and hunker over a bowl of chili

most of the birds who can afford it have flown to florida

it's as if there's some awful truth out there in the trees

something that's been bothering you for a long time is out there. what is it?

to hide the bleakness of feb., man invented valentine's day. also mardi gras.

what other month can host a holiday designed to remind us we're all gonna die?

Voting ended onFeb 11

character limit forced me to paraphrase

[lumsel]

There's an open pit in the middle of our office plan that drops down into a bunch of very sharp spikes that kill you instantly. This is bad. People keep falling in there and dying. Someone put a sign up, the other day, all bright yellow so you can't miss it, that says "Beware!!! Spikes!!!"

The office immediately split into two factions over it. One says that if anyone falls in the spike pit it's their own fault for being so stupid and not watching where they're walking, so we should remove the sign. The other says that the sign is an insult, there shouldn't be a spike pit in our office at all, and having the sign up like that is just normalising the existence of the spike pit, so we should remove the sign.

We ended up removing the sign. Probably for the better. Still... for a while there it looked like it might have worked...

[unusual-pybro]

[m1dori-eyes]

Nobody has ever been capable of writing a scathingly harsh and well formulated satire about the perils of modern capitalism, that doesn't just get immediately one-upped by some random food service worker talking about their actual week.

[fairycosmos]

look. i don’t think my stretch marks are beautiful. i don’t think they’re tiger stripes or natural tattooos. i don’t think my acne is beautiful. i don’t think the bags under my eyes are beautiful. i just think they’re human. and i don’t think i have to be beautiful all of the time in order to be accepted and loved and sucessful. i don’t think every small detail of my outer appearence needs to be translated into prettiness.

[serotonin-sunrise]

fun fact: this POV is actually called “body neutrality” and it’s SO MUCH more accessible/realistic for a lot of people. it’s based on the idea that the way we look is the least interesting/important thing about who we are, and that our bodies are worthy of respect regardless if they fit the mold of the current beauty ideals.

[my-dark-happy-place]

I would like all Americans (and everyone else) who are excited for the Superbowl to know: Before the actual Superbowl there's a live tournament on TV, here in Germany, called "American Ice Football".

It is exactly what it sounds like: American Football but played on Ice, in shoes with entirely smooth soles.

It's a tournament with 4 teams and they are called Eastside Ossis, Westside Wessis, Northcoast Naughties and Southside Smoothies and it's just hilariously entertaining.

Here's a video to show you how stupid it looks:

[my-dark-happy-place]

Also the players (who are all german celebs or pro athletes from other sports) and the commentator barely know the rules, which makes it even better.

Quite a few of them have little notes taped to their arms to remember the rules or next plays.

This is high quality entertainment.

[my-dark-happy-place]

If anyone cares: The Westside Wessis won the finale haha

[brain-thoughts-backlog]

i've seen posts about how animorphs does war, but not about the range of other things it covers. why someone would join a cult (tobias and the one girl whose house blew up or something), unwilling soldiers on the opposing side (the yeerk cassie fought with and eventually the resistance), and even comparatively more simple things like a parent moving on after losing their spouse (marco's dad remarrying). i think it has a reputation as the weird child war book series, which it is, but it has a lot more going on too, even if it's not the main focus. the more everyday things are still there, and the animorphs still have to deal with them on top of the war

[dumbpuppyfag]

ppl act like being genuinely anti-copyright is some big radical thing but like every major copyright case of the last forever is game studios going "we estimate our lost revenue to surpass infinity billion dollars" and the judge trying to kill the defendant right there with his gay little judge hammer

[dumbpuppyfag]

and ppl on here will yell at you for pointing this out!! ppl will insist that copyright is there to protect small artists against big corporations, like these companies couldn't annihilate this website's art scene overnight by sending matt a cease and desist letter for pokesonas or leon kennedy yaoi or whatever. any coherent defence of copyright as a legal framework requires you to acknowledge the corrosive stranglehold it has over artistic expression and then justify that with a fantasy of getting rich in a lawsuit that you absolutely would not win. selfish shitty petit bourgeois baby mindset

[pikestaff]

"Stop saying 15 year olds with weird interests are cringe, they're 15" this is true however you should also stop saying adults with weird interests are cringe because who gives a shit

[themythicalcodfish]

To wit:

[switchelsweets]

I want to share some wisdom from my high school art teacher.

In my AP Art class, there was a girl who was just starting to experiment with mixed media. At this point she was still playing around, trying to decide what direction she wanted to go with her portfolio. So one critique day, she brought in an abstract canvas with some rhinestone highlights and painted and real peacock feathers. She loved sparkles and peacock feathers so she thought she’d try introducing them a *little*. And after everyone had given some input, the teacher gave her his advice, VERY roughly paraphrased here:

“So here’s the thing… I do not like this style. These are just elements that do not speak to me personally, but I see that you like them, and you’re doing interesting things with them.

“My biggest critique is, I only merely *dislike* this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.”

Her portfolio was chock full of neon colors and glitter and rhinestones and splashes of peacock feathers and it was a delight. Our teacher despised every piece lol, but she got great marks and I think even won some awards. And more importantly, she was happy and proud of the results. Because she didn’t limit herself by trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy what she enjoyed.

Takeaway here: be as cringe as you want. Don’t limit yourself based on other ppl’s tastes. They’re not you, and you are incredible 💕

[txttletale]

im already sick to death of this new wave of epstein conspiracy theories. He did not cunningly mastermind the rise of online fascism he met with poole because it boosted his self image as someone on the Cutting Edge of tech and science and told him some shit like "politics is the judo of the mind"

[stackslip]

if i may add to your post, i'll go a step further. a lot of people became friendly with him/met up with him after finding out he was a sex trafficker, but i imagine that 99/100 of them did not do so in order to be participate in trafficking. the reality is much more banal and shitty: none of these people cared that he was a rapist who was hanging out with other rapists or who organised the rape of children. they mostly cared that he was rich, and that he had many friends in all kinds of places. they wanted to be closer to his world of influence and use his connections, they wanted to be part of the It Club. and frankly, like with near any in-group at any societal level, the vast majority of people will ignore allegations against a charismatic person who's in the higher ends of the hierarchy of said in-group (be it your local scene or sports club or industry etc)--because they want to climb up the ranks, and especially if the victims are people whose lives and whose words are already devalued (women, being trans, being poor, being racialized). just look at chomsky in his emails moaning about how MeToo went too far and how hysterical women lie about rape, to a convicted rapist! i suspect it's also why the epstein conspiracy theories present his victims not as they actually were--mainly working class teenagers, many of whom were racialized--but as nebulous babies and prepubescent children assumed to come from Good Families (white, middle class). in reality, had all of this come out at the time it happened and these victims been a lot more front and center, you know a lot of folks would accuse these girls of being sluts and whores for "allowing themselves" to be abused.

[unusual]

Japanese is an incredibly fun and rewarding language (if you’ve ever wanted to learn it for ANY reason, most importantly including the “silly” reasons) but the fearmongering and capitalist intervention involved in the language learning process have given it a reputation as an “impossible task” for English speakers, leading to confusion and dkn learners and weird pessimist attitudes about the whole thing. In this thread I will explain how to effectively learn and retain Japanese. This is a tried, tested and true method; probably 99% of all people who try to learn Japanese give up, but everyone I’ve met who has tried and stuck with this has been at or above N3-N4 after 6 months or less including me

[unusual]

You can teach yourself Japanese for free if you have a little free time every day and a computer

1. Drill yourself on hiragana and katakana. These are the phonetic building blocks of Japanese, think of them as equivalent to english letters. This site is a good resource in general. Once you have a solid grasp on this, DO NOT LINGER HERE; move to step 2. You will master kana later.

2. Download Anki. This is a flashcard service. They have a paid app if you’re willing to invest for it, but if not, they have a mobile website (create an account and sync it with your computer).

This is the deck you’re going to download. Import it to Anki and do this every day. I have learned the hard way (twice) that skipping this is bad. If you become overwhelmed, you can change the number of new cards and reviews by clicking the cog next to the name of the deck!

3. Cure Dolly (Youtube, grammar) + transcript. She has kind of a posh accent, you might want to turn subtitles on. Watch a few videos when you feel like it but most importantly set up 4 and 5 as soon as possible

4. Yomitan (must have) is a browser extension that functions as a pop-up dictionary. you need to install dictionaries for it to work. here are some dictionaries you can use with yomitan and explanations of what they do

5. READ. DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET STUCK BEFORE THIS STEP. JUST READ!!!! Most people who fail to learn Japanese do so because they are afraid of not being ready to move on, which is counterproductive. Just read. When you were a child did you spend years on vocab and grammar before reading? No I bet you did not. Pick something to read and learn what you don’t already know by reading in Japanese.

Jiten.moe has a list of novels and visual novels that you can read on your computer sorted by difficulty. So does jpdb. There’s also this document. There’s also this document. Hey look this website is cool too

For visual novels: download LunaHook. It “hooks” to your VN and allows you to use Yomitan on words you don’t know. Turn off the translation feature, it does nothing to help you learn

For literary texts: ttsu e-reader supports epub and htmlz files.

You can also learn Japanese by watching anime, but it’s a little more convoluted and requires a lot more patience.

For manga, utilize Mangatan, but I don’t recommend this right out the gate because when you’re first learning sentence structure you’ll want something with complete sentences.

Set your computer up for mining vocab before you start reading. Once you finish your kaishi deck, you can drill your mining cards (I didn’t do mine until after finishing kaishi because it was too much).

Most importantly: reading is going to be hard at first. It is going to piss you off. You need to muscle through with this because this is where the bulk of your learning will happen. After a while you will just feel like reading because you love reading! Try not to pick something too hard for your first read, but if you’re interested in the story you might be able to muscle through something a little tougher.

Remember to consult yomitan and cure dolly where needed, that’s what it’s there for. As you can see I am quite normal about the Japanese language, so if you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to shoot me an ask and I will get back to you promptly. Japanese is not your enemy and it is not impossible. It is your friend