Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@chimerror She's not mad at us, she had just hoped for better things.

Wow. SNL did a sketch about an autistic girl at a clinic in 1979.

It... it has not aged well. Not well at all. Don't tell me there's no such thing as progress.

@zx3 similar feels today, robot friend *hug*

@001zlnv I am astonished it's taken this long for a Martian Empress Cone of Shame joke, especially from @anthracite-- who has shown the PATIENCE OF A BODHISATTVA through all this.

So this is "bad" and it's potentially "long and frustrating battle" bad, but it's also "known issue bad," "probably fairly cheap to treat bad," and "not the massive cholesteatoma and pricey surgery I was braced for" bad.

It's fungal swimmer's ear. I'm a little freaked out since it's been detected in both ears and I HAVEN'T BEEN SWIMMING but I have spotted little dots of mildew in our air conditioning. D:

Still. The ENT seemed pretty competent, and I've got a follow-up in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow morning I go to the pharmacy, get my prescription (which is essentially a vinaigrette) and become...

Salad Ears.

Waiting for my shockingly overpriced Lyft to take me to my ENT appointment, for a look at this ear infection that won't clear up.

All I can think about is the worst-case scenarios, what he might miss, what he might catch, and how much it might cost. Plus, how much this might delay me getting to see my elderly parents again.

Wish me luck.

@anthracite "You're wif me now."

itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀 itch 🙀

fortunately I am seeing Otic Roto Rooter tomorrow at 4. i suspect it will be a chernobyl elephant's foot kind of situation where they just concrete it all in and leave it for the next generation to worry about

it's fine, didn't like that ear anyhow

#ItsNot3Roentgen

@hummingrain

A mathematical proof:

1) Hypothetically, a GURPS book can be about anything.

2) If the topic is generalized to "anything," there can be no such thing as too many books.

3) Therefore, there can be no such thing as too many GURPS books.

4) GURPS books are a subset of RPG books.

5) Therefore, there can be no such thing as too many RPG books.

Quid erat demonstratus.

@JulieSqveakaroo @Phorm No... but I AM listed in the credits of GURPS IOU and was responsible for the reference to sentient vending machines. n.n

It was GURPS Super Rebels, which I believe never saw daylight?

@Phorm I have an embarrassing story around this attitude and a playtest book for GURPS that never got published, but that's a story for another day...

@Phorm Yeah, I came dangerously close to being that kind of person. The Trump Era cured me good and hard.

@Leucrotta Catch-22 Chapter 8, "Lieutenant Scheisskopf."

@Aradia the "others" wouldn't happen to be like 50 feet tall and made of stone would they

yeah that's just some elfy fucker doing a wizard of oz thing

they had me going for a while too but i met this scottish guy in a thong and baby he straightened me out

@Cerulean happy birthday hun <3

i know there is no magic in this universe and even the strongest will can do nothing to turn the tide of an indifferent clockwork universe

i know this because otherwise i would have a cheeseburger and fries

"Politically, he was a humanitarian who did know right from left and was trapped uncomfortably between the two. He was constantly defending his Communist friends to his right-wing enemies and his right-wing friends to his Communist enemies, and he was thoroughly detested by both groups, who never defended him to anyone because they thought he was a dope. He was a very serious, very earnest and very conscientious dope."

Hot take:

The single most important character in modern literature is Clevinger, the character in Joseph Heller's Catch-22, described by the protagonist Yossarian as "smart but dopey."

Why? Because people who are "smart but dopey"---very capable at narrow skills like finance or social manipulation, but painfully literal-minded, absolutely impervious to nuanced thinking---are the single biggest threat to human society in 2021.

Jeff Bezos is smart but dopey. Elon Musk is smart but dopey. Jordan Peterson is smart but dopey.

The guy I just saw get *really really angry* in a discussion of how Bugs Bunny shaped the etymology of the word "nimrod" is smart but dopey.

The president of my college fraternity, who literally could not imagine, nor be interested in, any explanation for UFO contact experiences except "they're just stupid." He was smart but dopey.

Sometimes I am smart but dopey.

It is the sin of missing the forest for the trees. It is the sin of looking at the hand of someone who's pointing at the sun and smugly observing "But that's not the sun, it's your hand."

It is how Very Smart Centrists comfort themselves. It is how people come to mistake things like "reason" and "logic" for badges you are awarded for believing the right things, to be worn *at* people, instead of a praxis that must be pursued with near-religious devotion.

@JulieSqveakaroo @Phorm ...

yes?

n.n;;;