Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@hystericempress OK, it's... it's like Blaseball without either the blase or the ball but with all of the deservedly obscure mid-20th-century boardgame. That's all you need to know. :D

@hystericempress Yeah, I am VERY low-key pro-Wordle. It's fun if you like it, it's absolutely 100% trivial and safe to ignore, creator seems as shocked by all this as anyone else.

Ah, there we go.

"It's been sorted."

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

So there's this book. General Systemantics, aka Systemantics, aka the Systems Bible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics

It would be an AMAZING inspiration for the comics side-project I've been nattering about over at https://twitter.com/zebratron2084/status/1484210017117089794 but the only remotely affordable copy I've found is a $7ish Kindle edition on Amazon.

Given the whole fucking comic is about heartless corporate minmax algorithms crippling Terran society, I'd really like to NOT give Amazon any money for this goddamn apparently rare-ass book. And there's probably a cheaper copy, but I really need to get my butt in gear on other projects, like Artie and That Parallax Thing.

So. I dunno if I have any good karma coming, but if anybody would like to help hook me up with this book, with either info or cash (ideally with a SMALL used bookshop with a cheap paperback of it-- or a cheapo OCR, honestly), you would have my undying gratitude. <3

(It's an important book. I know BITS of it. They were very influential. I'll get into it some other day.)

Joe Manchin has now received a very flattering voice mail from a certain Herr Fritz Oberstromgruppen, thanking him for opposing voting rights doing doing so much for "Ze Fourth Rei... I mean ze Nazi Par... I mean ze Republica... I mean America! Sieg heil!"

@Owlor Meh, I could fight if I felt like it, but anyone who champions Bauhaus can't be all bad. *shrug*

@Owlor Was... was there anyone NOT callling it a mind-control fetish show?! ;O

@Austin_Dern YES EXACTLY <3 <3 <3

@Austin_Dern Those are Eyebrows Of Power, too, and I definitely mean that as flattery. Those are, like, Alan Rickman-grade eyebrows. You could probably kill at 20' with waves of pure archness. <3

@Austin_Dern Oh, you got a VIBE there and I really like it. I hesitate to use this terminology, but you really look like a Player Character or at least a Fully Scripted NPC there. <3

"motherfuckin' terfs treating my best friends about the same way the Pythagoreans treated the square root of two-- with a combination of outrage, denial, and futile hopes that the gods will intervene"

@Phorm *loses it* :D

DR. REZEYA'S SUPER FUN SCIENCE QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Hey kids! Have you ever wondered how many consecutive times Dr. Rezy would need to call Joe Manchin's office and leave a recording of Kate Nash's "Dickhead" in order to be arrested? Let's find out! :D

(I'm not actually doing this. I'm just stopping at one.)

@JulieSqveakaroo @Austin_Dern "You're from Ohio? Oh, neat, I've got a friend in Indiana! Do you know Chuck?"

@JulieSqveakaroo Oh geez, I'm so glad you've got a good one too, I hear your work can be frustrating sometimes and you of all people really deserve someone good on your side! <3

@JulieSqveakaroo OK, that's kinda rad. :D

I was joking yesterdaybefore (time is a little loose right now) that I was gonna take the Artie rescue time off as sick days, because it's technically "Family Emergency Health Leave."

Well.

My boss had a friendly question about a project and I mentioned the Artie situation and asked to cash in some personal time while I had his attention.

He said this is clearly a family emergency. I should take it as family health leave if I need it.

FUCK I lucked out. I am increasingly nearing "would take a bullet for my boss." He is the opposite of the opposite of Kim Kitsuragi.

=== SHORT VERSION ===

Stressed but not frantic. Artie is HERE AND SAFE, that's the most important thing.

And I'm... okayish. I just asked my boss if I can take the week off, since I've got the time piled up. I can figure out Artie stuff, talk to the landlord about pet leases, work on That Parallax Opportunity, maybe clean the house up and regather a little sanity.

I'm okayish. I will probably be leaning on y'all for more support and advice soon. But Artie is safe. That's so important and good. (She is also an idiot who learned NOTHING for three days stranded. That is frustrating and bad.)

=== LONG VERSION ===

And if we do have to let her out and she does it all again, FOR NOW the solution seems repeatable.

For now we're probably gonna try keeping her in for as long as she/we can stand it. I'm kinda looking forward to it, honestly? She's a good kitty and has mostly been taking it well. Main lingering fear is landlord stuff since we aren't supposed to have pets on the premises. (Heh.)

But yeah. I'm okay. I'm mostly okay. Watching my funds drain kinda fast while we're in Just Get Through The Day mode. We'll be fine. Lots of good news on Peg's career front.

So here's what else I'm still ruminating about:

The door in the abandoned apartment gets weaker and weaker each time and might not be reclosable next time. We are pondering installing our own latch and key-- it's not like the rightful owners couldn't get in through the front if needed. And fuck 'em at this point tbh. Failing that... I dunno, a lot of good thick adhesive tape to keep it shut between break-ins?

I'm also not thrilled about asking the rental company for a pet lease, because there is a mention in their online docs about "pet rent" and... it's not like we need an increase in cost of living right now. It's definitely never gonna be a solution for all the cats-- they want the pets DOCUMENTED and VACCINATED and there's no way they'd let us have five in there without charging us a fortune at best.

The "bright" spot: I looked at the lease and unless it's a explicitly an eviction-level offense like non-payment or, like, meth lab, the process for violations is possible fine + a "written notice" that we have five days to comply with. We can only be booted on the SECOND offense and it looks like that might even be legally binding on them? So I'm taking that as "you have one freebie." :p

And we've gone, what, 2 yrs and 8 mos now and nobody's hassled us about the cats? The worst we've ever gotten is "Yeah, could you try not to leave so much extra food out? It's summer and there are flies. Thanks!" I like to hope that if we explained the situation to them and made sad enough eyes at them they'd cut us a break and help us work out a solution... Of all the tenant offenses to commit, I think "Broke lease because worried about cute kitties" is one of the more charismatic.

@Leucrotta I like the helmet design though!