Aster

i would have named it the doubloon

these guys are such liars. they'll tell two lies that don't even make sense together until they make up a third lie to combine them both, and then follow it immediately up with another lie just as big that makes no sense, and so on forever. it's the fib-o-nazi sequence

#uspolitics

Stages of grief.

Popped in the popcorn popper
bsky.app/profile/aste...

The fairy's three chances for Little Bunny Foofoo were a test of his dedication to violence. He passed.

Nothing personal. She does this every time she recruits a new goon.

wow she's actually a carpenter!

Pencil drawing of three head-only portraits of the character Ram from Tron: 1982. In the first one, he is smiling and wearing his helmet from the movie. In the second one, the helmet is de-rezzing in an explosion effect, disintegrating into tiny bits, and his face has a surprised look. In the final one his hair has been revealed, in the very fluffy curly style that actor Dan Shor had in other films, such as Strange Behavior. His smile is wider and he's blushing a little and looks relaxed. The pictures are surrounded by a border that resembles the puffed shaped of popcorn, and the words "Popcorn Program" are curved over the central image. The artist's signature, an asterisk serving as the A in the name Aster, is in the lower right.

we were having a conversation about whether #Tron programs have hair under their helmets and whether maybe the helmet just de-rezzes to reveal the hair

and #DanShor has a gorgeous fluffcloud of curls and so the image of #Ram 's helmet popping like a popcorn kernel would just not leave me

Andorians got their name because they are blue, which is the color naturally opposed to gray (as in the Civil War). It means "not Dorian" and indicates their inherent oppositeness to Dorian Gray

I didn't recognize most of these, was vaguely aware that the first one was a Warrior Cat, wondered if the Warrior Cats are now owned by Marvel, tried to figure out how many of the others were cats (theorized Silverclaw and a few others before I realized I was playing with things I don't understand)

Like that other LeGuin quote about capitalism and the divine right of kings.

Asking, do we believe it's possible to make the world better without it automatically also becoming worse somewhere?

largely people don't, and therefore don't try

shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf the narrator never says Omelas is perfect, just good. And keeps breaking the fourth wall, at first, like: do you believe the story now? No? (More pleasant description) How about now?

No matter how little logic there is in the tradeoff (how does a suffering child make Omelas happy? Why spend more money on criminalizing homelessness than giving people homes?)

by leading us through a story where our "logic" follows that pathway, we realize how little sense it makes in reality

Oh, I agree. And the social and political metaphor is intertwined with the story-and-audience meaning. About how we see real life like a story

And see happiness as "something rather stupid" (I think that's the line) and we think it always requires someone else's equal unhappiness in order to work

And through all the descriptions of the good things in Omelas, we go "yeah this is pointless and unrealistic"

And the suffering child (just as pointless, just as unrealistic) suddenly makes it into a valid story

I feel like the original story is more a statement about stories and audiences than anything else.

About how we don't see the point of the story, no matter how nicely the happiness is described, until the suffering child is introduced.

stages of reading this article:
-starting an invasive species?
-oh at least they're all female, so no reproduction
- genetic experimentation company??
-better not have spliced in any frog DNA or Life Will Find A Way

"what is a good description of male arousal"

"BEEFSWELLING"

"um. ok. now, what does the phrase 'little death' mean"

"FEAR THAT BRINGS TOTAL OBLITERATION"

"...I think the only sexual idiom that I ever want to hear in connection to your work is WHAT THE FUCK"

What even is "middle class" anymore? The ultra-rich ruin any attempt to gauge averages. And removing potato skins is wasting both food and time; nobody can afford that

archiveofourown.org/works/60386089

Posting the Tron fic I've been sitting on, because right now idk when I'm gonna write anything else. (Alan/Roy post-Legacy)

On my way to the bus yesterday a guy was standing at the usual spot by the road for a panhandler to hold a sign asking for money, except his sign just said FUCK THIS.

If I'd had cash on me I'd have still offered him some in solidarity

For just a second I read "cheating" in the "marital infidelity" sense and connected it to that centuries-ago moral panic about how women riding bicycles was like sex or something

(I mean you gotta admit a car also vibrates under you a lot)

Which is why any society with this level of emotional repression will eventually change or destroy itself, unless it develops REAL telepathy

(the Vulcans did this with the mindmeld. They will not share with societies that haven't. It's like their own non-interference directive)

EXCEPT-- real life words, written or spoken, can't prove how I actually feel-- even if I want to.

"I'm really not mad at you"
"I'm really okay with either option"

if these things are true, there is NO WAY for me to make another Minnesotan believe it

Yeah, I say writing and reading is already telepathy by most of my definition, and wireless internet on a device in everyone's pocket gets it the rest of the way there.

Only difference is it can't be forced. So, fully consensual telepathy? Better than the prediction maybe

My guess was "Disney either staged or over-publicized this specific hacking attempt, as part of their defense in the court case, like 'see, it might have been one of those dangerous disloyal ex- employees instead of being our fault'"

But I'm too cynical about Disney, so take that with ALL the salt

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in the ass

Most things you could try to do, if the attempt ends in death you'd say that you failed.

So it's weird that we say that's the only way for a marriage NOT to fail

Me, a weirdo bringing animal crackers to the chips-and-dip tray at the party: "Sheep dip"

You, another weirdo joining in: "Ram Ranch"

For centuries, Ursa Minor and Ursa Major hid shivering cold in deep space

their temperate home had been seized by their nemesis & renamed "Goldilocks zone" after her

But Ursa Media is returning to counter-invade and take back her home for her family

Mama Bear is back, and her anger is Just Right