The Second Epistle to the Arisians

yeah okay, ill reblog that

The game becomes open-world when you master the skills: Talk To People and Ask For Things

I promise this is especially true for museum folks, library folks, and academics. We are always looking for an opportunity to talk about our silly little special interests and we will love you for providing one. Send the email.

Send the email!

this is legit I have made a habit of emailing prominent researchers in overly specific things and it has opened many doors...

If u ask a researcher something interesting, tell me about it and I’ll give u a doodle

*Scrolls past*

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*

*rebogs*

Just doing it.

…And to Ursula Le Guin as well, it looks like.

So there you have it.

...And me? I know about wizards, too. And about the Powers that Be. And about worlds where relationship comes in some unusual shapes. I know about adventure. And starships. And found family. And swordsmanship. And sex. And making love. And being young. And being centuries or millennia old. (Sometimes both at once... like the sex and the making love.) And about taking good care of other people's universes, when I wind up on their turf.

(shrug) So find out what you know. Take as much time as you need. Then write about it… because, trust me, no one else can do it the way you will.

????😭😭😭

TO CLARIFY: The 988 lifeline is STILL able to be used! I feel that this post can be very easily misinterpreted. Like, this is so misleading. What happened is that DOGE cut staff who work for this lifeline as well as one that's specifically dedicated to veterans. Is this evil as fuck? Yes, absolutely, especially since this lifeline has had literally MILLIONS of callers as of 2024. Can you still use the 988 number in the US? YES, and if you ever feel the need to use it, please do. You may use any of the above resources. Stay safe out there, everyone. 🧡

Turns out the horsemen of the Apocalypse now prefer to go by Shareholder Profit, Private Equity, Corporate Personhood, and Workforce Optimization.

Shareholder Profit: War (the casus belli for attacks on workers' rights)

Private Equity: Pestilence (they are parasites that voraciously strip the value out of a healthy business until it withers and dies)

Workforce Optimization: Famine (cutting hours and employees until the business is starved of staff, barely functioning)

Corporate Personhood: Death (a hollow, shambling mockery of a human with rights and needs)

Yeah I can work with that.

Tfw when men do that thing where they pretend they have no control over their temper. LOL It’s so funny like am I supposed to pretend that I don’t know you’re completely self-aware and present during this rage performance. Or should I pretend you’re the tortured hero in a movie, possessed by a series of fabricated flashbacks of the war and your father

Someone put in the “Why Does He Do That” quote

Another one:

"Abuse is a problem of values, not of psychology... An abuser tries to keep everybody - his partner, his therapist, his friends and relatives - focused on how he feels, so that they won't focus on how he thinks, perhaps because on some level he is aware that if you grasp the true nature of his problem, you will begin to escape his domination."

Concept: cursed blade rehabilitation center. Destroying a sentient weapon is expensive and highly unethical, so adventurers bring them to the center where highly trained staff can care for them and eventually find them forever homes. It turns out most cursed weapons are products of trauma and are not strictly evil themselves. Some blades turn out to be fiercely protective companions. Others don't even want to be weapons at all, finding joy in simple work like blacksmithing or farming. Most blades just need to be loved.

A pack of bandits descend upon a seemingly undefended town. But the blacksmith's hammer, the farmer's scythe, the woodsman's axe, they have not forgotten what they once were, and they *will* defend the town that they have come to love.

This sweet girl has been with us for seven seasons. She was forged in the heart of a volcano and would be ideal for anyone with a preexisting fire affinity (she's a cuddler and is guaranteed to keep you warm in winter). She still loves burning, but it turns out you can only reduce the world to ash once. She would be perfectly suited for forest management that regularly requires controlled burns.

This weary old soul has grown tired of bloodshed and would much rather spend his days as an ominous decoration in a tavern or common room, a perfect fit for an adventurer looking to leave their dungeon crawling days behind. He likes peoplewatching with his single glowing eye, preferably from high, prominent locations with views of entrances and exits.

Dark king Grütmore’s edge of annihilation consumed 10,000 souls in the first era, and as it turns out, statistically a lot of those souls heard stories that never got written down. It works in a library now.

The throngler, however, is just irrevocably fucked up. We put it in a stone in a forest and hoped nobody ever finds it

Birth of Suburbia

there is something to be said for going to zoos and aquariums on weekdays to avoid school-aged crowds but going to the aviary on a weekend is fun because going into big greenhouses and watching toddlers who just learned to walk encounter loose tropical animals taller than they are is part of the overall experience for me.

to me a three year old is just as much an entertaining and strange beast as an egret. and here they can interact directly. incredible.

listening to a macaw say “peekaboo” at a preschooler who takes it at face value that some birds must be completely fluent in English and no one has bothered to mention this before. unmatched

So my neighbor's three-year-old saw Charlie for the first time last week.

I don't see my neighbors often because they are Morning People (TM) and both our households are acting like the pandemic is still on (it is), but yesterday I happened to be taking Charlie out for a walk when they were coming home from something, and the kid "Checkers" was dumbstruck.

Charlie isn't a Big-big dog, but he is 60lbs and mostly leggy sighthound, so he is significantly taller than the average toddler. Since Checkers' extended family is largely allergic to mammals, they do not see dogs at other people's houses nor at daycare, so this was the fist time they've seen an animal larger than they are up close.

It is a beautiful thing to see a young human experience a sudden and profound shift in their worldview, and you get to witness parts of their brain being rewired in real time across their face. Confusion, then wonder as a fascinating new category of life opened before them. It is doubly wonderful that small children are rarely frightened of things unless they are taught to be, so, cautiously, Checkers approached Charlie, looking between us and making interrogative noises at me, as I was clearly his parent, and therefore responsible for introductions.

"This is Charlie!" I say. "He might or might not say hi back."

Checkers considered the evidence before them: Charlie has a name shared with their playmates, their older sibling is largely nonverbal, and Charlie wears a chest harness with leash, again like some of their playmates, and came to the extremely reasonable conclusion that Charlie is a fellow Human Child, and introduced themselves appropriately:

"Hullo." Said Checkers, stepping up to Charlie. "This is Bionicles." they continued, holding up their plush giraffe toy, the appropriate way to introduce yourself and your friends/interests to a new peer at age 3.

Charlie has a vast preference of humans to other dogs, and of adults to children within humans, often ignoring or evading small children the way he does with dogs that annoy him. It makes sense- small children are not usually the ones with treats, and typically inept petters at best. But something about Bionicles the Giraffe intrigued him and he politely sniffed and listened to Checkers talk about (I'm not sure because I have Audio Processing Problems and Checkers doesn't enunciate much) for a for about a minute, and I got to witness Checkers' parents undergo a similar world-shift as they realized Checkers was addressing Charlie as a fellow human, and how that was entirely rational of them.

The confusion on the adult humans was so interesting that I failed to notice Charlie very delicately taking Bionicles The Giraffe from Checkers until he had taken two steps to give himself room, and then started to Death-Shake the toy, because Charlie ALSO loves plushies, just in a very destructive sense.

I am horrified. The parents are Horrified. Checkers is DELIGHTED, laughing as Charlie very expertly separated Bionicles' head from the rest of the toy, and sat down in the grass to pull the fluff out.

I retrieved both pieces of the toy from Charlie, apologized profusely, took him home, and then came back to sew Bionicles' head back on.

Yesterday I saw Checkers on all fours out in the front yard, trying to re-decapitate Bionicles with their teeth while their father looked on, resigned. We have arranged a future playdate between Charlie and Checkers, with a handful of dollar-store stuffed toys for them to destroy together.

I think it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Rome has got a tyrant who we need dead now

CALL MJ BRUTUS, 877-STAB-NOW

illustrations continued:

It's a heist. Elon is the fraud. DOGE is the fraud. The coders destroying databases are the waste.

He is robbing the American ppl with us watching

AI disturbance overlays for those who don't have Ibis paint premium. found them on tiktok

how do you use these?

Put these on the top layer above everything, set layer to 'overlay' then adjust opacity. You can put it on whatever opacity you want but usually 30%+ is most effective.

The point is to obstruct the picture so AI can't read your image because AI counts every single pixel in your art

By this post alone, in less than 5 hours.

I need you all to calm the fuck down

NEEDED AND NO WE WONT THIS IS BRILLIANT

Life advice for the ages. Those doing wrong want you tired and hopeless. But stay angry. And when a chance is in front of you: bite back. Digital plans for a real linocut. I'm anxiously awaiting a press to make this stuff possible with my RSI in my hands.

Obviously, this doesn't apply to military coups, which are very evident when happening, but there's a reason why most authoritarian regimes today don't start with a coup: it's much easier to get a firm hold of power by starting inconspicuously and growing from there.

In fact, many authoritarian regimes start growing years before the people on top of them reach power, with little incremental measures and laws to allow external influences to control politics, to curb legitimate citizen dissent, and to give more power and discretionality to the police and the armed forces. You might be living in one of those right now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEWTWO! 

i didn’t miss it this time fucking finally

Pokemon Heritage Birthday