Stephen Ware

Gandalf really is heroic when you consider that there were originally five wizards and one of them turned evil, two of them fucked off and went out east to have orgies, and one is just super into talking to gophers. The one last hope of free peoples was the stoner and that crazy mfer did it.

It's been a few years since my last FDG, but I enjoyed the ones I went to a lot!

Website doesn't say they've picked keynote speakers yet. Last time I was a conference organizer, I would have been excited if someone like you had volunteered as a keynote. Just sayin.

@galaxykate.bsky.social Denmark conference?

I recently discovered just how amazingly cheap it is to commission art. Makes me feel like some kind of Renaissance nobleman.

From @acyn.bsky.social (posted on X)

"Reporter: Do any of you have a favorite animal?

Child: My favorite one is a gold snake that can move. It has gold eyes, and it has a super-duper tail…

Reporter: Mr. Mamdani, the second question for you.

Mamdani: Yes. It’s also the golden snake."

Trump’s New “Prison Camp” Threat Unleashes Fury Even in MAGA Country The next phase of ICE’s big ramp-up: a nationwide network of vast detention facilities. But guess what? Even parts of Red America are saying no.

Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed.

Voters are rejecting mass deportations big time. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/2060...

ok, this was was percolating in my head all evening so I had to diagram it

The President shit himself on live TV. Melania bombed. The Epstein files are sending shockwaves through the Alt Right. Liam and his dad are back home. A Texas district that was DEEP red for 35 years flipped blue. Pretti's killers have been identified.

Small wins, but you can feel the change coming.

The right way to get into the Epstein files.

People who only take from others can never take enough to be happy.

The lesson I take from TGT is that some real world relationships are one directional like this, and before you think it must be awesome to be the one who gets everything, the receiver is not necessarily happy.

Alternate but compatible take: Children's lit is about telling kids what the world is like, including its evils and tragedies. Applies to fairy tales and fables, including the ones with no obvious moral that still have staying power.

This is what I've been trying and failing to say about The Giving Tree for years.

If Dwarf Fortress has taught us anything, it is that boondoggles can be fun.

When all you have is a Dwarf Fortress, everything looks like a drunk cat on the floor of a tavern.

Imagine if you tried to solve Software Engineering using Dwarf Fortress.

It was! It was the first of the new phase of interdisciplinary honors courses. It was the precursor to Dongs in Art.

I think of your work as "What if ancient and Medieval theater but space exploration?"

I have been absolutely LOVING this meme of "5 classes you took at university."

Everybody is picking the weirdest, most "useless" classes they took in the best way. Celebrating the joy of learning a thing just because it's interesting. So joyful at a time when I could really use some joy.

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Love that these lists are effectively a summary of our research.

Cocoa beans are a vegetable.

Five classes you took in college:
- Ancient Epic
- Medieval Cathedrals
- Philosophy of Mind
- Algorithms (taught by the secretary of the American Mathematical Society)
- Interactive Narrative Systems

a childlike drawing of stick figures behind bars

A drawing by a 5-year-old girl detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas with her mother Hayam El-Gamal. “I am 5 years old” is written at the top of the page. Lower down, next to stick figures, are the words “let us go.” Courtesy of Eric Lee, Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP

Oh, you're working with human subjects?

Yes!

To cure cancer?

Uhh... no...

Which disease are you curing then?

Umm, I just want people to read silly little stories and fill out a survey?

Oh, ok. Shouldn't take more than 2 months to approve.

After reading the other replies, I have realized that I had a much narrower definition of imsim than most people... or that most people are trolling.

The Sims?

Big Trouble in Little China with Big Naturals

A Series of Unfortunate Events with Big Naturals