Long Live Chicago

Ruby, a white video game rabbit with red eyes, stares blankly. She wears a teal t-shirt with a rabbit on it.

As I hung a wooden plant cradle in the window above some wooden acorn garland, I realized:

Animal Crossing has made me better at- and more enthusiastic about- interior design.

My home is way more beautiful than it was in 2020. My furniture and art match. I guess I owe it all to her:

I am on a similar arc. What do you MEAN people are gambling on the outcomes of every TV show and current event? What do you MEAN people are going on dates and trying to convince potential partners that this is a career??

AI summary: "No, orange juice cannot concentrate, because it is not alive and does not have a brain."

An apatosaurus femur bone on a table in front of several display cases. There is an artist's rendering of dinosaurs on the front of the table, and a sign reads, "do not touch the apatosaurus femer bone."

Various fossils displayed behind glass, including a footprint, tooth, and full skeleton of a small dinosaur.

Fossilized dinosaur eggs and the skeleton of an aquatic dinosaur displayed on a muti-tier table behind glass.

The skeleton of a cave bear

Chicago: Did you know, there is a teeny tiny prehistory/paleontology museum in Evanston? It's in the basement of Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop, and it's free!

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

There are two kinds of people in the world:

People who suffered, and think because of that, everyone else should suffer the way they did because otherwise it's not fair.

People who suffered, and think because of that, no one else should have to suffer either.

Be the second.

It was the same guy with the capitalism rant

Me: "The first time I came to this bar, I brought three people who all wanted to trade Magic cards, so I sat there while they all traded and kissed each other or whatever."

Total stranger at the bar: "Of course, that's the last step of any trade, they had to."

Haha I respect that they were trying to de-gender "seamstress," but damn, they needed to workshop that one in the lab a bit longer.

"the whole system will crash"

oh no, not the system where only the worst people alive have all the money and use it to buy children to sate their abhorrent desires and everybody else dies poor from cancer or at the hands of the state

not that system

what ever will we do without that system

All I can say about ANY of this: I never want to hear about checks and balances, bipartisanship, or consensus again. This man has shown us that a president can just do whatever. So, I'm going to INSIST we help people, radically, without hesitation or condition, until I'm dead. The rules aren't real.

I've had one since I opened my checking account in undergrad. I am so sad!

Chase no longer offering Chicago skyline debit cards is my last straw. I am now evil.

Doctor Manhattan, a comic book character from the Watchmen, sits on a rock on Mars. His skin is blue, his facial expression resigned. The surface of the planet is red. The background is a quiet starry sky.

It is summer. There is ice cream at work. The admin insists. I tell her I'm lactose intolerant.

It is autumn. There are cake slices at work. The admin insists. I tell her I'm lactose intolerant.

It is winter. There are cupcakes at work. The admin insists. I tell her I'm lactose intolerant.

Today we’re launching Open Climate Risk, a fully open option for U.S. building-level climate risk data. It’s unique because it allows you to see not only risk scores, starting with wildfire, but also the complete underlying dataset, methods, and codebase. carbonplan.org/research/cli...

A guy at the gym saw my Sword of Protection tattoo, turned off his full-volume manosphere podcast, and turned on an AI voiced intro to He-Man in hopes of getting my attention.

If I love something enough to have it permanently on my body, why would I be drawn in by an AI slop beginner's guide?!

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

When a sitting representative refers to the Super Bowl halftime show as “pornography,” people should use that to reflect on how they and other representatives are simultaneously working to ban, censor, and restrict “pornography” and what that actually means

gradient.horse Draw a horse, watch it run!

omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for

gradient.horse

I am tired of giving clear-headed, patient, empathetic responses for no reason. Why am I held to exemplary behavior in front every screaming coworker, manipulative family member, angry driver, rich person with power, when the social contract has been shattered for years?

AM I RIGHT, LADIES??

nobody ever says "think of the children" and means "protect the ways they can discover the world outside of their abusive family"

I know time travel isn't real, because NOBODY would have let past me get rid of my Megan Draper from Mad Men wig knowing full well I'd be invited to a Sexy Sixties party in the future.

Image of the Yeti in the skiing Windows game SkiFree eating the player

Breaking: Tragedy at the Winter Olympics

I really want to host a Dragon Con panel on this phenomenon, starting with Ms. Pac-Man, but I don't know what the hook would be. "Let's spend an hour looking at these cunty yassified designs" really isn't enough.

Unless...

"I can be the person I needed when I was younger" is a noble motivator, indeed, and one I share.

Two over a decade, yup! I went corpo after my divorce, but my spouse is still in nonprofits, and they culturally have not changed. I sincerely don't mean to squash your super good idea. It could very much succeed! I'd even want to contribute! But you will take psychic damage.

Yes, the grand tradition of "put heels on Nintendo character to make wife." See also:

There's actually another angle, where some WOULD pay for it, brag that they did, make a huge show of it, then learn and apply nothing. Which might be worse, but at least you get money.

Something like this is so needed, and nonprofits will consistently swear to you they are unable to afford the help, despite losing far more in institutional knowledge and resources as they drive their best people away.

If you want to understand how our country went to hell look at Substack.

We’ve known for a long time that Substack is a platform run by Nazi sympathizers who knowingly profit from Nazi content.

Liberal politicos know this. And viable alternatives are available, but they all still choose Substack.