Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

*makes a judicious and carefully considered studied decision to stress-eat*

@mawr That's some champion work right there. Has he considered going pro? 🐯​

AN HOUR AND A HALF on the phone with healthcare.gov and I'm still not sure if the issue with my application is resolved or not. *maniacal cackling; eats phone*

The good news, though, is I THINK I've unearthed all the proof documents I really needed, and in the process, I eliminated the month-long gap in coverage I was originally getting.

And I also can look at myself as the sort of person who gets the fuck up and rams her big stripey head repeatedly into problems instead of waiting around stressing out. That's... new for me and it's a good feeling. 🐯​🐯​🐯​

If nothing else maybe this fucked-up (and oh so ungodly pretty) swamp town will give me the sense of mental fortitude I've always needed so badly...

since some of my earthly relations don't seem to be getting it

fig. A

"SEEKING INTERPLANETARY FRENEMY FOR COLD WAR AND POSSIBLY MORE?

Us: fit, disease-free genetically uplifted feline race, 250 cm at shoulder

You: morally degenerate progenitor race with small crunchy skulls, huge reserves of seafood, slow runner, non-brachiating capitalists and authoritarians preferred

Turn-Ons: fish, loud noises, stompy boots, plasma rifles, huge cardboard forts, sushi, red plastic uniforms, anarchomonarchism, fish, catnip, dance music, mass invasions

Turn-Offs: extinction, ecological mismanagement, normative monotheism, cages, Rene Descartes, uppity wildlife documentarists, spray bottles

NO MOONCATS, SPACE COYOTES, OR CEPHALOPODS PLEASE"

Fuck North Face into the ground.

https://adage.com/creativity/work/north-face-top-imagens/2174261

I used the customer service chat line on https://www.thenorthface.com to complain, and if this story of manipulating a public resource bothers you too, I encourage you to do the same.

(I was also SUPER nice to the chat operator, who swore up and down she's a real human being; please remember to do the same. I also told her she wasn't getting paid enough to deal with this shit. :) )

@LeDiva STEAL IT BACK ​

WE HAVE A SPARE TRENCHCOAT WE CAN LOAN YOU, IT SEATS FIVE ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

@packbat Yeah, honestly, I was a mild critic/skeptic of CWs when I first came to Masto, because I've seen systems like that turn all normative and ossified and nasty...

...and now I'm a pretty fierce advocate of them. Everybody's been very chill about letting me use the CW for metatextual commentary (read: "cheap laffs"), and people have generally been really gracious about correcting errors/lapses politely.

So in summary, I've become a BIG fan of memetic speedbumps like content warnings. It's extremely handy to be able to take a moment and be mindful when you're about to step into an emotional topic. As far as I'm concerned, there's been NOTHING wrong or censorious about adding an extra layer of information to a post.

In fact, I'm starting to come around to the idea that maximizing people's ability to respond rationally to a post, instead of having their hindbrains exploited by cheap inflammatory tactics, is *part* of free speech, not a hindrance to it. Freedom should include the freedom to think rationally, without unfair influence.

@LeDiva Same here. :D

@Leucrotta I don't think that would be nearly as effective as it sounds from the middle of a depressive episode. I'm not bloody likely to go anywhere, or abandon you so easily, sorry.

I mean... look at my last couple years... you think I'm gonna look at YOU as worse than ME?! You'd have to fall pretty damn far to reach a lower standard than I see in myself. And I'm still willing to hang out with myself, and almost... kinda like myself again. QED, so there. *hug*

This looks absolutely bizarre. More art-horror with a giallo palette. I'm all in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHUTtV4K40

@LeDiva Come say that in person. 😽​

@zx3 @LeDiva Damn straight. *high five* "Sexy cat lady with IT _and_ bard skills" is a hell of a solid Fallout '19 character build...

#moodsnapshot #snuffbox
#mattberry #WHISKYYYYYY!

@LeDiva

Awwrite, babe. *cracks knuckles* Because you flatter me, I'm gonna take the risk of going Full Jeff From Community here. Be warned that I'm not even sure if I believe my own bullshit here, but here goes...

Everything *is* fucked and there's very little you can do to change it!

The encouraging part is that there has been NO PART OF HUMAN HISTORY where that was not true. Really good things and really bad things have always co-existed, and barring out and out nuclear war, things probably won't get terrible everywhere.

And even if something terrible happens to humanity, um, our species has made such a ludicrous overreach in the last 200 years, getting knocked back a few pegs might be the best thing that ever happened to us. So humanity will probably be fine. And nature's gonna be fine in the long run regardless.

More *directly* reassuring: every single thing you've ever liked or enjoyed has happened alongside terrible things happening in the world. Luckily, terrible things tend to be self-limiting, because they're terrible. Even really REALLY terrible things like World War 2 didn't affect absolutely everybody. Even if the shit is really about to hit the fan politically, most of us are probably still gonna have OK lives.

Also, speaking of WW2, I've been reading up on Hitler and his rise to power. We are not NEARLY THERE YET. There had been, like hundreds and hundreds of fatalities from out-and-out gun battles between commies and fash in the streets of Germany by the time Hitler got into charge.

Our authoritarians are *really bad* at it, and we are very fortunate about that. Remember that Red Queen's Race metaphor I was talking about recently, where the predators and prey have to constantly change forms in order to stay ahead of each other?

Well, it was inevitable that the predators were gonna get the advantage here for a while. Our society is trying to digest a HUGE, pivotal new set of communications technologies. We did NOT have our shit together societally nor philosophically going into it, and now we're getting our asses kicked for it. We were gonna have this provocation to get our shit together one way or the other. And now it's happening... but our enemies have already made some real bad mistakes.

When the pendulum swings and we start developing a collective memetic immune system to this bullshit, it's not gonna matter if you're "doing anything to change it." It's just gonna change, and you're just gonna be a part of it, and it'll happen so gradually you won't even notice.

I mean... when's the last time you really stopped and stretched your arms and looked up at the sun and thought, "GAY MARRIAGE, LEGAL WEED (some places), AND A (flawed, but still) PUBLIC HEALTHCARE EXCHANGE?" We were good and sure we were gonna lose those bad too... assuming the hole in the ozone layer wasn't gonna kill us.

In summary, we're not fine, and we're never going to be fine, but we were never fine, and that turned out fine, so it's fine.

(Man, this Jeff-channeling is some powerful stuff. I need to be careful.)

I'm already seeing Tuca and Bertie OCs and that makes me smile so much.

@001zlnv YES, thank you, I take that as flattery. n.n

"Socialist Troopers."

It's exactly what you think. Starship Troopers, except instead of a cryptofascist society, it's a socialist society.

That's all there was in the dream, really, but I couldn't resist extrapolating a bit.

Sure, they spend most of the film squabbling amongst themselves about which pronoun to use for the Space Bugs. But once that's sorted out, they also have the fucking sense to put xenolinguists in charge instead of generals. They offer "the Enemy" full citizenship instead of genocide, help them overthrow the Brain Bugs, and replace them with a system of voluntary hive-mind community councils. Ultimately, they win the resistance over with free chitin exams, insectoid anti-discrimination laws, and six weeks oviposition leave.

Peace reigns, hardly any humans get hurt, and the ones who do, don't spend the rest of their lives fighting PTSD symptoms... because they also fucking legalized MDMA and ketamine.

Bite my stripey Martian ass, Bob Heinlein.

@Leucrotta She was just so damn cute. >_>;;

Yay, they did a full retinal exam and it looks like it was just what I'd hoped, a posterior vitreous detachment (i.e. a natural aging sign) that is actually happening pretty cleanly, without any complications. Retina is looking pretty good, definitely no tears or serious detachment risks.

Only thing that is stressing me out a bit is that they found a "very mild" warp in my left macula— but when they noticed how anxious I was about it, they upgraded it (with evidence) to "extremely mild." It's basically just a couple of so-called "drusen," fatty deposits that I think they already found in my last retinal exam and had said were just a "keep an eye on it" thing.

Also, this is so great: I apparently have what is called... brace yourself... a "tigroid fundus." Peggy looked it up and insists it just means that I have a stripe-like tesselated pattern of blood vessels, and it's of no real consequence except mild protection against certain eye disorders. I am still adamant that it means I have THE BESTEST KIND and it gives me magical powers to detect and track tasty things. 🐯​🐯​🐯​

Only real bummer is I'm out $200, but I think this was $200 of sanity and relief... Still a little nervous about not having insurance for a month, but whatevs. I have credit cards and a cute, lovable sadface.