Rain Dog @Leucrotta@awoo.space

Do not weep openly at Starbucks because “Interstate Love Song” is on the speakers but it’s 2023 and everything looks a lot bleaker than the 90s

the Imperial March, aka the Desssstiny Theme, aka the Standing in Front of Windows at Parade Rest Theme, aka the

This *started* as a rant about how I don't get arguing for the Imperium of Man as this wonderful society, since to me part of the *fun* of 40K is that there's no single faction which is obviously The Good Guys, and *especially* not the Britain stand-in. You can have the fun of Necromundan hives and gang wars, clunky cybernetics, servitor skulls, Inquisitors, Adeptes Sororites, and everything else because the Imperium *isn't* good.

It's a great bit of 80s reaction to Thatcher, still relevant today. The idea that the "good guys" can be antiheroes, or heroes who are part of a terrible system, is very much the same Britain that gave us Lobo, Elric and 2000 AD. I don't think Americans with our self-righteousness would ever create a universe like this; the after the fact, conservative idealization of the Imperium suggests it could have easily gone a different direction.

But here's where I get fan-worshippy instead. Pulling on an Arthurian golden age turned to backwards pop medievalism is also very very British - and simply a brilliant way to build a mythological explanation for all the story details which aren't really the far future.

And those story cues as visuals are brilliant too; a "dark future" full of cybernetic putti, censers, huge tomes, and skull-encrusted shields won't raise eyebrows when tanks slightly more modernized than WWI versions are supported by infantry inspired by Rambo movies. Among other things *that* sets up other factions believably having a clunkier design aesthetic (orks, Kroot) or a more futuristic one (Aeldari, Tau).

And all this came into being organically, it's amazing.

remember I'm making up for lost time listening to Iron Maiden albums, so; I really like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son so far - it's very different from earlier albums I like, simultaneously introspective and bombastic.

Today’s definitely a “sail a ship made of dead men’s nails into Asgard and end the world so a fairer one can take its place” mood. A little too much sympathy for the redhead is definitely why I’m not Asatru.

I'm remembering that the reason I could do something as hostile as job hunting while that self-hating is that blaming myself for being not good enough in part blunted how hostile it felt.

Okay, the desire to beat the fuck out of some Nazi stoolie is my sign that I should get the hell off Twitter right now.

man, The Head on the Door is such a good album

man, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is such a good album

huh, I haven't actually listened to 4:13 Dream, or Wild Mood Swings. Easy enough to fix.

So apparently I didn't do well enough on their fucking customer service evaluation to proceed. I'm unsure what wasn't good enough for these piece of shit rapacious bastards. Between the evaluation and the initial phone screen that's somewhere 90-120 minutes of my life wasted.

Robert Smith is making me wanna run around in cemeteries and the woods, kiss people (not picky about gender here), and play Changeling the Dreaming until 0200. But noooo, I can't go do any of that because I need to be a good little job hunter.

In a crummy mood, so here’s some photos from Big Finn Hill park a couple of weekends ago.

You probably won't believe it, but I'm stressed about the future and feeling sad about the past again. Who'd a thought.

Zelda the Wind Breaker which follows up the Ocarina of Time with our hero... uh... playing more music with devastating effects

HEY JOHNNY COPE ARE YE WAUKIN' YET
OR ARE YOUR DRUMS A BEATIN' YET
IF YE WERE WAUKIN' I WOULD WAIT
TAE GANG TAE THE COALS IN THE MORNING

Dude! It's the music from like when Keanu meets that one dude, and they fight! And then these other dudes show up! You know, the "big dude punch-out"!
#MisterANDERson #Dude #Duuuuuude

Not Pagan as in "I honor the Aesir, Vanir, and Disir in what I best think reflects my ancestors' practices" but Pagan as in "I believe there's a spiritual side to the universe and that She actually is okay with us and doesn't need us to jump through an unending series of hoops."

Not Jewish as in "I go to synagogue and celebrate holidays without fail," but Jewish as in "some of my ancestors centuries ago came from the middle east and, since then, we've been degraded and murdered all over Europe and the USA for it, so *I* get to define myself and refuse to be classified as 'white' for someone's convenience - especially not while other folks want to degrade and murder us for it."

I am still unsure whether I would embrace the label "disabled."

Tired: the Imperium maintains strict gender divisions, except for the Adeptus Mechanics which has genders like “bzzzt/low ominous hum.”

Wired: female Space Marines Are awesome, let’s do this.

Inspired: Drag Sisters of Battle. It’s over the top aesthetic, it works.

It's just truly ridiculous; gender-affirming care isn't something to debate, and even if I thought it were, there are how many dozen more pressing issues related to say Covid, climate change, lack of health care, inflation, etc etc. Maybe what makes for the real bigots is the ability to hyperfocus on hating the fuck out of whatever minority group rather than *their* real problems which are basically the same as *my* real problems, idk.

As with any prejudice we're handed by the Republican party, people are being hurt and pushed further into emotional crisis for what's basically a huge distraction, but one which folks literally *cannot ignore*. (Analogy; if I point a gun at you, it doesn't matter that I'm trying to distract you from a careening semi out of control headed downhill your direction; you're going to, and have to, worry about the gun.)

This might be thinking several steps too far in advance, but I feel like all this is building a huge amount of resentment towards being handed scapegoats instead of actual resolutions, and idealism of socialism/communism/whatever's-not-this-egregious-bullshitism. Which is great, I'm all for the idea of swapping out the current egregious bullshit for something that provides UBI or guaranteed housing or universal health care etc etc, but then maybe 20-30 years down the line we'll get the alternative socialism/communism/whatever, except if it's hyped too much it'll create its own particularly terrible problems (Holodomir or forced socialization of Samoyed/Evenk herds much?).